Henry Kurosawa - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Henry Kurosawa

Cardiology in The Young, 2008

Clinicians working in the field of congenital and paediatric cardiology have long felt the need f... more Clinicians working in the field of congenital and paediatric cardiology have long felt the need for a common diagnostic and therapeutic nomenclature and coding system with which to classify patients of all ages with congenital and acquired cardiac disease. A cohesive and comprehensive system of nomenclature, suitable for setting a global standard for multicentric analysis of outcomes and stratification of risk,

Pediatric Cardiology, 2007

This review discusses the historical aspects, current state of the art, and potential future adva... more This review discusses the historical aspects, current state of the art, and potential future advances in the areas of nomenclature and databases for congenital heart disease. Five areas will be reviewed: (1) common language = nomenclature, (2) mechanism of data collection (database or registry) with an established uniform core data set, (3) mechanism of evaluating case complexity, (4) mechanism to ensure and verify data completeness and accuracy, and (5) collaboration between medical subspecialties. During the 1990s, both the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) created congenital heart surgery outcomes databases. Beginning in 1998, the EACTS and STS collaborated in the work of the International Congenital Heart Surgery Nomenclature and Database Project. By 2000, a common congenital heart surgery nomenclature, along with a common core minimal data set, were adopted by the EACTS and the STS and published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. In 2000, the International Nomenclature Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease was established; this committee eventually evolved into the International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease (ISNPCHD). The working component of ISNPCHD is the International Working Group for Mapping and Coding of Nomenclatures for Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, also known as the Nomenclature Working Group (NWG). By 2005, the NWG cross-mapped the EACTS–STS nomenclature with the European Paediatric Cardiac Code of the Association for European Paediatric Cardiology and created the International Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Code (IPCCC) (http://www.IPCCC.NET). This common nomenclature (IPCCC), and the common minimum database data set created by the International Congenital Heart Surgery Nomenclature and Database Project, are now utilized by both EACTS and STS; since 1998, this nomenclature and database have been used by both the STS and EACTS to analyze outcomes of more than 75,000 patients. Two major multi-institutional efforts have attempted to measure case complexity; the Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery-1 and the Aristotle Complexity Score. Efforts to unify these two scoring systems are in their early stages but are encouraging. Collaborative efforts involving the EACTS and STS are under way to develop mechanisms to verify data completeness and accuracy. Further collaborative efforts are also ongoing between pediatric and congenital heart surgeons and other subspecialties, including pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists (via the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society), pediatric cardiac intensivists (via the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society), and pediatric cardiologists (via the Joint Council on Congenital Heart Disease). Clearly, methods of congenital heart disease outcomes analysis continue to evolve, with continued advances in five areas: nomenclature, database, complexity adjustment, data verification, and subspecialty collaboration.

Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 2006

The most concrete and universal outcome measure used in databases, whether governmental, professi... more The most concrete and universal outcome measure used in databases, whether governmental, professional society, research, or third-party payer, is operative mortality. To assure congruous data entry by multiple users of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery congenital heart surgery databases, operative mortality must be clearly defined. Traditionally, operative mortality has been defined as any death, regardless of cause, occurring (1) within 30 days after surgery in or out of the hospital, and (2) after 30 days during the same hospitalization subsequent to the operation. Differing hospital practices result in problems in use of the latter part of the definition (eg, the pediatric hospital that provides longer-term care will have higher mortality rates than one which transfers patients to another institution for such care). In addition, because of the significant number of pediatric multiple operation hospitalizations, issues of assignment of mortality to a specific operation within the hospitalization, calculation of operative mortality rates (operation based vs patient admission based), and discharge other than to home must be addressed and defined. We propose refinements to the definition of operative mortality which specifically meet the needs of our professional societies' multi-institutional registry databases, and at the same time are relevant and appropriate with respect to the goals and purposes of administrative databases, government agencies, and the general public. I n the field of cardiothoracic surgery, accurate reporting and analysis of outcomes are increasingly fundamental expectations. While the debate goes on with respect to which performance metrics should or must be utilized, it is inescapable that the most concrete and universal outcome measure is operative mortality.

Analytical Biochemistry, 2009

Implementation of the on-chip immunoassay for a-fetoprotein (AFP)-L3% was achieved using a fully ... more Implementation of the on-chip immunoassay for a-fetoprotein (AFP)-L3% was achieved using a fully automated microfluidic instrument platform that will prepare the chip and run the assay with a total assay time of less than 10 min. Reagent/sample mixing, concentration, and reaction in microfluidic channels occur by the electrokinetic analyte transport assay (EATA) technique, enabling the integration of all assay steps on-chip. The determination of AFP-L3%, a biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma, was achieved by the presence of Lens culinaris agglutinin in the separation channel, causing separation of the fucosylated isoform, AFP-L3, from the nonfucosylated AFP-L1 by lectin affinity electrophoresis. Laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) detection was used to quantitate the labeled immunocomplexes. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.1 ng/ml AFP, and assay precision of less than 2% coefficient of variation (CV) was obtained for quantitation from 24 to 922 ng/ml total AFP in spiked serum samples. Assay precision of less than 3% CV was obtained for AFP-L3% measurements from 8.5 to 81%. Furthermore, good correlation of test results for 68 patient serum samples with a commercially available reference method (LiBASys assay for AFP-L3%) was obtained, with r 2 = 0.981 and slope = 1.03.

Journal of Human Genetics, 2005

To investigate the involvement of uniparental disomies (UPDs) in spontaneous abortion, the polymo... more To investigate the involvement of uniparental disomies (UPDs) in spontaneous abortion, the polymorphic patterns of microsatellites on each chromosome were analyzed in 164 cases of abortion. Eighty-three of the 164 cases had chromosomal abnormalities. In 79 of the remaining 81 cases with normal karyotypes, the microsatellite analysis revealed that biparental patterns were present in the informative microsatellites in all chromosomes. In one of the remaining two cases, however, the polymorphic patterns of chromosome 14 appeared to be both of paternal origin. The patterns of the distal of the long arm were homozygous, and those of the remaining region were heterozygous. That is, this fetus had paternal UPD 14, originating from meiosis I nondisjunction. In the other case, the polymorphic patterns of the distal one third of the long arm of chromosome 7 were uniparental (maternal) in origin whereas those of the remaining region of this chromosome were biparental. These findings thus suggested that this chromosome might have originated from chromatid exchange between the long arms of paternal and maternal chromosome 7 at the first mitotic division. Microsatellite analysis, however, produced no evidence of duplication or deletion of any segments. The findings also suggest the possibility that some UPDs may cause spontaneous abortion.

During the last 2 decades, mortality after surgery for congenital heart disease has decreased dra... more During the last 2 decades, mortality after surgery for congenital heart disease has decreased dramatically and is now 4% in several large multicenter studies [1-6]. To allow for complete evaluation of quality of care in the field of congenital heart surgery, alternative methodologies must be developed that go beyond mortality or adjusted mortality to include morbidity assessment. The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Congenital Heart Databases, two of the most widely used tools to report and evaluate quality of care in congenital heart surgery, are the ideal platforms upon which may be developed a systematic characterization of operative morbidity.

Cardiology in The Young, 2007

Phytochemistry Reviews, 2005

Triterpenoid saponins and structurally related steroidal glycoalkaloids are a large and diverse f... more Triterpenoid saponins and structurally related steroidal glycoalkaloids are a large and diverse family of plant glycosides. The importance of these compounds for chemical protection of plants against microbial pathogens and/or herbivores is now well-documented. Moreover, these compounds have a variety of commercial applications, e.g. as drugs or raw materials for pharmaceutical industry. Until recently there were only sparse data on the biosynthesis of saponins and glycoalkaloids, especially at the enzyme level. Substantial progress has recently been made, however, in our understanding of biosynthetic routes leading to the formation of the diverse array of aglycone skeletons found in these compounds as well as mechanisms of synthesis of their sugar moieties. This review highlights some of the advances made over past two decades in our understanding of the formation and modification of sugar moieties in triterpenoid saponins and glycoalkaloids.

Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section A-accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2011

The T2K experiment is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Its main goal is to measur... more The T2K experiment is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Its main goal is to measure the last unknown lepton sector mixing angle θ 13 by observing ν e appearance in a ν µ beam. It also aims to make a precision measurement of the known oscillation parameters, ∆m 2 23 and sin 2 2θ 23 , via ν µ disappearance studies. Other goals of the experiment include various neutrino cross section measurements and sterile neutrino searches. The experiment uses an intense proton beam generated by the J-PARC accelerator in Tokai, Japan, and is composed of a neutrino beamline, a near detector complex (ND280), and a far detector (Super-Kamiokande) located 295 km away from J-PARC. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the instrumentation aspect of the T2K experiment and a summary of the vital information for each subsystem.

This chapter examines school shootings to explore the role that communication processes play in t... more This chapter examines school shootings to explore the role that communication processes play in the dynamics related to the control of violence. We argue that much of what we observe in regard to school shootings is a mass-media phenomenon. Many such acts of violence carry expressive, communicative connotations, and thus school shootings should be understood as discursive processes. We present a model for this understanding, specifying the participants (i.e., shooters, mass media, and the public) and the directionality of communication that dominate the discourse. In particular we explore the performative script behind many school shootings and the mass media’s role in the emergence of rampages as a social problem, with an examination of how this fits into the natural-history approach to social problems. The discussion concludes with an assessment of whether the shooters’ performative script is acknowledged in policy responses to school violence.

Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 2010

A miniaturized flow chamber for quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) h... more A miniaturized flow chamber for quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) has been developed. The main purpose was to reduce the total liquid sample consumption during an experiment, but also to gain advantages with respect to kinetics and mass transport by reducing the boundary diffusion layer. The bottom of the flow chamber is a QCM-D sensor surface, on which a polydimethylsiloxane spacer ring, fabricated onto a poly(methyl methacrylate) lid, is placed symmetrically around the QCM-D electrode (diameter ~10 mm). The spacer ring defines the inner chamber height (typically 40–50 μm) and provides sealing. Through the lid, there are inlet and outlet channels. The typical chamber volume is in the range of 2.5–3.5 μl (with a 10 μl dead volume). In flow mode, we have operated the cell at flow rates of 6–50 μl/min, i.e., volume turnovers of 2–17 per min. As a model system, to test the microcell, the formation of supported phospholipid bilayers on a SiO2 surface was studied. For comparison, the same process was studied in a commercially available QCM-D equipment with significantly larger total volume (by a factor of 20). The decrease in effective sample consumption to produce a bilayer on the sensor surface in the chamber was approximately proportional to the decrease in chamber volume. Smaller volume also reduced the liquid exchange time. Potential improvements of the chamber include further optimization of the flow profile and, in addition, further miniaturization by decreasing the chamber height and the sensor radius.

Journal of Biosciences, 1999

The interaction of mitochondria with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca 2+ store plays a key role ... more The interaction of mitochondria with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca 2+ store plays a key role in allowing these organelles to rapidly and effectively respond to cellular Ca 2+ signals. In this contribution, we will briefl y discuss: (i) old and new concepts of mitochondrial Ca 2+ homeostasis; (ii) the relationship between mitochondrial 3D structure and Ca 2+ homeostasis; (iii) the modulation by cytoplasmic signalling pathways; and (iv) new data suggesting that mitochondria and ER Ca 2+ channels are assembled in a macromolecular complex in which the inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor directly stimulates the mitochondrial Ca 2+ uptake machinery. 2007 New perspectives on mitochondrial biolog y. Wiley, Chichester (Novartis Foundation Symposium 287) p ••-•• cmp09.indd 122 cmp09.indd 122 7/16/2007 2:56:21 PM 7/16/2007 2:56:21 PM ER/MITOCHONDRIAL CROSS-TALK 123 Q1

Dentro del area del Parque Nacional Predelta, en un entorno de caracteristicas naturales (entorno... more Dentro del area del Parque Nacional Predelta, en un entorno de caracteristicas naturales (entorno rural) el alumno desarrollará un proyecto de vivienda para un guardaparques y su familia OBJETIVOS Generales 1.Habilidades a partir de un tema sencillo Manejar un programa en sus variables funcionales, formales, tecnológicas. Manejo de partido y emplazamiento Manejo de unidad Reconocer las partes de una unidad. Desarollar la instrumentación grafica y el idioma de la profesión, comenzar a tener "oficio" Promover la autocritica y critica a sus pares, como medio de crecimiento en la disciplina y en el espiritú del taller de arquitectura 2.Conceptos: Escala y dimensión Arquitectura como medio entre el hombre y su contexto ambiental Observar, analizar, relacionar, agrupar concluir, expresar, construir. Componer con un resultado armónico, significativo y constructivo.