Abstract: A method of perforating a membrane 10 is presented. The method comprises: bringing a membrane-denaturing substance into contact with or close proximity to at least a site of said membrane 10, said substance inducing a membrane-denaturing reaction by a stimulus; providing said stimulus to said substance so as to denature said membrane 10; perforating said membrane with a membrane-destroying member 1. The stimulus is carried through said membrane-destroying member 1. The present invention eliminates the influence of membrane-denaturing agent to the substance to be injected into the cell. The present invention also enables applying the stimulus locally, with a simple construction.

Abstract: There is provided a three-dimensional image reconstructing apparatus for reconstructing a three-dimensional image of an object.

Abstract: The present invention provides adiponectin expression-inducing agents, and therapeutic agents using the same for obesity and obesity-related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases or metabolic diseases, as well as methods of searching for adiponectin expression-inducing agents. KLF9, which can bind to the 32-bp fragment of position ?188 to position ?157 from the adiponectin expression start site, was demonstrated to enhance adiponectin promoter activity. Therefore, the present invention uses KLF9 as an adiponectin expression-inducing agent, and suggests that KLF9 replenishment therapy is useful for preventing and/or treating obesity or obesity-related diseases including metabolic diseases such as insulin resistance and type II diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

Abstract: A surface on which adsorption of protein (e.g., BSA) is markedly suppressed is provided, by contacting solutions of polymers whose chief component is poly(ethylene oxide) having binding sites to sensor surfaces with biosensor surfaces plural times to link the polymers.

Abstract: The invention provides a method of pretreating a sample for conveniently, quickly and accurately measuring the total amount of adiponectin present in a biological sample contaminated with various adiponectin multimers. The method of measuring an sample for immunologically assaying the total amount of adiponectin present in the sample comprises reacting, with an adiponectin-containing sample, at least one of a reducing agent, an acid or a salt thereof, a surfactant, and a protease.

Abstract: The present invention provides an electron optical lens column suitable for miniaturization, and provides the manufacturing method thereof. The column unit (1) comprises an inner column (11) and an outer column (12). The column unit is, as a whole, structured from a high-resistance electrically conductive ceramic. Electrostatic lenses (21, 22, 23, and 24) are affixed to the inner surface (111) of the inner column using a means such as plating or vapor deposition. Of the electrodes or electrode parts (211–213, 221, 231, 232, and 241–243) from which the lens is structured, those that share the same electric potential are connected by shared interconnections. This makes it possible to connect all of the electrodes or electrode parts with shared electric potentials as a group to the external interconnections.

Abstract: We have discovered a “human adiponectin ELISA kit”, which can specifically measure adiponectin in human blood serum (or blood plasma) or in extracted fluid from lipocytes or culture supernatant fluid. After fractioning human serum by use of gel filtration column, each fraction was measured by the present kit, and as a result, adiponectin immunity activity was detected as a plurality of peaks at above 670 kD of molecular weight. From the results, it is presumed that adiponectin is present in the blood as a polymer or forms a complex with polymer proteins.

Abstract: The invention relates to a technique for reducing computation time for force vector calculation. A force vector reconstruction method that uses an optical tactile sensor, comprises a step for obtaining a marker image by taking an image of behavior of colored markers when an object contacts a contact surface of an elastic body, a step of obtaining information relating to the marker behavior from the marker image, the information being more than the number of force vectors to be obtained, and a step of obtaining force vectors as outputs by inputting information relating to the obtained marker behavior to a transfer function. The step of obtaining force vectors comprises calculating force vectors using only information relating to behavior of markers neighboring region A1 of a position A where it is desired to obtain force vectors.

Abstract: The present invention provides a scanning probe microscope that is straightforward to use under sever environments. Optical fiber irradiates light from a laser diode towards the surface of a cantilever. The irradiated light is converged by a lens so as to irradiate the surface of the cantilever. Light reflected from the surface of the cantilever is focused by the lenses and inputted to optical fibers. Light passing through the optical fibers is then received by the photodiodes. Inclination of the cantilever is then detected based on changes in the amount of light received.

Abstract: Provided is a complex comprising cisplatin encapsulated therein in a form in which a chlorine ion thereof is ligand-exchanged with a carboxyl anion of a block copolymer comprising poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(glutamic acid). This complex can be a medicinal preparation to which a novel dosage form decreased in toxicity can be applied.

Abstract: Method for efficiently expressing a protein in an active form by using baculovirus expression system wherein the protein is selected from a membrane-bound enzyme, a substrate of the membrane-bound enzyme, a membrane-bound enzyme activator, a membrane-bound transport protein, a channel protein, a membrane structural protein, a protein involved in adhesion, a protein involved in antigen presentation, or a protein involved in formation of high dimensional structure of a protein. There is provided a method for expressing such a protein by culturing a host infected with at least one type of recombinant baculovirus which contains a gene encoding the protein, wherein the protein is expressed in a budded baculovirus released from the host.

Abstract: With the object of providing a novel protein expression of which is specifically elevated in abnormal cells or abnormal tissue, and also providing a diagnostic method and diagnostic kit for diseases involving elevated expression of a gene encoding that protein, along with a screening method and screening kit for substances for preventing and treating diseases involving elevated expression of a gene encoding that protein, (a) a protein comprising the amino acid sequence represented by Seq. ID No. 2 or (b) a protein comprising the amino acid sequence represented by Seq. ID No.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provide a demethylation method that, from among multiple methylated regions present in the genome DNA of a living cell, can demethylate a specified methylated region only without influencing the other methylated regions, and to achieve the object, a target methylated region present in either a sense or antisense DNA chain in genome DNA of a living cell is demethylated, by artificially generating in the living cell the following (a) RNA comprising a base sequence equivalent to the base sequence of a region comprising all or part of the target methylated region in the DNA chain where the target methylated region is present, or (b) RNA comprising a base sequence equivalent to the base sequence of a region comprising a region neighboring the target methylated region in the DNA chain where the target methylated region is present.

Abstract: A magnesium base composite material is provided such that compound particles generated by a solid-phase reaction with magnesium are uniformly dispersed in a magnesium alloy body. The compound particles dispersed in the body comprise magnesium silicide (Mg2Si) and magnesium oxide (MgO) so that the magnesium base composite material may have excellent strength, hardness and abrasion resistance and tempered opponent aggression.

Abstract: The present invention provides a titanium oxide photocatalytic thin film having a surface layer containing silicon oxide and titanium oxide and a production method for producing a titanium oxide photocatalytic thin film having a surface layer containing silicon oxide and titanium oxide and comprising a step of radiating excimer beam to the titanium oxide thin film while heating substrate on which the titanium oxide thin film is disposed in vacuum or gas atmosphere in the presence of a silicon-including compound.

Abstract: A polymer composition is provided, which contains a polymer or copolymer having a mercapto group at one end and functional group or ligand at the other end and also having a polyethylene glycol segment. Such a composition can form a biosensor surface of reduced non-specific adsorbability for proteins and the like.

Abstract: The invention relates to a tactile sensor capable of obtaining information for a plurality of degrees of freedom at each point on a surface by introducing multi-channel sensing that uses color or optical spectrum to an optical tactile sensor. An optical tactile sensor is provided with a tactile section and imaging means, the tactile section comprising a transparent elastic body and a plurality of groups of markers provided inside the elastic body, each marker group being made up of a number of colored markers, with markers making up different marker groups having different colors for each group, and behavior of the colored markers when an object touches the elastic body being photographed by the imaging means. Preferably, the marker groups have mutually different spatial arrangements.

Abstract: In an optical lithography using a mask pattern, or producing a large quantity of three-dimensional articles rapidly with high precision, a predetermined mask pattern is drawn directly on the surface of a resin composition for optical lithography, and the mask pattern is irradiated with light, thereby irradiating the surface of the resin composition containing a photocurable component through the mask pattern The step of forming a cured resin layer corresponding to the drawing is repeated to form a three-dimensional article composed of multiple cured resin layers. Thus, unlike the beam scanning, the curing is uniform in cross section.