Background and purpose
The cervical and thoracic cross‐sectional spinal cord area (CS‐SCA) in multiple sclerosis (MS) correlates with disability, whilst such a correlation remains to be established ...in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Our aim was to clarify differences between MS and NMOSD in spinal cord segments where CS‐SCA is associated with disability.
Methods
The CS‐SCA at C2/C3, C3/C4, T8/T9 and T9/T10 vertebral disc levels was measured in 140 MS patients (111 with relapsing–remitting MS and 29 with progressive MS) and 42 NMOSD patients with anti‐aquaporin‐4 immunoglobulin G. Disability was evaluated by Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores. Multivariate associations between CS‐SCA and disability were assessed by stepwise forward multiple linear regression.
Results
Thoracic CS‐SCA was significantly smaller in NMOSD patients than in MS patients even after adjusting for age, sex and disease duration (P = 0.002 at T8/T9), whilst there was no difference in cervical CS‐SCA between the two diseases. Cervical and thoracic CS‐SCA had a negative correlation with EDSS scores in MS patients (P < 0.0001 at C3/C4 and P = 0.0002 at T8/T9) whereas only thoracic CS‐SCA correlated with EDSS scores in NMOSD patients (P = 0.0006 at T8/T9). By multiple regression analyses, predictive factors for disability in MS were smaller cervical CS‐SCA, progressive course, older age and a higher number of relapses, whilst those in NMOSD were smaller thoracic CS‐SCA and older age.
Conclusions
Thoracic CS‐SCA is a useful predictive marker for disability in patients with NMOSD whilst cervical CS‐SCA is associated with disability in patients with MS.
Abstract Parenteral antibiotic prophylaxis is the current standard of therapy in clean-contaminated oral cancer surgery. Nevertheless, the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI) in oral ...oncological surgery is relatively high, especially in major surgery with reconstruction and tracheotomy. The aims of this study were to investigate the perioperative condition related to microorganisms in the oral cavity and to examine the efficacy of the topical administration of tetracycline in reducing the number of bacteria in the oropharyngeal fluid during intubation. The number of oral bacteria was measured during intubation in patients undergoing major oral cancer surgery. The efficacy of the topical administration of tetracycline or povidone iodine gel in reducing the bacteria was then investigated. Bacteria in the oropharyngeal fluid grew from 106 CFU/ml to 108 CFU/ml during the 3 h after intubation (CFU, colony-forming units). When tetracycline was applied to the dorsum of the tongue, oral bacteria decreased immediately to 105 CFU/ml, and the number of bacteria in the oropharyngeal fluid was maintained below 107 CFU/ml for 7 h. The concentration of tetracycline in the oropharyngeal fluid was extremely high for several hours after topical administration. The topical administration of tetracycline could reduce oral bacteria in patients undergoing clean-contaminated oral cancer surgery. This method is expected to be effective in the prevention of SSI.
Abstract
KamLAND-Zen searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay with
136
Xe loaded liquid scintillator (LS). The LS container, a 25-
μ
m-thick clean nylon inner balloon is a key of the experiment ...since one of the main backgrounds in the ROI is
214
Bi from the inner balloon. In KamLAND-Zen 400 (operated from 2011 to 2015), dust contamination of the inner balloon from the environment limited the sensitivity, although the inner balloon was fabricated at a class-1 super clean room. We improved the production method of the inner balloon for KamLAND-Zen 800 (started DAQ in January, 2019) and successfully reduced the
214
Bi background level to one fifteenth as compared to the 2nd phase of KamLAND-Zen 400. The inner balloon film material and requirements, improved fabrication scheme, including establishment of clean environment and dust control, will be described.
Abstract Background Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis type 1 (PFIC1) is an inherited disease characterized by cholestatic features. We report two patients with PFIC1 who underwent liver ...retransplantation. Case Report One patient was a 3-year-old female who underwent liver transplantation for PFIC1. She presented with severe diarrhea and fatty liver, and went into liver failure. She therefore underwent liver retransplantation and external biliary diversion 8 years after the initial liver transplantation. The explanted liver was histologically diagnosed with chronic rejection. Her intractable diarrhea stopped after the retransplantation. She was diagnosed with a fatty liver 8 months after the retransplantation and died 4 years after retransplantation due to bleeding from an ileostomy. The other patient was a 3-year-old male. This patient underwent liver retransplantation due to liver cirrhosis caused by steatohepatitis 9 years after the initial liver transplantation. The biliary tract was not diverted. He also experienced severe diarrhea after the retransplantation and requires home parenteral nutrition due to an eating disorder. Conclusions Liver transplantation is the only treatment to resolve life-threatening issues due to PFIC1, but requires further improvement as a therapeutic modality.
We investigate magnetic excitations in the S = 1 easy-plane-type triangular antiferromagnets CsFeCl3 and RbFeCl3 through a combination of inelastic neutron scattering measurements and spin-wave ...theory calculations based on an established exchange-coupling Hamiltonian. We show that in either material the model falls short of providing an adequate description of the measured intensities and for RbFeCl3 even fails to reproduce the measured dispersion relation. The most striking discrepancy is a very anisotropic azimuthal intensity distribution in the acoustic spin-wave branches in the long-wavelength limit, which is incompatible with spin-wave theory on a fundamental level. The observed anomalies are attributed to long-range dipolar interactions.
The present study shows spatio-temporal variability in carbon dioxide
(
CO
2
)
in the mid-tropospheric region over India (0–32
o
N
, 60–100
o
E
) during 2003–2011. The
CO
2
data used in the study is ...retrieved from Atmospheric Infra-Red Sounder (AIRS). Analysis of 9 yrs of data shows that the
CO
2
exhibits a linear increasing trend of 2.01 ppm/year. Besides displaying the linear increasing trend, data show strong seasonal and annual variability. Concentration of
CO
2
is observed to be highest around April–May (summer months), which decreases by 4–5 ppm during the monsoon months. Seasonal decrease in
CO
2
concentration appeared to be influenced by the monsoonal activity. Low OLR (proxy of convection) associated with high rainfall during summer monsoon via increasing vegetation index (NDVI) appears to be the primary cause for the seasonal decrease in
CO
2
through photosynthesis. Correlation coefficient between
CO
2
and NDVI is of the order of –0.90 suggesting vegetation as a seasonal sink of
CO
2
. Decrease in
CO
2
concentration takes place at a delay of 2–3 months of rainfall. However, convection seems to be another component, which causes uplifting of
CO
2
during dry summer (April and May) making high concentration in the mid-troposphere as shown by increase in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height in this period. Eastward propagating intra-seasonal oscillations with period 30–40 days in OLR anomalies are found to modulate (with a fluctuation of 1–2 ppm) mid-tropospheric
CO
2
. Analysis of seasonal anomalies in
CO
2
over four different regions (northern, southern, western and eastern) of India is also being investigated. The regional variability of
CO
2
in northern region show marginal larger values suggesting more anthropogenic activities especially during late winter.
Donor safety is one of the most important factors in living-donor liver transplantation. Duodenal ulcer (DU) is a common postoperative complication. Here we aimed to reveal the risk factors ...associated with postoperative DU in the donors.
Between April 2007 and March 2017, 318 cases underwent donor hepatectomy for liver transplantation at Kumamoto University Hospital. We classified the donors into two groups: a DU group and a non-DU group. DU was defined as mucosal break with unequivocal depth requiring an endoscopic procedure. The characteristics and clinical factors of the donors were retrospectively analyzed.
Postoperative DU occurred in 17 donors during the study period. The mean interval after donor hepatectomy to occurrence of DU was 124.8 ± 185.4 days. The two groups were comparable in terms of age at time of the donor hepatectomy (P = .45). The male-to-female ratio (P = .03) was significantly different between the two groups and left-side hepatectomy was performed more often in the DU group (P = .003). Multivariable logistic regression revealed that left-side hepatectomy was independently associated with postoperative DU in the donors.
These findings indicated that left-side hepatectomy is a risk factor for postoperative DU in the donors.
•DU often occur after donor hepatectomy.•Left-side hepatectomy is a risk factor.•The pathogenesis is not well elucidated.•Routine prescription of a proton pump inhibitor is considered.
The KamLAND-Zen 800 experiment is searching for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 136Xe by using 136Xe-loaded liquid scintillator. The liquid scintillator is enclosed inside a balloon made of ...thin, transparent, low-radioactivity film that we call Inner Balloon (IB). The IB, apart from guaranteeing the liquid containment, also allows to minimize the background from cosmogenic muon-spallation products and 8B solar neutrinos. Indeed these events could contribute to the total counts in the region of interest around the Q-value of the double-beta decay of 136Xe. In this paper, we present an overview of the IB and describe the various steps of its commissioning minimizing the radioactive contaminations, from the material selection, to the fabrication of the balloon and its installation inside the KamLAND detector. Finally, we show the impact of the IB on the KamLAND background as measured by the KamLAND detector itself.
ABSTRACT We present a search, using KamLAND, a kiloton-scale anti-neutrino detector, for low-energy anti-neutrino events that were coincident with the gravitational-wave (GW) events GW150914 and ...GW151226, and the candidate event LVT151012. We find no inverse beta-decay neutrino events within 500 s of either GW signal. This non-detection is used to constrain the electron anti-neutrino fluence and the total integrated luminosity of the astrophysical sources.
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