Introduction Traumatic injury to the abdominal aorta is uncommon, and most patients exhibit a delayed presentation. Report At 67 years of age, the patient was in a traffic accident and sustained a ...liver injury without abdominal aortic injury. Three months after the accident, a computed tomography (CT) scan revealed the presence of an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm with saccular changes. Three years after the accident, the pseudo-aneurysm measured 35 mm, and conventional open surgery was performed. Discussion It is important to be aware that the delayed development of an abdominal pseudo-aneurysm may exist despite normal initial CT scans.
A novel solution process using vanadium oxide sol with acetone was developed and V
2O
5/carbon composite cathodes capable of high rate charge/discharge were fabricated. It was found that the sol ...condition affects the electrochemical performance of the cathodes. This report presents the fabrication process and the electrochemical performance of the cathodes, and the morphological property of the colloidal particle such colloidal particle size, density and shape at various concentrations. The correlation between the electrochemical performance of the cathodes and the colloidal character of the sol is discussed.
Spinel-type lithium manganese oxides with lithium-deficient compositions in the atomic ratio range of Li/Mn=y=0.475-0.485 were obtained in a single phase by sintering a mixture of Li2CO3 and MnCO3 at ...750°C in air, followed by quenching into liquid nitrogen. Initially, they were a cubic (Fd3m) compound like the stoichiometric LiMn2O4 spinel. However, it was found that the structure turned from cubic to orthorhombic (Fddd) just in storage at room temperature. The change was slow and it took several days or more depending on the sample's composition. The changes in the density, the manganese valence and the weight of the samples accompanied with their structural change were monitored. Those measurements revealed that, though Li-deficient spinels immediately after preparation took a Li (8a)-defective arrangement (LixMn2O4, x<1), they were gradually changed to a Mn-excess compound (LiyMn2+δO4-δ; y/(2+δ)=x/2, y≤1). It is likely that Jahn-Teller Mn3+ ion increased by reduction of the compound generates the structural distortion.
By a tblastn search with beta 1,4-galactosyltransferases as query sequences, we found an expressed sequence tag that showed similarity in beta 1,4-glycosyltransferase motifs. The full-length ...complementary DNA was obtained by a method of 5'-rapid amplification of complementary DNA ends. The predicted open reading frame encodes a typical type II membrane protein comprising 543 amino acids, the sequence of which was highly homologous to chondroitin sulfate N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase (CSGalNAcT-1), and we designated this novel enzyme CSGalNAcT-2. CSGalNAcT-2 showed much stronger N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase activity toward glucuronic acid of chondroitin poly- and oligosaccharides, and chondroitin sulfate poly- and oligosaccharides with a beta 1-4 linkage, i.e. elongation activity for chondroitin and chondroitin sulfate, but showed much weaker activity toward a tetrasaccharide of the glycosaminoglycan linkage structure (GlcA-Gal-Gal-Xyl-O-methoxyphenyl), i.e. initiation activity, than CSGalNAcT-1. Transfection of the CSGalNAcT-1 gene into Chinese hamster ovary cells yielded a change of glycosaminoglycan composition, i.e. the replacement of heparan sulfate on a syndecan-4/fibroblast growth factor-1 chimera protein by chondroitin sulfate, however, transfection of the CSGalNAcT-2 gene did not. The above results indicated that CSGalNAcT-1 is involved in the initiation of chondroitin sulfate synthesis, whereas CSGalNAcT-2 participates mainly in the elongation, not initiation. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that CSGalNAcT-2 transcripts were highly expressed in the small intestine, leukocytes, and spleen, however, both CSGalNAcTs were ubiquitously expressed in various tissues.
Presenilin (PS)/gamma-secretase-mediated intramembranous proteolysis of amyloid precursor protein produces amyloid beta (Abeta) peptides in which Abeta species of different lengths are generated ...through multiple cleavages at the gamma-, zeta-, and epsilon-sites. An increased Abeta42/Abeta40 ratio is a common characteristic of most cases of familial Alzheimer disease (FAD)-linked PS mutations. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying amyloid precursor protein proteolysis leading to increased Abeta42/Abeta40 ratios still remain unclear. Here, we report our findings on the enzymatic analysis of gamma-secretase derived from I213T mutant PS1-expressing PS1/PS2-deficient (PS(-/-)) cells and from the brains of I213T mutant PS1 knock-in mice. Kinetics analyses revealed that the FAD mutation reduced de novo Abeta generation, suggesting that mutation impairs the total catalytic rate of gamma-secretase. Analysis of each Abeta species revealed that the FAD mutation specifically reduced Abeta40 levels more drastically than Abeta42 levels, leading to an increased Abeta42/Abeta40 ratio. By contrast, the FAD mutation increased the generation of longer Abeta species such as Abeta43, Abeta45, and >Abeta46. These results were confirmed by analyses of gamma-secretase derived from I213T knock-in mouse brains, in which the reduction of de novo Abeta generation was mutant allele dose-dependent. Our findings clearly indicate that the mechanism underlying the increased Abeta42/Abeta40 ratio observed in cases of FAD mutations is related to the differential inhibition of gamma-site cleavage reactions, in which the reaction producing Abeta40 is subject to more inhibition than that producing Abeta42. Our results also provide novel insight into how enhancing the generation of longer Abetas may contribute to Alzheimer disease onset.
Nano-sizing of cathode materials for higher power Li-ion rechargeable batteries is an effective method to shorten a Li-ion diffusion path and achieve fast charge transfer. Nanocrystalline LiCoO
2 was ...synthesized through a combination of rapid thermal annealing method and a sol–gel method assisted with a triblock copolymer surfactant, and the electrochemical properties including the Li-ion chemical diffusion coefficient was investigated. Li-ion deintercalation/intercalation experiments suggested an extreme small amount of cation mixing between Li
+ and Co
3+ within a layered structure of LiCoO
2, which was not observable in the Raman spectroscopy. The analysis based on the solution for the diffusion equation of the cylinder model revealed that the cation mixing strongly decelerates the Li-ion diffusion in LiCoO
2.
Although human chorionic gonadotrophin can detect trophoblast after implantation of the conceptus, there is a need to detect the conceptus before implantation. We have investigated whether human ...embryo-derived platelet activating factor is formed during embryonic development after in-vitro fertilization. A total of 99 ova from 12 patients were cultured and the 54 media were analysed. Platelet activating factor was also measured by radioimmunoassay after extraction. Fertilization increased the amount of platelet activating factor 4-fold over non-fertilized ova to a level of 4 ng/ml. This increase was also dependent on the degree of embryonic development with a maximum level of platelet activating factor of 7 ng/ml at the 2-cell stage. The follicular inducing agent used to treat the patient also had an effect on platelet activating factor; buserelin treatment gave embryos with a higher level than did clomiphene citrate treatment. These results indicate that platelet activating factor may have a role in embryonic development before implantation and may serve as a useful marker for fertilization and the developmental stage of the embryo.
Nitrogen (N) fixed by termites was evaluated as a N input to decomposition processes in two tropical forests, a dry deciduous forest (DDF) and the neighboring dry evergreen forest (DEF), Thailand. A ...diverse group of termite species were assayed by acetylene reduction method and only the wood/litter-feeding termites were found to fix N. More intensive samplings of two abundant species, Microcerotermes crassus and Globitermes sulphureus, were done across several seasons, suggesting N fixation rates of 0.21 and 0.28 kg ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ by termites in the DDF and DEF, respectively. Also, estimates of asymbiotic N fixation rates were 0.75 and 3.95 kg ha⁻¹ y⁻¹. N fixed by termites and by asymbiotic fixers is directly supplied to decomposers breaking down dead plant material and could be a major source of their N. N fixed by termites was 7-22% of that fixed by termites and asymbiotic fixers. Although N fixed by termites is a small input compared to other inputs, this N is likely important for decomposition processes.
We have cloned, expressed and characterized a novel member of the human UDP-GalNAc:polypeptide
N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase (pp-GalNAc-T) family, pp-GalNAc-T15. The
pp-GalNAc-T15 transcript was ...ubiquitously expressed in human tissues. Recombinant pp-GalNAc-T15 transferred
N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) toward a panel of mucin-derived peptide substrates in vitro. Although pp-GalNAc-T15 showed significantly less catalytic activity than pp-GalNAc-T2, T15 transferred up to seven GalNAcs to the Muc5AC peptide, while T2 transferred up to five GalNAcs. These results clearly indicated that pp-GalNAc-T15 is a novel member of the human pp-GalNAc-T family with unique catalytic activity.
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