BACKGROUND: Although Mycobacterium avium complex pulmonary disease (MAC-PD) is a growing health problem, little is known about long-term radiographic outcome and factors for deterioration in patients ...with MAC-PD.METHODS: Data on patients with nodular bronchiectatic (NBE)
MAC-PD who underwent regular follow-up for >5 years were retrospectively reviewed. Changes in plain chest radiograph (CXR) and baseline characteristics were compared between the stable and deteriorated groups.RESULTS: Seventy-two patients were investigated, including 30 patients who
were examined 10 years after the initial visit. One patient (1.4%) showed progressive or remarkably progressive disease on CXR at 1 year; this rate increased to 22.2% at 5 years and to 53.3% at 10 years. Body mass index (BMI) at the initial visit was lower in the deteriorated group than in
the stable group. Cavitary disease and resistance to a macrolide were seen more frequently at the initial visit in the deteriorated group than in the stable group.CONCLUSIONS: NBE MAC-PD is a slowly but substantially progressive long-term infection (5-10 years). Our data suggest
that patients with lower BMI, cavitary disease and resistance to a macrolide at initial visit are more likely to progress to deteriorating disease.
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have important roles in various physiological processes. Recently, several novel homologues of the phagocytic NADPH oxidase have been discovered and this protein family ...is now designated as the Nox family. We investigated the involvement of Nox family proteins in ionizing irradiation-induced ROS generation and impairment in immortalized salivary gland acinar cells (NS-SV-AC), which are radiosensitive, and immortalized ductal cells (NS-SV-DC), which are radioresistant. Nox1-mRNA was upregulated by γ-ray irradiation in NS-SV-AC, and the ROS level in NS-SV-AC was increased to approximately threefold of the control level after 10Gy irradiation. The increase of ROS level in NS-SV-AC was suppressed by Nox1-siRNA-transfection. In parallel with the suppression of ROS generation and Nox1-mRNA expression by Nox1-siRNA, ionizing irradiation-induced apoptosis was strongly decreased in Nox1-siRNA-transfected NS-SV-AC. There were no large differences in total SOD or catalase activities between NS-SV-AC and NS-SV-DC although the post-irradiation ROS level in NS-SV-AC was higher than that in NS-SV-DC. In conclusion, these results indicate that Nox1 plays a crucial role in irradiation-induced ROS generation and ROS-associated impairment of salivary gland cells and that Nox1 gene may be targeted for preservation of the salivary gland function from radiation-induced impairment.
Growth of the core infarct during the first hours of ischemia onset is not well-understood. We hypothesized that factors other than time from onset of ischemia contribute to core infarct volume as ...measured by MR imaging.
Prospectively collected clinical and imaging data of consecutive patients with stroke presenting between March 2008 and April 2013 with anterior circulation large-vessel occlusion and MR imaging performed within 6 hours from the time of onset were reviewed. The association of time from onset, clinical, and radiographic features with DWI volume was assessed by using χ(2) and Mann-Whitney U tests.
Of 91 patients, 21 (23%) underwent MR imaging within 0-3 hours from onset, and 70 (76%), within 3-6 hours. Median MR imaging infarct volume was similar in both timeframes, (24.7 versus 29.4 mL, P = .906), and there was no difference in the proportion of patients with large infarct volumes (≥70 mL, 23.8% versus 22.8%, P = .928). Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, we detected no association between the time from onset and MR imaging infarct volume (area under the curve = 0.509). In multivariate analysis, CTA collaterals (>50% of the territory) (adjusted OR, 0.192; 95% CI, 0.04-0.9; P = .046), CTA ASPECTS (adjusted OR, 0.464; 95% CI, 0.3-0.8; P = .003), and a history of hyperlipidemia (adjusted OR, 11.0; 95% CI, 1.4-88.0; P = .023) (but not time from stroke onset to imaging) were independent predictors of MR imaging infarct volume.
Collateral status but not time from stroke onset to imaging was a predictor of the size of core infarct in patients with anterior circulation large-vessel occlusion presenting within 6 hours from onset.
A gamma-ray telescope using nuclear emulsions allows observations of stellar objects in the 0.01–100 GeV energy region with high angular resolution, polarization sensitivity, and large aperture area. ...The Gamma-Ray Astro-Imager with Nuclear Emulsion (GRAINE) project is designed to enable high-precision observation of cosmic gamma rays through the use of balloon-borne emulsion telescopes. We have developed a balloon-style pressure vessel gondola for the GRAINE 2018 balloon-borne experiment. It enables us to maintain robust and vacuum-packed emulsion chambers even at balloon altitudes. The greater part of the vessel is made of membrane materials consisting of ultra-thin polyurethane-coated polyester fabric. It is lightweight and portable, and can be used to expand the mounting area of the detector, unlike mostly metal vessels. Moreover, the absorption of signal gamma rays and background gamma-ray production due to interactions between cosmic rays and the vessel can be minimized. The pressure vessel gondola, equipped with a 0.38-m2 emulsion telescope and other equipment, was launched on April 26, 2018. During the whole observation (17 h 21 m), the internal pressure was kept above 230 hPa. The GRAINE project will start scientific observation using enlarged telescopes and the pressure vessel gondola is planned to include an expansion of the mounting area of the detector to ∼10 m2 while following the design on the GRAINE 2018 model.
This paper presents the following recent investigations of transparent amorphous-oxide semiconductors (TAOS) from materials to devices and circuits. 1) Composition of metals in TAOS are widely ...explored with the aim of seeking semiconductors suitable for the channel layers of thin-film transistors (TFTs) composing backplanes for flat-panel displays. It is found in combinatorial approaches to the materials exploration that indium-based ternary TAOS (In-X-O) and their TFTs show the properties and the performance as good as those of the most popular material of amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (alpha-IGZO) when X = Zn or Ge. 2) Defects and impurities in TAOS are investigated by theoretical approaches. The first-principle calculation of the electron states reveals that charge-neutral oxygen vacancy or interstitial forms the density of states around mid-gap level and does not generate carriers directly, while hydrogen impurity raises the Fermi level beyond the conduction-band minimum and acts as a donor in TAOS. 3) Device structures of TAOS-TFTs are also investigated extensively for better performance and stability. It is found in channel-etch type TFTs with bottom-gate inverse-stagger structures that the TFT characteristics and stability are significantly improved by chemically removing the back-channel layer in a wet-etching process. Coplanar homojunction (CH) structure is proposed as a novel device structure where conductive alpha-IGZO regions work as the source and drain electrodes to the channel region of semiconductor alpha-IGZO. The CH TFTs show excellent characteristics and stability, with low series resistance without any difficulty in making good electrical contact between metals and TAOS. 4) Circuits using TAOS-TFTs are demonstrated. A ring oscillator composed of fifteen-stage inverters with a buffer circuit operates as designed by circuit simulation with a TFT model for hydrogenated amorphous Si TFTs. Pixel circuits composed of three TFTs and one transparent capacitor successfully drive organic light-emission diode cells without a planarization layer on a 2-in diagonal panel having 176 times144 times 3 pixels.
Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease has been increasing worldwide not only in immunocompromised but also in immunocompetent humans. However, the relationship between mycobacterial strain ...virulence and disease progression in immunocompetent humans is unclear. In this study, we isolated 6 strains from patients with pulmonary MAC disease. To explore the virulence, we examined the growth in human THP-1 macrophages and pathogenicity in C57BL/6 mice. We found that one strain, designated 198, which was isolated from a patient showing the most progressive disease, persisted in THP-1 cells. In addition, strain 198 grew to a high bacterial load with strong inflammation in mouse lungs and spleens 16 weeks after infection. To our knowledge, strain 198 is the first isolated MAC strain that exhibits hypervirulence consistently for the human patient, human macrophages
in vitro, and even for immunocompetent mice. Other strains showed limited survival and weak virulence both in macrophages and in mice, uncorrelated to disease progression in human patients. We demonstrated that there is a hypervirulent clinical MAC strain whose experimental virulence corresponds to the serious disease progression in the patients. The existence of such strain suggests the involvement of bacterial virulence in the pathogenesis of pulmonary MAC disease in immunocompetent status.
The catalytic reaction of the direct decomposition of nitrous oxide (N
2O) was investigated over Al
2O
3- and SiO
2-supported Pd, Ru, Rh and Pt catalysts as a part of development of catalytic system ...for purifying waste anesthetic gas. Effects of three gases of O
2, H
2O and isoflurane (CHF
2OCHClCF
3) as a representative of halogenated ethers were investigated because they are inevitably present in the waste anesthetic gas. The N
2O decomposition activity of 5
wt% Pd/Al
2O
3 was little affected by coexisting O
2. Coexisting H
2O caused reversibly deterioration of the activity of 5
wt% Pd/Al
2O
3, but it could be mitigated or avoided by the operation at higher temperatures. By the treatment with 1
vol% isoflurane diluted in air at 300
°C, all the catalysts were irreversibly damaged probably due to the reaction with HF originated from the decomposition of isoflurane. The weight of Al
2O
3-supported catalysts increased because of the conversion of Al
2O
3 to AlF
3, and that of SiO
2-supported catalysts decreased because of the evaporation of SiF
4. The tolerance against the isoflurane treatment depended on the kind of precious metals and Ru was suffered less deactivation than Rh and Pd.
Anti-p200 pemphigoid is a recently described autoimmune blistering skin disease that is characterized by the presence of autoantibodies against an unidentified 200-kDa dermal autoantigen. Most of the ...previous cases have been successfully treated using mild-to-moderate immunosuppressive therapies, which resulted in a good prognosis. We report here a severe and refractory case of anti-p200 pemphigoid that developed in a 53-year-old woman, in which blisters led to multiple skin ulcers, followed by severe scar formation. In the present case, methylprednisolone pulse therapy was effective enough to reduce the disease activity.
PDF
