AIM: To clarify the usefulness of postsurgical capsule endoscopy(CE) in the diagnosis of recurrent small bowel lesions of Crohn’s disease(CD). METHODS: This prospective study included 19 patients who ...underwent ileocolectomy or partial ileal resection for CD. CE was performed 2-3 wk after surgery to check for the presence/absence and severity of lesions remaining in the small bowel, and for any recurrence at the anastomosed area. CE was repeated 6-8 mo after surgery and the findings were compared with those obtained shortly after surgery. The Lewis score (LS) was used to evaluate any inflammatory changes of the small bowel. RESULTS: One patient was excluded from analysis because of insufficient endoscopy data at the initial CE. The total LS shortly after surgery was 428.3 on average(median, 174; range, 8-4264), and was ≥ 135(active stage) in 78%(14 of 18) of the patients. When the remaining unresected small bowel was divided into 3 equal portions according to the transition time(proximal, middle, and distal tertiles), the mean LS was 286.6, 83.0, and 146.7, respectively, without any significant difference. Ulcerous lesions in the anastomosed area were observed in 83% of all patients. In 38% of the 13 patients who could undergo CE again after 6-8 mo, the total LS was higher by ≥ 100 than that recorded shortly after surgery, thus indicating a diagnosis of endoscopic progressive recurrence. CONCLUSION: Our pilot study suggests that CE can be used to objectively evaluate the postoperative recurrence of small bowel lesions after surgery for CD.
Steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) is a key molecule for steroid production by translocating cholesterol from the outer to inner mitochondrial membrane. Two cDNAs of different length ...encoding StAR was cloned from the head kidney of the eel (Anguilla japonica). In the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of the longer cDNA, two putative polyadenylation signals were found. The shorter one differed from the longer one solely by the lack of middle of 3′-UTR including the first polyadenylation signal. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) that differentiates the two mRNAs showed that the ratio of the two was highly variable among individuals, and no preferential expression was detected between freshwater and seawater eels. The predicted protein consists of 285 amino acid residues with 64–83% identity to other StARs thus far obtained. RT-PCR analyses revealed that eel StAR mRNA was expressed abundantly in the head kidney and gonad, and faintly in the brain; but no expression was detected in the gill, heart, liver, intestine, kidney and skeletal muscle. Plasma cortisol concentration increased, but StAR mRNA content in the head kidney did not change, 3 and 24 h after transfer of freshwater eels to seawater, indicating that the transcriptional regulation of StAR may not be involved in cortisol production after seawater transfer. However, ACTH elevated both plasma cortisol and StAR mRNA levels in the head kidney 1.5 and 4.5 h after injection. Thus, the steroidogenic effect of ACTH is mediated by increased StAR production as observed in mammals.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Aiming to characterize the effect of sintering temperature on transparency of zirconia, we have evaluated the optical properties and microstructure of translucent cubic zirconia prepared by ...high-pressure spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1000-1200
○
C. Color centers (oxygen vacancies with trapped electrons) and residual pores were primary defects in the samples. In SPS samples, the total forward transmittance and in-line transmittance are mainly affected by color centers with a limited contribution from residual pores; in contrast, the changes in reflectance are only related to the porosity. The amounts of color centers and residual pores increase with sintering temperature that reduces the total forward and in-line transmittance of the as-sintered zirconia. Annealing in oxidizing atmosphere improves the total forward and in-line transmittance. During the annealing, the concentration of color centers decreases but the porosity increases.
The genus Oryzias containing freshwater (FW) and seawater (SW) species is a potential model for studying mechanisms of osmotic adaptation. In this study, we compared SW adaptability of four Oryzias ...species, O. javanicus, O. dancena, O. latipes and O. marmoratus inhabiting different osmotic environments. SW adaptability was evaluated at several stages of the lifecycle: (i) survival rates of adult fish after transfer from FW to 50%SW or SW, (ii) spawning ability in FW and SW, (iii) fertilization rates in FW and SW, and (iv) hatching rates in FW, 50%SW and SW. Results obtained agreed with the natural habitat of each species: O. javanicus, which inhabits SW or brackish water (BW), is fully adaptable to both SW and FW at all the stages examined. The BW species O. dancena also revealed high SW adaptability except for the hatching rate. O. marmoratus, confined in FW, exhibited low SW adaptability at all stages examined while O. latipes, another FW species, was adaptable to SW at most stages examined. Based on these results, the role of SW adaptability to the distribution area of each species is discussed.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Factors limiting the strain rate of superplastic deformation in ceramic materials are discussed on the basis of existing models and experimental results concerning high-temperature plastic ...deformation, intergranular cavitation and dynamic grain growth. From the discussion, it is indicated that simultaneously fulfilling the following conditions is essential for attaining high-strain-rate superplasticity (HSRS) in ceramic materials: reduction in the initial grain size, enhanced diffusivity, suppressed dynamic grain growth, a homogeneous microstructure and a reduced number of residual defects. In the light of these conditions, explanations are given for HSRS attained in earlier studies on some oxide materials. It is also shown that HSRS can be intentionally attained in doped yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP) and composites synthesized from ZrO
2, Al
2O
3 and MgO
2; the tensile ductility of these composites reached 300–2500% at a strain rate of 0.01–1.0
s
−1. The postdeformation microstructure indicates that some secondary phases may suppress cavitation damage and thereby enhance HSRS.
Fibrin-Fibrinogen degradation products (FDP) have been found in the serum and urine of many patients with renal disease. To clarify the role of intraglomerular coagulation in renal disease, serum and ...urine FDP D-dimer was examined in reference to histology on 82 patients with several renal disease. The results were as follows: 1. D-dimer in serum was found in 14 of 64 cases and that in urine in 14 of 34 cases. 2. Serum or urinary D-dimer positive cases had severer renal histological damages on light microscopy and more massive intraglomerular fibrin deposits by immunofluorescence in comparison with D-dimer negative cases. 3. The ratio of D-dimer to D fraction RD-D in urine FDP was higher than that in serum. This result suggests that there is acceleration of intrarenal coagulation and fibrinolysis in urinary D-dimer positive cases. 4. D-dimer in arterial blood, renal vein blood, and systemic vein blood of 14 cases were also examined, but any significant difference was revealed among the blood specimens. 5. There was a case which had more amount of fragment of γ-γ dimer in SDS-PAGE pattern of 2-mercaptoethanol reduced FDP in renal vein blood than that in arterial vein blood.
It was recently realized that topological spin textures do not merely have mathematical beauty but can also give rise to unique functionalities of magnetic materials. An example is the skyrmion—a ...nano-sized bundle of noncoplanar spins—that by virtue of its nontrivial topology acts as a flux of magnetic field on spin-polarized electrons. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy recently emerged as a powerful tool for direct visualization of skyrmions in noncentrosymmetric helimagnets. Topologically, skyrmions are equivalent to magnetic bubbles (cylindrical domains) in ferromagnetic thin films, which were extensively explored in the 1970s for data storage applications. In this study we use Lorentz microscopy to image magnetic domain patterns in the prototypical magnetic oxide–M-type hexaferrite with a hint of scandium. Surprisingly, we find that the magnetic bubbles and stripes in the hexaferrite have a much more complex structure than the skyrmions and spirals in helimagnets, which we associate with the new degree of freedom—helicity (or vector spin chirality) describing the direction of spin rotation across the domain walls. We observe numerous random reversals of helicity in the stripe domain state. Random helicity of cylindrical domain walls coexists with the positional order of magnetic bubbles in a triangular lattice. Most unexpectedly, we observe regular helicity reversals inside skyrmions with an unusual multiple-ring structure.
A concentration-dependent surface area parameter model (Iwai, Fluid Phase Equilibria, 465 (2018) 24–32) was modified to avoid the restriction conditions for the parameters of the pure components. The ...model is applied to correlate the ternary liquid-liquid equilibria and constituent binary phase equilibria with one set of binary parameters. The correlated results for both vapor-liquid equilibria and liquid-liquid equilibria obtained by the model are better than those of the NRTL and UNIQUAC models. The model simultaneously represents the experimental data at multiple temperatures of liquid-liquid and vapor-liquid equilibria with one set of parameters.
Background
The registration committee for esophageal cancer in the Japan Esophageal Society (JES) has collected the patients' characteristics, treatment, and outcomes annually.
Methods
We analyzed ...the data of patients who had visited the participating hospitals in 2014. We collected the data with a web-based data collection system using the National Clinical Database. We used the Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer 10th edition by JES and the TNM classification 7th edition by the Union of International Cancer Control (UICC) for cancer staging.
Results
A total of 9026 cases were registered from 344 institutions in Japan. Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma accounted for 87.9% and 7.1%, respectively. The 5-year survival rates of patients treated using endoscopic resection, concurrent chemoradiotherapy, radiotherapy alone, and esophagectomy were 87.1%, 33.7%, 25.3%, and 59.3%, respectively. Esophagectomy was performed in 5204 cases. Concerning the approach used for esophagectomy, 48.1% of the cases were treated thoracoscopically. The operative mortality (within 30 days after surgery) was 0.75%, and the hospital mortality was 2.0%. The survival curves showed an excellent discriminatory ability both in the clinical and pathologic stages by the JES system. The survival of pStage IV was better than IIIC in the UICC system, because pStage IV included the patients with supraclavicular lymph-node metastasis (M1 LYM).
Conclusion
We hope that this report contributes to improving all aspects of diagnosing and treating esophageal cancer in Japan.
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