On the Westside of California's San Joaquin Valley, the discharge of subsurface agricultural drainage water (DW) is subject to strict environmental regulations due to its high selenium (Se) content ...and potential risks to wildlife. Re-use of saline-sodic DW to irrigate salt-tolerant forage crops is attractive because it reduces the volume of DW requiring disposal and the land area affected by salinity, while producing forages to satisfy the large demand for animal feed resulting from rapid expansions in dairy and beef cattle operations in this area. The biomass production and nutritional quality of six forages (‘Jose’ tall wheatgrass, creeping wildrye, alkali sacaton, ‘Alta’ tall fescue, puccinellia and ‘Salado/801S’ alfalfa) were evaluated under DW irrigation on a commercial farm near Five Points in Fresno County, California. The forage fields were in their second to fifth year of DW application and most had soil salinities higher than 12
dS/m
EC
e (electrical conductivity of the saturated soil paste extract). In addition to being very saline, the fields had high levels of boron (B), Se and sodicity high sodium (Na) relative to calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). ‘Jose’ tall wheatgrass and creeping wildrye had acceptable dry matter (DM) production (7.0 and 11.5
t/ha
year) under highly saline conditions of 19 and 13
dS/m
EC
e, respectively. Alfalfa produced 16–20
t/ha
year of DM under low salinity conditions of <7.0
dS/m
EC
e. The forages had estimated metabolizable energy (ME) contents of 7.9–9.9
MJ/kg
DM – with the exception of alkali sacaton (6.7
MJ/kg
DM) – which would make them acceptable as feeds for beef cattle, sheep and some classes of dairy cattle. Selenium levels varied from 4.4 to 10.7
mg/kg
DM in forages that had received 4–5 years of DW application. Forages at the high end of this range could cause Se toxicity in ruminants when used as a sole source of forage, but they could also be used as a Se supplement if fed at a rate of 20–40
g/kg in the Se-deficient areas found along the eastern SJV. Saline-sodic DW can be used as a water resource to produce forage suitable for many classes of ruminants, although drainage waters with high levels of Se may present both problems and opportunities.
Bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) is one of the most devastating complications after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). However, its true pathogenesis is still to be elucidated. We conducted ...this study to find whether tissue damage due to high-dose chemo-radiotherapy is related to its pathogenesis. In all, 144 patients who received allogeneic HSCT between May 1999 and October 2001, and survived more than 80 days after transplant, were analyzed. Clinical course, pulmonary function tests, imaging studies including CT scan, and pathology results were reviewed. The overall incidence of BO was 9.7% (14/144). The cumulative incidence of BO at 2 years after transplant was 17% with myeloablative conditioning, and 2.3% with reduced intensity conditioning (P=0.024). Multivariate analysis showed that myeloablative conditioning was the only factor which affected the incidence of BO. Development of BO did not significantly affect the overall survival of patients. However, if they developed BO earlier than 200 days post transplant, the prognosis was significantly worse than if they developed it later than 200 days post transplant (P=0.003) or if they did not develop BO (P=0.002). Our results imply that tissue damage secondary to intensive chemo-radiotherapy may contribute to the pathogenesis of BO.
Reuse of saline-sodic drainage water (DW) to irrigate salt-tolerant forages is an attractive option for growers in California's drainage-impaired, San Joaquin Valley since it will reduce the volume ...of drainage water requiring disposal and supply feed to expanding dairy and beef cattle industries. Five forages (tall wheatgrass, paspalum, creeping wildrye, bermudagrass and alfalfa) were evaluated in a greenhouse study to compare forage species for biomass yield, mineral composition, and quality as ruminant feeds when irrigated with freshwater (EC
w
=
0.85
dS/m) and saline DW (EC
w
=
11 and 18
dS/m) and grown in a field soil mix characteristic of the drainage-impaired areas. Tall wheatgrass was highly salt-tolerant with a relative yield of 85% under high salinity, whereas the relative yield of alfalfa was 43%. Metabolizable energy (ME in MJ/kg DM), the potential energy that the ruminant can obtain from consuming the forage, was higher in this greenhouse study as compared to our prior field study (
Suyama et al., 2006). ME differed among the forage species and was ranked as: tall wheatgrass and alfalfa
>
paspalum
>
bermudagrass and creeping wildrye. All forages were deemed suitable as feeds for beef cattle and goats fed at maintenance energy levels. However, with long term consumption, the high selenium and sulfur content of these forages could potentially affect animal physiology, unless they were fed in a mixed ration.
JTC-801, a nociceptin antagonist, may alleviate neuropathic pain because nociceptin has been shown to produce pain modulation. We report that JTC-801 alleviates heat-evoked hyperalgesia and ...investigated the possible protective effect on osteoporosis induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI) in rats. JTC-801 was given orally to rats with CCI at 0% (vehicle), 0.03% (low dose), or 0.06% (high dose) in food. Paw withdrawal latency (PWL) to heat, bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) of the whole tibial bone were measured. JTC-801 dose-dependently normalized PWL. Although JTC-801 did not inhibit a CCI-induced decrease in BMC and BMD, it inhibited an increase in the number of osteoclasts in the JTC-801 groups. JTC-801, given orally in food, alleviated heat-evoked hyperalgesia in CCI rats, suggesting that it is useful for the treatment of neuropathic pain.
Human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) is a potential driver oncogene. Although HER2-targeted precision therapy has been tested in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the demographic characteristics ...of HER2-positive NSCLC have not been systematically defined.
Patients with pathologically confirmed stage IIIB/IV or recurrent NSCLC, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0 to 2, were prospectively registered. HER2 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays were performed to screen patients. HER2 mutations were identified by using direct gene sequencing. The aim of this study was to clarify the frequency, characteristics, and outcome of HER2-positive NSCLC. HER2 was defined as positive if the tumor harbored IHC3+, IHC2+/FISH+, or exon 20 insertion mutations.
Of the 1,126 tumors screened, 34 (3.0%) were IHC3+, and 34 (3.0%) were IHC2+/FISH+. Among the 724 epidermal growth factor receptor wild-type tumors, 21 (2.9%) were HER2-mutant tumors, including A775-G776insYVMA (n = 15). Interestingly, the IHC3+ tumors and mutant tumors were entirely exclusive. Female patients had HER2-mutant tumors more frequently, whereas both IHC3+ and IHC2+/FISH+ tumors were detected more often in male subjects and smokers. Patients with an HER2-aberrant tumor had a significantly worse prognosis than those with epidermal growth factor receptor-positive and anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive tumors, possibly due to the low proportion that received HER2-targeted therapies (n = 15 26%) and low response rates of 0% and 14% in patients with HER2-overexpressing and HER2-mutant tumors, respectively.
This prospective large-scale cohort study is the first to show comprehensively the frequency and clinical demographic characteristics of those with HER2-positive advanced lung tumors in detail, providing critical historical data for future drug development against HER2-positive NSCLC. Future treatment strategies would be developed stratified according to the types of HER2 aberrations.
UMIN Registration No. 000017003; URL: https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000019691
The effects of pneumoperitoneum on the activity of the cardiac autonomic nervous system have not been completely understood.
In this study, 45 unpremedicated adult patients who underwent laparoscopic ...cholecystectomy were anesthetized with either 3.5% sevoflurane, 2% isoflurane, or 8 mg/kg/h propofol (15 patients in each group). The status of cardiac autonomic nervous activity was evaluated by heart rate variability analysis three times: once when the patient was awake, once after induction of general anesthesia, and once after insufflation for pneumoperitoneum. Intra-abdominal pressure was maintained automatically at 10 mm Hg by a carbon dioxide (CO(2)) insufflator. For each measurement, electrocardiogram was recorded for 256 s and played back offline to detect R-R intervals. Power spectral analysis of heart rate variability was applied, and the low-frequency (LF, 0.04-0.15 Hz) and high-frequency (HF, 0.15-0. 40 Hz) bands of the spectral density of the heart rate variability were obtained from a power spectra of R-R intervals using the fast-Fourier transform algorithm. The HF/LF ratio also was analyzed.
Measurements of heart rate variability in the three groups showed similar change. Although the power of HF, which represents parasympathetic nervous activity, did not change, the power of LF, which represents both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous activity, decreased during the anesthetized stage and increased during the insufflated stage. The HF/LF ratio, which represents the balance of parasympathetic and sympathetic activity, increased after induction of general anesthesia, and decreased after insufflation.
Our results suggest that pneumoperitoneum increases sympathetic cardiac activity. The choice of general anesthetic did not seem to have a major influence on the change in the cardiac autonomic nervous system after induction of pneumoperitoneum for laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
In order to examine the pathology in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS), the nonlinear properties of respiratory movement and breath-to-breath variations during resting ...wakefulness with eyes closed was investigated. Recording of the respiratory movement using inductive plethysmography was performed on 14 patients with OSAHS and 13 control subjects for 2 h in the supine position during daytime. To calculate the correlation dimension (D2) for respiratory movement, an algorithm proposed by Grassberger and Procaccia was applied. The indices of breath-to-breath variations were estimated. To calculate D2 and breath-to-breath variations, two different segments were selected (200 s each). The value of D2 for respiratory movement in patients with OSAHS was significantly greater than that in control subjects. In the case of > or = 2.0 of D2 for respiratory movement, the sensitivity and specificity of detecting the presence of OSAHS was 85.7% and 76.9%, respectively. On the basis of breath-to-breath variations, only the coefficient of variation of expiratory time for respiratory movement in patients with OSAHS was significantly greater than that in the control subjects. In conclusion, the measurements of correlation dimensions for respiratory movement with a brief period during wakefulness may be a useful index for identifying patients with obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome.
Although surgery is the usual management strategy for acquired benign tracheoesophageal fistula, sometimes this approach is contraindicated or the patient declines surgical management. In this ...report, we describe a case of a patient with tracheoesophageal fistula at the level of the carina due to bronchial arterial infusion chemotherapy. Closure could not be achieved in response to multiple treatment strategies, including airway stenting, esophageal stenting, occlusion with microcoils, or cyanoacrylate glue. We subsequently achieved closure of this fistula through the combination of a modified silicon stent and metallic stents.
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