Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Facultative Anaerobic Filamentous Fungus from Japanese Rice Field Soil

A novel filamentous fungus strain designated RB-1 was isolated into pure culture from Japanese rice field soil through an anaerobic role tube technique. The strain is a mitosporic fungus that grows in both aerobic and strict anaerobic conditions using various mono-, di-, tri-, and polysaccharides with acetate and ethanol productions. The amount of acetate produced was higher than that of ethanol in both aerobic and anaerobic cultures. The characteristic verrucose or punctuate conidia of RB-1 closely resembled those of some strains of the genus Thermomyces, a thermophilic or mesophilic anamorphic ascomycete. However, based on phylogenetic analysis with the small subunit (SSU) and large subunit (LSU) rDNA sequences, RB-1 was characterized as a member of the class Lecanoromycetes of the phylum Ascomycota. Currently, RB-1 is designated as an anamorphic ascomycete and is phylogenetically considered an incertae sedis within the class Lecanoromycetes

Robotic gastrectomy for gastric cancer

Robotic gastrectomy (RG) is increasingly performed, particularly in East Asia. With articulated devices, surgeons are able to perform every procedure more comfortably and meticulously, which makes RG ideal from the surgeon’s standpoint. However, it is still unclear whether it is a suitable treatment strategy from the patient’s viewpoint, due to the lack of solid evidence obtained from randomized controlled trials. The feasibility of RG has been demonstrated in many retrospective comparative studies, which showed similar trends, including relatively less estimated blood loss and longer operation time with RG than laparoscopic gastrectomy (LG), equivalent number of harvested lymph nodes and similar length of postoperative hospital stay between RG and LG. However, considering the higher medical expenses associated with RG, its superiority in terms of long-term survival outcomes will need to be confirmed for it to be accepted more widely