Malakoplakia of the Kidney Extending to the Descending Colon in a Patient with Secondary Adrenal Insufficiency: A Case Report

Malakoplakia is an uncommon but distinctive type of chronic granulomatous inflammation that occurs most commonly in the genitourinary tract, especially the urinary bladder. Most patients have associated conditions characterized by some degree of immunosuppression, as seen in solid-organ transplants, autoimmune diseases requiring steroid use, chemotherapy, chronic systemic diseases, alcohol abuse and poorly controlled diabetes. We report an unusual case of the renal malakoplakia that involved the perirenal space, extending to the descending colon in a 65-year-old Korean woman with secondary adrenal insufficiency and diabetes mellitus

Real-time electrical measurement of L929 cellular spontaneous and synchronous oscillation

Nonexcitable cell types, fibroblasts of heart muscle or astrocytes, are well known for their spontaneous Ca2+ oscillations. On the other hand, murine fibroblast (L929) cells are known to be deficient in cell–cell adhesive proteins and therefore lack gap junctions for cellular communication. However, these cells exhibit a unique property of collectively synchronized and spontaneous oscillation, as revealed by real-time monitoring of cells cultured on a 250-μm diameter microelectrode for more than 3 days using an electrical cell-substrate impedance-sensing system (ECIS). Live-cell imaging is a widely used technique for oscillation detection, but it has limitations relating to cellular physiological environment maintenance for microscopic analysis and for prolonged periods of study. The present research emphasizes an electrical-sensing technique (ECIS) capable of overcoming the most important issues inherent in live-cell imaging systems for the detection of L929 cellular spontaneous and synchronized oscillation in real-time for longer periods. Possible mechanisms involved in L929 oscillation were elucidated to be periodic extension/contraction of lamellipodia continued as blebbing, which is produced by signals from the actomyosin complex initiated by connexin hemichannel opening and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) release. By applying the connexin hemichannel inhibitor, flufenamic acid, the hindrance of ATP release and calcium transients were analyzed to elucidate this hypothesis

Cosimulation of MBD (Multi Body Dynamics) and DEM of many spheres using GPU technology

In this paper, dynamic simulation model which have many sphere particles and MBD (Multi Body Dynamics) entities, i.e. bodies, joints, forces, is built and simulated. Many sphere particles are solved with DEM (Discrete Element Method) and simulated with GPU technology. Fast algorithm is applied to calculate hertzian contact forces between many sphere particles (from 100,000 to 1,000,000) and NVIDIA’s CUDA is used to accelerate the calculation. Explicit integration method is applied to solve the many spheres. MBD (Multi Body Dynamics) entities are simulated with recursive formulation. Constraints are reduced by recursive formulation and implicit generalized alpha method is applied to solve dynamic model. Many sphere particles and MBD (Multi Body Dynamics) entities are co-simulated within commercial software RecurDyn. The interaction forces between many sphere particles and rigid body mesh are calculated and applied to each body to simulate two parts simultaneously. These models are built and simulated; fork lifter with sand model, oil in oil tank model, oil filled engine system and water filled washing machine model. All models are simulated with NVIDIA’s GPU and the result is shown

Design, Analysis, and Optimization of LCD Backlight Unit Using Ray Tracing Simulation

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com.The design of BLU for LCD devices, whose goal is to achieve uniform illumination and high luminance across the LCD surface, requries an assistance of illumination design programs. The goal of this paper is to develop a design and analysis tool to model an efficient BLU. The rendering techniques traditionally used in the field of computer graphics are the usual tools of choice to analyze BLU. An analysis method based on Monte Carlo photon tracing to evaluate the optical performance of BLU is presented. An optimization technique based on direct search method, a simplex method by Nelder and Mead, to achieve an optimal uniform illumination is also discussed

Design, Analysis, and Optimization of LCD Backlight Unit using Ray Tracing Simulation

The design of BLU for LCD devices, whose goal is to achieve uniform illumination and high luminance across the LCD surface, requries an assistance of illumination design programs. The goal of this paper is to develop a design and analysis tool to model an efficient BLU. The rendering techniques traditionally used in the field of computer graphics are the usual tools of choice to analyze BLU. An analysis method based on Monte Carlo photon tracing to evaluate the optical performance of BLU is presented. An optimization technique based on direct search method, a simplex method by Nelder and Mead, to achieve an optimal uniform illumination is also discussed

Epitheliotropic cutaneous lymphoma (mycosis fungoides) in a dog

A seven-year-old castrated male Yorkshire terrier dog was presented for a recurrent skin disease. Erythematous skin during the first visit progressed from multiple plaques to patch lesions and exudative erosion in the oral mucosa membrane. Biopsy samples were taken from erythematous skin and were diagnosed with epitheliotropic T cell cutaneous lymphoma by histopathology and immunochemical stain. In serum chemistry, the dog had a hypercalcemia (15.7 mg/dl) and mild increased alkaline phosphatase (417 U/l). Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTH-rP) in epitheliotropic cutaneous lymphoma tissues but the neoplastic cells were not labeled with anti-PTH-rP antibodies. The patient was treated with prednisolone and isotretinoin. However, the dog died unexpectedly

Replication of the genetic effects of IFN regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) on systemic lupus erythematosus in a Korean population

Recently, two studies provided convincing evidence that IFN regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) gene polymorphisms are significantly associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in several white populations. To replicate the association with SLE in an Asian population, we examined the genetic effects in our SLE cohort from a Korean population. A total of 1,565 subjects, composed of 593 cases and 972 controls, were genotyped using the TaqMan® (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) method. The genetic effects of polymorphisms on the risk of SLE were evaluated using χ2 tests and a Mantel–Haenszel meta-analysis. Statistical analysis revealed results in the Korean population were similar to the previous reports from white populations. The rs2004640 T allele had a higher frequency in SLE cases (0.385) than controls (0.321; odds ratio (OR) = 1.32, P = 0.0003). In combined analysis, including all seven independent cohorts from the three studies so far, robust and consistent associations of the rs2004640 T allele with SLE were observed. The estimate of risk was OR = 1.44 (range, 1.34–1.55), with an overall P = 1.85 × 10-23 for the rs2004640 T allele. The haplotype (rs2004640T–rs2280714T) involved in both the alternative splice donor site and the elevated expression of IRF5 also had a highly significant association with SLE (pooled, P = 2.11 × 10-16). Our results indicate that the genetic effect on the risk of SLE mediated by IRF5 variants can be generally accepted in both white and Asian populations