Impacts of viscous dissipation on collisional growth and fragmentation of dust aggregates

Understanding the collisional behavior of dust aggregates consisting of submicron-sized grains is essential to unveiling how planetesimals formed in protoplanetary disks. It is known that the collisional behavior of individual dust particles strongly depends on the strength of viscous dissipation force; however, impacts of viscous dissipation on the collisional behavior of dust aggregates have not been studied in detail, especially for the cases of oblique collisions. Here we investigated the impacts of viscous dissipation on the collisional behavior of dust aggregates. We performed numerical simulations of collisions between two equal-mass dust aggregates with various collision velocities and impact parameters. We also changed the strength of viscous dissipation force systematically. We found that the threshold collision velocity for the fragmentation of dust aggregates barely depends on the strength of viscous dissipation force when we consider oblique collisions. In contrast, the size distribution of fragments changes significantly when the viscous dissipation force is considered. We obtained the empirical fitting formulae for the size distribution of fragments for the case of strong dissipation, which would be useful to study the evolution of size and spatial distributions of dust aggregates in protoplanetary disks.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Total Vertebrectomy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

We present a case who had left upper lobectomy with total vertebrectomy after arterial embolization in preparation for intraoperative bleeding. A 35-year-old man complained of left back pain. Chest CT revealed a tumor in S1+2 of the left lung, invading the third thoracic vertebra. As no nodal or distant metastasis was detected, we performed left upper lobectomy and lymph node dissection (ND2a-2) after embolization of the vessels feeding the tumor in order to reduce intraoperative bleeding. In addition, the team of orthopedics performed en bloc resection of the third thoracic vertebra and parts of the left third and fourth ribs. Histological examination of the tumor revealed pleomorphic carcinoma (pT4N0M0, stage IIIA)

脊椎手術中のMonophasic刺激下での経頭蓋刺激筋誘発電位における定電流刺激と定電圧刺激での比較検討

Constant-voltage and constant-current stimulators may be used for transcranial electrical stimulation of motor evoked potentials (TES-MEP). However, no previous report has determined whether the two monophasic stimulation methods lead to similar responses during intra-operative monitoring. We studied differences in the lateralities of compound muscle action potentials (CMAPs) during intra-operative spinal cord monitoring via TES-MEP using monophasic constant-current and constant-voltage stimulations. CMAPs were bilaterally recorded from the upper and lower limb muscles in 95 patients who underwent elective spine and spinal cord surgery. We used two monophasic stimulation patterns: pattern 1, right anode and left cathode; pattern 2, right cathode and left anode. There were no statistically significant differences between the right and left sides with respect to success rates, wave amplitudes, and efficiencies, with constant-voltage stimulation, however, there were statistically significant differences between the right and left sides with constant-current stimulation. In case of our stimulation condition, there were no statistically significant differences between the right and left sides with respect to CMAPs with constant-voltage stimulation; constant-current stimulation was influenced by the type of monophasic stimulation, which necessitates the switch the polarity of the stimulation to bilaterally record CMAPs.博士（医学）・甲第725号・令和元年12月5日© The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

頚椎症性脊髄症症例における頚椎アライメント評価 : 坐位頚椎レントゲンと立位全脊椎レントゲンは等しく有用か?

Study Design: Retrospective review of medical charts and radiographic data. Objectives: We aimed to clarify the differences in cervical alignment findings between sitting cervical lateral radiographs and standing whole-spine lateral radiographs with clavicle positioning in cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) patients. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the radiographs of 50 consecutive patients who underwent cervical surgery for CSM in our hospital. Cervical sagittal alignment was evaluated based on the C0-2 angles and C2-7 Gore and Cobb angles. Head position was evaluated in terms of the center of gravity of the head to C7 (CGH-C7) angle and the McGregor angle (ie, the angle between the McGregor line and a horizontal line). The T1-slope was also evaluated. Results: The mean values of the CGH-C7 angle and T1-slope were significantly lower, while the mean value of the McGregor angle was significantly higher on whole-spine lateral radiographs with clavicle positioning than on sitting cervical lateral radiographs. The mean values of the C0-2 and C2-7 angles did not differ significantly between the 2 radiographic positioning approaches. Conclusions: Using whole-spine lateral radiographs with clavicle positioning may result in a significantly lower T1-slope and a posterior tilt of the head. In the absence of a compensatory change in cervical alignment, clavicle positioning may force patients to adopt an upward gazing position of the head. These compensatory mechanisms should be considered while evaluating cervical alignment on whole-spine lateral radiographs with clavicle positioning. Surgical planning should take into account the effect of posture on the radiographic appearance of cervical alignment.博士（医学）・甲第702号・平成31年3月15日© The Author(s) 2018. Creative Commons Non Commercial No Derivs CC BY-NC-ND: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work as published without adaptation or alteration, without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)

MicroRNA in Cervical Cancer: OncomiRs and Tumor Suppressor miRs in Diagnosis and Treatment

Cervical cancer is a female-specific disease with a high incidence and mortality. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are implicated in posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression and in the pathogenic mechanisms of cancer, suggesting their importance in diagnosis and treatment. miRNAs may have roles in the pathogenesis of cervical cancer based on the increases or decreases in several specific miRNAs found in patients with this disease. The miRNAs implicated in cervical cancer are miR-21, miR-126, and miR-143, and clinical application of these miRNAs for diagnosis and treatment is under investigation. Methods for diagnosis of cervical cancer include analysis of changes in the levels of specific miRNAs in serum and determination of aberrant hypermethylation of miRNAs. Supplementation of miR-143 or inhibition of miR-21 activity in vivo may be therapeutic strategy for cervical cancer. Previous approaches to development of siRNA as a drug have provided information for establishment of therapy based on these approaches, and an anti-miR-21 inhibitor has been developed. miRNAs also have effects on drug resistance and may be useful in combination therapy with other drugs

ヒトiPS細胞の骨分化誘導における逆転写-定量的リアルタイムPCR (RT-qPCR) で用いる参照遺伝子についての検討

Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) is used to quantify gene expression and require standardization with reference genes. We sought to identify the reference genes best suited for experiments that induce osteogenic differentiation from human induced pluripotent stem cells. They were cultured in an undifferentiated maintenance medium and after confluence, further cultured in an osteogenic differentiation medium for 28 days. RT-qPCR was performed on undifferentiation markers, osteoblast and osteocyte differentiation markers, and reference gene candidates. The expression stability of each reference gene candidate was ranked using four algorithms. General rankings identified TATA box binding protein in the first place, followed by transferrin receptor, ribosomal protein large P0, and finally, beta-2-microglobulin, which was revealed as the least stable. Interestingly, universally used GAPDH and ACTB were found to be unsuitable. Our findings strongly suggest a need to evaluate the expression stability of reference gene candidates for each experiment.博士（医学）・甲第770号・令和3年3月15日© The Author(s) 2020 : Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Facilitation of NMDAR-Independent LTP and Spatial Learning in Mutant Mice Lacking Ryanodine Receptor Type 3

AbstractTo evaluate the role in synaptic plasticity of ryanodine receptor type 3 (RyR3), which is normally enriched in hippocampal area CA1, we generated RyR3-deficient mice. Mutant mice exhibited facilitated CA1 long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by short tetanus (100 Hz, 100 ms) stimulation. Unlike LTP in wild-type mice, this LTP was not blocked by the NMDA receptor antagonist D-AP5 but was partially dependent on L-type voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels (VDCCs) and metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). Long-term depression (LTD) was not induced in RyR3-deficient mice. RyR3-deficient mice also exhibited improved spatial learning on a Morris water maze task. These results suggest that in wild-type mice, in contrast to the excitatory role of Ca2+ influx, RyR3-mediated intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) release from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) may inhibit hippocampal LTP and spatial learning

Potential of the Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs) Telmisartan, Irbesartan, and Candesartan for Inhibiting the HMGB1/RAGE Axis in Prevention and Acute Treatment of Stroke

Abstract: Stroke is a major cause of mortality and disability worldwide. The main cause of stroke is atherosclerosis, and the most common risk factor for atherosclerosis is hypertension. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2013, 14 18900 Therefore, antihypertensive treatments are recommended for the prevention of stroke. Thre

コウネツセイ サイキン Thermus thermophilus ムキ ピロリンサン カスイ ブンカイ コウソ ノ error-prone PCR ヘンイ ドウニュウ ニヨル ネツ ギョウシュウ ヨクセイ

Thermus thermophilus Inorganic pyrophosphatase (E.C. 3.6.1.1., Tth PPase) exhibits high thermostability, but thermal aggregation was observed on heating above 85 °C. In addition, we reported that sole cysteine in C-terminal region plays a key role in the thermostability and thermal aggregation of Tth PPase [Kohaku, Y. et al. (2008) Natl.Sci.Res., 22, 75-84]. In this study, we approached the suppression of its thermal aggregation by error-prone PCR mutagenesis of whole molecule or C-terminal region. Firstly, we obtained thermostable four variants (Q119H/L162F, L162F, K173E and K159E/A170T) by error-prone PCR mutagenesis. Moreover, we examined thermostabilities of four variants in terms of the enzyme activity, tertiary and quaternary structure. Although conformation and quaternary structure of four variants were almost the same as those of wild type enzyme in native state, K173E and K159E/A170T variants showed higher thermostabilities than wild type in tertiary and quaternary structure. In particular, thermal aggregation of these two variants would be suppressed after heating at 85°C. Therefore, it was suggested that Lys159 and Lys173 in the molecular surface of C-terminal region may contribute to the formation of thermal aggregation of Tth PPase

Adolescent Scoliosis Screening in Nara City Schools: A 23-Year Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Study DesignRetrospective cross-sectional study.PurposeTo determine the prevalence of idiopathic scoliosis, define the distribution of the curve magnitude, evaluate the accuracy of Moiré topography as a screening tool, and investigate the cost-effectiveness of our screening system.Overview of LiteratureEarly detection of idiopathic scoliosis provides the opportunity for conservative treatment before the deformity is noticeable. We believe that scoliosis screening in schools is useful for detection; however, screening programs are controversial owing to over referral of students who do not require further testing or follow-up. In Japan, school scoliosis screening programs are mandated by law with individual policies determined by local educational committees. We selected Moiré topography as the scoliosis screening tool for schools in Nara City.MethodsWe selected Moiré topography as the scoliosis screening tool for schools in Nara City. We screened boys and girls aged 11-14 years and reviewed the school scoliosis screening results from 1990 to 2012.ResultsA total of 195,149 children aged 11-14 years were screened. The prevalence of scoliosis (defined as ≥10° curvature) was 0.057%, 0.010%, and 0.059% in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade boys and 0.337%, 0.369%, and 0.727% in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade girls, respectively. The false-positive rate of our Moiré topography was 66.7%. The minimum cost incurred for scoliosis detection in one student was 2,000 USD.ConclusionsThe overall prevalence of scoliosis was low in the students of Nara City schools. Over 23 years, the prevalence of scoliosis in girls increased compared to that in the first decade of the study