Giant Frontal Mucocele Occurring 32 Years after Frontal Bone Fracture: A Case Report

Giant mucoceles of the frontal sinus are rare but their recognition is important in the differential diagnosis of proptosis and fronto-orbital lesions. The authors describe a patient with frontal giant mucocele with intracranial as well as orbit and ethmoid sinus involvement. Thirty-two years after a frontal sinus fracture, a 51-year-old female presented with headache, and left exophthalmos and ophthalmoplegia. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a giant frontal sinus mucocele with extension into the left anterior cranial fossa. The mucocele was treated with a transcranial and endoscopic transnasal approach. The frontal sinus was then cranialized with reconstruction of the posterior wall, and finally a wide nasal drainage was performed. The clinical symptoms disappeared immediately after surgery

Delayed enhancement on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is a poor prognostic factor in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis

AbstractBackgroundPredictors of ventricular arrhythmias (VA) in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) remain unclear.Methods and resultsWe examined 61 consecutive CS patients who were admitted to our hospital from April 2002 to March 2012 with a mean follow-up period of 45±31 months for the relationship between delayed enhancement on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (DE-MRI) and VA or a composite endpoint, including VA, heart failure hospitalization, and cardiovascular mortality. Although there was no significant difference in baseline clinical characteristics between patients with VA and those without it, the former group was characterized as compared with the latter by lower left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (p<0.05), larger LV systolic/diastolic dimensions (both p<0.05), and a significant association with DE-MRI (p<0.05). Furthermore, the patients with DE-MRI (n=26), as compared with those without it (n=11), had a significantly higher composite endpoint event rate (41% vs. 0%, p<0.05) and a trend toward higher VA (29% vs. 0%, p=0.12). Univariate analysis also showed that impaired LV systolic function was significantly associated with composite events on follow-up.ConclusionsThese results indicate that the presence of DE-MRI is a significant predictor of VA events and poor outcome in CS patients

Total Synthesis of Sarcophytonolide H and Isosarcophytonolide D: Structural Revision of Isosarcophytonolide D and Structure-Antifouling Activity Relationship of Sarcophytonolide H

The first total syntheses of sarcophytonolide H and the originally proposed and correct structures of isosarcophytonolide D have been achieved via transannular ring-closing metathesis (RCM). These total syntheses culminated in the stereostructural confirmation of sarcophytonolide H and the reassignment of isosarcophytonolide D, respectively. The antifouling activity of the synthetic sarcophytonolide H and its analogues was also evaluated

SNP HiTLink: a high-throughput linkage analysis system employing dense SNP data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During this recent decade, microarray-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are becoming more widely used as markers for linkage analysis in the identification of loci for disease-associated genes. Although microarray-based SNP analyses have markedly reduced genotyping time and cost compared with microsatellite-based analyses, applying these enormous data to linkage analysis programs is a time-consuming step, thus, necessitating a high-throughput platform.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed SNP HiTLink (SNP High Throughput Linkage analysis system). In this system, SNP chip data of the Affymetrix Mapping 100 k/500 k array set and Genome-Wide Human SNP array 5.0/6.0 can be directly imported and passed to parametric or model-free linkage analysis programs; MLINK, Superlink, Merlin and Allegro. Various marker-selecting functions are implemented to avoid the effect of typing-error data, markers in linkage equilibrium or to select informative data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results using the 100 k SNP dataset were comparable or even superior to those obtained from analyses using microsatellite markers in terms of LOD scores obtained. General personal computers are sufficient to execute the process, as runtime for whole-genome analysis was less than a few hours. This system can be widely applied to linkage analysis using microarray-based SNP data and with which one can expect high-throughput and reliable linkage analysis.</p

Genetic Variation in Quercus acutissima Carruth., in Traditional Japanese Rural Forests and Agricultural Landscapes, Revealed by Chloroplast Microsatellite Markers

uercus acutissima Carruth. is an economically important species that has long been cultivated in Japan, so is a valuable subject for investigating the impact of human activities on genetic variation in trees. In total, 2152 samples from 18 naturally regenerated populations and 28 planted populations in Japan and 13 populations from the northeastern part of Eurasia, near Japan, were analyzed using six maternally inherited chloroplast (cpDNA) simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Although 23 haplotypes were detected in total, both the Japanese natural and artificial populations exhibited much lower genetic diversity than the continental populations. The level of genetic differentiation among natural populations in Japan was also much lower (G’ST = 0.261) than that on the continent (G’ST = 0.856). These results suggest that human activities, such as historical seed transfer, have reduced genetic diversity within and among populations and resulted in a homogeneous genetic structure in Japan. The genetic characteristics of natural and artificial populations of Quercus acutissima in Japan are almost the same and it is likely that most of the natural populations are thought to have originated from individuals that escaped from plantations

Augmentation of smad‐dependent BMP signaling in neural crest cells causes craniosynostosis in mice

Craniosynostosis describes conditions in which one or more sutures of the infant skull are prematurely fused, resulting in facial deformity and delayed brain development. Approximately 20% of human craniosynostoses are thought to result from gene mutations altering growth factor signaling; however, the molecular mechanisms by which these mutations cause craniosynostosis are incompletely characterized, and the causative genes for diverse types of syndromic craniosynostosis have yet to be identified. Here, we show that enhanced bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling through the BMP type IA receptor (BMPR1A) in cranial neural crest cells, but not in osteoblasts, causes premature suture fusion in mice. In support of a requirement for precisely regulated BMP signaling, this defect was rescued on a Bmpr1a haploinsufficient background, with corresponding normalization of Smad phosphorylation. Moreover, in vivo treatment with LDN‐193189, a selective chemical inhibitor of BMP type I receptor kinases, resulted in partial rescue of craniosynostosis. Enhanced signaling of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) pathway, which has been implicated in craniosynostosis, was observed in both mutant and rescued mice, suggesting that augmentation of FGF signaling is not the sole cause of premature fusion found in this model. The finding that relatively modest augmentation of Smad‐dependent BMP signaling leads to premature cranial suture fusion suggests an important contribution of dysregulated BMP signaling to syndromic craniosynostoses and potential strategies for early intervention.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/1/jbmr1857.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/2/jbmr1857-0008-sm-SupplFigS8.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/3/jbmr1857-0004-sm-SupplFigS4.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/4/jbmr1857-0009-sm-SupplFigS9.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/5/jbmr1857-0005-sm-SupplFigS5.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/6/jbmr1857-0001-sm-SupplFigS1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/7/jbmr1857-0006-sm-SupplFigS6.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/8/jbmr1857-0002-sm-SupplFigS2.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/9/jbmr1857-0007-sm-SupplFigS7.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98343/10/jbmr1857-0003-sm-SupplFigS3.pd

Three-point functions and operator product expansion in the SL(2) conformal field theory

In the SL(2) conformal field theory, we write down and analyze the analytic expression of the three-point functions of generic primary fields with definite SL(2) weights. Using these results, we discuss the operator product expansion in the SL(2,R) WZW model. We propose a prescription of the OPE, the classical limit of which is in precise agreement with the tensor products of the representations of SL(2,R).Comment: 21 pages, latex; (v3) discussions added, to appear in Nucl.Phys.

Late-stage divergent synthesis and antifouling activity of geraniol-butenolide hybrid molecules

Hybrid molecules consisting of geraniol and butenolide were designed and synthesized by the late-stage divergent strategy. In the synthetic route, ring-closing metathesis was utilized for the construction of a butenolide moiety. A biological evaluation of the eight synthetic hybrid compounds revealed that these molecules exhibit antifouling activity against the cypris larvae of the barnacle Balanus (Amphibalanus) amphitrite with EC50 values of 0.30-1.31 μg mL-1. These results show that hybridization of the geraniol and butenolide structural motifs resulted in the enhancement of the antifouling activity