A Case of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Presenting with an Acute Abdomen: Successful Treatment with Steroid

Abdominal pain continues to pose diagnostic challenges for emergency clinicians. A 56-year-old Japanese woman was referred to our hospital due to severe abdominal pain which presented as occasional epigastric pain five months before and intermittent abdominal pain. She had a past history of ileus twice, for both of which laparotomy was performed without an alimentary tract resection. The wall thickening with marked three-wall structure from terminal ileum to sigmoid colon was seen and bladder wall was irregularly thick and enhanced irregularly. Among the differential diagnosis of the acute abdomen, autoimmune diseases were suspected, especially lupus erythematosus and Henoch-Schönlein purpura. On the second day of admission, abdominal pain worsened. The results of examinations of antinuclear antibody, anti-double-stranded DNA antibody, ANCA, and the complements were not obtained at that time; however, we started 1-g steroid pulse treatment for three days with success. With the results obtained later, the patient was given a diagnosis of probable systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The present case shows that SLE can present with acute abdomen and should be included in the wide range of the differential diagnosis of acute abdomen

Fabrication of field-effect transistor device with higher fullerene, C₈₈

A fullerene field-effect transistor (FET) device has been fabricated with thin films of C88, and n-channel normally-on depletion-type FET properties have been found in this FET device. The C88 FET exhibited a high mobility, &#956;, of 2.5 x 10-3 cm2 V-1 s-1 at 300 K, in fullerene FETs. The carrier transport showed a thermally-activated hopping transport. The n-channel normally-on FET properties and the hopping transport reflect the small mobility gap and low carrier concentration in the channel region of C88 thin-films.</p

Recovery of Calcium Phosphates from Composted Chicken Manure

To recover phosphorus from composted chicken manure, a batch method with aqueous HNO3, HCl and H2SO4 was used to examine the elution behavior of the aqueous calcium and phosphate contained in the manure. Since the main components in manure are Ca2+ and K+ along with PO4 3- and those ions can be dissolved using an acidic eluate, it was expected that most of the aqueous Ca2+, K+ and PO4 3- could be obtained via the elution. Therefore, it seemed plausible that the removal of the aqueous K+ obtained by the elution of composted chicken manure would result in the formation of calcium phosphates. If calcium phosphates are formed, they can be used for phosphate rock, which also consists of various calcium phosphates. When using 0.1 mol/L HNO3, HCl or H2SO4, the elution behavior of the PO4 3- was not dependent on the acids. However, 0.1 mol/L H2SO4 was not sufficient for the elution of Ca2+, probably due to the precipitation of the calcium sulfate. The eluted amount of K+ using 0.1 mol/L HNO3 was lower than that using 0.1 mol/L of either HCl or H2SO4. Since the poor elution of K+ should enrich the concentrations of Ca2+ and PO4 3- in the acidic aqueous solution after the elution, it was suggested that aqueous HNO3 would be suitable as an eluate in the present system. After the elution of the composted chicken manure, when 0.1 mol/L HNO3 was used to adjust the solution pH of the acidic aqueous solution to greater than 6, Ca2+ and PO4 3- were precipitated, but K+ was not. The precipitate was calcium hydroxyapatite, one of the typical components of phosphate rock, which showed that composted chicken manure could be replaced phosphate rock as a new source of phosphorus

Algal protein kinase, Triacylglycerol Accumulation Regulator 1, modulates cell viability and gametogenesis in carbon/nitrogen imbalanced conditions

Nutrient-deprived microalgae accumulate triacylglycerol (TAG) in lipid droplets. A dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase, TAG accumulation regulator 1 (TAR1) has been shown to be required for acetate-dependent TAG accumulation and the degradation of chlorophyll and photosynthesis-related proteins in photomixotrophic nitrogen (N)-deficient conditions (Kajikawa et al. 2015). However, this previous report only examined particular condition. Here, we report that in photoautotrophic N-deficient conditions, tar1-1 cells, with a mutation in the TAR1 gene, maintained higher levels of cell viability and lower levels of hydrogen peroxide generation and accumulated higher levels of TAG and starch compared with those of wild-type (WT) cells with bubbling of air containing 5% carbon dioxide. Transcriptomic analyses suggested that genes involved in the scavenging of reactive oxygen species are not repressed in tar1-1 cells. In contrast, the mating efficiency and mRNA levels of key regulatory genes for gametogenesis, MID, MTD, and FUS, were suppressed in tar1-1 cells. Among the TAR1-dependent phosphopeptides deduced by phosphoproteomic analysis, protein kinases and enzymes related to N assimilation and carbon (C) metabolism are of particular interest. Characterization of these putative downstream factors may elucidate the molecular pathway whereby TAR1 mediates cellular propagation and C and N metabolism in C/N-imbalanced stress conditions

Recovery of the Phosphorus from the Nitric Acid Extract of Powder Collected in a Bag Filter during the Recycling of Used Fluorescence Tubes

During the recovery of phosphorus from the powder collected in a bag filter during the recycling of used fluorescence tubes (bag-powder), the batch method with aqueous HNO3 was used to examine the elution behavior of aqueous phosphate contained in the bag-powder. The main components of the bag-powder included Ca2+, PO4 3- and Y3+ along with Si4+, Sr2+ and lanthanide cations such as La3+ and Ce4+. Therefore, it seemed possible that, with the selective dissolution of Ca2+ and PO4 3- from the bag-powder, these lanthanide cations in the residue could be enriched. With the batch method, most of the phosphate in the bag-powder was dissolved within 0.2 min using 1.0 mol/L HNO3. The dissolution behavior of calcium cation was similar to that of the phosphate. In contrast, the dissolution of yttrium, the content of which was the highest among the lanthanide cations in the bag-powder, was increased with the dissolution times, reaching complete dissolution after 24 h. The Sr2+, La3+ and Si4+ in the bag-powder, however, did not dissolve under the same conditions. Although Ca2+, PO4 3- and Y3+ were the main components in the nitric acid extract, Y3+ was separated as YPO4 at pH = 4.0, while Ca2+ and PO4 3- were separated as calcium phosphates at pH= 7.0. These results revealed that the separation of calcium phosphates, YPO4 and some residue was possible, and resulted in the enrichment of lanthanide cations along with the recovery of phosphorus from the bag-powder. Using the present technique, 91% of the P in the bag-powder was recovered

The potential role of Arhgef33 RhoGEF in foveal development in the zebra finch retina

The fovea is a pit formed in the center of the retina that enables high-acuity vision in certain vertebrate species. While formation of the fovea fascinates many researchers, the molecular mechanisms underlying foveal development are poorly understood. In the current study, we histologically investigated foveal development in zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) and found that foveal pit formation begins just before post-hatch day 14 (P14). We next performed RNA-seq analysis to compare gene expression profiles between the central (foveal and parafoveal) and peripheral retina in zebra finch at P14. We found that the Arhgef33 expression is enriched in the middle layer of the inner nuclear layer at the parafovea, suggesting that Arhgef33 is dominantly expressed in Müller glial cells in the developing parafovea. We then performed a pull-down assay using Rhotekin-RBD and observed GEF activity of Arhgef33 against RhoA. We found that overexpression of Arhgef33 in HEK293 cells induces cell contraction and that Arhgef33 expression inhibits neurite extension in Neuro 2A cells, which is partially recovered by a Rho-kinase (ROCK) inhibitor. Taken together, we used zebra finch as a model animal to investigate foveal development and identified Arhgef33 as a candidate protein possibly involved in foveal development through modulating RhoA activity