Endoscopic and clinical evaluation of treatment and prognosis of Cronkhite-Canada syndrome: a Japanese nationwide survey.

BackgroundFirst reported in 1955, Cronkhite-Canada syndrome (CCS), a rare syndrome characterized by ectodermal abnormalities and inflammatory changes of the gastrointestinal tract mucosa, has been associated with a poor prognosis and life-threatening malignant complications. In a large population survey, we endeavored to characterize the course and treatment outcome of CCS through clinical and endoscopic assessment, and to explore its optimal treatment and surveillance strategy.MethodsA retrospective analysis of 210 patients with CCS was conducted via a questionnaire-based nationwide survey of 983 teaching hospitals located throughout Japan. We assessed clinical features, endoscopic findings, treatments used, and short- and long-term outcomes.ResultsThe average age at diagnosis was 63.5 years. In all cases, upper or lower gastrointestinal tract polyposis was confirmed, accompanied by characteristic ectodermal abnormalities. Of the treatments used, oral corticosteroids (30-49 mg/day) were the most effective treatment for active disease, with adjunctive nutritional support considered beneficial. With corticosteroid treatment, abdominal symptoms were relieved within a few months, whereas polyp regression often required more than 6 months. Maintenance of endoscopic remission with or without steroids for 3 years significantly lowered the development of CCS-related cancer, compared with relapsers or nonresponders, underscoring the importance of sustained endoscopic remission for cancer prevention.ConclusionsThe prognosis of CCS has greatly improved through the use of improved medical treatment. Although CCS continues to be relentlessly progressive, carrying a high cancer risk, a sufficient dose and duration of corticosteroid therapy accompanied by nutritional support and periodic endoscopic surveillance appears to improve its natural history

On Matrix Model Formulations of Noncommutative Yang-Mills Theories

We study stability of noncommutative spaces in matrix models and discuss the continuum limit which leads to noncommutative Yang-Mills theories (NCYM). It turns out that most of noncommutative spaces in bosonic models are unstable. This indicates perturbative instability of fuzzy R^D pointed out by Van Raamsdonk and Armoni et al. persists to nonperturbative level in these cases. In this sense, these bosonic NCYM are not well-defined, or at least their matrix model formulations studied in this paper do not work. We also show that noncommutative backgrounds are stable in a supersymmetric matrix model deformed by a cubic Myers term, though the deformation itself breaks supersymmetry.Comment: 24 pages, no figure, reference added, minor corrections, to be published in PR

The Combination of Gemcitabine, Cisplatin, and Paclitaxel as Salvage Chemotherapy for Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma

There is no standard second-line or salvage treatment for advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC). Here we investigated the efficacy and safety of gemcitabine, cisplatin, and paclitaxel (GCP) combination chemotherapy as salvage chemotherapy for advanced UC. We retrospectively analyzed the cases of 23 patients with advanced UC who showed progression or recurrence after cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2), and paclitaxel (80 mg/m2) were administered on days 1 and 8. Cisplatin (70 mg/m2) was administered on day 1. The 3-week cycle regimen was repeated until disease progression if it had no intolerable toxicity. The overall response rate was 61% (95%CI, 41-78%). The median overall survival and progression-free survival times were 14 months and 5.5 months, respectively. Of the already known risk factors of chemotherapy for advanced UC, only the performance status was a prognostic factor for OS. Overall, 16 of the 23 patients (70%) experienced grade 3/4 toxicities, and no fatal adverse events were observed. GCP therapy was a promising option as second-line or salvage therapy for advanced UC

Assessment of macular choroidal thickness by optical coherence tomography and angiographic changes in central serous chorioretinopathy.

[Objective]: To investigate the relationship between macular choroidal thickness measured by highpenetrating swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) and angiographic findings in central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). [Design]: Prospective cross-sectional case series. [Participants and Controls]: Thirty-four patients with CSC (44 eyes) and 17 volunteer subjects (17 normal eyes). [Methods]: All subjects underwent a comprehensive ophthalmologic and SS-OCT prototype examination. All patients with CSC also underwent simultaneous fluorescein angiography (FA) and indocyanine green angiography (IA). Mean regional choroidal thickness measurements on the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) layout and squared sector grids were obtained by 3-dimensional raster scanning using SS-OCT. [Main Outcome Measures]: Macular choroidal thickness and angiographic abnormalities. [Results]: Mean whole macular choroidal thickness in eyes with CSC (total, 329.3_83.0 _m; classic CSC, 326.9_83.1 _m; chronic CSC, 325.4_93.3 _m; and multifocal posterior pigment epitheliopathy, 359.0_15.5 _m) was greater than that in normal eyes (233.0_67.0_m) (P_ 0.001). In unilateral cases, mean whole macular choroidal thickness was greater in eyes with unilateral CSC than in unaffected fellow eyes (P_0.021). There was no significant difference in choroidal thickness between active eyes and resolved eyes in any of the ETDRS sectors. Mean choroidal thickness was greater in areas with leakage on FA than in areas without leakage (P_0.001). Mean choroidal thickness was greater in areas with choroidal vascular hyperpermeability and in areas with punctate hyperfluorescent spots on IA than in unaffected areas (P_0.001 for both). [Conclusions]: Increased choroidal thickness was observed in the whole macular area of eyes with any of the CSC subtypes. Choroidal thickness was related to leakage from the retinal pigment epithelium, choroidal vascular hyperpermeability, and punctate hyperfluorescent lesions. These findings provide evidence that CSC may be caused by focally increased hydrostatic pressure in the choroid. [Financial Disclosure(s)]: Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references

Phase structure of twisted Eguchi-Kawai model

We study the phase structure of the four-dimensional twisted Eguchi-Kawai model using numerical simulations. This model is an effective tool for studying SU(N) gauge theory in the large-N limit and provides a nonperturbative formulation of the gauge theory on noncommutative spaces. Recently it was found that its Z_N^4 symmetry, which is crucial for the validity of this model, can break spontaneously in the intermediate coupling region. We investigate in detail the symmetry breaking point from the weak coupling side. Our simulation results show that the continuum limit of this model cannot be taken.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, talk presented at the XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 30 - August 4, 2007, Regensburg, German

Surrogate Data Preserving All the Properties of Ordinal Patterns up to a Certain Length

We propose a method for generating surrogate data that preserves all the properties of ordinal patterns up to a certain length, such as the numbers of allowed/forbidden ordinal patterns and transition likelihoods from ordinal patterns into others. The null hypothesis is that the details of the underlying dynamics do not matter beyond the refinements of ordinal patterns finer than a predefined length. The proposed surrogate data help construct a test of determinism that is free from the common linearity assumption for a null-hypothesis

Sequence divergence and retrotransposon insertion underlie interspecific epigenetic differences in primates

内在性レトロウイルス配列によってヒトのエピゲノムが変化してきたことを発見！ --ヒトとチンパンジーのiPS細胞の比較解析から--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-10-12.Changes in the epigenome can affect the phenotype without the presence of changes in the genomic sequence. Given the high identity of the human and chimpanzee genome sequences, a substantial portion of their phenotypic divergence likely arises from epigenomic differences between the two species. In this study, the transcriptome and epigenome were determined for induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generated from human and chimpanzee individuals. The transcriptome and epigenomes for trimethylated histone H3 at lysine-4 (H3K4me3) and lysine-27 (H3K27me3) showed high levels of similarity between the two species. However, there were some differences in histone modifications. Although such regions, in general, did not show significant enrichment of interspecies nucleotide variations, gains in binding motifs for pluripotency-related transcription factors, especially POU5F1 and SOX2, were frequently found in species-specific H3K4me3 regions. We also revealed that species-specific insertions of retrotransposons, including the LTR5_Hs subfamily in human and a newly identified LTR5_Pt subfamily in chimpanzee, created species-specific H3K4me3 regions associated with increased expression of nearby genes. Human iPSCs have more species-specific H3K27me3 regions, resulting in more abundant bivalent domains. Only a limited number of these species-specific H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 regions overlap with species-biased enhancers in cranial neural crest cells, suggesting that differences in the epigenetic state of developmental enhancers appear late in development. Therefore, iPSCs serve as a suitable starting material for studying evolutionary changes in epigenome dynamics during development

ホイク ゲンバ ニオケル ダンセイ ホイクシャ ニタイスル イシキチョウサ ダンセイ ジョセイ ホイクシャ カラ ミタ ダンセイ ホイクシャ

The purpose of this study is to reveal the images of male childcare workers perceived in childcare centers. To investigate the images of the male childcare workers, 112 childcare workers (35 male childcare workers, 77 female childcare workers) were conducted the survey. Factor analysis was applied to the inventory data, and 4 basic factors were found for the images of male childcare workers. These factors were used as scales respectively. Each childcare worker\u27s response was located on the scales to reveal the features of images of male childcare workers that male and female childcare workers have. The following findings resulted: (1) Female childcare workers tend to have higher opinions of male childcare workers than male childcare workers have. (2) Male childcare workers tend to regard male childcare workers low overall. (3) The images of male childcare workers that female childcare workers have vary to the images corresponding to the real male childcare workers by working with them