Chronic ethanol administration decreases fatty acyl-CoA desaturase activities in rat liver microsomes

AbstractThe Δ9-desaturase system in liver microsome from rats treated chronically with ethanol was studied. Stearoyl-CoA desaturase activity decreased by 80% and palmitoyl-CoA desaturase activity was not detectable in microsomes from ethanol-fed rats, while activities of electron transport components such as NADH-cytochrome c and NADH-ferricyanide reductases remained unchanged. However, chronic ethanol administration resulted in an adaptive induction of the activity of NADPH-cytochrome c reductase and the contents of cytochrome b5 and P-450. The activity of the terminal component (cyanide-sensitive factor; CSF) of the desaturase system was greatly depressed by ethanol treatment. The NADH/NAD ratio in microsomes of ethanol-fed rats increased over 2-fold. These results suggest that, during chronic ethanol ingestion, decreased activities of Δ9-desaturases are due mainly to a decreased content of the terminal component of the desaturase system

The Role of the Engineered Barrier System in Safety Cases for Geological Radioactive Waste Repoitories: An NEA Initiaive in Co-Operations with the EC, Process Issues and Modeling

The Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Radioactive Waste Management Committee in co-operation with the European Commission (EC) is conducting a project to develop a greater understanding of how to achieve the necessary integration for successful design, construction, testing, modeling, and assessment of engineered barrier systems. The project also seeks to clarify the role that the EBS plays in assuring the overall safety of a repository. A framework for the EBS Project is provided by a series of workshops that allow discussion of the wide range of activities necessary for the design, assessment and optimization of the EBS, and the integration of this information into the safety case. The topics of this series of workshops have been planned so that the EBS project will work progressively through the main aspects comprising one cycle of the design and optimization process. This paper seeks to communicate key results from the EBS project to a wider audience. The paper focuses on two topics discussed at the workshops: process issues and the role of modeling

Unusual papillary thyroid carcinoma with hyalinizing trabecular tumor-like feature in a young female patient: a case report

Abstract Background Hyalinizing trabecular tumor is a rare follicular cell-derived thyroid neoplasm that is considered to be a borderline tumor with malignant potential rather than a benign tumor. The detection of RET/PTC rearrangements and nuclear cytologic features suggests a relationship between hyalinizing trabecular tumor and papillary thyroid carcinoma. Some recent observations of pathogenic genetic alterations in hyalinizing trabecular tumor have indicated that hyalinizing trabecular tumor is not related to papillary thyroid carcinoma, and should be considered an independent entity. Here we present a case of papillary thyroid carcinoma with hyalinizing trabecular tumor-like features and discuss its interesting aspects and diagnostic issues from a histopathological perspective. Case presentation A 19-year-old Japanese woman with an enlarged thyroid gland was admitted to our hospital. Based on fine-needle aspiration cytology, the enlarged nodule was suspected to be a follicular lesion or follicular tumor. A nodular lesion approximately 3 cm in diameter was detected in the left lobe of the thyroid gland. Histological analysis revealed that the tumor cells were mainly arranged in follicles. Solid nests with occasional trabecular arrangements and papillary structures were intermingled, and the tumor cells showed ground-glass nuclei and occasional nuclear grooving. Petaloid and block-like periodic-acid-Schiff and periodic-acid-methenamine-positive basement membrane components were observed in the interstitium of the solid portions of the tumor. Incomplete membranous immunoreactivity of MIB-1 (Ki-67 (cell prolferation marker)) was also observed in the cells within the solid areas. Moreover, this tumor displayed extracapsular invasion and metastasis to the perithyroidal lymph nodes, suggesting that it may be a malignant tumor. However, BRAF V600E mutation, RET/PTC rearrangements, and PAX8/GLIS 1 and PAX8/GLIS 3 rearrangements were not detected. Conclusion We diagnosed the tumor as a papillary thyroid carcinoma with characteristic features of hyalinizing trabecular tumor. Importantly, this case may indicate a possible relationship between papillary thyroid carcinoma and hyalinizing trabecular tumor, although specific genetic alterations could not be detected. We also discuss the preoperative diagnostic difficulties with fine-needle aspiration cytology and the unusual pathological findings in this case

Threshold Assessment: Definition of Acceptable Sites as Part of Site Selection for the Japanese HLW Program

For the last ten years, the Japanese High-Level Nuclear Waste (HLW) repository program has focused on assessing the feasibility of a basic repository concept, which resulted in the recently published H12 Report. As Japan enters the implementation phase, a new organization must identify, screen and choose potential repository sites. Thus, a rapid mechanism for determining the likelihood of site suitability is critical. The threshold approach, described here, is a simple mechanism for defining the likelihood that a site is suitable given estimates of several critical parameters. We rely on the results of a companion paper, which described a probabilistic performance assessment simulation of the HLW reference case in the H12 report. The most critical two or three input parameters are plotted against each other and treated as spatial variables. Geostatistics is used to interpret the spatial correlation, which in turn is used to simulate multiple realizations of the parameter value maps. By combining an array of realizations, we can look at the probability that a given site, as represented by estimates of this combination of parameters, would be good host for a repository site