Serial Magnetic Resonance Imagings of Multiple Brain Abscesses in a Patient with Pneumococcal Meningoencephalitis

We report a 43-yr-old man manifesting bacterial meningoencephalitis and multiple abscesses by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Serial magnetic resonance (MR) imagings and MR spectroscopy showed the evolution of multiple brain abscesses over 4 weeks: the enhanced rings became thicker and the dimension of whole lesions larger despite shrinkage of the ring-enhanced regions. These findings may be evidence of active inflammation working to sequestrate the lesion and protect the surrounding normal brain parenchyma from additional damage, even in the final stage of the brain abscess

Trinitrophenol Reactive T-Cell Hybridomas Recognize Antigens That Require Antigen Processing

Protein antigens must be taken up, processed, and displayed on the surface of antigen-presenting cells in association with major histocompatibility complex molecules before they can be recognized by T cells. Whether recognition of the haptens used to study allergic contact hypersensitivity in murine models similarly requires processing has not been determined. We analyzed whether presentation of trinitrophenol to trinitrophenol reactive T-cell hybridomas requires antigen processing by studying the effects of inhibitors of antigen processing and presentation on tile ability of a syngeneic B-cell tumor (A20) to present trinitrophenol to a series of interleukin-2 producing, trinitrophenol specific, major histocompatibility complex class II-restricted T-cell hybridomas.The ability of trinitrophenol modified A20 cells to stimulate the hybridomas was completely inhibited by rnonoclonal, anti-trinitrophenol, or anti-Ia antibodies and was significantly reduced by paraformaldehyde fixation immediately after trinitrophenol modification. Trinitrophenol-modified A20 cultured at 37°C for 2h prior to fixation was significantly more effective at stimulating the hybridomas than trinitrophenol-modified A20 to present trinitrophenol was inhibited by chloroquine. Paraformaldehyde fixation and chloroquine treatment had similar effects on the ability of trinitrophenol modified lymph node dendritic cells to stimulate the trinitrophenol specific hybridomas. Paraformaldehyde fixation and chloroquine treatment had similar effects on the ability of A20 cells to present ovalbumin to ovalbumin-specific hybridomas as they had on the ability of trinitrophenol modified A20 cells to present trinitrophenol to the trinitrophenol specific hybridomas. One of seven T-cell hybridomas responded to trinitrophenol modified ovalbumin but not other trinitrophenol modified proteins. These results suggest that, at least in part, T cells in the contact hypersensitivity response to trinitrophenol recognize antigens that require processing and that trinitrophenol modified proteins can be recognized

Effects of Aerobic Exercise Intensity on Post-exercise Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Function in Prehypertensive Men in Their 30s

PURPOSE Blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive individuals is reduced by the accumulation of post-exercise hypotension (PEH) induced by a long period of training. This study aimed to investigate the effects of intensity of two different aerobic exercises with identical energy expenditure on post-exercise blood pressure and cardiovascular function in prehypertensive men. METHODS Eleven prehypertensive men in their 30s participated in two trials repeatedly. In the first trial, the exercise was moderate in intensity and continuous (MICE) with 70% of VO2max, and the exercise in the second trial was high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) with 50% and 90% of VO2max. Each exercise was performed for 30 min, and the variables related to BP and cardiovascular function were measured at certain times for 1 hr during the recovery phase. RESULTS Our main findings are as follows: (1) Systolic blood pressure was significantly lower at 30 and 45 min of recovery time than the baseline in the HIIE trial, and systolic blood pressure was significantly lower in the HIIE trial than the MICE trial at 10, 15, and 30 min of recovery time. (2) The rate pressure product was significantly higher in the HIIE trial than the MICE trial at 15, 30, 45, and 60 min of recovery time. (3) The heart rate was significantly higher in the HIIE trial than the MICE trial at 15, 30, 45, and 60 min of recovery time. (4) Stroke volume was significantly lower in the HIIE trial than the MICE trial at 30 min of recovery time. (5) Cardiac output was significantly higher in the HIIE trial than the MICE trial at 15 min of recovery phase. (6) Total vascular conductance was significantly higher in the HIIE trial than the MICE trial at 15 and 30 min of recovery phase. (7) Total peripheral resistance was significantly lower in the HIIE trial than the MICE trial at 15 and 30 min of recovery phase. CONCLUSIONS The HIIE shows a higher cardiovascular stress than MICE; however, HIIE contributes to the augmentation of PEH and improvement of cardiovascular function. Therefore, HIIE rather than MICE should be suggested in BP control and enhancement of cardiovascular function in prehypertensive males

Robust nodal superconductivity induced by isovalent doping in Ba(Fe1−x_{1-x}Rux_x)2_2As2_2 and BaFe2_2(As1−x_{1-x}Px_x)2_2

We present the ultra-low-temperature heat transport study of iron-based superconductors Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Ru$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ and BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$. For optimally doped Ba(Fe$_{0.64}$Ru$_{0.36}$)$_2$As$_2$, a large residual linear term $\kappa_0/T$ at zero field and a $\sqrt{H}$ dependence of $\kappa_0(H)/T$ are observed, which provide strong evidences for nodes in the superconducting gap. This result demonstrates that the isovalent Ru doping can also induce nodal superconductivity, as P does in BaFe$_2$(As$_{0.67}$P$_{0.33}$)$_2$. Furthermore, in underdoped Ba(Fe$_{0.77}$Ru$_{0.23}$)$_2$As$_2$ and heavily underdoped BaFe$_2$(As$_{0.82}$P$_{0.18}$)$_2$, $\kappa_0/T$ manifests similar nodal behavior, which shows the robustness of nodal superconductivity in the underdoped regime and puts constraint on theoretical models.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures - with two underdoped samples added, this paper supersedes arXiv:1106.541

Optimizing Ship Speed to Minimize Total Fuel Consumption with Multiple Time Windows

We study the ship speed optimization problem with the objective of minimizing the total fuel consumption. We consider multiple time windows for each port call as constraints and formulate the problem as a nonlinear mixed integer program. We derive intrinsic properties of the problem and develop an exact algorithm based on the properties. Computational experiments show that the suggested algorithm is very efficient in finding an optimal solution