A Fatal Aortoesophageal Fistula Caused by Critical Combination of Double Aortic Arch and Nasogastric Tube Insertion for Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome

Double aortic arch (DAA) is a rare vascular congenital abnormality. Since a vascular ring surrounds bronchus and esophagus, any oral or nasal intubation can physically cause fatal aortoesophageal fistula (AEF). We report herein the first case of association of DAA and superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndrome and the second case of AEF caused by nasogastric intubation in an adult with DAA. A 19-year-old woman visited our hospital for nausea and vomiting. She was diagnosed with SMA syndrome by computed tomography (CT). Nasogastric intubation relieved her symptoms in 4 days. Extramural compression with top ulceration was found in esophagogastroduodenoscopy on the 5th hospital day. She suddenly showed massive hematemesis on the 12th hospital day. AEF was found by CT. Soon, she died despite of intensive care. Retrospective interview disclosed the fact that DAA was pointed out in her childhood. We conclude that intubation must be avoided in DAA and a detailed clinical interview about DAA is mandatory to avoid AEF

Spirulina Effectiveness Study on Child Malnutrition in Zambia

Ensuring adequate nutrition among vulnerable children has been a serious challenge in Zambia. Chronic child malnutrition is more predominant at 45 per cent while underweight and wasting are at 15 and 5 per cent respectively. This study tested the effectiveness of spirulina on malnourished children in Zambia. The study took place from June 2012 to February 2013. Sixty children were divided into spirulina treatment and control groups. The outcome of taking spirulina was analysed by collecting anthropometric data. The fixed-effect regression result showed that 10g of spirulina dairy intake leads to improvement by producing 0.29 higher points in the height-for-age z-score (HAZ); confidence interval (CI)[0.0404, 0.535]. On the contrary, the weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) and the mid-upper arm circumference z-score (MUACZ) did not show a significant difference, although treated children showed a larger improvement by 0.09 points and 0.38 points, respectively. This study implied the validity of spirulina in reducing chronic malnutrition

Programs for calculating the statistical powers of detecting susceptibility genes in case–control studies based on multistage designs

Motivation: A two-stage association study is the most commonly used method among multistage designs to efficiently identify disease susceptibility genes. Recently, some SNP studies have utilized more than two stages to detect disease genes. However, there are few available programs for calculating statistical powers and positive predictive values (PPVs) of arbitrary n-stage designs

PSDF: Particle Stream Data Format for N-Body Simulations

We present a data format for the output of general N-body simulations, allowing the presence of individual time steps. By specifying a standard, different N-body integrators and different visualization and analysis programs can all share the simulation data, independent of the type of programs used to produce the data. Our Particle Stream Data Format, PSDF, is specified in YAML, based on the same approach as XML but with a simpler syntax. Together with a specification of PSDF, we provide background and motivation, as well as specific examples in a variety of computer languages. We also offer a web site from which these examples can be retrieved, in order to make it easy to augment existing codes in order to give them the option to produce PSDF output.Comment: 5 pages; submitted to New Astronom

Immune State Conversion of the Mesenteric Lymph Node in a Mouse Breast Cancer Model

Secondary lymphoid tissues, such as the spleen and lymph nodes (LNs), contribute to breast cancer development and metastasis in both anti- and pro-tumoral directions. Although secondary lymphoid tissues have been extensively studied, very little is known about the immune conversion in mesenteric LNs (mLNs) during breast cancer development. Here, we demonstrate inflammatory immune conversion of mLNs in a metastatic 4T1 breast cancer model. Splenic T cells were significantly decreased and continuously suppressed IFN-gamma production during tumor development, while myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) were dramatically enriched. However, T cell numbers in the mLN did not decrease, and the MDSCs only moderately increased. T cells in the mLN exhibited conversion from a pro-inflammatory state with high IFN-gamma expression to an anti-inflammatory state with high expression of IL-4 and IL-10 in early- to late-stages of breast cancer development. Interestingly, increased migration of CD103(+)CD11b(+) dendritic cells (DCs) into the mLN, along with increased (1 -> 3)-beta-D-glucan levels in serum, was observed even in late-stage breast cancer. This suggests that CD103(+)CD11b(+) DCs could prime cancer-reactive T cells. Together, the data indicate that the mLN is an important lymphoid tissue contributing to breast cancer development

Fluctuation of marine osmium isotope ratio during the Quaternary climate cycles

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