Rotational Response Induced by Electric Toroidal Dipole

A ferroaxial ordering, which appears without mirror symmetry parallel to an electric axial moment, is described by a ferroic alignment of the electric toroidal (ET) dipole rather than the conventional electric and magnetic dipoles. Although its emergence requires neither spatial inversion nor time-reversal symmetry breakings, unconventional transverse responses between the conjugate physical quantities have been proposed, which are qualitatively different from those in multiferroic systems without both spatial inversion and time-reversal symmetries. We theoretically investigate a general relationship between ferroaxial ordering and its characteristic response tensor. We show that various rotational responses corresponding to an antisymmetric tensor component are related to the ferroaxial ordering based on symmetry analysis. Among them, we propose that second-order nonlinear magnetostriction, where the strain is induced by a second-order magnetic field, is one of the experimental setups to identify the ferroaxial ordering. We show its temperature and magnetic-field-angle dependence by analyzing a fundamental $d$-orbital model under the tetragonal symmetry.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

トルコ語のなぞなぞの記述にみる言語リズムの単位

The purpose of this study is searching units of language rhythms. Analysis data is some descriptions about speech of Turkish riddles by non-Turkish native speakers. Units of language rhythms are written by descriptors such as consonants, syllables, words, and intonation. It is expect that language rhythms are variously and have levels

Ultrasonography and 3D-CT Follow-Up of Extrahepatic Portal Vein Aneurysm: A Case Report

Extrahepatic portal vein aneurysm is a rare disorder. From 1956 to 2008, we found only 43 published English-language reports, including 67 cases, using Pub Med. We report a case of a 77-year-old woman who had complaints of lower abdominal fullness and residual urine. We performed ultrasonography (US), which demonstrated a congenital extrahepatic portal vein aneurysm. She had no obvious symptoms of the extrahepatic portal vein aneurysm. She had undergone gastrectomy without blood transfusion for gastric ulcer more than 20 years ago. Physical examination revealed no abnormal findings. US revealed a 2.2 × 1.8 cm, round shaped hypoechogenic lesion at the hepatic hilum. Color Doppler US showed bidirectional colors due to circular flow within this lesion. 3D-CT and CT angiography demonstrated that the saccular aneurysm at the hepatic hilum was 3.0 cm in diameter and was enhanced equal to that of portal vein.Twenty-six months after the diagnosis, the aneurysm had not grown in size. Since our patient had no serious complaints or liver disease, surgical procedures had not been employed. US and 3D-CT are noninvasive diagnostic techniques and are helpful in the diagnosis and follow-up of extrahepatic portal vein aneurysms

Chemotherapeutic Treatment of Priapism in Metastatic Rectal Cancer

A 65-year-old man was admitted with penile tenderness and dysuria due to priapism. Enhanced computed tomography revealed metastatic tumors in the liver, lung, sacrum and lymph nodes. Advanced rectal cancer, detected by colonoscopy as a primary tumor, was treated with chemotherapy (FOLFOX4). Although the rectal cancer showed no change, five months of chemotherapy improveid the priapism, suggesting that chemotherapy can improve rare symptoms of rectal cancer

Multimodality Treatment with Conventional Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization and Radiofrequency Ablation for Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background/Aims: To evaluate the efficacy of multimodality treatment consisting of conventional transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in patients with non-resectable and non-ablatable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: In this retrospective study, 85 consecutive patients with HCC (59 solitary, 29 multifocal HCC) received TACE followed by RFA between 2001 and 2010. The mean number of tumors per patient was 1.6 +/- 0.7 with a mean size of 3.0 +/- 0.9 cm. Both local efficacy and patient survival were evaluated. Results: Of 120 treated HCCs, 99 (82.5%) showed a complete response (CR), while in 21 HCCs (17.5%) a partial response was depicted. Patients with solitary HCC revealed CR in 91% (51/56); in patients with multifocal HCC (n = 29) CR was achieved in 75% (48 of 64 HCCs). The median survival for all patients was 25.5 months. The 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 84.6, 58.7, 37.6 and 14.6%, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference in survival between Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) A (73.4 months) and B (50.3 months) patients, while analyses failed to show a difference for Child-Pugh score, Cancer of Liver Italian Program (CLIP) score and tumor distribution pattern. Conclusion: TACE combined with RFA provides an effective treatment approach with high local tumor control rates and promising survival data, especially for BCLC A patients. Randomized trials are needed to compare this multimodality approach with a single modality approach for early-stage HCC. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

Downregulation of SFRP5 expression and its inverse correlation with those of MMP-7 and MT1-MMP in gastric cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As negative regulators in Wnt signaling, Secreted Frizzled-Related Proteins (SFRPs) are downregulated in a series of human cancers; and specifically, some matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), including MMP-2, MMP-7, MMP-9 and MT1-MMP, are frequently overexpressed in gastric cancer. The aim of this study is to determine the expression status of SFRP5 in gastric cancer and explore the correlation between both the expression of SFRP5 and that of these MMPs in this cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Expression of SFRP5, MMP-2, MMP-7, MMP-9 and MT1-MMP was determined by real-time PCR, RT-PCR or Western blotting. The methylation status of <it>SFRP5 </it>was detected by Methylation-specific PCR (MSP). Cell lines with <it>SFRP5 </it>methylation were demethylated by a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine (DAC). KatoIII cells were transfected with pcDNA3.1 <it>SFRP5 </it>vector to strengthen SFRP5 expression. To abrogate SFRP5 expression in MKN1 cells, <it>SFRP5 </it>RNAi plamid was used to transfect them.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>SFRP5 expression was remarkably downregulated in 24 of 32 primary gastric cancer specimens, and even was not detectable in 5 of 8 gastric cancer cell lines. MMP-7 and MT1-MMP mRNA showed a stronger expression in these 24 specimens compared to the other 8 specimens. They also showed higher levels in gastric cancer cell lines AGS and NCI-N87 which had no SFRP5 expression, compared to MKN1 with strong SFRP5 expression. However, they were significantly downregulated, with SFRP5 expression restored in AGS and NCI-N87; and were considerably upregulated with it abrogated in MKN1.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results indicate there are frequent occurrences of downregualtion of SFRP5 expression in gastric cancer, primarily due to <it>SFRP5 </it>methylation. It seems to be responsible for the upregulation of MMP-7 expression and MT1-MMP expression on the ground that they are inversely correlated with SFRP5 expression.</p

Therapeutic Implications of GIPC1 Silencing in Cancer

GIPC1 is a cytoplasmic scaffold protein that interacts with numerous receptor signaling complexes, and emerging evidence suggests that it plays a role in tumorigenesis. GIPC1 is highly expressed in a number of human malignancies, including breast, ovarian, gastric, and pancreatic cancers. Suppression of GIPC1 in human pancreatic cancer cells inhibits in vivo tumor growth in immunodeficient mice. To better understand GIPC1 function, we suppressed its expression in human breast and colorectal cancer cell lines and human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) and assayed both gene expression and cellular phenotype. Suppression of GIPC1 promotes apoptosis in MCF-7, MDA-MD231, SKBR-3, SW480, and SW620 cells and impairs anchorage-independent colony formation of HMECs. These observations indicate GIPC1 plays an essential role in oncogenic transformation, and its expression is necessary for the survival of human breast and colorectal cancer cells. Additionally, a GIPC1 knock-down gene signature was used to interrogate publically available breast and ovarian cancer microarray datasets. This GIPC1 signature statistically correlates with a number of breast and ovarian cancer phenotypes and clinical outcomes, including patient survival. Taken together, these data indicate that GIPC1 inhibition may represent a new target for therapeutic development for the treatment of human cancers