Contacts between the commissural axons and the floor plate cells are mediated by nectins

AbstractDuring development of the central nervous system (CNS), commissural axons grow toward the ventral midline. After crossing the floor plate, they abruptly change their trajectory from the circumferential to the longitudinal axis. The contacts between the commissural axons and the floor plate cells are involved in this axonal guidance, but their mechanisms or structures have not fully been understood. In this study, we found that nectin-1 and -3, immunoglobulin-like cell–cell adhesion molecules, asymmetrically localized at the contact sites between the commissural axons and the floor plate cells, respectively. In vitro perturbation of the endogenous trans-interaction between nectin-1 and -3 caused abnormal fasciculation of the commissural axons and impairment of the contacts, and resulted in failure in longitudinal turns of the commissural axons at the contralateral sites of the rat hindbrain. These results indicate that the contacts between the commissural axons and the floor plate cells are mediated by the hetero-trans-interaction between nectin-1 and -3 and involved in regulation of the trajectory of the commissural axons

Confluent hepatic fibrosis in liver cirrhosis: Possible relation with middle hepatic venous drainage

Purpose: Our aim was to retrospectively analyze the location of confluent hepatic fibrosis in relation to the portal and hepatic venous anatomy using multidetector computed tomography (CT) and to clarify the influence of the hepatic venous drainage on confluent fibrosis. Materials and methods: The study population consisted of 879 patients diagnosed with cirrhosis: 539 men and 340 women (65.9 ± 10.6 years) and 633 with Child-Pugh class A, 161 with class B, and 85 with class C. The cause of cirrhosis was hepatitis C (n = 528) and hepatitis B (n = 122) virus infection, alcoholism (n = 114), and others (n = 115). The confluent fibrosis was diagnosed using CT images according to previous reports and statistically analyzed (p < 0.05). Results: Thirty-five confluent fibrosis lesions in 30 patients (3.4 %) were identified. The predictive factors were alcoholic cirrhosis [odds ratio (OR), 7.25; p < 0.0001], Child-Pugh class C (OR, 6.95; p < 0.0001), and Child-Pugh class B (OR, 2.91; p < 0.0023). Confluent fibrosis was most frequently seen in the middle hepatic venous drainage area (n = 21) or at the boundary between the medial and anterior segments (n = 17), and each distribution of the location of confluent fibrosis was significantly unequal (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Confluent fibrosis was most commonly located in the middle hepatic venous drainage area. © 2013 Japan Radiological Society

Stress coping pattern among pre-operative patients and relations to their background

術前訪問のストレス状態を軽減するための一手段として，手術室の看護者により術前訪問が行われている。患者自身のストレスの状態とその対処法が異なっていることは従来の研究より明らかであるが，このような個々の術前患者の対処状況に応じた術前訪問については，充分に行えていないのが現状である。患者のストレス状態は患者背景と関係しており，さらにはその対処行為をパターン化できるものと考え，この対処行為のパターンと，背景因子との関わりを明らかにし，それらを考慮した術前訪問のあり方を考えることを目的として本研究を行った。対象は1週間以内に手術予定の患者20名とした。データは面接による半構成的な質問に対する対象者の自由な回答を記録して収集した。質問内容は，1．対象者の背景要因としての「経験」「自己認知」「環境要因」2．対象者の心理状態・ストレス認知・対処について，「病気を発見した時」、「入院の必要性の説明を受けた時」「手術の必要性の説明を受けた時」「現在」の4つの時点についての心理状態，ストレスの認知，対処法について回想法によるものとした。対象者は男性11名，女性9名で，平均年齢は57.7±15.9歳であった。各事例における4時点での対処行為をパターン化したところ，A ：「積極的対処」B：「回避」C：「おまかせ」D：「積極的対処」→「おまかせ」E：「回避」→「積極的対処」F：「回避」→「積極的対処」→「おまかせ」G：「回避」→「おまかせ」の7パターンに分類された。患者背景要因と対処法の関係については，次の2点が明らかとなった。1）ストレス対処に「問題状況の再認知」または「おまかせ」を用いていた患者は，癌告知を受けており，ストレス状態の軽減傾向が特徴的であった。それに対して，「回避」を主に用いていた患者は，未告知事例や疾患について曖昧な解釈の事例が集中しており，ストレス状態が特徴的であった。2）性格を「神経質」「辛抱強い」と自己評価した患者の対処行為として，「積極的対処」が共通して用いられていた。Operating room nurses visit the pre-operating patients before the operation. This visit is designed to inform the patients and reduce their stress. But the stress level of each patient and their ability for dealing with stress may vary. The purpose of this study is to investigate stress-coping patterns of pre-operative patients. Twenty patients at the University Hospital of Chugoku Region in Japan volunteered for this study. Subjects consisted of 11 males and 9 females with average of 57.7 years old. An interviewer obtained data using an original semi-structured questionnaire after getting informed consent. Items of questionnaire were patient's background, his/her psychological status, stress recognition. The patients' coping mechanisms were evaluated using the recollection method at 4 different time points: a) when the patient's disease was diagnosed, b) when the patient was informed of the need for hospitalization, c) when the patient was informed of the need for operation, and d) at the time of the operation. We found common patterns of coping among them, which were classified into 7 categories: A) positive action at any situations, B) evasion, C) leaving, D) positive action and leaving, E) evasion and positive action, F) evasion, positive action and leaving, G) evasion and leaving. The following 2 points were noted between the patients' background and coping mechanisms: 1) Patients using "re-acknowledgment or leaving" pattern were informed well about their disease and did not feel stress from their situation. 2) Patients taking positive actions recognized their character as "nervous about their situation" or "patient"

Associations between the orexin (hypocretin) receptor 2 gene polymorphism Val308Ile and nicotine dependence in genome-wide and subsequent association studies

Impact of the HCRTR2 gene risk variant on schizotypal personality traits (mean ± SD). (DOC 54 kb

The Quiescent Intracluster Medium in the Core of the Perseus Cluster

Clusters of galaxies are the most massive gravitationally-bound objects in the Universe and are still forming. They are thus important probes of cosmological parameters and a host of astrophysical processes. Knowledge of the dynamics of the pervasive hot gas, which dominates in mass over stars in a cluster, is a crucial missing ingredient. It can enable new insights into mechanical energy injection by the central supermassive black hole and the use of hydrostatic equilibrium for the determination of cluster masses. X-rays from the core of the Perseus cluster are emitted by the 50 million K diffuse hot plasma filling its gravitational potential well. The Active Galactic Nucleus of the central galaxy NGC1275 is pumping jetted energy into the surrounding intracluster medium, creating buoyant bubbles filled with relativistic plasma. These likely induce motions in the intracluster medium and heat the inner gas preventing runaway radiative cooling; a process known as Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback. Here we report on Hitomi X-ray observations of the Perseus cluster core, which reveal a remarkably quiescent atmosphere where the gas has a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 164+/-10 km/s in a region 30-60 kpc from the central nucleus. A gradient in the line-of-sight velocity of 150+/-70 km/s is found across the 60 kpc image of the cluster core. Turbulent pressure support in the gas is 4% or less of the thermodynamic pressure, with large scale shear at most doubling that estimate. We infer that total cluster masses determined from hydrostatic equilibrium in the central regions need little correction for turbulent pressure.Comment: 31 pages, 11 Figs, published in Nature July

Hitomi (ASTRO-H) X-ray Astronomy Satellite

The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E  >  2  keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month

Hitomi X-Ray Studies of Giant Radio Pulses from the Crab Pulsar

To search for giant X-ray pulses correlated with the giant radio pulses (GRPs) from the Crab pulsar, we performed a simultaneous observation of the Crab pulsar with the X-ray satellite Hitomi in the 2300 keV band and the Kashima NICT radio telescope in the 1.41.7 GHz band with a net exposure of about 2 ks on 2016 March 25, just before the loss of the Hitomi mission. The timing performance of the Hitomi instruments was confirmed to meet the timing requirement and about 1000 and 100 GRPs were simultaneously observed at the main pulse and inter-pulse phases, respectively, and we found no apparent correlation between the giant radio pulses and the X-ray emission in either the main pulse or inter-pulse phase. All variations are within the 2 fluctuations of the X-ray fluxes at the pulse peaks, and the 3 upper limits of variations of main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs are 22% or 80% of the peak flux in a 0.20 phase width, respectively, in the 2300 keV band. The values for main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs become 25% or 110%, respectively, when the phase width is restricted to the 0.03 phase. Among the upper limits from the Hitomi satellite, those in the 4.510 keV and 70300 keV bands are obtained for the first time, and those in other bands are consistent with previous reports. Numerically, the upper limits of the main pulse and inter-pulse GRPs in the 0.20 phase width are about (2.4 and 9.3) 10(exp 11) erg cm(exp 2), respectively. No significant variability in pulse profiles implies that the GRPs originated from a local place within the magnetosphere. Although the number of photon-emitting particles should temporarily increase to account for the brightening of the radio emission, the results do not statistically rule out variations correlated with the GRPs, because the possible X-ray enhancement may appear due to a >0.02% brightening of the pulse-peak flux under such conditions