鈍的腎損傷の画像診断

18名の鈍的腎損傷の患者における画像診断法の臨床的意義を検討した.患者は11名がminor injuryで, 7名がmajor injuryであった.このうち14名が保存的治療を, 4名が手術的治療を受けた.静脈性腎盂造影は健側腎の存在が把握できるために有用であるが, しばしば損傷の範囲が不確かなことが多く, これは過大評価が多く, 過小評価が稀な傾向を示した.CTエックス線検査は損傷の範囲, 腎周囲血腫および併発する後腹膜や腹部外傷が, 静脈性腎盂造影に比べ明らかに正確に診断された.血管造影は動脈性出血の部位を同定するのに有用であったRadiographic evaluation was performed on 18 patients with blunt renal trauma. Of 18 patients 11 had minor injury. Four of 11 patients with minor injury had a normal intravenous pyelogram (IVP), and other 7 were confirmed to have minor renal injury by computed tomographic (CT) scan. Seven patients had major injury. Six patients were diagnosed by both IVP and CT, and five by angiography. CT scan was reliable in major injury and had the high staging accuracy. Angiography was useful in specific patients. Therefore, we conclude that IVP or CT scan should be performed as the initial evaluation, and CT scan or angiography might be used as the second examination in selected patients

Variation of traffic flow due to accumulated snow formation on road

Sapporo City has one of the heaviest snowfalls worldwide, and the road conditions in winter are getting remarkably worse. Snow removal works in winter are indispensable in order to secure traffic functions in the city. Snow accumulates on roads as soon as it is removed. It is also a problem that the deposited snow protrudes into the lanes of roads and the traffic flow drops. This study analyzed the size of deposited snow formation and the variation of traffic flow. We set up a camera for a four-lane road managed by Sapporo City (two lanes per side) and observed two seasons continuously. Width of deposited snow and traffic performance (Traffic Volume - Velocity) were analyzed based on the acquired images. The width of deposited snow was from 1.0 m to 2.5 m. When the width of the deposited snow exceeded approx.1.5 m, it was indicated that only one lane of the road will be in operation if it is originally operated as two lanes per side, with about 70% of the traffic volume and about 80% of the speed. In addition, based on the actual situation of use of bicycles and pedestrians in autumn, we propose redistribution of road cross-sections considering snow coverage width

Helicobacter suis-Associated Gastritis Mimicking Conventional H. pylori-Associated Atrophic Gastritis

A 45-year-old Japanese man underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy, which revealed spotty redness at the gastric fornix, mucosal swelling, diffuse redness in the corpus, and mucosal atrophy in the gastric angle and antrum. Histological examination showed rod-shaped bacteria that appeared larger than Helicobacter pylori. The patient tested positive for rapid urease test, and serum anti-H. pylori IgG antibody test results were negative. Further examination of the bacteria revealed that H. suis antibody test was positive, and the presence of H. suis was confirmed using H. suis-specific real-time PCR. H. suis was successfully eradicated after triple therapy with vonoprazan, amoxicillin, and clarithromycin. This case reinforces the notion that non-H. pylori Helicobacter species such as H. suis and H. heilmannii may be involved in the pathogenesis of active gastritis in patients who test negative for H. pylori antibodies

Development of homogeneous and high-performance REBCO bulks with flexibility in shapes by the single-direction melt growth (SDMG) method

We have developed a single-direction melt growth method in which REBCO melt-textured bulks grow only vertically from a seed plate utilizing the difference in peritectic temperatures of REBCO. Entirely c-grown YBCO, DyBCO and GdBCO bulks with various sizes and shapes were successfully fabricated with high reproducibility. Disk-shaped bulks showed high trapped fields with almost concentric field distributions, reflecting homogeneous and boundaryless bulky crystal. In particular, a YBCO bulk with a 32 mm diameter trapped a high field more than 1 T at 77 K. Furthermore, rectangular and joined hexagonal REBCO bulks were successfully fabricated, showing designed field-trapping distributions reflecting their shapes through well-connected superconducting joints among bulks.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

A Possible Protective Effect of the 'Cam Deformity' on Femoral Neck Fracture: The Relationship between Hip Morphology and the Types of Hip Fracture

We retrospectively evaluated the cases of 169 hip fracture patients, their previous fractures, and the contralateral hip joint’s morphology. A history of contralateral hip fracture was present in 23 patients (Contra group). The other patients had a unilateral hip fracture: a trochanteric fracture (Troch group, n=73) or a femoral neck fracture (Neck group, n=73). In the Troch and Neck groups, we used anteroposterior and cross-table axialview radiographs of the contralateral hip to evaluate the proximal femur’s anatomy. In the Contra group, the concordance rate between the first and second types of hip fracture was 65.2%, and the second hip fracture’s morphology indicated that the trochanteric fracture had a cam deformity in terms of the femoral head-neck ratio. The average alpha angle and femoral head-neck offset in the Troch group were significantly larger than those in the Neck group. In the Neck group, pistol-grip deformities of Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen types B1 (subcapital), B2 (transcervical), and B3 (displaced) were observed in 42.1%, 75%, and 6% of cases, respectively. There was a smaller alpha angle and a larger femoral head-neck offset in the contralateral hip of femoral neck fractures; thus, the “cam deformity” may protect against femoral neck fractures

Impact of the modulus switching technique on some attacks against learning problems

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2019. The modulus switching technique has been used in some cryptographic applications as well as in cryptanalysis. For cryptanalysis against the learning with errors (LWE) problem and the learning with rounding (LWR) problem, it seems that one does not know whether the technique is really useful or not. This work supplies a complete view of the impact of this technique on the decoding attack, the dual attack and the primal attack against both LWE and LWR. For each attack, the authors give the optimal formula for the switching modulus. The formulas get involved the number of LWE/LWR samples, which differs from the known formula in the literature. They also attain the corresponding sufficient conditions saying when one should utilise the technique. Surprisingly, restricted to the LWE/LWR problem that the secret vector is much shorter than the error vector, they also show that performing the modulus switching before using the so-called rescaling technique in the dual attack and the primal attack make these attacks worse than only exploiting the rescaling technique as reported by Bai and Galbraith at the Australasian conference on information security and privacy (ACISP) 2014 conference. As an application, they theoretically assess the influence of the modulus switching on the LWE/LWR-based second round NIST PQC submissions

Novel Concept of Motor Functional Analysis for Spinal Cord Injury in Adult Mice

In basic research on spinal cord injury (SCI), behavioral evaluation of the SCI animal model is critical. However, it is difficult to accurately evaluate function in the mouse SCI model due to the small size of mice. Although the open-field scoring scale is an outstanding appraisal method, supplementary objective tests are required. Using a compact SCANET system, in which a mouse carries out free movement for 5 min, we developed a novel method to detect locomotor ability. A SCANET system samples the horizontal coordinates of a mouse every 0.1 s, and both the speed and acceleration of its motion are calculated at each moment. It was found that the maximum speed and acceleration of motion over 5 min varied by injury severity. Moreover, these values were significantly correlated with open-field scores. The maximum speed and acceleration of SCI model mice using a SCANET system are objective, easy to obtain, and reproducible for evaluating locomotive function

Prevalence and characteristics of chronic musculoskeletal pain in Japan

AbstractBackgroundThis cross-sectional study was conducted to obtain epidemiologic data on chronic musculoskeletal pain in the Japanese people, and with it a better understanding of the actual conditions and problems involved.MethodsA questionnaire covering basic information, chronic musculoskeletal pain, daily life, quality of life, and social loss was prepared and mailed to 11507 individuals aged 18 years or older. Subjects were selected randomly nationwide in accordance with the demographic composition of Japan.ResultsThe prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal pain was 15.4%. The prevalence was highest in people in their 30s to 50s. Pain occurred most frequently in the low back, neck, shoulder, and knee. Among symptomatic subjects, 42% sought treatment, by visiting a medical institution (19%), taking folk remedies (20%), or both (3%). Treatment was generally prolonged, with 70% of those treated reporting treatment durations of more than a year. Although 69% reported that their symptoms had improved, 30% reported unchanged or aggravated symptoms and dissatisfaction with treatment. Among symptomatic subjects, a high percentage of both men and women had lost jobs, left school, been absent from work or school, or had changed jobs. Basic activities of daily living (ADL) were disturbed in men, and the instrumental ADL (IADL) score was low in women. SF-36 scale scores were significantly lower in every area for subjects with chronic pain.ConclusionsChronic musculoskeletal pain does not necessarily improve even with prolonged treatment. It adversely affects daily life and both physical and mental health. Because those suffering pain often increasingly need assistance in daily activities, people around them are also affected. The therapeutic system and treatment procedures for chronic musculoskeletal pain merit prompt review

A Narrative Review of Advances in Neural Precursor Cell Transplantation Therapies for Spinal Cord Injury

A spinal cord injury (SCI) is a destructive event that causes a permanent deficit in neurological function because of poor regenerative potential. Transplantation therapies have attracted attention for restoration of the injured spinal cord, and transplantation of neural precursor cells (NPCs) has been studied worldwide. Several groups have demonstrated functional recovery via this therapeutic intervention due to the multiple beneficial effects of NPC transplantation, such as reconstruction of neuronal circuits, remyelination of axons, and neuroprotection by trophic factors. Our group developed a method to induce NPCs from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and established a transplantation strategy for SCI. Functional improvement in SCI animals treated with hiPSC-NPCs was observed, and the safety of transplanting these cells was evaluated from multiple perspectives. With selection of a safe cell line and pretreatment of the cells to encourage maturation and differentiation, hiPSC-NPC transplantation therapy is now in the clinical phase of testing for subacute SCI. In addition, a research challenge will be to expand the efficacy of transplantation therapy for chronic SCI. More comprehensive strategies involving combination treatments are required to treat this problematic situation

Variability in thermal stress thresholds of corals across depths

Mesophotic habitats are potential refugia for corals in the context of climate change. The seawater temperature in a mesophotic habitat is generally lower than in a shallow habitat. However, the susceptibility and threshold temperatures of mesophotic corals are not well understood. We compared 11 mesophotic and shallow species to understand their thermal stress thresholds using physiological parameters. Coral fragments were exposed to two thermal stress treatments, with temperatures set at ~30°C and ~31°C, and a low-temperature treatment set at ~28°C as the “no stress” condition for 14 days. We found that the threshold temperature of coral species at mesophotic depths is slightly lower or equal to that of corals in shallow depths. The results suggest that species in the mesophotic coral ecosystems can survive low (<4 degree heating weeks) thermal stress. However, mass bleaching and high mortality can be expected when temperatures rise above 4 degree heating weeks