FOLFIRI Is Tolerable after Subtotal Colectomy – A Patient with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Who Developed Advanced Rectal Cancer

A 40-year-old female with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) had a subtotal colectomy at 16 years of age. At 39 years, she had low anterior resection due to advanced rectal carcinoma. Thereafter, we administrated per os uracil and tegafur for 9 months. Metastatic rectal carcinoma was detected in the liver (S8) by computed tomography (CT). 2-[(18)F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) data did not show any other metastasis. This report presents a first case of a patient undergoing subtotal colectomy administered FOLFIRI (CPT-11 180 mg/m2 as a 90-minute infusion on day 1; leucovorin 400 mg/m2 as a 2-hour infusion during CPT-11, immediately followed by 5-FU bolus 400 mg/m2 and 46-hour continuous infusion of 2,400 mg/m2 every 2 weeks). This regimen was administered without grade 3 or 4 of any adverse reaction for 6 months, although there was a possibility that this patient with subtotal colectomy may have the cause for severe diarrhea. Further investigations are needed to assess the safety in clinical trials of FOLFIRI regimen for patients with subtotal colectomy

Developmental changes in facial expression recognition in Japanese school-age children

Purpose : Facial expressions hold abundant information and play a central part in communication. In daily life, we must construct amicable interpersonal relationships by communicating through verbal and nonverbal behaviors. While school-age is a period of rapid social growth, few studies exist that study developmental changes in facial expression recognition during this age. This study investigated developmental changes in facial expression recognition by examining observers’ gaze on others’ expressions. Subjects : 87 school-age children from first to sixth grade (41 boys, 46 girls). Method : The Tobii T60 Eye-tracker(Tobii Technologies, Sweden) was used to gauge eye movement during a task of matching pre-instructed emotion words and facial expressions images (neutral, angry, happy, surprised, sad, disgusted) presented on a monitor fixed at a distance of 50 cm. Results : In the task of matching the six facial expression images and emotion words, the mid- and higher-grade children answered more accurately than the lower-grade children in matching four expressions, excluding neutral and happy. For fixation time and fixation count, the lower-grade children scored lower than other grade children, gazing on all facial expressions significantly fewer times and for shorter periods. Conclusion : It is guessed that the stage from lower grades to middle grades is a turning point in facial recognition

コウベジョガクインオカダヤマキャンパスノヤチョウ

本報告は、兵庫県西宮市の神戸女学院岡田山キャンパスに生息または飛来する野鳥についてとりまとめたものである。神戸女学院は1875年に神戸市山本通に設立されたが、1933年に西宮市岡田山に移転し、この地で80有余年の歴史をもつ。キャンパスの総面積は14ha、その35％に相当する約5haがクスノキやヒメユズリハ、コナラなどからなる鬱蒼とした天然林に被われており、良好な自然環境が保たれている。岡田山キャンパスの鳥類相については、1974年刊行の「岡田山の自然」に43種、1982年の増補改訂版に8種が追加され、計51種の野鳥が記録されている。また、2010年にはキャンパスの自然環境に関する報告書がまとめられ、34科88種の野鳥が報告されている。既存資料および1991年以降の主として第一著者のよる観察、および2003年度から2005年度にかけて行われたルートセンサスの結果を合わせると、岡田山キャンパスではこれまでに35科93種の野鳥が確認されていることが明らかになった。ヒヨドリ、スズメ、ハシブトカラス、キジバト、ムクドリ、メジロなどが主なものである。夏季日本で繁殖し、東南アジア等の熱帯域で越冬する夏鳥は26種で、ツバメ、サンショウクイ、センダイムシクイ、キビタキ、オオルリなどが主なものである。このうち、本学とその周辺域で確実に繁殖しているのはツバメのみで、他は本学を春と秋の2回通過する旅鳥型の夏鳥である。おもに日本以外の北方域で夏季繁殖し、岡田山を含む西日本で越冬する冬鳥は12種で、ツグミ、シロハラ、ジョウビタキ、シメなどが主なものである。北日本や山岳域で夏季繁殖し、岡田山を含む西日本で越冬する漂鳥は18種で、ウグイス、ルリビタキ、アオジなどが主なものである。日本以外の地域で繁殖、越冬し、春と秋に岡田山キャンパスを通過する旅鳥は4種で、オオムシクイ、マミチャジナイなどが主なものである。To clarify the avifauna of the Okadayama Campus, Kobe College, western Japan, we investigated the wild bird species that inhabit or come flying over the campus, by observations and the route census method. Okadayama campus is located in the southeast corner of Hyogo Prefecture and has an area of ca. 14 ha and elevations from 8 to 50 m above sea level. The campus lies in the warm-temperate zoneand is under the influence fo Seto Inland Sea climate. Nearly 35％ of the campus is occupied by semi-natural forests dominated by evergreen broad-leaved trees such as Cinnamomum camphora, Daphniphyllum teijsmannii, Quercus glauca, and Ilex rotunda and deciduous broad-leaved trees such as Quercus serrata, Celtis sinensis, and Aphananthe aspera. The forest has been isolated by urbanization, and appears as a "green island" in an urban landscape, In the Okadayama Campus, 93 bird species belonging to 35 families have been recorded thus far. Out of the 93 bird species, 33 are resident breeders that breed in and around the campus, such as Hypsipetes amaurotis, Passer mountanus, Steptopelia orientalis, Corrvus macrorhynchos, and Spodiopsar cineraceus. Twnty-six species are migrant breeders that breed in the Japanese Archipelago and winter in the Asia tropics. However, most of the migrant breeders do not breed in and around the campus; they merely pass through the campus in the spring and autumn seasons, except for Hirundo rustica. Twelve species are winter visitors that breed in boreal regions and winter in southwestern Japan, including the Okadayama Campus, such as Turdus pallidus, T.naumanni, Phoenicurus auroreus, and Coccthraustes coccothraustes, Eighteen speces are vagrants that breed in the northern or Emberiza spodocephala. Four species are migrants that breed in boreal regions writer in the Asian tropics, such as phylloscopus examinandus and Turdus obscurus

Biomarkers for antitumor activity of bevacizumab in gastric cancer models

Abstract Background Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody to human vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) and has been used for many types of cancers such as colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, and glioblastoma. Bevacizumab might be effective against gastric cancer, because VEGF has been reported to be involved in the development of gastric cancer as well as other cancers. On the other hand, there are no established biomarkers to predict the bevacizumab efficacy in spite of clinical needs. Therefore, we tried to identify the predictive markers for efficacy of bevacizumab in gastric cancer patients by using bevacizumab-sensitive and insensitive tumor models. Methods Nine human gastric and two colorectal cancer mouse xenografts were examined for their sensitivity to bevacizumab. We examined expression levels of angiogenic factors by ELISA, bioactivity of VEGF by phosphorylation of VEGFR2 in HUVEC after addition of tumor homogenate, tumor microvessel density by CD31-immunostaining, and polymorphisms of the VEGF gene by HybriProbe™ assay. Results Of the 9 human gastric cancer xenograft models used, GXF97, MKN-45, MKN-28, 4-1ST, SC-08-JCK, and SC-09-JCK were bevacizumab-sensitive, whereas SCH, SC-10-JCK, and NCI-N87 were insensitive. The sensitivity of the gastric cancer model to bevacizumab was not related to histological type or HER2 status. All tumors with high levels of VEGF were bevacizumab-sensitive except for one, SC-10-JCK, which had high levels of VEGF. The reason for the refractoriness was non-bioactivity on the phosphorylation of VEGFR2 and micro-vessel formation of VEGF, but was not explained by the VEGF allele or VEGF165b. We also examined the expression levels of other angiogenic factors in the 11 gastrointestinal tumor tissues. In the refractory models including SC-10-JCK, tumor levels of another angiogenic factor, bFGF, were relatively high. The VEGF/bFGF ratio correlated more closely with sensitivity to bevacizumab than with the VEGF level. Conclusions VEGF levels and VEGF/bFGF ratios in tumors were related to bevacizumab sensitivity of the xenografts tested. Further clinical investigation into useful predictive markers for bevacizumab sensitivity is warranted.</p

Evaluation of Membrane Dynamics of IKAROS based on Flight Result and Simulation using Multi-Particle Model

Japan Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a powered solar sail “Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun (IKAROS)” on May 21, 2010. One of the primal technologies demonstrated at IKAROS is the spin-deployment of the sail whose diameter is 20 m class. After the launch, two-step deployment operation was performed and successful expansion of the sail was confirmed. This paper shows the flight data and observed dynamic motion during the deployment. At the quasi-static first stage deployment, the spin rate of main body shows little oscillation after each step and then damped quickly. The damping ratio of the spin rate after a later step of deployment is estimated by curve-fitting to be 0.0127. At the dynamic second stage deployment, the nutation motion is maintained within ±1.5 deg/s and the spin rate of main body is converged quickly about 60s after the deployment start. These flight result and observed dynamic motion during the deployment are compared with the results of numerical simulations using multi-particle model. These results show that the multi-particle model can simulate the global behavior of membrane sufficiently except the dumping motion of in-plane oscillation between the main body and the expanded membrane