Portosystemic Encephalopathy without Liver Disease Masquerading as Dementia

An 84-year-old woman was hospitalized due to consciousness disorder as hyperammonemia. She had no etiology of liver disease. Twelve months before the current admission, she had been diagnosed with dementia based on her low level of daily perception and physical activity. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a large portosystemic shunt between the medial branch of the portal vein and middle hepatic vein. After the improvement of her consciousness disturbance by medical treatment, percutaneous shunt embolization was electively performed. The patient showed a remarkable clinical improvement. Consciousness disturbance caused by hyper-ammonemia might be underlying in dementia patients. Increase of hepatopetal portal blood flow might have contributed to the improvement of her consciousness disturbance. Embolization of the portosystemic shunt might be more effective for patients without liver disease as in the present case

Familial Occurrence of a Congenital Portosystemic Shunt of the Portal Vein

A congenital portosystemic shunt of the portal vein is a very rare vascular anomaly associated with the liver. We report the case of a 5-year-old girl with a patent ductus venosus and her 31-year-old mother with a congenital portosystemic shunt. The child presented with a history of an extremely low birth weight in addition to an atrial septal defect and a patent ductus venosus. At the age of 2, she underwent ligation of the ductus venosus. Her mother was also diagnosed with a congenital vascular anomaly at the age of 16. We have followed up and evaluated her asymptomatic mother for 15 years. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the occurrence of a congenital portosystemic shunt in both a mother and her child

Dosimetric precision of an ion beam tracking system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Scanned ion beam therapy of intra-fractionally moving tumors requires motion mitigation. GSI proposed beam tracking and performed several experimental studies to analyse the dosimetric precision of the system for scanned carbon beams.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A beam tracking system has been developed and integrated in the scanned carbon ion beam therapy unit at GSI. The system adapts pencil beam positions and beam energy according to target motion.</p> <p>Motion compensation performance of the beam tracking system was assessed by measurements with radiographic films, a range telescope, a 3D array of 24 ionization chambers, and cell samples for biological dosimetry. Measurements were performed for stationary detectors and moving detectors using the beam tracking system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All detector systems showed comparable data for a moving setup when using beam tracking and the corresponding stationary setup. Within the target volume the mean relative differences of ionization chamber measurements were 0.3% (1.5% standard deviation, 3.7% maximum). Film responses demonstrated preserved lateral dose gradients. Measurements with the range telescope showed agreement of Bragg peak depth under motion induced range variations. Cell survival experiments showed a mean relative difference of -5% (-3%) between measurements and calculations within the target volume for beam tracking (stationary) measurements.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The beam tracking system has been successfully integrated. Full functionality has been validated dosimetrically in experiments with several detector types including biological cell systems.</p

The origins and development of Zuwīla, Libyan Sahara: an archaeological and historical overview of an ancient oasis town and caravan centre

Zuwīla in southwestern Libya (Fazzān) was one of the most important early Islamic centres in the Central Sahara, but the archaeological correlates of the written sources for it have been little explored. This paper brings together for the first time a detailed consideration of the relevant historical and archaeological data, together with new AMS radiocarbon dates from several key monuments. The origins of the settlement at Zuwīla were pre-Islamic, but the town gained greater prominence in the early centuries of Arab rule of the Maghrib, culminating with the establishment of an Ibāḍī state ruled by the dynasty of the Banū Khaṭṭāb, with Zuwīla its capital. The historical sources and the accounts of early European travellers are discussed and archaeological work at Zuwīla is described (including the new radiocarbon dates). A short gazetteer of archaeological monuments is provided as an appendix. Comparisons and contrasts are also drawn between Zuwīla and other oases of the ash-Sharqiyāt region of Fazzān. The final section of the paper presents a series of models based on the available evidence, tracing the evolution and decline of this remarkable site

Video Conference System that Keeps Mutual Eye Contact Among Participants

A novel video conference system is developed. Suppose that three people A, B, and C attend the video conference, the proposed system enables eye contact among every pair. Furthermore, when B and C chat, A feels as if B and C were facing each other (eye contact seems to be kept among B and C). In the case of a triangle video conference, the respective video system is composed of a half mirror, two video cameras, and two monitors. Each participant watches other participants' images that are reflected by the half mirror. Cameras are set behind the half mirror. Since participants' image (face) and the camera position are adjusted to be the same direction, eye contact is kept and conversation becomes very natural compared with conventional video conference systems where participants' eyes do not point to the other participant. When 3 participants sit at the vertex of an equilateral triangle, eyes can be kept even for the situation mentioned above (eye contact between B and C from the aspect of A). Eye contact can be kept not only for 2 or 3 participants but also any number of participants as far as they sit at the vertex of a regular polygon

MicroRNA-203 Regulates Melanosome Transport and Tyrosinase Expression in Melanoma Cells by Targeting Kinesin Superfamily Protein 5b

MicroRNA (miR)-203 is known to be downregulated and to act as an anti-oncomir in melanoma cells. At present, we found that exogenous miR-203 increased pigmentation and protein expression levels of the melanoma antigen recognized by T cells (Melan-As/MART1s) and/or tyrosinase (TYR) in the human melanoma cells tested. Inversely, treatment with an inhibitor of miR-203 downregulated the expression level of TYR. The target gene of miR-203 involved in the mechanism was kinesin superfamily protein 5b (kif5b), which was revealed by gene silencing using short interfering RNA and luciferase activity assay. Furthermore, immunocytochemistry showed obvious accumulation of melanosomes around nuclei of human melanoma Mewo cells transfected with miR-203 or siR-kif5b. Importantly, treatment with the miR-203 inhibitor, but not miR-203, exhibited effects on human epidermal melanocytes isolated from lightly pigmented adult skin similar to those on melanoma cells. In addition, the data indicated that exogenous miR-203 also negatively regulated the cAMP response element–binding protein 1 (CREB1)/microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF)/Rab27a pathway, which is one of the main pathways active in melanoma cells. In conclusion, our data indicated that anti-oncogenic miR-203 had a pivotal role in melanoma through reducing melanosome transport and promoting melanogenesis by targeting kif5b and through negative regulation of the CREB1/MITF/Rab27a pathway

Identification of Rice β-Glucosidase with High Hydrolytic Activity towards Salicylic Acid β-D-Glucoside

β-Glucosidases (EC 3.2.1.21) split β-glucosidic linkages at the non-reducing end of glucosides and oligosaccharides to release β-D-glucose. One of the important functions of plant β-glucosidase is deglucosylation of inactive glucosides of phytohormones to regulate levels of active hormones. Tuberonic acid is a jasmonate-related compound that shows tuber-inducing activity in the potato. We have identified two enzymes, OsTAGG1 and OsTAGG2, that have hydrolytic activity towards tuberonic acid β-D-glucoside in rice (Oryza sativa L.). The expression of OsTAGG2 is upregulated by wounding and by methyl jasmonate, suggesting that this isozyme is involved in responses to biotic stresses and wounding, but the physiological substrate of OsTAGG2 remains ambiguous. In this study, we produced recombinant OsTAGG2 in Pichia pastoris (rOsTAGG2P), and investigated its substrate specificity in detail. From 1 L of culture medium, 2.1 mg of purified recombinant enzyme was obtained by ammonium sulfate precipitation and Ni-chelating column chromatography. The specific activity of rOsTAGG2P (182 U/mg) was close to that of the native enzyme (171 U/mg), unlike recombinant OsTAGG2 produced in Escherichia coli, which had approximately 3-fold lower specific activity than the native enzyme. The optimum pH and temperature for rOsTAGG2P were pH 3.4 and 60 °C. After pH and heat treatments, the enzyme retained its original activity in a pH range of 3.4-9.8 and below 55 °C. Native OsTAGG2 and rOsTAGG2P showed 4.5-4.7-fold higher activities towards salicylic acid β-D-glucoside, an inactive storage-form of salicylic acid, than towards tuberonic acid β-D-glucoside (TAG), although OsTAGG2 was originally isolated from rice based on TAG-hydrolytic activity