Palmar interosseous muscle of the human thumb.

The adductor pollicis muscle was studied in fifty hands of Japanese adult cadavers of both sexes. The radial portion of the oblique head of the adductor pollicis muscle has carpal and metacarpal origins and an insertion into the wing tendon of the extensor apparatus. This portion was located dorsal to the palmar metacarpophalangeal articular nerve and superficial palmar metacarpal artery. Thus, the radial portion of the oblique head of the adductor pollicis muscle (more strictly, the slips dorsal to the palmar-penetrating twig of the ulnar nerve) is similar to the palmar interosseous muscles, except that its slips cannot be clearly distinguished from each other.</p

Adenosine triphosphate restoration and discocytic transformation of stored human erythrocytes.

Erythrocytes in human blood stored for 120 days were collected by centrifugation after dispersion in buffered physiological saline. The aged erythrocytes thus collected were incubated with inosine, adenine, glucose or other media, and their shapes and ATP levels were studied by scanning electron microscopy and a luciferine-luciferase method. The aged erythrocytes incubated in a mixture of adenine and inosine markedly regained their ATP levels, and also showed a marked transformation from spiked spherocytes to normal discocytes. Incubation with inosine alone restored ATP levels of the aged erythrocytes to some extent, but did not result in morphological rejuvenation. Incubation in a mixture of citrate and glucose caused morphological rejuvenation, though it restored ATP levels less effectively than incubation in inosine alone. Incubation with adenine alone neither restored ATP levels nor resulted in morphological rejuvenation of the stored erythrocytes.</p

Synthesis and Characterization of Rotaxane Closslinked Polyurethanes

Three polyurethanes (PU0, PU11 and PU33) where azobis(dibenzo-24-crown-8 ether) 1 acts as a crosslink point with a [3]rotaxane structure except PU0 were synthesized and characterized by H^^1 NMR and ATR-FT-IR spectroscopies, and DSC.Nagasaki Symposium on Nano-Dynamics 2008 (NSND2008) 平成20年1月29日(火)於長崎大学 Poster Presentatio

Case Report: IgG4-related kidney disease complicated by interstitial pneumonia [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]

Immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-related disease is a systemic inflammatory disorder characterized by tubulointerstitial nephritis with IgG4-positive plasma cell infiltration. We report the case of an 84-year-old male who presented with a history of dyspnea on exertion and cough. The lymph nodes were palpated in the axilla. Urinalysis revealed mild proteinuria and increased levels of NAG and β2-microglobulin. Blood tests showed hyperglobulinemia with a marked elevation of serum IgG4 levels. Chest computed tomography showed bilateral ground-glass and reticular opacities in the lower and peripheral portions of the lungs. Ga-67 scintigraphy showed kidney uptake. The patient was diagnosed with IgG4-related kidney disease based on the renal pathology indicative of typical tubulointerstitial nephritis with extensive IgG4-positive plasma cell infiltration. The patient was treated with prednisolone and showed a prompt response in his clinical condition. The patient achieved normalization of serum IgG4 levels 6 months after the initiation of treatment. Although IgG4-related disease is thought to be potentially associated with organ fibrosis, there are few reports on combination of interstitial pneumonia and IgG4-related kidney disease. Our case report presents a possible pattern of IgG4-related disease

Thermal Reformation of Polystyrene Using Metal Oxide as Redox Catalyst

While plastic has been regarded as a useful and cost-effective material, there is growing global concern about its disposal. Chemical recycling presents a promising solution to this issue. This study explores the utilization of vanadium oxide as a redox catalyst to effectively decompose polystyrene into industrially useful CO. By heating polystyrene with V2O5 under an inert gas atmosphere, CO was successfully produced accompanied with CO2 as the primary by-product. Adding 5 wt% iron to V2O5 improved the selectivity of CO production without compromising gas yield. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that V2O5 acted as an oxygen source and turned into V2O4 and V6O13 after the reaction. This process enables polymer reformation at lower temperatures than conventional methods, making it an energy-efficient chemical recycling strategy. Additionally, V2O4 and V6O13 generated during the process were easily oxidized to V2O5 through heating under atmospheric conditions. As both polymer reformation and oxidation are exothermic reactions, the proposed reaction scheme can be used as a thermally efficient chemical recycling process

Anesthetic Care of a Patient with AFE

Two types of amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) have been described : cardiopulmonary collapse type and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) type, with the latter proposed as uterine type. This report describes a healthy 28-year-old woman who developed AFE during a cesarean section. Because of a previous cesarean section, the patient underwent an elective cesarean section, under combined spinal-epidural anesthesia, at 38 weeks of pregnancy. She began coughing 5 minutes after delivery of the fetus, subsequently becoming unconscious and developing glossoptosis and bradycardia. Her blood pressure decreased to 76/43 mmHg, and AFE was suspected. Her uterus was atonic, and she experienced persistent noncoagulant bleeding, with a final blood loss of 6300 ml. Considerable blood transfusion was required. The patient survived, and she and her baby were discharged without any sequelae on the eighth postoperative day. This patient met the Japanese criteria for clinical AFE, with an obstetrical DIC score of 21 meeting the criteria for obstetrical DIC. Early diagnosis and treatment likely resulted in patient survival

Genome editing in plants using CRISPR type I-D nuclease

Genome editing in plants has advanced greatly by applying the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs)-Cas system, especially CRISPR-Cas9. However, CRISPR type I—the most abundant CRISPR system in bacteria—has not been exploited for plant genome modification. In type I CRISPR-Cas systems, e.g., type I-E, Cas3 nucleases degrade the target DNA in mammals. Here, we present a type I-D (TiD) CRISPR-Cas genome editing system in plants. TiD lacks the Cas3 nuclease domain; instead, Cas10d is the functional nuclease in vivo. TiD was active in targeted mutagenesis of tomato genomic DNA. The mutations generated by TiD differed from those of CRISPR/Cas9; both bi-directional long-range deletions and short indels mutations were detected in tomato cells. Furthermore, TiD can be used to efficiently generate bi-allelic mutant plants in the first generation. These findings indicate that TiD is a unique CRISPR system that can be used for genome engineering in plants