Literature survey on epidemiology and pathology of gangliocytic paraganglioma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although gangliocytic paraganglioma (GP) has generally been regarded as a neuroendocrine tumor, its origin remains unclear. We therefore aimed to investigate the details of this disease by carefully analyzing and extracting common features of the disease as presented in selected publications.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched for English and Japanese cases of GP using the PubMed and IgakuChuoZasshi databases on August 2010. We then extracted and sampled raw data from the selected publications and performed appropriate statistical analyses. Additionally, we evaluated the expression of hormone receptors based on our previously reported case.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>192 patients with GP were retrieved from the databases. Patient ages ranged from 15 y to 84 y (mean: 52.3 y). The gender ratio was 114:76 (male to female, 2 not reported). Maximum diameter of the tumors ranged from 5.5 mm to 100 mm (mean: 25.0 mm). The duodenum (90.1%, 173/192) was found to be the most common site of the disease. In 173 patients with duodenal GP, gastrointestinal bleeding (45.1%, 78/173) was found to be the most common symptom of the disease, followed by abdominal pain (42.8%, 74/173), and anemia (14.5%, 25/173). Rate of lymph node metastasis was 6.9% (12/173). Our statistical analysis indicated that significant differences were found for gender between GP within the submucosal layer and exceeding the submucosal layer. Furthermore, our immunohistochemical evaluation showed that both epithelioid and pancreatic islet cells showed positive reactivity for progesterone receptors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our literature survey revealed that there were many more cases of GP exceeding the submucosal layer than were expected. Meanwhile, our statistical analyses and immunohistochemical evaluation supported the following two hypotheses. First, vertical growth of GP might be affected by progesterone exposure. Second, the origin of GP might be pancreatic islet cells. However, it is strongly suspected that our data have been affected by publication bias and to confirm these hypotheses, further investigation is required.</p

Spectroscopic study of water-NaCl-benzene mixtures at high temperatures and pressures

Near-infrared and ultraviolet spectra of water-NaCl-benzene mixtures have been measured in the 473–573 K and 100–400 bar range and 373–498 K and 50–300 bar range, respectively. Concentrations of water in the benzene-rich phase and benzene in the water-rich phase were estimated from integrated intensities of the absorption bands. It is found that addition of NaCl in the aqueous phase suppresses transfer of water into the benzene-rich phase, and the relative decrease in water solubility in benzene exhibits good correlation with an increase in density of the aqueous NaCl solution relative to that of neat water. The salting-out constant for the water-NaCl-benzene system, which is estimated from a relative decrease in benzene solubility in the aqueous phase by addition of sodium chloride, increases significantly with increasing temperature. It is suggested that the effect of sodium chloride on the water-benzene mutual solubilities can be explained by ion-induced electrostriction of the aqueous phase

Investigation of the Mechanism of Meiotic DNA Cleavage by VMA1-Derived Endonuclease Uncovers a Meiotic Alteration in Chromatin Structure around the Target Site

VMA1-derived endonuclease (VDE), a homing endonuclease in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is encoded by the mobile intein-coding sequence within the nuclear VMA1 gene. VDE recognizes and cleaves DNA at the 31-bp VDE recognition sequence (VRS) in the VMA1 gene lacking the intein-coding sequence during meiosis to insert a copy of the intein-coding sequence at the cleaved site. The mechanism underlying the meiosis specificity of VMA1 intein-coding sequence homing remains unclear. We studied various factors that might influence the cleavage activity in vivo and found that VDE binding to the VRS can be detected only when DNA cleavage by VDE takes place, implying that meiosis-specific DNA cleavage is regulated by the accessibility of VDE to its target site. As a possible candidate for the determinant of this accessibility, we analyzed chromatin structure around the VRS and revealed that local chromatin structure near the VRS is altered during meiosis. Although the meiotic chromatin alteration exhibits correlations with DNA binding and cleavage by VDE at the VMA1 locus, such a chromatin alteration is not necessarily observed when the VRS is embedded in ectopic gene loci. This suggests that nucleosome positioning or occupancy around the VRS by itself is not the sole mechanism for the regulation of meiosis-specific DNA cleavage by VDE and that other mechanisms are involved in the regulation

Wind lens technology and its application to wind and water turbine and beyond

Wind lens is a new type of wind power system consisting of a simple brimmed ring structure that surrounds the rotor causing greater wind to pass through the turbine. As a consequence, the turbine's efficiency of capturing energy from the wind gets dramatically increased. A Wind lens turbine can generate 2–5 times the power of an existing wind turbine given at the same rotor diameter and incoming wind speed. This fluid dynamical effect is also effective in the water. We have developed 1–3 kW Wind lens turbines and a 100 kW Wind lens turbine. In addition to the enhanced output power, Wind lens turbine is quiet. The technology is now used in an offshore experiment with a hexagonal float 18 meters in diameter set off the coast of Hakata Bay in Fukuoka City. Moreover, we are now pursuing larger size Wind lens turbines through multi-rotor design consisting of multiple Wind lens turbines in a same vertical plane to embody larger total power output

Wind lens technology and its application to wind and water turbine and beyond

Wind lens is a new type of wind power system consisting of a simple brimmed ring structure that surrounds the rotor causing greater wind to pass through the turbine. As a consequence, the turbine's efficiency of capturing energy from the wind gets dramatically increased. A Wind lens turbine can generate 2–5 times the power of an existing wind turbine given at the same rotor diameter and incoming wind speed. This fluid dynamical effect is also effective in the water. We have developed 1–3 kW Wind lens turbines and a 100 kW Wind lens turbine. In addition to the enhanced output power, Wind lens turbine is quiet. The technology is now used in an offshore experiment with a hexagonal float 18 meters in diameter set off the coast of Hakata Bay in Fukuoka City. Moreover, we are now pursuing larger size Wind lens turbines through multi-rotor design consisting of multiple Wind lens turbines in a same vertical plane to embody larger total power output

Development of the production methods for emerging radionuclides applicable to the theranostical basic research

Abstract. In order to proceed the ‘theranostic’ research as well as to enrich the radionuclides’ library of cyclotron products, we propose automated production concepts for emerging three therapeutic radionuclides (Sc-47, Cu-67, and Re-186) including their procedures of purification and quality control (QC). We will perform feasibility studies to develop automated-remote production methods for these three radionuclides by (1) a 44CaO powder + 34 MeV alpha particles for Sc-47, (2) a 68ZnO powder + 60 MeV protons or an electroplated 64Ni + 40 MeV alpha particles for Cu-67, and (3) a 186W powder + 20 MeV deuterons for Re-186, respectively. All activated targets are then chemically separated by originally developed remote devices to obtain high quality radioactive ions ready to use. We also intend to provide adequate QC procedures for respective radionuclide applicable to daily preclinical studies.Second Research Coordination Meeting on Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals Labelled with New Emerging Radionuclides(Cu-67, Re-186, Sc-47

Separation of 103Pd from a Rh target using an alloying pretreatment with bismuth

Palladium-103 is one of the most attractive radionuclides for internal radiotherapy. It is not only used as a brachytherapy seed but is also a feasible candidate for Auger electron therapy and gold-nanoparticle therapy. In this study, we propose a new method for the separation of 103Pd from a rhodium target to obtain no-carrier-added 103Pd. Rhodium powder target was irradiated under the following conditions: proton, 50 MeV, 1–3 μA, 1–4 h for the separation study; and H2+, 24 MeV, 5 μA, 1 h to produce 103Pd. The irradiated target was pretreated using an alloying reaction between Rh and Bi on a hotplate at 500 °C. Rhodium in the chemical form of a Bi-Rh compound could then be dissolved with nitric acid and 103Pd was extracted using dimethylglyoxime as an extractant. The target rhodium was recycled using sodium tetrahydroborate (NaBH4). We obtained 103Pd with a yield of 87%. The activity of the product was 26 ± 2 MBq at the end of bombardment (EOB), and the radionuclidic purity of 103Pd was greater than 99%. The decontamination factors of rhodium and bismuth in the 103Pd product were estimated to be greater than 104 and 105, respectively. The target rhodium was recycled with a yield of 91% with a trace of bismuth (9 μg/50 mg Rh). The total separation time for 103Pd was within 3.5 h