Increased Risk of Ischemic Stroke during Sleep in Apneic Patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:The literature indicates that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) increases the risk of ischemic stroke. However, the causal relationship between OSA and ischemic stroke is not well established. This study examined whether preexisting OSA symptoms affect the onset of acute ischemic stroke. METHODS:We investigated consecutive patients who were admitted with acute ischemic stroke, using a standardized protocol including the Berlin Questionnaire on symptoms of OSA prior to stroke. The collected stroke data included the time of the stroke onset, risk factors, and etiologic subtypes. The association between preceding OSA symptoms and wake-up stroke (WUS) was assessed using multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS:We identified 260 subjects with acute ischemic strokes with a definite onset time, of which 25.8% were WUS. The presence of preexisting witnessed or self-recognized sleep apnea was the only risk factor for WUS (adjusted odds ratio=2.055, 95% confidence interval=1.035-4.083, p=0.040). CONCLUSIONS:Preexisting symptoms suggestive of OSA were associated with the occurrence of WUS. This suggests that OSA contributes to ischemic stroke not only as a predisposing risk factor but also as a triggering factor. Treating OSA might therefore be beneficial in preventing stroke, particularly that occurring during sleep

Exploring Customers’ Preferences for Online Games

Online content providers who use the Internet to distribute content experience an extremely competitive business environment. To survive in this environment, they have started charging a fee for the content that they provide. However, there have been very few success stories in commercializing online content. Although one of few success stories is the online game, it still has customers’ psychological resistance against paying a high fee for playing games. To pay back their high R&D or development costs quickly, many online game producers have a tendency to assign high prices to their online games. Without examining customers’ perceived prices for online games, many online game producers have tended to decide prices from their perspectives. Although many online game-related research works have focused on psychological and technical aspects, very few works have examined online gamers’ preferences carefully. This study aims at exploring online gamers’ preference by measuring their WTP (Willingness To Pay) for online games

Effects of Radix Adenophorae and Cyclosporine A on an OVA-Induced Murine Model of Asthma by Suppressing to T Cells Activity, Eosinophilia, and Bronchial Hyperresponsiveness

The present study is performed to investigate the inhibitory effects of Radix Adenophorae extract (RAE) on ovalbumin-induced asthma murine model. To study the anti-inflammatory and antiasthmatic effects of RAE, we examined the development of pulmonary eosinophilic inflammation and inhibitory effects of T cells in murine by RAE and cyclosporine A (CsA). We examined determination of airway hyperresponsiveness, flow cytometric analysis (FACS), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), quantitative real time (PCR), hematoxylin-eosin staining, and Masson trichrome staining in lung tissue, lung weight, total cells, and eosinophil numbers in lung tissue. We demonstrated how RAE suppressed development on inflammation and decreased airway damage

Endoscopic Management of Malignant Colonic Obstruction

Advanced colorectal cancer can cause acute colonic obstruction, which is a life-threatening condition that requires emergency bowel decompression. Malignant colonic obstruction has traditionally been treated using emergency surgery, including primary resection or stoma formation. However, relatively high rates of complications, such as anastomosis site leakage, have been considered as major concerns for emergency surgery. Endoscopic management of malignant colonic obstruction using a self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) was introduced 20 years ago and it has been used as a first-line palliative treatment. However, endoscopic treatment of malignant colonic obstruction using SEMSs as a bridge to surgery remains controversial owing to short-term complications and longterm oncological outcomes. In this review, the current status of and recommendations for endoscopic management using SEMSs for malignant colonic obstruction will be discussed

GAS AND SOLID MIXING IN A THREE PARTITIONED FLUIDIZED BED

There are many gas-solid reaction systems which take place simultaneously in a single reactor, such as coal gasification. By splitting the reactions, high concentrated gases can be obtained without separation processes. Dual fluidized bed was proposed for this purpose. Similarly, simultaneous adsorption/desorption systems with dry sorbent for CO2 capture and the gasification reaction system with a char combustor and a gasifier separately were developed. For improving gas and solid mixing efficiencies of the dual fluidized beds, a hitherto unknown partitioned fluidized bed (PFB) is proposed. A basic concept of PFB is that lower parts between two separated fluidized beds are linked (opened), whereas upper parts are blocked by walls. Solid mixing occurs in lower parts with preventing gas mixing. The solid residence time becomes longer than that of dual fluidized bed and the high conversion of solid can be obtained. In this study, the gas and the solid mixing behaviors were investigated in three partitioned fluidized beds (left, center and right). The size of each fluidized bed is 7 cm (w) X 7 cm (d) X 30 cm (h) and partitioned above the 7 cm of distributor. Air and CO2-air mixture were used as fluidizing gas in each partitioned fluidized bed. For the gas mixing experiments, glass bead particles with 150 micron and density of 2.5g/cm3 were introduced. Outlet gas concentrations of each fluidized bed were analyzed by IR and then the gas exchanges between the reactors were calculated. For the solid mixing experiments, the polypropylene particles with 1000 micron and the density of 0.883 g/cm3 were continuously fed into the reactor. The gas mixing percentages were 0.4 ~ 16.0% of input gas amounts with varying gas velocities. The solid discharge rates in center and right side can be controlled by operating conditions

A Study of Solids and Gas Mixing in a Partitioned Fluidized Bed

A partitioned fluidized bed gasifier has been developed for improving coal gasification performance. The basic concept is to divide a fluidized bed into two parts, a gasifier and a combustor, by a partition. Char is burnt in the combustor and generated heat is supplied to the gasifier by solid mixing. Therefore, solid mixing should be maximized whereas gas mixing between syngas and the combusted gas should be minimized. In this study, gas and solid mixing behaviors were verified in cold model acrylic beds. For monitoring solid mixing behavior, transient temperature trends in the beds were analyzed. A heat source and a heat sink were installed in each bed. Dozens of thermocouples were used to monitor temperature distribution

Initial growth pattern of children with cleft before alveolar bone graft stage according to cleft type Unilateral cleft lip and alveolus, unilateral cleft lip and palate, and cleft palate

Objective: To test the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the initial growth pattern among three cleft types before alveolar bone graft (ABG) according to cleft type (unilateral cleft lip and alveolus [UCLA], unilateral cleft lip and palate [UCLP], and cleft palate [CP]). Materials and Methods: Samples consisted of the UCLA group, the UCLP group, and the CP group. Individuals were treated with the identical surgical technique by the same surgeon and had no history of orthodontic/orthopedic treatment. Lateral cephalograms taken 1 month before ABG were analyzed using 29 variables. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) testing and bivariate and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: An increasing tendency for Class III relationships in the order of UCLA, UCLP, and CP was noted (ANB, AB-to-facial plane angle, AB-to-mandibular plane angle; P < .001, respectively). UCLP and CP groups demonstrated more posterior positioning of the maxilla (SNA, A-to-N-perp; P < .001, respectively) and a hyperdivergent pattern (gonial angle, SN-GoMe angle, FMA; P < .001, respectively) compared with the UCLA group. Because no differences in palatal plane angle and SN-to-occlusal plane angle were noted among the three groups, the hyperdivergent pattern in the UCLP and CP groups might be due to an innate growth pattern and eventual adaptation of the mandible to maxillary growth. UCLP and CP groups showed more Class III relationships (ANB: P < .05, P < .001, respectively) and a more hyperdivergent pattern (FMA: P < .05, P < .01, respectively) than the UCLA group. Conclusion: When the degree of cleft involvement increases from the primary palate to the secondary palate, the predominance of the Class III relationship and the hyperdivergent pattern increases also. (c) 2011 by The EH Angle Education and Research Foundation, Inc.

Solubility enhancement of aggregation-prone heterologous proteins by fusion expression using stress-responsive Escherichia coli protein, RpoS

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The most efficient method for enhancing solubility of recombinant proteins appears to use the fusion expression partners. Although commercial fusion partners including maltose binding protein and glutathione-<it>S</it>-transferase have shown good performance in enhancing the solubility, they cannot be used for the proprietory production of commercially value-added proteins and likely cannot serve as universal helpers to solve all protein solubility and folding issues. Thus, novel fusion partners will continue to be developed through systematic investigations including proteome mining presented in this study.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We analyzed the <it>Escherichia coli </it>proteome response to the exogenous stress of guanidine hydrochloride using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis and found that RpoS (RNA polymerase sigma factor) was significantly stress responsive. While under the stress condition the total number of soluble proteins decreased by about 7 %, but a 6-fold increase in the level of RpoS was observed, indicating that RpoS is a stress-induced protein. As an N-terminus fusion expression partner, RpoS increased significantly the solubility of many aggregation-prone heterologous proteins in <it>E. coli </it>cytoplasm, indicating that RpoS is a very effective solubility enhancer for the synthesis of many recombinant proteins. RpoS was also well suited for the production of a biologically active fusion mutant of <it>Pseudomonas putida </it>cutinase.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>RpoS is highly effective as a strong solubility enhancer for aggregation-prone heterologous proteins when it is used as a fusion expression partner in an <it>E. coli </it>expression system. The results of these findings may, therefore, be useful in the production of other biologically active industrial enzymes, as successfully demonstrated by cutinase.</p