A stochastic model of Echinococcus multilocularis transmission in Hokkaido, Japan, focusing on the infection process

Echinococcus multilocularis causes human alveolar echinococcus. In Japan, high prevalence of E. multilocularis among the fox population has been reported throughout Hokkaido. Accordingly, control measures, such as fox hunting and the distribution of bait containing Praziquantel, have been conducted. This study developed a transmission model for individuals in the fox population and included a stochastic infection process to assess the prevalence of E. multilocularis. To make our model realistic, we used the worm burden for each individual in the fox population. We assumed that the worm burden depends on the number of protoscoleces in a predated vole and the number of infection experiences. We carried out stochastic simulations with 1,000 trials for the situations of Koshimizu and Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. The distribution of the worm burden among foxes obtained using the model agreed with dissection data. The simulation indicates that a careful choice of season is necessary for an effective distribution of Praziquantel-containing bait. A stochastic model for E. multilocularis, which can assess the range of the prevalence in the fox population, would be helpful in analyzing their complex life-cycle and also in designing control strategies.</p

フクブ ドンテキ ガイショウゴ チハツセイ ニ ショウジタ オウコウ ケッチョウ カンマク レッコウ ヘルニア ノ 1レイ

A ７７-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with complains of abdominal pain and frequent vomiting. In the past, she has never been on surgery but she suffered blunt liver injury after motor vehicle accident nine months ago. She was performed trans-catheter arterial embolization to the left hepatic lobe at that time and had been seeing a doctor regularly for post traumatic biloma. The contrast-enhanced abdominal CT scan revealed a closed loop and a dilatation of a small intestine. She was diagnosed a small bowel obstruction due to a internal hernia. She was operated urgently. The surgical exploration showed that the congested jejunum incarcerated into an omental bursa, and an adhesion of the jejunum mesentery and a greater omentum. We found a mesentery hiatus of the transverse colon, through which a higher jejunum had incarcerated into the omental bursa. The jejunum was reduced manually and the hiatus was closed by suture. The patient followed a favorable postoperative course and was discharged on postoperative day６. We report a extremely rare transverse colon hiatal hernia that occurred in the late onset after blunt abdominal injury with the review of the literature

子宮内膜症性腸閉塞に対する経肛門的イレウスチューブの有用性

One of the causative diseases of intestinal obstruction in young women is bowel endometriosis. During the course of ectopic endometriosis, it is estimated that about １０％ of patients develop bowel endometriosis. The first step in treatment is drug therapy. In cases of bowel endometriosis of the colon or rectum leading to intestinal obstruction, laparotomy is often required. A ４７-year-old woman with a history of endometriosis was undergoing drug therapy. She developed abdominal pain and nausea, and was diagnosed with septic shock and fecal ileus. A transanal drainage tube was inserted for decompression. The patient’s general condition improved, and a laparoscopic low anterior resection was performed on the ２３rd day. The patient was discharged on the １０th postoperative day without any postoperative problems. This case suggests that even in the case of septic shock caused by rectal stricture due to intestinal endometriosis, initial treatment with transanal decompression may stabilize the general condition, and may be superior in cosmetic change

Critical cluster size of InAs quantum dots formed by Stranski-Krastanow mode

The number of In atoms in a critical cluster, i*, in Stranski-Krastanow (S-K) mode of InAs islands was determined to be 1-10. The i* was determined using an activation energy EA of 2.0 eV determined from an Arrhenius plot of the saturated density of InAs islands formed on a GaAs (001) surface by S-K mode of molecular beam epitaxy [K. Shiramine et al., J. Cryst. Growth 242, 332 (2002)], and an activation energy of 1.6 eV for migration (surface diffusion) of In adatoms, inferred from other references. The common value ~2.0 eV of EA in S-K mode was ascribed to the small i*