A Five-Year-Old Boy with Marked Hypergastrinemia Associated with H. pylori Infection

A 5-year-old boy was referred to our department for persistent epigastric discomfort. Serum gastrin level was 635 pg/ml with a pepsinogen (PG) I level of 102.7 ng/ml and a PG I/II ratio of 23.2, indicating a hyperacidic state. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed normal gastric mucosal folds and no abnormalities including no gastric mucosal atrophy. To investigate the cause of hypergastrinemia, a Ca injection test was performed and the patient showed no definitive response to a large load of Ca. Contrast-enhanced dynamic CT revealed no space-occupying lesions. The results from these two studies were not consistent with the presence of gastrinoma. A urea breath test showed 2.8%, and a test for the fecal H. pylori antigen was positive. Since H. pylori infection was considered to be a possible cause of hypergastrinemia, eradication therapy was introduced. The therapy was shown to be successful by using a repeated urea breath test that showed a normalization to 0.6%. 7 months after the therapy blood examination showed a gastrin level of 191 pg/ml, a PG I level of 36.7 ng/ml, and a PG I/II ratio of 7.3. An immunostaining study of the gastric mucosa suggested that a decrease in somatostatin secretion due to a reduction in D cell population might have induced hypergastrinemia in this case. In children with H. pylori infection showing marked hypergastrinemia, immunohistochemical examination and therapeutic diagnosis by eradication may be helpful in the differential diagnosis of gastrinoma

The Potential for MFCA Spread in Supply Chains Through Information Sharing

Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) has been published as ISO 14051 and introduced to a number of Japanese companies. This paper investigates the smooth expansion of MFCA to Supply Chains between both Buyer and Suppliers. Our purpose is achieved by questionnaire research (QR). According to the results of our QR, although the requirements of the introduction of MFCA are information sharing and cooperative Kaizen, some assemblers, except automobile companies, have yet to implement this tool. Some case studies of the introduction of MFCA to companies illustrates the use of MFCA information to Kaizen. Additionally, We investigated that the Assembler (machinery, electrical appliances, transportation equipment, and precision equipment) to determine where it would be simplest to introduce MFCA to a supply chain, and to determine which aspects of MFCA should be emphasized. The electrical-appliance companies had a stronger environmental awareness.This research was partially supported by "the Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund (E-1106) of Ministry of the Environment, Japan" and KAKENHI (25380629), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Japan"

中国企業の経営分析 : ハイアールを中心に

第186回産業セミナ

肺癌におけるREG Iα遺伝子の発現は、腺癌、肩平上皮癌で異なったメカニズムにより、予後不良を示唆する。

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of the REG Iα and REG Iβ genes on lung cancer cell lines, and thereafter, the expression of REG family genes (REG Iα, REG Iβ, REG III, HIP/PAP and REG IV) in lung cancer in relation to patient prognosis was evaluated. Lung adenocarcinoma (AD) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cell lines expressing REG Iα or REG Iβ (HLC-1 REG Iα/Iβ and EBC-1 REG Iα/Iβ) were established, and cell number, cell invasive activity, and anchorage-independent cell growth were compared with these variables in the control cells. The expression levels of REG family genes were evaluated by real-time RT-PCR in surgically resected lung cancers, and disease-specific survival (DSS) curves were generated. The HLC-1 REG Iα/Iβ cell line showed significant increases in cell number and anchorage-independent cell growth compared with the control cells. EBC-1 REG Iα/Iβ cells showed significant increases in cell invasive activity and anchorage-independent cell growth as compared with the control cells. Except for the REG Iβ gene, expression of other REG family genes was observed in the surgically resected samples; however, DSS was significantly worse only in stage I patients who were positive for REG Iα expression than in patients who were negative for REG Iα expression. The effects of REG Iα on AD and SCC cells were different in the in vitro study, and a correlation between REG Iα expression and patient prognosis was noted in the in vivo study. Therefore, overexpression of REG Iα is a risk factor for poor prognosis caused by discrete mechanisms in AD and SCC patients.博士（医学）・乙第1339号・平成26年5月28日本文のリンク：http://dx.doi.org/10.3892/or.2013.2739Copyright © Spandidos Publications 201

A Tracking Method for 2D canvas in MR-based interactive painting system

Abstract-We have proposed a mixed reality based painting system. In this paper, we tackle a problem in our previous painting system that fully relies on magnetic sensor that is attached on the canvas; the users needed to detach and attach a sensor on the canvas during painting when they want to switch the canvas. Instead of that, in this paper, we aim to automatically detect the shape of the canvas for registration purpose. Using the shape or region detection method such as MSER (maximally stable extremal regions), we detect and track the shape on the canvas on the captured camera image. We then compute the camera pose for virtually overlay the painting result. Using the brush device, we can draw and paint freely on the tracked canvases. We show that using visual based tracking method, we can generate the equivalent result compared to the result of using the sensor

A Tracking Method for 2D canvas in MR-based interactive painting system

ABSTRACT We have proposed a mixed reality (MR) based painting system. In this paper, we tackle a problem that exists in the conventional method that fully relies on magnetic sensor that is attached on the canvas; the users needed to detach and attach a sensor on the canvas during painting when they want to switch the canvas. Therefore, we aim to automatically detect the shape of the canvas for registration purpose using vision-based tracking method. Using a region detection method such as MSER, we detect and track the shape on the canvas. We then compute the camera pose for virtually overlaying the painting result. Finally, we can generate equivalent results compared to the result of using the sensor

Effect of Paraquat-Induced Oxidative Stress on Insulin Regulation of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-Binding Protein-1 Gene Expression

Oxidative stress is thought to play a role in the development of insulin resistance. In order to elucidate the molecular effect of oxidative stress on liver insulin signaling, we analyzed the effect of paraquat (1,1-dimethyl-4,4-dipyridynium; PQ)-derived oxidative stress on the expression of insulin-dependent genes and activation of liver insulin signaling pathway. Incubation of primary cultured rat hepatocytes with 2 mM PQ for 6 h impaired the suppressive effect of insulin on insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) gene expression, but did not influence glucose-6-phosphatase gene expression. Insulin-dependent phosphorylation or activation of insulin receptor, insulin receptor substrate-1 and -2, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, Akt and forkhead in rhabdomyosarcoma were not affected by PQ pre-treatment. In contrast, PQ treatment impaired insulin-dependent phosphorylation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). These results indicate that PQ-induced oxidative stress impairs insulin-dependent mTOR activation and that this impairment probably causes inhibition of insulin-dependent repression of IGFBP-1 expression

Future Subjects and Possibilities of Environmental Management Accounting for Sustainable Management

松尾聿正教授 退職記念