Concurrent Administration of Trastuzumab and Anthracycline for Breast Cancer Treatment: An Unassailable Contraindication?

Anthracyclines have a severe adverse effect in cardiac function. Same here, trastuzumab has cardiotoxicity even in single use and also should lead to exacerbation of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity. Concurrent administration of anthracycline and trastuzumab is dangerous, but sequential administration is also dangerous. We should carefully design trastuzumab-containing regimens based on anthracycline dosing, regardless of whether it is concurrent or sequential. Contraindication of concurrent use of anthracyclines and trastuzumab has distracted us from its potential efficacy as well as from the inherent danger of anthracyclines together with trastuzumab. Avoidance of concurrent dosing is insufficient. As anthracyclines and trastuzumab are essential agents for HER2-positive breast cancer, and so, we must continue to address this issue from both safety and efficacy aspects

Fatal traffic accidents and forensic medicine

AbstractIn the event of a traffic accident fatality, the death is reported as an “unusual death,” an inquest is conducted, and, if necessary, a forensic autopsy is performed to prove any causal relationship between the accident and the death, identify the vehicle at fault, and determine the cause of the accident. A forensic autopsy of a traffic accident fatality needs to both determine the cause of death and identify the mechanism of injury, an analytical task that requires observation of three major traffic accident factors: the body, the vehicles involved, and the scene of the accident. Also crucial to determining the cause of death is the process of looking into whether the people involved in the accident had any diseases that might affect their driving performance or were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In order to reduce the number of people killed in traffic accidents, it will be important to promote joint research uniting forensic medicine, clinical medicine, automotive engineering, and road engineering, take measures to limit the impact of inebriated pedestrians and pedestrians suffering from dementia, and ensure proper screening of alcohol and illegal drug consumption in drivers

Metallothionein as an Anti-Inflammatory Mediator

The integration of knowledge concerning the regulation of MT, a highly conserved, low molecular weight, cystein-rich metalloprotein, on its proposed functions is necessary to clarify how MT affects cellular processes. MT expression is induced/enhanced in various tissues by a number of physiological mediators. The cellular accumulation of MT depends on the availability of cellular zinc derived from the diet. MT modulates the binding and exchange/transport of heavy metals such as zinc, cadmium, or copper under physiological conditions and cytoprotection from their toxicities, and the release of gaseous mediators such as hydroxyl radicals or nitric oxide. In addition, MT reportedly affects a number of cellular processes, such as gene expression, apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation. Given the genetic approach, the apparently healthy status of MT-deficient mice argues against an essential biological role for MT; however, this molecule may be critical in cells/tissues/organs in times of stress, since MT expression is also evoked/enhanced by various stresses. In particular, because metallothionein (MT) is induced by inflammatory stress, its roles in inflammation are implied. Also, MT expression in various organs/tissues can be enhanced by inflammatory stimuli, implicating in inflammatory diseases. In this paper, we review the role of MT of various inflammatory conditions

Some consequences of the A/A-bar distinction of scrambling

It has been discussed that clause intermal scrambling (CIS) involves A or A-bar movement whereas long distance scrambling (LDS) involves A-bar movement (cf. Mahajan (1989), Webelhuth (1989), Saito (1992)). ..

Model predictive emissions control of a diesel engine airpath: Design and experimental evaluation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163480/2/rnc5188.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163480/1/rnc5188_am.pd

How Two Brains Make One Synchronized Mind in the Inferior Frontal Cortex: fNIRS-Based Hyperscanning During Cooperative Singing.

One form of communication that is common in all cultures is people singing together. Singing together reflects an index of cognitive synchronization and cooperation of human brains. Little is known about the neural synchronization mechanism, however. Here, we examined how two brains make one synchronized behavior using cooperated singing/humming between two people and hyperscanning, a new brain scanning technique. Hyperscanning allowed us to observe dynamic cooperation between interacting participants. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to simultaneously record the brain activity of two people while they cooperatively sang or hummed a song in face-to-face (FtF) or face-to-wall (FtW) conditions. By calculating the inter-brain wavelet transform coherence between two interacting brains, we found a significant increase in the neural synchronization of the left inferior frontal cortex (IFC) for cooperative singing or humming regardless of FtF or FtW compared with singing or humming alone. On the other hand, the right IFC showed an increase in neural synchronization for humming only, possibly due to more dependence on musical processing

Understanding the Effects of Current Students Receiving Support from Graduates and Graduate Associations at their Alma Mater

Recently, the importance of the role of graduates and graduate associations in supporting current students at their alma mater to maximize the performance of the university has been firmly established in Japan. In a previous experimental study focused on graduate services at our alma mater (2012-2014), the authors found that support from graduates and graduate associations to current students at the university not only benefitted the university but also provided the graduates and current students alike with the opportunity to gain in certain expertise. Students with the experience of receiving support from graduates of that university are highly likely to have the urge to support the university and its students after they themselves graduate. Furthermore, if students are fostered with this support of graduates, the strength of the role that the university plays in society will be heightened, and this will benefit graduates and lead to them maintaining and strengthening their links with their alma mater. There had been no nationwide study conducted on this. For this reason, this research was undertaken to investigate the current state of affairs in universities across the country in terms of how an attachment and sense of belonging to the university is fomented in graduate and current students alike due to support of current students by graduates and placement of interdependent enterprises to raise alumni consciousness. Of the 771 national, public, and private universities in Japan in 2016, a questionnaire was sent to all eligible members of 643 graduate associations across these universities in February 2017. Of these, 250 graduate associations returned completed questionnaires from their members, a response rate of 38.9%. A total of 1,702 questionnaires were returned. This paper presents the findings of this study and reports specific details and trends found regarding the nature of support of current students by graduate associations of those universities. In addition, the possibility of the formation of an attachment to and sense of belonging to one’s alma mater will be discussed.本研究，及び本報告におけるアンケート調査は，日本学術振興会「科研費15K04340」の助成を受けています。（基盤研究（C）「大学の持続的発展に資する校友（大学・学生・卒業生）事業の意義と可能性に関する研究」，研究代表者：大川一毅

Characterization of genetically modified mice for phosphoglycerate mutase, a vitally-essential enzyme in glycolysis

Models de ratolí; Glucòlisi; Diabetis mellitusModelos de ratón; Glucólisis; Diabetes mellitusMouse models; Glycolysis; Diabetes mellitusGlycolytic metabolism is closely involved in physiological homeostasis and pathophysiological states. Among glycolytic enzymes, phosphoglycerate mutase (PGAM) has been reported to exert certain physiological role in vitro, whereas its impact on glucose metabolism in vivo remains unclear. Here, we report the characterization of Pgam1 knockout mice. We observed that homozygous knockout mice of Pgam1 were embryonic lethal. Although we previously reported that both PGAM-1 and -2 affect global glycolytic profile of cancers in vitro, in vivo glucose parameters were less affected both in the heterozygous knockout of Pgam1 and in Pgam2 transgenic mice. Thus, the impact of PGAM on in vivo glucose metabolism is rather complex than expected before.This work was supported in part by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grants No. 26310103 to HK and No. 15K19283 to HK), and by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST JP17gm0610002h0306 to HK). HK; Hiroshi Kondoh