Evaluation of CT Functional Imaging in Patients with Cerebral Ischemia

CT functional imaging makes it possible to demonstrate the time course of contrast enhancement as visual images by assigning a shade of gray to each pixel within a scan plane depending on the value of the selected transit parameter at the pixel. In order to assess the clinical usefulness of this method, CT functional images were created from dynamic CT scans of 14 patients with ischemic cerebrovascular diseases who showed negative or equivocal findings on the first conventional CT examination. Diagnostic abilities of CT functional images, especially of the first moment (M1-functional images), were tested by the prospective analysis of clinical course and subsequent CT studies, and were compared with those of conventional and dynamic CT scans. Conventional CT scans could only suggest the existence of abnormality in one of the 14 cases. Visual inspection of dynamic CT images and analysis of time-density curves were helpful in detecting the abnormal blood flow in 3 of the 14 cases. M1-functional images could reveal the existence and the extent of ischemic lesions responsible for symptoms in 12 of the 14 cases. CT functional imaging was found to be a useful technique for the detection of cerebral ischemia and for the early diagnosis of cerebral infarction

Functional Imaging of Hepatic Masses Using Computed Tomography

In order to assess the usefulness of CT functional images, twenty one cases with liver masses were studied. We tried to minimize the motion artifacts by immobilizing the patients with a girdle in performing dynamic CT scans, and by discarding some of the segmented images with serious artifacts before constructing functional images. The qualities of images obtained were considered satisfactory. Of the several transit parameters obtained from the dynamic CT scans, we found the first moment (Ml) to be most useful and the effectiveness of Ml-functional images were studied. In all cases with hepatocellular carcinomas (12 cases) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (2 cases), the Ml-functional images showed the viable portions of tumors as accumulations of dark pixels reflecting rapid transit times due to arterial blood supply. In three cases with hepatic cavernous hemangiomas, the lesions were represented as bright areas with a well-defined border. In two cases with hepatic abscesses, the Ml-functional images suggested the presence of hyperemia in the surrounding tissue as demonstrated by bright pixels around the lesions. CT functional imaging was proved to be useful for evaluating the circulatory dynamics of contrast material and the differential diagnosis of liver tumors when conventional or dynamic CT studies failed to provide enough information. This technique enabled overall analysis of time-density curves for the entire plane of an image semiautomatically and without the subjective maneuver of setting ROI's (regions of interest)

Disseminated Mycobacterium genavense infection mimicking TAFRO syndrome

TAFRO syndrome is a rare variant of idiopathic multicentric Castleman's disease, for which disseminated non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infection must be excluded. However, due to the slow and fastidious growth of the organisms, identification of the pathogen is often challenging. We herein describe a case of disseminated Mycobacterium genavence infection, in which manifestations of the patient were confusingly similar to those of TAFRO syndrome. A 69-year-old Japanese man presented with prolonged fever accompanying pain in his back and ribs on the right side. Systemic investigations revealed thrombocytopenia, marked elevation of alkaline phosphatase, anasarca (pleural effusion and ascites), megakaryocytosis in the bone marrow, and hepatomegaly. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed diffuse, T1-and T2-low-intensity spotted lesions on his vertebral bodies, but biopsy showed inconclusive results. The patient met the diagnostic criteria of TAFRO syndrome and was started on prednisolone, which improved his general condition shortly thereafter. Blood culture after 42 days of incubation revealed the presence of Mycobacterium; however, we considered it a contamination at that time because no organisms grew on conventional agars, and the patient was discharged. Ten weeks after the isolation of Mycobacterium, he developed persistent fever and was readmitted. This time, vertebral bone mallow biopsy demonstrated a large amount of mycobacterium, which was later successfully identified as M. genavense by sequencing analysis. Under a final diagnosis of disseminated M. genavense infection, we treated the patient with clarithromycin, rifampicin, and ethambutol. This case highlighted that disseminated NTM infection may follow a similar clinical course as that of TAFRO syndrome

EFL学習者のリスニング影響をおよぼす時間的要因：日本語母語EFL学習者を対象とする調査

A bulk of research has been conducted to clarify the effect of speech rate and pause duration on listening comprehension. Some previous studies have shown that a slower speech rate facilitates listening comprehension, while others have yielded opposite results. The conflicting results imply that it is very difficult to specify the most appropriate speech rate for every EFL listener. This study aims to clarify experimentally how pause duration and articulation rates affect EFL learners\u27 listening comprehension by precisely controlling the two parameters: articulation rate and pause duration. Through two listening tests given to Japanese EFL learners, we obtained the result that longer pauses (450 ms) facilitate the listening comprehension of lower intermediate EFL learners, while slower articulation rate does not necessarily have a positive effect on learners\u27 listening comprehension. This means a pause inserted in a passage provides listeners with additional information processing time and thus enhances the comprehensibility of the aural input

Overcoming epithelial-mesenchymal transition-mediated drug resistance with monensin-based combined therapy in non-small cell lung cancer

Background The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key process in tumor progression and metastasis and is also associated with drug resistance. Thus, controlling EMT status is a research of interest to conquer the malignant tumors. Materials and methods A drug repositioning analysis of transcriptomic data from a public cell line database identified monensin, a widely used in veterinary medicine, as a candidate EMT inhibitor that suppresses the conversion of the EMT phenotype. Using TGF-β-induced EMT cell line models, the effects of monensin on the EMT status and EMT-mediated drug resistance were assessed. Results TGF-β treatment induced EMT in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines and the EGFR-mutant NSCLC cell lines with TGF-β-induced EMT acquired resistance to EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor. The addition of monensin effectively suppressed the TGF-β-induced-EMT conversion, and restored the growth inhibition and the induction of apoptosis by the EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Conclusion Our data suggested that combined therapy with monensin might be a useful strategy for preventing EMT-mediated acquired drug resistance

Discovery of Shocked Molecular Clouds Associated with the Shell-type Supernova Remnant RX J0046.5-7308 in the Small Magellanic Cloud

RX J0046.5−7308 is a shell-type supernova remnant (SNR) in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We carried out new 12CO(J = 1–0, 3–2) observations toward the SNR using Mopra and the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment. We found eight molecular clouds (A–H) along the X-ray shell of the SNR. The typical cloud size and mass are ∼10–15 pc and ∼1000–3000 M☉, respectively. The X-ray shell is slightly deformed and has the brightest peak in the southwestern shell where two molecular clouds A and B are located. The four molecular clouds A, B, F, and G have high intensity ratios of 12CO(J = 3–2)/12CO(J = 1–0) > 1.2, which are not attributable to any identified internal infrared sources or high-mass stars. The H I cavity and its expanding motion are found toward the SNR, which are likely created by strong stellar winds from a massive progenitor. We suggest that the molecular clouds A–D, F, and G and H I clouds within the wind-blown cavity at VLSR = 117.1–122.5 km s−1 are associated with the SNR. The X-ray spectroscopy reveals the dynamical age of - + 26000 2000 1000 yr and the progenitor mass of 30 M☉, which is also consistent with the proposed scenario. We determine physical conditions of the giant molecular cloud LIRS 36A using the large velocity gradient analysis with archival data sets of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array; the kinematic temperature is - + 72 37 50 K and the number density of molecular hydrogen is - + 1500 300 600 cm−3 . The next generation of γ-ray observations will allow us to study the pion-decay γ-rays from the molecular clouds in the SMC SNR.This study was financially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS, grant Nos. 16K17664, 18J01417, 19K14758). H.S. was supported by “Building of Consortia for the Development of Human Resources in Science and Technology” of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT, grant No. 01-M1-0305). H.M. was supported by World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI). K. Tokuda was supported by NAOJ ALMA Scientific Research (grant No. 2016-03B). H.S. was also supported by the ALMA Japan Research Grant of NAOJ Chile Observatory (grant Nos. NAOJ-ALMA-201 and NAOJALMA-208)

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements