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We present a rare case of a 47-year-old man who developed pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema after a high pressure hose accidentally injected air and sand particles into his right upper arm. On presentation, he complained of dyspnoea and chest pain. He had palpable subcutaneous emphysema extending from the upper arm to his neck, face, and trunk. Plain X-ray films and computed tomography showed pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema, but no sand particles. Conservative treatment was done with close observation, and serial radiographs were obtained. There was complete resolution of the mediastinal and subcutaneous air after about two weeks with no evidence of infection. This was an extremely rare case of pneumomediastinum and severe subcutaneous emphysema occurring after accidental air injection injury to the upper arm. With regard to how air entered the mediastinal cavity, possible pathways are discussed. (Hong Kong j.emerg.med. 2014;21:51-54)

We present a rare case of a 47-year-old man who developed pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema after a high pressure hose accidentally injected air and sand particles into his right upper arm. On presentation, he complained of dyspnoea and chest pain. He had palpable subcutaneous emphysema extending from the upper arm to his neck, face, and trunk. Plain X-ray films and computed tomography showed pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema, but no sand particles. Conservative treatment was done with close observation, and serial radiographs were obtained. There was complete resolution of the mediastinal and subcutaneous air after about two weeks with no evidence of infection. This was an extremely rare case of pneumomediastinum and severe subcutaneous emphysema occurring after accidental air injection injury to the upper arm. With regard to how air entered the mediastinal cavity, possible pathways are discussed. (Hong Kong j.emerg.med. 2014;21:51-54)

We present an optical and thermal design of one of major instrumental payload planned for SOLAR-C mission/Plan-B (high resolution spectroscopic option): the telescope assembly of Solar Ultra-violet Visible and near IR observing Telescope (SUVIT). To accommodate a launcher's nosecone size, a wide observing wavelength coverage from UV (down to 280 nm) through near IR (up to 1100 nm), and an 0.1 arcsec resolution in the field of 200 arcsec diameter, a short telescope design was made for a 1.5 m aperture solar Gregorian telescope with the compact design of three-mirror collimator unit.

In order to investigate physical conditions of ionized gas in galaxies, as well as its kinematics, we have developed the Kyoto tridimensional spectrograph II. It is a multimode optical instrument, including integral field spectrograph (IFS) and Fabry-Perot imager modes. We have designed it compact so that we can mount it on 2 m class telescopes as well as on the 8.2 m Subaru telescope. Special care was taken to obtain high-quality calibrations in the IFS mode. In order to remove the chromatic aberration of micropupil images produced by a lenslet array, we have introduced a corrector lens system behind the lenslet array. The internal calibration system simulates the telescope optics so that the system provides micropupil images identical to those produced by the telescope. The rigidness of the instrument provides the positional stability of micropupil images. We have succeeded in test observations of all the modes on Subaru and the University of Hawaii 88 in (UH88) telescopes and have verified the performance of the instrument. This includes the instrument efficiencies as well as the effective sky background subtraction and the minimization of crosstalk effects in the IFS mode. In the IFS mode a spatial resolution of 0.4? was obtained in good seeing conditions. Each of 37 × 37 lenslets subtends 0.1? in Subaru's case. This samples the image size well. A wider field of view is emphasized in the case of UH88.

The ability of O2 metabolites derived from the xanthine-xanthine oxidase system to inhibit mitochondrial function was examined using freshly isolated rat liver mitochondria. Under 2,4-dinitrophenol-uncoupled conditions, mitochondria exposed to free radicals exhibited a significant decrease in O2 consumption supported by NAD(+)-linked substrates, but showed almost no change in O2 consumption in the presence of succinate and ascorbate. Oxidative stress caused the loss of intramitochondrial nicotinamide nucleotides, and addition of NAD+ fully prevented any fall in O2 consumption with NAD(+)-linked substrates. The activity of electron-transfer complex I (NADH oxidase and NADH-cytochrome c oxidoreductase) and the energy-dependent reduction of NAD+ by succinate were unaltered by oxidative stress. Exposure to free radicals also had an uncoupling effect at all three coupling sites. The degree of mitochondrial swelling was closely correlated with the inhibition of State-3 oxidation of site-I substrates and with the increase in State-4 oxidation of succinate. The immunosuppressive agent cyclosporin A completely prevented the mitochondrial damage induced by oxygen free radicals (swelling, Ca2+ release, sucrose trapping, uncoupling and selective inhibition of the mitochondrial respiration of site-I substrates). The same protective effect was found when Ca2+ cycling was prevented, either by chelating Ca2+ with EGTA or by inhibiting Ca2+ reuptake with Ruthenium Red. These findings suggest that the deleterious effect of free radicals on mitochondria in the present experimental system was triggered by the cyclosporin A-sensitive and Ca(2+)-dependent membrane transition, and not by direct impairment of the mitochondrial inner-membrane enzymes.

Adaptive optics (AO) enables us to observe objects with high spatial resolution, which is important in most astrophysical observations. Most AO systems are operational at near-infrared wavelengths but not in the optical range, because optical observations require a much higher performance to obtain the same Strehl ratio as near-infrared observations. Therefore, to enable AO-assisted observations at optical wavelengths, we connected the Kyoto Tridimensional Spectrograph II (Kyoto 3DII), which can perform integral field spectroscopy, to the second generation AO system of the Subaru Telescope (AO188). We developed a new beam-splitter that reflects light below 594 nm for the wavefront sensors of AO188 and transmits above 644 nm for Kyoto 3DII. We also developed a Kyoto 3DII mount at the Nasmyth focus of the Subaru Telescope. In test observations, the spatial resolution of the combined AO188-Kyoto 3DII was higher than that in natural seeing conditions, even at 6500 ?. The full width at half maximum of an undersampled (1.5 spaxels) bright guide star (7.0 mag in the V-band) was 0.?12.