Search

An accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) system and an automated graphitization line were installed at Yamagata University (YU) in 2009. Approximately 2000 samples are measured per year using the YU-AMS system. The long-term stability of the system was assessed by measuring the standard sample IAEA-C7 graphitized by the automated graphitization line. In March 2014, a second automated graphitization line and an additional ion source for the YU-AMS system were installed to meet the requirement of 14C measurement for pharmacological and medical applications. A phosphoric acid treatment system was also developed for the radiocarbon dating of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in shell and coral samples. Performance tests on the new YU-AMS system were carried out by measuring the C-series standard samples (C1-C9) and oxalic acid II (HOxII) obtained from IAEA and NIST, respectively. The results of the 14C concentration pMC are in good agreement with the consensus values. Performance tests for medical applications were also carried out by measuring the 14C concentration of 14C-glucose in human plasma.

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease that affects approximately 10% of reproductive-age women. Inguinal endometriosis is uncommon, affecting only 0.6% of all patients with endometriosis. We present a case of inguinal endometriosis with a disappearing mass preoperatively.A 44-year-old woman presented with a palpable mass and pain in her left inguinal region. Computed tomography showed a 20-mm mass near the pubic tubercle. After 2 months of observation, the mass became impalpable and could not be confirmed by computed tomography; however, the inguinal pain did not improve regardless of menstrual cycles. Resection of the inguinal mass and the entire extraperitoneal portion of the uterine round ligament was performed. Histopathological examination revealed endometrial glands and stroma with CD10-positive cells, which confirmed inguinal endometriosis diagnosis. Erythrophagocytic macrophages indicated endometriosis-related hematoma absorption. Her symptoms disappeared after surgery, and no postoperative complications occurred.For treating inguinal endometriosis, the complete removal of the mass and the entire extraperitoneal portion of the round ligament by an anterior approach is necessary to prevent postoperative residual symptoms and recurrence. However, the preoperative diagnosis of inguinal endometriosis remains a challenge and is frequently discovered incidentally by intraoperative findings and pathological examination.Clinicians should have a high suspicion of inguinal endometriosis and improved diagnostic precision to select the appropriate surgical approach. Regardless of menstrual variability, the feature of a decreased mass size caused by endometriosis-related hematoma absorption can serve as a preoperative diagnostic clue.

Introduction Jejunoileal diverticulitis is uncommon and poorly understood. We report a case of whole jejunoileal diverticulosis with recurrent inflammation and perforation. Case presentation A 72-year-old man with hemodialysis presented with fever and abdominal pain. The patient had a medical history of twice having jejunoileal diverticulitis. Serum testing indicated a white blood cell count of 15,670/μL and a C-reactive protein level of 10.31 mg/dL. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography showed jejunoileal diverticulosis with the concomitant mesenteric fat opacity and a 60-mm × 45-mm mass lesion containing extraluminal air bubbles. Jejunoileal partial resection was performed. Multiple diverticulosis was recognized over the entire jejunoileum, and the pouches existed along entry points of the bowel vascular supply through the mesentery. Intestinal resection was limited to the intestinal loop associated with complicated diverticulitis with abscess. Macroscopic examination revealed multiple jejunoileal diverticulosis. In the reddened mucosa, the diverticulitis and mesenteric perforation were recognized. Microscopic examination showed protrusion of mucosal and submucosal layers through a defect in the muscular layer with gangrenous inflammation. These findings supported a diagnosis of jejunoileal diverticulitis with perforation and abscess. The patient had no postoperative complications and no recurrence within 6 months. Discussion Treatment for jejunoileal diverticulitis should be individualized for each patient according to their degree of inflammation, recurrence, and the patient's background. Conclusion Extensive diverticulosis over the entire jejunoileum is very rare. In this case, the section of the inflamed diverticulosis can be distinguished and resected to avoid a short-bowel syndrome, which should lead to an uneventful postoperative course., Highlights • Jejunoileal diverticulitis is uncommon in clinical practice and poorly understood. • Multiple diverticula were recognized over the entire jejunoileum in our case. • Treatment for jejunoileal diverticulitis should be individualized for each patient. • The section involving only the inflamed diverticulosis should be resected to avoid a short-bowel.

Back ground According to the Gastric Cancer Treatment Guidelines, paclitaxel (PTX) plus ramucirumab (RAM) is recommended as second-line treatment for advanced gastric cancer and the regimen included nab-PTX is a conditional recommendation. However, the selection criteria of nab-PTX is not clear. Therefore, we carried out a narrative approach to patients who have already been treated with PTX to clarify the selection criteria for nab-PTX. Patients and Method Questionnaire survey on the problems of PTX premedication, the symptoms due to PTX containing alcohol, and infusion time was conducted for gastric cancer patients who had been treated with PTX since July 2017. Results Thirteen patients answered the questionnaire. Man/female was 10/3 patients and the median age (range 37-97) was 78 years. The results of the questionnaire were the inconvenience due to premedication: no complaints/acceptable with somewhat dissatisfaction/very dissatisfaction; 7/2/4 patients, the drowsiness due to premedication: not troubled/troubled; 7/6 patients, the symptoms due to alcohol: not troubled/troubled; 12/1 patients, and the reduction of infusion time to 30 minutes in case changing to nab-PTX: no benefits/a little benefit/great benefits; 3/5/5 patients. Four out of thirteen patients visited hospital by driving a private car for first-line treatment. All of four patients were dissatisfied that they could not drive to the hospital for treatment with PTX. Conclusion Although nab-PTX is a conditionally recommended drug for advanced gastric cancer, our results of the questionnaire might suggest that we can select the patients who are appropriate for treatment with nab-PTX by clarifying the inconvenience of daily life associated with premedication, the way of transportation for visiting the hospital, and the benefits by shortening of infusion time.

To recognize “normal” hepatic hemodynamics after live donor liver transplantation (LDLT), we analyzed Doppler parameters on recipients with a right liver graft and donors after extended left hepatectomy. Theoretically these values should be the same. From April 2000 to October 2004, 20 LDLTs were performed using a right liver graft. The 10 recipients without postoperative complications and their donors were included in this study. Portal venous velocity (PVV; cm/s), hepatic arterial peak systolic velocity (cm/s), and hepatic venous peak velocity (HVPV; cm/s) were measured during the first 2 weeks. In donors PVV and HVPV after LDLT were significantly higher after than before left hepatectomy: 19.2 ± 4.2 vs. 31.5 ± 13.0 cm/s ( P = .013) and 23.0 ± 7.2 vs. 41.8 ± 10.3 cm/s respectively ( P = .010). However, there were mild degrees of increased PVV and HVPV. In recipients, a markedly increased PVV (106.3 ± 45.2 cm/s on day 1) was significantly higher than that in donors on each postoperative day. The hepatic arterial resistive index in recipients was also significantly higher than that in donors on each postoperative day, for example, 0.72 ± 0.11 vs 0.62 ± 0.04 on day 1 ( P = .0326). In conclusion, we have shown “abnormal” hepatic hemodynamics in even those recipients without complications during the early postoperative period after LDLT.

Rutile-type Ru 1− x V x O 2 nanoparticles possessing high surface area were prepared by a polymerizable-complex method and its electrochemical supercapacitor behavior was studied. X-ray diffractometry, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and N 2 adsorption/desorption measurements were used to characterize the structure of the products. The electrochemical supercapacitor behavior of thick and thin films was studied by cyclic voltammetry in various acidic, neutral, and alkaline electrolytes. Ru 1− x V x O 2 exhibited extremely enhanced supercapacitive properties compared to pure RuO 2 . The highest surface redox activity was achieved with an acidic electrolyte. Ru 1− x V x O 2 showed negligible surface redox activity in neutral electrolytes.

The inverse phase variations between the East Asian and Indian Ocean summer monsoons on the interannual timescale result from the El Nino-Southern Oscillation activity in the tropical Pacific, which potentially provides a new way for studying paleo-ENSO. Here we reconstruct a 12 000-yr proxy record for the East Asian summer monsoon from δ 13 C time series of the plant cellulose of the Hani peat bog in the northeastern China. The comparison of it with the peat proxy record of the Indian Ocean summer monsoon suggests that the El Nino conditions are coincident with strong East Asian summer monsoons, weak Indian summer monsoons, and drift ice events in the North Atlantic at both orbital and millennial time scales. The orbital-scale inverse phase relationships between the monsoons indicate the occurrence of a long-term ENSO-like pattern, confirming the sensitivity of the monsoon systems associated with ENSO to insolation forcing. The nine inverse phase variations on the millennial time scales may suggest the nine El Nino-like patterns superimposing the long-term ENSO-like pattern. The inverse phase variations between the monsoons also show close correspondence to the drift ice events at high northern latitudes. In every case when the abrupt ice-rafted debris events occurred in the North Atlantic, the inverse phase relationship established, and the El Nino-like pattern occurred in the tropical Pacific correspondingly. The discussions on the influence of ocean thermohaline circulation on these global linkages have been made.

Apparent 14C ages of human and faunal remains from the Kitakogane shell midden assigned to the Early Jomon period were measured to estimate the reservoir effect on different species. In previous studies, northern fur seal and Japanese deer had showed significant age differences of 860 14C yr, in concordance with the large reservoir ages observed in pre-bomb shells from the western North Pacific. However, the present study suggests that other sedentary marine organisms, including porpoise, Japanese sea lion and scallop, show a smaller reservoir age-offset at 720 14C yr at the same site. The ethology of northern fur seal was probably responsible for this discrepancy because of a larger reservoir age in the Sea of Okhotsk into which they migrated. This suggests the reservoir effect on humans was more complicated than a simple linear mixing between marine and terrestrial reservoirs in the case of the NW Pacific coast. It was suggested that an interspecies comparison of 14C age-offsets could produce more precise estimation of the marine reservoir effect in the past.

There has been a number of investigations for the correlation between the Asia monsoon and the North Atlantic climate for the last glacial; however, little research has been done for the present interglacial, the Holocene. Here we present for the first time a high-resolution composite proxy record for the Indian Ocean summer monsoon spanning around 12 000 years based on the δ13C time series of both a single plant species (Carex mulieensis) remains cellulose and the total plant assemblage cellulose in the Hongyuan peat bog from the Tibet Plateau. The records show that the strength of the Indian Ocean summer monsoon had abrupt variations during the last 12 000 years. The weakest monsoon occurred in the Younger Dryas period. Following rapid strengthening from around 11 200 to 10 800 a BP the monsoon kept a generally strong level for around 5300 years. From around 5500 a BP onwards the monsoon strength tended to gradual decrease. In addition, there are a series of abrupt variation events of the monsoon strength on centennial to millennial time scales, which superimpose the general tendency of the monsoon variation. In every case when the ice-rafted debris events in the North Atlantic occurred, the summer monsoon strength decreased correspondingly. These evidences show that teleconnection between the Indian Ocean summer monsoon and the North Atlantic climate is present not only in the last glacial but also in the Holocene, which may be linked to abrupt reorganizations of the ocean thermohaline circulation, leading to redistribution of energy, changing temperature and moisture gradient over the southern subtropical Indian Ocean, and eventually controlling the variability of the Indian Ocean summer monsoon.

Photosynthetic pigments and other indicators of phytoplankton were analyzed in a dated undisturbed sediment core obtained from the southern basin of Lake Baikal to reveal temporal changes in the phytoplankton community in the lake through the last glacial/post-glacial transition. The sedimentation age of the core spans the last 24 14C ka. Chlorophyll a, its derivatives, carotenoids and total organic carbon (TOC) started to increase after 15 14C ka, and the onset of biogenic silica occurred at 10 14C ka. This indicated that the post-glacial growth of diatoms was preceded by that of other phytoplankton groups. In the record of the pigments and TOC, a temporary decrease was observed in the period 11.5–10.5 14C ka, corresponding to the Younger Dryas cold period. The similarity found between the depth profiles of pyropheophytin a and steryl chlorin esters formed through predation of phytoplankton by zooplankton and that of TOC suggested the important contribution of fecal pellets to sedimentary organic matter in the lake.

Non-invasive diagnosis of cirrhosis by transit-time analysis of an ultrasound contrast agent has been reported, even though the mechanism by which contrast arrives to the hepatic vein earlier in cirrhosis than in normal controls is unknown. The aim of this study is to assess whether the earlier appearance of contrast in the hepatic vein depends on intrahepatic or extrahepatic causes.There were 15 participants: six volunteers, three patients with hepatitis, and six with cirrhosis. The contrast agent was given intravenously, and transit-time analysis of the hepatic artery, portal vein and hepatic vein was performed. The time-acoustic intensity curves in the three vessels were analyzed by an image and cineloop display and quantification software package.The hepatic artery and portal vein arrival times were not significantly different among the three groups. On the other hand, hepatic vein arrival times were significantly earlier in cirrhosis (median 18 seconds) compared with arrival times in hepatitis patients (median 30 seconds, P0.001) and in healthy volunteers (median 31 seconds, P0.001). These results give support to a previous pilot study and indicate that most of the time delay in hepatic vein arrival time between cirrhosis and the other groups originated from intrahepatic circulation abnormalities.This study confirms that the earlier appearance of contrast in the hepatic vein observed in cirrhosis is due to intrahepatic, and not extrahepatic, hemodynamic changes.

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) was used to measure radiocarbon ( 14 C) in bones excavated from the Late Jomon shell midden at the Kitakogane site, Hokkaido, Japan. Comparison between 14 C ages of terrestrial and marine mammals from the same site showed systematic age differences which could be attributed to the 14 C marine reservoir effect in the western North Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, this effect was clearly observed in human remains from this site, indicating a heavy dependence on seafood. Dietary habit was estimated from δ 13 C and δ 15 N measured in the same human remains. Apparent 14 C ages indicated 79% of protein originated from marine sources.