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A massive earthquake of magnitude Mw 7.3 shook Kermanshah Province in Western Iran along the Iraqi border on November 12, 2017. The epicenter of the earthquake was approximately 10 km southwest of Ezgeleh Town in Kermanshah Province. Field observations almost 4 months after the disaster indicated that the earthquake had caused tremendous damage to most structures in both urban and rural areas, and left an enormous amount of disaster waste. To investigate the status of the damage and disposal of the disaster waste, remote sensing was conducted using an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone). Through the capture of low-altitude images by drone and the generation of 3D models, the quantity of debris accumulated in a waste disposal facility near Sarpol Zahab was estimated at approximately 480,000 m3. A compositional analysis of the disaster waste was performed using an imaging technique. This revealed that the disaster waste was largely composed of concrete (39.6%), hollow brick (35.4%), and gypsum (21.2%) in the urban area, whereas soil was the dominant component (77.4%) in the rural area. The damage caused to most buildings was essentially due to their non-standard construction. The management of debris from the damaged buildings was a critical issue for the authorities, and the lack of preparedness was a serious drawback that consumed an enormous amount of time, budget, and workforce. A practical post-disaster preparedness plan would help the decision-makers and the public to manage the otherwise overwhelming nature of the post-disaster conditions in a more reasonable manner.

A series of earthquakes struck Kumamoto City area, SW Japan, including a magnitude 7.3 (mainshock) at 01:25 (Japan Standard Time: JST) on April 16 and a foreshock with a magnitude 6.5 at 21:26 JST on April 14, 2016. The earthquakes tremendously damaged the vulnerable structures and left a huge amount of disaster waste. Immediately after the earthquake, the Kumamoto Prefectural Government designated a number of locations for the erection of temporary waste storage facilities essentially in the vicinity of the most affected zones for the purpose of removing of the disaster waste from the damaged areas and their accumulation in the properly managed sites. The facilities provided sufficient ground for the temporary storage, handling, early sorting, and crushing of metallic objects, wood and its derivatives, glass, soil and rock, concrete, and household appliances. Mashiki Machi (town) and Nishihara Village were the nearest settlements to the epicenters of Kumamoto earthquakes that were severely damaged. The estimated amount of the disaster waste generated in Kumamoto Prefecture was about 2.89 million tons, the recycling and disposal of which must be completed within two years from the date of earthquake. Among various waste disposal facilities, the Nishihara Village storage facility was selected as the target for in-depth site investigation and disaster waste estimation. Drone survey was also conducted at different intervals at Nishihara Village facility with emphasis on wood debris. The drone technique employed in this survey demonstrated a reliable method for capturing high-resolution images from the selected site in a remarkably short period of time, and a relatively quick measure for estimating the amount of the disaster waste immediately after the disaster occurred.

The combination chemotherapy regimen of eribulin (ERI) and trastuzumab (TRA)—the ERI-TRA regimen—has been shown to be highly tolerable for patients with recurrent or metastatic human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. However, no sufficient clinical evidence is available for the long-term safety profile of the regimen. We report on three patients in the Phase I combination study of the regimen, for whom the regimen could be conducted over the long term. Patient #1 was a 68-year-old woman and underwent the regimen until cycle 23. Patient #2 was a 61-year-old woman and underwent the regimen until cycle 27. Patient #3 was a 59-year-old woman and underwent the regimen until cycle 22. All these patients had undergone TRA-based combination therapy before the onset of the regimen. Any new categories of adverse events did not occur in association with the long-term combination chemotherapy. Neutropenia experienced by these patients was reversible and easily manageable by dose adjustment (interruption/delay and reduction). Neither increase in the risk of cardiomyopathy nor the worsening of peripheral neuropathy greater than grade 1 was found. The present regimen was suggested to be a novel chemotherapeutic option for patients with HER2-positive recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. The fact that the long-term ERI-TRA regimen was successfully conducted for these patients can be supplementary clinical information that is beneficial for clinical oncologists.

A 61-year-old woman was referred to our hospital with epigastralgia and appetite loss. Barium examination and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed uneven erythematous mucosa with multiple elevated lesions from the gastric fornix to the upper corpus. Abdominal computed tomography showed thickening of the wall of the fornix and swelling of perigastric lymph nodes, but whole-body gallium scintigraphy and bone marrow examination did not indicate further involvement. Biopsy specimens showed diffuse infiltration of large atypical lymphoid cells in which Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was detected by in situ hybridization. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), stage II1, was diagnosed. Combination chemotherapy [cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP)], was given, and this was followed by radiotherapy. Partial remission was achieved by chemotherapy, but the disease progressed rapidly during radiotherapy. Because the reported prognosis of EBV-positive DLBCL is unfavorable, the therapeutic strategy for EBV-positive gastric DLBCL should be considered carefully.

According to official Chinese statistics, sulfur dioxide emissions dropped significantly in the late 1990s before rising again. Some researchers have expressed concern over data reliability, however, and the sample of enterprises represented by sulfur dioxide emission statistics generates only one third of China’s industrial output, which may result in undercounting of emissions. In addition, coal production and consumption during the late 1990s may have been undercounted due to politically motivated manipulation of numbers, and this phenomenon may also partly explain the reported reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions. Coal sulfur content derived from coal supply-side information is generally found to be higher than from demand-side information used to calculate emissions for official statistics. Meanwhile, no solid data are available that demonstrate improvement of the desulfurization of smokestack emissions. All of these are potential factors in the underestimation of China’s emissions.

Claudins are involved in the formation of tight junctions in epithelial and endothelial cells. Claudins form a family of 24 members displaying organ- and tissue-specific patterns of expression. In the present study, we evaluated the specificity of the claudin-2 expression in various normal human tissues and gastrointestinal cancers by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. In 14 various normal tissues, claudin-2 mRNA was expressed in the kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach, and small intestine; the highest level of which was detected in the kidney. Colorectal cancers (CRCs) expressed claudin-2 mRNA at high levels. Immunohistochemical analysis of claudin-2 in 146 gastric cancers (GCs) and 99 CRCs demonstrated claudin-2 expression in 2.1% of GCs and 25.3% of CRCs, respectively. There was no obvious correlation between claudin-2 expression and clinicopathological parameters of CRCs. These results suggest that the expression of claudin-2 may involve organ specificity, and increased expression of claudin-2 may participate in colorectal carcinogenesis.

Cadherin-17 (CDH17), also called liver-intestine cadherin, is a structurally unique member of the cadherin superfamily. Our serial analysis of gene expression demonstrated that CDH17 was one of the most up-regulated genes in advanced gastric carcinomas. CDH17 expression is known to be regulated by Cdx2. In the present study, we examined the expression of CDH17 in primary gastric carcinoma tissues by immunohistochemistry, and analyzed the correlation of CDH17 expression with clinicopathological characteristics and patients prognosis. CDH17 expression was detected in 63/94 (67%) of gastric adenocarcinomas in addition to intestinal metaplasia. The expression of CDH17 tended to be associated with intestinal type carcinoma, and carcinomas with CDH17 expression was significantly more frequent in advanced stage cases (80%) than in early stage (53%). The prognosis of patients with positive CDH17 expression was significantly poorer than that of the negative cases (P=0.0314). However, multivariate analysis revealed that CDH17 was not an independent prognostic factor. Six of seven cases that showed positive expression of Cdx2 simultaneously expressed CDH17 protein. These results suggested that the expression of CDH17 was characteristic of the advanced gastric carcinoma that is associated with poor prognosis.

The expression of PINX1, a possible telomerase inhibitor and a putative tumor suppressor, has not been studied in human cancers, including gastric cancer (GC). We examined expression of PINX1 by quantitative reverse transcription (RT)–PCR in 73 cases of GC, and 45 of these cases were further studied for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) by PCR with microsatellite marker D8S277. Reduced expression (tumor vs normal ratio

In liver injuries, the quiescent hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) promptly change to activated HSCs, which are easily identified by the intense immunoreactivity for alpha-smooth muscle actin. However, reproducible markers for quiescent HSCs in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded liver tissue sections have not yet been reported. We immunohistochemically examined the expression of vinculin, one major protein of dense plaques, on cultured LI90 cells and on HSCs in normal and diseased human and rat livers. In cultured LI90 cells, vinculin appeared as small linear patches. Although vinculin was consistently negative in the routine liver tissue sections, an antigen retrieval technique using microwave oven heating yielded excellent effects. Using this technique, the formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded human and rat normal liver tissue sections showed the vinculin immunoreactivity along the sinusoidal wall. Immunoelectron microscopic observation of hepatic parenchyma demonstrated that the vinculin was exclusively expressed in quiescent HSCs. In fetal rat livers, vinculin-positive quiescent HSCs gradually increased in number with gestation. In diseased livers the activated HSCs showed more intense immunoreaction for vinculin. These results indicate that, using microwave pretreatment, vinculin is expressed in quiescent and activated HSCs in routinely processed liver tissue sections. It could allow us to evaluate the development and distribution of quiescent HSCs and to examine the relationship between quiescent and activated HSCs.

Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) has been shown to play a role in angiogenesis in a variety of cancers, but some studies indicated a difference in the mechanism of TSP-1 on neovascularization according to organ or histological type. Wild-type p53 protein has been shown to induce TSP-1 expression. We examined the expression of TSP-1 protein in 80 gastric carcinomas using immunohistochemistry and studied the relationship with microvessel counts, p53 expression and clinicopathological factors. We also performed reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis for the TSP-1 mRNA expression in gastric carcinoma cell lines and gastric cancer tissue after laser capture microdissection. Strong expression of TSP-1 protein was detected in 30 (38%) of the 80 cases. Positive staining for TSP-1 was seen in the cytoplasm of the cancer cells. TSP-1 mRNA expression was confirmed in a majority of gastric carcinoma cell lines and carcinoma tissues. Microvessel counts were significantly higher in tumors with strong TSP-1 protein expression than in those without expression or weak expression of TSP-1 ( P=0.011). No significant correlation was found between TSP-1 expression and p53 staining and clinicopathological factors. Our results support an idea that increased TSP-1 expression may be associated with an angiogenic phenotype in gastric carcinoma and suggest that TSP-1 may play diverse roles in each organ.

Uridine diphosphate (UDP)-GalNAc: polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase (GalNAc transferase) catalyzes the initial step in mucin type O-glycosylation, and its expression has been assumed to be altered between normal epithelial cells and cancer cells. We studied the alteration of GalNAc transferase expression during the carcinogenesis of human colorectal epithelial cells. We produced polyclonal antibodies against synthetic polypeptides with specific sequence to two GalNAc transferase isozymes, T1 and T2. Surgically resected specimens from 50 patients with colorectal cancer were immunohistochemically stained, and the staining grade (percentage of positively stained cells) was compared between cancer and its normal counterpart in the same specimen. Significant signals for both T1 and T2 expression were seen in the supranuclear region of normal and cancer cells, indicating the subcellular localization of the enzymes in the Golgi apparatus. The prevalence of positive staining for T1 and T2 expression in colorectal cancer was significantly higher than that in normal epithelium (P < 0.05). However, the difference in staining grades between cancer and normal tissues varied in each patient. These results indicate that there is variability in the expression patterns of GalNAc transferase isozymes in normal and cancerous cells colorectal among individuals.

Collagenofibrotic glomerulonephropathy is a new disease entity of unknown pathogenesis, which is characterized by the deposition of type III collagen within the mesangial matrix. We have investigated a case in which many mesangial cells in the type III collagen-deposited glomeruli were α-smooth muscle actin (ASMA) positive and showed an increase of subplasmalemmal filaments, indicating the activation and myofibroblastic transformation. It is suggested that the activated mesangial cells may synthesize the type III collagen deposited in the subendothelial space and mesangial matrix.

Our report concerns gastric carcinoid tumors in a man and his younger sister who had no endocrine symptoms. The tumors in both cases were multiple, located in the corpus, and showed no significant differences in light microscopic and immunohistochemical examination. In electron microscopic observation, the endocrine granules of tumor cells were roughly classified into four types: granules with fine granular content with low electron density, irregularly striped granules with medium electron density, concentrically laminated or regularly striped granules, or smaller and almost uniformly high electron-dense granules in which it was difficult to recognize the internal structure. From the sequential morphological changes of the granules, we have considered that each type of granule reflects various stages of granulogenesis, although the possibility that they are distinct and contain different hormones or chemical mediators is not absolutely ruled out.

We have examined the expression of mRNAs for epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha), EGF receptor (EGFR), PDGF-A chain (PDGFA), PDGF-B chain (PDGFB) and PDGF receptor (PDGFR) genes in seven human colorectal carcinoma cell lines and 18 human colorectal carcinomas. In surgically resected specimens of the 18 colorectal tumors, TGF-alpha, EGFR, PDGFA, PDGFB and PDGFR mRNAs were detected at various levels in 15 (83%), 9 (50%), 18 (100%), 8 (44%) and 12 (67%), respectively. They were also detected in normal tissues. Interestingly, EGF mRNA was detected in only five (28%) of the tumors, but not in normal mucosa. Expression of EGF was also confirmed immunohistochemically in tumor cells. Of the five tumors expressing EGF, four expressed EGFR mRNA and showed a tendency to invade veins and lymphatics. All the colorectal carcinoma cell lines expressed TGF-alpha mRNA, and five cell lines expressed EGFR mRNA simultaneously. Production of TGF-alpha protein by DLD-1 and CoLo320DM cells was confirmed by TGF-alpha specific monoclonal antibody binding assay. The spontaneous 3H-thymidine uptake by DLD-1 was suppressed by an anti-TGF-alpha monoclonal antibody. PDGFA and PDGFB mRNA were also expressed in four cell lines, but PDGFR and EGF mRNA was not detected. These results suggest that human colorectal carcinomas express multi-loops of growth factors and that TGF-alpha produced by tumor cells functions as an autocrine growth factor in human colonic carcinoma.

Facilitatietechnieken die de nadruk leggen op de training van de aangedane extremiteit worden tegenwoordig alom gebruikt bij de revalidatie van cva-patienten. Bijgevolg heeft de revalidatie die functioneel herstel stimuleert via compensatiemechanismen met behulp van de niet-aangedane extremiteit een lagere prioriteit gekregen. Ondanks de populariteit van de nieuwe technieken is hun superioriteit ten opzichte van de traditionele therapievormen echter nooit bewezen.

Tailgut cysts are rare congenital lesions. To date, only four cases have been reported in Japan, and the occurrence of a tailgut cyst with rectal cancer has never been documented. We describe here the case of a patient in whom a tailgut cyst in the retrorectal space was associated with rectal cancer. Preoperative computed tomography scans and endorectal ultrasonography failed to identify the lesion as cystic, instead suggesting an involved lymph node. This case emphasizes the necessity for careful diagnosis of masses in the retrorectal space in patients with rectal cancer.

The expression of nm23, the product of a candidate suppressor gene for tumour metastasis, was examined immunohistochemically in human gallbladder carcinomas and compared with clinicopathological features. Seventy-eight (72%) of 107 carcinomas expressed nm23 protein regardless of histological type, while non-neoplastic mucosa occasionally showed very weak immunoreactivity to nm23. No obvious correlation was observed between nm23 protein expression and depth of tumour invasion or tumour stage. The expression of nm23 protein was detected in 60% and 74% of the cases with and without lymph node metastasis, respectively, indicating no relationship to metastatic ability. Fifty-eight percent of the cases showed reduction of nm23 immunoreactivity in tumour cells invading the stroma at the border of tumour cell nests compared with cells at the centre of the tumour. Only 7% of the cases showed increased nm23 expression in tumour cells at the border. These results suggest that in gallbladder carcinoma decreased expression of nm23 may not have implications for metastasis but may play a part in local invasion.

Het evalueren van de gevolgen van een cva, ingedeeld naar zowel de ernst van het cva als het aanvankelijke niveau van de invaliditeit.

Dielectric Relaxations in Poly(γ- n -alkyl L -glutamate)s I. Study of the Relaxations above Room Temperature Using the Direct-Current Technique

In order to get detailed information about the β-relaxation due to motion of side chains in poly(γ-methyl L-glutamate) poly(γ-ethyl L-glutamate) and poly(γ-n-propyl L-glutamate), the frequency and temperature dependences of loss permittivity were determined in the frequency range from 10−4 Hz to 105 Hz and at temperatures ranging from ca. −100°C to ca. 60°C. The shape of the loss permittivity as a function of frequency was independent of the side-chain length. The loci of loss-permittivity peaks on the relaxation map could be represented by two straight lines independent of the side-chain length. They intersect in the glass transition region associated with the α-relaxation due to the motion of the main chain. The activation energy below the glass transition region was thought to be essentially due to side-chain motion and estimated to be ca. 18 kcal mol−1. The value of the activation energy and shape of the loss permittivity curve are very similar to those of the β-relaxation in poly(n-alkyl methacrylate)s. The two-site model analysis of the relaxation strength also showed similarity. On the basis of these results, the molecular mechanism of the α-relaxation and the nature of the glass transition are explained in terms of the motion of the α-helix.