Search

Floors and roofs in buildings need to be capable of transmitting horizontal forces, such as seismic forces, from the horizontal structure to the vertical structure, in addition to the role of transmitting the weight acting in the vertical direction to the support beams. For this purpose, reinforced concrete slabs are generally used or horizontal braces are installed. However, this requires high material and transportation costs, and several weeks for curing period after concrete is poured. In this study, the possibility that deck plates used as roofing materials can transfer horizontal forces sufficiently without concrete or bracing was investigated. The initial stiffness, maximum load, and yield load are considered, and the yield load is compared with the converted TB (turnbuckle) brace diameter to evaluate the bearing force. Therefore, tensile experiments of deck plates were conducted with the parameters of plate thickness, wave height, and tensile angle. The tensile angle is the angle at which the tensile force is applied to the deck plate perpendicular to the groove direction. As a result, it was found that the lower the wave height and the thicker the plate thickness of the specimen, the higher the stiffness. The yield strength equivalent to TB brace diameter M14 was confirmed for the specimen with a wave height of 50 mm and a plate thickness of 1.6 mm at all tensile angles.

Successful use of tocilizumab (TCZ) to treat TAFRO syndrome has recently been reported. In those cases, TCZ was used with steroid. We present herein the case of a 59-year-old man with very severe TAFRO syndrome who was successfully treated using TCZ without steroid. He showed rapidly progressive anasarca, acute renal failure and very severe thrombocytopenia. We initially used steroid, but its efficacy was limited. Moreover, steroid use had to be stopped as soon as possible, because hemorrhagic shock developed due to severe duodenal ulcer. After overcoming infections (about 40 days after stopping steroid), administration of TCZ was started and the patient was discharged in clinical remission.

The ATP-binding cassette transporter ABCB6 was recently discovered to encode the Langereis (Lan) blood group antigen. Lan null individuals are asymptomatic, and the function of ABCB6 in mature erythrocytes is not understood. Here, we assessed ABCB6 as a host factor for Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites during erythrocyte invasion. We show that Lan null erythrocytes are highly resistant to invasion by P. falciparum, in a strain-transcendent manner. Although both Lan null and Jr(a-) erythrocytes harbor excess porphyrin, only Lan null erythrocytes exhibit a P. falciparum invasion defect. Further, the zoonotic parasite P. knowlesi invades Lan null and control cells with similar efficiency, suggesting that ABCB6 may mediate P. falciparum invasion through species-specific molecular interactions. Using tandem mass tag-based proteomics, we find that the only consistent difference in membrane proteins between Lan null and control cells is absence of ABCB6. Our results demonstrate that a newly identified naturally occurring blood group variant is associated with resistance to Plasmodium falciparum. Elizabeth Egan and colleagues demonstrate that host ATP binding cassette transporter ABCB6, which encodes the Langereis blood group antigen, promotes erythrocyte invasion by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. This study suggests that asymptomatic Langereis null individuals may be better protected from malaria.

A way to dissect malaria's secrets Malaria has exerted a strong selective force on the human genome. However, efforts to identify host susceptibility factors have been hindered by the absence of a nucleus in red blood cells. Egan et al. developed an approach involving blood stem cells to discover host factors critical for Plasmodium falciparum infection of red blood cells. The authors identified an essential host receptor for parasite invasion that could provide a target for malaria therapeutics. Science , this issue p. 711

The ATP-binding cassette transporter