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Abstract Colonoscopies are widely available, but there are cases where insertion can be difficult, even for experienced endoscopists. EC-760XP/L, a new ultrasmall-diameter long scope, may be useful in such cases. This single-center retrospective study included 39 cases where colonoscope insertion was difficult even when previously conducted by an experienced endoscopist. The primary outcome was the cecal intubation time using EC-760XP/L compared to the time used in a previous examination with a standard scope. The secondary outcomes were the cecum intubation rate, intestinal cleanliness level, adenoma detection rate, polyp detection rate, sedative use rate, occurrence of adverse events, and pain experience. A comparison of cecal intubation times between EC-760XP/L and the standard scope showed that insertion times were significantly lower with EC-760XP/L (9.5 min) compared to the standard scope (19 min) (p

Introduction: Anisakiasis is a parasitic disease caused by larvae from anisakid nematodes. In recent years, there has been an increase in cases of anisakiasis, a relatively uncommon medical condition. Case Presentation: A 93-year-old woman with chronic heart failure developed hives and nausea 6 h after eating silver flounder sashimi, leading to suspicion of fish allergy. Despite treatment, symptoms persisted and progressed to abdominal pain. An upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed an Anisakis larva in her stomach, an unusual finding given her age. After endoscopic removal of the living worm, the patient’s symptoms were relieved. Conclusion: A case of atypical anisakiasis in a 93-year-old patient was demonstrated. This case underscores the importance of considering atypical presentations in clinical decision-making.

A 78-year-old male had undergone endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) 7 years prior to presentation. Although the sac was stable 6 months ago, the patient presented with shock at arrival, and CT showed aortic rupture with rapid expansion due to type Ib endoleak caused by iliac neck dilatation (IND). The aneurysm sac was excluded using an endovascular strategy. Bell-bottom iliac limbs can cause IND associated with type Ib endoleak. Additionally, the risk of rupture is high when re-expansion of an aneurysm occurs after sac regression after EVAR. Therefore, close follow-up is mandatory for patients with IND after EVAR.

Anisakiasis is a parasitic disease caused by the ingestion of raw or uncooked seafood infected with third-stage larvae of anisakid nematodes. Generally, the larvae parasites live at the surface of the mucosa, but in this case, the larva deeply invaded its head into the gastric mucosa and was not removable with conventional biopsy forceps. In our case, we demonstrated the usefulness of jumbo forceps to remove the Anisakis larva in such a situation.

Corynebacterium ulcerans is a closely related bacterium to the diphtheria bacterium C. diphtheriae, and some C. ulcerans strains produce toxins that are similar to diphtheria toxin. C. ulcerans is widely distributed in the environment and is considered one of the most harmful pathogens to livestock and wildlife. Infection with C. ulcerans can cause respiratory or nonrespiratory symptoms in patients. Recently, the microorganism has been increasingly recognized as an emerging zoonotic agent of diphtheria-like illness in Japan. To clarify the overall clinical characteristics, treatment-related factors, and outcomes of C. ulcerans infection, we analyzed 34 cases of C. ulcerans that occurred in Japan during 2001–2020. During 2010–2020, the incidence rate of C. ulcerans infection increased markedly, and the overall mortality rate was 5.9%. It is recommended that adults be vaccinated with diphtheria toxoid vaccine to prevent the spread of this infection.

Summary: The potential of extrapulmonary ventilation pathways remains largely unexplored. Here, we assessed the enteral ventilation approach in hypoxic porcine models under controlled mechanical ventilation. 20 mL/kg of oxygenated perfluorodecalin (O2-PFD) was intra-anally delivered by a rectal tube. We simultaneously monitored arterial and pulmonary arterial blood gases every 2 min up to 30 min to determine the gut-mediated systemic and venous oxygenation kinetics. Intrarectal O2-PFD administration significantly increased the partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood from 54.5 ± 6.4 to 61.1 ± 6.2 mmHg (mean ± SD) and reduced the partial pressure of carbon dioxide from 38.0 ± 5.6 to 34.4 ± 5.9 mmHg. Early oxygen transfer dynamics inversely correlate with baseline oxygenation status. SvO2 dynamic monitoring data indicated that oxygenation likely originated from the venous outflow of the broad segment of large intestine including the inferior mesenteric vein route. Enteral ventilation pathway offers an effective means for systemic oxygenation, thus warranting further clinical development.

Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting steamed rice and koji (a culture of Aspergillus oryzae on steamed rice) with sake yeast, a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Sake yeast strains are important for maintaining product quality and process efficiency. In this study, a S. cerevisiae strain from Muramatsu Park, Gosen City, Niigata Prefecture was isolated using a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay. The yeast strain was cultured using the mass spore-cell/cell-cell mating method with a sake yeast haploid. The resultant hybrid yeast strain, HG-3-F2, exhibited superior efficiency in alcoholic fermentation compared with the HG-3 strain. Our findings support the applicability of these original and mating strains in sake brewing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corynebacterium ulcerans is a closely related bacterium to the diphtheria bacterium C. diphtheriae, and some C. ulcerans strains produce toxins that are similar to diphtheria toxin. C. ulcerans is widely distributed in the environment and is considered one of the most harmful pathogens to livestock and wildlife. Infection with C. ulcerans can cause respiratory or nonrespiratory symptoms in patients. Recently, the microorganism has been increasingly recognized as an emerging zoonotic agent of diphtheria-like illness in Japan. To clarify the overall clinical characteristics, treatment-related factors, and outcomes of C. ulcerans infection, we analyzed 34 cases of C. ulcerans that occurred in Japan during 2001-2020. During 2010-2020, the incidence rate of C. ulcerans infection increased markedly, and the overall mortality rate was 5.9%. It is recommended that adults be vaccinated with diphtheria toxoid vaccine to prevent the spread of this infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Several DNA-binding proteins show the affinities for their specific DNA sites that positively depend on the length of DNA harboring the sites, i. e. antenna effect. DNA looping can cause the effect for proteins with two or more DNA binding sites, i. e. the looping mechanism. One-dimensional diffusion also has been suggested to cause the effect for proteins with single DNA sites, the diffusion mechanism, which could violate detailed balance. We addressed which mechanism is possible for E. coli TrpR showing 104-fold antenna effect with a single DNA binding site. When a trpO-harboring DNA fragment was connected to a nonspecific DNA with biotin-avidin connection, the otherwise sevenfold antenna effect disappeared. This result denies the looping mechanism with an unknown second DNA binding site. The 3.5-fold repression by TrpR in vivo disappeared when a tight LexA binding site was introduced at various sites near the trpO, suggesting that the binding of LexA blocks one-dimensional diffusion causing the antenna effect. These results are consistent with the chemical ratchet recently proposed for TrpR-trpO binding to solve the deviation from detailed balance, and evidence that the antenna effect due to one-dimensional diffusion exists in cells.

It is generally accepted that healthy cells degrade their own mitochondria. Here, we report that retinal ganglion cell axons of WT mice shed mitochondria at the optic nerve head (ONH), and that these mitochondria are internalized and degraded by adjacent astrocytes. EM demonstrates that mitochondria are shed through formation of large protrusions that originate from otherwise healthy axons. A virally introduced tandem fluorophore protein reporter of acidified mitochondria reveals that acidified axonal mitochondria originating from the retinal ganglion cell are associated with lysosomes within columns of astrocytes in the ONH. According to this reporter, a greater proportion of retinal ganglion cell mitochondria are degraded at the ONH than in the ganglion cell soma. Consistently, analyses of degrading DNA reveal extensive mtDNA degradation within the optic nerve astrocytes, some of which comes from retinal ganglion cell axons. Together, these results demonstrate that surprisingly large proportions of retinal ganglion cell axonal mitochondria are normally degraded by the astrocytes of the ONH. This transcellular degradation of mitochondria, or transmitophagy, likely occurs elsewhere in the CNS, because structurally similar accumulations of degrading mitochondria are also found along neurites in superficial layers of the cerebral cortex. Thus, the general assumption that neurons or other cells necessarily degrade their own mitochondria should be reconsidered.

Abstract Background Various biological materials unrelated to humans are found at crime scenes and it is often important to elucidate the origin of these materials. A genetic locus common to several species is conventionally PCR-amplified with universal primers to identify species. However, not all species can be identified using a single locus. In this study, DNA from 13 commonly handled taxa was analyzed to identify species by a genome profiling (GP) method, which involves random PCR and temperature gradient gel electrophoresis. Results In a clustering analysis, we successfully obtained a single cluster for each species. Conclusion The GP method is cost-effective and does not require advanced techniques and knowledge in molecular biology. The random sampling of the whole genome using multiple primers provides substantial genomic information. Therefore, the method is effective for classifying a wide range of species, including animals, plants, and insects, and is useful for crime scene investigations.

BackgroundRecent research has led to the development of many information technology–supported systems for health care control, including systems estimating nutrition from images of meals. Systems that capture data about eating and exercise are useful for people with diabetes as well as for people who are simply on a diet. Continuous monitoring is key to effective dietary control, requiring systems that are simple to use and motivate users to pay attention to their meals. Unfortunately, most current systems are complex or fail to motivate. Such systems require some manual inputs such as selection of an icon or image, or by inputting the category of the user’s food. The nutrition information fed back to users is not especially helpful, as only the estimated detailed nutritional values contained in the meal are typically provided. ObjectiveIn this paper, we introduce healthiness of meals as a more useful and meaningful general standard, and present a novel algorithm that can estimate healthiness from meal images without requiring manual inputs. MethodsWe propose a system that estimates meal healthiness using a deep neural network that extracts features and a ranking network that learns the relationship between the degrees of healthiness of a meal using a dataset prepared by a human dietary expert. First, we examined whether a registered dietitian can judge the healthiness of meals solely by viewing meal images using a small dataset (100 meals). We then generated ranking data based on comparisons of sets of meal images (850 meals) by a registered dietitian’s viewing meal images and trained a ranking network. Finally, we estimated each meal’s healthiness score to detect unhealthy meals. ResultsThe ranking estimated by the proposed network and the ranking of healthiness based on the dietitian’s judgment were correlated (correlation coefficient 0.72). In addition, extracting network features through pretraining with a publicly available large meal dataset enabled overcoming the limited availability of specific healthiness data. ConclusionsWe have presented an image-based system that can rank meals in terms of the overall healthiness of the dishes constituting the meal. The ranking obtained by the proposed method showed a good correlation to nutritional value–based ranking by a dietitian. We then proposed a network that allows conditions that are important for judging the meal image, extracting features that eliminate background information and are independent of location. Under these conditions, the experimental results showed that our network achieves higher accuracy of healthiness ranking estimation than the conventional image ranking method. The results of this experiment in detecting unhealthy meals suggest that our system can be used to assist health care workers in establishing meal plans for patients with diabetes who need advice in choosing healthy meals.