Bacillus cereus septicemia in a patient with severe aplastic anemia

A 78-year-old female was admitted with complaints of malaise and fatigue in the legs. The patient was diagnosed as severe aplastic anemia and treatment was started with metenolone and steroid pulse therapy. Administration of antibiotics and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor which led to a resolution of the high fever. About four months after admission, the patient developed vomiting and abdominal pain with a spiking fever. The next day after suddenly losing consciousness, she died. B. cereus was isolated from blood cultures. Autopsy specimens of the liver, cardiac muscle and lung showed changes due to B. cereus. This pathogen is widely distributed in nature. We should not overlook B. cereus as a contamination, but rather should consider it a potential pathogen in immunocompromised hosts, when it is isolated from blood cultures.     

Potential reprocessing improvements in the Advanced Fuel Recycle System

From the aspects of economical competitiveness, proliferation resistance, and minimizing waste problems, PNC has proposed an improved recycle concept for the FBR fuel cycle, termed Advanced Fuel Recycle System. Reprocessing in this system is based on the well-known PUREX flowsheet and features a “single cycle Pu/U co-extraction flowsheet” with lower decontamination factor (DF) than that in the conventional process. This feature is practical because of the FBR's low neutronic sensitivity to impurities.

Such a simplified extraction process without purification cycles should substantially reduce not only the number of process components but also the quantities of liquid to be treated in other related processes, so it will lead to the proportional reduction in waste processing, waste itself, and all other related equipments and facilities. This should improve overall economics. One method being examined to further reduce the liquid throughputs and simplify the process is to apply the crystallization technique to dissolver solution.

Overall, with this proposed concept, proliferation resistance will be significantly improved because plutonium is always recovered as a mixture with the uranium and DF of the plutonium product is low.

Reprocessing and fabrication processes are integrated into one fuel cycle plant in this system further contributing to these improvements.     

Correlation in Staphylococcus aureus infections between toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 production and clinical feature

Catastrophic stress induced by Hanshin-Awaji earthquake seems to promote rheological deterioration associated with high blood pressure, increased blood viscosity due to hemoconcentration and increased fibrinogen level. These changes lead to prolonged endothelial cell dysfunction demonstrating high levels of von Willebrand factor, tissue type plasminogen activator and plasmin.alpha 2 plasmin inhibitor complex, and accelerate fibrin turnover as the result of a high D-dimer level from the post earthquake period until 4-6 months later. There were remarkable changes in biochemical parameters except for uric acid, BUN, triglyceride level. An increase in these acute changes caused by mental and physical stress might trigger obstructive thrombus in coronary arteries in the elderly after an earthquake. In conclusion, earthquake induced stress could be considered a transient cardiovascular risk factor.     

Basic design of 70-MW-class superconducting generators

The application of superconductivity technology to electric power apparatus is very important from the viewpoint of energy saving. Especially, the superconducting generators using superconductors as the field windings have many merits compared with conventional generators. Super-GM has been researching and developing 70-MW-class model machines since FY 1988 for a scheduled period of eight years, aiming at a 200-MW-class superconducting generator. This paper describes the basic specifications and designs of 70-MW-class superconducting generators by Super-GM and also describes the propriety of these basic specifications and designs.     

Experimental glaucoma model in the rat induced by laser trabecular photocoagulation after an intracameral injection of India ink

A combined hemostatic defect consisting of a reduction in certain procoagulants, anticoagulants (antithrombin III-ATIII-, protein C-PC-) and components of the fibrinolytic system (plasminogen-Plg-) was demonstrated in very-low-birth-weight infants (VLBW <1,500 g) with gestational age 26-32 weeks. Sixteen of them were healthy, 28 were suffering from RDS and 24 from septicemia. The hemostatic defect was more profound in the RDS group, nevertheless increased TAT (thrombin + ATIII complex) and/or PAP values (plasmin + a2-antiplasmin complex) was a more frequent finding in the septicemic group of infants (91.8 vs. 17.9%). Moderate-to-severe thrombocytopenia was detected in a higher percentage in the septicemic (70.8%) than in the RDS group (50%), and increased D-dimers were demonstrated in 34.8 and 28.6% of the infants, respectively. Elevated TAT or PAP values were not always associated with gross coagulation abnormalities, and advanced disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) was only documented in 16.7% of the septicemic and 7.1% of the RDS infants. None of the VLBW neonates presented with clinical evidence of thrombosis, although hemorrhagic manifestations were apparent in 34.8 and 14.3% of the neonates with septicemia or RDS, respectively, mainly due to DIC or severe thrombocytopenia. In conclusion, increased TAT and/or PAP values are good indicators of the in vivo activation of the hemostatic system, but still their impact on sick neonates morbidity and mortality remains unknown.     

Fatigue behavior of carburized steel with internal oxides and nonmartensitic microstructure near the surface

The characteristic fatigue behavior of carburized and quenched steel with internal oxides and non-martensitic microstructure near the surface was presented through rotating bending fatigue test. The S-N diagram revealed two knees and the specimens continued to fail over 10⁷ stress cycles. The fatigue limit could not be obtained even at 10⁸ stress cycles. The test results were compared to those for the specimens without surface structure anomalies to show the effect of structure anomalies on the fatigue behavior of carburized steel.     

Elimination of ioversol by hemodialysis

PURPOSE: The dialysability of ioversol was investigated in 12 patients with chronic renal failure, on 4-h hemodialysis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred ml of ioversol (320 mg I/ml) was injected in less than 10 min during CT. Hemodialysis was commenced within 30 min of starting the contrast medium injection and was continued for 4 h. Blood was sampled before and at 15 min, 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, and 4 h after the start of hemodialysis. Mean dialysance of ioversol was 114 to 129 ml/min and the elimination rate was 82.5 +/- 5.1% 4 h after starting hemodialysis. The half-life of ioversol during hemodialysis was 1.80 +/- 0.38 h. The only side effects of the ioversol injection were heat sensations, which were experienced by 3 patients. RESULTS: As ioversol was effectively removed from the body during the 4 h of hemodialysis and no severe adverse reactions were observed, we conclude that ioversol is suitable for use in hemodialyzed patients.     

Specific isoprenyl group linked to transducin gamma-subunit is a determinant of its unique signaling properties among G-proteins

Among 11 subtypes of heterotrimeric G-protein gamma-subunit, gamma1 (rod), gamma8 (cone) and gamma11 are modified with farnesyl while the others are modified with geranylgeranyl at the C-terminus. To understand the role of specific isoprenylation (farnesylation) of retinal transducin, we examined how and to what extent the type of isoprenyl group affects transducin-beta gamma (beta1 gamma1) functions such as interactions with membranes, Galpha/receptor, and effectors. To this end, the C-terminal farnesylation signal sequence (CVIS) of gamma1 was replaced by a geranylgeranylation signal (CVIL), and the resultant mutant (S74L) or wild-type (WT) gamma1 was coexpressed with beta1 in the baculovirus-Tn5 insect cell system. Both gamma1WT and gamma1S74L expressed as a beta gamma complex were mixtures modified with farnesyl and geranylgeranyl groups. The ratio of farnesyl to geranylgeranyl in preparations of beta1 gamma1WT and beta1 gamma1S74L purified from the Tn5 cell membrane fraction was about 1:2 and 1:6, respectively. These two forms of recombinant beta1 gamma1 and retinal beta1 gamma1 were different in their abilities to associate with rod outer segment membranes with the following rank order: beta1 gamma1S74L > beta1 gamma1WT > retinal beta1 gamma1. Functionally, beta1 gamma1S74L was the most potent to promote pertussis toxin-catalyzed ADP ribosylation of transducin-alpha (Talpha), to stimulate metarhodopsin II-catalyzed GTPgammaS-binding reaction to Talpha and to modulate adenylyl cyclase and phospholipase C activities. All of the beta1 gamma1 functions absolutely required the isoprenylation of the gamma-subunit. As for the interaction with Goalpha and adenylyl cyclase, predominantly geranylgeranylated beta1 gamma1S74L was less effective than geranylgeranylated beta1 gamma2 purified from bovine brain. These results demonstrate that the properties of Gbeta gamma are strongly affected by the type of functionally indispensable isoprenylation in addition to the amino acid sequence of Ggamma. The relative contribution of the two factors depends on proteins with which Gbeta gamma interacts.