A case of multiple muscular abscesses of the lower limbs by Staphylococcus aureus after chemotherapy for lung cancer

A 67-year-old male was admitted to our hospital because of lung cancer and interstitial pneumonia. Cisplatin, vindesie and mitomycin C were administered for treatment of lung cancer. The leucocyte-counts declined to 1700/microliter on the eighth day after the chemotherapy. Though granulocyte colony-stimulating factor was administered, pain in the right thigh and high grade fever developed. Because Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the blood specimen, piperacillin was administered. But the high grade fever continued and the pain was expanded to the right hip, left hip, thigh and leg. Because a computed tomograph of the lower limbs showed low density areas in bilateral gluteus maximus muscle right adductor magnus muscle, left biceps femoris muscle and left soleus muscle and the culture of an aspirate from abscess of right leg detected S. aureus, multiple muscular abscesses of the lower limbs was confirmed. We changed the antibiotics from PIPC to imipenem/cilastatin and minocycline on nineteenth day after the chemotherapy. His symptoms improved after the change of antibacterial agents. But he died of acute exacerbation of interstitial pneumonia, after about two months of the chemotherapy. Muscular abscesses of the limbs are very rare in Japan. Only four cases with muscular abscess of the limbs were reported in Japan, since 1988. This case suggests that a muscular abscess must be considered in the differential diagnosis of fever in patients with neutropenia.     

Purification and characterization of molecular species of collagen in the skin of skate (Raja kenojei)

Two types, one major and the other minor, of collagen were obtained from pepsin-solubilized collagen of the skate (Raja kenojei) skin. The major collagen was identified as Type I collagen because of a similar characteristic to those of Type I collagens from the skate muscle and cartilage. On the other hand, the SDS–PAGE pattern and peptide maps of the minor collagen were different from those of Type V and XI collagens of the skate muscle and cartilage, respectively. However, the minor collagen was similar, in amino acid composition, to Type V collagen from the skate muscle. These results suggest the existence of a molecular subspecies of Type V collagen in skate skin which is different from the muscle Type V collagen in primary structure or subunit composition.     

Three distinct mechanisms for translocation and activation of the delta subspecies of protein kinase C

We expressed delta subspecies of protein kinase C (delta-PKC) fused with green fluorescent protein (GFP) in CHO-K1 cells and observed the movement of this fusion protein in living cells after three different stimulations. The delta-PKC-GFP fusion protein had enzymological characteristics very similar to those of the native delta-PKC and was present throughout the cytoplasm in CHO-K1 cells. ATP at 1 mM caused a transient translocation of delta-PKC-GFP to the plasma membrane approximately 30 s after the stimulation and a sequent retranslocation to the cytoplasm within 3 min. A tumor-promoting phorbol ester, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA; 1 microM), induced a slower translocation of delta-PKC-GFP, and the translocation was unidirectional. Concomitantly, the kinase activity of delta-PKC-GFP was increased by these two stimulations, when the kinase activity of the immunoprecipitated delta-PKC-GFP was measured in vitro in the absence of PKC activators such as phosphatidylserine and diacylglycerol. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2; 5 mM) failed to translocate delta-PKC-GFP but increased its kinase activity more than threefold. delta-PKC-GFP was strongly tyrosine phosphorylated when treated with H2O2 but was tyrosine phosphorylated not at all by ATP stimulation and only slightly by TPA treatment. Both TPA and ATP induced the translocation of delta-PKC-GFP even after treatment with H2O2. Simultaneous treatment with TPA and H2O2 further activated delta-PKC-GFP up to more than fivefold. TPA treatment of cells overexpressing delta-PKC-GFP led to an increase in the number of cells in G2/M phase and of dikaryons, while stimulation with H2O2 increased the number of cells in S phase and induced no significant change in cell morphology. These results indicate that at least three different mechanisms are involved in the translocation and activation of delta-PKC.     

Synthesis and Hydrogen Storage Properties of Palladium Nanoparticle–Organic Frameworks

We report a simple synthesis of aggregates of individual Pd colloidal nanoparticles linked by bridging ligands that may be used to advance the strong hydrogen storage properties of palladium nanoparticles. The aggregates were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. The bridged aggregates showed up to 1.0 wt% hydrogen absorption, about 6.7 times that of pristine isocyanide-protected Pd nanoparticles.     

Transport Properties of Polymer Semiconductor Controlled by Ionic Liquid as a Gate Dielectric and a Pressure Medium

An effective way of using ionic liquid as a gate dielectric as well as a pressure medium to tune the transport of an exemplary polymer semiconductor, poly(2,5‐bis(3‐tetradecyl‐thiophene‐2‐yl)thieno[3,2‐b]thiophene) (pBTTT‐C14) is presented. Working as gate dielectrics, the ionic liquids exhibit the well‐known ability to induce dense carriers (>10²⁰ cm^?3) in the polymer film contributing to the high conductivity (≈10² S cm^?1). In addition, it is found that the ionic liquid works as a pressure medium at the highly charged state, leading to significant enhancement of conductivity. By combining both gating and pressuring, a crossover of transport properties is observed from one‐dimensional to three‐dimensional hopping, as the clear indication that the polymer film has accessed the regime adjacent to the transition region between insulator and metal. These results show an effective way of utilizing pressure effect of ionic liquid as a new degree of freedom in controlling transport of polymers, a method having strong potential to be generalized for even broader range of materials.     

X-ray absorption fine structure combined with X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Monitoring of vanadium sites in mesoporous titania, excited under visible light by selective detection of vanadium Kbeta5,2 fluorescence

The photocatalytic role of vanadium doped in mesoporous TiO2 has not been clarified. Valence state-sensitive V Kbeta5,2-selecting (5462.9 eV) X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) was used to monitor the V sites in mesoporous TiO2 for ethanol dehydration under equilibrium in situ conditions and visible light-illumination. First, the feasibility of discriminating V(IV) sites from a 1:1 physical mixture of standard V(IV) and V(V) inorganic compounds was demonstrated, by tuning the secondary fluorescence spectrometer to 5459.0 eV. The chemical shift of V Kbeta5,2 emission between V(IV) and V(V) sites was 1.0 eV. The selection of valence states V(IV) and V(V) was 100% and 80%, respectively. The redox states for ethanol dehydration over mesoporous TiO2 excited in visible light were suggested to be V(III) and V(IV). The chemical shift between valence states V(III) and V(IV) was greater (3.2 eV). On the basis of V Kbeta5,2 emission and V Kbeta5,2-selecting XAFS spectra tuned to the V Kbeta5,2 peak, we determined that the fresh mesoporous V-TiO2 catalyst has a valence state of V(IV). The vanadium sites were partially reduced by the dissociative adsorption of ethanol under visible light, but they still stay within the emission-energy ranges for standard V(IV) compounds. These partially reduced vanadium sites were reoxidized in oxygen under visible light. Finally, direct XAFS observation of photoreduced V(III) sites was attempted by tuning the fluorescence spectrometer to 5456.3 eV for partially reduced mesoporous V-TiO2. Valence state V(III) was selected for 60% of the spectrum in the mixture of V(III) (minor) and V(IV) (dominant) valence states.     

Variations of a passive safety containment for a BWR with active and passive safety systems

The paper presents variations of a certain passive safety containment for a near future BWR. It is tentatively named Mark S containment in the paper. It uses the operating dome as the upper secondary containment vessel (USCV) to where the pressure of the primary containment vessel (PCV) can be released through the upper vent pipes. One of the merits of the Mark S containment is very low peak pressure at severe accidents without venting the containment atmosphere to the environment. Another merit is the capability to submerge the PCV and the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) above the core level by flooding water from the gravity-driven cooling system (GDCS) pool and the upper pool. The third merit is robustness against external events such as a large commercial airplane crash owing to the reinforced concrete USCV. The Mark S containment is applicable to a large reactor that generates 1830 MW electric power. The paper presents several examples of BWRs that use the Mark S containment. In those examples active safety systems and passive safety systems function independently and constitute in-depth hybrid safety (IDHS). The concept of the IDHS is also presented in the paper.     

Reduction of hydrogen and helium retention in stainless steel by argon glow discharge

Although wall conditioning using Ar glow discharges is occasionally employed to reduce helium and hydrogen retention in the inner walls of the vacuum chamber of nuclear fusion devices, the effect of an Ar glow discharge on the reduction of helium and hydrogen retention has never been systematically investigated. In the present experiment, Ar glow discharges were applied to the stainless steel walls of a glow discharge device. Residual gas analysis (RGA) clearly showed that the Ar glow discharge significantly reduced the amount of helium and hydrogen retained. It was found that the fraction of the amount of desorbed helium to the initial retained amount of helium was as high as 13% and the fraction of the amount of desorbed hydrogen to the initial amount of hydrogen was as high as 36%.     

Temperature–field phase diagrams in Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3–4.5%PbTiO3 II

Temperature and field dependences of the dielectric constants under the DC biasing fields along the [011]- and [111]-directions in the cubic coordinate in Pb(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃–4.5%PbTiO₃ were investigated. The temperature–field phase diagrams were constructed in the field range below 10 kV/cm. It was confirmed that in Pb(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃–4.5%PbTiO₃ the intermediate tetragonal phase as a ground state of the system exists even without the DC field, and the tetragonal phase disappears in the external field above 4 and 3 kV/cm along the [011]- and [111]-directions, respectively. The field-induced orthorhombic-phase in the field along the [011]-direction was also found.