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Experimental study.To compare lipid profiles during moderate-intensity exercise between persons with cervical spinal cord injuries (SCIWakayama Medical University, Japan.Six participants with SCICatecholamine concentrations in SCISerum ketone bodies in SCI

Background Collecting system entry in robot-assisted partial nephrectomy may occur even in cases showing a low N factor in the R.E.N.A.L nephrometry score. Therefore, in this study, we focused on the tumor contact surface area with the adjacent renal parenchyma and attempted to construct a novel predictive model for collecting system entry. Methods Among 190 patients who underwent robot-assisted partial nephrectomy at our institution from 2015 to 2021, 94 patients with a low N factor (1–2) were analyzed. Contact surface was measured with three-dimensional imaging software and defined as the C factor, classified as C1, < 10 cm [2]; C2, ≥ 10 and Results Collecting system entry was observed in 32 patients with a low N factor (34%). The C factor was the only independent predictive factor for collecting system entry in multivariate regression analysis (odds ratio: 4.195, 95% CI: 2.160–8.146, p Conclusions The new predictive model, including the C factor in N1-2 cases, may be beneficial, considering its indication for preoperative ureteral catheter placement in patients undergoing robot-assisted partial nephrectomy.

22 ABSTRACT 23 Study design Experimental study 24 Objectives To compare lipid metabolism in individuals with a cervical spinal cord injury (SCIC) 25 and able-bodied (AB) persons in response to mild cold stress. 26 Settings Laboratory of Wakayama Medical University, Japan. 27 Methods Nine males with SCIC and 11 AB wore a water-perfusion suit in a supine position. 28 Following 30-min rest thermoneutrality, the whole body was cooled by perfusing 25°C water 29 through the suit for 15-20 minutes (CS). Blood samples were collected before, immediately, and 60 30 (post-CS60) and 120 minutes after CS (post-CS120). Concentrations of serum free fatty acid 31 ([FFA]s), total ketone bodies ([tKB]s), insulin ([Ins]s) and plasma adrenaline ([Ad]p), noradrenaline 32 ([NA]p) and glucose ([Glc]p) were assessed. 33 Results [Ad]p in SCIC were lower than AB throughout the study (p=0.0002) and remained largely 34 unchanged in both groups. [NA]p increased after cold stress in AB only (p

Dataset complexity assessment aims to predict classification performance on a dataset with complexity calculation before training a classifier, which can also be used for classifier selection and dataset reduction. The training process of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) is iterative and time-consuming because of hyperparameter uncertainty and the domain shift introduced by different datasets. Hence, it is meaningful to predict classification performance by assessing the complexity of datasets effectively before training DCNN models. This paper proposes a novel method called cumulative maximum scaled Area Under Laplacian Spectrum (cmsAULS), which can achieve state-of-the-art complexity assessment performance on six datasets., Published as a journal paper at Springer MTAP

Tumblr is one of the most popular micro-blogging services worldwide on which users can share posts consisting of texts and images. This paper proposes a user-centric method of multimodal feature extraction for the personalized retrieval of Tumblr posts. To implement personalized retrieval, we formulate each user’s preferences as a triplet loss by using Likes as metadata as well as the text- and image-related features of posts. Furthermore, we develop a personalized multivariational autoencoder (PMVAE) by introducing a triplet loss into multivariational autoencoder (MVAE), which is among the most effective methods of multimodal feature extraction. Previously proposed variants of MVAE can project multiple kinds of features into the single latent features. However, because the latent features do not reflect each user’s preferences, retrieval performance when using the previous methods is limited. On the contrary, our PMVAE can extract relationships between text- and image-related features of posts by considering class-related information that represents whether a user prefers a given post. As a result, user-centric multimodal features, which separate a post that a user prefer and a post that a user does not prefer in the latent feature space, can be obtained. Because user-centric multimodal features have high discriminating power, the personalized retrieval of posts desired by each user becomes feasible by using them in such retrieval algorithms as the k-nearest neighbors and Annoy, which is a technique for approximate nearest neighbor search. We conduct experiments using 10 users and 150,947 contents, to verify the performance of k-NN and Annoy. The results show that our PMVAE increased normalized discounted cumulative gain (nDCG) compared with existing methods. The nDCG becomes 0.253 when using term frequency-inverse document frequency based text features and our end-to-end image features.

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) was experimentally used for focal therapy for anti-cancer effects in prostate cancer (PC). Focal therapy is a diagnosis-based investigational treatment option for localized PC that cures clinically significant PC (csPC) while preserving the anatomical structures related to urinary and sexual function based on its spread observed using multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI). The European Association of Urology indicated that the current status of focal therapy for localized PC was an investigational modality and encouraged prospective recording of outcomes and recruitment of suitable patients in 2018. During the last few years, large-population multi- and single-center prospective studies have investigated focal therapy as a treatment strategy for localized PC. In a multicenter prospective study with 5-year follow-up, failure-free survival, which was defined as avoidance of local salvage therapy (surgery or radiotherapy), systemic therapy, metastases, and prostate cancer-specific death, was 88%. In the previous studies, there was no significant influence on urinary function before and at 3 months after the treatment, although transient impairment was reported 1 month after the treatment. Pad- and leak-free continence was preserved in 80-100% of the patients after treatment. Erectile function was significantly impaired in the initial 3 months after treatment compared to the pretreatment values, but it improved 6 months after the focal therapy in the previous reports. Paired comparison studies and cohort studies with long-term follow-up will contribute to verifying this treatment's clinical outcomes for patients with localized PC.

In this paper, we propose a human-centered image classification via a neural network considering visual and biological features. The proposed method has two novelties. Firstly, we apply Group-Sparse Local Fisher Discriminant Analysis (GS-LFDA) to biological features. GS-LFDA realizes dimensionality reduction and noise elimination for biological features with consideration of local structures and class information. Secondly, we construct a Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA)-based hidden layer via Discriminative Locality Preserving CCA (DLPCCA). DLPCCA transforms visual features into effective features by considering the relationships with biological information and class information. The CCA-based hidden layer enables transformation of visual features into effective features for image classification from a small number of training samples. Furthermore, once the projection can be obtained in the training phase, elimination of the need for biological data acquisition in the test phase is realized. This is another merit of our method.

Deep learning has become a new trend of image recognition tasks in the field of medicine. We developed an automated gastritis detection system using double-contrast upper gastrointestinal barium X-ray radiography. A total of 6520 gastric X-ray images obtained from 815 subjects were analyzed. We designed a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN)-based gastritis detection scheme and evaluated the effectiveness of our method. The detection performance of our method was compared with that of ABC (D) stratification. Sensitivity, specificity, and harmonic mean of sensitivity and specificity of our method were 0.962, 0.983, and 0.972, respectively, and those of ABC (D) stratification were 0.925, 0.998, and 0.960, respectively. Although there were 18 false negative cases in ABC (D) stratification, 14 of those 18 cases were correctly classified into the positive group by our method. Deep learning techniques may be effective for evaluation of gastritis/non-gastritis. Collaborative use of DCNN-based gastritis detection systems and ABC (D) stratification will provide more reliable gastric cancer risk information.

A method to track topic evolution via salient keyword matching with consideration of semantic broadness for Web video discovery is presented in this paper. The proposed method enables users to understand the evolution of topics over time for discovering Web videos in which they are interested. A framework that enables extraction and tracking of the hierarchical structure, which contains Web video groups with various degrees of semantic broadness, is newly derived as follows: Based on network analysis using multimodal features, i.e., features of video contents and metadata, our method extracts the hierarchical structure and salient keywords that represent contents of each Web video group. Moreover, salient keyword matching, which is newly developed by considering salient keyword distribution, semantic broadness of each Web video group and initial topic relevance, is applied to each hierarchical structure obtained in different time stamps. Unlike methods in previous works, by considering the semantic broadness as well as the salient keyword distribution, our method can overcome the problem of the desired semantic broadness of topics being different depending on each user. Also, the initial topic relevance enables correction of the gap from an initial topic at the start of tracking. Consequently, it becomes feasible to track the evolution of topics over time for finding Web videos in which the users are interested. Experimental results for real-world datasets containing YouTube videos verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Medial opening wedge high tibial osteotomy (HTO) is a realignment of the lower limb. Despite accurate preoperative planning and careful surgical techniques, many HTOs result in alignment correction errors. These alignment correction errors may be due to soft tissue laxity around the knee such as varus or valgus laxity. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of varus and valgus laxity of the knee and alignment correction errors, and to have a formula to predict the subsequent degree of these correction errors. Fifty knees from 41 patients undergoing opening wedge HTO for knee osteoarthritis were involved. Standing full-length anteroposterior radiographs of the lower limb and the tibia, and varus and valgus stress radiographs of the knee were used to evaluate alignment and joint laxity. Parameters were global correction (the change in the hip–knee–ankle angle), bony correction (the change in the medial proximal tibial angle), and soft tissue correction (global correction − bony correction). The average of global correction, bony correction, and soft tissue correction were 12.8° ± 4.3°, 9.4° ± 3.2°, and 3.4° ± 2.5°, respectively. Preoperative varus laxity was moderately correlated with soft tissue correction (R = 0.58), and in which the slope of the line in the scatter plot represented 0.59, implying that soft tissue correction increases by 0.59° for every 1° of preoperative varus laxity. Preoperative varus laxity is correlated with soft tissue correction, suggesting that more accurate alignment correction could be achieved by surgical planning taking into account preoperative varus laxity as a factor of soft tissue correction.

Aims If rice has a higher nitrogen use efficiency for dry matter production (NUE) and grain yield (NUEGY) than wild annuals, we may question whether the higher NUE is due to a higher productivity per plant N (NP) or a longer retention time of plant N (MRT) or both, and whether the higher NUEGY results also from a higher harvest index (HI).

In this paper, we propose a Web video retrieval method that uses hierarchical structure of Web video groups. Existing retrieval systems require users to input suitable queries that identify the desired contents in order to accurately retrieve Web videos; however, the proposed method enables retrieval of the desired Web videos even if users cannot input the suitable queries. Specifically, we first select representative Web videos from a target video dataset by using link relationships between Web videos obtained via metadata “related videos” and heterogeneous video features. Furthermore, by using the representative Web videos, we construct a network whose nodes and edges respectively correspond to Web videos and links between these Web videos. Then Web video groups, i.e., Web video sets with similar topics are hierarchically extracted based on strongly connected components, edge betweenness and modularity. By exhibiting the obtained hierarchical structure of Web video groups, users can easily grasp the overview of many Web videos. Consequently, even if users cannot write suitable queries that identify the desired contents, it becomes feasible to accurately retrieve the desired Web videos by selecting Web video groups according to the hierarchical structure. Experimental results on actual Web videos verify the effectiveness of our method.

A series of novel fluorene moiety-containing polycarbonates was synthesized by the anionic ring-opening polymerization of six-membered spirocyclic carbonates possessing 9,9-fluorene groups at the 5,5-position. The polymers could be considered cardo-type polymers because they had 9,9-fluorene groups as a loop-shaped side chain. Interestingly, the fluorene pendant polycarbonates were obtained in sufficiently high molecular weights and in good yields, although the monomers were structurally closely related to the 5,5-diphenyl-substituted cyclic carbonate that exhibited very low polymerizability. Furthermore, the polymerizations of substituted fluorene-based six-membered spirocyclic carbonates were investigated. All of the obtained polymers showed favorable properties, including good solubility, amorphous natures, favorable thermal stabilities, remarkably low birefringence values and high refractive indices despite consisting only of C, H and O atoms. The good potentiality in the application to optical materials was shown here. A series of novel fluorene-based cardo polycarbonates was synthesized by the anionic ring-opening polymerization of six-membered spirocyclic carbonate monomers. The polymers possessed a fluorene skeleton placed perpendicularly to the main chain. The polymerization of the fluorene monomers progressed according to their solubility in the reaction solvent. Interestingly, the fluorene pendant polycarbonates were obtained in sufficiently high molecular weights and in good yields, in spite of the fact that the monomers are structurally closely related to the diphenyl-substituted cyclic carbonate, which exhibited very low polymerizability. All obtained polymers showed favorable properties, including good solubility, amorphous nature, favorable thermal stabilities, remarkably low birefringence values and high refractive indices despite of the polymer consisting only of C, H and O atoms. The good potentiality in the application to optical materials was shown here.

Non-randomized study. We reported that individuals with cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) showed no increase in natural killer cell activity (NKCA) in response to 20-min arm exercise. It could be argued that this lack of response was owing to the short duration and intensity of the exercise. The 29th Oita International wheelchair marathon race. The present study compared the effects of wheelchair half-marathon race on natural killer (NK) cell count, NKCA and other hematological and hormonal parameters in six subjects with CSCI and seven control subjects with spinal cord injury between T4 and L1 (SCI), before, immediately after and 2 h after recovery. NK cell counts increased at both time points after the race in SCI, but not in CSCI, compared with before the race. NKCA increased immediately in both groups of subjects after the race, and then returned to the pre-race level at 2 h after the race. Plasma cortisol did not change in both groups throughout the study. Plasma adrenaline increased sharply in SCI after the race, then returned to the pre-race level at 2 h after the race, whereas no change was observed in CSCI throughout the study. The present study demonstrated that wheelchair half-marathon race increases NKCA despite the lack of increase in plasma adrenaline in CSCI, suggesting the activation of NKCA by mechanisms other than circulating adrenaline level.

The survival of cemented endosseous implants can be improved by enhancing the bond between the implant and the cement. We hypothesized that the light-inducible generation of super-hydrophilicity of titanium positively affects its bone cement-philicity and bone cement–titanium bonding. Commercially pure titanium disks with machined surface and acid-etched micro roughened surfaces were prepared. Ultra-violet (UV) light treatment (0.1 mW/cm2 UVA and 0.03 mW/cm2 UVB for 48 h) created a super-hydrophilic surface for both surface types. The area of poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA)-based bone cement spread increased by 30% and 20% on the light-treated machined titanium and acid-etched titanium surfaces, respectively, compared to the matched untreated ones. The contact angle of the bone cement decreased significantly after the light treatment, confirming the enhanced wettability of bone cement by the light treatment. Interfacial tensile stress between the bone cement material and titanium was increased 100% for the machined surface and 50% for the acid-etched surface by light treatment. Interfacial shear stress measured by a push-out test of titanium rods also revealed a 40% increase for the machined surface and 25% increase for the acid-etched surface. In conclusion, the pre-UV light treatment of titanium enhances the wettability and bonding strength of poly-methyl-methacrylate-based bone cement.

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an inherited autosomal dominant syndrome caused by germline mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene. Papillary thyroid cancer is one of the extracolonic manifestations of FAP. A characteristic histologic feature of this type of thyroid tumor is the cribriform-morula variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (CMVPTC).To investigate roles of the APC and beta-catenin genes in the development of CMVPTC, we examined germline and somatic mutations of these genes in a female patient with CMVPTC and FAP. The patient had undergone total colectomy at the age of 19 years and total thyroidectomy at age 25 years.Numerous tumors were disseminated in both lobes of the thyroid gland, and histopathologic examination revealed typical CMVPTC. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes and 12 CMVPTC tumors, and exons 1-15 of the APC gene and exon 3 of the beta-catenin gene were examined. A germline mutation was detected in exon 13 of the APC gene, and this mutation generated a premature stop codon. Six somatic mutations (922delC, 1602delA, 1821delT, 1920delG, 2706del20, 2804insA) were found in the CMVPTC specimens. All mutations were truncating mutations in the N-terminus of the APC protein. Loss of heterozygosity was not observed in the remaining tumor tissues without somatic APC mutations. There were no mutations of the beta-catenin gene in peripheral blood leukocytes or 12 CMVPTC specimens.These results suggest that APC mutations play an important role in the development of CMVPTC and occur predominantly in the 5' side of the APC gene between codons 308 and 935.

Mass screening for the purpose of detecting thyroid cancer at its earliest stage may not be recommended at the present time, but screening focused on certain risk groups is advocated. Familial nonmedullary thyroid carcinoma (FNMTC) is a distinct clinical entity with a high incidence of multifocality and association with multiple benign nodules. FNMTC patients have shorter disease-free survival than do sporadic disease patients because of frequent locoregional recurrence. Screening by neck ultrasonography was performed for symptom-free family members of patients with FNMTC. A total of 149 subjects representing 53 FNMTC families were examined in this study. The average age of the patients was 41.0+/-19.0 years (range 3-76 years) with a female/male ratio of 104:45. At least one thyroid nodule was found in 77 (51.7%) of the 149 patients. Surgery was performed in 18 patients, and thyroid cancer was discovered in 15 of them (10.1%; 14 women, 1 man; 32-61 years of age). Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) was found in 14 and follicular thyroid cancer combined with PTC in 1. The tumors averaged 9.1+/-5.4 mm (3-21 mm) in greatest diameter. Intraglandular metastases were found in 7 (47%) of the 15 patients with thyroid cancer. Lymph node metastases were found in 6 (43%). Ultrasonographic screening for FNMTC family members may enable the discovery of asymptomatic thyroid cancer. Because of the high incidence of intraglandular and lymph node metastases, we recommend screening with ultrasonography for early detection in family members of patients with FNMTC.

This study was designed to determine the most effective dose of gatifloxacin in ophthalmic solution for control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) corneal infections in rabbits. Rabbits were inoculated by injecting 9300 colony-forming units of MRSA into the corneal stroma of the eye (n=43). They were then randomly assigned to topical administration of saline, ofloxacin 0.3%, or gatifloxacin 0.02%, 0.1%, 0.3%, or 0.5% ophthalmic solutions. Infection severity 48 hours postinoculation was assessed by masked observers using standard scales. After treatment completion, viable MRSA in corneal tissue were counted, and pathologic examinations of ocular tissues were conducted. Relative to saline, treatment with gatifloxacin 0.3% or 0.5% decreased mean infection scores at every time point from 16 to 48 hours after inoculation (P < or = .012) and reduced area-under-the-curve values for infection scores by 50.3% and 54.2%, respectively (P = .00005). Rabbits treated with gatifloxacin 0.3% and 0.5% had lower area-under-the-curve values than those treated with ofloxacin 0.3% (P < or = .039). Viable MRSA in corneal tissue after gatifloxacin 0.3% or 0.5% treatment were decreased to less than 1% of those found after ofloxacin 0.3% treatment. Gram-positive colony formation and abscesses found in saline-treated corneas were distinctly alleviated by treatment with gatifloxacin 0.3% or 0.5%. No significant differences were observed between treatments with gatifloxacin 0.3% or 0.5% ophthalmic formulations and they were equally effective. Topical administration of gatifloxacin 0.3% or 0.5% ophthalmic solutions controlled MRSA corneal infections in rabbits significantly better than saline or ofloxacin 0.3%.

Hydrogen ion titration profiles of the aqueous potassium oleate/oleic acid systems were examined as a function of the degree of neutralization, β, in corresponding metal chloride solutions. At temperatures higher than 5 °C, the titration curves were almost identical to those of sodium oleate systems at temperatures higher than 20 °C characterized by a single constant-pH region due to the multiple-phase equilibrium including metal oleate micelles. At a low temperature, 0 °C, on the other hand, different titration curves characterized by two constant-pH regions were observed. The ranges of β of the high constant-pH region were 0.6

This paper presents a new method for estimating error degrees in numerical weather prediction via multiple kernel discriminant analysis (MKDA)-based ordinal regression. The proposed method tries to estimate how large prediction errors will occur in each area from known observed data. Therefore, ordinal regression based on KDA is used for estimating the prediction error degrees. Furthermore, the following points are introduced into the proposed approach. Since several meteorological elements are related to each other based on atmospheric movements, the proposed method merges such heterogeneous features in the target and neighboring areas based on a multiple kernel algorithm. This approach is based on the characteristics of actual meteorological data. Then, MKDA-based ordinal regression for estimating the prediction error degree of a target meteorological element in each area becomes feasible. Since the amount of training data obtained from known observed data becomes very large in the training stage of MKDA, the proposed method performs simple sampling of those training data to reduce the number of samples. We effectively use the remaining training data for determining the parameters of MKDA to realize successful estimation of the prediction error degree.

A case of a penetration of the duodenum by a needle with migration to the pancreas in a 50-year-old man is reported herein. The patient was referred to us with a chief complaint of diarrhea. An abdominal plain roentgenogram showed a needle in the upper abdominal area. An abdominal computed tomography scan and contrast X-ray revealed the foreign body to be located outside of the duodenum and in the head of the pancreas. An emergency operation was therefore performed on the first day and the needle in the head of the pancreas was thus extirpated safely. A perforation of the gastrointestinal tract by an ingested foreign body is difficult to accurately and quickly diagnose when no peritonitis or abscess formation is observed. Therefore, the use of contrast X-ray is considered to be useful in the diagnosis of such a perforation.

BACKGROUND: Immunogene therapy is regarded as a novel treatment that overcomes the limitation of preexisting adjuvant therapies and demonstrates the potential for the total elimination of cancer cells by affecting concealed tumor cells. The aim of this study was to examine the enhancement of antitumor immunity of irradiated granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) gene-transduced mouse breast cancer cells. METHODS: To study prophylactic vaccine effects, Balb/c mice were vaccinated subcutaneously with saline or irradiated mouse breast cancer cells (BalbMC, 1 x10sup6; /mouse) infected with or without recombinant adenovirus harboring the GM-CSF gene (Adv/GM-CSF) on day-7. Mice were challenged with parental cells (1x10sup5;/mouse) on day 0 in the flank opposite the vaccination site. RESULTS: BalbMC cells secreted GM-CSF after infection with Adv/GM-CSF. Vaccination with irradiated GM-CSF-secreting BalbMC completely protected syngeneic mouse challenged with live parental cells. On the other hand, vaccination with irradiated BalbMC protected 60% of mice from tumor development after challenge with parental cells. None of the tumor-free mice initially vaccinated with irradiated GM-CSF-producing BalbMC cells developed tumor upon repeated challenge with parental cells during the entire observation period. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated the feasibility of this immunotherapeutic approach as a novel adjuvant therapy after surgery for breast cancer.

To evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous transhepatic abscess drainage (PTAD) as an initial choice of treatment for liver abscess, the medical records of 28 patients with liver abscess were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were predominantly men (23 of 28) with a mean age of 59 years (range, 19-86 years). Their chief complaints were fever (86%), right hypochondralgia (32%), and jaundice (11%). Fifteen of the 28 patients (54%) had hepatobiliary and pancreatic carcinoma, and 31% had postoperative liver abscess. PTAD was performed in 23 patients and surgical drainage in 5. The overall success rate for PTAD was 83%. The success rate for PTAD for patients with multiple abscesses was 83% (5 of 6), compared with a success rate of 82% (14 of 17) for patients with solitary abscess. The prognostic factors for survival were cancer and sepsis and the mortality rate for patients with cancer was 40% (6 of 15) while the mortality rate for patients with sepsis was 56% (5 of 9). As a complication of drainage, 1 patient (4%) in the PTAD group had pleural abscess due to the transpleural puncture. Our findings support the use of PTAD as the primary treatment for liver abscess, as it is safe and effective irrespective of the number of abscesses and the patient's condition.

A super-resolution method for simultaneously realizing resolution enhancement and motion blur removal based on adaptive prior settings are presented in this article. In order to obtain high-resolution (HR) video sequences from motion-blurred low-resolution video sequences, both of the resolution enhancement and the motion blur removal have to be performed. However, if one is performed after the other, errors in the first process may cause performance deterioration of the subsequent process. Therefore, in the proposed method, a new problem, which simultaneously performs the resolution enhancement and the motion blur removal, is derived. Specifically, a maximum a posterior estimation problem which estimates original HR frames with motion blur kernels is introduced into our method. Furthermore, in order to obtain the posterior probability based on Bayes’ rule, a prior probability of the original HR frame, whose distribution can adaptively be set for each area, is newly defined. By adaptively setting the distribution of the prior probability, preservation of the sharpness in edge regions and suppression of the ringing artifacts in smooth regions are realized. Consequently, based on these novel approaches, the proposed method can perform successful reconstruction of the HR frames. Experimental results show impressive improvements of the proposed method over previously reported methods.

An adaptive example-based super-resolution (SR) using kernel principal component analysis (PCA) with a novel classification approach is presented in this paper. In order to enable estimation of missing high-frequency components for each kind of texture in target low-resolution (LR) images, the proposed method performs clustering of high-resolution (HR) patches clipped from training HR images in advance. Based on two nonlinear eigenspaces, respectively, generated from HR patches and their corresponding low-frequency components in each cluster, an inverse map, which can estimate missing high-frequency components from only the known low-frequency components, is derived. Furthermore, by monitoring errors caused in the above estimation process, the proposed method enables adaptive selection of the optimal cluster for each target local patch, and this corresponds to the novel classification approach in our method. Then, by combining the above two approaches, the proposed method can adaptively estimate the missing high-frequency components, and successful reconstruction of the HR image is realized.

The enhancing effects of 0.25% sodium caprate (C10) and sodium caprylate (C8) on the paracellular permeation of seven water-soluble nonelectrolytes (inulin, polyethylene glycol 900, mannitol, erythritol, glycerol, thiourea, and urea) across the isolated rat colonic epithelium were examined using the Ussing-type chamber technique. The paracellular changes were also measured by impedance analysis. In both the presence and the absence of enhancers, the permeation clearances (Pm) for inulin (12–15 A in molecular radius) to erythritol (3.2 A) increased linearly with the increase in their free diffusion coefficients (Dfr), showing the existence of a paracellular shunt pathway unrestricted to any molecular size. Glycerol (2.9 A), thiourea (2.6 A), and urea (2.3 A) had higher clearances than the expected linear values, showing the existence of a restricted paracellular or transcellular pathway. Both C10 and C8 increased the permeabilities in the two pathways, but C10 was more effective than C8. The increase in the permeabilities via the shunt pathway caused by the enhancers was greater than that via the restricted pathway, and thus, the two-phase pattern in the relationship of Pm and Dfr was similar to that in the absence of enhancers. The transcellular permeabilities for urea and thiourea, which were obtained from the efflux experiments, were increased by the enhancers. However, the relative increase caused by C10 was smaller than that of the paracellular-restricted permeabilities. The paracellular changes probably were due to the increase in pore area per unit diffusive path length. A decrease in the resistance of the intercellular junctions involving a simultaneous increase of membrane capacitance was observed in the presence of C10, corresponding to an increase of pore area per unit path length. The effect of C10 on the paracellular permeability was reversible, and the junctional resistance, membrane capacitance, and Pm of mannitol returned to the control level following the removal of C10.

We describe our modification of the reversed T-shaped sternotomy. The conventional technique consists of a limited upper sternotomy with transverse division of the sternum. Our modification involves shifting the transverse division lines one costal space between the right and left sides for perfect apposition of the divided upper and lower sternum. This technique can be used for patients with thyroid cancer and mediastinal lymph node metastasis and for those with a mediastinal tumor or certain cardiac disorders.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is sometimes difficult due to complicated biliary anatomy including gallbladder duplication, a rare anomaly of the biliary tract. We report a case of duplicated gallbladder successfully removed under laparoscopy using endoscopic nasobiliary (ENB) tube cholangiography. A 61-year-old Japanese woman presented us with right upper abdominal pain. Ultrasonography revealed two cystic structures lying in the gallbladder fossa, and the upper one contained multiple stones. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiography showed two gallbladders, each of which has a cystic duct draining into the common bile duct separately. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was planned under the preoperative diagnosis of double gallbladder with gallstones in the accessory gallbladder. The ENB tube was inserted just before the operation. Laparoscopic removal of the double gallbladder was successfully done using the ENB tube to identify the biliary tree anatomy and to close the stump of the cystic duct. In this communication, we would like to stress the usefulness of the ENB tube at the time of laparoscopic biliary surgery in patients with biliary anomalies including gallbladder duplication.