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Crohn’s disease (CD) presenting as gastric outlet obstruction is rare but serious clinical presentation of CD causing severe morbidity. However, there have been few case reports concerning this disorder in East Asian children and adolescents. The current case report describes 2 pediatric patients with CD who had had gastric outlet obstruction as an initial symptom of CD. Two pediatric patients developed postprandial vomiting, bloating, and unintentional weight loss. The upper endoscopy result indicated that there was pyloric obstruction with mucosal edema, inflammation and ulcers. The serologic test and colonoscopy results suggested CD. These patients were treated with infliximab, and endoscopic balloon dilation without surgery and showed remarkable improvement in obstructing symptoms with maintaining clinical and biochemical remission. This case report elucidates the benefits of early intervention using infliximab and endoscopic balloon dilation to improve gastric outlet obstruction and achieve baseline recovery in patients with upper gastrointestinal B2 phenotype of CD.

Fallout radionuclides have been used successfully worldwide as tracers for soil erosion, but relatively few studies exploit the full potential of plutonium (Pu) isotopes. Hence, this study aims to explore the suitability of the plutonium isotopes 239Pu and 240Pu as a method to assess soil erosion magnitude by comparison to more established fallout radionuclides such as 137Cs and 210Pbex. As test area an erosion affected headwater catchment of the Lake Soyang (South Korea) was selected. All three fallout radionuclides confirmed high erosion rates for agricultural sites (>25tha−1yr−1). Pu isotopes further allowed determining the origin of the fallout. Both 240Pu/239Pu atomic ratios and 239+240Pu/137Cs activity ratios were close to the global fallout ratio. However, the depth profile of the 239+240Pu/137Cs activity ratios in undisturbed sites showed lower ratios in the top soil increments, which might be due to higher migration rates of 239+240Pu. The activity ratios further indicated preferential transport of 137Cs from eroded sites (higher ratio compared to the global fallout) to the depositional sites (smaller ratio). As such the 239+240Pu/137Cs activity ratio offered a new approach to parameterize a particle size correction factor that can be applied when both 137Cs and 239+240Pu have the same fallout source. Implementing this particle size correction factor in the conversion of 137Cs inventories resulted in comparable estimates of soil loss for 137Cs and 239+240Pu. The comparison among the different fallout radionuclides highlights the suitability of 239+240Pu through less preferential transport compared to 137Cs and the possibility to gain information regarding the origin of the fallout. In conclusion, 239+240Pu is a promising soil erosion tracer, however, since the behaviour i.e. vertical migration in the soil and lateral transport during water erosion was shown to differ from that of 137Cs, there is a clear need for a wider agro-environmental testing.

High-frequency continuous measurements of the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) are crucial for constraining the spatiotemporal dynamics of CO2 emissions from inland water systems. However, direct measurements of pCO2 are scarce, and no systematic comparisons have been conducted on the suitability of the widely used measurement systems for continuous underway or long-term deployment in various field conditions. We compared spray- and marble-type equilibrators and a membrane-enclosed CO2 sensor to assess their suitability for continuous long-term or underway pCO2 measurements in an urbanized river system in Korea. Both equilibrators had a shorter response time compared with the membrane-enclosed sensor, and could capture large spatial variations of pCO2 during a transect study along a highly urbanized river reach. The membrane-enclosed sensor based on passive equilibration provided comparable underway measurements along the river sections where pCO2 varied within the sensor detection range. When deployed in a eutrophic river site, the membrane-enclosed sensor was able to detect large diel variations in pCO2. However, biofouling on the membrane could reduce the accuracy of the measurement during long deployments exceeding several days. The overall results suggest that the fast response of the equilibrator systems facilitates capturing large spatial variations in pCO2 during short underway measurements. However, the attendant technical challenges of these systems, such as clogging and desiccant maintenance, have to be addressed carefully to enable their long-term deployment. The membrane-enclosed sensor would be suitable as an alternative tool for long-term continuous measurements if membrane biofouling could be overcome by appropriate antifouling measures such as copper mesh coverings.

The autonomic nervous system has a regulatory structure that helps people adapt to changes in their environment by adjusting or modifying some functions in response to stress, and regulating involuntary function of human organs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of combined stimulation, both far-infrared heating and chiropractic, on the autonomic nervous system activities using thermal image and heart rate variability. Six healthy subjects participated in this test. We compared the before and after autonomic nervous system activities through obtaining thermal image and photoplethysmogram signal. The thermal images showed that the combined stimulation changed subject-s body temperature more highly and widely than before. The result of heart rate variability indicated that LF/HF ratio decreased. We concluded that combined stimulation activates autonomic nervous system, and expected other possibilities of this combined stimulation., {"references":["Low P.A., \"Clinical autonomic disorders\", 3rd ed, Lippincott Williams &\nWilkins, 2008, pp.11-12","Kevin F. et al., \"Handbook of cardiac anatomy, physiology, and devices\",\nSpringer Verlag, 2008, pp. 177-189","Shojiro I., \"Biological activities caused by far-infrared radiation\",\nInternational Journal of Biometeorology, vol. 33, 1989, pp. 145-150","Nelson C.F. et al., \"Chiropractic as spine care: a model for the profession\",\nChiropractic Osteopathy, vol. 13, 2005, pp. 1-17","Cauwenbergs P., \"Vertebral subluxation and the anatomic relationship of\nthe autonomic nervous system\", Foundations of Chiropractic, Subluxation St Louis, 1995, pp. 235-266","Suter B, Kistler A., \"Demonstration of the effective of acupuncture on the\nautonomic nervous system by examination of the microcirculation\",\nResearch in Complementary Medicine, vol. 6, 1999, pp. 32-34","Camm A. J., Malik M., Bigger J. T., Breithard G., \"Heart rate variability:\nstandards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use\",\nEuropean Heart Journal, vol. 17, 1996, pp.345-381","Young-Chang P., \"The Effect of Acupressure at the Extra 1 Point on\nSubjective and Autonomic Responses to Needle Insertion\", Anesthesia\nand analgesia, vol. 107, 2008, pp.661-664","Macor F., Fagard R., Vanhoof R., Staessen J., Thijs L., Amery A., \"Power\nspectral analysis of short-term RR interval and blood pressure variability:\nComparison of different methods and assessment of reproducibility\",\nHigh Blood Pressure, vol. 3, 1994, pp.15-21\n[10] Elif Derya U., Inan G., \"Spectral analysis of internal carotid arterial\nDoppler signals using FFT, AR, MA, and ARMA methods\", Computers\nin Biology and Medicine, vol. 34, 2004, pp. 293-306"]}