ABSTRACT
Clinicians need to consider hepatoblastoma in the differential even in school-aged children or adolescents presenting with multiple liver tumors.
ABSTRACT
Robotic therapy for rehabilitation of the lower extremity is currently in its early stage of development. Aiming at exploring an efficacious intervention for gait rehabilitation, we investigate the characteristics of an end-effector gait-training device that combines saddle-seat-type body-weight-supported treadmill training with functional electrical stimulation (FES). This is a task-oriented approach to restoring voluntary control of locomotion in patients with neuromuscular diseases. We evaluate the differences between walking with saddle-seat-type support and with harness-type support, in terms of personal preference, the preferred walking speed, profiles of kinematics and ground reaction force, and the effectiveness of FES. The results indicate that the proposed gait-training device maintains subjects in a natural posture and supports important gait functions such as hip extension and ankle push-off effectively, in particular, at slow walking speed.
Subject(s)
Electric Stimulation Therapy/methods , Orthotic Devices , Robotics/instrumentation , Stroke Rehabilitation , Walking/physiology , Adult , Body Weight/physiology , Equipment Design , Female , Gait/physiology , Humans , Male , Stroke Rehabilitation/instrumentation , Stroke Rehabilitation/methods , Young AdultABSTRACT
The molecular epidemiology of 545 Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolates collected between 1977 and 2009 from cattle in Hokkaido, Japan, was investigated using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Nine main clusters were identified from 116 PFGE patterns. Cluster I comprised 248 isolates, 243 of which possessed a sequence specific to definitive phage type 104 (DT104) or U302. The cluster I isolates were dominant in 1993 to 2003, but their numbers declined beginning in 2004. Beginning in 2002, an increase was observed in the number of cluster VII isolates, consisting of 21 PFGE patterns comprising 165 isolates. A total of 116 isolates representative of the 116 PFGE profiles were analyzed by multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA). Other than two drug-sensitive isolates, 19 isolates within cluster VII were classified in the same cluster by MLVA. Among the cluster VII isolates, an antibiotic resistance type showing resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulfonamides, tetracycline, kanamycin, cefazolin, and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim and a resistance type showing resistance to ampicillin, streptomycin, sulfonamides, tetracycline, and kanamycin were found in 23 and 125 isolates, respectively. In the 19 isolates representative of cluster VII, the bla(TEM-1) gene was found on a Salmonella serotype Typhimurium virulence plasmid, which was transferred to Escherichia coli by electroporation along with resistance to two to four other antimicrobials. Genomic analysis by subtractive hybridization and plasmid analysis suggested that the bla(TEM-1)-carrying virulence plasmid has a mosaic structure composed of elements of different origin. These results indicate an emerging multidrug-resistant S. Typhimurium clone carrying a virulence-resistance plasmid among cattle in Hokkaido, Japan.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Typing Techniques , Cattle Diseases/epidemiology , Cattle Diseases/microbiology , Salmonella Infections, Animal/epidemiology , Salmonella Infections, Animal/microbiology , Salmonella typhimurium/classification , Salmonella typhimurium/isolation & purification , Animals , Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology , Cattle , Cluster Analysis , Conjugation, Genetic , DNA, Bacterial/chemistry , DNA, Bacterial/genetics , Drug Resistance, Bacterial , Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field , Escherichia coli/genetics , Gene Transfer, Horizontal , Japan/epidemiology , Molecular Epidemiology , Molecular Sequence Data , Molecular Typing , Plasmids , Salmonella typhimurium/genetics , Sequence Analysis, DNA , Virulence Factors/geneticsABSTRACT
The causative agent of prion diseases is the pathological isoform (PrPSc) of the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC). PrPSc has an identical amino acid sequence to PrPC; thus, it has been assumed that an immune response against PrPSc could not be found in prion-affected animals. In this study, we found the anti-prion protein (PrP) antibody at the terminal stage of mouse scrapie. Several sera from mice in the terminal stage of scrapie reacted to the recombinant mouse PrP (rMPrP) molecules and brain homogenates of mouse prion diseases. These results indicate that mouse could recognize PrPC or PrPSc as antigens by the host immune system. Furthermore, immunization with rMPrP generates high titers of anti-PrP antibodies in wild-type mice. Some anti-PrP antibodies immunized with rMPrP prevent PrPSc replication in vitro. The mouse sera from terminal prion disease have several wide epitopes, although mouse sera immunized with rMPrP possess narrow epitopes.
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic/blood , PrPSc Proteins/immunology , Prions/immunology , Scrapie/immunology , Amino Acid Sequence , Animals , Blotting, Western , Disease Models, Animal , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Female , Mice , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Molecular Sequence Data , PrPSc Proteins/blood , Prion Proteins , Prognosis , Recombinant Fusion Proteins/blood , Recombinant Fusion Proteins/genetics , Recombinant Fusion Proteins/immunologyABSTRACT
Surveillance of chronic wasting disease (CWD) was conducted by performing Western blot analysis of tissue samples from 136 sika deer (Cervus nippon) killed by hunters in the Tokachi district of Hokkaido Island. No prion protein (PrPSc) associated with CWD was detected in any of the samples. To assess amino acid polymorphisms of the sika deer PrP gene, nucleotide sequencing of the PrP gene was performed. The only amino acid polymorphisms detected were 3 silent mutations at nucleotide positions 63, 225 and 408. These results suggest that sika deer in the Tokachi district are genetically homogeneous, and are not infected with CWD.
