A rare variation of posterior cord brachial plexus branching coexisting with the intercalated ectopic muscle

During a dissection of the brachial plexus we found a rare variation of left posterior cord branching coexisting with an unusual intercalated ectopic muscle. This muscle originated from the shoulder joint capsule at the lesser tubercle on insertion of the subscapularis then pierced between the brachial plexus, enclosed by two roots of the radial nerve, and inserted into the upper part of the latissimus dorsi muscle. The variant posterior cord divided into two roots; a thin lateral and thick medial root. The lateral root gave off the thoracodorsal nerve that penetrated and also innervated the ectopic muscle. The medial root gave off five nerve branches; two upper subscapular, one lower subscapular, one axillary and one terminal branch. A terminal branch fused with the lateral root to form a loop enclosing the ectopic muscle then continued as the radial nerve. This type of variation may be useful to interpret unexplained clinical signs and symptoms and provided additional knowledge to surgeons who perform brachial plexus surgery.     

Low-pressure pneumoperitoneum versus standard pneumoperitoneum in laparoscopic cholecystectomy, a prospective randomized clinical trial

Background  Post-laparoscopic pain syndrome is well recognized and characterized by abdominal and particularly shoulder tip pain; it occurs frequently following laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The etiology of post-laparoscopic pain can be classified into three aspects: visceral, incision, and shoulder. The origin of shoulder pain is only partly understood, but it is commonly assumed that the cause is overstretching of the diaphragmatic muscle fibers owing to a high rate of insufflations. This study aimed to compare the frequency and intensity of shoulder tip pain between low-pressure (7 mmHg) and standard-pressure (14 mmHg) in a prospective randomized clinical trial. Methods  One hundred and forty consecutive patients undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomized prospectively to either high- or low-pressure pneumoperitoneum and blinded by research nurses who assessed the patients during the postoperative period. The statistical analysis included sex, mean age, weight, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade, operative time, complication rate, duration of surgery, conversion rate, postoperative pain by using visual analogue scale, number of analgesic injections, incidence and severity of shoulder tip pain, and postoperative hospital stay. p < 0.05 was considered indicative of significance. Results  The characteristics of the patients were similar in the two groups except for the predominance of males in the standard-pressure group (controls). The procedure was successful in 68 of 70 patients in the low-pressure group compared with in 70 patients in the standard group. Operative time, number of analgesic injections, visual analogue score, and length of postoperative days were similar in both groups. Incidence of shoulder tip pain was higher in the standard-pressure group, but not statistically significantly so (27.9% versus 44.3%) (p = 0.100). Conclusions  Low-pressure pneumoperitoneum tended to be better than standard-pressure pneumoperitoneum in terms of lower incidence of shoulder tip pain, but this difference did not reach statistical significance following elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy.     

Correlation of Helicobacter pylori and interleukin-8 mRNA expression in high risk gastric cancer population prediction

AIM: To evaluate (1) the association of the Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) test and interleukin-8 (IL-8) mRNA expression alone and the severity of gastric cancer (GC); (2) the association of both tests were added to patients'' characteristics to identifli Thai suspected patients of gastric cancer who would receive the most benefit; and (3) diagnostic value of levels of IL-8 mRNA expression for gastric cancer.METHODS: A cross-sectional analytical study was completed with 220 patients with 86 GC patients who underwent endoscopy with gastric surgery divided into non-metastasis and metastasis groups, and 134 patients with benign lesions who underwent endoscopic examination, at the Gastrointestinal Surgery and Endoscopy Unit, Chiang Mai University Hospital between 2006 and 2010. Of 220 patients, 86 cases of diagnosed gastric adenocarcinoma were in an advanced stage and 134 cases were non-cancer patients.RESULTS: The IL-8 mRNA expression showed predominant association with advanced GC when compared to H. pylori infection alone [OR (95%CI); 0.86 (0.49-1.53) vs 5.44 (3.08-9.62)] when including the patients’ characteristics the highest of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AuROC) of the model were males older than 40 years of age [AuROC (95%CI); 0.81 (0.75-0.86)]. However, preliminary testing for diagnostic indices of four cut-off points of IL-8 mRNA expression to predict the severity of GC cases found an increasing suboptimal trend from the likelihood ratio of positive to differentiate the severity in the GC group. The IL-8 mRNA expression showed a predominant association with GC when compared to H. pylori infection, especially in males older than 40 years of age who may benefit most from this test.CONCLUSION: The future research of IL-8 mRNA expression to predict severity in the gastric cancer group should be warranted.     

Melatonin reduces induction of Bax, caspase and cell death in methamphetamine-treated human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cultured cells

Abstract:  Several studies demonstrated that methamphetamine (MA)-treated human neuroblastoma cells exhibit increased oxidative stress, which regulates intracellular signaling cascades leading to cell death. Melatonin has a potential as a direct free radical scavenger and protects against cell death caused by MA. The objective of this study was to investigate the neuroprotective properties of melatonin on MA-induced induction of death signaling cascade and neuronal cell degeneration in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cultured cells. The results of the present study demonstrate that MA significantly reduced cell viability in SH-SY5Y cultured cells. Desipramine, a monoamine uptake blocker, and melatonin reversed the toxic effect of MA in reducing cell viability. Induction of Bax, Bcl-2 and cleaved caspase-3 protein levels were observed in SH-SY5Y cultured cells treated with MA, whereas the induction of Bax and cleaved caspase-3 was diminished by melatonin. Visualization of the induction of Bax using immunofluorescence but a reduction in mitochondrial sites using red-fluorescent mitochondria-staining dye was more obviously apparent in MA-treated cells than in untreated control cells and, again, this effect was abolished by melatonin. These findings demonstrate important roles of Bax and caspase in death signaling cascade, and the protective effects of melatonin in MA-treated SH-SY5Y cells.     

Solar photothermochemical alkane reverse combustion

A one-step, gas-phase photothermocatalytic process for the synthesis of hydrocarbons, including liquid alkanes, aromatics, and oxygenates, with carbon numbers (C_n) up to C₁₃, from CO₂ and water is demonstrated in a flow photoreactor operating at elevated temperatures (180–200 °C) and pressures (1–6 bar) using a 5% cobalt on TiO₂ catalyst and under UV irradiation. A parametric study of temperature, pressure, and partial pressure ratio revealed that temperatures in excess of 160 °C are needed to obtain the higher C_n products in quantity and that the product distribution shifts toward higher C_n products with increasing pressure. In the best run so far, over 13% by mass of the products were C₅+ hydrocarbons and some of these, i.e., octane, are drop-in replacements for existing liquid hydrocarbons fuels. Dioxygen was detected in yields ranging between 64% and 150%. In principle, this tandem photochemical–thermochemical process, fitted with a photocatalyst better matched to the solar spectrum, could provide a cheap and direct method to produce liquid hydrocarbons from CO₂ and water via a solar process which uses concentrated sunlight for both photochemical excitation to generate high-energy intermediates and heat to drive important thermochemical carbon-chain-forming reactions.Oil is essential for sustaining the current global population and economy because it is the primary source of transportation fuels. Diesel, jet, and gasoline hydrocarbon fuels are unrivaled in terms of energy density and ease of use and storage; however, as fossil fuels their combustion leads to a significant anthropogenic contribution of CO₂ to the atmosphere, estimated at 40 × 10⁹ metric tons of CO₂ in 2012 alone (1, 2). The eventual replacement of oil with fuels generated from sustainable and carbon-neutral sources is necessary if we are to avoid harmful climate change due to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (3). Advances in solar-based technologies are the most promising (4); however, these technologies generally produce either electricity or hydrogen, neither of which is an ideal replacement for liquid hydrocarbons. The least disruptive technology would replace oil-derived hydrocarbons with liquid hydrocarbon fuels derived from CO₂, water, and a clean energy source, such as the sun, leading to a carbon-neutral fuel cycle (5–7).Currently, there are a number of promising strategies to harness solar energy to generate high-energy molecules (fuels) from water and/or carbon dioxide, including (i) high-temperature thermochemical cycles (8), (ii) coupling photovoltaics to water electrolysis (PV-EC) (9, 10), (iii) developing single or tandem photoelectrochemical cells (PEC) (11–13), or (iv) direct photochemical methods (PC) using semiconductor materials, often modified by added cocatalysts or nanostructuring techniques (12, 14, 15). Hydrogen, carbon monoxide, C₁ hydrocarbons, and syngas are the most commonly produced fuels and are derived from water or water and CO₂ (6, 16, 17). Hydrogen produced via the water-splitting reaction (WSR, reaction 1) is arguably the easiest to produce and stores the most energy on a mass basis (kJ/kg); however, it is not a particularly attractive replacement fuel for transportation, due to technological issues with low-volume energy density, safe storage, and transportation (18). Moreover, switching to a hydrogen-based transportation fuel would also require a considerable investment in upgrading the existing automotive fleet and fuel distribution infrastructure.One commonly proposed solution to this dilemma is to use the H₂ generated via the WSR, reaction 1, in combination with CO₂ to synthesize liquid hydrocarbon fuels, using the reverse water–gas shift (RWGS), reaction 2, and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS), reaction 3. The combination of reactions 1–3 is the reverse ofH₂O → H₂ + 1/2O₂?ΔG° = 237.3kJ/mol?(WSR), [1]CO₂+H₂ ? CO + H₂O?ΔG° = 25.2kJ/mol?(RWGS), [2](2n + 1)H₂ + n?CO → C_nH_(2n+2) + n?H₂O?ΔG° ～ ‐99n?kJ/mol?(FTS), [3](n + 1)H₂O + n?CO₂ → C_nH_2n+2 + (3/2n+1/2)O₂?ΔG°～665n?kJ/mol?(ARC)[4]combustion and, as generally proposed, would be carried out as separate unit operations, each with its attendant efficiency losses and capital and operating costs (19, 20). We report here a photothermochemical process for driving the alkane reverse combustion (ARC) reaction (reaction 4) to produce C₁ to C₁₃ hydrocarbons in a single operation unit. If the process was driven by the sun to provide both photons and heat, a solar photothermochemical alkane reverse combustion (SPARC) process could be achieved in one step. If the SPARC reaction could be optimized to predominantly produce liquid hydrocarbons, and these products were derived from atmospheric CO₂, a sustainable and carbon-neutral liquid fuel cycle could be realized.The direct production of C₁ hydrocarbons such as methane, methanol, formic acid, and CO from CO₂ and water in a photoelectrochemical reactor was realized as early as the mid 1970s when Halmann (21) and then Inoue et al. (22) showed that irradiation of TiO₂-coated electrode suspended in CO₂-saturated aqueous solutions yielded a number of C₁ products. Since this time, research has largely focused on the exploration and development of new semiconductor photocatalysts (23), modifications of the semiconductor catalyst in the form of added cocatalysts, e.g., Ni, Cu, Ag, and Pt (23–25), new methods to nanostructure the catalyst (26), and the coupling of molecular dyes and cocatalysts with the heterogeneous catalyst (27, 28). Whereas these advances have led to improvements in catalytic efficiency and quantum yields, little progress has been realized in extending the selectivity of the reaction to favor the more desirable, higher carbon number liquid hydrocarbons (29). Although reports of trace amounts of products, such as ethane, ethanol, acetic acid, propanol, and butanol, are not unknown (30–34), they are the exception and frequently the underlying cause for their generation is unknown. Of these reports, the work of Roy et al. (35) and Varghese et al. (36) stands out. They reported that high-temperature-annealed TiO₂ nanotubes modified with Pt, Pd, or Cu not only gave methane, but also traces of ethane, propane, butane, pentane, and hexane as well as olefins and branched paraffins, although the details regarding product quantification and characterization were omitted. Whereas this work yielded the highest C_n products yet reported, the results contributed little toward a mechanistic understanding as to how to deliberately target these products.Thus, despite over 40 y of research on the photochemical CO₂ reduction with semiconductors, no clear method for directly producing C₅+ liquid hydrocarbon products exists. Herein, we demonstrate that operation of the photochemical ARC reaction at elevated temperatures in the presence of a hybrid FTS-like photocatalyst (cobalt on TiO₂ support) directly yields C₂+ hydrocarbons as the dominant products, including a significant portion of C₅+ liquid hydrocarbons. The key insights are that: (i) even though the FTS reaction is exothermic, a minimum temperature of ∼180 °C is required to obtain reasonable kinetics for the carbon-chain-forming process (37, 38) and (ii) the majority of metals (i.e., Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu) used for CO₂ photocatalytic hydrogenation are poor FTS catalysts as they favor C₁ products (39). Fe, Co, and Ru are commonly used as FTS catalysts because they exhibit high C_n selectivity (39), but they have not been commonly explored in the context of CO₂ photoreduction/hydrogenation. By operating the SPARC reaction at elevated temperature and pressure over a hybrid FTS photocatalyst, the products of the photocatalytic reaction can be consumed in thermal reactions which favor higher C_n products.     

A novel, 4-h DNA extraction method for STR typing of casework bone samples

International Journal of Legal Medicine - Bones are often found in mass grave crime scene. To increase DNA identification success rates, a highly efficient DNA extraction method should be selected....     

Olig2‐lineage cells preferentially differentiate into oligodendrocytes but their processes degenerate at the chronic demyelinating stage of proteolipid protein‐overexpressing mouse

In chronic demyelinating lesions of the central nervous system, insufficient generation of oligodendrocytes (OLs) is not due to a lack of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs), because the accumulation of OPCs and premyelinating OLs can be observed within these lesions. Here we sought to identify the basis for the failure of OLs to achieve terminal differentiation in chronic demyelinating lesions through the utilization of plp1‐overexpressing (Plp ^tg/?) mice. These mice are characterized by progressive demyelination in young adults and chronic demyelinating lesions at more mature stages. We show that neural stem cells, which are the precursors of OL‐lineage cells, are present in the Plp ^tg/? mouse brain and that their multipotentiality and ability to self‐renew are comparable to those of wild‐type adults in culture. Lineage‐tracing experiments using a transgenic mouse line, in which an inducible Cre recombinase is knocked in at the Olig2 locus, revealed that Olig2‐lineage cells preferentially differentiated into OPCs and premyelinating OLs, but not into astrocytes, in the Plp ^tg/? mouse brain. These Olig2‐lineage cells matured to express myelin basic protein but after that their processes degenerated in the chronic demyelinating lesions of the Plp ^tg/? brain. These results indicate that in chronic demyelinated lesions more OL‐lineage cells are produced as part of the repair process, but their processes degenerate after maturation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.