A compact tritium enrichment unit for large sample volumes with automated re-filling and higher enrichment factor.

Tritium (H) in natural waters is a powerful tracer of hydrological processes, but its low concentrations require electrolytic enrichment before precise measurements can be made with a liquid scintillation counter. Here, we describe a newly developed, compact tritium enrichment unit which can be used to enrich up to 2L of a water sample. This allows a high enrichment factor (>100) for measuring low H contents of <0.

Tritium in Japanese precipitation following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant accident.

Tritium concentrations in Japanese precipitation samples collected after the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP1) were measured. Values exceeding the pre-accident background were detected at three out of seven localities (Tsukuba, Kashiwa and Hongo) southwest of the FNPP1 at distances varying between 170 and 220 km from the source. The highest tritium content was found in the first rainfall in Tsukuba after the accident; however concentrations were 500 times less than the regulatory limit for tritium in drinking water.

Increasing the performance of tritium analysis by electrolytic enrichment.

Several improvements are described for the existing tritium enrichment system at the Isotope Hydrology Laboratory of the International Atomic Energy Agency for processing natural water samples. The improvements include a simple method for pretreatment of electrolytic cells to ensure a high tritium separation factor, an improved design of the exhaust system for explosive gases, and a vacuum distillation line for faster initial preparation of water samples for electrolytic enrichment and for tritium analysis. Achievements included the reduction of variation of individual enrichment parameters of all cells to less than 1% and an improvement of 50% of the stability of the background mean.

Intensified testing for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in girls should reduce depression and smoking in adult females and the prevalence of ADHD in the longterm.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder in youth. About a third to one-half of the affected subjects continue to have symptoms in adulthood. Remarkably, the prevalence numbers published for adult females are higher than for girls.

Neural hyporesponsiveness and hyperresponsiveness during immediate and delayed reward processing in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Background: Dysfunctional reward processing, accompanied by a limited ability to tolerate reward delays, has been proposed as an important feature in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), brain activation in adult patients with ADHD (n=14) and healthy control subjects (n=12) was examined during a series of choices between two monetary reward options that varied by delay to delivery.

Results: Compared with healthy control subjects, hyporesponsiveness of the ventral-striatal reward system was replicated in patients with ADHD and was evident for both immediate and delayed rewards.

Long-term MRI and clinical follow-up of symptomatic and presymptomatic carriers of dysferlin gene mutations.

We report the results of a longitudinal study involving MRI and clinical follow-up in nine siblings from four families with Miyoshi myopathy (MM). All individuals carried pathogenic dysferlin gene (DYSF) mutations with six of them suffering from symptomatic disease and three being presymptomatic. In presymptomatic subjects, MRI was sensitive to detect alterations in muscle tissue years before disease onset.

Spastin related hereditary spastic paraplegia with dysplastic corpus callosum.

Thin corpus callosum has been recently observed in two patients with an autosomal dominant trait of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) linked to a novel mutation in the spastin gene (SPG4). In the same two patients cerebellar atrophy has been found. Reportedly, in other members of the same family, there has been a variable presence of mental retardation.

Arterialisation of the portal vein as a model for the induction of hepatic fibrosis: description of microsurgical models in the rat.

Within the framework of liver transplantation, arterialisation of the portal vein in the case of non-recanalisable thrombosis has been reactivated. However, one of the consequences of this vascular reconstruction is the development of hepatic fibrosis. Clinical experience has shown that the development of fibrosis can be avoided by reducing portal inflow.

Effects of portal vein arterialization on regeneration and morphology in liver transplantation: investigations using the rat model.

Background: Portal vein arterialization (PVA) has been proposed as a technical variant in liver transplantation in the case of non-recanalizable thrombosis. The present study investigates the effects of the arterialized portal vein on the function, morphology, and regenerative behavior of the liver.

Methods: Different PVA techniques, including orthotopic liver transplantation, were used in a rat model.

Variable reduction of caveolin-3 in patients with LGMD2B/MM.

Mutations in the human dysferlin gene ( DYSF) cause autosomal recessive muscular dystrophies characterized by degeneration and weakness of proximal and/or distal muscles: limb girdle muscular dystrophy type 2B (LGMD2B) and Miyoshi myopathy (MM). Recently, an interaction between caveolin-3 and dysferlin in normal and dystrophic muscle (primary caveolin-3 deficiency; LGMD1C) was shown. In this study, clinical,morphological and genetic analysis was carried out in four independent LGMD2B/MM patients.

X-linked bulbospinal neuronopathy: Kennedy disease.

Objective: To characterize the earliest symptoms of X-linked bulbospinal neuronopathy (Kennedy disease [KD]) during the course of the disease, including a definition of the age of onset.

Methods: We describe the earliest symptoms, signs on clinical investigation, electrophysiological and muscle biopsy specimen findings, and creatine kinase levels in 34 patients with KD. Correlations were made among the CAG-repeat length and clinical symptoms, age at onset, and the presence of electrophysiological and laboratory findings.

Acute toxoplasmosis following renal transplantation in three cats and a dog.

Three cats and 1 dog that had undergone renal transplantation because of end-stage renal disease were examined because of complications 3 to 6 weeks after surgery. One cat died prior to treatment of the complications; Toxoplasma cysts were found in sections of the renal allograft, and Toxoplasma tachyzoites were found in other organs. The other 2 cats and the dog died despite treatment, and protozoal cysts, as well as tachyzoites, were identified in other organs but not within the allografts, suggesting that reactivation of latent infection following immunosuppression was the most likely cause of disseminated toxoplasmosis.

A mouth opening index for patients with temporomandibular disorders.

Limitation of mouth opening is an important sign of temporomandibular disorders. It is usually measured linearly from the incisal edge of the maxillary incisors to the incisal edge of the mandibular incisors. This measurement has been queried.

Expression of type III hyperlipoproteinemia in patients homozygous for apolipoprotein E-2 is modulated by lipoprotein lipase and postprandial hyperinsulinemia.

Type III hyperlipoproteinemia (HLP) is a multifactorial disorder associated with homozygosity for the apolipoprotein (apo) E-2 allele. Factors which may promote the development of HLP include lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hyperinsulinemia. These factors were investigated in eight patients with type III HLP and in nine normolipidemic controls.

Infiltrative cardiomyopathy responsive to combination chemotherapy in a cat with lymphoma.

A 3-year-old castrated male domestic shorthair cat had renal lymphoma and infiltrative cardiomyopathy, both of which responded to combination chemotherapy. Diagnosis was made on the basis of results of renal biopsy and echocardiography. Cardiac lesions included hypertrophy of the left ventricular free wall and interventricular septum, ventricular hypokinesis, and diminishment of the left ventricular chamber.

Microlithiasis associated with chronic bronchopneumonia in a cat.

Chronic bronchopneumonia associated with microlithiasis was diagnosed in a 9-year-old domestic shorthair cat with a 3-month history of coughing and dyspnea. Thoracic radiography revealed multifocal patchy alveolar infiltrates in all lung fields. Numerous acellular, concentrically laminated, periodic acid-Schiff-positive microliths were seen in mucus from tracheal washing.

The prognosis of sarcoidosis in children.

Of 28 children with sarcoidosis, who have a mean follow-up period of approximately nine years, five (18 percent) have sustained severe damage from the disease. Two of these patients suffer from blindness, and three others have severe restrictive pulmonary disease. There has so far been no fatality.