Augmented Reality in Surgical Oncology. A Literature Review.

Augmented reality (AR) devices enable doctors to associate visualizing diagnostic data, to establish therapeutic procedures in order to improve work efficiency and safety and to develop the surgical training of young doctors. This new approach may contribute to an increase in the quality of medical training and a decrease in the costs of surgeries. This paper assesses whether augmented reality can improve the results of surgical procedures as well as its possible progress in the future.

Onsen (hot springs) in Japan--transforming terrain into healing landscapes.

Japan is situated on the Pacific fire rim and has a large number of hot springs (onsens). There are over 27,000 sources of such springs and the country has a well regulated system of onsens. Within this geographical and cultural peculiarities certain unique traditional health practices have evolved, prominent among which is Touji or onsen therapy.

Hyaluronan activates mitogen-activated protein kinase via Ras-signaling pathway.

Hyaluronan (HA) triggers a wide variety of cellular functions, yet its signaling pathway remains largely unclear. We found that HA-treatment of 3Y1 cells activated tyrosine phosphorylation of cellular proteins and mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and, subsequently, stimulated cell growth. This HA-activity was resistant to boiling at 100 degrees C but completely abolished by treatment with hyaluronidase, suggesting that HA itself, but not any HA-associated proteins, has the activity.

c-Ras is required for the activation of the matrix metalloproteinases by concanavalin A in 3Y1 cells.

Concanavalin A (Con A) is known to trigger augmented secretion and proteolytic activation of the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in fibroblasts. To study the signaling pathway critical for the activation of MMPs in fibroblasts, we examined the effects of dominant negative ras (S17N ras) expression under the control of conditionally inducible promoter in Con A-activated 3Y1 cells. We found that augmented secretion and proteolytic activation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 together with expression of MT1-MMP in Con A-activated 3Y1 were dramatically suppressed by S17N ras expression.