[A CASE REPORT OF FUNGUS BALL FOUND DURING TRANSURETHRAL URETEROLITHOTOMY].

Herein we report the confirmation of fungus balls (circular collections of C.tropicalis) during a transurethral ureterolithotomy, which is as far as we know the first reported instance. A-61-year old man was referred to the urology department with bilateral ureteral calculi.

Direct Observation of Long-Chain Branches in a Low-Density Polyethylene.

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) has short-chain branch (SCB) and long-chain branch (LCB). In particular, the influence of the structure of LCBs on polymer properties is remarkable; however, it has been difficult to precisely analyze LCB structures. In this study, we measured the chain length of LCBs and the distance between branch points of LDPE by atomic force microscopy.

Depth profiling of APTES self-assembled monolayers using surface-enhanced confocal Raman microspectroscopy.

The internal structure of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) such as 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) fabricated on a glass substrate is difficult to characterize and analyze at nanometer level. In this study, we employed surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to study the internal molecular structure of APTES SAMs. The sample APTES SAMs were deposited with Ag nanoparticles to enhance the Raman signal and to obtain subtler structure information, which were supported by density functional theory calculations.

[An Intravesical Foreign Body after Caesarean Section and Tissue Fixing System (TFS) Operation : Two Case Reports].

Foreign body in the bladder is a relatively rare case. We encountered two cases of foreign bodies in the bladder after gynecological surgery. Case 1 was a 72-year-old woman.

[Case of a Plasmacytoid Urothelial Carcinoma Identified Due to the Hardening of the Abdominal Wall].

The patient was a 75 year-old male. Noticing areas of hardening in the lower abdomen, and consequently feelings of systemic fatigue and difficulty in walking, the patient visited a clinic and was diagnosed with kidney failure prior to the visit to our clinic. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging showed thickness of the rectus abdominis muscle and the bladder wall, and bilateral hydronephrosis was also identified.

Pro-Tumorigenic Phosphorylation of p120 Catenin in Renal and Breast Cancer.

Altered protein expression and phosphorylation are common events during malignant transformation. These perturbations have been widely explored in the context of E-cadherin cell-cell adhesion complexes, which are central in the maintenance of the normal epithelial phenotype. A major component of these complexes is p120 catenin (p120), which binds and stabilizes E-cadherin to promote its adhesive and tumor suppressing function.

Nomogram for overall survival of Japanese patients with bone-metastatic prostate cancer.

Background: We analyzed the relationship between prostate cancer outcomes and pretreatment clinical factors and developed a prognostic nomogram of overall survival (OS) of patients with bone metastasis.

Methods: From 1993 to 2011, 463 consecutive patients were treated for bone-metastatic prostate cancer. Data sets from 361 patients were used to develop a nomogram (training data), and data sets of 102 patients were used for validation of the nomogram (validation data).

[Renal arteriovenous fistula (AVF) following nephrectomy : a case of arterial embolization treatment].

The patient was a 78-year-old female. At the age of 76, the patient had undergone computed tomographic scanning for left lower abdominal pain. A retroperitoneal mass was detected on the right side of the abdomen.

[Effect of prophylactic intravesical instillation of pirarubicin to prevent recurrent bladder tumors following nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract cancer].

We retrospectively evaluated 23 patients who had been administered pirarubicin by intravesical instillation once weekly for 5 weeks, after undergoing surgery for upper urinary tract cancer between May 2003 and October 2008. We compared their clinical records with those of 19 patients with upper urinary tract cancer subjected to nephroureterectomy between 1998 and 2008, and who did not receive intravesical instillation of pirarubicin. This prophylactic therapy was well tolerated and contributed to reduce the rate of bladder recurrence.

Nonfunctioning juxtaglomerular cell tumor.

The juxtaglomerular cell tumor (JGCT) is a rare renal tumor characterized by excessive renin secretion causing intractable hypertension and hypokalemia. However, asymptomatic nonfunctioning JGCT is extremely rare. Here, we report a case of nonfunctioning JGCT in a 31-year-old woman.

[A case report of eosinophilic funiculitis difficult to distinguish from incarceration of inguinal hernia].

A 45-year-old man visited our emergency room with left inguinal pain, mass and high-grade fever. Emergency surgery was performed with a primary diagnosis of left inguinal hernia. Although there was no hernia, there was a mass involving the spermatic cord in the left inguinal canal.

Possible anti-tumor activity of initial treatment with zoledronic acid with hormonal therapy for bone-metastatic prostate cancer in multicenter clinical trial.

Background: To ascertain the anti-tumor effect of zoledronic acid (ZOL) treatment on clinical outcomes in patients with bone metastatic prostate cancer, we examined the effect of ZOL started simultaneously with hormonal therapy as initial treatment in these patients.

Methods: Forty-seven patients with bone-metastatic prostate cancer who received a luteinizing hormone releasing-hormone (LHRH) analogue and an anti-androgen [maximal androgen blockade (MAB)] were assigned to receive ZOL (4 mg intravenous administration every month for 2 years). The time to progression (TTP) of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA), the overall survival (OS), and the rate of PSA decrease in patients with MAB and ZOL treatment (ZOL group) were compared with these parameters in patients who received only MAB at one institute as a control group (non-ZOL group).

Light-scattering analysis of native wood holocelluloses totally dissolved in LiCl-DMI solutions: high probability of branched structures in inherent cellulose.

Three holocelluloses (i.e., cellulose and hemicellulose fractions) are prepared from softwood and hardwood by the Wise method.

The 19-amino acid insertion in the tumor-associated splice isoform Rac1b confers specific binding to p120 catenin.

The Rac1b splice isoform contains a 19-amino acid insertion not found in Rac1; this insertion leads to decreased GTPase activity and reduced affinity for GDP, resulting in the intracellular predominance of GTP-bound Rac1b. Here, using co-precipitation and proteomic methods, we find that Rac1b does not bind to many common regulators of Rho family GTPases but that it does display enhanced binding to SmgGDS, RACK1, and p120 catenin (p120(ctn)), proteins involved in cell-cell adhesion, motility, and transcriptional regulation. We use molecular modeling and structure analysis approaches to determine that the interaction between Rac1b and p120(ctn) is dependent upon protein regions that are predicted to be unstructured in the absence of molecular complex formation, suggesting that the interaction between these two proteins involves coupled folding and binding.

Non-Gaussian state generation from linear elements via feedback.

We present a feedback scheme to produce quantum non-Gaussian states from linear optical elements. Instead of traditional additive control methods, we introduce a mutiplicative feedback control and apply it to the deterministic generation of quantum superposition states. The protocol of feedback control is based on quantum nondemolition measurement of a quadrature, multifeedback structure, and Lyapunov stability for feedback design.

[Chemotherapy with low-dose docetaxel and estramustine phosphate in patient with liver dysfunction due to liver metastases of hormone-refractory prostate cancer : a case report].

A 82-year-old man was referred to our hospital for treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer with liver metastases. The obstruction of intrahepatic bile ducts due to the rapid growth of liver metastases induced liver dysfunction. We administered 25 mg/m(2) docetaxel on day1 and 280 mg/body estramustine phosphate on day 1 to day 3, every 4 weeks.

[Mixed epithelial and stromal tumor of kidney: a case report].

Mixed epithelial and stromal tumor of kidney (MEST-K) is a rare benign renal tumor that was first described by Michal and Syrucek in 1998. Its frequency is 0.2-0.

[A case of adult-onset idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism presenting with infertility].

A 28-year-old man with adult-onset idiopathic male hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (MHH) is reported. He had been delivered normally and had normal puberty. He was referred to our hospital with a chief complaint of infertility.

Synapses are regulated by the cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase Fer in a pathway mediated by p120catenin, Fer, SHP-2, and beta-catenin.

Localization of presynaptic components to synaptic sites is critical for hippocampal synapse formation. Cell adhesion-regulated signaling is important for synaptic development and function, but little is known about differentiation of the presynaptic compartment. In this study, we describe a pathway that promotes presynaptic development involving p120catenin (p120ctn), the cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase Fer, the protein phosphatase SHP-2, and beta-catenin.

p120 catenin induces opposing effects on tumor cell growth depending on E-cadherin expression.

p120 catenin regulates the activity of the Rho family guanosine triphosphatases (including RhoA and Rac1) in an adhesion-dependent manner. Through this action, p120 promotes a sessile cellular phenotype when associated with epithelial cadherin (E-cadherin) or a motile phenotype when associated with mesenchymal cadherins. In this study, we show that p120 also exerts significant and diametrically opposing effects on tumor cell growth depending on E-cadherin expression.

A p120 catenin isoform switch affects Rho activity, induces tumor cell invasion, and predicts metastatic disease.

p120 catenin is a cadherin-associated protein that regulates Rho GTPases and promotes the invasiveness of E-cadherin-deficient cancer cells. Multiple p120 isoforms are expressed in cells via alternative splicing, and all of them are essential for HGF signaling to Rac1. However, only full-length p120 (isoform 1) promotes invasiveness.

Functional genomic analysis reveals cross-talk between peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and calcium signaling in human colorectal cancer cells.

Activation of PPARgamma in MOSER cells inhibits anchorage-dependent and anchorage-independent growth and invasion through Matrigel-coated transwell membranes. We carried out a longitudinal two-class microarray analysis in which mRNA abundance was measured as a function of time in cells treated with a thiazolidinedione PPARgamma agonist or vehicle. A statistical machine learning algorithm that employs an empirical Bayesian implementation of the multivariate HotellingT2 score was used to identify differentially regulated genes.

Quantum feedback control for deterministic entangled photon generation.

We present quantum feedback control for deterministic entanglement generation at the single-photon level. The protocol of controlling both total photon number and phase difference is based on the cascade structure of cavities placed in an optical closed loop, quantum nondemolition measurement with cross-Kerr interactions, and Lyapunov stability for feedback design.

p120 catenin is essential for mesenchymal cadherin-mediated regulation of cell motility and invasiveness.

During epithelial tumor progression, the loss of E-cadherin expression and inappropriate expression of mesenchymal cadherins coincide with increased invasiveness. Reexpression experiments have established E-cadherin as an invasion suppressor. However, the mechanism by which E-cadherin suppresses invasiveness and the role of mesenchymal cadherins are poorly understood.