Control of probability flow in Markov chain Monte Carlo-Nonreversibility and lifting.

The Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is widely used in various fields as a powerful numerical integration technique for systems with many degrees of freedom. In MCMC methods, probabilistic state transitions can be considered as a random walk in state space, and random walks allow for sampling from complex distributions. However, paradoxically, it is necessary to carefully suppress the randomness of the random walk to improve computational efficiency.

Unveiling the mille-feuille sign: a key to diagnosing ovarian carcinosarcoma in addition to ovarian metastasis from colorectal carcinoma on MRI.

Purpose: To clarify the diagnostic utility and formation of the Mille-feuille sign for ovarian carcinosarcoma (OCS) on MRI, and to evaluate the other MRI findings and serum markers compared to ovarian metastases from colorectal carcinoma (OMCRC).

Method: Three blinded radiologists retrospectively reviewed MR images of 12 patients with OCS, 18 with OMCRC, and 40 with primary ovarian carcinoma (POC) identified by the electronic database of radiology reports. The interobserver agreement was analyzed using Fleiss' kappa test.

Effect of tafamidis on left atrial function of patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy.

Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is characterized by the functional and structural effects of amyloid infiltration, predominantly within the ventricles, causing biventricular wall thickening. Amyloid infiltration can be observed in the left atrium in ATTR-CM patients, but the association of left atrial (LA) myocardial function with cardiovascular events and of changes in LA myocardial function with tafamidis administration have not yet been clarified. Our aim was, therefore, to use speckle-tracking strain for investigating LA myocardial function in patients with ATTR-CM treated with tafamidis.

Left Ventricular Longitudinal Myocardial Function of Heart Failure Patients With Transition From Reduced to Preserved Ejection Fraction and of Those With Preserved Ejection Fraction.

Left ventricular (LV) longitudinal myocardial function is associated with the outcomes of heart failure (HF) patients. HF with improved ejection fraction (EF), known as HFimpEF, which is defined as current LVEF >40% but any previously documented LVEF ≤40%, has favorable outcomes compared with HF with preserved EF (HFpEF). However, LV longitudinal myocardial function in patients with previously reduced LVEF (<50%) but improved LVEF to within the normal range (≥50%) (HFnorEF) and its association with cardiovascular events remain unclear.

Effect of increase in heart rate after anthracycline chemotherapy on subsequent left ventricular dysfunction.

Background: Anthracycline chemotherapy-related cardiac dysfunction is believed to be refractory to conventional pharmacological therapy and is associated with a poor prognosis. Increased heart rate (HR) is a known marker of cardiovascular outcomes for various categories of heart failure (HF). However, little interest has been expressed regarding increased HR after anthracycline chemotherapy.

Identification of factors associated with progression of left atrial enlargement in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Left atrial (LA) enlargement frequently occurs in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, and this enlargement is associated with the development of heart failure, thromboembolism, or atrial functional mitral regurgitation (AFMR). AF patients can develop LA enlargement over time, but its progression depends on the individual. So far, the factors that cause progressive LA enlargement in AF patients have thus not been elucidated, so that the aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with the progression of LA enlargement in AF patients.

Impact of Tafamidis on Echocardiographic Cardiac Function of Patients With Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis.

Background: The efficacy of a therapy for patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) has not been proven, but tafamidis has been associated with favorable outcomes. However, echocardiographic details of the association of tafamidis with cardiac morphology remain undetermined. Moreover, whether the efficacy of tafamidis varies with the degree of cardiac involvement remains unknown.

A noise-robust data assimilation method for crystal structure determination using powder diffraction intensity.

Crystal structure prediction for a given chemical composition has long been a challenge in condensed-matter science. We have recently shown that experimental powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) data are helpful in a crystal structure search using simulated annealing, even when they are insufficient for structure determination by themselves [Tsujimoto et al., Phys.

Association of left ventricular longitudinal myocardial function with subclinical right ventricular dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Background: Left ventricular (LV) involvement in diabetic cardiomyopathy has been reported; however, only limited data exist on right ventricular (RV) involvement. Therefore, our purpose was to investigate RV systolic dysfunction and its association with LV longitudinal myocardial dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and preserved LV ejection fraction (LVEF).

Methods: We studied 177 T2DM patients with preserved LVEF and 79 age-, sex-, and LVEF-matched healthy volunteers.

Anti-Donor Regulatory T-Cell Therapy in Adult-to-Adult Living Donor Liver Transplantation: A Case Report.

We report on the case of a 50-year-old female patient with symptomatic polycystic liver disease who underwent living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) using right liver graft from her ABO-identical husband. To achieve operational tolerance, regulatory T-cell (T-reg)-based cell therapy was applied, following the protocol introduced by Todo et al. Briefly, donor lymphocytes were collected by leukapheresis 20 days before LDLT without any adverse events, and the cells were irradiated with a dose of 30 Gy and kept frozen.

Triazolopyrimidine derivative NK026680 and donor-specific transfusion induces CD4CD25Foxp3 T cells and ameliorates allograft rejection in an antigen-specific manner.

We have previously demonstrated the unique properties of a new triazolopyrimidine derivative, NK026680, which exerts immunosuppressive effects in rat heart transplant model and confers tolerogeneic properties on ex vivo-conditioned dendritic cells in mice. We herein demonstrate that NK026680 promotes the expansion of regulatory T cells (Tregs) with potent immunoregulatory effects when used in combination with donor-specific transfusion (DST). BALB/c (H-2) heart graft were transplanted into C57BL/6 (H-2) mice following intravenous injection of donor splenocytes (DST) and oral administration of NK026680.

Expanded living-donor liver transplantation criteria for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma based on the Japanese nationwide survey: the 5-5-500 rule - a retrospective study.

Expansion of the liver transplantation indication criteria for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has long been debated. Here we propose new, expanded living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) criteria for HCC patients based on a retrospective data analysis of the Japanese nationwide survey. A total of 965 HCC patients undergoing LDLT were included, 301 (31%) of whom were beyond the Milan criteria.

Anti-donor regulatory T cell therapy in liver transplantation.

Liver transplantation is accepted as the most reliable therapeutic option for patients with end-stage liver failure, but lifelong administration of immunosuppressive agents continues to be problematic due to various drug-induced morbidities and the risk of mortality. Complete cessation of immunosuppressive drugs while maintaining normal graft function and histology, called operational tolerance, has the potential to overcome these long-standing problems. Previously, we reported the results of a pilot study of anti- donor regulatory T cell therapy in 10 consecutive adult patients who underwent living donor liver transplantation (LDLT), of whom 7 patients successfully stopped immunosuppression for nearly 2 years.

A case of pernicious anemia requiring differential diagnosis of autoimmune hemolytic anemia complication.

An 80-year-old female was admitted to our hospital due to malaise. The initial diagnosis on admission was pernicious anemia (PA), Hashimoto thyroiditis and autoimmune atrophic gastritis. Autoimmune hemolytic anemia was suspected because direct antiglobulin test (DAT) was positive.

Upper and lower critical decay exponents of Ising ferromagnets with long-range interaction.

We investigate the universality class of the finite-temperature phase transition of the two-dimensional Ising model with the algebraically decaying ferromagnetic long-range interaction, J_{ij}=|r[over ⃗]_{i}-r[over ⃗]_{j}|^{-(d+σ)}, where d (=2) is the dimension of the system and σ is the decay exponent, by means of the order-N cluster-algorithm Monte Carlo method. In particular, we focus on the upper and lower critical decay exponents, the boundaries between the mean-field-universality, intermediate, and short-range-universality regimes. At the critical decay exponents, it is found that the standard Binder ratio of magnetization at the critical temperature exhibits extremely slow convergence as a function of the system size.

Clinical impacts of mesothelin expression in gastrointestinal carcinomas.

Mesothelin, C-ERC/mesothelin is a 40-kDa cell surface glycoprotein that is normally present on normal mesothelial cells lining the pleura, peritoneum, and pericardium. Moreover, mesothelin has been shown to be overexpressed in several human cancers, including virtually all mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer, approximately 70% of ovarian cancer and extra bile duct cancer, and 50% of lung adenocarcinomas and gastric cancer. The full-length human mesothelin gene encodes the primary product, a 71-kDa precursor protein.

Hydrogen Gas Ameliorates Hepatic Reperfusion Injury After Prolonged Cold Preservation in Isolated Perfused Rat Liver.

Hydrogen gas reduces ischemia and reperfusion injury (IRI) in the liver and other organs. However, the precise mechanism remains elusive. We investigated whether hydrogen gas ameliorated hepatic I/R injury after cold preservation.

Changes in foot function, disease activity, and disability after forefoot resection arthroplasty in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in foot function, disease activity, and disability in patients with RA after resection arthroplasty of the forefoot (arthroplasty). Arthroplasty was performed on 11 patients with RA. All study patients underwent clinical assessment to measure disease activity (Disease Activity Score in 28 Joints-C-reactive protein, DAS28-CRP), disability (Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index, HAQ-DI) and foot function (Foot Function Index, FFI) at the following stages: preoperatively and 1, 3, and 12 months after surgery.

Olfactory Receptor Family 7 Subfamily C Member 1 Is a Novel Marker of Colon Cancer-Initiating Cells and Is a Potent Target of Immunotherapy.

Purpose: Cancer-initiating cells (CICs) are thought to be essential for tumor maintenance, recurrence, and distant metastasis, and they are therefore reasonable targets for cancer therapy. Cancer immunotherapy is a novel approach to target cancer. In this study, we aimed to establish novel CIC-targeting immunotherapy.

A pilot study of operational tolerance with a regulatory T-cell-based cell therapy in living donor liver transplantation.

Unlabelled: Potent immunosuppressive drugs have significantly improved early patient survival after liver transplantation (LT). However, long-term results remain unsatisfactory because of adverse events that are largely associated with lifelong immunosuppression. To solve this problem, different strategies have been undertaken to induce operational tolerance, for example, maintenance of normal graft function and histology without immunosuppressive therapy, but have achieved limited success.

Temperature Dependence of Magnetically Active Charge Excitations in Magnetite across the Verwey Transition.

We study the electronic structure of bulk single crystals and epitaxial films of Fe_{3}O_{4}. Fe 2p core level spectra show clear differences between hard x-ray (HAX) and soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (PES). The bulk-sensitive spectra exhibit temperature (T) dependence across the Verwey transition, which is missing in the surface-sensitive spectra.