Discarded Egg Yolk as an Alternate Source of Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate).

Many poultry eggs are discarded worldwide because of infection (i.e., avian flu) or presence of high levels of pesticides. The possibility of adopting egg yolk as a source material to produce polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymer was examined in this study. Cupriavidus necator Re2133/pCB81 was used for the production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) or poly(3HHx), a polymer that would normally require long-chain fatty acids as carbon feedstocks for the incorporation of 3HHx monomers. The optimal medium contained 5% egg yolk oil and ammonium nitrate as a nitrogen source, with a carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 20. Time course monitoring using the optimized medium was conducted for 5 days. Biomass production was 13.1 g/l, with 43.7% co-polymer content. Comparison with other studies using plant oils and the current study using egg yolk oil revealed similar polymer yields. Thus, discarded egg yolks could be a potential source of PHA.

Pilot study of postoperative adjuvant chemoradiation for advanced gastric cancer: adjuvant 5-FU/cisplatin and chemoradiation with capecitabine.

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of postoperative chemoradiation using FP chemotherapy and oral capecitabine during radiation for advanced gastric cancer following curative resection. METHODS: Thirty-one patients who had underwent a potentially curative resection for Stage III and IV (M0) gastric cancer were enrolled. Therapy consists of one cycle of FP (continuous infusion of 5-FU 1000 mg/m(2) on d 1 to 5 and cisplatin 60 mg/m(2) on d 1) followed by 4500 cGy (180 cGy/d) with capecitabine (1650 mg/m(2) daily throughout radiotherapy). Four wk after completion of the radiotherapy, patients received three additional cycles of FP every three wk. The median follow-up duration was 22.2 mo. RESULTS: The 3-year disease free and overall survival in this study were 82.7% and 83.4%, respectively. Four patients (12.9%) showed relapse during follow-up. Eight patients did not complete all planned adjuvant therapy. Grade 3/4 toxicities included neutropenia in 50.2%, anemia in 12.9%, thrombocytopenia in 3.2% and nausea/vomiting in 3.2%. Neither grade 3/4 hand foot syndrome nor treatment related febrile neutropenia or death were observed. CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that this postoperative adjuvant chemoradiation regimen of FP before and after capecitabine and concurrent radiotherapy appears well tolerated and offers a comparable toxicity profile to the chemoradiation regimen utilized in INT-0116. This treatment modality allowed successful loco-regional control rate and 3-year overall survival.

Clinical test for Attention Enhancement System.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a childhood syndrome characterized by short attention span, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity, which often leads to learning disabilities and various behavioral problems. The prevalence rates for ADHD varied from a low of 2.0% to a high of 6.3% in 1992 statistics, and it may be higher now. Using Virtual Environments and Neurofeedback, we have developed an Attention Enhancement System for treating ADHD. And we made a clinical test. Classroom-based virtual environments are constructed for intimacy and intensive attention enhancement. In this basic virtual environment, subjects performed some training sessions. There are two kinds of training sessions. One is Virtual Reality Cognitive Training (VRCT) and the other is Virtual Reality Neurofeedback Training (VRNT). In VRNT, we made a change in the virtual environment by Neurofeedback. Namely, if the Beta ratio is greater than the specified threshold level, the change as positive reinforce is created in the virtual environment. 50 subjects, aged 14 to 18, who had committed crimes and had been isolated in a reformatory took part in this study. They were randomly assigned to one of five 10-subject groups: a control Group, two placebo groups, and two experimental groups. The experimental groups and the placebo groups underwent 10 sessions over two weeks. The control group underwent no training session during the same period of time. While the experimental groups used HMD and Head Tracker in each session, the placebo groups used only a computer monitor. Consequently, only the experimental Groups could look around the virtual classroom. Besides that, Placebo Group 1 and Experimental Group 1 performed the same task(Neurofeedback Training), and Placebo Group 2 and Experimental Group 2 also performed the same task(Cognitive Training). All subjects Continuous Performance Task(CPT) before and after all training sessions. In the number of correct answers, omission errors and signal detection index (d'), the subjects' scores from CPT showed significant improvement (p<0.01) after all of the training sessions, while control group indicated no significant change. And experimental groups showed significant difference (p<0.01) with placebo groups. Lastly, the Virtual Reality Neurofeedback training group and the Virtual Reality Cognitive training group indicated not significant difference. Our System is supposed to enhance subjects' attention and lead their behavioral improvement. And also, we can conclude that virtual reality training (both Neurofeedback training and Cognitive training) has an advantage for attention enhancement compared with desk-top training.