Lodging has been a major roadblock to attaining increased crop productivity. In an attempt to understand the mechanism for culm strength in rice, we isolated an effective quantitative trait loci (QTL), STRONG CULM3 (SCM3), the causal gene of which is identical to rice TEOSINTE BRANCHED1 (OsTB1), a gene previously reported to positively control strigolactone (SL) signaling. A near-isogenic line (NIL) carrying SCM3 showed enhanced culm strength and increased spikelet number despite the expected decrease in tiller number, indicating that SL also has a positive role in enhancing culm strength and spikelet number. We produced a pyramiding line carrying SCM3 and SCM2, another QTL encoding APO1 involved in panicle development. The NIL-SCM2+SCM3 showed a much stronger culm than NIL-SCM2 and NIL-SCM3 and an increased spikelet number caused by the additive effect of these QTLs. We discuss the importance of utilizing suitable alleles of these STRONG CULM QTLs without inducing detrimental traits for breeding.

This report describes a rare case of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) presenting a huge mass in the left external auditory canal (EAC). The patient was a 55-year-old man with hepatitis B virus-related HCC. He presented to our department with a three-month history of increasing left otalgia, and hearing loss with recent fresh aural bleeding. Histopathologic examination indicated that the tumor was secondary to HCC. Although external irradiation was not effective, the tumor was treated with surgical debulking and high dose rate 192 Ir remote afterloading system (RALS) for postoperative intracavitary irradiation. A review of the literature revealed only five other cases of HCC metastasis to the temporal bone, all of which mainly metastasized in the internal acoustic meatus. The present case is the first report of HCC metastasis to the EAC.

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A 74-year-old woman presented with symptoms consistent with hyperadrenocorticism and hypercatecholaminism. She had a cushingoid appearance and her cortisol level was elevated. Her serum dopamine and noradrenalin levels were also elevated. Computed tomography detected a left adrenal mass measuring 3.5 cm × 3.0 cm in diameter. Metaiodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy was negative. Unexpectedly, the serum Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level was e l e v a t e d . Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography showed increased uptake in the adrenal tumor only, with a maximum standardized uptake value of 2.8. Selective venography and blood sampling revealed that the concentrations of cortisol, catecholamines and CEA were significantly elevated in the vein draining the tumor. A diagnosis of CEA-producing benign adenoma was made. After preoperative management, we performed a combined lateral and anterior transperitoneal laparoscopic adrenectomy. Her vital signs remained stable during surgery. Histopathological examination revealed a benign adenoma. Her cortisol, catecholamine and CEA levels normalized immediately after surgery. We present, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of CEA-producing adrenal adenoma, along with a review of the relevant literature, and discuss our laparoscopic surgery techniques.

This paper proposes identity‐based key distribution systems for generating a common secret conference key for two or more users. Users are connected in a ring, a complete graph, or a star network. Messages among them are authenticated using each user's identification information. The security of the proposed systems is based on the difficulty of both factoring large numbers and computing discrete logarithms over large finite fields.