Hepatocellular carcinoma presenting as pyogenic liver abscess: characteristics, diagnosis, and management

We performed a 17-year retrospective analysis of 10 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma presenting as pyogenic liver abscess. Spontaneous tumor necrosis and biliary obstruction caused by tumor thrombi, superimposed with bacterial infection, were the two major pathogeneses. Exact diagnosis of the underlying hepatocellular carcinoma was made for five of the 10 patients before management was attempted. Main clinical manifestations included fever, chills, right-upper-quadrant pain, malaise, anorexia, jaundice, and hepatomegaly. Characteristics such as middle age and male sex, seropositivity for hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C, chronic liver disease, unexplained anemia, marked weight loss, and a severely inversed albumin/globulin ratio raise suspicions about the underlying hepatocellular carcinoma. Management strategies included percutaneous drainage (n = 3), surgical drainage (n = 4), and hepatectomy (n = 3) in addition to administration of parenteral antibiotics in all cases. The prognosis was dismal, with a mean survival of 3.5 months (range, 8 days to 6 months).     

Stressors, resources, and strain at work: A longitudinal test of the triple-match principle.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 92(1) of Journal of Applied Psychology (see record 2006-23339-016). The issue number at the upper left corner of the title page (p. 1359) is wrongly stated as 5 rather than 6. Furthermore, in Table 1 (p. 1362), the value in Column 12, Row 4 (Emo resources) should be -.07 rather than -0.7.] Two longitudinal studies investigated the issue of match between job stressors and job resources in the prediction of job-related strain. On the basis of the triple-match principle (TMP), it was hypothesized that resources are most likely to moderate the relation between stressors and strains if resources, stressors, and strains all match. Resources are less likely to moderate the relation between stressors and strains if (a) only resources and stressors match, (b) only resources and strains match, or (c) only stressors and strains match. Resources are least likely to moderate the relation between stressors and strains if there is no match among stressors, resources, and strains. The TMP was tested among 280 and 267 health care workers in 2 longitudinal surveys. The likelihood of finding moderating effects was linearly related to the degree of match, with 33.3% of all tested interactions becoming significant when there was a triple match, 16.7% when there was a double match, and 0.0% when there was no match. Findings were most consistent if there was an emotional match or a physical match. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proper elimination of latent variables

We consider behaviors in which we distinguish two types of variables, manifest variables, the variables that are of interest to the user and latent variables, the variables that are introduced to obtain a first representation. The problem is to find a representation of the manifest behavior, that is, we want to eliminate the latent variables. If the original behavior can be represented by linear differential equations with constant coefficients, then under certain conditions the same is true for the manifest behavior. In this note we formulate and study these conditions. The results are illustrated by means of some examples. As an application we study behaviors in image representation.     

On the Role of Oxygen Storage in Three-Way Catalysis

The role of the so-called oxygen storage and release capacity (OSC) in promoting the activity of noble metals in the three-way catalysts (TWCs) is critically discussed. It is shown that the promoting effects of CeO₂ in the TWCs cannot be attributed to a simple redox type of effect according to the reaction CeO₂ ? CeO_{2 ? x} + x/2O₂, since multiple and sometimes intriguing effects of CeO₂ promoter have been observed, particularly in the latest generation of TWCs containing modified CeO₂–ZrO₂ mixed oxides.     

Affective priming with subliminally presented pictures.

Affective priming studies have demonstrated that subliminally presented prime words can exert an influence on responses towards positive or negative target stimuli. In the present series of experiments, it was investigated whether these findings can be extended to pictorial stimuli. Ideographically selected positive, neutral, and negative picture primes that were sandwich-masked immediately preceded positive or negative target pictures (Experiment 1) or words (Experiments 2 & 3). Evaluative categorization responses to these target stimuli were significantly influenced by the valence of the prime. First, it was demonstrated that high anxious participants were selectively slowed when the subliminally presented prime was negative (Experiments 1 & 2). Second, the affective congruence between primes and targets also exerted an influence on the responses, but in a direction that is opposite to what is typically observed in affective priming research. These reverse priming effects are situated within a series of recent similar findings, and implications for theories of affective priming are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culturing immobilized plant cells for the TUBUL space experiments on the DELTA and 12S Missions

For the TUBUL experiments during the DELTA mission in April 2004 and 12S mission in March/April 2006 on board the Soyuz capsule and the International Space Station we developed a method to culture and chemically fix plant suspension culture cells. The aim of the ten day experiment was to investigate the effect of microgravity on single plant cells. Fully automated experiment cassettes (Plunger Box Units) were developed by Centre for Concepts in Mechatronics (Nuenen, the Netherlands). Tobacco BY- 2 cells were immobilized in a semi- solid agarose matrix that was reinforced by a nylon mesh. This assembly allowed liquid medium refreshment, oxygen supply and chemical fixation, including a post- fixative wash. The method was optimized for post- flight analysis of cell structure,shape and size, cell division, and the microtubule cytoskeleton. The viability of cells in the agarose matrix was similar to cells grown in liquid medium under laboratory conditions, only the stationary growth phase was reached six days later.     

Work-Home Interference, Job Stressors, and Employee Health in a Longitudinal Perspective.

The purpose of the present longitudinal study was to examine the role of negative work-home interference (WHI) in the classical stressor-strain sequence. First, the predominant time-lagged path between WHI and job stressors was investigated. Furthermore, the direct and indirect (mediating) process of WHI, job stressors, and employee health was examined. The sample consisted of 383 health care employees. Results showed evidence for predominant time-lagged paths from Time 1 job stressors to Time 2 WHI and not the other way around. In addition, it appeared that WHI played a partial mediating role between all 3 types of job stressors on the one hand and exhaustion on the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verification of a sliding window protocol in μCRL and PVS

We prove the correctness of a sliding window protocol with an arbitrary finite window size n and sequence numbers modulo 2n. The correctness consists of showing that the sliding window protocol is branching bisimilar to a queue of capacity 2n. The proof is given entirely on the basis of an axiomatic theory, and has been checked in the theorem prover PVS. Received November 2004 Revised June 2005 Accepted July 2005 by J. V. Tucker