Hemorrhage into a simple liver cyst: diagnostic implications of a recent case

Hemorrhage complicating simple liver cyst is rare. On imaging studies, the differential diagnosis between intracystic hemorrhage and cystadenocarcinoma of the liver is unreliable, and hepatectomy has been performed for benign liver cyst in this situation. We describe the characteristics of hemorrhage into a liver cyst in a patient who underwent dome resection of the cyst. In our patient, important diagnostic findings included benign cytologic features in a cyst fluid specimen aspirated with ultrasonographic guidance and a fall in hemoglobin and hematocrit, suggestive of hemorrhage. Other informative features were absence of communication between the intrahepatic bile ducts and the cystic liver lesion upon endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, as well as benign intraoperative frozen-section histology.     

Neutronics and burnup analysis of an accelerator-based tru-nitride fuel transmutation system with the ATRAS code

The neutronics and burnup analyses of an accelerator-based transmutation system with tungsten target and TRU-nitride fuel were performed with a newly developed code system named ATRAS (Accelerator-based Transmutation Reactor Analysis System). The ATRAS code is an integrated code system which can perform the hadronic cascade process above 20 MeV and neutron transport and core burnup process below 20 MeV with the spallation neutron source.

The specifications of the transmutation system are investigated. The core consists of the central spallation target region and the surrounding TRU-mononitride fuel region. The core is driven by protons at an energy of 1.0 GeV. This system was also proposed as a benchmark problem in the “OECD NEA/NSC Benchmark on Physics aspects of Different Transmutation Concepts”.

According to the calculation results by the ATRAS code, higher power density and transmutation rate were achieved with nitride fuel, and the neutron spectrum was slightly harder than that of the metallic fuel system. The burnup calculation for thermal power 800 MW was also performed with the ATRAS code. It is shown that about 300 kg of TRU are transmuted annually.     

New amphoteric surfactants containing a phosphoric acid group: II. Binary system of amphoteric/anionic surfactant of sodium 2-(N-2-hydroxytetradecyl-N-methylamino)ethyl hydrogen phosphate

We studied behaviors of the binary system of 2-(N-2-hydroxytetradecyl-N-methylamino)ethyl hydrogen phosphate (C₁₄-HMP) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in aqueous solution. We found that C₁₄-HMP reduced the ability of SDS to denature protein, to inhibit enzyme activity and to decrease transepidermal water loss. These phenomena were considered to be due to the interaction between the cationic group in the zwitterionic structure of C₁₄-HMP and the anionic group of sulfate in SDS molecule. These behaviors suggest that C₁₄-HMP has a potential to reduce skin irritation when applied to personal care products such as cleaners and shampoos having anionic surfactants.     

A Channel-Select Filter With Agile Blocker Detection and Adaptive Power Dissipation

A dynamic biasing scheme that reduces the average DC power of channel-select filters in wireless receivers is presented. A blocker detection technique makes it possible to automatically adjust the power dissipation depending on the absence of presence of blockers, with low overhead in power consumption and circuit complexity. The scheme achieves a fast ramp-up, avoiding diminution of the desired signal response that could otherwise be caused by abruptly appearing large blockers. To ensure the stability of the dynamically biased class-AB opamp employed, a cascode Miller/feedforward compensation technique is used. A fifth-order Butterworth low-pass filter with adaptive IIP3 and adaptive power dissipation is demonstrated, with a test chip implemented in a 0.18-mum CMOS process with a 1.8-V supply. The filter quiescent current is 1.2 mA in the absence of blockers, with a -5 dBV out-of-channel IIP3. The current increases to 2.7 mA, with the IIP3 of +20 dBV, when the blocker level rises to -13 dBV     

On the inhibitory effect of C17-sulfoconjugated catechol estrogens upon lipid peroxidation of rat liver microsomes

The antioxidant effect of C17-sulfoconjugated catechol estrogens was examined under ascorbic acid- or NADPH-dependent lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes and compared with that of various estrogens and alpha-tocopherol. Among the estrogens tested, a free catechol estrogen such as 4-hydroxyestradiol showed the strongest effect, followed by 2-hydroxyestradiol, 2-methoxyestradiol and estradiol. Next to these steroids, 2-hydroxyestradiol 17-sulfate, followed by 4-methoxyestradiol, 4-hydroxyestradiol 17-sulfate and estrone also showed a strong inhibitory effect, which was greater than that of alpha-tocopherol. Among the C17-sulfates, the guaiacols (2- and 4-methoxyestradiol 17-sulfate) showed a slightly lower effect than alpha-tocopherol, but estradiol 17-sulfate had almost no effect. The antioxidant activity observed in phenolic or guaiacol steroids was considered to be attributed to the catechols produced by their 2- (or 4-)hydroxylation or their O-demethylation, respectively, during the incubation. This was confirmed by identification of the catechols produced from phenolic or guaiacol estrogens and even from the estrogen C3-sulfates. The mechanism of the inhibition by catechols on lipid peroxidation was speculated to involve their activity as radical scavengers, because of their strong reducing activity for 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl. The above results suggest that C17-sulfoconjugated catechol estrogens (2- and 4-hydroxyestradiol 17-sulfate), although with slightly lower activity than their free catechols, are promising endogenous antioxidants. The physiological role of these estrogen conjugates during pregnancy is discussed.     

Automatic finding of optimal image processing for extracting concrete image cracks using features ACTIT

In this paper, we autonomously define an optimal, efficient image‐processing tree for extracting the cracks from concrete images using genetic programming (GP)‐oriented evolutionary image processing known as Automatic Construction of Tree‐structural Image Transformation (ACTIT). We propose the use of automatic finding feature from input and internal transformation images to optimize image‐processing filters. These alternative solutions show significant improvements and can be performed by extracting small areas through our experimentation. This can possibly be used with an optimal image‐processing system based on feature filters. © 2012 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.