Leiomyomatosis peritonealis disseminata. Two case reports

AIM: To study the action of quercetin (Que) on inhibiting platelet aggregation. METHODS: Active oxygen free radicals produced by xanthine/xanthine oxidase (Xan/XO) reaction was used, platelet aggregation was determined by the turbidimetric method, and the Xan/XO oxyradicals generating reaction by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence (Che) method. RESULTS: Active oxygen free radicals enhanced the platelet aggregation induced by ADP 1.6 mumol.L-1. The rate of maximal aggregation increased from 29%-38% for ADP to 59%-70% for ADP + Xan/XO. The enhancement was abolished by the treatment of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) with Que 650 mumol.L-1 or hydrocortisone (Hyd) 900 mg.L-1. Both Que and Hyd scavenged the active oxyradicals in vitro. The Che was decreased by 75.7% (Que 4 mumol.L-1) and 79.0% (Hyd 900 mg.L-1) as compared with control. CONCLUSION: Active oxygen free radicals participated in the platelet aggregation, and scavenging oxyradicals by Que was one of mechanisms of inhibiting platelet aggregation.     

Introducing computer tools into a first course in electricalengineering

At a school where engineering students have immediate access to a personal computer, it is important that they become familiar with that tool early in their studies. In introductory engineering courses it is also important that the students learn to perceive the computer as a tool and not as an end in itself. Achieving these goals requires a careful integration of computer usage into such courses by the instructors. In this paper we examine this issue in the context of a first course in electrical engineering that has been taught at the US Naval Academy, and we present specific examples of assignments we have used in our effort to accomplish these goals     

Separate assessment of porosity and uncombined carbon in cemented carbides

Porosity and uncombined carbon in cemented carbides are traditionally assessed by comparison to standardized microstructure charts, such as those in ISO 4505-1978. To improve the accuracy in the characterization a fully automatic image analysis procedure has been developed. The analysis is performed using light optical microscopy on unetched polished specimens. The implemented algorithm separates uncombined carbon, C-defects, from pores, A- and B-defects. Pores are approximately distributed in a random way in the structure. Uncombined carbon is on the other hand precipitated into clusters of carbon particles. This difference is together with defect size used as a base for the separation. Small defects situated close together are classified as C-defects, small isolated defects as A-pores and large defects as B-pores. Pores are found to be more round than the somewhat elongated C-defects. The difference in shape is significant and can also be used as a separation criterion.

Image analysis is used to quantitatively characterise the ISO 4505-1978 standard charts with respect to volume fraction, number density and size distribution of defects. The results are compared to measured distributions for true microstructures.     

New fault locating system for air-insulated substations usingoptical current detector

The authors present the basic philosophy, construction, design features, and test results of a new fault locating system. This fault locating system helps to shorten the time required for restoration of service after the occurrence of a busbar fault in an air-insulated distribution substation. Recent optical and electronic technologies allow the design of a highly accurate and compact fault locating system which consists of optical current detectors using the Faraday effect and a fault locating processor using a digital data processing technique. The fault location is carried out by discriminating between the directions of zero-sequence currents. Through various tests and field operations, it has been confirmed that the system has sufficient performance for practical applications     

Overgrowth and DNA synthesis of neuroepithelium in embryonic stages of induced Long-Evans rat myeloschisis

Overgrowth of the myeloschisis, namely the excessive amount of the neural plate tissue, has been reported in the human myeloschisis. However, it is still debatable how the overgrowth develops and whether the overgrowth is the cause, or the secondary effect of spinal dysraphism. The author induced myeloschisis in the fetuses of Long-Evans rats by the administration of ethylenethiourea (ETU) to pregnant rats on day 10 of gestation. The fetuses were removed 1 hour after the treatment with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to the dams on day 14 and 21. The fetuses were fixed in alcohol and embedded in paraffin. H-E staining and the immunohistologic examination were performed on the staining patterns to anti-neurofilament (NFP), anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and anti-BrdU antibody by ABC method. On day 14, the lateral portion of everted neural plate showed a loose arrangement of cells and there was rosette formation in the mesoderm. On day 21, cell necrosis was observed at the dorsolateral portion of myeloschisis, although the ventral portion showed almost normal cytoarchitecture and was positive to NFP and GFAP. The cause of myeloschisis in this model is supposed to be the local and direct cytotoxic effect of ETU to neuro-ectodermal junction. On day 14, control animals contained few BrdU-incorporated cells at the basal plate of neural tube. In contrast, everted neural plate showed an active uptake of BrdU diffusely in the subependymal matrix layer cells. Overgrowth was not yet identified. On day 21, overgrowth of myeloschisis was found in spite of a few positive cells to BrdU which was identical to the control animals. These findings seem to suggest that cells in the myeloschisis retain their ability of DNA synthesis for longer periods of development and overgrowth found on day 21 is possibly a secondary effect of spinal dysraphism in this model.     

Idiopathic epilepsy in the dog

The authors present a brief history of the development of the Ilizarov external fixator, and the classic uses associated with it. A preliminary study of 3 patients using 56 frames is presented. The Ilizarov external fixator is successfully used in these cases in place of traditional fixation.     

Dynamic programming implementation on array processor architectures

Dynamic Programming (DP) applies to many signal and image processing applications including boundary following, the Viterbi algorithm, dynamic time warping, etc. This paper presents an array processor implementation of generic dynamic programming. Our architecture is a SIMD array attached to a host computer. The processing element of the architecture is based on an ASIC design opting for maximum speed-up. By adopting a torus interconnection network, a dual buffer structure, and a multilevel pipeline, the performance of the DP chip is expected to reach the order of several GOPS. The paper discusses both the dedicated hardware design and the data flow control of the DP chip and the total array.This work was supported in part by the NATO, Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division, Collaborative Research Grant SA.5-2-05(CRG.960201)424/96/JARC-501.     

A neural network-based power system stabilizer using power flowcharacteristics

A neural network-based power system stabilizer (neuro-PSS) is designed for a generator connected to a multi-machine power system utilizing the nonlinear power flow dynamics. The use of power flow dynamics provides a PSS for a wide range of operation with reduced size neural networks. The neuro-PSS consists of two neural networks: neuro-identifier and neuro-controller. The low-frequency oscillation is modeled by the neuro-identifier using the power flow dynamics, then a generalized backpropagation-through-time (GBTT) algorithm is developed to train the neuro-controller. The simulation results show that the neuro-PSS designed in this paper performs well with good damping in a wide operation range compared with the conventional PSS