A case of cardiac lipoma in the ventricular septum

Lipoma in the ventricular septum is very rare. Our review of the English literature revealed that our case is the sixth of removal of lipoma in the ventricular septum. A 60-year-old male was admitted because a mass in the ventricular septum was found incidentally in abdominal CT taken following type B hepatitis. CT scanning of the heart showed 2 cm diameter of tumor in the ventricular septum. The tumor had very low radiodensity, so it was thought to be identical to fat tissue. The tumor was more clearly visualized by MR imaging and the signal intensity was high on the T1-weighted image. The tumor was suspected to be lipoma. The intraoperative histological diagnosis showed the tumor was lipoma. The tumor adhered strictly on the myocardium of the septum, and it was located near the left anterior descending coronary artery. It could not completely resected, in these reasons. Postoperative course was uneventful, and echocardiogram taken 9 months after the operation showed no evidence of enlargement of the residual tumor. It is necessary to follow-up rigidly for the potential of enlargement of the residual tumor.     

Production of pure hydrogen and more valuable hydrocarbons from ethane on a novel highly active catalyst system with a Pd-based membrane reactor

Production of pure hydrogen and more valuable hydrocarbons from ethane on a novel highly active catalyst system with a Pd-based membrane reactor is studied at the mild reaction temperatures of 773–858 K and a wide SV range of ethane. Re/HZSM-5 is highly active for upgrading of ethane for production of hydrogen and more valuable hydrocarbons such as ethylene and aromatics (BTX) even at the relatively lower temperatures. Formation rates of the more valuable hydrocarbons and hydrogen are remarkably enhanced by selective permeation of hydrogen product in the membrane reactor. It is also found that formation rate of methane as a side product is effectively suppressed by selective permeation of hydrogen though the membrane tubes. Therefore, both ethane conversion and selectivity for production of hydrogen and more valuable hydrocarbons such as ethylene and BTX are greatly enhanced by application of the membrane reactor.     

The TINS Lecture. The parietal association cortex in depth perception and visual control of hand action

Recent neurophysiological studies in alert monkeys have revealed that the parietal association cortex plays a crucial role in depth perception and visually guided hand movement. The following five classes of parietal neurons covering various aspects of these functions have been identified: (1) depth-selective visual-fixation (VF) neurons of the inferior parietal lobule (IPL), representing egocentric distance; (2) depth-movement sensitive (DMS) neurons of V5A and the ventral intraparietal (VIP) area representing direction of linear movement in 3-D space; (3) depth-rotation-sensitive (RS) neurons of V5A and the posterior parietal (PP) area representing direction of rotary movement in space; (4) visually responsive manipulation-related neurons (visual-dominant or visual-and-motor type) of the anterior intraparietal (AIP) area, representing 3-D shape or orientation (or both) of objects for manipulation; and (5) axis-orientation-selective (AOS) and surface-orientation-selective (SOS) neurons in the caudal intraparietal sulcus (cIPS) sensitive to binocular disparity and representing the 3-D orientation of the longitudinal axes and flat surfaces, respectively. Some AOS and SOS neurons are selective in both orientation and shape. Thus the dorsal visual pathway is divided into at least two subsystems, V5A, PP and VIP areas for motion vision and V6, LIP and cIPS areas for coding position and 3-D features. The cIPS sends the signals of 3-D features of objects to the AIP area, which is reciprocally connected to the ventral premotor (F5) area and plays an essential role in matching hand orientation and shaping with 3-D objects for manipulation.     

Nickel-aluminides/steel clad pipe fabricated by reactive centrifugal casting method from liquid aluminum and solid nickel

A novel method to produce an aluminide/steel clad pipe has been proposed. The method is based on a combination of the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) reaction and centrifugal casting, and is named the reactive centrifugal casting method. Nickel powder was placed on a rotating steel pipe, and aluminum liquid was poured into the steel pipe. The aluminum liquid and nickel powder exothermically reacted and produced a composite layer consisting of nickel aluminides on the inner surface of the steel pipe. The heat generated by the exothermic reaction melted the inner surface of the steel pipe and bonded the composite layer to the steel. It was found that increases in centrifugal force generated by rotating the steel pipe, the pouring temperature of the aluminum, and the preheating temperature of the nickel and steel remarkably promote the reaction between nickel and aluminum. In addition, the amounts of initial aluminum and nickel were found to play an important role in controlling the microstructure of the composite layer. Thus, the aluminide/steel clad pipe can be successfully fabricated by the proposed reactive centrifugal casting method.     

Inhibition of icosanoid production in MC/9 mouse mast cells by n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids isolated from edible marine algae

The effects of two polyunsaturated fatty acids, 18:4n-3 and 16:4n-3 purified from the marine algae, Undaria pinnatifida and Ulva pertusa, on icosanoid production in MC/9 mouse mast cells were assessed. Both fatty acids suppressed the production of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), leukotriene C4 (LTC4), and 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5-HETE). The order of the suppressive activity for the two marine algae-derived fatty acids and three other common polyunsaturated fatty acids was as follows; 22:6n-3 = 18:4n-3 = 18:3n-3 > 20:5n-3 = 16:4n-3 for LTB4; 22:6n-3 = 18:4n-3 = 18:3n-3 > 16:4n-3 > 20:5n-3 (no suppression) for LTC4; 22:6n-3 = 18:4n-3 > 18:3n-3 > 20:5n-3 = 16:4n-3 for 5-HETE.     

Sensing technology for the welding process

In enhancing the automation of welding and the use of robots, it is essential to obtain stable welding quality by dealing with shortcomings such as the dimensional inaccuracy and weld strain of work pieces. One of the key technologies to prevent them is the sensing technology. Its role is becoming more and more important recently particularly because the shortage of welding technicians has prompted the move to eliminate from the welding processes those processes requiring skills by introducing highly automated welding systems which replace experienced welding technicians yet still execute welding more intelligently and with less monitoring and manpower.     

Modeling of Drying in Moving Bed

The aim of this work is to study the simultaneous heat and mass transfer between air and soybean seeds in moving bed dryers with parallel flow (concurrent and countercurrent), by means of an experimental and simulation work, verifying the validity of classical assumptions. The numerical solution of a one-dimensional boundary value problem was obtained by means of a computational code based on axial integration through DASSL code. Deviations from flat air velocity profile were taken into account considering empirical and mechanistic equations found in the literature that describes air profile as function of radius. The experimental data of air humidity, temperature, and seed moisture content and temperature at the dryer outlet were compared to the simulated values.     

Independent representation of parts and the relations between them: Evidence from integrative agnosia.

Whether objects are represented as a collection of parts whose relations are coded independently remains a topic of ongoing discussion among theorists in the domain of shape perception. S. M., an individual with integrative agnosia, and neurologically intact ("normal") individuals learned initially to identify 4 target objects constructed of 2 simple volumetric parts. At test, the targets were mixed with distractors, some of which could be discriminated from the targets on the basis of a mismatching part, whereas the rest could be discriminated only on the basis of the altered spatial arrangements of parts. S. M. learned to identify the target objects, although at a rate slower than that of the normal participants. At test, he correctly rejected distractors on the basis of mismatching parts but was profoundly impaired at rejecting distractors made of the same local components but with mismatching spatial arrangements. These results suggest that encoding the spatial arrangements of parts of an object requires a mechanism that is different from that required for encoding the shape of individual parts, with the former selectively compromised in integrative agnosia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Numerical analysis of similarities of particle behavior in high shear mixer granulators with different vessel sizes

This paper deals with the numerical analysis of kinematic and dynamic similarities of particle behavior in high shear mixer granulators with different vessel sizes. The three-dimensional particle motion in high shear mixer granulators with four different vessel sizes was calculated using a discrete element method (DEM). The geometrically similar mixer granulators equipped with a flat-shaped impeller blade were used as simulated mixer granulators.Kinematic and dynamic similarities of particle behavior in various vessel sizes under a constant normalized agitation power were numerically analyzed. In various vessel sizes, dynamic similarity expressed by the particle collision energy was confirmed under a constant normalized agitation power, while kinematic similarity expressed by the particle velocity was not confirmed. These results indicate that the dynamic similarity should be maintained for successful scale-up of high shear mixer granulators.