Prenatal diagnosis of a highly undifferentiated brain tumour--a case report and review of the literature

Intracranial tumours, often presenting with progressive hydrocephalus, are rare congenital diseases accounting for 0.5-1.5 per cent of all cases of brain tumours diagnosed during childhood. The differential diagnosis includes vascular malformations, infarctions, and haemorrhages. Sonographic signs suggestive of glioblastoma, teratoma, and astrocytoma do not establish the histological diagnosis, however. We report a case of an undifferentiated fetal glioma detected at 29 weeks' gestation. The diagnosis of an undifferentiated brain tumour was suspected by sonography because of the lack of normal brain structures in conjunction with a diffuse echogenic central lesion and an external hydrocephalus. Because of the very poor prognosis, we induced labour by intravaginal and intravenous administration of prostaglandin E2 and achieved the vaginal delivery of a stillborn child whose head circumference corresponded to 38 weeks of pregnancy. Histological and immunochemical features of this undifferentiated congenital glioma (glioblastoma) are presented.     

Widespread microsatellite instability in sebaceous tumours of patients with the Muir-Torre syndrome

OBJECTIVE: Thoracic injury remains a major source of morbidity and mortality in urban trauma centers. With the advent and increasing expertise in video assisted thoracic surgery, this modality has become an attractive alternative in the management of patients with thoracic injury. This report will review our experience with video assisted thoracic surgery at a level I trauma center and attempt to further delineate the indications for and timing of thoracoscopy in thoracic trauma. METHODS: We identified 16 patients who had undergone video assisted thoracic surgery following chest trauma between July 1991 and June 1994. There were 15 penetrating and one blunt trauma. All 16 patients were initially treated with tube thoracostomy. From 0-20 days post-injury, video assisted thoracic surgery was attempted with either diagnostic or therapeutic intentions. RESULTS: Twelve of the 16 patients (75%) had successful thoracoscopy. Three patients had diaphragmatic injury excluded and nine patients had successful evacuation of clotted hemothoraces. Evacuation of clotted hemothorax up to 7 days post-injury was safe and easily accomplished. Four patients (25%) had unsuccessful thoracoscopy and were converted to standard thoracotomy; failure was attributed to either suboptimal single lung ventilation or severe pleural inflammatory reaction. The only death in the entire group occurred 10 days after a thoracotomy for retained hemothorax. The median post-operative hospital stay following successful video assisted thoracic surgery was 3.5 days. CONCLUSIONS: Video assisted thoracic surgery can be utilized as an effective and safe method for the initial diagnostic evaluation and surgical management of stable patients with penetrating thoracic trauma.     

Rectus abdominis muscle flap (RAMF) technique for the management of bladder exstrophies: late clinical outcome and urodynamic findings

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of the rectus abdominis muscle flap (RAMF) technique for the closure and augmentation of small, non-compliant bladder exstrophies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The RAMF technique was used in two girls and two boys (mean age at operation, 31.7 months, range 3-72) with bladder exstrophy. The clinical outcome and urodynamics were assessed during a follow-up of 29 months to 6 years (mean 49.2 months) and included imaging, cystoscopy, biochemical and microbiological studies. RESULTS: There were no urinary tract infections, metabolic problems or electrolyte disturbances and kidney function remained normal in all patients. Radiography confirmed intact function and anatomy of the urinary tract and cystoscopy showed complete coverage of the inner peritoneal layer of RAMF with uroepithelium. No stone formation or mucus production were detected. Currently, three patients void using clean intermittent catheterization through the native urethra and the fourth through an appendiceal Mitrofanoff valve. However, the bladder volume was insufficient at the late follow-up and three patients required bladder augmentation. CONCLUSIONS: The RAMF technique is a good alternative for closing bladder exstrophies and achieves an increase in bladder capacity; however, although there is a mild improvement in bladder capacity and compliance. RAMF should not be used as a bladder augmentation procedure. The technique is indicated in the closure of large bladder defects, bladder exstrophies with small, inelastic, non-compliant bladder remnants and failed primary closures.     

The new parameters of motor unit potential in the diagnosis of neurogenic lesions in spike-triggered averaging electromyography

The chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection in cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by a pronounced antibody response and microcolonies surrounded by numerous polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN). Poor prognosis is correlated with a high antibody response to P. aeruginosa antigens. An animal model of this infection was established in two strains of mice: C3H/HeN and BALB/c, generally known as Th1 and Th2 responders, respectively, which were challenged with alginate-embedded P. aeruginosa. Mortality was significantly lower in C3H/HeN compared to BALB/c mice (p < 0.025). P. aeruginosa was cleared more efficiently in C3H/HeN mice and significantly more C3H/HeN mice showed normal lung histopathology (p < 0.02), and we found significantly fewer microabscesses in C3H/HeN mice than in BALB/c mice (p < 0.005). In supernatants from P. aeruginosa antigen and concanavalin A-stimulated spleen cells from the two strains of mice, the interferon-(IFN-) gamma levels were higher, whereas IL-4 levels were lower in C3H/HeN mice than in BALB/c mice. The implications of these findings for CF patients with chronic P. aeruginosa lung infection are discussed.     

Fast adders using enhanced multiple-output domino logic

Using an enhanced multiple output domino logic (EMODL) implementation of a carry lookahead adder (CLA), sums of several consecutive bits can be built in one nFET tree with a single carry-in. Based on this result, a new sparse carry chain architecture is proposed for the CLA adder. We demonstrate the design approach using a 32-b adder, and show that only four carries are sufficient for generating all sums, with a consequent reduction in the number of stage delays. Using a 1.2-μm CMOS technology, we verify our simulation procedures by fabrication and measurement of a 2.7 ns critical path     

Study on Hot Deformation Cracks of Steel D2 Using Procesing Map

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铝钛双金属板KR曲线测定

利用宽３００ｍｍ、长／宽＝１的横向ＣＴＴ试样对国产铝钛双金属板做了常规力学性能测定，并按航标测定了ＫＲ曲线，经过柔度法和Ｋ值计算，分别测得了ＫＲｉ和ａｉ数据，确定了临界的ＫＣ值通过性能数据对比，研制的材料达到了进口料的性能要求。     

Efficiency improvement in charge pump circuits

Conventional charge pump circuits use a fixed switching frequency that leads to power efficiency degradation for loading less than the rated loading. This paper proposes a level shifter design that also functions as a frequency converter to automatically vary the switching frequency of a dual charge pump circuit according to the loading. The switching frequency is designed to be 25 kHz with 12 mA loading on both inverting and noninverting outputs. The switching frequency is automatically reduced when loading is lighter to improve the power efficiency. The frequency tuning range of this circuit is designed to be from 100 Hz to 25 kHz. A start-up circuit is included to ensure proper pumping action and avoid latch-up during power-up. A slow turn-on, fast turn-off driving scheme is used in the clock buffer to reduce power dissipation. The new dual charge pump circuit was fabricated in a 3-μm p-well double-poly single-metal CMOS technology with breakdown voltage of 18 V, the die size is 4.7×4.5 mm². For comparison, a charge pump circuit with conventional level shifter and clock buffer was also fabricated. The measured results show that the new charge pump has two advantages: (1) the power dissipation of the charge pump is improved by a factor of 32 at no load and by 2% at rated loading of 500 Ω and (2) the breakdown voltage requirement is reduced from 19.2 to 17 V     

液罐汽车转弯制动稳定性的研究

该文研究罐装部分液体汽车在转弯制动工况下，由于液体货物质心位置的变化对行驶稳 定性的影响。文中建立了有关力学模型和数学模型，分析研究了罐体内装载不同量液体对汽车转弯制动时横摆角速度的影响规律。     

本钢炼焦煤最佳配比分析

结合本钢的生产实际，对炼焦煤的最佳配比作了比较具体的分析，同时对资源，质量、成本也作了比较详细的调查，并提出了本钢焦化厂最佳配煤比方案，由此可看出，最大限度地降低采购成本，继续开发合理的配煤比例，具有广阔的前景。