Radiation therapy with neoadjuvant hormonal therapy for prostate cancer confined to pelvis

Neoadjuvant endocrine treatment prior to radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer confined to pelvis has of some value to prevent progression although there are many controversies. In order to improve the prognosis of locally advanced prostate cancer (stage B2 and C), definitive radiotherapy with neoadjuvant endocrine therapy has been investigated. Endocrine therapy reduces the volume of prostate, thus reduces the amount of side effect via reducing the area of irradiated normal tissue. Effect of radiation and that of endocrine therapy to induce apoptosis might be synergistic. The result is favorable although the follow-up period is too short. Further studies are needed to make conclusion.     

Two patients with polymyositis or dermatomyositis complicated with massive pleural effusion

Two patients with polymyositis (PM) or dermatomyositis (DM) complicated with massive pleural effusion are reported here. Both patients presented a high-grade fever, pleural effusion prominent on the right, and good response to steroid therapy. In a 50-year-old woman with PM, combined process of pleural inflammation, cardiomyopathy and coexisting hypothyroidism were considered to be responsible for the accumulation of the massive pleural effusion. However, in a 34-year-old man with DM, pleural inflammation associated with interstitial pneumonia or pleural microvasculopathy in DM was considered to be responsible for the accumulation of the massive pleural effusion.     

Purification and characterization of a novel ceramidase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

We report here a novel type of ceramidase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa AN17 isolated from the skin of a patient with atopic dermatitis. The enzyme was purified 83,400-fold with an overall yield of 21.1% from a culture supernatant of strain AN17. After being stained with a silver staining solution, the purified enzyme showed a single protein band, and its molecular mass was estimated to be 70 kDa on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The enzyme showed quite wide specificity for various ceramides, i.e. it hydrolyzed ceramides containing C12:0-C18:0 fatty acids and 7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1, 3-diazole-labeled dodecanoic acid, and not only ceramide containing sphingosine (d18:1) or sphinganine (d18:0) but also phytosphingosine (t18:0) as the long-chain base. However, the enzyme did not hydrolyze galactosylceramide, sulfatide, GM1, or sphingomyelin, and thus was clearly distinguished from a Pseudomonas sphingolipid ceramide N-deacylase (Ito, M., Kurita, T., and Kita, K. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 24370-24374). This bacterial ceramidase had a pH optimum of 8.0-9.0, an apparent Km of 139 microM, and a Vmax of 5.3 micromol/min/mg using N-palmitoylsphingosine as the substrate. The enzyme appears to require Ca2+ for expression of the activity. Interestingly, the 70-kDa protein catalyzed a reversible reaction in which the N-acyl linkage of ceramide was either cleaved or synthesized. Our study demonstrated that ceramidase is widely distributed from bacteria to mammals.     

Strongyloidiasis associated with nephrotic syndrome

We report a nephrotic syndrome patient with eosinophilia who developed ileus, epigastralgia and malabsorption due to strongyloidiasis which became symptomatic by steroid therapy. The patient was then treated with thiabendazole and recovered. A percutaneous renal biopsy revealed minimal change nephrotic syndrome. This renal injury may be brought on by severe infection of Strongyloides stercoralis. It is important to rule out strongyloidiasis prior to corticosteroid therapy to patients from eosinophilia endemic areas.     

Circularly polarised printed antenna fed by coplanar waveguide

A new structure of the circularly polarised printed antenna fed by coplanar waveguide (CPW) is proposed. FDTD analysis predicts the radiation of the circularly polarised wave from the antenna. The validity of this analysis is established by comparing with experimental results     

Strain-induced transformation and plastic deformation behaviour of a 17Cr-7Ni-1Al steel at high hydrostatic pressure

Tensile tests of a 17Cr-7Ni-1Al steel were carried out at 0.1, 300 and 600 MPa hydrostatic pressure, and the mechanical properties of the material were found to be considerably changed by the pressure. The martensitic transition temperatureM _s decreased under pressure. The volume fraction of-martensite induced by tensile deformation increased with strain, but was suppressed by hydrostatic pressure. The yield stress increased with pressure. The yield surface became a nonlinear cone with a pointed apex. The stress-strain curve was considerably changed by pressure, and was expressed by a modified identical-strain model (law of mixture) as a quantitative function. Uniform-strain limit increased with pressure. It was found that these changes were not caused by the mechanical effect of hydrostatic pressure, but by its thermodynamic effects.     

Fast computation of computer-generated hologram using Xeon Phi coprocessor

We report fast computation of computer-generated holograms (CGHs) using Xeon Phi coprocessors, which have massively x86-based processors on one chip, recently released by Intel. CGHs can generate arbitrary light wavefronts, and therefore, are promising technology for many applications: for example, three-dimensional displays, diffractive optical elements, and the generation of arbitrary beams. CGHs incur enormous computational cost. In this paper, we describe the implementations of several CGH generating algorithms on the Xeon Phi, and the comparisons in terms of the performance and the ease of programming between the Xeon Phi, a CPU and graphics processing unit (GPU).     

Development of large-scale stacked-type electrostatic actuators for use as artificial muscles

Electrostatic actuators have the advantages of light weight, flexibility, and high energy efficiency, which make them suitable for use as artificial muscles. However, a traditional electrostatic actuator cannot generate long strokes and a high force density at the same time because such actuator would excessively widen the gap between the electrodes because of its structure. This paper presents a newly developed large-scale stacked-type electrostatic actuator (LSEA) intended for use as an artificial muscle for robots. LSEA is a multi-stacked electrostatic actuator that can be linearly contracted by the application of a voltage. It has a unique structure that prevents overextension of the gap between the electrodes. It can therefore generate a large force. The spring characteristics and the relationship between the contractive force and the stroke were experimentally determined. The findings showed that LSEA prevents the overextension of the gap between the electrodes and has a high contraction ratio that is equivalent to that of a mammalian skeletal muscle.