Management of large placental chorioangioma with Doppler flow velocimetry

We describe 4 cases of hepatic hypertrophic osteoarthropathy treated successfully by liver transplantation. Hepatic hypertrophic osteoarthropathy is a rare and disabling condition associated with severe liver diseases. It responds poorly to conservative management, and liver transplantation is the only radical treatment option.     

Osteolipoma in the parapharyngeal space

We report our experience in managing a 58-year-old Japanese woman with a rare parapharyngeal interstitial cell tumor. Her main complaint was that of a submandibular swelling, which was diagnosed as osteolipoma histologically after resection.     

Cerebral blood flow in mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and strokelike episodes

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The precise mechanism of neurological symptoms with mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and strokelike episodes (MELAS) is still controversial. We investigated the correlation between strokelike episodes and cerebral blood flow in two patients with MELAS and discuss the pathogenesis of strokelike episodes with MELAS. SUMMARY OF REPORT: Cerebral dynamic computed tomography and cerebral angiography were used to measure cerebral circulation in the first case, that of a 20-year-old woman with MELAS. The second subject was a 13-year-old female who was studied with xenon-enhanced computed tomography. The cerebral blood flow studies were performed 3-72 hours after the onset of strokelike episodes. Serial cerebral angiography, dynamic computed tomography, and xenon-enhanced computed tomography showed vasodilation localized in the affected cerebral cortexes during strokelike episodes, without any reduction in regional cerebral blood flow. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that the strokelike episodes associated with MELAS are different in origin from ischemic stroke.     

Positive Temperature Coefficient of Resistivity in Ba1-xSrxPb1+yO3-8 Ceramics

The positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (PTCR) effect in Ba_1-xSr_xPb_1+yO_3-s ceramics is systematically studied. The influence of the preparation conditions on the PTCR properties is experimentally tested. The PTCR effect in metallic-conducting BaPb_1+yO₃ is confirmed around 700°C. The temperature where the PTCR effect starts can be shifted to a higher temperature range by substituting strontium for the A-site barium. By the enhancement of the sintering, the magnitude of the PTCR effect was increased and the resisitivity was reduced. In addition to Pb(IV) in the perovskite structure, Pb(II) is detected at the grain boundary in the sintered body.     

Hybrid Planar Wiggler with a Period of 2 cm for Higher Harmonic FEL Lasing

A hybrid planar wiggler with a period of 20 mm has been studied as the simplest one which gives the strong field including some higher harmonic components by selecting proper sizes of the ferromagnetic and the permanent magnet. Small gap length of the wiggler and small width of permendur satisfy these conditions to a certain degree. Gain analysis of FEL suggests that for high wiggler field of K>1 ～ 1.6, higher harmonic gains are improved primarily due to its strong field, and for low wiggler field of K< 1 ～ 1.6, they are mainly due to the modification of the wiggler field distribution.     

Surgical repair of coronary sinus type partial anomalous pulmonary venous drainage with intact atrial septum

A method to prevent co-elution of steroid sulfates with proteins in serum from the pre-column in column-switching HPLC was developed. The pre-column, a polymer-coated mixed function column, was used for ion-pair chromatography with 5 mM tetra-n-butylammonium (TBA) ion. As steroid sulfates, estriol 3-sulfate, dehydroepiandrosterone 3-sulfate and pregnenolone 3-sulfate were used. Human serum (25 microl) was diluted with mobile phases including 5, 100 and 500 mM TBA ion, and then injected directly into the pre-column. The peak areas of the steroid sulfates in serum samples were compared with those of the steroid standards without serum. When 25/microl of serum was diluted with mobile phase including 100 or 500 mM TBA ion, the steroid sulfates in serum were retained in the pre-column; however, the steroid sulfates from the same sample diluted with mobile phase containing 5 mM TBA ion were not retained in the pre-column. Addition of an excess amount of counter ion (TBA ion) into the serum sample made it possible to retain the steroid sulfates in the pre-column. This method was applied to column-switching HPLC for measurement of steroid sulfates in serum using a semi-microcolumn as the analytical column.     

InGaAsP/InP optical switches embedded with semi-insulating InPcurrent blocking layers

A carrier injection type of InGaAsP/InP optical switch is fabricated using a semi-insulating InP current blocking layer. The switching state is obtained by current injection of 180-1000 mA. The lifetime of the injection carrier is calculated to be 6.8 ns from the measurement of switching delay time. On the basis of these fundamental switching characteristics, the reduction of the operation current and the improvement of the modulation bandwidth are theoretically investigated. It is shown that the operation current as low as 3 mA will be attained for the switch with a 6° crossing angle and that high-speed operation up to 2 GHz will be achieved by increasing the doping level in the core layer. It is also shown that an optical switch with a crossing angle over 15° will be realized for this type of semiconductor switch     

Effect of timing of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor administration on leukopenia induced by systemic chemotherapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer--multi-center randomized crossover study

Sixty-six chemotherapy-naive patients with non-small-cell carcinoma of the lung were given two courses of systemic chemotherapy consisting of mitomycin C, vindesine, and cisplatin. The effect of the timing of administration of grannulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) on the incidence of neutropenic fever, the nadir leukocyte count, the duration of neutropenia ( < or = 1000/mm3), and the time needed for recovery from neutropenia was studied. Patients were assigned at random to begin receiving G-CSF (50 microns/m2, subcutaneously) either when the leukocyte count was less than or equal to 1000/mm3 (group I) or when it was between 1000/mm3 and 2000/mm3 (group II), in a crossover fashion. The nadir leukocyte count was lower in group I than in group II (859/mm3 and 1215/mm3, respectively). The duration of leukopenia (defined as a leukocyte count less than or equal to 1000/mm3) was greater in group I than in group II (1.5 days and 0.8 day, respectively), as was the time needed for recovery to a leukocyte count of 2000/mm3 (1.9 days and 1.6 days, respectively) (p < 0.05). No differences were found in the incidence of neutropenic fever (group I: 44%, group Ii: 45%), in the duration of fever (group I: 2.3 days, group II: 2.8 days), or in the duration of G-CSF use (group I: 6.3 days, group II: 6.8 days). There were no treatment-related deaths in either group. We conclude that when this type of combination chemotherapy is given for non-small-cell carcinoma of the lung, administration of G-CSF can be postponed without clinical problems until the leukocyte count is less than of equal to 1000/mm3.     

Automotive Noise from a Motorway: Part I, Measurement

This paper describes 100-MHz measurements of the amplitude-probability (APD) and crossing-rate distributions (CRD) for automotive-traffic radio noise at Toyokawa, Japan. Two different categories of the results of measurements for automotive-traffic radio noise are described: 1) one category is the aggregate of APD/CRD pairs measured for the noise samples of 15-min duration, each of which gives a statistically stationary datum, and 2) the other is the aggregate of APD/CRD pairs measured for the noise samples of 2-s duration, each of which gives a transient datum belonging to the components of a statistically stationary datum. A series of the noise grades for single-motor vehicles passing on a motorway is described in terms of APD/CRD pairs for the noise samples of 2-s duration.