Saprophytic pleuritis with Candida parapsilosis

A 73-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with pneumonia in the right S6 induced by Streptococcus milleri and with left pleural thickening. He had histories of diabetes mellitus for 30 years and pulmonary tuberculosis 35 years ago. The pneumonia resolved completely after administration of ceftazidime and clindamycin for 10 days, but the pleural thickening remained and computed tomography revealed that it was an encapsulated effusion without calcification. An aspirate was turbid yellow with a high concentration of lipids, and consisted of dominant crystals and scattered cells, 80% of which were yeasts and 20% of which were macrophages phagocytizing them. Only Candida parapsilosis developed in culture. The same silent pleural shadow was identified on chest X-ray films obtained over the previous 7 years. The persistent pleuritis was diagnosed as saprophytic infection with C. parapsilosis.     

Effects of electrical stimulation or local anesthesia of the rabbit's hypothalamus on the acute phase response

The effects of electrical stimulation of the rostral hypothalamic region on the acute phase response (APR) were examined in rabbits. As indicators of APR, we measured changes in the plasma concentrations of iron, zinc, copper, and fibrinogen and changes in the red and white blood cell counts. Electrical stimulation of the rostral hypothalamic region near the preoptic and anterior hypothalamic region did not induce any aspect of the APR. However, stimulation near the anteroventral portion of the third ventricle (AV3V) induced responses that were, in part, opposite to those observed in the APR: an increase in the plasma concentration of zinc and a decrease in the circulating leukocyte count. Microinjections of procaine into the brain regions near the AV3V did not induce any changes in the plasma levels of trace metals and fibrinogen but increased the circulating leukocyte count. These results suggest that nonspecific stimulation or inhibition of the rostral hypothalamic region does not induce APR.     

Activation of wood surface by corona treatment to improve adhesive bonding

Oxidative activation of resinous wood surfaces by a corona treatment to improve adhesive bonding was studied. It was found that the wettability of the veneers, including hardwoods, softwoods, and tropical woods increased with an increase in the degree of treatment, and the gluability increased rapidly after the initial mild treatment. To elucidate the nature of any chemical change occurring on the wood surface, the dyeing examination of the wood and its components with Schiff's reagent was made, and the results showed a higher dyeing ability for corona-treated samples compared to untreated ones, indicating that aldehyde groups increased by the corona treatment. The treatment affected the alcohol-benzene extractives, and oxidized them to produce aldehyde groups. Especially, the neutral fraction in the extractives was significantly affected. On the other hand, negligible chemical effects of the treatment on the surface modification of the wood's main components were seen. Both the untreated and corona-treated samples adsorbed basic dye to the same extent of coloration. Thus, no measurable carboxyl groups increased on the surface of the samples. It seems that an increase in the wettability of corona-treated wood veneers resulted mainly from the oxidation of the high hydrophobic surface layer of neutral fraction substances in the extractives, and from the reduction in their hydrophobicity. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Burns in a suicide attempt related to psychiatric side effects of interferon

Tardive dystonia is one of the most serious adverse events of typical neuroleptic treatments. They differ from tardive dyskinesia by their clinical and evolutive features. The occurrence of tardive dystonia due to new antipsychotics remained unknown. For the first time in the literature, we report a case of typical tardive dystonia occurring in a young male schizophrenic patient treated for 8 months with risperidone. No remission was observed despite several therapeutics including botulinic toxin.     

Reduced contractility and histological changes in the gallbladder due to portal hypertension in a hamster cirrhosis model

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Little is known about the relationship of portal venous pressure to contractility and histological changes in the gallbladder. In this study, we investigated the relationship between portal hypertension and contractility and histological changes in the gallbladder in a hamster cirrhosis model. METHODS: Liver cirrhosis was induced in the hamsters (n = 20) by thioacetamide (TAA). Portal venous pressure was directly measured using a pressure-measuring instrument. The contractility of the gallbladder was appraised by the diameter before and after caerulein treatment. Gallbladder wall thickness and vessel areas in tissues were evaluated in relation to the portal venous pressure. RESULTS: The portal venous pressure, gallbladder wall thickness with submucosal edema and area of vessels in the gallbladder wall in the cirrhosis group were significantly increased compared with those in the control group (n = 20, receiving saline instead of TAA). The gallbladder contraction rate in the cirrhosis group was significantly decreased compared with that in the control group. In the cirrhosis group, there were positive correlations between the portal venous pressure and the gallbladder contraction rate, gallbladder wall thickness, and area of vessels. CONCLUSIONS: In the gallbladders of experimental cirrhotic hamsters, portal hypertension caused dilatation of the vessels as well as submucosal edema, and was an important factor in the increased thickness and reduced contractility of the gallbladder wall.     

A statistical approach to upper yield of low carbon steel under non-uniform stress distribution

An experiment was performed to investigate the effect of stress distribution on the upper yield of low carbon steel. Tension, torsion and bending tests were carried out on round bars of low carbon steel and tension tests on notched plates. It was found that the upper yield point rises as the stress concentration or gradient of the specimen increases. A statistical approach is attempted to combine the Cottrell's model of dislocation locking with the weakest link concept.     

Clinical study on azithromycin in 10% fine granules and 100mg capsules in the field of pediatrics

Azithromycin (AZM), a new oral macrolide antibiotic, in 10% fine granules or 100 mg capsules was given to pediatric patients to treat various infections. The following results were obtained in our studies of AZM for its antibacterial activities against clinical isolates, its pharmacokinetics, its efficacy, and its safety. 1. MICs of AZM, erythromycin (EM) and clarithromycin (CAM) were determined against a total of 57 strains all at 10(6) cfu/ml. Among Gram-positive cocci, MICs of AZM ranged from 0.78 to > 100 micrograms/ml against Staphylococcus aureus (20 strains), from 0.05 to 0.1 microgram/ml against Streptococcus pyogenes (11 strains), and from 0.0125 to 3.13 micrograms/ml against Streptococcus pneumoniae (10 strains). These MICs were similar to those of the other macrolides. Among Gram-negative bacilli, MICs of AZM were 0.05 micrograms/ml against Moraxella subgenus Branhamella catarrhalis (1 strain), from 0.78 to 3.13 micrograms/ml against Haemophilus influenzae (9 strains), 0.78 micrograms/ml against Haemophilus parainfluenzae (1 strain) and 6.25 micrograms/ml against salmonella sp. (1 strain). These values were similar to or lower than those of the other macrolides. Against Mycoplasma pneumoniae, MICs of AZM were < or = 0.0008 micrograms/ml in three strains. One strain of M. pneumoniae showed tolerance to AZM at MIC 25 micrograms/ml. The other agents exhibited higher MIC than AZM against this organism. 2. Plasma samples were collected from five patients receiving fine granules and four patients receiving capsules for drug level determination. The patients received AZM at 10.0 approximately 16.3 mg/kg body weight once daily for 3 days. Drug concentrations in plasma at two hours after Day 3 dosing were in a range between 0.02 and 0.19 micrograms/ml for fine granules and were in a range between 0.11 and 0.42 micrograms/ml for capsules. 3. Urine samples were collected from four patients receiving fine granules and four patients receiving capsules. Drug levels were determined to be 3 micrograms/ml at post-treatment 48 hours for fine granules and post-treatment 72 hours for capsules. Urinary excretion rates of AZM in three patients on capsules lied in a range between 4.69 and 10.17%. 4. Effectiveness of AZM in fine granules was evaluated in 128 patients having a total of 19 different infections. AZM was rated "excellent" in 51 patients, "good" in 63, "fair" in 8, "poor" in 6, resulting in an efficacy rate of 89.1%. Effectiveness of AZM in capsular form was evaluated in 23 patients with five different infections. AZM was found "excellent" in 13 patients and "good" in 10, resulting in an efficacy rate of 100%. 5. AZM in fine granules eradicated 45 strains of 54 in 8 different bacteria. AZM in capsules eradicated 9 strains of 10 strains in 6 different bacteria. 6. As for adverse reactions, one patient complained of eruption, one vomiting, one loose stool, five diarrhea, when administered with fine granular form of AZM. One patient on AZM capsules experienced urticaria and vomiting. 7. As for abnormal laboratory changes, three patients were found with decreased WBC, seven with increased eosinophil, two with increased GOT and GPT, one with increased GPT. They were all on fine granular form of AZM. As far as abnormalities found in patients administered with AZM in capsular form, two showed decreased WBC, one decreased WBC along with increased eosinophil, and three increased eosinophil.     

Visual concept detection of web images based on group sparse ensemble learning

Due to the huge intra-class variations for visual concept detection, it is necessary for concept learning to collect large scale training data to cover a wide variety of samples as much as possible. But it presents great challenges on both how to collect and how to train the large scale data. In this paper, we propose a novel web image sampling approach and a novel group sparse ensemble learning approach to tackle these two challenging problems respectively. For data collection, in order to alleviate manual labeling efforts, we propose a web image sampling approach based on dictionary coherence to select coherent positive samples from web images. We propose to measure the coherence in terms of how dictionary atoms are shared because shared atoms represent common features with regard to a given concept and are robust to occlusion and corruption. For efficient training of large scale data, in order to exploit the hidden group structures of data, we propose a novel group sparse ensemble learning approach based on Automatic Group Sparse Coding (AutoGSC). After AutoGSC, we present an algorithm to use the reconstruction errors of data instances to calculate the ensemble gating function for ensemble construction and fusion. Experiments show that our proposed methods can achieve promising results and outperforms existing approaches.     

Adsorption mechanism of heavy-metal ion by microspherical tannin resin

The spherical tannin resin (STR) resulting from the reaction between Mimosa (Acacia Mollissima) tannin (condensed-type tannin) and formaldehyde was very porous. The specific surface area of the STR made from 37.5% of tannin was 139.2 m²/g (1 g of the resin in this is wet resin corresponding to 1 g of dried resin). Properties such as specific surface area and average pore radius could be controlled by adjusting the tannin concentration. The apparent activation energy of Cu²⁺ ion adsorption by STR was 3 kcal/mol, and that of Cr⁶⁺ ion was 2 kcal/mol. Since the energy was small, we concluded that the adsorption of metal ions was not influenced significantly by the adsorption temperature. The heat of adsorption for Cu²⁺ ions was only 1.6 kcal/mol, which suggests that the adsorption was a physical phenomenon. It was thought that the diffusion of heavy-metal ions into the porous resin was the rate-determining step of the adsorption since the elution profile of the column method was analogous to the profile of active carbon, which adsorbs physically, the heavy metal ions gradually leaking through the column. The surface and cross section of the STR were observed before and after Cu²⁺ ion adsorption with the scanning electron microscope. The pores of the spherical resin were clogged with adsorbed copper, suggesting that the Cu²⁺ ions were adsorbed during the formation of a multimolecular layer. The adsorption may therefore have been due to physical attractive forces. The rate of adsorption and adsorption isotherms of Cu²⁺ ions from copper salts having various anions was found to vary depending on the type of anion. These phenomena were not thought to be due to the properties of the spherical resin but to differences in the hydration state of copper ions.     

Methods for preparation of absorbent microspherical tannin resin

Tannin beads formed by reaction of Mimosa tannin (condensed-type tannin) with formaldehyde in nonpolar polybutenous medium were microspherical resins. Resins prepared with 37.5% tannin concentration were porous spherical resins with 139.22 m²/g of surface area (adsorption method of iodine in n-hexane, 2.1 m²/g for the dried beads by the Braunauer-Emett-Teller (BET) method) and were strong enough to withstand use on a column. The spherical resin adsorbed 3.7 mmol of Cr⁶⁺ ions per one gram dry weight of resin (by batch method), this adsorption being comparable to commercial adsorbent.