Breast carcinoma with myeloid metaplasia--a case report

A 49 year-old female had been suffering from primary myelofibrosis since February 1987 without receiving any treatment. In 1994, a breast mass was detected. Breast tumor biopsy revealed tubular carcinoma with intraductal components and multinucleated giant cells in the loose and myxoid stroma. The giant cells were thought to be megakaryocytes because both Factor VIII and platelet glycoprotein GP IIIa were detected in their cytoplasm. While additional mastectomy specimens and the axillary lymph nodes also revealed prominent myeloid metaplasia, there was no proliferation of the cancer cells. Granulocytic series stained for chloroacetate esterase and very few erythrocytic series were observed. This is the first case in which breast carcinoma and myeloid metaplasia coexisted in the same breast tumor.     

Crystallization of potassium titanate from the amorphous phase

By using amorphous potassium titanates as the starting materials, a sintered body of K₂Ti₄O₉ or K₂Ti₆O₁₃ with porous and fibrous textures was prepared. K₂Ti₂O₅ and a new phase, K₆Ti₄O₁₁ were synthesized by the thermal reaction of KNO₃ with TiO₂ at 1000° C for 10 to 20 h. On leaching in water to expel excess of potassium ions, both phases became amorphous. After mixing and moulding these amorphous materials in the desired proportion, a sintered body containing fibrous crystals of K₂Ti₄O₉ was readily fabricated by heating at 1000° C for 12 h. When 5 wt % B₂O₃ was added to the amorphous phases, single phase K₂Ti₆O₁₃, with a fibrous texture grew well on heating at 1000° C for 12 h. Addition of PVA polymer to the amorphous phases was responsible for controlling the porosity of the sintered body, e.g. about 52% theoretical density at 20 wt% PVA polymer. The optimum conditions for preparing the amorphous phases were systematically examined and the effect of the chemical reaction environments, such as different crucible materials on the calcination of KNO₃ and TiO₂ were also discussed.     

Mechanism of electrodeposition of copper from cupric pyrophosphate solutions

Cathodic polarization curves were measured for copper in cupric pyrophosphate solutions of different concentrations and temperatures. A rotating disc electrode was used to eliminate concentration polarization. For all solutions, two potential regions are distinguishable in the polarization curve; one is less negative than a critical potential E_b around ?0.75 V vs sce (Region I) and the other more negative than E_b (Region II). A weak adsorption of pyrophosphate ions and hence some inhibition of the electrodeposition of copper is expected for Region I but there is no adsorption in Region II. The exchange current density i_o for the copper deposition was obtained by extrapolating the Tafel relation observed in Region II to the rest potential corresponding to the equilibrium potential. The following reaction mechanisms are proposed to explain the dependence of i_o on the concentration of Cu(P₂O₇)^6?₂ and P₂O^4?₇ ions.

Apparent activation energies are estimated to be about 11 kcal/mol in both cases.     

The polymerization and copolymerization of nitroalkyl acrylates and nitroalkyl methacrylates

Nitroalkyl acrylates and methacrylates involving some new compounds were prepared. The homopolymerization of these monomers in toluene and their copolymerization with styrene in acetone were carried out with azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator. The rate of polymerization of the nitroalkyl acrylates showed a correlation with the number of nitro groups situated on the ester side chain. The apparent activation energies of the polymerization were found to be 22.0–27.5 kcal./mole for the nitroalkyl acrylates and about 11.5–13.0 kcal./mole for the nitroalkyl methacrylates. From the reactivity ratios and Q-e values of the copolymerization the following information was obtained. The copolymerization behavior of nitroalkyl acrylates and methacrylates showed an alternating tendency, and these monomers belong to the conjugative monomer groups. On the reactivities of these monomers, the polarity of vinyl group was affected a little by nitro group of ester bond side, and the resonance affected little. These monomers were crosslinked with 2-methyl-2-nitro-1,3-propylene diacrylate. Some of the polymers showed marked improvement in the physical properties of elastomers.     

Color ellipsoscope for real-time imaging of nanometer-scale surface phenomena

An imaging method was developed based on null ellipsometry with a white-light source. It is useful for visualizing the kinetics of fast surface phenomena on the nanometer scale.     

Development of an epileptic seizure prediction algorithm using R–R intervals with self-attentive autoencoder

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that may affect the autonomic nervous system (ANS) from 15 to 20 min before seizure onset, and disturbances of ANS affect R–R intervals (RRI) on an electrocardiogram (ECG). This study aims to develop a machine learning algorithm for predicting focal epileptic seizures by monitoring R–R interval (RRI) data in real time. The developed algorithm adopts a self-attentive autoencoder (SA-AE), which is a neural network for time-series data. The results of applying the developed seizure prediction algorithm to clinical data demonstrated that it functioned well in most patients; however, false positives (FPs) occurred in specific participants. In a future work, we will investigate the causes of FPs and optimize the developing seizure prediction algorithm to further improve performance using newly added clinical data.

     

Unravel four hairpins!

DNA machines consisting of consecutive hairpins, which we have previously described, have various potential applications in DNA computation. In the present study, a 288-base DNA machine containing four consecutive hairpins was successfully constructed by ligation and PCR. PAGE and fluorescence spectroscopy experiments verified that all four hairpins were successfully opened by four opener oligomers, and that hairpin opening was dependent on the proper openers added in the correct order. Quantitative analysis of the final results by fluorescence spectroscopy indicated that all four hairpins were open in about 1/4 to 1/3 of the DNA machines.     

Ethnicity, culture, and sexual aggression: Risk and protective factors.

Explanatory models of sexual aggression were examined among mainland Asian American (n = 222), Hawaiian Asian American (n = 127), and European American men (n = 399). The Malamuth et al. (N. M. Malamuth, D. Linz, C. L. Heavey, G. Barnes, & M. Acker, 1995; N. M. Malamuth, R. J. Sockloskie, M. P. Koss, & J. S. Tanaka, 1991) confluence model of sexual aggression, which posits impersonal sex and hostile masculinity as paths to sexual aggression, was consistently supported. Culture-specific moderators of sexual aggression were also identified. Whereas loss of face was a protective factor against sexual aggression in the Asian American samples, it generally was not a protective factor among European Americans. These findings are not a function of actual or perceived minority status. An implication is that theoretical models may need to be augmented with cultural constructs for optimal application in certain ethnic group contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time dependence of mesoscopic strain distribution for triaxial woven carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer under creep loading measured by digital image correlation

This paper presents the time dependence of the mesoscopic strain of a triaxial woven carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer under creep loading measured using digital image correlation (DIC). Two types of DIC techniques were employed for the measurement: conventional subset DIC and mesh DIC. Static tensile and creep tests were carried out, and the time dependence of the mesoscopic strain distribution was investigated by applying these techniques. The ultimate failure of this material is dominated by inter-bundle decohesion caused by relative rigid rotation and relating shear stress. Therefore, these were focused on in the present study. During the creep tests, the fiber directional strain, shear strain, and rotation were monitored using the DIC, and the mechanism for the increase in the specimen’s macro-strain over time was investigated based on the results obtained by the DIC measurement.     

Combustion Characteristics of High Burn Rate Azide Polymer Propellant

The combustion characteristics of high burn rate azide polymer composite propellant were examined by using a chimney type strand burner, a Ø 80 mm × 140 mm small rocket motor and a L/D = 16 of Ø 70 mm heavy-wall rocket motor. The propellant, BAMO/NMMO copolymer was used as a fuel binder and AP as an oxidizer, burned approximately 29 mm/s at a pressure range of 7 MPa to 20 MPa with a plateau-mesa burning behavior. However, the pressure exponent rapidly increased at above the pressure of 20 MPa and was 0.52 between 20 MPa and 25 MPa. The low pressure exponent and high burn rate of the azide polymer propellant are suitable to the short burn time at the maximum expected operating pressure range of 15 MPa to 20 MPa. The high L/D heavywall rocket motor with volumeric mass fraction of 83% showed stable combustion without any pressure oscillation and severe erosive burning. The average burn rate in the high L/D motor was 10% larger than that estimated from the strand data. The theoretically calculated pressure-vs-time and thrust-vs-time curves were well consistent with the measured data. α = 20 and β = 180 for the Lenoir-Robillard equation were used to estimate the burn rate.