A case of aneurysm of the descending thoracic aorta associated with Beh?et's disease]

A 66-year-old male with Beh?et's disease admitted again with hemoptysis. He underwent the resection and direct closure of descending aortic aneurysm 3 years ago, followed without the use of steroid. Chest CT scanning demonstrated a recurrent aneurysm of the descending aorta which was could not be detected on the previous CT only 23 days before. In the current operation, we performed resection, direct closure and wrapping of the aneurysm. The pathological examination showed a true aneurysm of Beh?et's disease. The patient is free from recurrence for 17 months since the operation under steroid therapy.     

The Ig heavy chain gene is frequently involved in chromosomal translocations in multiple myeloma and plasma cell leukemia as detected by in situ hybridization

Chromosome rearrangement of 14q32.33 has recurrently occurred with variable partner sites, including 11q13.3, 8q24.1, 18q21.3, and 6p21.1 in multiple myeloma (MM). To assess the actual incidence of 14q32.33 translocation and to elucidate its implication in the pathogenesis of MM, we studied 42 patients with MM, plasma cell leukemia, or plasmacytoma and 5 with monoclonal gammopathy with undetermined significance (MGUS) by G-banding and molecular cytogenetic methods. Using double-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (DCFISH) with 2 Ig heavy chain (IgH) gene probes, a yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) clone containing variable region, and a phage clone containing gamma constant region, 14q32.33 translocation was detected as split signals of the IgH gene in 31 patients with plasma cell malignancies and 3 with MGUS. In contrast, of 40 patients who were assessed by G-banding, 3 (7.5%) showed the 14q+ chromosome. DCFISH detected a split of the IgH gene on interphase nuclei in 34 (73.9%) of 46 patients analyzed, whereas on metaphase spreads, it was in 22 (51.2%) of 43 patients analyzed. Interphase DCFISH was particularly useful to detect 14q32.33 translocation in 17 (65.4%) of 26 patients with normal karyotypes. Donor sites were identified in 11 of 22 patients demonstrated as carrying 14q32.33 translocation by metaphase FISH. Chromosome t(11;14)(q13.3; q32.33) was detected in 5 patients, t(8;14)(q24.1;q32.33) in 2, t(14;18)(q32.33;q21.3) in 2, and t(7;14)(q32.1;q32.33) in 1. A complex 14q32.33 translocation involving 3q and 16q24 was detected in 1 patient. Myeloma cells with t(7;14) showed myelomonocytoid surface antigen. Because rearrangements of 14q32.33 were closely associated with translocation of proto-oncogenes into the IgH gene, our findings indicate that 14q32.33 translocation with various partner chromosomes is a critical event in the pathogenesis of MM and MGUS.     

Thermal strain of high strength polyethylene fiber in low temperature

High strength polyethylene fiber (Toyobo, Dyneema® fiber: hereinafter abbreviated to DF) has a negative thermal expansion coefficient. Relation between fiber structure and thermal strain of DF used as reinforcement of DF reinforced plastic (DFRP) for cryogenic use was investigated. The crystallinities and orientation angles of several kinds of polyethylene fibers having different modulus from 15 to 134Gpa (herein after abbreviated to DFs) were measured by NMR and X‐ray. We obtained the parameters of the mechanical series‐parallel model composed of crystal and amorphous by crystallinity and modulus. Thermal expansion coefficients of DFs were estimated by mechanical series‐parallel model. All DFs having different modulus showed negative thermal expansion coefficients in the temperature range from 180 to 300K, and absolute values of those markedly increased by increasing tensile modulus of DF. The estimated thermal expansion coefficients showed negative values, and thermal strains showed a similar curve to observed ones mostly. Average thermal expansion coefficients in the temperature range from 180 to 300K estimated by mechanical model agreed with the observed ones. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 2918–2925, 2004     

Preserving worker privacy in crowdsourcing

This paper proposes a crowdsourcing quality control method with worker-privacy preservation. Crowdsourcing allows us to outsource tasks to a number of workers. The results of tasks obtained in crowdsourcing are often low-quality due to the difference in the degree of skill. Therefore, we need quality control methods to estimate reliable results from low-quality results. In this paper, we point out privacy problems of workers in crowdsourcing. Personal information of workers can be inferred from the results provided by each worker. To formulate and to address the privacy problems, we define a worker-private quality control problem, a variation of the quality control problem that preserves privacy of workers. We propose a worker-private latent class protocol where a requester can estimate the true results with worker privacy preserved. The key ideas are decentralization of computation and introduction of secure computation. We theoretically guarantee the security of the proposed protocol and experimentally examine the computational efficiency and accuracy.     

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy

CONCLUSION: We conclude that despite inevitable variability the clinical picture of JME is characteristic. It is easy to diagnose JME if one thinks of it while the history should be thoroughly analyzed. An EEG recording during sleep confirms the diagnosis. An early diagnosis of JME permits adequate prognosis of the subsequent course of epilepsy, and adequate therapy brings remission in most of the patients. If treatment starts following the large number of severe GTC seizures, the response to therapy is incomplete. The persistency of the illness throughout the life, the need for continuous medication and therapeutic unresponsiveness in cases with late diagnosis, do not justify the increasing misconception that JME is of benign nature. Diagnosis of JME is rare because of insufficient familiarily of physicians with the illness. BACKGROUND: Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is an idiopathic generalized epileptic syndrome characterized with the combination of myoclonic, generalized tonic-clonic (GTC) and absence seizures that are readily provoked by sleep deprivation. PATIENTS: Forty-three patients, aged from 14 to 51 years, participated in a 5-year follow-up study. Diagnosis was made according to the criteria (Table 1) for diagnosis of JME set by Panayiotopoulos et al. (1994). Nineteen patients made their first contact with a neurologist at the Institute of Neurology and were diagnosed as JME, while the remaining 24 were referred to from other medical institutions with a diagnosis of therapy resistant to focal epilepsy. All patients underwent a somatic and neurological examination, "mini mental test," EEG in waking and CT scan of the brain. Some patients had EEG performed during sleep and some had MRI of the head. RESULTS: JME began between 9 and 26 (average 17) years. All patients had myoclonic seizures, 98% had GTC and 23% absence seizures. The first myoclonic seizure occurred between 9 and 24 years while the frst GTC seizure occurred between 10 and 32 years. Myoclonic seizures (83% of patients) and GTC seizures (70% of patients) occurred most often immediately after awaking. The most frequent provocative factors were insufficient sleep, alcohol abuse and tiredness. Epilepsy in the family was present in 39%, focal neurological deficiency in 9% and pathological findings on of CT and MRI in 7% of patients. Waking EEG was pathological in 77% of patients; it included generalized spike-wave discharges in 73%, multiple spike-wave complexes in 33% and focal discharges in 12% of patients, respectively. In all 26 patients tested, sleep EEG was pathological most often with multiple spike-wave complexes in 85% and 3-4 Hz spike-wave complexes in 57% of patients. The correct diagnosis of JME following a comprehensive examination was made in 24 (56%) patients after a delay of 1 to 35 years. In 24 patients with delayed diagnosis of JME the replacement of earlier medication with valproic acid (VPA) induced remission in 18 patients (75%) while 1 patient (4%) experienced a reduction in the number of seizures. Five patients (21%) did not respond to VPA medication: 2 due to a weak compliance, another 2 due to inefficient medication and 1 because of the preexistent malabsorption syndrome. In 19 patients (44%) with initial diagnosis of JME, VPA was introduced immediately upon diagnosis. Of them, 15 (79%) had excellent response to VPA, 1 refused therapy and for 3 patients there is no information. In 2 patients VPA was substituted due to side effects (hepatotoxicity and alopetia) with lamotrigine (low doses), which brought about decrease in frequency and mitigation in myoclonic seizures.     

A biped static balance control and torque pattern learning under unknown periodic external forces

This paper addresses a biped balancing task in which an unknown external force is exerted, using the so-called ‘ankle strategy’ model. When an external force is periodic, a human adaptively maintains the balance, next learns how much force should be produced at the ankle joint from its repeatability, and finally memorized it as a motion pattern. To acquire motion patterns with balancing, we propose a control and learning method: as the control method, we adopt ground reaction force feedback to cope with an uncertain external force, while, as the learning method, we introduce a motion pattern generator that memorizes the torque pattern of the ankle joint by use of Fourier series expansion. In this learning process, the period estimation of the external force is crucial; this estimation is achieved based on local autocorrelation of joint trajectories. Computer simulations and robot experiments show effective control and learning results with respect to unknown periodic external forces.     

Iterative Path Integral Approach to Nonlinear Stochastic Optimal Control Under Compound Poisson Noise

Nonlinear stochastic optimal control theory has played an important role in many fields. In this theory, uncertainties of dynamics have usually been represented by Brownian motion, which is Gaussian white noise. However, there are many stochastic phenomena whose probability density has a long tail, which suggests the necessity to study the effect of non‐Gaussianity. This paper employs Lévy processes, which cause outliers with a significantly higher probability than Brownian motion, to describe such uncertainties. In general, the optimal control law is obtained by solving the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation. This paper shows that the path‐integral approach combined with the policy iteration method is efficiently applicable to solve the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation in the Lévy problem setting. Finally, numerical simulations illustrate the usefulness of this method.     

Adaptive MAP receiver via the EM algorithm and message passings for MIMO-OFDM mobile communications

This paper proposes two new types of maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) receivers for multiple-input-multiple-output and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing mobile communications with a channel coding such as the low-density parity-check code. One proposed receiver employs the expectation-maximization algorithm so as to improve performance of approximated MAP detection. Differently from a conventional receiver employing the minimum mean-square estimation (MMSE) algorithm, it applies the recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm to the channel estimation in order to track a fast fading channel. For the purpose of further improvement, the other proposed receiver applies a new adaptive algorithm that can be derived from the message passing on factor graphs. The algorithm exploits all detected signals but one of targeted time, and can gain a considerable advantage over the MMSE and RLS. Computer simulations show that the first proposed receiver is superior in channel-tracking ability to the conventional receiver employing the MMSE. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the second proposed receiver remarkably outperforms both the conventional and the first proposed ones.     

Application of an ultrahigh-resolution scanning electron microscope (UHS-T1) to biological specimens

In 1985 we developed an ultrahigh-resolution scanning electron microscope with a resolution of 0.5 nm. It is equipped with a field emission gun and an objective lens with a very short focal length. In this study we report a survey of some different preparation techniques and biological specimens using the new scanning electron microscope. Intracellular structures such as cell organelles were observed surprisingly sharper than those observed by ordinary scanning electron microscopes. However, at magnifications over 250,000 X, platinum particles could be discerned as scattered pebbles on the surface of all structures in coated materials. Using an uncoated but conductively stained specimen, we successfully observed ribosomes on a rough endoplasmic reticulum at a direct magnification of 1 million. In these images some protrusions were recognized on the ribosomes. Ferritin and immunoglobulin G were used as samples of biological macromolecules. These samples were observed without metal coating and conductive staining. The ferritin particles appeared as rounded bodies without any substructure on the surface and immunoglobulin G as complexes of three-unit bodies. In the latter the central body might correspond to the Fc fragment and two side ones to Fab fragments. We assume that ultrahigh-resolution scanning electron microscopy is an effective means for observation of the cell fine structures and biological macromolecules. It will open a new research field in biomedicine.     

Determination of Ring-OSF Position in Czochralski Silicon Single Crystals by Numerical Analysis of Distribution of Grown-in Defects

A numerical analysis technique that incorporates Voronkov's model were examined and used to estimate the distribution of defects during crystal growth. By comparisons of the distribution of the density of LSTD and the position of R-OSF in non-nitrogen-doped (non-N-doped) and nitrogen-doped (N-doped) silicon crystals, it is found that the results of the numerical analyses agree with practically evaluated data. The observations suggest that the R-OSF nucleus is a VO2 complex that is formed by bonds between oxygen atoms and residual vacancies consumed during the formation of void defects. This suggests that Voronkov's model can be used to accurately predict the generation and growth of defects in silicon crystals. This numerical analysis technique was also found to be an effective method of estimating the distribution of defects in silicon crystals during crystal growth.