Metastatic renal cell carcinoma presenting as an aural polyp

Renal cell carcinoma may metastasize to the head and neck region at different stages of its evolution. We present a case of an undiagnosed renal cell carcinoma presenting as an ear polyp, and discuss the difficulties of the diagnosis and the management of these tumours.     

A classification of tournaments having an acyclic tournament as a minimum feedback arc set

Given a tournament with an acyclic tournament as a feedback arc set we give necessary and sufficient conditions for this feedback arc set to have minimum size.     

Ceramers: Hybrid materials incorporating polymeric/oligomeric species with inorganic glasses by a sol-gel process

A sol-gel process has been successfully utilized to produce hybrid materials incorporating polymeric/oligomeric components of polydimethyl siloxane(PDMS) with silicon glasses. All the samples made were transparent and flexible. Dynamic mechanical studies indicate that a portion of the siloxane species is phase-separated while the remainder is well dispersed. The effect of acid content were proven to be significant on the dispersion of the siloxane components and on the structure and properties of final products.     

Differential effects of hippocampal ablations on dispositional and representational memory in the rat.

Long-Evans rats with electrolytic hippocampal ablations exhibited chronic impairment in performance on a spatial delayed nonmatching-to-sample task in the arms of a T-maze. The same rats exhibited only mild deficits, which disappeared with practice, in dispositional memory-dependent discrimination in the stem. Both types of discrimination were learned rapidly preoperatively with no marked positive or negative interaction between types of discrimination. The present results suggest that hippocampal lesions in rats have far more serious consequences on the performance of representational memory-dependent tasks than similar lesions in monkeys. In agreement with our past studies, the present experiment demonstrated that dispositional and representational memory systems in rodents have at least partially distinct anatomical substrates in brain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of time-dependent flow-sensitive PC-MRI data

Many flow visualization techniques, especially integration-based methods, are problematic when the measured data exhibit noise and discretization issues. Particularly, this is the case for flow-sensitive phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) data sets which not only record anatomic information, but also time-varying flow information. We propose a novel approach for the visualization of such data sets using integration-based methods. Our ideas are based upon finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLE) and enable identification of vessel boundaries in the data as high regions of separation. This allows us to correctly restrict integration-based visualization to blood vessels. We validate our technique by comparing our approach to existing anatomy-based methods as well as addressing the benefits and limitations of using FTLE to restrict flow. We also discuss the importance of parameters, i.e., advection length and data resolution, in establishing a well-defined vessel boundary. We extract appropriate flow lines and surfaces that enable the visualization of blood flow within the vessels. We further enhance the visualization by analyzing flow behavior in the seeded region and generating simplified depictions.     

On the issue of urea phase connectivity in formulations based on molded flexible polyurethane foams

Lithium chloride was added to systematically alter the phase separation behavior, and hence, the nature of urea phase connectivity, in a series of plaques based on molded flexible polyurethane foam formulations. The plaques prepared were found to possess varied levels of urea phase connectivity that was examined at different length scales using several characterization techniques. SAXS, TEM, and t‐AFM were used to show that addition of LiCl systematically reduced the formation of the urea aggregate structures typically observed in flexible polyurethane foam formulations and thus led to a loss in urea phase connectivity at the macrolevel. SAXS, DSC, and DMA revealed that formulations with and without LiCl exhibited similar interdomain spacings and soft segment glass transitions, suggesting that incorporation of LiCl did not prevent the plaques from undergoing partial microphase separation. WAXS demonstrated that addition of LiCl led to a loss in the local ordering of the hard segments within the microdomains, i.e., it led to a reduction of microlevel connectivity or the regularity in segmental packing of the urea phase. High‐magnification t‐AFM images showed that increasing the LiCl content dispersed the urea component more homogeneously and in a more uniform manner in the polyol matrix, and thus altered the connectivity of the urea phase at the microdomain level. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 85: 2956–2967, 2002     

The mechano-sorptive behavior of flexible water-blown polyurethane foams

Samples of flexible water-blown slabstock polyurethane foams were compressed under constant load to study the effects of cycling moisture content on creep behavior and compare this behavior with the creep response where either a constant high or low moisture environment existed at the same temperature. Three sets of foams were tested: (1) 4 pph water content slabstock foam; (2) 5 pph water content slabstock foam; and (3) 2 pph water content molded foam. As the moisture conditions were cycled from low to high humidity while maintaining constant temperature in an environmental chamber, the compressive strain increased in subsequent steps with larger increases observed during the desorption portion of the humidity cycling. All three sets of foams showed similar behavior at a given temperature. At a temperature of 40°C, the strain levels under cyclic moisture conditions surpassed those levels observed at the highest constant relative humidity. During the first absorption step, the creep level increased. During any subsequent absorption step, the creep level either increased very little or none at all. Finally, during any desorption step, the creep level increased. This overall phenomenon of enhanced creep under cyclic moisture levels is attributed to water interacting with the hydrogen bonded structure within the foam. These hydrophillic interactions, principally promoted within the hard segment regions due to high hydrogen bonding, are disrupted causing slippage and increased in strain. As the foam is rapidly dired, regions of free volume are induced by the loss of water thus causing further increases in strain Prior to the reestablishment of well ordered hydrogen bonding. Further support to this proposition was given by the results obtained at a temperature of 90° C where it is well known that hydrogen bonds are much more mobile. Here, the strain levels under cyclic moisture conditions were nearly the same as those under constant high relative humidity. Weakening of the hydrogen bonds by means such as increased temperature resulted in similar strain levels to those under cyclic moisture levels. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Structure–property relationships of poly(urethane urea)s with ultra‐low monol content poly(propylene glycol) soft segments. I. Influence of soft segment molecular weight and hard segment content

Structure–property relationships in poly(urethane urea)s synthesized with ultra‐low monol content poly(propylene glycol) soft segments were investigated as soft segment molecular weight (2000, 4000, and 8000 g/mol) and hard segment content (6.3 and 9.0 wt %) were varied. Morphological features such as interdomain spacing and interphase thickness were quantified and revealed with small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The thermal and mechanical behavior was assessed with a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) and by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and stress‐strain tests. Hard segment content, over the limited range studied, had little effect on the morphology and soft segment thermal and mechanical properties. The molecular weight of the soft segments had considerably more influence on the morphology and mechanical properties. Increasing soft segment molecular weight resulted in greater interdomain spacings, as shown by SAXS, and a noticeable change in the structure, as shown by AFM. Additionally, as soft segment molecular weight decreased the soft segment glass transition broadened and rose to higher temperatures. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 229–243, 2002; DOI 10.1002/app.10168     

Engineering plastics from lignin. VI. Structure–property relationships of PEG-containing polyurethane networks

Hydroxypropyl lignin-based thermosetting polyurethanes were synthesized with excess hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and tolylene diisocyanate (TDI) by solution casting. Four polyethylene glycols (PEG) of molecular weight 400, 600, 1000, and 4000 were mixed with lignin polyol to incorporate different proportions of soft segment into the network prior to crosslinking. Neither thermal nor mechanical and limited small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis provided distinct evidence for phase separation and microstructure formation. The study examines the effect of the soft segment in relation to chain length and weight contribution on the thermal and mechanical properties of the final networks. A significant sensitivity of glass transition temperature (T_g), of swelling in DMF, and of the mechanical properties to soft segment content was observed. Some of this sensitivity must, however, be attributed to differences in crosslink density since the polyol to diisocyanate weight ratio was kept constant throughout the synthesis series. The magnitude of the change of the different properties was found to be influenced by both glycol content and glycol molecular weight. The T_g of the network decreased from 105°C to as low as 38°C (HDI), and from 158°C to 70°C (TDI), with incorporation of up to 17.8% glycol, and it was greater with lower molecular weight glycols than with higher ones at any weight fraction. Swelling in DMF increased as expected with soft segment content. Mechanical properties were affected most if HDI and lower molecular weight glycols were used. The uniformity in structure, reduction in brittleness, and considerable improvement in mechanical properties with inclusion of minor PEG contents indicates that lignin-based network polyurethanes can be synthesized with controllable performance characteristics.     

Stiction issues and actuation of RF LIGA-MEMS variable capacitors

High aspect ratio variable capacitors have been fabricated using deep X-ray lithography and electroplating. Stiction phenomena applicable to high aspect ratio devices are presented, including the conditions for stiction to occur and the critical dimensions of structures. Actuation tests at 3 GHz are also presented and show a maximum capacitance of 0.86 pF with no actuation voltage and a minimum capacitance of 0.70 pF with an actuation voltage of 20 V just before pull-in, which gives a tuning range of 1.23:1. Corresponding Q-factor values are 49.3 and 70.8 respectively. After pull-in, the measured capacitance is 0.61 pF, corresponding to a tuning range of 1.41:1, with a maximum Q-factor of 102.9.