Athletes as health testing examinees

AIMS AND BACKGROUND: The usefulness of monoclonal antibodies that recognize markers of neoplastic lesions in complementing conventional cytology was evaluated by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex, indirect immunoperoxidase technique. METHODS: In order to enhance the sensitivity of the traditional method, a pool of seven combined monoclonal antibodies (Pool C7), which reacts specifically with cells of epithelial origin and is able to distinguish between mesothelial and malignant cells, was tested on cytologic smears of 262 serous effusions. The effusions were benign or neoplastic, mainly from breast, ovary and lung cancers. RESULTS: Immunocytochemical method showed an 100% specificity and 100% of predictivity whereas the sensitivity was 98%, 96% and 95% for breast ovarian and lung carcinomas, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrated that the pool when used together with conventional methods, is useful in analysis of serous effusions in diagnostic investigations.     

Acid catalyst influence on the polymerization time of polyfurfuryl alcohol and on the porosity of monolithic vitreous carbon

This study compares the influence of different acid catalysts on the polymerization rate of polyfurfuryl alcohol (PFA) precursor and especially on the respective porosity of Monolithic Vitreous Carbon (MVC) produced from that. Five acid catalysts commonly used were compared: p‐toluenesulfonic (PTLS), hydrochloric, sulfuric, nitric, and phosphoric. A fixed molar concentration of catalyst was diluted in PFA resin under room pressure and temperature. The time dependence of PFA resin polymerization was investigated by optical transmittance of PFA films, and the polymerization degree, characterized by ATR spectroscopy and thermogravimetry. MVC samples prepared with the same PFA resin and each catalyst were carbonized up to 1200 °C, under inert atmosphere. MVC porosity was studied by nitrogen adsorption/desorption, and by SEM and optical microscopy. Higher polymerization degree and higher residual mass were obtained with faster catalysts. No direct relation between the polymerization rate and the acid force was observed. PTLS promoted the fastest PFA polymerization process and the sulfuric acid, the slowest one. MVC samples were obtained by slow carbonization. MVC presented low specific surface S_BET from 1.4 to 7.4 m²/g. Nitric acid catalyst contributed the most to micropores formation. Micrometric apparent porosity was smaller for the catalysts having longer polymerizations times, such as phosphoric and sulfuric acid. Phosphoric catalyst corresponded to the lowest porosity in MVC. As the polymerization time increased, the average size of the micrometric surface pores tended to augment. The MVC macroscopic porosity increased with the S_BET increment. Acid catalysts choice exerted a fundamental role on the porosity of MVC. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43272.     

A New Laser Induced Incandescence–Mass Spectrometric Analyzer (LII-MS) for Online Measurement of Aerosol Composition Classified by Black Carbon Mixing State

We developed a laser induced incandescence–mass spectrometric analyzer (LII-MS) for online measurements quantifying the aerosol chemical compositions with respect to the mixing state of black carbon (BC). The LII-MS is developed as a tandem series comprising an LII chamber to detect and vaporize BC-containing particles and a particle trap laser desorption mass spectrometer (PT-LDMS: Takegawa et al. 2012). The PT-LDMS collects aerosol particles transferred from the LII chamber and quantifies the chemical compositions. A newly designed collection probe, coupled with the sheath-air inlet nozzle of the LII chamber, enables a high throughput of aerosol particles without significant dilution. Total aerosol particles can be analyzed in the PT-LDMS by turning off the laser (MS mode), and the aerosol particles externally mixed with BC can be analyzed by turning on the laser (LII-MS mode). The difference in the PT-LDMS signals between the MS and LII-MS modes yields the chemical composition of materials internally mixed with BC. Performance of the developed instrument was evaluated in the laboratory by generating BC particles internally-mixed with oleic acid (OL) and BC particles externally mixed with ammonium sulfate particles. Preliminary results from ambient measurements are also presented and discussed.

Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Photoacoustic Spectroscopy of Some Energetic Materials

To find an effective laser source to ignite energetic materials, the absorption spectra of some energetic materials are obtained by means of a photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS). In this experiment, PAS covers the wavelength region of 400 nm-1600 nm in which no other conventional method can take absorption spectra for powdered energetic materials. Photoacoustic spectra of 18 energetic materials are reported. In general, energetic materials tested showed peaks in 600 nm–800 nm and 1400 nm–1600 nm ranges. It is found that the energy required to initiate explosives in the case of ruby laser initiation were correlated with their photoacoustic signal intensities.     

Multiphase composites of tetragonal zirconia agglomerate dispersed into alumina and alumina-zirconia matrices

Multiphase composites of yttria- and ceria-doped tetragonal zirconia agglomerates (10–50 m) dispersed into an alumina or alumina-zirconia matrix were sintered at 1500–1600 °C in air, followed by post-Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) at 1450°C and 150 MPa in an Ar gas atmosphere. The relative density of the recovered composites was above 98% of the theoretical density. By chemically etching on the surface of zirconia agglomerates, the sinterability of composites was apparently improved; and no microcracks nor pores were observed at the interface of agglomerate and matrix. According to scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation, tetragonal and tetragonal-monoclinic zirconia agglomerates were highly dispersed into the alumina or alumina-zirconia matrix. The multiphase composites containing 10 vol% spherical agglomerates demonstrate the relatively low value of bending strength, < 400 MPa, and a high value of fracture toughness, > 11 MPa m^1/2. The crack propagation introduced by Vickers indentation was efficiently suppressed and deflected by the agglomerates.     

0.5-μm 3.3-V BiCMOS standard cells with 32-kilobyte cache andten-port register file

BiCMOS standard cell macros, including a 0.5-W 3-ns register file, a 0.6-W 5-ns 32-kbyte cache, a 0.2-W 3-ns table look-aside buffer (TLB), and a 0.1-W 3-ns adder, are designed with a 0.5-μm BiCMOS technology. A supply voltage of 3.3 V is used to achieve low power consumption. Several BiCMOS/CMOS circuits, such as a self-aligned threshold inverter (SATI) sense amplifier and an ECL HIT logic are used to realize high-speed operation at the low supply voltage. The performance of the BiCMOS macros is verified using a fabricated test chip     

Image restoration in chirp-pulse microwave CT (CP-MCT)

Chirp-pulse microwave computed tomography (CP-MCT) is a technique for imaging the distribution of temperature variations inside biological tissues. Even if resolution and contrast are adequate to this purpose, a further improvement of image quality is desirable. In this paper, we discuss the blur of CP-MCT images and we propose a method for estimating the corresponding point spread function (PSF). To this purpose we use both a measured and a computed projection of a cylindrical phantom. We find a good agreement between the two cases. Finally the estimated PSF is used for deconvolving data corresponding to various kinds of cylindrical phantoms. We use an iterative nonlinear deconvolution method which assures nonnegative solutions and we demonstrate the improvement of image quality which can be obtained in such a way.     

MaMi, a human endometrial stromal sarcoma cell line that constitutively produces interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1

BACKGROUND: Uterine endometrial stromal sarcoma is a rare neoplasm with a morphology that closely resembles that of the proliferative endometrial stroma. To understand its pathologic characteristics, we established a novel cell line, MaMi, from a primary culture of an endometrial stromal sarcoma obtained from a 65-year-old Japanese woman. METHODS: We observed the morphology of MaMi cells and performed immunohistochemical analysis on the primary tumor and transplants in nude mice. Prolactin, insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, E-selectin, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and fibronectin production in the culture medium of MaMi cells were also examined. RESULTS: MaMi cells were shown to exhibit a fibroblast-like morphology in vitro, and they adopted a more elongated appearance in response to 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA). On injection into nude mice, the cells gave rise to subcutaneous tumors. Immunohistologically, both the primary tumor and MaMi cell-induced tumors stained positively with antibodies to neuron-specific enolase or vimentin. MaMi cells constitutively produced IL-6, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in vitro. Interleukin-1beta, (100 pmol/L), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (1 nmol/L), and lipopolysaccharide (1 microg/mL) each increased the release of IL-6, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 by MaMi cells. TPA (10 nmol/L) also stimulated the production of IL-6 and IL-8 by these cells, but inhibited that of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that MaMi cells closely resemble proliferative endometrial stromal cells not only morphologically, but also functionally. This cell line may prove valuable in understanding the role of cytokines produced by tumor cells in the pathogenesis of endometrial stromal sarcoma and may also be useful as an in vitro model of functioning endometrial stromal cells.     

Recent Progress in Communication Theory in Japan

This paper reviews recent progress in communication theory in Japan, mainly in the past three years. The topics to be discussed include 1) waveform transmission in band-limited channels and active transmission lines, 2) source-coding problems such as optimal quantizing characteristics, delta modulation, and linear transformation, 3) transmission codes, where mainly multilevel codes have been discussed, 4) new information transmission and modulation schemes, and 5) theories of traffic and switchingsystem design.