Giant lipoma arising from deep lobe of the parotid gland

BACKGROUND: Lipomas are common benign soft tissue neoplasms but they are found very rarely in the deep lobe of parotid gland. Surgical intervention in these tumors is challenging because of the proximity of the facial nerve, and thus knowledge of the anatomy and meticulous surgical technique are essential. CASE PRESENTATION: A 71-year-old female presented with a large asymptomatic mass, which had occupied the left facial area for over the past fifteen years, and she requested surgical excision for a cosmetically better facial appearance. The computed tomography (CT) scan showed a well-defined giant lipoma arising from the left deep parotid gland. The lipoma was successfully enucleated after full exposure and mobilization of the overlying facial nerve branches. The surgical specimen measured 9 × 6 cm in size, and histopathology revealed fibrolipoma. The patient experienced an uneventful recovery, with a satisfying facial contour and intact facial nerve function. CONCLUSION: Giant lipomas involving the deep parotid lobe are extremely rare. The high-resolution CT scan provides an accurate and cost-effective preoperative investigative method. Surgical management of deep lobe lipoma should be performed by experienced surgeons due to the need for meticulous dissection of the facial nerve branches. Superficial parotidectomy before deep lobe lipoma removal may be unnecessary in selected cases because preservation of the superficial lobe may contribute to a better aesthetic and functional result

Post-stroke upper limb recovery is correlated with dynamic resting-state network connectivity

Motor recovery is still limited for people with stroke especially those with greater functional impairments. In order to improve outcome, we need to understand more about the mechanisms underpinning recovery. Task-unbiased, blood flow–independent post-stroke neural activity can be acquired from resting brain electrophysiological recordings and offers substantial promise to investigate physiological mechanisms, but behaviourally relevant features of resting-state sensorimotor network dynamics have not yet been identified. Thirty-seven people with subcortical ischaemic stroke and unilateral hand paresis of any degree were longitudinally evaluated at 3 weeks (early subacute) and 12 weeks (late subacute) after stroke. Resting-state magnetoencephalography and clinical scores of motor function were recorded and compared with matched controls. Magnetoencephalography data were decomposed using a data-driven hidden Markov model into 10 time-varying resting-state networks. People with stroke showed statistically significantly improved Action Research Arm Test and Fugl-Meyer upper extremity scores between 3 weeks and 12 weeks after stroke (both P < 0.001). Hidden Markov model analysis revealed a primarily alpha-band ipsilesional resting-state sensorimotor network which had a significantly increased life-time (the average time elapsed between entering and exiting the network) and fractional occupancy (the occupied percentage among all networks) at 3 weeks after stroke when compared with controls. The life-time of the ipsilesional resting-state sensorimotor network positively correlated with concurrent motor scores in people with stroke who had not fully recovered. Specifically, this relationship was observed only in ipsilesional rather in contralesional sensorimotor network, default mode network or visual network. The ipsilesional sensorimotor network metrics were not significantly different from controls at 12 weeks after stroke. The increased recruitment of alpha-band ipsilesional resting-state sensorimotor network at subacute stroke served as functionally correlated biomarkers exclusively in people with stroke with not fully recovered hand paresis, plausibly reflecting functional motor recovery processes

Metrology Camera System of Prime Focus Spectrograph for Subaru Telescope

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a new optical/near-infrared multi-fiber spectrograph designed for the prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope. The metrology camera system of PFS serves as the optical encoder of the COBRA fiber motors for the configuring of fibers. The 380mm diameter aperture metrology camera will locate at the Cassegrain focus of Subaru telescope to cover the whole focal plane with one 50M pixel Canon CMOS sensor. The metrology camera is designed to provide the fiber position information within 5{\mu}m error over the 45cm focal plane. The positions of all fibers can be obtained within 1s after the exposure is finished. This enables the overall fiber configuration to be less than 2 minutes.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 201

YamSat: the First Picosatellite being Developed in Taiwan

This paper describes the current planning and design of the YamSat, the first picosatellite being developed in Taiwan. The design, analysis, manufacture, integration, test and operation of the YamSat will be performed by the National Space Program Office (NSPO), Taiwan, R.O.C, in cooperation with other domestic organizations and companies. It is a member of the CubeSat [1], 10cm x 10cm x 10cm size and within 1kg mass. The major objective of the YamSat is to qualify in space the components and technology developed in Taiwan, including a micro-spectrometer payload using Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology. The YamSat will be ready for flight in the middle of 2002

Pediatric Thalassemic Patients Have Higher Incidence of Asthma: A Nationwide Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study

INTRODUCTION: Patients with hemoglobinopathies have been reported to have higher rates of pulmonary complications. Few studies have investigated the association between thalassemia and asthma in children. METHODS: We used the data of one million individuals randomly selected from the Registry for Beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Research Database. One thalassemic child was matched with four control children without thalassemia according to sex, birth year, birth season, prematurity, and previous enteroviral infection. RESULTS: A total of 800 hundred thalassemic children and 3200 controls were included. Children with thalassemia had higher rates of developing asthma (41.81 vs 25.70 per 1000 person-years, P \u3c 0.001) than the non-thalassemia controls with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.37 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.19-1.58). Boys in the thalassemia cohort had a significantly higher adjusted incidence hazard ratio (IRR) of asthma than those in the non-thalassemia cohort (adjusted IRR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.02-1.73). The risk of atopic and nonatopic asthma was higher in the thalassemia cohort than in the non-thalassemia cohort (IRR = 1.3, 1.61, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Children with thalassemia were more likely to develop asthma. More attention should be paid to the early diagnosis of asthma and prevention of asthma attacks

Lack of Association between CLEC5A Gene Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms and Kawasaki Disease in Taiwanese Children

Background. Kawasaki disease is characterized by systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. Previous genetic studies have identified certain candidate genes associated with susceptibility to KD and coronary artery lesions. Host innate immune response factors are involved in modulating the disease outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate CLEC5A (C-type lectin domain family 5) genetic polymorphisms with regards to the susceptibility and outcome of KD. Methods. A total of 1045 subjects (381 KD patients and 664 controls) were enrolled to identify 4 tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) of CLEC5A (rs1285968, rs11770855, rs1285935, rs1285933) by using the TaqMan Allelic Discrimination Assay. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was assessed in cases and controls, and genetic effects were evaluated by the chi-square test. Results. No significant associations were noted between the genotypes and allele frequency of the 4 CLEC5A tSNPs between controls and patients. In the patients, polymorphisms of CLEC5A showed no significant association with coronary artery lesion formation and intravenous immunoglobulin treatment response. Conclusions. This study showed for the first time that polymorphisms of CLEC5A are not associated with susceptibility to KD, coronary artery lesion formation, and intravenous immunoglobulin treatment response in a Taiwanese population

Estimating the Economic Impact of Climate Change on Cardiovascular Diseases—Evidence from Taiwan

The main purpose of this study was to investigate how climate change affects blood vessel-related heart disease and hypertension and to estimate the associated economic damage. In this paper, both the panel data model and the contingent valuation method (CVM) approaches are applied. The empirical results indicate that the number of death from cardiovascular diseases would be increased by 0.226% as the variation in temperature increases by 1%. More importantly, the number of death from cardiovascular diseases would be increased by 1.2% to 4.1% under alternative IPCC climate change scenarios. The results from the CVM approach show that each person would be willing to pay US$51 to US$97 per year in order to avoid the increase in the mortality rate of cardiovascular diseases caused by climate change

Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS): the metrology camera system

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a new optical/near-infrared multi-fiber spectrograph designed for the prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope. PFS will cover a 1.3 degree diameter field with 2394 fibers to complement the imaging capabilities of Hyper SuprimeCam. To retain high throughput, the final positioning accuracy between the fibers and observing targets of PFS is required to be less than 10 µ m. The metrology camera system (MCS) serves as the optical encoder of the fiber positioners for configuring of fibers. The MCS locates at the Cassegrain focus of the Subaru telescope to cover the whole focal plane with one 50M pixel CMOS sensor. The information from MCS will be fed into the fiber positioner control system for closed loop control. The MCS was delivered to Subaru Observatory in Apr. 2018 and it had two engineering runs in Oct. 2018 and Aug. 2019. The 1st engineering run concluded that the original mirror supports need to be improved to provide better image quality. The newly designed mirror supports were installed before the 2nd engineering run. The 2nd engineering run result shows that the MCS overall position accuracy is better than 4μm and the image processing time is less than 4 seconds. The MCS is ready for the system integration with other PFS components