Laser-induced microexplosion confined in a bulk of silica: formation of nanovoids

We report on the nanovoid formation inside synthetic silica, viosil, by single femtosecond pulses of 30–100nJ energy, 800nm wavelength, and 180fs duration. It is demonstrated that the void is formed as a result of shock and rarefaction waves at pulse power much lower than the threshold of self-focusing. The shock-compressed region around the nanovoid is demonstrated to have higher chemical reactivity. This was used to reveal the extent of the shock-compressed region by wet etching. Application potential of nanostructuring of dielectrics is discussed

Magnetization dependent current rectification in (Ga,Mn)As magnetic tunnel junctions

We have found that the current rectification effect in triple layer (double barrier) (Ga,Mn)As magnetic tunnel junctions strongly depends on the magnetization alignment. The direction as well as the amplitude of the rectification changes with the alignment, which can be switched by bi-directional spin-injection with very small threshold currents. A possible origin of the rectification is energy dependence of the density of states around the Fermi level. Tunneling density of states in (Ga,Mn)As shows characteristic dip around zero-bias indicating formation of correlation gap, the asymmetry of which would be a potential source of the energy dependent density of states

Effect of the Japanese Herbal Kampo Medicine Dai-Kenchu-To on Postoperative Adhesive Small Bowel Obstruction Requiring Long-Tube Decompression: A Propensity Score Analysis

Adhesive small bowel obstruction (ASBO) is an adverse consequence of abdominal surgery. Although the Kampo medicine Dai-kenchu-to is widely used in Japan for treatment of postoperative ASBO, rigorous clinical studies for its use have not been performed. In the present retrospective observational study using the Japanese diagnosis procedure combination inpatient database, we selected 288 propensity-score-matched patients with early postoperative ASBO following colorectal cancer surgery, who received long-tube decompression (LTD) with or without Dai-kenchu-to administration. The success rates of LTD were not significantly different between Dai-kenchu-to users and nonusers (84.7% versus 78.5%; P = .224), while Dai-kenchu-to users showed a shorter duration of LTD (8 versus 10 days; P = .012), shorter duration between long-tube insertion and discharge (23 versus 25 days; P = .018), and lower hospital charges ($23,086 versus$26,950; P = .018) compared with Dai-kenchu-to nonusers. In conclusion, the present study suggests that Dai-kenchu-to is effective for reducing the duration of LTD and saving costs

Mixing Histopathology Prototypes into Robust Slide-Level Representations for Cancer Subtyping

Whole-slide image analysis via the means of computational pathology often relies on processing tessellated gigapixel images with only slide-level labels available. Applying multiple instance learning-based methods or transformer models is computationally expensive as, for each image, all instances have to be processed simultaneously. The MLP-Mixer is an under-explored alternative model to common vision transformers, especially for large-scale datasets. Due to the lack of a self-attention mechanism, they have linear computational complexity to the number of input patches but achieve comparable performance on natural image datasets. We propose a combination of feature embedding and clustering to preprocess the full whole-slide image into a reduced prototype representation which can then serve as input to a suitable MLP-Mixer architecture. Our experiments on two public benchmarks and one inhouse malignant lymphoma dataset show comparable performance to current state-of-the-art methods, while achieving lower training costs in terms of computational time and memory load. Code is publicly available at https://github.com/butkej/ProtoMixer.Comment: The final authenticated publication is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45676-3_1

Effects of the removal of the primary tumor and immunotherapy with Corynebacterium parvum on metastatic tumor proliferation.

The effects of surgical intervention by removal of the primary focus, and the effectiveness of an immunomodulator, Corynebacterium parvum (Cp), on the proliferation of metastatic tumor tissue were investigated by following the postoperative changes in the 3H-thymidine labelling rate of metastatic tissue in an experimental model of metastasis in mice. In addition, the delayed type hypersensitivity reaction (DTH) was studied to investigate the immune capacity of the host. The labelling rate of mice that had the primary focus removed remained high with little variation, while that of the mice not operated on decreased gradually. On the other hand, in mice undergoing a sham operation, the rate was the same as that of the mice with the primary focus removed for a short while, but then gradually decreased. When Cp was administered, especially before removal of the primary focus, the rate was lower than that of the tumor bearing control group and decreased steadily. The number of pulmonary metastatic nodules was increased by removal of the primary focus, but this increase was inhibited by the administration of Cp which prolonged life. The depression in the DTH was less in the group given Cp preoperativeLy than in either the group of mice having the primary focus removed or those not having it removed.</p

Ambulatory Surgery for Pilonidal Sinus : Tract Excision and Open Treatment Followed by At-Home Irrigation

Pilonidal sinus is a cystic disease that occurs most often in the sacrococcygeal region. Surgical excision and coverage with a skin flap require postoperative bed rest. Most affected patients are young adults who find it difficult to obtain adequate postoperative bed rest owing to their work. The purpose of this study is to review the effectiveness of our ambulatory surgery procedure for pilonidal sinus, which involves tract excision and open treatment followed by at-home irrigation. We reviewed the 9 cases of chronic pilonidal sinus treated at our out-patient clinic by ambulatory surgery consisting of open excision without skin closure. Patients were sent home after careful observation for hemostasis at the surgical site. Postoperative wound treatment and irrigation were performed at home by the patients themselves. The mean immediate postoperative follow-up period was 22.3 days (13 to 31 days), and the mean number of follow-up visits was 3.3. No serious complication and recurrence was noted during the long-term follow-up period of 26.3 months (1 to 60 months). Although the healing time following our ambulatory procedure was not short, no postoperative rest was required, and the recurrence rate was zero. We believe this procedure is useful for selected patients with pilonidal sinus

Fish Fauna in Coastal Area of Kashima Island on Border Zone between Hiroshima Bay and Aki-Nada Sea <Short Report>

瀬戸内海中西部水域において,近年冬期の海水温の上昇傾向が確認され,水中環境への影響が危惧されている。そこで浅海魚類群集の現況把握を目的に,2011 年9 月から2012 年8 月にかけて,広島湾最南部に位置する鹿島の沿岸2 定点において潜水センサス法による魚類相調査を実施した。総計24 科50 種の魚類を確認した。より南方の水域を主要分布域とする魚種は,イシガキダイ,オヤビッチャ,ゴンズイの3 種のみであった。いずれも高水温期に出現し,冬の低水温期に消失していた。各月の出現魚種数と水温との間には有意な正の相関関係が認められ,9 月に最多の32 種を,2 月に最少の7 種を記録した。他水域における魚類相データと本研究との魚種共通率から,鹿島は温帯水域と高い類似性を有することが確認された。本調査水域においては,現状においても,冬期の水温条件が南方系魚類を含め浅海性魚種の生存に大きな制約的影響を与えていると考えられた。Within the mid-western zone of the Seto Inland Sea including Hiroshima Bay and Aki-nada Sea, environmental changes such as the recent appearance of tropical/warm temperate fish have been observed. This phenomenon is associated with the warming of the water temperature especially during winter. To obtain basic data on the present conditions of the fish fauna, we conducted a year-long underwater fish census on two shallow water sites around Kashima Island from September 2011 to August 2012. A total of 50 species (24 families) were recorded in our monthly surveys, including three species (Plotosus japonicus, Abudefduf vaigiensis, Oplegnathus punctatus) normally occurring in tropical/warm temperate waters. These three species appeared during the warm water season and subsequently disappeared in winter. We found a positive correlation between the number of fish species and water temperature recorded each month (r = 0.85, p < 0.05). The diversity of fish recorded in the present study was very similar to the diversities of fish in temperate waters. Because of the rapid decrease in species number during winter, we suggest that the low water temperature during winter strongly restricts the number of survivors in the fish community even in the temperate waters of the mid-western area of the Seto Inland Sea