Teaching patients with pulmonary emphysema

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma: a little-known tumor

Pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma (PHE) is a rare indolent vascular tumor that typically has a multifocal presentation and involves multiple tissue planes. This report describes a 34-year-old man with multiple infiltrated brown papules and plaques on his left leg that had evolved for 6 months. The skin biopsy revealed a dermal and subcutaneous neoplasm composed of fascicles of spindle cells with atypia and epithelioid cells with prominent nucleoli and abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm. There was no evidence of necrosis, and the mitotic rate was low. There was strong reactivity with cytokeratin AE1/AE3, ERG, and FLI1, multifocal reactivity with smooth muscle actin, and focal reactivity with CD31. There was no expression of keratin MNF116, CAM5.2, CD34, CAMTA1, S100-protein, epithelial membrane antigen, melan-A, HMB-45, factor XIIIa, HHV8, or CD10. The nuclei of neoplastic cells showed intact expression of INI1. The clinical, histological, and immunophenotypical aspects were consistent with a diagnosis of PHE. A lower limb CT scan showed lesions in the skin, muscle, and bone planes. The patient was sent to an oncology center, where he maintains regular clinical and imagiological follow-up.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fungal Iron Oxidation in Brazilian Iron Caves

The iron caves in Brazil are thought to form through a cycle of Fe(III)-reduction and Fe(II)-oxidation; the Fe(II) is washed out of the cave walls by rainwater, where it is oxidized to Fe(III) and deposited in iron-oxide crusts. Bacteria are known to reduce Fe(III) in the caves, but what species may be oxidizing Fe(II) is still unknown. Our hypotheses was another bacterial species was involved and our initial assays were aimed at isolating Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria; however all our Fe(II)-oxidizing cultures were contaminated with fungi when Fe(II)-oxidation was seen. Antifungals were used to inhibit growth of fungal species, which inhibited both fungal growth and Fe(II)-oxidation. Serially diluting cave samples also did not lead to isolation of bacterial species. Antibacterial agents added to the media had no effect and there was no inhibition of fungal growth on Fe(II)-oxidation. Together these data suggested that fungi were the dominant Fe(II)-oxidizing species in our sample. Six fungal isolates were screened by PCR amplification and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the ITS sequence. These data suggested a single species was present based on the ITS sequence. Sequencing of the ITS gene and phylogenetics showed it was closely related to Sagenomella stratispora. This particular species of fungus has never been previously described in a cave setting, however given that this species lives in soils and the proximity of the cave to the surface and jungle, this discovery was no surprise

Environmental analysis and prediction of transmission loss in the region of the New England Shelfbreak

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution September 2009A confluence of several coastal oceanographic features creates an acoustically interesting region with high variability along the New England Shelfbreak. Determining the effect of the variability on acoustic propagation is critical for sonar systems. In the Nantucket Shoals area of the Middle Atlantic Bight, two experiments, the New England Shelfbreak Tests (NEST), were conducted in May and June, 2007 and 2008, to study this variability. A comprehensive climatology of the region along with the experimental data provided detailed information about the variability of the water column, particularly the temperature and sound speed fields. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of the ocean sound speed field defined a set of perturbations to the background sound speed field for each of the NEST Scanfish surveys. Attenuation due to bottom sediments is the major contributor of transmission loss in the ocean. In shallow water, available propagation paths most often include bottom interaction. Perturbations in the ocean sound speed field can cause changes in the angle of incidence of sound rays with the bottom, which can result in changes to the amount of sound energy lost to the bottom. In lieu of complex transmission loss models, the loss/bounce model provides a simpler way to predict transmission loss changes due to perturbations in the background sound speed field in the ocean. Using an acoustic wavenumber perturbation method, sound speed perturbations, defined by the ocean EOF modes, are translated into a change in the horizontal wavenumber, which in turn changes the modal angle of incidence. The loss/bounce model calculates the loss of sound energy (dB) per bottom bounce over a given distance based on the change in angle of incidence. Evaluated using experimental data from NEST, the loss/bounce model provided accurate predictions of changes to transmission loss due to perturbations of the background sound speed field

Foreign Banking in Indonesia

The purpose of this article is to discuss the regulation of foreign banking in Indonesia, including the regulation of onshore and offshore banking activities, and local security devices. Although the offshore business of foreign banks has been relatively more active over the years than the onshore business, there has been a recent sharp increase in on- shore business, and some indication of a more sympathetic attitude to onshore foreign banking by the regulatory authorities. This suggests that it is an appropriate time for surveying the foreign bank regulations of Indonesia

Bovine Aortic Arch: A Marker For The Development And Progression Of Thoracic Aortic Disease

This study investigated the relationship between congenital bovine arch (BA) variant and thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA), thoracic aortic expansion rate, bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), and aortic complications. We hypothesized that BA would be significantly associated with the presence and progression of thoracic aortic disease. To determine prevalence of BA, we retrospectively reviewed thoracic CT and/or MRI scans of 616 patients with thoracic aortic disease and 844 patients without thoracic aortic disease (all from Yale-New Haven Hospital). In patients with thoracic aortic disease, we assessed accuracy of official radiology reports in citing BA, and reviewed all available hospital records to determine disease location, thoracic aortic growth rate, presence of bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), and prevalence of thoracic aortic dissection and rupture in patients with and without BA. BA was observed in 26.1% of patients with thoracic aortic disease and 16.4% of patients without thoracic aortic disease (P\u3c0.001). Radiology reports cited BA in only 16.1% of patients with aortic disease and concomitant BA. There was no association between BA and location of aortic disease, prevalence of dissection (P=0.39), or presence of BAV (P=0.68). Rate of aortic expansion was 0.29 cm/year in the BA group and 0.09 cm/year in the non-BA group (P=0.003). Mean age at initial aortic repair was 56.2 years in BA patients and 61.4 years in non-BA patients (P=0.0004). Our findings suggest that BA is indeed associated with both the development and progression of thoracic aortic disease, and support the following conclusions: 1) BA is significantly more common in patients with thoracic aortic disease than in the general population. 2) Radiologists often overlook BA. 3) BA is not significantly associated with BAV, aortic dissection, or disease at any particular location within the thoracic aorta. 4) BA is associated with elevated TAA growth rate and earlier repair