Homogeneous bubble nucleation limit of mercury under the normal working conditions of the planned European Spallation Source

In spallation neutron sources, liquid mercury is the subject of big thermal and pressure shocks, upon adsorbing the proton beam. These changes can cause unstable bubbles in the liquid, which can damage the structural material. While there are methods to deal with the pressure shock, the local temperature shock cannot be avoided. In our paper we calculated the work of the critical cluster formation (i.e. for mercury micro-bubbles) together with the rate of their formation (nucleation rate). It is shown that the homogeneous nucleation rates are very low even after adsorbing several proton pulses, therefore the probability of temperature induced homogeneous bubble nucleation is negligible.Comment: 22 Pages, 11 figures, one of them is colour, we plan to publish it in Eur. Phys. J.

The Administration of Xultophy for Diabetic Patients on Hemodialysis

Background: Recent diabetic treatments include Insulin Degludec/ liraglutide (IDeg/Lira, Xultophy) in clinical practice. Authors have continued clinical research concerning diabetes, chronic renal failure, dialysis, and others. Subjects and Methods: Ten patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) undergoing hemodialysis were investigated. They showed that ages 74.5 ± 5.9 years, M/F=6/4, BMI 21.1± 3.8kg/m2, hemodialysis duration 8.1 ± 5.7 years. At the beginning, fundamental data were Cre 8.2 ± 1.9 mg/dL, HbA1c 6.5 ± 0.8%. Xultophy was started on 5-12 doses and continued for 6 months with the same or 1-4 increased doses for better glycemic variability. Results: Out of 10 subjects, the changes in HbA1c showed a decrease in 7, stable in 2, and an increase in 1. HbA1c value was 6.2 ± 0.8% in average at 6 months. There were no remarkable adverse effects by Xultophy for 6 months. Discussion and Conclusion: Xultophy was started at 5-12 doses, which were remarkably lower doses than usual doses with satisfactory efficacy. One of the reasons may be from the characteristic of the patients, who were diabetic with undergoing hemodialysis. Another factor is possibly from liraglutide, which has hepatic clearance with potential vascular protective effects. These results are expected to become reference data for future research

Spectrum modulation of relativistic electrons by laser wakefield

Copyright 2008 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters, 93(8), 081501, 2008 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.297123

Hepatobiliary cystadenoma exhibiting morphologic changes from simple hepatic cyst shown by 11-year follow up imagings

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A long-term follow up case of hepatobiliary cystadenoma originating from simple hepatic cyst is rare.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a case of progressive morphologic changes from simple hepatic cyst to hepatobiliary cystadenoma by 11 – year follow up imaging. A 25-year-old man visited our hospital in 1993 for a simple hepatic cyst. The cyst was located in the left lobe of the liver, was 6 cm in diameter, and did not exhibit calcification, septa or papillary projections. No surgical treatment was performed, although the cyst was observed to gradually enlarge upon subsequent examination. The patient was admitted to our hospital in 2004 due to epigastralgia. Re-examination of the simple hepatic cyst revealed mounting calcification and septa. Abdominal CT on admission revealed a hepatic cyst over 10 cm in diameter and a high-density area within the thickened wall. MRI revealed a mass of low intensity and partly high intensity on a T1-weighted image. Abdominal angiography revealed hypovascular tumor. The serum levels of AST and ALT were elevated slightly, but tumor markers were within normal ranges. Left lobectomy of the liver was performed with diagnosis of hepatobiliary cystadenoma or hepatobiliary cystadenocarcinoma. The resected specimen had a solid component with papillary projections and the cyst was filled with liquid-like muddy bile. Histologically, the inner layer of the cyst was lined with columnar epithelium showing mild grade dysplasia. On the basis of these findings, hepatobiliary cystadenoma was diagnosed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We believe this case provides evidence of a simple hepatic cyst gradually changing into hepatobiliary cystadenoma.</p

Prospective study of daily low-dose nedaplatin and continuous 5-fluorouracil infusion combined with radiation for the treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Protracted low-dose concurrent chemotherapy combined with radiation has been proposed for enhanced treatment results for esophageal cancer. We evaluated the efficacy and the toxicity of a novel regimen of daily low-dose nedaplatin (cis-diammine-glycolatoplatinum) and continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) with radiation in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between January 2003 and June 2008, 33 patients with clinical stage I to IVB esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were enrolled. Nedaplatin (10 mg/body/day) was administered daily and 5-FU (500 mg/body/day) was administered continuously for 20 days. Fractionated radiotherapy for a total dose of 50.4-66 Gy was administered together with chemotherapy. Additional chemotherapy with nedaplatin and 5-FU was optionally performed for a maximum of 5 courses after chemoradiotherapy. The primary end-point of this study was to evaluate the tumor response, and the secondary end-points were to evaluate the toxicity and the overall survival.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty-two patients (72.7%) completed the regimen of chemoradiotherapy. Twenty patients (60.6%) achieved a complete response, 10 patients (30.3%) a partial response. One patient (3.0%) had a stable disease, and 2 (6.1%) a progressive disease. The overall response rate was 90.9% (95% confidence interval: 75.7%-98.1%). For grade 3-4 toxicity, leukopenia was observed in 75.8% of the cases, thrombocytopenia in 24.2%, anemia in 9.1%, and esophagitis in 36.4%, while late grade 3-4 cardiac toxicity occurred in 6.1%. Additional chemotherapy was performed for 26 patients (78.8%) and the median number of courses was 3 (range, 1-5). The 1-, 2- and 3-year survival rates were 83.9%, 76.0% and 58.8%, respectively. The 1- and 2-year survival rates were 94.7% and 88.4% in patients with T1-3 M0 disease, and 66.2% and 55.2% in patients with T4/M1 disease.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The treatment used in our study may yield a high complete response rate and better survival for each stage of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00197444</p

First molecular identification of the zoonotic parasite Anisakis pegreffii (Nematoda: Anisakidae) in a paraffin-embedded granuloma taken from a case of human intestinal anisakiasis in Italy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Anisakiasis is an important fish-borne zoonosis provoked by larval stages of nematodes belonging to the genus <it>Anisakis</it>. The detection and identification of human infections is difficult. This is due to: a) the low specificity of the clinical features and symptomatology related to human infections; b) the paucity of diagnostic features of larvae found in granulomatous lesions characteristic of "invasive anisakiasis"; and c) the lack morphological characters diagnostic at the specific level when larvae of <it>Anisakis </it>are detected. Thus, molecular-based diagnostic approaches are warranted.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>We have developed a PCR method that amplifies the DNA of <it>Anisakis </it>spp. in fixed paraffin-embedded tissues. This method was applied to a granuloma removed from a human case of intestinal anisakiasis in Italy. Specific primers of the mtDNA <it>cox2 </it>gene were used and sequence analysis was performed according to the procedures already established for species of <it>Anisakis</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The sequence obtained (629 bp) was compared with those of the other species of <it>Anisakis </it>which have so far been genetically characterized and with sequences obtained from larval stages of <it>Anisakis </it>collected from the Mediterranean fish <it>Engraulis encrasicolus</it>. This enabled the genetic identification of the larva in the human tissue as <it>A. pegreffii</it>. This is the first instance of human intestinal anisakiasis diagnosed using PCR of DNA purified from a fixed eosinophilic granuloma embedded in paraffin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The case of human anisakiasis presented reinforces the pathological significance of the species <it>A. pegreffii </it>to humans. The molecular/genetic methodological approach based on mtDNA <it>cox2 </it>sequence analysis, described here, can allow easy and rapid identification of <it>Anisakis </it>spp. in formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded tissues removed from cases of either gastric or intestinal human anisakiasis.</p