Primary Papillary Serous Carcinoma of the Peritoneum: A Case of Complete Remission of Bulky Peritoneal Disease After Chemotherapy

Peritoneal papillary serous carcinoma is a rare tumor that involves the surface of the pelvic and/or abdominal peritoneum. Long-term survival among patients with this tumor has been rare. Most patients with this cancer have been treated with debulking surgery and postoperative chemotherapy. A case of incompletely resected peritoneal papillary serous carcinoma with a complete response to cisplatin-based chemotherapy is reported. Subsequent laparotomy revealed no residual tumor. This case suggests that primary chemotherapy may be successful in treating unresectable primary papillary serous tumors of the peritoneum

Chemical Stability of Conductive Ceramic Anodes in LiCl–Li2O Molten Salt for Electrolytic Reduction in Pyroprocessing

AbstractConductive ceramics are being developed to replace current Pt anodes in the electrolytic reduction of spent oxide fuels in pyroprocessing. While several conductive ceramics have shown promising electrochemical properties in small-scale experiments, their long-term stabilities have not yet been investigated. In this study, the chemical stability of conductive La0.33Sr0.67MnO3 in LiCl–Li2O molten salt at 650°C was investigated to examine its feasibility as an anode material. Dissolution of Sr at the anode surface led to structural collapse, thereby indicating that the lifetime of the La0.33Sr0.67MnO3 anode is limited. The dissolution rate of Sr is likely to be influenced by the local environment around Sr in the perovskite framework

Management of Advanced Endodermal Sinus Tumor of the Ovary with Preservation of Reproductive Function

Endodermal sinus tumor of the ovary occurs primarily in children and young adults. This tumor is classified as a germ cell tumor which comprises approximately 5% of all ovarian tumors. In the past, patients with this highly malignant tumor had low survival. However, with the evolution of effective adjunctive chemotherapeutic regimens, specifically vincristine, actinomycin D, and cyclophosphamide, survival rates have improved. In an attempt to continuously improve survival rates, other combination chemotherapeutic regimens are currently under investigation. Unlike epithelial ovarian malignancies, endodermal sinus tumor can be monitored by a specific tumor marker, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Serum levels of AFP can be followed from the preoperative period through the course of chemotherapy. When elevated, AFP has excellent predictability that persistent disease is present. Because this disease presents primarily in young females, preservation of reproductive function is of utmost importance. We report a case of advanced endodermal sinus tumor which was managed with conservative surgery only, followed by radical combination chemotherapy, resulting in preservation of normal reproductive function and total resolution of disease documented by second-look laparotomy

A preliminary study of pilot-scale electrolytic reduction of UO2 using a graphite anode

Finding technical issues associated with equipment scale-up is an important subject for the investigation of pyroprocessing. In this respect, electrolytic reduction of 1 kg UO2, a unit process of pyroprocessing, was conducted using graphite as an anode material to figure out the scale-up issues of the C anode-based system at pilot scale. The graphite anode can transfer a current that is 6–7 times higher than that of a conventional Pt anode with the same reactor, showing the superiority of the graphite anode. UO2 pellets were turned into metallic U during the reaction. However, several problems were discovered after the experiments, such as reaction instability by reduced effective anode area (induced by the existence of Cl2 around anode and anode consumption), relatively low metal conversion rate, and corrosion of the reactor. These issues should be overcome for the scale-up of the electrolytic reducer using the C anode

Unlearned adaptive responses to heterospecific referential alarm calls in two bird species from separate evolutionary lineages

Abstract The interspecific responses to alarm signals may be based on unlearned mechanisms but research is often constrained by the difficulties in differentiating between unlearned and learned responses in natural situations. In a field study of two Paridae species, Parus minor and Sittiparus varius, who originated from a common ancestor 8 million years ago, we found a considerable degree of between-species overlap in acoustic properties of referential snake-alarm calls. Playback of these calls triggered unlearned adaptive fledging behavior in conspecific and heterospecific naive nestlings, suggesting a between-species overlap in the hypothetical unlearned neural templates involved in nestlings’ reactions to alarm calls in both species. This suggests that similar calls and similar unlearned sensitivity might have been present in the common ancestor of the two species, and possibly in the ancestor of the whole family Paridae that originated 10–15 million years ago in Asian regions rich in snakes