A Case of Double Gallbladder with Adenocarcinoma Arising from the Left Hepatic Duct: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Double gallbladder is a rare congenital biliary anomaly, but an accessory gallbladder arising from the left hepatic duct is a more remarkably rare congenital anomaly. We report a case of double gallbladder with adenocarcinoma and gallstones, which was preoperatively diagnosed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and then confirmed by open laparotomy. A review of the literature is presented

Automatic Classification of Diving Sperm Whales by Analysis of Click Time Delay using Two Hydrophones

特集1 海中工学研究センタ

Development of a landing algorithm for autonomous underwater vehicles using laser profiling

The autonomous underwater vehicle has proven to be a useful tool for ocean research. However detailed seafloor observations such as microscopic analysis of sand grain structure or study of microbial colonies require a platform with stable footing on the seafloor, which cannot be provided by a cruising type AUV. In this research the authors propose a new class of AUV, capable of landing to provide a stable, but mobile, platform with which to perform these observations. This paper proposes a sensing system and a software algorithm to enable the AUVs to perform landing. A light sectioning based method is used to scan the seafloor with high resolution. Since the seafloor can change abruptly and at short intervals, the reliability and functioning of such technology requires real-time seafloor classification and detection of suitable landing sites. A landing algorithm has been developed which uses three dimensional bathymetry data and calculates a landing vector coordinate in real-time. A microscope sensor payload developed to obtain magnified images of the seafloor after landing has also been tested. Data from sea experiments are presented, where the algorithm demonstrated real-time generation of landing vector coordinates for an ROV

3D colour reconstruction of a hydrothermally active area using an underwater robot

This paper extends the method introduced in [1] to generate 3D colour reconstructions of the seafloor, to account for the attenuation of light for each individual point in the reconstruction and so improve the colour accuracy of the reconstructed seafloor. The method is applied to data obtained using an AUV during the survey of a hydrothermally active area in Kagoshima Bay, Japan. The generated 3D reconstruction is compared to a 2D photomosaic taken at the same time. The results are discussed in terms of accuracy of dimensions and colour and a method to extract scientifically useful information from the 3D data is demonstrated

3D visual modeling of hydrothermal chimneys using a rotary laser scanning system

Hydrothermal chimneys are indicators of hydrothermal activity and therefore important in ocean research. Because of the complex terrain and suspended solids in the water around hydrothermal chimneys, it is difficult to measure them with traditional methods. In this paper we propose an innovative method to measure the shape and color of them by a rotary laser scanning (RLS) system. By combining multiple scans taken from different angles and extracting the color information from the surface of hydrothermal chimneys, we can create visual color models of them as described in figure 1. The proposed method was implemented during sea experiments in Kagoshima Bay and we were successful in reconstructing the model of a hydrothermal chimney in post processing

Effect of 17 β-estradiol, Retinoic Acid and Tamoxifen upon Primary and Transplanted Thyroid Tumor in B5C3F1 Mice Fed an Iodine Deficient Diet

This study was aimed to establish TSH dependent, transplantable thyroid tumor (TT) in B6C3F1 (BCF1) mice. In addition, transplanted TT was examined for its growth in mice given 17β- estradiol (E2), retinoic acid (RA), tamoxifen (TAM), T3 and T4. Both sexes of BCF1 mice were observed for 12 months under IDD and distilled water (DW), starting at 4 weeks of age. Groups of mice received an i.p. injection of radioactive iodine (131I) once at a dose of 60 μ Ci/head and/or given 0.25 mg E2 pellet s.c. One piece of induced pituitary or thyroid tumor was individually dissected aseptically and s.c. grafted under the fat pad of one site of the neck in the same strain of mice at 5 weeks of age. All mice were sacrificed between 7.5 to 13.5 months after grafting the tumors depending on the experiments. The transplantability of both pituitary and thyroid tumor was 100% in IDD mice, but TT was about 50% with a combined treatment of IDD plus E2. A supplement of thyroid hormones of T3 or T4 in mice with IDD completely inhibited the growth of in situ or grafted thyroid tumors. The growth of in situ thyroid gland was significantly promoted by the oral administration of RA in both sexes, whereas the growth of transplanted TT was significantly increased by RA in the female, but not in the male. Oral administration of TAM proved inhibitory upon in in situ and transplanted TT in the male, but not in the female. Thyroid tumor induced by IDD could grow only in mice with IDD and was partially regulated of its growth by RA and TAM.A part of this work was supported by a grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan

Estimation of the hydrodynamic coefficients of the complex-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle TUNA-SAND

Hydrodynamic coefficients strongly affect the dynamic performance of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Thus it is important to have the true values of the coefficients in order to simulate the AUV’s dynamic performance accurately. Although these coefficients can be predicted by many methods, most are only applicable for AUVs with streamlined shapes. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be applied to estimate the hydrodynamic coefficients of AUVs with complex shapes. In this study, CFD was applied to estimate the hydrodynamic coefficients of the AUV TUNA-SAND (which stands for terrain-based underwater navigable AUV for seafloor and natural resources development), which has a complex block-like structure. First, the validity of the CFD simulation was verified by comparison with experimental results. Second, the relationships between hydrodynamic loads and motions for all six degrees of freedom were analyzed using the simulated results. Third, the importance of each hydrodynamic coefficient was investigated based on these relationships. There are 16 key damping coefficients that relate to viscosity and 12 key inertial coefficients that relate to the potential flow around TUNA-SAND. Finally, the values of all the key coefficients were obtained and verified by comparing the solutions of the simulated dynamics with the experimental results