Strength improvement of lime-treated clay with sodium chloride

Lime stabilisation of organic clay has often been studied in the past. However, there is some evidence in the literature that the presence of high concentrations of organic matter in clay soil can lessen the chemical reaction between lime and clay minerals and can have detrimental effects on the engineering properties of soil. Hence, in this paper, the stress–strain behaviour and strength properties of organic soil treated with lime and sodium chloride (NaCl) are analysed. A soil mixture, prepared with 5% lime content and 1·5% humic acid, was stabilised with varying quantities of sodium chloride (0·5, 2·0 and 5·0%). Consolidated undrained and drained triaxial tests were carried out on specimens at curing periods of 7 and 28 d with applied confining pressures of 50 and 100 kPa. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis were used to observe the microstructural changes resulting from cementation materials. It was found that the introduction of sodium chloride improved considerably the strength properties of the lime-treated organic clay. The microstructural analysis also confirmed the presence of calcium silicate hydrate in a salt-treated organic clay, which was the main contributing factor to the enhanced engineering properties of the clay

Emergent Completion Pneumonectomy for Postoperative Hemorrhage from Rupture of the Infected Pulmonary Artery in Lung Cancer Surgery

Completion pneumonectomy (CP) is one of the most difficult procedures and known to be associated with a high morbidity and mortality. A 74-year-old male underwent a left upper lobectomy for pulmonary adenocarcinoma (T3N0M0); six days later after the surgery, he had a sudden postoperative intrathoracic excessive hemorrhage with shock. Emergent redo thoracotomy was performed to treat the bleeding from the ablated interlobar pulmonary artery by suturing with prolene. However, 3 days later after the second operation, he had the second intrathoracic bleeding. Emergent CP was performed with cardiopulmonary bypass by anterior transpericarsial approach via a median sternotomy. The hemorrhage was caused by a rupture of the proximal fragile and infected pulmonary artery. We performed omentopexy for the infected intrathoracic cavity and for covering of the divided main bronchial stump. We had a rare experience of two times of postoperative life-threatening hemorrhage from rupture of the infected pulmonary artery after left upper lobectomy. Emergent CP as salvage surgery should have an advantage in control of infected proximal pulmonary arterial hemorrhage. We should take care of tearing off of adventitia of pulmonary artery in lobectomy because of a possibility of postoperative hemorrhage under a fragility of the injured pulmonary artery with infection

The K2-ESPRINT Project. I. Discovery of the Disintegrating Rocky Planet K2-22b with a Cometary Head and Leading Tail

We present the discovery of a transiting exoplanet candidate in the K2 Field-1 with an orbital period of 9.1457 hr: K2-22b. The highly variable transit depths, ranging from $\sim$0\% to 1.3\%, are suggestive of a planet that is disintegrating via the emission of dusty effluents. We characterize the host star as an M-dwarf with $T_{\rm eff} \simeq 3800$ K. We have obtained ground-based transit measurements with several 1-m class telescopes and with the GTC. These observations (1) improve the transit ephemeris; (2) confirm the variable nature of the transit depths; (3) indicate variations in the transit shapes; and (4) demonstrate clearly that at least on one occasion the transit depths were significantly wavelength dependent. The latter three effects tend to indicate extinction of starlight by dust rather than by any combination of solid bodies. The K2 observations yield a folded light curve with lower time resolution but with substantially better statistical precision compared with the ground-based observations. We detect a significant "bump" just after the transit egress, and a less significant bump just prior to transit ingress. We interpret these bumps in the context of a planet that is not only likely streaming a dust tail behind it, but also has a more prominent leading dust trail that precedes it. This effect is modeled in terms of dust grains that can escape to beyond the planet's Hill sphere and effectively undergo `Roche lobe overflow,' even though the planet's surface is likely underfilling its Roche lobe by a factor of 2.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures. Final version accepted to Ap

Annual variation in the levels of transcripts of sex-specific genes in the mantle of the common mussel, Mytilus edulis

Mytilus species are used as sentinels for the assessment of environmental health but sex or stage in the reproduction cycle is rarely considered even though both parameters are likely to influence responses to pollution. We have validated the use of a qPCR assay for sex identification and related the levels of transcripts to the reproductive cycle. A temporal study of mantle of Mytilus edulis found transcripts of male-specific vitelline coat lysin (VCL) and female-specific vitelline envelope receptor for lysin (VERL) could identify sex over a complete year. The levels of VCL/VERL were proportional to the numbers of sperm/ova and are indicative of the stage of the reproductive cycle. Maximal levels of VCL and VERL were found in February 2009 declining to minima between July - August before increasing and re-attaining a peak in February 2010. Water temperature may influence these transitions since they coincide with minimal water temperature in February and maximal temperature in August. An identical pattern of variation was found for a cryptic female-specific transcript (H5) but a very different pattern was observed for oestrogen receptor 2 (ER2). ER2 varied in a sex-specific way with male > female for most of the cycle, with a female maxima in July and a male maxima in December. Using artificially spawned animals, the transcripts for VCL, VERL and H5 were shown to be present in gametes and thus their disappearance from mantle is indicative of spawning. VCL and VERL are present at equivalent levels in February and July-August but during gametogenesis (August to January) and spawning (March to June) VCL is present at lower relative amounts than VERL. This may indicate sex-specific control mechanisms for these processes and highlight a potential pressure point leading to reduced reproductive output if environmental factors cause asynchrony to gamete maturation or release

Expression of nm23-H1 gene product in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its association with vessel invasion and survival

BACKGROUND: We assessed the nm23-H1 gene product expression and its relationship with lymphatic and blood vessel invasion in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue sections from 45 patients who were treated surgically were used in this study. Pathologists graded lymphatic and blood vessel invasion in each of the tissue samples. Expression of nm23-Hl gene product was determined using a specific monoclonal antibody. RESULTS: Expression of nm23-H1 gene product was present in 17 (37.8%) cases. We found an inverse correlation between nm23-H1 gene product expression and lymphatic vessel invasion, whereas no correlation between nm23-H1 gene product expression and blood vessel invasion. Overall survival rate was not different between nm23-H1 gene product positive and negative patients (p = 0.21). However, reduced expression of nm23-H1 gene product was associated with shorter overall survival in patients with involved lymph nodes (p < 0.05), but not in patients without involved lymph nodes (p = 0.87). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, there appears to be an inverse relationship between nm23-H1 gene product expression and lymphatic vessel invasion. Furthermore, nm23-H1 gene product expression might be a prognostic marker in patients with involved lymph nodes. Our data does not demonstrate any correlation between nm23-H1 gene product expression and blood vessel invasion

The effect of duration of illness and antipsychotics on subcortical volumes in schizophrenia: Analysis of 778 subjects

BackgroundThe effect of duration of illness and antipsychotic medication on the volumes of subcortical structures in schizophrenia is inconsistent among previous reports. We implemented a large sample analysis utilizing clinical data from 11 institutions in a previous meta-analysis.MethodsImaging and clinical data of 778 schizophrenia subjects were taken from a prospective meta-analysis conducted by the COCORO consortium in Japan. The effect of duration of illness and daily dose and type of antipsychotics were assessed using the linear mixed effect model where the volumes of subcortical structures computed by FreeSurfer were used as a dependent variable and age, sex, duration of illness, daily dose of antipsychotics and intracranial volume were used as independent variables, and the type of protocol was incorporated as a random effect for intercept. The statistical significance of fixed-effect of dependent variable was assessed.ResultsDaily dose of antipsychotics was positively associated with left globus pallidus volume and negatively associated with right hippocampus. It was also positively associated with laterality index of globus pallidus. Duration of illness was positively associated with bilateral globus pallidus volumes. Type of antipsychotics did not have any effect on the subcortical volumes.DiscussionA large sample size, uniform data collection methodology and robust statistical analysis are strengths of the current study. This result suggests that we need special attention to discuss about relationship between subcortical regional brain volumes and pathophysiology of schizophrenia because regional brain volumes may be affected by antipsychotic medication

Clinical and immunohistochemical study of eight cases with thymic carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Thymic carcinoma is a rare neoplasm with extremely poor prognosis. To evaluate the biological characteristics of thymic carcinoma, we reviewed 8 patients. METHODS: There were 2 men and 6 women: ages ranged from 19 to 67 years old (mean 54.8 years). None of these patients had concomitant myasthenia gravis and pure red cell aplasia. No patient had stage I disease, 1 stage II, 5 stage III, and 2 stage IV. The pathologic subtypes of thymic carcinoma included 5 squamous cell carcinomas, 1 adenosquamous cell carcinomas, 1 clear cell carcinoma, and 1 small cell carcinoma. Immunohistochemical study was performed using antibodies against p53, bcl-2, Ki-67, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), nm23-H1, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) and factor VIII. RESULTS: Curative resection could be done in 4 patients (50%). Our data indicates a trend toward an association between complete resection and patient survival. Expression of p53, bcl-2, CEA, EMA, nm23-H1, VEGF and FGF-2 was detected in 5/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, 5/8 and 3/8, respectively. Mean Ki-67 labeling index and microvessel density was 7.01 and 34.36 (per 200× field), respectively. When compared with our previous studies, immunohistochemical staining of these proteins in thymomas, the expression rates of these proteins in thymic carcinomas were higher than those in thymomas. CONCLUSIONS: In this small series, it is suggested that a complete resection suggests a favorable result. Immunohistochemical results reveal that the expression of these proteins might indicate the aggressiveness of thymic carcinoma

Counteranion-Dependent Reaction Pathways in the Protonation of Cationic Ruthenium−Vinylidene Complexes

The tetraphenylborate salts of the cationic vinylidene complexes [Cp*Ru=C=CHR(iPr2PNHPy)]+ (R = p-C6H4CF3 (1a-BPh4), Ph (1b-BPh4), p-C6H4CH3 (1c- BPh4), p-C6H4Br (1d-BPh4), tBu (1e-BPh4), H (1f-BPh4)) have been protonated using an excess of HBF4·OEt2 in CD2Cl2, furnishing the dicationic carbyne complexes [Cp*Ru≡CCH2R(iPr2PNHPy)]2+ (R = p-C6H4CF3 (2a), Ph (2b), p-C6H4CH3 (2c), p-C6H4Br (2d), tBu (2e), H (2f)), which were characterized in solution at low temperature by NMR spectroscopy. The corresponding reaction of the chloride salts 1a-Cl, 1b-Cl, 1c-Cl, and 1d-Cl followed a different pathway, instead affording the novel alkene complexes [Cp*RuCl(κ1(N),η2(C,C)-C5H4N-NHPiPr2CH=CHR)][BF4] (3a−d). In these species, the entering proton is located at the α- carbon atom of the former vinylidene ligand, which also forms a P−C bond with the phosphorus atom of the iPr2PNHPy ligand. To shed light on the reaction mechanism, DFT calculations have been performed by considering several protonation sites. The computational results suggest metal protonation followed by insertion. The coordination of chloride to ruthenium leads to alkenyl species which can undergo a P−C coupling to yield the corresponding alkene complexes. The noncoordinating nature of [BPh4]− does not allow the stabilization of the unsaturated species coming from the insertion step, thus preventing this alternative pathway

Discrimination of Timbre in Early Auditory Responses of the Human Brain

The issue of how differences in timbre are represented in the neural response still has not been well addressed, particularly with regard to the relevant brain mechanisms. Here we employ phasing and clipping of tones to produce auditory stimuli differing to describe the multidimensional nature of timbre. We investigated the auditory response and sensory gating as well, using by magnetoencephalography (MEG).Thirty-five healthy subjects without hearing deficit participated in the experiments. Two different or same tones in timbre were presented through conditioning (S1) – testing (S2) paradigm as a pair with an interval of 500 ms. As a result, the magnitudes of auditory M50 and M100 responses were different with timbre in both hemispheres. This result might support that timbre, at least by phasing and clipping, is discriminated in the auditory early processing. The second response in a pair affected by S1 in the consecutive stimuli occurred in M100 of the left hemisphere, whereas both M50 and M100 responses to S2 only in the right hemisphere reflected whether two stimuli in a pair were the same or not. Both M50 and M100 magnitudes were different with the presenting order (S1 vs. S2) for both same and different conditions in the both hemispheres.Our results demonstrate that the auditory response depends on timbre characteristics. Moreover, it was revealed that the auditory sensory gating is determined not by the stimulus that directly evokes the response, but rather by whether or not the two stimuli are identical in timbre