Endotracheal Metastasis Causing Airway Obstruction

Endotracheal metastasis, a critical complication of primary lung cancer, is an extremely rare lesion. A 73-year-old woman who had previously received treatment for lung cancer presented to our emergency department with dyspnea. A chest computed tomography and nasopharyngolaryngoscopy showed an endotracheal mass below the epiglottis, obstructing the trachea almost completely. The patient had an emergency tracheostomy, and then the mass was removed via median laryngotomy. This lesion was proven to be a recurrent metastasis of lung cancer. Clinicians should recognize endotracheal metastasis as an important differential diagnosis in cancer patients presenting with respiratory symptoms

Genome-wide search for strabismus susceptibility loci.

The purpose of this study was to search for chromosomal susceptibility loci for comitant strabismus. Genomic DNA was isolated from 10mL blood taken from each member of 30 nuclear families in which 2 or more siblings are affected by either esotropia or exotropia. A genome-wide search was performed with amplification by polymerase chain reaction of 400 markers in microsatellite regions with approximately 10 cM resolution. For each locus, non-parametric affected sib-pair analysis and non-parametric linkage analysis for multiple pedigrees (Genehunter software, http://linkage.rockefeller.edu/soft/) were used to calculate multipoint lod scores and non-parametric linkage (NPL) scores, respectively. In sib-pair analysis, lod scores showed basically flat lines with several peaks of 0.25 on all chromosomes. In non-parametric linkage analysis for multiple pedigrees, NPL scores showed one peak as high as 1.34 on chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 15, and 16, while 2 such peaks were found on chromosomes 3, 9, 11, 12, 18, and 20. Non-parametric linkage analysis for multiple pedigrees of 30 families with comitant strabismus suggested a number of chromosomal susceptibility loci. Our ongoing study involving a larger number of families will refine the accuracy of statistical analysis to pinpoint susceptibility loci for comitant strabismus.&#60;/P&#62;</p

Parabolic isometries of CAT(0) spaces and CAT(0) dimensions

We study discrete groups from the view point of a dimension gap in connection to CAT(0) geometry. Developing studies by Brady-Crisp and Bridson, we show that there exist finitely presented groups of geometric dimension 2 which do not act properly on any proper CAT(0) spaces of dimension 2 by isometries, although such actions exist on CAT(0) spaces of dimension 3. Another example is the fundamental group, G, of a complete, non-compact, complex hyperbolic manifold M with finite volume, of complex-dimension n > 1. The group G is acting on the universal cover of M, which is isometric to H^n_C. It is a CAT(-1) space of dimension 2n. The geometric dimension of G is 2n-1. We show that G does not act on any proper CAT(0) space of dimension 2n-1 properly by isometries. We also discuss the fundamental groups of a torus bundle over a circle, and solvable Baumslag-Solitar groups.Comment: Published by Algebraic and Geometric Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/agt/AGTVol4/agt-4-38.abs.htm

Investigation on synthesis and physical properties of metal doped picene solids

We report electronic structure and physical properties of metal doped picene as well as selective synthesis of the phase exhibiting 18 K superconducting transition. First, Raman scattering is used to characterize the number of electrons transferred from the dopants to picene molecules. The charge transfer leads to a softening of Raman scattering peaks, which enables us to determine the number of transferred electrons. From this we have identified that three electrons are transferred to each picene molecule in the superconducting doped-picene solids. Second, we report the pressure dependence of Tc in 7 and 18 K phases of K3picene. The 7 K phase shows a negative pressure-dependence, while the 18 K phase exhibits a positive pressure-dependence which cannot be understood with a simple phonon mechanism of BCS superconductivity. Third, we report a new synthesis method for superconducting K3picene by a solution process with monomethylamine, CH3NH2. This method enables one to prepare selectively the K3picene sample exhibiting 18 K superconducting transition. The discovery of suitable way for preparing K3picene with Tc = 18 K may facilitate clarification of the mechanism of superconductivity.Comment: 18 pages, 2 tables, 8 figure

High-fidelity conversion of photonic quantum information to telecommunication wavelength with superconducting single-photon detectors

We experimentally demonstrate a high-fidelity visible-to-telecommunication wavelength conversion of a photon by using a solid-state-based difference frequency generation. In the experiment, one half of a pico-second visible entangled photon pair at 780 nm is converted to a 1522-nm photon, resulting in the entangled photon pair between 780 nm and 1522 nm. Using superconducting single-photon detectors with low dark count rates and small timing jitters, we selectively observed well-defined temporal modes containing the two photons. We achieved a fidelity of $0.93 \pm 0.04$ after the wavelength conversion, indicating that our solid-state-based scheme can be used for faithful frequency down-conversion of visible photons emitted from quantum memories composed of various media.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Optimization temperature sensitivity using the optically detected magnetic resonance spectrum of a nitrogen-vacancy center ensemble

Temperature sensing with nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers using quantum techniques is very promising and further development is expected. Recently, the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) spectrum of a high-density ensemble of the NV centers was reproduced with noise parameters [inhomogeneous magnetic field, inhomogeneous strain (electric field) distribution, and homogeneous broadening] of the NV center ensemble. In this study, we use ODMR to estimate the noise parameters of the NV centers in several diamonds. These parameters strongly depend on the spin concentration. This knowledge is then applied to theoretically predict the temperature sensitivity. Using the diffraction-limited volume of 0.1 micron^3, which is the typical limit in confocal microscopy, the optimal sensitivity is estimated to be around 0.76 mK/Hz^(1/2) with an NV center concentration of 5.0e10^17/cm^3. This sensitivity is much higher than previously reported sensitivities, demonstrating the excellent potential of temperature sensing with NV centers.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

海底に沈下した鯨骨下に棲むゲイコツケシハマグリ（新種）

2002年に薩摩半島野間岬沖に沈設した鯨の遺骸下の硫化水素を豊富に含んだ海底沈積物中から発見された，微小なケシハマグリ科の1新種を記載する。 “Kelliella” ossisocian. sp.　ゲイコツケシハマグリ（和名新称） 殻長7 mmの微小種で，殻はハマグリ型で，同属の他種に比しやや前後に長く，且つ殻頂も秀いでない。殻表は白色で成長線は時に弱い褶状になり，極めて薄い殻皮を被る。小月面は浅い溝で区切られ，楯面は不分明。前後の閉殻筋痕は同型同大。外套湾入は無い。右殻の主歯は半月形で，弧状の殻頂下歯との間に深い歯槽が出来る。左殻の殻頂下歯は前肢は溝を伴った半月形であるが，後肢は逆V字型。後主歯は太く斜位。本種は野間崎沖の水深226 mから得られたホロタイプのみ知られる。鯨骨下の還元層に棲むと思われるが，本属の他種は漸深海底帯から超深海底帯から知られ，このように浅海からの出現は極めて異例である。 本種は整ったハマグリ型であるが，既知種の多くは丸みが強く，殻頂部は著しく聳えて強く前傾する。Kelliella属 は多系統と思われるので，本種の属位は決定的ではない。チトクロームオキシダーゼ サブユニット1 （COI） 遺伝子の部分長塩基配列に基づく予察的な分子系統解析（藤原・他，未発表）によれば，本種はオトヒメハマグリ類のクレードの外群となることが示されている。http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/darwin/cruise/natsushima/nt07-09/