An unusual unifocal presentation of Castleman’s disease in a young woman with a detailed description of sonographic findings to reduce diagnostic uncertainty: a case report

Background: Castleman’s disease is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder. It typically presents as mediastinal masses and causes a wide range of clinical symptoms. Histologically, Castleman’s disease is classified as either a hyalinic vascular or plasma cell variant. The prognosis mainly depends on the histological type and broadly varies. We herein report our sonographic findings in a patient with Castleman’s disease, including gray-scale ultrasonography, color Doppler ultrasonography, and sonoelastography ultrasonography, which have not been previously reported in the literature. These findings allowed for a preoperative diagnosis and avoidance of overly aggressive therapy. Case presentation: A 28-year-old European female patient with unicentric Castleman’s disease of hyalinic vascular type (HV) restricted to the axilla was referred to us because of a 4-month history of a painless, solitary mass located in the left axilla. The patient’s medical history was unremarkable. Conclusion: Castleman’s disease is a pathologic entity of unknown etiology and pathogenesis. In this case report of unicentric HV-type CD, we demonstrate that typical sonographic findings can lead to a preoperative diagnosis of Castleman’s disease. Core needle biopsy usually allows for a final diagnosis and helps to avoid unnecessary operations and overtreatment

International Lessons for the Property Price Boom in South Africa

South Africa appears to share some of the characteristics (property price boom, easing of monetary policy, strong domestic demand growth) of asset price booms in industrial countries that were often followed by a period of weak growth. The international experience suggests that a number of practical obstacles need to be overcome before a more proactive role of monetary policy is warranted. However, a larger variety of available mortgage contracts, including longer-term fixed-rate contracts, should allow for a more efficient allocation of interest rate risks. Also, a more systematic nationwide collection of property price data, including data on commercial property price developments, would provide a more representative basis for analysis.Asset Prices,property prices,monetary policy,economic development

A New Approach to the BHEP Tests for Multivariate Normality

AbstractLetX1, …, Xnbe i.i.d. randomd-vectors,d⩾1, with sample meanXand sample covariance matrixS. For testing the hypothesisHdthat the law ofX1is some nondegenerate normal distribution, there is a whole class of practicable affine invariant and universally consistent tests. These procedures are based on weighted integrals of the squared modulus of the difference between the empirical characteristic function of the scaled residualsYj=S−1/2(Xj−X) and its almost sure pointwise limit exp(−‖t‖2/2) underHd. The test statistics have an alternative interpretation in terms ofL2-distances between a nonparametric kernel density estimator and the parametric density estimator underHd, applied toY1, …, Yn. By working in the Fréchet space of continuous functions on Rd, we obtain a new representation of the limiting null distributions of the test statistics and show that the tests have asymptotic power against sequences of contiguous alternatives converging toHdat the raten−1/2, independent ofd

Polariton effects in the dielectric function of ZnO excitons obtained by ellipsometry

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 031904 (2010) and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3284656.The complex dielectric tensor of ZnO in the regime of the excitonic transitions is determined with ellipsometry and analyzed concerning the quantization of the electromagnetic field in terms of coupled polariton-eigenmodes. Negative sections in the real part indicate the significant formation of polaritons for the dipole-allowed excitons of the three upper valence-bands Γ7,Γ9,Γ7. The transverse-longitudinal splittings which separate the upper polariton branch from the lower branch, corresponding to the k-vector of the used light, are deduced precisely for each subband. Mainly for E∥c, additional absorption peaks are observed at the longitudinal B-exciton and closely above. One is considered to be a mixed-mode and the other is seen as a consequence of interference effects in an exciton free surface layer which is also visible in reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy.EC/FP7/218570/EU/MULTIFUNCTIONAL NANOMATERIALS CHARACTERISATION EXPLOITING ELLIPSOMETRY and POLARIMETRY/NANOCHAR

Development and Optimization of Gas Diffusion Electrodes for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction at High Current Density

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 to valuable compounds is a promising approach for its substantial utilization and the storage of electricity in chemical form. At present, the main challenges impeding technical realization are i) low production rates due to mass transport limitations deriving from the low solubility of CO2 in the electrolyte, ii) high overpotentials and poor energetic efficiency, necessitating development of more active catalysts, as well as iii) the demonstration of its continuous production which combines the above with low ohmic losses and long-term stability. Furthermore, hydrogen evolution occurs in the same potential range, and becomes dominating at current densities above 10 mA∙cm 2 on conventional metallic electrodes when diffusion of CO2 to the electrode surface becomes rate-determining

Transferring Electrochemical CO2 Reduction from Semi-Batch into Continuous Operation Mode Using Gas Diffusion Electrodes

The electrochemical reduction of C02 is a promising method for its conversion which still suffers from important challenges that have to be solved before indus­ trial realization becomes attractive. The optimization of gas diffusion electrodes is described with respect to catalyst dispersion and mass transport limitations allowing solubility issues to be circumvented and current densities to be increased to industrially relevant values. The transfer of the promising results from semi-batch experiments into continuous mode of operation is demonstrated, and it is indi­cated how the energetic efficiency can be significantly improved by the choice of electrolyte, in terms of concentration and type. Thereby ohmic losses can be decreased and the intrinsic activity be improved

Einführung in die elektrochemische Impedanzspektroskopie (EIS)

Im Rahmen des Vortrages wurden theoretische Grundlagen zur elektrochemischen Impedanzspektroskopie und deren Anwendung zur Charakterisierung von Brennstoffzellen vorgestellt

ON-SITE DETERMINATION OF THE CONTROL LINE FOR INTEGRALLY GEARED COMPRESSORS FOR AVOIDANCE OF IMPELLER FATIGUE FAILURES

LectureIn this lecture a root cause analysis (RCA) is presented for a fatigue failure of a semi-open impeller of an integrally geared compressor. The compressor had been in service for about one year in an air separ 3rd stage impeller

Error-related brain activity as a transdiagnostic endophenotype for obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and substance use disorder

Background Increased neural error-signals have been observed in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders, and inconsistently in depression. Reduced neural error-signals have been observed in substance use disorders (SUD). Thus, alterations in error-monitoring are proposed as a transdiagnostic endophenotype. To strengthen this notion, data from unaffected individuals with a family history for the respective disorders are needed. Methods The error-related negativity (ERN) as a neural indicator of error-monitoring was measured during a flanker task from 117 OCD patients, 50 unaffected first-degree relatives of OCD patients, and 130 healthy comparison participants. Family history information indicated, that 76 healthy controls were free of a family history for psychopathology, whereas the remaining had first-degree relatives with depression (n = 28), anxiety (n = 27), and/or SUD (n = 27). Results Increased ERN amplitudes were found in OCD patients and unaffected first-degree relatives of OCD patients. In addition, unaffected first-degree relatives of individuals with anxiety disorders were also characterized by increased ERN amplitudes, whereas relatives of individuals with SUD showed reduced amplitudes. Conclusions Alterations in neural error-signals in unaffected first-degree relatives with a family history of OCD, anxiety, or SUD support the utility of the ERN as a transdiagnostic endophenotype. Reduced neural error-signals may indicate vulnerability for under-controlled behavior and risk for substance use, whereas a harm- or error-avoidant response style and vulnerability for OCD and anxiety appears to be associated with increased ERN. This adds to findings suggesting a common neurobiological substrate across psychiatric disorders involving the anterior cingulate cortex and deficits in cognitive control

Metal free graphene synthesis on insulating or semiconducting substrates

The present invention relates to a process for preparing graphene by chemical vapour deposition (CVD), wherein an insulating or semiconducting inorganic substrate is provided in a chemical vapour deposition (CVD) reactor and subjected to a thermal pre-treatment in a hydrogen-containing atmosphere,and graphene is deposited on the inorganic substrate by bringing a gaseous oxidant and a carbon-containing precursor into contact with the inorganic substrate