Cross-view Self-localization from Synthesized Scene-graphs

Cross-view self-localization is a challenging scenario of visual place recognition in which database images are provided from sparse viewpoints. Recently, an approach for synthesizing database images from unseen viewpoints using NeRF (Neural Radiance Fields) technology has emerged with impressive performance. However, synthesized images provided by these techniques are often of lower quality than the original images, and furthermore they significantly increase the storage cost of the database. In this study, we explore a new hybrid scene model that combines the advantages of view-invariant appearance features computed from raw images and view-dependent spatial-semantic features computed from synthesized images. These two types of features are then fused into scene graphs, and compressively learned and recognized by a graph neural network. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified using a novel cross-view self-localization dataset with many unseen views generated using a photorealistic Habitat simulator.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, technical repor

Predicting invasion in mammographically detected microcalcifcation: a preliminary report

BACKGROUND: With the increased use of mammography for breast cancer screening, the diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) too has increased. This study was carried out to identify clinical and radiological factors that may predict the presence of invasive disease within mammographically detected microcalcifcation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 13 vacuum-assisted breast biopsies (Mammotome(®)) of mammographic calcification, which were reported to be either DCIS or invasive disease on final histopathology, was carried out. Final surgical pathology was correlated with pre-operative features (clinical, radiological and core histology) to predict the presence of an invasive component. RESULTS: The overall sensitivity of Mammotome(® )was 81.8%, while for invasion it was 50%. Small size, granular morphology, increased number and area of calcification cluster may help in predicting invasion on mammography. CONCLUSIONS: Mammotome(® )biopsy fails to detect invasion correctly in half the cases despite ascertaining correctness of biopsy with post biopsy x-ray

タバコ懸濁培養細胞におけるアルミニウムの二価鉄、銅およびカドミウム毒性に対する影響

The effects of aluminum (Al) on the cytotoxicity of ferrous iron (Fe(Ⅱ)), copper(Cu) and cadmium(Cd) were studied. Log-phase cells were treated with either FeSO4,CuSO4, or CdCl2 in the presence or absence of AlCl3(120μM) for 18h at pH 4.0. After the treatment, the viability was determined as relative growth of the metal-treated cells to the untreated control cells during the post-treated culture. A single treated with either Al, Fe(Ⅱ) or Cd did not inhibit the growth at the metal concerntrations up to 300 μM, 200 μM and 500 μM, respectively, whereas the growth was markedly inhibited at 15 μM Cu. Thus,the cells were relatively insensitive to Al, Fe(Ⅱ) and Cd and sensitive to Cu. When cells were treated with both Fe(Ⅱ)(120 μM)and Al(120μM), the growth was significantly inhibited and the cellular contents of both Al and Fe increased synergistically. After the treatment with Cu(0 to 10 μM) with or without Al, the cells grew more vigorously when they were treated in the presence of Al, althrouh the Cu content of the cells were not alterd by Al. The presence of Al during the treatmemt with Cd(0 to 2 μM) had no effect on the degree of growth inhibition by Cd. Thus, Al interacts with the toxicity of Fe(Ⅱ), Cu and Cd in different manners; synergistic with Fe(Ⅱ), antagonistic with Cu and apparently no effeco on Cd.二価鉄[Fe(Ⅱ)]、銅（Cu)およびカドミウム（Cd）の細胞毒性に対するアルミニウム（Al）の効果について検討した。120μM AlCl3の存在もしくは非存在下において、対数増殖期の細胞をFeSO4,CuSO4,CdCl2で各々18時間、pH4.0で処理した。処理後の生存率は、処理後の細胞を増殖させたのちに、未処理細胞（コントロール）の増殖に対する金属で処理した細胞の相対増殖率で求めた。Al,Fe(Ⅱ),Cdの単独処理による増殖阻害は、各々300μM、200μM、500μMの濃度まで観察されなかったが、Cuでは15μMで大きく阻害された。このように、タバコ細胞は相対的にAl、Fe（Ⅱ）、Cdには感受性が低く、Cuには感受性が高かった。細胞をFe（Ⅱ）およびAlの両方で処理すると、増殖は著しく阻害され、AlおよびFeの細胞内含量も相乗的に増加した。Cuで処理した場合、Alを加えることにより逆に増殖率が増加した。しかし、細胞内Cu含量はAlの影響を受けなかった。Cd処理の場合、Alを加えてもCdによる増殖阻害の程度は変わらなかった。このように、AlはFe（Ⅱ）、Cu、Cd毒性に対して各々異なる相互作用を示し、Fe（Ⅱ）に対し、相乗効果を、Cuに対しては拮抗的な阻害を示したが、Cdに対してはみかけ上効果がなかった

Absence of scalenus anterior muscle.

A rare anomaly of the scalenus muscles is described. In this case, the right scalenus anterior muscle was absent. As a substitute for this muscle, some aberrant muscle slips arose from the lower vertebrae and descended in front of the ventral rami of the lower cervical nerves. These aberrant slips then ran between the ventral rami of the the eighth cervical and first thoracic nerves, and were fused with the right scalenus medius muscle. Thus, the subclavian artery and vein ran in front of the aberrant slips, together with the ventral ramus of the first thoracic nerve. The aberrant muscle slips issued 2 accessory bundles. One bundle ran between the ventral rami of the fourth and fifth cervical nerves and was fused with the scalenus medius muscle; the other bundle ran between the ventral rami of the fifth and sixth cervical nerves and was fused with the scalenus medius muscle.</p

Active Robot Vision for Distant Object Change Detection: A Lightweight Training Simulator Inspired by Multi-Armed Bandits

In ground-view object change detection, the recently emerging mapless navigation has great potential to navigate a robot to objects distantly detected (e.g., books, cups, clothes) and acquire high-resolution object images, to identify their change states (no-change/appear/disappear). However, naively performing full journeys for every distant object requires huge sense/plan/action costs, proportional to the number of objects and the robot-to-object distance. To address this issue, we explore a new map-based active vision problem in this work: ``Which journey should the robot select next?" However, the feasibility of the active vision framework remains unclear; Since distant objects are only uncertainly recognized, it is unclear whether they can provide sufficient cues for action planning. This work presents an efficient simulator for feasibility testing, to accelerate the early-stage R&D cycles (e.g., prototyping, training, testing, and evaluation). The proposed simulator is designed to identify the degree of difficulty that a robot vision system (sensors/recognizers/planners/actuators) would face when applied to a given environment (workspace/objects). Notably, it requires only one real-world journey experience per distant object to function, making it suitable for an efficient R&D cycle. Another contribution of this work is to present a new lightweight planner inspired by the traditional multi-armed bandit problem. Specifically, we build a lightweight map-based planner on top of the mapless planner, which constitutes a hierarchical action planner. We verified the effectiveness of the proposed framework using a semantically non-trivial scenario ``sofa as bookshelf".Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, technical repor

Primary Pancreatic Lymphoma: The Role of Surgical Treatment

Primary pancreatic lymphoma (PPL) is a rare disease that is difficult to diagnose preoperatively. We describe the youngest case of PPL treated by surgical excision and chemotherapy. A 16-year-old male presented with abdominal pain and jaundice. Abdominal computed tomography showed a 3.0 × 4.5 cm homogeneously enhanced mass localized between the inferior vena cava and pancreatic head; the common pancreatic duct was dilated and the common bile duct was stenosed. Magnetic resonance imaging findings showed a 4.5 cm tumor localized between the inferior vena cava and pancreatic head with low signal intensity on T1W images and high intensity on T2W images, which enhanced inhomogeneously. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography findings were compatible with smooth stenosis of the common bile duct. He was diagnosed as pancreatitis secondary to pancreatic tumor and pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy was performed. Postoperative diagnosis was PPL and chemotherapy was performed. After 4 years of treatment he has no signs of recurrence

Laparoscopically Assisted Low Anterior Resection for Lower Rectal Endometriosis: Usefulness of Laparoscopic Surgery

A 34-year-old woman presented with pain during menstruation and was diagnosed with endometriosis of the lower rectum. Despite treatment with an LH-RH agonist, she was unable to become pregnant and surgical removal of her endometriosis was recommended. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging revealed endometriosis localized between the neck of the uterus and rectum with indentation and scuffing. Laparoscopically assisted low anterior resection was performed. Exfoliation was started from the right side of the rectum to the presacral and retrorectal space, and the rectococcygeus ligament was transected. Exfoliation of the retrorectal space was continued to the levator ani muscle and mobilization of the right side of the rectum was performed. In front of the rectum, exfoliation was started posterior to the wall of the vagina, but layers became unclear near the tumor as the tissue was solid in this region. The left hypogastric nerve close to the tumor was inflamed and it was cut. The layer of the exfoliation was connected to the right side of the rectum, the tumor was isolated from the vagina, and the lower rectum was transected at a point 1 cm distal to the tumor with a 60-mm linear stapler. Reconstruction with a 31-mm circular stapler was performed using the double stapling technique. Operative time was 520 min with a blood loss of 320 ml. On the 9th post operative day, a rectovaginal fistula occurred, and ileostomy was performed. The patient was discharged from the hospital on the 25th postoperative day, and 4 months later, stoma closure was performed

7種海藻中における第4級アンモニウム塩基の分布

最近,海洋生化学資源の開発が重要視され,海産物由来のいくつかの有効物質が単離・同定されて,その生化学的および薬理学的役割が検討されてきている。その中で,海藻中にも2,3の有効物質が明らかにされてはいるものの,その数は少ない。本研究では,海藻中の有効物質が含窒素化合物に多いことから,海藻中の第4級アンモニウム塩基を7種の紅藻および緑藻を用いて検索した。 各海藻の70%エタノール抽出液中の第4級アンモニウム塩基をイオン交換カラムクロマトグラフィーを用いて単離・精製し,そのTLC上のRf値,IRスペクトルおよび融点を測定して,購入および合成した既知の第4級アンモニウム塩基のそれらと比較することにより同定した。その結果, laminine, candicine, stachydrine, glycine betaine, betonicine, β-homobetaineおよびγ-boutyrobetaineと2種の未同定塩基を検出した。candicineが海藻中から単離・同定されたのは,今回が最初と思われる。これら塩基の海藻種間における分布に関しては,特に特異性は認められなかった。Seven species of marine red and green algae were examined for quaternary ammonium bases. Nine bases were purified and isolated by ion exchange column chromatography from the ethanolic extracts of the algae. The isolated bases were identified by measuring their Rf values in thin layer chromatography, infrared spectra and melting points in comparison with specimen of thirteen kinds of authentic quaternary ammonium bases which were prepared by commercial means or syntheses. As the results, seven bases; laminine, candicine, stachydrine, glycine betaine, betonicine, β-homobetaine and γ-butyrobetaine, and two unidentified bases were detected. It was first demonstrated that candicine is present in marine algae. There is no essential difference in the distribution of the bases among the species of marine algae examined here

True Carcinosarcoma of the Esophagus: Report of a Case

Carcinosarcoma of the esophagus is a malignant neoplasm involving both carcinomatous and sarcomatous components. We report a patient with true esophageal carcinosarcoma who underwent laparoscopy-assisted surgery. An upper gastrointestinal barium study revealed a lobulated intraluminal filling defect in the lower intrathoracic esophagus. The patient underwent esophagectomy and regional lymphadenectomy with gastric tube reconstruction by laparoscopy-assisted surgery and thoracotomy. The esophageal hiatus was entered and the mediastinal esophagus was dissected using a laparoscopic approach. Microscopically, the tumor comprised poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma and spindle-shaped cells resembling leiomyosarcoma. Immunohistochemically, spindle-shaped sarcomatous cells displayed strongly positive reaction to vimentin and negative reaction to cytokeratin AE1/AE3 and CD68. No transitional zone was seen between sarcomatous and carcinomatous elements. The patient was finally diagnosed with true esophageal carcinosarcoma. Laparoscopic transhiatal esophagectomy seems to be a rational and safe procedure for lower esophageal neoplasms, even for patients with impaired respiratory function