Degenerate ground state in the classical pyrochlore antiferromagnet Na3_3Mn(CO3_3)2_2Cl

In an ideal classical pyrochlore antiferromagnet without perturbations, an infinite degeneracy at a ground state leads to absence of a magnetic order and spin-glass transition. Here we present Na$_3$Mn(CO$_3$)$_2$Cl as a new candidate compound where classical spins are coupled antiferromagnetically on the pyrochlore lattice, and report its structural and magnetic properties.The temperature dependences of the magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity, and the magnetization curve are consistent with those of an $S$ = 5/2 pyrochlore lattice antiferromagnet with nearest-neighbor interactions of 2 K. Neither an apparent signature of a spin-glass transition nor a magnetic order is detected in magnetization and heat capacity measurements, or powder neutron diffraction experiments. On the other hand, an antiferromagnetic short-range order from the nearest neighbors is evidenced by the $Q$-dependence of the diffuse scattering which develops around 0.85 \AA$^{-1}$. A high degeneracy near the ground state in Na$_3$Mn(CO$_3$)$_2$Cl is supported by the magnetic entropy estimated as almost 4 J K$^{-2}$ mol$^{-1}$ at 0.5 K.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted to PR

Thyroid metastasis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma with EGFR G719A mutation: Genetic confirmation with liquid-based cytology specimens

Presented is a case of advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma and a thyroid tumour with calcification. EGFR gene mutation testing of the thyroid aspirate specimen revealed a G719A point mutation in exon 18 that was identical to that in the patient's known lung cancer. This case demonstrates the usefulness of liquid-based cytology samples, which enable genetic testing leading to a conclusive diagnosis while preserving the cytological specimens

包括的凝固機能検査による急性期川崎病における止血動態の評価

Introduction: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis involving coronary arteries, sometimes resulting in aneurysms and myocardial infarction. Hyper-coagulability in the acute-phase of KD is indicated in some circumstances based on changes of individual clotting factors. Comprehensive coagulation assays, clot waveform analysis (CWA) and thrombin/plasmin generation assay (T/P-GA), have been developed to assess physiological hemostasis, but these techniques have not been applied in KD. Methods: We utilized both assays to analyze coagulation function in KD children (n = 42) prior to intravenous-immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment (Pre), 1-week (1W) and 1-month (1M) post-IVIG. Results: In CWA, the clot time (CT) pre-treatment was prolonged, and was significantly shortened at 1W and 1M. However, the maximum coagulation velocity (|min1|) and acceleration (|min2|) were ~2-fold greater relative to controls, indicating an overall hypercoagulable tendency. These parameters were related to fibrinogen concentration, and were decreased at 1W and declined to normal at 1M. In T/P-GA, the endogenous potentials of thrombin and plasmin were greater relative to control at each of three time-points, and measurements at 1W were greater than those Pre-treatment. The ratios of TG and PG relative to control were similar, however, suggesting well-balanced dynamic coagulation and fibrinolysis. In non-responders to IVIG, the |min1| and |min2| measurements were greater than those in responders at 1W and 1M, suggesting that non-responders remained hypercoagulable after primary treatment. Conclusion: The coagulation data observed in KD were consistent with hypercoagulability, although fibrinolytic function appeared to be well-balanced. Comprehensive assays of this nature could provide valuable information on coagulation potential in KD.博士（医学）・乙第1441号・令和元年12月5日Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Cluster Entropy: Active Domain Adaptation in Pathological Image Segmentation

The domain shift in pathological segmentation is an important problem, where a network trained by a source domain (collected at a specific hospital) does not work well in the target domain (from different hospitals) due to the different image features. Due to the problems of class imbalance and different class prior of pathology, typical unsupervised domain adaptation methods do not work well by aligning the distribution of source domain and target domain. In this paper, we propose a cluster entropy for selecting an effective whole slide image (WSI) that is used for semi-supervised domain adaptation. This approach can measure how the image features of the WSI cover the entire distribution of the target domain by calculating the entropy of each cluster and can significantly improve the performance of domain adaptation. Our approach achieved competitive results against the prior arts on datasets collected from two hospitals.Comment: Accepted by IEEE ISBI'2

Prospective Study of the Effect of the 21-Gene Assay on Adjuvant Clinical Decision-Making in Japanese Women With Estrogen Receptor-Positive, Node-Negative, and Node-Positive Breast Cancer

AbstractBackgroundIn this study we investigated if the 21-gene assay result affects adjuvant decision-making in Japanese women with ER+ invasive EBC.Patients and MethodsA total of 124 consecutive eligible patients with ER+, HER2-negative EBC and 0 to 3 positive lymph nodes were enrolled. Treatment recommendations, physicians' confidence and patients' decisional conflict before and after knowledge of the Recurrence Score results of the 21-gene assay were recorded.ResultsOne-hundred four patients (84%) had N0 disease, including micrometastases, and 20 (16%) had N+ disease. Overall, recommendations changed in 33% (95% CI, 24%-43%) of N0 and 65% (95% CI, 41%-85%) of N+ patients. In 27 of 48 (56%) of N0 and 13 of 15 (87%) of N+ patients an initial recommendation for chemohormonal therapy was revised to only hormonal therapy after assay results, and in 7 of 56 (13%) of N0 and 0 of 5 N+ patients from only hormonal to combined chemohormonal therapy. Decisions appeared to follow the Recurrence Score results for low and high values. For patients with intermediate Recurrence Score values, overall recommendations for chemohormonal treatment tended to decrease after assay results. Physicians' confidence increased in 106 of 124 (85.5%; 95% CI, 78%-91%) cases. Patients' decisional conflict significantly improved as indicated by changes in the total score and the 5 defined subscores (P = .014 for Informed Subscore; P < .001 for all others).ConclusionResults from this prospective study in a Japanese population confirm an effect of the 21-gene assay results on adjuvant treatment decision-making, consistent with reported experiences from the United States and Europe

Lateral–Medial Dissociation in Orbitofrontal Cortex–Hypothalamus Connectivity

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is involved in cognitive functions, and is also closely related to autonomic functions. The OFC is densely connected with the hypothalamus, a heterogeneous structure controlling autonomic functions that can be divided into two major parts: the lateral and the medial. Resting-state functional connectivity has allowed us to parcellate the cerebral cortex into putative functional areas based on the changes in the spatial pattern of connectivity in the cerebral cortex when a seed point is moved from one voxel to another. In the present high spatial-resolution fMRI study, we investigate the connectivity-based organization of the OFC with reference to the hypothalamus. The OFC was parcellated using resting-state functional connectivity in an individual subject approach, and then the functional connectivity was examined between the parcellated areas in the OFC and the lateral/medial hypothalamus. We found a functional double dissociation in the OFC: the lateral OFC (the lateral orbital gyrus) was more likely connected with the lateral hypothalamus, whereas the medial OFC (the medial orbital and rectal gyri) was more likely connected with the medial hypothalamus. These results demonstrate the fundamental heterogeneity of the OFC, and suggest a potential neural basis of the OFC-hypothalamic functional interaction

Preparation of Monodispersed Hydrophilic Polymer Microspheres in Gel Permeation Chromatography

Monodispersed porous polymer microspheres having diameter of ca. 50 μm were successfully prepared by suspension polymerization of styrene, polyoxyethylene methacrylate and ethylenegycol dimethacrylate. Monodispersed O/W emulsion was firstly made by SPG membrane emulsification technique, following droplets-swelling method of monodispersed seed emulsion by the addition of secondary emulsion. The effect of solvent used in suspension polymerization on porous structure of prepared polymer microspheres was investigated in this paper by identification with scanning electron microscopy, porosimeter and the performance in gel permeation chromatography. It was found that benzene, 1-butanol and butyl acetate worked as poor solvent for polymer prepared in this study and that polymer microspheres prepared with these solvents had larger pores. Gel permeation chromatography measurements indicates that polystyrene having molecular weight smaller than 50,000-100,000 can be clearly separated by using gel columns packed with polymer microspheres prepared with poor solvents