Changes in laryngeal sensation evaluated with a new method before and after radiotherapy

Radiotherapy of the laryngopharynx sometimes leads to functional disabilities including swallowing dysfunction. One of the reasons for these disabilities is a deterioration of laryngeal sensation. Laryngeal sensation is an important factor in swallowing, but quantitative evaluation of laryngeal sensation has been difficult. In this study, we evaluated changes in laryngeal sensation before and after radiotherapy for laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer, using a flexible laryngoscope and probes. This study was conducted in 12 patients, 8 with laryngeal cancer and 4 with hypopharyngeal cancer, who received radiotherapy alone or chemoradiotherapy at our medical centre. Measurements were performed using a 3.3-mm-diameter flexible laryngoscope with a probe port and four types of probes with 0.06-, 0.13-, 0.20-, and 0.30-mm nylon filaments attached to a wire tip. Sensation was evaluated at the tip of the epiglottis and the arytenoid region. Measurements were performed before radiotherapy, 1, 3 months, and 1 year after completion of radiotherapy. Sensation of the epiglottis and arytenoid deteriorated significantly 1 and 3 months after radiotherapy compared with before radiotherapy. Laryngeal sensation recovered in most cases within 1 year after radiotherapy. The present study clearly demonstrates the deterioration of laryngeal sensation with radiotherapy

Symmetry Restoration of Higgs Models at Finite Temperature

The symmetry restoration of Higgs models at finite temperature and in less than 4 dimensions is investigated. For that purpose a series of approximations to the constraint effective lattice potential is introduced. The continuum limit of these mean-field like effective potentials is discussed and it is shown that the symmetry is always restored at finite temperature. As an application we derive an estimate for the critical temperature

Finite Temperature λφ^4 Theory in Two and Three Dimensions and Symmetry Restoration

λφ^4 theory is studied in 2 and 3 dimensions to examine the validity of the finite temperature perturbation theory. We find that in some cases it is good even at high temperature in contrast to the case in 4 dimensions. We also discuss the problem of symmetry restoration and show an example of symmetry restoration within a safe perturbation at high temperature

Reduction of formaldehyde emission from plywood using composite resin composed of resorcinol–formaldehyde and urea-modified scallop shell nanoparticles

More than 200,000 tons of scallop shells are disposed annually 1 alone in Japan. Nanoparticles derived from scallop shells have the potential to adsorb gaseous formaldehyde; therefore such discarded shells have now been tested as additive filler in plywood adhesive by mixing high specific surface area, urea-modified shell nanoparticles with a resorcinol?formaldehyde resin; with this procedure it was found that the emission of formaldehyde from the resulting plywood could be substantially reduced. The urea-modified scallop shell nanoparticles were prepared by two different methods: (i) by a dry method in which the shells were treated with planetary ball-grinding under ambient conditions ? a completely dried powder was obtained after addition of the surface-modifying urea solution; (ii) by a moist method by treating dry-ground shell particles in a wet grinding process with the urea solution, followed by the use of centrifugation to obtain a paste. The specific surface area of the nanoparticles obtained by both treatments was 42 ± 3 m213 /g. Measurement of the subsequent formaldehyde emission showed that the addition of the modified scallop shell nanoparticles substantially reduced the formaldehyde emission from plywood; the reduction depends from the specific mass uptake of urea on the nanoparticles which especially was the case when resins containing nanoparticles processed by the moist method were used