Pb and Zn in Peru: Supply trend and resource amounts

Until 2014, 14 million tonnes of Pb (metal based) and 41 million tonnes of Zn (metal based) were produced in Peru. Representative two Pb-Zn metallogenic belts were known in Peru. They are lower Cretaceous-Paleocene VMS Cu-Zn-Au metallogenic belt and Miocene epithermal, skarn, replacement & polymetallic vein metallogenic belt. If four new mining projects were launched and additional three mining projects were prepared until 2017, it seems possible to produce 0.34 million tonnes of Pb and 1.5 million tonnes of Zn additionally. In Pb-Zn metallogenic belt in Peru, potential Zn amounts range from 9 to 6000 million tonnes with 0.1 to 14% Zn and potential Pb amounts range from 5 to 2800 million tonnes with 0.04 to 5.3% Pb

Copper in Peru: Present status and future challenge

The copper mineralization in Peru is intimately associated with porphyry Cu deposits and subdivides into three porphyry Cu belt as Paleocene, Eocene-Oligocene, and Miocene. Up to now, the total copper production from them reach 28 Mt Cu. The total copper production from the Paleocene Cu belt, including Toquepala, Cuajone, and Cerro Verde, accounts for approximately 57% of total copper production from Peru. But focusing mineral exploration on middle southern (Eocene-Oligocene) and northwestern part (Miocene) of Peru results in new discoveries, including La Granja, El Galeno, Las Bambas, Toromocho, and Rio Blanco, which have an estimated annual production more than 200,000 t Cu. In addition to them, thirteen Cu deposits are discovered from the Paleocene, Eocene-Oligocene, and Miocene Cu belts. Thus, Peru is supposed to produce Cu production from 2014 and increases annual production from 143 Mt Cu in 2012 to 490 Mt Cu in 2019. Due to new discoveries, it is expected that mineral exploration activities in Peru are likely to move from Paleocene Cu belt to Eocene-Oligocene and Miocene Cu belts

Locally Controlled Sensing Properties of Stretchable Pressure Sensors Enabled by Micro-Patterned Piezoresistive Device Architecture.

For wearable health monitoring systems and soft robotics, stretchable/flexible pressure sensors have continuously drawn attention owing to a wide range of potential applications such as the detection of human physiological and activity signals, and electronic skin (e-skin). Here, we demonstrated a highly stretchable pressure sensor using silver nanowires (AgNWs) and photo-patternable polyurethane acrylate (PUA). In particular, the characteristics of the pressure sensors could be moderately controlled through a micro-patterned hole structure in the PUA spacer and size-designs of the patterned hole area. With the structural-tuning strategies, adequate control of the site-specific sensitivity in the range of 47~83 kPa-1 and in the sensing range from 0.1 to 20 kPa was achieved. Moreover, stacked AgNW/PUA/AgNW (APA) structural designed pressure sensors with mixed hole sizes of 10/200 µm and spacer thickness of 800 µm exhibited high sensitivity (~171.5 kPa-1) in the pressure sensing range of 0~20 kPa, fast response (100~110 ms), and high stretchability (40%). From the results, we envision that the effective structural-tuning strategy capable of controlling the sensing properties of the APA pressure sensor would be employed in a large-area stretchable pressure sensor system, which needs site-specific sensing properties, providing monolithic implementation by simply arranging appropriate micro-patterned hole architectures

Transient Anarthria and Quadriplegia in a Patient with Basilar Artery Hypoplasia and Coincidental Intracranial Lipoma: A Case Report

Cerebral ischemia may be rarely associated with a hypoplastic vertebrobasilar system. Intracranial lipoma is also a very rare congenital malformation. We report the case of a 52-year-old woman with vertebrobasilar transient ischemic attack associated with basilar artery hypoplasia and coincidental intracranial lipoma. She presented with sudden-onset dizziness, anarthria, and quadriplegia lasting for about 30 min. The patient’s initial blood pressure was measured at 200/120 mm Hg. The magnetic resonance and computed tomographic images showed the absence of an acute ischemic lesion in the brain but revealed a hypoplasia of the basilar artery and bilateral V4 vertebral arteries. A lipoma of 11 mm in long diameter was also found in the quadrigeminal cistern and at the superior vermis. The electroencephalography, transthoracic echocardiogram, 24-h Holter monitoring, and transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, including patent foramen ovale study, were all noted as negative. The patient was treated with oral aspirin 100 mg, atorvastatin 10 mg, and antihypertensive medication. She had no symptom recurrence after the treatment. Our case suggests that hypoplasia of the vertebrobasilar arteries can be a predisposing factor for posterior circulation ischemia, especially when additional vascular risk factors coexist

Effects of exercise on obesity-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle

Obesity is known to induce inhibition of glucose uptake, reduction of lipid metabolism, and progressive loss of skeletal muscle function, which are all as- sociated with mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle. Mitochondria are dy- namic organelles that regulate cellular metabolism and bioenergetics, including ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation. Due to these critical roles of mitochon- dria, mitochondrial dysfunction results in various diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Obesity is associated with impairment of mitochondrial function (e.g., decrease in O2 respiration and increase in oxidative stress) in skeletal muscle. The bal- ance between mitochondrial fusion and fission is critical to maintain mitochondrial homeostasis in skeletal muscle. Obesity impairs mitochondrial dynamics, leading to an unbalance between fusion and fission by favorably shifting fission or reducing fusion proteins. Mitophagy is the catabolic process of damaged or unnecessary mito- chondria. Obesity reduces mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle and increases accumulation of dysfunctional cellular organelles, suggesting that mitophagy does not work properly in obesity. Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress are reported to trigger apoptosis, and mitochondrial apoptosis is induced by obesity in skeletal muscle. It is well known that exercise is the most effective intervention to protect against obesity. Although the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which exercise protects against obesity-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal mus- cle are not clearly elucidated, exercise training attenuates mitochondrial dysfunction, allows mitochondria to maintain the balance between mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy, and reduces apoptotic signaling in obese skeletal muscle

Highly-Sensitive Textile Pressure Sensors Enabled by Suspended-Type All Carbon Nanotube Fiber Transistor Architecture.

Among various wearable health-monitoring electronics, electronic textiles (e-textiles) have been considered as an appropriate alternative for a convenient self-diagnosis approach. However, for the realization of the wearable e-textiles capable of detecting subtle human physiological signals, the low-sensing performances still remain as a challenge. In this study, a fiber transistor-type ultra-sensitive pressure sensor (FTPS) with a new architecture that is thread-like suspended dry-spun carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber source (S)/drain (D) electrodes is proposed as the first proof of concept for the detection of very low-pressure stimuli. As a result, the pressure sensor shows an ultra-high sensitivity of ~3050 Pa-1 and a response/recovery time of 258/114 ms in the very low-pressure range of <300 Pa as the fiber transistor was operated in the linear region (VDS = -0.1 V). Also, it was observed that the pressure-sensing characteristics are highly dependent on the contact pressure between the top CNT fiber S/D electrodes and the single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) channel layer due to the air-gap made by the suspended S/D electrode fibers on the channel layers of fiber transistors. Furthermore, due to their remarkable sensitivity in the low-pressure range, an acoustic wave that has a very tiny pressure could be detected using the FTPS

Cardiac arrest from acute hyperkalemia during liver surgery -A case report-

We experienced a case of sudden onset of hyperkalemia during liver lobectomy and this was followed by ventricular tachycardia and cardiac arrest. The main cause of this fatality is assumed to be the wide range of surgical manipulation that induced reduced hepatic blood flow and ischemic necrosis of the hepatic cells. We report here on this case and we review the relevant medical literature

Fabrication and evaluation of bilateral Helmholtz radiofrequency coil for thermo-stable breast image with reduced artifacts

PURPOSE: The positron emission tomography (PET)-magnetic resonance (MR) system is a newly emerging technique that yields hybrid images with high-resolution anatomical and metabolic information. With PET-MR imaging, a definitive diagnosis of breast abnormalities will be possible with high spatial accuracy and images will be acquired for the optimal fusion of anatomic locations. Therefore, we propose a PET-compatible two-channel breast MR coil with minimal disturbance to image acquisition which can be used for simultaneous PET-MR imaging in patients with breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For coil design and construction, the conductor loops of the Helmholtz coil were tuned, matched, and subdivided with nonmagnetic components. Element values were optimized with an electromagnetic field simulation. Images were acquired on a GE 600 PET-computed tomography (CT) and GE 3.0 T MR system. For this study, we used the T1-weighted image (volunteer; repetition time (TR), 694 ms; echo time (TE), 9.6 ms) and T2-weighted image (phantom; TR, 8742 ms; TE, 104 ms) with the fast spin-echo sequence. RESULTS: The results of measuring image factors with the proposed radiofrequency (RF) coil and standard conventional RF coil were as follows: signal-to-noise ratio (breast; 207.7 vs. 175.2), percent image uniformity (phantom; 89.22%-91.27% vs. 94.63%-94.77%), and Hounsfield units (phantom; -4.51 vs. 2.38). CONCLUSIONS: Our study focused on the feasibility of proposed two-channel Helmholtz loops (by minimizing metallic components and soldering) for PET-MR imaging and found the comparable image quality to the standard conventional coil. We believe our work will help significantly to improve image quality with the development of a less metallic breast MR coil