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The distribution of the thermal neutron flux has a significant impact on the treatment efficacy. We developed an irradiation method of overlapping irradiation fields using intensity modulators for the treatment of superficial tumors with the aim of expanding the indications for accelerator-based boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). The shape of the intensity modulator was determined and Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to determine the uniformity of the resulting thermal neutron flux distribution. The intensity modulators were then fabricated and irradiation tests were conducted, which resulted in the formation of a uniform thermal neutron flux distribution. Finally, an evaluation of the tumor dose distribution showed that when two irradiation fields overlapped, the minimum tumor dose was 27.4 Gy-eq, which was higher than the tumor control dose of 20 Gy-eq. Furthermore, it was found that the uniformity of the treatment was improved 47% as compared to the treatment that uses a single irradiation field. This clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of this technique and the possibility of expanding the indications to superficially located tumors.

The depth of tumor invasion in colorectal cancer (CRC), especially T1b or T2, is crucial in treatment decision-making. However, their differences are not well-characterized. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the predictive endoscopic findings in tumor invasion of CRC.

In this paper, a finger pose estimation method is presented. A direct use of fingers is useful in some applications which require handling of 3D position information. Our finger pose estimation method exploits anatomical constraints on finger motion and ring-shaped markers to achieve simple and practical measurements applicable to daily life situations. The use of anatomical constraints ensures that no exact placement of the markers is required.

Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare complication of ulcerative colitis (UC) that is potentially fatal once it occurs. This report describes a case of CVT that led to a diagnosis of UC. A 48-year-old woman was diagnosed with CVT due to paresthesia and weakness and was hospitalized for treatment. She developed bloody diarrhea on admission and was further diagnosed with UC based on endoscopic and pathologic findings. Treatment of UC with steroids and sulfasalazine was administered immediately. Her condition improved significantly within several days following treatment. After discharge, the patient experienced no recurrence of either CVT or UC flare-up over the last five years. This report describes CVT as an initial presentation of UC. This is also the first report of a long-term follow-up following successful treatment of CVT with concomitant UC.

Abstract: We report herein the case of a 65-year-old woman who was referred to our department with prolonged ileus symptoms despite conservative therapy. A plain abdominal radiograph showed intestinal gas shadows with an air-fluid level in the lesser curvature of the stomach. As no improvement was achieved by the insertion of a short tube, a long tube was inserted. A loop formation of the long tube in the subphrenic region was detected on an abdominal radiograph, and an enterogram showed an interruption in the ileum in the lower abdomen. The patient was diagnosed as having an adhesional ileus and a strangulated ileus due to a lesser sac hernia. A laparotomy was performed which revealed that the small intestine had herniated into the lesser sac space through a hiatus of Treitz’ fossa and a hiatus in the transverse mesocolon. Furthermor, part of the small intestine had herniated through an omental hiatus. The herniated intestine was manually reduced and the hiatus was closed. However, as the right ovary was found to have adhered to the ileum and stenosis was seen, we were forced to perform partial resection of the ileum. Considering that this patient had no history of laparotomy in the upper abdomen, abdominal injury, nor acute abdomen, it was surmised that the three abnormal hiatuses were congenital.

AbstractIn pure pentacene film and iodine doped pentacene film, X-ray and electric conductivity measurements were performed. It was found from X-ray diffraction data that the iodine doped pentacene possess the stage-2 structure in addition to the stage-1 structure. The c axis lattice constant of the stage-2 structure, which is the length of the interval between the layers, was determined to be 33.2 Å. Moreover, electric conductivity was measured in pentacene doped with iodine at the various doping temperatures Td. This result was compared with the results obtained from X-ray diffraction data.