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A 70-year-old woman has been followed up for chronic hepatitis C and hepatocellular carcinoma which had been successfully controlled by several sessions of radiofrequency ablation. A small cystic lesion in segment IV associated with adjacent intrahepatic duct dilatation was firstly noted 4 years before on MR imaging, which showed gradual increase in size and significant interval change in the MRI signal intensity of the cystic content on the follow-up examinations. The mass finally reached 4 cm in its largest dimension, associated with slightly enhancing thickened wall, suggesting its neoplastic nature. The mass was surgically resected and a final diagnosis of mucinous cystic neoplasm (MCN) of the liver was made. MCN is usually considered to have no communication with intrahepatic duct, but in this particular case, the communication with the biliary duct was suggested from its early stage of the lesion, which would be the cause of peculiar chronological change in MR appearance.

For the new definition of the kilogram, surface analysis of Si spheres is essential to determine the Avogadro constant by using the x-ray crystal density method. In this work, to investigate surface characteristics of Si spheres both in vacuum and in air, a new ellipsometer having a vacuum chamber was developed. This ellipsometer enables accurate determination of the density of 28Si-enriched spheres.

A change in the definition of the kilogram has been proposed. The new definition will be based on the Planck constant. After the change, the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) will realize the kilogram using the X-ray crystal density method with a 28Si-enriched sphere. A pilot study to confirm the international equivalence of the ability to realize the kilogram from the new definition is ongoing, where the volume measurement of a 28Si-enriched sphere by optical interferometry and the sphere surface characterization by spectroscopic ellipsometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy required for the realization were performed by NMIJ independently. The mass of the sphere was determined with a relative standard uncertainty of $2.4\times 10^{\mathrm {\mathbf {-8}}}$ based on the new definition. This paper provides details of the measurements, the data analysis, and the uncertainty evaluation.

Background and Objectives : Hypothermia is likely to develop faster during spinal anesthesia than epidural anesthesia. A natural consequence of the rapid temperature decrease during spinal anesthesia is that the shivering threshold will be reached sooner and that more shivering will be required to prevent further hypothermia. We tested the hypotheses that the onset of hypothermia is more rapid and the onset and intensity of shivering earlier during spinal than epidural anesthesia. Methods : Patients undergoing cesarean delivery were randomly assigned to spinal anesthesia or epidural anesthesia. Spinal anesthesia was induced by injecting 2 mL 0.5% dibucaine into the L4–L5 interspace. Epidural anesthesia was induced with 20 mL 2% mepivacaine injected into the L2–L3 interspace. Thermal comfort and shivering were scored by a blinded observer. Results : Fifteen patients given each type of anesthesia had upper sensory levels ≥T4 dermatome. Sensation was entirely absent from the leg during spinal anesthesia, but lower block levels were near S5 during epidural anesthesia. Tympanic membrane temperatures initially decreased faster during spinal anesthesia, but subsequently decreased at a rate of 0.5°C/h in both groups. The onset and incidence of shivering (detected qualitatively) did not differ significantly between the two groups, but shivering intensity was significantly reduced during spinal anesthesia. Furthermore, the shivering thresholds were 36.4 ± 0.3°C (mean ± SD) during spinal anesthesia versus 37.1 ± 0.4°C in those given epidural anesthesia ( P = .006). There were no clinically important differences in thermal comfort with the two kinds of neuraxial anesthesia. Conclusions : We failed to confirm our hypothesis, but for an unexpected reason: Thermoregulation was impaired more by spinal anesthesia than epidural anesthesia. It seems likely that in our patients spinal anesthesia inhibited thermoregulatory control more than epidural anesthesia because it better blocked sensory input from the legs.

Requirements engineering has been extensively developed as a discipline. Many statistics on the software development indicate requirements process is the most influential to both success and failure of software development. However, practitioners are still difficult to learn and apply requirements engineering. As a guideline for practitioners to learn and apply requirements engineering, we developed REBOK (Requirements Engineering Body Of Knowledge). In the development, we found there is no common model of BOKs in software engineering. This article proposes the model and architecture of the body of knowledge of REBOK and its proof of the concept.