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Adrenocortical carcinomas are extremely rare aggressive tumors arising from the adrenal cortex. Histopathologically, differential diagnosis between adrenocortical carcinoma and pheochromocytoma is often difficult. We report two autopsy cases of adrenocortical carcinoma. The first case was a 20-year old man. He had abdominal discomfort and increasing swelling of the lower legs. Computer tomography (CT) detected a tumor of 16 cm in diameter at the right retroperitoneum space and multiple liver nodules. Although he was treated with chemotherapy, he died of the cardiovascular failure accompanying inferior vena cava tumor embolism after 4 days of initial chemotherapy. The second case was a 57-year old woman. She felt easy fatigability. Abdominal ultrasonography and CT detected a tumor of 20 cm in diameter at the left retroperitoneum space and multiple liver nodules. She was also treated with chemotherapy and mitotane. However, she died 13 months after the initial diagnosis. Autopsies were conducted in both cases. Histologically, both tumors were composed of polygonal shaped cells with marked atypia. Immunohistochemically, both showed positive for synaptophysin, carletinin, inhibin, melan A and steroidogenic factor 1 and negative for chromogranin, suggesting that both tumors were adrenal cortex origin. Moreover, both cases were categorized into malignancy according to Weiss criteria. Thus, we diagnosed both cases were aderenocortical carcinoma. We report here two autopsy cases of aggressive advanced adrenocortical carcinoma, emphasizing the utility of the immunohistochemical panel.

論文(Article)

We show the resunts of three dimensional PIC (Particle-In-Cell) simulation of relativistic electron-plasma flow that the cofiguration of plasma flow has a sylindrical form. We investigate two different cases of the initial magnetic field condition. In the simulation (A), there are no magnetic field and electric field in the initial stage, and in the simulation (B), there are uniform magnetic field that is parallel to the plasma flow are generated by the Weibel-type electromagnetic counter-streaming instability [1] and then a shell current structure driven by the charge separation sppears. In the simulation (B), the electric fields parallel to the flow are generated by the electrostatic beam instability because initial strong magnetic field prevent electromagnetic instability.

We have developed a new numerical analysis model for galvanic corrosion that can calculate ions movement,reactions and electroneutrality. In this model, major species and reactions were considered, and ion density distributionis corrected by solving Poisson's equation to satisfy electroneutrality. Reactions are calculated basedon chemical equilibrium. Galvanic corrosion of a Fe/Zn couple in a NaCl, MgCl2 solutions and artificial seawater was calculated by this model. The distributions of pH, ion density and corrosion products were discussedin these solutions. The distributions of corrosion product obtained by the numerical analysis model agreedwell with those measured by FT-IR method qualitatively. In 500ppm NaCl solution, Zn(OH)2, ZnCl2/6Zn(OH)2and ZnCO3 were precipitated on the Zn and near the Fe/Zn interface, while there were little precipitations onthe Fe far from the Fe/Zn interface. On the other hand, Mg(OH)2 was precipitated on the Fe in 500ppm MgCl2solution and 1/100 artificial sea water. Mg(OH)2 may contribute to corrosion protection of the Fe in the solutionincluding Mg2+. It is noted that Mg(OH)2 can be precipitated only in the cathodically protected area becausethe solubility product constant of Mg(OH)2 is larger than that of Fe(OH)2.

26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 3665-3668, We proposed an UV accelerated test condition for an EVA encapsulant, based on analysis of long term field exposed PV modules. We found that strong UV irradiation into EVA encapsulant test sample led to the fast decomposition of UV absorber formulated in EVA encapsulant, which has never seen in the field exposed PV modules. Thus, the integrating UV intensity of 60 W/m2 and black panel temperature of 110OC using a xenon weather-o-meter were suitable as an UV accelerated test condition. With this proposed test condition, which shows that 1 week exposure by xenon light corresponds to 1 year field exposure, we can predict discoloration rate of EVA encapsulant. In addition, we evaluated change in peel strength to glass for Mitsui’s and the other commercially available EVA encapsulants during UV accelerated test with the proposed condition. There was no large change in peel strength for our EVA encapsulant during the UV accelerated test. On the other hand, we observed that the competitor’s EVA encapsulant showed the large decrease of peel strength to glass at early stage, even no change in yellowness index (YI). This result indicates not only YI change but also peel strength change should be evaluated for design of reliable PV module and encapsulant.

Physical Review Letters