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Cast irons have some excellent characteristics in wear resistance, vibrational damping etc., and are widely used in many industrial machinery applications. But, the weldability has been much inferi...

Objectives This study investigated whether a risk assessment nomogram can predict the malignant potential of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) and provide valuable information for the follow-up and counseling strategies of such patients. Methods We studied 126 of 589 patients with IPMN who were followed up for at least 36 months with annual endoscopic ultrasonography. We analyzed scores derived from our nomogram, incorporating the parameters of sex, lesion type, mural nodule height, and pancreatic juice cytology determined at the initial IPMN evaluation. Results The rate of malignant IPMNs was 5.5% (7/126). The initial average nomogram score was 19.8 (range, 0-55), and the final follow-up average was 23.8 (range, 0-109). When a cutoff score was set at 35 points, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the nomogram to assess malignancy risk were 87.5%, 96.6%, and 96%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of malignant IPMN prediction during follow-up was 0.865. Conclusions The ability of the nomogram to predict malignancy in patients with IPMN was validated. Our findings can suggest that a follow-up for patients at high and low risk for cancer progression could be scheduled every 3 to 6 and 12 months, respectively.

Adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas (ASC) is a variant of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), but the prognosis remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to clarify the prognosis of ASC using a matched case-control design.We evaluated clinical characteristics of ASC treated between 2001 and 2011 in our institution. As controls, PDAC cases matched with ASC cases for sex, age, pretreatment Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, location, initial therapy and American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM staging for pancreatic cancer were also evaluated.Of the 914 cases of pancreatic neoplasm, 28 cases (3.06%) of ASC were identified, and 56 cases of PDAC were matched as controls. Median overall survival (OS) was significantly worse for ASC (8.38 months) than for PDAC (15.75 months; hazard ratio [HR], 1.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-3.51; P = 0.026). Of the 22 unresected cases, median OS was again significantly worse for ASC (4.67 months) than for PDAC (12.36 months; HR, 2.39; 95% confidence interval, 1.27-4.51; P = 0.007).These results demonstrate that ASC is more aggressive than PDAC.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIM Malignancy in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) is graded by assessing the resected specimens according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 2010 criteria. The feasibility of such grading using endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) specimens remains unclear. The aim of this study was to ascertain the optimal method of measuring the Ki-67 index in EUS-FNA specimens, using resected specimens as the criterion standard. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 58 consecutive patients diagnosed with PNETs between March 1998 and May 2011 were included. The study measured intratumoral Ki-67 index heterogeneity, concordance rates of PNET grading by EUS-FNA with grade of the resected tumor, optimal method of measuring the Ki-67 index in EUS-FNA specimens, and survival analysis based on EUS-FNA specimen grading. RESULTS Intratumoral dispersion of Ki-67 index in resected specimens was 0.033 for Grade 1 and 0.782 for Grade 2 tumors (P

In order to establish a welding technology with excellent stability, efficiency, and quality assurance for the welding of thick sheets of aluminium and other non-ferrous metals, we have developed a...

The effects of coherent vortices on turbulent energy transfer were examined in an acoustically excited two-dimensional parabolic jet. Production terms in the energy transport equation were evaluated based on the results of hotwire conditional measurements. Difference in vortex arrangement gave significant influence on the energy transport process among mean flow, coherent structure and incoherent turbulence. When the symmetrical vortex arrangement was excited, most of the mean flow energy directly dissipated into random incoherent turbulence. For the anti-symmetrical mode, large amounts of positive and negative turbulent energy fluxes were produced around strong large-scale coherent vortices. Fine-scale vortices between the streamwisely adjacent coherent vortices played important roles in the turbulent energy transport process for the anti-symmetrical vortex arrangement.

Transient diesel spray which was visualized by shadow photography was observed immediately at near a injection hole exit of a Variable Orifice Nozzle, by exchanging a injection hole diameter. Transient behavior of the spray at the onset of injection was recorded by means of the rotary mirror type high speed framing camera with frame rates up to 700000 frames/sec. The analysis of this spray velocity was conducted using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). A rapid time series of photographs on 35mm film which were taken by the camera, were translated to the computer by a film scanner to convert to a digital image. And then velocity were obtained by cross-correlation PIV technique. With this technique, two demensional spatial cross-correlations of the extinction light intensities were taken between a pair of picture images. The result shows that, velocity vector maps are good agreement with spray photographs. Velocity vectors on early mixing region of diesel spray near nozzle hole exit was drop to as little as 0.5% of the spray tip velocity.

In 1994, the gauging system for #3 C/R at Iwakuni Mill was replaced with new one which incorporated X ray Ash gauge for the coat weight measurement, as well sa weight and moisture sensors.In considering of coat weight profile control to be equipped near future, the two methods of coat weight measurement by bone dry weight difference and X ray difference were evaluated in this paper.

We examined the clinicopathological features of metastatic gastric tumor, using 9 tumors of 8 patients. Histological diagnosis with all biopsy specimens were adenocarcinoma. Most of the metastatic sites were located in the middle or upper gastric corpus. Endoscopic features of the lesion showed a submucosal tumor-like (5 cases) and primary gastric cancer-like (3 cases) appearance. Immunohistochemical staining of cytokeratins, TTF-1, surfactant protein, ER, or MGB1 identified the primary site; 6 in the lung and 2 in the breast. One case was diagnosed based on the EGFR mutation analysis. In conclusion, immunohistochemical staining and molecular method are useful tools to distinguish metastatic gastric tumor from primary gastric cancer.

Symmetrical and antisymmetrical vortex arrangements were acoustically excited in the transition process of a parabolic plane jet. Three components of Reynolds stress were obtained around the coherent vortices through a conditional sampling method. Phase-averaged Reynolds stress was mostly generated in the saddles of the vorticity distribution between adjacent coherent vortices. Incoherent Reynolds stress dominated throughout the transition process for the symmetrical mode. For the antisymmetrical mode, coherent Reynolds stress was induced through the roll-up process and formed four-lobed clover-leaf type distributions around coherent vortices in the upstream region. The incoherent Reynolds stress was produced mainly by the decay of the coherent vortices in the downstream region.

Cationic cyclopolymerization of divinyl ethers, which were derived from (R)- or (S)-1, 1′-bi-2-naphthol with methyl, phenyl, and bromo groups in the 3,3′-positions, yielded polymers with changing optical rotation according to the reaction conditions. Model compounds, therefore, corresponding to the three stereoisomeric forms of the constitutional units, i. e., two racemo (R,R-and S,S-) forms and one meso form, were synthesized to confirm the origin of changing optical rotation in the polymers. 1H NMR analysis showed that the polymers change their optical rotation due to the configuration, which has a tendency to be preferentially a racemo-diisotactic structure at higher monomer concentrations and in less polar solvents. The chiral twist of the (R)-or (S)-binaphthyl template induces the main chain to form an asymmetric R,R- or S,S-racemo sequence, respectively, in the cyclopolymerization.

Visual expressions are examined for the enfire transition process of nonexcited and acoustically excited jets. A multi-smoke-wire method with diluted oil gave clear pictures of the streamwise transition of coherent vorticities in the jets. Four types of velocity vector maps are obtained by the conditional sampling method. The velocity vector fields analysed by the double decomposition were favorable with respect to behavior of the coherent vortices and meandering motion of the jets. The triple decomposition analysis requires that keen attention be paid to the interpretation of results, though it can show the nature of the coherent structure from a different viewpoint.

incomplete exam included intubated patients (2/14), inadequate sedation (9/14), and inability to see the entire hypopharynx (3/14). The mean time of the WLE was 20.2 seconds while the NBI evaluation took 15.6 seconds for a mean 35.8 seconds for the entire exam of the hypopharynx and larynx. All patients then had successful examination of the esophagus/stomach/duodenum. There were 6 patients who had hypopharyngeal abnormalities seen on both WLE and NBI (5.4%) and were subsequently referred to otolaryngology. Of the 6 referrals, one patient had a vocal cord biopsy showing leukoplakia while the others were deemed normal anatomic variants. Minor procedural complications occurred in 3/111 (2.7%) of the patients and included hypotension, tachycardia, and hypoxia. Conclusion: Evaluation of the hypopharynx can be accomplished by gastrointestinal endoscopists at the time of EGD in the majority of patients in a safe manner while adding only about 35 seconds to the overall exam time.

A Variable Orifice Nozzle (VON) by changing a cross-sectional area of the nozzle injection hole, for improving a rate of injection and injection duration, has been developed to study its spray characteristics. Injection and spray pattern responded to the nozzle orifice cross-sectional area which is changing larger to smaller. Transient behavior of the sprays was recorded by two-frame CCD camera system which is based on a microscope with a long working distance. The analysis of the diesel spray velocity vectors were conducted using PIV analyzer with cross-correlation method. The system has been used with various techniques to provide a powerful tool for spray analysis.

A Variable Orifice Nozzle (VON) by changing a cross-sectional area of the nozzle injection hole, for improving a rate of injection and injection duration, has been developed to study its spray characteristics. Injection and spray pattern responded to the nozzle orifice cross-sectional area which is changing larger to smaller. Transient behavior of the sprays were recorded by two-frame CCD camera with dual YAG Laser. The analysis of the diesel spray velocity vectors were conducted using PIV analyzer with cross-correlation method. The PIV results show the three-dimensional spray patterns of the VON in the part load range.

Chiral poly(crown ether)s were synthesized by cationic cyclopolymerization of (S)-2,2′-bis(2-vinyloxyethoxy)-3,3′-dimethyl-1,1′-binaphthyl [(S)-1b] and (R)-2,2′-bis[2-(2-vinyloxyethoxy)-ethoxy]-3,3′-dimethyl (or 3,3′-diphenyl)-1,1′-binaphthyl [(R)-3b or (R)-3c]. The substituents in the 3,3′-positions of binaphthyl moiety disturb the intramolecular cyclization in the polymerization of monomer (S)-1b, but have no influence on the cyclopolymerization tendency of monomers (R)-3b and (R)-3c. The polymers from (R)-3b and (R)-3c [(R)-4b and (R)-4c] have a higher ability of chiral recognition towards a-amino acids, such as phenylglycine, phenylalanine, valine, and methionine, than the polymer from (R)-3a [(R)-4a], which has no substituent in 3,3′-positions. The methyl and the phenyl substituents in the 3,3′-positions undoubtedly act as additional barrier causing an increase in the ability of chiral recognition, though the effect is less than expected from the result of model crown ethers.