Hepatobiliary cystadenoma. A study of five cases with reference to histogenesis

Hepatobiliary cystadenoma is a rare hepatic lesion characterized by a multiloculated cyst lined by cuboidal or columnar epithelial cells. Four cases of hepatobiliary cystadenoma with mesenchymal stroma (HCMS) and one case of hepatobiliary cystadenoma with intracystic epithelial component were studied by light microscopy, immunohistochemical methods, and electron microscopy. Similar studies were conducted on six fetal gallbladder tissues, representing the biliary tree, and two adult ovarian tissues. By light microscopy, the columnar epithelium of the five cases of hepatobiliary cystadenoma was similar to the epithelium of the developing gallbladder. The spindle cell stroma of the HCMS and the subepithelial spindle cells of the developing gallbladders showed similar reactivity to smooth-muscle actin. Vimentin reactivity was strongly positive in the stroma of the HCMS, and in the fetal gallbladders it was only noted in the subepithelial spindle cells of the 15-week gestation fetal gallbladder tissues. By electron microscopy, the epithelium lining the hepatic lesions showed characteristic gastrointestinal features and was identical to the epithelia lining the embryonic gallbladders. Furthermore, the mesenchymal stroma of the HCMS recapitulated the features found in subepithelial tissues in developing gallbladders. Although the ovarian stroma resembled the stroma of the HCMS by light microscopy, the immunohistochemical reactions and the electron microscopic studies showed dissimilarities. This study supports the hypothesis that the hepatobiliary cystadenomas arise from ectopic embryonic tissues destined to form the adult gallbladder.     

Advances in speech transcription at IBM under the DARPA EARS program

This paper describes the technical and system building advances made in IBM's speech recognition technology over the course of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Effective Affordable Reusable Speech-to-Text (EARS) program. At a technical level, these advances include the development of a new form of feature-based minimum phone error training (fMPE), the use of large-scale discriminatively trained full-covariance Gaussian models, the use of septaphone acoustic context in static decoding graphs, and improvements in basic decoding algorithms. At a system building level, the advances include a system architecture based on cross-adaptation and the incorporation of 2100 h of training data in every system component. We present results on English conversational telephony test data from the 2003 and 2004 NIST evaluations. The combination of technical advances and an order of magnitude more training data in 2004 reduced the error rate on the 2003 test set by approximately 21% relative-from 20.4% to 16.1%-over the most accurate system in the 2003 evaluation and produced the most accurate results on the 2004 test sets in every speed category.     

Ultrastructural and immunocytochemical features of a case of neuroendocrine carcinoma developing in a prior ileostomy site

A patient who developed a mixed neuroendocrine carcinoma and adenocarcinoma at the site of a previous long-standing ileostomy is reported. The neuroendocrine features are documented by both ultrastructural and immunocytochemical findings. Carcinoma arising in an ileostomy site is rare but has been recorded in patients with long-standing ileostomies after colectomy for chronic inflammatory bowel disease, as in this patient. Neuroendocrine carcinoma developing in this setting apparently has not been described before, however.     

Nonlinear distortion generated by DSF-based optical-phase conjugators in analog optical systems

In this paper, the nonlinear distortion induced by dispersion-shifted-fiber-based optical-phase conjugators (OPCs) in intensity-modulated subcarrier multiplexing optical systems is evaluated. In this study, it is shown that the nonlinear distortion mainly arises from the four-wave mixing (FWM) process during the phase conjugation, although there also exists influences from other nonlinear effects. Closed expressions for calculating the second- and third-order harmonic distortions due to FWM, self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation and group-velocity dispersion effects in the dispersion-shifted-fiber-based OPC are also reported for the first time. The influence of several system design parameters, such as the optical modulation index, the number of channels, the input optical powers, and the effective area of the dispersion-shifted fiber on the compensation of fiber-induced nonlinear distortions employing the optical-phase conjugation technique, is considered.     

Reduced form of the interactor matrix

Some structural results about the interactor of a given right invertible system are presented. An original form for this operator, which directly exhibits structural information such as infinite-zero structure or essential orders, is provided. Moreover, this form allows the linkage of the infinite and essential structures of a system     

Temporal dynamics and drivers of lake ecosystem metabolism using high resolution observations in a shallow,tropical, eutrophic lake (Laguna Lake,Philippines)

The physical, chemical, and biological dynamics under changing atmospheric conditions of Laguna Lake, Philippines were analyzed from intensive observations. Diel measurements were conducted for 48 continuous hours for both dry and wet tropical seasons in addition to fine resolution long-term monitoring. Results revealed significant vertical and diel variations of lake variables in spite of a shallow water depth (2.5 m) caused by the intense surface heating from solar irradiance (~800 W m^?2) and accentuated by the lake's high turbidity (16–32 ftu). Late afternoon land-lake breeze (~5–7 m s^?1) regularly breaks daytime thermal stratification, and convective cooling at night maintains isothermal condition until dawn of the next day. The stratified condition demonstrated a wind-driven, density-induced 2-layer current pattern with a windward moving epilimnion (~4 folds faster) and a compensating hypolimnetic flow in the general lake circulation direction. Laguna Lake was observed to have a dominating diel cycle but also undergoes significant seasonal limnological variations brought primarily by climate, hydrology, and its interaction with the adjacent sea. Significantly correlated variations of pH, chlorophyll-a and DO in the dry season were indicative of the higher biological activity associated with the intrusion of polluted waters from Metro Manila. The non-occurrence of thermal over-turn was observed to be regularly followed by bottom hypoxic conditions (2–4 mg L^?1), indicative of the eutrophic condition of the lake and the importance of diel wind-induced mixing in the bottom supply of DO. Laguna Lake was found to be predominantly net heterotrophic (GPP:R < 1, NEP < 0).     

Missing data imputation for fuzzy rule-based classification systems

Fuzzy rule-based classification systems (FRBCSs) are known due to their ability to treat with low quality data and obtain good results in these scenarios. However, their application in problems with missing data are uncommon while in real-life data, information is frequently incomplete in data mining, caused by the presence of missing values in attributes. Several schemes have been studied to overcome the drawbacks produced by missing values in data mining tasks; one of the most well known is based on preprocessing, formerly known as imputation. In this work, we focus on FRBCSs considering 14 different approaches to missing attribute values treatment that are presented and analyzed. The analysis involves three different methods, in which we distinguish between Mamdani and TSK models. From the obtained results, the convenience of using imputation methods for FRBCSs with missing values is stated. The analysis suggests that each type behaves differently while the use of determined missing values imputation methods could improve the accuracy obtained for these methods. Thus, the use of particular imputation methods conditioned to the type of FRBCSs is required.     

Analysis of chill-cast NiAl intermetallic compound with copper additions

This study carried out a characterization of chill-cast NiAl alloys with copper additions, which were added to NiAl, such that the resulting alloy composition occurred in the β-field of the ternary NiAlCu phase diagram. The alloys were vacuum induction melted and casted in copper chill molds to produce ingots 0.002 m thick, 0.020 m wide, and 0.050 m long. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) performed in chill-cast ingots identified mainly the presence of the β-(Ni,Cu)Al phase. As-cast ingots showed essentially no ductility at room temperature except for the Ni₅₀Al₄₀Cu₁₀ alloy, which showed 1.79% of elongation at room temperature. Ingots with this alloy composition were then heat treated under a high-purity argon atmosphere at 550 °C (24 h) and cooled either in the furnace or in air, until room temperature was reached. β-(Ni,Cu)Al and γ′(Ni,Cu)₃Al were present in specimens cooled in the furnace and β-(Ni,Cu)Al, γ′(Ni,Cu)₃Al plus martensite-(Ni,Cu)Al were present in specimens cooled in air. Thermogravimetric analysis indicated that martensite transformation was the result of a solid-state reaction with M _s ∼ 470 and M _f ∼ 430 °C. Tensile tests performed on bulk heat-treated ingots showed room-temperature ductility between 3 and 6%, depending on the cooling media.     

Margarines: A rheological study

Time-dependent flow properties of both commercial and pilot plant-made margarines were characterized under steady shear. Flow curves were fitted to the kinetic expression τ = τ _i +a e ^−k1t +b e ^−k2t . A first-order kinetic model did not describe the observed destruction process of the margarine structure in an adequate manner. In the proposed model, two structures with different destruction rates are postulated. Each structure contributes to a part of the shear stress necessary to deform the margarine sample. The parameters τ _i a andb are temperature-dependent. Decreasing temperatures produce an exponential increase of τ _i , a linear increase ofb and an increase ofa up to a point beyond which it remains constant. A physical interpretation of the model is proposed. The role of the aqueous phase was also studied. Greater hardness was detected at higher water content. Parameter τ _i increased, at any selected temperature, with increasing aqueous phase content of the sample. Parametera increased with decreasing temperatures and higher water content. On the other hand, parameterb was not affected by the amount of aqueous phase. This kinetic model could be employed to perform studies on the influence of different parameters of margarine formulation on its rheologic behavior.