The role of repeat transurethral resection in stage A1 carcinoma of the prostate

In order to evaluate the significance of repeat transurethral resection (TUR) in differentiating stage A1 prostatic adenocarcinoma from those with stage A2, we performed repeat TUR in 34 patients with an initial diagnosis of stage A1 prostatic adenocarcinoma. It was found that residual adenocarcinoma was present in five cases (14.7%), but the diagnosis was changed from stage A1 to stage A2 in only one case (2.9%). In one patient with final diagnosis of stage A1 carcinoma, bone metastases were detected seven months after the repeat TUR. It was concluded that repeat TUR for stage A1 prostatic adenocarcinoma did not yield clinically significant information.     

Pixel-selected ray tracing

An acceleration method based on an idea that T. Whitted (Commun. ACM, vol.23, no.6 pp.343-349, June 1980) presented on ray tracing is discussed. He proposed making antialiased images by hierarchical adaptive oversampling. The present authors use hierarchical adaptive undersampling to reduce the number of pixels whose intensity must be calculated by ray tracing. To implement pixel-selected ray tracing (PSRT), homogeneous regions in images must first be found. Generally, adaptive undersampling can result in some image-quality defects, because small objects and parts of thin or wedge-shaped objects may disappear when they are located between the initially sampled pixels. PSRT has an improved algorithm that uses pixels with the correct object information from among the sampled pixels to find pixels with erroneous color and correct them. Moreover, PRST uses ray-object intersection trees for precise classification of the homogeneity of regions and for fast intensity calculation in homogeneous regions. Experimental results are presented. They show that PSRT is two to nine times faster than standard ray tracing     

Some experimental findings in compression-after-impact (CAI) tests of CF/PEEK (APC-2) and conventional CF/epoxy flat plates

Compression-after-impact (CAI) tests have been conducted for quasi-isotropic thick plates with 48 plies by using the NASA method and on plates with 32 plies by using the SACMA method. Specimens are made of CF/PEEK (APC-2) and conventional CF/epoxy for the NASA plates and CF/epoxy for the SACMA plates. In the NASA CAI tests, the sequence of delamination buckling and its propagation is clearly revealed through various experimental techniques. One major technique is moiré topography, and the other is thermo-mechanical stress analysis with a high-accuracy infrared sensor. The arrest of delamination propagation just before catastrophic failure due to high fracture toughness is clearly captured by the moiré camera. This behavior provides good CAI values of CF/PEEK. The initial buckling properties of the delaminated region by the impact are then extensively discussed. Numerical predictions of initial buckling stress have been obtained by modelled geometry of the delaminated region simplified from its precise structure clarified by ultrasonic C-scanning. They agree fairly well with the experimental results. The in-plane stress distribution in the delaminated region before initial buckling is measured by an infrared stress graphic system. This compared favorably with finite element predictions. Two types of symmetric buckling modes with respect to the central plate surface, twin and single peak ones, are experimentally captured.     

Kinetics and mechanism of carbothermic reduction of magnesia

The reaction between MgO and graphite powders under flowing argon atmosphere was studied using a dynamic thermogravimetric method. In the temperature range 293 to 1973 K, the effects of compacting pressure, magnesia/carbon ratio, heating rate, Ar carrier-gas flow rate, and CO-partial pressure were investigated. An experimentally determined reaction mechanism was proposed and discussed. The reduction process could be divided into two stages. The first stage includes the direct reaction between MgO and graphite particles and partial gas-solid reaction at relatively low temperature (below 1750 K). The overall reaction rate depends on the solid phase-boundary reaction between magnesia and carbon particles. The second stage is the gas-solid reaction between CO and MgO, which determines the overall reaction rate. The apparent activation energies of the two stages were estimated to be 208.29 and 374.13 kJ/mol, respectively.     

Production of dihomo-γ-linolenic acid byMortierella alpina 1S-4

The mycelial dihomo-γ-linolenic acid content of an arachidonic acid-producing fungus,Mortierella alpina 1S-4, was found to increase, with an accompanying marked decrease in its arachidonic acid content, on cultivation with sesame oil. The resultant mycelia were found to be a rich source of dihomo-γ-linolenic acid. This unique phenomenon was suggested to be due to specific repression of the conversion of dihomo-γ-linolenic acid to arachidonic acid by the oil. After fractionation of the oil with acetone into oil and non-oil fractions, it was found that the effective factor(s) was present in the non-oil fraction. In a study on optimization of the culture conditions for the production of dihomo-γ-linolenic acid byM. alpina 1S-4, a medium containing glucose, yeast extract and the non-oil fraction was found to be suitable for the production. Under the optimal conditions in a 50-1 fermentor, the fungus produced 107 mg of dihomo-γ-linolenic acid/g dry mycelia (2.17 g/l of culture broth). This value accounted for 23.1% of the total fatty acids in the lipids extracted from the mycelia. The mycelia were also rich in arachidonic acid (53.5 mg/g dry mycelia, 11.2%). Other major fatty acids in the lipids were palmitic acid (24.1%), stearic acid (7.0), oleic acid (20.1), linoleic acid (6.6) and γ-linolenic acid (4.1). On leave from Suntory Ltd.     

Discussions of worker ants’ rule-based CHC dealing with changing environments

Contrary to popular belief, biologists discovered that worker ants are really not all hardworking. It has been found that in three separate 30-strong colonies of black Japanese ants (Myrmecina nipponica), about 20% of worker ants are diligent, 60% are ordinary, and 20% are lazy. That is called 20:60:20 rule. Though they are lazy, biologists suggested that lazy worker ants could be contributing something to the colony that is yet to be determined. In our last research, we used CHC (cross generational elitist selection, heterogeneous recombination, and cataclysmic mutation) with the worker ants’ rule (WACHC) aiming at solving optimization problems in changing environments. CHC is a nontraditional genetic algorithm (GA) which combines a conservative selection strategy that always preserves the best individuals found so far with a radical (highly disruptive) recombination operator. In our last research, we verified that WACHC performs better than CHC in only one case of fully changing environment. In this paper, we further discuss our proposed WACHC dealing with changing environment problems with varying degree of difficulty, compare our proposal with hypermutation GA which is also proposed for dealing with changing environment problems, and discuss the difference between our proposal and ant colony optimization algorithms.     

Contributions of distinct prefrontal neuron classes in reward processing

The prefrontal cortex(PFC)is thought to be involved in higher order cognitive functions,such as in working memory,abstract categorization,and reward processing.It has been reported that two distinct neuron classes(putative pyramidal cells and interneurons)in the PFC played different functional roles in neural circuits involved in forming working memory and abstract categories.However,it remains elusive how the two types of neurons process reward information in the PFC.To investigate this issue,the activity of single neurons was extracellularly recorded in the PFC of the monkey performing a reward predicting task.PFC neurons were classified into putative pyramidal cells and interneurons,respectively,based on the waveforms of action potentials.Both the two types of neurons encoded reward information and discriminated two reward conditions(the preferred reward condition vs.the nonpreferred reward condition).However,the putative pyramidal neurons had better and more reliable discriminability than the putative interneurons.Also,the pyramidal cells represented reward information in the preferred reward condition,but not in the nonpreferred reward condition by raising their firing rates relative to the baseline rates.In contrast,the interneurons encoded reward information in the nonpreferred reward condition,but not in the preferred reward condition by inhibiting their discharge rates relative to the baseline rates.These results suggested that the putative pyramidal cells and interneurons had complementary functions in reward processing.These findings may help to clarify individual functions of each type of neurons in PFC neuronal circuits involved in reward processing.     

Crystal orientation changes of Ag thin films on the Si(111) substrate due to tribo-assisted recrystallization

Crystal orientation changes of Ag thin films due to the tribo-assisted recrystallization have been studied using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction with synchrotron radiation. After preparation of an Si(111) √3 × √3-Ag surface, a 5-nm-thick Ag film was deposited on the surface at the substrate temperature of 303 K in an ultra-high vacuum chamber. The friction experiments were carried out using a diamond pin-on-plate type tribometer just after the Ag deposition in the same UHV chamber. We found that the coefficient of friction of the Ag films on the Si(111) √3 × √3-Ag surface decreases from 0.07 to 0.03, with increasing reciprocal sliding cycles. In synchronization with the coefficient change, Ag{100} grains are gradually disappearing. As a result, the Ag{111} grains cover the entire surface after 50 sliding cycles. Moreover, we found that the domain size of the Ag{111} grains increases with increasing reciprocal sliding cycles by measuring the rocking curve width. These results directly show that the Ag(111) plane is the sliding plane of friction and the coefficient of friction of Ag films is determined by the fraction of the Ag(111) grains in the Ag films. Moreover, to clarify the reaction between the Ag film and the Si substrate due to the tribo-assisted recrystallization, the substrate strain has been studied by an extremely asymmetric X-ray diffraction technique using synchrotron radiation.