Pulmonary dirofilariasis diagnosed by fine needle aspiration biopsy. A case report

A case of pulmonary dirofilariasis in a 62-year-old female was diagnosed by fine needle aspiration biopsy. A review of the literature revealed this to be the first reported case diagnosed by this method. The presence of bilateral lesions in this patient is an uncommon finding for this entity.     

The use of SMS 201-995 (somatostatin analogue) in insulinomas. Additional case report and literature review

A 76-year-old man, a known case of insulinoma, was well controlled for 11 days on 50 micrograms SMS 201-995 every 12 h; clinical recovery was immediate with normalization of blood sugars and C-peptide levels. The potential value of this new drug in the management of insulinomas is illustrated by this case and by 11 additional case reports which are reviewed. A rise in C-peptide levels during treatment without concomitant hypoglycaemia might be the first indication of a loss of control.     

Primary amyloidosis presenting as a unilateral hilar mass. Report of a case diagnosed by fine needle aspiration biopsy

A case of unilateral hilar amyloidosis in a 69-year-old man was diagnosed by fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy and confirmed by ultrastructural studies. The roentgenographic presentation of amyloidosis solely as a unilateral hilar enlargement is extremely rare, with only one case previously reported in the English literature; this appears to be the first case of hilar amyloidosis diagnosed by FNA biopsy.     

A dynamical interpretation of strong observability and detectability concepts for nonlinear systems with unknown inputs: application to biochemical processes

Determination of the observability/detectability properties of a nonlinear system is fundamental to assess the possibility of constructing observers and the properties that can be assigned to them, as e.g., the assignability of the convergence rate. For linear systems this task can be solved by well-known techniques, for the case without perturbations as much as for the perturbed case. However, for nonlinear systems this study is usually a very hard task, in particular, when unknown inputs and/or perturbations are present. In this paper a general method to study these properties will be described, and its capabilities and feasibility will be assessed by means of a few case studies related to the culture of phytoplankton in the chemostat.     

Fine needle aspiration cytology in a case of osteogenic sarcoma in Paget''s disease

A case of monostotic Paget's osteogenic sarcoma initially diagnosed by fine needle aspiration cytology is reported. The value of electron microscopy in this case is emphasized.     

True median cleft of the upper lip associated with three pedunculated club-shaped skin masses

A rare case of true median cleft of the upper lip associated with three skin masses is reported. While 114 cases of median cleft of the upper lip have been reported, in our literature review we found only 1 case, reported by Sharma, in which the median cleft was associated with skin masses. The embryology of this case is also discussed.     

Goldston syndrome: report of a case.

Cerebrohepatorenal malformation is a rare familial disorder characterized by typical renal lesions combined with Dandy-Walker malformation, and congenital hepatic fibrosis. In this case report, a male premie with the diagnosis of cerebrorenal syndrome or so called Goldston syndrome is presented. Besides the rarity of this syndrome, this case is the second reported patient diagnosed prenatally.     

Selective abortion in Brazil: the anencephaly case

This paper discusses the Brazilian Supreme Court ruling on the case of anencephaly. In Brazil, abortion is a crime against the life of a fetus, and selective abortion of non-viable fetuses is prohibited. Following a paradigmatic case discussed by the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2004, the use of abortion was authorized in the case of a fetus with anencephaly. The objective of this paper is to analyze the ethical arguments of the case, in particular the strategy of avoiding the moral status of the fetus, the cornerstone thesis of the Catholic Church.     

Lymph node invasion by Conidiobolus coronatus and its spore formation in vivo

Lymph node invasion with presence of conidia, their replicates, germ tubes, condidia with hair-like projections and hyphae have been observed in a case of entomophthoromycosis caused by Conidiobolus coronatus. This rare occurrence of conidia with hair-like projections that is usually observed in vitro, has been observed in vivo, in the content of an abscess produced by this agent, C. coronatus in the present case. Severe disfigurement and destruction of facial and nasopharyngeal tissues, have also been observed in this case. Response to therapy with oral KI, surgery, combinations of trimethoprim and sulphamethoxazole and steroids though found useful initially, was ineffective subsequently as the disease progressed over 7 years. Findings of lymphatic invasion and the extensive destruction observed in the present case warrants a guarded prognosis. Free conidial reproduction found in lymph nodes may suggest the possibility of this disease being infectious, requiring an active and vigorous treatment schedule and control measures in this infection.     

Abu Sayyaf: Displays of Violence and the Proliferation of Contested Identities among Philippine Muslims

Violence between and among Christians and Muslims of the southwestern Philippines provides the ethnographic setting for an investigation of Herzfeld's paradox of social indifference. But there is yet another paradox in this case: Why has this 400-year conflict been characterized by a proliferation of contested identities among the insurgents, those who most need to be united?
Is this another case of the force of "hegemony," with the oppressed somehow duped into practices detrimental to their own interests? But how? And by what agency? The Philippine case reveals the challenging complexities of identity construction to be faced in any attempt to reach an understanding of these issues.     

An approximation method for the determination of diffusion and permeability coefficients in nerve trunks

A recently introduced approximation method is applied in order to obtain an expression for the amount of a substance remaining within a nerve at any time, the nerve having been soaked for a long time in a solution containing the substance until the time zero when it is bathed in the same solution but without the substance. The case of a uniform nerve without a sheath leads to substantially the same results as previously obtained by A. V. Hill (1928) for this case. A solution is given for the case of a nerve without sheath but having fibers which are permeable. In this case it is shown how an effective diffusion coefficient for the interstitial fluid can be obtained, as well as the effective inward and outward fiber permeabilities. A solution is given for the case of a nerve with a sheath in which the substance considered does not penetrate the fibers, and it is shown how the effective diffusion coefficients of the sheath and the interstitial fluid can be obtained.     

Hatching of an estuarine crab, Sesarma haematocheir: from disappearance of the inner (E3) layer to rupture of the egg case

Hatching of decapod crustaceans is characterized by the sudden rupture of the egg case. This study focused on the following two issues regarding the hatching mechanism of the estuarine terrestrial crab Sesarma haematocheir: (1) dissolution of the egg case, and (2) the site where the egg case breaks. The egg case comprises three layers: the outer two (E1 and E2) layers and the inner (E3) thin layer (0.2 microm in thickness). The outer layers showed no morphological changes upon hatching, but the inner layer (E3) was markedly digested. The digestion of this layer would enable the embryo to absorb ambient water via reverse peristalsis of the intestine, resulting in an increase of the volume. The egg case always ruptured perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the embryo. In addition, breakage of the egg case occurred at the dorsal thorax of the embryo. The three major organs positioned at this area were (1) a sharp projection (dorsal spine), (2) an assemblage of muscles, and (3) a pair of secretory glands, each of which was about 30 microm in diameter. The dorsal projection is soft before hatching, and it is clear that the egg case does not break with the posterior expansion of this projection. The rupture instead appears to be caused by the expansion of the muscles arranged perpendicular to the body axis. In addition, some (unknown) factor might weaken the egg case just before hatching. The secretory glands may be a kind of rosette gland, but the role that this gland plays at hatching is not known. As a duct comes out from the center and enters the dorsal projection, some active substance may be released at the tip of this projection. However, immunochemical studies are not consistent with this substance being an ovigerous hair stripping substance (OHSS).     

Coexistence of aspergillosis and squamous-cell carcinoma in the maxillary sinus proven by preoperative cytology

The case of a 56-year-old female with coexisting aspergillosis and squamous-cell carcinoma in the maxillary sinus is reported. The diagnosis was established by cytologic study of washings of the sinus before and after admission and was confirmed by exploratory antrotomy. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which the coexistence of fungus and neoplasm in the paranasal sinus was established by preoperative cytologic diagnosis.     

The Electrical Conductance of Semipermeable Membranes: III. Bipolar Flow-Symmetric Electrolytes

The first paper of this series presented a general formulation of the problem of stationary ion flow through membranes. The second treated in detail the special case of unipolar flow across membranes separating symmetric electrolytes. In this, the third paper of the series, we deal with another special case, that of bipolar flow between symmetric electrolytes. Here it is assumed that the total current is carried by both positive and negative permeant ions. The restriction to symmetric electrolytes implies that all ions present in the membrane and surrounding solutions have valences of identical absolute magnitude. After extracting from the general development a set of equations appropriate to the special case being considered, we outline a procedure for the numerical solution of the conductance problem for this case. Numerical results, presented as part of a discussion of approximate analytic methods of solution, establish the utility of these methods. A discussion of the significance of this work for membrane studies is presented in conclusion.     

Human dirofilariasis in Italy: a new palpebral case with spontaneous healing in Abruzzo

One case of human palpebral dirofilariasis by Dirofilaria repens, in Abruzzo, is described. It is the first case reported in this region. The parasite was released following the energetic rubbing of the palpebral area, with the result in the spontaneous recovery of the patient.     

Effect of villosity and distension on the absorptive and secretory flux in the small intestine

The effects of villosity and distension on the absorptive and secretory flux in the small intestine were investigated theoretically in a simplified model. In the case of low epithelial permeability, villosity increases both fluxes by surface enlargement, but in the case of high epithelial permeability, this occurred only if the intervillous spaces are very narrow. Otherwise, the flux is reduced due to the intervillous diffusion resistance, which is more effective than the enlargement of the surface area in that case. Distension increases the fluxes due to the additional surface exposed, by opening the intervillous spaces. In the case of low epithelial permeability this increase exceeds that expected from the enlargement of the smooth inner cylindrical surface area. In the case of high epithelial permeability, however, the increase of the fluxes exceeds surface enlargement only in the first phase, just after opening the intervillous spaces. Otherwise, the increase of the flux is less, since the hindrance by the intervillous diffusion resistance is more effective than the increase of the smooth inner cylindrical surface area. In the intervillous spaces the concentration gradient is non-linear with the steepest slope at the entrance due to the permeation through the lateral surfaces of the villi. The gradient approaches linearity in the center of broad intervillous spaces and becomes steeper when the width decreases and the epithelial permeability increases. In rat small intestine broad intervillous spaces are formed at the front sides of the trapezoidal villi by the predominant circular distension. The diffusion resistance in these spaces and the increase of the supravillous diffusion resistance weaken the increase of the absorptive and secretory flux by distension, especially in the case of high epithelial permeability.     

Interaction between Fiscal and Monetary Policy in a Dynamic Nonlinear Model

The objective of this study is to verify the dynamics between fiscal policy, measured by public debt, and monetary policy, measured by a reaction function of a central bank. Changes in monetary policies due to deviations from their targets always generate fiscal impacts. We examine two policy reaction functions: the first related to inflation targets and the second related to economic growth targets. We find that the condition for stable equilibrium is more restrictive in the first case than in the second. We then apply our simulation model to Brazil and United Kingdom and find that the equilibrium is unstable in the Brazilian case but stable in the UK case.     

Predator influence on the growth of a population with three genotypes

Summary A predator-prey system is proposed in which the prey species consists of three genotypes. It is shown that in the case of no predation, this system satisfies the Hardy-Weinberg principle. In the case where the genotype with the recessive gene has an advantage in its susceptibility to predation, it is shown that the other genotypes move toward extinction. Research for this paper was partially supported by the National Research Council of Canada Grant NRC A-4823, and was carried out while this author was visiting The University of Iowa.     

Phaeohyphomycosis caused by Cladosporium bantianum in Kerala (India)

A case of phaeohyphomycosis caused by Cladosporium bantianum is reported from India for the first time. It is also the first known case of infection involving the foot caused by this fungus. The cultural characteristics and animal pathogenicity of the isolate are described.     

Bilinear state space systems for nonlinear dynamical modelling

Summary We discuss the identification of multiple input, multiple output, discrete-time bilinear state space systems. We consider two identification problems. In the first case, the input to the system is a measurable white noise sequence. We show that it is possible to identify the system by solving a nonlinear optimization problem. The number of parameters in this optimization problem can be reduced by exploiting the principle of separable least squares. A subspace-based algorithm can be used to generate initial estimates for this nonlinear identification procedure. In the second case, the input to the system is not measurable. This makes it a much more difficult identification problem than the case with known inputs. At present, we can only solve this problem for a certain class of single input, single output bilinear state space systems, namely bilinear systems in phase variable form.