腱鞘巨细胞瘤的影像学诊断

目的:分析腱鞘巨细胞瘤的影像学表现以提高对该病的认识。方法:回顾性分析10例经手术病理证实的腱鞘巨细胞瘤的X线平片及MRI表现,其中10例行X线平片检查,8例行MRI平扫及增强扫描。结果:X线平片显示局部稍高密度软组织肿块影,邻近骨质未见明显异常或轻度侵蚀破坏。MRI表现为相应部位软组织肿块影,T1WI多呈较低信号,内可见条片状更低信号影,增强后强化明显;T2WI呈高低混杂信号影;病灶与邻近肌腱关系密切,其中一例包绕指屈肌腱蔓状生长;局部骨皮质可受侵。结论:腱鞘巨细胞瘤的影像学表现具有一定的特征性。     

鬼臼毒素涂膜剂治疗子宫颈HPV 感染的疗效观察

目的:了解鬼臼毒素涂膜剂治疗子宫颈HPV感染的疗效。方法:126例临床诊断证明为子宫颈HPV感染的患者,随机分为两组,试验组63例采用0.5%鬼臼毒素涂膜剂治疗,对照组63例单独采用0.5%鬼臼毒素酊治疗。结果:①痊愈率:试验组与对照组的痊愈率分别为90.5%、73.00%,两组比较具有统计学学差异(P<0.05);②复发率:试验组与对照组第12、24周的复发率分别为9.52%、28.57%和9.52%、36.51%,两个时段的两组比较均具有统计学差异(P<0.05);③不良反应:经随访观察,两组发生了红斑、水肿、灼热、疼痛、瘙痒、溃疡、渗出等不良反应,其中两组比较试验组红斑、水肿、溃疡、渗出的发生率低于对照组,具有统计学差异(P<0.05)。结论:鬼臼毒素涂膜剂能有效治疗子宫颈HPV感染,并控制复发,副作用小,比采用鬼臼毒素酊治疗的效果好。     

Elastohydrodynamics of the Eyelid Wiper

This paper presents an elastohydrodynamic model of the human eyelid wiper. Standard lubrication theory is applied to the fluid layer between the eyelid wiper and ocular surface. The role of the lubrication film is to reduce the shear stresses by preventing solid to solid contact between the eyelid wiper and ocular surface. For the lubrication film to be effective, it is required that the orientation of the eyelid wiper changes between the opening and closing phases of a blink. In order to model this, the hydrodynamic model is coupled with an elastic mattress model for the soft tissue of the eyelid wiper and ocular surface. This leads to a one-dimensional non-linear partial differential equation governing the fluid pressure in the lubrication film. In order to solve the differential equation, a loading condition or constraint equation must be specified. The resulting system is then solved numerically. The model allows predictions of the tear film flux from under the upper eyelid, as well as normal and shear stresses acting on the ocular surface. These factors are important in relation to dry eye syndrome, deformation of the cornea and contact lens design. It is found that the pressure and shear stress under the eyelid act across a length of approximately 0.1 mm which is consistent with clinical observations. It order to achieve a flow of tears from under the upper eyelid during a blink, the model requires that the normal force the eyelid applies to the ocular surface during the closing phase of the blink is significantly higher than during the opening phase of the blink. Electronic Supplementary Material The online version of this article () contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Current perspectives in pulmonary surfactant — Inhibition, enhancement and evaluation

Pulmonary surfactant (PS) is a complicated mixture of approximately 90% lipids and 10% proteins. It plays an important role in maintaining normal respiratory mechanics by reducing alveolar surface tension to near-zero values. Supplementing exogenous surfactant to newborns suffering from respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), a leading cause of perinatal mortality, has completely altered neonatal care in industrialized countries. Surfactant therapy has also been applied to the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) but with only limited success. Biophysical studies suggest that surfactant inhibition is partially responsible for this unsatisfactory performance. This paper reviews the biophysical properties of functional and dysfunctional PS. The biophysical properties of PS are further limited to surface activity, i.e., properties related to highly dynamic and very low surface tensions. Three main perspectives are reviewed. (1) How does PS permit both rapid adsorption and the ability to reach very low surface tensions? (2) How is PS inactivated by different inhibitory substances and how can this inhibition be counteracted? A recent research focus of using water-soluble polymers as additives to enhance the surface activity of clinical PS and to overcome inhibition is extensively discussed. (3) Which in vivo, in situ, and in vitro methods are available for evaluating the surface activity of PS and what are their relative merits? A better understanding of the biophysical properties of functional and dysfunctional PS is important for the further development of surfactant therapy, especially for its potential application in ARDS.     

Production of interferon-β by NB1-RGB cells cultured on peptide-lipid membranes

Cell growth and production of interferon-β (IFN-β) were investigated for normal human skin fibroblast cells (NB1-RGB) cultured on membranes prepared from peptide-lipids containing the arginine-glycine-aspartic acid [Arg-Gly-Asp] (RGD), tyrosine-isoleucine-glycine-serine-arginine [Tyr-Ile-Gly-Ser-Arg] (YIGSR) and arginine-glutamic acid-aspartic acid-valine [Arg-Glu-Asp-Val] (REDV) peptides. Cell density was found to be approximately the same on various peptide-lipid membranes, whereas production of IFN-β depended significantly on the peptide-lipid membranes on which NB1-RGB cells were cultured. The highest production of IFN-β was observed for NB1-RGB cells on REDV-lipid membranes prepared by a casting method (REDV-cast membranes) after 24 hr of cultivation. Specific binding between REDV of REDV-cast membranes and the receptor on the NB1-RGB cells may have caused the specific cell response for the production of IFN-β. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Engineering supramolecular artificial edifices designed for a specific function

The Langmuir-Blodgett technique and its variants (alternate layers, self-organising mixtures, the semi-amphiphilic technique, the peculiar solid state chemistry in L.B. films) are collective methods which allow physical chemists, with a very small amount of synthetic chemistry, to build up molecular assemblies exhibiting not only the properties of each of their components, but also extra properties which arise from the architecture: cooperativity, anomalous chemical properties, molecular recognition, etc. These new tailored molecular edifices are the basic “brick” of tomorrow's molecular electronics and fine chemistry. These strategies are exemplified here by two active supramolecular edifices which have been successfully designed and built up: an artificial dioxygen trap based on the same principle as hemoglobin, and one molecule thick conductors. Promising applied results have already been obtained in the field of gas sensing with these new conductors, owing to molecular architectural amplification.     

Plasmid transfer between Pseudomonas spp. within epilithic films in a rotating disc microcosm

Abstract A microcosm using rotating slate discs in a chemostat was used to study bacterial population dynamics and genetic interactions in river epilithon. Populations of all introduced donor and recipient Pseudomonas spp. decreased with time but all the bacteria survived better on the slate discs than in the liquid phase. Conjugal transfer of an epilithic plasmid encoding mercury resistance (pQM1) occured with transfer frequencies of 1.4 × 10⁻⁶ to 3.6 × 10⁻³ per recipient, which were about 100-fold lower than in standard membrane filter mating experiments.     

Dosimetric evaluation of Gafchromic EBT2 film for breast intraoperative electron radiotherapy verification

PurposeQuality assurance (QA) is one of the most important issues that should be addressed for intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IOERT), which is not benefiting from image-based treatment planning system. The aim of this study is to evaluate the dosimetric characteristics of Gafchromic EBT2 film for breast IOERT QA procedure.MethodsDue to the fact that some dedicated accelerators are being used for IOERT, dependence of the film response to energy, field size, dose rate and incidence angle of electron beam from the LIAC IOERT accelerator was studied. Then, film response curve to breast IOERT doses was obtained and its accuracy was evaluated and justified through comparison to the results of ionometric dosimetry.ResultsThe results of this study indicated that there are no significant differences between the film responses at different energies of 6, 8, 10 and 12 MeV (P-value = 0.99). Similarly, no field size dependency was found when evaluating the response of the film to different field sizes ranging from 4 to 10 cm (P-value = 0.94). Film response was found to be independent of the dose rate of intraoperative electron beam (P-value = 0.12). Film response variations with changing the beam incidence angle were not significant (P-value > 0.8). Calibration curve at the dose range of 8–24 Gy had an acceptable accuracy. The difference between the results of film dosimetry and ionometric dosimetry was around 5% which was in agreement with the results of dose uncertainty estimation.ConclusionThe EBT2 film was found to be a potentially appropriate tool for breast IOERT verification.     

The feasibility of an approximate irregular field dose distribution simulation program applied to a respiratory motion compensation system

PurposeThis study optimized our previously proposed simulation program for the approximate irregular field dose distribution (SPAD) and applied it to a respiratory motion compensation system (RMCS) and respiratory motion simulation system (RMSS). The main purpose was to rapidly analyze the two-dimensional dose distribution and evaluate the compensation effect of the RMCS during radiotherapy.MethodsThis study modified the SPAD to improve the rapid analysis of the dose distribution. In the experimental setup, four different respiratory signal patterns were input to the RMSS for actuation, and an ultrasound image tracking algorithm was used to capture the real-time respiratory displacement, which was input to the RMCS for actuation. A linear accelerator simultaneously irradiated the EBT3 film. The gamma passing rate was used to verify the dose similarity between the EBT3 film and the SPAD, and conformity index (CI) and compensation rate (CR) were used to quantify the compensation effect.ResultsThe Gamma passing rates were 70.48–81.39% (2%/2mm) and 88.23–96.23% (5%/3mm) for various collimator opening patterns. However, the passing rates of the SPAD and EBT3 film ranged from 61.85% to 99.85% at each treatment time point. Under the four different respiratory signal patterns, CR ranged between 21% and 75%. After compensation, the CI for 85%, 90%, and 95% isodose constraints were 0.78, 0.57, and 0.12, respectively.ConclusionsThis study has demonstrated that the dose change during each stage of the treatment process can be analyzed rapidly using the improved SPAD. After compensation, applying the RMCS can reduce the treatment errors caused by respiratory movements.     

Entangled in the imagination: New middle-class apprehensions in an Indian theme park

By analysing a visit to Ramoji Film City, a theme park in Hyderabad, by a group of youths, this essay examines how transterritorial flows of imagery are socially contextualized by India's new middle classes. A theme park is a spatial arrangement thatincorporatesimaginary worlds and makes them available to experiencein a contextless ‘here-and-now’. As such, the theme parkis a stage where the fragileidentity of India's new middle classes is put on trial. Despite the appeal of the theme park for potential middle-class visitors, the visitors I followed appeared largely uninspired by the imagery of the far away and past in Film City, and they found it difficult to incorporate their visit to the theme park as a meaningful social practice. The case of Ramoji Film City shows how the social situatedness of the subject determines the significance of the imagination in the transnational world.