Pattern recognition of forced oscillation technique measurement results using deep learning can identify asthmatic patients more accurately than setting reference ranges.

No official clinical reference values have been established for MostGraph, which measures total respiratory resistance and reactance using the forced oscillation technique, complicating result interpretation. This study aimed to establish a reference range for MostGraph measurements and examine its usefulness in discriminating participants with asthma from controls (participants without any respiratory diseases). The study also aimed to investigate the effectiveness of deep learning in discriminating between the two aforementioned groups. To establish reference ranges, the MostGraph measurements of healthy controls (n = 215) were power-transformed to distribute the data more normally. After inverse transformation, the mean ± standard deviation × 2 of the transformed values were used to establish the reference ranges. The number of measured items outside the reference ranges was evaluated to discriminate patients with asthma (n = 941) from controls. Additionally, MostGraph measurements were evaluated using deep learning. Although reference ranges were established, patients with asthma could not be discriminated from controls. However, with deep learning, we could discriminate between the two groups with 78% accuracy. Therefore, deep learning, which considers multiple measurements as a whole, was more effective in interpreting MostGraph measurement results than use of reference ranges, which considers each result individually.

Exceptional plasticity of silicon nanobridges.

The plasticity of covalently bonded materials is a subject at the forefront of materials science, bearing on a wide range of technological and fundamental aspects. However, covalent materials fracture in a brittle manner when the deformation exceeds just a few per cent. It is predicted that a macroscopically brittle material like silicon can show nanoscale plasticity. Here we report the exceptional plasticity observed in silicon nanocontacts ('nanobridges') at room temperature using a special experimental setup combining a transmission electron microscope and a microelectromechanical system. When accounting for surface diffusion, we succeeded in elongating the nanocontact into a wire-like structure, with a fivefold increase in volume, up to more than twenty times the original length. Such a large plasticity was caused by the stress-assisted diffusion and the sliding of the intergranular, amorphous-like material among the nanocrystals.

Double primary adenocarcinomas of the jejunum and descending colon with lung metastases presenting rare immunohistochemical phenotypes: a case report.

We report a male patient with double advanced tumors in the jejunum and descending colon and multiple lung tumors. The intestinal cancers were surgically resected. Immunoprofiling of the specimens revealed a rare phenotype: the jejunal cancer was positive for cytokeratin (CK) 7, partially positive for CK20, and Cdx-2-negative, whereas the colon cancer was CK7(+), CK20(-), and Cdx-2(-). Biopsied lung tumor was diagnosed as tubular adenocarcinoma, and CK7(+)/CK20(+)/Cdx-2(-). Together with clinical information, we deduced that the jejunal adenocarcinoma had presumably metastasized to the lung. Moreover, postoperative oxaliplatin, including chemotherapy, significantly reduced the lung metastases, suggesting that this regimen is a promising treatment option for advanced small bowel adenocarcinoma.

Real-time transmission electron microscope observation of gold nanoclusters diffusing into silicon at room temperature.

Gold diffusion into silicon at room temperature was observed in real time with atomic resolution. Gold nanoclusters were formed on a silicon surface by an electrical discharge between a silicon tip and a gold coated tip inside an ultrahigh-vacuum transmission electron microscope (TEM) specimen chamber. At the moment of the gold nanocluster deposition, the gold nanoclusters had a crystalline structure. The crystalline structure gradually disappeared due to the interdiffusion between silicon and gold as observed after the deposition of gold nanoclusters. The shape of the nanocluster gradually changed due to the gold diffusion into the damaged silicon. The diffusion front between silicon and gold moved toward the silicon side. From the observations of the diffusion front, the gold diffusivity at room temperature was extracted. The extracted activation energy, 0.21 eV, matched the activation energy in bulk diffusion between damaged silicon and gold. This information is useful for optimizing the hybridization between solid-state and biological nanodevices in which gold is used as an adhesive layer between the two devices.

Gamma-delta T cell is essential for allergen-induced late asthmatic response in a murine model of asthma.

BACKGROUND: Gamma-delta (gamma-delta) T cells regulate immune responses at mucosal surfaces. Whether they can modify allergen-induced early (EAR) and late airway responses (LAR) is unknown. OBJECTIVE: We have tested the hypothesis that the gamma-delta T cells enhance allergen-induced airway responses in mice. METHODS: BALB/c wild-type (WT) mice and gamma-delta T cell-deficient (gamma-delta T-cell KO) mice were sensitized by intraperitoneal injection of ovalbumin (OVA) on days 1 and 15, immunized with 1% OVA aerosol on days 29-31, and challenged with 5% OVA or saline on day 33. Enhanced pause (Penh) was measured and BAL fluid was collected after challenge. Serum IgE was measured before challenge. The percentage of interleukin (IL)-4 and interferon (IFN)-gamma producing T cells in splenocytes from sensitized animals was determined by flow cytometry. RESULTS: Both EAR and LAR were observed in OVA-challenged WT mice. LAR but not EAR was inhibited in OVA-challenged gamma-delta T-cell KO mice. Gamma-delta T-cell KO mice showed less eosinophilia in BALF and serum OVA-specific IgE. In the sensitization period, the percentage of IFN-gamma producing alpha-beta T cell in gamma-delta T-cell KO mice was higher than that in WT mice. CONCLUSION: gamma-delta T cells enhance LAR and airway inflammation but not EAR in this model of asthma.

[Chronic summer-type hypersensitivity pneumonitis presenting with acute exacerbation].

A 77-year-old man was admitted to our hospital. He had first noticed a cough, sputum production, and low-grade fever during the summer of 1988. He was diagnosed as having summer-type hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) in 1989 on the basis of positive findings of anti-Trichosporon antibodies in the serum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and and in environmental provocation tests. Thereafter, he presented with re-exacerbation of his disease in summer every year. In 1995, he retired from his work at a moldy hotel and moved to another house to avoid the causative antigen completely. There was no recurrence for the following 5 years. He suffered from cough, sputum production, and dyspnea 4 months after returning to his previous moldy house in October, 2000. A chest CT scan showed peribronchial and subpleural honeycombing, ground glass opacities, and traction bronchiectasis. BAL demonstrated that the lymphocyte count had changed from 78.9% to 42.9% and the CD4/CD8 ratio from 0.39 to 4.07 in 12 years. Antigen avoidance and steroid therapy have improved his condition. However, he stayed repeatedly in his moldy house, and finally died from acute exacerbation in March, 2002. Postmortem examination demonstrated diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) superimposed on honeycombing in the lungs.

Profile structure of magnetic flux lines in type-II superconductor from a rectangular electron hologram.

Profile magnetic configuration of a quantized flux line and flux-line lattice penetrating a type-II superconductor thin foil, niobium, was observed by electron holography and Lorentz microscopy using a 300 kV field-emission electron microscope. Each single flux line was distributed periodically as lattice structure in the mixed state just below its critical temperature of 8.5 K, while at low temperature of 5 K the flux lines were weakly bound as bundles. In order to observe the flux-line distribution over a wide area, discrete Fourier transform reconstruction in the holography was extended for a rectangular area without loss of information and data precision.

Feather duvet lung.

BACKGROUND: Bird fancier's lung (BFL) is a type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which is induced by inhalation of bird related antigens. The diagnosis of BFL induced by feathers is difficult because feathers are generally not recognized as a causative antigen of BFL. We report a female case of chronic BFL presumably due to a feather duvet, which presents as pulmonary fibrosis. CASE REPORT: A 73 year-old woman presented with exertional dyspnea for the last three years. She had raised two pigeons for three years (1971-1973) in her forties and had been using a feather duvet for the last eight years (1992-2000). A chest X-ray showed reticular infiltrates in the both peripheral lung field and an HRCT scan showed scattered consolidation, micronodules, and peribronchial ground-glass opacities. Lymphocyte proliferation to the feather antigen was positive and inhalation provocation test using a bird antigen was also positive. Thoracoscopic biopsy specimens showed organization, cholesterol clefts, alveolitis around terminal and respiratory bronchioles--all of which are consistent with chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Clinical findings have spontaneously improved after she stopped using her feather duvet. CONCLUSIONS: Feather beds including duvets, pillows, and cushions are now popular all over the world. Physicians should be aware of feathers as a cause of BFL since this induction seems to be more prevalent.

Transmission laser microscope using the phase-shifting technique and its application to measurement of optical waveguides.

A type of a transmission phase-shifting laser microscope, believed to be new, has been developed. In this microscope a biprism located between a magnifying lens and an observation plane was used as a beam splitter. The biprism is laterally translated to introduce phase shifts required for quantitative phase measurement with a phase-shifting technique. The disturbance caused by a Fresnel-diffracted wave from the splitting edge of the biprism is reduced by placement of a linear beam stopper at the center of an intermediate image plane. As the first application, the developed microscope is used to measure a refractive-index distribution in optical waveguides. A difference of refractive indices of less than 6 x 10(-5) is clearly measured in the submicrometer region.