Imaging manifestations of ductal adenoma of the breast: A case report.

Tubular adenomas of the breast are rare benign epithelium-derived tumours, and so few cases have been reported. Most often, the tumours are palpable, well-circumscribed masses in women of childbearing age and are commonly diagnosed as fibroadenomas both clinically and radiographically. We describe the case of a premenopausal patient with tubular adenoma of the breast who presented with small nipple discharge and a palpable breast mass. On imaging, tubular adenomas are practically indistinguishable from fibroadenomas and most commonly present as oval, circumscribed masses that are hypoechoic on ultrasound. On magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), tubular adenomas may present as lobulated or oval masses with a hyperintense signal on T2-weighted imaging and inhomogeneous internal enhancement on dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. Pathologic findings after resection of the mass confirmed the diagnosis of tubular adenoma.

A machine-learning approach based on multiparametric MRI to identify the risk of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis in patients with early-stage breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that patients with early breast cancer with 1-2 positive sentinel lymph nodes have a lower risk of non-sentinel lymph node (NSLN) metastasis and cannot benefit from axillary lymph node dissection. PURPOSE: To develop the potential of machine learning based on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical factors for predicting the risk of NSLN metastasis in breast cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 144 patients with 1-2 positive sentinel lymph node breast cancer. Multiparametric MRI morphologic findings and the detailed demographical characteristics of the primary tumor and axillary lymph node were extracted. The logistic regression, support vector classification, extreme gradient boosting, and random forest algorithm models were established to predict the risk of NSLN metastasis. The prediction efficiency of a machine-learning-based model was evaluated. Finally, the relative importance of each input variable was analyzed for the best model. RESULTS: Of the 144 patients, 80 (55.6%) developed NSLN metastasis. A total of 24 imaging features and 14 clinicopathological features were analyzed. The extreme gradient boosting algorithm had the strongest prediction efficiency with an area under curve of 0.881 and 0.781 in the training set and test set, respectively. Five main factors for the metastasis of NSLN were found, including histological grade, cortical thickness, fatty hilum, short axis of lymph node, and age. CONCLUSION: The machine-learning model incorporating multiparametric MRI features and clinical factors can predict NSLN metastasis with high accuracy for breast cancer and provide predictive information for clinical protocol.

Elevated Total Serum Immunoglobulin A Levels in Patients with Suspicion for Celiac Disease.

Patients with classic symptoms of celiac disease are often initially tested for serum tissue transglutaminase-immunoglobulin A (tTG-IgA) and total serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels concurrently, as IgA deficiency can lead to falsely low tTG-IgA. There are no guidelines for incidental findings of elevated total serum IgA when testing for celiac disease. In our study, we described the proportion of patients with suspicion of celiac disease who had elevated total serum IgA and the factors that may be associated with these findings. We studied the management of these patients with incidental findings of elevated total serum IgA to identify its clinical significance. To investigate, we performed a retrospective chart review of patients who underwent celiac disease serologic testing at a single clinic from January 2017 to June 2022. We reported further laboratory workup and follow-up for patients with incidental findings of elevated total serum IgA by board-certified immunologists. In our chart review, 848 patients were identified, 85 (10.0%) of whom were found to be negative for celiac disease but had elevated total serum IgA levels (median IgA 351 mg/dL, interquartile range 324-382). Out of 85 patients, 73 were further evaluated by immunologists, with 55 patients undergoing additional laboratory workup. None were diagnosed with specific immunologic conditions. Male sex was identified as associated with elevated total serum IgA findings, and constipation was found in a statistically significant greater frequency of patients with normal total serum IgA rather than elevated total serum IgA. To provide external validation of our findings, we created a second patient cohort within the Stanford Research Repository database. Out of 33,875 patients identified, a similarly high proportion of patients were negative for celiac disease but had elevated total serum IgA levels (9.3%, 3140 patients). In this separate patient cohort, male sex was also identified as being associated with elevated total serum IgA. Our study also provides preliminary evidence that patients with incidental findings of elevated total serum IgA may not need further management or workup, as these abnormalities may not be clinically relevant without other clinical suspicions.

Bioreduction of Cr(VI) using a propane-based membrane biofilm reactor.

The strong physiological toxicity of Cr(VI) makes it widely concerned in wastewater treatment. At present, the simplest and harmless method for treating Cr(VI) is known to be biologically reducing it to Cr(III), making it precipitate as Cr(OH)3(s), and then removing Cr(III) by solid separation technology. Studies have shown that Cr(VI) reduction bacteria can use CH4 and H2 as electron donors to reduce Cr(VI). Based on this, in this study, C3H8 was used as the only electron donor to investigate the potential of C3H8 matrix membrane bioreactor in the Cr(VI) wastewater treatment. The experiment was divided into three stages, each of which run stably for at least 30 days, and the whole process run for 120 days in total. The experiment is divided into three stages, each stage runs stably for at least 30 days, for a total of 120 days. With the increase of the Cr(VI) load, the removal rate gradually decreased. In stage 3, when Cr(VI) concentration was 2.0 mg·L-1, the removal rate was reduced from 90% in the first stage to 75%. According to X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, it is known that Cr(III) is the main product during this process and it is adsorbed on the biofilm as Cr(OH)3 precipitate. During the experiment, the amount of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) produced by microorganisms increased initially and then decreased, and the amount of polysaccharides (PS) was always more than protein (PN). By analyzing the microbial community structure after inoculating sludge and adding Cr(VI), Nocardia and Rhodococcus dominate the biofilm samples. Chromate reductase, cytochrome c, nitrate reductase, and other functional genes related to chromate reductase increased gradually during the experiment.

Synergistic bioreduction of Te(â £) using S(0) as electron donor.

This study for the first time bioreduced Te(IV) using elemental sulfur (S0) as electron donor, achieving 91.17%±0.8% conversion with reaction rate of 0.77 ± 0.01 mg/L/h in a 60-day cultivation. Characterization using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray power diffraction analyses confirmed that most removed Te(IV) was reduced to elemental Te(0) deposits, while ion chromatogram analysis showed that most S(0) was oxidized to sulfite and sulfate. High-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated that the Te(IV) reduction coupled to S(0) oxidation was mediated synergistically by a microbial consortia with S(0)-oxidizing bacteria (Thiobacillus) to generate volatile fatty acids as metabolites and Te(IV)-reducing bacteria (Rhodobacter) to consume formed volatile fatty acids to yield Te(0). The synergy between these two strains presents a novel bioremediation consortium to efficiently treat Te(IV) wastewaters.

Autotrophic induced heterotrophic bioreduction of bromate in use of elemental sulfur or zerovalent iron as electron donor.

Bioreduction of bromate using elementary sulfur (S(0)) or zerovalent iron (Fe(0)) as electron donor was studied. After 60-day cultivation, the microbial consortium achieved high bromate conversion of 91.9 ± 2.1% and 90.0 ± 4.0% in the S(0) and Fe(0) amended tests. A coupling mechanism involving autotrophic oxidation of S(0) or Fe(0) to convert bicarbonate to volatile fatty acids followed by bromate reduction at the oxidation of the volatile fatty acids to CO2 was proposed to interpret the noted reactor performances. The key functional strains including S(0) or Fe(0) oxidizing bacteria (Thiomonas and Ferrovibrio) and bromate reducing bacteria (Pseudoxanthomonas and Clostridium sp.) are identified. The studied system can provide an efficient BrO3- conversion way with no external organic carbon sources.

Simple Rectangular Gratings as a Near-Field "Anti-Reflection" Pattern for GaSb TPV Cells.

We show theoretically that 2D rectangular gratings on the surface of GaSb can serve as an "anti-reflection" pattern for nano-gap thermophotovoltaic (TPV) devices, which significantly enhances near-field radiative flux from the emitter to a GaSb cell, thus improving output power and conversion efficiency. The system in this study is a 200-nm gap TPV power generation system with a planar infrared plasmonic emitter and GaSb cell. Rigorous coupled-wave analysis is used to calculate the spectral near-field radiative flux involving periodic structures. The simulation shows that when coupled with a near-infrared plasmonic bulk emitter, adding gratings on the GaSb cell surface results in strong spectral enhancement above the cell's bandgap and suppression for low-energy photon transmission, an effect that cannot be fully predicted by the effective medium theory. The resultant peak spectral heat flux is 2.8 times as high as the case without surface structures and the radiative transfer efficiency increased to 24.8% from the original 14.5% with the emitter temperature at 1800 K. The influence of the grating's geometry parameters on the enhancement and peak frequency is further discussed with rigorous calculation of the spatial distribution of thermal radiative transfer that provided insight into the physical mechanism.

New Insight into the Angle Insensitivity of Ultrathin Planar Optical Absorbers for Broadband Solar Energy Harvesting.

Two challenging problems still remain for optical absorbers consisting of an ultrathin planar semiconductor film on top of an opaque metallic substrate. One is the angle-insensitive mechanism and the other is the system design needed for broadband solar energy harvesting. Here, first we theoretically demonstrates that the high refractive index, instead of the ultrathin feature as reported in previous studies, is the physical origin of the angle insensitivity for ultrathin planar optical absorbers. They exhibit omnidirectional resonance for TE polarization due to the high complex refractive index difference between the semiconductor and the air, while for TM polarization the angle insensitivity persists up to an incident angle related to the semiconductor refractive index. These findings were validated by fabricating and characterizing an 18 nm Ge/Ag absorber sample (representative of small band gap semiconductors for photovoltaic applications) and a 22 nm hematite/Ag sample (representative of large band gap semiconductors for photoelectrochemical applications). Then, we took advantage of angle insensitivity and designed a spectrum splitting configuration for broadband solar energy harvesting. The cascaded solar cell and unassisted solar water splitting systems have photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells that are also spectrum splitters, so an external spectrum splitting element is not needed.

Ultrathin planar hematite film for solar photoelectrochemical water splitting.

Hematite holds promise for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting due to its stability, low-cost, abundance and appropriate bandgap. However, it suffers from a mismatch between the hole diffusion length and light penetration length. We have theoretically designed and characterized an ultrathin planar hematite/silver nanohole array/silver substrate photoanode. Due to the supported destructive interference and surface plasmon resonance, photons are efficiently absorbed in an ultrathin hematite film. Compared with ultrathin hematite photoanodes with nanophotonic structures, this photoanode has comparable photon absorption but with intrinsically lower recombination losses due to its planar structure and promises to exceed the state-of-the-art photocurrent of hematite photoanodes.

Calculation and experimental validation of spectral properties of microsize grains surrounded by nanoparticles.

Opacified aerogels are particulate thermal insulating materials in which micrometric opacifier mineral grains are surrounded by silica aerogel nanoparticles. A geometric model was developed to characterize the spectral properties of such microsize grains surrounded by much smaller particles. The model represents the material's microstructure with the spherical opacifier's spectral properties calculated using the multi-sphere T-matrix (MSTM) algorithm. The results are validated by comparing the measured reflectance of an opacified aerogel slab against the value predicted using the discrete ordinate method (DOM) based on calculated optical properties. The results suggest that the large particles embedded in the nanoparticle matrices show different scattering and absorption properties from the single scattering condition and that the MSTM and DOM algorithms are both useful for calculating the spectral and radiative properties of this particulate system.

A new route for unburned carbon concentration measurements eliminating mineral content and coal rank effects.

500 million tons of coal fly ash are produced worldwide every year with only 16% of the total amount utilized. Therefore, potential applications using fly ash have both environmental and industrial interests. Unburned carbon concentration measurements are fundamental to effective fly ash applications. Current on-line measurement accuracies are strongly affected by the mineral content and coal rank. This paper describes a char/ash particle cluster spectral emittance method for unburned carbon concentration measurements. The char/ash particle cluster spectral emittance is predicted theoretically here for various unburned carbon concentrations to show that the measurements are sensitive to unburned carbon concentration but insensitive to the mineral content and coal rank at short wavelengths. The results show that the char/ash particle cluster spectral emittance method is a novel and promising route for unburned carbon concentration on-line measurements without being influenced by mineral content or coal rank effects.