A case of fat necrosis after breast quadrantectomy in which preoperative diagnosis was enabled by MRI with fat suppression technique

A 63-year-old woman was found to have a left breast mass after quadrantectomy and radiation for bilateral breast cancer on postoperative cyclic examination. Intramammary recurrence could not be excluded by physical examination, mammography, or ultrasound examination. MR imaging with fat suppression technique revealed an oil-containing lesion, indicating fat necrosis. It was confirmed histologically that the mass-forming lesion included no cancer tissue. MR imaging with fat suppression technique appears to be a promising method for identification of postoperative mass lesions of the breast.     

Biological Effects of a Simplified Synthetic Analogue of Ion-Channel-Forming Polytheonamide B on Plasma Membrane and Lysosomes

Polytheonamide B ( 1 ) is a linear 48-mer natural peptide with alternating d - and l -amino acid residues. Compound 1 forms conducting channels for monovalent ions and exhibits potent cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells. Previously, we reported that nanomolar concentrations of 1 induce plasma membrane depolarization and lysosomal pH disruption, which triggers apoptosis. Here, we report the cellular localization and biological action of a simplified synthetic analogue of 1 , polytheonamide mimic 3 . Compared with 1 , the toxicity of 3 against MCF-7 cells is 16 times weaker. Although its plasma membrane depolarization effect is only 3.6 times lower, more 3 (20-fold) is required to neutralize lysosomal pH. Thus, the effective concentrations for lysosomal neutralization and cytotoxicity by 3 are comparable. These results strongly suggest that the activity of 3 against the lysosomal membrane is more important for apoptotic cell death than its effects on the plasma membrane, and provide valuable information regarding the unique behavior of polytheonamide-based molecules.     

Identification of degranulation inhibitors from rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) tea in rat basophilic leukaemia cells

Quercetin, luteolin and chrysoeriol were identified from rooibos tea as degranulation inhibitors in rat basophilic leukaemia cells. The degranulation inhibitory activity of chrysoeriol was first discovered in the present study. When quercetin, luteolin and chrysoeriol were mixed in the ratio that occurs in rooibos tea extract, the mixture inhibited antigen- and calcium ionophore-stimulated degranulation to the same degree as that by the whole rooibos tea extract. These findings indicate that these three flavonoids are the key factors underlying the degranulation inhibitory activity of rooibos tea.     

Deep-ultraviolet near band-edge emissions from nano-polycrystalline diamond

ABSTRACT

Deep-ultraviolet continuous-wave photoluminescence spectroscopy is performed for nano-polycrystalline diamond (NPD) synthesized by a high pressure high-temperature technique. NPD exhibits clear deep-ultraviolet emissions, which originate from intrinsic excitonic transitions assisted by a momentum-conserving phonon with a photon. Surprisingly, the peak emission energy is about 30?meV higher than that of the single-crystalline diamond. Raman scattering spectroscopy indicates that the energy difference should originate from the excitonic properties of the NPD and not the phonon. Hence, NPD has a large bandgap compared to single-crystalline diamond.     

Polymers and cyclic compounds based on a side‐opening type cage silsesquioxane

Polymers having polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) in the main chains are an important class of organic–inorganic hybrid materials. Despite the increasing attention to the POSS polymers, variation of the monomers is still limited. Herein, we have proposed side‐opening POSS (SO‐POSS) monomers. Platinum‐catalyzed hydrosilylation polymerization proceeded to produce polysiloxanes having SO‐POSS in the main chains. The obtained polysiloxanes showed good solubility, high thermal stability, high transparency, and tunable reflective index. In addition, cyclic compounds were obtained during the investigation of the polymerization, and were synthesized with high selectivity under the slightly diluted conditions. The obtained cyclic compounds showed high thermal stability due to the silsesquioxane backbone, and the high dispersibility as a filler in poly(methyl methacrylate) was demonstrated. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019 , 57, 2243–2250     

Existence of eigenvalues embedded in the spectral bands of Schrödinger operators on carbon nanotubes with impurities

Letters in Mathematical Physics - It is known in Korotyaev and Lobanov (Ann Henri Poincaré 8:1151–1176, 2007) and Parchment (Commun Math Phys 275:805–826, 2007) that spectra of...