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We report a case of a 74-year-old man with a cluster of differentiation (CD) 7-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the right nasal cavity. Flow cytometry analyses showed CD7 and CD20 positivity in tumor cells. The patient received 6 cycles of R-CHOP plus local radiation therapy because positron emission tomography-computed tomography after R-CHOP revealed an intranasal lesion. The patient achieved complete remission (CR) after radiation therapy. The frequency of CD7-positive DLBCL is rare, and only 11 cases with follow-up of clinical course have been reported thus far. CR or partial response was noted in 8 of 11 cases after receiving rituximab combined with chemotherapy. In total, 9 of 12 cases involved the development of extranodal lesions, which occurred as an intranasal tumor in 3 cases. It is important to examine the clinical features by accumulation of further cases.

Highlights • This is the first literature report of TCC that originated in the colon. • Our case was clinically considered that the TCC primarily occurred in the colon. • CK7 and CK20 expression pattern also suggested that the TCC originated in the colon., Introduction Most transitional cell carcinomas (TCCs) occur in the urinary tract. There are no reports of TCC originating in the colon. This report presents a very rare case of TCC that primarily occurred in the colon. Presentation of case A 78-year-old female presented with adenocarcinoma of the rectum and TCC of the ascending colon. She was screened for urologic and gynecologic carcinomas because the TCC was considered a metastatic lesion; however, cytodiagnosis of urine, the cervix and corpus uteri revealed no abnormal findings. An operation was performed, and histological examination revealed adenocarcinoma of the rectum and TCC of the ascending colon. Immunohistochemical stained specimens of the ascending colon revealed tumor cells of cytokeratin (CK) 7−/CK20+ pattern. Eleven months post-operation, a metastatic TCC was found in the liver. The patient was treated with chemotherapy; however, she died 19 months after the operation. Discussion Our case was clinically considered that the TCC primarily occurred in the colon after analyzing the results of several examinations. Immunohistochemical staining of CK7 and CK20 expression pattern also suggested that the TCC of the ascending colon originated in the colon. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first literature report of TCC that originated in the colon. TCC that primarily occurs in the colon may rapidly progress, as in the case presented. Therefore, it is necessary to establish more appropriate treatment for similar cases.

Highlights • This is the first report regarding the perioperative management of patients with concurrent multiple myeloma and malignant solid tumor. • Our case highlights the need to devise a perioperative management strategy for multiple myeloma patients. • Surgeons should be familiar with the risks associated with discontinuation of multiple myeloma drugs. • Continuation of the multiple myeloma agent may be preferable in patients who do not have marked myelosuppression., Introduction The synchronous incidence of multiple myeloma (MM) and other primary malignant solid tumor is rare. No detailed studies have been published regarding the perioperative management of patients with concurrent MM and malignant solid tumor. We report a patient with concurrent MM and gastric cancer who experienced rapid progression of liver metastasis after lenalidomide was discontinued. Presentation of case An 82-year-old woman with MM was diagnosed with clinical T3N2M0 gastric cancer, and MM had been maintained in remission with lenalidomide. Preoperatively, pancytopenia was found, and lenalidomide was discontinued and lenograstim was administered. Blood transfusions were also administered preoperatively due to anemia caused by tumor bleeding. Surgery was performed after her pancytopenia improved. Intraoperatively, several nodules were found on the liver, which were diagnosed as adenocarcinoma metastases. On postoperative day 13, a low density mass in the liver that was not observed before surgery was shown. The patient received best supportive care because she did not desire adjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer or resumption of treatment for MM. She died of progressive gastric cancer on postoperative day 80. Discussion Discontinuation of lenalidomide in our case may have promoted tumor angiogenesis and lowered antitumor immunity, causing rapid tumor growth and liver metastasis. Continuation of the MM agent may be preferable in patients who do not have marked myelosuppression. Conclusion Surgeons should be familiar with the risks associated with discontinuation of MM drugs when operating on patients with MM and concurrent malignant solid tumor.

A 58-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for evaluation of left flank pain. Abdominal computed tomography showed a greatly enlarged splenic tumor with a massive portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT). We suspected non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) based on the high values of serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor and lactate dehydrogenase. Because there was no superficial lymph node enlargement, ultrasound-guided percutaneous trans-hepatic needle biopsy was performed to obtain a pathological diagnosis of PVTT, instead of a splenectomy, after the patient had provided informed consent. This procedure was thought to be less invasive than splenectomy. Histologic examination revealed CD20-positive NHL. A complete response was achieved after six courses of R-CHOP and it was confirmed by splenectomy. A PVTT due to NHL is extremely rare as compared with that due to hepatocellular carcinoma, gastric cancer, and colon cancer. However, NHL should be considered in the differential diagnosis for a patient with a PVTT, because B cell-NHL tends to have a good prognosis when rituximab combined chemotherapy is administered. We suggest that a percutaneous trans-hepatic needle biopsy may be useful for diagnosing PVTT due to NHL.

We realized single-mode hole-assisted optical fiber (HAF) cord whose fiber has a superior bending loss characteristic that complies with ITU-T Recommendation G. 657 for use in highly reliable optical fiber distribution facilities in central offices. The cord has an excellent anti-shock characteristic, and can be scanned by a conventional optical fiber cord identifier despite its very low bending loss. Experiments show that the single-mode HAF cord and its application to optical signal distribution in a central office can provide highly service reliability.

This paper describes a novel optical fiber line testing system operating at 1.65μm using test light bypass modules. We show a new testing configuration for add/drop multiplexer (ADM) ring networks. The test light bypass modules were installed in individual customer buildings so the test light can bypass the ADMs. We evaluated the bit-error performance with a 2.48832Gbit/s ADM ring network using a prototype test light bypass module. We confirmed that this testing system can monitor the optical fiber cables of an ADM ring network, and that it causes no degradation in transmission quality. We show the operating area provided by the system dynamic range expressed in terms of fiber length and customer building number. The prototype system could monitor an ADM ring network linking five buildings with a 5km loop. We also performed an in-service monitoring field trial in a 2.6km ring network with three ADM nodes. This testing system enables us to reduce the operating, administration, and maintenance cost and improves the transmission quality of ADM ring networks.

An 8-year-old female Golden Retriever had an oral mass and lameness. Multiple osteolysis of the systemic skeleton without monoclonal gammopathy was shown on electrophoresis of serum and urine samples. Cytological and histopathological examinations of the oral mass revealed atypical polymorphic cells similar to myeloid cells, and bone marrow aspiration indicated that these abnormal cells also might have invaded the bone marrow. These cells were negative to peroxidase and non-specific esterase staining, and clonal expansion of B lymphocytes could be detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for antigen receptor gene rearrangement. The case was diagnosed as atypical lymphoma and treated by multi-drug chemotherapy. On the 142nd day after the first admission, the case had remission and the oral mass and multiple osteolysis were improved.

Optical IP services such as FTTH have been growing rapidly, leading to an urgent need to manage the optical fiber network from the central office. We have developed an optical-fiber distribution facility called an IDM. However, the changing FTTH environment means we need further efficiency and cost-effectiveness for network construction and operation work. This paper proposes a novel optical-fiber network management system for the IDM that realizes reducing working time, less skilled work and eliminating human error. This system consists of two technologies with control software, namely optical distribution identification technology using RFID, and automatic navigation technology using an LED and DB. In this paper, we describe optimized work flows for installation and removal work. Moreover, we achieved a reduction of up to 48 % in working time with less skilled workers and accurate DB management by using our proposed system.

We conducted Monte Carlo simulations of polar solutions by explicitly treating the effect of electronic polarizability of solvent molecules. Based on these data, we calculated the energy-gap dependence of electron-transfer rates. It was found that a considerable asymmetry of the energy-gap dependence of the charge-separation rate is brought about by the electronic polarizability. It was also found that the inverted region of the charge-recombination reaction shifts considerably to the smaller energy gap from that of the charge-separation reaction, due to the non-linearity of solvent polarization.

We have conducted Monte Carlo simulations of polar solutions with a spherical hard core model by properly taking into account the electronic polarizability of solvent molecules. We have calculated the free energy curve as a function of the reaction coordinate of electron transfer reactions in cases where the reactant is neutral and charged. From the analysis of the free energy curvature ratio between the two cases, we have found that the electronic polarizability contributes to enhance the non-linear response of solvent polarizations and that this enhancement is greatly strengthened if the translational motion of solvent molecules is frozen.

The reorganization energy of electron-transfer reactions as a function of the distance between donor and acceptor molecules is calculated by Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that the reorganization energy of charge-separations reactions is appreciably different from that of charge-recombination reactions. The average of these values agrees very well with the value obtained by a mean-spherical-approximation theory.

We propose an integrated splitter with reflection-type couplers for combining the modules used for passive double star transmission and fiber line testing systems. We fabricated a silica-based 1/spl times/32 splitter with an array of 32 1.3-1.55/1.65 /spl mu/m wavelength-division-multiplexing couplers using planar lightwave circuit technologies and by embedding multilayered dielectric filters in cross-waveguides located in the splitter outputs. We developed a 64-fiber array block to connect the 64 coupler input/output ports. We achieved low loss characteristics of /spl les/17.5 dB at 1.31 and 1.55 /spl mu/m for the splitter and of /spl les/2.2 dB at 1.65 /spl mu/m for the couplers.

Summary form only given. Passive double star (PDS) optical networks are expected to be used to construct low cost access networks for broadband services. We have already proposed a testing method with a dichroic reflective optical (DRO) filter for PDS networks, which identifies faults between an optical line and transmission equipment on the subscriber side. When the reflections are completely separated, we can identify faults with the conventional method described above. However, when the reflections from the filters are superimposed, this becomes difficult and the identification resolution is greatly degraded. This paper proposes a novel software method using neural networks (NN) to overcome this problem.

This paper describes a new optical fiber line testing system that uses test light bypass modules for monitoring optical fiber cables in add/drop multiplexers (ADM) ring networks. We confirmed that there is no degradation in the transmission quality.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of aging in men and women on muscle functional properties, i.e., muscle force and force per unit of cross-sectional area (force/CSA).A total of 164 volunteers participated in this study and were divided into five groups according to their chronological age as follows: 20s (20--39 yr old), 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s (70--84 yr old). Isokinetic (0, 60, 180, and 300 degrees.s(-1)) knee extensor and flexor peak torque, and CSA of the quadriceps femoris (QF) muscle of the mid-thigh were measured.Peak torque during knee extension and flexion was inversely related to age in both men and women. This was the case irrespective of the speed of contraction in both genders (men: r = -0.797 to -0.756, all P0.001, women: r = -0.639 to -0.530, all P0.001). A significant correlation was observed between CSA of QF and peak torque during isometric knee extension in men (r = 0.827, P0.001) and women (r = 0.657, P0.001). During isometric contraction, the force/CSA exhibited a significant decrease with increasing age in men (r = -0.518, P0.001) but not in women (r = -0.207, NS).These results thus suggest that muscle strength losses would be mainly due to a decline in muscle mass in both genders, whereas age-related decline in muscle function in men may also be the result of neural factors, such as muscle recruitment and/or specific tension.

This paper describes the specifications and measured characteristics of an automatic cross-connecting fiber termination module (auto-FTM) with compact and reliable test access units.

This paper describes the design and system configuration of an optical fiber line testing system that uses test light bypass modules. We clarified the required filter characteristics for the test light bypass module.

This paper discusses an automatic method for setting the optimum OTDR measurement conditions for optical fiber lines with Fresnel reflections. An algorithm is proposed that can find the optimum attenuation of the OTDR detector sensitivity by sensing the peak values of Fresnel reflections on OTDR traces. A neural networks software technology is used in order to select the Fresnel reflection at the cable end with great accuracy. The algorithm is applied to an automatic fiber testing system prototype that is composed of couplers, fiber selectors, an OTDR, a personal computer and fiber lines with connectors and filters. The experimental result shows that the best OTDR measurement conditions can be obtained in a faster process time than the conventional method by the automatic and optimum sensing of Fresnel reflections with the algorithm proposed here.

This paper proposes a novel method for sensing optical connector losses with superimposed Fresnel relfections using OTDR and neural networks which reduces the sensing distance between connectors to one fourth that of the conventional method.

A new identification technique for hole-assisted optical fibre cord is proposed, which is realised by launching visible light into the fibre core and observing the leaked light from a bent fibre, without affecting communication.

Feature Issue on Passive Optical Network Architectures and TechnologiesWe propose what we believe to be a newly developed optical fiber management and testing system with a view to reducing the operation, administration, and maintenance (OA&M) cost for PON. Identification technologies using a mobile access terminal with a two-dimensional code scanner, and fault isolation technologies using a high-spatial-resolution optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) enhance the functions for the registration, administration, and maintenance of PON infrastructure. We evaluated the construction and repair process using our prototype system. We confirmed that it is very easy to register and identify outside plant information. Moreover, we can automatically evaluate fiber lines without the need to involve a worker at the central office. These results show that this system can reduce the OA&M cost for PON.

Highly compact 1/spl times/32 splitters were fabricated using silica-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technologies. The chip size was reduced to 6/spl times/24 mm/sup 2/ by using a 127 /spl mu/m-pitch fibre array and 0.4%-/spl Delta/ waveguides with a 15 mm bending radius. This is /spl sim/1/4 of the size of a conventional 1/spl times/32 splitter. The assembled splitter modules showed low insertion losses of

There is a distinct colour difference between electroplated gold layers and gold-like TiN films deposited by ion plating. In order to improve the hue of TiN coatings we have added carbon atoms to the TiN matrix and studied the influence of the carbon content on the hue of TiCN complex films. The films were prepared by means of the reactive ion-plating method using an in-line system composed of three chambers. The film composition was controlled by regulating the throughput of each reactant gas, i.e. nitrogen, acetylene, methane and hydrogen. The colour of materials is dependent on the optical reflectivity and its dependence on the wavelength and on the lightness. It was found that a colour close to that of electroplated gold could be obtained with an appropriate TiCxNy composition, although the lightness of the film surface decreased as the reactant gas throughput increased.