Background: Intracranial epidermoid cysts (IEC) are benign congenital intracranial lesions that rarely undergo malignant transformation. We report a case of IEC evolving into squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) 1-year post-resection. Further, we conducted a systematic review on cases of early malignant transformations of IECs. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Scopus were searched from inception until December 2023 for studies reporting malignant transformations of IECs within 2 years of diagnosis. Results: A 48-year-old female underwent surgical resection of a cerebellopontine angle (CPA) IEC in May 2022. She re-presented in July 2023 with headaches, nausea, vomiting, right facial weakness, and rapid cyst progression. Repeat surgical resection revealed a high-grade SCC. Our systematic review identified 19 (10 females, 9 males) additional IEC cases undergoing malignant transformation within 2 years. The mean age at presentation was 57.6 years, most common location was CPA (n=13, 68.4%) and mean time between IEC to malignant transformation was 10.6 months. Eighteen (94.7%) cases transformed to SCC, of which 2 had leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, and 1 transformed to glioblastoma. Conclusions: While malignant transformations of IECs are rare, regular postoperative follow-up is crucial for early malignancy detection and treatment initiation. Further study is warranted to evaluate factors contributing to accelerated malignant progression of IECs.

Investments by Asian Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) continue to be of concern in the global economy. A common perception is that they are managed by state-affiliated entities with geostrategic motives that could somehow prove detrimental to host countries. This paper demonstrates, however, that even the definition, let alone the establishment and investment targets, of Asian SWFs are embroiled in ambiguity within home country politics. Plainly put, ambiguity refers to the absence of clear-cut policy processes, means, and goals. How do we explain the ambiguity surrounding SWFs? Ambiguity is not a cover for deliberate, cohesive, and strategic actions, because SWFs are not under the control of any one set of actors. Rather, perhaps to the discomfort even of home country sovereigns, ambiguity is a messy domestic product of contending political forces that do not allow a marked trend toward any one single policy equilibrium on sovereign investments, whether domestic or foreign. While this reality is perhaps understandable in a democratic polity, it is also equally true of authoritarian ones in the region. In both types of cases, ambiguity is constructed inadvertently by the interactions of state, interstate, and intrastate actors, each with their own interests and expectations about the role of SWFs. Analyzing the cases in Singapore, China, Japan, and other Asian countries, from this unifying perspective suggests that while ambiguity may fuel external anxiety concerning home country intentions, it actually reflects far more domestically salient controversies about SWF activities than is typically appreciated.

During two legionellosis outbreak investigations, one at a geriatric centre and the other in high-rise housing for seniors, it was observed that additional cases of legionellosis occurred in nearby smaller residential settings. This apparent geographical cluster of legionellosis occurred in the same general area of a community water storage tank. No potential airborne sources in or near the area could be identified, but a community water system storage tank that was centrally located among case residences spurred an investigation of water-quality factors in the identified investigation area. Conditions conducive for Legionella growth, particularly low chlorine residuals, were found. The rate of legionellosis among residents aged ⩾50 years in the investigation areas (61·0 and 64·1/100 000) was eight times higher than in the rest of the service area (9·0/100 000) and almost 20 times higher than the statewide annual average incidence rate (3·2/100 000). A water mains flushing programme in the area was launched by the water utility, and water samples taken before and during flushing found L. pneumophila.

In this study, a novel procedure has been developed for predicting the notched strengths of composite plates each with a center hole. In this approach, the stress distribution of a composite plate with a center hole is first obtained by a finite element analysis, in which the experimental notched strength is applied at the boundary of the finite element model. Secondly, the point stress criterion (PSC) is used to find the characteristic length for each plate with different size of hole by an interpolation of the finite element analysis results. The characteristic length is then expressed as an empirical function of the hole size as well as the width of the plate. Finally, the notched strengths of composite plates are predicted based on the empirical function and the finite element analysis results incorporated with the principle of superposition in elasticity. For validation, three different cases from the literatures are adopted for comparison. It is shown that the predicted notched strengths by this new methodology agree well with both the experimental results and the results from analytical solutions based PSC.

We report production of a self-injected, collimated (8 mrad divergence), 600 pC bunch of electrons with energies up to 350 MeV from a petawatt laser-driven plasma accelerator in a plasma of electron density ne = 1017 cm−3, an order of magnitude lower than previous self-injected laser-plasma accelerators. The energy of the focused drive laser pulse (150 J, 150 fs) was distributed over several hot spots. Simulations show that these hot spots remained independent over a 5 cm interaction length, and produced weakly nonlinear plasma wakes without bubble formation capable of accelerating pre-heated (~1 MeV) plasma electrons up to the observed energies. The required pre-heating is attributed tentatively to pre-pulse interactions with the plasma.

The chromosome 8q24 region (specifically, 8q24.21.a) is known to harbor variants associated with risk of breast, colorectal, prostate, and bladder cancers. In 2008, variants rs10505477 and rs6983267 in this region were associated with increased risk of invasive ovarian cancer (p < 0.01); however, three subsequent ovarian cancer reports of 8q24 variants were null. Here, we used a multi-site case-control study of 940 ovarian cancer cases and 1,041 controls to evaluate associations between these and other single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in this 8q24 region, as well as in the 9p24 colorectal cancer associated-region (specifically, 9p24.1.b). A total of 35 SNPs from previous reports and additional tagging SNPs were assessed using an Illumina GoldenGate array and analyzed using logistic regression models, adjusting for population structure and other potential confounders. We observed no association between genotypes and risk of ovarian cancer considering all cases, invasive cases, or invasive serous cases. For example, at 8q24 SNPs rs10505477 and rs6983267, analyses yielded per-allele invasive cancer odds ratios of 0.95 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82–1.09, p trend 0.46) and 0.97 (95% CI 0.84–1.12, p trend 0.69), respectively. Analyses using an approach identical to that of the first positive 8q24 report also yielded no association with risk of ovarian cancer. In the 9p24 region, no SNPs were associated with risk of ovarian cancer overall or with invasive or invasive serous disease (all p values > 0.10). These results indicate that the SNPs studied here are not related to risk of this gynecologic malignancy and that the site-specific nature of 8q24.21.a associations may not include ovarian cancer.

Rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens, Geraniaceae) has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, and promotes wound healing. Similarly, Ganoderma tsugae (Ganodermataceae), Codonopsis pilosula (Campanulaceae) and Angelica sinensis (Apiaceae) are traditional Chinese herbs associated with immunomodulatory functions. In the present study, a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted to examine whether the Chinese medicinal herb complex, RG-CMH, which represents a mixture of rose geranium and extracts of G. tsugae, C. pilosula and A. sinensis, can improve the immune cell count of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy to prevent leucopenia and immune impairment that usually occurs during cancer therapy. A total of fifty-eight breast cancer patients who received chemotherapy or radiotherapy were enrolled. Immune cell levels in patient serum were determined before, and following, 6 weeks of cancer treatment for patients receiving either an RG-CMH or a placebo. Administration of RG-CMH was associated with a significant reduction in levels of leucocytes from 31·5 % for the placebo group to 13·4 % for the RG-CMH group. Similarly, levels of neutrophils significantly decreased from 35·6 % for the placebo group to 11·0 % for the RG-CMH group. RG-CMH intervention was also associated with a decrease in levels of T cells, helper T cells, cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells compared with the placebo group. However, these differences between the two groups were not statistically significant. In conclusion, administration of RG-CMH to patients receiving chemotherapy/radiotherapy may have the capacity to delay, or ease, the reduction in levels of leucocytes and neutrophils that are experienced by patients during cancer treatment.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

Taiwan Photon Source is a new 3-GeV ring with characteristics of great brightness and small emittance, at present under construction at National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) site in Taiwan and due to be commissioned in 2013. The positioning of the magnets is highly sensitive to alignment errors, and the entire building will be constructed half underground at depth 12 m relative to Taiwan Light Source (TLS) for stability reasons; for these reasons the survey and alignment work is confined and difficult. To position magnets precisely and quickly, a highly accurate auto-tuning girder system combined with a survey network was designed to accomplish the alignment tasks. The survey network includes a preliminary Global Positioning System (GPS) network and a laser-tracking network. The position data from the survey network define a basis for the system of motorized girders to auto-tune and improve the accuracy. The detailed survey and alignment design, simulation and preliminary data are described in this paper.

Taiwan Photon Source (TPS), a new 3 GeV synchrotron ring, is under construction at National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC). To discover problems of design, manufacture and installation, a mockup of 1/24 section (one cell) of TPS was installed at NSRRC. A modified, precise, six-axis, prototype girder system of this mockup composed of three girders was fabricated. We discuss both the installation of the girder system and its diagnostics, and present the results including measurement of the dimensions of the components of the girder system and the vibration tests.

In this study an effective numerical approach is proposed for calculation of exhaust pipe flows. The flow inside an exhaust pipe is very complicated, since that flow involves pulsating hot gases with blast waves discharged from an internal combustion engine. In order to accurately simulate the complicated pulsating flow with the effects of heat transfer and friction at the duct wall, two systems of quasi-onedimensional model equations are employed, which resulted from the governing equations of the mass, momentum and energy conservation. One system of model equations with the terms of heat loss and wall friction results from the dimensionless governing equations based on dimensionless time variable t1 where t1 is defined as the dimensional time divided by the ratio of the pipe length to the time-average flow velocity at the pipe inlet. This system of model equations is numerically solved for a steady exhausted gas-flow without blast waves. The computed steady flow is referred as a basic flow. The other system of model equations without the terms of heat loss and wall friction results from the dimensionless governing equations based on dimensionless time variable t2, where t2 is defined as the dimensional time divided by the ratio of the pipe length to the speed of sound at the pipe inlet. The latter model is used for predicting exhausted gas-flows with blast waves. These two systems of model equations are solved by a th-order weighted essential non-oscillation scheme. It is found that the computed result of the peak pressures, temperature, and flow velocity at some check points for an exhaust pipe at different engine speeds agrees reasonably well with experimental data.

The investigation of the kinetic cross-field streaming instability, motivated by the research of collisionless shock waves and previously studied by Wu et al., is discussed more fully in the present work. Since, in the ramp region of a quasi-perpendicular shock, electrons can be preferentially heated in the direction transverse to the ambient magnetic field, it is both desirable and necessary to include the effect of the thermal anisotropy on the instability associated with a shock. The present study has found that Te⊥ > Te‖ can significantly enhance the peak growth rate of the cross-field streaming instability when the electron beta is sufficiently high. Furthermore, the present analysis also improves the analytical and numerical solutions previously obtained.