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Seventeen patients with adrenal adenoma causing Cushing's syndrome, eight patients with Cushing's disease due to hypersecretion of ACTH, and five patients with primary aldosteronism due to an aldosteronoma were studied for their computed tomographic (CT) patterns, hormonal profiles, and macroscopic and microscopic findings of the adrenal gland. Black (or brown) adrenal adenomas were found in 71% of the patients with Cushing's syndrome, but not in patients with aldosteronoma. The adrenal tissue of patients with Cushing's disease was predominantly yellow. The number of compact cells was larger in black or brown adenomas than in yellow tumors or hyperplastic adrenal tissue. In patients with Cushing's syndrome, urinary excretion of 17-ketosteroids (17-KS) and serum aldosterone concentrations were lower in those with black or brown adenomas than in those with yellow adenomas (P less than 0.05). Patients with Cushing's disease had even higher 17-KS and serum aldosterone levels. No difference was found in serum cortisol concentrations and dexamethasone suppressibility in two types of adenomas causing Cushing's syndrome. Visual estimation of radiological density of the adrenal tissue relative to the kidney on CT scan and quantitative measurement of it by CT number revealed a difference between the two types of adrenal tumors causing Cushing's syndrome. Adrenal tumors with decreased density on CT scan were yellow adenomas with predominantly clear cells, and those with equal or increased density were black or brown adenomas with predominantly compact cells. All aldosteronomas had decreased density and consisted of clear cells. It is suggested that black or brown adenomas of the adrenal gland have higher radiological density and accompanying lower serum aldosterone and urinary 17-KS levels than ordinary yellow tumors. The abundance of compact cells may have some significance for the development of this particular type of adrenal tumor.

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Many kinds of an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet has been developed and used for widespread applications such as a surface treatment and modified. This study focused on the argon atmospheric-pressure microplasma jet generated by discharging of RF power of 2.45GHz microwave. The plasma jet shows sensitivity to surrounding environment; pressure, temperature and gaseous species. It is therefore absolutely imperative that a nature of atmospheric-pressure plasma jet should be understood from a point of fluid dynamics. This study, therefore, focused on the interrelationship between the plasma jet and the working gas.Motion of the plasma jet and the working gas were evaluated by velocity measurement and fast photography. As a result, the unsteady sinusoidal waving motion in the radial direction of a torch was observed. Advection velocity of the plasma in just downstream region of the torch exit increases with the supplying flow rate, and the velocity ratio is in the range of 0.75-0.87.

Lubricants on thin-film disks have large effects on head-disk interface characteristics. They reduce head and disk wear while thick lubricant film increases friction force between them and lubricant transfer onto head surfaces. Therefore, we have to know the lubricant behavior in many cases. Lubricant depletion due to disk rotation has been studied very well. However, the effects of flying heads have not been understood systematically until now. We developed a simulation program to numerically calculate the change in lubricant thickness under a flying head on a thin-film magnetic disk. The program included the effects of centrifugal force, shear stress from the air due to disk rotation with a flying head, and the effect of lubricant diffusion. We first calculated a change in lubricant thickness under a flying head using previously published data without the effect of diffusion. Calculated results showed fairly good agreement with the published experimental data with very high peaks on both sides of the flying head rails. With the introduction of diffusion effects, these peaks became moderate and the calculated result agreed very well with the experimental data. The coefficient of diffusion obtained to best fit to the experimental data was close to that reported in a literature. We analyzed the effects of air shear stress patterns under flying head on the change in lubricant distribution. We found that the side shapes had large effect on the distribution. We also confirmed that our program could calculate lubricant depletion on rotating disks without a flying head.