As a platinum group metal, iridium (Ir) is the scarcest element on the earth but it has been widely used as an antiferromagnetic layer in magnetic recording, crucibles and spark plugs due to its high melting point. In magnetic recording, antiferromagnetic layers have been used to pin its neighbouring ferromagnetic layer in a spin-valve read head in a hard disk drive for example. Recently, antiferromagnetic layers have also been found to induce a spin-polarised electrical current. In these devices, the most commonly used antiferromagnet is an Ir–Mn alloy because of its corrosion resistance and the reliable magnetic pinning of adjacent ferromagnetic layers. It is therefore crucial to explore new antiferromagnetic materials without critical raw materials. In this review, recent research on new antiferromagnetic Heusler alloys and their exchange interactions along the plane normal is discussed. These new antiferromagnets are characterised by very sensitive magnetic and electrical measurement techniques recently developed to determine their characteristic temperatures together with atomic structural analysis. Mn-based alloys and compounds are found to be most promising based on their robustness against atomic disordering and large pinning strength up to 1.4 kOe, which is comparable with that for Ir–Mn. The search for new antiferromagnetic films and their characterisation are useful for further miniaturisation and development of spintronic devices in a sustainable manner.

Oesophageal cooling may alleviate the severity of oesophageal lesions but does not reduce the incidence of this complication under the specific protocol evaluated here.

No abstract

Prostate cancers detected by targeted biopsies with manually controlled targeted biopsy using real-time multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging and transrectal ultrasound fusion imaging have significantly higher grades and longer length compared with those detected by systematic biopsies. Further studies and comparison with the pathological findings of whole-gland specimens have the potential to determine the role of this biopsy methodology in patients selected for focal therapy and those under active surveillance.

No abstract

No abstract

increased intraindividual variability in several biological parameters is associated with aspects of frailty and may reflect impaired physiological regulation. As frailty involves a cumulative decline in multiple physiological systems, we aimed to estimate the overall regulatory capacity by applying a principal component analysis to such variability. The variability of 20 blood-based parameters was evaluated as the log-transformed coefficient of variation (LCV) for one year's worth of data from 580 hemodialysis patients. All the LCVs were positively correlated with each other and shared common characteristics. In a principal component analysis of 19 LCVs, the first principal component (PC1) explained 27.7% of the total variance, and the PC1 score exhibited consistent correlations with diverse negative health indicators, including diabetes, hypoalbuminemia, hyponatremia, and relative hypocreatininemia. the relationship between the PC1 score and frailty was subsequently examined in a subset of the subjects. The PC1 score was associated with the prevalence of frailty and was an independent predictor for frailty (odds ratio per SD: 2.31, P = 0.01) using a multivariate logistic regression model, which showed good discrimination (c-statistic: 0.85). Therefore, the PC1 score represents principal information shared by biomarker variabilities and is a reasonable measure of homeostatic dysregulation and frailty. Studies on variability in blood pressure, plasma glucose levels, hemoglobin concentration, and other parameters have commonly reported associations with adverse outcomes 1-3. In our previous study examining patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis (HD), variability in many other blood-based laboratory parameters was also related to several adverse conditions, such as impaired mobility, hospital admission, increased mortality, and hypoalbuminemia 4. These conditions are in fact elements of frailty, and frailty is considered to be a state of functional decline in many physiological systems 5. Therefore, we speculated that the variability in laboratory parameters may reflect the dysfunction of corresponding regulatory systems and may also be a measure of frailty. Consistent with this idea, the variability of serum albumin concentrations increases with ageing, and this movement accelerates prior to death 6. Others have also suggested a link between physiological regulation and variability in other biological variables 7-10. However, the variability of a single parameter may not properly represent the dysregulation across multiple physiological systems in frailty 11. To develop a comprehensive measure of physiological dysregulation that is consistent with the concept of frailty, we applied a principal component analysis (PCA) to a set of variabilities in laboratory parameters. This procedure, performed on all study participants (n = 580), yielded principal component scores (PC scores) for

Objective: This study aimed to determine the reliability of imprint cytology (IC) for intraoperative diagnosis of pulmonary lesions. Methods:We reviewed 113 cases of pulmonary lesion resection for which a scratch imprint was made intraoperatively. We divided the specimens into two groups (benign and malignant) and compared the scratch IC-based diagnoses against the final histopathological diagnoses in each group for concordance. We also analysed those cases in which the scratch IC preparation was classified as inadequate. Results:The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy of IC diagnoses among the patient cohort were 87.7% (72/82), 100% (7/7), 100% (72/72), 41.2% (7/17) and 88.8% (79/89), respectively. IC yielded some falsenegative results in terms of malignancy, although most of these imprints were of early cancer or cancer with mild cytological atypia. Five (41.6%) of 12 lesions for which the imprint was deemed inadequate were diagnosed histologically as granulomas with caseous necrosis. Conclusion: IC-based diagnoses of pulmonary lesions as malignant correspondedwell with the final histopathological diagnoses, but IC-based diagnoses of negative (ie, without malignant cells) were not as reliable. Thus, pathologists should recognise the limitations of IC, especially for identifying malignant lesions. Also, the possibility of latent bacterial infection in a granuloma with caseous necrosis indicates that an IC preparation deemed inadequate for diagnosis should not be ignored. K E Y W O R D Sgranuloma with caseous necrosis, imprint cytology, intraoperative diagnosis, pulmonary lesion