1,721,464 research outputs found
The dual roles of Japanese main banks: Contrast before and after the bubble-bursting
No full textThis chapter contrasts the effects of main bank-firm ties on the performance of firms in the changing economic environment of the Japanese financial system. The dual stake of the main bank as stockholder and creditor has a positive effect on stock returns in the growth period, but a negative effect in the contraction period. The empirical results suggest that the current problems in the Japanese economy can be traced back to the failure of corporate governance that cast dark clouds on the Japanese economy after the bursting of the economy in 1990. © 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Development of metastatic lung adenocarcinoma in a twenty-year-old skin graft site on the scalp: A case report
No full textHypopigmented Mycosis Fungoides Mimicking Vitiligo
No full textHypopigmented mycosis fungoides (HMF) is a clinical variant of MF with a presentation similar to other hypopigmented diseases, especially vitiligo. In this article, we report an adult case of HMF mimicking vitiligo. A 53-year-old man presented with an asymptomatic well-defined focal and hypopigmented patch with erythematous to brownish macules on the flank which had been developing over several months without other cutaneous findings. He had no past medical or trauma history. Skin biopsy from the hypopigmented patch indicated a slightly band-like, superficial dermal infiltrate of lymphocytes with mild cytologic atypia and epidermotropism. Fontana-Masson and Mart-1 stains showed a decrease in the epidermal pigment and the number of basal melanocytes. In addition, CD4 and CD8 stains were positive, predominantly the CD8 stain, and loss of CD7 stain was noted in the epidermal atypical lymphocytes. A T-cell receptor gene rearrangement study from the hyperpigmented area showed monoclonality. Finally, we diagnosed the patient with HMF. After about 17 months of treatment with narrow-band ultraviolet B, the hypopigmented lesion had notably improved in both the clinical and histological aspects. The clinical appearance of our case was similar to vitiligo while clinical improvement was also exceptionally similar to the skin findings from follicular repigmentation after narrow-band ultraviolet B treatment in vitiligo. Therefore, dermatologists should consider the clinical differential diagnosis of HMF in patients with an asymptomatic hypopigmentation, especially in dark-skinned Asian patients
Daylight photodynamic therapy with ablative carbon dioxide fractional laser for treating actinic keratosis in Asians: A case series
No full textPhotodynamic Therapy (PDT) is one of the standard treatment modalities for actinic keratoses (AKs). Daylight PDT (DL-PDT) with MAL cream, using daylight as light source, is one of recent treatment for AKs with less pain. Herein, we report cases of AKs successfully treated with DL-PDT in Asian patients. Four patients presented erythematous scaly patches and were diagnosed with AK by skin biopsy. The lesions were pretreated by fractional carbon dioxide laser first and then MAL creams were applied immediately. They went outdoors and exposed daylight for 2 h. They reported little pain of visual analogue scale 0. Clinically cleared lesions were observed with 1 month and 2 month follow-up. No complication such as oozing or scar was reported
Successful Treatment of Granuloma Annulare Using Ablative Fractional Carbon Dioxide Laser-Assisted Photodynamic Therapy
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Influence of lamination pressure upon the stiffness of laminated rotor
No full textin recent years, a laminated rotor made of the insulated silicon steel laminates is increasingly adopted in the electrical machineries. While this laminated rotor offers good electrical performances, it is quite complicated to predict its stiffness as it is influenced by various factors such as material properties and shape of the laminates, characteristics of the insulation layer, lamination pressure and method of fitting. As it is difficult to model or define boundary conditions in the case of lamination pressure or fitting, the stiffness of the laminated rotor cannot simply calculated using conventional analytical method. Therefore, quantitative investigation on the influence of lamination pressure upon the stiffness of laminated rotor is highly required. In this study, natural frequency of the rotor is measured under various conditions of lamination pressure to investigate the influence of lamination pressure upon the stiffness of laminated rotor. It is found from the experiment that the natural frequency is increased with lamination pressure, and saturated near the 20% of the difference between the inner and outer diameters of the laminate. It is also found that the natural frequency can be controlled to 4-14% in the range of 1-10MPa of lamination pressure. The saturated value of the stiffness of laminated rotor is expected to approach to that of shrinkage-fitted cylinder having the same inner and outer diameters under the same assembly condition. It is expected that the results would be helpful to design generators or motors using laminated rotors
RELATIONAL ALGEBRAIC FRAMEWORK FOR THE MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF PETRI NETS
No full textPetri nets are a powerful modelling tool for studying reactive, concurrent systems, While various means of analysis for the nets have been developed, a major limitation in the analysis is explosion of global states space in simulation. An efficient method to manage a large states space would overcome such a limitation, This paper proposes a framework for the modelling and analysis of Petri nets using relational database technologies, Within the framework, Petri nets and associated properties are formalized by relations defined in relational algebra, Analysis algorithms are developed based on such formal relations. Thus, our framework not only exploits all advantages of the database system in the management of complex data but also preserves formalism for the modelling and analysis of Petri nets, The framework has been realized in a commercial relational database system using a standard SQL. We demonstrate the feasibility of our methodology by the comparison of the implementation to an implementation in a memory-based environment
Petri nets modeling and analysis using extended bag-theoretic relational algebra
No full textPetri nets are a powerful modeling tool for studying reactive, concurrent systems, Analysis of the nets can reveal important information concerning the behavior of a modeled system, While various means for the analysis of the nets has been developed, a major limitation in the analysis, is explosion of large states space in simulation. An efficient method to manage large states space would overcome such a limitation. This paper proposes a framework for the modeling and analysis of Petri nets using relational database technologies. Formalism of the framework is based on a bag-theoretic relational algebra extended from the conventional. Within the framework, Petri nets are formalized by bag relations, and analysis algorithms are developed based on such formal relations. Properties associated with the nets are formalized by queries described in terms of the bag-theoretic relational algebra. The framework has been realized in a commercial relational database system using a standard SQL
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