We report crystallographic, specific heat, transport, and magnetic properties of the recently discovered noncentrosymmetric 5d -electron superconductors CaIrSi3 (Tc = 3.6 K) and CaPtSi3 (Tc = 2.3 K). The specific heat suggests that these superconductors are fully gapped. The upper critical fields are less than 1 T, consistent with limitation by conventional orbital depairing. High, non-Pauli-limited µ0Hc2 values, often taken as a key signature of novel noncentrosymmetric physics, are not observed in these materials because the high carrier masses required to suppress orbital depairing and reveal the violated Pauli limit are not present.

The confocal endomicroscopic diagnosis of the mucin phenotype in gastric cancers was limited to intestinal and mixed phenotypes, but may be useful for the diagnosis of mucin phenotype and differential diagnosis.

Background and Aim: Confocal endomicroscopy is ultra-high-magnification endoscopy with histological observation during ongoing endoscopy. We planned a pilot study of the diagnosis of the depth of esophageal cancer using confocal endomicroscopy for treatment strategies. Methods: Patients had 14 superficial esophageal cancers and one dysplasia. The depth of neoplasms in 15 lesions was confirmed by endoscopic mucosal resection or surgery.We examined the rate of delineation and compared results of confocal imaging with histological findings. We classified two cellular and three microvascular patterns on confocal endomicroscopic images: CP-N for normal squamous mucosa and CP-Ca for cancerous lesion; VP-type A for normal squamous mucosa; VP-type B for T1a-EP and T1a-LPM cancers; and VP-type C for T1a-MM or a more invasive cancer pattern. We measured diameters of microvessels for the three patterns of confocal endomicroscopic images and histological specimens. Results: The rate of delineation was 73.3% (11/15) for esophageal cancer. The results of confocal imaging coincided well with microvessel distribution on horizontal histology. Two endoscopists blindly diagnosed the two types by cellular pattern and the three types by vascular pattern: their overall accuracies were 96% and 89% for the cellular pattern and 85% and 85% for the vascular pattern, respectively. The k value of the cellular pattern and the vascular pattern diagnosis was 0.84 and 0.75, respectively. Conclusion: Scoring and quantification of confocal endomicroscopic images may be useful for the differential diagnosis and diagnosis of superficial invasion by squamous cell carcinoma.

In order to understand the pathogenesis of intracranial hypertension, the intracranial pressure (ICP) has usually been studied with the concept of volumetric pressure. In other words, the ICP is held to derive from the volume of the intracranial elements (e.g., brain, blood and cerebrospinal fluid). In this paper, the authors propose a new concept of the so-called driving pressure and apply it to both clinical and experimental studies. The driving pressure (DP) consists of the combined pressure continuously exerted on the ICP by the arterial pressure (ADP) and venous pressure (VP) systems.

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