Background. Nuclear protein in testis (NUT) midline carcinoma (NMC) is a very rare and aggressive malignancy. In more than two-thirds of these NMC cases, a fusion between NUT and BRD4 or BRD3 has been documented; other variants are rare. The cytology of NMC itself has been sparsely documented and that of variant NMC has never been reported. Case Presentation. A 36-year-old woman was admitted because of a rapidly progressing lung tumor with metastases to the breast and bone. We recently reported this patient as the first case of a variant NMC of the lung harboring an NSD3-NUT fusion, based on immunohistochemical and genetic analyses. Cytological material was available for the present review. A highly cellular smear contained a predominantly noncohesive pattern of monomorphic cells with diameters 2–2.5 times greater than those of small lymphocytes, with a round-to-oval nucleus, slightly irregular nuclear contours, variably prominent nucleoli, scant cytoplasm, and identifiable mitotic figures. Foci of stratification and overt pearl formation, including a dyskeratocyte, were occasionally observed. The necrotic background contained naked nuclei, karyorrhectic debris, apoptotic cells, and macrophages phagocytizing karyorrhectic debris; nuclear crushing was noted. Conclusion. The cytological features of a variant NMC of the lung are described for the first time.

A 41-year-old man presented with an asymptomatic mass in the right medial thigh. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a well-demarcated, 10-cm mass in the right adductor muscles. The margins of the mass exhibited high signal intensity and the rest showed low or iso signal intensity on T1-weighted MR images. However, the high signal intensity was decreased on T2-weighted images with fat suppression. The central part of the tumor was of inhomogeneous high signal intensity on T2-weighted images; after Gd-DTPA injection it enhanced in homogeneously on T1-weighted images with fat suppression. On dynamic computed tomography (CT) in the arterial phase, there were strongly enhancing spotty areas in the tumor. At surgery, a yellow-whitish tumor was resected and a pathological diagnosis of angiomyolipoma (AML) in the thigh was made.

The halophilic marine bacterium, Vibrio vulnificus, occasionally causes fatal septicemia in immunocompromised patients. Mice are commonly used as experimental animals to investigate the virulence of V. vulnificus, however, a large number of mice are generally required for bioassays. The present study examined whether the invertebrate species, silkworms, can be used instead of mice to investigate V. vulnificus virulence. When the silkworms were inoculated with 1.2x107 colony forming units of V. vulnificus OPU1‑Rf, a virulent strain of V. vulnificus, all injected silkworms died within 48 h, however, those injected with culture filtrate or diluent did not. This silkworm infection model was then used to isolate attenuated V. vulnificus mutants from 1,016 transposon‑inserted mutants. Consequently, a harmless mutant, SW998, was isolated. In this strain, the transposon was inserted into the rtxA gene, which is a known V. vulnificus virulence gene. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that silkworms are useful animals for investigating the virulence of V. vulnificus.

Research shows that people are increasingly valuing quality of life, for which reducing housework is key. In laundry, one challenge is stubborn stains like permanent marker and collar/cuff darkening/yellowing. While a common solution is to apply detergent directly to such stains, this takes time, effort (scrubbing), and often does not remove satisfactorily. Although more surfactant in detergent generally produces higher detergency, Alcohol Ethoxylate changes to hexagonal phase when its concentration reaches 30%, limiting surfactant concentration. Alternatively, Methyl Ester Ethoxylate (MEE) has a bent molecular geometry, keeping it in lamellar phase when 30-70% concentrated, so we examined its potential to increase surfactant concentration.We first tested MEE's effectiveness on permanent marker stains. After applying a 30% MEE solution and leaving it for 30 minutes, detergency was 30% and the fabric did not appear clean. Yellowing or permanent marker stains are caused by polymerized sebum and resin components, so we theorized that surfactant alone could not fully emulsify them.    Hence, we switched focus to the solubility parameter (SP value). When we applied an agent with a similar SP value as the permanent marker stain together with the detergent and left it for 30 minutes, detergency increased to around 40%. Furthermore, after extending application time to 6-12 hours, the detergency of applying surfactant alone increased to 70%, but the combination of agent and extended application time increased it to 85%, achieving an overwhelmingly clean appearance. This suggests that detergency factors include effectiveness of application time and polarity transformation due to water volatilization. Therefore, we believe that extended application of MEE is a simple method to achieve thorough cleanliness, which can reduce housework.  In this report, we discuss stain dissolution after detergent application and the corresponding change of detergent state during extended application. We also report on application examples incorporating washing machine programs.

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