When inhaled into the warm lungs of a mammalian host (37[degrees]C), these infectious propagules convert into pathogenic yeast (or
spherules for Coccidioides) to cause pneumonia [1].
In Kaali area (Island of Saaremaa, Estonia) both magnetite-silicate and silicate
spherules were identified [2].
Arthrospores are inhaled and converted to
spherules in the lung where they swell, sporulate, burst, and release spores.
The large
spherules (10-80 mcm) are easily seen under microscopy, typically as granulomatous or suppurative inflammatory infiltrate.
No sub-hydrothecal
spherule. Perisarc relatively thick, usually yellowish.
The commercial Catalloy process is similar in concept to Himont's developmental Hivalloy technology except that where Catalloy is an olefinic alloying process, Hivalloy products are made by co-reacting the base PP
spherule with up to 50-60% by weight of non-olefinic monomers.
During the studies of 1994 we found a high concentration of glassy
spherules (microimpactites) in the Lower Atlantic peat of Piila mire 10 km northwest of the Kaali craters (Fig.
Although the
spherules could have come from volcanoes, the droplets' widespread distribution and mineral composition suggest they condensed from a cloud of rock vapor blasted into and above the atmosphere after a massive impact.
The spheres appear to accumulate in the leaky vasculature, or blood vessels, of tumours, releasing their cargo in a controlled, sustained fashion as the
spherule walls and scaffolding break down in the bloodstream.