人体寄生虫虫卵图像的自动识别

本文对显微医学图像的自动识别进行了初步研究，在微型计算机上实现了血吸虫等十余种人体寄生虫虫卵显微图像的预处理、分割、特征提取及识别与分类。通过对一批检验样本的识别分类，取得了正确率为９２％的较好结果。     

Breast cancer in Cowden's disease: a case report with review of the literature

We report a case of invasive breast cancer in a 62-year-old female patient with Cowden's disease. A left modified radical mastectomy was performed and histopathology of the tumor showed invasive ductal carcinoma, histological grade 3, without lymph node metastasis. The patient had a past history of endometrial cancer at 55 but did not have a family history of malignant disease. Goiter was palpable but aspiration cytology revealed no malignancy. There were several papillomas on the oral mucosa and multiple papillomatous lesions on the right femur. Barium X-ray and endoscopic examination revealed multiple, small, hyperplastic polypoid lesions on the esophagus, stomach and rectum. Histopathology of the biopsy specimens from the esophagus and stomach showed acanthotic squamous epithelium and foveolar hyperplastic polyps. The patient was followed up closely to monitor the thyroid lesions and polyposis of the digestive tract. A total of 12 breast cancer patients who also had Cowden's disease have been reported in Japan and these cases are reviewed in this report.      

Microinvasive breast carcinoma with extensive involvement of level III axillary lymph nodes: a case report

A 44-year-old woman presented with a right huge axillary mass. Both mammography and ultrasonography revealed a primary cancer of 2.8 cm maximum diameter in the right breast and metastases in the axillary lymph nodes, both being confirmed by aspiration cytology as ductal carcinoma. Right standard radical mastectomy with level III axillary lymph node dissection was carried out. Pathologically, the tumor was diagnosed as ductal carcinoma in situ with microinvasion (DCISM), histologic grade 3. The area of stromal invasion measured 1 mm at its widest point. Sixteen of the 17 resected axillary lymph nodes contained metastases, including six level III lymph nodes. Immunohistochemical studies of the tumor revealed overexpression of p53 protein, but not that of c-erbB-2 protein. The frequency of lymph node metastases from DCISM is reported to be very low. Therefore, the present case with extensive involvement of level III lymph nodes was unusual.      

Pregnancy complicated with Buerger's disease.

Buerger's disease is an inflammatory occlusive vascular disorder involving small- and medium-sized arteries in the distal extremities and is usually complicated with thrombophlebitis. Since Buerger's disease develops most frequently in men who smoke, pregnancy complicated with this disease is extremely rare. Only three pregnancies have been reported previously. All cases indicate that Buerger's disease worsens during pregnancy. However, anti-coagulant therapy appeared to be effective in this case. Accordingly, careful observation is mandatory in pregnancies complicated with Buerger's disease.     

Expression of a system L neutral amino acid transporter at the blood-brain barrier

Amino acid transport system L has been proposed to be one of the major nutrient transport systems at the blood-brain barrier. Using immunohistochemical analyses, a system L transporter LAT1 was shown to be expressed in the brain capillary endothelial cells in rats. Because LAT1 was coexpressed with 4F2 heavy chain which brings LAT1 to the plasma membrane, LAT1 is proposed to be functional in the plasma membrane of brain capillary endothelial cells. Both LAT1 and 4F2hc immunoreactivities were detected in a double line appearance surrounding endothelial cell nuclei, suggesting both proteins are present in the luminal and abluminal membranes. LAT1 is, thus, a blood-brain barrier system L transporter responsible for the permeation of aromatic or branched-chain amino acids and amino acid-related drugs such as L-DOPA.     

Cohesin ATPase activities regulate DNA binding and coiled-coil configuration

The cohesin complex is required for sister chromatid cohesion and genome compaction. Cohesin coiled coils (CCs) can fold at break sites near midpoints to bring head and hinge domains, located at opposite ends of coiled coils, into proximity. Whether ATPase activities in the head play a role in this conformational change is yet to be known. Here, we dissected functions of cohesin ATPase activities in cohesin dynamics in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Isolation and characterization of cohesin ATPase temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants indicate that both ATPase domains are required for proper chromosome segregation. Unbiased screening of spontaneous suppressor mutations rescuing the temperature lethality of cohesin ATPase mutants identified several suppressor hotspots in cohesin that located outside of ATPase domains. Then, we performed comprehensive saturation mutagenesis targeted to these suppressor hotspots. Large numbers of the identified suppressor mutations indicated several different ways to compensate for the ATPase mutants: 1) Substitutions to amino acids with smaller side chains in coiled coils at break sites around midpoints may enable folding and extension of coiled coils more easily; 2) substitutions to arginine in the DNA binding region of the head may enhance DNA binding; or 3) substitutions to hydrophobic amino acids in coiled coils, connecting the head and interacting with other subunits, may alter conformation of coiled coils close to the head. These results reflect serial structural changes in cohesin driven by its ATPase activities potentially for packaging DNAs.

The cohesin complex is required for sister chromatid cohesion, DNA damage response, gene expression, and spatial organization of the genome (1, 2). Psm1/SMC1 and Psm3/SMC3 form a stable heterodimer via both hinge–hinge interaction and ATPase heads engagement upon ATP binding (3–5). Cohesin owns two ATPase domains at its globular head. Each ATPase domain contains the Walker A and Walker B consensus sequences found in most ATPases (5, 6) and several other sequence motifs, such as signature motif and D loop (7). Both ATPase domains are required for efficient loading of cohesin (8). Rad21/SCC1, the kleisin subunit with its N-terminal domain, interacts with Psm3/SMC3 coiled coils (CCs) emerging from the head, and its C-terminal domain interacts with Psm1/SMC1 head domain (9–12). Psc3/SCC3 associates with the unstructured region in the middle of Rad21/SCC1 (13–15).Mis4/SCC2/NIPBL functions as the cohesin loader (16, 17). Mis4/SCC2/NIPBL forms a harp-shaped structure (18, 19). Its N-terminal domain binds to Psm3/SMC3 coiled coils close to the head domain and its C-terminal domain binds to Psm1/SMC1 coiled coils close to the head domain (11, 15). Mis4/SCC2/NIPBL also stimulates cohesin’s ATPase activity for efficient cohesin loading (20–22).All coiled coils of SMC complexes (cohesin, condensin, and SMC5-SMC6 complex) are ∼50 nm long and are essential for their functions (23–25). SMC coiled coils contain interruptions (break sites hereafter) that disrupt the characteristic seven-residue amino acid sequence repeats, known as heptad repeats (26, 27). It has been proposed that cohesin folds around the midpoints of its coiled coils to bring the head and hinge domains into proximity (20, 28–30). However, it is still unclear how such molecular architecture of cohesin works to fulfill its function. In this study, we isolated temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants with single amino acid substitutions in the signature motif or D loop of cohesin ATPase domains, which presumably impair ATPase activity of cohesin. Then, screening of suppressor mutations that rescued the lethality caused by ATPase defects identified several hot regions in cohesin SMC subunits, which are involved in DNA binding, interaction with non-SMC subunits, or coiled-coil dynamics around midpoints. Therefore, these results coupled the dynamics of the cohesin complex with ATPase activity.     

Scaphoid fracture geometrics: an assessment of location and orientation

The location and angle of scaphoid fractures are important attributes which guide management. We used a 3 dimensional scaphoid model, generated from CT scans, to map scaphoid fracture planes. The point at which the fracture plane crossed the central axis of the scaphoid was noted. The angle of the fracture planes with regard to the central axis was also noted. This allowed calculation of the location of the fracture and the angle of the 379 fractures. The mean point of intersection for fractures with the scaphoid axis was 50% along the scaphoid. Sixty percent of all fractures were found around the central 20% of the scaphoid. The mean angle between the scaphoid axis and the fracture plane was 63 degrees). On comparing angle with location, as fractures move away from the scaphoid waist, they become less perpendicular to the scaphoid axis (p?p?p?p?=?.018). There was no link between fracture plane angles and age, sex and union status. Most fractures occur at the centre of the scaphoid. There is a link between the location and angle of scaphoid fractures. It also identifies older patients and males are more likely to have more proximal scaphoid fractures.