Endocrine disruption in male mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) inhabiting wetlands in Western Australia

The use of gonopodial indices as potential indicators of endocrine disruption in the mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki inhabiting south west Australian wetlands was investigated. A minimum of 50 mature males was collected from each of five water-bodies in the Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia, in order to measure morphological features related to reproduction. A set of morphological measurements were used to derive the following indices: gonopodium length/standard body length, pre-anal length/standard body length, the index of elongation and the percentage of male fish with hooks on the distal end of the gonopodium. Indices of male mosquitofish collected from Jack Finney Lake, located in the Curtin University campus, suggest the presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in this water-body, while those from Lake Kulinup suggest this is a site of concern. Indices of male fish from the Wagerup wetland, Lake Monger and Loch McNess indicate that fish inhabiting these wetlands are not affected by EDCs. This preliminary study suggests that EDCs may be present in a number of wetlands of the Swan Coastal Plain. Further study using EDC specific markers such as vitellogenin induction in male mosquitofish is required to confirm whether EDCs are present in these water-bodies.     

Zur Klinik der Herzmyxome

Zusammenfassung Anhand des eigenen Krankengutes von 9 Patienten werden Klinik, Diagnostik und Pathologie der Herzmyxome dargestellt. Das klinische Bild wird durch Tumorembolisation, durch hämodynamische Tumorobstruktion und durch Autoimmunreaktion geprägt. Unter den diagnostischen Maßnahmen gebührt heute der Echokardiographie der Vorrang. Angiographische Untersuchungen sind nur bei unklarem oder negativem echokardiographischen Befund notwendig. Nach Diagnosestellung hat die Operation als Notfalleingriff zu erfolgen. Bei dem operativen Eingriff müssen alle Maßnahmen zur Tumorembolisation berücksichtigt werden. Mit guten Langzeitergebnissen ist nur dann zu rechnen, wenn der operative Eingriff vor der Manifestation irreversibler Veränderungen erfolgt. Bei den Myxomen handelt es sich um pathologisch-anatomische echte Herztumoren, die histologisch aus einem myxoiden Stroma und sogenannten Myxomzellen bestehen.

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Clinical findings on heart myxoma

Summary Clinical findings, diagnosis, and pathology of heart myxoma are discussed on the basis of personal experience with nine patients. There was a striking variety of signs and symptoms caused by tumor embolization, hemodynamic obstruction, and autoimmunologic reactions. Echocardiography is the method of choice, although angiography may still be necessary in atypical or negative echocardiographic findings. The tumor should be removed as soon as possible after diagnosis. There is danger of tumor embolization in the course of the operation. Long-term results are good, if resection of the tumors is performed before catastrophic complications occur. Morphologically, myxomas are genuine tumors characterized by myxomatous stromata and cells.

Herrn Prof. Dr. W. Doerr zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet     

Drei Fälle eines Riesenzellfibroms des Stimmbandes

Summary Three cases of giant cell fibroma of the vocal cord are reported. The histological and cytological features of the extirpated tissue confirm the benigne character of these tumors.

     

中药旋覆花的本草考证和形态组织学研究

根据本草考证,作者认为我国古代所用旋覆花为菊科植物旋覆花Inula japonica Thunb.与欧亚旋覆花Inula britannica L.。本文描述了目前所使用的七种旋覆花的生药性状与组织构造,列表比较了其宏观与微观的主要区别点,并编写了分种检索表。可供鉴别的主要种间差异在于非腺毛和腺毛的多寡、长度与分布以及草酸钙结晶的数量与类型。并发现旋覆花花药草酸钙结晶的消长与花药和花粉粒的发育似有一定关系。作者还对一些文献上旋覆花、欧亚旋覆花和线叶旋覆花的学名写法提出了意见。     

Toxicological effects of acrylamide on rat testicular gene expression profile

Toxicological effects of acrylamide on differential gene expression profile of rat testis were evaluated. Acrylamide induced morphological sperm defects, and decreased sperm concentration in cauda epididymis. Serum testosterone level and Leydig cell viability were also decreased dose-dependently, which resulted in decreased spermatogenesis. Acrylamide-induced histopathological lesions, such as formation of multinucleated giant cells and vacuolation, and numerous apoptotic cells were observed in seminiferous tubules. cDNA microarray analysis revealed that genes related to testicular-functions, apoptosis, cellular redox, cell growth, cell cycle, and nucleic acid-binding were up/down-regulated in testes isolated from acrylamide-treated group (60 mg/kg/day). Acrylamide toxicity appears to increase Leydig cell death and perturb gene expression levels, contributing to sperm defects and various abnormal histopathological lesions including apoptosis in rat testis.     

Gallbladder Sarcoma: A Clinicopathological Study of Seven Cases from the UK and Austria with Emphasis on Morphological Subtypes

Background Primary sarcoma of the gallbladder (PGBS) is rare, with only 40 cases reported in the literature. Most of these have been diagnosed as leiomyosarcoma. We aimed to evaluate the histological features of a case series of this rare tumor and correlate these with clinical features. Design Cases recorded as “gallbladder sarcoma” from different institutes were reviewed and the clinicopathological features of these cases were recorded. Only primary gallbladder wall mesenchymal tumors were included. Epithelial tumors, mixed tumors (carcinosarcoma or sarcomatoid carcinoma), and tumors extending into the gallbladder from the abdomen or sarcoma with other known primaries were specifically excluded. Result PGBS occurred in one male and six females with a median age of 70 (range 64–82) years. Patients presented with acute or chronic cholecystitis, abdominal pain, weight loss, and pruritis. They were generally found to have elevated alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin, and leukocytosis. Tumors ranged from 1.1 to 4 cm with a median size of 3 cm. Most PGBS arose in the body but one arose in the fundus. All tumors were associated with ulcerated mucosa. Based on morphological and immunohistochemical features of the PGBS, there were three myxofibrosarcomas (malignant fibrous histiocytoma, MFH, storiform pleomorphic), one leiomyosarcoma (LMS), one angiosarcoma (AS), and two liposarcomas (LS). All patients received cholecystectomy and three received adjuvant chemotherapy. Follow-up revealed that six patients died of the disease 6 weeks to 2 years after diagnosis and one died of unrelated causes. Conclusion PGBS are rare and mainly occur in the gallbladder body in middle-aged females. They generally present with acute cholecystitis and have a very poor prognosis. A variety of sarcoma types are found with MFH being the predominant variant. E. A. Husain and R. J. Prescott contributed equally to this paper.     

脑出血大鼠脑内胚胎神经干细胞移植的运动神经功能改变和形态学研究

目的研究脑出血大鼠脑内胚胎神经干细胞移植对运动神经功能改善作用以及移植细胞分化后形态学改变。方法通过大鼠尾状核注射胶原酶IV制作脑出血模型大鼠,分离培养胚胎神经干细胞移植入脑出血大鼠脑内。对脑出血大鼠移植前后运动神经功能进行评价,并通过组织免疫荧光检测移植神经干细胞脑内分化后形态学改变情况。结果Hoechst标记的神经干细胞移植入脑出血大鼠后可见其在脑内存活,主要分布于血肿腔周边,免疫荧光检测显示移植细胞能进一步分化为神经元及星形胶质细胞;从移植术后第21天到第28天,神经干细胞移植组大鼠的神经功能改善显著好于培养液移植组和单纯脑出血组,有统计学意义(P<0.001)。结论胚胎神经干细胞脑出血大鼠脑内移植能促进偏瘫肢体功能恢复;胚胎神经干细胞脑出血大鼠脑内移植后能存活并进一步分化为神经元及星形胶质细胞。     

Age-related changes in hardness and modulus of elasticity of dentine

OBJECTIVES: Little knowledge has been clarified about the relationship between the morphological and physical changes of dentine during aging. The purpose of this study was to clarify the modulus of elasticity and hardness related to the morphological changes of dentine by aging using a transmitted light microscope (TLM) and a nano-hardness tester (NHT). METHODS: Aged human molars and young third molars were used. The dentine morphology was observed under a TLM. The hardness and Young's modulus of elasticity related to the morphologic study were evaluated with an NHT. RESULTS: The thickness of mantle dentine and globular dentine of aged teeth were less than that of young teeth. Transparent dentine was observed only underneath the attrition of young teeth. Reactionary tertiary dentine formed and a "dark zone" was found at the junction between physiologic secondary and reactionary dentine only in aged teeth. At the mantle dentine, hardness and modulus of elasticity of aged dentine were higher than those of young dentine. The reactionary dentine in aged teeth and newly developed secondary dentine in young teeth demonstrated lower modulus of elasticity and hardness than those of other circumpulpal dentine. Relatively low modulus of elasticity and hardness were observed at the zone between secondary and reactionary dentine. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in dentine due to aging resulted in transformation of morphological features causing changes to their hardness and modulus of elasticity at the explicit areas such as the increase of hardness and modulus of elasticity at mantle dentin and the reduction of these properties at the "dark zone" that found in aged teeth.     

Context-sensitive neural responses to conflict resolution: electrophysiological evidence from subject-object ambiguities in language comprehension

Reanalysis in language comprehension provides a window on how superficially similar processes of conflict resolution may differ depending on the context in which they are initiated. Thus, previous ERP studies have shown that reanalyses towards object-initial orders in German sentences with dative-active verbs (e.g., folgen, 'to follow') engender N400 effects, while reanalyses with accusative verbs (e.g., besuchen, 'to visit') elicit P600 effects. This difference appears surprising since these two verb classes are both associated with a subject-initial base order. The present paper reports two ERP experiments designed to shed further light on the nature of the conflict resolution processes involved in each case by examining structures in which word order disambiguation is separated from verb class disambiguation. Experiment 1 contrasted dative-active verbs with accusative verbs, while Experiment 2 compared dative-active and dative object-experiencer verbs (which are associated with an object-initial base order). Our results show that the reanalysis pattern for dative-active constructions is context-dependent: when verb class disambiguation precedes word order disambiguation, an N400-P600 pattern results. By contrast, the reanalysis patterns for the other two verb types are context independent: object-experiencer verbs invariably show an N400 and accusative verbs invariably show a P600. We argue that (a) the N400 is a general marker of reanalysis in dative sentences, reflecting an argument reindexation, while (b) the P600 in accusative sentences reflects a structural recomputation. The variable pattern for dative-active sentences reflects the (in)applicability of "good-enough" representations during conflict resolution in garden path sentences.     

医学显微形态实验室建设与学生应用能力培养改革实践

本着实现培养应用型、创新型高素质人才的目标,我校建立了Motic形态学数码显微互动实验教学系统。面对全新的实验教学平台,显微形态实验室初步形成了一套科学的管理体制。运行情况表明,该套管理体制保证了数码显微互动实验室教学设备的高效运转,并在显微形态教学改革和学生应用能力培养实践中发挥了重要作用。