Promises and challenges of evolvable hardware

Evolvable hardware (EHW) has attracted increasing attention since the early 1990s with the advent of easily reconfigurable hardware, such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). It promises to provide an entirely new approach to complex electronic circuit design and new adaptive hardware. EHW has been demonstrated to be able to perform a wide range of tasks, from pattern recognition to adaptive control. However, there are still many fundamental issues in EHW that remain open. This paper reviews the current status of EHW, discusses the promises and possible advantages of EHW, and indicates the challenges we must meet in order to develop practical and large-scale EHW     

Gene locus for autosomal recessive distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles maps to chromosome 9

Distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles is an autosomal recessive muscular disorder, characterized clinically by weakness of the distal muscles in the lower limbs in early adulthood. Recently, the gene locus for familial vacuolar myopathy with autosomal recessive inheritance (hereditary inclusion body myopathy) was mapped to chromosome 9 by genome-wide linkage analysis of nine Persian-Jewish families. Since both disease conditions share similar clinical, genetic, and histopathological features, we analyzed seven families with distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles using ten microsatellite markers within the region of the hereditary inclusion body myopathy locus. Significantly high cumulative pairwise lod scores were obtained with three markers: D9S248 (Z(max) = 5.90 at theta = 0), D9S43 (Z(max) = 5.25 at theta = 0), and D9S50 (Z(max) = 4.23 at theta = 0). Detection of obligate recombination events as well as multipoint linkage analysis revealed that the most likely location of the distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles gene is in a 23.3-cM interval defined by D9S319 and D9S276 on chromosome 9. The results raise the possibility that distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles and hereditary inclusion body myopathy in Persian Jews are allelic diseases.     

Inhibitory effect on LPS-induced tumor necrosis factor in calves treated with chlorpromazine or pentoxifylline

The inhibitory effect of chlorpromazine (CPZ), pentoxifylline (PTX) and dexamethasone (DEX) was investigated in a model of endotoxin shock in Holstein calves following an intravenous administration of Esherichia coli endotoxin (LPS). Initial correlations with its effects on the levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a pivotal mediator of endotoxin shock, and clinical signs were obtained. The pretreatment of CPZ or DEX significantly decreased the serum levels of TNF, and reduced endotoxic shock. But the pretreatment of PTX hardly reduced the increase of serum TNF levels and endotoxin shock. The levels of serum endotoxin were not significantly different a minute of postinjection of LPS in calves. The results of this study indicate that pretreatment of CPZ or DEX inhibit various biological effects on endotoxin in calves.     

Salivary duct carcinoma: a clinicopathologic study of three cases with a review of the literature

Three cases of salivary duct carcinoma are presented. They occurred in a 60 year old man, a 66 year old man and a 57 year old woman. All of the lesions were located in the parotid gland. The tumor size ranged from 3 to 5 cm across the largest diameter. Facial paralysis was observed in two cases. Histologically, intraductal and invasive adenocarcinoma showing papillary, cribriform, and solid patterns with comedolike necrosis was observed. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for keratin and epithelial membrane antigen. No myoepithelial cells were demonstrated within the tumor by staining for S-100 protein, alpha-smooth muscle actin or muscle specific actin. Ultrastructurally, intracytoplasmic lumina with microvilli, a moderate number of mitochrondria, lysosomes, and tight junctions were found. Regional lymph node metastasis was observed in one case, and distant metastasis developed in two cases. All of the patients were treated with adjuvant postoperative irradiation. One patient died of disease at 11 months after the initial diagnosis, another was alive with disease at 8 months, and the third patient was alive without disease at 2 years and 3 months. Salivary duct carcinoma should be differentiated from low-grade salivary gland carcinomas using morphologic and clinical criteria because of its poor prognosis even with aggressive therapy.     

Expression of apolipoprotein E in normal and diverse neurodegenerative disease brain

Brains from 21 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), nine with diffuse Lewy body disease (DLBD), six with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and five with Parkinson's disease (PD) as well as 20 normal subjects were examined to detect apolipoprotein E (ApoE) by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting. ApoE antigenicity was optimally preserved in Bouin-fixed tissues compared with those fixed in neutral-buffered formalin, 70% ethanol or denatured by microwave energy. ApoE immunoreactivity was prominent in senile plaques and in intra- and extra-neuronal tangles, as well as in a diverse neurones and their processes and astroglial cells. Notably, tangles in PSP and Lewy bodies in PD and DLBD were both devoid of ApoE immunoreactivity. Western blots of cerebral cortex revealed an immunoreactive ApoE band with mol. wt of 34 kDa. Our results suggest that ApoE is not a crucial factor in the development of neuronal inclusions in DLBD, PSP and PD.     

Finding module-based gene networks with state-space models - Mining high-dimensional and short time-course gene expression data

This study explores some problems to analyze time-course gene expression data by state-space models (SSMs). One problem is regarding the methods of parameter estimation and determination of the dimension of the internal state variable. Although several methods have been applied, there are few literature studies which with to compare them. Thus, this paper gives a brief review of the existing literature that use the SSM to analyze the gene expression time-course data. Another problem is the identifiability of the model. If the parameters of SSMs are simply estimated without any constraints for parameter space, they lack identifiability. To identify a system uniquely, it requires a specific algorithm to estimate the parameters with some constraints. For that purpose, an identifiable form of SSMs and an algorithm for estimating parameters are derived. The last problem is the extraction of biological information by interpreting the estimated parameters, such as mechanism of gene regulations at the module level. For that one, this paper explores methods to extract further information using the estimated parameters, that is, reconstruction of a module network from time-course gene expression data     

Morphologic analysis of odontogenic cysts with computed tomography

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of lesion site and epithelial keratinization on the morphologic characteristics of odontogenic cysts and clarify determinate factors for cyst morphology. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Computed tomographic images of 92 odontogenic cysts were analyzed: 31 primordial, 31 dentigerous and 30 radicular. Thirty-four cysts were located in the maxilla (6 primordial, 10 dentigerous, and 18 radicular) and 58 in the mandible (25 primordial, 21 dentigerous, and 12 radicular). Histologically, 31 cysts showed epithelial keratinization (18 primordial and 13 dentigerous). No keratinization was seen in radicular cysts. The morphologic features of cysts were assessed by measuring long length parallel to dental arch and short length vertical to it and calculating the long/short ratio. In addition, the computed tomography pattern of the cyst was classified into unilocular, lobulated, and multilocular patterns. Appearance of the sclerotic rim and surrounding cortex were classified into three and four patterns respectively to evaluate the developmental features of the cyst. RESULTS: As a whole, the long length of the primordial cysts was statistically larger than the other two cyst groups and resulted in a larger long/short ratio. Statistical differences of CT pattern were also seen among cyst groups. There was no preference in any cyst group for the appearance of the sclerotic rim and cortex. There were statistical differences between maxilla and mandible in short axis and long/short ratio. The maxillary cysts generally showed round shapes irrespective of their histologic characteristics. A multilocular pattern was more frequent in the keratinized group of mandibular primordial cysts. In dentigerous cysts, a multilocular pattern was seen only in the keratinized group and the long/short ratio was statistically larger; cyst shape was elliptical along the long axis. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated morphologic differences of odontogenic cysts caused by lesion site and keratinization. The dentigerous cyst with predominant keratinization should be included in the primordial cyst (odontogenic keratocyst) group.