Clinical outcome of surgical treatment for invasive early colorectal cancer in Japan

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Despite the high frequency of early colorectal cancer, little is known about the clinicopathologic features of invasive early colorectal cancer for which endoscopic polypectomy is not indicated. We wanted to determine the clinicopathologic features of these early colorectal cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 1973 to 1994, a total of 728 patients with colorectal cancer were reviewed retrospectively from hospital records. The clinicopathologic features of the 90 invasive early colorectal cancer patients who underwent major surgeries were compared with those of 626 patients with advanced colorectal cancer. RESULTS: The frequency of early colorectal cancer increased significantly from the periods 1973-1979 to 1990-1994: 0% in the former period and 18.3% in the later period. Minimally invasive surgery was chosen more frequently for the treatment of early colorectal cancers than for the treatment of advanced cancers (p < 0.005). Lymph node metastasis, lymph vessel invasion, and vascular invasion were more prevalent in advanced cancer cases than in early cancer cases (p < 0.005). Lymph node metastasis was found in 7 patients with early colorectal cancer (7.8%). There was no difference in histologic type between the early and advanced colorectal cancers. The 5-year survival rates of early colorectal cancer patients were higher than those of advanced cancer patients: 97.5% in early colon cancer patients; 93.5% in early rectal cancer patients; 59.8% in advanced colon cancer patients; 55.4% in advanced rectal cancer patients. Three early colorectal cancer patients died of recurrence. CONCLUSION: Minimally invasive surgery such as laparoscopic colectomy should be performed on patients with invasive early colorectal cancer when it is impossible for the cancer to be removed by endoscopic polypectomy.     

A protein kinase, PKN, accumulates in Alzheimer neurofibrillary tangles and associated endoplasmic reticulum-derived vesicles and phosphorylates tau protein

A possible role for a protein kinase, PKN, a fatty acid-activated serine/threonine kinase with a catalytic domain homologous to the protein kinase C family and a direct target for Rho, was investigated in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) using a sensitive immunocytochemistry on postmortem human brain tissues and a kinase assay for human tau protein. The present study provides evidences by light, electron, and confocal laser microscopy that in control human brains, PKN is enriched in neurons, where the kinase is concentrated in a subset of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and ER-derived vesicles localized to the apical compartment of juxtanuclear cytoplasm, as well as late endosomes, multivesicular bodies, Golgi bodies, secretary vesicles, and nuclei. In AD-affected neurons, PKN was redistributed to the cortical cytoplasm and neurites and was closely associated with neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and their major constituent, abnormally modified tau. PKN was also found in degenerative neurites within senile plaques. In addition, we report that human tau protein is directly phosphorylated by PKN both in vitro and in vivo. Thus, our results suggest a specific role for PKN in NFT formation and neurodegeneration in AD damaged neurons.     

3-Dimensional graphic image representation of holographic microscopical displacement pattern by using cubic spline function

For quantitative measurement of microscopical displacement of an object surface due to thermal stress, the holographic pattern measuring system (HPMS) has been developed by the authors, which is combined both the techniques of holographic interferometry and graphic image processing.

In this measuring sytem, a cubic spline function was applied to get the 3-dimensional graphic image patterns of the distribution of the displacement. The displacement is calculated from the interferometry fringe pattern, and the system was applied to deformation analysis of printed circuit board (PCB) due to thermal stress. The PCB deformation was expresed by 3-dimensional graphic image. A smooth curve could be obtained from rather less number of sampled data of interferometry fringe.     

Preferential selection of specific rotavirus gene segments in coinfection and multiple passages with reassortant viruses and their parental strain

INTRODUCTION: The size of current implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) is still large in comparison to pacemakers and thus not convenient for pectoral implantation. One way to reduce ICD size is to defibrillate with smaller capacitors. A trade-off exists, however, since smaller capacitors may generate a lower maximum energy output. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a prospective randomized cross-over study, the step-down defibrillation threshold (DFT) of an experimental 90-microF biphasic waveform was compared to a standard 125-microF biphasic waveform. The 90-microF capacitor delivered the same energy faster and with a higher peak voltage but provided only a maximum energy output of 20 instead of 34 J. DFTs were determined intraoperatively in 30 patients randomized to receive either an endocardial (n = 15) or an endocardial-subcutaneous array (n = 15) defibrillation lead system. Independent of the lead system used, energy requirements did not differ at DFT for the experimental and the standard waveforms (10.3 +/- 4.1 and 9.5 +/- 4.9 J, respectively), but peak voltages were higher for the experimental waveform than for the standard waveform (411 +/- 80 and 325 +/- 81 V, respectively). For the experimental waveform the DFT w as 10 J or less using an endocardial lead-alone system in 10 (67%) of 15 patients and in 12 (80%) of 15 patients using an endocardial-subcutaneous array lead system. CONCLUSIONS: A shorter duration waveform delivered by smaller capacitors does not increase defibrillation energy requirements and might reduce device size. However, the smaller capacitance reduces the maximum energy output. If a 10-J safety margin between DFT and maximum energy output of the ICD is required, only a subgroup of patients will benefit from 90-microF ICDs with DFTs feasible using current defibrillation lead systems.     

Regulation of the mature human T cell receptor gamma repertoire by biased V-J gene rearrangement

Vacuolar apical compartment (VAC) is a transient organelle originally observed in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells impaired from forming cell-cell contacts. VACs are large vacuoles which contain microvilli and apical plasma membrane markers (among others, a 184-kDa plasma membrane protein, AP2), but exclude basolateral membrane markers. Upon reestablishment of cell-cell contacts, VACs are rapidly (within 1 h) exocytosed toward intercellular spaces, after which the apical plasma membrane drifts toward its final destination (Vega-Salas, Salas, and Rodriguez-Boulan. 1988. J. Cell Biol. 107, 1717-1728). In this work, we studied the role of cAMP as a mediator for the exocytosis of VACs. We shifted confluent cells from low to normal calcium medium (thus reestablishing cell-cell contacts and causing VAC exocytosis), a shift which resulted in a significant rise of cellular levels of both total intracellular and protein-bound cAMP. The 8-Br analog of cAMP (8-Br-cAMP) (5-50 microM) caused externalization of the intracellular compartment of AP2 as measured by radioimmunoassay. A similar effect was observed with 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine. 8-Br-cAMP also caused the appearance of AP2-positive VAC images in nonpermeabilized cells, namely, VACs that become accessible to extracellular antibodies upon fusion with the plasma membrane. Lanthanum, which abolishes the peak of intracellular free calcium during a calcium switch, failed to block the exocytosis. On the other hand, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate induced only a modest exocytic response. Finally, 8-Br-cAMP induced VAC exocytosis in sparse MDCK cells grown in normal calcium medium. These data indicate that cAMP is a mediator between the extracellular signal provided by cell-cell contacts and VAC exocytosis.     

Multivariable adaptive control for a thermal generator

A digital control system using the optimal control has been developed for a thermal power generator. In order to increase the generator control performance for improving the power system stability, this system supplies the excitation system directly with control signals and provides the governor system with control signals and supplemental control signals for a conventional governor. The system utilizes adaptive control for changes in generator nonlinear characteristics, as well as in power system characteristics. The principles and application of this system are described and results of simulation tests using a 1000 MVA thermal power plant model on a high-reliability AC/DC electric power system simulator are presented. The results verify the performance of this system, as well as the applicability of the system to actual plants     

Efficient production of Cre-mediated site-directed recombinants through the utilization of the puromycin resistance gene, pac: a transient gene-integration marker for ES cells

Gene targeting in embryonic stem (ES) cells is a powerful tool for generating mice carrying specifically designed mutations in the germline. Puromycin can completely kill ES cells within 24 to 48 h whereas G418 and hygromycin cannot. We have, therefore, proposed that the puromycin N-acetyltransferase ( pac ) gene, may be utilized as a transient gene-integration marker. Using a circular expression vector of cre and pac genes, Cre-mediated mutant cells were effectively enriched by pulse treatment of puromycin without stable integration of their genes. We have thus demonstrated the first application of pac as a transient gene-integration marker for ES cells.     

Two-dimensional automata with rotated inputs (projection-type)

This paper introduces a new type of automaton on a two-dimensional tape, which decides acceptance or rejection of an input tape x by first scanning the tape x from various sides with parallel/sequential array readers, and by then scanning the pair of the halting state configurations (i.e., projections) generated by these array readers with a multitape finite automaton. We mainly concentrate on investigating the accepting power of two-dimensional automata which consist of one-way parallel/sequential array readers and a multitape finite automaton operating in real time.     

Performance Analysis of Mixed-Base Modulation System

In this paper the performance of the mixed-base modulation (MBM) system is analyzed for the case where the input signal is a sample function of a Gaussian random process and an optimum stretching is employed. The comparison of theoretical performance of the MBM system with that of other common modulation schemes such as FM and PCM/PSK shows that it provides performance much better than that of those schemes where the same bandspread factor is employed.