Suppression of high-density magnetic field (400 mT at 50 Hz)-induced mutations by wild-type p53 expression in human osteosarcoma cells

Exposure of cultured human osteosarcoma cells (Saos-LP-12) to high-density (400 mT at 50 Hz) extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELFMF) induced mutations in the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase gene. Saos-LP-12 cells, which are isolated from parental Saos-2 cells and have a deletion in the coding region of the p53 gene, are introduced to the wild-type (wt) p53 expression plasmid (pOPRSVp53). The mutation in Saos-LP-12 cells was suppressed by expression of the introduced wt p53 gene during 400 mT ELFMF exposure. No marked difference in the mutation spectrum was observed among the treatments of ELFMF [p53 (-)], ELFMF [p53 (+)], and sham exposures. Our findings suggest that wt p53 has a function in suppression of DNA replication errors and/or in maintenance of genomic stability after high-density ELFMF exposure.     

Role of the carboxy-terminal region of the GluR epsilon2 subunit in synaptic localization of the NMDA receptor channel

The synaptic localization of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) type glutamate receptor (GluR) channel is a prerequisite for synaptic plasticity in the brain. We generated mutant mice carrying the carboxy-terminal truncated GluR epsilon2 subunit of the NMDA receptor channel. The mutant mice died neonatally and failed to form barrelette structures in the brainstem. The mutation greatly decreased the NMDA receptor-mediated component of hippocampal excitatory postsynaptic potentials and punctate immunofluorescent labelings of GluR epsilon2 protein in the neuropil regions, while GluR epsilon2 protein expression was comparable. Immunostaining of cultured cerebral neurons showed the reduced punctate staining of the truncated GluR epsilon2 protein at synapses. These results suggest that the carboxy-terminal region of the GluRepsilon2 subunit is important for efficient clustering and synaptic localization of the NMDA receptor channel.     

Antiperistaltic transverse colostomy for massive bowel necrosis following surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm: report of a case

We investigated the reproducibility of total and regional body composition measurements performed on a dual energy X-ray absorptiometer (DXA). A group of 58 women aged 21-81 (mean 52.4) years was scanned twice with repositioning to determine intraobserver reproducibility of measurements of bone mineral density (BMD, g.cm-2), bone mineral content (BMC, g), lean mass (LM, kg) and fat mass (FM, kg) of the total body and of the major subregions of the body. In addition, the ability of the DXA machine to detect changes in LM and FM (simulated by placing 11.1 and 22.3 kg porcine lard on the body of 11 subjects) was examined. Coefficients of variations calculated from the root mean square averages of individual standard deviations were as follows (BMD, BMC, LM, FM) [corrected]: 1.4%, 1.1%, 1.4%, 1.7% (total body), 2.2%, 2.1%,-,- (head), 2.8%, 2.8%, 2.0%, 2.2% (trunk), 3.6%, 3.9%, 4.0%, 4.9% (arms), 2.7%, 1.3%, 2.6%, 2.8% (legs). Percentage fat (%fat) of exogenous lard was 81.3 (SD 3.5)% as assessed by the absorptiometer which corresponded well with the result of chemical analysis (82.8%). Estimated %fat of exogenous lard was not influenced by initial body mass or percentage body fat. Percentages of expected mean values with 11.1 kg lard placed on the body were 99.9 (SD 0.3) for body mass, 100.5 (SD 2.1) for LM, and 99.5 (SD 3.5) for FM. BMD was overestimated by 3.2% (P < 0.005) with 11.1 kg lard on the body. BMD as well as BMC increased significantly with 22.3 kg lard on the body (P < 0.005). The results showed that BMD, BMC, LM, and FM of the total body were precisely estimated by the DXA machine used. Regional measurements were less precise. Changes in total body soft tissue composition were precisely and accurately estimated. The lard placed on the body falsely affected BMD and BMC measurements. Changes in body mass could have a similar effect.     

Analysis of myeloid and lymphoid markers on the surface and in the cytoplasm of mononuclear bone marrow cells in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome

Mononuclear cells of the bone marrow (BM) of patients in various subgroups of the myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) were studied by flow cytometry for the expression of myeloid and lymphoid markers both on the surface and in the cytoplasm. A significantly higher percentage of the BM cells of MDS patients reacted with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to myeloid antigens (CD13, CD15 and CD33) by cytoplasmic staining as compared with cell surface staining. The percentage of BM cells expressing CD34 was markedly elevated in patients with RAEB-T. A distinct finding in MDS patients was the expression of myeloid antigens on mononuclear BM cells. The proportion of individuals whose mononuclear BM cells were positive for surface reactivity with anti-CD13 and anti-CD33 mAbs was highest among RAEB-T patients while none of the patients with RA expressed these surface antigens. Cytoplasmic staining significantly increased the percentage of CD13+ and CD33+ BM cells among RAEB and RAEB-T patients. The proportion of individuals whose BM cells possessed myeloid antigens was increased by cytoplasmic staining in all subgroups of MDS. The BM of a considerable proportion of RAEB-T and RAEB patients showed cells which coexpressed the CD7 and CD3 lymphoid markers along with the CD13 and CD33 myeloid antigens. The present study indicates the importance of comparative surface and cytoplasmic immunophenotyping with CD13 and CD33 mAbs for the diagnosis of subgroups of MDS. The coexpression of CD3 and CD7 with markers of the myeloid lineage may reflect derangement of the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells characteristic for MDS.     

Small intestinal metastasis from esophageal carcinoma associated with small intestinal obstruction: report of a case

The small intestine is rarely involved with metastatic tumors from outside the abdomen, and few case reports have been documented in the literature. We describe herein what to our knowledge is the third case of a solitary metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the esophagus being found in the jejunum, causing small intestinal obstruction.     

Observation of lattice fringes of the Si(111)–7×7 structure by reflection electron microscopy*

Lattice fringes of Si(111)–7×7 reconstructed surface structure in reflection electron microscopy (REM) are observed for the first time, and their characteristic features are presented. Due to a glancing reflection condition in REM, the fringes with a spacing of 2.3 nm of the 7×7 surface structure lattice are seen in a region of a certain defocus range (about 6–8 μm) in a foreshortened image. The glancing reflection geometry also results in a complicated dependence of fringe directions on imaging conditions (beam alignment, crystal orientation). A shift of the fringes across the surface atomic steps and out of phase boundaries is observed.     

Krypton fluoride laser pulse shortening by stimulated thermal scattering on a liquid surface

Pulse shortening of the backscatter of a KrF excimer laser beam focused on the surface of n-hexane is reported. Simultaneous measurements of the backscattered beam, a Fresnel reflected beam, incoherent scattered photons from a liquid surface, and a transmitted beam are performed. The results show that the surface reflected beam disappears followed by beam expansion and the transmitted beam is reduced to form a filamentlike structure with the onset of backscatter. The pulse width of the backscattered beam shows a clear dependence on the focal position in the liquid. Incoherent scattering is sharply enhanced when the laser beam is focused at the liquid surface where the backscattered beam is especially short. The observed phenomena indicate that stimulated thermal scattering is the pulse shortening mechanism.     

3D level set method for blastomere segmentation of preimplantation embryos in fluorescence microscopy images

Detailed and accurate characteristics of preimplantation embryos are fundamental for a deep understanding of their development. Recent studies indicate that various geometric features of cells, such as size, shape, volume, and position play a significant role in embryo growth. However, a quantitative assessment of these characteristics first needs a segmentation of the individual cells. The manual separation and labeling of cells is extremely inefficient, and an automated approach is highly desirable. This paper presents an automatic method for early stage embryo segmentation into its constituent cells and membranes using three-dimensional (3D) data. The input data consist of two Z-stacks of fluorescence microscope images containing nuclei and membranes. The method uses a 3D level set segmentation algorithm. Its evaluation is based on a dataset composed of 20 mouse embryos, each with 4–32 blastomeres. Segmentation accuracy was evaluated by calculating F-scores with ground truth obtained by manually labeling desired regions. We also compared output of our method with the one acquired with a watershed algorithm. The proposed approach was able to achieve more than \(90\%\) accuracy for embryos with 4 and 8 cells, while for embryos with higher number of cells it was lower, reaching \(75\%\) for 32-cell embryo.     

HoneyCirculator: distributing credential honeytoken for introspection of web-based attack cycle

A web user who falsely accesses a compromised website is usually redirected to an adversary’s website and is forced to download malware after being exploited. Additionally, the adversary steals the user’s credentials by using information-leaking malware. The adversary may also try to compromise public websites owned by individual users by impersonating the website administrator using the stolen credentials. These compromised websites then become landing sites for drive-by download malware infection. Identifying malicious websites using crawling techniques requires a large amount of resources and time. To monitor the web-based attack cycle for effective detection and prevention, we propose a monitoring system called HoneyCirculator based on a honeytoken, which actively leaks bait credentials and lures adversaries to our decoy server that behaves like a compromised web content management system. To recursively analyze attack phases on the web-based attack cycle, our proposed system involves collecting malware, distributing bait credentials, monitoring fraudulent access, and inspecting compromised web content. It can instantly discover unknown malicious entities without conducting large-scale web crawling because of the direct monitoring behind the compromised web content management system. Our proposed system enables continuous and stable monitoring for about one year. In addition, almost all the malicious websites we discovered had not been previously registered in public blacklists.