Gastrointestinal autonomic nerve tumour presenting as small bowel volvulus: a rare disease with a rare presentation

A 78-year-old Chinese woman presented with recurrent postprandial abdominal pain. Computerised tomography revealed a small bowel tumour causing volvulus of a segment of the small bowel. Laparotomy confirmed an extraluminal ileal tumour with partial volvulus of the involved small bowel segment. Small bowel resection was done. Histological and ultrastructural studies confirmed a gastrointestinal autonomic nerve tumour. We review the medical literature on this rare tumour.     

Episodic Logic: A comprehensive,natural representation for language understanding

A new comprehensive framework for narrative understanding has been developed. Its centerpiece is a new situational logic calledEpisodic Logic (EL), a knowledge and semantic representation well-adapted to the interpretive and inferential needs of general NLU. The most distinctive features of EL is its natural language-like expressiveness. It allows for generalized quantifiers, lambda abstraction, sentence and predicate modifiers, sentence and predicate reification, intensional predicates (corresponding to wanting, believing, making, etc.), unreliable generalizations, and perhaps most importantly, explicit situational variables (denoting episodes, events, states of affairs, etc.) linked to arbitrary formulas that describe them. These allow episodes to be explicitly related in terms of part-whole, temporal and causal relations. Episodic logical form is easily computed from surface syntax and lends itself to effective inference.     

Metastasis induced by overexpression of p185neu-T after orthotopic injection into a prostatic epithelial cell line (NbE)

The effects of the composition of bacteriological growth media on the light output in a chemiluminometric assay of beta-galactosidase in Escherichia coli using 1,2-dioxetane substrates has been studied. In this assay a basic conflict exists between conditions that promote optimal bacterial growth and those conducive to maximal chemiluminescence. Common medium ingredients such as yeast or beef extract, protein hydrolysates and lactose suppress light emission and/or lead to high backgrounds. Quenching of light emission is probably partly due to light absorption by medium ingredients such as oxgall, and partly to interference with the reaction triggering the chemiluminescent process. Elevated backgrounds are caused by the presence of high concentrations of protein hydrolysates, which interact with the alkali in the accelerator solution. Only two purposely developed media, i.e. ILM and Colicult are shown to reconcile the requirements of growth support with that of optimal luminescent properties.     

Differential expression of mammalian TRP homologues across tissues and cell lines

Mammalian homologues of the Drosophila trp gene have been invoked as the structural basis for the currents associated with capacitative Ca2+ entry (CCE) in many cell types. Trp homologues are members of a large protein family that may associate as channel subunits providing an explanation for the functional diversity of store-operated channels observed in these cells. However, there is little information as to which of these genes are co-expressed at the cellular level. We have examined the tissue specific expression of five mammalian trp genes and determined which are co-expressed in five different cell lines. The results show tissue- and cell-specific co-expression of multiple trp forms. This implies that the subunit composition of a particular CCE channel may vary depending on the cell type.     

Genetic mapping of a major susceptibility locus for juvenile myoclonic epilepsy on chromosome 15q

The epilepsies are a group of disorders characterised by recurrent seizures caused by episodes of abnormal neuronal hyperexcitability involving the brain. Up to 60 million people are affected worldwide and genetic factors may contribute to the aetiology in up to 40% of patients. The most common human genetic epilepsies display a complex pattern of inheritance. These are categorised as idiopathic in the absence of detectable structural or metabolic abnormalities. Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is a distinctive and common variety of familial idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE) with a prevalence of 0.5-1.0 per 1000 and a ratio of sibling risk to population prevalence (lambda(s)) of 42. The molecular genetic basis of these familial idiopathic epilepsies is entirely unknown, but a mutation in the gene CHRNA4, encoding the alpha4 subunit of the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), was recently identified in a rare Mendelian variety of idiopathic epilepsy. Chromosomal regions harbouring genes for nAChR subunits were therefore tested for linkage to the JME trait in 34 pedigrees. Significant evidence for linkage with heterogeneity was found to polymorphic loci encompassing the region in which the gene encoding the alpha7 subunit of nAChR (CHRNA7) maps on chromosome 15q14 (HLOD = 4.4 at alpha = 0.65; Z(all) = 2.94, P = 0.0005). This major locus contributes to genetic susceptibility to JME in a majority of the families studied.     

Cryptococcosis in tree shrews (Tupaia tana and Tupaia minor) and elephant shrews (Macroscelides proboscides)

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relation between metabolic and anthropometric parameters and circulating leptin concentrations in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). DESIGN AND PATIENTS: Correlation of fasting serum leptin concentrations with anthropometric measures and multiple metabolic parameters including insulin and glucose responses to a 2-hour 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in 85 women with PCOS (17-36 years, body mass index (BMI) 29.9 +/- 0.9 kg/m2, mean +/- SD) and 18 control women (25-47 years, BMI 25 +/- 1.7 kg/m2). Diagnostic criteria for PCOS: characteristic ovarian morphology on ultrasound plus at least two of (1) elevated serum testosterone; (2) elevated serum androstenedione; and (3) reduced serum SHBG concentrations. MEASUREMENTS: Concentrations of androgens, lipids, PRL, gonadotrophins, and leptin were measured in the baseline fasting blood sample from an OGTT. Insulin and glucose were measured throughout OGTT. Serum leptin concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: Log leptin levels in the PCOS group correlated significantly with BMI (r = 0.85, P < 0.0001) and with 8 other parameters including waist/hip ratio (r = 0.51, P = 0.0005). By stepwise regression analysis, only BMI (P < 0.0001) and plasma high density lipoprotein concentration (P = 0.02) were independently correlated with log leptin levels, both positively. There was no effect of fat distribution, as measured by waist/ hip ratio, on leptin concentrations. Comparison of control subjects to a BMI-matched subgroup of 55 PCOS subjects revealed significantly higher circulating concentrations of LH, testosterone, DHEAS, progesterone and androstenedione, and higher glucose and insulin responses to OGTT in the PCOS group. Leptin levels were not different between the PCOS subgroup and control group (14.8 +/- 1.3 vs 12.1 +/- 2.3 micrograms/l, mean +/- SE, P = 0.26) and the relation of BMI to leptin levels determined by linear regression analysis also did not differ between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that circulating leptin concentrations in women with PCOS, a condition characterized by hyperandrogenaemia, increased LH concentrations and insulin resistance, are strongly related to BMI and not independently affected by circulating levels of insulin, gonadotrophins or sex hormones.     

L~∞（0，1）上一个WeakL~P（0，1）有关的格半范数

本文引进一个定义在Ｌ~∞（０，１）上格半范数ρｐ与一个熟知的格半范数ρ０关系，证明了在Ｌ~∞（０，１）中的序区间上，ρ０－拓扑与ρｐ－拓扑等价，从而证明了（Ｌ~∞（０，１），ρｐ）′的闭单位球是（Ｌ~∞（０，１），ρｐ）′的某个子集的弱－闭包，本文还证明了（Ｌ~∞（０，１），ρｐ）′可看作ＷｅａｋＬｐ（０，１）对偶空间的奇异部一个理想，而且这奇异部可由（Ｌ~∞（０，１），ρｐ）′与一算子族生成．（ｆ）ａｌｌ（ｌ．＼ｎ，ｏｏ（ｊ．）＝ｈｉｌｌｓｉｌｌ）ｔ￣．，ｉｆｆ￣＊（ｔ）ｒｅｓｐｅｃｔｉｖｅｌｙａｌｌ＇ｌ，Ｌ（ｑ，１）ｉｓｔｈｅｐｒｅｄｌｓｌａｌｏｆｔｙｒｅａｋＬＩ＇，ａｌｌｌｌｈ，ｒｌｌｏｌｌ－－ａｔ（，ｌｌｌｉ（＇ｌｌｌｅａｓｌｌｒｅａｌｇａ（ｌ￣ｓ，ａｒｅｐｒｅｓｅｌｌｔａ＇ｔｉｏｌｌｔｌｌｅｏｒｅｎｌｆｆ，ｒｅｌｅｌｌｌｅｌｌｔｓｉｌｌＳａｃ，ａｌｌ（ｌＳ，，．ｉｓｏｆ）ｔａｉｌｌｅ（ｌ．Ｈｏｗｅｖｅｒ，ｉｌｌ［２］，ｉｔｉｓｓｌｌｄｗｎｔｈａｔｔｉｌｅｒｅｐｒｅｓｅｌｌｔａｔｉｏｌｌｔｉｌｅｓｆ）ｒｅｌｌｌｏｆ）ｔａｉｌｌｅ（ｌｉｌｌ［．５］ｉｓｉｌｌ（ｔｏｒｒｅ（？ｔ．Ｉｎｔｈｉｓｎｏｔｅ，ｗｅｄｅ     

Noncoherent detection scheme for GSM system

A receiver employing frequency discriminator demodulation and maximum likelihood sequence estimator detection is proposed for the GSM mobile telephone system. Computer simulated bit error rates based on two ray and GSM propagation models are presented. The proposed scheme is more tolerant to carrier frequency offset than a coherent system