Villoglandular papillary adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix with lymph node metastasis - A case report and review of the literature

Villoglandular papillary adenocarcinoma was first described by Young and Scully in 1989 as a distinct entity with the histological features of exophytic growth proliferation, villous and papillary architecture and mild to moderate nuclear atypia. We report one case of villoglandular papillary adenocarcinoma (VGPA) of the uterine cervix with lymph node metastasis and reviewed the clinicopathological features of six other cases reported in the literature. Our patient is the seventh similar reported cases. They ranged in age from 29 to 54 (mean, 41) years. Five had lymphovascular invasion. All except our patient were treated with radical hysterectomy and radiotherapy. She was followed-up for 7 months and unfortunately died due to chest infectio

Evaluation of the stress singularities of plane V-notches in bonded dissimilar materials

According to the linear theory of elasticity, there exists a combination of different orders of stress singularity at a V-notch tip of bonded dissimilar materials. The singularity reflects a strong stress concentration near the sharp V-notches. In this paper, a new way is proposed in order to determine the orders of singularity for two-dimensional V-notch problems. Firstly, on the basis of an asymptotic stress field in terms of radial coordinates at the V-notch tip, the governing equations of the elastic theory are transformed into an eigenvalue problem of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with respect to the circumferential coordinate h around the notch tip. Then the interpolating matrix method established by the first author is further developed to solve the general eigenvalue problem. Hence, the singularity orders of the V-notch problem are determined through solving the corresponding ODEs by means of the interpolating matrix method. Meanwhile, the associated eigenvectors of the displacement and stress fields near the V-notches are also obtained. These functions are essential in calculating the amplitude of the stress field described as generalized stress intensity factors of the V-notches. The present method is also available to deal with the plane V-notch problems in bonded orthotropic multi-material. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the accuracy and the effectiveness of the method

Oxygen isotope composition of surface snow collected along the traverse route from Zhongshan Station toward Dome A, Antarctica

Oxygen isotope composition of surface snow sampled in the austral summer of 1998/1999 along the traverse route from Zhongshan Station toward Dome A, Antarctica is measured with the conventional mass spectrometer technique. The results of measurement show that oxygen isotope composition of surface snow varies in a wide range from -22.51‰ to -50.67‰, and has a tendency that isotopic values gradually decrease with increase of distance from Zhongshan Station and altitude. Linear regression analysis indicates that there exists good correlation between oxygen isotope composition of surface snow and distance from Zhongshan Station, altitude and/or latitude, which actually reflects the close relation between stable isotope composition and air temperature

Immunohistochemical study of p16INK4A and survivin expressions in cervical squamous neoplasm.

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer affecting Malaysian women. Despite the implementation of pap smear screening, many women are still diagnosed only in the advanced stage of cervical cancer. This could partly be due to failure of detection of its precursor lesions; hence the need to search for novel biomarkers to assist in the screening and diagnosis of cervical neoplasia. This study aims to determine the expression of p16 INK4A and survivin as possible predictive biomarkers in cervical squamous neoplasm. Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study on 201 cases of cervical neoplasm comprising of 129 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and 72 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). All samples were evaluated by two independent observers using p16INK4A and survivin monoclonal antibodies. The p16INK4A expression was graded as negative, focal and diffuse positivity. The intensity for survivin expression was graded as weak, moderate and intense. Results: It is seen that p16INK4A expression in CIN 1, CIN 2 and CIN 3 were 25.4%, 42.9% and 95.9% respectively. Majority of SCC (98.6%) showed p16INK4A expression. Survivin expressions in CIN 1, CIN 2, CIN 3 and SCC were 56.7%, 33.4%, 87.5% and 98.6%. There was a linear relationship between increasing grade of CIN and p16INK4A expressions. Conclusion: Our study showed that p16INK4A expressions correlate well with the increasing grade of CIN. Although survivin does not correlate well to the increasing grade of CIN, it could be useful in differentiating CIN 3 from SCC

Utility of Ki-67 and p53 in distinguishing cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 from squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix

The differentiation between cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 (CIN 3) and early squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the cervix may be difficult in certain situations. Identification of invasion beyond the basement membrane is the gold standard for the diagnosis of the latter. The objective of this study was to determine whether the use of Ki-67 and p53 could help in solving the above dilemma. This was a retrospective study on 61 cases of cervical neoplasms comprising of 25 cases of CIN 3 and 36 SCC. All cases were evaluated by immunohistochemistry using Ki-67 and p53 monoclonal antibodies. Results showed that the differences of Ki-67 and p53 expression between CIN 3 and SCC were statistically significant. In conclusion, Ki-67 and p53 may serve as helpful adjuncts to routinely-stained histological sections in differentiating between CIN 3 and SCC

High Altitude test of RPCs for the ARGO-YBJ experiment

A 50 m**2 RPC carpet was operated at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (Tibet) located 4300 m a.s.l. The performance of RPCs in detecting Extensive Air Showers was studied. Efficiency and time resolution measurements at the pressure and temperature conditions typical of high mountain laboratories, are reported.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. Met

Observation of TeV gamma-rays from the unidentified source HESS J1841-055 with the ARGO-YBJ experiment

We report the observation of a very high energy \gamma-ray source, whose position is coincident with HESS J1841-055. This source has been observed for 4.5 years by the ARGO-YBJ experiment from November 2007 to July 2012. Its emission is detected with a statistical significance of 5.3 standard deviations. Parameterizing the source shape with a two-dimensional Gaussian function we estimate an extension \sigma=(0.40(+0.32,-0.22}) degree, consistent with the HESS measurement. The observed energy spectrum is dN/dE =(9.0-+1.6) x 10^{-13}(E/5 TeV)^{-2.32-+0.23} photons cm^{-2} s^{-1} TeV^{-1}, in the energy range 0.9-50 TeV. The integral \gamma-ray flux above 1 TeV is 1.3-+0.4 Crab units, which is 3.2-+1.0 times the flux derived by HESS. The differences in the flux determination between HESS and ARGO-YBJ, and possible counterparts at other wavelengths are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, have been accepted for publication in Ap

Systematic comparison of plasma EBV DNA, anti-EBV antibodies and miRNA levels for early detection and prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is originated from the epithelial cells of nasopharynx, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated and has the highest incidence and mortality rates in Southeast Asia. Late presentation is a common issue and early detection could be the key to reduce the disease burden. Sensitivity of plasma EBV DNA, an established NPC biomarker, for Stage I NPC is controversial. Most newly reported NPC biomarkers have neither been externally validated nor compared to the established ones. This causes difficulty in planning for cost-effective early detection strategies. Our study systematically evaluated six established and four new biomarkers in NPC cases, population controls and hospital controls. We showed that BamHI-W 76 bp remains the most sensitive plasma biomarker, with 96.7% (29/30), 96.7% (58/60) and 97.4% (226/232) sensitivity to detect Stage I, early stage and all NPC, respectively. Its specificity was 94.2% (113/120) against population controls and 90.4% (113/125) against hospital controls. Diagnostic accuracy of BamHI-W 121 bp and ebv-miR-BART7-3p were validated. Hsa-miR-29a-3p and hsa-miR-103a-3p were not, possibly due to lower number of advanced stage NPC cases included in this subset. Decision tree modeling suggested that combination of BamHI-W 76 bp and VCA IgA or EA IgG may increase the specificity or sensitivity to detect NPC. EBNA1 99 bp could identify NPC patients with poor prognosis in early and advanced stage NPC. Our findings provided evidence for improvement in NPC screening strategies, covering considerations of opportunistic screening, combining biomarkers to increase sensitivity or specificity and testing biomarkers from single sampled specimen to avoid logistic problems of resampling

Prioritization of genes driving congenital phenotypes of patients with de novo genomic structural variants

Background:Genomic structural variants (SVs) can affect many genes and regulatory elements. Therefore, the molecular mechanisms driving the phenotypes of patients carrying de novo SVs are frequently unknown. Methods:We applied a combination of systematic experimental and bioinformatic methods to improve the molecular diagnosis of 39 patients with multiple congenital abnormalities and/or intellectual disability harboring apparent de novo SVs, most with an inconclusive diagnosis after regular genetic testing. Results: In 7 of these cases (18%), whole-genome sequencing analysis revealed disease-relevant complexities of the SVs missed in routine microarray-based analyses. We developed a computational tool to predict the effects on genes directly affected by SVs and on genes indirectly affected likely due to the changes in chromatin organization and impact on regulatory mechanisms. By combining these functional predictions with extensive phenotype information, candidate driver genes were identified in 16/39 (41%) patients. In 8 cases, evidence was found for the involvement of multiple candidate drivers contributing to different parts of the phenotypes. Subsequently, we applied this computational method to two cohorts containing a total of 379 patients with previously detected and classified de novo SVs and identified candidate driver genes in 189 cases (50%), including 40 cases whose SVs were previously not classified as pathogenic. Pathogenic position effects were predicted in 28% of all studied cases with balanced SVs and in 11% of the cases with copy number variants. Conclusions:These results demonstrate an integrated computational and experimental approach to predict driver genes based on analyses of WGS data with phenotype association and chromatin organization datasets. These analyses nominate new pathogenic loci and have strong potential to improve the molecular diagnosis of patients with de novo SVs