Dietary and Other Risk Factors in The Aetiology of Cholelithiasis: A Case Control Study

We studied the effect of dietary factors and a variety of other risk factors on the development of cholelithiasis through a case control study

Comparative study of serotonin and bombesin in adenocarcinomas and neuroendocrine tumors of the colon

The aim of this study was to investigate serotonin and bombesin expression in colorectal adenocarcinomas and neuroendocrine colorectal tumors to clarify their role in the progression of colon cancer. The investigation was carried out by electron microscope immunocytochemistry, The ultrastructural study revealed that some cases of colorectal adenocarcinomas were characterized by the presence of amphicrine cells containing endocrine granules and mucus granules. Poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas and liver metastases were poorly granulated compared with highly differentiated tumors. Neuroendocrine tumors nevertheless were characterized by the presence of numerous malignant neuroendocrine cells filled with secretory granules and mucus granules, Bombesin appeared to be located in enterochromaffin-like endocrine cells, which are primarily responsible for the production of serotonin. In colorectal adenocarcinomas there was an inverse correlation between serotonin levels and the degree of differentiation, High serotonin levels characterized colorectal adenocarcinomas with composite phenotype and colorectal neuroendocrine tumors. Increased bombesin expression was correlated with colorectal adenocarcinomas exhibiting poor histological grade and their liver metastases. In conclusion, the findings suggest that high serotonin levels may be an indicator of neuroendocrine differentiation, and bombesin may be a useful marker for colorectal adenocarcinomas with aggressive behavior

Using wiimote for 2D and 3D pointing tasks: Gesture performance evaluation

We present two studies to comparatively evaluate the performance of gesture-based 2D and 3D pointing tasks. In both of them, a Wiimote controller and a standard mouse were used by six participants. For the 3D experiments we introduce a novel configuration analogous to the ISO 9241-9 standard methodology. We examine the pointing devices' conformance to Fitts' law and we measure eight extra parameters that describe more accurately the cursor movement trajectory. For the 2D tasks using Wiimote, Throughput is 41,2% lower than using the mouse, target re-entry is almost the same, and missed clicks count is three times higher. For the 3D tasks using Wiimote, Throughput is 56,1% lower than using the mouse, target re-entry is increased by almost 50%, and missed clicks count is sixteen times higher. Fitts' law, 3D pointing, Gesture User Interface, Wiimote © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Thyroid autoantibodies and thyroid function in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) patients often present high serum titres of several autoantibodies including autoantibodies against beta-islet cells and insulin. In the present study we examined with an hemagglutination method the sera of 33 patients with PA for the presence of both anti-mitochondrial and anti-thyroglobulin antithyroid autoantibodies (ATA). Twenty-six surgical patients with other non-malignant gastrointestinal tract (GI) disease (chronic pancreatitis or hernia) and 40 healthy volunteers were used as controls. Eight of the 33 PA patients were found to have ATA autoantibodies, whereas only one patient with chronic pancreatitis and 2 normal individuals had high serum ATA titres. The difference between the PA patients and either of the control groups was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The production of autoantibodies could be attributed to impaired immunoregulation caused by the malignant cells