Videoendoscopy of Colonic Early Cancer

Since January 1982, 275 early colonic carcinomas undergoing total endoscopic resection were studied. Of this series, 234 lesions showed some adenoma components, whereas the remaining 41 lesions lacked adenoma components. Minute carcinomas measuring ≤ 5 mm (21 lesions) were most commonly the hemispheric protruding type lesions (IIs, 9 lesions), followed by superficial protruding type lesions with a height of ≤ 3 mm (IIa, 6 lesions). There also were 2 superficial depressed-type lesions that were slightly concave. Eight of these minute carcinomas may have developed by de novo carcinogenesis, and 2 had already invaded the submucosa. Therefore every effort should be made not to overlook lesions measuring ≤ 5 mm in diameter. That none of these lesions were located in the rectum indicates the acute necessity for improved examination procedures. With regard to IIa lesions measuring > 5 mm, 92.3% were discovered by videoendoscopy. This high detection rate was attributed to the growing use of videoendoscope systems and reflects heightened interest on the part of endoscopists in superficial type lesions

Clinical Study on Causative Factors and Recurrence of Choledocholithiasis

To identify factors involved in choledocholithiasis, clinical characteristics were studied using univariate and multivariate analyses. Factors involved in recurrence were also investigated. The subjects consisted of 51 patients with calcium bilirubinate stones (B group) and 52 patients with cholesterol stones (C group). All patients had choledocholithiasis and underwent lithotripsy by endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) during the past 9 years. Twenty variables, including clinical symptoms and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) findings, were analyzed using a Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software package. Univariate analysis were done using Student's t-test and the chi-square test. Multivariate analyses were done by stepwise logistic regression analysis. In univariate analyses, there were significant differences between the B group and C group in nine variables: age, common bile duct diameter, common hepatic duct diameter, common bile duct stone diameter, cystic duct diameter, and the presence of gallbladder stones, atypical arrangement of the hepatic duct, parapapillary diverticulum, and large parapapillary diverticulum. In multivariate analysis, the four variables of no gallbladder stone, large parapapillary diverticulum, cystic duct less than 8 mm, and atypical arrangement of the hepatic duct were significant independent factors for the development of stones in the B group, with relative risks of 37.75, 16.73, 5.56, and 5.49, respectively. The results indicated that calcium bilirubinate stones were frequently associated with parapapillary diverticulum and abnormal arrangement of the bile duct. The formation of these stones was attributed to chronic biliary stasis caused by dysfunction of the biliary tract, including the papilla. In contrast, most cholesterol stones found in the common bile duct had apparently descended from the gallbladder. Common bile duct stones recurred after EST in 9 patients, all of whom had calcium bilirubinate stones. On ERCP, recurrence was found to be frequently associated with gallbladder stones, large parapapillary diverticula, and atypical arrangement of the hepatic duct. Patients with these characteristics on initial ERCP should therefore receive appropriate treatment and undergo strict follow-up observations owing to the increased risk of recurrence caused by dysfunction of the biliary tract

Clinicopathological Characteristics of Superficial Type Colorectal Adenomas Obtained by Endoscopic Resection

Colorectal adenomas may be either protruding type or superficial type lesions. To delineate the clinicopathological characteristics of the latter, 153 superficial type adenomas (including the surrounding mucosa) obtained by endoscopic resection were studied morphologically. Superficial type adenomas were defined as flat or flat depressed adenomas with a height of ≤3 mm; histologically, the tubules proliferated horizontally without vertical overlap. The location of tubules in the mucosa was classified as: involvement of the surface layer only (m1), deeper invasion not reaching the muscularis mucosae (m2), or invasion to the muscularis mucosae (m3). The results of analysis indicated: 1) there was no relationship between atypia and size; 2) although macroscopic features (depression, etc.) were associated with the grade of atypia, a closer association was obtained for the location in the mucosa; 3) based on our classification system for tubule location, (m2) and (m3) adenomas had a significantly higher frequency of depressed type lesions than did m1 lesions; and 4) the height of superficial type adenomas was 295 to 413 μm. Height was lowest in the m3 group followed by, in ascending order, the m2 and m1 groups. These morphological and histological characteristics are expected to contribute to improved diagnosis of superficial type adenomas

Genomic DNA sequences of non GT-AG introons in human mRNA genes

We searched human genome DNA sequences in the DDBJ/GenBank/EMBL for introns of mRNA genes which do not conform to the GT-AG rule, and collected 5791 fragments which do not form exon parts. Of these 159 are not of GT-AG form. Then we eliminated 19 because of non introns that were yielded by clerical error, frameshift, edition policy, and so on. Major part (94) of the 140 remaining sequences can be considered also to be GT-AG forms with alternative interpretation. There are several mRNAs carrying more than one intron where not GT-AG forms but non-GT-AG ones are chosen. This suggests easy usage of easy selection, even when there is more than one candidate, by easy computer software to infer an intron sequence as the logical difference between a gene and its corresponding cDNA

NoisyICL: A Little Noise in Model Parameters Calibrates In-context Learning

In-Context Learning (ICL) is suffering from unsatisfactory performance and under-calibration due to high prior bias and unfaithful confidence. Some previous works fine-tuned language models for better ICL performance with enormous datasets and computing costs. In this paper, we propose NoisyICL, simply perturbing the model parameters by random noises to strive for better performance and calibration. Our experiments on two models and 12 downstream datasets show that NoisyICL can help ICL produce more accurate predictions. Our further analysis indicates that NoisyICL enables the model to provide more fair predictions, and also with more faithful confidence. Therefore, we believe that NoisyICL is an effective calibration of ICL. Our experimental code is uploaded to Github.Comment: 20 pages, 28 figures, 7 tables (5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table in main body). ACL 2024 under revie

Case report: Novel NIPBL-BEND2 fusion gene identified in osteoblastoma-like phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor of the fibula

Phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor (PMT) is a rare tumor that secretes fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) and causes hypophosphatemia and tumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO). Fusion genes FN1-FGFR1 and FN1-FGF1 have been detected in some PMTs, but the pathogenesis of PMTs without these fusion genes remains unclear. Here, we report a 12-year-old boy with persistent muscle weakness and gait disturbance. Roentgenographic examination revealed a radiolucent lesion with endosteal scalloping in the left fibula, while his serum level of FGF23 was markedly increased. Combined with simple X-ray findings of other body parts, we suspected that TIO was caused by PMT, and resected the tumor. After resection, the serum level of FGF23 started to decrease immediately and normalized within 3 hours after resection, with this being earlier than normalization of the serum phosphorus level. In RNA sequencing, FN1-FGFR1 and FN1-FGF1 were not detected, but a novel NIPBL-BEND2 fusion gene was identified. When we forcedly expressed this fusion gene in HEK293T cells and MG63 cells, cell proliferation was enhanced in both cell lines. Furthermore, Gene set enrichment analysis of HEK293T cells showed significant upregulation of MYC-target genes. Our results suggest that this novel NIPBL-BEND2 fusion gene promotes cell proliferation possibly via the MYC pathway and might be one of the etiologies of PMTs other than FN1-FGFR1 or FN1-FGF1

Corrosion Resistance of Modified Heat-Treated 16Cr-4Ni Steel for Geothermal Steam Turbine Blades

Immersion corrosion tests and electrochemical corrosion tests were carried out in the simulated geothermal water on a modified heat-treated material of 16Cr-4Ni steel, which is used for geothermal steam turbine blades. Incidentally, the purpose of the modified heat treatment is for reducing the susceptibility of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of the steel in the geothermal fluids. For comparison, a conventional heat-treated material of the 16Cr-4Ni steel was also used in the corrosion tests. In the immersion corrosion tests up to 4,000 hours, the modified heat-treated material showed lower corrosion rates than those of the conventional heat-treated one in the test water. In the electrochemical corrosion tests, the modified heat-treated material exhibited noble and stable corrosion potential behavior. The XPS analysis results exhibited that the passive films formed on the materials were consisted mainly of Cr-oxides (CrOOH, CrO3) and Fe-oxides (FeO, Fe2O3). Furthermore, the composition ratio of Cr-oxides in the outermost surface of the passive film formed on the modified heat-treated material was higher than that on the conventional heat-treated one. It was suggested that the better corrosion resistance of the modified heat-treated 16Cr-4Ni steel was contributed to the formation of the passive film with higher compositions of Cr-oxides