Diagnosis of major cancer resection specimens with virtual slides: Impact of a novel digital pathology workstation

Digital pathology promises a number of benefits in efficiency in surgical pathology, yet the longer time required to review a virtual slide than a glass slide currently represents a significant barrier to the routine use of digital pathology. We aimed to create a novel workstation that enables pathologists to view a case as quickly as on the conventional microscope. The Leeds Virtual Microscope (LVM) was evaluated using a mixed factorial experimental design. Twelve consultant pathologists took part, each viewing one long cancer case (12-25 slides) on the LVM and one on a conventional microscope. Total time taken and diagnostic confidence were similar for the microscope and LVM, as was the mean slide viewing time. On the LVM, participants spent a significantly greater proportion of the total task time viewing slides and revisited slides more often. The unique design of the LVM, enabling real-time rendering of virtual slides while providing users with a quick and intuitive way to navigate within and between slides, makes use of digital pathology in routine practice a realistic possibility. With further practice with the system, diagnostic efficiency on the LVM is likely to increase yet more

Temperature-dependent development, cold tolerance, and potential distribution of cricotopus lebetis (Diptera: Chironomidae), a tip miner of hydrilla verticillata (Hydrocharitaceae)

© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Entomological Society of America. A chironomid midge, Cricotopus lebetis (Sublette) (Diptera: Chironomidae), was discovered attacking the apical meristems of Hydrilla verticillata (L.f. Royle) in Crystal River, Citrus Co., Florida in 1992. The larvae mine the stems of H. verticillata and cause basal branching and stunting of the plant. Temperature-dependent development, cold tolerance, and the potential distribution of the midge were investigated. The results of the temperature-dependent development study showed that optimal temperatures for larval development were between 20 and 30°C, and these data were used to construct a map of the potential number of generations per year of C. lebetis in Florida. Data from the cold tolerance study, in conjunction with historical weather data, were used to generate a predicted distribution of C. lebetis in the United States. A distribution was also predicted using an ecological niche modeling approach by characterizing the climate at locations where C. lebetis is known to occur and then finding other locations with similar climate. The distributions predicted using the two modeling approaches were not significantly different and suggested that much of the southeastern United States was climatically suitable for C. lebetis

Using keystroke logging to understand writers’ processes on a reading-into-writing test

Background Integrated reading-into-writing tasks are increasingly used in large-scale language proficiency tests. Such tasks are said to possess higher authenticity as they reflect real-life writing conditions better than independent, writing-only tasks. However, to effectively define the reading-into-writing construct, more empirical evidence regarding how writers compose from sources both in real-life and under test conditions is urgently needed. Most previous process studies used think aloud or questionnaire to collect evidence. These methods rely on participants’ perceptions of their processes, as well as their ability to report them. Findings This paper reports on a small-scale experimental study to explore writers’ processes on a reading-into-writing test by employing keystroke logging. Two L2 postgraduates completed an argumentative essay on computer. Their text production processes were captured by a keystroke logging programme. Students were also interviewed to provide additional information. Keystroke logging like most computing tools provides a range of measures. The study examined the students’ reading-into-writing processes by analysing a selection of the keystroke logging measures in conjunction with students’ final texts and interview protocols. Conclusions The results suggest that the nature of the writers’ reading-into-writing processes might have a major influence on the writer’s final performance. Recommendations for future process studies are provided

Mechanotransductive feedback control of endothelial cell motility and vascular morphogenesis

Vascular morphogenesis requires persistent endothelial cell motility that is responsive to diverse and dynamic mechanical stimuli. Here, we interrogated the mechanotransductive feedback dynamics that govern endothelial cell motility and vascular morphogenesis. We show that the transcriptional regulators, YAP and TAZ, are activated by mechanical cues to transcriptionally limit cytoskeletal and focal adhesion maturation, forming a conserved mechanotransductive feedback loop that mediates human endothelial cell motility in vitro and zebrafish intersegmental vessel (ISV) morphogenesis in vivo. This feedback loop closes in 4 hours, achieving cytoskeletal equilibrium in 8 hours. Feedback loop inhibition arrested endothelial cell migration in vitro and ISV morphogenesis in vivo. Inhibitor washout at 3 hrs, prior to feedback loop closure, restored vessel growth, but washout at 8 hours, longer than the feedback timescale, did not, establishing lower and upper bounds for feedback kinetics in vivo. Mechanistically, YAP and TAZ induced transcriptional suppression of myosin II activity to maintain dynamic cytoskeletal equilibria. Together, these data establish the mechanoresponsive dynamics of a transcriptional feedback loop necessary for persistent endothelial cell migration and vascular morphogenesis

ToF-SIMS study of polycrystalline uranium after exposure to deuterium

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is employed to examine specific features observed on a polycrystalline depleted uranium sample after exposure to high purity D{sub 2} gas. The ToF-SIMS investigation, being the first of its kind on uranium, investigates a site where the deuterated form of uranium hydride (UD{sub 3}) is clearly observed to have broken through the thin, air-formed oxide. Density functional theory calculations have been performed, which confirm the stability of, and also assign structural geometries to, the various uranium containing fragments observed with SIMS. An inclusion site was also investigated using ToF-SIMS, and these data suggest that the edges of such inclusions exhibit increased D ion, and hence H ion, diffusion when compared to the surrounding surface oxide. These results offer support to the previously published hypotheses that inclusion sites on uranium surfaces exhibit an increased probability to form hydride sites under H{sub 2} exposure

Anti-angiogenic effects of VEGF stimulation on endothelium deficient in phosphoinositide recycling

Anti-angiogenic therapies have generated significant interest for their potential to combat tumor growth. However, tumor overproduction of pro-angiogenic ligands can overcome these therapies, hampering success of this approach. To circumvent this problem, we target the resynthesis of phosphoinositides consumed during intracellular transduction of pro-angiogenic signals in endothelial cells (EC), thus harnessing the tumors own production of excess stimulatory ligands to deplete adjacent ECs of the capacity to respond to these signals. Using zebrafish and human endothelial cells in vitro, we show ECs deficient in CDP-diacylglycerol synthase 2 are uniquely sensitive to increased vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) stimulation due to a reduced capacity to re-synthesize phosphoinositides, including phosphatidylinositol-(4,5)-bisphosphate (PIP2), resulting in VEGF-exacerbated defects in angiogenesis and angiogenic signaling. Using murine tumor allograft models, we show that systemic or EC specific suppression of phosphoinositide recycling results in reduced tumor growth and tumor angiogenesis. Our results suggest inhibition of phosphoinositide recycling provides a useful anti-angiogenic approach