Specific Expression of Human Intelectin-1 in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma and Gastrointestinal Goblet Cells

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a fatal tumor. It is often hard to discriminate MPM from metastatic tumors of other types because currently, there are no reliable immunopathological markers for MPM. MPM is differentially diagnosed by some immunohistochemical tests on pathology specimens. In the present study, we investigated the expression of intelectin-1, a new mesothelioma marker, in normal tissues in the whole body and in many cancers, including MPM, by immunohistochemical analysis. We found that in normal tissues, human intelectin-1 was mainly secreted from gastrointestinal goblet cells along with mucus into the intestinal lumen, and it was also expressed, to a lesser extent, in mesothelial cells and urinary epithelial cells. Eighty-eight percent of epithelioid-type MPMs expressed intelectin-1, whereas sarcomatoid-type MPMs, biphasic MPMs, and poorly differentiated MPMs were rarely positive for intelectin-1. Intelectin-1 was not expressed in other cancers, except in mucus-producing adenocarcinoma. These results suggest that intelectin-1 is a better marker for epithelioid-type MPM than other mesothelioma markers because of its specificity and the simplicity of pathological assessment. Pleural intelectin-1 could be a useful diagnostic marker for MPM with applications in histopathological identification of MPM

A survey of the awareness, offering, and adoption of OERs and MOOCs in Japan

Awareness about Open Educational Resources (OERs) and the purposes for offering and adopting OERs and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were analyzed using a detailed survey of higher education across Japan, which was conducted in 2015. A comparison with a similar study conducted in 2013 revealed that awareness of OERs has increased slightly and the number of MOOCs offered has increased significantly in the intervening two years. The increase of offerings and adoption was low for OERs but high for MOOCs. OERs are used to improve the learning environment for students, while MOOCs aim to promote lifelong learning. Only one-fifth of the institutions surveyed in 2013 offered MOOCs or advanced their plans to offer them in 2015, and institutions that did offer MOOCs or advance such plans to offer them after the previous survey tended to provide MOOCs for society and for promotional purposes, not only for themselves because Japanese institutions are self-sustainable in terms of open education activities, operating without the support of the government or foundations

Evaluation of thermal conductivity for liquid lead lithium alloys at various Li concentrations based on measurement and evaluation of density, thermal diffusivity and specific heat of alloys

tThe thermophysical properties of lead lithium alloy (Pb–Li) are essential for the design of liquidPb–Li blanket system. The purpose of the present study is to make clear the density, the thermaldiffusivity and the heat conductivity of the alloys as functions of temperature and Li concentration.The densities of the solid alloys were measured by means of the Archimedean method. The densitiesof the alloys at 300 K as a function of Li concentration (0 at% < Li< 28 at%) were obtained in theequation as (300 K)[g/cm3] = −6.02 × 10−2× Li+ 11.3. The density of the liquid alloys was formulatedas functions of temperature and Li concentration (0 at% < Li< 30 at%), and expressed in the equationas [g/cm3] = (9.00 × 10−6× T − 7.01 × 10−2) × Li+ 11.4 − 1.19 × 10−3T. The thermal diffusivity of Pb,Pb–5Li, Pb–11Li and Pb–17Li were measured by means of laser flash method. The thermal diffusivity ofPb–17Li was obtained in the equation as ˛Pb–17Li[cm2/s] = 3.46 × 10−4T + 1.05 × 10−1for the temperaturerange between 573 K and 773 K. The thermal conductivity of the Pb–17Li at the temperature of 773 Kwas newly obtained and expressed in the equation as [W/mK] = 4.47 × 10−2 Li2− 0.08 Li+ 14.9.The dependence of Li concentration on the thermal diffusivities of the alloys was larger at highertemperature. The temperature dependence of the thermal conductivities of the alloys was larger whenthe Li concentration in the alloys was higher

Expression of marker antigens in MPM.

<p>The histologic type of MPM was classified by pathological diagnosis. The intensity and proportion of staining of MPM cells were evaluated in the entire microscopic field of the specimen. The individual data are described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039889#pone.0039889.s002" target="_blank">Table S1</a>. Cases were defined as positive if the Allred score, which is the value of the intensity score plus the proportion score, of the marker was more than 3. In the immunostaining of calretinin or WT-1, staining in the nucleus, but not the cytoplasm, was designated as a positive sample. PD, poorly differentiated.</p

Expression of intelectin-1 in gastrointestinal goblet cells.

<p>Specimens were immunostained with anti-intelectin-1, and representative photographs are shown here. The scale bar (100 µm) is shown at the bottom of panel A, representatively. The scale bars of panel G (100 µm), panel H (100 µm), panel I (50 µm), and panel J (50 µm) are also shown. The arrows indicate paneth cells. <b>A</b>, duodenum; <b>B</b>, small intestine; <b>C</b>, colon; <b>D</b>, stomach; <b>E</b>, complete intestinal metaplasia (IM) in stomach; <b>F</b>, incomplete IM in stomach; <b>G</b>, hematoxylin–eosin (HE) staining of complete IM in stomach; <b>H</b>, complete IM in stomach; <b>I</b>, mucous granules in goblet cells; <b>J</b>, mucus-secreting goblet cells; <b>K</b>, liver and bile duct (open arrow); <b>L</b>, pancreas and pancreatic duct (open arrows).</p