Automated detection and sorting of microencapsulation via machine learning.

Microfluidic-based microencapsulation requires significant oversight to prevent material and quality loss due to sporadic disruptions in fluid flow that routinely arise. State-of-the-art microcapsule production is laborious and relies on experts to monitor the process, e.g.

Cell cycle control and DNA damage response of conditionally immortalized urothelial cells.

Background: Children with complex urogenital anomalies often require bladder reconstruction. Gastrointestinal tissues used in bladder augmentations exhibit a greatly increased risk of malignancy, and the bladder microenvironment may play a role in this carcinogenesis. Investigating the influences of the bladder microenvironment on gastrointestinal and urothelial cell cycle checkpoint activation and DNA damage response has been limited by the lack of an appropriate well-differentiated urothelial cell line system.

Increased cancer risk of augmentation cystoplasty: possible role for hyperosmolal microenvironment on DNA damage recognition.

Patients who have had surgical bladder augmentation have an increased risk of bladder malignancy, though the mechanism for this increased risk is unknown. Hyperosmolal microenvironments such as the bladder may impair DNA damage signaling and repair; this effect may be more pronounced in tissues not normally exposed to such conditions. Comparing gastric and colon epithelial cell lines to transitional epithelial cell lines gradually adapted to an osmolality of 600 mOsm/kg with either sodium chloride or urea, cell lines of gastrointestinal origin were inhibited in their ability to activate ATM and downstream effectors of DNA damage signaling and repair such as p53, Nbs1, replication protein A (RPA), and gammaH2AX following the induction of DNA damage with etoposide.

Constitutive activity of JNK2 alpha2 is dependent on a unique mechanism of MAPK activation.

c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNKs) are part of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family and are important regulators of cell growth, proliferation, and apoptosis. Typically, a sequential series of events are necessary for MAPK activation: phosphorylation, dimerization, and then subsequent translocation to the nucleus. Interestingly, a constitutively active JNK isoform, JNK2alpha2, possesses the ability to autophosphorylate and has been implicated in several human tumors, including glioblastoma multiforme.

RecQ and RecG helicases have distinct roles in maintaining the stability of polypurine.polypyrimidine sequences.

DNA triplex structures can block the replication fork and result in double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs). RecQ and RecG helicases may be important for replication of such sequences as RecQ resolves synthetic triplex DNA structures and RecG mediates replication restart by fork regression. Primer extension on an 88 bp triplex-forming polypurine.

Fatal dog maulings associated with infant swings.

We present three cases of fatal dog maulings of infants placed in mobile infant swings, a phenomenon not previously described in the literature. In each case, the victim was left in a mobile swing, unsupervised by an adult, and the attacking dog was a family pet. Case 1 involved an 18-day-old male infant attacked by a pit bull; Case 2 involved a 3-month-old male infant attacked by a Chow Chow and/or a Dachshund, and Case 3 involved an 18-day-old female infant attacked by a Labrador-pit bull mix.

D2-40, a novel monoclonal antibody against the M2A antigen as a marker to distinguish hemangioblastomas from renal cell carcinomas.

Hemangioblastomas (HB) are characterized by the presence of vacuolated tumor cells resembling the tumor cells seen in clear cell renal cell carcinomas (CRCC). The distinction between HB and metastatic CRCC in the brain is critical as they have different therapeutic and prognostic ramifications. The issue is further complicated by the possibility of both HB and metastatic CRCC in brains of patients with Von Hippel Lindau (VHL) disease.

Utility of D2-40, a novel mesothelial marker, in the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma.

Although immunohistochemistry has proven to be valuable in the differentiation of epithelioid mesothelioma from pulmonary or metastatic adenocarcinoma, no single antibody has demonstrated absolute sensitivity or specificity in making this distinction. Using immunohistochemical analysis with D2-40, a recently available monoclonal antibody that has been used as a lymphatic endothelial marker, we examined 53 cases of mesothelioma, 28 cases of reactive pleura, 30 cases of pulmonary adenocarcinoma, 35 cases of renal cell carcinoma, 26 cases of ovarian serous carcinoma, 16 cases of invasive breast carcinoma, 11 cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma, and seven cases of urothelial carcinoma. In addition, immunohistochemistry using calretinin, cytokeratin 5/6, and WT1 was performed on all cases of mesothelioma, pulmonary adenocarcinoma, ovarian serous carcinoma, and renal cell carcinoma.

Corticomedullary mixed tumor of the adrenal gland with concurrent adrenal myelolipoma.

We report the case of a corticomedullary mixed tumor of the adrenal gland in a 55-year-old woman with a left adrenal mass who presented with mild symptoms of Cushing syndrome and an elevated urinary cortisol level. The patient underwent a left adrenalectomy. A well-circumscribed 2.

Immunoglobulin heavy chain gene analysis in lymphomas: a multi-center study demonstrating the heterogeneity of performance of polymerase chain reaction assays.

Determination of monoclonality through an evaluation of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) gene rearrangements is a commonly performed and useful diagnostic assay. Many laboratories that perform this assay do so by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). To evaluate current methods for performing IgH gene testing, 19 different Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP) member laboratories analyzed 29 blinded B cell and T cell lymphoid neoplasm samples of extracted DNA and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue and were asked to complete a technical questionnaire.

Immunoprofile of MITF, tyrosinase, melan-A, and MAGE-1 in HMB45-negative melanomas.

A majority of desmoplastic melanomas and some of the other forms of melanomas are S-100 positive and HMB45 negative; this pattern of immunoreactivity is similar to certain nerve-derived tumors such as malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor. In this study the immunostaining profile of HMB45-negative malignant melanomas was evaluated by a panel of antibodies against markers associated with melanoma and melanocytic differentiation, including microphthalmia transcription factor, tyrosinase, Melan-A, and MAGE-1. Immunodetection was performed on paraffin sections of 22 cases of HMB45-negative malignant melanomas (including 8 spindle cell melanomas, 8 desmoplastic melanomas, and 6 epithelioid melanomas), 8 HMB45-and S-100-positive malignant melanomas, 15 malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, 16 schwannomas, and 11 neurofibromas.