Spatial organization of fibroblast nuclear chromocenters: component tree analysis.

The nuclei of mouse connective tissue fibroblasts contain chromocenters which are well-defined zones of heterochromatin that can be used as positional landmarks to examine nuclear remodeling in response to a mechanical perturbation. This study used component tree analysis, an image segmentation algorithm that detects high intensity voxels that are topologically connected, to quantify the spatial organization of chromocenters in fibroblasts within whole mouse connective tissue fixed and stained with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI). The component tree analysis method was applied to confocal microscopy images of whole mouse areolar connective tissue incubated for 30 min ex vivo with or without static stretch.

Executive dysfunction in frontotemporal dementia and corticobasal syndrome.

Objective: To determine the pattern of executive dysfunction in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and corticobasal syndrome (CBS) and to determine the brain areas associated with executive dysfunction in these illnesses.

Method: We administered the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), a collection of standardized executive function tests, to 51 patients with behavioral-variant FTD and 50 patients with CBS. We also performed a discriminant analysis on the D-KEFS to determine which executive function tests best distinguished the clinical diagnoses of FTD and CBS.

[Normal value of electrolytes in the gastric juice].

In the present paper, the authors present the concentrations of electrolytes (Na, K, Ca, Mg and Cl) in the gastric juice of Na and K obtained by the flame photometer and by the atomic absorption spectrophotometer and conclude that the flame photometer may give false results when used to determine the electrolytes in the gastric juice.