BACKGROUND: Stathmin1 is a microtubule-regulating protein that has an important role in the assembly and disassembly of the mitotic spindle. The roles of stathmin1 in carcinogenesis of various cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, have been explored. However, its expression and roles in gastric cancer have not yet been described. METHODS: Stathmin1 expression in paraffin-embedded tissue sections from 226 patients was analysed by immunohistochemistry. Roles of stathmin1 were studied using a specific small interfering RNA (siRNA). RESULTS: The expression of stathmin1 was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis, TNM stages and vascular invasion, and negatively with recurrence-free survival, in the diffuse type of gastric cancer. The median recurrence-free survival in patients with a negative and positive expression of stathmin1 was 17.0 and 7.0 months, respectively (P ¼ 0.009). When the expression of stathmin1 was knocked down using siRNA, the proliferation, migration and invasion of poorly differentiated gastric cancer cells in vitro were significantly inhibited. Moreover, stathmin1 siRNA transfection significantly slowed the growth of xenografts in nude mice. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that stathmin1 can be a good prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival rate and is a therapeutic target in diffuse-type gastric cancer.

Bacterial canker was first observed on the kiwifruit cv. 'Hort16A (Actinidia chinensis)' in Jeju Province, Korea, in spring 2006. Die back or blight on young canes, often with red-rusty exudation on canes or trunks, and dark brown irregular spots surrounded with yellowish halos on leaves are the typical symptoms. These symptoms closely resemble those caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae on the kiwifruit cv. 'Hayward (Actinidia deliciosa)'. A sudden outbreak and rapid spread of the bacterial canker resulted in the death of severely infected vines and eradication of completely devastated orchards of the kiwifruit cv. 'Hort16A'. Contaminated pruning shears and climatic conditions appear to have been responsible for the sudden outbreak and rapid spread of the epidemics on the kiwifruit cv. 'Hort16A' vines. The causal bacterium was isolated from diseased vines of the kiwifruit cv. 'Hort16A' and identified as P. syringae pv. actinidiae, which is the same bacterial pathogen responsible for cankers on the kiwifruit cv. 'Hayward' by morphological, cultural, physiological and biochemical, molecular and pathogenicity analyses.

ME-NBI and EUS are accurate predictors of SESCC invasion depth. If both methods suggest a mucosal depth of lesion invasion, the accuracy of the prediction is increased. Therefore, when possible, it would be better to evaluate the invasion depth of SESCC using both ME-NBI and EUS before deciding to perform endoscopic resection.

In contrast to other retrospective multisurgeon series, our retrospective single-surgeon series suggests that microsurgical fenestration of the lamina terminalis may not reduce the incidence of shunt-dependent hydrocephalus or cerebral vasospasm after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. A prospective multicenter trial is needed to definitively address the use of this maneuver.

No abstract

A relativistic electron bunch with a large charge (>2 nC) was produced from a self-modulated laser wakefield acceleration configuration. For this experiment, an intense laser beam with a peak power of 2 TW and a duration of 700 fs was focused in a supersonic He gas jet, and relativistic high-energy electrons were observed from the strong laser-plasma interaction. By passing the electron bunch through a small pinholelike collimator, we could generate a quasimonoenergetic high-energy electron beam, in which electrons within a cone angle of 0.25 mrad (f/70) were selected. The beam clearly showed a narrow-energy-spread behavior with a central energy of 4.3 MeV and a charge of 200 pC. The acceleration gradient was estimated to be about 30 GeV/m. Particle-in-cell simulations were performed for comparison study and the result shows that both the experimental and simulation results are in good agreement and the electron trapping is initiated by the slow beat wave of the Raman backward wave and the incident laser pulse.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding broilers with garlic fermented by Leuconostoc citreum SK2556. A total of 250 male broiler chicks was randomly housed into 25 floor pens. Five dietary treatments with five replicates of 10 chicks each (n=50 chicks/ treatment). A corn and soybean meal based diet was used as the control diet (NC). The experimental diets were formulated by mixing the basal diet either with antibiotics (10 ppm; PC) or fermented garlic (FG) at the concentrations of 0.1% (FG1), 0.3% (FG3) or 0.5% (FG5) in diets. Daily weight gain, feed intake, and feed:gain ratio were not affected by any of the dietary treatments. Average daily gain on day 21 linearly increased (p=0.024) with increasing FG levels. The relative weight of the bursa of Fabricius showed a progressive decline with increasing the FG levels. Jejunal villus height was not influenced by dietary treatments. Villus width linearly decreased as FG levels increased (p=0.17). Jejunal crypt depth was significantly lower (p<0.05) in the FG1 and FG3 groups compared with the NC group. Villus height:crypt depth ratio linearly increased (p=0.018) with increasing FG levels. The population of cecal microflora was not altered by dietary treatments. Broiler chickens fed the FG5 diet exhibited (p<0.05) higher blood levels of total protein and cholesterol compared with those fed the NC diet. Collectively, the results show that dietary FG marginally affected growth performance, especially during the first days rearing, improved intestinal morphology, and altered blood characteristics of broiler chickens.

A dynamic wire melting phenomenon is found in rotating arc welding since self-regulation of the arc length is not fully performed. Consequently welding current and electrode extension vary rapidly in high speed rotating arc operation. This paper presents the dynamic simulation of wire melting by using the variable space network method and by modelling the heat¯ux from the molten end of the wire into the electrode. The simulations are compared with experimental results from other references to show a fairly good agreement. By using simulation analyses, it is clari®ed how the characteristics of the welding power source aVect the sensitivity of the arc sensor.