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This ICG fluorescence imaging technique is feasible and safe for detecting SLN in a less invasive manner than conventional mapping, with real-time observations.

The plasminogen activation (PA) system may participate in cancer invasion and metastasis. A series of breast cancer tissue specimens was analysed using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Urokinase‐type plasminogen activator (u‐PA) mRNA was detected in cancer cells and fibroblasts adjacent to them and its expression was found to be more intense in invasive than in intraductal regions. In invasive but not in intraductal regions, especially those with abundant stroma, plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1) mRNA was observed in cancer cells, fibroblasts, macrophages, and endothelial cells, and PAI‐2 mRNA was present in cancer cells, and fibroblasts, macrophages, and lymphocytes around them. These PAI‐1‐ and PAI‐2‐positive cancer cells were localized at the periphery of the invasive front. Immunohistochemistry yielded basically similar results. A retrospective study of surgically resected breast cancers from 73 patients revealed significant clinical differences associated with u‐PA and PAI‐2 expression in cancer cells, associated with a poor and a good prognosis, respectively. These findings indicate that breast cancer cells and fibroblasts express u‐PA initially and then its inhibitors, and that this process is related to invasion. Expression of u‐PA and PAI‐2 in cancer cells themselves may serve to up‐regulate and limit PA‐mediated invasion and metastasis, respectively. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper presents a practical planning method for optimal water allocation in a total system consisting of water-using and water-treating process units. The method uses a heuristic rule and a linear programmingalgorithm. The heuristic rule regarding a sequence of process units is used to simplify an integrated system structure. The algorithm uses repeatedly a linear programming technique to solve a linearized problem for a set of constant values of some parameters. By using the combination of these two approaches, a total system structure is determined so as to minimize the total cost associated with fresh water and water treatment subject to constraints derived from material balances and interrelationships among process units. The method is illustrated by its application to an optimal water allocation problemin a petroleum refinery.