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A 45-year-old woman complaining of abdominal fullness was referred for endoscopic examination. She was a non-smoker and non-drinker. An endoscopic examination revealed the presence of more than 100 tiny, rounded, elevated, yellowish lesions <0.5 mm in diameter scattered throughout the upper and lower esophagus. Based on the endoscopic examination results, her stomach manifested symptoms of mildly superficial gastritis. Histopathologic examination of the esophagus biopsy specimen revealed that some of the lobules of the cells displayed typical sebaceous differentiation covered by a squamous epithelium. No evidence of inflammatory reaction, hair follicles, or malignancy was found. The patient's blood and serum findings were unremarkable. Our final diagnosis was multiple tiny ectopic sebaceous glands in the esophagus. This is an interesting and rare case of esophageal sebaceous glands distributed throughout the entire esophagus. Because there were no esophageal symptoms or/and eating problems, the patient did not require endoscopic surgery or other treatment. Follow-up examinations were recommended at intervals between 6 months and 1 year. At the 2-year follow-up, an endoscopic examination revealed no change in the size or the number of the tiny ectopic esophageal sebaceous glands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve contrast and visibility of haze image captured in the foggy weather, this paper proposed an image restoration algorithm using domain transform recursive filter. Based on the atmospheric scattering model, the proposed method firstly reduced the image dimensions of physical constraint through domain transform, and then obtained the accurate atmospheric veil by performing the recursive filter. Finally the clear image was recovered by solving the physical equation of haze image and enhanced by a local linear mapping. The proposed algorithm not only got more natural effectiveness at the edge of places where scene depth changed abruptly, but also effectively highlighted detail information of recovered image. Experimental results show that comparing with traditional single image haze removal methods, the proposed method has better visual effect and faster execution speed. Furthermore, the algorithm can be performed in parallel, so it can be accelerated using GPU and satisfy real-time applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amorphous HfO2 nano-helix arrays with different screw pitches were fabricated by the glancing angle deposition technique. Room temperature ferromagnetism was achieved in this undoped amorphous HfO2 nanostructure, which is attributed to singly charged oxygen vacancies. The different magnetic behavior and photoluminescence in flat film and nano-helix arrays originate from the distinction of defect components. This study could facilitate the understanding of ferromagnetism origin in undoped HfO2, it also suggests a possible way to alter the intrinsic defects in amorphous HfO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method of DNA adapter ligation-mediated allele-specific amplification (ALM-ASA) was developed for typing multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the platform of microchip electrophoresis. Using seven SNPs of 794C>T, 1274C>T, 2143T>C, 2766T>del, 3298G>A, 5200G>A, and 5277C>T in the interleukin 1B (IL1B) gene as a target object, a long DNA fragment containing the seven SNPs of interest was pre-amplified to enhance the specificity. The pre-amplified DNA fragment was digested by a restriction endonuclease to form sticky ends; and then the adapter was ligated to either end of the digested fragment. Using the adapter-ligated fragments as templates, a 7-plex allele-specific amplification was performed by 7 allele-specific primers and a universal primer in one tube. The allele-specific products amplified were separated by chip electrophoresis and the types of SNPs were easily discriminated by the product sizes. The seven SNPs in IL1B gene in 48 healthy Chinese were successfully typed by microchip electrophoresis and the results coincided with those by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing method. The method established was accurate and can be used to type multiple SNPs simultaneously. In combination with microchip electrophoresis for readout, ALM-ASA assay can be used for fast SNP detection with a small amount of sample. Using self-prepared gel matrix and reused chips for analysis, the SNP can be typed at an ultra low cost.

To establish adapter-ligation mediated allele-specific amplification ("ALM-ASA" for short) for multiplex SNP genotyping, five SNPs, 100C>T, 1661G>C, 1758G>T, 2470T>C and 2850C>T in CYP2D6 gene were used as an example for evaluating the method. Firstly, a preamplification was carried out for producing a long target containing all SNPs of interest. Secondly, the preamplified DNA fragments were digested with a restriction endonuclease to form sticky ends. Thirdly, an adapter was ligated to either end of the digested fragment. One end of the adapter was designed as a sequence sticky to the ends of the enzymatically digested fragments, and the other end had a common sequence. Fourthly, an allele-specific amplification was performed by allele-specific primers and a universal primer in one tube by using the adapter-ligated fragments as templates. Finally, the allele-specific amplification products were separated by agarose gel electrophoresis. Because each tube corresponds to one kind of allele-specific primers, the genotype of an SNP can be easily discriminated by the length of the amplified products in each tube. The products of 5-plex allele-specific amplification can be separated by agarose gel electrophoresis. Five SNPs in the CYP2D6 gene were successfully typed for 20 healthy Mainland Chinese and the results were in agreement with those by RFLP. By ALM-ASA, n+1 primers (n SNP allele-specific primers and a universal primer) can be used for an n-plex PCR amplification; the specificity of PCR is thus enhanced significantly. It is concluded that ALM-ASA can be used for typing multiple SNPs simultaneously.

With the completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP), typing single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) has become one of the main tasks in the post-genome era. Consequently, a robust, flexible and cost-effective technique for SNP typing is essential to analyze a large number of SNPs. The latest genotyping technologies and the relative detection platforms were introduced systematically. The principle of SNP typing was described in detail in respect of allele-specific hybridization, restriction enzyme digestion, primer extension and oligonucleotide ligation assay, as well as the genotyping platforms of plate readers, genechips, bead array and mass spectrometry. Moreover, the way to the high-throughput genotyping in the future was briefly discussed.