To carry out a visual examination for chromosome abnormalities, individual chromosome regions need to be determined in a subject image and classified into distinct chromosome types in advance. We have proposed a subregion based approach to improve this process. The proposed approach regards each chromosome region as a series of subregions and iterates searches for subregions in the subject image consecutively. To make this subregion based approach fit for practical use, in this paper, we propose an effective method of searching for subregions in chromosome images and present the results of subregion search experiments.

To make a visual examination of a chromosome image for various chromosome abnormalities, individual chromosome regions have to be determined in a subject image and classified into distinct chromosome types in advance We propose a subregion based method to improve this process The proposed method regards each chromosome region as a series of subregions and iterates a search for subregions in the subject image consecutively In this method, chromosome region classification can be performed simultaneously with its determination for each subregion, and features in the subregions can be integrated effectively for recognizing (determining and classifying) the entire chromosome region.

To make the visual examination of a chromosome image for various chromosome abnormalities, individual chromosome regions have to be extracted from the subject image and classified into the distinct chromosome types. To improve the accuracy and flexibility in this process, we propose a subregion (local band pattern) based method for recognizing chromosome regions in the image. This method regards each chromosome region as a series of subregions, and iterates a search for subregions in the image consecutively. Consequently, chromosome region classification is performed simultaneously with its extraction for each subregion. Since the dimensions and intensities of chromosome regions vary with every image, effective subregion searches require templates whose dimensions and intensities correspond with those of chromosome regions in the image. To develop an effective subregion search, we also propose a method for adjusting the dimensions of templates to those of chromosome regions in the image and adapting the intensities in the image to those of the templates.

To make a visual examination of various chromosome abnormalities, individual chromosome regions have to be determined in an image and classified into distinct chromosome types in advance. We propose a subregion based method to improve this process. The proposed method regards each chromosome region as a series of subregions, and iterates a search for subregions in the subject image consecutively. In this method, chromosome region classification can be performed simultaneously with its determination for each subregion, and the features in subregions can be integrated effectively for recognizing an entire chromosome region.

To make a visual examination of a chromosome image for various chromosome abnormalities, individual chromosome regions have to be determined in the subject image and classified into the distinct chromosome types. We propose a subregion based method to improve this process. The proposed method regards each chromosome region as a series of subregions (local band patterns), and iterates a search for subregions in the image consecutively.

To make the visual examination of a chromosome image for various chromosome abnormalities, individual chromosome regions have to be extracted from the image and classified into the distinct chromosome types in advance. To improve the accuracy and flexibility in this process, a subregion (local band pattern) based method has been proposed for recognizing individual chromosome regions in the image. This method regards each chromosome region as a series of subregions, and iterates a search for subregions in the image consecutively. As a result, chromosome region classification is performed simultaneously with its extraction for each subregion. Since the dimensions and intensities of chromosome regions vary with every image, effective subregion searches require templates whose dimensions and intensities correspond with those of chromosome regions in the subject image. In this paper, to develop an efficient subregion search, we present a method for adjusting the dimensions of templates to those of chromosome regions in the subject image and adapting the intensities in the subject image to those of the templates.

Calcium spirulan (Ca-SP) is a novel sulfated polysaccharide isolated from a blue-green alga Spirulina platensis. Ca-SP inhibits thrombin by activation of heparin cofactor II. Therefore, it could serve as an origin of anti-atherogenic medicines. Since maintenance of vascular endothelial cell monolayers is important for prevention of vascular lesions such as atherosclerosis, the effect of Ca-SP at 20 μg/ml or less on the repair of wounded bovine aortic endothelial cell monolayers in culture was investigated in the present study. When the monolayers were wounded and cultured in the presence of Ca-SP, the polysaccharide inhibited the appearance of the cells in the wounded area. The inhibition was also observed even when the repair was promoted by excess basic fibroblast growth factor, which is one of the autocrine growth factors that are involved in the endothelial cell monolayer maintenance. On the other hand, Ca-SP inhibited the cell growth and the incorporation of [3H]thymidine into the acid-insoluble fraction of proliferating endothelial cells, suggesting that Ca-SP inhibits endothelial cell proliferation. From these results, it is concluded that Ca-SP may retard the repair process of damaged vascular endothelium through inhibition of vascular endothelial cell proliferation by induction of a lower ability to respond to stimulation by endogenous basic fibroblast growth factor.

Sodium spirulan (Na-SP) is a sulfated polysaccharide isolated from the blue-green alga Spirulina platensis, which consists of two types of disaccharide repeating units, O-hexuronosyl-rhamnose (aldobiuronic acid) and O-rhamnosyl-3-O-methylrhamnose (acofriose) with sulfate groups, other minor saccharides and sodium ion. Vascular endothelial cells are present on the inner surface of blood vessels in a monolayer and have anticoagulant properties. To address the question whether Na-SP influences the maintenance of endothelial cell monolayers, we investigated the proliferation of cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells treated with Na-SP. It was found that Na-SP has an inhibitory activity on endothelial cell proliferation accompanied with suppression of whole protein synthesis but without non-specific cell damage. The inhibitory activity of Na-SP was the strongest when compared to that of heparan sulfate, heparin, dextran sulfate, dermatan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate A/C and hyaluronan. Furthermore, it was shown that the inhibitory activity of Na-SP disappeared by either desulfation or depolymerization. The present data suggest that Na-SP is a unique sulfated polysaccharide that strongly inhibits vascular endothelial cell proliferation, and the inhibitory activity requires polymerization of sulfated O-rhamnosyl-acofriose repeating units.

Plasma immunoreactive human atrial natriuretic peptide (hANP) levels were measured in 9 patients with chronic renal failure treated with maintenance hemodialysis in order to evaluate the effects of fluid removal and osmotic pressure. Under hemodialysis without fluid removal plasma hANP levels remained unchanged, but the levels were significantly decreased during extra-corporeal ultrafiltration (p less than 0.01). The present study provided strong evidence that the fall in plasma hANP levels in hemodialysis patients is mainly due to the reduction in circulating plasma volume.

The effect of surfactants on the absorption of salicylic acid from keratinized oral mucosa was investigated by hamster cheek pouch method in vivo at pHs 3.0, 4.0 and 7.0. Four surfactants, sodium laurylsulfate (SLS), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), polysorbate 80 (PS-80) and sodium taurocholate (STC), were examined as adjuvants. The interaction between salicylic acid and each surfactant was determined by the molecular sieve method using Sephadex G-25. Decreased absorption of salicylic acid by the presence of PS-80 was observed in the lower pH conditions and this phenomenon was explained by the decrease in the free fraction of salicylic acid. The absorption of salicylic acid in the presence of ionic surfactants, SLS or CPC, was much larger than that predicted by the loss of activities which was caused by the interaction between the surfactant and the drug molecule. Pretreatment with SLC or CPC brought the salicylic acid absorption to increase in all pH conditions examined and the effects were dependent on the surfactant concentration. STC and no effect on the absorption. The mechanisms of the effects of ionic surfactants on the permeability of keratinized oral mucosa were discussed.