Gastric adenocarcinoma of fundic gland type:Endoscopicand clinicopathological features

Gastric adenocarcinoma of fundic gland type(GA-FG) with chief cell differentiation was recently proposed as an extremely rare type of gastric adenocarcinoma. Here, we report 4 cases of GA-FG with chief cell differentiation. Endoscopic features included a submucosal tumor shape or a flat shape, whitish discoloration and dilated vessels on the surface. The tumors were located in the upper or middle third of the stomach. All cases were preoperatively diagnosed as GA-FG by biopsy, and endoscopic submucosal dissection was performed. Resected specimens revealed well-differentiated adenocarcinomas resembling chief cells. Tumor cells were diffusely positive for pepsinogen-Ⅰ, but partially positive for H+/K+-ATPase in scattered locations around the tumor margin. Despite the presence of minimal invasion of the carcinoma into the submucosal layer, which was observed in two cases, neither lymphatic nor venous invasion was detected in any of the cases. Finally, all cases showed less aggressive clinical behavior with low grade malignancy.

Relative importance of biological and human-associated factors for alien plant invasions in Hokkaido, Japan

Aims The invasion success of alien plants is strongly affected by both biological and human-associated factors.Evaluation of the rela-tive contribution of each factor is important not only for the further understanding of invasion processes but also for the better manage-ment of invasion risk,particularly in protected areas of high con-servation priority.Here,we quantified the relative importance of species biological traits and association with a human activity,i.e.agriculture,in explaining the invasion success of alien plants across the entire region and in protected areas in Hokkaido,Japan.Methods As a quantitative measure of invasion success,the distribution ex-tent of naturalized populations across the entire prefecture and in protected areas was calculated for 63 alien species with equal residence time based on species occurrence records at a spatial resolution of 5-km mesh grid units.For each species,we identi-fied seven biological traits(seed mass,dispersal mode,maximum plant height,capability of vegetative reproduction,flowering start time and period and life span)and two human-associated factors(introduction purpose and cultivation frequency for agricultural use).Cultivation frequency was determined based on the frequency of seed-sowing in pastures:(1)not sown,(2)accidentally sown as a seed contaminant and(3)intentionally sown for commercial cul-tivation.The importance of biological traits and human-associated factors in explaining the distribution extent was determined using an information-theoretic approach.Important Findings In explaining the distribution extent across the entire prefecture,species biological traits and human-associated factors showed comparable importance;cultivation frequency exhibited the high-est importance value closely followed by seed mass,maximum height and flowering period.In contrast,when focusing on pro-tected areas,human association was more important than bio-logical traits,as indicated by the greatest importance of cultivation frequency and much lower values for most biological traits.The results demonstrated that species biological traits and human as-sociation almost equally contributed to invasion success across the entire region,while invasions into protected areas were more attributable to human association than to biological traits.We highlight that the control of propagule pressure associated with artificial cultivation may be key to preventing further invasions into protected areas.