Subtle Color Changes Research Articles

Novel magnified endoscopic findings of microvascular architecture in intramucosal gastric cancer

Background: The color change observed endoscopically in early gastric cancer is thought to correlate with vascular density and architecture. This study investigated the endoscopic microvascular architecture in intramucosal gastric carcinoma in vivo. Methods: Intramucosal gastric carcinomas without ulceration in 27 patients were studied by using a new magnifying upper endoscope with attention to microvascular findings. The carcinomas were divided into two major types histologically: differentiated (18) and undifferentiated (9). Results: A regular subepithelial capillary network was demonstrated in noncancerous mucosa. The appearance of the carcinomas differed depending on histologic differentiation. With all of the differentiated carcinomas, there was a well-demarcated area where the regular capillary pattern of noncancerous mucosa had disappeared and irregular microvessels were proliferating. In contrast, with undifferentiated carcinomas there was only an ill-defined area with disappearance or a reduction in the density of capillaries in the noncancerous mucosa. Conclusions: Magnified endoscopic observation of microvessels may be of assistance in the identification of intramucosal gastric carcinomas that exhibit only subtle changes in color and shape at standard endoscopy.

The Role of Nuptial Coloration in Female Holbrookia maculata: Evidence for a Dual Signaling System

The Role of Nuptial Coloration in Female Holbrookia maculata: Evidence for a Dual Signaling System

The thermal evolution of sporopollenin

Micro Fourier-Transform Infrared (FT–IR) spectroscopy in combination with transmitted and reflected light microspectrophotometry relates the chemical and physical properties of sporopollenin during thermal maturation; the physical properties measured being colour, as the chromaticity coordinates a*, b* and L*, (luminance) and the reflectance (Rsp) of the sporinite wall layers in the polished section. During maturation, sporopollenin exhibits a wide range of colours before there are any significant changes in Rsp. The immature phase is characterised by subtle colour changes through a series of progressively darkening yellows. This coincides with a reduction in the relative proportion of >CO groups and an increase in the relative proportion of aliphatic –CH2 and –CH3 groups. During the mature phase, functional groups within spores and pollen are thermally cracked to generate hydrocarbons. Their colours change rapidly through orange and brown and the FT–IR data indicate the loss of a considerable portion of the aliphatic groups and increases in the CC content associated with aromatic rings. Significant structural reorganisation during the spore ‘oil-window’ results in the formation of isolated aromatic rings. A further increase in maturity yields little change in colour but a rapid increase in reflectivity. This is caused by the formation of multi-ring aromatic units from isolated aromatic units. The size of these polyaromatic units increases with rank. Investigation of artificially matured samples of Lycopodium clavatum spores indicates considerable chemical differences in >CO, CC and aromatic skeletal structure, in comparison to fossil palynomorphs, although they progress through a similar series of colours. Only the behaviour of the aliphatic CH2, CH3 groups, in artificially heated samples replicates that seen in samples matured naturally, under geological conditions.

Landscape, Gender, and Community: Andean Mountain Stories

On southern Bolivian altiplano fight between a male and a female mountain peak marked region in distinctive ways, defining physical space and humans' relationship to it. Considering landscape from perspective of one community, we learn about reworking of history and gender, and individuals' ability to use story creatively. [storytelling, Andes, landscape, gender, mountains] Azanaques got married to a woman from south named 'Munapa . . (Braulio Choque). . . . Finally she came to rest by Thunapa, marrying him. Thunapa said that he would produce salt to make a living and so he did - he's there still . . . (Francisca A.). She dug into earth where she squeezed out her milk to leave for her child who was following. This place now a small reddish salt pan (Molina R., nd.: 48). Ecaco, 1. Thunupa: Nombre de uno de quinn los indios antiguos cuentan muchas fibulas: y muchos adn en ese tiempo las tienen verdaderas: assi seria, bien procurar dechacer esta persuasion6n que tienen, por embuste del Demonio . . . (Bertonio, 1984[1612]: 52). Introduction Arriving as an outsider to take up residence on Bolivian altiplano, I did not realize that even landscape was beyond my reach. What I initially saw was flat expanses of sandy pampa bounded by hills, some of them standing alone, watery vision of Lake Poop,6 with its salty outline to one side of my new home, subtle changes in color from salt to desert sand to rusty browns. This initial impression of desolate beauty had little to do with how Condenos viewed this scene. Little by little, learning or legends about gods who animated this terrain, I was taught to identify personages here and there and marks of their relationships and disputes: that rock catapulted from a sling during a fight, this hill as a hat knocked off during a fight, this salt and sand a trail of breast milk and barley flour, this hill an abandoned child, those red rocks blood of a wounded mountain/ god. But surprisingly this learning process did not result in exchange of one vision of landscape for another. Rather in listening and looking I learned to apprehend always-unfolding possibilities for considering scene around me, some of them contradictory. Stories about important mountains, overseers of Condeno communities, were recounted differently by various community members, not necessarily in conformity with each other. The telling of folk tales influenced by age and sex of individual storyteller, as well as by community affiliation of that person and which parts of landscape are particularly important to him or her. The aim of this article to explore ways in which people from San Pedro de Condo are able to position themselves and their community socially and politically and to negotiate relationships by focusing on their local geography - in this case through one particular story about it. This case has implications for ways in which oral tradition viewed by anthropologists in that here I show oral tradition as a reflection of immediate experience, but also as a way of shaping that lived experience. In this discussion I consider an example of Condeno oral tradition as capable of revealing multiple levels of communal and individual experience. I argue that part of Condeno storytelling about landscape comes through their sensory experience of it (see Classen 1993b). Unlike a neutral landscape that serves as a backdrop for human activity, Condenos fashion their landscape creatively. They are placemakers in way Basso describes for Western Apache, for whom he argues that activity of place-making is a way of constructing history itself, of inventing it, of fashioning novel versions of 'what happened here' (1996: 6). Recognizing that senses of place are the possessions of particular individuals (p. xv), Basso goes on to explore how people exchange information about places in order to invoke specific emotional states, often associated with stories everyone knows about certain places and how these places earned their names. …

A Gray Day on a Brown Dwarf

It9s too early for detailed weather forecasts, but two astronomers--one British, one Australian--claim to have detected clouds in the atmosphere of a nearby brown dwarf star. In a paper submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , they describe subtle color changes which they interpret as evidence that clouds of titanium oxide are sweeping across the disk of the brown dwarf--a star not massive enough to sustain hydrogen fusion in its core. And on page 83 of this issue of Science , researchers in Garching, Germany, announce another first: a brown dwarf that emits x-rays, suggesting that it is spinning very fast and generating a strong magnetic field via a dynamo effect.

Magnetic Susceptibility and Mineral Zonations Controlled by Provenance in Loess along the Illinois and Central Mississippi River Valleys

Magnetic susceptibility (MS) patterns have proven useful for regional stratigraphic correlations of zones within thick, oxidized Peoria and Roxana Silts along the Illinois and Central Mississippi River valleys for more than 350 km. Variations in MS of C horizon loess are controlled by silt-sized magnetite content and are interpreted to reflect changes in sediment provenance due to fluctuations of the Superior and Lake Michigan glacier lobes and the diversion of the Mississippi River to its present course. Grain size distributions and scanning electron microscopic observations indicate that stratigraphic changes in MS are not significantly influenced by eolian sorting or diagenetic dissolution, respectively. Three compositional zones (lower, middle, and upper) are delineated within Peoria Silt which usually can be traced in the field by MS, the occurrence of clay beds, interstadial soils, and/or subtle color changes. These zones can be correlated with, but are generally of more practical use than, previously studied dolomite zones (McKay, 1977) or clay mineral zones (Fryeet al.,1968). However, mineralogical analyses can help to substantiate zone boundaries when in question. MS and compositional zones may indirectly record a climatic signal, primarily through the effect that global cooling has had on ice lobe fluctuations in the Upper Mississippi drainage basin.

Anthocyanins in grapes and grape products

The types of anthocyanins occurring in grapes, wines, and juices are described and their distribution documented. Recent work on the evaluation of red wine color during storage and aging is reviewed. Molecular interactions between anthocyanins and some of the other red wine molecules are shown to be associated with development of new pigments whose formation explains the subtle color changes and stabilization occurring on aging of red wines. A detailed description of the recovery of anthocyanins from grape pomace and production of natural red colorants is also given.

The development of a color sensor system to measure mineral compositions

Efficient mineral beneficiation requires process-control sensors that measure product grades quickly and accurately. The U.S. Bureau of Mines has developed a sensor system that uses color to instantaneously measure mineral concentrations in flotation froths and other process streams. Information from color measurements could significantly augment X-ray fluorescence and neutron-activation analyses currently used to control beneficiation processes. The color sensor system consists of a color video camera, a video-capture board, a computer, and a Bureau-developed computer program that evaluates the color information. A major innovation is the use of the color vector (a calibration standard from commercial broadcasting) to estimate composition. Color vector angles are an excellent measure of the subtle color changes resulting from differences in mineral concentrations. The compositions of dry mineral mixtures, slurries of mixed minerals, and mineralized flotation froths were evaluated with the color sensor system. Color measurements correlated well with mineral composition in each of these cases, thus demonstrating the potential to provide instantaneous on-line information about froth composition for process control.

Quantification of skin color in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis

In patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis, a peculiar hyperpigmentation develops, the intensity of which may or may not be related to the duration of treatment and use of erythropoietin. Our purpose was to conduct a comparative cross-sectional study of white patients with distinct diseases that modify their skin color. A reflected-light colorimeter was used to compare the color of the forehead and forearms of 61 white patients receiving hemodialysis with that of matched controls and of patients with anemia or icterus. Significant differences were found in both reflectance and chromaticity between these groups of patients. Duration of hemodialysis and use of erythropoietin did not significantly influence the colorimetric measurements. The use of a color-reflectance meter allows precise evaluation of subtle changes in skin color and may be used to monitor several diseases.

Chemical and sensory variability in table grapes

Introduction Consumer acceptance of grapes is based on a number of factors, including color, flavor, size, bloom, and texture. This study is concerned directly with the first two factors only, although textural changes associated with the maturity level of the fruit could possibly influence over-all sensory impressions. Flavor is defined as the complex reaction of taste and olfactory receptors; the olfactory aspect is believed to be secondary with non-muscat varieties. In this study, only the taste aspect of flavor will be considered. There are four possible tastes in grapes: acidness (tart, or sour), sweetness, saltiness, and bitterness. White grapes are very low in tannins and other bitter-tasting substances. Red grapes have more bitter-tasting substances, but these are mainly in the skins and unless skins are vigorously chewed little bitter taste is experienced. Grapes have very little salty taste, though tartrates give a reaction. Tartrates as buffer agents repressing the ionization of malic and tartaric acids may, however, influence the acid taste. The characteristic gustatory sensation of grapes is their sweet-sour taste. The main sugars found in grapes, levulose and dextrose, are of very unequal sweetness (about 1.5:1) and presumably the ratio as well as the total amount of the two may be of importance to the sweet taste (Amerine and Thoukis, 1958).2 The acid taste is produced by the organic acids, chiefly tartaric and malic, whose relative as well as total amounts in the fruit are influenced by the variety and by the temperature during the ripening period; these acids are of unequal sourness. For a discussion of the effect of variety, region, and time of maturity on the tartrate/malate ratio see (Amerine and Winkler (1942)). Color is particularly significant as an acceptability factor in table grapes as it is the primary factor of the grapes’ appearance, and appearance is of prime importance. In fact, color is usually used as an index of maturity in red and black grapes (United States Code of Federal Regulations, 1962). Its significance in white grapes is much less clearly defined, however. The subtle changes in color from grass-green to yellowish-amber as maturity advances are much less pronounced than with pigmented fruit, but there are strong indications that consumers do detect these color differences, associating the yellow tones with greater sweetness. The importance of the other appearance factors—size and shape of berry, amount of bloom, etc., have not been investigated thus far. It would also be desirable to have information on the importance to