Differential Impacts of Information Technology Services in the Korean Hotel Industry: A Study of Management Perceptions

Successful introduction of information technology applications in various operations of hotel management is vital to most service firms. In recent decades, technologies of information, automation, and communication are increasingly recognized as essential components of a hotel company’s strategic plan. In this study, 62 super-deluxe hotels (5 star), deluxe hotels (4 star), and tourist hotels (3 star) in Korea are examined for differences in the impact of information technology services on guest’ satisfaction, guest convenience, and operational efficiency. The findings generally suggest that the impacts of information technology-enhanced services vary according to the category of hotels in Korea. The results of the study are expected to assist managers in the selections and implementation of information technology systems in their hotel

Prognostic impact of concurrent MYC and BCL6 rearrangements and expression in de novo diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Double-hit B-cell lymphoma is a common designation for a group of tumors characterized by concurrent translocations of MYC and BCL2, BCL6, or other genes. The prognosis of concurrent MYC and BCL6 translocations is not well known. In this study, we assessed rearrangements and expression of MYC, BCL2 and BCL6 in 898 patients with de novo diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with standard chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone plus rituximab). Neither BCL6 translocation alone (more frequent in activated B-cell like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma) nor in combination with MYC translocation (observed in 2.0% of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma) predicted poorer survival in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients with MYC/BCL6 co-expression did have significantly poorer survival, however, MYC/BCL6 co-expression had no effect on prognosis in the absence of MYC/BCL2 co-expression, and had no additive impact in MYC+/BCL2+ cases. The isolated MYC+/BCL6+/BCL2- subset, more frequent in germinal center B-cell like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, had significantly better survival compared with the isolated MYC+/BCL2+/BCL6- subset (more frequent in activated B-cell like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma). In summary, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients with either MYC/BCL6 rearrangements or MYC/BCL6 co-expression did not always have poorer prognosis; MYC expression levels should be evaluated simultaneously; and double-hit B-cell lymphoma needs to be refined based on the specific genetic abnormalities present in these tumors

An Automated and Robust Tumours Detection and Segmentation Framework for Whole-Body PET-CT Studies

A dual-modality positron emission tomography – computed tomography (PET-CT) is one of widely used medical imaging system. It combines functional (from PET) with anatomical (from CT) information, in a co-aligned space, provides advantages on diagnosing with several types of cancers. The most unique benefit of PET is to noninvasively visualise metabolic information such as glucose metabolism, through administrating radioactive tracer into the human body and quantitatively assess treatment response by analysing tumours metabolism. PET response criterion in solid tumour (PERCIST) is a widely accepted approach of assessing metabolic response of malignant tumours. It suggests placing volume of interest (VOI) reference on the liver structure (or the descending aorta structure if the liver is diseased, e.g. liver cancer) of the PET image to measure average of pixel variations. VOI references are then used to derive a PERCIST-based thresholding value, where the structures’ metabolism comprising of higher than the threshold will be considered as tumours. However, the delineation of VOI reference on the low resolution and poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) PET image is a difficult, time consuming and subjective task; in particular, for the small descending aorta structure. In addition, the global threshold does not provide accurate delineation of the tumour structure on PET. In this study, we propose a fully automatic tumours detection and segmentation framework for whole-body PET-CT studies based on PERCIST. We used multi-atlas based approach to segment PERCIST recommended VOI reference and to detect tumours. Then we used cellular automata with anisotropic diffusion filter (CA-ADF) based algorithm for accurate tumour segmentation on PET. In our evaluation, both clinical and simulation results presented that our proposed framework was able to detect and segment all the tumours with high accuracy, which demonstrated the reliability and robustnes

Prognostic impact of c-Rel nuclear expression and REL amplification and crosstalk between c-Rel and the p53 pathway in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Contains fulltext : 153743.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Dysregulated NF-kappaB signaling is critical for lymphomagenesis. The regulation, function, and clinical relevance of c-Rel/NF-kappaB activation in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) have not been well studied. In this study we analyzed the prognostic significance and gene-expression signature of c-Rel nuclear expression as surrogate of c-Rel activation in 460 patients with de novo DLBCL. Nuclear c-Rel expression, observed in 137 (26.3%) DLBCL patients frequently associated with extranoal origin, did not show significantly prognostic impact in the overall- or germinal center B-like-DLBCL cohort, likely due to decreased pAKT and Myc levels, up-regulation of FOXP3, FOXO3, MEG3 and other tumor suppressors coincided with c-Rel nuclear expression, as well as the complicated relationships between NF-kappaB members and their overlapping function. However, c-Rel nuclear expression correlated with significantly poorer survival in p63+ and BCL-2- activated B-cell-like-DLBCL, and in DLBCL patients with TP53 mutations. Multivariate analysis indicated that after adjusting clinical parameters, c-Rel positivity was a significantly adverse prognostic factor in DLBCL patients with wild type TP53. Gene expression profiling suggested dysregulations of cell cycle, metabolism, adhesion, and migration associated with c-Rel activation. In contrast, REL amplification did not correlate with c-Rel nuclear expression and patient survival, likely due to co-amplification of genes that negatively regulate NF-kappaB activation. These insights into the expression, prognostic impact, regulation and function of c-Rel as well as its crosstalk with the p53 pathway underscore the importance of c-Rel and have significant therapeutic implications