Prognostic impact of progression to induction chemotherapy and prior paclitaxel therapy in patients with germ cell tumors receiving salvage high-dose chemotherapy in the last 10 years: A study of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Solid Tumors Working Party

Little is known about the prognostic impact of prior paclitaxel therapy and response to induction chemotherapy defined as the regimen preceding high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) for the salvage therapy of advanced germ cell tumors. Twenty European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation centers contributed data on patients treated between 2002 and 2012. Paclitaxel used in either prior lines of therapy or in induction-mobilization regimens was considered. Multivariable Cox analyses of prespecified factors were undertaken on PFS and overall survival (OS). As of October 2013, data for 324 patients had been contributed to this study. One hundred and ninety-two patients (59.3%) had received paclitaxel. Sixty-one patients (19%) had a progression to induction chemotherapy, 234 (72%) a response (29 (9%) missing or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor without chemotherapy). Both progression to induction chemotherapy and prior paclitaxel were significantly associated with shorter OS univariably (P<0.001 and P=0.032). On multivariable analysis from the model with fully available data (N=216) progression to induction was significantly prognostic for PFS and OS (P=0.003), but prior paclitaxel was not (P=0.674 and P=0.739). These results were confirmed after multiple imputation of missing data. Progression to induction chemotherapy could be demonstrated as an independent prognostic factor, in contrast to prior paclitaxel

Phosphoinositide-binding interface proteins involved in shaping cell membranes

The mechanism by which cell and cell membrane shapes are created has long been a subject of great interest. Among the phosphoinositide-binding proteins, a group of proteins that can change the shape of membranes, in addition to the phosphoinositide-binding ability, has been found. These proteins, which contain membrane-deforming domains such as the BAR, EFC/F-BAR, and the IMD/I-BAR domains, led to inward-invaginated tubes or outward protrusions of the membrane, resulting in a variety of membrane shapes. Furthermore, these proteins not only bind to phosphoinositide, but also to the N-WASP/WAVE complex and the actin polymerization machinery, which generates a driving force to shape the membranes

Robust, Portable I/O Scheduling with the Disk Mimic

We propose a new approach for I/O scheduling that performs on-line simulation of the underlying disk. When simulation is integrated within a system, three key challenges must be addressed: first, the simulator must be portable across the full range of devices; second, all configuration must be automatic; third, the computation and memory overheads must be low. Our simulator, the Disk Mimic, achieves these goals by building a table-based model of the disk as it observes the times for previous requests. We show that a shortest-mimicked-time-first (SMTF) scheduler performs nearly as well as an approach with perfect knowledge of the underlying device and that it is superior to traditional scheduling algorithms such as C-LOOK and SSTF; our results hold as the seek and rotational characteristics of the disk are varied

Abstract Robust, Portable I/O Scheduling with the Disk Mimic

We propose a new approach for I/O scheduling that performs on-line simulation of the underlying disk. When simulation is integrated within a system, three key challenges must be addressed: first, the simulator must be portable across the full range of devices; second, all configuration must be automatic; third, the computation and memory overheads must be low. Our simulator, the Disk Mimic, achieves these goals by building a table-based model of the disk as it observes the times for previous requests. We show that a shortest-mimicked-time-first (SMTF) scheduler performs nearly as well as an approach with perfect knowledge of the underlying device and that it is superior to traditional scheduling algorithms such as C-LOOK and SSTF; our results hold as the seek and rotational characteristics of the disk are varied.

Abstract Datamation 2001: A Sorting Odyssey ∗

We present our experience of turning a Linux cluster into a high-performance parallel sorting system. Our implementation, WIND-SORT, broke the Datamation record by roughly a factor of two, sorting 1 million 100-byte records in 0.48 seconds. We have identified three keys to our success: developing a fast remote execution service, configuring the cluster properly, and avoiding the potential ill-effects of occasionally faulty hardware.

Pollen susceptibility of pistacia species to different pH medium

This study investigated the effect of different pH levels on in vitro pollen germination and pollen tube growth in Pistacia palaestina, Pistacia terebinthus, Pistacia atlantica, Pistacia khinjuk, and Pistacia vera cv Kaska. Pollen susceptibility of Pistacia species to acidity or alkalinity of germination medium (pH 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 6.7 (distilled water), 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0) were tested. It was found that pollen germination and pollen tube growth for all species were greatly reduced when grown in the pH 3.0 medium. None of the pollen of the Pistacia species could germinate at pH 2.0. With growth mediums between pH 3.0 and 9.0, the amount and pattern of response in pollen germinability and tube growth varied considerably between species. According to mean pollen germination, the highest value was obtained at pH 6.0 (93.29%), while pH 3.0 had the lowest value, with 12.08%. The pollen tube growth of the species ranged from 87.6 mm (pH 3.0) to 1054.6 mm (pH 9.0). The pH of the germination medium also affected differentiation in pollen germination and pollen tube growth between the genotypes. © 2010 Academic Journals

Semantically-Smart Disk Systems

We propose and evaluate the concept of a semantically-smart disk system (SDS). As opposed to a traditional "smart" disk, an SDS has detailed knowledge of how the file system above is using the disk system, including information about the on-disk data structures of the file system. An SDS exploits this knowledge to transparently improve performance or enhance functionality beneath a standard block read/write interface. To automatically acquire this knowledge, we introduce a tool (EOF) that can discover file-system structure for certain types of file systems, and then show how an SDS can exploit this knowledge on-line to understand file-system behavior. We quantify the space and time overheads that are common in an SDS, showing that they are not excessive. We then study the issues surrounding SDS construction by designing and implementing a number of prototypes as case studies; each case study exploits knowledge of some aspect of the file system to implement powerful functionality beneath the standard SCSI interface. Overall, we find that a surprising amount of functionality can be embedded within an SDS, hinting at a future where disk manufacturers can compete on enhanced functionality and not simply cost-per-byte and performance