Primary Effusion Lymphoma: A Clinicopathological Study of 70 Cases

Primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) is a rare type of large B-cell lymphoma associated with human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) infection. Patients with PEL usually present with an effusion, but occasionally with an extracavitary mass. In this study, we reported a cohort of 70 patients with PEL: 67 men and 3 women with a median age of 46 years (range 26-91). Of these, 56 (80%) patients had human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, eight were HIV-negative, and six had unknown HIV status. Nineteen (27%) patients had Kaposi sarcoma. Thirty-five (50%) patients presented with effusion only, 27 (39%) had an extracavitary mass or masses only, and eight (11%) had both effusion and extracavitary disease. The lymphoma cells showed plasmablastic, immunoblastic, or anaplastic morphology. All 70 (100%) cases were positive for HHV8. Compared with effusion-only PEL, patients with extracavitary-only PEL were younger (median age, 42 vs. 52 years, p = 0.001), more likely to be HIV-positive (88.9% vs. 68.6%, p = 0.06) and EBV-positive (76.9% vs. 51.9%, p = 0.06), and less often positive for CD45 (69.2% vs. 96.2%, p = 0.01), EMA (26.7% vs. 100%, p = 0.0005), and CD30 (60% vs. 81.5%, p = 0.09). Of 52 (50%) patients with clinical follow-up, 26 died after a median follow-up time of 40.0 months (range 0-96), and the median overall survival was 42.5 months. The median OS for patients with effusion-only and with extracavitary-only PEL were 30.0 and 37.9 months, respectively (p = 0.34), and patients with extracavitary-only PEL had a lower mortality rate at the time of last follow-up (35% vs. 61.5%, p = 0.07). The median OS for HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients were 42.5 and 6.8 months, respectively (p = 0.57), and they had a similar mortality rate of 50% at last follow-up. In conclusion, patients presenting with effusion-only versus extracavitary-only disease are associated with different clinicopathologic features. PEL is an aggressive lymphoma with a poor prognosis, regardless of extracavitary presentation or HIV status

An Improved Biometric-Based User Authentication Scheme for C/S System

The authors first review the recently proposed Das's biometric-based remote user authentication scheme, and then show that Das's scheme is still insecure against some attacks and has some problems in password change phase. In order to overcome the design flaws in Das's scheme, an improvement of the scheme is further proposed. Cryptanalysis shows that our scheme is more efficient and secure against most of attacks; moreover, our scheme can provide strong mutual authentication by using verifying biometric, password as well as random nonces generated by the user and server

Traditional Chinese Medicine Shenmayizhi Decoction Ameliorates Memory and Cognitive Impairment Induced by Multiple Cerebral Infarctions

This study aimed to illustrate the mechanism by which Shenmayizhi decoction (SMYZD) improves the learning memory of rats with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). Fifty male and female Wistar rats of specific pathogen-free grade (SPF grade) were used to establish the model by the administration of a microsphere embolization. This was accomplished by injecting sterile, standardized, mass-produced microspheres of uniform particle size (100–200 µm in diameter) in a sodium alginate microsphere vascular embolic agent suspension to induce VCI. The VCI model was successfully established in 40 rats, including both male and female rats, and the rats were randomly divided into 4 groups of 10 rats each. The model group was administered an equal volume of distilled water. The donepezil group was administered 0.45 mg/kg/d donepezil, which is equivalent to the clinical dosage. The SMYZ-H group was administered 11.88 g/kg/d SMYZ, which is 4 times higher than the clinically equivalent dosage. The SMYZ-L group was administered 2.97 g/kg/d SMYZ, which is the clinically equivalent dosage. A sham-operated group was used as the control group and administered an equal volume of distilled water. The rats in the 4 groups were treated by gavage with equal volumes of liquid and the indicated concentration of drug diluted in distilled water for 8 consecutive weeks. Two months later, the Morris water maze (MWM) was used to evaluate the spatial memory of all the rats. Ultrastructural and ultrapathological changes in the capillaries of the cerebral cortex were observed by transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, Western blot and RT-PCR analyses were used to assess the levels of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFR-β), neuron-glial antigen 2 (NG2), vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A), and angiopoietin 1 (Ang1) in the cerebral cortex of the rats. The results showed that SMYZD at concentrations of 11.88 g/kg/d and 2.97 g/kg/d (SMYZ-H and SMYZ-L) significantly shortened the escape latency (EL). In addition, SMYZ-H significantly prolonged the distance traveled and the time spent in the original platform quadrant by the rats with VCI. SMYZ-H significantly increased the NG2 and Ang1 protein expression levels and increased the PDGFR-β and Ang1 mRNA levels. These results demonstrated that Shenmayizhi decoction can improve the memory abilities of rats with VCI induced by multiple cerebral infarctions by preventing pericyte degeneration

Recent advances in calcium alginate hydrogels encapsulating rejuvenator for asphalt self-healing

Summary: The inherent self-healing ability of asphalt is insufficient and fails to timely repair the cracks due to the combined effect of temperature variation, air oxidation, ultraviolet exposure and traffic loading. Rejuvenator encapsulation based on self-healing asphalt is a green sustainable preventive maintenance technology for asphalt pavement. During the last decade, rejuvenator encapsulation for asphalt self-healing has been a research hotspot and calcium alginate hydrogels encapsulating rejuvenator is a promising self-healing technology. Hence, this review sheds light on the recent advances of calcium alginate hydrogels encapsulating asphalt rejuvenator including self-healing capsules and fibers. The synthesis methods of calcium alginate capsules and fibers containing rejuvenator were elaborately introduced, and their surface morphology, interior structure, mechanical strength, thermal stability, rejuvenator content, distribution and survival in asphalt materials were systematically analyzed. Besides, the effect of capsules and fiber on the mechanical property and pavement performance of asphalt concrete were explored. Additionally, a comprehensive review about the effect of calcium alginate capsules and fibers on self-healing ability of asphalt materials were presented, and the rejuvenator release mechanism and release ratio of them in asphalt mixtures were expounded. In a nutshell, this review aims at highlighting the current research achievements on alginate capsules and fibers containing rejuvenator in asphalt materials, and inspiring enhanced self-healing methods for smart and sustainable maintenance of asphalt pavement

Relevance of Amyloid Precursor-like Protein e C-terminal Fragments in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

In some cellular systems, particularly neurons, amyloid precursor-like-protein 2 (APLP2), and its highly homologous family member amyloid precursor protein (APP), have been linked to cellular growth. APLP2 and APP undergo regulated intramembrane proteolysis to produce Cterminal fragments. In this study, we found comprehensive expression of APLP2 C-terminal fragments in a panel of pancreatic cancer cell lines; however, APP C-terminal fragments were notably limited to the BxPC3 cell line. Extensive glycosaminoglycan modification on APLP2 was also found in the majority of pancreatic cancer cell lines. Glycosaminoglycan-modified and - unmodified APLP2, and particularly APLP2 C-terminal fragments, also demonstrated increased expression in oncogene-transformed pancreatic ductal cells. Additionally, elevated APLP2 levels were confirmed in human pancreatic cancer tissue. Furthermore, down-regulation of APLP2 and APP expression, alone or in combination, caused a decrease in the growth of a pancreatic cancer cell line with representatively low APP C-terminal fragment expression, the S2-013 cell line. Furthermore, we found that treatment with β-secretase inhibitors to block formation of APLP2 C-terminal fragments decreased the growth and viability of S2-013 cells, without affecting the survival of a non-transformed pancreatic ductal cell line. In conclusion, our studies demonstrate that abundant APLP2, but not APP, C-terminal fragment expression is conserved in pancreatic cancer cell lines; however, APP and APLP2 equally regulated the growth of S2-013 pancreatic cancer cells. Chiefly, our discoveries establish a role for APLP2 in the growth of pancreatic cancer cells, and show that inhibitors preventing APLP2 cleavage reduce the viability of pancreatic cancer cells

Extrinsic self-healing asphalt materials: A mini review

Self-healing is a biological phenomenon in which living organism responds to the suffered damage in a complex way. Inspired by the self-healing phenomenon in nature, various biomimetic healing methods rooted in intrinsic or extrinsic healing mechanisms have been explored. Research on novel self-healing asphalt materials with intelligent response is at the cutting-edge of materials science and offers a potential strategy for building long-life and low-carbon asphalt concrete infrastructure. This paper describes the progress of research on extrinsic self-healing asphalt materials and makes a clear distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic self-healing. The asphalt self-healing mechanism is interpreted by capillary flow theory, phase field theory, molecular diffusion theory and surface energy theory form various perspective. The extrinsic self-healing strategies including thermal induced healing and rejuvenator induced healing are proposed to enhance the healing level of cracked asphalt materials. A brief review of the methods including fracture-healing test and fatigue-healing test for assessing the efficacy of different extrinsic healing methods is presented. The thermal induced healing method bring high crack repair efficiency for asphalt concrete and the rejuvenator induced healing strategy not only improve the healing ratio of cracked asphalt concrete but also regenerate the ageing asphalt in situ. Important lessons for prospective research on the creation of novel self-healing asphalt materials are highlighted.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Materials and Environmen