Chiroteuthis veranyi from the Atlantic sector of the southern ocean (cephalopoda: Chiroteuthidae)

Chiroteuthis veranyi (Férussac, 1835) (Cephalopoda: Chiroteuthidae) from South Georgia is described from material collected during the British Antarctic Survey’s Offshore Biological Programme. The material closely resembles C. veranyi from elsewhere and, in common with C. lacertosa, C. imperator and C. calyx, has two round photophores, one on each side of the ink sac. It also resembles C. lacertosa and C. calyx in the structure of the stalks of the club suckers, which consist of two portions: a broad cylindical basal portionterminates in a dark purple pleated “skirt” from which arises a slender, sucker-bearing distal portion. The Antarctic material has tentacular club suckers which possess, on the distal half of the ring, a prominent centralrecurved median tooth flanked by two triangular teeth on each side. The proximal half of the ring is smooth. The proximity of the location where the specimens were collected to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current suggeststhat the species may be widely distributed in the Southern Ocean

Self-assembled functional molecular materials for optoelectronic applications

There has been a growing interest to develop functional organic and organometallic materials in nano-scale by self assembly reactions as these materials could have unique electronic properties and applications. We have found that functionalized organometallic nano-wires which the formations are directed by weak Pt⋯Pt interactions along the dimension of the aggregates can be readily obtained by self-assembly reactions. These platinum(II) nano-wires exhibit interesting photophysical properties, vapochromic behavior, and could be used in the fabrication of organic (light-emitting) field-effect transistors.1,2 We have also found that thermally stable coordination polymers (with decomposition temperature up to 490°C), employing Zn 2+ as template metal ion and Schiff base or terpyridine as repeating chelating units, could be easily synthesized by self-assembly reactions. 3,4 These zinc (II) coordination polymers exhibit intense blue to green photoluminescence, and their thin-film samples have PL quantum yields up to 0.55. Polymer light-emitting devices (PLEDs) employing these coordination polymers as emitters give blue and green EL with turn-on voltage as low as 5 V and maximum efficiency up to 2.0 cd A-1. © 2009 Materials Research Society.published_or_final_versionThe 2008 Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society, Boston, MA., 1-5 December, 2008. In Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, 2008, v. 1149, p. 1-1

Risk Factors for Unplanned Early Implantable Port Catheter Removal in Adult Hematology Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: A Propensity Score Matching Study

Ming-Shian Lu,1,2 Chih-Chen Chen,2,3 Che-Chia Chang,1 Chien-Chao Lin,1 Ching-Chuan Hsieh1,2 1Department of Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Chiayi, Puzi City, Taiwan; 2Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; 3Department of Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Chiayi, Puzi City, TaiwanCorrespondence: Ching-Chuan Hsieh, Department of Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Chiayi, 8, West Sec, Jiapu Road, Puzi City, Chiayi, 613016, Taiwan, Tel +886 5 362100 Ext 2860, Fax +886- 5 3623002, Email [email protected]: Implantable port catheter is a reliable vascular access for chemotherapy infusion in cancer patients. However, patients with hematology malignancies usually present with a myriad of blood cell abnormalities that put them at risk of infection and mechanical problems requiring catheter removal. This study aims to determine the risk factors associated with unplanned (catheter removal other than completion of treatment plan) early (within 90 days of catheter implantation) implantable port catheter removal.Patients and Methods: A retrospective, propensity score-matched study of 386 patients with hematology malignancies who received implantable venous access ports between January 2015 and December 2022. We conducted a univariate analysis to select the variables for propensity score matching. Patients with unplanned early implantable port catheter removal (early group) were matched 1:1 to patients without unplanned early removal (non-early group).Results: Univariate analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference between early and non-early groups for age (p = 0.048), hemoglobin level (p = 0.028), thrombocytopenia (p = 0.025), and PG-SGA (p < 0.001). Thrombocytopenia was the only independent risk factor with a statistically significant difference in Cox proportional hazard analysis, HR 2.823, 95 CI 1.050– 7.589, p = 0.040. The median catheter survival for patients with thrombocytopenia was 61 days (95% CI 28.58– 93.42) compared to 150 days (95% CI 9.81– 290.19) for patients without thrombocytopenia, p = 0.015. Patient survival is not affected by early catheter removal. The median survival for patients in the early group was 28.28 months (95% CI 27.43– 29.15) compared to 32.39 months (95% CI 24.11– 40.68), for the non-early group, p = 0.709.Conclusion: Hematology malignancy patients with thrombocytopenia are at high risk for unplanned early port catheter removal without survival difference.Keywords: hematology, malignancy, vascular port, risk factors, explanatio

HIV/AIDS selective infectivity–report of two peculiar cases

AbstractWe report two peculiar cases that were observed in two communities of Anambra State, South East Nigeria. The first case was a woman of 44 with a history of blood transfusion from a donor of questionable HIV status. A pint of blood was transfused in a private Hospital on the 15 th January, 2000. She has had no form of antiviral therapy until 22nd April, 2008 when she came to the hospital for routine medical check up. Her HIV result came out confirmed positive while that of her husband came out negative. She has had active sexual life with her husband in the previous eight years as they have had some difficulties in getting their desired extra two children having earlier gotten a boy and a girl. The second case involves a family of six. A couple with four children of ages about 6 months, 2 years, 3 years and 5 years. The youngest, a female presented with fever and multiple lymphadenopathy. She tested HIV positive and so was her mother and her second sibling. But her father and two other siblings remained negative at post three and six months intervals from their very first test date with us. These reported cases appear to go contrary to earlier formed opinion on HIV transmission. We support the opinion on a naturally, occurring substance, APOBEC3G which possibly confers permanent immunity against the HIV virus. We recommend clinical trials of the characterized APOBEC3G as a vaccine for non HIV infected persons of all ages and to people living with as a therapeutic drug

Ranking of diagnostic features of childhood pulmonary tuberculosis by medical doctors in southeastern Nigeria

Objective: To rank diagnostic features of childhood pulmonary tuberculosis; and to determine the effect of working in tuberculosis Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) facilities on the ranking of these features by medical doctors. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study, using structured questionnaires to collect data from medical doctors whose daily routine included attending to sick children in 34 selected children outpatient clinics and TB DOTS centers in southeastern Nigeria. Results: Approximately, one quarter (25.3% or 56 of 221) of respondents worked in Directly Observed Treatment Short course (DOTS) clinics, while three quarters (74.7% or 165 of 221) worked in nonDOTSclinics. Majority of the respondents (69.7%) ranked chronic persistent cough (1), 42.5 % ranked weight loss and failure to thrive (2), another 27.7% ranked weight loss and failure to thrive (3), while 17.6% and 21.7% ranked History of contact with adult index case and radiographic abnormalities, (4) and (5), respectively. The study found that the percentage of doctors working in DOTS clinics who ranked weight loss and failure to thrive (2) was statistically and significantly higher than those of non-DOTS respondents. Conclusions: The most important symptoms/signs on which medical doctors based their diagnosis of childhood pulmonary tuberculosis include cough, weight loss and failure to thrive, history of contact with adult with smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis, and radiographic abnormalities consistent with active tuberculosis. There was statistically significant difference between the ranking of weight loss and failure to thrive by doctors working in DOTS clinics and their counterparts in non DOTS clinics. This study showed a decline in the percentage of ranking in both DOTS and Non DOTS respondents as they moved from the first to the fifth.KEY WORDS: Childhood pulmonary tuberculosis, Doctors, Ranking, Diagnostic features, Directly observed treatment short course (DOTS)

Deep level transient spectroscopic study of oxygen implanted melt grown ZnO single crystal

Deep level traps in melt grown ZnO single crystal created by oxygen implantation and subsequent annealing in air were studied by deep level transient spectroscopy measurement between 80 and 300 K. The E C-0.29 eV trap (E3) was the dominant peak in the as-grown sample and no new defects were created in the as-O-implanted sample. The single peak feature of the deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) spectra did not change with the annealing temperature up to 750 °C, but the activation energy decreased to 0.22 eV. This was explained in terms of a thermally induced defect having a peak close to but inseparable from the original 0.29 eV peak. A systematic study on a wide range of the rate window for the DLTS measurement successfully separated the Arrhenius plot data originated from different traps. It was inferred that the E3 concentration in the samples did not change after the O-implantation. The traps at E C-0.11, E C-0.16 and E C-0.58 eV were created after annealing. The E C-0.16 eV trap was assigned to an intrinsic defect. No DLTS signal was found after the sample was annealed to 1200 °C. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.postprin

Caspase 3/ROCK1 pathway mediates high glucose-induced platelet microparticles shedding

Background: Platelet microparticles (PMPs) are closely associated with diabetic macrovascular complications. This study aimed to explore the underlying mechanisms of high glucose-induced PMPs generation. Methods: Washed platelets, obtained from the plasma of healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats, were incubated with high glucose. PMPs were isolated using gradient centrifugation and counted by flow cytometry. Expression and activity of ROCK1 and caspase3 were evaluated by real-time PCR, Western blotting, and activity assay kit. Results: High glucose enhanced PMPs shedding in the presence of collagen. The mRNA and protein levels of ROCK1, but not ROCK2, were increased in platelets incubated with high glucose. Y-27632, an inhibitor of ROCK, blocked the increased PMPs shedding induced by high glucose. Expression and activity of caspase3 were elevated in platelets under the high glucose conditions. Z-DVED-FMK, a caspase3 inhibitor, inhibited ROCK1 activity and decreased the PMPs generation under high glucose. Conclusion: High glucose increased PMPs shedding via caspase3-ROCK1 signal pathway

Learning Optimal Deep Projection of 18^{18}F-FDG PET Imaging for Early Differential Diagnosis of Parkinsonian Syndromes

Several diseases of parkinsonian syndromes present similar symptoms at early stage and no objective widely used diagnostic methods have been approved until now. Positron emission tomography (PET) with $^{18}$F-FDG was shown to be able to assess early neuronal dysfunction of synucleinopathies and tauopathies. Tensor factorization (TF) based approaches have been applied to identify characteristic metabolic patterns for differential diagnosis. However, these conventional dimension-reduction strategies assume linear or multi-linear relationships inside data, and are therefore insufficient to distinguish nonlinear metabolic differences between various parkinsonian syndromes. In this paper, we propose a Deep Projection Neural Network (DPNN) to identify characteristic metabolic pattern for early differential diagnosis of parkinsonian syndromes. We draw our inspiration from the existing TF methods. The network consists of a (i) compression part: which uses a deep network to learn optimal 2D projections of 3D scans, and a (ii) classification part: which maps the 2D projections to labels. The compression part can be pre-trained using surplus unlabelled datasets. Also, as the classification part operates on these 2D projections, it can be trained end-to-end effectively with limited labelled data, in contrast to 3D approaches. We show that DPNN is more effective in comparison to existing state-of-the-art and plausible baselines.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, conference, MICCAI DLMIA, 201

Relationship between intact HIV-1 proviruses in circulating CD4+ T cells and rebound viruses emerging during treatment interruption.

Combination antiretroviral therapy controls but does not cure HIV-1 infection because a small fraction of cells harbor latent viruses that can produce rebound viremia when therapy is interrupted. The circulating latent virus reservoir has been documented by a variety of methods, most prominently by viral outgrowth assays (VOAs) in which CD4+ T cells are activated to produce virus in vitro, or more recently by amplifying proviral near full-length (NFL) sequences from DNA. Analysis of samples obtained in clinical studies in which individuals underwent analytical treatment interruption (ATI), showed little if any overlap between circulating latent viruses obtained from outgrowth cultures and rebound viruses from plasma. To determine whether intact proviruses amplified from DNA are more closely related to rebound viruses than those obtained from VOAs, we assayed 12 individuals who underwent ATI after infusion of a combination of two monoclonal anti-HIV-1 antibodies. A total of 435 intact proviruses obtained by NFL sequencing were compared with 650 latent viruses from VOAs and 246 plasma rebound viruses. Although, intact NFL and outgrowth culture sequences showed similar levels of stability and diversity with 39% overlap, the size of the reservoir estimated from NFL sequencing was larger than and did not correlate with VOAs. Finally, intact proviruses documented by NFL sequencing showed no sequence overlap with rebound viruses; however, they appear to contribute to recombinant viruses found in plasma during rebound