DLBCL pelvic lymphoma - non-Hodgkin\u27s lymphoma. Application of the US / MR imaging method in diagnosis and treatment monitoring

Lymphomas account for about 2% of all malignant neoplasms. They are neoplastic diseases characterized by massive growth of cells in the lymphatic system. Diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) are the most common subtype. DLBCL is derived from mature, peripheral B lymphocytes of germination. Lymph nodes are the most common localization, but lymphoma is also primarily located in extra-nodal structures: stomach, tonsils, spleen, thymus, skin, thyroid gland, bones and brain

A Massive Data Parallel Computational Framework for Petascale/Exascale Hybrid Computer Systems

Heterogeneous systems are becoming more common on High Performance Computing (HPC) systems. Even using tools like CUDA and OpenCL it is a non-trivial task to obtain optimal performance on the GPU. Approaches to simplifying this task include Merge (a library based framework for heterogeneous multi-core systems), Zippy (a framework for parallel execution of codes on multiple GPUs), BSGP (a new programming language for general purpose computation on the GPU) and CUDA-lite (an enhancement to CUDA that transforms code based on annotations). In addition, efforts are underway to improve compiler tools for automatic parallelization and optimization of affine loop nests for GPUs and for automatic translation of OpenMP parallelized codes to CUDA. In this paper we present an alternative approach: a new computational framework for the development of massively data parallel scientific codes applications suitable for use on such petascale/exascale hybrid systems built upon the highly scalable Cactus framework. As the first non-trivial demonstration of its usefulness, we successfully developed a new 3D CFD code that achieves improved performance.Comment: Parallel Computing 2011 (ParCo2011), 30 August -- 2 September 2011, Ghent, Belgiu

The role of imaging techniques in the diagnostics and monitoring of treatment of Sturge-Weber’s syndrome

Sturge-Weber\u27s syndrome (encephalotrigeminal angiomatosis) is a rare, non-hereditary syndrome of congenital abnormalities. It is one of the phakomatoses. The incidence of this syndrome is estimated at 1 in 20,000 - 50,000 live births. The cause of SWS is a somatic mutation in the GNAQ gene. A typical picture of a person suffering from SWS is a child with vascular malformation on the face - a \u27port-wine stain\u27 birthmark. Other clinical symptoms include seizures, glaucoma, headache, stroke-like transient neurological deficits, and behavior problems

Periostin in exhaled breath condensate and in serum of asthmatic patients : relationship to upper and lower airway disease

PURPOSE: Periostin is considered a biomarker for eosinophilic airway inflammation and have been associated with NSAID-Exacerbated Respiratory Disease (NERD) and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). In this study, we aimed to evaluate periostin in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and in serum of patients with various asthma phenotypes. METHODS: The study included 40 asthmatic patients (22 with NERD) and 17 healthy controls. All the procedures (questionnaire, spirometry, FeNO, nasal swabs, EBC collecting, and blood sampling) were performed on the same day. Periostin concentrations were measured using an ELISA kit. RESULTS: Periostin was detected in EBC from 37 of 40 asthmatics and in 16 from 17 of controls. The concentration of periostin in EBC did not differ between the study groups and was not associated with NERD or asthma severity. However, the EBC periostin was significantly higher in asthmatics with CRS as compared to those without (3.1 vs 2 ng/mL, P=0.046). Patients with positive bacterial culture from nasal swabs had higher EBC periostin concentrations than those without (3.2 vs 2.1 ng/mL; P=0.046). The mean serum periostin level was higher in asthmatics with a 1-year history of exacerbation than in those without (3.2 vs 2.3 ng/mL, P=0.045). Asthmatics with skin manifestation of NSAIDs hypersensitivity had higher serum periostin levels as compared to those without (3.5 vs 2.3 ng/mL; P=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: EBC periostin levels seem to reflect intensity of upper airway disease in asthmatics, while serum levels of periostin are associated with asthma activity (exacerbations or FeNO) or NERD subphenotypes

W odpowiedzi na ankietę skierowaną do państw członkowskich Unii, dotyczącą stosowania Rozporządzenia nr 864/2007 o prawie właściwym dla zobowiązań pozaumownych (Rzym II)

Rome II Regulation of 11 July 2007 contains the conflict of laws rules relating to the non‑contractual obligations such as torts, unjust enrichment, negotiorum gestio, culpa in contrahendo and product liability. Recently, the Commission has commenced consultations regarding the practical application of these rules, in relation to its obligation to submit a report pursuant to Article 30 of the Regulation. The Commission seeks the view of the Member States in order to consider modification and suggestions for future. The present work constitutes a response to the Commission’s Questionnaire prepared jointly by a group of authors under a lead of professor Maksymilian Pazdan. The response constituted the basis for the reply given by Polish Codification Committee on behalf of the Polish government. There were some general and several specific questions posed by the Commission in the Questionnaire. They are dealt with in the response. Some of the most important suggestions are summarized below. The Polish doctrine generally approves of the Regulation and the rules provided therein. Nevertheless, there are certain solutions that could be improved and gaps that could be filled out. The following recommendations are made in the response: First, a time has come to create not only specific (as it is the case so far) but also general uniform rules of private international law at the European level. Second, the rules contained in Regulation Rome II should apply to matters covered by the 1971 Hague Traffic Accidents Convention. Third, the conflict rules with respect to the violation of privacy and rights relating to personality should be added to Rome II, since this constitutes a considerable gap in the European regime

A Massive Data Parallel Computational Framework for Petascale/Exascale Hybrid Computer Systems

large scale scientific applicatio

Uwagi o uregulowaniach rozporządzenia Rzym II i ich stosowaniu na tle doświadczeń polskiej judykatuty

Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non‑contractual obligations (the Rome II Regulation) defines the conflict‑of‑law rules applicable to non‑contractual obligations in civil and commercial matters. It has been in force since 11 January 2009. Article 30 of the Regulation foresees an evaluation report on its application. The European Commission already asked the Polish Ministry of Justice for an input via a Questionnaire issued in 2012 (see M. Pazdan, M. Jagielska, W. Kurowski, M. Świerczyński, M.‑A. Zachariasiewicz, M. Zachariasiewicz, Ł. Żarnowiec: Materials: The Response to Commission’s Questionnaire to the Member States Regarding the Application of the Regulation 864/2007 on the Law. „Problemy Prawa Prywatnego Międzynarodowego” 2013, vol. 12, p. 165—197). At that stage — it was not yet possible to present a developed picture of our courts’ approach to the Regulation as no extensive case‑law was available in Poland. With the new Questionnaire dated June 2015 the Commission‑Directorate A: Civil Justice asked the Polish Ministry of Justice for new information and insights on the application of the Rome II Regulation in Poland that have been gathered in the meantime. Similarly to the original response to the Commission’s Questionnaire, this supplement was prepared jointly, by a group of authors under a lead of professor Maksymilian Pazdan. The supplement constituted the basis for the reply given to the Commission by the Polish Codification Committee on behalf of the Polish government. Since the preparation of the original response time has passed and experience has accrued. Accordingly, a number of issues concerning the application of the Regulation have surfaced. The new opinion brings additional information on Polish case law to the attention of the Commission. The authors are of the of the view that the reason why the Regulation has been finally noticed by Polish courts may be the reference to this act included in Art. 33 of Polish Private International Law. Jurisprudential analysis presented in this supplement indicates that Polish courts face many difficulties when applying the Rome II Regulation. These concern, among others, the scope of the Regulation itself, as well are of its particular provisions, the demarcation of the Regulation and the Hague Convention of 1971, the interpretation of the criterion of a„manifestly closer connection” and the criterion of a „close connection of a tort with an earlier contract”, the determination of the place of damage and admissibility of the application of Arts. 16 and 17 of the Rome II Regulation. Unfortunately there are cases when the Regulation was ignored by Polish courts. The authors of the supplement propose a number of possible amendments to the Regulation, including changes to conflict rules for traffic accidents, the protection of privacy and other personal rights, intellectual property, unfair competition and the protection of third party rights

The ESCAPE project : Energy-efficient Scalable Algorithms for Weather Prediction at Exascale

In the simulation of complex multi-scale flows arising in weather and climate modelling, one of the biggest challenges is to satisfy strict service requirements in terms of time to solution and to satisfy budgetary constraints in terms of energy to solution, without compromising the accuracy and stability of the application. These simulations require algorithms that minimise the energy footprint along with the time required to produce a solution, maintain the physically required level of accuracy, are numerically stable, and are resilient in case of hardware failure. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) led the ESCAPE (Energy-efficient Scalable Algorithms for Weather Prediction at Exascale) project, funded by Horizon 2020 (H2020) under the FET-HPC (Future and Emerging Technologies in High Performance Computing) initiative. The goal of ESCAPE was to develop a sustainable strategy to evolve weather and climate prediction models to next-generation computing technologies. The project partners incorporate the expertise of leading European regional forecasting consortia, university research, experienced high-performance computing centres, and hardware vendors. This paper presents an overview of the ESCAPE strategy: (i) identify domain-specific key algorithmic motifs in weather prediction and climate models (which we term Weather & Climate Dwarfs), (ii) categorise them in terms of computational and communication patterns while (iii) adapting them to different hardware architectures with alternative programming models, (iv) analyse the challenges in optimising, and (v) find alternative algorithms for the same scheme. The participating weather prediction models are the following: IFS (Integrated Forecasting System); ALARO, a combination of AROME (Application de la Recherche a l'Operationnel a Meso-Echelle) and ALADIN (Aire Limitee Adaptation Dynamique Developpement International); and COSMO-EULAG, a combination of COSMO (Consortium for Small-scale Modeling) and EULAG (Eulerian and semi-Lagrangian fluid solver). For many of the weather and climate dwarfs ESCAPE provides prototype implementations on different hardware architectures (mainly Intel Skylake CPUs, NVIDIA GPUs, Intel Xeon Phi, Optalysys optical processor) with different programming models. The spectral transform dwarf represents a detailed example of the co-design cycle of an ESCAPE dwarf. The dwarf concept has proven to be extremely useful for the rapid prototyping of alternative algorithms and their interaction with hardware; e.g. the use of a domain-specific language (DSL). Manual adaptations have led to substantial accelerations of key algorithms in numerical weather prediction (NWP) but are not a general recipe for the performance portability of complex NWP models. Existing DSLs are found to require further evolution but are promising tools for achieving the latter. Measurements of energy and time to solution suggest that a future focus needs to be on exploiting the simultaneous use of all available resources in hybrid CPU-GPU arrangements

Novel non-specific DNA adenine methyltransferases

The mom gene of bacteriophage Mu encodes an enzyme that converts adenine to N6-(1-acetamido)-adenine in the phage DNA and thereby protects the viral genome from cleavage by a wide variety of restriction endonucleases. Mu-like prophage sequences present in Haemophilus influenzae Rd (FluMu), Neisseria meningitidis type A strain Z2491 (Pnme1) and H. influenzae biotype aegyptius ATCC 11116 do not possess a Mom-encoding gene. Instead, at the position occupied by mom in Mu they carry an unrelated gene that encodes a protein with homology to DNA adenine N6-methyltransferases (hin1523, nma1821, hia5, respectively). Products of the hin1523, hia5 and nma1821 genes modify adenine residues to N6-methyladenine, both in vitro and in vivo. All of these enzymes catalyzed extensive DNA methylation; most notably the Hia5 protein caused the methylation of 61% of the adenines in λ DNA. Kinetic analysis of oligonucleotide methylation suggests that all adenine residues in DNA, with the possible exception of poly(A)-tracts, constitute substrates for the Hia5 and Hin1523 enzymes. Their potential ‘sequence specificity’ could be summarized as AB or BA (where B = C, G or T). Plasmid DNA isolated from Escherichia coli cells overexpressing these novel DNA methyltransferases was resistant to cleavage by many restriction enzymes sensitive to adenine methylation