Association of CD4CD25FoxP3 regulatory T cells with natural course of childhood chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) in the peripheral blood of patients with childhood chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) exhibiting thrombocytopenia and spontaneous remission. The findings of this study indicate the possibility of predicting spontaneous recovery and pathogenesis of childhood chronic ITP.MethodsEleven children with chronic ITP (seven thrombocytopenic and four spontaneous remission cases; mean age, 8.8 years; range, 1.7-14.9 years) were enrolled in this study. Five healthy children and eight healthy adults were included as controls. The frequency of Treg was evaluated by flow cytometry in the peripheral blood.ResultsIn this study, four patients (36%) achieved spontaneous remission within 2.8 years (mean year; range, 1.0-4.4 years). The frequency of Treg was significantly lower in patients with persisting thrombocytopenia (0.13%±0.09%, P<0.05), than that in the patients with spontaneous remission (0.30%±0.02%), healthy adults controls (0.55%±0.44%), and healthy children controls (0.46%±0.26%). A significantly positive correlation was found between the frequency of Treg and the platelet count in children.ConclusionThese data suggest that a lower frequency of Treg contributes to the breakdown of self-tolerance, and may form the basis for future development of specific immunomodulatory therapies. Furthermore, Treg frequency has prognostic implication toward the natural course and long-term outcomes of childhood chronic ITP

Ultra-Low Temperature Chillers for Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

The growth of the semiconductor market and advancement of manufacturing technology have led to an increase in wafer size and highly integrated semiconductor devices. The temperature of the supplied cooling medium from the chiller that removes the heat produced in the semiconductor manufacturing process is required to be at a lower level because of the high integration. The Joule-Thomson cooling cycle, which uses a mixed refrigerant (MR) to produce the cooling medium at a level of −100°C required for the semiconductor process, has recently gained attention. When a MR is used, the chiller’s performance is heavily influenced by the composition and proportions of the refrigerant charged to the chiller system. Therefore, this paper introduces a cooling cycle that uses an MR to achieve the required low temperature of −100°C in the semiconductor manufacturing process and provides the results of simple experiments to determine the effects of different MR compositions

Comprehensive understanding of cathodic and anodic polarization effects on stability of nanoscale oxygen electrode for reversible solid oxide cells

Whereas solid oxide cells (SOCs), which perform dual functions of power generation (fuel-cell mode) and energy storage (electrolysis mode) with high efficiency at high temperatures, are considered a potent candidate for future energy management systems, it is yet far from their practical use due to the fact that the stable long-term operations have not been achieved. Particularly, degradations of oxygen-electrode in the both electrolysis and fuel-cell operations are considered as the most imminent issues that should be overcome. Unfortunately, even the origins and mechanisms of degradation in the oxygen-electrode have not been clearly established due to the difficulties in precise assessments of microstructural/compositional changes of porous electrode, which is a typical form in actual solid oxide cells, and due to the diversities in operating conditions, electrode structure and material, fabrication history, and so on. We simultaneously investigated the degradation phenomena in electrolysis and fuel-cell operations for 540h using identical two half cells composed of a geometrically well-defined, nanoscale La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) dense film with a thickness of ~ 70 nm on Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ electrolyte. Owing to the benefit of well-defined geometry of LSCF thin film, the microstructural/compositional changes in LSCF films were successfully analyzed in nanoscale, and the correlation between the components of electrochemical impedance and the major origins resulting in degradations was clarified. Furthermore, we suggest the most probable degradation mechanisms, and importantly, it is newly suggested that kinetic demixing/decomposition of LSCF, which is not readily observable in the typical porous-structured electrode, are highly probable to affect the both fuel-cell and electrolysis long-term degradations

Quarkonium from the Fifth Dimension

Adding fundamental matter of mass m_Q to N=4 Yang Mills theory, we study quarkonium, and "generalized quarkonium" containing light adjoint particles. At large 't Hooft coupling the states of spin<=1 are anomalously light (Kruczenski et al., hep-th/0304032). We examine their form factors, and show these hadrons are unlike any known in QCD. By a traditional yardstick they appear infinite in size (as with strings in flat space) but we show that this is a failure of the yardstick. All of the hadrons are actually of finite size ~ \sqrt{g^2N}/m_Q, regardless of their radial excitation level and of how many valence adjoint particles they contain. Certain form factors for spin-1 quarkonia vanish in the large-g^2N limit; thus these hadrons resemble neither the observed J/Psi quarkonium states nor rho mesons.Comment: 57 pages, LaTeX, 5 figure

Changes in Fire Weather Climatology Under 1.5 ◦C and 2.0 ◦C Warming

The 2015 Paris Agreement led to a number of studies that assessed the impact of the 1.5 ◦C and 2.0 ◦C increases in global temperature over preindustrial levels. However, those assessments have not actively investigated the impact of these levels of warming on fire weather. In view of a recent series of high-profile wildfire events worldwide, we access fire weather sensitivity based on a set of multi-model large ensemble climate simulations for these low-emission scenarios. The results indicate that the half degree difference between these two thresholds may lead to a significantly increased hazard of wildfire in certain parts of the world, particularly the Amazon, African savanna and Mediterranean. Although further experiments focused on human land use are needed to depict future fire activity, considering that rising temperatures are the most influential factor in augmenting the danger of fire weather, limiting global warming to 1.5 ◦C would alleviate some risk in these parts of the world

Unusual Primary Peritonitis due to Streptococcus pyogenes in a Young Healthy Woman

We describe the first case of primary peritonitis in Korea of a healthy person due to Streptococcus pyogenes. In the absence of comorbid conditions, such as liver cirrhosis, immunosuppression, or nephrotic syndrome, primary peritonitis is uncommon in a young healthy woman. Abdomen computed tomography revealed ascites in the lower abdomen and peritoneal enhancement suggesting peritonitis. In diagnostic laparoscopy, purulent ascites was found in the pelvic cavity but both ovaries and fallopian tubes were intact. There were no intra-abdominal abnormalities such as bowel perforation, appendicitis, or necrosis. The reports of blood culture, ascites culture, and cervical swab culture confirmed S. pyogenes. After use of antibiotics, the patient was cured and discharged without sequelae

Performance of the tuberculin skin test and interferon-γ release assay for detection of tuberculosis infection in immunocompromised patients in a BCG-vaccinated population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) may improve diagnostic accuracy for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). This study compared the performance of the tuberculin skin test (TST) with that of IGRA for the diagnosis of LTBI in immunocompromised patients in an intermediate TB burden country where BCG vaccination is mandatory.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a retrospective observational study of patients given the TST and an IGRA, the QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-IT), at Severance Hospital, a tertiary hospital in South Korea, from December 2006 to May 2009.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 211 patients who underwent TST and QFT-IT testing, 117 (55%) were classified as immunocompromised. Significantly fewer immunocompromised than immunocompetent patients had positive TST results (10.3% vs. 27.7%, p 0.001), whereas the percentage of positive QFT-IT results was comparable for both groups (21.4% vs. 25.5%). However, indeterminate QFT-IT results were more frequent in immunocompromised than immunocompetent patients (21.4% vs. 9.6%, p 0.021). Agreement between the TST and QFT-IT was fair for the immunocompromised group (κ = 0.38), but moderate agreement was observed for the immunocompetent group (κ = 0.57). Indeterminate QFT-IT results were associated with anaemia, lymphocytopenia, hypoproteinemia, and hypoalbuminemia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In immunocompromised patients, the QFT-IT may be more sensitive than the TST for detection of LTBI, but it resulted in a considerable proportion of indeterminate results. Therefore, both tests may maximise the efficacy of screening for LTBI in immunocompromised patients.</p

Combined aberrant expression of E-cadherin and S100A4, but not β-catenin is associated with disease-free survival and overall survival in colorectal cancer patients

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancers is related to metastasis, recurrence, and poor prognosis. We evaluated whether EMT-related proteins can act as prognostic biomarkers in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. METHODS: We evaluated the expression of E-cadherin, β-catenin, and S100A4 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 333 CRC tissues from the tumor center and invasive margin. Tumor budding, cell grade, tumor stage, type of tumor growth, peritumoral lymphocyte infiltration (TLI), and perineural- or lymphovascular invasion were evaluated as pathological parameters. mRNA levels of E-cadherin, N-cadherin, β-catenin, and S100A4 from 68 specimens from the same set were analyzed by real time quantitative RT-PCR. RESULTS: Loss of E-cadherin, nuclear β-catenin, and gain of S100A4 were higher in the invasive margin than in the tumor center. Loss of E-cadherin was associated with cell grade, macroscopic type, perineural invasion, and tumor budding, β-catenin with microsatellite instability and tumor site, and S100A4 with growth type, macroscopic type, AJCC stage, lymphovascular invasion, and perineural invasion. The aberrant expression of E-cadherin and S100A4 not β-catenin in the invasive margin was a significant and independent risk factor for disease-free and overall-survival by multivariate analysis, along with AJCC stage and perineural invasion. mRNA levels of β-catenin and S100A4 were correlated with the IHC findings at the tumor invasive margin. E-cadherin and N-cadherin showed a weak inverse correlation. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of loss of E-cadherin and gain of S100A4 in the tumor invasive margin can be used to stratify patients with the same AJCC stage into different survival groups. VIRTUAL SLIDES: The virtual slides for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/939828962924467