BAT KINEMATICS IN BALL HITTING TASK

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between timing of ball-bat impact and bat kinematics. University baseball players were asked to hit one of three kinds of ball (a baseball, a polystyrene ball, a small polystyrene ball) hung with a string. Peak velocity of the distal end of the bat appeared in different timing among ball conditions. Regardless of conditions, the lowest position of the distal end of the bat during bat swing showed up at almost same timing for each SUbject. These results showed that height of the distal end of the bat might be useful for estimating impact point of each baseball batter

Deep Neural Network-Based Method for Detecting Central Retinal Vein Occlusion Using Ultrawide-Field Fundus Ophthalmoscopy

The aim of this study is to assess the performance of two machine-learning technologies, namely, deep learning (DL) and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms, for detecting central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) in ultrawide-field fundus images. Images from 125 CRVO patients (n = 125 images) and 202 non-CRVO normal subjects (n = 238 images) were included in this study. Training to construct the DL model using deep convolutional neural network algorithms was provided using ultrawide-field fundus images. The SVM uses scikit-learn library with a radial basis function kernel. The diagnostic abilities of DL and the SVM were compared by assessing their sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curve for CRVO. For diagnosing CRVO, the DL model had a sensitivity of 98.4% (95% confidence interval (CI), 94.3–99.8%) and a specificity of 97.9% (95% CI, 94.6–99.1%) with an AUC of 0.989 (95% CI, 0.980–0.999). In contrast, the SVM model had a sensitivity of 84.0% (95% CI, 76.3–89.3%) and a specificity of 87.5% (95% CI, 82.7–91.1%) with an AUC of 0.895 (95% CI, 0.859–0.931). Thus, the DL model outperformed the SVM model in all indices assessed (P < 0.001 for all). Our data suggest that a DL model derived using ultrawide-field fundus images could distinguish between normal and CRVO images with a high level of accuracy and that automatic CRVO detection in ultrawide-field fundus ophthalmoscopy is possible. This proposed DL-based model can also be used in ultrawide-field fundus ophthalmoscopy to accurately diagnose CRVO and improve medical care in remote locations where it is difficult for patients to attend an ophthalmic medical center

Prognostic factors for acute myeloid leukemia patients with t(6;9)(p23;q34) who underwent an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant

We have recently reported that the outcome of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with t(6;9)(p23;q34) who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) was comparable to that of patients with a normal karyotype. We performed a further analysis regarding the prognostic factors for t(6;9)(p23;q34) AML patients who underwent a HSCT. Seven pediatric patients and 57 adult patients, transplanted between 1996 and 2007, were assessed in this study. The overall survival (OS) of the pediatric patients tended to be better than the OS of the adults, although there were no statistically significant differences. The present study focused on the adult patients revealed that the disease status at HSCT was the sole prognostic factor affecting the OS identified in the univariate analysis. A multivariate analysis showed that the disease status at HSCT and M2 in the FAB classification were extracted as the significant variables affecting the OS. The patients who were not in remission at HSCT and had non-FAB-M2 showed a poorer outcome; 6 deaths in the 9 patients were due to a relapse of the AML. These findings suggest that novel therapeutic approaches might be needed for patients with these poor prognostic factors.発行後6か月より全文公開

Personalized prediction of overall survival in patients with AML in non‐complete remission undergoing allo‐HCT

Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HCT) is the standard treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in non-complete remission (non-CR); however, the prognosis is inconsistent. This study aimed to develop and validate nomograms and a web application to predict the overall survival (OS) of patients with non-CR AML undergoing allo-HCT (cord blood transplantation [CBT], bone marrow transplantation [BMT], and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation [PBSCT]). Data from 3052 patients were analyzed to construct and validate the prognostic models. The common significant prognostic factors among patients undergoing allo-HCT were age, performance status, percentage of peripheral blasts, cytogenetic risk, chemotherapy response, and number of transplantations. The conditioning regimen was a significant prognostic factor only in patients undergoing CBT. Compared with cyclophosphamide/total body irradiation, a conditioning regimen of ≥3 drugs, including fludarabine, with CBT exhibited the lowest hazard ratio for mortality (0.384; 95% CI, 0.266-0.554; p < 0.0001). A conditioning regimen of ≥3 drugs with CBT also showed the best leukemia-free survival among all conditioning regimens. Based on the results of the multivariable analysis, we developed prognostic models showing adequate calibration and discrimination (the c-indices for CBT, BMT, and PBSCT were 0.648, 0.600, and 0.658, respectively). Our prognostic models can help in assessing individual risks and designing future clinical studies. Furthermore, our study indicates the effectiveness of multi-drug conditioning regimens in patients undergoing CBT

Clinical significance of RAS pathway alterations in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia

RAS pathway alterations have been implicated in the pathogenesis of various hematological malignancies. However, their clinical relevance in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is not well characterized. We analyzed the frequency, clinical significance, and prognostic relevance of RAS pathway alterations in 328 pediatric patients with de novo AML. RAS pathway alterations were detected in 80 (24.4%) of 328 patients: NF1 (n=7, 2.1%), PTPN11 (n=15, 4.6%), CBL (n=6, 1.8%), NRAS (n=44, 13.4%), KRAS (n=12, 3.7%). Most of these alterations in the RAS pathway were mutually exclusive also together with other aberrations of signal transduction pathways such as FLT3-ITD (P=0.001) and KIT mutation (P=0.004). NF1 alterations were frequently detected in patients with complex karyotype (P=0.031) and were found to be independent predictors of poor overall survival (OS) in multivariate analysis (P=0.007). At least four of seven patients with NF1 alterations had biallelic inactivation. NRAS mutations were frequently observed in patients with CBFB-MYH11 and were independent predictors of favorable outcomes in multivariate analysis (OS, P=0.023; event-free survival [EFS], P=0.037). Patients with PTPN11 mutations more frequently received stem cell transplantation (P=0.035) and showed poor EFS than patients without PTPN11 mutations (P=0.013). Detailed analysis of RAS pathway alterations may enable a more accurate prognostic stratification of pediatric AML and may provide novel therapeutic molecular targets related to this signal transduction pathway

Safety and Quality in the Agricultural Product Chain in Brazil

An agriculture-intensive country should be aware of natural toxins, including both mycotoxins and cyanotoxins, which are closely associated with the quality of raw materials, for food safety and industry. The major production chains – corn, wheat, beef, and broiler chicken – are the top components of agribusiness, and they should be tracked by reliable and practical tools. The corn chain is of particular concern in food production; intensive controls, multi-year mycotoxin monitoring, and improved harmless/sustainable management methods for uninterrupted farming in the tropic-subtropics are needed to achieve a long-lasting trend. The rapid control of natural toxins (mycotoxin and cyanotoxin) has focused on immunochemical methods developed with highly specific monoclonal antibodies (mAb) matched with chromatographic methods. In parallel, the promising widespread application of non-destructive analytical methods based on NIR (Near Infrared Reflectance) spectroscopy, computer vision and hyperspectral imaging coupled with multivariate analyses have been introduced as an alternative for the prediction of quality and compositional parameters. Rapid quality control and product traceability are discussed, as well as accurate monitoring, which is essential for potentially launching an innovative system for food production in Brazil

Outcomes of patients who developed subsequent solid cancer after hematopoietic cell transplantation

To characterize the outcomes of patients who developed a particular subsequent solid cancer after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), age at cancer diagnosis, survival, and causes of death were compared with the respective primary cancer in the general population, using data from the national HCT registry and population-based cancer registries in Japan. Among 31 867 patients who underwent a first HCT between 1990 and 2013 and had progression-free survival at 1 year, 713 patients developed subsequent solid cancer. The median age at subsequent solid cancer diagnosis was 55 years, which was significantly younger than the 67 years for primary cancer patients in the general population (P < .001). The overall survival probability was 60% at 3 years after diagnosis of subsequent solid cancer and differed according to cancer type. Development of most solid cancers was associated with an increased risk of subsequent mortality after HCT. Subsequent solid cancers accounted for 76% of causes of death. Overall survival probabilities adjusted for age, sex, and year of diagnosis were lower in the HCT population than in the general population for colon, bone/soft tissue, and central nervous system cancers and did not differ statistically for other cancers. In conclusion, most subsequent solid cancers occurred at younger ages than primary cancers, emphasizing the need for cancer screening at younger ages. Subsequent solid cancers showed similar or worse survival compared with primary cancers. Biological and genetic differences between primary and subsequent solid cancers remain to be determined