374 research outputs found
Pneumocystis jiroveci Pneumonia in Patients with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Receiving Chemotherapy Containing Rituximab
AbstractRituximab enhances treatment efficacy of B-lineage lymphoma by targeting CD20+ B-cells. Such target therapies may compromise the immune system and render patients susceptible to opportunistic infections. We report 2 cases of lymphoma complicated with Pneumocystis jiroveci (previously known as P. carinii) pneumonia (PCP) while being treated with rituximab-containing chemotherapy regimens. In both cases, PCP developed during the neutropenic period. With timely diagnosis and proper management, both were treated successfully. We searched the literature and found that such opportunistic infection occurred only infrequently in lymphoma patients, and it has not been reported in the large-scale clinical trials of rituximab. Such cases demonstrate the importance of taking PCP into diagnostic consideration in lymphoma patients receiving similar therapies
Nondestructive quantitative analysis of water potential of tomato leaves using online hyperspectral imaging system
Tomatoes have different water requirements in each growing period. Excessive water use or insufficient water
supply will affect the growth and yield of tomato plants. Therefore, precise irrigation control is necessary during cultivation
to increase crop productivity. Traditionally, the soil moisture content or leaf water potential has been used as an indicator
of plant water status. These methods, however, have limited accuracy and are time-consuming, making it difficult to be put
into practice in tomato production. This study developed an online hyperspectral imaging system to measure the leaf water
potential of tomato nondestructively. Linear Discriminant Analysis was utilized to automatically and quickly extract the leaf
images, with the recognition accuracy of 94.68% was achieved. The mathematical processing of Standard Normal Variate
scattering correction was used to remove the spectral variations caused by the defocused leave images. The developed leaf
water potential prediction model based on the spectral image information attained using the developed system achieved the
standard error of calibration of 0.201, coefficient of determination in calibration set of 0.814 and standard error of cross�validation of 0.230, and one minus the variance ratio of 0.755. The obtained performance indicated the feasibility of apply�ing the developed online hyperspectral imaging system as a real-time non-destructive measurement technique for the leaf
water potential of tomato plants
The Possible Neuronal Mechanism of Acupuncture: Morphological Evidence of the Neuronal Connection between Groin A-Shi Point and Uterus
Somatovisceral reflex suggested that the somatic stimulation could affect visceral function like acupuncture which treats diseases by stimulating acupoints. The neuronal connection between somatic point and visceral organ was not clear. Uterine pain referred to the groin region has long been recognized clinically. Wesselmann, using neurogenic plasma extravasation method, showed that uterine pain was referred to the groin region through a neuronal mechanism (Wesselmann and Lai 1997). This connection could be considered through the somatovisceral reflex pathway. However, the relay center of this pathway is still not clearly identified. In the present study, bee venom was injected in the groin region to induce central Fos expression to map the sensory innervation of groin region. Pseudorabies virus (PrV), a transneuronal tracer, was injected in the uterus to identify the higher motor control of the uterus. Immunohistochemistry staining revealed the Fos expression and PrV-infected double-labeled neurons in the nucleus of solitary tract (NTS), the dorsal motor nucleus of vagus (DMX), and the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN). These results suggest a somatoparasympathetic neuronal connection (groin-spinal dorsal horn-NTS/DMX-uterus) and a somatosympathetic neuronal connection (groin-spinal dorsal horn-NTS-PVN-uterus). These two neuronal connections could be the prerequisites to the neuronal basis of the somatovisceral reflex and also the neuronal mechanism of acupuncture
The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy
The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) is the
first interferometer dedicated to studying the cosmic microwave background
(CMB) radiation at 3mm wavelength. The choice of 3mm was made to minimize the
contributions from foreground synchrotron radiation and Galactic dust emission.
The initial configuration of seven 0.6m telescopes mounted on a 6-m hexapod
platform was dedicated in October 2006 on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Scientific
operations began with the detection of a number of clusters of galaxies via the
thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. We compare our data with Subaru weak lensing
data in order to study the structure of dark matter. We also compare our data
with X-ray data in order to derive the Hubble constant.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ (13 pages, 7 figures); a version with
high resolution figures available at
http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/pho_highreso.pd
The AMiBA Hexapod Telescope Mount
AMiBA is the largest hexapod astronomical telescope in current operation. We
present a description of this novel hexapod mount with its main mechanical
components -- the support cone, universal joints, jack screws, and platform --
and outline the control system with the pointing model and the operating modes
that are supported. The AMiBA hexapod mount performance is verified based on
optical pointing tests and platform photogrammetry measurements. The
photogrammetry results show that the deformations in the inner part of the
platform are less than 120 micron rms. This is negligible for optical pointing
corrections, radio alignment and radio phase errors for the currently
operational 7-element compact configuration. The optical pointing error in
azimuth and elevation is successively reduced by a series of corrections to
about 0.4 arcmin rms which meets our goal for the 7-element target
specifications.Comment: Accepted for ApJ, 33 pages, 15 figure
Soluble THSD7A Is an N-Glycoprotein That Promotes Endothelial Cell Migration and Tube Formation in Angiogenesis
BACKGROUND: Thrombospondin type I domain containing 7A (THSD7A) is a novel neural protein that is known to affect endothelial migration and vascular patterning during development. To further understand the role of THSD7A in angiogenesis, we investigated the post-translational modification scheme of THS7DA and to reveal the underlying mechanisms by which this protein regulates blood vessel growth. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Full-length THSD7A was overexpressed in human embryonic kidney 293T (HEK293T) cells and was found to be membrane associated and N-glycosylated. The soluble form of THSD7A, which is released into the cultured medium, was harvested for further angiogenic assays. We found that soluble THSD7A promotes human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) migration and tube formation. HUVEC sprouts and zebrafish subintestinal vessel (SIV) angiogenic assays further revealed that soluble THSD7A increases the number of branching points of new vessels. Interestingly, we found that soluble THSD7A increased the formation of filopodia in HUVEC. The distribution patterns of vinculin and phosphorylated focal adhesion kinase (FAK) were also affected, which implies a role for THSD7A in focal adhesion assembly. Moreover, soluble THSD7A increased FAK phosphorylation in HUVEC, suggesting that THSD7A is involved in regulating cytoskeleton reorganization. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together, our results indicate that THSD7A is a membrane-associated N-glycoprotein with a soluble form. Soluble THSD7A promotes endothelial cell migration during angiogenesis via a FAK-dependent mechanism and thus may be a novel neuroangiogenic factor
Mutations in KEOPS-Complex Genes Cause Nephrotic Syndrome with Primary Microcephaly
Galloway-Mowat syndrome (GAMOS) is an autosomal-recessive disease characterized by the combination of early-onset nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) and microcephaly with brain anomalies. Here we identified recessive mutations in OSGEP, TP53RK, TPRKB, and LAGE3, genes encoding the four subunits of the KEOPS complex, in 37 individuals from 32 families with GAMOS. CRISPR-Cas9 knockout in zebrafish and mice recapitulated the human phenotype of primary microcephaly and resulted in early lethality. Knockdown of OSGEP, TP53RK, or TPRKB inhibited cell proliferation, which human mutations did not rescue. Furthermore, knockdown of these genes impaired protein translation, caused endoplasmic reticulum stress, activated DNA-damage-response signaling, and ultimately induced apoptosis. Knockdown of OSGEP or TP53RK induced defects in the actin cytoskeleton and decreased the migration rate of human podocytes, an established intermediate phenotype of SRNS. We thus identified four new monogenic causes of GAMOS, describe a link between KEOPS function and human disease, and delineate potential pathogenic mechanisms
The formation and fate of internal waves in the South China Sea
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature 521 (2015): 65-69, doi:10.1038/nature14399.Internal gravity waves, the subsurface analogue of the familiar surface gravity
waves that break on beaches, are ubiquitous in the ocean. Because of their strong vertical and horizontal currents, and the turbulent mixing caused by their
breaking, they impact a panoply of ocean processes, such as the supply of nutrients
for photosynthesis1, sediment and pollutant transport2 and acoustic transmission3;
they also pose hazards for manmade structures in the ocean4. Generated primarily
by the wind and the tides, internal waves can travel thousands of kilometres from
their sources before breaking5, posing severe challenges for their observation and
their inclusion in numerical climate models, which are sensitive to their effects6-7.
Over a decade of studies8-11 have targeted the South China Sea, where the oceans’
most powerful internal waves are generated in the Luzon Strait and steepen
dramatically as they propagate west. Confusion has persisted regarding their
generation mechanism, variability and energy budget, however, due to the lack of
in-situ data from the Luzon Strait, where extreme flow conditions make
measurements challenging. Here we employ new observations and numerical
models to (i) show that the waves begin as sinusoidal disturbances rather than
from sharp hydraulic phenomena, (ii) reveal the existence of >200-m-high
breaking internal waves in the generation region that give rise to turbulence levels
>10,000 times that in the open ocean, (iii) determine that the Kuroshio western
boundary current significantly refracts the internal wave field emanating from the
Luzon Strait, and (iv) demonstrate a factor-of-two agreement between modelled
and observed energy fluxes that enables the first observationally-supported energy
budget of the region. Together, these findings give a cradle-to-grave picture of
internal waves on a basin scale, which will support further improvements of their
representation in numerical climate predictions.Our work was supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and
the Taiwan National Science Council.2015-10-2
Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan
This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good
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