Clinical Profile of Young Adult Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Impact of Molecular Markers and Leukemic Stem Cells on Clinical Outcomes

Although the cytogenetic status of patients with AML is considered the single most important prognostic factor at diagnosis, additional markers are evolving which in conjunction with cytogenetics could help better define subsets at high risk for relapse and candidates for HSCT in CR1 or subsets of patients who may have a sufficiently favorable prognosis as to preclude a major benefit from HSCT in CR1. Between January 2003 and December 2009 a total of 192 patients who were diagnosed to have AML who met the inclusion criteria were retrospectively and prospectively analysed. Between October 2008 and December 2009, 41 patients with AML were analysed for the quantitaion of LSCs. All 192 patients underwent “3+7” standard induction therapy with Daunorubucin (DNR) 50mg/m2 on days 1-3 and Cytosine Arabinoside 200mg/m2 on days 1-7. A total of 117(60.9%) patients achieved complete remission (CR) after induction. There were 47 (24.5%) induction deaths. 118 (61.5%) patients (112 in CR1, and 6 without achieving CR) received consolidation therapy. 40 (20.8%) patients underwent allo SCT, 25 (13%) auto SCT, 39(20.3%) HIDAC, and 14(7.3%) patients received chemotherapy other than HIDAC. At a median follow up of two years the Kaplan- Meier estimate of OS, EFS and DFS was 47.30± 4.30%., 37.52± 4.20% and 54.49±5.38% respectively for the entire cohort. The difference in outcomes between the different cytogenetic and molecular subgroups well as for the different modalities of consolidation did not show statistical significance. The disease free survival curves for the two subgroups above and below the median value (8.12) of WBC index were significant(p=0.0225). Thus the CD34+ and CD34+ CD38- cells in the day 10 to day 14 marrow when quantified and analysed as a continuous variable was significant to predict events(p- 0.025 and 0.024 respectively)

Anomalous local magnetic field distribution and strong pinning in CaFe1.94Co0.06As2 single crystals

Magneto-optical imaging of a single crystal of CaFe1.94Co0.06As2, shows anomalous remnant magnetization within Meissner like regions of the superconductor. The unconventional shape of the local magnetization hysteresis loop suggests admixture of superconducting and magnetic fractions governing the response. Near the superconducting transition temperature, local magnetic field exceeds the applied field resulting in a diamagnetic to positive magnetization transformation. The observed anomalies in the local magnetic field distribution are accompanied with enhanced bulk pinning in the CaFe1.94Co0.06As2 single crystals. We propose our results suggest a coexistence of superconductivity and magnetic correlations.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1201.369

Coagulation and disinfection by-products formation potential of dissolved organic matter fractions

Both the proposed United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Disinfectants- Disinfection By-Products and Enhanced Surface Water Treatment rules have provisions for minimizing the formation of undesirable precursors of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water Natural Organic Matter (NOM) contains many of the precursors to the DBPs formed following disinfection of drinking water. DAX-8 resin procedures were used to isolate and fractionate NOM into six dissolved organic matter (DOM) fractions; Hydrophobic acid (FA), base (FB), neutral (FN), and hydrophilic acid (PA), base (PB) and neutral (PN). Aluminum sulfate (alum) jar coagulation tests were performed to determine the optimum coagulation ranges of each fraction. Different levels of pH, fraction concentrations, and coagulant levels were used in the experiments. Trihalomethane formation potential tests were performed on all the samples to check the removal of DBP precursors. Given the reactivities of the individual fractions to the formation of selected DBPs (i.e. trihalomethanes, halo acetonitriles, haloacetic acids), one can optimize on the removal of specific problematic fractions. Hence, if minimization of DBP formation was solely due to specific removal of precursors, microbial inactivation issues would be resolved due to the fact that CT may be increased without an increase in DBP formation

Automatic Registration of Multiple Texel Images to Form a 3-Dimensional Texel Image

Three-dimensional (3D) imagery has gained a lot of importance in today\u27s world, be it in the field of entertainment, documentation, or defense. Multiple methods for creating 3D images have been proposed in the past. A few famous methods used for 3D image matching are those that include usage of 2D images as stereo pairs or computing 3D rigid body transformations based on range information of points. The Iterative Closest Point algorithm (ICP) and its variants are well known for registration of point clouds, which can be used to create 3D surfaces. This thesis provides an algorithm, which is a continuation of the work done previously at Utah State University, to create accurate 3D images based on texel images obtained from the handheld texel camera built at USU. The first part of the thesis briefly reviews the structure and working of the handheld texel camera and the technique of creating texel images using the device and calibrating the images to mitigate the effect of lens distortions. A method is then suggested to reduce the errors in the range information in the image caused by walk error and wiggling error and also to compensate for the timing error induced in the individual pixels of the lidar sensor. A way to add a correcting factor to the range information to compensate for any oset in the origin assumed by the sensor and the actual center of perspective (COP) of the sensor is suggested in the later part of the thesis, thus correcting the images for the inaccuracies caused by the oset. The second half of the thesis brie y goes over the work previously done on 3D image matching and registration to produce 3D images. A few changes are suggested in some parts of the existing method, which use concepts of epipolar geometry in the RANSAC algorithm and use planar interpolation to accurately obtain the 3D co-ordinates of points from 2D coordinates. An iterative solution is proposed to correct erroneously chosen correspondences or reject bad correspondences to improve the rigid body transformation. The transformation thus obtained is used to compute more point matches, which are in turn used to estimate a more accurate least squares solution for the rigid body transformation. Results show that the calibration techniques and the changes implemented in the point cloud matching algorithm, suggested in this thesis, improve the accuracy of the images and produce 3D images with correct matching

Asynchronous stigmergic sorting of binary matrix patterns: applications of classical distributed computing ideas

Multi-agent stigmergy forms the basis of explanatory theories for various self-organized biological phenomena, and also serves as an implementation strategy for several important artificial applications. While a number of sophisticated techniques have been used in the modeling and analysis of stigmergic processes, none of them, yet, seem to be drawn from the toolbox of classical distributed computing. Our goals are to investigate and lay the groundwork for the use of classical distributed computing ideas in reasoning about stigmergic computation. Specifically, we investigate case studies that are drawn from the domain of binary matrix pattern sorting. Here, a `swarm\u27 of memory-less and non-communicating agents follow a set of local stigmergic rules to asynchronously sort the binary states of cells in a 2-D grid so as to satisfy some global pattern specification. This domain is attractive as a test-bed because it serves as an abstraction for instances of biological pattern sorting and also because of its stigmergic expressiveness. We demonstrate the application of the following four distributed computing concepts: (1) execution serializability, (2) local checking, (3) variant functions, and (4) indistinguishability (the last as an impossibility proof technique) in the modeling and analysis of our case studies. Based on our preliminary experience with this particular domain, it seems to us that classical distributed computing techniques could be applied further in reasoning about stigmergic systems, perhaps leading to the formulation of a generalized stigmergic computational paradigm based on the principles of distributed computing

Magnetic properties of EuPtSi3_3 single crystals

Single crystals of EuPtSi$_3$, which crystallize in the BaNiSn$_3$-type crystal structure, have been grown by high temperature solution growth method using molten Sn as the solvent. EuPtSi$_3$ which lacks the inversion symmetry and has only one Eu site in the unit cell is found to be an antiferromagnet with two successive magnetic transitions at $T_{\rm N1}$ = 17 K and $T_{\rm N2}$ = 16 K, as inferred from magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity and $^{151}$Eu M\"ossbauer measurements. The isothermal magnetization data for $H \parallel$ [001] reveal a metamagnetic transition at a critical field $H_{\rm c}$ = 1 T. The magnetization saturates to a moment value of 6.43 $\mu_{\rm B}$/Eu above 5.9 T (9.2 T) for $H \parallel$ [001] ([100]), indicating that these fields are spin-flip fields for the divalent Eu moments along the two axes. The origin of this anisotropic behaviour is discussed. A magnetic (H, T) phase diagram has been constructed from the temperature dependence of isothermal magnetization data. The reduced jump in the heat capacity at $T_{\rm N1}$ indicates a transition to an incommensurate, amplitude modulated antiferromagnetic structure. The shape of the hyperfine field split M\"ossbauer spectrum at $T_{\rm N1}$ provides additional support for the proposed nature of this magnetic transition.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Symptomatic giant left atrial aneurysm in a child : a rare entity

Isolated left atrial aneurysms are rare entities in clinical practice. Usually the condition is diagnosed in the second to fourth decades of life. The presence of such lesions in the pediatric age group is scantily described. We present a 2 year boy who presented with complaints of excessive irritability, respiratory distress and swelling of the feet. On examination, child was tachypnoeic with irregularly irregular rhythm. Echo showed a huge aneurysmal LA appendage with severe left ventricle dysfunction. The child underwent surgical resection for same. Findings were confirmed intraoperatively but he continued to have low cardiac output state after the surgery, with frequent arrhythmias and expired on day 7 of surgery. The case is reviewed and compared with the available English literature.peer-reviewe