Hyperleukocytosis and retinal hemorrhages after chemotherapy and Filgrastim administration for peripheral blood progenitor cell mobilization

A 49-year-old man with mantle cell lymphoma received 2.5 g/m2 of cyclophosphamide and 900 mg/m2 of etoposide followed by 10 microg/kg/day of Filgrastim for PBPC mobilization. This was complicated by marked hyperleukocytosis and retinal hemorrhages. The patient's symptoms improved gradually following leukopheresis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing this complication in patients undergoing PBPC mobilization. Early recognition of symptoms is important in order to stop Filgrastim and initiate immediate leukapheresis.     

A product-line architecture for web service-based visual composition of web applications

A web service-based web application (WSbWA) is a collection of web services or reusable proven software parts that can be discovered and invoked using standard Internet protocols. The use of these web services in the development process of WSbWAs can help overcome many problems of software use, deployment and evolution. Although the cost-effective software engineering of WSbWAs is potentially a very rewarding area, not much work has been done to accomplish short time to market conditions by viewing and dealing with WSbWAs as software products that can be derived from a common infrastructure and assets with a captured specific abstraction in the domain. Both Product Line Engineering (PLE) and Agile Methods (AMs), albeit with different philosophies, are software engineering approaches that can significantly shorten the time to market and increase the quality of products. Using the PLE approach we built, at the domain engineering level, a WSbWA-specific lightweight product-line architecture and combined it, at the application engineering level, with an Agile Method that uses a domain-specific visual language with direct manipulation and extraction capabilities of web services to perform customization and calibration of a product or WSBWA for a specific customer. To assess the effectiveness of our approach we designed and implemented a tool that we used to investigate the return on investment of the activities related to PLE and AMs. Details of our proposed approach, the related tool developed, and the experimental study performed are presented in this article together with a discussion of planned directions of future work.     

Pattern scaling in axial segregation

Granular tumbled frequently segregate by grain size along the axis of partially-filled, horizontal, rotating tubes. When segregation approaches saturation at the surface, a well-defined pattern of bands with wavelength λ emerges. The long-term dynamics of the pattern involves a much slower coarsening process. We characterized the initial saturated wavelength λ as a function of the diameter of the tube D for a filling fraction of 30 %, for 1.9 cm ≤D≤11.5 cm. We also studied the initial growth-rate of the bands as D varies. We find that λ/ D is not constant, but rather increases rapidly for small D. The growth-rate of bands decreases with smaller D and segregation is suppressed completely for sufficiently small D. These relatively simple features are not captured by any of the existing models of axial segregation.     

Inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor in apple juice extract

The polyphenol-rich extract of a consumer-relevant apple juice blend was found to potently inhibit the growth of the human colon cancer cell line HT29 in vitro. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its subsequent signaling cascade play an important role in the regulation of cell proliferation in HT29 cells. The protein tyrosine kinase activity of an EGFR preparation was effectively inhibited by the polyphenol-rich apple juice extract. Treatment of intact cells with this extract resulted in the suppression of the subsequent mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade. Amongst the so far identified apple juice constituents, the proanthocyanidins B1 and B2 as well as quercetin-3-glc (isoquercitrin) and quercetin-3-gal (hyperoside) were found to possess substantial EGFR-inhibitory properties. However, as to be expected from the final concentration of these potential EGFR inhibitors in the original polyphenol-rich extract, a synthetic mixture of the apple juice constituents identified and available so far, including both proanthocyanidins and the quercetin glycosides, showed only marginal inhibitory effects on the EGFR. These results permit the assumption that yet unknown constituents contribute substantially to the potent EGFR-inhibitory properties of polyphenol-rich apple juice extract. In summary, the polyphenol composition of apple juice possesses promising growth-inhibitory properties, affecting proliferation-associated signaling cascades in colon tumor cells.     

Crude extracts of asteraceous weeds

Petrol and ethanolic extracts of six asteraceous weeds were added to artificial diets to screen for growth inhibition and mortality of the variegated cutworm,Peridroma saucia (Hbn). Petrol and ethanolic extracts ofArtemisia tridentata andChamomilla suaveolens and ethanolic extracts ofChrysothamnus nauseosus andCentaurea diffusa severely inhibited larval growth at five times the natural concentrations. The twoC. suaveolens extracts and the ethanol extract ofA. tridentata were active at the natural concentration (100%) and were further examined at 20, 40, 60, and 80% of this level. Inhibition of larval growth was directly related to concentration for each of the three extracts tested. EC₅₀s (effective concentration to inhibit growth by 50% relative to controls) for the three extracts were 36–42% of the naturally occurring level in the plants. Nutritional indices were calculated for secondinstarP. saucia feeding on the activeA. tridentata EtOH extract and the petrol extract fromC. suaveolens. Addition of the activeA. tridentata EtOH or theC. suaveolens petrol extract to the diet resulted in significant reduction in the relative growth rate of larvae, although theA. tridentata extract was much more inhibitory. Dietary utilization was significantly lower for larvae fed theA. tridentata EtOH extract.