Comparison of autologous bone marrow transplantation and intensive chemotherapy as postremission therapy in adult acute myeloid leukemia. The Groupe Ouest Est Leucémies Aigu?s Myéloblastiques (GOELAM)

Three intensive consolidation strategies are currently proposed to younger adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in first complete remission (CR): allogeneic or autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and intensive consolidation chemotherapy (ICC). Patients aged 15 to 50 years with de novo AML received an induction treatment with 7 days of cytarabine and either idarubicin or rubidazone. After achievement of a CR, patients up to the age of 40 and having an HLA-identical sibling were assigned to undergo an allogeneic BMT. All the other patients received a first course of ICC with high-dose cytarabine and the same anthracycline as for induction. They were then randomly assigned to either receive a second course of ICC with amsacrine and etoposide or a combination of busulfan and cyclosphosphamide followed by an unpurged autologous BMT. Of 517 eligible patients, 367 had a CR, but only 219 (59.5%) actually received the planned intensive postremission treatment (73 allogeneic BMT, 75 autologous BMT, and 71 ICC). With a median follow-up of 62 months, the 4-year disease-free survival (DFS) of the 367 patients in CR was 39.5%. The 4-year overall survival (OS) of the 517 eligible patients was 40.5%. In multivariate analysis, DFS and OS were influenced only by the initial white blood cell count and by the French-American-British classification. The type of postremission therapy had no significant impact on the outcome. There was no difference in the 4-year DFS and OS between 88 patients for whom an allogeneic BMT was scheduled (respectively, 44% and 53%) and 134 patients of the same age category and without an HLA-identical sibling (respectively, 38% and 53%). Similarly, there was no difference in the outcome between autologous BMT and ICC. The 4-year DFS was 44% for the 86 patients randomly assigned to autologous BMT and 40% for the 78 patients assigned to ICC (P = .41). The 4-year OS was similar in the two groups (50% v 54.5%, P = .72). The median duration of hospitalization and thrombocytopenia were longer after autologous BMT (39 v 32 days, P = .006, and 109.5 v 18.5 days, P = .0001, respectively). After a first course of ICC, a second course of chemotherapy is less myelotoxic than an unpurged autologous BMT but yields comparable DFS and OS rates.     

Scalp Current Density Mapping: Value and Estimation from Potential Data

Scalp current density (SCD) makes possible the identification of scalp sources and sinks of current. SCD is reference independent and its peaks and troughs are sharper than those of the scalp potential (SP). SCD, by comparison to SP, reflects mainly the activity of cortical generators. SCD mapping appears to be a valuable tool to spatially split smeared SP distribution due to simultaneously active generators. The SCD map may be computed from any sufficiently smooth mathematical SP map. An evaluation of the error of SCD estimation is given for a surface spline method of interpolation of SP. An example of the simultaneous use of SP and SCD in the analysis of somatosensory evoked data is given.     

Open, randomized, multicenter trial of raltitrexed versus fluorouracil plus high-dose leucovorin in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Tomudex Colorectal Cancer Study Group

PURPOSE: To compare raltitrexed (Tomudex; Zeneca Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Macclesfield, United Kingdom) a direct, specific thymidylate synthase (TS) inhibitor with fluorouracil (5-FU) plus high-dose leucovorin (LV) as first-line treatment for advanced colorectal cancer (ACC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 495 patients were randomized to raltitrexed (3 mg/m2) once every 3 weeks or 5-FU (400 mg/m2) plus LV (200 mg/m2) daily for 5 days every 4 weeks. RESULTS: The randomized groups were well balanced demographically. With a minimum 17-month follow-up, median survival was comparable between groups (10.9 months raltitrexed v 12.3 months 5-FU/LV; hazards ratio, 1.15; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93 to 1.42; P=.197), although time to progression was statistically significantly shorter in the raltitrexed group. Overall objective responses were comparable (19% raltitrexed v 18% 5-FU/LV), with more than 50% of patients in each group having stable disease. Significantly less World Health Organization (WHO) grade 3 and 4 stomatitis (2% v 16%, P < .001) and a reduced incidence of leukopenia (6% v 13%) and diarrhea (10% v 19%) occurred in the raltitrexed group (particularly at cycle 1 ). This resulted in fewer dose reductions at cycle 2 (4% raltitrexed v 28% 5-FU/LV) and early quality-of-life (QoL) benefits for raltitrexed patients. Reversible, clinically insignificant increases in transaminases were reported in 13% of raltitrexed patients. Palliative benefits of weight gain, improved performance status, and reduced disease-related symptoms were evident in both groups. CONCLUSION: Raltitrexed is confirmed as an effective option in the first-line palliative management of ACC, with comparable efficacy to and tolerability advantages (in terms of reduced incidence of stomatitis, diarrhea, and leukopenia) over 5-FU/LV. Raltitrexed has the added convenience of an every 3 weeks dosing schedule.     

Orientation of Magnetized MnBi in a Strong Static Magnetic Field

Solidification of Bi-4.5 wt pct Mn alloy was investigated in the presence and absence of a strong static magnetic field (SSMF). A cooling rate (R) of 60 K/min caused MnBi to orient with the SSMF, owing to the force moment and attractive force. The attractive force and magnetic gradient force induced formation of multilayered MnBi when R was 5 K/min. The magnetic gradient force was damped when R was 60 K/min. Low cooling rates favored the aggregation process.     

Stopping of crosslinking reaction in a PDMS polymer at the gel point

Summary A method has been developed to stop the crosslinking reaction of a polydimethylsiloxane system without disturbing the state of the sample. Oscillatory shear experiments on samples just before and just beyond the gelation point demonstrated the transition of the material from a viscoelastic liquid to a viscoelastic solid. At the gel point the loss modulus and the storage modulus were found to be identical over several decades of frequency and for temperatures ranging between -50°C and +180°C. Both moduli were proportional to the square root of the frequency.     

The complete sequence of a 6794 bp segment located on the right arm of chromosome II of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Finding of a putative dUTPase in a yeast

The DNA sequence of a 6794 bp fragment located at about 100 kb from the right telomere of chromosome II from Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been determined. Sequence analysis reveals five open reading frames. One is the ARO4 gene encoding the 3-deoxy-D -arabinoheptulosonate 7-phosphate synthase. Another presents strong homology with the S5 ribosomal protein from bacteria. The open reading frame YBR1705 shows significant homology with dUTPase, suggesting for the first time the existence of such an enzyme in S. cerevisiae.     

Self-Supervised Monocular Depth and Motion Learning in Dynamic Scenes: Semantic Prior to Rescue

International Journal of Computer Vision - We introduce an end-to-end joint training framework that explicitly models 6-DoF motion of multiple dynamic objects, ego-motion, and depth in a monocular...     

Modeling and control design of hydrogen production process for an active hydrogen/wind hybrid power system

This paper gives a control oriented modeling of an electrolyzer, as well as the ancillary system for the hydrogen production process. A Causal Ordering Graph of all necessary equations has been used to illustrate the global scheme for an easy understanding. The model is capable of characterizing the relations among the different physical quantities and can be used to determine the control system ensuring efficient and reliable operation of the electrolyzer. The proposed control method can manage the power flow and the hydrogen flow. The simulation results have highlighted the variation domains and the relations among the different physical quantities. The model has also been experimentally tested in real time with a Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation before being integrated in the test bench of the active wind energy conversion system.     

An Energy-Based Approach for Contact Force Computation

A new approach for computing resting contact forces between solids is presented, which handles both static and sliding friction, while avoiding the problems arising from previous approaches. Each iteration provides values for all unknowns and needs a constant computation time. The first iteration is a global dynamic solution involving inertia and external forces. The subsequent iterations consist of global redistributions of energy through the solids in order to restrict the values within correct bounds, leading to a progressive refinement of the solution. This allows the termination of the computation when a user-defined level of precision is reached. Convergence is proven in the frictionless case. The method is concise and is easily usable in a motion control system. It was implemented and tested on some examples involving simultaneously static and sliding friction along with motion control.