High-dose chemotherapy with carboplatin, etoposide and cyclophosphamide followed by a haematopoietic stem cell rescue in patients with high-risk retinoblastoma: a SFOP and SFGM study

This study investigates the role of high-dose chemotherapy with haematopoietic stem cell rescue as consolidation treatment in high-risk retinoblastoma (extraocular disease at diagnosis or relapse or invasion of cut end of optic nerve). 25 patients received high-dose chemotherapy including carboplatin (250 mg/m2/day from day 1 to day 5 for the 6 first patients and 350 mg/m2/day from day 1 to day 5 for the other patients), etoposide (350 mg/m2/day from day 1 to day 5) and cyclophosphamide (1.6 g/m2/day from day 2 to day 5) (CARBOPEC) followed by autologous haematopoietic stem cell rescue. 19 patients received this drug combination for chemosensitive extraocular relapse. The other 6 patients with histological high-risk factors were given this treatment as consolidation after enucleation and conventional chemotherapy. The three year disease-free survival was 67.1%. In 7 of the 9 relapsing patients, the first site of relapse was the central nervous system. All patients with central nervous system disease died except one. The main toxicity was haematological and digestive (mucositis and diarrhoea). 2 of the 13 evaluable patients had grade III and IV ototoxicity. One patient experienced an acute grade I reversible cardiotoxicity. The CARBOPEC regimen seems to be a promising therapeutic strategy in patients with high-risk retinoblastoma, especially those with bone and/or bone marrow involvement. This treatment did not improve the outcome of patients with central nervous system disease.     

Expert Systems for Construction Project Monitoring

Potential applications of knowledge based expert systems in the area of construction project monitoring and control are described. Originally developed from research in artificial intelligence, these systems are computer programs that can undertake intelligent tasks currently performed by highly skilled people. While some project monitoring can be accomplished by algorithmic procedures, the capability of knowledge based expert systems to deal with illstructured problems and to be extensively modified over time make them desirable for application in this area. Sample applications and heuristic rules in scheduling and inventory control are provided.     

Thickness-stress relations in aluminum thin films

The physical properties of aluminum thin films depend strongly on their microstructure, which can be characterized using different techniques. In the present work, aluminum thin films—grown with different thickness on silicon substrates—were analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and grazing incidence x-ray techniques. The AFM was used as a high-resolution profilemeter for measuring edge angles, step heights, surface microstructure, and roughness. The structural properties (such as crystallographic orientation, crystallite size, and phase identification) were analyzed by grazing incidence x-ray diffraction. For small thickness, AFM images show small nucleation sites because of the short time of growth. Grain size grows as the thickness increases, and film morphology seems to be uniform with large grains. The AFM results of as-grown films show a linear increase in roughness along with thickness. Roughness values decrease with aging time after film preparation, until a constant value is observed. All films mainly have (111) orientation, and its intensity grows with film thickness, with respect to the (200) and (220) peaks. As the film thickness increases, the surface stress decreases.     

是天使？是魔鬼？——IE7正式版体验

10月19日,历经5年的等待,姗姗来迟的InternetExplorer7正式版终于出现在世人面前。有别于以往渐近式的改进,本次的IE7不管是外观,还是内涵,都发生了翻天覆地的变化。不过,资源占用情况依然不容乐观,本文将带你了解这一切。     

The infrared infiltration and joining of advanced material

JOM - Infrared processing is a newly developed technique for materials processing. Key features include rapid processing, simplicity, and low cost. Because of the rapid processing, very little...     

Estimation of failure intensity for the Weibull process

A Weibull process/non-homogeneous Poisson process is commonly used to analyze the failure behavior of repairable systems. The object of the present study is to obtain exact estimates of the failure intensity of this model at the time of n failures. The resulting MLE estimate is biased and the corrected version for biasedness along with some approximate estimates is given. An analytical and numerical comparison of the relative efficiencies of the MLE of the exact biased, approximated biased, exact unbiased and approximated unbiased of the intensity function is presented. It will be shown that for small n (n < 30) there is quite a large relative difference between the mean squared errors of the exact and approximate estimates of the intensity function. Real failure data are used to illustrate the difference between the exact and approximate estimates of the intensity function.     

Internalization of interpersonal process in time-limited dynamic psychotherapy.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 31(3) of Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training (see record 2009-17141-002). This article contained, as Figure 1, an SASB model. The authorship and copyrights for the model were not acknowledged. The following acknowledgement should have been included: "Adapted from Benjamin (1984). Principles of Prediction using Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB). In R. A. Zucker, J. Aronoff, and A. J. Rabin (Eds.), Personality and the Prediction of Behavior (pp. 121- 174). New York: Academic." An apology is offered to the author, Dr. Lorna Smith Benjamin. The particular version used in the article was developed in collaboration with Clinton W. McLemore.] Investigated the internalization of positive aspects of therapist–patient (TP) interactions among 70 patients and their 16 therapists who participated in a 5-yr study (H. H. Strupp et al, unpublished) of time-limited dynamic psychotherapy. Patients sought help for anxiety, depression, or other problems with a clear interpersonal component and qualified for an Axis I or Axis II diagnosis on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III (DSM-III). Instruments included the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior and outcome measures of depression, anxiety, and psychological functioning. Patients' intrapsychic functioning became more similar to interpersonal activity in the TP relationship over the course of psychotherapy. Intrapsychic movement toward interpersonal activity in the TP relationship was associated with positive outcome on measures of depression, anxiety, and on independent clinician ratings of patient psychological functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions and relapse in opiate addicts.

Investigated whether attributions of opiate addicts would predict both their ability to abstain from future use and their reactions to abstinence violations. Measures of generalized beliefs about responsibility for positive and negative outcomes and specific attributions about relapse episodes were elicited from 80 addicts at the time of admission for inpatient detoxification and treatment. Addicts who at admission attributed to themselves greater responsibility for negative outcomes and who attributed relapse episodes to more personally controllable factors were subsequently (at 6-mo follow-up) more likely either to be completely abstinent or to contain the effects of temporary lapses into opiate use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)