Successful engraftment of haploidentical stem cell transplant for familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis using both bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells

Familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a disease with a very poor prognosis unless patients receive a bone marrow transplant. It is often difficult to find an HLA-matched donor and haploidentical familial donors may be considered. The main complication of this type of transplant is graft rejection. We describe a patient with familial HLH who received a haploidentical transplant using both mobilized peripheral blood and bone marrow stem cells in an attempt to overcome graft rejection by increasing the stem cell dose. The peripheral blood stem cell inoculum was CD34 enriched using a Cellpro column and T-cell depleted by Campath-1M, the patient received conditioning for a matched sibling donor transplant with the addition of Campath 1G. There was rapid and full engraftment and the patient remains disease free at 5 months. This technique may be applicable for other fatal inborn errors in the absence of an HLA-matched donor.     

Palliative chemotherapy with CMF after the same adjuvant regimen for breast cancer. The Breast Cancer Study Group

BACKGROUND: The results of palliative chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) in patients with advanced breast cancer who received adjuvant therapy with the same regimen were investigated. RESULTS: Of 47 patients, 14 (30%) achieved an objective remission (median duration 9.5, range 5-21 months) and 8 (17%) stabilisation of disease (median duration 6, range 3-17 months). Objective remissions were observed in premenopausal as well as in postmenopausal women, in patients with all categories of dominant localisation of disease and regardless of the oestradiol receptor status of the primary tumour or eventual previous endocrine therapy. One of 4 and 13 of 43 patients who started palliative chemotherapy within or later than 12 months after the last adjuvant course obtained an objective remission. The median survival time from start of therapy of all treated patients was 12 (range 1-40) months. Patients with an objective remission or stable disease and patients with progressive disease had a median survival time of 20 (range 6-40) and 6 (range 1-35) months respectively (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Palliative treatment with CMF should not be rejected for patients who have relapsed after adjuvant chemotherapy with the same modality.     

Rectangular surface-relief transmission gratings with a very large first-order diffraction efficiency (~95%) for unpolarized light

Computer optimization shows that the first-order diffraction efficiency of a lossless-transmission surface-relief grating with a rectangular surface profile can be made very large (~95%) simultaneously for light of TE and TM polarizations incident near the Bragg angle by the proper choice of the fill factor. The case for visible light incident close to the Bragg angle on unslanted gratings with periodicities corresponding to Bragg angles of 30 degrees , 37.5 degrees , and 45 degrees is presented. The refractive index of the grating material was chosen in the range between 1.2 and 2.     

Visualization of myocardial perfusion derived from coronary anatomy

Visually assessing the effect of the coronary artery anatomy on the perfusion of the heart muscle in patients with coronary artery disease remains a challenging task. We explore the feasibility of visualizing this effect on perfusion using a numerical approach. We perform a computational simulation of the way blood is perfused throughout the myocardium purely based on information from a three-dimensional anatomical tomographic scan. The results are subsequently visualized using both three-dimensional visualizations and bull's eye plots, partially inspired by approaches currently common in medical practice. Our approach results in a comprehensive visualization of the coronary anatomy that compares well to visualizations commonly used for other scanning technologies. We demonstrate techniques giving detailed insight in blood supply, coronary territories and feeding coronary arteries of a selected region. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach through visualizations that show information which commonly cannot be directly observed in scanning data, such as a separate visualization of the supply from each coronary artery. We thus show that the results of a computational simulation can be effectively visualized and facilitate visually correlating these results to for example perfusion data.     

Implementation of diffractive optical element in four-wave mixing scheme for ex situ characterization of hydride vapor phase epitaxy-grown GaN layers

A holographic beam splitter has been integrated into a picosecond four-wave mixing (FWM) scheme. This modification significantly simplified the procedure of dynamic grating recording, thus making the FWM technique an easy-to-use tool for the holographic characterization of wide band gap materials. The novel FWM scheme was applied for characterization of hydride vapor phase epitaxy-grown undoped GaN layers of different thickness. It allowed the determination of carrier lifetime, diffusion coefficient, and carrier diffusion length by optical means, as well as the study of carrier recombination peculiarities with respect to dislocation and excess carrier density.     

METAL HOUSE

在台中的四层楼新案为了呼应台中的当地建筑特色，因地制宜地运用“Metal House”的概念，呼应该品牌的工业前卫感。设计师以金属浪板贯穿整个设计，从外观到室内都渗透了浓浓的前卫时尚。     

High Order Stable Finite Difference Methods for the Schrödinger Equation

In this paper we extend the Summation-by-parts-simultaneous approximation term (SBP-SAT) technique to the Schrödinger equation. Stability estimates are derived and the accuracy of numerical approximations of interior order 2m, m=1,2,3, are analyzed in the case of Dirichlet boundary conditions. We show that a boundary closure of the numerical approximations of order m lead to global accuracy of order m+2. The results are supported by numerical simulations.     

Immuno-SEM characterization of developing bovine cartilage

Collagen is a vital material in the tissues of living organisms. Found almost everywhere in the human body, collagen is important in connective tissues, bone growth, and cartilage. Collagen XI makes up a very small portion of the cartilaginous tissue; however, it plays a key role in cartilaginous tissue. Collagen XI and two collagen XI isoforms, V1b and V2, are critical in the ossification process. The location of collagen XI, V1b, V2, and their specific functions in the ossification process within developing bovine cartilage are not well characterized. In this work, the location of collagens I, II, XI and two collagen XI isoforms, V1b and V2, present in developing bovine cartilage are investigated using the immuno-SEM technique. The results for the locations of collagen I and II indicate a high level of consistency with previous work, thus showing that the technique of immuno-SEM can be used with confidence to determine the location of various collagen types within cartilaginous and mineralized tissue. This work has shown that collagen XI is present in the lower hypertrophic region and also in a pericellular arrangement, within about two microns of cell walls, throughout the cartilaginous tissue. V1b is expressed in the articular surface, mineralized region, resting zone, and the distal edge of the diaphysis. The V2 isoform is most strongly expressed in areas of newly forming cartilage, and disappears with chondrocyte maturation. V2 is present in the distal edge of the epiphysis, as well as in mineralized tissue. Collagen XI and two of its isoforms, V1b and V2, are thought to play a critical role in the ossification process. However, this role is not well understood, and is still being characterized. The detection of collagen XI and two of its isoforms in the osteo-chondral junction as well as at a joint surface further point to collagen XI, V1b, and V2 playing a vital role in the ossification process, and warrants further research as to their specific function within the ossification process.