An artificial intelligent diagnostic system on differential recognition of hematopoietic cells from microscopic images

The endothelium participates actively in homeostatic mechanisms such as the regulation of vascular tone and maintenance of a nonthrombotic environment, as well as directing biological responses such as leukocyte trafficking to inflammatory sites. Disruption of these processes leads to disease. In the antiphospholipid antibody syndrome autoantibodies provoke the endothelium to develop a prothrombotic surface. In systemic vasculitides associated with presence of antineutrophil cytoplasm antibodies, it is likely that the autoantibodies incite premature neutrophil activation, disrupted neutrophil-endothelium interactions and endothelial damage. This review considers how normal endothelial functions may be subverted in disease and how active endothelial responses may contribute to disease.     

Technological growth and ecological crisis: The Nigerian example

Technological growth is essential for the maintenance of the seemingly Western standards of living found in urban and to a lesser extent, in rural Nigeria. It should however be accompanied by environmental planning and protection, an awareness of environmental consequences of industrialisation and a preparedness to reduce, eliminate or compensate for its hazards. In this study, evidence is provided to show that Nigerian industrial growth is accompanied by air, noise and water pollution as well as soil exhaustion. Tremendous increase in energy production and consumption have formed elements of this phenomenal environmental deterioration. Reporting all empirical studies undertaken in Nigerian cities, when they become available, constitutes a worthwhile future venture which could provide basic reference data against which future statistics will be evaluated. The few, summarised in this article, highlight the deepening of the environmental crisis with continued economic development following the current Western model which emphasises high production and high consumption.     

Soil productivity analysis based on a fuzzy logic system

BACKGROUND: Maintaining soil productivity is essential if agriculture production systems are to be sustainable. However, there is a paucity of tools for measurement for the purpose of understanding changes in soil productivity. Fuzzy logic‐based analysis offers this possibility. It is a new method on the evaluation of soil productivity in Turkey and even in the world. RESULTS: Values for pH, salinity, carbonate and organic matter were entered into the system as input variables so as to obtain soil productivity as the output. After the membership functions related to input and output were determined, rules were created. Then, the fuzzy logic system was applied separately to pH, salinity, lime and organic matter values of different soil types present in the Kocaeli region with the aim of obtaining corresponding fuzzy values. Thus, soil productivity profiles of the region were deciphered. CONCLUSION: Organic matter levels in the study field remained below 30 g kg^?1 and varied between 22 and 28 g kg^?1. Productivity values were obtained as a percentage and varied between 16.9% and 18.1%. The lime content of the study soils varied in the range of 33–88 g kg^?1. Average totals for salt values of the field changed between 0.58 and 0.77 g kg^?1. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry     

Weight-scale, XRR and corona charge method on back-end dielectrics for 65 and 45 nm technology nodes

The monitoring of the back-end dielectrics for 65 and 45 nm technology nodes is of great interest to ensure the integration of those materials into damascene structure. Several metrology methods were compared for density and k value measurements. It was shown that the densities measured with XRR and weight-scale were identical and that density could be correlated to corona charge method k value thanks to a Clausius-Mosotti-like relation. According to these results, it appeared that, for uniformly deposited and stable materials, weight-scale measurements can give accurate and fast monitorings. On the contrary, non-homogeneous materials should preferably be monitored with XRR or corona charge method depending on the controlled parameter.     

Epidermoid cyst of the brain stem. Case report

OBJECTIVE: To search for the effect and safety of coral porous hydroxyapatite (CHA) implanted material in orbital rim reconstruction. METHODS: 7 cases of orbital rim reconstruction were treated with CHA which is a plate form mass with an interconnected system of canals of approximately 200 microns in size. It has three types: 1.0 cm x 1.5 cm x 5.0 cm, 0.6 cm x 1.5 cm x 5.0 cm and 0.4 cm x 1.5 cm x 5.0 cm. According to the shape of a contralateral healthy orbit, a rubber putty model was made before the operation. An incision was designed at the upper 1/3 of the face for the elimination of wrinkles or a prolonged incision of lower lid bag plastic surgery was made. After the exposure of the defective part of the orbit, a correctly molded CHA tamponade was inserted. RESULTS: The orbital rim reconstruction in 7 cases with orbital defect was successfully treated with CHA. During a follow-up of 3-12 months (average 6.6 months), there was no extrusion or migration of implant. CONCLUSION CHA is a good material for substitution of bone graft and is much better than autogenous tissue of other artificial materials.     

Personality dimensions, psychosocial-demographic variables, and English language competency in predicting level of acculturative stress among Turkish international students.

A sample of 229 Turkish international students studying in 17 universities throughout the United States participated in this online study. The main purpose of the study was to investigate acculturative stress based on students' demographics, personality, level of social connectedness, and English language competency. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that marital status, English language competency, social connectedness, adjustment difficulties, neuroticism, and openness to experience were predictors of acculturative stress. Analysis of variance results showed that acculturative stress did not significantly differ by students' gender or age. Implications are discussed and suggestions for interventions and future research are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coexistence of life threatening chemotherapy related leukoencephalopathy, saggital sinus thrombosis and multiple organ failure in a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: an unusual case with clinical recovery

A nine-year old girl with T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) had acute severe neurologic complications at the end of the remission-induction chemotherapy course. Thirty-six hours following triple intrathecal (IT) therapy and intravenous (IV) administration of L-asparaginase (L-asp), tetraplegia developed and she became unconscious. She had bouts of hypertension and persistent tachycardia unresponsive to digitalis therapy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed multiple brain white matter hyperintensities and filling defects in the saggital sinus, suggesting thrombosis. Over the 40 days, in addition to her neurologic compromise she also had transient diabetes mellitus, severe hyperlipidemia, hypoproteinemia and edema, liver and heart failure and staphylococcus aureus sepsis with prolonged bone marrow depression. Despite, coexistence of all these chemotherapy related complications, her neurologic functions and multiple organ failure improved gradually. After a 70 days' period of interruption, chemotherapy was resumed and continued without any further complications. Although, the etiology of her extensive sensitivity to some drugs remains unclear, we believe that it is important to document these unusual events in this child.     

Soluble L-selectin increases in the cerebrospinal fluid prior to meningeal involvement in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

We have treated 19 B-chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (B-CLL) patients with CDA (Leustat, Janssen-Cilag). Four patients developed severe autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, and 2 of these had severe reticulocytopenia due to red cell aplasia/hypoplasia. Two patients died as a complication of the haemolysis one during the primary episode, with a clinical course suggestive of transfusion associated graft-versus-host disease (taGVHD), and one following a relapse of haemolysis. The onset of haemolysis occurs within 4 cycles of CDA therapy and is temporally related to the T-lymphocyte nadir induced by CDA. The presence of a positive DAT prior to therapy in 3 of 4 patients developing haemolysis suggests that the CDA induced T-lymphocytopenia may exacerbate the tendency of certain CLL patients to autoimmune haemolysis.     

Antioxidant,anticholinesterase and antimicrobial constituents from the essential oil and ethanol extract of Salvia potentillifolia

The essential oil of Salvia potentillifolia was analysed by GC and GC–MS. Totally, 123 components were detected in both hydrodistilled and steam-distilled oils, α- and β-pinenes being major compounds. The antioxidant activities were determined by using complementary tests, namely, DPPH radical-scavenging, β-carotene-linoleic acid and reducing power assays. The ethanol extract also showed better activity (IC₅₀ = 69.4 ± 0.99 μg/ml) than that of BHT in the DPPH system, and showed great lipid peroxidation inhibition in the β-carotene-linoleic acid system (IC₅₀ = 30.4 ± 0.50 μg/ml). The essential oil showed meaningful butyrylcholinesterase activity (65.7 ± 0.21%), and α-pinene showed high acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity (IC₅₀ = 86.2 ± 0.96 μM) while β-pinene was inactive. Antimicrobial activity was also investigated on several microorganisms, and the essential oil showed high activity against Bacillus subtilis and B. cereus. It also exhibited remarkable anticandidal activity against Candida albicans and C. tropicalis with MIC values of 18.5 and 15.5 μg/ml, respectively, while α- and β-pinenes showed moderate activity.     

CMS Hadronic EndCap Calorimeter Upgrade Studies for SLHC “Čerenkov Light Collection From Quartz Plates”

Due to an expected increase in radiation damage under super-LHC conditions, we propose to substitute the scintillator tiles in the original design of the hadronic endcap (HE) calorimeter with quartz plates. Quartz is shown to be radiation hard. Using wavelength shifting fibers, it is possible to collect efficiently the Cerenkov light generated in quartz plates. This paper summarizes the results from various test beams, bench tests, and Geant4 simulations done on methods of collecting light from quartz plates, as well as radiation hardness tests on quartz material.