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ABSTRACTPulmonary presentations of undiagnosed AML are uncommon. While it is known that pulmonary involvement during the course of AML is usually caused by infection, hemorrhage or other malignancy related complications, data is sparse regarding pulmonary manifestations as a first presentation in AML. We present a rare case of atypical AFOP as the primary presentation of AML. This case follows a yearlong trajectory of initial AML remission followed by relapse at 9 months after initial presentation.

AbstractINTRODUCTION: Non-classical pathogens including Klebsiellaspp. have been observed infrequently as part of large cystic fibrosis (CF) cohort studies, but there are sparse data regarding their impact on clinical outcomes.OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to elucidate the clinical impact of Klebsiellaspecies infections in CF patients.METHODS: Adult patients attending a Canadian CF clinic with Klebsiellaspp. positive sputum cultures from 1978–2013 were assessed. Infection was categorized as transient or prolonged (≥50% positive cultures in one year). Rates of pulmonary exacerbations (PEx) at incident infection and risk factors for developing prolonged infections were determined. Isolates were genotyped and tested for antibiotic susceptibility and hypermucoviscosity.RESULTS: Thirty unique infections among 25 patients (8% of clinic population) were detected, in which 9 K. pneumoniae, 17 K. oxytocaand 4 K. ozaenaespecies were identified. Four patients developed prolonged infection, however, all but one subsequently cleared. Incident infection was associated with increased risk of PEx compared to clinic visits before but not after isolation. Patients progressing to prolonged infections did not differ in demographics, comorbidities or treatments, compared to transiently infected individuals. Hypermucoviscosity and multi-drug resistance were uncommon. Individuals were infected with only single strains of Klebsiellaat a time and no evidence of cross infection was observed.CONCLUSIONS: Klebsiellainfections are rare at any individual time point in CF. However, they are observed in almost 10% of a patient cohort followed longitudinally and are not clearly associated with either acute or sub-acute clinical deterioration.

The incidence of cranial radiotherapy (cRT)–induced central hypothyroidism (TSHD) in childhood brain tumor survivors (CBTS) is reported to be low. However, TSHD may be more frequent than currently suspected, as its diagnosis is challenging due to broad reference ranges for free thyroxine (FT4) concentrations. TSHD is more likely to be present when FT4 levels progressively decline over time. Therefore, we determined the incidence and latency time of TSHD and changes of FT4 levels over time in irradiated CBTS.Nationwide, 10-year retrospective study of irradiated CBTS.TSHD was defined as ‘diagnosed’ when FT4 concentrations were below the reference range with low, normal or mildly elevated thyrotropin levels, and as ‘presumed’ when FT4 declined ≥ 20% within the reference range. Longitudinal FT4 concentrations over time were determined in growth hormone deficient (GHD) CBTS with and without diagnosed TSHD from cRT to last follow-up (paired t-test).Of 207 included CBTS, the 5-year cumulative incidence of diagnosed TSHD was 20.3%, which occurred in 50% (25/50) of CBTS with GHD by 3.4 years (range, 0.9–9.7) after cRT. Presumed TSHD was present in 20 additional CBTS. The median FT4 decline in GH-deficient CBTS was 41.3% (P< 0.01) to diagnosis of TSHD and 12.4% (P=0.02) in GH-deficient CBTS without diagnosed TSHD.FT4 concentrations in CBTS significantly decline over time after cRT, also in those not diagnosed with TSHD, suggesting that TSHD occurs more frequently and earlier than currently reported. The clinical relevance of cRT-induced FT4 decline over time should be investigated in future studies.

The dynamic zero drift of mechanical gyroscopes is one of the decisive factors governing the accuracy of the inertial navigation systems. In this paper, an innovative measuring technique for the dynamic zero drift of mechanical gyroscopes is proposed. An optical motion detecting system was designed in which the zero drift could be described by the motion vectors of a reflected light spot. In the testing process, the position of the light spot was captured in real time by a machine vision system, and the dynamic zero drift of the gyroscope could be evaluated spontaneously. In order to accurately capture and track the light spot, an improved regional projecting algorithm was used to achieve rapid detection and preliminary location of the light spot. To compute the coordinates of the light spot center to a sub-pixel level, a fast sub-pixel positioning algorithm, the gaussian analyzing algorithm, was employed. Experiments have shown that the testing error, ηmax, of the inner ring of the tested gyroscope was no more than 0.0075° and the testing error, ζmax, of the external ring of the tested gyroscope was no more than 0.005°. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the popularity of optical digitizing devices which can digitize an object easily and densely, the processing of a huge amount of data points has become important. Searching is one of the fundamental computational tasks in data analysis algorithms as it often dominates the computational efficiency significantly. The purpose of this study is to provide algorithms based on cell subdivision to search for the nearest neighbors adjacent to a given entity, where the given entity can be a point, a line segment or a triangle. The nearest-points search is used to find a set of points closest to a given point; the nearest-edges search is to find the edges that intersect the given edge; the nearest-triangles search is to find the mapping triangles of a given point or a given triangle. A detailed discussion for each of the above algorithms is described. Several examples are provided also to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithms.

An increase in endometrial vascular permeability (EVP) occurs approximately 4 hours after the administration of a deciduogenic stimulus in rats sensitized for the decidual cell reaction. EVP precedes decidualization, in which the endometrial stromal cells proliferate and differentiate into decidual cells. Decidualization begins approximately 20 hours after a deciduogenic stimulus administration in rats. Recently, the cyclo-oxygenase (Ptgs) pathway and products have been investigated to elucidate their roles in decidualization. It has been proposed that the Ptgsproduct, prostacyclin, binds to the nuclear receptor, PPARD, which then heterodimerizes with RXRA to induce decidualization. However, the significance of these nuclear receptors in the early events of decidualization has not been sufficiently addressed. Our objectives are to characterize the expression patterns of Ppardand Rxrain the rat endometrium and to infuse synthetic ligands of these nuclear receptors into the rat uterus to assess the receptors functions during the early stages of decidualization. It is hypothesized that Ppardand Rxrasignificantly contribute to the early events of decidualization. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were ovariectomized and subjected to a hormone treatment to simulate pseudopregnancy. On the equivalent of Day 5 of pseudopregnancy, an intrauterine injection of sesame oil was administered to induce decidualization. Endometrial tissue was then collected at 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 hours after the stimulation, with non-stimulated control tissues collected at 0, 8, and 32 hours. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR revealed no significant changes in mRNA levels for either receptor between times or between stimulated and non-stimulated samples. Western blot analysis revealed that PPARD protein levels did not change but RXRA levels were significantly increased at 16 hours. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that PPARD and RXRA were mainly expressed in the luminal and glandular epithelium, but not in the antimesometrial stroma, the region of the endometrium which initially undergoes decidualization. In addition, artificially stimulated endometrial samples from Day 5 to Day 10 of pseudopregnancy were subjected to western blot analysis and showed that PPARD levels did not significantly change while RXRA levels were significantly increased on Day 8 when compared to Days 5, 6, and 10. To test if synthetic ligands of the nuclear receptors had an effect on EVP, prostaglandin E2 (PTGER agonist), L165041 (PPARD selective agonist), docosahexanoic acid (DHA; RXRA agonist), and a 50% v/v DMSO/PBS vehicle control were infused, via osmotic pumps, into the uterine lumen of rats treated with indomethacin to inhibit endogenous prostaglandin production. Ten hours after the initiation of the infusion, rats were given an injection of Evans blue dye via the tail vein. Rats were then killed and whole uteri were collected and stored in formamide for dye extraction. This experiment showed that L165041 or DHA, infused separately or together, did not increase EVP, as indicated by uterine Evans blue dye concentrations, when compared to the vehicle control, whereas prostaglandin E2 infusion showed an increase in EVP. These results suggest that Ppardand Rxrado not have a role in the early processes of decidualization but may be involved in later processes. This project is supported by CIHR.