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The article discusses a survey on the approaches to HIV self-testing (HIVST) among populations in Europe. Topics discussed include its benefits to increase the range of voluntary early diagnosis, collaboration between governments and other diagnostic organizations for efficient assessment, and need of support from the government to provide consumer-friendly testing.

The article presents research which examined the local nanotailoring of polymeric photophysics through the application of the gold nanoparticles implantation system. The researchers assessed the photoluminescence spectra and excitation dynamics in polymeric matrix implanted with metallic nanoparticles. They found that the appearance of a photoinduced absorption band due to the overlapping of nanoparticles with an emission band hindered the potential of having amplified spontaneous emission.

E-rosetting of leukaemic blast cells is one of the markers of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). In children, E+ ALL has a bad prognosis. In adults, data are scarce. This report provides information on 25 E+ ALL adult patients who have a minimum follow-up time of 36 months. Twenty-two of 25 patients (88%) achieved complete remission (CR) (median duration 16 months), and six of them were alive, relapse-free, and off therapy after 36-81 months, with a 26% projected 6-year relapse-free survival. In 97 patients with E-SmIg- ALL, who were treated at the same Institutions, over the same period of time, and by the same modalities, the outcome of therapy was almost identical: CR 80%, median duration of first CR 15 months, projected 6-year relapse-free survival 15%. The white blood cell (WBC) count at presentation influenced significantly and to the same degree first CR length in both E+ and E- cases. In this adult series, WBC count was not as high as in children. Moreover, a high Hb concentration, a very high WBC count, lymphadenomegaly, and mediastinal involvement, were found more frequently in adolescents and young adults than in adults. Based on these data, it is suggested that in adults E-rosetting as such is not a marker of a poorer prognosis, that some of the typical features of children E+ ALL weaken with age, and that in adults the disease can have a less aggressive character.

The prognostic value of nine clinical and haematological features, recorded at diagnosis in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), was analysed in two distinct series of patients. One series (116 cases) was collected at a single hospital over a 12-year period. The second series (139 cases) was collected from a multicentre trial over a 20-month period. Six features were associated with a poor prognosis: splenomegaly (more than 15 cm below the costal margin), hepatomegaly (more than 6 cm below the costal margin), thrombocytopenia (< 150 X 10(9)/l) or thrombocytosis (> 500 X 10(9)/l), a leucocyte count above 100 X 10(9)/l, peripheral blood non-granulated precursors (blast cells) above 1%, and peripheral blood granulated precursors (promyelocytes and myelocytes) above 20%. Depending on the number of negative prognostic factors, patients were divided into three categories: group I (0 or 1 factor), group II (2 or 3 factors) and group III (4,5 or 6 factors). Survival was significantly different in the three groups (P < 0.0005), and this was independent of age (below and above 50). The prognostic value of the classification was confirmed in a third series of 153 patients. We suggest that this classification provides a useful tool to identify prognostic categories in CML, and thus allows a proper allocation of patients to different therapies.