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We present a case of acute hemolytic anemia, renal failure, and Clostridium perfringens bacteremia in a patient with acute myelogenous leukemia. The high fatality of C. perfringens bacteremia requires that clinicians recognize and rapidly treat patients at risk for this infection. Although other hemolytic processes are in the differential diagnosis of these events, the presence of high fever, chills, and rapidly positive blood cultures may help narrow the diagnosis. Most cases of C. perfringens bacteremia have a concomitant coinfection, which makes broad spectrum empiric therapy essential. There is a high mortality rate of C. perfringens infections associated with leukemia.

Purpose Radiochemotherapy is the standard of care for the treatment of anal carcinoma achieving good loco-regional control and sphincter preservation. This approach is however associated with acute and late toxicities including haematological, skin, bowel function and genito-urinary complications. This paper systematically reviews studies addressing the quality of life (QoL) implications of anal cancer and radiochemotherapy. The paper also evaluates how QoL is assessed in anal cancer. Methods Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library were searched for publications (1996–2014) reporting the effects on patients of anal cancer and radiochemotherapy. Results Of the 152 papers reporting treatment-related effects on patients, only 11 provided a formal assessment of QoL. In the absence of an anal cancer-specific measure, QoL was assessed using generic cancer instruments such as the core EORTC quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) or colorectal cancer tools such as the EORTC QLQ-CR29. Bowel function, particularly diarrhoea, and sexual problems were the most commonly reported QoL concerns. The review of QoL issues of anal cancer patients treated with radiochemotherapy is limited by the QoL assessment measures used. It is argued that certain treatment-related toxicities, for example skin-induced radiation problems, are overlooked or inadequately represented in existing measures. Conclusions This review emphasises the need to develop an anal cancer-specific QoL measure and to incorporate QoL as an outcome of future trials in anal cancer. The results of this review are informative to clinicians and patients in terms of treatment decision-making.

We present a new atmospheric extinction curve for Mauna Kea spanning 3200--9700 \AA. It is the most comprehensive to date, being based on some 4285 standard star spectra obtained on 478 nights spread over a period of 7 years obtained by the Nearby SuperNova Factory using the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph. This mean curve and its dispersion can be used as an aid in calibrating spectroscopic or imaging data from Mauna Kea, and in estimating the calibration uncertainty associated with the use of a mean extinction curve. Our method for decomposing the extinction curve into physical components, and the ability to determine the chromatic portion of the extinction even on cloudy nights, is described and verified over the wide range of conditions sampled by our large dataset. We demonstrate good agreement with atmospheric science data obtain at nearby Mauna Loa Observatory, and with previously published measurements of the extinction above Mauna Kea., Comment: 22 pages, 24 figures, 6 tables

The introduction of electrospray ionization (ESI) in the 1980s revolutionized the analysis of biomolecules, and LC-ESI/MS (50–5000 μL/min) offers robust, high-throughput analyses for many biological applications. The introduction of nanospray (nESI) in the 1990s has made nLC-nESI/MS (10–1000 nL/min) a valuable tool for proteomics research, where high resolution and high sensitivity are maximized at the cost of sample throughput (60–240+ min per analysis) and robustness. Although protein biomarker analysis requires the high resolution and high sensitivity provided by nanoLC/MS, it also requires robustness and high throughput if it is to be useful in pharmaceutical and clinical applications. This study introduces a new axial desolvation, vacuum-assisted nano-capillary electrospray (ADVANCE) source for LC/MS, which has the robustness of LC-ESI/MS and the sensitivity of nanoLC-nanoESI/MS, but operates in the flow range from 0.2–100 μL/min. For low-abundance proteins, PTMs, and biomarker identification, an HT capLC-ADVANCE/MS system can analyze 50–150 host cell proteomic samples (digests of 1D gel slices, 2D gel spots, or MDLC fractions) in 24 h (10–30 min per analysis) at attomole to picomole sensitivities. The capLC-ADVANCE/MS system can also be used for validation of biomarker candidates, which requires comparative quantitation (ICAT, ITRAC, SILAC) of proteomic samples (5–15 min per analysis) in host cells and physiological fluids. Once protein biomarkers have been validated (very few to date), the capLC-ADVANCE/MS can be used for very high throughput (2–5 min per analysis) quantitation of biomarker signature peptides in a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

The evanescent field intensity outside a fibre can be increased several orders of magnitude by tapering it. Several tapered optical fibre based evanescent field devices have been reported in the literature. Cambridge University, UK, reported work on miniature dye lasers using a tapered fibre in a loop arrangement; but more importantly, a tapered single mode fibre bent into a small loop. This latter tapered device was used as an imunoassay for cholera antitoxin immunoglobulins and was based on fluorescence spectroscopy. The Naval Research Laboratories, USA, have reported on a MM tapered fibre which is chemically tapered to a point and can be used as a fluorescence based biosensor.