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This study was conducted in an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of an educational card game we developed for learning human immunology. Two semesters of evaluation were included to examine the impact of the game on students' understanding and perceptions of the game-based instruction. Ninety-nine senior high school students (11th graders) were recruited for the first evaluation, and the second-semester group consisted of 72 students (also 11th graders). The results obtained indicate that students did learn from the educational card game. Moreover, students who learned from playing the game significantly outperformed their counterparts in terms of their understanding of the processes and connections among different lines of immunological defense (first semester: t = 2.92, p < 0.01; second semester: t = 3.45, p < 0.01) according to the qualitative analysis of an open-ended question. They generally had positive perceptions toward the game-based instruction and its learning efficiency, and they felt the game-based instruction was much more interesting than traditional didactic lectures (first semester: t = 2.79, p < 0.01; second semester: t = 2.41, p < 0.05). This finding is evidence that the educational card game has potential to facilitate students' learning of how the immune system works. The implications and suggestions for future work are further discussed.

Central nervous system leukemia (CNSL) relapse is relatively common among Philadelphia chromosome‐positive (Ph+) leukemia patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo‐HSCT). The prognosis of patients is dismal for those with a BCR‐ABL T315I mutation, which is resistant to TKIs including second‐generation drugs. We assessed ponatinib for nine patients with recurrent Ph+ CNSL and a T315I mutation after allo‐HSCT, including five patients with Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia and four with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Five patients experienced isolated CNSL relapse, and four experienced CNSL with hematologic relapse. All patients received ponatinib combined with intrathecal chemotherapy, and four patients with hematologic relapse received systemic chemotherapy and/or donor lymphocyte infusion. All patients achieved a deep molecular response and central nervous system remission (CNSR) at a median time of 1.5 (range: 0.7–3) months after ponatinib treatment. Two patients experienced a second CNSL relapse due to ponatinib reduction, but they achieved CNSR again after an increase to the standard dosage. Six patients developed graft versus host disease. By April 1, 2019, eight patients were alive, and one died of pneumonia. The median time of survival after the first CNSL relapse posttransplantation was 18 (range: 11.2–48.5) months. Our data from a small number of samples suggests that ponatinib is effective for recurrent Ph+ CNSL patients with a BCR‐ABL T315I mutation after allo‐HSCT and warrants broader clinical evaluation. What's new? Central nervous system leukemia relapse is relatively common and has a dismal prognosis in patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive leukemia who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Here the authors report the successful treatment of this relapse using ponatinib, a potent third‐generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor. The treatment was combined with conventional therapy and was successful in tumors with a mutated BCR‐ABL oncoprotein (T315I), providing some hope for patients with this condition, despite a very small sample size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data assimilation is important for the spatial analysis of small regions with complex terrain and diverse climates and for interpolation among observations. A data assimilation method incorporating observations, coarse-grid re-analysis data and physiographical features is demonstrated to generate high-resolution temperature data for small islands such as Taiwan. The method is also able to weigh physiographic and anthropogenic factors. Among the spatial factors, the orographic effect is the dominating factor and the lapse rate varies seasonally. Population density is significantly related to temperature, which may correspond to the urban heat-island (UHI) effect. It is also shown that an anthropogenic factor could be used with this interpolation method to explain the details of the temperature variation. The data assimilation model provides an opportunity to assess the extent to which simple statistical regression equations, calibrated from natural variability, can reproduce climate changes driven by land effects without considering a complex climate model. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reveals that the environment temperature will affect the operating voltage and the image quality of ChLCD. The data demonstrate that with the decrease of temperature the operating voltage will be increased and we found that we can maintain the operating voltage by increase the addressing time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many different microRNAs existed in nephrotic syndrome patients, and they may be involved in nephrotic syndrome occurrence. In order to further clarify miRNAs expression changes in nephrotic syndrome patients and their correlation with clinical features, this study investigated differential microRNA expression in the peripheral serum of patients with nephrotic syndrome and analyzed the correlation between miRNA with largest overexpression level and clinical features. miRNAs microarray was applied to screen different expressed miRNAs in nephrotic syndrome patients. Real-time PCR was performed to verify miRNA expression level. SPSS software was used to analyze correlation between miRNA expression and clinical features. Compared with healthy subjects, 35 miRNAs overexpressed and 24 miRNAs down-regulated in patients. After real-time PCR verification, 6 miRNAs up-regulated in nephrotic syndrome patients, including hsa-miR-181a, hsa-miR-210, hsa-miR-30a, hsa-miR-942, hsa-miR-192 and hsa-miR-586. miRNA-30a significantly overexpressed in nephrotic syndrome patients and with no difference between genders. miRNA-30a expression level in drug resistant nephrotic syndrome patients was obviously higher than the drug sensitive patients. miRNA-30a up-regulated most significantly in mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis among different pathology types, while it decreased most obviously in glomerular lesions. miRNA differently expressed in the serum of nephrotic syndrome patients. miRNA-30a could be treated as the molecular marker in predict drug resistance and pathological type of nephrotic syndrome.

Objective: To investigate the effects of recombinant human interleukin 11 (rhIL-11) on hematological malignancy after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT)., Methods: A total of 48 patients with hematological malignancy from January 2006 to June 2010 were alternately enrolled into a prospective randomized study. And they were assigned into the control and rhIL-11 injection groups. Later the investigators compared two groups with regards to hematopoietic reconstitution, graft versus host disease (GVHD) classification, clinical recurrence rate and disease-free survival., Results: With the therapy of rhIL-11, the absolute neutrophil counts recovering to 0.5 × 10(9)/L and platelet recovering to 20 × 10(9)/L were (15.1 ± 1.6) and (18.2 ± 3.3) days respectively. And they were significantly lower than those in control group [(16.1 ± 1.6) vs (22.4 ± 5.5) days, P = 0.032, 0.003]. The incidence of acute GVHD was surprisingly low in the study group (26.1% vs 50.0%, P = 0.048). There was no significant difference in chronic GVHD (36.8% vs 38.9%, P = 0.899) or relapse rate (5.1% vs 7.7%, P = 0.662) between two groups during a median follow-up period of 11.7 months. A trend of improved 3-year-disease-free survival was observed in the study group (65.4% vs 50.9%, P = 0.637)., Conclusion: The application of rhIL-11 after allo-HSCT may accelerate both neutrophil and platelet engraftment and lower the occurrence of acute GVHD.

Objective: To study the epidemiology and etiologic characteristics of a Dengue fever outbreak in Fuzhou from the beginning of September to the end of October in 2004 in order to understand the source of infection., Methods: Data on descriptive epidemiology was collected to study the characteristics and related factors to the epidemic. Dengue virus was isolated through the use of C6/36 cell line while viral serotypes were identified by indirect immunofluorecent assay with type-specific monoclonal antibody. The sources of infection were traced by nucleotide sequencing., Results: During the epidemic, 93 cases occured consistently with the region entomoplily growth and decay. The viruses of 6 strains isolated from 10 patients' blood specimens were identified as dengue virus type 1. Phylogenetic evidence suggested that the viral isolate had high genetic relation with the isolates from Kampuchea (DENV-1/KHM/2001; GenBank Accession No. L0904278)., Conclusion: The epidemic was caused by introduction of patients migrating into Fuzhou.