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A 76-year-old man presented with skin plaque and splenic nodules, and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with infiltration of T-cells was suspected based on the skin lesions. The disease showed indolent clinical behavior for three months, when systemic lymphadenopathy rapidly evolved. An inguinal lymph node biopsy revealed DLBCL with abundant infiltration of T follicular helper (TFH) cells. A polymerase chain reaction-based analysis of immunoglobulin variable heavy chain showed that the skin, splenic nodules, and inguinal lymph node shared the same clone. This case indicates that the dysregulated infiltration of TFH cells in the tumor microenvironment accelerates the lymphomagenesis and progression of DLBCL.

Recently, allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation from human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-haploidentical donors using post-transplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCY-haploPBSCT) has become available in clinical practice. However, the efficacy of PTCY in adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is not fully established yet. In this study, we retrospectively examined data of seven patients who underwent PTCY-haploPBSCT. The overall survival rate at 100 days after transplantation was 85.7%, and the 1-year overall survival rate was 68.6%. The cumulative incidence of relapse at 1 year was 31.4%, whereas the 1-year nonrelapse mortality was 17.1%. The cumulative incidence of grade III-IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) on day 100 was 14.3%, and the incidence of chronic GVHD at 1 year was 33.3%. These results suggest that PTCY-haploPBSCT can be a viable option even in patients with ATL. Further accumulation of knowledge and improvement of transplantation outcomes are warranted in the future.

Patients with myelodysplastic syndrome/myeloproliferative neoplasm (MDS/MPN) are often asymptomatic and thus can remain undiagnosed until they become symptomatic due to progression to the accelerated phase (AP) or transformation to acute leukemia (leukemic transformation; LT). We herein report the case of a previously healthy 38-year-old man who had hyperleukocytosis with dysplastic myeloid precursor cells and severe disseminated intravascular coagulation. Hematopoietic recovery with features of atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (aCML) after induction chemotherapy was a diagnostic clue. Although rare, this case highlights the limitation of the diagnostic approach for aCML with AP or LT at the initial presentation.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is one of the greatest health concerns worldwide. Safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines are urgently needed and have been rapidly approved. COVID-19 vaccine-induced thrombocytopenia was reported as a rare adverse effect in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. A 25-year-old woman, who was previously diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP, stage I), had exacerbated severe thrombocytopenia (platelet count of 6,000/μL) with a headache, joint pain, general fatigue, and bleeding tendency three days after receiving her second dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Pulsed high-dose dexamethasone therapy rapidly ameliorated the ITP. Although it is difficult to confirm a causal association between Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination and ITP exacerbation, abrupt onset of ITP exacerbation after vaccination suggests that the ITP may be vaccination-induced thrombocytopenia exacerbation. Rare but severe adverse events such as ITP may be observed, depending on increased numbers of individuals who receive COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. Further investigation is needed to clarify the mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccine-induced ITP.

We compare the evolution of the mobile phone and electric two-wheeler sectors in China. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Chinese firms have used technologies bundled into platforms to meet the needs of low-income Chinese consumers. The possibilities of downstream innovation opened up by platforms were not pursued. This paper shows how changes in Chinese consumer demand led to pressures for greater product differentiation and innovation, and how businesses responded to this through investing in research and development, developing their value chain linkages and mobilising local and national innovation resources. We highlight sectoral differences, particularly with respect to the speed of technological change in the mobile phone industry and its consequences for value chain linkages and inter-firm learning.

In this paper, weighted norm inequalities for multilinear Fourier multipliers with Besov regularity are discussed. As a result, we obtain a limiting case of Hörmander type multiplier theorem for multilinear operators.

Cisplatin (CDDP)-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) is a major clinical concern. CDDP treatment is generally conducted with multiple cycles; the magnitude of the CDDP-induced AKI may be altered by these cycles. Moreover, sub-chronic kidney injury (sCKI) induced by repeated CDDP treatment is often associated with renal interstitial fibrosis, potentially leading to chronic kidney disease. Therefore, it is suggested that the management of not only AKI but also sCKI induced by CDDP in multiple cycles plays an important role in the outcome of CDDP-based chemotherapy. This study investigated the alteration in pharmacokinetics and toxicodynamics of CDDP that was repeatedly administered for three cycles in rats; a cycle consisted of CDDP (5.0 mg/kg, bolus injection) followed by a 21-d washout period. AKI and sCKI were evaluated by plasma creatinine concentration. In repeated multiple administration of CDDP, renal clearance was decreased and the amounts of accumulated Pt in kidneys increased by the cycle. AKI and sCKI were similarly exacerbated by the cycle, whereas the degree of AKI showed a large inter- and intra-individual variation in each cycle. However, the degree of sCKI constantly increased (creatinine increasing ratio in any cycle is about 150%), suggesting that the degree of sCKI in any given cycle was predictable by monitoring the initial creatinine baseline. In this study, therefore, it is suggested that the evaluation of sCKI by monitoring creatinine concentration at base is important for the estimation of CDDP-induced nephrotoxicity. These results may provide useful information for more effective and safe CDDP-based chemotherapy with evidence-based dose adjustment.

This chapter examines the progress of Vietnam’s industrial development, which is vital for the country’s sustained economic growth. The analysis of the manufacturing sector as a whole and firm-level case studies find a stark gap between strategies and realities. Despite varieties of policy interventions made, actual transformation of industries has been driven largely by market forces. This market-led mechanism has worked relatively well in developing labour-intensive industries. However, Vietnam’s endeavours toward the next stage of industrial development likely require a more targeted approach for channelling available resources and coordinating different players. To this end, Vietnam should make effective use of international economic integration to deal with key obstacles to reforms, which are deeply embedded in its political economy structure.

Despite being one of the latecomers among the Asian countries in launching the development of an automotive industry, Vietnam has experienced rapid growth in its motorcycle industry and a gradual accumulation of its domestic component supply base since the late 1990s. Based on an analysis of major learning milestones experienced by local component suppliers, this paper seeks to provide detailed first-hand accounts of how local firms exploited the emerging sectoral system of production and innovation for the acquisition of new capabilities, and how the sectoral system transformed itself in the course of industrial development.

This article focuses on how sectoral systems of innovation and production in the same industry but across countries may evolve differently after facing similar threats and opportunities caused by the same external factor. To elaborate on this, we will use the case of evolution of the automotive sectors in Thailand and Vietnam, and their dynamics and transformation when they are facing threats and opportunities from their fierce competitor, China. The findings illustrate that different sectoral systems of innovation and production evolve differently. The direction and the pace of evolution depends very much on existing absorptive capabilities of agents, strength of their linkages, and their process of collective learning to withstand the threats and exploit opportunities.

During the screening of compounds that potentiate the effect of antimicrobial agents against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA), we found that an extract of thyme (Thymus vulgaris L) leaves greatly reduced the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of tetracycline against MRSA. We isolated the effective compound and identified it as baicalein (5, 6, 7-trihydroxyflavone). One of the clinically isolated MRSA strains possessed tetK, a gene encoding active efflux pump for tetracycline. We examined the effect of baicalein on the efflux of tetracycline, using Escherichia coli KAM32/pTZ1252 carrying the tetK. The E. coli KAM32/pTZ1252 showed 8 to 16 times higher MIC than E. coli KAM32. We observed strong inhibition of transport of tetracycline by baicalein with membrane vesicles prepared from E. coli KAM32/pTZ1252. Baicalein also showed synergy with tetracycline in a MRSA strain that doesn't possess tetK, or with beta-lactams. Thus, mechanisms of the synergies seem to be versatile.

The problem whether weighted estimates for multilinear Fourier multipliers with Sobolev regularity hold under weak condition on weights is considered., 9 pages

In the late 1990s, the Vietnamese motorcycle industry faced the typical problems of an import-substituting industry. A limited number of foreign manufacturers producing high-priced, sophisticated products virtually monopolized a small market behind high tariff walls. In less than a decade, however, the industry emerged as the fourth largest in the world only after China, India, and Indonesia (Fujita 2011). The industry has been known as the only import-substituting industry in Vietnam that has successfully achieved high levels of product quality and international competitiveness (Ohno 2005: 47). It is also a success in the sense that some motorcycle manufacturers achieved local content ratios as high as 90% (The Motorbike Joint Working Group 2007: 49–50).

In order to understand the evolution of the Vietnamese motorcycle industry, it is essential to grasp the contrasting features of the Japanese and Chinese motorcycle industries. Japanese lead firms developed long-term and exclusive ties with a small number of fixed suppliers in order to develop lead firm proprietary models and manufacture them to high quality standards, while Chinese lead firms made extensive use of market forces in managing their linkages with a large number of suppliers to achieve price-based competitiveness in producing copies or slightly modified versions of popular Japanese models. Vietnam was the first place outside of China where the two groups of lead firms fought for supremacy. The rapid transformation and development of the Vietnamese motorcycle industry has been driven primarily by the competition between Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, which sought to replicate the conventional Japanese sourcing practices, and local Vietnamese assemblers, which essentially followed the Chinese way of exploiting market forces for producing low-priced copies of Japanese models.

In an attempt to illuminate how the two original learning models identified in the previous chapter changed over time, this chapter conducts an in-depth analysis of selected suppliers. The results show that, by 2008, the Japanese learning model was transformed into two distinct variants, while the Vietnamese–Chinese learning model underwent an important transformation. The changes in learning models were vital to explaining the divergence of learning performance across suppliers in their respective value chains. The analysis corroborates the argument that in analysing the sources of learning, it is essential to ensure a balanced focus on the roles played by both the lead firm and its suppliers rather than merely emphasising the unilateral actions of either party.

The empirical analysis of the roles of the key actors in supplier learning reveals that two contrasting patterns of actor constellations and modes of actor involvement emerged by the early 2000s. On one hand, the Japanese model of supplier learning combined active lead firm interventions and supplier mobilisation of internal learning sources in accordance with lead firm requirements. On the other hand, the Vietnamese–Chinese learning model was based primarily on the supplier’s own initiative in the mobilisation of internal sources of knowledge.

The Vietnamese motorcycle industry has experienced remarkable growth since the mid-1990s. Being a latecomer to the motorcycle industry in the Asian region, motorcycle production in Vietnam started in the mid-1990s with a very small market, heavy protection, and a nascent local supply base. The few Japanese firms with local production manufactured high-quality, expensive models that relied on imported components and were beyond the reach of ordinary Vietnamese customers. However, in less than ten years the country emerged as the world’s fourth largest market for and producer of motorcycles after China, India, and Indonesia.1 This remarkable transformation was triggered by the arrival of Chinese models that were assembled by local Vietnamese firms, often with the assistance of Chinese firms. Fierce competition between the Japanese industry leaders and local assemblers of Chinese motorcycles led to lower prices, increased local content, and rapid expansion of the market (The Motorbike Joint Working Group 2007; Fujita 2008).

After almost two decades of rapid growth, the Vietnamese economy entered a new phase characterized by slower growth and macroeconomic instability. In view of the major challenges faced by the country in progressing toward the next stage of development, Tran (2013) provides a concise and informative analysis of the recent macroeconomic instability and its sources, focusing on two major issues: inefficiencies of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) associated with the gradualist transition strategy, and the resultant inability of the Vietnamese economy to cope with the rise of China. In what follows, I would like try to explore a little more on the background of the two issues, discuss their wider implications, and suggest areas where further research may be worthwhile. On SOE reforms, Vietnam’s experience over the past two decades would provide critical insights into the advantages and disadvantages of the gradualist approach.Within the “big bang versus gradualist” debate in the early 1990s, the proponents of gradualism argued that the evolutionary and experimental approach to SOE reform would make it possible to improve the performance of SOEs without sacrificing stability. The positive effects of initial reforms in Vietnam on the performance of SOEs notwithstanding, the country’s recent experience with what Tran (2013) refers to as“state conglomerates”suggests the danger that the gradualist approach might eventually push the reform process into a deadlock. Vietnam’s attempts at establishing state-owned business groups called “general corporations” started in the mid-1990s to drive the country’s industrialization and modernization. From 2006 onward, some of the general corporations were converted into diversified conglomerates formally referred to as “state economic groups.” They account for a dominant position in the Vietnamese economy because of growing

This book examines in detail the features and dynamics of sectoral systems of innovation and production in developing countries. Processes of rapid growth are usually associated with specific sectors such as automobiles, electronics or software, as well as with the transformation of traditional sectors such as agriculture and food. The book shows, however, that the variations across all these sectors in terms of structure and dynamics is so great that a full understanding of these differences is necessary if innovation is to be encouraged and growth sustained.

This book examines in detail the features and dynamics of sectoral systems of innovation and production in developing countries. Processes of rapid growth are usually associated with specific sectors such as automobiles, electronics or software, as well as with the transformation of traditional sectors such as agriculture and food. The book shows, however, that the variations across all these sectors in terms of structure and dynamics is so great that a full understanding of these differences is necessary if innovation is to be encouraged and growth sustained.