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This study aimed to analyze the use of the revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R) assessed after hypomethylating treatment (HMT) for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) undergoing an allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). Among 115 patients who received pre-SCT HMT, comparison analysis of the prognostic values between the IPSS-R at the time of HMT (IPSS-R@HMT) and at the time of SCT after HMT (IPSS-R@SCT) showed a significantly higher predictive power for overall survival (OS) of the latter. Alteration in IPSS-R risk occurred in 60%, while the patients with 'down-staged' IPSS-R@SCT showed better OS compared with those with 'unchanged' or 'up-staged' risk. On multivariate analysis in all 201 patients, IPSS-R@SCT, monosomal karyotype, treatment failure to pre-SCT treatment, and high hematopoietic cell transplantation-comorbidity index were independently associated with OS. Constructed using these factors, the MDS Transplantation Prognostic Scoring System (MTPSS) identified four risk groups with 4-year OS of 76.4% in low, 61.4% in intermediate-1 and 21.9% in intermediate-2 risk groups, whereas all in the high risk group died within 2 years after SCT (P

Background This study explored the impact of genetic polymorphisms in cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes and transporters on the plasma trough concentration of imatinib mesylate (IM) and clinical response in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Patients and methods In total, 82 patients with CML who had been administered 400 mg IM daily for over 6 months were genotyped for 11 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in nine genes (CYP3A4, CYP3A5, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, ABCB1, SLC22A1, SLC22A2 and ABCG2) using blood samples. The trough imatinib concentration and clinical responses were assessed 6 months after the initiation of IM therapy. Results The CC, CA and AA genotypes in ABCG2 421C>A gave significantly different frequencies for the major molecular response (MMR) (P = 0.02). However, no significant differences were found between the genotypes of the CYP enzymes and transporters identified in this study and the imatinib plasma trough concentrations and clinical response frequencies, except for the correlation of ABCG2 with MMR. Conclusions The results of the present study may indicate that the ABCG 421C>A genetic polymorphism influences the MMR of imatinib in patients with CML.

In this paper, a new framework of a two loop disturbance rejection control and its design methodology are proposed. The framework consists of a robust internal-loop compensator (RIC) to eliminate disturbances and an external-loop controller to achieve nominal control performance. As the main contribution of this paper, we define the design problem of the RIC as a regulation control problem, then show that this new definition with the RIC structure provides more design flexibility and less implementation constraints, which allows us to design the RIC aggressively against a specific disturbance. This is verified through a comparative structural analysis with a disturbance observer (DOB) and an adaptive robust control (ARC). Two design examples of the RIC are given, along with practical issues that should be considered in the design procedure. The proposed framework is demonstrated by simulations and experiments.

INTRODUCTION: Intracranial subdural empyema (ISDE) is a life-threatening intracranial infection. Early and precise detection, timely surgery, and appropriate antibiotic therapy are the keys to a more favorable clinical outcome. Treatment is aimed at complete evacuation of the empyema and eradication of the source of infection. However, in the case of elderly patients or patients with poor health, doctors hesitate to perform open cranial surgery under general anesthesia; thus, the choice of appropriate surgical method is fraught with many limitations. CASE REPORT: We present a case of ISDE in a 92-year-old woman who was successfully treated with continuous irrigation of the subdural space with antibiotics and drainage through 2 burr holes for 1 week without any complications. CONCLUSION: Continuous subdural irrigation is useful for the evacuation of pus and eradication of the source of infection, thereby resulting in a favorable outcome, especially in elderly patients and patients with poor health.

The ITER coil power supplies provide controlled DC current to charge and stabilize the current in a toroidal field (TF) coil, and to establish and control the currents in a central solenoid (CS) module, poloidal field (PF) coils, and correction coils (CC) for the position and shape control of plasma. They consist of different types of AC/DC converters to meet the various operating requirements. The controller design for ITER AC/DC converters is based on the plant control design handbook as an ITER design guideline. There are basically three networks such as CODAC (COntrol, Data Access and Communication) network, central interlock network, central safety network for ITER instrumentation and control. Korean Domestic Agency has been being performing converter R&D to establish the technical basis for the procurement package of ITER AC/DC converter. The R&D on converter controller is under progress to implement a real time control and monitoring, interlock for equipment protection and emergency shutdown, personnel safety. The dynamic control algorithm to realize a fast response with high fidelity, high speed real time control, communication hardware and configuration are key issues. ITER converters are simulated by small-scaled test bed for AC/DC converters controlled by a CODAC simulator using a cPCI (compactPCI), a fast controller using a cPCI, a Plant System Host and a Siemens S7-300 PLC. The small-scaled test bed has an embedded controller based on digital signal processing and field-programmable gate array technology. This paper shows the detail description of the test bed and test results of the real time control and monitoring, sequential control, circulating current mode, etc.

This paper proposes a novel echo canceller, which alleviates deterioration of speech quality under double-talk conditions. We show usefulness of the echo canceller in terms of no-clipping and convergence under weak near-end talk speech signals through computer simulations.

When Small-Ear-Miniature pigs subcutaneously injected once with frozen oncospheres of Taiwan Taenia, Korea Taenia, T. saginata or T. solium emulsified with Freund's complete adjuvant (1.6 x 10(4)/0.4 ml) were challenged orally with 1.6 x 10(4) viable eggs of Taiwan Taenia 41 days later, they all showed strong resistance compared with pigs vaccinated with T. solium. Most pigs (5/8) of the former 3 groups harboured no cysticerci. The number of cysticerci was 5.5 +/- 9.1 (mean +/- S.D.), whereas pigs of the T. solium group and control group harboured 160 +/- 30.1 and 661 +/- 637.2 cysticerci, respectively. All cysticerci recovered from vaccinated pigs and most cysticerci in control pigs were degenerated or calcified at 36-55 days after oral egg challenge. These results strongly suggest that oncospheres of Taiwan Taenia and Korea Taenia are very similar to T. saginata in their immunogenicity in pigs.