HRMS screening of organophosphate flame retardants and poly-/perfluorinated substances in dust from cars and trucks: Occurrence and human exposure implications.

Time spent within vehicles' cabin has been largely increased during the last years. As a result, the assessment of indoor dust quality is meaningful since dust can be a source of numerous emerging contaminants associated with adverse effects in human health. To this end, fourteen cars and ten trucks from the city of Thessaloniki, Northern Greece were selected to assess the quality of vehicles' microenvironments. An HRMS-based strategy was deployed for the target and non-target analysis of the collected samples. The target approach aimed at the accurate mass screening of nine organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) and nine per-/polyfluorinated compounds (PFAS), revealing mean concentrations for the OPFRs varied from

PM10 prediction for brake wear of passenger car during different test driving cycles.

PM10 emissions generated from the brake wear of passenger car per braking event during three test driving cycles (WLTP, LACT, and WLTP-Brake) were studied using a finite element analysis (FEA) approach in combination with the relationship among the mass emitted rate of airborne particles versus local contact pressure and sliding speed. In addition, PM10 emissions were measured per braking event during the WLTP-Brake cycle on a brake dynamometer using an electrical low-pressure impactor (ELPI+) to validate the proposed FEA approach. The simulated and experimental results for WLTP-Brake illustrated that the proposed simulation approach has the potential to predict PM10 from brake wear per braking event, with an R2 value of 0.93. The FEA results of three test driving cycles showed that there was a gradient rise in pad wear on both sides from the inner to outer radii. The simulated PM10 emission factors during the WLTP, LACT, and WLTP-Brake were 7.9 mg km-1 veh-1, 9.8 mg km-1 veh-1, and 6.4 mg km-1 veh-1, respectively. Among three test driving cycles, the ratio of PM10 to total brake wear mass per braking event was the largest for the LACT, followed by WLTP and WLTP-Brake. From a practical application perspective, reducing the frequency of high-speed braking may be an effective way to decrease the generation of PM10 emissions.

Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles - A European in-depth study.

INTRODUCTION: The number of road fatalities have been falling throughout the European Union (EU) over the past 20 years and most Member States have achieved an overall reduction. Research has mainly focused on protecting car occupants, with car occupant fatalities reducing significantly. However, recently there has been a plateauing in fatalities amongst 'Vulnerable Road Users' (VRUs), and in 2016 accidents involving VRUs accounted for nearly half of all EU road deaths. METHOD: The SaferWheels study collected in-depth data on 500 accidents involving Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) and bicycles across six European countries. A standard in-depth accident investigation methodology was used by each team. The Driver Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM) was used to systematically classify accident causation factors. RESULTS: The most common causal factors related to errors in observation by the PTW/bicycle rider or the driver of the other vehicle, typically called 'looked but failed to see' accidents. Common scenarios involved the other vehicle turning or crossing in front of the PTW/bicycle. A quarter of serious or fatal injuries to PTW riders occurred in accidents where the rider lost control with no other vehicle involvement. CONCLUSIONS: Highly detailed data have been collected for 500 accidents involving PTWs or bicycles in the EU. These data can be further analyzed by researchers on a case-study basis to gain detailed insights on such accidents. Preliminary analysis suggests that 'looked but failed to see' remains a common cause, and in many cases the actions of the other vehicle were the critical factor, though PTW rider speed or inexperience played a role in some cases. Practical Applications: The collected data can be analyzed to better understand the characteristics and causes of accidents involving PTWs and bicycles in the EU. The results can be used to develop policies aimed at reducing road deaths and injuries to VRUs.

Skewing of the T-cell receptor repertoire in patients receiving rituximab after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation: what lies beneath?

Rituximab is known to affect T cell immune responses. We and others have reported expansions of T large granular lymphocytes (T-LGLs) in lymphoma patients after Rituximab. We report here the immunogenetic profiling of the T cell receptor (TR) gene repertoire in 14 patients who received Rituximab post allo-HCT and explore clinicobiological correlations. All experienced antigenic triggers, CMV, EBV re-activation and chronic GvHD and had been treated with Rituximab. Skewing of TRBV genes was observed: 3 TRBV genes accounted for half of the repertoire. Oligoclonal pattern with expanded clonotypes was common. Patients with oligoclonality exhibited frequently cGvHD. Longitudinal samples in one revealed distinct clonotypes, suggesting clonal drift. T-LGL leukemia of donor origin with mixed chimerism eventually developed. In conclusion, we report development of oligoclonal T-LGLs after Rituximab post allo-HCT, alluding to antigen selection. Persistence of this phenomenon likely reflects strong antigenic stimulation by viruses and/or cGVHD aggravated by Rituximab.

Development and On-Field Testing of Low-Cost Portable System for Monitoring PM2.5 Concentrations.

Recent developments in the field of low-cost sensors enable the design and implementation of compact, inexpensive and portable sensing units for air pollution monitoring with fine-detailed spatial and temporal resolution, in order to support applications of wider interest in the area of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). In this context, the present work advances the concept of developing a low-cost portable air pollution monitoring system (APMS) for measuring the concentrations of particulate matter (PM), in particular fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5). Specifically, this paper presents the on-field testing of the proposed low-cost APMS implementation using roadside measurements from a mobile laboratory equipped with a calibrated instrument as the basis of comparison and showcases its accuracy on characterizing the PM2.5 concentrations on 1 min resolution in an on-road trial. Moreover, it demonstrates the intended application of collecting fine-grained spatio-temporal PM2.5 profiles by mounting the developed APMS on an electric bike as a case study in the city of Mons, Belgium.

Quetiapine and clarithromycin-induced neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

We report a case of neuroleptic malignant syndrome possibly caused by the combined administration of quetiapine and clarithromycin in a 75-year-old male patient. He was receiving quetiapine regularly. Two days before his admission to the hospital, he had been feverish and started receiving clarithromycin without consulting a doctor. Clarithromycin administration was interrupted 3 days after his admission because it was ineffective and because his clinical state was deteriorating. The patient presented altered level of consciousness and excessive muscular rigidity on his limbs, while he remained feverish (38.7 °C). Laboratory abnormalities included elevated serum creatine phosphokinase level (5.387 U/L), leukocytosis, and low serum iron. The patient was diagnosed with neuroleptic malignant syndrome, and quetiapine was immediately discontinued. After the following days, his muscle rigidity and mental status ameliorated, his fever withdrew, and his laboratory findings improved. The various features of the case are discussed in view of the fact that the concomitant administration of cytochrome 3A4 inhibitors, such as clarithromycin, is suggested to cause an increase of plasma concentrations of quetiapine. Thus, physicians should have a high index of suspicion of the interactions of commonly administered medications.

Is naturalistic driving research possible with highly instrumented cars? Lessons learnt in three research centres.

This paper provides an overview of the experiences using Highly Instrumented Cars (HICs) in three research Centres across Europe; Spain, the UK and Greece. The data collection capability of each car is described and an overview presented relating to the relationship between the level of instrumentation and the research possible. A discussion then follows which considers the advantages and disadvantages of using HICs for ND research. This includes the obtrusive nature of the data collection equipment, the cost of equipping the vehicles with sophisticated Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) and the challenges for data storage and analysis particularly with respect to video data. It is concluded that the use of HICs substantially increases the depth of knowledge relating to the driver's behaviour and their interaction with the vehicle and surroundings. With careful study design and integration into larger studies with Low(ly) instrumented Cars (LICs), HICs can contribute significantly and in a relatively naturalistic manner to the driver behaviour research.

Efficient Markov Network Structure Discovery Using Independence Tests.

We present two algorithms for learning the structure of a Markov network from data: GSMN* and GSIMN. Both algorithms use statistical independence tests to infer the structure by successively constraining the set of structures consistent with the results of these tests. Until very recently, algorithms for structure learning were based on maximum likelihood estimation, which has been proved to be NP-hard for Markov networks due to the difficulty of estimating the parameters of the network, needed for the computation of the data likelihood. The independence-based approach does not require the computation of the likelihood, and thus both GSMN* and GSIMN can compute the structure efficiently (as shown in our experiments). GSMN* is an adaptation of the Grow-Shrink algorithm of Margaritis and Thrun for learning the structure of Bayesian networks. GSIMN extends GSMN* by additionally exploiting Pearl's well-known properties of the conditional independence relation to infer novel independences from known ones, thus avoiding the performance of statistical tests to estimate them. To accomplish this efficiently GSIMN uses the Triangle theorem, also introduced in this work, which is a simplified version of the set of Markov axioms. Experimental comparisons on artificial and real-world data sets show GSIMN can yield significant savings with respect to GSMN*, while generating a Markov network with comparable or in some cases improved quality. We also compare GSIMN to a forward-chaining implementation, called GSIMN-FCH, that produces all possible conditional independences resulting from repeatedly applying Pearl's theorems on the known conditional independence tests. The results of this comparison show that GSIMN, by the sole use of the Triangle theorem, is nearly optimal in terms of the set of independences tests that it infers.

Disruption of the ETV6 gene as a consequence of a rare translocation (12;12)(p13;q13) in treatment-induced acute myeloid leukemia after breast cancer.

We describe a case of treatment-induced acute myeloid leukemia M2 after breast cancer with a rare reciprocal t(12;12)(p13;q13) as a secondary cytogenetic abnormality in addition to the t(11;19)(q23;p13.1). Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis revealed that both ETV6 genes (previously TEL) were located on the same der(12)t(12;12) as a result of t(12;12). Interestingly, the translocated ETV6 gene was disrupted, indicating the breakpoint on the large der(12)t(12;12) to be within the ETV6 gene and thus the possible formation of a new fusion gene. CHOP gene at 12q13, was found to be translocated intact to the other homologue chromosome 12, indicating that the breakpoint on the small der(12) is proximal to CHOP. To the best of our knowledge, our patient represents the first report of the rare t(12;12)(p13;q13) described in treatment-induced leukemia and the possible formation of a new fusion gene.

Prediction of protein secondary structure by mining structural fragment database.

A new method for predicting protein secondary structure from amino acid sequence has been developed. The method is based on multiple sequence alignment of the query sequence with all other sequences with known structure from the protein data bank (PDB) by using BLAST. The fragments of the alignments belonging to proteins from the PBD are then used for further analysis. We have studied various schemes of assigning weights for matching segments and calculated normalized scores to predict one of the three secondary structures: α-helix, ß-sheet, or coil. We applied several artificial intelligence techniques: decision trees (DT), neural networks (NN) and support vector machines (SVM) to improve the accuracy of predictions and found that SVM gave the best performance. Preliminary data show that combining the fragment mining approach with GOR V (Kloczkowski et al, Proteins 49 (2002) 154-166) for regions of low sequence similarity improves the prediction accuracy.

Amifostine stimulates the formation of hematopoietic bone marrow progenitors from B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Amifostine is a phosphorylated aminothiol that not only protects hematopoietic progenitor cells from chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but also stimulates normal hematopoiesis. The effect of amifostine on the in vitro growth of hematopoietic progenitors derived from B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia(B-CLL) was investigated. The colony-forming units (CFU)-granulocyte macrophage (CFU-GM), the burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-E) and the CFU-granulocyte erythroid macrophage megakaryocytes (CFU-GEMM) increased 38, 20 and 100%, respectively, after the incubation with amifostine. There was no statistical difference in the in vitro progenitor growth of patients grouped according to their disease stage, bone marrow lymphocytic infiltration or therapy. Our data indicate that apart from cytoprotection the parallel use of amifostine and chemotherapy in patients with B-CLL could enhance bone marrow recovery.

Splenectomy for massive splenic infarction unmasks paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare disorder characterized by pancytopenia, hemolysis, and thrombosis. Abdominal vein thrombosis is a life-threatening manifestation of this disease. We present a patient with complete spleen necrosis due to thrombosis of the splenic vessels. After splenectomy, other causes of thrombophilia were excluded and the diagnosis of PNH was established. The patient was put on anticoagulation but despite the prophylactic international normalized ratio maintained over the last 18 months of follow-up, he had another episode of intrahepatic thrombosis which was treated with tissue plasminogen activator thrombolysis.