Objective
The aim of this study was to review clinical outcomes and prognosis of paediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) with TCF3‐PBX1 rearrangement.
Patients
All children in ...Hong Kong diagnosed with ALL with TCF3‐PBX1 rearrangement over the past two decades were included.
Methods
Six hundred and twenty‐four newly diagnosed patients with ALL from four consecutive studies were enrolled from 1997 to 2016. Patients carrying TCF3‐PBX1 rearrangement and patients at intermediate risk without the gene expression were compared for clinical characteristics, overall survival and event‐free survival (EFS).
Results
The TCF3‐PBX1 rearrangement was detected in 30 of 624 patients (4.8%). Results were consistent across the consecutive clinical trials employed in the past two decades. Compared with 239 intermediate risk patients without TCF3‐PBX1 rearrangement, the 5‐year overall survival and EFS for patients with TCF3‐PBX1 rearrangement was superior, with both at 100% (P = 0.12 and P = 0.029).
Conclusion
This population‐based study over the past 20 years demonstrated that patients with TCF3‐PBX1 rearrangement had favourable EFS compared with other intermediate risk patients treated with a similar chemotherapy backbone.
We report a 16-year-old girl who was diagnosed with acute leukaemia and a marked leucocytosis >200 × 10
9
/L. She presented with marked hypophosphatemia, hypokalemia, acute renal failure and acute ...respiratory failure. These electrolytes disturbances may indicate rapid tumour genesis. These ominous findings required urgent treatment to halt the crises of rapid leukemic cell proliferation.
Conclusion
: Mark hypophosphatemia and hypokalemia may be presenting electrolyte abnormalities in a patient with acute leukaemia, and these may be indicators of aggressive tumour genesis.
What is known:
•
Mild electrolyte disturbances are common in oncology patients
•
Tumour lysis syndrome is well recognized by paediatriaticians
What is new:
•
Life-threatening hypophosphatemia is an uncommon presentation
•
These electrolytes disorders may indicate an aggressive tumour genesis process even at presentation and require urgent treatment.
Dongsha Island has Taiwan¡¦s only well developed and integrated coral atoll ecosystem. The numbers of fish species and coral varieties in its waters have topped 679 and 286 respectively, which ...illustrates its biodiversity and wealth of fishery resources; therefore, it has drawn plenty of Chinese fishing boats to illegally enter into the area for fishing. Over the years, the fishery resources and terrain ecology of the Dongsha Island have been damaged as a result of illegal fishing. On the other hand, even though Taiwan¡¦s Coast Guard Administration in charge of patrolling the waters of the Dongsha Marine National Park, due to the vast sea area and varying depths of the atoll, the effect of the law enforcement on the vessels is limited, and cannot provide effective deterrence. By using existing information technology to gain knowledge on the distribution of the Chinese fishing boats, this study proposes to make the most of the limited law enforcement capacity to enhance the efficiency of law enforcement.With the coastal radar station established by Taiwan¡¦s Coast Guard Administration in 2003, this study scanned the waters around the clock and digitally journalized the data regarding times and locations of the voyages of the fishing boats, to further explore the time and space distribution of the Chinese fishing boats at the Dongsha atoll. Based on the annual, quarterly, monthly, day to night and tidal periods, five periods in total, this study used the Geographic Information System (GIS) to map out the distribution of the Chinese fishing boats, and probed into the distribution patterns in different times and spaces. The results will provide a scientific reference for law enforcement; it is hoped that the law will be effectively enforced and the ecological environment will be well preserved under limited resources.The study results indicate that the Chinese fishing boats operating at the Dongsha atoll are mainly small boats; a large boat can carry 10 to 30 small boats. Furthermore, the fishery catches are mainly live fish, sea cucumbers and conches, and are mostly carried back to the port by transport vessels for sale. The Chinese fishing boats often gather at two hot spots of the south atoll platform and the north atoll platform. In terms of the distribution of seasonal gathering, the study found that most of the Chinese fishing boats return home for the Chinese New Year holiday, the gathering density is higher during full moon periods and the gathering may slightly move towards the north when affected by the southwest monsoon. These results can serve as an important reference for Dongsha Marine National Park¡¦s resource management and Coast Guard Administration¡¦s sea area law enforcement.
AbstractTaiwan is an island country, the topography of the adjacent territorial waters is diversified, multiple ocean currents converge here and there are rich basic production capabilities, all of ...which give birth to various marine organisms in Taiwan and help to form the favorable conditions for Taiwan to develop its offshore fishery. However, due to the lack of control of the production capabilities of offshore waters in the last few decades, plus the constant upgrading of fishing techniques and methods, as well as the lack of effective management, the fishery resources have been greatly impacted and the total fishery production continues to decline. Fishery resource management needs correct fishing location, fishing effort and catch totals as the scientific basis for fish stock assessment, in order to achieve effective management targets. The greatest problem for the offshore waters of Taiwan is that we could not obtain detailed information on the fishing location, operation time (fishing effort) and catch totals. At present, the above data were all obtained through investigations or by interviewing with captains to fill in report forms. However, out of fear of disclosing trade secrets and owing to omissions, the obtained data could not help in revealing the real fishery resource situation.The Coast Guard Administration of the Executive Yuan integrally established a coast radar system along the coast of Taiwan, which monitors all ships within the scanning area through 24-hour uninterrupted scanning, and digitally records the navigation data on ships. The data contains time, ship number, speed, course, latitude and longitude (location); by sorting out these data, we could discern the actual fishing location of the fishing boats.The objective of this study was to utilize the data collected by the coast radar system to determine the fishing location of the fishing boats, acquire the port entry and exit data of the fishing boats through the security examination system, work out the fishing effort, and by collecting the catch and sales data from five fishery harbors, derive the respective total amount of the 10 main fish species caught, in order to investigate the fishery dynamics of Southern Taiwan sea.Research results show that by applying the coast radar system along with the use of port entry and exit data on the fishing boats recorded in the security examination system, as well as the catch and sales data of the fishing boats, and through comparison of the above data, we could obtain proper estimations of fishing effort and fishing location of the fishing boats, as well as the catch per unit effort (CPUE) and the distribution of species composition.Keywords: coast radar, Tainan coastal and offshore fisheries, fishing effort, fishing location¡Acatch per unit effort
As one of the major preys of many important economic fish species such as swordfish and dolphinfish in waters off estern Taiwan, flyingfish belongs to low-end consumers in the food chain with the ...function of maintaining the stability of the Kuroshio marine ecosystem. Hirundichthys oxycephalus is the primary component of flyingfish-egg fishery captures in the northeastern waters of Taiwan, and is also one of the dominant species of flyingfish in eastern waters of Taiwan. However, the significant drop of the flyingfish and flyingfish-egg catch from 2006 to 2007 and the effects on ecosystem and fishery caused major concern from the fishery sector and academic field. In order to manage this marine resource effectively, the phylogenetic relationships and population structure needed to be characterized first.In this study, the phylogenetic relationships of Hirundichthys oxycephalus of Northwestern Pacific was characterized based on the mitochondrial COI fragment. Totally 55 samples were collected between July, 2008 and November, 2010 in waters of Keelung, Ilan, Hualian, and Green Island. In addition, 12 more samples were obtained in Sebtember, 2009 from Tanegashima Island, and Yakushima Island of Japan. The DNA sequencing results of samples from Taiwan showed a total number of 29 haplotypes. The length of partial COI sequence was found to be 657 bp while the mean genetic distance was found to be 0.6%. In phylogenetic analyses, two major groups were identified in the phylogenetic trees by neighbor-joining and maximum-likelihood methods. The majority of "Keelung inshore group" came from Keelung and Ilan waters. The main population of "Kuroshio group" came from Green Island. The variation between two groups was found to be 61.75% by amova. The DNA sequencing results of samples from Japan showed a total number of 8 haplotypes. The length of partial COI sequences was found to be 657 bp with a mean genetic distance of 0.53%. In the phylogenetic tree, the samples from Japan were found to belong to "Kuroshio group". The variation between the two major groups was found to be 60% by amova. It was inferred that the differentiation of flyingfish into the two major groups in Taiwan was due to the flow pattern difference of Kuroshio in northeast waters of Taiwan. It was also inferred that phylogenetic similarity of the samples from Japan and the Kuroshio group was due to the distribution of both groups locating on the same path of the main current of Kuroshio.
The International Maritime Organization(IMO) has adopted a draft of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto ...and by the Protocol of 1997(termed as MARPOL 73/78/97)since September 1997, amended the Convention and added a new Annex VI which regulates gas pollution emitted from ships, the latest Annex came into effect after the MARPOL convention. This study aims to discuss the effect of the Annex VI Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships after it was implemented on 19 May 2005 and the growth and decline status of pollution by document analysis and quantitative analysis methods.This study find that there were different concern positions from each PSC region, the enforcement state of Europe, Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions were better than Black Sea, west and central Africa, Latin America and Caribbean regions. The statistical show that sulfur oxides decreased notably, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxides decreased slowly by UNFCCC web; in addition, some countries did not submit their gas inventory, including developed countries: Canada, United States of America, Japan, Luxembourg and Netherlands et al. The quantitative analyses show that some countries has decreased or slow down the ship-source gas pollution with countries¡¦ economy developed, including Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Japan, Australia and United States of America et al.
Flyingfish has significant meaning on three different dimensions: ecology, culture and fisheries at Kuroshio off Taiwan. However, the figures of catch dropped nearly 60% in 2006-2007, which has led ...scientist to pay more attention on the sustainability of resources for the species. On the other hand, with little knowledge of reproductive biology and life history of the species, it is difficult to change the situation. Reproductive biology is an important basic study, which is to discover the life history of a species ,also it assesses changes in their resources and reproductive potential. Cypselurus poecilopterus is the most important dominant species in Kuroshio waters of Taiwan, and also an economical species. The reproductive biological study of Cypselurus poecilopterus would be great benefit on further studies. This study performed from April 2008 to June 2010, sampling from diverse areas, Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Ilan and Ludao, collected total 2174 individuals, including 1756 males, 418 females and 7 were unable to identify. Fork length (FL) range from 15.2cm ~ 22.1cm. All samples were measured by the total length (TL), fork length (FL), body weight (BW) and other data, and the gonadal histological examination, and the female sex ratio, gonadosomatic index (GSI), condition factor (CF). The results shows that only 5% of female with fork length less than 18.5cm, while more than 80% with more than 20.5cm; via gonadal histological examination, the occyte development can be divided into chromatin-nucleolus stage, peri- nucleolus stage, yolk stage, migratory nucleus stage and ripe egg stage, five stages. When female GSI is greater than 4, it reaches matured, and the fork length of the smallest matured individual is 16.3cm, average length at 50% sexual maturity was estimated to be 18.6 cm FL for female; the annual reproductive period is April to August, and the monthly female sex ratio seems like would be raise with the closing of reproductive period. Fecundity is about 13000 ~ 36000; Cypselurus poecilopterus is estimated to be simultaneous mature species by the gonadal histological examination and egg diameter measurements.
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