Conference on the Matter of Pollution of the Navigable Waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Their Tributaries and Estuaries. 2d, Seattle, Sept. 6-7, and Oct. 6, 1967: Proceedings.

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Conference on the Matter of Pollution of the Navigable Waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Their Tributaries and Estuaries. 2d, Seattle, Sept. 6-7, and Oct. 6, 1967: Proceedings.

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Notas sôbre Tabânidas brasileiros: I. Fidena longipalpis Enderlein, 1925

The male of Fidena longipalpis End., 1925 is described, and femme femme that were referred to Pangonia incisuralis Macq., 1847 by Lutz in 1909 are now identified as belonging to Enderlein's species. It is emphasised that in his addenda to Macquart's description Lutz gave a characterization which though short is diagnostic for F. longipalpis.

Millora de la rendibilitat del perer (cv. Conference) mitjançant la intensificació del conreu

Tot i que el sistemes de plantació d’alta densitat en pomera i perera s’han desenvolupat considerablement en altres països, en l’àmbit de Catalunya i més concretament a la zona fruitera de Lleida, no es disposa de cap referència del seu comportament, cosa què no coincideix amb l’interès creixent del sector productor pel conreu de la perera i per la millora de la seva rendibilitat. Amb aquesta experiència es pretén cobrir el buit d’informació que hi ha referent a la tecnologia de producció de la perera i específicament pel que fa referència a la utilització de plantacions intensives o d’alta densitat de plantació amb portaempelts nanisants. L’objectiu de l’assaig és avaluar diferents sistemes de plantació que permetin incrementar la rendibilitat del conreu de la perera, millorant el balanç econòmic ingressos/despeses, mitjançant la intensificació del conreu que ha de permetre una major rapidesa d’entrada en producció i una disminució del costos de producció, però no d’implantació. Per això, s’avaluaran 5 densitats de plantació, una de les quals és el Fus que s’ha elegit com a testimoni de referència, ja que és utilitzat habitualment a la zona. Es descriu a continuació la metodologia utilitzada i s’exposen els resultats obtinguts l’any 2000, que correspon al segon verd i que fan referència principalment als costos de plantació, costos de ma d’obra, produccions i paràmetres de qualitat dels fruits.

Estratègies per a l'increment del Russeting en pera Conference

La qualitat del fruit és un concepte multidisciplinari i complex de determinar amb claredat i precisió degut a que intervenen factors lligats a la varietat, al mercat, al consumidor final o factors de seguretat agroalimentària. En el cas de poma Golden, la fruita de primera categoria està definida per criteris com calibre de més de 70 mm i sense russeting, malgrat això hi ha mercats del nord d’Espanya que aprecien més la presencia de russeting. Un altre exemple seria el cas de préssec o nectarina, es considera com a criteri de qualitat la coloració homogènia i vermella-fosca, però al mercat nacional s’aprecien els calibres grans, mentre que certs mercats europeus prefereixen els calibres més petits. En el cas de pera Conference hi ha una sèrie de criteris que la seva importància ve condicionada pel mercat o pel consumidor, com són el calibre, la forma, el color de la pell o el russeting. De tots aquests factors, probablement la presencia de russeting sigui un dels criteris que està més estès en la majoria dels mercats o consumidors que coneixen la pera Conference, la qual cosa implica la necessitat de produir Conference amb russeting. Des del punt de vista comercial el russeting presenta una altre avantatge com es una major rusticitat de la pell, la qual cosa redueix els problemes de manipulació i les pèrdues degudes a l’escaldat que apareix quan la fruita està a l’expositor dels supermercats. El russeting és una alteració de l’epidermis dels fruits, degut a la cicatrització de petites lesions que es produeixen a les primeres etapes de la formació dels fruits. L’aparició s’afavoreix per humitats altes i temperatures baixes durant les primeres setmanes posteriors a la floració. Els anys que no es donen aquestes condicions es fa necessari realitzar tractaments amb productes que afavoreixen l’aparició del russeting. L’objectiu d’aquest estudi es determinar quines son els productes i el calendari d’aplicació més eficaces per afavorir l’aparició de russeting en pera Conference, així com el seu efecte sobre els paràmetres productius.

International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) Consensus Conference on Handling and Staging of Radical Prostatectomy Specimens. Working group 2: T2 substaging and prostate cancer volume.

The 2009 International Society of Urological Pathology consensus conference in Boston made recommendations regarding the standardization of pathology reporting of radical prostatectomy specimens. Issues relating to the substaging of pT2 prostate cancers according to the TNM 2002/2010 system, reporting of tumor size/volume and zonal location of prostate cancers were coordinated by working group 2. A survey circulated before the consensus conference demonstrated that 74% of the 157 participants considered pT2 substaging of prostate cancer to be of clinical and/or academic relevance. The survey also revealed a considerable variation in the frequency of reporting of pT2b substage prostate cancer, which was likely a consequence of the variable methodologies used to distinguish pT2a from pT2b tumors. Overview of the literature indicates that current pT2 substaging criteria lack clinical relevance and the majority (65.5%) of conference attendees wished to discontinue pT2 substaging. Therefore, the consensus was that reporting of pT2 substages should, at present, be optional. Several studies have shown that prostate cancer volume is significantly correlated with other clinicopathological features, including Gleason score and extraprostatic extension of tumor; however, most studies fail to demonstrate this to have prognostic significance on multivariate analysis. Consensus was reached with regard to the reporting of some quantitative measure of the volume of tumor in a prostatectomy specimen, without prescribing a specific methodology. Incorporation of the zonal and/or anterior location of the dominant/index tumor in the pathology report was accepted by most participants, but a formal definition of the identifying features of the dominant/index tumor remained undecided.

Conference scene: Immune signatures in the tumor and beyond.

Led by key opinion leaders in the field, the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium of the Cancer Research Institute 2012 Scientific Colloquium included 179 participants who exchanged cutting-edge information on basic, clinical and translational cancer immunology and immunotherapy. The meeting revealed how rapidly this field is advancing. The keynote talk was given by Wolf H Fridman and it described the microenvironment of primary and metastatic human tumors. Participants interacted through oral presentations and panel discussions on topics that included host reactions in tumors, advances in imaging, monitoring therapeutic immune modulation, the benefit and risk of immunotherapy, and immune monitoring activities. In summary, the annual meeting gathered clinicians and scientists from academia, industry and regulatory agencies from around the globe to interact and exchange important scientific advances related to tumor immunobiology and cancer immunotherapy.

The use of mannan antigen and anti-mannan antibodies in the diagnosis of invasive candidiasis: recommendations from the Third European Conference on Infections in Leukemia.

INTRODUCTION: Timely diagnosis of invasive candidiasis (IC) remains difficult as the clinical presentation is not specific and blood cultures lack sensitivity and need a long incubation time. Thus, non-culture-based methods for diagnosing IC have been developed. Mannan antigen (Mn) and anti-mannan antibodies (A-Mn) are present in patients with IC. On behalf of the Third European Conference on Infections in Leukemia, the performance of these tests was analysed and reviewed. METHODS: The literature was searched for studies using the commercially available sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (Platelia™, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Marnes-la-Coquette, France) for detecting Mn and A-Mn in serum. The target condition of this review was IC defined according to 2008 European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer/Mycoses Study Group criteria. Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratios (DOR) were calculated for Mn, A-Mn and combined Mn/A-Mn testing. RESULTS: Overall, 14 studies that comprised 453 patients and 767 controls were reviewed. The patient populations included in the studies were mainly haematological and cancer cases in seven studies and mainly intensive care unit and surgery cases in the other seven studies. All studies but one were retrospective in design. Mn sensitivity was 58% (95% confidence interval [CI], 53-62); specificity, 93% (95% CI, 91-94) and DOR, 18 (95% CI 12-28). A-Mn sensitivity was 59% (95% CI, 54-65); specificity, 83% (95% CI, 79-97) and DOR, 12 (95% CI 7-21). Combined Mn/A-Mn sensitivity was 83% (95% CI, 79-87); specificity, 86% (95% CI, 82-90) and DOR, 58 (95% CI 27-122). Significant heterogeneity of the studies was detected. The sensitivity of both Mn and A-Mn varied for different Candida species, and it was the highest for C. albicans, followed by C. glabrata and C. tropicalis. In 73% of 45 patients with candidemia, at least one of the serological tests was positive before the culture results, with mean time advantage being 6 days for Mn and 7 days for A-Mn. In 21 patients with hepatosplenic IC, 18 (86%) had Mn or A-Mn positive test results at a median of 16 days before radiological detection of liver or spleen lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Mn and A-Mn are useful for diagnosis of IC. The performance of combined Mn/A-Mn testing is superior to either Mn or A-Mn testing.

International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) Consensus Conference on Handling and Staging of Radical Prostatectomy Specimens. Working group 1: specimen handling.

The 2009 International Society of Urological Pathology Consensus Conference in Boston made recommendations regarding the standardization of pathology reporting of radical prostatectomy specimens. Issues relating to the handling and processing of radical prostatectomy specimens were coordinated by working group 1. Most uropathologists followed similar procedures for fixation of radical prostatectomy specimens, with 51% of respondents transporting tissue in formalin. There was also consensus that the prostate weight without the seminal vesicles should be recorded. There was consensus that the surface of the prostate should be painted. It was agreed that both the prostate apex and base should be examined by the cone method with sagittal sectioning of the tissue sample. There was consensus that the gland should be fully fixed before sectioning. Both partial and complete embedding of prostates was considered to be acceptable as long as the method of partial embedding is stated. No consensus was determined regarding the necessity of weighing and measuring the length of the seminal vesicles, the preparation of whole mounts rather than standardized blocks and the methodology for sampling of fresh tissue for research purposes, and it was agreed that these should be left to the discretion of the working pathologist.

β-Glucan antigenemia assay for the diagnosis of invasive fungal infections in patients with hematological malignancies: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies from the Third European Conference on Infections in Leukemia (ECIL-3).

BACKGROUND: Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) are life-threatening complications in patients with hemato-oncological malignancies, and early diagnosis is crucial for outcome. The compound 1,3-β-D-glucan (BG), a cell wall component of most fungal species, can be detected in blood during IFI. Four commercial BG antigenemia assays are available (Fungitell, Fungitec-G, Wako, and Maruha). This meta-analysis from the Third European Conference on Infections in Leukemia (ECIL-3) assessed the performance of BG assays for the diagnosis of IFI in hemato-oncological patients. METHODS: Studies reporting the performance of BG antigenemia assays for the diagnosis of IFI (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and Mycoses Study Group criteria) in hemato-oncological patients were identified. The analysis was focused on high-quality cohort studies with exclusion of case-control studies. Meta-analysis was performed by conventional meta-analytical pooling and bivariate analysis. RESULTS: Six cohort studies were included (1771 adult patients with 414 IFIs of which 215 were proven or probable). Similar performance was observed among the different BG assays. For the cutoff recommended by the manufacturer, the diagnostic performance of the BG assay in proven or probable IFI was better with 2 consecutive positive test results (diagnostic odds ratio for 2 consecutive vs one single positive results, 111.8 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 38.6-324.1] vs 16.3 [95% CI, 6.5-40.8], respectively; heterogeneity index for 2 consecutive vs one single positive results, 0% vs 72.6%, respectively). For 2 consecutive tests, sensitivity and specificity were 49.6% (95% CI, 34.0%-65.3%) and 98.9% (95% CI, 97.4%-99.5%), respectively. Estimated positive and negative predictive values for an IFI prevalence of 10% were 83.5% and 94.6%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Different BG assays have similar accuracy for the diagnosis of IFI in hemato-oncological patients. Two consecutive positive antigenemia assays have very high specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Because sensitivity is low, the test needs to be combined with clinical, radiological, and microbiological findings.