Reproducible assay results with high specificity and high PPV in a multicenter setting demonstrate that use of an assay to detect serum BG derived from fungal cell walls is a useful diagnostic adjunct for IFI.

The Glucatell (1r3)-b-D-glucan (BG) detection assay (Associates of Cape Cod) was studied as a diagnostic adjunct for invasive fungal infections (IFIs). On the basis of findings from a preliminary study of 30 candidemic subjects and 30 healthy adults, a serum BG level of у60 pg/mL was chosen as the cutoff. Testing was performed with serial serum samples obtained from 283 subjects with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome who were receiving antifungal prophylaxis. At least 1 serum sample was positive for BG at a median of 10 days before the clinical diagnosis in 100% of subjects with a proven or probable IFI. IFIs included candidiasis, fusariosis, trichosporonosis, and aspergillosis. Absence of a positive BG finding had a 100% negative predictive value, and the specificity of the test was 90% for a single positive test result and у96% for у2 sequential positive results. The Glucatell serum BG detection assay is highly sensitive and specific as a diagnostic adjunct for IFI.The mortality rate for invasive fungal infections in neutropenic subjects is 50% for subjects with Candida infection [1,2] and may approach 100% for those with invasive aspergillosis [3,4], fusariosis [5], or trichosporonosis [6]. Early diagnosis of invasive fungal infection in neutropenic subjects has the potential to increase antifungal therapeutic response, but meaningful diagnostic tests have proven to be elusive. Histopathologic demonstration of organisms in tissue specimens or growth of fungal agents in culture media is still the

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The pattern formation in thin liquid films on solid substrates induced by irradiative heating is investigated. A model to describe the evolution of both the film surface profile and temperature field in the system is developed, in which the energy absorption into the film and substrate, and the energy reflection to which optical absorption and interference contribute are taken into account. The model consists of a thin film equation that describes the time evolution of the film surface profile and a heat equation for the substrate. The former is obtained within the framework of the long-wave approximation, in which the fluid layer is assumed to be sufficiently thin compared to the lateral length scale, while the latter is unconstrained by the substrate thickness. In order to examine the interference effects on the pattern formation, focus is placed on a transparent film=absorbable substrate system irradiated by a monochromatic wave with laterally uniform intensity distribution. In such a case, the energy reflectance varies periodically with the film thickness due to optical interference. Numerical simulation results show that the stability of the film depends on the first derivative of the energy reflectance with respect to the film thickness at a reference point, and the resultant surface patterns, which include phase separation and periodic wavy patterns, differ depending on the reference thickness and initial perturbation. The stability revealed by the numerical results is confirmed by linear stability analysis of a simplified model.

Thermocapillary deformations of an ultra-thin liquid film caused by temperature distribution were threedimensionally analyzed using the unsteady and linearized long wave equation considering the temperature and film thickness dependence of surface tension. The temperature and film thickness dependence equation for the surface tension of a liquid was firstly established. The temperature dependence of the surface tension was obtained experimentally using a surface tensiometer and the film thickness dependence was obtained theoretically from the corrected van der Waals pressure equation for a symmetric multilayer system. Time evolutions of depression and groove of the ultra-thin liquid film caused by local heating were obtained quantitatively.