Abstract.A ten year-old girl presented with increased susceptibility to infection, massive enlargement of the cervical lymph nodes, a high erythrocyte sedimentation rate and an extremely high serum IgA (peak level 66 g/l). The diagnosis of plasmacytoma was confirmed by the identification of a monoclonal immunoglobulin (IgAk) in the serum and in the plasma cells present in a cervical lymph node biopsy. Her disturbed blood coagulation and thrombelastogram, serum hyperviscosity, cryoglobulinemia, hyponatremia and constantly positive test for rheumatoid factor without evidence of rheumatic disease were attributed to the effects of the myeloma proteins. Other signs often associated with plasmacytoma (bone pain, osteolytic lesions, anemia, bone marrow failure or infiltration) were absent indicating that the plasmacytoma originated in a lymph node, which is unusual. This case is the second well-documented childhood plasmacytoma to be reported. With combined melphalan and prednisone therapy, the greatly enlarged lymph nodes regressed in size and the plasma IgA concentration fell to normal.Immunological investigations revealed a considerable reduction of blood T cells, and abnormal skin tests at the time of diagnosis indicated a disturbance of cellular immunity. There were also abnormalities in the B-cell system. The blood B lymphocytes were found to carry only complement receptors for C3b and mainly for IgA, whereas in normal individuals blood B cells bear complement receptors for both C3b and C3d and mainly surface Ig of the IgM class. In the lymph node biopsy, there were many primary follicles expressing complement receptors for both C3b and C3d among the dense plasma cell infiltrates, but germinal centers, which mainly serve to renew B cells, were completely absent. In conjunction with data from the literature, we concluded 1) that the production of normal B lymphocytes is blocked, probably due to a secondary T cell deficiency, and 2) that the majority of the residual blood and bone marrow B cells and the plasmacytoma cells are parts of the same neoplastic cell clone.Key words: Plasmacytoma -Monoclonal g a m m o p a t h y -Lymph node plasmacytoma -Surface markers -Complement receptor subtypes.
How to get citizen science data accepted by the scientific community? Insights from the Plastic
Pirates projectData resulting from citizen science investigations are often questioned as most participants do not (yet) have a thorough scientific education. This is especially true for projects taking place in schools, and conducting citizen science in this context is further complicated by different motivations of participants and a busy school curriculum. Herein we present strategies to ensure quality of data generated by the citizen science project Plastic Pirates in which schoolchildren investigated litter pollution at and in rivers. We show how formulating concise research questions, offering accompanying educational material, employing data quality mechanisms in the field (photographs, standardized sampling methods and selfevaluation) as well as transparently detailing which datasets were excluded from analysis was vital to accomplish the acceptance of resulting citizen science data by the scientific community.
Zusammenfassung: In dem Citizen-Science-Projekt "Dem Plastikmüll auf der Spur" wurden Schülerinnen und Schüler gemeinsam mit ihren Lehrkräften in eine wissenschaftliche Untersuchung zur Erhebung von Mülldaten an deutschen und chilenischen Stränden eingebunden. Durch das Projekt wurden zum einen wissenschaftliche Daten erhoben, zum anderen wurde bei den Teilnehmenden das Verständnis des naturwissenschaftlichen Prozesses gefçrdert sowie ein Umdenken im eigenen Handeln antizipiert. Angeleitet durch ein Begleitbuch setzten sich die Schülerinnen und Schüler mit wichtigen fachwissenschaftlichen Grundlagen zum Meeresmüll auseinander, das bei der anschließenden Probennahme am Strand und der Auswertung der Daten bençtigt wurde. Da das Projekt zeitgleich in Deutschland und Chile durchgeführt wurde, konnten sich die Teilnehmenden auf einer Projektwebseite über ihre Untersuchung austauschen und so einen Einblick in die Gegebenheiten des Partnerlandes bekommen.
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