Haploidentical bone marrow transplants for hematological malignancies using non-myeloablative conditioning therapy and post-transplant immunosuppression with cyclophosphamide: results from a single Australian centre

Background: HLA haploidentical bone marrow transplantation is a treatment option in patients with hematological malignancies who have no available HLA matched donor, but is limited by conditioning regimen toxicity, graft failure, relapse and graft versus host disease. Aims: To demonstrate safety and efficacy of haploidentical bone marrow transplantation with nonmyeloablative conditioning and high-dose post-transplant cyclophosphamide in adult patients with leukaemia or lymphoma. Methods: 12 patients, median age of 51 years, underwent transplantation with T cell replete bone marrow from a haplotype matched relative. The conditioning regimen consisted of cyclophosphamide, fludarabine, and low-dose TBI. Post-transplant immunosuppression consisted of a single dose of cyclophosphamide 50 mg/kg on day 3, followed by oral tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. Outcomes reported are overall survival, engraftment and chimerism, toxicity, and clinical outcome. Results: All patients had neutrophil recovery (median 14.5 days), and 11 of 12 had platelet engraftment (median 17 days). Two patients had autologous reconstitution. Seven of 9 assessable patients had complete donor chimerism. Four patients had grade II-III GvHD, and none had grade IV GvHD. Four patientsdeveloped limited stage chronic GvHD. Five patients with AML relapsed. Two patients died of non-relapse causes, both from other malignancies, and 5 patients remain alive and relapse free. Median overall survival was 324 days (range 88-1163). Conclusion: This regimen is feasible and well-tolerated in older patients with high risk leukemia or lymphoma, with minimal short-term toxicity, and low rates of GVHD. The proportion of disease-free survivors indicates a graft versus malignancy effect is present in survivors. Keywords: hematological malignancy, bone marrow transplant, haploidentical, post-transplant cyclophosphamid

Haploidentical bone marrow transplants for hematological malignancies using non-myeloablative conditioning therapy and post-transplant immunosuppression with cyclophosphamide: results from a single Australian centre

Background: HLA haploidentical bone marrow transplantation is a treatment option in patients with hematological malignancies who have no available HLA matched donor, but is limited by conditioning regimen toxicity, graft failure, relapse and graft versus host disease. Aims: To demonstrate safety and efficacy of haploidentical bone marrow transplantation with nonmyeloablative conditioning and high-dose post-transplant cyclophosphamide in adult patients with leukaemia or lymphoma. Methods: 12 patients, median age of 51 years, underwent transplantation with T cell replete bone marrow from a haplotype matched relative. The conditioning regimen consisted of cyclophosphamide, fludarabine, and low-dose TBI. Post-transplant immunosuppression consisted of a single dose of cyclophosphamide 50 mg/kg on day 3, followed by oral tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. Outcomes reported are overall survival, engraftment and chimerism, toxicity, and clinical outcome. Results: All patients had neutrophil recovery (median 14.5 days), and 11 of 12 had platelet engraftment (median 17 days). Two patients had autologous reconstitution. Seven of 9 assessable patients had complete donor chimerism. Four patients had grade II-III GvHD, and none had grade IV GvHD. Four patientsdeveloped limited stage chronic GvHD. Five patients with AML relapsed. Two patients died of non-relapse causes, both from other malignancies, and 5 patients remain alive and relapse free. Median overall survival was 324 days (range 88-1163). Conclusion: This regimen is feasible and well-tolerated in older patients with high risk leukemia or lymphoma, with minimal short-term toxicity, and low rates of GVHD. The proportion of disease-free survivors indicates a graft versus malignancy effect is present in survivors. Keywords: hematological malignancy, bone marrow transplant, haploidentical, post-transplant cyclophosphamid

Validation of SCIAMACHY top-of-atmosphere reflectance for aerosol remote sensing using MERIS L1 data

Aerosol remote sensing is very much dependent on the accurate knowledge of the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance measured by a particular instrument. The status of the calibration of such an instrument is reflected in the quality of the aerosol retrieval. Current data of the SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY) instrument (operated with the data processor version 5 and earlier) give too small values of the TOA reflectance, compared e.g. to data from MERIS (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer), both operating on ENVISAT (ENVIronmental SATellite). This effect causes retrievals of wrong aerosol optical thickness and disables the processing of aerosol parameters. <br><br> From an inter-comparison of MERIS and SCIAMACHY TOA reflectance, for collocated scenes correction factors are derived to improve the insufficient SCIAMACHY L1 data calibration for data obtained with the processor 5 for the purpose of aerosol remote sensing. The corrected reflectance has been used for tests of remote sensing of the aerosol optical thickness by the BAER (Bremen AErosol Retrieval) approach using SCIAMACHY data

Diagnosing air quality changes in the UK during the COVID-19 lockdown using TROPOMI and GEOS-Chem

The dramatic and sudden reduction in anthropogenic activity due to lockdown measures in the UK in response to the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in a concerted effort to estimate local and regional changes in air quality, though changes in underlying emissions remain uncertain. Here we combine satellite observations of tropospheric NO_{2} from TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument and the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)-Chem 3D chemical transport model to estimate that NO_{x} emissions declined nationwide by ~20% during the lockdown (23 March to 31 May 2020). Regionally, these range from 22% to 23% in the western portion of the country to 29% in the southeast and Manchester, and >40% in London. We apply a uniform 20% lockdown period emission reduction to GEOS-Chem anthropogenic emissions over the UK to determine that decline in lockdown emissions led to a national decline in PM_{2.5} of 1.1 μg m^{−3}, ranging from 0.6 μg m^{−3} in Scotland to 2 μg m^{−3} in the southwest. The decline in emissions in cities (>40%) is greater than the national average and causes an increase in ozone of ~2 ppbv in London and Manchester. The change in ozone and PM_{2.5} concentrations due to emission reductions alone is about half the total change from 2019 to 2020. This emphasizes the need to account for emissions and other factors, in particular meteorology, in future air pollution abatement strategies and regulatory action

Religious perspectives on umbilical cord blood banking

Umbilical cord blood is a valuable source of haematopoietic stem cells. There is little information about whether religious affiliations have any bearing on attitudes to and decisions about its collection, donation and storage. The authors provided information about umbilical cord blood banking to expert commentators from six major world religions (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism) and asked them to address a specific set of questions in a commentary. The commentaries suggest there is considerable support for umbilical cord blood banking in these religions. Four commentaries provide moral grounds for favouring public donation over private storage. None attach any particular religious significance to the umbilical cord or to the blood within it, nor place restrictions on the ethnicity or religion of donors and recipients. Views on ownership of umbilical cord blood vary. The authors offer a series of general points for those who seek a better understanding of religious perspectives on umbilical cord blood banking

Religious perspectives on umbilical cord blood banking

Umbilical cord blood is a valuable source of haematopoietic stem cells. There is little information about whether religious affiliations have any bearing on attitudes to and decisions about its collection, donation and storage. The authors provided information about umbilical cord blood banking to expert commentators from six major world religions (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism) and asked them to address a specific set of questions in a commentary. The commentaries suggest there is considerable support for umbilical cord blood banking in these religions. Four commentaries provide moral grounds for favouring public donation over private storage. None attach any particular religious significance to the umbilical cord or to the blood within it, nor place restrictions on the ethnicity or religion of donors and recipients. Views on ownership of umbilical cord blood vary. The authors offer a series of general points for those who seek a better understanding of religious perspectives on umbilical cord blood banking

Influence of the wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation on European tropospheric composition: an observational and modelling study

We have used satellite observations and a simulation from the TOMCAT chemistry transport model (CTM) to investigate the influence of the well-known wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on European tropospheric composition. Under the positive phase of the NAO (NAO-high), strong westerlies tend to enhance transport of European pollution (e.g. nitrogen oxides, NOx; carbon monoxide, CO) away from anthropogenic source regions. In contrast, during the negative phase of the NAO (NAO-low), more stable meteorological conditions lead to a build-up of pollutants over these regions relative to the wintertime average pollution levels. However, the secondary pollutant ozone shows the opposite signal of larger values during NAO-high. NAO-high introduces Atlantic ozone-enriched air into Europe, while under NAO-low westerly transport of ozone is reduced, yielding lower values over Europe. Furthermore, ozone concentrations are also decreased by chemical loss through the reaction with accumulated primary pollutants such as nitric oxide (NO) in NAO-low. Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) in the upper troposphere–lower stratosphere (UTLS) peaks over Iceland and southern Greenland in NAO-low, between 200 and 100 hPa, consistent with the trapping by an anticyclone at this altitude. Model simulations show that enhanced PAN over Iceland and southern Greenland in NAO-low is associated with vertical transport of polluted air from the mid-troposphere into the UTLS. Overall, this work shows that NAO circulation patterns are an important governing factor for European wintertime composition and air pollution

Growing food on the green world: J. H. Prynne’s agro-chemical pastoral in the Vale of Tintern

This article reads the poetry of J. H. Prynne of the early- to mid-1970s through an ecocritical lens, arguing that this work responds to the language of a nascent environmentalism framed by the concerns of political ecology. It does so by drawing on Prynne’s archival correspondence with the American poet Edward Dorn in the mid-1970s, which demonstrates a private concern with agro-chemicals, colour and cultivation that served as an analogue for shifts in the politics of relating to the extra-human world. It argues that Prynne’s High Pink on Chrome (1975) is closely attuned to the suppressed human and extra-human costs of high-yield monocrop cultivation. In turn, the article sets these post-war practices in a longer continuum of pastoral suppression, linking such hidden violence with ecocritical and New Historicist arguments about the ‘green’ politics of William Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’, to which Prynne alluded when writing to Dorn in 1975

The TOMCAT global chemical transport model v1.6: description of chemical mechanism and model evaluation

This paper documents the tropospheric chemical mechanism scheme used in the TOMCAT 3-D chemical transport model. The current scheme includes a more detailed representation of hydrocarbon chemistry than previously included in the model, with the inclusion of the emission and oxidation of ethene, propene, butane, toluene and monoterpenes. The model is evaluated against a range of surface, balloon, aircraft and satellite measurements. The model is generally able to capture the main spatial and seasonal features of high and low concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and reactive nitrogen. However, model biases are found in some species, some of which are common to chemistry models and some that are specific to TOMCAT and warrant further investigation. The most notable of these biases are (1) a negative bias in Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter and spring CO and a positive bias in Southern Hemisphere (SH) CO throughout the year, (2) a positive bias in NH O3 in summer and a negative bias at high latitudes during SH winter and (3) a negative bias in NH winter C2 and C3 alkanes and alkenes. TOMCAT global mean tropospheric hydroxyl radical (OH) concentrations are higher than estimates inferred from observations of methyl chloroform but similar to, or lower than, multi-model mean concentrations reported in recent model intercomparison studies. TOMCAT shows peak OH concentrations in the tropical lower troposphere, unlike other models which show peak concentrations in the tropical upper troposphere. This is likely to affect the lifetime and transport of important trace gases and warrants further investigation