The cost-effectiveness of high dose chemotherapy in the treatment of relapsed Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

As part of an NHS Executive Trent regional initiative we considered the role and cost-effectiveness of high dose chemotherapy in the treatment of relapsed Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The key trials and case series show an additional patient benefit of 0.8–1.1 life years over standard chemotherapy. We estimate incremental cost per life year gained of £12 800–£17 600, which reduces further if long-term benefits are considered. High dose chemotherapy in these conditions is both life-saving and cost-effective. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Protocol for a national monthly survey of alcohol use in England with 6-month follow-up: 'The Alcohol Toolkit Study'.

Timely tracking of national patterns of alcohol consumption is needed to inform and evaluate strategies and policies aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm. Between 2014 until at least 2017, the Alcohol Toolkit Study (ATS) will provide such tracking data and link these with policy changes and campaigns. By virtue of its connection with the 'Smoking Toolkit Study' (STS), links will also be examined between alcohol and smoking-related behaviour

Allosteric Control Of Oxygen Binding By Haemoglobin During Embryonic Development In The Crocodile Crocodylus porosus: The Role Of Red Cell Organic Phosphates And Carbon Dioxide

The P50 of whole blood [30 degrees C, PCO2=2.08 kPa (15.6 mmHg)] decreases during embryonic development from approximately 6.7 kPa (50 mmHg) at 15 days to about half this value at hatching (86 days), paralleling a decrease in ATP from 100 to 5-10 micromole g-1 Hb. There is also a progressive changeover from embryonic to adult haemoglobin (HbA). A pulse of 2,3- diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) (18 micromole g-1 Hb) occurs late in embryonic life. It has no effect on whole-blood oxygen-affinity and falls rapidly at hatching to values typical of post-hatchling crocodilians in general

Ultrafast supercontinuum spectroscopy of carrier multiplication and biexcitonic effects in excited states of PbS quantum dots

We examine the multiple exciton population dynamics in PbS quantum dots by ultrafast spectrally-resolved supercontinuum transient absorption (SC-TA). We simultaneously probe the first three excitonic transitions over a broad spectral range. Transient spectra show the presence of first order bleach of absorption for the 1S_h-1S_e transition and second order bleach along with photoinduced absorption band for 1P_h-1P_e transition. We also report evidence of the one-photon forbidden 1S_{h,e}-1P_{h,e} transition. We examine signatures of carrier multiplication (multiexcitons for the single absorbed photon) from analysis of the first and second order bleaches, in the limit of low absorbed photon numbers (~ 10^-2), at pump energies from two to four times the semiconductor band gap. The multiexciton generation efficiency is discussed both in terms of a broadband global fit and the ratio between early- to long-time transient absorption signals.. Analysis of population dynamics shows that the bleach peak due to the biexciton population is red-shifted respect the single exciton one, indicating a positive binding energy.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

The Two-Dimensional S=1 Quantum Heisenberg Antiferromagnet at Finite Temperatures

The temperature dependence of the correlation length, susceptibilities and the magnetic structure factor of the two-dimensional spin-1 square lattice quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet are computed by the quantum Monte Carlo loop algorithm (QMC). In the experimentally relevant temperature regime the theoretically predicted asymptotic low temperature behavior is found to be not valid. The QMC results however, agree reasonably well with the experimental measurements of La2NiO4 even without considering anisotropies in the exchange interactions.Comment: 4 Pages, 1 table, 4 figure

Protocol for the United Kingdom Rotator Cuff Study (UKUFF) : a randomised controlled trial of open and arthroscopic rotator cuff repair

This project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme (project number 05/47/02). J. L. Rees has received a grant from Oxford University which is related to this paper. J. Dawson reports that Oxford University has received a grant from HTA which is related to this paper, as well as a study grant.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Factors influencing prognosis in adults with acute myelogenous leukaemia.

A study of the thymidine labelling index (TLI) of bone marrow blast cells in 58 untreated patients with acute myelogenous leukemia showed no correlation with remission rate but there was a strong correlation between labelling index and remission length in the 21 patients who achieved remission. The median remission length of the patients was 33 weeks. Of the 12 patients with initial labelling indices greater than 10%, only 2 had remissions longer than 33 weeks whereas 8 of the 9 patients with labelling indices less than 10% had remissions longer than 33 weeks. No correlation could be found between the degree of cytological differentiation and remission induction, remission length or survival. No correlation was found between the TLI and the degree of cytological differentiation. Age and initial platelet count were confirmed to be important factors influencing complete remission rate, but these factors did not correlate with remission length. Sixteen patients had their pretreatment sera assayed for mouse marrow colony stimulating activity and inhibitor levels but there was no correlation with subsequent response to treatment, although the number of patients examined was clearly too small for any definite conclusions to be drawn

Analysis of Diffusion of Ras2 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Using Fluorescence Recovery after Photobleaching

Binding, lateral diffusion and exchange are fundamental dynamic processes involved in protein association with cellular membranes. In this study, we developed numerical simulations of lateral diffusion and exchange of fluorophores in membranes with arbitrary bleach geometry and exchange of the membrane localized fluorophore with the cytosol during Fluorescence Recovery after Photobleaching (FRAP) experiments. The model simulations were used to design FRAP experiments with varying bleach region sizes on plasma-membrane localized wild type GFP-Ras2 with a dual lipid anchor and mutant GFP-Ras2C318S with a single lipid anchor in live yeast cells to investigate diffusional mobility and the presence of any exchange processes operating in the time scale of our experiments. Model parameters estimated using data from FRAP experiments with a 1 micron x 1 micron bleach region-of-interest (ROI) and a 0.5 micron x 0.5 micron bleach ROI showed that GFP-Ras2, single or dual lipid modified, diffuses as single species with no evidence of exchange with a cytoplasmic pool. This is the first report of Ras2 mobility in yeast plasma membrane. The methods developed in this study are generally applicable for studying diffusion and exchange of membrane associated fluorophores using FRAP on commercial confocal laser scanning microscopes.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Biology (2010). 28 pages, 7 figures, 3 table

The Missing Angle: Ecosystem Consequences of Phenological Mismatch

Climate change leads to unequal shifts in the phenology of interacting species, such as consumers and their resources, leading to potential phenological mismatches. While studies have investigated how phenological mismatch affects wild populations, we still lack studies and a framework for investigating how phenological mismatch affects ecosystems, particularly nutrient cycling