Prevention of Resistance in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: the role of combination therapy

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a rare disease with a worldwide incidence of approximately 1-2 cases per 100,000 individuals. Chronic myeloid leukemia occurs slightly more frequently in men than in women. The median age at diagnosis is approximately 60 years, and although the incidence increases with age, it also occurs in paediatric patients. Three distinctive phases can be recognized. First, an initial chronic phase that has an average duration of 4 to 6 years without appropriate treatment. During that phase there is a gross expansion of the myeloid compartment, but the cells still retain the capacity to differentiate and function normally. Symptoms in this phase are generally mild; approximately half of the patients have no complaints, and the disease is often discovered by routine blood examination. In general, response to therapy nowadays is very favourable. The next phase is the accelerated phase that has an average duration of approximately 6 months to 1.5 years. The accelerated phase is characterized by the appearance of a certain amount of more immature cells in the blood, complete loss of response to therapy, and the occurrence of constitutional symptoms. The final stage is a transformation to an acute leukemia, the so-called blast crisis, which can be either myeloid or lymphoid in phenotype, in which immature cells (blasts) dominate and survival is measured in weeks to months. Patients with blast crisis have many complaints, and response to treatment is generally very poor

Liming Effects on Nitrate Adsorption in Soils With Variable Charge Clays and Implications for Ground Water Contamination

The present research sought to determine the extent and distribution of nitrate accumulation in the subsoils of central Oahu, and to measure the consequences of surface applied amendments on nitrate mobility. Deep bore holes collected from pineapple fields in central Oahu were analyzed for nitrate and nitrate adsorption, and a lime incubation experiment and column study were conducted. Three and one half to 11 T/ha of nitrate-N have been measured in subsoils and the deep. saprolitic vadose zones of pineapple fields located in central Oahu, Hawai’i. Nitrate adsorption isotherms confirmed the high nitrate retention capacity of the materials in the subsoil and saprolite. Since large areas of former sugarcane land are being converted to diversified crops requiring amendments to reduce acidity, a lime incubation study was conducted on soils from former sugarcane land to investigate the effect of lime on nitrate adsorption. When lime was added to acid subsoils, nitrate retention was decreased by up to one half of the native adsorption capacity. A leaching experiment found that surface applied lime and gypsum increased nitrate mobility through soil columns 50 cm in length. The data indicate that large quantities of nitrate have accumulated in the subsoil overlying the Pearl Harbor aquifer. Mobility of nitrate through the subsoil is retarded, but a laboratory column study shows that nitrate mobility can be increased by adding lime and gypsum to the surface soil. Field studies need to be conducted to evaluate the potential for ground water contamination as a result of surface applied amendments

Acidification of Volcanic Ash Soils from Maui and Hawai‘i Island for Blueberry and Tea Production

This publication provides background on soil acidity in relation to plant growth, presents approaches to acidifying soils, and provides guidelines for the acidification of some volcanic soils on Maui and Hawai‘i island that are potential sites for tea and blueberry production

Successful treatment of subcutaneously disseminated aspergillosis with caspofungin acetate in an allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation patient.

We present a patient with acute myeloid leukaemia who developed subcutaneously disseminated aspergillosis after allogeneic peripheral stem cell transplantation (PSCT). Disseminated aspergillosis after stem cell transplantation has a high mortality despite treatment with amphotericin B or one of the azoles. Aspergillosis in our patient was refractory to amphotericin B and itraconazole but was successfully treated with caspofungin acetate

The association between mental healthcare professionals' personal characteristics and their clinical lifestyle practices: A national cross-sectional study in the Netherlands

Background Lifestyle interventions are important to improve the mental and physical health outcomes of people with mental illness. However, referring patients to lifestyle interventions is still not a common practice for mental healthcare professionals (MHCPs) and their own lifestyle habits may impact this. The aim of this study was to investigate MHCPs' personal lifestyle habits, their lifestyle history and referral practices, and if these are associated with their lifestyle habits, gender, and profession. Methods In this cross-sectional study, an online questionnaire was distributed across relevant MHCP's in The Netherlands. Ordinal regression analyses on lifestyle habits, gender, profession, and lifestyle history and referral practices were conducted. Results A total of the 1,607 included MHCPs, 87.6% finds that lifestyle should be part of every psychiatric treatment, but depending on which lifestyle factor, 55.1-84.0% take a lifestyle history, 29.7-41.1% refer to interventions, and less than half (44.2%) of smoking patients are advised to quit. MHCPs who find their lifestyle important, who are physically more active, females, and MHCPs with a nursing background take more lifestyle histories and refer more often. Compared to current smokers, MHCPs who never or formerly smoked have higher odds (2.64 and 3.40, respectively, p < 0.001) to advice patients to quit smoking. Conclusions This study indicates that MHCPs' personal lifestyle habits, gender, and profession affect their clinical lifestyle practices, and thereby the translation of compelling evidence on lifestyle psychiatry to improved healthcare for patients

Edaphic controls of soil organic carbon in tropical agricultural landscapes

Predicting soil organic carbon (SOC) is problematic in tropical soils because mechanisms of SOC (de)stabilization are not resolved. We aimed to identify such storage mechanisms in a tropical soil landscape constrained by 100 years of similar soil inputs and agricultural disturbance under the production of sugarcane, a C-4 grass and bioenergy feedstock. We measured soil physicochemical parameters, SOC concentration, and SOC dynamics by soil horizon to one meter to identify soil parameters that can predict SOC outcomes. Applying correlative analyses, linear mixed model (LMM) regression, model selection by AICc, and hierarchical clustering we found that slow moving SOC was related to many soil parameters, while the fastest moving SOC was only related to soil surface charge. Our models explained 78-79%, 51-57%, 7-8% of variance in SOC concentration, slow pool decay, and fast pool decay, respectively. Top SOC predictors were roots, the ratio of organo-complexed iron (Fe) to aluminum (Al), water stable aggregates (WSagg), and cation exchange capacity (CEC). Using hierarchical clustering we also assessed SOC predictors across gradients of depth and rainfall with strong reductions in Roots, SOC, and slow pool decay associated with increasing depth, while increased rainfall was associated with increased Clay and WSagg and reduced CEC in surface soils. Increased negative surface charge, water stable aggregation, organo-Fe complexation, and root inputs were key SOC protection mechanisms despite high soil disturbance. Further development of these relationships is expected to improve understanding of SOC storage mechanisms and outcomes in similar tropical agricultural soils globally