Spatial diversity of coral reef communities in Sulu Sea marine corridors

Most protected coral reefs and coral communities in the Philippines are in small fishery reserves chosen for their coral cover and fish biomass, rather than their biodiversity conservation value. In an effort to improve criteria for designing these small reserves, spatial arrangement, particularly patch sizes of the reef benthos, was examined using semivariograms computed from DCA ordination scores of raw data. The data were generated from reef photos taken at one-meter intervals along I 00m transect lines, deployed along depth contours at 27 reef sites in three locations in the Sulu Sea. These locations are along the Cagayan Ridge (including Cagayancillo, and the Tubattaha National Marine Park), and reefs in Balabac Islands, southern Palawan that lie in a strait connecting the Sulu Sea with the South China Sea. Three basic community types were discerned - Type I communities are made up mostly by sand, rubble, and macroalgae as typically encountered in reef flats and backreef areas; Type 2 communities are a mix of different forms of various coral genera (except Acropora); and Type 3 communities are made up mostly of Acropora, either in tabulate or branching form. These community types are typically seen as mosaics, but their relative proportions vary with depth and exposure to monsoon winds, and appear to indicate disturbance history of a site. Type I and Type 3 communities are typically large patches, with the latter at shallow sites, and the former at deep or sheltered ones. Community mosaics dominated by both types have low diversity, but the latter also has the highest coral cover. Type 2 communities, on the other hand, have small mosaic patches and steep species area curves. These are typically found at intermediate depths

Phase 1 and pharmacokinetic study of bolus-infusion flavopiridol followed by cytosine arabinoside and mitoxantrone for acute leukemias

Flavopiridol is a protein bound, cytotoxic, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. Flavopiridol given by 1-hour bolus at 50 mg/m2 daily 3 times followed by cytosine arabinoside and mitoxantrone (FLAM) is active in adults with poor-risk acute leukemias. A pharmacologically derived “hybrid” schedule (30-minute bolus followed by 4-hour infusion) of flavopiridol was more effective than bolus administration in refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Our phase 1 trial “hybrid FLAM” in 55 adults with relapsed/refractory acute leukemias began at a total flavopiridol dose of 50 mg/m2 per day 3 times (20-mg/m2 bolus, 30-mg/m2 infusion). Dose-limiting toxicity occurred at level 6 (30-mg/m2 bolus, 70-mg/m2 infusion) with tumor lysis, hyperbilirubinemia, and mucositis. Death occurred in 5 patients (9%). Complete remission occurred in 22 (40%) across all doses. Overall and disease-free survivals for complete remission patients are more than 60% at more than 2 years. Pharmacokinetics demonstrated a dose-response for total and unbound plasma flavopiridol unrelated to total protein, albumin, peripheral blast count, or toxicity. Pharmacodynamically, flavopiridol inhibited mRNAs of multiple cell cycle regulators, but with uniform increases in bcl-2. “Hybrid FLAM” is active in relapsed/refractory acute leukemias, with a recommended “hybrid” dose of bolus 30 mg/m2 followed by infusion of 60 mg/m2 daily for 3 days. This clinical trial is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00470197