Is Bevacizumab (Avastin) Safe and Effective as Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Adult Patients With Stage IIIb or IV Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC)?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not bevacizumab (avastin) is safe and effective as adjuvant chemotherapy for adult patients with stage IIIb or IV non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). STUDY DESIGN: Review of three randomized controlled trials (RCT) published in 2006, 2009, and 2011, all English language. DATA SOURCES: Two randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trials comparing bevacizumab to placebo as adjunctive chemotherapy, and one RCT comparing bevacizumab as adjunctive chemotherapy versus the use of no adjunctive chemotherapy. All articles were found using PubMed, Medline, and OVID. OUTCOMES MEASURED: Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were measured. OS was defined as time from randomization to death from any cause. PFS was defined as time from randomization to first documented disease progression or death on study treatment, whichever occurred first. Event-time distributions were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: Herbst et al2 and Reck et al6 compared traditional chemotherapy plus bevacizumab to traditional chemotherapy plus placebo, and Sandler et al3 compared traditional chemotherapy plus bevacizumab to traditional chemotherapy alone. Herbst et al2 failed to find a significant difference in OS or PFS between subjects using adjuvant bevacizumab and those using traditional chemotherapy. Reck et al6 was unable to assess OS; however, the investigators reported that PFS was significantly improved with the addition of bevacizumab to traditional chemotherapy. Sandler et al3 established that the addition of bevacizumab to traditional chemotherapy has statistically significant survival benefits in patients with NSCLC. CONCLUSIONS: From the research performed and results obtained, the evidence is inconclusive and conflicting to support the use of bevacizumab as adjuvant chemotherapy for stage IIIb or IV NSCLC. With inconsistencies and differing results among the three RCTs, further research would be helpful to confirm or negate the question of whether bevacizumab is actually beneficial as adjuvant therapy. In addition to researching the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab as adjuvant chemotherapy, it would be advantageous to study the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab as monotherapy. Further research is warranted to obtain more conclusive data

Vector chiral order in frustrated spin chains

By means of a numerical analysis using a non-Abelian symmetry realization of the density matrix renormalization group, we study the behavior of vector chirality correlations in isotropic frustrated chains of spin S=1 and S=1/2, subject to a strong external magnetic field. It is shown that the field induces a phase with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry, in line with earlier theoretical predictions. We present results on the field dependence of the order parameter and the critical exponents.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Near Resonantly Enhanced Schlieren for Wake Flow Visualisation in Shock Tunnels

A new variant of the resonantly enhanced schlieren or shadowgraph technique has been developed for visualising flows with small density gradients using seeded lithium metal as the resonant species. The novelty of the technique lies in the use of a diode laser as the light source for the visualisation rather than systems based upon solid-state-pumped dye lasers or spectral lamps. We present time-resolved visualisations of near-wake flows around a cylinder in a hypersonic freestream in a shock tunnel, showing flow structures that cannot be resolved using a conventional standard schlieren system. Furthermore, a method of removing, at least partially, the limitation related to line-ofsight visualisation is demonstrated

Spin Waves in Quantum Antiferromagnets

Using a self-consistent mean-field theory for the $S=1/2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnet Kr\"uger and Schuck recently derived an analytic expression for the dispersion. It is exact in one dimension ($d=1$) and agrees well with numerical results in $d=2$. With an expansion in powers of the inverse coordination number $1/Z$ ($Z=2d$) we investigate if this expression can be {\em exact} for all $d$. The projection method of Mori-Zwanzig is used for the {\em dynamical} spin susceptibility. We find that the expression of Kr\"uger and Schuck deviates in order $1/Z^2$ from our rigorous result. Our method is generalised to arbitrary spin $S$ and to models with easy-axis anisotropy \D. It can be systematically improved to higher orders in $1/Z$. We clarify its relation to the $1/S$ expansion.Comment: 8 pages, uuencoded compressed PS-file, accepted as Euro. Phys. Lette

F AUNA BUR VANA. COLEOPTERA, Fam. Brenthidae

abstract not availabl

ZWEI NEUE INDOMALAYISCHE LYCIDAE

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FAUNA BURUANA, COLEOPTERA, Fam.Lycidae

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BESTIMMUNGSSCHLUSSEL DER GATTUNG LYROPAEUS C.O.WAT.

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BESTIMMUNGSTABELLE DER GATTUNG TRICHALUS

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Neue Lycidae von den Sunda-Inseln

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