Dynamics in chimerism of T cells and dendritic cells in relapsed CML patients and the influence on the induction of alloreactivity following donor lymphocyte infusion.

Item does not contain fulltextDonor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) after allogeneic SCT induces complete remissions in approximately 80% of patients with relapsed CML in chronic phase, but some patients do not respond to DLI. We studied absolute numbers of dendritic cell (DC) subsets and chimerism in T cells and two subsets of blood DCs (myeloid DCs (MDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (PDCs)) in relation to DLI-induced alloreactivity. Based on T cell and DC chimerism, we identified three groups. Four patients were completely donor chimeric in T cells and DC subsets. These patients had an early stage of relapse, and three of the four patients attained complete molecular remission (CMolR) without significant GVHD. Six patients were completely donor in T cells and mixed chimeric in DC subsets. All patients entered CMolR, but this was associated with GVHD in four and cytopenia in three patients. Five patients had mixed chimerism in T cells and complete recipient chimerism in MDC; only two patients entered CMolR. Our data suggest that the combination of donor T cells and mixed chimerism in DC subsets induces a potent graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect in association with GVHD. DLI in patients with an early relapse and donor chimerism in both T cells and DC subsets results in GVL reactivity without GVHD

Student Readiness and the Integration of Experiences in Practice and Education Settings

The ability of vocational education students to effectively utilise and integrate experiences in education and work settings is premised upon their readiness to engage with and reconcile those experiences. Consequently, preparing students to engage in workplace experiences (placements or practicums) and providing interventions after those experiences are likely to make these learning processes more effective. Proposed and discussed in this chapter is how the educational worth of integrating experiences in and across these two settings can be promoted through teacherly interventions before and after students’ experiences in work settings. Central here is students’ readiness to engage effectively in these experiences and interventions. That readiness comprises what the students know, can do and value that together mediate how they make sense of what they experience and then integrate those experiences in ways that will achieve robust (adaptable) learning. The explanatory basis advanced here is to understand and appraise the readiness comprising their zone of potential development. This zone is informed by Vygotskian precepts that acknowledge that the potential scope of individuals’ learning is mediated by what they know, can do and value. Within that zone, vocational education students can largely mediate their own learning. However, taking students beyond that zone necessitates their engagement with others and guidance in promoting their learning (i.e. zone of proximal development) and in ways that are productively aligned with the kinds of educational outcomes to be achieved. For vocational education programmes, these outcomes are usually associated with students learning the knowledge required for occupations, including the ability to adapt it to the requirements of workplaces where students secure employment upon graduation. Consequently, both the students’ individually mediated learning in the zone of potential development and that being provided by teacherly engagements (i.e. proximal development) might be directed towards those educational goals.Arts, Education & Law Group, School of Education and Professional StudiesNo Full Tex

Age and depositional environment of the Draa Sfar massive sulfide deposit, Morocco

The Draa Sfar mineralization consists of two main stratabound orebodies, Sidi M’Barek and Tazacourt, located north and south of the Tensift River (“Oued Tessift”), respectively. Each orebody is comprised by at least two massive sulfide lenses. The hosting rocks are predominantly black shales, although minor rhyolitic rocks are also present in the footwall to the southern orebody. Shales, rhyolitic volcanic rocks, and massive sulfides are all included into the Sarhlef Series, which is recognized as one of the main stratigraphic units of the Moroccan Variscan Meseta. Hydrothermal activity related with an anomalous thermal gradient, together with a high sedimentation rate in a tectonically driven pull-apart marine basin, favored the accumulation of organic-rich mud in the deepest parts of the basin and the sedimentary environment suitable for massive sulfide deposition and preservation. This took place by replacement of the hosting unlithified wet mud below the sediment–water interface. Geochemical data suggest a sedimentary environment characterized by oxic water column and anoxic sediment pile with the redox boundary below the sediment–water interface. The low oxygen availability within the sediment pile inhibited oxidation and pyritization of pyrrhotite. Biostratigraphic analysis, based on the palynological content of the hosting black shales, restricts the age of the sulfides to the Asbian substage (mid-Mississippian). This age is consistent with earlier geochronological constraints