Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: Up-dated recommendations on diagnosis and treatment

Diagnosis and treatment of chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CLL) are currently undergoing great change. New knowledge of prognosis factors and the numerous new therapeutic procedures now available, such as purine analogues, high-dose treatment and monoclonal antibodies are making major contributions to this progress. As a consequence, the options for treatment of CLL are considerably more diverse now than a few years ago, and now include procedures that take into account age and risk. At the same time, it should be emphasized that many important questions regarding the treatment of CLL remain unresolved. It is anticipated that these questions will be answered over the coming few years by including patients in multicentre studies like those being carried out by the German CLL study group

Bird Utilization of Woodland Habitat in the Eastern Quarter of South Dakota

Bird utilization of narrow, riparian woodland; riparian; block-like, tree claim; and linear, single-row windbreak habitats in the eastern quarter of South Dakota were studied during the spring migration, reproductive, and winter seasons. The relative importance of these three habitats and multi-row shelterbelt habitat was evaluated using bird species diversity (BSD), bird population density, and habitat preferences of individual bird species. Cluster analysis delineated distinctive vegetation cover types in each of the three habitats studied. Bird communities associated with each cover type were tabulated for comparison purposes and predication capabilities. Multiple regression analysis predicted physical and vegetation features of each habitat type that correlated with BSD, population density, and density of common nesting and wintering birds. Maintenance of BSD at present levels in woodlands of the eastern quarter of South Dakota is dependent primarily upon preservation of riparian woodland habitat, and secondly tree claim habitat. Shelterbelt and windbreak habitats supported bird diversities lower (p \u3c 0.05) than riparian woodland or tree claim habitats during all seasons studied, but supported significantly higher ( p \u3c 0.05 level) population densities during all seasons except winter. Single-row windbreaks were not suitable for supporting winter bird populations. Sparse stands of trees (± = 32.2 trees/0.4 ha) with occasional shrubs (± = 54.0 m3 /0.4 ha) supported all but one of the bird specific associated with dense tree stands (± = 144.2 trees/0.4 ha) with a moderately developed shrub layer (± = 678.8 m3/ 0.4 ha) in riparian woodlands during the reproductive season. Elimination of the shrub layer and loss of tree vigor, however, caused a decrease in number of species using tree claim habitat. Unique transients occurred in tree claim habitat. Unique transients occurred in tree claims with dense tree stands (± = 2126.0 trees/0.4ha) and developed shrub layers (± = 1082.6m3/0.4 ha) and in the denser riparian woodland study plots during spring migration. Maintaining maximum bird diversity in riparian woodland habitat during spring migration and reproductive seasons was most dependent on the area of habitat present. Minimum plot sizes of 6.0 ha and 5.9 ha were predicated to support 95% of the maximum BSD supported by riparian woodland habitat during the spring migration and reproductive seasons, respectfully. [See more in text

Condor services for the Global Grid:interoperability between Condor and OGSA

In order for existing grid middleware to remain viable it is important to investigate their potentialfor integration with emerging grid standards and architectural schemes. The Open Grid ServicesArchitecture (OGSA), developed by the Globus Alliance and based on standard XML-based webservices technology, was the first attempt to identify the architectural components required tomigrate towards standardized global grid service delivery. This paper presents an investigation intothe integration of Condor, a widely adopted and sophisticated high-throughput computing softwarepackage, and OGSA; with the aim of bringing Condor in line with advances in Grid computing andprovide the Grid community with a mature suite of high-throughput computing job and resourcemanagement services. This report identifies mappings between elements of the OGSA and Condorinfrastructures, potential areas of conflict, and defines a set of complementary architectural optionsby which individual Condor services can be exposed as OGSA Grid services, in order to achieve aseamless integration of Condor resources in a standardized grid environment