Comparison of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)--mobilized peripheral blood progenitor cells and G-CSF--stimulated bone marrow as a source of stem cells in HLA-matched sibling transplantation

AbstractHLA-identical bone marrow or stem cell transplantation from a sibling is the preferred treatment for patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia, bone marrow failure syndromes, relapsed acute leukemia, and specific inborn errors of metabolism. Several groups have shown that granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)--mobilized peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) obtained from HLA-matched siblings are effective in reconstitution of marrow function after marrow ablative conditioning therapy. To evaluate whether G-CSF treatment before bone marrow harvest leads to enhanced recovery of PBPC counts and recovery from limited graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), we assessed the outcome of a sequential cohort of patients treated identically and then given either G-CSF--mobilized PBPCs or G-CSF--stimulated bone marrow from HLA-identical siblings. We show that the time to neutrophil engraftment is identical in the 2 cohorts, whereas platelet engraftment is earlier with the use of PBPCs. The incidence of acute GVHD was decreased, and that of chronic GVHD significantly decreased, in the group receiving bone marrow. Overall survival was not different between the 2 groups. Thus, G-CSF--stimulated bone marrow offers a source of stem cells that allows for early neutrophil engraftment with a decreased risk of GVHD.Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2000;6(4A):434-40

Suzanne Bigelow Oral History Interview

Oral history interview of Suzanne Bigelow by Marilyn Warenski about status of women in Mormon culture

Coreless vortices in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Institute of Optics, 2012.Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide the opportunity to study the rotational properties of quantum uids in a low density regime. Early experiments created scalar vortices in single-component BECs, and showed that they share many of the characteristics of denser super uids such as quantized angular momentum and persistent current. Vortices have also been created in multi-component, or spinor, BECs, in which case the wave function, or macroscopic order parameter, of the condensate is a vector. A vortex in one of the components of a spinor BEC is equivalent to a scalar vortex in a single-component condensate; the vortex core, however, can be lled with atoms in one of the other populated spin states, leaving the overall density of the cloud non-singular. "Coreless" vortices can be coherently created by transferring orbital angular momentum from a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam to the condensate through the use of a two-photon Raman technique. This coherent population transfer interaction, along with the fundamental dierences between the rotational properties of scalar and coreless vortices are discussed, and analysis is presented on several specic spin textures including two and three-component coreless vortices created in either a spin-1 or spin-2 87Rb BEC. The rotation of the vortices is conrmed directly through matter-wave interference. The coreless vortex creation process can be interpreted as the coherent transfer of optical information from the LG beam to matter: the two-photon Raman interaction in a lambda conguration writes the dierence in the electric elds into the vectorial wave function of the spinor BEC. This process simultaneously transfers population between the initial and nal states of the lambda system, creating a ground state coherence between the populated states. If the two Raman beams are a defocused Gaussian and a tightly focused LG beam, then the doughnut intensity prole and the azimuthal phase winding of the LG beam is written into the condensate in the form of a two-component coreless vortex. This optical information can then be retrieved from the BEC through the application of a uniform intensity \read" beam to one transition of the lambda system. The interaction between this read beam and the ground state coherence generates light on the other transition of the lambda with an intensity prole and phase corresponding to the initial LG beam. A model is presented that uses the density matrix formalism to describe this transfer and retrieval of optical information in all three spatial dimensions as well as time. The dependence of the intensity prole, phase, and total energy of the generated light is investigated as function of the intensity and single-photon detuning of the read beam for both the case of a homogeneous BEC and one with a Gaussian density distribution

Coreless vortices in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Institute of Optics, 2012.Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide the opportunity to study the rotational properties of quantum uids in a low density regime. Early experiments created scalar vortices in single-component BECs, and showed that they share many of the characteristics of denser super uids such as quantized angular momentum and persistent current. Vortices have also been created in multi-component, or spinor, BECs, in which case the wave function, or macroscopic order parameter, of the condensate is a vector. A vortex in one of the components of a spinor BEC is equivalent to a scalar vortex in a single-component condensate; the vortex core, however, can be lled with atoms in one of the other populated spin states, leaving the overall density of the cloud non-singular. "Coreless" vortices can be coherently created by transferring orbital angular momentum from a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam to the condensate through the use of a two-photon Raman technique. This coherent population transfer interaction, along with the fundamental dierences between the rotational properties of scalar and coreless vortices are discussed, and analysis is presented on several specic spin textures including two and three-component coreless vortices created in either a spin-1 or spin-2 87Rb BEC. The rotation of the vortices is conrmed directly through matter-wave interference. The coreless vortex creation process can be interpreted as the coherent transfer of optical information from the LG beam to matter: the two-photon Raman interaction in a lambda conguration writes the dierence in the electric elds into the vectorial wave function of the spinor BEC. This process simultaneously transfers population between the initial and nal states of the lambda system, creating a ground state coherence between the populated states. If the two Raman beams are a defocused Gaussian and a tightly focused LG beam, then the doughnut intensity prole and the azimuthal phase winding of the LG beam is written into the condensate in the form of a two-component coreless vortex. This optical information can then be retrieved from the BEC through the application of a uniform intensity \read" beam to one transition of the lambda system. The interaction between this read beam and the ground state coherence generates light on the other transition of the lambda with an intensity prole and phase corresponding to the initial LG beam. A model is presented that uses the density matrix formalism to describe this transfer and retrieval of optical information in all three spatial dimensions as well as time. The dependence of the intensity prole, phase, and total energy of the generated light is investigated as function of the intensity and single-photon detuning of the read beam for both the case of a homogeneous BEC and one with a Gaussian density distribution

Development of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Knowledge and Skills for Emergency Medicine Residents: Using the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestone Framework.

Objectives: Emergency medicine (EM) physicians commonly care for patients with serious life-limiting illness. Hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) is a subspecialty pathway of EM. Although a subspecialty level of practice requires additional training, primary-level skills of HPM such as effective communication and symptom management are part of routine clinical care and expected of EM residents. However, unlike EM residency curricula in disciplines like trauma and ultrasound, there is no nationally defined HPM curriculum for EM resident training. An expert consensus group was convened with the aim of defining content areas and competencies for HPM primary-level practice in the ED setting. Our overall objective was to develop HPM milestones within a competency framework that is relevant to the practice of EM. Methods: The American College of Emergency Physicians Palliative Medicine Section assembled a committee that included academic EM faculty, community EM physicians, EM residents, and nurses, all with interest and expertise in curricular design and palliative medicine. Results: The committee peer reviewed and assessed HPM content for validity and importance to EM residency training. A topic list was developed with three domains: provider skill set, clinical recognition of HPM needs, and logistic understanding related to HPM in the ED. The group also developed milestones in HPM-EM to identify relevant knowledge, skills, and behaviors using the framework modeled after the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) EM milestones. This framework was chosen to make the product as user-friendly and familiar as possible to facilitate use by EM educators. Conclusions: Educators in EM residency programs now have access to HPM content areas and milestones relevant to EM practice that can be used for curriculum development in EM residency programs. The HPM-EM skills/competencies presented herein are structured in a familiar milestone framework that is modeled after the widely accepted ACGME EM milestones

Green matter: is there an association between vegetation cover around the home and social brain function in childhood?

Human social cognition is considered an essential skill necessary for socially appropriate behaviours and social integration. Childhood is a time of rapid social expansion and growing independence from parents, but it is also a period of vulnerability in which children may have unequal opportunities for optimal development. Accumulating evidence suggests that access to greenery, such as trees, shrubs, and grassed areas, may promote social skills in children. In this pre-registered, cross-sectional study, we found that vegetation cover around the home was associated with theory of mind (b/SE = 18.36/6.49, p = 0.006, Bayes Factor (BF) = 2.711) but not affect recognition (4.51/6.99, 0.52, 0.133) in 5-12 year-old children (n = 85). Further, neither of two neurophysiological indexes of face emotion processing, the N170 latency (-31.9/42.20, 0.45, 0.201) and the N170 amplitude (-5.58/11.82, 0.63, 1.02), were associated with vegetation cover around the home. Vegetation cover around the home might support the formation of social skills through higher order reasoning about emotion experience and cause and effect as it relates to other people. Future studies including larger, longitudinal samples are required to confirm the findings