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High-spin states of the mass A= 39 mirror pair 39K and 39Ca were investigated via the fusion-evaporation reaction 28Si +16O at 125 MeV beam energy. The Gammasphere array in conjunction with the 4π charged-particle detector array Microball and neutron detectors was used to detect γ rays in coincidence with evaporated light particles. The results of the first high-spin study of the Tz=−1/2 nucleus 39Ca are discussed in terms of mirror symmetry and compared to spherical shell-model calculations in the 1 d3/2–; 1 f7/2 configuration space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endothelial cells are involved in the pathogenesis of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. These cells express several molecules that can be detected as biologically active soluble forms; serum levels of these molecules may thereby reflect the functional status of endothelial cells. Furthermore, acute GVHD is an inflammatory reaction and endothelial cells function as local regulators of inflammation. We therefore investigated whether differences in preconditioning/pretransplant serum levels of endothelium-expressed molecules (i.e., endocan, vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1), and E-selectin) were associated with a risk of posttransplant GVHD. Our study should be regarded as a population-based study of consecutive and thereby unselected patients (n = 56). Analysis of this pretreatment endothelium biomarker profile by unsupervised hierarchical clustering identified a subset of patients with increased early nonrelapse mortality. Furthermore, low endocan levels were significantly associated with acute GVHD in the liver and gastrointestinal tract, whereas high VCAM-1 levels were associated with acute GVHD in the skin only. Our study suggests that the preconditioning/pretransplant status of endothelial cells (possibly through altered trafficking of immunocompetent cells) is important for the risk and the organ involvement of later acute GVHD.