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Recent biologging technology reveals hidden life and breeding strategies of nocturnal animals. Combining animal movement patterns with individual characteristics and landscape features can uncover meaningful behaviours that directly influence fitness. Consequently, defining the proximate mechanisms and adaptive value of the identified behaviours is of paramount importance. Breeding female barn owls (Tyto alba), a colour-polymorphic species, recurrently visit other nest boxes at night. We described and quantified this behaviour for the first time, linking it with possible drivers, and individual fitness. We GPS-equipped 178 female barn owls and 122 male partners from 2016 to 2020 in western Switzerland during the chick rearing phase. We observed that 111 (65%) of the tracked breeding females were (re)visiting nest boxes while still carrying out their first brood. We modelled their prospecting parameters as a function of brood-, individual- and partner-related variables and found that female feather eumelanism predicted the emergence of prospecting behaviour (less melanic females are usually prospecting). More importantly we found that increasing male parental investment (e.g., feeding rate) increased female prospecting efforts. Ultimately, females would (re)visit a nest more often if they had used it in the past and were more likely to lay a second clutch afterwards, consequently having higher annual fecundity than non-prospecting females. Despite these apparent immediate benefits, they did not fledge more chicks. Through biologging and long-term field monitoring, we highlight how phenotypic traits (melanism and parental investment) can be related to movement patterns and the annual potential reproductive output (fecundity) of female barn owls., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

A multicenter trial was performed to confirm the therapeutic efficacy and the toxicity profile of the combination of cladribine, cyclophosphamide and prednisone in low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Twenty-three adults with previously treated (61%) or untreated (39%) NHL International Working Formulation A or Binet B and C CLL were administered cladribine 0.1 mg/kg/day as a subcutaneous bolus for 5 days, intravenous cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m2 on day 1, and oral prednisone 40 mg/m2 on days 1-5, every 4 weeks. Unexpected early hematological toxicities led to dose modifications for pretreated patients who received cladribine for 3 days only up to a maximum of five courses. Responses were observed in 75%, with 7 patients obtaining a complete clinical and hematological response. Median duration of complete response was 9 months. Median time to progression or relapse was 31 months. Myelosuppression and infections were dose limiting whereas posttreatment complications, including fatalities, resulted from infections. Median overall survival time from trial entry was 60 months. Activity of the combination of cladribine, cyclophosphamide and prednisone was confirmed. However, in the specific setting of a multicenter trial, unexpected fatal infectious episodes occurred in pretreated patients. Great caution is thus required in these susceptible patients and the routine use of corticosteroids should probably be abandoned., (2007 S. Karger AG, Basel)

The authors report on three cases of severe P. falciparum malaria successfully treated by iv quinine and exchange transfusion. Serum concentrations of Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) were determined before and during treatment. After an initial decrease, serum levels of TNF remained markedly elevated during the first 48 hours despite exchange transfusion. Though exchange transfusion accelerates the elimination of parasites from the blood, it seems to have no immediate effects on reducing serum levels of cytokines such as TNF.

Anticardiolipin antibodies (ACA) were determined in 72 heavily transfused haemophiliacs, 43 HIV-positive and 29 HIV-negative. The presence of ACA was detected in 10 patients, all of them infected by HIV: 8 in CDC II, 1 in CDC III and 1 in CDC IV. The comparison with alterations of other laboratory markers in HIV-infected patients did not show any statistically significant difference between ACA-negative and -positive patients. In summary, ACA were found only in HIV-infected haemophiliacs. In this subgroup of patients the presence of ACA was not associated with progression to AIDS.

Two out of three patients with acute myeloid leukemia responded to treatment with small subcutaneous doses of cytosine-arabinoside alone. Although marked cytopenia may transiently occur this treatment has no other side effects and is simple to administer. It may therefore be useful for elderly patients. Morphological studies and indirect evidence suggest that this schedule, dosage and route of administration for cytosine-arabinoside may promote differentiation within the malignant clone rather than acting as a cytotoxic agent.