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BACKGROUND: Evidence about the impact of marital status before hematopoietic cell transplantation (hct) on outcomes after hct is conflicting. METHODS: We identified patients 40 years of age and older within the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research registry who underwent hct between January 2008 and December 2015. Marital status before hct was declared as one of: married or living with a partner, single (never married), separated or divorced, and widowed. We performed a multivariable analysis to determine the association of marital status with outcomes after hct. RESULTS: We identified 10,226 allogeneic and 5714 autologous hct cases with, respectively, a median follow-up of 37 months (range: 1-102 months) and 40 months (range: 1-106 months). No association between marital status and overall survival was observed in either the allogeneic (p = 0.58) or autologous (p = 0.17) setting. However, marital status was associated with grades 2-4 acute graft-versus-host disease (gvhd), p < 0.001, and chronic gvhd, p = 0.04. The risk of grades 2-4 acute gvhd was increased in separated compared with married patients [hazard ratio (hr): 1.13; 95% confidence interval (ci): 1.03 to 1.24], and single patients had a reduced risk of grades 2-4 acute gvhd (hr: 0.87; 95% ci: 0.77 to 0.98). The risk of chronic gvhd was lower in widowed compared with married patients (hr: 0.82; 95% ci: 0.67 to 0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Overall survival after hct is not influenced by marital status, but associations were evident between marital status and grades 2-4 acute and chronic gvhd. To better appreciate the effects of marital status and social support, future research should consider using validated scales to measure social support and patient and caregiver reports of caregiver commitment, and to assess health-related quality of life together with health care utilization. ispartof: CURRENT ONCOLOGY vol:27 issue:6 pages:E596-E606 ispartof: location:Switzerland status: published

The clinical outcomes of maxillary rehabilitation with the additively manufactured sub-periosteal jaw implant (AMSJI; CADskills BV) were evaluated in edentulous patients with a Cawood-Howell atrophy classification ≥5 in all regions of the maxilla. Fifteen consecutive patients were included in the study and followed up for 1 year. They were interviewed using a survey protocol and were examined clinically and radiographically preoperatively (T0) and at 1 (T1), 6 (T2), and 12 (T3) months after permanent upper prosthesis placement. The patients reported an increased oral health-related quality of life. The overall mean Oral Health Impact Profile-14 score at T0 was 17.20 (standard deviation (SD) 6.42). When results at T0 were compared to those at T1 (mean 8.93, SD 5.30), a statistically significant difference was seen (P = 0.001). At T3, the mean value was 5.80 (SD 4.18). Compared to T0, there was also a statistically significant difference at T3 (P = 0.001). General satisfaction based on the numerical rating scale was a mean 49.93 at T1, which was less than patient expectation prior to treatment at T0 (52.13). A higher overall value was seen at T3 (53.20) when compared to T0. Within the constraints of the short follow-up, the AMSJI appears to be a promising tool for patients with extreme jaw atrophy. The high patient expectations were met without complications.

BACKGROUND Patients with FMS like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3)-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have a poor prognosis and are referred for early allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). METHODS Data from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) were used to evaluate 511 adult patients with de novo AML who underwent HCT during 2008 through 2011 to determine whether FLT3 mutations had an impact on HCT outcomes. RESULTS In total, 158 patients (31%) had FLT3 mutations. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed an increased risk of relapse at 3 years in the FLT3 mutated group compared with the wild-type (WT) group (38% [95% confidence interval (CI), 30%-45%] vs 28% [95% CI, 24%-33%]; P = .04; relative risk, 1.60 [95% CI, 1.15-2.22]; P = .0048). However, FLT3 mutation status was not significantly associated with nonrelapse mortality, leukemia-free survival, or overall survival. Although more patients in the FLT3 mutated group died from relapsed primary disease compared with those in the WT group (60% vs 46%), the 3-year overall survival rate was comparable for the 2 groups (mutated group: 49%; 95% CI, 40%-57%; WT group: 55%, 95% CI, 50%-60%; P = .20). CONCLUSIONS The current data indicate that FLT3 mutation status did not adversely impact overall survival after HCT, and about 50% of patients with this mutation who underwent HCT were long-term survivors. Cancer 2016;122:3005-3014. © 2016 American Cancer Society.

Alternative donor transplantation is increasingly used for high-risk lymphoma patients. We analyzed 1593 transplant recipients (2000-2010) and compared transplant outcomes in recipients of 8/8 allele HLA-A, -B, -C and DRB1 matched unrelated donors (MUDs; n = 1176), 7/8 allele HLA mismatched unrelated donors (MMUDs; n = 275) and umbilical cord blood donors (1 or 2 units UCB; n = 142). Adjusted 3-year non-relapse mortality of MMUD (44%) was higher as compared with MUD (35%; P = 0.004), but similar to UCB recipients (37%; P = 0.19), although UCB had lower rates of neutrophil and platelet recovery compared with unrelated donor groups. With a median follow-up of 55 months, 3-year adjusted cumulative incidence of relapse was lower after MMUD compared with MUD (25% vs 33%, P = 0.003) but similar between UCB and MUD (30% vs 33%; P = 0.48). In multivariate analysis, UCB recipients had lower risks of acute and chronic GVHD compared with adult donor groups (UCB vs MUD: hazard ratio (HR) = 0.68, P = 0.05; HR = 0.35; P=0.001). Adjusted 3-year OS was comparable (43% MUD, 37% MMUD and 41% UCB). These data highlight the observation that patients with lymphoma have acceptable survival after alternative donor transplantation. MMUD and UCB can extend the curative potential of allotransplant to patients who lack suitable HLA matched sibling or MUD.

We evaluated the effect of acute and chronic GVHD on relapse and survival after allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (HSCT) for multiple myeloma using non-myeloablative conditioning (NMA) and reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC). The outcomes of 177 HLA-identical sibling HSCT recipients between 1997 and 2005, following NMA (n=98) or RIC (n=79) were analyzed. In 105 patients, autografting was followed by planned NMA/RIC allogeneic transplantation. The impact of GVHD was assessed as a time-dependent covariate using Cox models. The incidence of acute GVHD (aGVHD; grades I-IV) was 42% (95% confidence interval (CI), 35-49%) and of chronic GVHD (cGVHD) at 5 years was 59% (95% CI, 49-69%), with 70% developing extensive cGVHD. In multivariate analysis, aGVHD (≥ grade I) was associated with an increased risk of TRM (relative risk (RR)=2.42, P=0.016), whereas limited cGVHD significantly decreased the risk of myeloma relapse (RR=0.35, P=0.035) and was associated with superior EFS (RR=0.40, P=0.027). aGVHD had a detrimental effect on survival, especially in those receiving autologous followed by allogeneic HSCT (RR=3.52, P=0.001). The reduction in relapse risk associated with cGVHD is consistent with a beneficial graft-vs-myeloma effect, but this did not translate into a survival advantage.

Background: Myelofibrosis (MF) is recognized for its debilitating constitutional symptoms, splenomegaly, profound cytopenias and inflammatory state. Current MPN PROs (MF-SAF, MPN-SAF and MPN-10) have proven sensitive for symptom detection. Formal FDA qualification requires that these tools integrate a comprehensive literature search of previously reported symptoms as well as complete physician cognitive debriefing. Aims: In this investigation, we aimed to complete these required steps to ascertain the most prevalent and pertinent MPN symptoms for PRO inclusion. Methods: Literature Search: An initial review of the published literature was performed using OVID Medline®. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms included 'primary myelofibrosis' or 'MF', 'Myeloid metaplasia' and 'agnogenic myeloid metaplasia' which were meshed with 'symptom' or 'signs and symptoms' and limited from 1980 to 2011. Articles that were not original research or in the English language were excluded. Articles were then individually reviewed for content with further exclusion of case reports where search terms occurred concurrently with other medical conditions, articles presenting in-vitro data and articles with a primary focus on pharmacotherapy that utilized the MPN-SAF, MPN-SAF TSS or MF-SAF. Articles were then evaluated for all symptoms and recorded by the number of publications they were reported in. Cognitive Debriefing: International MPN specialists were contacted via email to complete the Physician Cognitive Debriefing Evaluation via a REDCAP® survey. Implied consent was provided through survey completion and demographic data was recorded. Responders were asked a series of questions on each symptom acquired through the literature search, along with three free-standing questions on MF PRO development. Thirteen responders were also contacted to complete an in-person interview and respond to eight questions on MF-PRO development. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Results: The OVID Medline search yielded 166 articles for MF which were then individually reviewed. A total of 30 symptoms were extracted from the literature and recorded for incorporation into the REDCAP survey. The survey was distributed to 48 MPN specialists and 17 (35.4%) agreed to participate. Most responders were Caucasian (94.1%) and male (76.5%) with >5 years experience (94.1%) as physicians. Providers saw between 1-5 (58.8%), 6-10 (23.5%) or >10 (11.8) MF patients per week and most held primary practices in Europe (70.6%). Survey responses to symptom questions are provided in Figure 1. During in-person interviews, some providers felt that a different list of symptoms should be provided to patients with: early vs late MF (61.5%), primary vs secondary MF (7.7%) and clinical trial settings vs office environments (23.1%). Most providers felt that 'inactivity' (100%), 'fever' (92.3%) and 'weight loss' (92.3%) were signs as opposed to symptoms of the disease, though should still be included in the PRO (92.3% for each). Most providers believed that the ideal survey length should be between 10-20 questions. Two providers believed that 'health economics' and 'activities of daily living' should be integrated into a final PRO. Summary/Conclusions: Results of the literature search and Physician Cognitive Debriefing support that the MPN-SAF currently addresses the most frequent and symptomatic MF symptoms, with the exception of four items (dyspnea, easy bruising, arthralgias, nausea). Addition Patient Cognitive Debriefing is required to ensure that the final PRO is comprehensive of the most important symptoms to patients. (Figuer Presented).

Speech sounds are said to be perceived categorically. This notion is usually operationalized as the extent to which discrimination of stimuli is predictable from phoneme classification of the same stimuli. In this article, vowel continua were presented to listeners in a four-interval discrimination task (2IFC with flankers, or 4I2AFC) and a classification task. The results showed that there was no indication of categorical perception at all, since observed discrimination was found not to be predictable from the classification data. Variation in design, such as different step sizes or longer interstimulus intervals, did not affect this outcome, but a 2IFC experiment (without flankers, or 2I2AFC) involving the same stimuli elicited the traditional categorical results. These results indicate that the four-interval task made it difficult for listeners to use phonetic information and, hence, that categorical perception may be a function of the type of task used for discrimination.

A number of experiments were carried out in order to test the hypothesis that categorical perception of speech stimuli is a function of synthetis quality – specifically, that the greater complexity of more natural speech stimuli makes it difficult for listeners to focus on particular stimulis parameters as psychoacoustic cues. The results show that there is an increase in categorical perception as synthesis quality improves from a simple synthesis by rule, via LPC synthesis, to a much more complex type called sinewave generation.

Background. Symptom burden in MPNs is severe and a risk factor for mortality in some disease subtypes (Blood 2010;115(9):1703-8). A recent trial comparing JAK2 treatment to best available therapy revealed that patients receiving conventional MPN therapies experienced no difference or worsening of symptoms (Blood 2011;118(21):a6501). No studies have evaluated the specific associations of conventional therapies on individual MPN symptoms using a validated patient-reported measure of symptom burden. Aims. We aimed to assess associations between conventional therapies on specific MPN symptoms using the MPN-SAF TSS (Blood 2011;118(21):a3839). Methods. Patient demographics, symptom burden and disease traits including therapies were collected from MPN patients and physicians at a single time point during therapy. MPN-SAF TSS included "worst"fatigue from the BFI and MPN-SAF items of concentration, early satiety, inactivity, night sweats, itching, bone pain, abdominal discomfort, weight loss and fever. MPN-SAF TSS was calculated as the total 10-item score, reported in a range of 0 to 100 for patients completing at least 6 of the 10 items. Results. Demographics: 1433 MPN patients were prospectively enrolled, including 594 essential thrombocythemia(ET), 538 polycythemia vera(PV) and 293 myelofibrosis(MF) patients from 11 countries. Of these, 1408 patients completed at least 6 of the 10 required items. Patients were 54% female with a median age of 63.Therapies: Common therapies included hydroxyurea/hydroxycarbamide(47.7%), salicylates(43.8%), interferon/pegylated- interferon(9.4%), and phlebotomies(5.3%) with 12.6% receiving no therapy. MPN-SAF TSS variations were observed between patients receiving and not receiving each therapy, although only one reached statistical significance (Table 1). Overall Treatment Effects: When comparing the overall effects of current therapy, worst fatigue was significantly more severe among PV patients undergoing treatment as compared to patients not receiving treatment (4.5(n=497) vs. 3.4(n=30), p=0.03). Among MF patients, abdominal comfort was significantly worse among patients not receiving therapy (3.3(n=57) vs. 2.3(n=230),p=0.02) .Aspirin: ET patients receiving aspirin reported significantly less weight loss than patients not receiving salicylates (0.62(n=298) vs. 0.98(n=283),p=0.03). Additionally, aspirin among ET patients reduced pruritus (1.5(n=296) vs. 2.0(n=284),p=0.02). PV patients receiving aspirin reported more concentration difficulties than patients on a non-aspirin regimen (3.0(n=254) vs. 2.4(n=264),p=0.01). MF patients receiving aspirin reported decreased bone pain (1.5(n=58) vs. 2.4(n=228),p=0.04) and abdominal discomfort (1.9(n=58) vs. 2.7(n=229),p=0.04). Hydroxyurea/hydroxycarbamide: PV patients receiving hydroxyurea/hydroxycarbamide reported decreased itching than patients not on this therapy, although this effect was of borderline significance (2.5(n=272) vs. 3.0(n=255),p=0.05). Phlebotomies: PV patients being given phlebotomies had significantly decreased problems with concentration compared to non-phlebotomized patients (1.9(n=71) vs. 2.8(n=447),p=0.02). Interferon/pegylatedinterferon: PV patients receiving interferon therapy reported increased early satiety (3.1(n=69) vs. 2.4(n=257),p=0.04), fever (0.7(n=67) vs. 0.3(n=455), p=0.02), and MPN-SAF TSS (25.5(n=69) vs. 21.2(n=460),p=0.04) than noninterferon- receiving counterparts. Conclusions. Few significant effects in overall symptom burden were observed in patients undergoing traditional MPN therapies. Though some effects reached nominal statistical significance, a portion may be spurious given the large number of tests performed. Further studies are needed to determine whether treatments impart additional symptom burden or if patients with specific symptom characteristics are selected to receive a particular treatment. Prospective serial assessment of conventional therapy impact is ongoing as part of a new clinical trial.

Background. Myeloproliferative Neoplasma (MPN) give rise to specific symptoms generally not assessed by validated Quality-of-Life (QoL) Questionnaires. In view of the reported high impact of these specific symptoms on QoL and social participation, detailed information on the effect of new developed therapies is of importance. The MPNSymptom Assessment Form (MPN-SAF) is a concise instrument of patient reported outcomes designed to assess the unique spectrum of symptoms present in patients with MPN. Aims. We sought to validate this instrument and to assess symptoms in a representative Dutch population of patients with myelofibrosis (MF), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and polycythemia vera (PV). Methods. The MPN-SAF was translated in Dutch by one of the authors fluent in both languages, confirmed by one member of the Dutch patient MPN Foundation and sent to all members of the Dutch MPN Foundation. The Dutch EORTC-QLQ-C30 was co-administered for validation purposes. In addition, data were compared to a cohort of 102 USA MPN patients completing the MPN-SAF English. Results. The questionnaires were sent to 874 patients. The response rate was 39%. A total of 236 patients were included in the analysis (ET [n=72; 30.5%)], PV [n=119; 50,4%] and MF [n=45; 19,1%]), as 104 questionnaires (34%) had not been completely filled out. The distribution of the type of MPN (19.6%, 22.5% and 57.8% respectively, p

Combining elements from two existing theories of speech sound discrimination, dual process theory (DPT) and trace context theory (TCT), a new theory, called phoneme perception theory, is proposed, consisting of a long-term phoneme memory, a context-coding memory, and a trace memory, each with its own time constants. This theory is tested by means of stop-consonant discrimination data in which interstimulus interval (ISI; values of 100, 300, and 2000 ms) is an important variable. It is shown that discrimination in which labeling plays an important part (2IFC and AX between category) benefits from increased ISI, whereas discrimination in which only sensory traces are compared (AX within category), decreases with increasing ISI. The theory is also tested on speech discrimination data from the literature in which ISI is a variable [Pisoni, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 36, 277-282 (1964); Cowan and Morse, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 79, 500-507 (1986)]. It is concluded that the number of parameters in trace context theory is not sufficient to account for most speech-sound discrimination data and that a few additional assumptions are needed, such as a form of sublabeling, in which subjects encode the quality of a stimulus as a member of a category, and which requires processing time.

Listeners discriminate acoustic differences between phoneme categories at a higher level than similarly sized differences within phoneme categories. The question this paper aims to answer is how this pattern in perceptual sensitivity develops along an acoustic dimension that contrasts two non-native speech sounds: through acquired distinctiveness, through acquired similarity, or through a combination of the two. A pretest-training-post-test experiment was designed to study perceptual development directly, i.e., by including (i) a discrimination task to measure perceptual sensitivity, (ii) a transfer test to ensure language learning instead of stimulus learning, and (iii) a control group to exclude task repetition as an explanation of improvement. It is shown that the typical peak in perceptual sensitivity near a phoneme boundary that native listeners show is not found in relatively inexperienced language learners, despite their ability to classify a continuum in a nativelike way after short laboratory training. Experiment II indicates that a discrimination peak may be achieved by language learners, but only after much more language experience than short-term laboratory training can offer. Furthermore, reasons are given why classification improvement in the laboratory should not be taken as evidence for (i) increased discrimination of the newly learned phonemes and (ii) learning of phoneme representations.

The most important characteristic of temporomandibular disorders is musculoskeletal pain, eminating from the temporomandibular joint and/ or the associated masticatory muscles. The most common temporomandibular disorders involve a balance disturbance of joint loading and the adaptive capacity of joint tissues. Etiological factors leading to such disturbance are largely unknown still. Most cases show an increase in intra-articular friction and associated mechanical joint disturbance. Future research efforts should focus both on factors affecting the adaptive capacity of joint tissue and on reducing their influence.

With the advent of genetic maps for apple that carry common transferable markers, it is possible to investigate genomic relationships between genes present in different accessions. Co-dominant markers, such as microsatellites, are particularly useful for this purpose. In recent years, genetic markers have been developed for a number of resistance genes for apple scab (Venturia inaequalis). In this paper, we present the discovery of a new scab resistance gene (Vh8) that maps to linkage group 2 (LG2). We then bring together the findings from different research groups on other scab resistance genes that also map to LG2 in an attempt to delineate their arrangement. These other genes comprise major genes (Vh2, Vr, Vbj and Vr2), as well as several race specific quantitative trait loci (QTLs) from `Discovery? and `TN10-8?. Results indicate that Vh2 and Vr are probably identical, and that Vh2/Vr, Vh8, Vbj and at least one of the QTLs are closely linked to each other on the lower half of LG2. A putative map of this gene cluster is presented. The fourth major gene, Vr2, maps at a significant distance from this gene cluster at the top end of LG2. We discuss the consequences of resistance gene cluster arrangements on breeding strategies for durable resistance to apple scab and the use of marker-assisted selection

We are entering the era of e-business. Organizations are becoming more and more global and virtual. Modern ICT (information and communication technology) offers the enabling potentials for realizing these organizations. However, the current practice of information system development is not able to meet the new requirements. Not only do developers need a profound insight into the technological potentials of e-business, but also the business system architects need an appropriate understanding of e-business and of the business processes of future organizations. This paper presents such an appropriate understanding, in which an organization is modeled completely abstracted from all realization issues. The potentials of this new understanding, called the OER (Order, Execution, Results) paradigm, are presented and discussed, and its practical usefulness is demonstrated by applying the DEMO (Dynamic Essential Modeling of Organizations) methodology, which is fully based on the OER paradigm, to the example of a library.

New cationic, square-planar, ethene complexes [(Rbpa)RhI(C2H4)]+ [2a]--[2c]+ (Rbpa = N-alkyl-N,N-di(2-pyridylmethyl)amine; [2a]+: alkyl =R=Me; [2b]+: R = Bu; [2c]+: R = Bz) have been selectively oxygenated in acetonitrile by aqueous hydrogen peroxide to 2-rhoda(III)oxetanes with a labile acetonitrile ligand, [(Rbpa)RhIII(kappa2-C,O-CH2CH2O-)(MeCN)]+, [3a]+-[3c]+. The rate of elimination of acetaldehyde from [(Rbpa)RhIII(kappa2-C,O-CH2CH2O-)(MeCN)]+ increases in the order R = MeR = BuR = Bz. Elimination of acetaldehyde from [(Bzbpa)RhIII(kappa2-C,O-CH2CH2O)(MeCN)]+ [3c]+, in the presence of ethene results in regeneration of ethene complex [(Bzbpa)RhI(C2H4)]+ [2c]+, and closes a catalytic cycle. In the presence of Z,Z-1,5-cyclooctadiene (cod) the corresponding cod complex [(Bzbpa)RhI(cod)]+ [6c]+ is formed. Further oxidation of [3c]+ by H2O2 results in the transient formylmethyl-hydroxy complex [(Bzbpa)RhIII(OH)[kappa1-C-CH2C(O)H]]+ [5c]+.

The aim was to find a psychophysical explanation for the perception, by naive listeners, of diphthongs as single vowels, even though they are essentially formant movements. Subjects were asked to match sinusoidal tone and resonance glides around 1,000 Hz with two connected steady-state tones or resonances whose frequencies could be controlled independently. The expectation was that short glides (below 120 ms) would give rise to single perceptual events without any movement in a particular direction, so that the two matching steady-state patterns would not show any frequency direction either; long resonance glides (above 120 ms), on the other hand, were expected to be perceived as rising or falling and matched accordingly. The results showed an effect of duration, although it interacted with glide width. At durations shorter than about 120 ms, subjects placed the two steady profiles with which they had to match the dynamic profile closer together than with durations over 120 ms; however, this only occurred if a glide covered more than 500 Hz, and is therefore irrelevant to diphthong perception.

In this paper the assumption of an equal, Gaussian distribution of the response to each stimulus in an experiment, an assumption which has to be met if d ′ is to be estimated by calculating the difference between z(H) and z(FA), is tested for two different sets of stimuli: 1000-Hz tones differing in level only, and a continuum of stop consonants, obtained by full spectral interpolation between /p/, /t/, and /k/. Response distributions were measured directly by means of a form of non-numerical magnitude estimation, in which subjects had to indicate the position of each stimulus on a quasi-continuous rating scale. It could be shown that, in general, all distributions were sufficiently unimodal, but that their variances differed. The consequences for the calculation of d′ are unlikely to be serious.

We conducted a prospective randomized multicenter clinical trial comparing the effects of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) as an adjunct to intensive chemotherapy in patients of 61 years and older with untreated newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Patients were randomized to either receive daunomycin-cytosine arabinoside with GM-CSF or daunomycin-cytosine arabinoside (control arm). Based on the rationale that GM-CSF might sensitize the leukemic cells to the cytotoxicity of chemotherapy as well as enhance white blood cell regeneration, GM-CSF was given during chemotherapy as well as after chemotherapy. Patients were treated with one, and in case of a partial response, with two remission induction cycles. When a complete remission was attained they received one additional cycle of consolidation therapy. Of 318 evaluable patients with a median age of 68 years, 157 were randomized to receive GM-CSF and 161 were assigned to control therapy. The effect of GM-CSF on treatment was evaluated according to intention-to-treat. Complete remission was achieved in 56% of the patients in the GM-CSF group and 55% of the control patients (P = .98). Recovery of neutrophils was significantly faster in GM-CSF-treated patients. The median time of recovery of neutrophils towards 0.5 x 10(9)/L was 23 days in the GM-CSF group versus 25 days in the control group (P = .0002) with the percentages of patients who recovered being 81% and 71%, respectively. With a median follow-up of 36 months, the probabilities of survival at 2 years after randomization were estimated at 22% for individuals assigned to the GM-CSF treatment as well as for control patients (P = .55). Disease-free survival at 2 years compared 15% and 19% for the two treatment groups (P = .69). The number of nights spent in the hospital, number of transfusions, and frequencies and types of hemorrhages and infections did not differ either. The cytogenetic results at diagnosis of this study in elderly AML shows that there is a relatively high numerical representation of patients with abnormal cytogenetics (55% of documented cases), who showed significantly inferior response rates and survival duration. We conclude that, except for a faster neutrophil recovery, GM-CSF during and after induction chemotherapy does not improve the clinical outcome of elderly patients with AML.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) buffers were optimized for the specific detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) sequences. The effect of pH, potassium chloride concentration and magnesium chloride concentration of three different consensus primers were examined. Several phylogenetically distinct HPVs (HPV1, HPV2, HPV6, HPV8, HPV16, HPV18, and HPV20) were used to determine the optimal buffer components. Genital types were less sensitive to changes in pH than cutaneous types. Higher buffer pH, with a few exceptions, led to increased sensitivity and specificity of HPV detection.

On the basis of a number of vowel and stop‐consonant discrimination experiments (AX and 2IFC fixed and roving) with natural stimuli, it is concluded that stop‐consonant perception is highly categorical: there were few significant differences between the discrimination results and the phoneme identification results. Moreover, the discrimination and identification response maxima differed significantly from the other data points. Vowel perception was much less categorical: the maxima in the functions were much less significant, and there were significant differences between the various paradigms. Consonant discrimination was much less (if at all) subject to range effects than vowel discrimination. All these results point to different memory types for stop consonants and vowels, and, consequently, to a combination of two different theories of speech sound discrimination: dual‐process theory (DPT) for consonants, and trace‐context theory (TCT) for vowels.

In this retrospective EBMT study, the outcome of MDS pts after bone marrow HLA matched unrelated donor transplantation (BMmUrD, n=144) was compared to the one after bone marrow (BMsib, n=240) or PBPC (PBsib, n=184) HLA identical sibling transplantation (HIS, n=424), with myeloablative conditionings, from 1994 to 2004. There were 191 RA/RARS, 183 RAEB, and 194 RAEB-T with no history of MPD/acute leukemia. BMmUrD pts were younger at SCT (p

Subjects were asked to match resonance glides, of various durations and sweep widths around 1000 Hz, with two connected steady‐state resonances whose frequencies could be controlled independently. The expectation was that short resonance glides (below 100 ms), would give rise to single, apparently stationary, perceptual events, so that the two matching steady‐state patterns would not rise or fall. Long glides, on the other hand, were expected to be perceived as rising or falling and to be matched accordingly. It was hoped that this would provide a basis for an explanation of diphthongs as unitary percepts. The resonances formed part of dynamic spectral profiles and consisted of single formantlike peaks swept along the top of a spectral base, consisting of 25 harmonically or logarithmically spaced components from 200 to 5000 Hz. There was an effect of duration, although it interacted with sweep width. At durations shorter than about 120 ms, subjects placed the two steady profiles that they had to match with the dynamic profile, much closer together than with durations over 120 ms; however, this only occurred if sweep width was more than 600 Hz.

Subjects were asked to match sinusoidal tone glides, of various durations (30–210 ms) and sweep widths (50–600 Hz) around a center frequency of 1000 Hz, with two connected steady‐state tones whose frequencies could be controlled independently. The expectation was that short glides would give rise to single perceptual events without any movement in a particular direction, so that the two matching steady‐state tones would not show any frequency direction either; long glides, on the other hand, were expected to be perceived as rising or falling tones and matched accordingly. It was hoped that this would provide a basis for an explanation of diphthongs as unitary percepts. However, no effect of duration was found at all; on average, glides were matched with tones whose frequencies corresponded to those reached by the glides after one‐third and two‐thirds of their course had been completed, regardless of duration.

Rather than to assume that all stimuli on a continuum give rise to perceptual distributions that are Gaussian and equal, it is sometimes desirable to determine these distributions more directly, for example when the stimuli are speech sounds. This can be done by means of (absolute) identification or (non‐numerical) magnitude estimation. A problem with such methods is that the apparent distributions obtained with them become skewed as the stimuli approach either end of the continuum. An attempt was made to recover the underlying distributions by extending the response range by three stimulus steps beyond the continuum endpoints, both for intensity and for stop consonants. The resulting distributions were fitted by means of Gaussian functions, so that a direct measure of d’ in these tasks was obtained. It is assumed that in tasks other than identification or magnitude estimation, the widths of the distributions change, but that their means are unaffected.

One of the assumptions underlying the calculation of almost every d′ in the literature is that the distribution of sensations resulting from repeated presentation of a stimulus is normal and is equal to the distributions produced by the other stimuli in an experiment. This could be a reasonable approximation for pure tones, but it is doubtful whether it applies to more complex stimuli such as speech. A series of magnitude‐estimation experiments was carried out, in which subjects were asked to indicate the position of each stimulus on a line on a monitor screen, which ran either from ‘‘soft’’ to ‘‘loud’’ or from /p/ to /t/. The stimuli were practically identical to those used by [L. D. Braida and N. I. Durlach, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 51, 483–502 (1972), and by M. E. H. Schouten and A. J. van Hessen, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 92, 1841–1855 (1992)]. Training was done by means of identification of the same stimuli on a similar line, but now subdivided into segments. Each stimulus was presented for magnitude estimation...

In two previous papers locus positions had been determined for six Dutch consonants, by means of extrapolation of traces consisting of voiced samples. In the present paper, locus positions were also determined for the remaining Dutch consonants; by disregarding the distinction between voiced and voiceless samples, which was found to be unnecessary, we could do this without extrapolation. Three speakers were used, who uttered every CVC-word five times, both as isolated words, and as stressed syllables in a text.

In 1910, Herrick described the first authentic case of sickle cell disease in a young student from Grenada in the West Indies [1]. He records that he was "uncertain whether the blood picture represented merely a freakish poikilocytosis or is dependent on some peculiar physical or chemical condition of the blood or is characteristic of some particular disease." It is obvious that this was not a "new disease" and Konotey-Ahulu [2] notes that the disease bears many different tribal names in Africa, and was probably well recognized in that area for many centuries. In 1846, Lebby [3] had described the clinical case of a Negro who had "bilious intermittent and remittent fevers" and at autopsy no spleen could be found. This patient probably had sickle cell anemia and the spleen had become atrophic as a result of numerous infarcts. The prevalence of sickle cell anemia varies in different parts of the world. In Jamaica it is estimated that approximately 11% of the population carry the gene for S hemoglobin and the homozygous disease occurs in 0.2% of the people. In Curacao the comparable figures are 6.5% and 0.3%. The genetic basis of the disease was recognized by Emmel [4] and was firmly established by the study of Pauling et al [5]. It is now known that the abnormality of the sickle cell hemoglobin consists of the substitution of valine for glutamic acid in position 6 in the beta-chain. The fact that the kidney might be involved in sickle cell anemia was recognized very early, and in Herrick's original reports he mentioned the presence of urinary casts, leukocyturia, a slightly increased diuresis and urine of low specific gravity. In 1923 Sydenstricker, Mulherin and Houseal first described macroscopic and microscopic studies of the kidney on necropsy [6], and after a hiatus of 25 yr, reports of functional studies began to appear. The present review examines some of the older as well as the more recent information on the morphology of the kidney in sickle cell disease, the functional changes which occur, as well as the clinically significant syndromes with which the patient may present. In addition, some attempt is made to correlate the anatomic and functional changes.