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Nanostructured palladium (Pd) is a universal catalyst that is widely used in applications ranging from catalytic converters of combustion engine cars to hydrogenation catalysts in industrial processes. Standard protocols for synthesizing such nanoparticles (NPs) typically use bottom‐up approaches. They utilize special and often expensive physical techniques or wet‐chemical methods requiring organic surfactants. These surfactants should often be removed before catalytic applications. In this article, the synthesis of Pd NPs immobilized on carbon support by electrochemical erosion without using any surfactants or toxic materials is reported. The Pd NPs synthesis essentially relies on a Pd bulk pretreatment, which causes material embrittlement and allows the erosion process to evolve more efficiently, producing homogeneously distributed NPs on the support. Moreover, the synthesized catalyst is tested for hydrogen evolution reaction. The activity evaluations identify optimal synthesis parameters related to the erosion procedure. The electrocatalytic properties of the Pd NPs produced with sizes down to 6.4 ± 2.9 nm are compared with a commercially available Pd/C catalyst. The synthesized catalyst outperforms the commercial catalyst within all properties, like specific surface area, geometric activity, mass activity, specific activity, and durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous randomised clinical trials and real-world studies have supported the safety of paclitaxel-coated devices for the treatment of femoropopliteal occlusive disease. However, a 2018 summary-level meta-analysis suggested an increased mortality risk for paclitaxel-coated devices compared with uncoated control devices. This study presents an updated analysis of deaths using the most complete and current data available from pivotal trials of paclitaxel-coated versus control devices. Ten trials comparing paclitaxel-coated versus control devices were included in a patient-level pooled analysis. Cox regression models were used to evaluate the effect of paclitaxel exposure on risk of death in both intention-to-treat (ITT; primary analysis) and three as-treated analysis sets accounting for treatment group crossover at the index procedure and over time. The effect of paclitaxel dose and baseline covariates were also evaluated. A total of 2666 participants were included with a median follow-up of 4·9 years. No significant increase in deaths was observed for patients treated with paclitaxel-coated devices. This was true in the ITT analysis (hazard ratio [HR] 1·14, 95% CI 0·93–1·40), the as-treated analysis (HR 1·13, 95% CI 0·92–1·39), and in two crossover analyses: 1·07 (0·87–1·31) when late crossovers were censored and 1·04 (0·84–1·28) when crossovers were analysed from the date of paclitaxel exposure. There was no significant effect of paclitaxel dose on mortality risk. This meta-analysis found no association between paclitaxel-coated device exposure and risk of death, providing reassurance to patients, physicians, and regulators on the safety of paclitaxel-coated devices. Becton Dickinson, Boston Scientific, Cook, Medtronic, Philips, Surmodics, and TriReme Medical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Auditory perception is fundamental to human development and communication. However, no long-term studies have been performed on the plasticity of the auditory system as a function of musical training from childhood to adulthood. The long-term interplay between developmental and training-induced neuroplasticity of auditory processing is still unknown. We present results from AMseL (Audio and Neuroplasticity of Musical Learning), the first longitudinal study on the development of the human auditory system from primary school age until late adolescence. This 12-year project combined neurologic and behavioral methods including structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and auditory tests. A cohort of 112 typically developing participants (51 male, 61 female), classified as "musicians" (n566) and "nonmusicians" (n546), was tested at five measurement timepoints. We found substantial, stable differences in the morphology of auditory cortex (AC) between musicians and nonmusicians even at the earliest ages, suggesting that musical aptitude is manifested in macroscopic neuroanatomical characteristics. Maturational plasticity led to a continuous increase in white matter myelination and systematic changes of the auditory evoked P1-N1-P2 complex (decreasing latencies, synchronization effects between hemispheres, and amplitude changes) regardless of musical expertise. Musicians showed substantial training-related changes at the neurofunctional level, in particular more synchronized P1 responses and bilaterally larger P2 amplitudes. Musical training had a positive influence on elementary auditory perception (frequency, tone duration, onset ramp) and pattern recognition (rhythm, subjective pitch). The observed interplay between "nature" (stable biological dispositions and natural maturation) and "nurture" (learning-induced plasticity) is integrated into a novel neurodevelopmental model of the human auditory system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we introduce a derived smooth duality functor R\underline {Hom}(-,k) on the unbounded derived category D(G) of smooth k-representations of a p-adic Lie group G. Here k is a field of characteristic p. Using this functor we relate various subcategories of admissible complexes in D(G). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is strong evidence for the positive effects of musical training on auditory perception, processing, and training‐induced neuroplasticity, there is still little knowledge on the auditory and neurophysiological short‐term plasticity through listening training. In a sample of 37 adolescents (20 musicians and 17 nonmusicians) that was compared to a control group matched for age, gender, and musical experience, we conducted a 2‐week active listening training (AULOS: Active IndividUalized Listening OptimizationS). Using magnetoencephalography and psychoacoustic tests, the short‐term plasticity of auditory evoked fields and auditory skills were examined in a pre‐post design, adapted to the individual neuro‐auditory profiles. We found bilateral, but more pronounced plastic changes in the right auditory cortex. Moreover, we observed synchronization of the auditory evoked P1, N1, and P2 responses and threefold larger amplitudes of the late P2 response, similar to the reported effects of musical long‐term training. Auditory skills and thresholds benefited largely from the AULOS training. Remarkably, after training, the mean thresholds improved by 12 dB for bone conduction and by 3–4 dB for air conduction. Thus, our findings indicate a strong positive influence of active listening training on neural auditory processing and perception in adolescence, when the auditory system is still developing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the challenges of treating chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) and the need for improved drug delivery in below-the-knee (BTK) revascularizations. The SAVAL trial, which compared a paclitaxel-eluting stent to balloon angioplasty for infrapopliteal occlusive disease, did not show a benefit for the stent. The failure of drug-eluting stents (DES) in this trial raises questions about the factors that contributed to the lack of success, such as the narrow range of treatable vessel diameters and the potential for early thrombosis. Despite these setbacks, the author believes that progress will eventually be made in drug delivery for BTK vascular disease. [Extracted from the article]

The classical parabolic induction functor is a fundamental tool on the representation theoretic side of the Langlands program. In this article, we study its derived version. It was shown by the second author that the derived category of smooth G$G$‐representations over k$k$, G$G$ a p$p$‐adic reductive group and k$k$ a field of characteristic p$p$, is equivalent to the derived category of a certain differential graded k$k$‐algebra HG•$H_G^\bullet$, whose zeroth cohomology is a classical Hecke algebra. This equivalence predicts the existence of a derived parabolic induction functor on the dg Hecke algebra side, which we construct in this paper. This relies on the theory of six‐functor formalisms for differential graded categories developed by O. Schnürer. We also discuss the adjoint functors of derived parabolic induction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. The density split statistics in weak gravitational lensing analyses probes the correlation between regions of different (foreground) galaxy number densities and their weak lensing signal, which is measured by the shape distortion of background galaxies. Aims. In this paper, we reconsider density split statistics, by constructing a new angular filter function that is adapted to the expected relation between the galaxy number density and shear pattern, in a way that the filter weighting the galaxy number density is matched to the filter that is used to quantify the shear signal. Methods. We used the results of numerical ray-tracing simulations, specifically through the Millennium Simulation supplemented by a galaxy distribution based on a semi-analytic model, to construct a matched pair of adapted filter functions for the galaxy density and the tangential shear signal. We compared the performance of our new filter to the previously used top-hat filter, applying both to a different and independent set of numerical simulations (SLICS, cosmo-SLICS). Results. We show that the adapted filter yields a better correlation between the total matter and the galaxy distribution. Furthermore, the adapted filter provides a larger signal-to-noise ratio to constrain the bias between the total matter and the galaxy distribution, and we show that it is, in general, a more sensitive discriminator between different cosmologies, with the exception of cosmologies with very large σ8 values. All analyses lead to the conclusion that our adapted filter should be favoured in future density split statistic works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Auditory cortex volume and shape differences have been observed in the context of phonetic learning, musicianship and dyslexia. Heschl's gyrus, which includes primary auditory cortex, displays large anatomical variability across individuals and hemispheres. Given this variability, manual labelling is the gold standard for segmenting HG, but is time consuming and error prone. Our novel toolbox, called 'Toolbox for the Automated Segmentation of HG' or TASH, automatically segments HG in brain structural MRI data, and extracts measures including its volume, surface area and cortical thickness. TASH builds upon FreeSurfer, which provides an initial segmentation of auditory regions, and implements further steps to perform finer auditory cortex delineation. We validate TASH by showing significant relationships between HG volumes obtained using manual labelling and using TASH, in three independent datasets acquired on different scanners and field strengths, and by showing good qualitative segmentation. We also present two applications of TASH, demonstrating replication and extension of previously published findings of relationships between HG volumes and (a) phonetic learning, and (b) musicianship. In sum, TASH effectively segments HG in a fully automated and reproducible manner, opening up a wide range of applications in the domains of expertise, disease, genetics and brain plasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurements of regional tissue oxygen serve as a proxy to monitor local perfusion and have the potential to guide therapeutic decisions in multiple clinical disciplines. Transcutaneous oximetry (tcpO 2) is a commercially available noninvasive technique that uses an electrode to warm underlying skin tissue and measure the resulting oxygen tension at the skin surface. A novel approach is to directly measure interstitial tissue oxygen using subcutaneous oxygen microsensors composed of a biocompatible hydrogel carrier platform with embedded oxygen sensing molecules. After initial injection of the hydrogel into subcutaneous tissue, noninvasive optical measurements of phosphorescence-based emissions at the skin surface are used to sense oxygen in the subcutaneous interstitial space. The object of the present study was to characterize the in vivo performance of subcutaneous microsensors and compare with transcutaneous oximetry (tcpO 2). Vascular occlusion tests were performed on the arms of 7 healthy volunteers, with repeated tests occurring 1 to 10 weeks after sensor injection, yielding 95 total tests for analysis. Comparative analysis characterized the response of both devices to decreases in tissue oxygen during occlusion and to increases in tissue oxygen following release of the occlusion. Results indicated: (I) time traces returned by microsensors and tcpO 2 were highly correlated, with the median (interquartile range) correlation coefficient of r = 0.93 (0.10); (II) both microsensors and tcpO 2 sensed a statistically significant decrease in normalized oxygen during occlusion (p < 0.001 for each device); (III) microsensors detected faster rates change (p < 0.001) and detected overshoot during recovery more frequently (38% vs. 4% of tests); (IV) inter-measurement analysis showed no correlation of baseline values between microsensors and tcpO 2 (r = 0.03), but comparison of integrated oxygen dynamics showed similar variation in the normalized response to occlusion between devices (p = 0.06), (V) intra-measurement analysis revealed that microsensors detect greater physiological fluctuations than tcpO 2 (p < 0.001) and may provide enhanced sensitivity to processes such as vasomotion. Additionally, the functional response of microsensors was not significantly different across time groupings (per month) post-injection (p = 0.61). Although the compared devices have differences in the mechanisms used to sense oxygen, these findings demonstrate that subcutaneous oxygen microsensors measure changes in interstitial tissue oxygen in human subjects in vivo. • Study characterized ability of microsensors to monitor oxygen in the interstitial space of subcutaneous tissue in vivo. • Pressure cuff occlusions were used to create changes in tissue oxygen, measurements recorded using microsensors and tcpO 2. • Comparative analysis considered responsivity and correlation in oxygen sampled by both devices. • Performance data analyzed from multiple visits over 3 months after sensor injections. • Subcutaneous oxygen microsensors were able to sense changes in tissue oxygen confirmed by a tissue oximetry device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Five years of prospective clinical trials confirm that the paclitaxel drug-coated balloon (DCB) (IN.PACT Admiral, Medtronic, Dublin, Ireland) is safe and effective to treat femoropopliteal artery disease. A recent meta-analysis of heterogeneous trials of paclitaxel-based balloons and stents reported that they are associated with increased mortality and that higher doses are linked to higher mortality from 2 to 5 years.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a correlation between paclitaxel exposure and mortality by conducting an independent patient-level meta-analysis of 1,980 patients with up to 5-year follow-up.Methods: Data from 2 single-arm and 2 randomized independently adjudicated prospective studies of a paclitaxel DCB (n = 1,837) and uncoated percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) (n = 143) were included. Analyses of baseline, procedure, and follow-up data of individual patients were performed to explore correlations of paclitaxel dose with long-term mortality. Survival time by paclitaxel dose tercile was analyzed with adjustment of inverse probability weighting to correct baseline imbalances and study as random effect. A standard cohort was defined to compare DCB- and PTA-treated patients with similar characteristics by applying criteria from pivotal studies (n = 712 DCB, n = 143 PTA).Results: A survival analysis stratified nominal paclitaxel dose by low, mid, and upper terciles; mean doses were 5,019.0, 10,007.5, and 19,978.2 μg, respectively. Rates of freedom from all-cause mortality between the 3 groups through 5 years were 85.8%, 84.2%, and 88.2%, respectively (p = 0.731). There was no significant difference in all-cause mortality between DCB and PTA through 5 years comparing all patients (unadjusted p = 0.092) or patients with similar characteristics (adjusted p = 0.188).Conclusions: This independent patient-level meta-analysis demonstrates that this paclitaxel DCB is safe. Within DCB patients, there was no correlation between level of paclitaxel exposure and mortality. (Randomized Trial of IN.PACT Admiral® Drug Coated Balloon vs Standard PTA for the Treatment of SFA and Proximal Popliteal Arterial Disease [INPACT SFA I], NCT01175850; IN.PACT Admiral Drug-Coated Balloon vs. Standard Balloon Angioplasty for the Treatment of Superficial Femoral Artery [SFA] and Proximal Popliteal Artery [PPA] [INPACT SFA II], NCT01566461; MDT-2113 Drug-Eluting Balloon vs. Standard PTA for the Treatment of Atherosclerotic Lesions in the Superficial Femoral Artery and/or Proximal Popliteal Artery [MDT-2113 SFA], NCT01947478; The IN.PACT SFA Clinical Study for the Treatment of Atherosclerotic Lesions in the Superficial Femoral Artery and/or Proximal Popliteal Artery Using the IN.PACT Admiral™ Drug-Eluting Balloon in a Chinese Patient Population, NCT02118532; and IN.PACT Global Clinical Study, NCT01609296). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider several aspects of the generalized multi-plane gravitational lens theory, in which light rays from a distant source are affected by several main deflectors, and in addition by the tidal gravitational field of the large-scale matter distribution in the Universe when propagating between the main deflectors. Specifically, we derive a simple expression for the time-delay function in this case, making use of the general formalism for treating light propagation in inhomogeneous spacetimes which leads to the characterization of distance matrices between main lens planes. Applying Fermat's principle, an alternative form of the corresponding lens equation is derived, which connects the impact vectors in three consecutive main lens planes, and we show that this form of the lens equation is equivalent to the more standard one. For this, some general relations for cosmological distance matrices are derived. The generalized multi-plane lens situation admits a generalized mass-sheet transformation, which corresponds to uniform isotropic scaling in each lens plane, a corresponding scaling of the deflection angle, and the addition of a tidal matrix (mass sheet plus external shear) to each main lens. The scaling factor in the lens planes exhibits a curious alternating behavior for odd and even numbered planes. We show that the time delay for sources in all lens planes scale with the same factor under this generalized mass-sheet transformation, thus precluding the use of time-delay ratios to break the mass-sheet transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the same lens galaxies, the ratios of tangential shears for different source galaxy redshifts is equal to the ratios of their corresponding angular-diameter distances. This is the so-called shear-ratio test (SRT) and it is valid when effects induced by the intervening large-scale structure (LSS) can be neglected. The dominant LSS effect is magnification bias which, on the one hand, induces an additional shear, and on the other hand, causes a magnification of the lens population. Our objective is to quantify the magnification bias for the SRT and show an easy-to-apply mitigation strategy that does not rely on additional observations. We use ray-tracing data through the Millennium simulation to measure the influence of magnification on the SRT and test our mitigation strategy. Using the SRT as a null-test we find deviations from zero up to 10% for a flux-limited sample of lens galaxies, which is a strong function of lens redshift and the lens-source line-of-sight separation. Using our mitigation strategy we can improve the null-test by a factor of ∼100. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the statistics of peaks in a weak-lensing reconstructed mass map of the first 450 deg2 of the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS-450). The map is computed with aperture masses directly applied to the shear field with an NFW-like compensated filter. We compare the peak statistics in the observations with that of simulations for various cosmologies to constrain the cosmological parameter S8=σ8Ωm/0.3--√ S8=σ8Ωm/0.3, which probes the (Ωm, σ8) plane perpendicularly to its main degeneracy. We estimate S8 = 0.750 ± 0.059, using peaks in the signal-to-noise range 0 ≤ S/N ≤ 4, and accounting for various systematics, such as multiplicative shear bias, mean redshift bias, baryon feedback, intrinsic alignment, and shear-position coupling. These constraints are ∼ 25 per cent tighter than the constraints from the high significance peaks alone (3 ≤ S/N ≤ 4) which typically trace single-massive haloes. This demonstrates the gain of information from low-S/N peaks. However, we find that including S/N < 0 peaks does not add further information. Our results are in good agreement with the tomographic shear two-point correlation function measurement in KiDS-450. Combining shear peaks with non-tomographic measurements of the shear two-point correlation functions yields a ∼20 per cent improvement in the uncertainty on S8 compared to the shear two-point correlation functions alone, highlighting the great potential of peaks as a cosmological probe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong gravitational lensing is regarded as the most precise technique to measure the mass in the inner region of galaxies or galaxy clusters. In particular, the mass within one Einstein radius can be determined with an accuracy of the order of a few percent or better, depending on the image configuration. For other radii, however, degeneracies exist between galaxy density profiles, precluding an accurate determination of the enclosed mass. The source position transformation (SPT), which includes the well-known mass-sheet transformation (MST) as a special case, describes this degeneracy of the lensing observables in a more general way. In this paper we explore properties of an SPT, removing the MST to leading order, that is we consider degeneracies which have not been described before. The deflection field resulting from an SPT is not curl-free in general, and thus not a deflection that can be obtained from a lensing mass distribution. Starting from a variational principle, we construct lensing potentials that give rise to a deflection field, which differs from by less than an observationally motivated upper limit. The corresponding mass distributions from these "valid" SPTs are studied: their radial profiles are modified relative to the original mass distribution in a significant and non-trivial way, and originally axi-symmetric mass distributions can obtain a finite ellipticity. These results indicate a significant effect of the SPT on quantitative analyses of lens systems. We show that the mass inside the Einstein radius of the original mass distribution is conserved by the SPT; hence, as is the case for the MST, the SPT does not affect the mass determination at the Einstein radius. Furthermore, we analyse a degeneracy between two lens models, empirically found previously, and show that this degeneracy can be interpreted as being due to an SPT. Thus, degeneracies between lensing mass distributions are not just a theoretical possibility, but do arise in actual lens modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood, saliva, and semen are some of the forensically most relevant biological stains commonly found at crime scenes, which can often be of small size or challenging due to advanced decay. In this context, it is of great importance to possess reliable knowledge about the effects of degradation under different environmental conditions and to use appropriate methods for retrieving maximal information from limited sample amount. In the last decade, RNA analysis has been demonstrated to be a reliable approach identifying the cell or tissue type of an evidentiary body fluid trace. Hence, messenger RNA (mRNA) profiling is going to be implemented into forensic casework to supplement the routinely performed short tandem repeat (STR) analysis, and therefore, the ability to co-isolate RNA and DNA from the same sample is a prerequisite. The objective of this work was to monitor and compare the degradation process of both nucleic acids for human blood, saliva, and semen stains at three different concentrations, exposed to dry and humid conditions during a 17-month time period. This study also addressed the question whether there are relevant differences in the efficiency of automated, magnetic bead-based single DNA or RNA extraction methods compared to a manually performed co-extraction method using silica columns. Our data show that mRNA, especially from blood and semen, can be recovered over the entire time period surveyed without compromising the success of DNA profiling; mRNA analysis indicates to be a robust and reliable technique to identify the biological source of aged stain material. The co-extraction method appears to provide mRNA and DNA of sufficient quantity and quality for all different forensic investigation procedures. Humidity and accompanied mold formation are detrimental to both nucleic acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let $$G=G(k)$$ be a connected reductive group over a p-adic field k. The smooth (and tempered) complex representations of G can be considered as the nondegenerate modules over the Hecke algebra $${\mathcal {H}}={\mathcal {H}}(G)$$ and the Schwartz algebra $${\mathcal {S}}={\mathcal {S}}(G)$$ forming abelian categories $${\mathcal {M}}(G)$$ and $${\mathcal {M}}^t(G)$$ , respectively. Idempotents $$e\in {\mathcal {H}}$$ or $${\mathcal {S}}$$ define full subcategories $${\mathcal {M}}_e(G)= \{V : {\mathcal {H}}eV=V\}$$ and $${\mathcal {M}}_e^t(G)= \{V : {\mathcal {S}}eV=V\}$$ . Such an e is said to be special (in $${\mathcal {H}}$$ or $${\mathcal {S}}$$ ) if the corresponding subcategory is abelian. Parallel to Bernstein's result for $$e\in {\mathcal {H}}$$ we will prove that, for special $$e \in {\mathcal {S}}$$ , $${\mathcal {M}}_e^t(G) = \prod _{\Theta \in \theta _e} {\mathcal {M}}^t(\Theta )$$ is a finite direct product of component categories $${\mathcal {M}}^t(\Theta )$$ , now referring to connected components of the center of $${\mathcal {S}}$$ . A special $$e\in {\mathcal {H}}$$ will be also special in $${\mathcal {S}}$$ , but idempotents $$e\in {\mathcal {H}}$$ not being special can become special in $${\mathcal {S}}$$ . To obtain conditions we consider the sets $$\mathrm{Irr}^t(G) \subset \mathrm{Irr}(G)$$ of (tempered) smooth irreducible representations of G, and we view $$\mathrm{Irr}(G)$$ as a topological space for the Jacobson topology defined by the algebra $${\mathcal {H}}$$ . We use this topology to introduce a preorder on the connected components of $$\mathrm{Irr}^t(G)$$ . Then we prove that, for an idempotent $$e \in {\mathcal {H}}$$ which becomes special in $${\mathcal {S}}$$ , its support $$\theta _e$$ must be saturated with respect to that preorder. We further analyze the above decomposition of $${\mathcal {M}}_e^t(G)$$ in the case where G is k-split with connected center and where $$e = e_J \in {\mathcal {H}}$$ is the Iwahori idempotent. Here we can use work of Kazhdan and Lusztig to relate our preorder on the support $$\theta _{e_J}$$ to the reverse of the natural partial order on the unipotent classes in G. We finish by explicitly computing the case $$G=GL_n$$ , where $$\theta _{e_J}$$ identifies with the set of partitions of n. Surprisingly our preorder (which is a partial order now) is strictly coarser than the reverse of the dominance order on partitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evidence from large, randomized, controlled peripheral artery disease trials reporting long-term outcomes using drug-coated balloons (DCBs) is limited. Previously, the DCB showed favorable 1-year outcomes compared with conventional percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), yet durability of the treatment effect with DCBs remains unknown.Objectives: This study sought to investigate the longer-term outcomes of a paclitaxel-eluting DCB compared to PTA for femoropopliteal lesions.Methods: We enrolled 331 patients with symptomatic (Rutherford 2 to 4) femoropopliteal lesions up to 18 cm in length. Patients were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to treatment with DCB or PTA. The 24-month assessments included primary patency, freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization (CD-TLR), major adverse events, and quality of life and functional outcomes as assessed by the EuroQOL-5D quality-of-life questionnaire, walking impairment questionnaire, and 6-min walk test.Results: At 24 months, patients treated with DCB showed significantly higher primary patency when compared with PTA (78.9% vs. 50.1%; p < 0.001). The rates of CD-TLR were 9.1% and 28.3% (p < 0.001) for the DCB and PTA groups, respectively. The overall mortality rate in the DCB group was 8.1% versus 0.9% in the PTA group (p = 0.008). There were no device- or procedure-related deaths and no major amputations in either group through 24-month follow-up. The rate of vessel thrombosis was low (1.5% DCB vs. 3.8% PTA; p = 0.243), with no new events reported between 1 and 2 years. Both groups showed similar functional improvement at 2 years, although DCB patients achieved this level of function with 58% fewer reinterventions.Conclusions: The 24-month outcomes from the trial demonstrate a durable and superior treatment effect of DCB versus PTA with significantly higher primary patency, lower CD-TLR, and similar functional status improvement with fewer repeat interventions. (Randomized Trial of IN.PACT Admiral Drug Eluting Balloon vs Standard PTA for the Treatment of SFA and Proximal Popliteal Arterial Disease [INPACT SFA I]; NCT01175850; and IN.PACT Admiral Drug-Coated Balloon vs. Standard Balloon Angioplasty for the Treatment of Superficial Femoral Artery [SFA] and Proximal Popliteal Artery [PPA] [INPACT SFA II]; NCT01566461). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. Future large scale cosmological surveys will provide huge data sets whose analysis requires efficient data compression. In particular, the calculation of accurate covariances is extremely challenging with an increasing number of observables used in the statistical analysis. Aims. The primary aim of this paper is to introduce a formalism for achieving efficient data compression, based on a local expansion of the observables around a fiducial cosmological model. We specifically apply and test this approach for the case of cosmic shear statistics. In addition, we study how well band powers can be obtained from measuring shear correlation functions over a finite interval of separations. Methods. We demonstrate the performance of our approach, using a Fisher analysis on cosmic shear tomography described in terms of E-/B-mode separating statistics (COSEBIs). Results. We show that our data compression is highly effective in extracting essentially the full cosmological information from a strongly reduced number of observables. Specifically, the number of observables needed decreases by at least one order of magnitude relative to the COSEBIs, which already compress the data substantially compared to the shear two-point correlation functions. The efficiency appears to be affected only slightly if a highly inaccurate covariance is used for defining the compressed data vector, showing the robustness of the method. In addition, we show the strong limitations on the possibility of constructing top-hat filters in Fourier space, for which the real-space analog has a finite support, yielding strong bounds on the accuracy of band power estimates. Conclusions. We conclude that efficient data compression is achievable and that the number of compressed data points depends on the number of model parameters. Furthermore, a band convergence power spectrum inferred from a finite angular range cannot be accurately estimated. The error on an estimated band power is larger for a narrower filter and a narrower angular range, which for relevant cases can be as large as 10% for βl/l ~ 0.1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main obstacle that gravitational lensing has in determining accurate masses of deflectors, or in determining precise estimates for the Hubble constant, is the degeneracy of lensing observables with respect to the mass-sheet transformation (MST). The MST is a global modification of the mass distribution which leaves all image positions, shapes, and flux ratios invariant, but which changes the time delay. Here we show that another global transformation of lensing mass distributions exists which leaves image positions and flux ratios almost invariant, and of which the MST is a special case. As is the case for the MST, this new transformation only applies if one considers only those source components that are at the same distance from us. Whereas for axi-symmetric lenses this source position transformation exactly reproduces all strong lensing observables, it does so only approximately for more general lens situations. We provide crude estimates for the accuracy with which the transformed mass distribution can reproduce the same image positions as the original lens model, and present an illustrative example of its performance. This new invariance transformation is most likely the reason why the same strong lensing information can be accounted for with rather different mass models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The light travel time differences in strong gravitational lensing systems allows an independent determination of the Hubble constant. This method has been successfully applied to several lens systems. The formally most precise measurements are, however, in tension with the recent determination of H0 from the Planck satellite for a spatially flat six-parameters ΛCDM cosmology. We reconsider the uncertainties of the method, concerning the mass profile of the lens galaxies, and show that the formal precision relies on the assumption that the mass profile is a perfect power law. Simple analytical arguments and numerical experiments reveal that masssheet like transformations yield significant freedom in choosing the mass profile, even when exquisite Einstein rings are observed. Furthermore, the characterization of the environment of the lens does not break that degeneracy which is not physically linked to extrinsic convergence. We present an illustrative example where the multiple imaging properties of a composite (baryons + dark matter) lens can be extremely well reproduced by a power-law model having the same velocity dispersion, but with predictions for the Hubble constant that deviate by ∼20%. Hence we conclude that the impact of degeneracies between parametrized models have been underestimated in current H0 measurements from lensing, and need to be carefully reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis (TPP) is a variant of periodic paralysis (PP) that occurs in patients with underlying mutations in genes for cation channels, if they develop thyrotoxicosis. It is disabling, and fatalities sometimes occur. Here, we present a patient with TPP who developed hypokalemic paralysis that was probably aggravated by the administration of a carbohydrate, probably contributing to, if not causing, a fatal outcome. Summary: A 30-year-old Chinese patient received 131I treatment for Graves' disease (GD) in our hospital. Three days later in the middle of the night, he developed aggravating paralytic symptoms after a heavy evening meal. The next morning, he was seen in a small clinic and was treated with 1250 mL 5% glucose containing 25 mL 10% potassium chloride (KCl). By early afternoon, he had not improved and was transferred to a city hospital, arriving with grade I muscle strength and severed facial and bulbar paralysis that was shortly followed by cardiac arrest with failure of resuscitation. Shortly before he died, his serum K+ was 1.15 mEq/L (normal=3.5-5). Conclusions: We postulate that severe hypokalemia developed in our patient in part in response to the high intravenous glucose load that he received. We advocate caution against using intravenous glucose solutions for potassium administration in patients with TPP and recommend a review of guidelines suggesting this form of treatment. In rural settings with limited resources, we favor oral potassium, not to exceed 100 mEq per day, and transfer to a modern medical facility in settings where muscle weakness is developing in patients with TPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Decomposing the shear signal into E and B modes properly, i.e. without leakage of B modes into the E-mode signal and vice versa, has been a long-standing problem in weak gravitational lensing. At the two-point level this problem was resolved by developing the so-called ring statistic, and later the COSEBIs; however, extending these concepts to the three-point level is far from trivial. Currently used methods to decompose shear three-point correlation functions (3PCFs) into E and B modes require knowledge of the 3PCF down to arbitrary small scales. This implies that the 3PCF needs to be modelled on scales smaller than the minimum separation of two galaxies and will subsequently be biased towards the model, or, in the absence of a model, the statistic is affected by E-/B-mode leakage (or mixing). In this paper, we derive a new third-order E-/B-mode statistic that performs the decomposition using the 3PCF only on a finite interval, and thereby is free of any E-/B-mode leakage while at the same time relying solely on information from the data. In addition, we relate this third-order ring statistic to the convergence field, thereby enabling a fast and convenient calculation of this statistic from numerical simulations. We note that our new statistic should be applicable to corresponding E-/B-mode separation problems in the cosmic microwave background polarization field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms have been firmly established as standard DNA marker systems since more than 15 years both in forensic stain typing as well as in paternity and kinship testing. However, when analyzing genetic relationships in deficiency cases, STRs have a couple of disadvantages due to the sometimes poor biostatistical efficiency as well as the possibility to observe one or more genetic inconsistencies that could also be explained by mutational events. In such situations, additional robust markers with negligible mutations rates such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletion markers (indels) can be used as adjuncts to provide decisive genetic information in favor for or against the assumed relationship. Both SNPs and indels can now be typed more easily using multiplexes of up to 50 loci based on fragment length analysis on instruments available in all routine forensic and paternity testing laboratories, thus making it possible to extend the range of markers beyond the currently used STRs. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New public governance emphasises less state, more market and more hierarchy as the cornerstones for effective steering of higher education institutions. Based on an explorative analysis of qualitative and quantitative data of fourteen German and European economics departments, we investigate the steering effects of six new public management instruments in the years 2001 and 2002 on subsequent placement success of PhD graduates. Using crisp set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to analyse the data, our results deliver strong support for the positive effects of competition for resources and the varying effects of hierarchy on PhD education. Governance of successful departments is characterised by two solutions: transparency over academic achievements as one single success factor in each solution or a combination of additional funding based on national competitive performance with either no public policy regulations for departments or no university regulations for departments. Governance of unsuccessful departments is characterised by one solution: university regulations for departments or a combination of no additional funding based on national competitive performance and no transparency over academic achievements. Our results strengthen the strong impact of selected competitive mechanisms as an effective governance instrument and the partially detrimental effects of state regulations. University regulations turn out to be successful if they increase transparency over academic achievements by faculty members. Success is unlikely if those rules intervene into PhD education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a natural continuation of the study of skew power series rings A = R[[t; σ, δ]] initiated in an earlier work. We construct skew Laurent series rings B and show the existence of some canonical Ore sets S for the skew power series rings A such that a certain completion of the localization AS is isomorphic to B. This is applied to certain Iwasawa algebras. Finally we introduce subrings of overconvergent skew Laurent series rings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With respect to enormous inter-individual differences in sound perception, this article aims to review the research background of the neural basis of individual sound perception. Principally, two basic listening types can be distinguished: 'holistic' or 'synthetic' listeners recognize the sound as a whole, and appreciate its pitch and timbre as characteristic qualities of the entire sound; and 'spectral' or 'analytical' listeners break up the sound into its harmonic constituents, at the expense of timbral qualities of the sound as a whole. In-between these two extreme listening modes, intermediate listeners perceive holistic and spectral cues simultaneously to varying degrees (auditory ambiguity). Several recent neurological investigations have pinpointed these perceptual differences to neuroanatomical and neurophysiological measures of the auditory cortex. Furthermore, it has been shown that individual auditory perception bias corresponds to musical instrument preference and musical performance style. Multimodal research findings point towards an individual 'fingerprint' of auditory cortex and perception profiles; however, whether these properties are shaped by intense training or rather reflect innate, genetically determined predisposition remains a matter of unresolved debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The neural basis of tinnitus is unknown. Recent neuroimaging studies point towards involvement of several cortical and subcortical regions. Here we demonstrate that tinnitus may be associated with structural changes in the auditory cortex. Using individual morphological segmentation, the medial partition of Heschl''s gyrus (mHG) was studied in individuals with and without chronic tinnitus using magnetic resonance imaging. Both the tinnitus and the non-tinnitus group included musicians and non-musicians. Patients exhibited significantly smaller mHG gray matter volumes than controls. In unilateral tinnitus, this effect was almost exclusively seen in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the affected ear. In bilateral tinnitus, mHG volume was substantially reduced in both hemispheres. The tinnitus-related volume reduction was found across the full extent of mHG, not only in the high-frequency part usually most affected by hearing loss-induced deafferentation. However, there was also evidence for a relationship between volume reduction and hearing loss. Correlations between volume and hearing level depended on the subject group as well as the asymmetry of the hearing loss. The volume changes observed may represent antecedents or consequences of tinnitus and tinnitus-associated hearing loss and also raise the possibility that small cortical volume constitutes a vulnerability factor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The ambiguity of the concept of crime is evident in the two strands of anthropological research covered in this review. One strand, the anthropology of criminalization, explores how state authorities, media, and citizen discourse define particular groups and practices as criminal, with prejudicial consequences. Examples are drawn from research on peasant rebellion, colonialism, youth, and racially or ethnically marked urban poor. The other strand traces ethnographic work on more or less organized illegal and predatory activity: banditry, rustling, trafficking, street gangs, and mafias. Although a criminalizing perspective tends to conflate these diverse forms of "organized" crime, in particular erasing the boundary between street gangs and drug trafficking, the forms have discrete histories and motivations. Their particularities, as well as their historical interactions, illuminate everyday responses to crime and suggest ways to put in perspective the "crime talk" of today, which borders on apocalyptic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents empirical results of explorative case studies that examine whether the New Public Management mechanisms have improved the academic performance of PhD education in selected German and European economics departments. Our data rely on document analyses of organisational variables and in-depth semi-structured interviews with professors in Germany and several European countries. We propose a typology of departments along their PhD production technology and suggest that organisational improvements should look at the processes through which new professional standards gain acceptance in departments and at the means by which long-term incentive problems of collective action in a department are solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the premise that thinking by drawing—thinking through the crafting of the disegno—is the primary way that architects extend their understandings of architecture. It suggests that drawing is an architect’s unique mode of research, inquiry, and is the site for his/her most crucial speculations and constructions. Douglas Darden’s drawings are speculative architectural fantasies that demonstrate this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Forensic molecular genetics has evolved from a rapidly developing field with changing technologies into a highly recognized and generally accepted forensic science, leading to the establishment of national DNA databases with DNA profiles from suspects and convicted offenders. DNA evidence has taken a central role by carrying a significant weight for convictions, as well as by excluding innocent suspects early on in a criminal investigation. Due to this impact on the criminal justice system, guidelines for research in forensic genetics have been introduced already since many years. The most important issues regarding the selection and definition of typing systems both for paternity testing and for forensic identification, the criteria for technical and biostatistical validation, as well as the use of mitochondrial DNA analysis are summarized and discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A new STR typing strategy has been developed allowing the simultaneous amplification and subsequent analysis of 11 polymorphic systems with amplicon sizes smaller than 270bp. The multiplex amplification reaction includes six STR loci from the European standard set of loci (ESS) for DNA databases (D3S1358, D8S1179, D21S11, THO1, FGA and VWA) as well as four additional STR systems selected for their robustness (D2S1338, D12S391, TPOX and D5S818) together with the sex-specific locus amelogenin. After PCR amplification, the multiplex reaction is splitted into two sets of STR multiplexes by using biotin labelled primers only for one set. Using streptavidin-coated Sepharose beads five STR systems are separated from the other six systems prior to being analysed in two different runs on a capillary gel electrophoresis instrument. The multiplex system was developed and tested especially for the use in forensic casework if only limited amounts or highly degraded DNA is available, for instance, when isolated from telogen hair roots. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Substantial changes have transformed Sicily over the forty years that we have known it as anthropological fieldworkers. This essay draws particular attention to the appearance of industrial age technologies and related modernizing trends; to a dramatic decline in fertility with effects on family life and civic culture; and to the emergence of an antimafia social movement demanding effective police and juridical restraint of organized crime. It further considers what in retrospect were blind spots in our research, in particular our earlier understandings of the long-term viability of the Sicilian Left and of the organization and regional coherence of the Mafia. The passage of time raises new questions and produces new frameworks for analysis. Based on our recent research in Palermo, we attempt to assess the prospects for the Mafia and antimafia process in Sicily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The first purpose of this paper is to set up a general notion of skew power series rings S over a coefficient ring R, which are then studied by filtered ring techniques. The second goal is the investigation of the class of S-modules which are finitely generated as R-modules. In the case that S and R are Auslander regular we show in particular that the codimension of M as S-module is one higher than the codimension of M as R-module. Furthermore its class in the Grothendieck group of S-modules of codimension at most one less vanishes, which is in the spirit of the Gersten conjecture for commutative regular local rings. Finally we apply these results to Iwasawa algebras of p-adic Lie groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Sicily has long been represented in literature and in historical and social science texts as a place that is burdened by cultural values and practices that resist modernity: clientelism and corruption, familism, patriarchy, and lack of trust are said to condemn the island to backwardness. Sicily's association with the mafia adds a further negative image to these representations, an image of organized criminality that is conflated with Sicilian culture in general. Much as in the "Southern Question" discourse in Italy and similar constructions of otherness elsewhere, novelists, scholars, and public intellectuals present these characteristics as essential traits—as if there were a homogenized "Sicilian culture" that reproduced itself consistently through time. Eric R. Wolf was a brilliant critic of this way of thinking about culture, insisting, rather, that complex historical processes produce differentiated sociocultural forms over time in any given location. Inspired by his example, we trace the differentiated histories of the mafia and antimafia forms in Sicily, analyzing the contrasting values and practices that are specific to each. Our purpose is to represent Sicily as culturally plural and to generate a framework for recognizing and combating the all too common tendency to criminalize entire populations believed to have a common culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative pitch of harmonic complex sounds, such as instrumental sounds, may be perceived by decoding either the fundamental pitch (f0) or the spectral pitch (fSP) of the stimuli. We classified a large cohort of 420 subjects including symphony orchestra musicians to be either f0 or fSP listeners, depending on the dominant perceptual mode. In a subgroup of 87 subjects, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and magnetoencephalography studies demonstrated a strong neural basis for both types of pitch perception irrespective of musical aptitude. Compared with f0 listeners, fSP listeners possessed a pronounced rightward, rather than leftward, asymmetry of gray matter volume and P50m activity within the pitch-sensitive lateral Heschl's gyrus. Our data link relative hemispheric lateralization with perceptual stimulus properties, whereas the absolute size of the Heschl's gyrus depends on musical aptitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sicily has long been represented in literature and in historical and social science texts as a place that is burdened by cultural values and practices that resist modernity: clientelism and corruption, familism, patriarchy, and lack of trust are said to condemn the island to backwardness. Sicily's association with the mafia adds a further negative image to these representations, an image of organized criminality that is confiated with Sicilian culture in general. Much as in the "Southern Question" discourse in Italy and similar constructions of otherness elsewhere, novelists, scholars, and public intellectuals present these characteristics as essential traits–as if there were a homogenized "Sicilian culture" that reproduced itself consistently through time. Eric R. Wolf was a brilliant critic of this way of thinking about culture, insisting, rather, that complex historical processes produce differentiated sociocultural forms over time in any given location. Inspired by his example, we trace the differentiated histories of the mafia and antimafia forms in Sicily, analyzing the contrasting values and practices that are specific to each. Our purpose is to represent Sicily as culturally plural and to generate a framework for recognizing and combating the all too common tendency to criminalize entire populations believed to have a common culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In a prospective randomised study, we investigated the influence of the route of administration of radioiodide on dosimetry and therapy outcome. Methods: Fifty-four patients suffering from Graves' disease (GD) and 60 patients with unifocal autonomy (UA) participated in the study and were randomly treated with either orally or intravenously administered radioiodide. Pretherapeutic dosimetry was based on single uptake measurements with a calibrated uptake probe system. The radioiodine kinetics during hospitalisation was assessed by daily bedside uptake measurements. Therapeutic dose was determined by half-life and thyroid uptake at the time of discharge using the same uptake probe as for the radioiodine test. Results: No improvement in accuracy of dosimetry was achieved when radioiodide was administered intravenously. Mean therapeutic doses were identical following intravenous or oral administration. Variation in the achieved dose was slightly higher in the patients receiving oral administration, this being attributable to larger deviations in discrete activities of the capsules administered as compared with the values determined by dosimetry. No differences according to treatment modality were found with regard to therapeutic outcome. Eighty-seven patients attended 6-month follow-up after therapy. In the UA group, successful treatment, defined as a normal or elevated TSH level, was observed in 94%of patients after oral administration and in 80% after intravenous administration; corresponding figures in the GD group were 68% and 65%. Conclusion: The causes of individual differences between targeted and therapeutically achieved doses remain undetermined. Variations in the bioavailability of radioiodide or other parameters affecting thyroid status may be involved, and further investigations are needed to clarify this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When once we resort to the arena of representation, we remove the weightiest and most obvious restrictions on imaginative flight. We are free at least to depict those things which architecture might do in certain circumstances—circumstances bounded only by the remotest confines of probability. Here is the sphere of the maker of architectural fantasies. He can explore a great margin of territory—nearly virgin territory—capable of yielding architectural treasure, unique and enthralling. —Sir John Summerson [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degradation of human DNA extracted from forensic stains is, in most cases, the result of a natural process due to the exposure of the stain samples to the environment. Experiences with degraded DNA from casework samples show that every sample may exhibit different properties in this respect, and that it is difficult to systematically assess the performance of routinely used typing systems for the analysis of degraded DNA samples. Using a batch of artificially degraded DNA with an average fragment size of approx. 200 bp a collaborative exercise was carried out among 38 forensic laboratories from 17 European countries. The results were assessed according to correct allele detection, peak height and balance as well as the occurrence of artefacts. A number of common problems were identified based on these results such as strong peak imbalance in heterozygous genotypes for the larger short tandem repeat (STR) fragments after increased PCR cycle numbers, artefact signals and allelic drop-out. Based on the observations, strategies are discussed to overcome these problems. The strategies include careful balancing of the amount of template DNA and the PCR cycle numbers, the reaction volume and the amount of Taq polymerase. Furthermore, a careful evaluation of the results of the fragment analysis and of automated allele calling is necessary to identify the correct alleles and avoid artefacts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Iclaprim, a new selective dihydrofolate inhibitor was synthesized based on rational drug design. Iclaprim''s interaction with a resistant Staphylococcus aureus dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is outlined in comparison to trimethoprim (TMP). This compound is active against methicillin, TMP and vancomycin resistant strains. Arpida Ltd. is developing Iclaprim for serious hospital infections from Gram-positive pathogens and respiratory tract infections. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Compares corporate scandals with organized crime in relation to the Enron scandal. Business subcultures; Exposure of unethical and illegal management maneuvers; Comparison of the Enron scandal with mafia-like activities.

The article focuses on the contention that best medical treatment (BMT) alone is sufficient for managing all patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis, challenging claims that prophylactic carotid interventions are necessary. The authors discuss a cross-sectional study indicating suboptimal adherence to BMT among vascular patients, emphasizing the need for individualized care based on factors such as clinical/imaging features and patient adherence in "real-life" conditions.

Discusses algebras of p-adic distributions and admissible representations. Characterization of admissible representations; Consideration of locally analytic distributions; Introduction of a general class of Fréchet algebras; Development of a theory for coadmissible modules.

XML is the W3C standard document format for writing and exchanging information on the Web. RDF is the W3C standard model for describing the semantics and reasoning about information on the Web. Unfortunately, RDF and XML—although very close to each other—are based on two different paradigms. We argue that, in order to lead the Semantic Web to its full potential, the syntax and the semantics of information need to work together. To this end, we develop a model theory for the XML XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model, which provides a unified model for both XML and RDF. This unified model can serve as the basis for Web applications that deal with both data and semantics. We illustrate the use of this model on a concrete information integration scenario. Our approach enables each side of the fence to benefit from the other, notably, we show how the RDF world can take advantage of XML Schema description and XML query languages, and how the XML world can take advantage of the reasoning capabilities available for RDF. Our approach can also serve as a foundation for the next layer of the Semantic Web, the ontology layer, and we present a layering of an ontology language on top of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: ObjectiveAllogeneic blood stem cell transplantation (BSCT) can cure patients with hematologic malignancies by high-dose chemotherapy and allogeneic graft-vs-tumor (GvT) reactions. To avoid high-dose conditioning and evaluate engraftment, toxicity, and GvT reactions, we treated a group of high-risk patients with a minimal intensive conditioning regimen followed by allogeneic BSCT.: Materials and MethodsThirty-four patients with lymphoma (11), myeloma (10), chronic myeloid leukemia (4), myelodysplastic syndrome (5), and acute myeloid leukemia (4) were treated with fludarabine (3 × 30 mg/m2) and 200 cGy total-body irradiation followed by the infusion of peripheral blood stem cells from related (28) or unrelated (6) donors. Cyclosporine or tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetile were given posttransplant. Most patients had advanced disease, were intensively pretreated, and had contraindications against conventional myeloablative transplantation.: ResultsThirty-two patients (94%) had engraftment of donor cells. Patients with lymphatic malignancies developed complete donor chimerism significantly faster than patients with myeloid malignancies (p < 0.05). Clinical responses were observed in 16 of 27 patients (59%) who had active disease at transplantation. Of 7 patients who were treated in remission, 5 remain free of disease. After a median follow-up of 325 days (range 100–844) 22 patients are alive (65%, 14 CR, 4 PR, 4 PD). Two patients (6%) died of treatment-related complications and 10 patients (29%) died of progressive disease. Acute graft-vs-host-disease (GvHD) of grade II or more developed in 17 patients (50%). Chronic GvHD is present in 10 of 22 patients (45%) who are alive beyond day 100.: ConclusionsToxicity and survival in this group of high-risk patients are superior to those expected with conventional allogeneic transplantation. GvT reactions frequently occur in conjunction with GvHD and can induce durable remissions in patients with advanced hematologic malignancies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]