Summary Background Lithium has neuroprotective effects in cell and animal models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and a small pilot study in patients with ALS showed a significant effect of ...lithium on survival. We aimed to assess whether lithium improves survival in patients with ALS. Methods The lithium carbonate in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (LiCALS) trial is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of oral lithium taken daily for 18 months in patients with ALS. Patients aged at least 18 years who had ALS according to the revised El Escorial criteria, had disease duration between 6 and 36 months, and were taking riluzole were recruited from ten centres in the UK. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either lithium or matched placebo tablets. Randomisation was via an online system done at the level of the individual by block randomisation with randomly varying block sizes, stratified by study centre and site of disease onset (limb or bulbar). All patients and assessing study personnel were masked to treatment assignment. The primary endpoint was the rate of survival at 18 months and was analysed by intention to treat. This study is registered with Eudract, number 2008-006891-31. Findings Between May 26, 2009, and Nov 10, 2011, 243 patients were screened, 214 of whom were randomly assigned to receive lithium (107 patients) or placebo (107 patients). Two patients discontinued treatment and one died before the target therapeutic lithium concentration could be achieved. 63 (59%) of 107 patients in the placebo group and 54 (50%) of 107 patients in the lithium group were alive at 18 months. The survival functions did not differ significantly between groups (Mantel-Cox log-rank χ2 on 1 df=1·64; p=0·20). After adjusting for study centre and site of onset using logistic regression, the relative odds of survival at 18 months (lithium vs placebo) was 0·71 (95% CI 0·40–1·24). 56 patients in the placebo group and 61 in the lithium group had at least one serious adverse event. Interpretation We found no evidence of benefit of lithium on survival in patients with ALS, but nor were there safety concerns, which had been identified in previous studies with less conventional designs. This finding emphasises the importance of pursuing adequately powered trials with clear endpoints when testing new treatments. Funding The Motor Neurone Disease Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The question of whether mesospheric OH(
) rotational population distributions are in equilibrium with the local kinetic temperature has been debated over several decades. Despite several indications ...for the existence of non-equilibrium effects, the general consensus has been that emissions originating from low rotational levels are thermalized. Sky spectra simultaneously observing several vibrational levels demonstrated reproducible trends in the extracted OH(
) rotational temperatures as a function of vibrational excitation. Laboratory experiments provided information on rotational energy transfer and direct evidence for fast multi-quantum OH(high-
) vibrational relaxation by O atoms. We examine the relationship of the new relaxation pathways with the behavior exhibited by OH(
) rotational population distributions. Rapid OH(high-
) + O multi-quantum vibrational relaxation connects high and low vibrational levels and enhances the hot tail of the OH(low-
) rotational distributions. The effective rotational temperatures of mesospheric OH(
) are found to deviate from local thermodynamic equilibrium for all observed vibrational levels.
The atlas of terrestrial nightglow emission lines from spectra of the night sky obtained from the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) on the 8.2‐m UT2 telescope at the Very Large ...Telescope (VLT), European Southern Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile, consists of 2808 line positions, line widths, and intensities over the 314–1043 nm spectral range (Hanuschik, 2003). These lines have been absolute intensity calibrated and measured at a spectral resolution (λ/Δλ) of ∼43,000–45,000. Presented here are spectroscopic identifications for 98% of the lines in the atlas, made primarily through comparisons with synthetic spectra of prominent OH and O2 nightglow emission systems. The ability to simulate these systems successfully has shown that there are many additional lines that could be added to the atlas. We believe that all the O2 and OH lines in the measured region can now be successfully modeled with an accuracy better than the instrumental spectral resolution.
VAN MOSSEL C., LEITZ L., SCOTT S., DAUDT H., DENNIS D., WATSON H., ALFORD M., MITCHELL A., PAYEUR N., COSBY C., LEVI‐MILNE R. & PURKIS M.E. (2012) European Journal of Cancer Care21, 296–320
...Information needs across the colorectal cancer care continuum: scoping the literature
Because cancer care requires a multifaceted approach, providing useful and timely information to people with colorectal cancer may be fragmented and inconsistent. Our interest was in examining what has and has not captured the attention of researchers speaking to the information needs of people with colorectal cancer. We followed Arksey and O'Malley's framework for the methodology of scoping review. Focusing solely on colorectal cancer, we analysed 239 articles to get a picture of which information needs and sources of information, as well as the timing of providing information, were attended to. Treatment‐related information received the most mentions (26%). Healthcare professionals (49%) were mentioned as the most likely source of information. Among articles focused on one stage of the care continuum, post‐treatment (survivorship) received the most attention (16%). Only 27% of the articles consulted people with colorectal cancer and few attended to diet/nutrition and bowel management. This study examined the numerical representation of issues to which researchers attend, not the quality of the mentions. We ponder, however, on the relationship between the in/frequency of mentions and the actual information needs of people with colorectal cancer as well as the availability, sources and timing of information.
This volume reports on a study of 850 pairs of twins who were tested to determine the influence of heredity and environment on individual differences in personality, ability, and interests. It ...presents the background, research design, and procedures of the study, a complete tabulation of the test results, and the authors’ extensive analysis of their findings. Based on one of the largest studies of twin behavior conducted in the twentieth century, the book challenges a number of traditional beliefs about genetic and environmental contributions to personality development. The subjects were chosen from participants in the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test of 1962 and were mailed a battery of personality and interest questionnaires. In addition, parents of the twins were sent questionnaires asking about the twins’ early experiences. A similar sample of nontwin students who had taken the merit exam provided a comparison group. The questions investigated included how twins are similar to or different from nontwins, how identical twins are similar to or different from fraternal twins, how the personalities and interests of twins reflect genetic factors, how the personalities and interests of twins reflect early environmental factors, and what implications these questions have for the general issue of how heredity and environment influence the development of psychological characteristics. In attempting to answer these questions, the authors shed light on the importance of both genes and environment and form the basis for different approaches in behavior genetic research.
In 1999, observations of the Venus nightglow with the Keck I telescope showed that the 5577 Å oxygen green line was a significant feature, comparable in intensity to the terrestrial green line. ...Subsequent measurements have been carried out at the Apache Point Observatory (APO) and again at Keck I, confirming the presence of the line with substantially varying intensity. The Herzberg II emission intensity, from the O
2(
c
–
X
) transition, was found to have an intensity near 3 kR in one APO run, comparable to the value found on all previous measurements. Thus, of the three oxygen features seen at Venus—the green line, the Herzberg II emission system, and the 1.27-μ 0–0 band of the IR atmospheric system—the first is quite variable, the second is relatively constant, while the third also shows large variations. The reaction between O
2(
c
1
Σ
u
−
,
v
=
0
) and CO is considered as a possible mechanism to explain green line production and its variability, as well as the variability of the 1.27-μ emission and the stability of the CO
2 atmosphere. This reaction may catalyze CO
2 recombination some five orders of magnitude faster than the slow three-body O
+
CO reaction.
The branching ratio of the two optically forbidden atmospheric emission lines, O(1S − 1D) at 557.7 nm and O(1S − 3P) at 297.2 nm, is a fixed number in the upper atmosphere because the O(1S) level is ...common to both lines. The value for the ratio A(557.7)/A(297.2) currently recommended by NIST is 16.7, and the ratio found in the laboratory is somewhat larger. Field observations require space‐based instruments, in which case calibration between the two wavelength regions is the critical issue. We circumvent this problem by using the O2(A‐X) Herzberg I emission system as a bridge between the UV region below 310 nm and the ground‐accessible region above that wavelength. These two spectral regions can be separately calibrated in terms of intensity, and the results of a disparate set of observations (satellite, rocket, ground‐based sky spectra) lead to a quite consistent value of 9.8 ± 1.0 for A(557.7)/A(297.2). This conclusion has consequences for auroral and dayglow processes and for spectral calibration. It is particularly important to ascertain the cause of the substantial difference between this value and those from theory.
Healthy lifestyle behaviours may improve outcomes for people with colorectal cancer (crc), but the intention to take action and to change those behaviours may vary with time and resource ...availability. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of current lifestyle behaviours in people with and without crc in our community, and to identify their desire to change and their resource preferences.
A mixed-methods survey was completed by people diagnosed with crc who were pre-treatment (n = 54), undergoing treatment (n = 62), or done with treatment for less than 6 months (n = 67) or for more than 6 months (n = 178), and by people without cancer (n = 83).
Current lifestyle behaviours were similar in all groups, with the exception of vigorous physical activity levels, which were significantly lower in the pre-treatment and ongoing treatment respondents than in cancer-free respondents. Significantly more crc respondents than respondents without cancer had made lifestyle changes. Among the crc respondents, dietary change was the change most frequently made (39.3%), and increased physical activity was the change most frequently desired (39.1%). Respondents wanted to use complementary and alternative medicine (cam), reading materials, self-efficacy, and group activities to make future changes.
Resources for lifestyle change should be made available for people diagnosed with crc, and should be tailored to address physical activity, cam, and diet. Lifestyle programs offered throughout the cancer trajectory and beyond treatment completion might be well received by people with crc.
Green line emission at 557.7 nanometers arising from the$O(^{1}S - ^{1}D)$transition of atomic oxygen has been observed on the nightside of Venus with HIRES, the echelle spectrograph on the W. M. ...Keck I 10-meter telescope. We also observe optical emissions of molecular oxygen, consistent with the spectra from the Venera orbiters, but our green line intensity is so high that we cannot explain how it could be inconspicuous in the Venera spectra. An upper limit for the intensity of the$O(^{1}D - ^{3}P)$oxygen red line at 630 nanometers has also been obtained. The large green/red ratio indicates that the source is not associated with the Venus ionosphere. An important conclusion is that observation of the green line in a planetary atmosphere is not an indicator of an atmosphere rich in molecular oxygen.
The measurement of the luminosity recorded by the CMS detector installed at LHC interaction point 5, using proton–proton collisions at
s
=
13
TeV
in 2015 and 2016, is reported. The absolute ...luminosity scale is measured for individual bunch crossings using beam-separation scans (the van der Meer method), with a relative precision of 1.3 and 1.0% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The dominant sources of uncertainty are related to residual differences between the measured beam positions and the ones provided by the operational settings of the LHC magnets, the factorizability of the proton bunch spatial density functions in the coordinates transverse to the beam direction, and the modeling of the effect of electromagnetic interactions among protons in the colliding bunches. When applying the van der Meer calibration to the entire run periods, the integrated luminosities when CMS was fully operational are 2.27 and 36.3
fb
-
1
in 2015 and 2016, with a relative precision of 1.6 and 1.2%, respectively. These are among the most precise luminosity measurements at bunched-beam hadron colliders.
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