Survival rates after myeloablative hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in childhood have improved. We conducted a cross-sectional study evaluating the quality of life (QOL) of 214 adult ...survivors of a childhood HCT compared with controls using standardized self-report measures with strong psychometric properties to evaluate physical function, psychological function and cognitive symptoms. From these results we conducted a multivariate analysis of risk factors. This analysis for physical functioning showed poorer function among myeloid disease survivors compared with patients with all other diagnoses (P=0.02), men functioned better than women (P=0.05) and those >18 years after transplant functioned more poorly than those <18 years after transplant (P=0.05). Psychological functioning showed that those who received more therapy and females were more likely to be depressed (P=0.03) and (P=0.005). Perceived cognitive symptoms showed that female survivors had more symptoms than male survivors (P=0.01), and those receiving more preceding therapy compared with those with less preceding therapy (P=0.001) or cranial irradiation compared with those without cranial irradiation (P=0.002) had more perceived cognitive symptoms. Overall, these data indicate that the majority of adult survivors of a childhood transplant are functioning well, but some have problems that need to be addressed.
Low bone mineral density (BMD) has been reported in recipients of pediatric hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), but it is unclear whether age at HCT has a role. The objective of this ...cross-sectional study was to determine if patients treated with HCT before the age of 10 years have long-term BMD deficits compared with patients transplanted at an older age and with sibling controls. The study included 151 HCT recipients (87 males), age at study 24.7±8.6 years treated with HCT for hematologic malignancies at age 10.9±6.4 years, and 92 healthy sibling controls (49 males), age at study 22.3±8.0 years. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry was performed to measure BMD Z-scores for total body BMD (TBMD), lumbar spine BMD (LBMD) and femoral neck BMD (FNBMD, for subjects 20 years at study visit). Patients <10 years at HCT had significantly lower TBMD and FNBMD Z-scores (by 0.5 and 0.8 s.d., respectively) compared with controls (P=0.003 and P=0.0001, respectively) and patients >18 years at HCT (P=0.04 and P=0.004, respectively) at an average of 14 years after HCT. In conclusion, this study identified young age at transplant as an important risk factor for bone deficits in young adulthood, suggesting that efforts to reduce bone loss should focus on this patient population.
The polarization observables T,E,P,H, and G in photoproduction of η mesons off protons are measured for photon energies from threshold to W=2400 MeV (T), 2280 MeV (E), 1620 MeV (P,H), or 1820 MeV ...(G), covering nearly the full solid angle. The data are compared to predictions from the SAID, MAID, JüBo, and BnGa partial-wave analyses. A refit within the BnGa approach including further data yields precise branching ratios for the Nη decay of nucleon resonances. A Nη-branching ratio of 0.33±0.04 for N(1650)1/2− is found, which reduces the large and controversially discussed Nη-branching ratio difference of the two lowest mass JP=1/2−-resonances significantly.
The differential cross sections and unpolarized spin-density matrix elements for the reaction γp→pω were measured using the CBELSA/TAPS experiment for initial photon energies ranging from the ...reaction threshold to 2.5 GeV. These observables were measured from the radiative decay of the ω meson, ω→π0γ. The cross sections cover the full angular range and show the full extent of the t-channel forward rise. The overall shape of the angular distributions in the differential cross sections and unpolarized spin-density matrix elements are in fair agreement with previous data. In addition, for the first time, a beam of linearly-polarized tagged photons in the energy range from 1150 MeV to 1650 MeV was used to extract polarized spin-density matrix elements.
These data were included in the Bonn–Gatchina partial wave analysis (PWA). The dominant contribution to ω photoproduction near threshold was found to be the 3/2+ partial wave, which is primarily due to the sub-threshold N(1720)3/2+ resonance. At higher energies, pomeron-exchange was found to dominate whereas π-exchange remained small. These t-channel contributions as well as further contributions from nucleon resonances were necessary to describe the entire dataset: the 1/2−, 3/2−, and 5/2+ partial waves were also found to contribute significantly.
In a search for ω mesic states, the production of ω-mesons in coincidence with forward going protons has been studied in photon induced reactions on 12C for incident photon energies of 1250–3100 MeV. ...The π0γ pairs from decays of bound or quasi-free ω-mesons have been measured with the CBELSA/TAPS detector system in coincidence with protons registered in the MiniTAPS forward array. Structures in the total energy distribution of the π0γ pairs, which would indicate the population and decay of bound ω11B states, are not observed. The π0γ cross section of 0.3 nb MeV−1 sr−1 observed in the bound state energy regime between −100 and 0 MeV may be accounted for by yield leaking into the bound state regime because of the large in-medium width of the ω-meson. A comparison of the measured total energy distribution with calculations suggests the real part V0 of the ω11B potential to be small and only weakly attractive with V0(ρ=ρ0)=−15±35(stat)±20(syst) MeV in contrast to some theoretical predictions of attractive potentials with a depth of 100–150 MeV.
The fossil record of predation indicates that attacks on Paleozoic brachiopods were very rare, especially compared to those on post-Paleozoic mollusks, yet stratigraphically and geographically ...widespread. Drilling frequencies were very low in the early Paleozoic (left-pointing double angle quotation mark1%) and went up slightly in the mid-to-late Paleozoic. Present-day brachiopods revealed frequencies only slightly higher. The persistent rarity of drilling suggests that brachiopods were the secondary casualties of mistaken or opportunistic attacks by the enemies of other taxa. Such sporadic attacks became slightly more frequent as trophic systems escalated and predators diversified. Some evolutionarily persistent biotic interactions may be incidental rather than coevolutionary or escalatory in nature.
The reaction γp→KS0Σ+ is studied in the photon energy range from threshold. Linearly polarised photon beams from coherent bremsstrahlung enabled the first measurement of photon beam asymmetries in ...this reaction up to Eγ=1650MeV. In addition, the recoil hyperon polarisation was determined through the asymmetry in the weak decay Σ+→pπ0 up to Eγ=2250MeV. The data are compared to partial wave analyses, and the possible impact on the interpretation of a recently observed prominent structure in the cross section near the K⁎ thresholds is discussed.
Biological veracity of the sharp diversity increase observed in many analyses of the post-Paleozoic marine fossil record has been debated vigorously in recent years. To assess this question for ...sample-level (“alpha”) diversity, we used bulk samples of shelly invertebrates, representing three major fossil groups (brachiopods, bivalves, and gastropods), to compare the Jurassic and late Cenozoic sample-level diversity of marine benthos. After restricting the data set to single-bed, whole-fauna, bulk samples (n ≥ 30 specimens) from comparable open marine siliciclastic facies, we were able to retain 427 samples (255 Jurassic and 172 late Cenozoic), with most of those samples originating from our own empirical work. Regardless of the diversity metric applied, the initial results suggest that standardized sample-level species (or genus) diversity, driven by evenness and/or richness of the most common taxa, increased between the Jurassic and late Cenozoic by at least a factor of 1.6. When the data are partitioned into the three dominant higher taxa, it becomes clear that (1) the bivalves, which dominated the samples for both time intervals, increased in sample-level diversity between the Jurassic and the late Cenozoic by a much smaller factor than the total fauna; (2) the removal of brachiopods, which were a noticeable component of the Jurassic samples, did not significantly affect standardized sample-level diversity estimates; and (3) the gastropods, which were rare in the Jurassic but common in many late Cenozoic samples, contributed notably to the increase in sample-level diversity observed between the two time intervals. Parallel to these changes, the samples revealed secular trends in ecological structure, including Jurassic to late Cenozoic increases in proportion of (1) infauna, (2) mobile forms, and (3) non-suspension-feeding organisms. These trends mostly persist when data are restricted to bivalves. Supplementary analyses indicate that these patterns cannot be attributed to sampling heterogeneities in paleolatitudinal range, lithology, or paleoenvironment of deposition. Likewise, when data are restricted to samples dominated by species with originally aragonitic shells, the observed temporal changes persist at a comparable magnitude, suggesting that the pervasive loss of aragonite in the older fossil record is unlikely to have been the primary cause of the observed patterns. The comparable ratio of identified to unidentified species and genera, observed when comparing the Jurassic and late Cenozoic samples, indicates that the relatively poorer (mold/cast) preservation of Jurassic aragonite species also is unlikely to have been responsible for the observed patterns. However, the diagenesis-related taphonomic and methodological artifacts cannot be ruled out as an at least partial contributor to the observed post-Paleozoic changes in diversity, taxonomic composition, and ecology (the outcomes of the three tests of the diagenetic bias available to us are incongruent). The study demonstrates that the post-Paleozoic trends in the sample-level diversity, ecology, and taxonomic structure of common taxa can be replicated across multiple studies. However, the diversity increase estimated here is much less prominent than suggested by many previous analyses. The results also narrow the list of causative explanations down to two testable hypotheses. The first is diagenetic bias—a spurious trend driven by either (a) increasing taphonomic loss of small specimens in the older fossil record or (b) a shift in sampling procedures between predominantly lithified rocks of the Mesozoic and predominately unlithified, and therefore sievable, sediments of the late Cenozoic. The second hypothesis is genuine biological changes—macroevolutionary trends in the structure of marine benthic associations through time, consistent with predictions of several related models such as evolutionary escalation, increased ecospace utilization, and the Mesozoic marine revolution. Future studies should focus on testing these two rival models, a key remaining challenge for identifying the primary causative mechanism for the long-term changes in sample-level diversity, ecology, and taxonomic structure observed in the Phanerozoic marine fossil record.
Bulk samples are among the foremost sources of quantitative data retrieved from the fossil record. However, such samples are not sieved in a uniform way, even among research projects with a very ...similar research focus. Several studies recently have demonstrated the sensitivity of paleontological patterns to changes in sieve size and underscored the importance of controlling for mesh size in paleontological analyses. Building on previous work, this study exploits a large dataset of Miocene mollusks that is fortuitously suitable for exploring the effect of mesh size: dimensions of each fossil were measured, all samples were acquired with fine screens (?1 mm mesh), and data for numerous paleoecological and taphonomic variables were obtained for each specimen. This large dataset was sieved artificially (i.e., subsampled in computer simulations) to explore the effects of mesh size. The results show that paleontological variables, from taphonomic and paleoecological parameters to diversity indices, can fluctuate, to various degrees, as a function of mesh size. Some parameters (e.g., evenness indices) appear remarkably invariant to mesh size, while others (e.g., encrustation rate) can vary dramatically with a small change in mesh size. Most importantly, even when the compared datasets are sieved uniformly with the same standard mesh size, outcomes of comparative analyses can lead to disparate conclusions when that standard size is changed. The mesh-size sensitivity observed here for a wide assortment of paleontological patterns points to ubiquitous influence of body size on taphonomic, ecological, and evolutionary patterns and underscores the importance of developing sampling strategies and/or corrective analytical measures for making data more comparable in terms of mesh size across and within studies. Future research also should concentrate on evaluating secular trends in size-filtering aspects of extraction methods used to acquire quantitative samples throughout the Phanerozoic fossil record.
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