A phase 2 study of high-activity 186Re-HEDP with autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplant in progressive hormone-refractory prostate cancer metastatic to bone

Purpose: We investigated the potential for improvement in disease control by use of autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplant (PBSCT) to permit administration of high activities of 186Re-hydroxyethylidene diphosphonate (HEDP) in patients with progressive hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC).

Methods: Eligible patients had progressive HRPC metastatic to bone, good performance status and minimal soft tissue disease. Patients received 5,000 MBq of 186Re-HEDP i.v., followed 14 days later by PBSCT. Response was assessed using PSA, survival, pain scores and quality of life.

Results: Thirty-eight patients with a median age of 67 years (range 50–77) and a median PSA of 57 ng/ml (range 4–3,628) received a median activity of 4,978 MBq 186Re-HEDP (range 4,770–5,100 MBq). The most serious toxicity was short-lived grade 3 thrombocytopenia in 8 (21%) patients. The median survival of the group is 21 months (95%CI 18–24 months) with Kaplan-Meier estimated 1- and 2-year survival rates of 83% and 40% respectively. Thirty-one patients (81%, 95% CI 66–90%) had stable or reduced PSA levels 3 months post therapy while 11 (29%, 95% CI 15–49%) had PSA reductions of >50% lasting >4 weeks. Quality of life measures were stable or improved in 27 (66%) at 3 months.

Conclusion: We have shown that it is feasible and safe to deliver high-activity radioisotope therapy with PBSCT to men with metastatic HRPC. Response rates and survival data are encouraging; however, further research is needed to define optimal role of this treatment approach.

Welfare Regimes and “progressive” governments in Latin America: The cases of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia

Several authors have applied the concept of Welfare Regimens for studying social policy in Latin America (Esping-Andersen, 1993 and 2000). Among others, Martínez Franzoni (2007) develops a typology, with fi eld work is at the turn of the millennium, and establishes three categories: State-productivist regime, state-protectionist and family orientated. Most countries in the region are placed in the latter category. The hypothesis of this article argues that with the emergence of governments considered “left” or “progressive” in several countries of the region from the late ‘90s and, more decisively, in 2000’, the map of welfare regimes models could have mutated substantively. The nationally transformative experiences are different (various socio-economic realities and political action in which they are located exists) but they have several contact points that can be summarized in a greater state intervention in different areas previously closed to their operating and recovery of important functions of welfare and care of the population by the government. The paper discusses with an exploratory and descriptive approach the welfare schemes that would shape in three countries that have constitutionalized the change from the neoliberal paradigm: Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Progressive loss of ferroelectricity under bipolar pulsed fields and experimental determination of non-switchable polarization in Au/Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3/SrRuO3 thin-film capacitors

175 nm-thick Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST) thin film fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique is found to be a mixture of two distributions of material. We discuss whether these two components are nano-regions of paraelectric and ferroelectric phases, or a bimodal grain-size distribution, or an effect of oxygen vacancy gradient from the electrode interface. The fraction of switchable ferroelectric phase decreases under bipolar pulsed fields, but it recovers after removal of the external fields. The plot of capacitance in decreasing dc voltage (C(Vdown arrow) versus that in increasing dc 61 voltage C(Vup arrow) is a superposition of overlapping of two triangles, in contrast to one well-defined triangle for typical ferroelectric SrBi2Ta2O9 thin films.

Progressive Audio Scrambling in Compressed Domain

Audio scrambling can be employed to ensure confidentiality in audio distribution. We first describe scrambling for raw audio using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) first and then focus on MP3 audio scrambling. We perform scrambling based on a set of keys which allows for a set of audio outputs having different qualities. During descrambling, the number of keys provided and the number of rounds of descrambling performed will decide the audio output quality. We also perform scrambling by using multiple keys on the MP3 audio format. With a subset of keys, we can descramble to obtain a low quality audio. However, we can obtain the original quality audio by using all of the keys. Our experiments show that the proposed algorithms are effective, fast, simple to implement while providing flexible control over the progressive quality of the audio output. The security level provided by the scheme is sufficient for protecting MP3 music content.

Raman spectroscopy of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), possible markers for progressive retinal dysfunction

Raman microscopy is used to investigate the spectral features of selected compounds known to be involved in the development of the eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Diagnostic features were identified in synthetic samples of these compounds and in a biological matrix. The study demonstrates the potential of Raman microscopy for the development of diagnostic markers of the onset of AMD. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evidence for progressive Holocene aridification in southern Africa recorded in Namibian hyrax middens: Implications for African Monsoon dynamics and the

Presented here are stable nitrogen isotope data from a rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) middens from northwestern Namibia that record a series of rapid aridification events beginning at ca. 3800 cal yr BP, and which mark a progressive decrease in regional humidity across the Holocene. Strong correlations exist between this record and other terrestrial and marine archives from southern Africa, indicating that the observed pattern of climate change is regionally coherent. Combined, these data indicate hemispheric synchrony in tropical African climate change during the Holocene, with similar trends characterising the termination of the 'African Humid Period' (AHP) in both the northern and southern tropics. These findings run counter to the widely accepted model of direct low-latitude insolation forcing, which requires an antiphase relationship to exist between the hemispheres. The combined dataset highlights: 1) the importance of forcing mechanisms influencing the high northern latitudes in effecting low-latitude climate change in Africa, and 2) the potential importance of solar forcing and variations in the Earth's geomagnetic shield in determining both long-term and rapid centennial-scale climate changes, identifying a possible mechanism for the variations marking the AHP termination in both the southern and northern tropics. (C) 2010 University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.