High-dose thiotepa-based chemotherapy with autologous stem cell support in elderly patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma: a European retrospective study.

In this retrospective multicentre study, we investigated the outcomes of elderly primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) patients (⩾65 years) who underwent high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (HDT-ASCT) at 11 centres between 2003 and 2016. End points included remission, progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and treatment-related mortality. We identified 52 patients (median age 68.5 years, median Karnofsky Performance Status before HDT-ASCT 80%) who all underwent thiotepa-based HDT-ASCT. Fifteen patients (28.8%) received HDT-ASCT as first-line treatment and 37 (71.2%) received it as second or subsequent line. Remission status before HDT-ASCT was: CR 34.6%, PR 51.9%, stable disease 3.8% and progressive disease 9.6%. Following completion of HDT-ASCT, 36 patients (69.2%) achieved CR (21.2% first-line setting and 48.1% second or subsequent line setting) and 9 (17.3%) PR (5.8% first-line setting and 11.5% second or subsequent line setting). With a median follow-up of 22 months after HDT-ASCT, median PFS and OS were reached after 51.1 and 122.3 months, respectively. The 2-year PFS and OS rates were 62.0% and 70.8%, respectively. We observed two HDT-ASCT-associated deaths (3.8%). In selected elderly PCNSL patients, HDT-ASCT, using thiotepa-based conditioning regimes, is feasible and effective. Further prospective and comparative studies are warranted to further evaluate the role of HDT-ASCT in elderly PCNSL patients.

Ammonia chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry in structural determination of alkaloids. II. Tetraponerines from pseudomyrmecine ants.

Chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry (CI-MS/MS) of alkaloids with ammonia reagent gas and collision-activated dissociation as well as EI-MS/MS were applied to the tetraponerine alkaloids in extracts from six pseudomyrmecine ants of the genus Tetraponera. The MS/MS techniques along with gas chromatography Fourier transform infrared (GC/FTIR) spectra allowed identification in two extracts of seven of the eight known tetraponerines. The EI-MS/MS fragmentations proved diagnostic for the ring system and the CI-MS/MS patterns for the C-8 or C-9 substitution, while the Bohlmann bands in FTIR spectra were diagnostic for the C-8 or C-9 configurations. An Indian ant (T. allaborans) had T-2, T-4 and T-8, while a Chinese ant (T. binghami) had T-5, T-6, T-7 and T-8. Four other ants, T. rufonigra (India), T. penzigi (Africa), T. clypeata (Africa) and T. sp. cf. emeryi (Africa), had no tetraponerines.

The relative importance of size of food and interfood distance in eliciting aggression in captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).

We conducted an experiment on a group of captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in which we manipulated both food size and interfood distance independently to examine which factor was more important in causing aggressive competition. For each of 254 trials, the monkeys were offered simultaneously two apple pieces ranging in size from 1 to 40 g at interfood distances ranging from 1 to 5 m. In contrast to other studies, food size and interfood distance were not conflated in this study. Multiple regression analyses revealed that food size was a better predictor of aggression whereas interfood distance was a better predictor of the ability to monopolize foods. Growing evidence suggests that factors such as food size, quality and depletion time are more important than interfood distance in influencing aggression within groups.

Comparing measures of travel distances in primates: methodological considerations and socioecological implications.

Travel costs can influence numerous aspects of the lives of primates, including net energy balance (and therefore reproductive success of females) and maximum group size. Despite their potential impact, there has been no systematic comparison of different measures of travel distance. We compared three measures of travel distance in 30 min (actual distance of individuals, straight-line distance of individuals, and straight-line distance of groups) and their ratios in a small group and a large group of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) and between the large group of vervets and a group of patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas) of roughly similar size. The large group of vervets traveled farther than the small group regardless of the measure used, but the ratios of the different measures were not significantly different between those groups. Patas monkeys traveled significantly farther than the large group of vervets regardless of the measure used. In both vervets and patas, straight-line distances of individuals (ISLD) and groups (GSLD) underestimated actual distances traveled by individuals (IAD), but the degree to which they did so differed between species. IAD is more accurate than the other two measures and is preferred for studies of energetics and individual reproductive success, although ISLD or GSLD may be substituted when the ratios of IAD/ISLD or IAD/GSLD do not differ between groups or species. The ratio of IAD/ISLD was larger in vervets than in patas, suggesting that individual vervets meander more over short periods of time than patas. The ratio of ISLD/GSLD was larger in patas than in vervets, suggesting that patas move at angles or across the group's center-of-mass whereas vervets move more consistently along with others in their group. This has implications for the formation of spatial subgroups and alliances within groups.

Diet for a small primate: insectivory and gummivory in the (large) patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas pyrrhonotus).

A 17 month field study of unprovisioned patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas pyrrhonotus) in Laikipia, Kenya, using both ad libitum and scan sampling techniques, revealed that the diet of patas monkeys consists primarily of gum of Acacia drepanolobium, arthropods (both free-living and concentrated in the swollen thorns of A. drepanolobium), and other animals. This type of diet is normally found only in smaller-bodied primates. Results from vegetational transects suggest that the larger-bodied patas monkey can subsist on such a diet because gum and arthropods are relatively easily found in their habitat, thereby minimizing search time. Patas monkeys also spend more time moving and less time feeding (while not moving) than other Old World primates. The characteristic long limbs of patas may have evolved in response to feeding on small, nonusurpable, and widely distributed foods, in which access to foods is maximized while time and energy spent in terrestrial travel between food sites are minimized.

Locomotor activity differences between sympatric patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas) and vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops): implications for the evolution of long hindlimb length in Homo.

Homo erectus is notable for its taller stature and longer lower limbs relative to earlier hominids, but the selective pressures favoring such long limbs are unclear. Among anthropoid primates, patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas) and extant hominids share several extreme characteristics involved with foraging and movement, including the relatively longest lower limb proportions, longest daily travel distances and largest home ranges for their body or group size, occupancy of some of the driest habitats, and very efficient thermoregulatory systems. We suggest that patas monkeys are an appropriate behavioral model with which to speculate on the selective pressures that might have operated on H. erectus to increase lower limb length. Here, in a comparison of the locomotor activities of patas monkeys and sympatric, closely related vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops), we provide evidence for the hypothesis that patas use their long stride more to increase foraging efficiency while walking than to run, either from predators or otherwise.

Effects of mood during exposure to target information on subsequently reported judgments: an on-line model of misattribution and correction.

Three experiments investigated the effects of participants' mood during exposure to target information on delayed judgments of the target. Participants were exposed to a mood induction immediately before they acquired information about a political candidate and then reported their evaluation of the candidate at a later time. Effects of mood on judgment were moderated by 2 individual-differences measures that can be interpreted in terms of processing efficiency. These were political expertise and total recall for the candidate information, with higher scores on these indices interpreted as reflecting more efficient processing. Among low-expertise (or low-recall) perceivers, mood produced an assimilation effect on evaluative judgments. Among high-expertise (or high-recall) perceivers, mood produced a contrast effect on judgments. When pooling across these individual differences, mood exerted no influence on judgments. These findings are consistent with an on-line model of mood misattribution and overcorrection.