Hardwood tree survival in heavy ground cover on reclaimed land in West Virginia: mowing and ripping effects.

Current West Virginia coal mining regulations emphasize reforestation as a preferred postmining land use on surface mined areas. Some mined sites reclaimed to pasture are being converted to forests. In the spring of 2001, we compared the establishment and growth of five hardwood tree species on a reclaimed West Virginaia surface mine with compacted soils and a heavy grass groundcover.

Endogenous interleukin-11 (IL-11) levels in newly diagnosed children with acquired severe aplastic anemia (SAA).

Background: Impaired hematopoietic growth factor production is a hypothetical contributing factor to the development of acquired severe aplastic anemia (SAA). The serum levels of most hematopoietic cytokines in SAA patients are elevated.

Objective: To measure interleukin-11 levels in newly diagnosed SAA children and attempt to correlate levels with disease severity and response to therapy.