Efforts Toward National Educational Reform: An Essentialist Political Agenda

The purpose of this manuscript is to summarize the major provisions of four salient national government initiatives and relate each one to an “essentialist” political agenda that is based on the essentialist philosophy or theory of education. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, A Nation at Risk, America 2000/Goals 2000, and No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 are reviewed to denote a trend that projects the national government as a dominant player in public educational reform. Evidence is offered, by way of primary source documents, to establish a link between the four aforementioned actions and the essentialist way of thinking. Readers should note that although education is traditionally and primarily a function of the states by way of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the national government exerts significant influence in deciding what should constitute that education for school-age children in the U.S. today. Furthermore, most states are following the national government’s lead in advocating educational reform

Clinical Features of Sarcomatoid Carcinoma (Carcinosarcoma) of the Urinary Bladder: Analysis of 221 Cases

Background. Urinary bladder sarcomatoid carcinoma (carcinosarcoma) is rare. The objective of this study was to examine the epidemiology, natural history, and prognostic factors of urinary bladder carcinosarcoma using population-based registry. Methods. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program database was used to identify cases by tumor site and histology codes. The association between clinical and demographic characteristics and long-term survival was examined. Results. A total of 221 histology confirmed cases were identified between 1973 and 2004, this accounted for approximately 0.11% of all primary bladder tumors during the study period. Median age of the patients was 75 years (range 41–96). Of the patients with a known tumor stage (N = 204), 72.5% had a regional or distant stage; 98.4% of patients with known histology grade (N = 127), had poorly or undifferentiated histology. Multiple primary tumors were indentified in about 40% of study subjects. The majority of patients (95.9%) received cancer directed surgery, 35.8% had radical or partial cystectomy, 15.8% of patients received radiation therapy combination with surgery. The median overall survival was 14 months (95% CI 7–21 months). 1-, 5-, and 10-year cancer specific survival rate were 53.9%, 28.4% and 25.8%. In a multivariate analysis, only tumor stage was found to be a significant prognostic factor for disease-specific survival. Conclusions. Urinary bladder carcinosarcoma commonly presented as high grade, advanced stage and aggressive behavior with a poor prognosis. Emphasis on early detection, including identification of risk factors is needed to improve the outcome for patients with this malignancy

Paclitaxel Drug-Coated Balloon Angioplasty Suppresses Progression and Inflammation of Experimental Atherosclerosis in Rabbits

Paclitaxel drug-coated balloons (DCBs) reduce restenosis, but their overall safety has recently raised concerns. This study hypothesized that DCBs could lessen inflammation and reduce plaque progression. Using 25 rabbits with cholesterol feeding- and balloon injury-induced lesions, DCB-percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), plain PTA, or sham-PTA (balloon insertion without inflation) was investigated using serial intravascular near-infrared fluorescence−optical coherence tomography and serial intravascular ultrasound. In these experiments, DCB-PTA reduced inflammation and plaque burden in nonobstructive lesions compared with PTA or sham-PTA. These findings indicated the potential for DCBs to serve safely as regional anti-atherosclerosis therapy

Tumor Angiogenesis Phenotyping by Nanoparticle-facilitated Magnetic Resonance and Near-infrared Fluorescence Molecular Imaging

AbstractOne of the challenges of tailored antiangiogenic therapy is the ability to adequately monitor the angiogenic activity of a malignancy in response to treatment. The αvβ3 integrin, highly overexpressed on newly formed tumor vessels, has been successfully used as a target for Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-functionalized nanoparticle contrast agents. In the present study, an RGD-functionalized nanocarrier was used to image ongoing angiogenesis in two different xenograft tumor models with varying intensities of angiogenesis (LS174T > EW7). To that end, iron oxide nanocrystals were included in the core of the nanoparticles to provide contrast for T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), whereas the fluorophore Cy7 was attached to the surface to enable near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging. The mouse tumor models were used to test the potential of the nanoparticle probe in combination with dual modality imaging for in vivo detection of tumor angiogenesis. Pre-contrast and post-contrast images (4 hours) were acquired at a 9.4-T MRI system and revealed significant differences in the nanoparticle accumulation patterns between the two tumor models. In the case of the highly vascularized LS174T tumors, the accumulation was more confined to the periphery of the tumors, where angiogenesis is predominantly occurring. NIRF imaging revealed significant differences in accumulation kinetics between the models. In conclusion, this technology can serve as an in vivo biomarker for antiangiogenesis treatment and angiogenesis phenotyping

Giant breast tumors: Surgical management of phyllodes tumors, potential for reconstructive surgery and a review of literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Phyllodes tumors are biphasic fibroepithelial neoplasms of the breast. While the surgical management of these relatively uncommon tumors has been addressed in the literature, few reports have commented on the surgical approach to tumors greater than ten centimeters in diameter – the giant phyllodes tumor.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report two cases of giant breast tumors and discuss the techniques utilized for pre-operative diagnosis, tumor removal, and breast reconstruction. A review of the literature on the surgical management of phyllodes tumors was performed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Management of the giant phyllodes tumor presents the surgeon with unique challenges. The majority of these tumors can be managed by simple mastectomy. Axillary lymph node metastasis is rare, and dissection should be limited to patients with pathologic evidence of tumor in the lymph nodes.</p

Many Labs 5:Testing pre-data collection peer review as an intervention to increase replicability

Replication studies in psychological science sometimes fail to reproduce prior findings. If these studies use methods that are unfaithful to the original study or ineffective in eliciting the phenomenon of interest, then a failure to replicate may be a failure of the protocol rather than a challenge to the original finding. Formal pre-data-collection peer review by experts may address shortcomings and increase replicability rates. We selected 10 replication studies from the Reproducibility Project: Psychology (RP:P; Open Science Collaboration, 2015) for which the original authors had expressed concerns about the replication designs before data collection; only one of these studies had yielded a statistically significant effect (p < .05). Commenters suggested that lack of adherence to expert review and low-powered tests were the reasons that most of these RP:P studies failed to replicate the original effects. We revised the replication protocols and received formal peer review prior to conducting new replication studies. We administered the RP:P and revised protocols in multiple laboratories (median number of laboratories per original study = 6.5, range = 3?9; median total sample = 1,279.5, range = 276?3,512) for high-powered tests of each original finding with both protocols. Overall, following the preregistered analysis plan, we found that the revised protocols produced effect sizes similar to those of the RP:P protocols (?r = .002 or .014, depending on analytic approach). The median effect size for the revised protocols (r = .05) was similar to that of the RP:P protocols (r = .04) and the original RP:P replications (r = .11), and smaller than that of the original studies (r = .37). Analysis of the cumulative evidence across the original studies and the corresponding three replication attempts provided very precise estimates of the 10 tested effects and indicated that their effect sizes (median r = .07, range = .00?.15) were 78% smaller, on average, than the original effect sizes (median r = .37, range = .19?.50)

Peasants' Choices? Indian Agriculture and the Limits of Commercialization in Nineteenth-Century Bihar

The article attempts to distinguish and locate choices in agricultural production, with special reference to Bihar, India, during the nineteenth century. On the one hand, it considers closely managed and extensively irrigated areas, long involved in trade under the overall control of 'landlords', and, on the other hand, the expanding production of opium, and also of indigo and sugar (so-called 'forced' commercialization), identifying common features and continuities of production and marketing. Particular the importance of advance payments and local intermediaries is stressed. Thus, in contrast with the more usual evolutionary models, based on unitary categories and modes, the essay illustrates ecological, customary, collective, and local political constraints upon agricultural decisions; and this leads to the identification in turn of their different kinds and levels