The Erotic and the Vulgar: Visual Culture and Organized Labor's Critique of U.S. Hegemony in Occupied Japan

This essay engages the colonial legacy of postwar Japan by arguing that the political cartoons produced as part of the postwar Japanese labor movement’s critique of U.S. cultural hegemony illustrate how gendered discourses underpinned, and sometimes undermined, the ideologies formally represented by visual artists and the organizations that funded them. A significant component of organized labor’s propaganda rested on a corpus of visual media that depicted women as icons of Japanese national culture. Japan’s most militant labor unions were propagating anti-imperialist discourses that invoked an engendered/endangered nation that accentuated the importance of union roles for men by subordinating, then eliminating, union roles for women

Sheep Updates 2005 - Part 2

This session covers seven papers from different authors: CONCURRENT SESSIONS - STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 1.Finishing Pastoral Lambs, Peter Tozer, Patricia Harper, Janette Drew, Department of Agriculture Western Australia 2. Coating Improves Wool Quality under Mixed Farming Conditions, KE Kemper, ML Hebart, FD Brien, KS Grimson, DH Smith AMM Ramsay, South Australian Research and Development Institute 3. J. S. Richards, K.D. Atkins, T. Thompson, W. K. Murray, Australian Sheep Industry Co-operative Research Centre and NSW Department of Primary Industries, Orange Agricultural Institute, Forest Rd. Orange 4. Strategic Risk Management in the Sheep Industry, J.R.L. Hall, ICON Agriculture (JRL Hall & Co) 5. Joining Prime Lambs for the Northern End of the Market - a Systems Approach, Chris Carter, Peter Tozer, Department of Agriculture Western Australia 6. Lifetime Wool - Dry feed budgeting tool, Mike Hyder, department of Agriculture Western Australia, John Young, Farming Systems Analysis Service, Kojonup, Western Australia 7. Influence of ultrafine wool fibre curvature and blending with cashmere on attributes of knitwear, B. A. McGregor, Primary Industries Research Victoria, Department of Primary Industries, Victori

Long-Term Follow-Up of Cardiac Function and Quality of Life for Patients in NSABP Protocol B-31/NRG Oncology: A Randomized Trial Comparing the Safety and Efficacy of Doxorubicin and Cyclophosphamide (AC) Followed by Paclitaxel With AC Followed by Paclitaxel and Trastuzumab in Patients With Node-Positive Breast Cancer With Tumors Overexpressing Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2

Purpose Early cardiac toxicity is a risk associated with adjuvant chemotherapy plus trastuzumab. However, objective measures of cardiac function and health-related quality of life are lacking in long-term follow-up of patients who remain cancer free after completion of adjuvant treatment. Patients and Methods Patients in NSABP Protocol B-31 received anthracycline and taxane chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab for adjuvant treatment of node-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–positive early-stage breast cancer. A long-term follow-up assessment was undertaken for patients who were alive and disease free, which included measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction by multigated acquisition scan along with patient-reported outcomes using the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI), the Medical Outcomes Study questionnaire, and a review of current medications and comorbid conditions. Results At a median follow-up of 8.8 years among eligible participants, five (4.5%) of 110 in the control group and 10 (3.4%) of 297 in the trastuzumab group had a \u3e 10% decline in left ventricular ejection fraction from baseline to a value \u3c 50%. Lower DASI scores correlated with age and use of medications for hypertension, cardiac conditions, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, but not with whether patients had received trastuzumab. Conclusion In patients without underlying cardiac disease at baseline, the addition of trastuzumab to adjuvant anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy does not result in long-term worsening of cardiac function, cardiac symptoms, or health-related quality of life. The DASI questionnaire may provide a simple and useful tool for monitoring patient-reported changes that reflect cardiac function

Balloon kyphoplasty in malignant spinal fractures: a systematic review and meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Spinal fractures are a common source of morbidity in cancer patients. Balloon Kyphoplasty (BKP) is a minimally invasive procedure designed to stabilize fractures and correct vertebral deformities. We performed a meta-analysis to determine the efficacy and safety of BKP for spinal fractures in cancer patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched several electronic databases up to September 2008 and the reference lists of relevant publications for studies reporting on BKP in patients with spinal fractures secondary to osteolytic metastasis and multiple myeloma. Outcomes sought included pain relief, functional capacity, quality of life, vertebral height, kyphotic angle and adverse events. Studies were assessed for methodological bias, and estimates of effect were calculated using a random-effects model. Potential reasons for heterogeneity were explored.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The literature search revealed seven relevant studies published from 2003 to 2008, none of which were randomized trials. Analysis of those studies indicated that BKP resulted in less pain and better functional outcomes, and that these effects were maintained up to 2 years post-procedure. While BKP also improved early vertebral height loss and spinal deformity, these effects were not long-term. No serious procedure-related complications were described. Clinically asymptomatic cement leakage occurred in 6% of all treated levels, and new vertebral fractures in 10% of patients. While there is a lack of studies comparing BKP to other interventions, some data suggested that BKP provided similar pain relief as vertebroplasty and a lower cement leakage rate.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It appears that there is level III evidence showing BKP is a well-tolerated, relatively safe and effective technique that provides early pain relief and improved functional outcomes in patients with painful neoplastic spinal fractures. BKP also provided long-term benefits in terms of pain and disability. However, the methodological quality of the original studies prevents definitive conclusions being drawn. Further investigation into the use of BKP for spinal fractures in cancer patients is warranted.</p

Ethanol seeking triggered by environmental context is attenuated by blocking dopamine D1 receptors in the nucleus accumbens core and shell in rats

Conditioned behavioral responses to discrete drug-associated cues can be modulated by the environmental context in which those cues are experienced, a process that may facilitate relapse in humans. Rodent models of drug self-administration have been adapted to reveal the capacity of contexts to trigger drug seeking, thereby enabling neurobiological investigations of this effect. We tested the hypothesis that dopamine transmission in the nucleus accumbens, a neural structure that mediates reinforcement, is necessary for context-induced reinstatement of responding for ethanol-associated cues. Rats pressed one lever (active) for oral ethanol (0.1 ml; 10% v/v) in operant conditioning chambers distinguished by specific visual, olfactory, and tactile contextual stimuli. Ethanol delivery was paired with a discrete (4 s) light-noise stimulus. Responses on a second lever (inactive) were not reinforced. Behavior was then extinguished by withholding ethanol but not the discrete stimulus in a different context. Reinstatement, expressed as elevated responding for the discrete stimulus without ethanol delivery, was tested by placing rats into the prior self-administration context after administration of saline or the dopamine D1 receptor antagonist, SCH 23390 (0.006, 0.06, and 0.6 μg/side), into the nucleus accumbens core or shell. Compared with extinction responding, active lever pressing in saline-pretreated rats was enhanced by placement into the prior ethanol self-administration context. SCH 23390 dose-dependently reduced reinstatement after infusion into the core or shell. These findings suggest a critical role for dopamine acting via D1 receptors in the nucleus accumbens in the reinstatement of responding for ethanol cues triggered by placement into an ethanol-associated context

Expansion and Characterization of Human Melanoma Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs)

Various immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer are aimed at augmenting the T cell response against tumor cells. Adoptive cell therapy (ACT), where T cells are manipulated ex vivo and subsequently re-infused in an autologous manner, has been performed using T cells from various sources. Some of the highest clinical response rates for metastatic melanoma have been reported in trials using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). These protocols still have room for improvement and furthermore are currently only performed at a limited number of institutions. The goal of this work was to develop TILs as a therapeutic product at our institution.TILs from 40 melanoma tissue specimens were expanded and characterized. Under optimized culture conditions, 72% of specimens yielded rapidly proliferating TILs as defined as at least one culture reaching ≥3×10(7) TILs within 4 weeks. Flow cytometric analyses showed that cultures were predominantly CD3+ T cells, with highly variable CD4+:CD8+ T cell ratios. In total, 148 independent bulk TIL cultures were assayed for tumor reactivity. Thirty-four percent (50/148) exhibited tumor reactivity based on IFN-γ production and/or cytotoxic activity. Thirteen percent (19/148) showed specific cytotoxic activity but not IFN-γ production and only 1% (2/148) showed specific IFN-γ production but not cytotoxic activity. Further expansion of TILs using a 14-day "rapid expansion protocol" (REP) is required to induce a 500- to 2000-fold expansion of TILs in order to generate sufficient numbers of cells for current ACT protocols. Thirty-eight consecutive test REPs were performed with an average 1865-fold expansion (+/- 1034-fold) after 14 days.TILs generally expanded efficiently and tumor reactivity could be detected in vitro. These preclinical data from melanoma TILs lay the groundwork for clinical trials of ACT

Geographic variation of mutagenic exposures in kidney cancer genomes

International differences in the incidence of many cancer types indicate the existence of carcinogen exposures that have not yet been identified by conventional epidemiology make a substantial contribution to cancer burden1. In clear cell renal cell carcinoma, obesity, hypertension and tobacco smoking are risk factors, but they do not explain the geographical variation in its incidence2. Underlying causes can be inferred by sequencing the genomes of cancers from populations with different incidence rates and detecting differences in patterns of somatic mutations. Here we sequenced 962 clear cell renal cell carcinomas from 11 countries with varying incidence. The somatic mutation profiles differed between countries. In Romania, Serbia and Thailand, mutational signatures characteristic of aristolochic acid compounds were present in most cases, but these were rare elsewhere. In Japan, a mutational signature of unknown cause was found in more than 70% of cases but in less than 2% elsewhere. A further mutational signature of unknown cause was ubiquitous but exhibited higher mutation loads in countries with higher incidence rates of kidney cancer. Known signatures of tobacco smoking correlated with tobacco consumption, but no signature was associated with obesity or hypertension, suggesting that non-mutagenic mechanisms of action underlie these risk factors. The results of this study indicate the existence of multiple, geographically variable, mutagenic exposures that potentially affect tens of millions of people and illustrate the opportunities for new insights into cancer causation through large-scale global cancer genomics

Documenting the Recovery of Vascular Services in European Centres Following the Initial COVID-19 Pandemic Peak: Results from a Multicentre Collaborative Study

Objective: To document the recovery of vascular services in Europe following the first COVID-19 pandemic peak. Methods: An online structured vascular service survey with repeated data entry between 23 March and 9 August 2020 was carried out. Unit level data were collected using repeated questionnaires addressing modifications to vascular services during the first peak (March – May 2020, “period 1”), and then again between May and June (“period 2”) and June and July 2020 (“period 3”). The duration of each period was similar. From 2 June, as reductions in cases began to be reported, centres were first asked if they were in a region still affected by rising cases, or if they had passed the peak of the first wave. These centres were asked additional questions about adaptations made to their standard pathways to permit elective surgery to resume. Results: The impact of the pandemic continued to be felt well after countries’ first peak was thought to have passed in 2020. Aneurysm screening had not returned to normal in 21.7% of centres. Carotid surgery was still offered on a case by case basis in 33.8% of centres, and only 52.9% of centres had returned to their normal aneurysm threshold for surgery. Half of centres (49.4%) believed their management of lower limb ischaemia continued to be negatively affected by the pandemic. Reduced operating theatre capacity continued in 45.5% of centres. Twenty per cent of responding centres documented a backlog of at least 20 aortic repairs. At least one negative swab and 14 days of isolation were the most common strategies used for permitting safe elective surgery to recommence. Conclusion: Centres reported a broad return of services approaching pre-pandemic “normal” by July 2020. Many introduced protocols to manage peri-operative COVID-19 risk. Backlogs in cases were reported for all major vascular surgeries

Dream time and anti-imperialism in the writings of Olive Schreiner

This article explores how Olive Schreiner utilizes politicized modernist aesthetics, specifically the manipulation of time through allegory and dream, to resist structures of empire. The claim that Schreiner’s work should be received and analysed as modernist builds on recent work in global modernist studies that views modernisms as multiple, and occurring across various temporalities and geographies, whilst responding to the drive in postcolonial studies to reshape modernism with an awareness of empire. Analysis of the repetitive dream cycles within and across Schreiner’s texts reveals how she disrupts the conventional chronologies and associated ideologies introduced by colonizers in South Africa in ways that can be interpreted as modernist. Beginning with close readings of the opening scenes in the novels Undine: A Queer Little Child (written 1870s) and The Story of an African Farm (1883), the article then considers the role of alternative temporalities associated with dreams in the short allegory “Three Dreams in a Desert” (1887), to suggest that Schreiner’s “dream time” offers a form of postcolonial resistance to the imposed “imperial clock time” of life under colonial rule

Contribution of copy number variants to schizophrenia from a genome-wide study of 41,321 subjects

Copy number variants (CNVs) have been strongly implicated in the genetic etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). However, genome-wide investigation of the contribution of CNV to risk has been hampered by limited sample sizes. We sought to address this obstacle by applying a centralized analysis pipeline to a SCZ cohort of 21,094 cases and 20,227 controls. A global enrichment of CNV burden was observed in cases (OR=1.11, P=5.7×10−15), which persisted after excluding loci implicated in previous studies (OR=1.07, P=1.7 ×10−6). CNV burden was enriched for genes associated with synaptic function (OR = 1.68, P = 2.8 ×10−11) and neurobehavioral phenotypes in mouse (OR = 1.18, P= 7.3 ×10−5). Genome-wide significant evidence was obtained for eight loci, including 1q21.1, 2p16.3 (NRXN1), 3q29, 7q11.2, 15q13.3, distal 16p11.2, proximal 16p11.2 and 22q11.2. Suggestive support was found for eight additional candidate susceptibility and protective loci, which consisted predominantly of CNVs mediated by non-allelic homologous recombination