Modernization and Its Discontents

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67022/2/10.1177_000276427702100208.pd

Nationwide randomised trial evaluating elective neck dissection for early stage oral cancer (SEND study) with meta-analysis and concurrent real-world cohort

BACKGROUND: Guidelines remain unclear over whether patients with early stage oral cancer without overt neck disease benefit from upfront elective neck dissection (END), particularly those with the smallest tumours. // METHODS: We conducted a randomised trial of patients with stage T1/T2 N0 disease, who had their mouth tumour resected either with or without END. Data were also collected from a concurrent cohort of patients who had their preferred surgery. Endpoints included overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). We conducted a meta-analysis of all six randomised trials. // RESULTS: Two hundred fifty randomised and 346 observational cohort patients were studied (27 hospitals). Occult neck disease was found in 19.1% (T1) and 34.7% (T2) patients respectively. Five-year intention-to-treat hazard ratios (HR) were: OS HR = 0.71 (p = 0.18), and DFS HR = 0.66 (p = 0.04). Corresponding per-protocol results were: OS HR = 0.59 (p = 0.054), and DFS HR = 0.56 (p = 0.007). END was effective for small tumours. END patients experienced more facial/neck nerve damage; QoL was largely unaffected. The observational cohort supported the randomised findings. The meta-analysis produced HR OS 0.64 and DFS 0.54 (p < 0.001). // CONCLUSION: SEND and the cumulative evidence show that within a generalisable setting oral cancer patients who have an upfront END have a lower risk of death/recurrence, even with small tumours. // CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NIHR UK Clinical Research Network database ID number: UKCRN 2069 (registered on 17/02/2006), ISCRTN number: 65018995, ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00571883

Global microRNA expression profiles in insulin target tissues in a spontaneous rat model of type 2 diabetes

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: MicroRNAs regulate a broad range of biological mechanisms. To investigate the relationship between microRNA expression and type 2 diabetes, we compared global microRNA expression in insulin target tissues from three inbred rat strains that differ in diabetes susceptibility. METHODS: Using microarrays, we measured the expression of 283 microRNAs in adipose, liver and muscle tissue from hyperglycaemic (Goto-Kakizaki), intermediate glycaemic (Wistar Kyoto) and normoglycaemic (Brown Norway) rats (n = 5 for each strain). Expression was compared across strains and validated using quantitative RT-PCR. Furthermore, microRNA expression variation in adipose tissue was investigated in 3T3-L1 adipocytes exposed to hyperglycaemic conditions. RESULTS: We found 29 significantly differentiated microRNAs (p(adjusted) &lt; 0.05): nine in adipose tissue, 18 in liver and two in muscle. Of these, five microRNAs had expression patterns that correlated with the strain-specific glycaemic phenotype. MiR-222 (p(adjusted) = 0.0005) and miR-27a (p(adjusted) = 0.006) were upregulated in adipose tissue; miR-195 (p(adjusted) = 0.006) and miR-103 (p(adjusted) = 0.04) were upregulated in liver; and miR-10b (p(adjusted) = 0.004) was downregulated in muscle. Exposure of 3T3-L1 adipocytes to increased glucose concentration upregulated the expression of miR-222 (p = 0.008), miR-27a (p = 0.02) and the previously reported miR-29a (p = 0.02). Predicted target genes of these differentially expressed microRNAs are involved in pathways relevant to type 2 diabetes. CONCLUSION: The expression patterns of miR-222, miR-27a, miR-195, miR-103 and miR-10b varied with hyperglycaemia, suggesting a role for these microRNAs in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes, as modelled by the Gyoto-Kakizaki rat. We observed similar patterns of expression of miR-222, miR-27a and miR-29a in adipocytes as a response to increased glucose levels, which supports our hypothesis that altered expression of microRNAs accompanies primary events related to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes

The Earth: Plasma Sources, Losses, and Transport Processes

This paper reviews the state of knowledge concerning the source of magnetospheric plasma at Earth. Source of plasma, its acceleration and transport throughout the system, its consequences on system dynamics, and its loss are all discussed. Both observational and modeling advances since the last time this subject was covered in detail (Hultqvist et al., Magnetospheric Plasma Sources and Losses, 1999) are addressed

A teoria do desenvolvimento político e a questão da ordem e da estabilidade

O tema do artigo são teorias sobre o desenvolvimento político dos países pobres produzidas nos Estados Unidos que baseiam suas práticas científicas (a investigação, a classificação e a seleção de temas) em uma determinada representação do que definiria esses países. O artigo possui como questão de fundo a compreensão da passagem de uma representação desenvolvimentista e econômica para uma visão mais centrada na estabilidade e na ordem durante a década de 1960. Para tanto, debruça-se, primeiramente, sobre a série Studies in Political Development, do Committe on Comparative Politics. Com esse objeto é possível abarcar de forma privilegiada as transformações pela qual a teoria clássica teve que passar para abarcar o novo tema da instabilidade. Por fim, a análise das obras clássicas de Huntington indica quais são as características da nova representação que emerge. Dois aspectos-chave são investigados: (i) a representação dos países pobres e a relação que se estabelece entre a teoria do desenvolvimento político, a teoria do desenvolvimento econômico e a teoria da modernização; (ii) o significado de desenvolvimento político. A análise das obras indica que, por meio da inserção do tema da instabilidade, a teoria do desenvolvimento político se consolida como campo de estudos relevante e autônomo, uma vez que tal tema permitiu conceituar o seu objeto - desenvolvimento político - e argumentar que ele não poderia ser inteiramente reduzido à modernização social ou econômica

The Early Royal Society and Visual Culture

Recent studies have fruitfully examined the intersection between early modern science and visual culture by elucidating the functions of images in shaping and disseminating scientific knowledge. Given its rich archival sources, it is possible to extend this line of research in the case of the Royal Society to an examination of attitudes towards images as artefacts –manufactured objects worth commissioning, collecting and studying. Drawing on existing scholarship and material from the Royal Society Archives, I discuss Fellows’ interests in prints, drawings, varnishes, colorants, images made out of unusual materials, and methods of identifying the painter from a painting. Knowledge of production processes of images was important to members of the Royal Society, not only as connoisseurs and collectors, but also as those interested in a Baconian mastery of material processes, including a “history of trades”. Their antiquarian interests led to discussion of painters’ styles, and they gradually developed a visual memorial to an institution through portraits and other visual records.AH/M001938/1 (AHRC

Stable coexistence of grandiderite and kornerupine during medium pressure granulite facies metamorphism

AbstractPetrological and mineral chemical data are presented for two new occurrences of co-existing borosilicate minerals in the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica. The assemblages contain kornerupine and the rare borosilicate, grandidierite (Mg,Fe)A13BSiO9. Two distinct associations occur: (1) At McCarthy Point, 1–10 mm thick tourmaline-kornerupine-grandidierite layers are hosted within quartzofeldspathic gneiss; and (2) Seal Cove, where coexisting kornerupine and grandidierite occur within coarse-grained, metamorphic segregations with Mg-rich cores of cordierite-garnet-spinel-biotite-ilmenite and variably developed plagioclase halos. The segregations are hosted within biotite-bearing, plagio-feldspathic gneiss. Textural relationships from these localities indicate the stability of co-existing kornerupine and grandidierite.The grandidierite- and kornerupine-bearing segregations from Seal Cove largely postdate structures developed during a crustal thickening event (D2) which was coeval with peak metamorphism. At McCarthy Point, grandidierite, kornerupine and late-tourmaline growth predates, or is synchronous, with F3 fold structures developed during a extensive granulite grade, normal shearing event (D3) which occurred prior to, and synchronous with, near-isothermal decompression. Average pressure calculations on assemblages that coexist with the borosilicates at Seal Cove, indicate the prevailing conditions were 5.2–5.5 kbar at ∼ 750°C for formation of the grandidierite-kornerupine assemblage.</jats:p