Annotated Bibliography of Fire Literature

Natural resource managers have greatly increased the use of fire to manage grassland habitats during the past two decades in the northern Great Plains region of the United States and Canada. In support of these efforts, we have compiled this annotated bibliography to provide a condensed reference of fire literature for those managers with an interest in fire ecology. References are arranged alphabetically by author and year, numbered consecutively, and referenced by number in the author and subject indexes that follow the bibliography. The intent in compiling the bibliography and indexes is more to identify subject matter and to direct the reader to sources rather than to provide a digested interpretation of each manuscript

Alteration of Gene Expression Signatures of Cortical Differentiation and Wound Response in Lethal Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinomas

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common malignancy of the adult kidney and displays heterogeneity in clinical outcomes. Through comprehensive gene expression profiling, we have identified previously a set of transcripts that predict survival following nephrectomy independent of tumor stage, grade, and performance status. These transcripts, designated as the SPC (supervised principal components) gene set, show no apparent biological or genetic features that provide insight into renal carcinogenesis or tumor progression. We explored the relationship of this gene list to a set of genes expressed in different anatomical segments of the normal kidney including the cortex (cortex gene set) and the glomerulus (glomerulus gene set), and a gene set expressed after serum stimulation of quiescent fibroblasts (the core serum response or CSR gene set). Interestingly, the normal cortex, glomerulus (part of the normal renal cortex), and CSR gene sets captured more than 1/5 of the genes in the highly prognostic SPC gene set. Based on gene expression patterns alone, the SPC gene set could be used to sort samples from normal adult kidneys by the anatomical regions from which they were dissected. Tumors whose gene expression profiles most resembled the normal renal cortex or glomerulus showed better survival than those that did not, and those with expression features more similar to CSR showed poorer survival. While the cortex, glomerulus, and CSR signatures predicted survival independent of traditional clinical parameters, they were not independent of the SPC gene list. Our findings suggest that critical biological features of lethal ccRCC include loss of normal cortical differentiation and activation of programs associated with wound healing

Dakota Gold®-brand dried distiller’s grains with solubles: effects on finishing performance and carcass characteristics

A 153-day trial was conducted using 345 heifers to determine optimal level of Dakota Gold dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS) in finishing diets based on steam-flaked corn. Diets contained six levels of DDGS: 0%, 15%, 30%, 45%, 60%, and 75%. DDGS affected average daily gain, final weight and hot carcass weight, all of which increased with 15% DDGS and then decreased as additional DDGS was added. Growth performance of heifers fed 30% DDGS was similar to those fed no DDGS. In general, heifers were overfinished, with 61% being Yield Grade 3 or greater and 83% grading Choice or Prime. Backfat tended to decrease with addition of DDGS, and kidney, pelvic, and heart fat and marbling scores tended to be greatest for intermediate levels of DDGS. Percentage of carcasses grading Choice or Prime tended to be lower for heifers fed 60 or 75% DDGS

Plagiarism in submitted manuscripts: incidence, characteristics and optimization of screening—case study in a major specialty medical journal

Abstract Background Plagiarism is common and threatens the integrity of the scientific literature. However, its detection is time consuming and difficult, presenting challenges to editors and publishers who are entrusted with ensuring the integrity of published literature. Methods In this study, the extent of plagiarism in manuscripts submitted to a major specialty medical journal was documented. We manually curated submitted manuscripts and deemed an article contained plagiarism if one sentence had 80 % of the words copied from another published paper. Commercial plagiarism detection software was utilized and its use was optimized. Results In 400 consecutively submitted manuscripts, 17 % of submissions contained unacceptable levels of plagiarized material with 82 % of plagiarized manuscripts submitted from countries where English was not an official language. Using the most commonly employed commercial plagiarism detection software, sensitivity and specificity were studied with regard to the generated plagiarism score. The cutoff score maximizing both sensitivity and specificity was 15 % (sensitivity 84.8 % and specificity 80.5 %). Conclusions Plagiarism was a common occurrence among manuscripts submitted for publication to a major American specialty medical journal and most manuscripts with plagiarized material were submitted from countries in which English was not an official language. The use of commercial plagiarism detection software can be optimized by selecting a cutoff score that reflects desired sensitivity and specificity

Measurement of molecular mixing at a conjugated polymer interface by specular and off-specular neutron scattering

Measurements have been performed on thermally equilibrated conjugated-polymer/insulating-polymer bilayers, using specular and off-specular neutron reflectivity. While specular reflectivity is only sensitive to the structure normal to the sample, off-specular measurements can probe the structure of the buried polymer/polymer interface in the plane of the sample. Systematic analysis of the scattering from a set of samples with varying insulating-polymer-thickness, using the distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA), has allowed a robust determination of the intrinsic width at the buried polymer/polymer interface. The quantification of this width (12 Å ± 4 Å) allows us to examine aspects of the conjugated polymer conformation at the interface, by appealing to self-consistent field theory (SCFT) predictions for equilibrium polymer/polymer interfaces in the cases of flexible and semi-flexible chains. This analysis enables us to infer that mixing at this particular interface cannot be described in terms of polymer chain segments that adopt conformations similar to a random walk. Instead, a more plausible explanation is that the conjugated polymer chain segments become significantly oriented in the plane of the interface. It is important to point out that we are only able to reach this conclusion following the extensive analysis of reflectivity data, followed by comparison with SCFT predictions. It is not simply the case that conjugated polymers would be expected to adopt this kind of oriented conformation at the interface, because of their relatively high chain stiffness. It is the combination of a high stiffness and a relatively narrow intrinsic interfacial width that results in a deviation from flexible chain behaviour

A Tri-Marker Proliferation Index Predicts Biochemical Recurrence after Surgery for Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer exhibits tremendous variability in clinical behavior, ranging from indolent to lethal disease. Better prognostic markers are needed to stratify patients for appropriately aggressive therapy. By expression profiling, we can identify a proliferation signature variably expressed in prostate cancers. Here, we asked whether one or more tissue biomarkers might capture that information, and provide prognostic utility. We assayed three proliferation signature genes: MKI67 (Ki-67; also a classic proliferation biomarker), TOP2A (DNA topoisomerase II, alpha), and E2F1 (E2F transcription factor 1). Immunohistochemical staining was evaluable on 139 radical prostatectomy cases (in tissue microarray format), with a median clinical follow-up of eight years. Each of the three proliferation markers was by itself prognostic. Notably, combining the three markers together as a “proliferation index” (0 or 1, vs. 2 or 3 positive markers) provided superior prognostic performance (hazard ratio = 2.6 (95% CI: 1.4–4.9); P = 0.001). In a multivariate analysis that included preoperative serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels, Gleason grade and pathologic tumor stage, the composite proliferation index remained a significant predictor (P = 0.005). Analysis of receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves confirmed the improved prognostication afforded by incorporating the proliferation index (compared to the clinicopathologic data alone). Our findings highlight the potential value of a multi-gene signature-based diagnostic, and define a tri-marker proliferation index with possible utility for improved prognostication and treatment stratification in prostate cancer

Could Reducing Body Fatness Reduce the Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer via the Insulin Signalling Pathway? A Systematic Review of the Mechanistic Pathway

Excess body weight is thought to increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancer (PCa), although the biological mechanism is currently unclear. Body fatness is positively associated with a diminished cellular response to insulin and biomarkers of insulin signalling have been positively associated with PCa risk. We carried out a two-pronged systematic review of (a) the effect of reducing body fatness on insulin biomarker levels and (b) the effect of insulin biomarkers on PCa risk, to determine whether a reduction in body fatness could reduce PCa risk via effects on the insulin signalling pathway. We identified seven eligible randomised controlled trials of interventions designed to reduce body fatness which measured insulin biomarkers as an outcome, and six eligible prospective observational studies of insulin biomarkers and PCa risk. We found some evidence that a reduction in body fatness improved insulin sensitivity although our confidence in this evidence was low based on GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations). We were unable to reach any conclusions on the effect of insulin sensitivity on PCa risk from the few studies included in our systematic review. A reduction in body fatness may reduce PCa risk via insulin signalling, but more high-quality evidence is needed before any conclusions can be reached regarding PCa

Acoustic Energy and Momentum in a Moving Medium

By exploiting the mathematical analogy between the propagation of sound in a non-homogeneous potential flow and the propagation of a scalar field in a background gravitational field, various wave ``energy'' and wave ``momentum'' conservation laws are established in a systematic manner. In particular the acoustic energy conservation law due to Blokhintsev appears as the result of the conservation of a mixed co- and contravariant energy-momentum tensor, while the exchange of relative energy between the wave and the mean flow mediated by the radiation stress tensor, first noted by Longuet-Higgins and Stewart in the context of ocean waves, appears as the covariant conservation of the doubly contravariant form of the same energy-momentum tensor.Comment: 25 Pages, Late

Tube Models for Rubber-Elastic Systems

In the first part of the paper we show that the constraining potentials introduced to mimic entanglement effects in Edwards' tube model and Flory's constrained junction model are diagonal in the generalized Rouse modes of the corresponding phantom network. As a consequence, both models can formally be solved exactly for arbitrary connectivity using the recently introduced constrained mode model. In the second part, we solve a double tube model for the confinement of long paths in polymer networks which is partially due to crosslinking and partially due to entanglements. Our model describes a non-trivial crossover between the Warner-Edwards and the Heinrich-Straube tube models. We present results for the macroscopic elastic properties as well as for the microscopic deformations including structure factors.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, Macromolecules in pres