The accurate staging of ovarian cancer using 3T magnetic resonance imaging - a realistic option

Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine whether staging primary ovarian cancer using 3.0 Tesla (3T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is comparable to surgical staging of the disease. Design: A retrospective study consisting of a search of the pathology database to identify women with ovarian pathology from May 2004 to January 2007. Setting: All women treated for suspected ovarian cancer in our cancer centre region. Sample: All women suspected of ovarian pathology who underwent 3T MRI prior to primary surgical intervention between May 2004 and January 2007. Methods: All women found to have ovarian pathology, both benign and malignant, were then cross checked with the magnetic resonance (MR) database to identify those who had undergone 3T MRI prior to surgery. The resulting group of women underwent comparison of the MR, surgical and histopathological findings for each individual including diagnosis of benign or malignant disease and International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging where appropriate. Main outcome measures: Comparisons were made between the staging accuracy of 3T MRI and surgical staging compared with histopathological findings and FIGO stage using weighted kappa. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were calculated for diagnosing malignant ovarian disease with 3T MRI. Results: A total of 191 women identified as having ovarian pathology underwent imaging with 3T MR and primary surgical intervention. In 19 of these women, the ovarian disease was an incidental finding. The group for which staging methods were compared consisted of 77 women of primary ovarian malignancy (20 of whom had borderline tumours). 3T MRI was able to detect ovarian malignancy with a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 76%. The overall accuracy in detecting malignancy with 3T MRI was 84%, with a positive predictive value of 80% and negative predictive value of 90%. Statistical analysis of the two methods of staging using weighted kappa, gave a K value of 0.926 (SE ±0.121) for surgical staging and 0.866 (SE ±0.119) for MR staging. A further analysis of the staging data for ovarian cancers alone, excluding borderline tumours resulted in a K value of 0.931 (SE ±0.136) for histopathological staging versus MR staging and 0.958 (±0.140) for histopathological stage versus surgical staging. Conclusion: Our study has shown that MRI can achieve staging of ovarian cancer comparable with the accuracy seen with surgical staging. No previous studies comparing different modalities have used the higher field strength 3T MRI. In addition, all other studies comparing radiological assessment of ovarian cancer have grouped the stages into I, II, III and IV rather than the more clinically appropriate a, b and c subgroups. © 2008 The Authors

Generating gestural timing from EMA data using articulatory resynthesis

As part of ongoing work to integrate an articulatory synthesizer into a modular TTS platform, a method is presented which allows gestural timings to be generated automatically from EMA data. Further work is outlined which will adapt the vocal tract model and phoneset to English using new articulatory data, and use statistical trajectory models

Uniform infinite planar triangulation and related time-reversed critical branching process

We establish a connection between the uniform infinite planar triangulation and some critical time-reversed branching process. This allows to find a scaling limit for the principal boundary component of a ball of radius R for large R (i.e. for a boundary component separating the ball from infinity). We show also that outside of R-ball a contour exists that has length linear in R.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, LaTe

The technopolitics of security: agency, temporality, sovereignty

This introduction to the special issue on ‘the technopolitics of security’ outlines key concepts and engages debates pertaining to the relationship between techno-materiality, security governance and struggles over sovereignty. ‘Technopolitics’ refers to the strategic practice of designing and using technologies to enact political goals, producing hybrid forms of power that combine cultural, institutional and technological dimensions. These technopolitical practices give rise to new forms of agency, producing effects unintended by their designers that may alter logics of political contestation and allow technologies to be reappropriated for different political purposes. To illustrate the distributed forms of agency and contingent encounters that the technopolitics approach evokes, the article develops three key aspects of technopolitics in its relationship to security governance: (1) an understanding of agency as distributed between human and non-human actors, but also asymmetric in that human intentionality plays an assembling role that is frequently overrun by the unintended effects; (2) the temporal horizons of imagination and action over which technopolitical interventions unfold, identifying the importance of logics of anticipation and eventization; and (3) the relationship between technopolitics and sovereignty, arguing that it encourages a decentred and materialized understanding of how claims to sovereignty are made and contested

Pre-Figurative Structures for Social Connection

The world has many structures that foster social connection. Especially in the age of the internet, there are many off and online worlds that do so. Alternative festivals, temporary communities and electoral guerrilla theater organized online and practiced offline are all potential ways to prefigure the world we want to live in. Together, the FEAST team created physically and socially intelligent structures that facilitate cooperation, emotional release and transcend the expectations of architecture and infrastructure as fixed, emboldening viewers to become participants.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169558/1/Honors_Capstone_Socially_Connected_Structures.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169558/2/Honors_Capstone_Socially_Connected_Structures.ppt

The Effects of a Commercial, Pre-exercise Energy Drink Supplement on Power, Muscular Endurance, and Repeated Sprint Speed

International Journal of Exercise Science 9(2): 205-213, 2016. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of ingesting a pre-workout commercial energy drink supplement on multiple parameters of physical performance, including upper body and trunk muscular endurance, muscular power, and repeated sprint speed. 19 college-aged males (n = 8) and females (n = 11) participated in this randomized, double-blind, parallel groups study. At baseline and post-testing (about one week after baseline testing), anaerobic power (assessed via a countermovement vertical jump), muscular endurance (assessed via YMCA bench press test and a curl-up test), and repeated sprint speed were assessed. Thirty minutes prior to post-testing, subjects ingested one serving (1.75 ounces [37 ml]) of a calorie-free, caffeine-containing pre-exercise energy supplement (Redline Power Rush by VPX) (n = 10) or an isovolumetric and similar tasting placebo beverage (n = 9). While vertical jump, YMCA bench press, and repeated sprint speed improved from pre to post testing in both treatment groups, there were no differences between the energy drink and placebo beverages. Curl-up endurance performance improved following the energy drink ingestion but did not improve following placebo ingestion. However, this observation also failed to reach statistical significance (p = 0.120). A possible explanation for the lack of effect of the pre-exercise energy drink to enhance physical performance was the relatively low amount of caffeine that was present in the beverage (providing an average of 2.4 mg caffeine/kg body mass)

Prostate Cancer Ambassadors

Prostate cancer is a sizeable threat to the health and well-being of men living in the United States, and African American men suffer at a disproportionately higher rate compared with their Caucasian counterparts (American Cancer Society, 2014). Prostate cancer occurs most frequently in older men, but it occurs at an earlier age in African Americans; the differences in tumor type and disease aggressiveness or progression between Caucasian and African American men may drive the disparity (Powell, Bock, Ruterbusch, & Sakr, 2010; Roberts, 2014). Education is important in bringing people into the cancer care continuum, which begins with prevention and screening. Participatory approaches to educating individuals and communities about prostate cancer and informed decision making (IDM) about screening may be an important step in addressing cancer disparities