Make Your Life Your Business: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Empowering Challenged Young Adults

This thesis studies the use of an experiential entrepreneurship program to help young adults who present with learning disabilities to acquire the skills, attitudes, and self-efficacy to achieve their unique potential and to function autonomously and productively as members of their community. The overarching theme and objectives of the pilot program are making the acquisition of life skills more interesting, engaging, and interactive, and ultimately, more effective in empowering these young adults as they navigate through their lives and able dominated society

Collision of adenocarcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) in the stomach: report of a case

A 78-year-old woman was diagnosed with a proximal gastric adenocarcinoma and underwent an elective D2 total gastrectomy with splenectomy. Subsequent histopathology revealed the presence of another tumour at the gastric antrum. This was a small benign gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) mixed with gastric adenocarcinoma cells similar to those of the main gastric tumour i.e. a collision tumour. The literature has only few previous reports of this very rare association. It is not known whether this synchronicity is incidental or there is a causative factor inducing the development of tumours of different histotypes in the same organ. Pathologists, oncologists and surgeons should be aware of this interesting condition

Adaptive decision-making as a mediator between self-complexity and stress

Abstract Empirical studies have indicated a relationship between self-complexity and stress, such that greater self-complexity is associated with reduced stress. In addition, previous research has suggested that greater self-complexity allows for more advantageous decisions. Finally, previous studies have demonstrated a bidirectional relationship between adaptive decision-making and stress, such that increased stress is associated with a decreased ability to make adaptive decisions, which, in turn, increases future stress. However, no research to date has examined the mechanism behind these relationships. We hypothesized that greater self-complexity would lead to less stress and this relationship would be mediated by increased adaptive decision-making. Fifty-six college students at a private Midwestern university took part in the study. We manipulated self-complexity by asking participants to assign traits to their future self according to three (low complexity) or seven (high complexity) different self-aspects, consistent with a previous manipulation of self-complexity by Setterlund (1994). Next, participants underwent a task—used previously by Levin et al. (2007)—to measure their adaptive decision-making in which they selected either one cup for a guaranteed amount of money, or a set of cups, which would statistically yield a greater or lesser sum of money. Finally, participants took a college student stress scale. The main hypothesis was not supported, as the present study did not find that adaptive decision-making mediated the relationship between self-complexity and stress. However, self-complexity did significantly predict adaptive decision-making for the “risky loss” trials. No other paths yielded significant relationships

DNA bar coding and pyrosequencing to identify rare HIV drug resistance mutations

Treatment of HIV-infected individuals with antiretroviral agents selects for drug-resistant mutants, resulting in frequent treatment failures. Although the major antiretroviral resistance mutations are routinely characterized by DNA sequencing, treatment failures are still common, probably in part because undetected rare resistance mutations facilitate viral escape. Here we combined DNA bar coding and massively parallel pyrosequencing to quantify rare drug resistance mutations. Using DNA bar coding, we were able to analyze seven viral populations in parallel, overall characterizing 118 093 sequence reads of average length 103 bp. Analysis of a control HIV mixture showed that resistance mutations present as 5% of the population could be readily detected without false positive calls. In three samples of multidrug-resistant HIV populations from patients, all the drug-resistant mutations called by conventional analysis were identified, as well as four additional low abundance drug resistance mutations, some of which would be expected to influence the response to antiretroviral therapy. Methods for sensitive characterization of HIV resistance alleles have been reported, but only the pyrosequencing method allows all the positions at risk for drug resistance mutations to be interrogated deeply for many HIV populations in a single experiment

Adjacent thoracic lymph node metastases originating from two separate primary cancers: case report

Reported is an unusual case of adjacent thoracic lymph nodes demonstrating metastases from two different primary malignancies. A 51 year-old woman with a previous history of bilateral breast cancer underwent a radical gastro-oesophagectomy for adenocarcinoma of the lower third of the oesophagus. The resection specimen demonstrated breast and oesophageal metastases in adjacent thoracic lymph nodes. Mechanisms for this phenomenon, including the known local immune suppression on lymphoid cells by oesophageal carcinoma cells, are discussed

Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in DYRK1A Associated with Replication of HIV-1 in Monocyte-Derived Macrophages

Background: HIV-1 infected macrophages play an important role in rendering resting T cells permissive for infection, in spreading HIV-1 to T cells, and in the pathogenesis of AIDS dementia. During highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART), macrophages keep producing virus because tissue penetration of antiretrovirals is suboptimal and the efficacy of some is reduced. Thus, to cure HIV-1 infection with antiretrovirals we will also need to efficiently inhibit viral replication in macrophages. The majority of the current drugs block the action of viral enzymes, whereas there is an abundance of yet unidentified host factors that could be targeted. We here present results from a genome-wide association study identifying novel genetic polymorphisms that affect in vitro HIV-1 replication in macrophages. Methodology/Principal Findings: Monocyte-derived macrophages from 393 blood donors were infected with HIV-1 and viral replication was determined using Gag p24 antigen levels. Genomic DNA from individuals with macrophages that had relatively low (n = 96) or high (n = 96) p24 production was used for SNP genotyping with the Illumina 610 Quad beadchip. A total of 494,656 SNPs that passed quality control were tested for association with HIV-1 replication in macrophages, using linear regression. We found a strong association between in vitro HIV-1 replication in monocyte-derived macrophages and SNP rs12483205 in DYRK1A (p = 2.16×10-5). While the association was not genome-wide significant (p<1×10-7), we could replicate this association using monocyte-derived macrophages from an independent group of 31 individuals (p = 0.0034). Combined analysis of the initial and replication cohort increased the strength of the association (p = 4.84×10-6). In addition, we found this SNP to be associated with HIV-1 disease progression in vivo in two independent cohort studies (p = 0.035 and p = 0.0048). Conclusions/Significance: These findings suggest that the kinase DYRK1A is involved in the replication of HIV-1, in vitro in macrophages as well as in vivo. © 2011 Bol et al

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia