Atrial and placental melanoma metastasis: a case report and literature review

Malignant melanoma can metastasize to virtually any organ of the body. The aggressiveness is determined by the primary site, depth of dermal invasion, presence or absence of ulceration, lymphovascular infiltration and regional lymph node involvement. We report a case of a pregnant woman with a previous history of stage 3 melanoma who presented with cardiac metastasis and placental melanoma infiltration. A review of literature on cardiac and placental involvement of melanoma is also provided

Antimicrobial resistance with Streptococcus pneumoniae in the United States, 1997 98.

From November 1997 to April 1998, 1,601 clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae were obtained from 34 U.S. medical centers. The overall rate of strains showing resistance to penicillin was 29. 5%, with 17.4% having intermediate resistance. Multidrug resistance, defined as lack of susceptibility to penicillin and at least two other non-ss-lactam classes of antimicrobial drugs, was observed in 16.0% of isolates. Resistance to all 10 ss-lactam drugs examined in this study was directly related to the level of penicillin resistance. Penicillin resistance rates were highest in isolates from middle ear fluid and sinus aspirates of children ambulatory-care settings. Twenty-four of the 34 medical centers in this study had participated in a similar study 3 years before. In 19 of these 24 centers, penicillin resistance rates increased 2.9% to 39.2%. Similar increases were observed with rates of resistance to other antimicrobial drugs

Security: Collective good or commodity?

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 Sage.The state monopoly on the legitimate use of violence in Europe and North America has been central to the development of security as a collective good. Not only has it institutionalized the state as the prime national and international security provider, it has helped to reduce the threat from other actors by either prohibiting or limiting their use of violence. The recent growth of the private security industry appears to undermine this view. Not only are private security firms proliferating at the national level; private military companies are also taking over an increasing range of military functions in both national defence and international interventions. This article seeks to provide an examination of the theoretical and practical implications of the shift from states to markets in the provision of security. Specifically, it discusses how the conceptualization of security as a commodity rather than a collective good affects the meaning and implementation of security in Western democracies.ESR

The G0 Experiment: Apparatus for Parity-Violating Electron Scattering Measurements at Forward and Backward Angles

In the G0 experiment, performed at Jefferson Lab, the parity-violating elastic scattering of electrons from protons and quasi-elastic scattering from deuterons is measured in order to determine the neutral weak currents of the nucleon. Asymmetries as small as 1 part per million in the scattering of a polarized electron beam are determined using a dedicated apparatus. It consists of specialized beam-monitoring and control systems, a cryogenic hydrogen (or deuterium) target, and a superconducting, toroidal magnetic spectrometer equipped with plastic scintillation and aerogel Cerenkov detectors, as well as fast readout electronics for the measurement of individual events. The overall design and performance of this experimental system is discussed.Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Method

Beyond Environmental Regulatory Fragmentation: Signs of Integration in the Case of the Great Lakes Basin

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72007/1/j.1468-0491.1995.tb00197.x.pd

SMHASH:A new mid-infrared RR Lyrae distance determination for the Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxy Sculptor

We present a new distance estimation for the Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite Sculptor obtained from multi-epoch mid-infrared observations of RR Lyrae stars. The 3.6 {\mu}m observations have been acquired with the Infrared Array Camera on board the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the SMHASH Program. Mid-infrared light curves for 42 RRL were obtained, from which we measured Sculptor's distance modulus to be {\mu} = 19.60 $\pm$ 0.02 (statistical) $\pm$ 0.04 (photometric) mag (with $\sigma_{sys}=$ = 0.09 mag), using the 3.6 {\mu}m empirical period-luminosity relations derived from the Galactic globular cluster M4, or {\mu} = 19.57 $\pm$ 0.02 (statistical) $\pm$ 0.04 (photometric) mag (with $\sigma_{sys}=$ = 0.11 mag) using empirical relations in the same passband recently derived from the Large Magellanic Cloud globular cluster Reticulum. Both these measurements are in good agreement with values presented in previous works with Sculptor RR Lyrae stars in optical bands, and are also consistent with recent near-infrared RR Lyrae results. Best agreement with the literature is found for the latter modulus which is equivalent to a distance of d = 82 $\pm$ 1 (statistical) $\pm$ 2 (photometric) kpc (with $\sigma_{sys}=$ = 4 kpc). Finally, using a subsample of RR Lyrae stars with spectroscopic metallicities, we demonstrate that these distance estimates are not affected by metallicity effects.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA