An Analysis of the Impact of European Union and United States Dairy Policies on EU-U.S. Trade in Milk Protein Concentrate

During 1996-2000, U.S. imports of milk protein concentrate (MPC) increased rapidly. At the same time, Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) stocks of non-fat dry milk (NFDM) went from nothing to more than 500 million pounds. Consequently, U.S. milk producers attributed low milk prices and dairy farmer income during this period to the increased imports of MPC. U.S. milk producers were especially concerned with MPC imports for two reasons. First, MPC between 40 and 90 percent protein had been classified in subheading 0404.90.10 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS). Thus, MPC was not subject to the tariff-rate quotas applied to many other dairy products. Second, MPC produced in the European Union (EU) and exported to the United States was eligible for production and export subsidies. Along with the high U.S. internal milk protein prices maintained by the Dairy Price Support Program, and volatile world prices of NFDM, these policies created economic rents for trade in MPC between the European Union and the United States. To test the relationship between these policies and U.S. imports of MPC, these economic rents, which were not directly observable, were estimated by combing a set of identifiable variables: (1) the CCC purchase price, (2) the EU export refund, (3) EU casein production aid, and (4) the world price of NFDM as expressed by the Western Europe export price. A vector autoregression model was then estimated using monthly U.S. imports of MPC and the estimate of economic rents. This estimation showed that nearly 40 percent of the variability in U.S. MPC imports was attributable to the estimate of economic rents. These results demonstrate that U.S. and EU policies can not be analyzed in isolation when evaluating the impact of dairy policies on U.S. MPC imports.Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Focal Treatment of Prostate Cancer with Vascular-Targeted Photodynamic Therapy

Epidemiologic and pathologic features of prostate cancer have given rise to an interest in focal treatment for carefully selected patients. Prostate cancer remains highly prevalent, particularly in the U.S. and Europe. As screening programs have become more aggressive and widespread, a substantial proportion of men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer have disease characteristics associated with a low risk of progression. Treatments such as radical prostatectomy and radiation therapy can lead to durable recurrence-free survival in most patients, but carry variable risks of bowel, urinary, and sexual side effects. Few men and few urologists are comfortable leaving a potentially curable prostate cancer untreated. Focal therapy offers an attractive alternative for the patient faced with a choice between aggressive local intervention (radiation or surgery) and watchful waiting. Contemporary diagnostic biopsy strategies and imaging tools, and the development of predictive statistical models (nomograms), have led to improvements in tumor characterization and risk stratification, making focal therapy a viable treatment option for specific men. This article reviews the rationale and indications for focal therapy and highlights vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy (PDT) as one of many promising focal therapy techniques

Renal Epithelioid Angiomyolipoma: Genomic Characterization and Malignant Potential

Introduction: Renal angiomyolipoma (AML) is one of the most common benign kidney tumors diagnosed. Epithelioid angiomyolipoma (eAML) is a rare variant of these kind of masses that have been classified by the World Health Organization as a potentially malignant mesenchymal neoplasm that metastasizes in one-third of cases. However, conflicting reports have brought in to question the true malignant potential of eAML. Due to eAMLs overall rarity, few studies have characterized this entity. In this study, we further define eAML by describing its genomic alterations and malignant potential by comparing it to a cohort of AML patients at a large-volume cancer center. Methods: After IRB approval, a prospectively maintained kidney cancer database was queried for all patients with eAML and AML who underwent nephrectomy between 1994 and 2008 at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Patients were separated into two histologic groups, those with eAML and those with AML. Clinicopathologic features and genomic alterations were analyzed and then compared between the two cohorts. Descriptive statistics were performed using Mann-Whitney U test, and Chi-squared test, where appropriate, and reported as either median with interquartile range (IQR) or number with percentage. Genomic data was available in 6 eAML and 10 AML patients with mutational burden described as a proportion. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method with significance determined by log-rank tests. All statistical analyses were performed using R 3.5.2 with significance set at \u3c0.05. Results: Out of 103 patients, 44 had eAML and 59 had AML. Females in their fifth and sixth decade were more commonly diagnosed than males, Table 1. Patients with eAML had larger tumors (p\u3c0.001) and underwent radical nephrectomy more often (p=0.014). Twelve (27.3%) eAML patients metastasized, while no metastases were observed in AML patients. Median RFS for eAML patients was 131 months, and median RFS was not reached in AML patients (p\u3c0.0001), Figure 1. The most frequently mutated gene across both groups expectedly was TSC2, a mutation commonly found in AMLs. The mutational burden in eAMLs was heterogeneous compared to AMLs, with more mutations observed within TP53(43%), RB1 (14%), APC (14%), TERT (14%), ATRX (14%), TSC1 (14%), PIK3CA (14%), GNA11 (14%), and FGFR3 (14%), Figure 2. Conclusion: Patients with eAML were observed to have larger tumors and metastasized at a higher rate than patients with AML. A greater frequency of eAML patients underwent radical nephrectomy. The mutational burden across eAML was notable for a more heterogeneity, with largest mutations in TSC2 and TP53 genes. Further investigation into the impact of mutational burden on metastatic potential is warranted

Quantum Inconsistency of Einstein Supergravity

We show that N=1, D=4 Einstein-frame supergravity is inconsistent at one loop because of an anomaly in local supersymmetry transformations. A Jacobian must be added to the Einstein-frame Lagrangian to cancel this anomaly. We show how the Jacobian arises from the super-Weyl field redefinition that takes the superspace Lagrangian to the Einstein frame. We present an explicit example which demonstrates that the Jacobian is necessary for one-loop scattering amplitudes to be frame independent.Comment: 16 pages, One figure, Latex. Published versio

Statistical Approach to Raman Analysis of Graphene-Related Materials: Implications for Quality Control

A statistical method to determine the number of measurements required from nanomaterials to ensure reliable and robust analysis is described. Commercial products utilizing graphene are in their infancy and recent investigations of commercial graphene manufacture have attributed this to the lack of robust metrology and standards by which graphene and related carbon materials can be measured and compared. Raman spectroscopy is known to be a useful tool in carbon nanomaterial characterization, but to provide meaningful information, in particular for quality control or management, multiple spectra are needed. Herein we present a statistical method to quantify the number of different spectra or other microscale measurements that should be taken to reliably characterize a graphene material. We have recorded a large number of Raman measurements and studied the statistical convergence of these data sets. We use a graphical approach to monitor the change in summary statistics and a Monte Carlo based bootstrapping method of data analysis to computationally resample the data demonstrating the effects of underanalyzing a material; for example, graphene nanoplatelets may require over 500 spectra before information about the exfoliation efficiency, particle size, layer number, and chemical functionalization is accurately obtained

Characteristic QSO Accretion Disk Temperatures from Spectroscopic Continuum Variability

Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasar spectra taken at multiple epochs, we find that the composite flux density differences in the rest frame wavelength range 1300-6000 AA can be fit by a standard thermal accretion disk model where the accretion rate has changed from one epoch to the next (without considering additional continuum emission components). The fit to the composite residual has two free parameters: a normalizing constant and the average characteristic temperature $\bar{T}^*$. In turn the characteristic temperature is dependent on the ratio of the mass accretion rate to the square of the black hole mass. We therefore conclude that most of the UV/optical variability may be due to processes involving the disk, and thus that a significant fraction of the UV/optical spectrum may come directly from the disk.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figure

New Goldstone multiplet for partially broken supersymmetry

The partial spontaneous breaking of rigid N=2 supersymmetry implies the existence of a massless N=1 Goldstone multiplet. In this paper we show that the spin-(1/2,1) Maxwell multiplet can play this role. We construct its full nonlinear transformation law and find the invariant Goldstone action. The spin-1 piece of the action turns out to be of Born-Infeld type, and the full superfield action is duality invariant. This leads us to conclude that the Goldstone multiplet can be associated with a D-brane solution of superstring theory for p=3. In addition, we find that N=1 chirality is preserved in the presence of the Goldstone-Maxwell multiplet. This allows us to couple it to N=1 chiral and gauge field multiplets. We find that arbitrary Kahler and superpotentials are consistent with partially broken N=2 supersymmetry.Comment: Latex, 13 pages. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Pulse-Encoded Ultrasound Imagine of the Vitreous With an Annular Array

The vitreous body is nearly transparent both optically and ultrasonically. Conventional 10- to 12-MHz diagnostic ultrasound can detect vitreous inhomogeneities at high gain settings, but has limited resolution and sensitivity, especially outside the fixed focal zone near the retina. To improve visualization of faint intravitreal fluid/gel interfaces, the authors fabricated a spherically curved 20-MHz five-element annular array ultrasound transducer, implemented a synthetic-focusing algorithm to extend the depth-of-field, and used a pulse-encoding strategy to increase sensitivity. The authors evaluated a human subject with a recent posterior vitreous detachment and compared the annular array with conventional 10-MHz ultrasound and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. With synthetic focusing and chirp pulse-encoding, the array allowed visualization of the formed and fluid components of the vitreous with improved sensitivity and resolution compared with the conventional B-scan. Although optical coherence tomography allowed assessment of the posterior vitreoretinal interface, the ultrasound array allowed evaluation of the entire vitreous body