581 research outputs found
Sacrocolpopexy without concomitant posterior repair improves posterior compartment defects
The aim of this study is to determine posterior compartment topography 1-year after sacrocolpopexy (SC). Women who had SC without concomitant anterior or posterior repairs for symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse (POP) were included. Vaginal topography was assessed at baseline and 1-year postoperatively using POP quantification (POPQ). At baseline, 24% had stage IV POP, 68% stage III, and 8% stage II. One year after surgery, 75% had stage 0/I POP, 24% stage II, and 1% stage III. 112 (75%) were objectively cured (stage 0 or I POP). Anterior compartment was the most common site of POP persistence or recurrence (Ba ≥ stage II in 23 women) followed by posterior compartment (Bp ≥ stage II in 12 women) and apex (C ≥ stage II in 2 women). In 1-year follow-up, SC without concomitant posterior repair restores posterior vaginal topography in the majority of women with undergoing SC
The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in Exoplanet Research
The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect occurs during a planet's transit. It provides
the main means of measuring the sky-projected spin-orbit angle between a
planet's orbital plane, and its host star's equatorial plane. Observing the
Rossiter-McLaughlin effect is now a near routine procedure. It is an important
element in the orbital characterisation of transiting exoplanets. Measurements
of the spin-orbit angle have revealed a surprising diversity, far from the
placid, Kantian and Laplacian ideals, whereby planets form, and remain, on
orbital planes coincident with their star's equator. This chapter will review a
short history of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, how it is modelled, and will
summarise the current state of the field before describing other uses for a
spectroscopic transit, and alternative methods of measuring the spin-orbit
angle.Comment: Review to appear as a chapter in the "Handbook of Exoplanets", ed. H.
Deeg & J.A. Belmont
Minimum Wage Channels of Adjustment
Industrial Relations, forthcoming Abstract: The effects of minimum wage increases in 2007-2009 are analyzed using a sample of restaurants from Georgia/Alabama. Store-level payroll records provide precise measures of compliance costs. Examined are multiple adjustment channels. Exploiting variation in compliance costs across restaurants, we find employment and hours responses to be variable and in most cases statistically insignificant. Channels of adjustment to wage increases and to changes in non-labor costs include prices, profits, wage compression, turnover, and performance standards
FGF-23 in bone biology
Recent studies have demonstrated that levels of fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23), a key regulator of phosphorus and vitamin D metabolism, rise dramatically as renal function declines and may play a key initiating role in disordered mineral and bone metabolism in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The physiologic importance of FGF-23 in mineral metabolism was first identified in human genetic and acquired rachitic diseases and further characterized in animal models. FGF-23 and its regulators, including phosphate regulating endopeptidase homolog, dentin matrix 1 (DMP1), and matrix extracellular phosphoglycoprotein, are made primarily in bone, specifically in osteocytes. Dysregulation of these proteins results in osteomalacia, implicating the osteocyte in the regulation of skeletal mineralization. Studies in pediatric patients with CKD, the majority of whom have altered skeletal mineralization in early stages of CKD, have demonstrated that skeletal expression of both FGF-23 and its regulator, DMP1, are increased in early stages of CKD and that expression of these proteins is associated with alterations in skeletal mineralization. Thus, dysregulation of osteocytic proteins occur very early in the course of CKD and appear to be central to altered bone and mineral metabolism in this patient population
A multi-targeted approach to suppress tumor-promoting inflammation
Cancers harbor significant genetic heterogeneity and patterns of relapse following many therapies are due to evolved resistance to treatment. While efforts have been made to combine targeted therapies, significant levels of toxicity have stymied efforts to effectively treat cancer with multi-drug combinations using currently approved therapeutics. We discuss the relationship between tumor-promoting inflammation and cancer as part of a larger effort to develop a broad-spectrum therapeutic approach aimed at a wide range of targets to address this heterogeneity. Specifically, macrophage migration inhibitory factor, cyclooxygenase-2, transcription factor nuclear factor-κB, tumor necrosis factor alpha, inducible nitric oxide synthase, protein kinase B, and CXC chemokines are reviewed as important antiinflammatory targets while curcumin, resveratrol, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein, lycopene, and anthocyanins are reviewed as low-cost, low toxicity means by which these targets might all be reached simultaneously. Future translational work will need to assess the resulting synergies of rationally designed antiinflammatory mixtures (employing low-toxicity constituents), and then combine this with similar approaches targeting the most important pathways across the range of cancer hallmark phenotypes
Neuroaesthetics: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience
This research was supported by Grant AAEE124/09 from the Govern de les Illes Balears, Spain
Unemployment Duration in Germany: Individual and Regional Determinants of Local Job Finding, Migration and Subsidized Employment
A measurement of gravitational lensing of the microwave background using South Pole Telescope data
We use South Pole Telescope data from 2008 and 2009 to detect the
non-Gaussian signature in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) produced by
gravitational lensing and to measure the power spectrum of the projected
gravitational potential. We constrain the ratio of the measured amplitude of
the lensing signal to that expected in a fiducial LCDM cosmological model to be
0.86 +/- 0.16, with no lensing disfavored at 6.3 sigma. Marginalizing over LCDM
cosmological models allowed by the WMAP7 results in a measurement of
A_lens=0.90+/-0.19, indicating that the amplitude of matter fluctuations over
the redshift range 0.5 <~ z <~ 5 probed by CMB lensing is in good agreement
with predictions. We present the results of several consistency checks. These
include a clear detection of the lensing signature in CMB maps filtered to have
no overlap in Fourier space, as well as a "curl" diagnostic that is consistent
with the signal expected for LCDM. We perform a detailed study of bias in the
measurement due to noise, foregrounds, and other effects and determine that
these contributions are relatively small compared to the statistical
uncertainty in the measurement. We combine this lensing measurement with
results from WMAP7 to improve constraints on cosmological parameters when
compared to those from WMAP7 alone: we find a factor of 3.9 improvement in the
measurement of the spatial curvature of the Universe, Omega_k=-0.0014+/-0.0172;
a 10% improvement in the amplitude of matter fluctuations within LCDM,
sigma_8=0.810+/ 0.026; and a 5% improvement in the dark energy equation of
state, w=-1.04+/-0.40. When compared with the measurement of w provided by the
combination of WMAP7 and external constraints on the Hubble parameter, the
addition of the lensing data improve the measurement of w by 15% to give
w=-1.087+/-0.096.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, to be submitted to Ap
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