Postpartum Ovarian Vein Thrombosis: Two Cases and Review of Literature

Introduction. We presented two cases of late presentation of ovarian vein thrombosis postpartum following vaginal delivery and cesarean section within a short period in our institution. Both of them had pelvic pain following their deliveries which was associated with fever and chills. One of them was quite a big-sized thrombophlebitic vein which was about 10 × 6 × 5 centimeters following a computed tomography. They were both treated initially for urinary tract infection, while a large ovarian vein thrombosis was not diagnosed in the second patient until her emergency department admission. Conclusion. Ovarian vein thrombosis is rare, but could present late, and difficult to diagnose, hence, should be considered as a differential diagnosis in a postpartum woman with fever and tender pelvic mass

Fair Computation with Rational Players

We consider the problem of fair multiparty computation, where fairness means (informally) that all parties should learn the correct output. A seminal result of Cleve (STOC 1986) shows that fairness is, in general, impossible to achieve if a majority of the parties is malicious. Here, we treat all parties as rational and seek to understand what can be done. Asharov et al. (Eurocrypt 2011) showed impossibility of rational fair computation in the two-party setting, for a particular function and a particular choice of utilities. We observe, however, that in their setting the parties have no strict incentive to compute the function even in an ideal world where fairness is guaranteed. Revisiting the problem, we show that rational fair computation is possible, for arbitrary functions, as long as the parties have a strict incentive to compute the function in an ideal world where fairness is guaranteed. Our results extend to more general utility functions that do not directly correspond to fairness, as well as to the multi-party setting. Our work thus shows a new setting in which game-theoretic considerations can be used to circumvent a cryptographic impossibility result

EXPANDER – an integrative program suite for microarray data analysis

BACKGROUND: Gene expression microarrays are a prominent experimental tool in functional genomics which has opened the opportunity for gaining global, systems-level understanding of transcriptional networks. Experiments that apply this technology typically generate overwhelming volumes of data, unprecedented in biological research. Therefore the task of mining meaningful biological knowledge out of the raw data is a major challenge in bioinformatics. Of special need are integrative packages that provide biologist users with advanced but yet easy to use, set of algorithms, together covering the whole range of steps in microarray data analysis. RESULTS: Here we present the EXPANDER 2.0 (EXPression ANalyzer and DisplayER) software package. EXPANDER 2.0 is an integrative package for the analysis of gene expression data, designed as a 'one-stop shop' tool that implements various data analysis algorithms ranging from the initial steps of normalization and filtering, through clustering and biclustering, to high-level functional enrichment analysis that points to biological processes that are active in the examined conditions, and to promoter cis-regulatory elements analysis that elucidates transcription factors that control the observed transcriptional response. EXPANDER is available with pre-compiled functional Gene Ontology (GO) and promoter sequence-derived data files for yeast, worm, fly, rat, mouse and human, supporting high-level analysis applied to data obtained from these six organisms. CONCLUSION: EXPANDER integrated capabilities and its built-in support of multiple organisms make it a very powerful tool for analysis of microarray data. The package is freely available for academic users a

The natural history of secondary muscle-invasive bladder cancer

BACKGROUND: The management of patients with high-grade non muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) brings diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. In the current study, we sought to study the natural history of progression to "secondary" muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC)-cancer that developed during follow up of patients presenting with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). METHODS: Between 1998 and 2008, 760 patients were treated for bladder cancer. Primary MIBC (>=T2) tumors (present upon presentation) were diagnosed in 114 patients. All patients with high-grade NMIBC were treated with intravesical BCG. Mean follow-up was 44 months. RESULTS: Forty patients (6.1%) developed secondary MIBC after a mean period of 21 months from initial diagnosis of bladder cancer. The 2- and 5-year disease-specific survival rates were better for patients with secondary MIBC (90% and 56% compared to 69% and 42% for patients with primary disease, p=0.03). The Kaplan-Meier curves of the two groups were parallel but displaced by approximately 2 years. CONCLUSION: In the current series, MIBC progression occurred among initially presenting patients with NMIBC in 6.1%. In most patients, the initial diagnosis of NMIBC is correct and muscle invasion occurs after a mean period of about 2 years. This supports a non-radical approach in patients with high-grade T1, Ta or Tis. Meticulous follow-up with liberal biopsy of any suspicious lesion may provide early diagnosis of invasive disease

Is radical cystectomy mandatory in every patient with variant histology of bladder cancer

Urothelial carcinomas have an established propensity for divergent differentiation. Most of these variant tumors are muscle invasive but not all. The response of non muscle invasive variant tumors to intravesical immunotherapy with BCG is not established in the literature, and is reported here. Between June 1995 and December 2007, 760 patients (mean age of 67.5 years) underwent transurethral resection of first time bladder tumors in our institution. Histologically variant tumors were found in 79 patients (10.4%). Of these 57 patients (72%) of them had muscle-invasive disease or extensive non-muscle invasive tumors and remaining 22 patients (28%) were treated with BCG immunotherapy. These included 7 patients with squamous differentiation, 4 with glandular, 6 with nested, 4 with micropapillary and 1 patient with sarcomatoid variant. The response of these patients to immunotherapy was compared with that of 144 patients having high-grade conventional urothelial carcinomas. Median follow-up was 46 months. The 2 and 5-year progression (muscle-invasion) free survival rates were 92% and 84.24% for patients with conventional carcinoma compared to 81.06% and 63.16% for patients with variant disease (P=0.02). The 2 and 5-year disease specific survival rates were 97% and 91.43% for patients with conventional carcinoma compared to 94.74 % and 82% for patients with variant disease (P=0.33). 5 patients (22.7%) of variant group and 13 patients (9.03%) of conventional group underwent cystectomy during follow-up (P=0.068)

Outcomes of Ultrasound-guided Glen Humeral Corticosteroid Injections in Adhesive Capsulitis

Aims To assess short and longer-term outcomes of ultrasound-guided glenohumeral corticosteroid injections for adhesive capsulitis. Study Design A mixed prospective and retrospective study design Place and Duration of Study Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, between June 2011 and July 2012. Methodology Using medical records, we first retrospectively identified patients who had received ultrasound-guided injections of lidocaine and triamcinolone for adhesive capsulitis We then assessed short-term follow-up outcomes (within 3 months of procedure) using medical record review and phone interviews. Longer-term follow-up (at least 3 months from the procedure) outcomes were determined by mailings and phone calls. Average and worst shoulder pain scores were measured on a visual analog scale. Shoulder ROM was measured in forward flexion, isolated abduction, and external rotation. Results: Patients presented an average of 5.1 (SD=4.1) months after onset of symptoms. Within three months of the injection, 55.9% (95% CI: 39.2%, 72.6%) of patients reported greater than 75% pain relief and 44.1% (95% CI: 27.4%, 60.8%) of patients reported greater than 75% ROM improvement. The percentage of patients who improved increased with increased duration of follow-up. At short-term follow-up (mean=2.1 months, SD=2.7), average pain decreased from 5.6 (SD=2.2) to 3.0 (SD=1.8) (p ≤ .001) and worst pain decreased from 7.8 (SD=1.2) to 4.3 (SD=3.2) (p ≤ .001). At longer-term follow-up (mean =10.4 months, SD=3.7), average pain decreased to 1.9 (SD=1.9) (p ≤ .001) and worst pain decreased to 2.9 (SD=2.3) (p ≤ .001). Conclusion: A majority of patients had significant pain reduction and functional improvement after an ultrasound guided glenohumeral corticosteroid injection for adhesive capsulitis. Our patients experience the majority of their pain and functional relief within the first three months after an ultrasound-guided corticosteroid injection with continued increase in relief in the longer-term

Epidermal growth factor receptor downregulation by small heterodimeric binding proteins

No single engineered protein has been shown previously to robustly downregulate epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a validated cancer target. A panel of fibronectin-based domains was engineered to bind with picomolar to nanomolar affinity to multiple epitopes of EGFR. Monovalent and homo- and hetero-bivalent dimers of these domains were tested for EGFR downregulation. Selected orientations of non-competitive heterodimers decrease EGFR levels by up to 80% in multiple cell types, without activating receptor signaling. These heterodimers inhibit autophosphorylation, proliferation and migration, and are synergistic with the monoclonal antibody cetuximab in these activities. These small (25 kDa) heterodimers represent a novel modality for modulating surface receptor levels.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant CA96504)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant CA118705)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Entangled Stories: The Red Jews in Premodern Yiddish and German Apocalyptic Lore

“Far, far away from our areas, somewhere beyond the Mountains of Darkness, on the other side of the Sambatyon River…there lives a nation known as the Red Jews.” The Red Jews are best known from classic Yiddish writing, most notably from Mendele's Kitser masoes Binyomin hashlishi (The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third). This novel, first published in 1878, represents the initial appearance of the Red Jews in modern Yiddish literature. This comical travelogue describes the adventures of Benjamin, who sets off in search of the legendary Red Jews. But who are these Red Jews or, in Yiddish, di royte yidelekh? The term denotes the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the ten tribes that in biblical times had composed the Northern Kingdom of Israel until they were exiled by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE. Over time, the myth of their return emerged, and they were said to live in an uncharted location beyond the mysterious Sambatyon River, where they would remain until the Messiah's arrival at the end of time, when they would rejoin the rest of the Jewish people. This article is part of a broader study of the Red Jews in Jewish popular culture from the Middle Ages through modernity. It is partially based on a chapter from my book, Umstrittene Erlöser: Politik, Ideologie und jüdisch-christlicher Messianismus in Deutschland, 1500–1600 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011). Several postdoctoral fellowships have generously supported my research on the Red Jews: a Dr. Meyer-Struckmann-Fellowship of the German Academic Foundation, a Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica/Alan M. Stroock Fellowship for Advanced Research in Judaica at Harvard University, a research fellowship from the Heinrich Hertz-Foundation, and a YIVO Dina Abramowicz Emerging Scholar Fellowship. I thank the organizers of and participants in the colloquia and conferences where I have presented this material in various forms as well as the editors and anonymous reviewers of AJS Review for their valuable comments and suggestions. I am especially grateful to Jeremy Dauber and Elisheva Carlebach of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University, where I was a Visiting Scholar in the fall of 2009, for their generous encouragement to write this article. Sue Oren considerably improved my English. The style employed for Romanization of Yiddish follows YIVO's transliteration standards. Unless otherwise noted, translations from the Yiddish, Hebrew, German, and Latin are my own. Quotations from the Bible follow the JPS translation, and those from the Babylonian Talmud are according to the Hebrew-English edition of the Soncino Talmud by Isidore Epstein

The Black Criminal Other as an Object of Social Control

Throughout this paper, we contend that the ‘gang’ has been appropriated by the state as an ideological device that drives the hypercriminalisation of black, mixed, Asian, and other minority ethnic (BAME) communities. Drawing upon two research studies, we demonstrate how the gang is evoked to explain an array of contemporary ‘crime’ problems, which in turn (re)produces racialised objects to be policed. With particular reference to collective punishments, we suggest that “gang-branding” is critical to the development of guilt-producing associations that facilitate the arrest, charging, and prosecution of countless numbers of BAME people for offences they did not commit. As such, there is now an urgent need to ‘take seriously’ the criminalising intents of a dangerous criminology of the Other, which legitimises intrusive racist policing and surveillance, and justifies the imposition of deliberate harms upon racialised communities