Traces on the skein algebra of the torus

For a surface $F$, the Kauffman bracket skein module of $F \times [0,1]$, denoted $K(F)$, admits a natural multiplication which makes it an algebra. When specialized at a complex number $t$, nonzero and not a root of unity, we have $K_t(F)$, a vector space over $\mathbb{C}$. In this paper, we will use the product-to-sum formula of Frohman and Gelca to show that the vector space $K_t(T^2)$ has five distinct traces. One trace, the Yang-Mills measure, is obtained by picking off the coefficient of the empty skein. The other four traces on $K_t(T^2)$ correspond to each of the four $\mathbb{Z}_2$ homology classes of the torus.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

"Rousseau, Amour-Propre, and Intellectual Celebrity"

With the publication of the First Discourse, Rousseau initiated a famous debate over the social value of the arts and sciences. As this debate developed, however, it transformed into a question of the value of the intellectuals as a social class and touched upon questions of identity formation. While the philosophes were lobbying to become a new cultural aristocracy, Rousseau believed the ideological glorification of intellectual talent demeaned the peasants and working classes. This essay argues that amour propre, as put forth in the Second Discourse, was in part designed to address this concern and is an attempt to highlight the dangers of making talent the measure of a human

Treatment of Recurrent Intracranial Hemangiopericytoma with SRC-Related Tyrosine Kinase Targeted Therapy: A Case Report

Hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a rare sarcomatous tumor arising from pericytes, a support cell found in blood vessels. These tumors can occur throughout the body, particularly in the lower extremities and retroperitoneum. In rare circumstances, HPCs can arise from the meninges. In these cases, they behave similar to meningiomas, in particular angiomatous meningiomas, but tend to be more aggressive and are likely to recur. Treatment usually focuses on surgical resection and radiotherapy with possible inclusion of chemotherapy for control of recurrent disease. We describe a case of recurrent right temporal HPC that first manifested as a paraneoplastic syndrome of oncogenic osteomalacia. Despite maximum therapy, this patient experienced multiple recurrences of the tumor, and immunohistochemical analysis revealed overexpression of platelet-derived growth factor receptor, a member of the SRC-related tyrosine kinases. After multiple recurrences, the patient's tumor has been stable with treatment with monotherapy utilizing molecularly targeted therapy to SRC-related tyrosine kinases. This is the first case report of the treatment of recurrent meningeal HPC with molecularly targeted therapy to SRC-related tyrosine kinases

Ocular Biomarkers of Disease: Employing Routine Eye Exams to Promote Better Health Surveillance

America’s burden of vision impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), and cardiovascular disease will continue to rise over the next 40 years. The burden of these diseases will be greater for women, Hispanics, African-Americans, and those from lower socio-economic regions. A key challenge is to develop strategies to deny the organization of the pathologies that eventually lead to the manifestation of the disease. An important feature within this battle is the development of appropriate tools and biomarkers for early reconnaissance of the enemy. Recent advances in Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) present a unique opportunity to examine physiological features of the eyes that overlap with structures within the brain and heart. Specifically, tracking of the vessel density and thickness of the nerve fiber layers of the eye may provide valuable information regarding an individual’s path towards visual impairment, ADRD, and cardiovascular disease. Thus, OCTA can extend eye care beyond capturing those who are at risk for vision loss, and include examination of biomarkers which provide information concerning trajectories of cognitive and cardiovascular health. Given loss of vision is perceived as ‘the worst ailment that could happen to person’ across all ethnic and racial groups, Ophthalmologists and Optometrists can not only provide a path toward improved eye health, but also serve as an innovative access point for early detection of individuals at risk for ADRD and Cardiovascular disease

Comparing Union and Nonunion Staff Perceptions of the Higher Education Work Environment

Evidence of substantial growth in unionization among university noninstructional staff over the past 20 years (Hurd and Woodhead, 1987) and the emergence of a quality movement in higher education linking employee attitudes toward the work environment with increased productivity point to the need for additional research into union and nonunion staff perceptions of the work environment. This paper describes a conceptually oriented, exploratory study of the university work environment as perceived and defined by union and nonunion noninstructional staff.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43620/1/11162_2004_Article_423996.pd

Substantial Variation in Hospital Rankings after Adjusting for Hospital-Level Predictors of Publicly-Reported Hospital-Associated Clostridium difficile

Across 366 California hospitals, we identified hospital-level characteristics predicting increased hospital-associated Clostridium difficile infection (HA-CDI) rates including more licensed beds, teaching and long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals, and polymerase chain reaction testing. Adjustment for these characteristics impacted rankings in 24% of teaching hospitals, 13% of community hospitals, and 11% of LTAC hospitals

Frequent Heterogeneous Missense Mutations of GGAP2 in Prostate Cancer: Implications for Tumor Biology, Clonality and Mutation Analysis

Prostate cancer is the most common visceral malignancy in Western men and a major cause of cancer deaths. Increased activation of the AKT and NFkB pathways have been identified as critical steps in prostate cancer initiation and progression. GGAP2 (GTP-binding and GTPase activating protein 2) is a multidomain protein that contains an N-terminal Ras homology domain (GTPase), followed by a PH domain, a C-terminal GAP domain and an ankyrin repeat domain. GGAP2 can directly activate signaling via both the AKT and NFkB pathways and acts as a node of crosstalk between these pathways. Increased GGAP2 expression is present in three quarters of prostate cancers. Mutations of GGAP2 have been reported in cell lines from other malignancies. We therefore analyzed 84 prostate cancer tissues and 43 benign prostate tissues for somatic mutations in GGAP2 by direct sequencing of individual clones derived from the GAP and GTPase domains of normal and tumor tissue. Overall, half of cancers contained mutant GAP domain clones and in 20% of cancers, 30% or more of clones were mutant in the GAP domain. Surprisingly, the mutations were heterogeneous and nonclonal, with multiple different mutations being present in many tumors. Similar findings were observed in the analysis of the GTPase domain. Mutant GGAP2 proteins had significantly higher transcriptional activity using AP-1 responsive reporter constructs when compared to wild-type protein. Furthermore, the presence of these mutations was associated with aggressive clinical behavior. The presence of high frequency nonclonal mutations of a single gene is novel and represents a new mode of genetic alteration that can promote tumor progression. Analysis of mutations in cancer has been used to predict outcome and guide therapeutic target identification but such analysis has focused on clonal mutations. Our studies indicate that in some cases high frequency nonclonal mutations may need to be assessed as well

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts