We don’t make the News, we just report it: Television Journalism and Narratives of Trauma

While the need to know is the raison d 'être of the journalists, the need to deny is perhaps less obvious but also pervasive, starting with the frequent need to deny their own agency, as our title suggests. In this paper, we take as examples some of the most heavily produced and reported trauma stories of the last decade to illustrate the competing needs of knowing and denying knowledge. These include the 9-11 terror attacks of 2001, the devastation of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the school shooting massacre at Virginia Tech University in 2007. The focus is on US journalism because it is a highly influential model providing English language content used around the globe and because it draws heavily on established narrative conventions in both literature and film. Our analysis demonstrates that journalistic needs for knowledge and denial are both cultural and structural and the implications of this on collective and personal memory of traumas are profound. 

Quantification of trace element contents in frozen fluid inclusions by UV-fs-LA-ICP-MS analysis

We have developed a new analytical setup for the determination of trace element concentrations in fluid inclusions by UV-fs-LA-ICP-MS. Laser ablation was performed at a low temperature of -40 degrees C by using a modified heating-freezing stage as the ablation cell. With this method it was possible to successfully analyse 53 of 55 frozen synthetic NaCl-H2O fluid inclusions in quartz, covering a size range between 8 mu m and 25 mu m down to a depth of 50 mu m. The high success rate could be achieved as the 194 nm UV-fs-laser allows excellent control over the opening procedure of frozen fluid inclusions. Trace element analyses were performed with a fast scanning magnetic sector field ICP-MS. The lower limits of detection for fluid inclusion analysis vary from 0.1 mu g g(-1) (for Bi-209) to 10 mu g g(-1) (for K-39). The typical analytical uncertainty, depending on the element and respective concentration level, ranges between 10% and 30% (1RSD), based on the reproducibility of experimentally synthesized fluid inclusions. All elements from a stock solution, which behaved inert during the HP/HT experiments (B, K, Cd, Te, Tl, Pb and Bi), could be recovered in the synthetic inclusions at concentrations that correspond within their specific analytical uncertainties to their original concentration of 53 mu g g(-1). The method represents a highly efficient tool for the determination of accurate trace element data on low concentration levels in small fluid inclusions with a high success rate of >90%. The latter is particularly advantageous considering the commonly time consuming characterization of fluid inclusions.NTH Graduate School GeoFluxe

Nodal Disease and Survival in Oral Cancer: Is Occult Metastasis a Burden Factor Compared to Preoperatively Nodal Positive Neck?

Simple Summary Occult metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients is a feared complication. However, there are barely any existing data on survival of patients suffering from occult metastasis. This study aims to compare patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma, considering survival in occult metastases and different treatment approaches. The impact of neck involvement and occult metastasis (OM) in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) favors an elective neck dissection. However, there are barely any existing data on survival for patients with OM compared with patients with positive lymph nodes detected preoperatively. This study aims to compare survival curves of patients suffering from lymph nodal metastases in a preoperatively N+ neck with those suffering from OM. In addition, clinical characteristics of the primary tumor were analyzed to predict occult nodal disease. This retrospective cohort study includes patients with an OSCC treated surgically with R0 resection with or without adjuvant chemoradiotherapy between 2010 and 2016. Minimum follow-up was 60 months. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare the survival between patients with and without occult metastases and patients with N+ neck to those with occult metastases. Logistic regression was used to detect potential risk factors for occult metastases. The patient cohort consisted of 226 patients. Occult metastases occurred in 16 of 226 patients. In 53 of 226 patients, neck lymph nodes were described as suspect on CT imaging but had a pN0 neck. Higher tumor grading increased the chance of occurrence of occult metastasis 2.7-fold (OR = 2.68, 95% CI: 1.07-6.7). After 12, 24, 48 and 60 months, 82.3%, 73.8%, 69% and 67% of the N0 patients, respectively, were progression free. In the group with OM occurrence, for the same periods 66.6%, 50%, 33.3% and 33.3% of the patients, respectively, were free of disease. For the same periods, respectively, 81%, 63%, 47% and 43% of the patients in the N+ group but without OM remained disease free. The predictors for progression-free survival were a positive N status (HR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.08-1.93) and the occurrence of OM (HR = 2.33, 95% CI: 1.17-4.64). The presence of occult metastasis could lead to decreased survival and could be a burdening factor requiring treatment escalation and a more aggressive follow-up than nodal disease detected in the preoperative diagnostic imaging

Experimental tests on achieving equilibrium in synthetic fluid inclusions: Results for scheelite, molybdenite, and gold solubility at 800 °C and 200 MPa

Synthetic fluid inclusions formed in high P-T experiments, which are subsequently analyzed with LA-ICP-MS, enable us to collect thermodynamic data to constrain metal transport in aqueous fluids as well as partitioning of metals between coexisting phases. The most essential prerequisite for such studies is to ensure that equilibrium conditions between liquid and solid phases are reached prior to the formation of synthetic fluid inclusions in the host mineral. Various methods have been proposed by different authors to achieve this goal, but to this point our knowledge on the best approach to synthesize equilibrated fluid inclusions under constrained pressure, temperature, and compositional (P, T, and X) conditions remains poor. In addition, information on the time needed to reach equilibrium metal concentrations in the fluid as well as on the timing of the onset of fluid inclusion formation in the host mineral are scarce. The latter has been tested in a series of time-dependent experiments at 800 °C and 200 MPa using scheelite (CaWO4), molybdenite (MoS2) and metallic gold as dissolving phases and using different approaches to optimize the formation of equilibrated fluid inclusions. Both Embedded Image and Embedded Image were fixed during all experiments using the pyrite-pyrrhotite-magnetite buffer (PPM). As an intermediate in situ quenching of the sample charge plays an important role in the synthesis of fluid inclusions, we further tested the efficiency of such an intermediate quench for re-opening fluid inclusions formed at 600 °C and 200 MPa. Our results reveal that fluid inclusions start forming almost instantaneously and that equilibrium between fluid and solid phases occurs in the timescale of less than two hours for molybdenite and gold up to ca. 10 h for scheelite. The best approach to synthesize equilibrated fluid inclusions at 800 °C was obtained by using an intermediate quench on a previously unfractured quartz host. Experiments at 600 °C showed similar results and illustrate that this should be the method of choice down to this temperature. Below 600 °C pre-treatment of the quartz host (HF etching and/or thermal fracturing) becomes important to produce large enough fluid inclusions for the analyses via LA-ICP-MS and special care must be taken to prevent premature entrapment of the fluid. Fluids with 8 wt% NaCl in equilibrium with scheelite, molybdenite and gold at 800 °C and 200 MPa have concentrations of ca. 7300 ppm W, 1300 ppm Mo, and 300 ppm Au, respectively, which is in good agreement with results from other studies or extrapolation from lower temperatures. It can be concluded that the formation of synthetic fluid inclusions from an equilibrated fluid is possible, but different experimental designs are required, depending on the investigated temperature. In general, dissolution of solid phases seems to be much faster than previously assumed, so that experimental run durations can be designed considerably shorter, which is of great advantage when using fast-consuming mineral buffers.State of Lower SaxonyGraduate School GeoFluxesLeibniz Universität Hannove

The Advocate

Headlines Include: Laurels For Feerick: An Alumnus To Remember; Crime at Fordham; Who\u27s Next?, Film at 11https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/student_the_advocate/1007/thumbnail.jp

Applicability of liquid biopsies to represent the mutational profile of tumor tissue from different cancer entities

Genetic investigation of tumor heterogeneity and clonal evolution in solid cancers could be assisted by the analysis of liquid biopsies. However, tumors of various entities might release different quantities of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) into the bloodstream, potentially limiting the diagnostic potential of liquid biopsy in distinct tumor histologies. Patients with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and melanoma (MEL) were enrolled in the study, representing tumors with different metastatic patterns. Mutation profiles of cfDNA, CTCs, and tumor tissue were assessed by panel sequencing, targeting 327 cancer-related genes. In total, 30 tissue, 18 cfDNA, and 7 CTC samples from 18 patients were sequenced. Best concordance between the mutation profile of tissue and cfDNA was achieved in CRC and MEL, possibly due to the remarkable heterogeneity of HNSCC (63%, 55% and 11%, respectively). Concordance especially depended on the amount of cfDNA used for library preparation. While 21 of 27 (78%) tissue mutations were retrieved in high-input cfDNA samples (30-100 ng, N = 8), only 4 of 65 (6%) could be detected in low-input samples (<30 ng, N = 10). CTCs were detected in 13 of 18 patients (72%). However, downstream analysis was limited by poor DNA quality, allowing targeted sequencing of only seven CTC samples isolated from four patients. Only one CTC sample reflected the mutation profile of the respective tumor. Private mutations, which were detected in CTCs but not in tissue, suggested the presence of rare subclones. Our pilot study demonstrated superiority of cfDNA- compared to CTC-based mutation profiling. It was further shown that CTCs may serve as additional means to detect rare subclones possibly involved in treatment resistance. Both findings require validation in a larger patient cohort