Liver Transplantation for Advanced Liver Disease with Alpha-1antitrypsin Deficiency

ALPHA-1-antitrypsin deficiency associated with chronic obstructive airway disease was recognized in 1963 by Laurell and Ericksson.1 In 1969, Sharp2 described the first cases of alpha-1-antitrypsin-deficiency disease in children with cirrhosis. Since then, this inborn error has been recognized as one of the more common factors in cirrhosis of infancy and childhood,3 including “neonatal hepatitis.”4 Alpha-1-antitrypsin is a glycoprotein that accounts for a major portion of the alpha-1 globulin fraction of the serum.5 It is responsible for approximately 90 per cent of the antitrypsin activity6 of the serum, and it also inhibits several other plasma enzymes, including plasmin,7 elastase,8 collagenase,9 and. © 1980, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved

A rapid, chromatography-free route to substituted acridine–isoalloxazine conjugates under microwave irradiation

Microwave irradiation was applied to a sequence of condensation reactions from readily available 9-chloroacridines to provide a range of novel acridine–isoalloxazine conjugates. The combination of these two moieties, both of biological interest, was achieved by a chromatography free route

An integrated approach to use genetic resources for resurrection plants to enhance drought tolerance in breeding-extension programs [abstract]

Only abstract of poster available.Track V: BiomassThe ultimate goals of this project are to gain a basic understanding of the unique gene and gene regulatory networks that are necessary and sufficient for vegetative tissues to withstand dehydration and then rapidly recover upon rehydration and to use the knowledge gained to develop crops, maize and forage grasses that maintain biomass production under drought condition. Our approach is to combine comparative genomics and phylogenetics to identify genes and gene networks that are adaptive and central to the tolerance of cellular dehydration. This involves the use of resurrection species as models for dehydration tolerance coupled with a suite of comparative bioinformatic tools that allows for the phylogenetic assessment of gene expression patterns in response to dehydration and rehydration. Once the key genetic elements have been identified and assessed we will use a transgenic functional assessment of their involvement in the phenotype, both at a molecular and physiological level, of drought tolerance. One of our key resurrection species is the South African grass Sporobolus stapfianus, which is capable of surviving -240 MPa of water deficit (a hundred times lower than most crop plants). This plant not only serves as a model for monocot crops such as maize and switchgrass, our major targets for crop improvement, but also serves as a direct possibility for an alternate forage grass and biomass source. The improvement of biomass production under drought conditions is not only important for sustainable biofuel production but also for food and energy security. Funded by a CSREES-NRI Grant of $450,000 over three years to PI Mel Oliver USDA-ARS-PGRU Columbia, CoPIs Robert Sharp, University of Missouri; John Cushman, University of Nevada, Reno; Paxton Payton, USDA-ARS-PSRU Lubbock

Convergent evolution of pregnancy-specific glycoproteins in human and horse

Pregnancy-specific glycoproteins (PSGs) are members of the carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule (CEACAM) family that are secreted by trophoblast cells. PSGs may modulate immune, angiogenic and platelet responses during pregnancy. Until now, PSGs are only found in species that have a highly invasive (hemochorial) placentation including humans, mice and rats. Surprisingly, analyzing the CEACAM gene family of the horse, which has a non-invasive epitheliochorial placenta, with the exception of the transient endometrial cups, we identified equine CEACAM family members that seem to be related to PSGs of rodents and primates. We identified seven genes that encode secreted PSG-like CEACAMs. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that they evolved independently from an equine CEACAM1-like ancestor rather than from a common PSG-like ancestor with rodents and primates. Significantly, expression of PSG-like genes (CEACAM44, CEACAM48, CEACAM49 and CEACAM55) was found in non-invasive as well as invasive trophoblast cells such as purified chorionic girdle cells and endometrial cup cells. Chorionic girdle cells are highly invasive trophoblast cells that invade the endometrium of the mare where they form endometrial cups and are in close contact with maternal immune cells. Therefore, the microenvironment of invasive equine trophoblast cells has striking similarities to the microenvironment of trophoblast cells in hemochorial placentas, suggesting that equine PSG-like CEACAMs and rodent and primate PSGs have undergone convergent evolution. This is supported by our finding that equine PSG-like CEACAM49 exhibits similar activity to certain rodent and human PSGs in a functional assay of platelet–fibrinogen binding. Our results have implications for understanding the evolution of PSGs and their functions in maternal–fetal interactions

Sediment Management for Southern California Mountains, Coastal Plains, and Shoreline

During FY77, with financial support from Los Angeles County, U. S. Geological Survey, Orange County, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, and discretionary funding provided by a grant from the Ford Foundation, substantial progress was made at EQL and SPL in achieving the objectives of the initial Planning and Assessment Phase of the CIT/SIO Sediment Management Project. The current timetable for completion of this phase is June 1978. This report briefly describes the project status including general administration, special activities, and technical work

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Data Characterization and Map Making

We present a description of the data reduction and mapmaking pipeline used for the 2008 observing season of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). The data presented here at 148 GHz represent 12% of the 90 TB collected by ACT from 2007 to 2010. In 2008 we observed for 136 days, producing a total of 1423 hours of data (11 TB for the 148 GHz band only), with a daily average of 10.5 hours of observation. From these, 1085 hours were devoted to a 850 deg^2 stripe (11.2 hours by 9.1 deg) centered on a declination of -52.7 deg, while 175 hours were devoted to a 280 deg^2 stripe (4.5 hours by 4.8 deg) centered at the celestial equator. We discuss sources of statistical and systematic noise, calibration, telescope pointing, and data selection. Out of 1260 survey hours and 1024 detectors per array, 816 hours and 593 effective detectors remain after data selection for this frequency band, yielding a 38% survey efficiency. The total sensitivity in 2008, determined from the noise level between 5 Hz and 20 Hz in the time-ordered data stream (TOD), is 32 micro-Kelvin sqrt{s} in CMB units. Atmospheric brightness fluctuations constitute the main contaminant in the data and dominate the detector noise covariance at low frequencies in the TOD. The maps were made by solving the least-squares problem using the Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient method, incorporating the details of the detector and noise correlations. Cross-correlation with WMAP sky maps, as well as analysis from simulations, reveal that our maps are unbiased at multipoles ell > 300. This paper accompanies the public release of the 148 GHz southern stripe maps from 2008. The techniques described here will be applied to future maps and data releases.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, 6 tables, an ACT Collaboration pape

Aviation Industry Employment Data Estimates Revisited

A wide variety of estimates of aviation industry employment data exist today. For example, a range of estimates from a low of 750,000 to a high of 2.1 million are reported in various industry publications and journals. This broad range raises questions not onIy about such data but also about the definition used to define the industry and thus used to arrive at employment numbers. In this paper, an overall 1995 aviation industry employment estimate is presented that is based on various secondary sources. The estimate incorporates various components of the civil aviation industry, including aircraft/aerospace manufacturing, airlines, general aviation, government aviation, and miscellaneous aviation industry employment. Active duty military personnel are a significant contributor to aviation employment. Although they are not included in previous assessments of overall civil aviation employment, they have been included in this work. One article (NewMyer, 1985) estimated aviation employment at 2,286,709. This new assessment indicates an industry increase of 62,290 employees to a total population of 2,349,399. Data collection for this new computation was obtained through replication of the methodology producing the 1985 statistics. The primary contributing factor to overall aviation industry employment increases in 1995 is the fact that there were net increases in four of the six components of the aviation industry (aviation/aerospace manufacturing, airlines, general aviation, government aviation, miscellaneous, and active duty military aviation personnel). It is concluded, however, that without the miscellaneous employment category contribution to employment statistics, there is actually a decline in industry employment over the 10-year period. Contributing to this descent have been large personnel reductions in the defense-related aircraft/aerospace manufacturing industry and active duty military aviation components

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment