Optimal Tumor Sampling For Immunostaining Of Biomarkers In Breast Carcinoma

OPTIMAL TUMOR SAMPLING FOR IMMUNOSTAINING OF BIOMARKERS IN BREAST CARCINOMA. Juliana Tolles, Yalai Bai, Maria Baquero, Lyndsay N. Harris, David L. Rimm, Annette M. Molinaro. Division of Biostatistics, Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, CT. Biomarkers, such as estrogen receptor, are used to determine therapy and prognosis in breast carcinoma. Immunostaining assays of biomarker expression have a high rate of inaccuracy, for example estimates are as high as 20% for estrogen receptor. Biomarkers have been shown to be heterogeneously expressed in breast tumors and this heterogeneity may contribute to the inaccuracy of immunostaining assays. Currently, no evidence-based standards exist for the amount of tumor that must be sampled in order to correct for biomarker heterogeneity. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal number of 20X fields that are necessary to estimate a representative measurement of expression in a whole tissue section for selected biomarkers: estrogen receptor (ER), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), AKT, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1 (S6K1), glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), cytokeratin, and microtubule-associated protein-Tau (MAP-Tau). Two collections of whole tissue sections of breast carcinoma were immunostained for biomarkers. Expression was quantified using Automated Quantitative Analysis (AQUA). Simulated sampling of various numbers of fields (ranging from 1-35) was performed for each marker. The optimal number was selected for each marker via resampling techniques and minimization of prediction error over an independent test set. The optimal number of 20X fields varied by marker, ranging between 3-14 fields. More heterogeneous markers, such as MAP-Tau, required a larger sample of 20X fields to produce representative measurement. The clinical implication of these findings is that small core needle breast biopsies may be inadequate to represent whole tumor biomarker expression for many markers. Also, for biomarkers newly introduced into clinical use, especially if therapeutic response is dictated by level of expression, the optimal size of tissue sample must be determined on a marker-by-marker basis

Determinants of Housing Supply Expansion in the Western United States

New residential construction is an important indicator of economic health. Previous empirical work demonstrates the profound power of housing starts in forecasting recession. Theoretical research, backed by empirical study, suggests that home prices and interest rates are closely related to the amount of residential investment. This paper attempts to better understand the complex relationship between various factors that influence the supply and demand of new housing; what information do suppliers and regulators use to determine how many new units of housing will be constructed? Specifically, we will look at the respective state housing markets of California, Oregon, and Washington by constructing an empirical model of the number of housing permits issued. Our findings suggest that during the period from 2005 to 2019, the number of annual housing permits issued, as a proxy for housing starts, is related negatively to increases in, and higher levels of, 30-year mortgage rates and positively to increases in, and higher levels of, 2-year Treasury bill rates. Short-term interest rates may have been a special signalling mechanism for the health of the overall economy

António Soares dos Reis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens: an artistic friendship

António Soares dos Reis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens enjoyed a close friendship in Paris (1868-70) and Rome (1871-72), about which little is known. There are no extant letters between the two sculptors and few references to their relationship in published or archival sources. Some conclusions may be posited through their training, shared experiences, and mutual friends. This paper traces the time that the two artists spent together through the lens of Saint-Gaudens, an artist of French-Irish parentage who would become the leading American sculptor of his day. It examines concurrent work on Soares dos Reis’s O Desterrado (1872) and Saint-Gaudens’s Hiawatha (1871-72; carved 1874)

Framing the guard: a content analysis of how the news media frames the national guard during times of crisis.

A quantitative content analysis of 585 newspaper articles gathered from seven news sources that covered the National Guard’s response to COVID-19, BLM Protests, and the Capitol Riot were used to determine the prevalence of frames used to depict the Guard during times of crisis. By using the five frames found in media framing (Entman, 1991), the prevalence of frames found in newspaper media was compared to the prevalence of frames found to be used in times of crisis (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). The results showed that even though the Guard’s response in times of crisis is similarly framed as previous research, there was a divergence in the order of prevalent frames between crises as well as news sources. Further analysis showed that even though the prevalence of frames used varies by news source, chi-square analysis showed that the differences were not statistically significant except for in the Guard New

Early Architecture and Campus Planning at The Bangor Theological Seminary

This article describes the architecture of The Bangor Theological Seminary including influences on the architecture and craftspeople who contributed to it

A Comparative analysis of the analytical capabilities of coherent anti-Stokes Raman Spectography (CARS) relative to Raman scattering amd absorption spectrosopy

The performance capabilities of coherent anti-stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) relative to incoherent Raman scattering and absorption spectroscopy are considered for gases. Four gases are considered for model calculation: hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon monoxide. The signal/noise ratio is estimated for these molecules under a number of assumed experimental conditions. The signal/noise ratios for CARS and Raman scattering scale quite differential with partial pressure and temperature. CARS offers distinct advantages when detecting a major component of a gas mixture at total pressures of considerably less that 1 atm pressure. Raman scattering offers 1 to 2 orders of magnitude greater sensitivity for a signal/noise ratio of unity when detecting a minor component of a gaseous mixture at 1 atm total pressure. These model calculations should be of use when a specific experimental method is to be chosen for spectroscopic examination.This work was supported by the Office of Naval ResearchApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Seismic Stabilization of Historic Adobe Structures: Final Report of the Getty Seismic Adobe Project

Provides the final report of GSAP activities, and the first publication to provide an overview of the results of scale-model laboratory research along with field data from a survey of damage to historic adobe buildings after an actual earthquake

Code Blue: To Cool or not to Cool

Therapeutic hypothermia has been in use for the last sixty years to protect the brain from ischemic injury. The aim of this project is to gather evidence on the use of therapeutic hypothermia to preserve neurologic function in cardiac arrest patients. We accessed the databases CINAHL, EBSCO, and Cochrane using the key terms therapeutic hypothermia and cardiac arrest. Our findings show that the use of therapeutic hypothermia over a time period of 12 to 24 hours in patients who have experienced cardiac arrest helps to provide cerebral protection. Hospitals that practice therapeutic hypothermia as an early intervention have increased the likelihood that patients will have favorable neurological outcomes. More widespread use of therapeutic hypothermia will benefit the population of patients who have cardiac arrested