Finding the Genes Expressed in Female Reproductive Tissues in Pigs

A molecular understanding of porcine reproduction is of biological interest and economic importance. Our Midwest Consortium has produced cDNA libraries containing the majority of genes expressed in major female reproductive tissues, and we have deposited into public databases 21,499 expressed sequence tag (EST) gene sequences from the 3\u27 end of clones from these libraries. These sequences represent 10,574 different genes, based on sequence comparison among these data, and comparison to existing porcine genes indicate as many as 4,652 are novel. Computer analysis identified sequences that are expressed in specific pig tissues or organs, and confirmed the broad expression in pig for many genes ubiquitously expressed in human tissues. Furthermore, we have developed computer software to identify sequence similarity of these pig genes with their human counterparts, and to extract the mapping information of these human homologues from genome databases. We used this software to localize 61 genes on the porcine physical map of chromosomes 5, 10, and 14. Thus our sequence data is useful in accelerating mapping studies and will be useful in understanding pig reproductive biology

Pediatric thyroid disease: when is surgery necessary, and who should be operating on our children?

Surgical diseases of the thyroid in the pediatric population represent a diverse set of both benign and malignant conditions. Overall, incidence is rare. Benign conditions include Graves' disease, toxic adenomas, congenital hyperthyroidism, and goiter. Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), with its related familial cancer syndromes, are the most common malignancies. Near-total or total thyroidectomy is the appropriate surgery for thyroid cancer, with/out central lymph node dissection. Emerging practice guidelines from professional societies are helpful, although they generally have not addressed surgical management of the pediatric patient. Thyroidectomy in children is associated with a higher rate of complications, such as recurrent laryngeal nerve injury and hypoparathyroidism, as compared to the surgery in adults. Therefore, it is essential that pediatric thyroidectomy be performed by high-volume thyroid surgeons, regardless of specialty. Case volume to support surgical expertise usually must be borrowed from the adult experience, given the relative paucity of pediatric thyroidectomies at an institutional level. These surgeons should work as part of a multidisciplinary team that includes pediatric endocrinologists and anesthesiologists, pediatricians, nuclear medicine physicians, and pathologists to afford children the best clinical outcomes

Comparison of invariant metrics and distances on strongly pseudoconvex domains and worm domains

We prove that for a strongly pseudoconvex domain $D\subset\mathbb C^n$, the infinitesimal Carath\'eodory metric $g_C(z,v)$ and the infinitesimal Kobayashi metric $g_K(z,v)$ coincide if $z$ is sufficiently close to $bD$ and if $v$ is sufficiently close to being tangential to $bD$. Also, we show that every two close points of $D$ sufficiently close to the boundary and whose difference is almost tangential to $bD$ can be joined by a (unique up to reparameterization) complex geodesic of $D$ which is also a holomorphic retract of $D$. The same continues to hold if $D$ is a worm domain, as long as the points are sufficiently close to a strongly pseudoconvex boundary point. We also show that a strongly pseudoconvex boundary point of a worm domain can be globally exposed, this has consequences for the behavior of the squeezing function

Attending to opportunity: an attention-based model of how boards of directors impact strategic entrepreneurship in established enterprise

Using the attention-based view, this study is concerned with two levels of board of directors interaction relating to strategic entrepreneurship: (1) how individual board members may affect the attention of the entire board, and (2) how the board may affect the attention and resource allocation of the firm. Unique to prior literature, this study considers contextual factors at each level of interaction and views the board room communications through unprecedented access. Multiple regression and negative binomial regression analyses are used to test the theoretical hypotheses

Sensor Configuration Trade Study for Navigation in near Rectilinear Halo Orbits

Gateway is a NASA program planned to support a human space explorationand prove new technologies for deep space exploration. One of the Gatewayrequirements is to operate in the absence of communications with the Deep SpaceNetwork (DSN) for a period of at least 3 weeks. In this paper three types ofonboard sensors (a camera for optical navigation, a GPS receiver, and X-ray navigation),are considered to enhance its autonomy and reduce the reliance on DSN.A trade study is conducted to explore alternatives on how to achieve autonomy andhow to reduce DSN dependency while satisfying navigation performance requirements.Using linear covariance analysis, the performance of a navigation systemusing DSN and/or the other sensors is shown