Foodmaster and three stories

Graduation date: 2004The purpose of this thesis was to create a sustained piece of fiction that both\ud represented my growth as a writer throughout my time at Oregon State University, and\ud wove together a mixture of imagination, language, and creativity. My hope was to write\ud a novella that incorporated and drew from themes including work, community, and\ud family relationships, and also was an exploration in the very structure and form of literary\ud fiction.\ud After completing the novella, I found that similar themes continued to appear\ud within my fiction during my ongoing growth as a writer. What I ended up with was a\ud novella and collection of related stories that reflected the influences of my advisor Tracy\ud Daugherty and his tutelage, the courses that I took at this university and my\ud undergraduate university, and my own personal history.\ud This thesis was written over a two-year period, during which drafts of this novella\ud and stories were written and rewritten. Each story and chapter was submitted to a writing\ud workshop, read and edited by my major and minor advisor, and carefully reworked and\ud redrafted after much scrutiny and attention.\ud During the course of writing this thesis, many things influenced me, the most\ud prominent being the world of fiction that existed all around me. I was influenced by\ud fiction that I was reading in my course work, such as Donald Barthelme and Philip Roth,\ud but writers that I had grown up with, like Edgar Allen Poe and Ray Bradbury also\ud influenced me. Beyond the world of published fiction, I found not only influence, but\ud also more importantly inspiration from the work and criticism of the writers and students\ud within the Creative Writing Program here at Oregon State University.\ud The end result of these two years of work, study, writing, and criticism was a\ud piece of fiction that I am proud of, and plan to publish. This collection of fiction\ud represents not only a sustained study on the craft of creative writing, but also serves an\ud exploration of my own voice and style, and an awakening of my identity as a fiction\ud writer

Differential Regulation of Tyrosinase Activity in Skin of White and Black Individuals In Vivo by Topical Retinoic Acid

Tyrosinase activity is a key determinant of melanin production in skin. Because retinoic acid regulates tyrosinase activity in melanoma cells, we analyzed modulation of pigmentation in vivo by retinoic acid. Black and white subjects were either not treated, or treated topically for 4 d under occlusion with vehicle, retinoic acid (0.1%), or the irritant sodium lauryl sulfate (2%). In untreated skin, tyrosinase activity and melanin content were significantly greater (2.3 times, and 3.2 times, respectively) in blacks versus whites. Four days of treatment with topical retinoic acid did not alter tyrosinase activity or melanin content in black skin. In contrast, retinoic acid treatment significantly induced (2.7 times, n = 8) tyrosinase activity, compared to vehicle treatment, in white skin. Melanin content, however, remained unchanged at 4 d. In separate experiments, tyrosinase activity in white subjects (n = 25) was increased 16% (p = 0.01) in sodium lauryl sulfate – treated skin, and 77% (p = 0.0005) in retinoic acid – treated skin, compared to vehicle-treated skin. The effect of retinoic acid on tyrosinase activity could be differentiated from non-specific irritation, because tyrosinase activity in retinoic acid – treated skin was significantly greater (52%, p = 0.004) than sodium lauryl sulfate-treated skin. Similar results were obtained with the dihydroxyphenylalanine reaction done on vehicle, sodium lauryl sulfate-, and retinoic acid – treated white skin. Northern analysis (n = 6) and semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (n = 6) demonstrated that retinoic acid treatment did not alter tyrosinase mRNA levels in white skin. Western analysis revealed that induction of tyrosinase activity by retinoic acid also was not associated with increased tyrosinase protein content (n = 9), indicating that regulation of tyrosinase activity by retinoic acid occurs through a post-translational mechanism. These data demonstrate that low tyrosinase activity in white skin in vivio is retinoic acid inducible and high tyrosinase activity in black skin in vivo is neither further induced nor reduced by retinoic aci

A qualitative study of patient and provider perspectives on using web-based pain coping skills training to treat persistent cancer pain

Objective: Persistent pain is common and inadequately treated in cancer patients. Behavioral pain interventions are a recommended part of multimodal pain treatments, but they are underused in clinical care due to barriers such as a lack of the resources needed to deliver them in person and difficulties coordinating their use with clinical care. Pain coping skills training (PCST) is an evidence-based behavioral pain intervention traditionally delivered in person. Delivering this training via the web would increase access to it by addressing barriers that currently limit its use. We conducted a patient pilot study of an 8-week web-based PCST program to determine the acceptability of this approach to patients and the program features needed to meet their needs. Focus groups with healthcare providers identified strategies for coordinating the use of web-based PCST in clinical care.Method: Participants included 7 adults with bone pain due to multiple myeloma or metastasized breast or prostate cancer and 12 healthcare providers (4 physicians and 8 advanced practice providers) who treat cancer-related bone pain. Patients completed web-based PCST at home and then took part in an in-depth qualitative interview. Providers attended focus groups led by a trained moderator. Qualitative analyses identified themes in the patient and provider data.Results: Patients reported strongly favorable responses to web-based PCST and described emotional and physical benefits. They offered suggestions for adapting the approach to better fit their needs and to overcome barriers to completion. Focus groups indicated a need to familiarize healthcare providers with PCST and to address concerns about overburdening patients. Providers would recommend the program to patients they felt could benefit. They suggested applying a broad definition of cancer pain and having various types of providers help coordinate program its use with clinical care.Significance of results: Web-based PCST was acceptable to patients and providers. Our findings suggest that patients could benefit from this approach, especially if patient and provider barriers are addressed

Identification of 15 new psoriasis susceptibility loci highlights the role of innate immunity

To gain further insight into the genetic architecture of psoriasis, we conducted a meta-analysis of 3 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and 2 independent data sets genotyped on the Immunochip, including 10,588 cases and 22,806 controls. We identified 15 new susceptibility loci, increasing to 36 the number associated with psoriasis in European individuals. We also identified, using conditional analyses, five independent signals within previously known loci. The newly identified loci shared with other autoimmune diseases include candidate genes with roles in regulating T-cell function (such as RUNX3, TAGAP and STAT3). Notably, they included candidate genes whose products are involved in innate host defense, including interferon-mediated antiviral responses (DDX58), macrophage activation (ZC3H12C) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB signaling (CARD14 and CARM1). These results portend a better understanding of shared and distinctive genetic determinants of immune-mediated inflammatory disorders and emphasize the importance of the skin in innate and acquired host defense

Filtering Documents over Time for Evolving Topics: The University of Amsterdam at TREC 2013 KBA CCR

In this paper we describe the University of Amsterdam’s approach to the TREC 2013 Knowledge Base Acceleration (KBA) Cumulative Citation Recommendation (CCR) track. The task is to filter a stream of documents for documents relevant to a given set of entities. We model the task as a multi-class classification task. Entities may evolve over time and the classifier should be able to adapt to these changes at runtime. To achieve this, the clas-sifier performs online self-learning, i.e., learning only from the examples it is most confi-dent about, based on a confidence score it produces for every prediction it makes