Evaluation of one type of foldable tube

Structural rigidity of foldable tube used for transportation of fluid

Increased expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) in human pituitary tumors

PURPOSE: Subsets of pituitary tumors exhibit an aggressive clinical courses and recur despite surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Because modulation of the immune response through inhibition of T-cell checkpoints has led to durable clinical responses in multiple malignancies, we explored whether pituitary adenomas express immune-related biomarkers that could suggest suitability for immunotherapy. Specifically, programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) has emerged as a potential biomarker whose expression may portend more favorable responses to immune checkpoint blockade therapies. We thus investigated the expression of PD-L1 in pituitary adenomas. METHODS: PD-L1 RNA and protein expression were evaluated in 48 pituitary tumors, including functioning and non-functioning adenomas as well as atypical and recurrent tumors. Tumor infiltrating lymphocyte populations were also assessed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Pituitary tumors express variable levels of PD-L1 transcript and protein. PD-L1 RNA and protein expression were significantly increased in functioning (growth hormone and prolactin-expressing) pituitary adenomas compared to non-functioning (null cell and silent gonadotroph) adenomas. Moreover, primary pituitary adenomas harbored higher levels of PD-L1 mRNA compared to recurrent tumors. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes were observed in all pituitary tumors and were positively correlated with increased PD-L1 expression, particularly in the functional subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: Human pituitary adenomas harbor PD-L1 across subtypes, with significantly higher expression in functioning adenomas compared to non-functioning adenomas. This expression is accompanied by the presence of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. These findings suggest the existence of an immune response to pituitary tumors and raise the possibility of considering checkpoint blockade immunotherapy in cases refractory to conventional management

Analysis and design of solid-state circuits utilizing the NASA analysis computer program Annual report

Network Analysis for Systems Application Program /NASAP/ applicable in analysis and design of solid state circuit

Analytic, Group-Theoretic Density Profiles for Confined, Correlated N-Body Systems

Confined quantum systems involving $N$ identical interacting particles are to be found in many areas of physics, including condensed matter, atomic and chemical physics. A beyond-mean-field perturbation method that is applicable, in principle, to weakly, intermediate, and strongly-interacting systems has been set forth by the authors in a previous series of papers. Dimensional perturbation theory was used, and in conjunction with group theory, an analytic beyond-mean-field correlated wave function at lowest order for a system under spherical confinement with a general two-body interaction was derived. In the present paper, we use this analytic wave function to derive the corresponding lowest-order, analytic density profile and apply it to the example of a Bose-Einstein condensate.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, accepted by Physics Review A. This document was submitted after responding to a reviewer's comment

The gynecologic oncologist in academic departments : Report of survey

Now that the subspecialty of gynecologic oncology is well established within the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology, it seems timely to evaluate the pros and cons, the strengths and weaknesses of such a program as it interrelates with other programs in an academic department. A survey is presented which reflects the beliefs of both members and candidate members of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists on such issues as gynecologic oncologists as chairmen of departments; teaching demands; time commitments to patient care and research in an academic institution; and surgical privileges for gastro-intestinal and urologic procedures in various hospitals. Financial and budgetary items are also discussed. Perspectives from three different points of view are presented as a discussion of the report of the survey.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24676/1/0000095.pd

Bounds on Integrals of the Wigner Function

The integral of the Wigner function over a subregion of the phase-space of a quantum system may be less than zero or greater than one. It is shown that for systems with one degree of freedom, the problem of determining the best possible upper and lower bounds on such an integral, over all possible states, reduces to the problem of finding the greatest and least eigenvalues of an hermitian operator corresponding to the subregion. The problem is solved exactly in the case of an arbitrary elliptical region. These bounds provide checks on experimentally measured quasiprobability distributions.Comment: 10 pages, 1 PostScript figure, Latex file; revised following referees' comments; to appear in Physical Review Letter

Delayed self-recognition in children with autism spectrum disorder.

This study aimed to investigate temporally extended self-awareness (awareness of one’s place in and continued existence through time) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using the delayed self-recognition (DSR) paradigm (Povinelli et al., Child Development 67:1540–1554, 1996). Relative to age and verbal ability matched comparison children, children with ASD showed unattenuated performance on the DSR task, despite showing significant impairments in theory-of-mind task performance, and a reduced propensity to use personal pronouns to refer to themselves. The results may indicate intact temporally extended self-awareness in ASD. However, it may be that the DSR task is not an unambiguous measure of temporally extended self-awareness and it can be passed through strategies which do not require the possession of a temporally extended self-concept

Phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum state reconstruction for physical systems with Lie-group symmetries

We present a detailed discussion of a general theory of phase-space distributions, introduced recently by the authors [J. Phys. A {\bf 31}, L9 (1998)]. This theory provides a unified phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics for physical systems possessing Lie-group symmetries. The concept of generalized coherent states and the method of harmonic analysis are used to construct explicitly a family of phase-space functions which are postulated to satisfy the Stratonovich-Weyl correspondence with a generalized traciality condition. The symbol calculus for the phase-space functions is given by means of the generalized twisted product. The phase-space formalism is used to study the problem of the reconstruction of quantum states. In particular, we consider the reconstruction method based on measurements of displaced projectors, which comprises a number of recently proposed quantum-optical schemes and is also related to the standard methods of signal processing. A general group-theoretic description of this method is developed using the technique of harmonic expansions on the phase space.Comment: REVTeX, 18 pages, no figure

Self-esteem, stress and self-rated health in family planning clinic patients

BACKGROUND: The independent effects of stress on the health of primary care patients might be different for different types of clinic populations. This study examines these relationships in a low-income female population of patients attending a family planning clinic. METHODS: This study investigated the relevance of different sources of personal stress and social support to self-rated health, adjusting for mental health, health behavior and demographic characteristics of subjects. Five hundred women who attended family planning clinics were surveyed and 345 completed the form for a response rate of 72 percent. RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that liking oneself was related to good self-rated health (Odds ratio = 7.11), but stress or support from children, parents, friends, churches or spouses were not significant. White non-Hispanic and non-white non-Hispanic respondents had lower odds of reporting good self-rated health than Hispanic respondents (odds ratios were 2.87 and 2.81, respectively). Exercising five or more days per week also was related to good self-rated health. Smoking 20 or more cigarettes per day, and obese III were negatively related to good self-rated health (odds ratios were .19 and .22, respectively with corresponding p-values equal to .0043 and .0332). CONCLUSIONS: Among younger low-income women, addressing low self-esteem might improve health status

Plasma Electronics

Contains research objectives and reports on ten research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-57)United States Atomic Energy Commission under Contract AT(30-1)-322