Detection of Provasopressin in Invasive and Non-invasive (DCIS) Human Breast Cancer Using a Monoclonal Antibody Directed Against the C-terminus (MAG1)

The provasopressin protein (proAVP) is expressed by invasive breast cancer and non-invasive breast cancer, or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Here we demonstrate the ability of the monoclonal antibody MAG1 directed against the C-terminal end of proAVP to identify proAVP in all cases examined of human invasive cancer and DCIS (35 and 26, respectively). Tissues were chosen to represent a relevant variation in tumor type, grade, patient age, and menopausal status. By comparison, there was 65% positive staining for estrogen receptor, 61% for progesterone receptor, 67% for nuclear p53, and 39% for c-Erb-B2 with the invasive breast cancer sections. Reaction with the normal tissue types examined (67) was restricted to the vasopressinergic magnocellular neurons of the hypothalamus, where provasopressin is normally produced, and the posterior pituitary, where these neurons terminate. The breast epithelial tissue sections on the tissue microarray did not react with MAG1. Previously, we demonstrated that polyclonal antibodies to proAVP detected that protein in all breast cancer samples examined, but there was no reaction with breast tissue containing fibrocystic disease. The results presented here not only expand upon those earlier results, but they also demonstrate the specificity and effectiveness of what may be considered a more clinically-relevant agent. Thus, proAVP appears to be an attractive target for the detection of invasive breast cancer and DCIS, and these results suggest that MAG1 may be a beneficial tool for use in the development of such strategies

Managing Tax Revenue Volatility

During the initial decade of the twenty first century a number of scholars in the American public administration arena suggested that certain social science methods, particularly those pertaining to portfolio analysis, can play an important role in managing tax revenue volatility. Several discussions involved an adaptation of Modern Portfolio Theory which indicates that investment decisions should be based on the mean-variance characteristics of “portfolios” which are collections of financial assets. This paper contributes to the technical aspect of the dialogue by outlining a procedure which may reduce some tax portfolio analysis complexities when applied to these kinds of revenue decisions

Wage payment and incentive plans used by department and departmentalized specialty stores in six North Carolina cities

The compensation of salespeople by methods which are fair to the employee and satisfactory to the store itself is one of the major problems of retailing. An inspection of the programs of the annual conventions of the National Retail Dry Goods Association for the last five years shows that the problem of finding satisfactory plans for compensating salespeople is still unsolved. At each of these national conventions the subject of wage payment and incentive plans for salespeople has come up for major discussions. As late as May 1950, the Store Management and Personnel Groups of this association gave a very prominent place to a panel discussion of "The Perfect Payment Plan for Salespeople” during the midyear convention of these groups held in Detroit, Michigan. A recent letter from the Assistant Manager of the Personnel Group of the National Retail Dry Goods Association bears out the fact that the Association still considers the problems of wage payment plans in the field of retailing as one of major importance. The following is a quotation from this letter.

Factors of motivation to participation in LGBTQaffinity choruses

The purpose of this study was to determine the demographic make-up of LGBTQaffinity choruses, to assess the degree of participation by these individuals, and to understand how participant demographics influence the perceived importance of various motivational factors which impact participation. Following pilot qualitative research to determine motivational factors, a novel internet-based survey instrument was created to determine the relative importance of selected factors on beginning and continuing participation in LGBTQ-affinity choruses. In total, 706 individuals fully completed the Likert-type matrix questions and comprised the sample for this study. Data were analyzed using appropriate measurements for each data type including descriptive statistics, single factor and multifactor analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic ordinal regression. Descriptive findings indicated that study participants were overwhelmingly white, upper middle-class, well-educated, high income, and lived in medium to large urban areas. Bisexual, pansexual, and gender-expansive individuals were represented at considerably higher rates in this study than reported in national surveys. Logistic regression analysis of Likert-type responses for various motivational factors suggested that participant responses were strongly correlated with demographic characteristics, especially those related to socioeconomic status (e.g. income and education) and racial identity. Overall, participants appeared more motivated to participate by social and political factors than by musical factors although differences appeared based on participant demographics. Participants with more exposure to music education appeared more motivated by musical factors, while participants with less exposure appeared more motivated by social and political factors. Discussion of the study includes a summary of findings for each demographic characteristic and recommendations for practice and further research

Testing asteroseismology with Gaia DR2: Hierarchical models of the Red Clump

Asteroseismology provides fundamental stellar parameters independent of distance, but subject to systematics under calibration. Gaia DR2 has provided parallaxes for a billion stars, which are offset by a parallax zero-point. Red Clump (RC) stars have a narrow spread in luminosity, thus functioning as standard candles to calibrate these systematics. This work measures how the magnitude and spread of the RC in the Kepler field are affected by changes to temperature and scaling relations for seismology, and changes to the parallax zero-point for Gaia. We use a sample of 5576 RC stars classified through asteroseismology. We apply hierarchical Bayesian latent variable models, finding the population level properties of the RC with seismology, and use those as priors on Gaia parallaxes to find the parallax zero-point offset. We then find the position of the RC using published values for the zero-point. We find a seismic temperature insensitive spread of the RC of ~0.03 mag in the 2MASS K band and a larger and slightly temperature-dependent spread of ~0.13 mag in the Gaia G band. This intrinsic dispersion in the K band provides a distance precision of ~1% for RC stars. Using Gaia data alone, we find a mean zero-point of -41 $\pm$ 10 $\mu$as. This offset yields RC absolute magnitudes of -1.634 $\pm$ 0.018 in K and 0.546 $\pm$ 0.016 in G. Obtaining these same values through seismology would require a global temperature shift of ~-70 K, which is compatible with known systematics in spectroscopy.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Public Pension Fund Governance Practices and Financial Performance

This study is a follow up of an earlier investigation concerning the effects of governance practices and investment strategies on public pension fund risk adjusted financial performance. Specifically, the inquiry uses three cross sectional national surveys of state and local government retirement systems to determine how governance practices in terms of system policies, board purview, and board composition impact abnormal returns. Results indicate that governance practices, particularly board purview over investment decisions, continue to have a direct negative impact on risk adjusted financial performance even after controlling for other factors

Family Caregiver Identity: A Literature Review

Background: Despite the multitude of available resources, family caregivers of those with chronic disease continually underutilize support services to cope with the demands of caregiving. Several studies have linked self-identification as a caregiver to the increased likelihood of support service use. Purpose: The present study reviewed the literature related to the development of family caregiver identity. Methods: After a systematic process to locate literature was completed, content analysis was conducted to determine major themes related to the development of caregiving identity. Results: Findings suggest that there are multiple factors related to the development of family caregiver identity, including role engulfment and reversal, loss of shared identity, family obligation and gender norming, extension of the former role, and development of a master identity. Discussion: Considering the role of identity in human behavior, health professionals can address the underutilization of support services by family caregivers of those with chronic disease by understanding the influences on the development of caregiver identity. Translation to Health Education Practice: This literature review will assist health educators in addressing the underutilization of support services by family caregivers of those with chronic disease

Computational Design of a Protein Crystal

Protein crystals have catalytic and materials applications and are central to efforts in structural biology and therapeutic development. Designing predetermined crystal structures can be subtle given the complexity of proteins and the noncovalent interactions that govern crystallization. De novo protein design provides an approach to engineer highly complex nanoscale molecular structures, and often the positions of atoms can be programmed with sub-Å precision. Herein, a computational approach is presented for the design of proteins that self-assemble in three dimensions to yield macroscopic crystals. A three-helix coiled-coil protein is designed de novo to form a polar, layered, three-dimensional crystal having the P6 space group, which has a “honeycomb-like” structure and hexameric channels that span the crystal. The approach involves: (i) creating an ensemble of crystalline structures consistent with the targeted symmetry; (ii) characterizing this ensemble to identify “designable” structures from minima in the sequence-structure energy landscape and designing sequences for these structures; (iii) experimentally characterizing candidate proteins. A 2.1 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of one such designed protein exhibits sub-Å agreement [backbone root mean square deviation (rmsd)] with the computational model of the crystal. This approach to crystal design has potential applications to the de novo design of nanostructured materials and to the modification of natural proteins to facilitate X-ray crystallographic analysis

Spatial process and data models: Toward integration of agent-based models and GIS

The use of object-orientation for both spatial data and spatial process models facilitates their integration, which can allow exploration and explanation of spatial-temporal phenomena. In order to better understand how tight coupling might proceed and to evaluate the possible functional and efficiency gains from such a tight coupling, we identify four key relationships affecting how geographic data (fields and objects) and agent-based process models can interact: identity, causal, temporal and topological. We discuss approaches to implementing tight integration, focusing on a middleware approach that links existing GIS and ABM development platforms, and illustrate the need and approaches with example agent-based models.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47930/1/10109_2005_Article_148.pd