Locating Art Worlds

This paper uses a varied literature to define “art” as literary, musical, or visual creations, and theatrical, dance, or musical performances that: are not motivated by utility; play some role in interpreting a culture or place; and are recognized as art by some number of audiences, vendors, producers, and critics. Thus, art benefits cultures and places through its interpretive value. The production and dissemination of artistic creations requires a constellation of materials, standards, techniques, producers, and vendors that is called an “art world” relevant to that type of art. Though the impulse to create art is universal, art worlds are manifested unevenly across cities within a country and across districts within a metropolitan area. These distributions differ for different types of arts and artists, but have some dependence on the division of labor and on economies of scale. Therefore it is not surprising that New York and Los Angeles dominate (different types of) art worlds and art creation in North America. However, some much smaller metropolitan areas exhibit proportional concentration in specific art fields. In addition, large metropolitan areas contain quite-separate districts of art production and dissemination. This paper concludes with a brief case study of visual-arts districts in New Orleans

The melanoma-specific graded prognostic assessment does not adequately discriminate prognosis in a modern population with brain metastases from malignant melanoma

The melanoma-specific graded prognostic assessment (msGPA) assigns patients with brain metastases from malignant melanoma to 1 of 4 prognostic groups. It was largely derived using clinical data from patients treated in the era that preceded the development of newer therapies such as BRAF, MEK and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Therefore, its current relevance to patients diagnosed with brain metastases from malignant melanoma is unclear. This study is an external validation of the msGPA in two temporally distinct British populations.Performance of the msGPA was assessed in Cohort I (1997-2008, n=231) and Cohort II (2008-2013, n=162) using Kaplan-Meier methods and Harrell's c-index of concordance. Cox regression was used to explore additional factors that may have prognostic relevance.The msGPA does not perform well as a prognostic score outside of the derivation cohort, with suboptimal statistical calibration and discrimination, particularly in those patients with an intermediate prognosis. Extra-cerebral metastases, leptomeningeal disease, age and potential use of novel targeted agents after brain metastases are diagnosed, should be incorporated into future prognostic models.An improved prognostic score is required to underpin high-quality randomised controlled trials in an area with a wide disparity in clinical care

Sternal plating for primary and secondary sternal closure; can it improve sternal stability?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sternal instability with mediastinitis is a very serious complication after median sternotomy. Biomechanical studies have suggested superiority of rigid plate fixation over wire cerclage for sternal fixation. This study tests the hypothesis that sternal closure stability can be improved by adding plate fixation in a human cadaver model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Midline sternotomy was performed in 18 human cadavers. Four sternal closure techniques were tested: (1) approximation with six interrupted steel wires; (2) approximation with six interrupted cables; (3) closure 1 (wires) or 2 (cables) reinforced with a transverse sternal plate at the sixth rib; (4) Closure using 4 sternal plates alone. Intrathoracic pressure was increased in all techniques while sternal separation was measured by three pairs of sonomicrometry crystals fixed at the upper, middle and lower parts of the sternum until 2.0 mm separation was detected. Differences in displacement pressures were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and Regression Coefficients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Intrathoracic pressure required to cause 2.0 mm separation increased significantly from 183.3 ± 123.9 to 301.4 ± 204.5 in wires/cables alone vs. wires/cables plus one plate respectively, and to 355.0 ± 210.4 in the 4 plates group (p < 0.05). Regression Coefficients (95% CI) were 120 (47–194) and 142 (66–219) respectively for the plate groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Transverse sternal plating with 1 or 4 plates significantly improves sternal stability closure in human cadaver model. Adding a single sternal plate to primary closure improves the strength of sternal closure with traditional wiring potentially reducing the risk of sternal dehiscence and could be considered in high risk patients.</p

Epidemiology of Dengue Virus in Iquitos, Peru 1999 to 2005: Interepidemic and Epidemic Patterns of Transmission

To develop prevention (including vaccines) and control programs for dengue fever, a significant mosquito-borne disease in the tropics, there is an urgent need for comprehensive long term field epidemiological studies. We report results from a study that monitored ∼2,400 school children and some adult family members for dengue infection at 6 month intervals from 1999 to 2005, in the Amazonian city of Iquitos, Peru. At enrollment, ∼80% of the participants had a previous infection with DENV serotypes 1 and 2 or both. During the first 15 months, about 3 new infections for every 100 participants were observed among the study participants. In 2001, DENV-3, a serotype not previously observed in the region, invaded Iquitos in a process characterized by 3 distinct periods: amplification over at least a 5–6 month period, replacement of previously circulating serotypes, and epidemic transmission when incidence peaked. Incidence patterns of new infections were geographically distinct from baseline prevalence rates prior to arrival of DENV-3, but closely mirrored them during the invasion. DENV transmission varied geographically corresponding to elevated mosquito densities. The invasion of a novel serotype is often characterized by 5–6 months of silent transmission before traditional surveillance programs detect the virus. This article sets the stage for subsequent publications on dengue epidemiology

Measurement of sin2 θlept eff using eþe− pairs from γ=Z bosons produced in pp collisions at a center-of-momentum energy of 1.96 TeV

At the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton (pp¯) collider, Drell-Yan lepton pairs are produced in the process pp¯→e+e−+X through an intermediate γ∗/Z boson. The forward-backward asymmetry in the polar-angle distribution of the e− as a function of the e+e−-pair mass is used to obtain sin2θlepteff, the effective leptonic determination of the electroweak-mixing parameter sin2θW. The measurement sample, recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), corresponds to 9.4  fb−1 of integrated luminosity from pp¯ collisions at a center-of-momentum energy of 1.96 TeV, and is the full CDF Run II data set. The value of sin2θlepteff is found to be 0.23248±0.00053. The combination with the previous CDF measurement based on μ+μ− pairs yields sin2θlepteff=0.23221±0.00046. This result, when interpreted within the specified context of the standard model assuming sin2θW=1−M2W/M2Z and that the W- and Z-boson masses are on-shell, yields sin2θW=0.22400±0.00045, or equivalently a W-boson mass of 80.328±0.024  GeV/c2

Measurement of the WW and WZ production cross section using final states with a charged lepton and heavy-flavor jets in the full CDF Run II data set

Citation: Aaltonen, T., Amerio, S., Amidei, D., Anastassov, A., Annovi, A., Antos, J., . . . Zucchelli, S. (2016). Measurement of the WW and WZ production cross section using final states with a charged lepton and heavy-flavor jets in the full CDF Run II data set. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 94(3). doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.94.032008We present a measurement of the total WW and WZ production cross sections in pp collision at s=1.96 TeV, in a final state consistent with leptonic W boson decay and jets originating from heavy-flavor quarks from either a W or a Z boson decay. This analysis uses the full data set collected with the CDF II detector during Run II of the Tevatron collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.4 fb-1. An analysis of the dijet mass spectrum provides 3.7? evidence of the summed production processes of either WW or WZ bosons with a measured total cross section of ?WW+WZ=13.7±3.9 pb. Independent measurements of the WW and WZ production cross sections are allowed by the different heavy-flavor decay patterns of the W and Z bosons and by the analysis of secondary-decay vertices reconstructed within heavy-flavor jets. The productions of WW and of WZ dibosons are independently seen with significances of 2.9? and 2.1?, respectively, with total cross sections of ?WW=9.4±4.2 pb and ?WZ=3.7-2.2+2.5 pb. The measurements are consistent with standard-model predictions. © 2016 American Physical Society

CCNE1 and survival of patients with tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma: An Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium study

BACKGROUND: Cyclin E1 (CCNE1) is a potential predictive marker and therapeutic target in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). Smaller studies have revealed unfavorable associations for CCNE1 amplification and CCNE1 overexpression with survival, but to date no large-scale, histotype-specific validation has been performed. The hypothesis was that high-level amplification of CCNE1 and CCNE1 overexpression, as well as a combination of the two, are linked to shorter overall survival in HGSC. METHODS: Within the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium, amplification status and protein level in 3029 HGSC cases and mRNA expression in 2419 samples were investigated. RESULTS: High-level amplification (>8 copies by chromogenic in situ hybridization) was found in 8.6% of HGSC and overexpression (>60% with at least 5% demonstrating strong intensity by immunohistochemistry) was found in 22.4%. CCNE1 high-level amplification and overexpression both were linked to shorter overall survival in multivariate survival analysis adjusted for age and stage, with hazard stratification by study (hazard ratio [HR], 1.26; 95% CI, 1.08-1.47, p = .034, and HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.05-1.32, p = .015, respectively). This was also true for cases with combined high-level amplification/overexpression (HR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.09-1.47, p = .033). CCNE1 mRNA expression was not associated with overall survival (HR, 1.00 per 1-SD increase; 95% CI, 0.94-1.06; p = .58). CCNE1 high-level amplification is mutually exclusive with the presence of germline BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants and shows an inverse association to RB1 loss. CONCLUSION: This study provides large-scale validation that CCNE1 high-level amplification is associated with shorter survival, supporting its utility as a prognostic biomarker in HGSC

Nonlinear beam self-cleaning in a coupled cavity composite laser based on multimode fiber

We study a coupled cavity laser configuration where a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG microchip laser is combined with an extended cavity, including a doped multimode fiber. For appropriate coupling levels with the extended cavity, we observed that beam selfcleaning was induced in the multimode fiber thanks to nonlinear modal coupling, leading to a quasi-single mode laser output. In the regime of beam self-cleaning, laser pulse duration was reduced from 525 to 225 ps. We also observed a Q-switched mode-locked operation, where spatial self-cleaning was accompanied by far-detuned nonlinear frequency conversion in the active multimode fiber

Study of top quark production and decays involving a tau lepton at CDF and limits on a charged Higgs boson contribution

We present an analysis of top-antitop quark production and decay into a tau lepton, tau neutrino, and bottom quark using data from 9??fb-1 of integrated luminosity at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Dilepton events, where one lepton is an energetic electron or muon and the other a hadronically decaying tau lepton, originating from proton-antiproton collisions at vs=1.96??TeV, are used. A top-antitop quark production cross section of 8.1±2.1??pb is measured, assuming standard-model top quark decays. By separately identifying for the first time the single-tau and the ditau components, we measure the branching fraction of the top quark into the tau lepton, tau neutrino, and bottom quark to be (9.6±2.8)%. The branching fraction of top quark decays into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark, which would imply violation of lepton universality, is limited to be less than 5.9% at a 95% confidence level [for B(H-?t¯?)=1]

Search for narrow resonances in dilepton mass spectra in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV and combination with 8 TeV data

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