[Book Review of] \u3cem\u3eMedicine and Religion: Strategies of Care,\u3c/em\u3e edited by Donald W. Shriver, Jr.

An early morning view west on Lindell Boulevard, with Davis-Shaughnessy Hall on the left. The street has been prepared for the return motorcade of Pope John Paul II. (27 January 1999) [Photo by Randy R. McGuire, Assistant SLU Archivist. Original photo identification number is PHO 3.355.3

Accounting in an English medieval abbey

Let us consider the accounting problems for an abbey, a monastery, one of the prominent social institutions of the middle ages, a center for many activities: religious, social, cultural and economic. More specifically, let us center on the activities of a relatively large abbey near the coast of southern England, Beaulieu Abbey in the year 1269. The activities of this abbey would not seem strange to some of our modern rancher-oilman-financier entrepreneurs of South Texas. The modern rancher-farmer may have, in addition to his agricultural activities, some oil and/or gas interests, some financial interest in the local bank, etc. Most of these activities, and more were familiar to the monks governing a large medieval abbey

The Immunoglobulins of Cold-Blooded Vertebrates

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Prospective effort and choice

We constantly face the challenge of selecting among actions in pursuit of our goals. Behavioral theories suggest the ubiquity of these choices necessitate a valuation process that integrates expected costs and outcomes. Increased sensitivity to costs in value-based choices, such as reduced willingness to tolerate risk, wait or work for rewards, features prominently in the symptomatology of mental illness. Contrary to classical theories of choice that do not distinguish among cost type, the recent unification of experimental economics, psychology and neuroscience describes the influence of specific costs upon behavioral and neural correlates of subjective value. Despite substantial progress in the understanding of the basis of subjective valuation under delay and risk, the specific influence of effort, the energetic cost of an action, remains largely unknown. Limited existing accounts hypothesize that cost sensitivity during subjective valuation results from separable neural systems related to risk, delay and effort. This dissertation evaluates evidence for distinct neural representation of effort and presents a set of experiments designed to refine normative accounts of effort-based choice. First, I review the neural basis of economic choice under risk and delay. Second, I review limited accounts economic choice under effort. I describe a novel prospective effort task designed and validated to examine effort-based valuation and address potential confounds present in previous studies. In the first experiment, I report novel evidence for discounting of neural activity related to value by prospective effort and conjoint sensitivity to effort costs and expected outcomes in brain regions related to selection and generation of actions. In a second experiment, I examined the influence of prospective effort costs upon delay discounting preferences. This experiment did not find modulation of individual preferences by prospective effort costs. Finally, I discuss our results in the context of existing accounts and potential extensions of the prospective effort paradigm. Overall, I show that prospective effort imposes a specific cost, reflected in behavioral and neural correlates of value, and presents a novel approach to further the understanding of motivated behavior.Neuroscienc

Retroviral Transduction of T-cell Receptors in Mouse T-cells

T-cell receptors (TCRs) play a central role in the immune system. TCRs on T-cell surfaces can specifically recognize peptide antigens presented by antigen presenting cells (APCs)1. This recognition leads to the activation of T-cells and a series of functional outcomes (e.g. cytokine production, killing of the target cells). Understanding the functional role of TCRs is critical to harness the power of the immune system to treat a variety of immunology related diseases (e.g. cancer or autoimmunity)

Repurposing metformin for cancer treatment: current clinical studies.

In recent years, several studies have presented evidence suggesting a potential role for metformin in anti-cancer therapy. Preclinical studies have demonstrated several anticancer molecular mechanisms of metformin including mTOR inhibition, cytotoxic effects, and immunomodulation. Epidemiologic data have demonstrated decreased cancer incidence and mortality in patients taking metformin. Several clinical trials, focused on evaluation of metformin as an anti-cancer agent are presently underway. Data published from a small number of completed trials has put forth intriguing results. Clinical trials in pre-surgical endometrial cancer patients exhibited a significant decrease in Ki67 with metformin monotherapy. Another interesting observation was made in patients with breast cancer, wherein a trend towards improvement in cancer proliferation markers was noted in patients without insulin resistance. Data on survival outcomes with the use of metformin as an anti-cancer agent is awaited. This manuscript will critically review the role of metformin as a potential cancer treatment

Impact of diagnosis to treatment interval in patients with newly diagnosed mantle cell lymphoma

The prognostic relevance of diagnosis to treatment interval (DTI) in patients with newly diagnosed mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is unknown. Hence, we sought to evaluate the impact of DTI on outcomes in MCL using 3 large datasets (1) the University of Iowa/Mayo Clinic Specialized Program of Research Excellence Molecular Epidemiology Resource, (2) patients enrolled in the ALL Age Asthma Cohort/CALGB 50403, and (3) a multisitecohort of patients with MCL. Patients were a priori divided into 2 groups, 0 to 14 days (short DTI) and 15 to 60 days (long DTI). The patients in whom observation was deemed appropriate were excluded. One thousand ninety-seven patients newly diagnosed with MCL and available DTI were included in the study. The majority (73%) had long DTI (n=797). Patients with short DTI had worse eastern cooperative oncology group performance status (ECOG PS ≥2), higher lactate dehydrogenase, bone marrow involvement, more frequent B symptoms, higher MCL International Prognostic Index (MIPI ≥6.2), and were less likely to receive intensive induction therapy than long DTI group. The median progression-free survival (2.5 years vs 4.8 years, p\u3c0.0001) and overall survival (7.8 years vs. 11.8 years, p\u3c0.0001) were significantly inferior in the short DTI group than the long DTI cohort and remained significant for progression-free survival and overall survival in multivariable analysis. We show that the DTI is an important prognostic factor in patients newly diagnosed with MCL and is strongly associated with adverse clinical factors and poor outcomes. DTI should be reported in all the patients newly diagnosed with MCL who are enrolling in clinical trials and steps must be taken to ensure selection bias is avoided