The Federal College Work-Study Program in the AAU Universities 1965-1975: Some Implications of Professional Discretion

This is a summary of a study of the Federal College v. Work-Study Program (CWSP) which was completed early in 1977. The purpose of the project was to analyze the implementation of the Work-Study program since 19fi5 by the 48 institutions which comprise the Association. of American Universities (AAU). The article addresses. the ways in which these 24 private and 24 public universities have established this student assistance policy and considers some of the implications for universities and particularly for graduate students

Highly-functionalised difluorinated cyclohexane polyols via the Diels–Alder reaction : regiochemical control via the phenylsulfonyl group

A difluorinated dienophile underwent cycloaddition reactions with a range of furans to afford cycloadducts whichcould be processed regio- and stereoselectively via episulfonium ions, generated by the reaction between their alkenyl groups and phenylsulfenyl chloride. The oxabicyclic products were oxidised to the phenylsulfonyl level and ring opened via E1CB or reductive desulfonative pathways to afford, ultimately, difluorinated cyclohexene or cyclohexane polyols

Evaluation of Multiple Models to Distinguish Closely Related Forms of Disease Using DNA Microarray Data: an Application to Multiple Myeloma

Motivation: Standard laboratory classification of the plasma cell dyscrasia monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and the overt plasma cell neoplasm multiple myeloma (MM) is quite accurate, yet, for the most part, biologically uninformative. Most, if not all, cancers are caused by inherited or acquired genetic mutations that manifest themselves in altered gene expression patterns in the clonally related cancer cells. Microarray technology allows for qualitative and quantitative measurements of the expression levels of thousands of genes simultaneously, and it has now been used both to classify cancers that are morphologically indistinguishable and to predict response to therapy. It is anticipated that this information can also be used to develop molecular diagnostic models and to provide insight into mechanisms of disease progression, e.g., transition from healthy to benign hyperplasia or conversion of a benign hyperplasia to overt malignancy. However, standard data analysis techniques are not trivial to employ on these large data sets. Methodology designed to handle large data sets (or modified to do so) is needed to access the vital information contained in the genetic samples, which in turn can be used to develop more robust and accurate methods of clinical diagnostics and prognostics.Results: Here we report on the application of a panel of statistical and data mining methodologies to classify groups of samples based on expression of 12,000 genes derived from a high density oligonucleotide microarray analysis of highly purified plasma cells from newly diagnosed MM, MGUS, and normal healthy donors. The three groups of samples are each tested against each other. The methods are found to be similar in their ability to predict group membership; all do quite well at predicting MM vs. normal and MGUS vs. normal. However, no method appears to be able to distinguish explicitly the genetic mechanisms between MM and MGUS. We believe this might be due to the lack of genetic differences between these two conditions, and may not be due to the failure of the models. We report the prediction errors for each of the models and each of the methods. Additionally, we report ROC curves for the results on group prediction.Availability: Logistic regression: standard software, available, for example in SAS. Decision trees and boosted trees: C5.0 from www.rulequest.com. SVM: SVM-light is publicly available from svmlight.joachims.org. Naïve Bayes and ensemble of voters are publicly available from www.biostat.wisc.edu/~mwaddell/eov.html. Nearest Shrunken Centroids is publicly available from http://www-stat.stanford.edu/~tibs/PAM

Clinical and hemodynamic follow-up of left ventricular to aortic conduits in patients with aortic stenosis

To assess the long-term results of left ventricular outflow tract reconstruction utilizing an apical left ventricular to aortic valved (porcine) conduit the clinical and hemodynamic data were reviewed from 24 patients who had placement of an apico-aortic conduit. Eighteen of the patients are asymptomatic and taking no cardiac medications. Three patients were reoperated on, one patient 1.5 years after his original operation for subacute bacterial endocarditis and two patients 3 to 4 years after their original operation for severe conduit valve insufficiency. None of the patients is taking anticoagulants and no thromboembolic events have occurred. Postoperative catheterization has been performed 1 to 1.5 years (mean 1.2) after repair in 15 of 21 patients. The rest left ventricular outflow tract gradient has decreased from 102.5 ± 20 mm Hg preoperatively to 14.8 ± 9.9 mm Hg postoperatively (probability [p] < 0.001). Some degree of conduit obstruction was demonstrated by catheter passage in 11 of the 15 patients. In these 11 patients, the obstruction occurred at three distant sites: at the egress of the left ventricle in 9, at the porcine valve in 5 and at the aortic to conduit junction in 1. Isometric exercise in five and supine bicycle exercise in six patients increased the left ventricular outflow tract gradient by 2.5 ± 1.1 and 20.8 ± 11.8 mm Hg, respectively, despite an increase in cardiac index of 1 ± 0.3 and 3.7 ± 0.4 liters/min per m2, respectively. The data suggest that a left ventricular to aortic conduit is an effective form of therapy for severe left ventricular outflow tract obstruction

A multicentre study of thromboprophylaxis in pregnancy

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a leading cause of maternal mortality. The risk increases with increasing maternal age, mode of delivery and medical co-morbidities. Thromboprophylaxis with low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) has been shown to be both safe and efficacious. The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate the incidence of maternal risk factors in pregnant women admitted to hospital, to calculate their VTE risk status and to investigate if they were receiving appropriate thromboprophylaxis. All patients admitted to the participating hospitals on the day of investigation were assessed for risk of VTE on the basis of hospital chart review. Five Hundred and forty women were recruited from 16 hospitals. Almost 32% (31.7%) were receiving thromboprophylaxis with LMWH. Just under 80% of patients were on the correct thromboprophylaxis strategy as defined by the RCOG guideline but 49% were under-dosed. The odds of receiving appropriate thromboprophylaxis were significantly increased if the woman was >35 years 0or with parity>3

Poliomyelitis in Intraspinally Inoculated Poliovirus Receptor Transgenic Mice

AbstractMice transgenic with the human poliovirus receptor gene develop clinical signs and neuropathology similar to those of human poliomyelitis when neurovirulent polioviruses are inoculated into the central nervous system (CNS). Factors contributing to disease severity and the frequencies of paralysis and mortality include the poliovirus strain, dose, and gender of the mouse inoculated. The more neurovirulent the virus, as defined by monkey challenge results, the higher the rate of paralysis, mortality, and severity of disease. Also, the time to disease onset is shorter for more neurovirulent viruses. Male mice are more susceptible to polioviruses than females. TGM-PRG-3 mice have a 10-fold higher transgene copy number and produce 3-fold more receptor RNA and protein levels in the CNS than TGM-PRG-1 mice. CNS inoculations with type III polioviruses differing in relative neurovirulence show that these mouse lines are similar in disease frequency and severity, demonstrating that differences in receptor gene dosage and concomitant receptor abundance do not affect susceptibility to infection. However, there is a difference in the rate of accumulation of clinical signs. The time to onset of disease is shorter for TGM-PRG-3 than TGM-PRG-1 mice. Thus, receptor dosage affects the rate of appearance of poliomyelitis in these mice

Practice effects in a longitudinal, multi-center Alzheimer\u27s disease prevention clinical trial

BACKGROUND: Practice effects are a known threat to reliability and validity in clinical trials. Few studies have investigated the potential influence of practice on repeated screening measures in longitudinal clinical trials with a focus on dementia prevention. The current study investigates whether practice effects exist on a screening measure commonly used in aging research, the Memory Impairment Screen (MIS). METHODS: The PREADViSE trial is a clinical intervention study evaluating the efficacy of vitamin E and selenium for Alzheimer\u27s disease prevention. Participants are screened annually for incident dementia with the MIS. Participants with baseline and three consecutive follow-ups who made less than a perfect score at one or more assessments were included in the current analyses (N=1,803). An additional subset of participants with four consecutive assessments but who received the same version of the MIS at baseline and first follow-up (N=301) was also assessed to determine the effects of alternate forms on mitigating practice. We hypothesized that despite efforts to mitigate practice effects with alternate versions, MIS scores would improve with repeated screening. Linear mixed models were used to estimate mean MIS scores over time. RESULTS: Among men with four visits and alternating MIS versions, although there is little evidence of a significant practice effect at the first follow-up, mean scores clearly improve at the second and third follow-ups for all but the oldest participants. Unlike those who received alternate versions, men given the same version at first follow-up show significant practice effects. CONCLUSION: While increases in the overall means were small, they represent a significant number of men whose scores improved with repeated testing. Such improvements could bias case ascertainment if not taken into account

Microbiota of little penguins and short-tailed shearwaters during development

The establishment and early colonisation of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract has been recognised as a crucial stage in chick development, with pioneering microbial species responsible for influencing the development of the GI tract and influencing host health, fitness and disease status throughout life. Development of the microbiota in long lived seabirds is poorly understood. This study characterised the microbial composition of little penguin and short-tailed shearwater chicks throughout development, using Quantitative Real Time PCR (qPCR) and 16S rRNA sequencing. The results indicated that microbial development differed between the two seabird species with the short-tailed shearwater microbiota being relatively stable throughout development whilst significant fluctuations in the microbial composition and an upward trend in the abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were observed in the little penguin. When the microbial composition of adults and chicks was compared, both species showed low similarity in microbial composition, indicating that the adult microbiota may have a negligible influence over the chick&rsquo;s microbiota