Reaction kinetics on clusters and islands

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70583/2/JCPSA6-85-11-6804-1.pd

Framing Revolution: Simón Bolívar’s Rhetoric and Reason

Thesis advisor: Sylvia Sellers-GarcíaBetween 1812-1829, the Spanish American colonies waged a war of independence against the Spanish crown. In Northern South America, this movement was spearheaded by the Enlightenment-educated Simón Bolívar, who understood that expelling the Spaniards necessitated winning widespread support from Spanish America's many distinct interest groups. Bolívar capitalized on his leadership and love for public speaking to wage a war of words against the Spanish that framed the actual revolution in such a way as to give it meaning. This campaign featured a number of varied rhetorical devices; each device intended in a unique way to appeal to its unique audience. By appealing to South America's many interest groups, Bolívar united South Americans under the common banner of independence and provided justification for the acts of violence that revolution necessitated.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: History

Trends and Issues in Educational Psychology

The review of issues in educational psychology looks at areas of innovation as well as areas of stagnation. The authors challenge researchers to find meaningful information which has utility in the development and improvement of teaching

Fractal exciton fusion: Simulations on long-range percolation clusters

Computer simulations of exciton fusion on percolating clusters were performed for interaction distances N=2, 3, and 4. The data yield slopes less than those expected from superuniversality (f=2/3) at interaction distances above 2, when the probability of sucessively longer hops falls by a factor of 1/10.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24627/1/0000037.pd

Variable range cluster model of exciton migration: Dimensionality and critical exponents for naphthalene

Relative luminescence intensities for randomly substituted ternary systems with two major components and a minor one (sensor), for four triplet and one singlet exciton systems, identify the maximal effective exciton interaction distance for each system. The critical exponents [beta] and [gamma] show an effective 2-dimensional exciton topology and are consistent with dynamic exciton percolation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23661/1/0000629.pd

Exome array analysis of adverse reactions to fluoropyrimidine-based therapy for gastrointestinal cancer.

Fluoropyrimidines, including 5-fluororacil (5FU) and its pro-drug Capecitabine, are the common treatment for colorectal, breast, neck and head cancers-either as monotherapy or in combination therapy. Adverse reactions (ADRs) to the treatment are common and often result in treatment discontinuation or dose reduction. Factors contributing to ADRs, including genetic variation, are poorly characterized. We performed exome array analysis to identify genetic variants that contribute to adverse reactions. Our final dataset consisted of 504 European ancestry individuals undergoing fluoropyrimidine-based therapy for gastrointestinal cancer. A subset of 254 of these were treated with Capecitabine. All individuals were genotyped on the Illumina HumanExome Array. Firstly, we performed SNP and gene-level analyses of protein-altering variants on the array to identify novel associations the following ADRs, which were grouped into four phenotypes based on symptoms of diarrhea, mucositis, and neutropenia and hand-and-foot syndrome. Secondly, we performed detailed analyses of the HLA region on the same phenotypes after imputing the HLA alleles and amino acids. No protein-altering variants, or sets of protein-altering variants collapsed into genes, were associated with the main outcomes after Bonferroni correction. We found evidence that the HLA region was enriched for associations with Hand-and-Foot syndrome (p = 0.023), but no specific SNPs or HLA alleles were significant after Bonferroni correction. Larger studies will be required to characterize the genetic contribution to ADRs to 5FU. Future studies that focus on the HLA region are likely to be fruitful

Clinical Utility of Advanced Microbiology Testing Tools

Advanced microbiology technologies are rapidly changing our ability to diagnose infections, improve patient care, and enhance clinical workflow. These tools are increasing the breadth, depth, and speed of diagnostic data generated per patient, and testing is being moved closer to the patient through rapid diagnostic technologies, including point-of-care (POC) technologies. While select stakeholders have an appreciation of the value/importance of improvements in the microbial diagnostic field, there remains a disconnect between clinicians and some payers and hospital administrators in terms of understanding the potential clinical utility of these novel technologies. Therefore, a key challenge for the clinical microbiology community is to clearly articulate the value proposition of these technologies to encourage payers to cover and hospitals to adopt advanced microbiology tests. Specific guidance on how to define and demonstrate clinical utility would be valuable. Addressing this challenge will require alignment on this topic, not just by microbiologists but also by primary care and emergency room (ER) physicians, infectious disease specialists, pharmacists, hospital administrators, and government entities with an interest in public health. In this article, we discuss how to best conduct clinical studies to demonstrate and communicate clinical utility to payers and to set reasonable expectations for what diagnostic manufacturers should be required to demonstrate to support reimbursement from commercial payers and utilization by hospital systems

Acute effects of high-dose thyrotropin releasing hormone infusions in Alzheimer's disease

Thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) was administered intravenously to ten patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in a high-dose paradigm, thought to maximize central nervous system effects and potentially produce facilitation of cholinergic function, a known property of the neuropeptide. Acute effects of TRH on behavioral, cognitive and physiologic measures were assessed after patients received 0.1 mg/kg TRH, 0.3 mg/kg TRH and placebo, the higher TRH dose and placebo being given in a randomized, double-blind fashion. Patients showed statistically significant increases in arousal and improvement in affect, as well as a modest improvement in semantic memory, all after receiving the higher TRH dose. Both TRH doses produced transient rises in systolic blood pressure, with no effect on diastolic blood pressure, heart rate or temperature. This study suggests that high-dose TRH can be safely administered to AD patients and is neurobehaviorally active; further studies are needed to determine the extent and mechanism of the cognitive and psychobiological properties of this peptide in AD and other neuropsychiatric disorders.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46449/1/213_2004_Article_BF00451695.pd