2,009 research outputs found
Whole genome methylation analysis of nondysplastic barrett esophagus that progresses to invasive cancer
No full textOBJECTIVE: To investigate differences in methylation between patients with nondysplastic Barrett esophagus who progress to invasive adenocarcinoma and those who do not.BACKGROUND: Identifying patients with nondysplastic Barrett esophagus who progress to invasive adenocarcinoma remains a challenge. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential utility of epigenetic markers for identifying this group.METHODS: A whole genome methylation interrogation using the Illumina HumanMethylation 450 array of patients with nondysplastic Barrett esophagus who either develop adenocarcinoma or remain static, with validation of findings by bisulfite pyrosequencing.RESULTS: In all, 12 patients with "progressive" versus 12 with "nonprogressive" nondysplastic Barrett esophagus were analyzed via methylation array. Forty-four methylation markers were identified that may be able to discriminate between nondysplastic Barrett esophagus that either progress to adenocarcinoma or remain static. Hypomethylation of the recently identified tumor suppressor OR3A4 (probe cg09890332) validated in a separate cohort of samples (median methylation in progressors 67.8% vs 96.7% in nonprogressors; P = 0.0001, z = 3.85, Wilcoxon rank-sum test) and was associated with the progression to adenocarcinoma. There were no differences in copy number between the 2 groups, but a global trend towards hypomethylation in the progressor group was observed.CONCLUSION: Hypomethylation of OR3A4 has the ability to risk stratify the patient with nondysplastic Barrett esophagus and may form the basis of a future surveillance program.</p
Spatial Bayesian Latent Factor Regression Modeling of Coordinate-based Meta-analysis Data
No full textNow over 20 years old, functional MRI (fMRI) has a large and growing literature that is best synthesised withmeta-analytic tools. As most authors do not share image data, only the peak activation coordinates (foci) reported in thearticle are available for Coordinate-Based Meta-Ana lysis (CBMA). Neuroimaging meta-analysis is used to (i) identify areas ofconsistent activation; and (ii) build a predictive model of task type or cognitive process for new studies (reverse inference). Tosimultaneously address these aims, we propose a Bayesian point process hierarchical model for CBMA. We model the foci fromeach study as a doubly stochastic Poisson process, where the study-speci?c log intensity function is characterized as a linearcombination of a high-dimensional basis set. A sparse representation of the intensities is guaranteed through latent factormodeling of the basis coe?cients. Within our framework, it is also possible to account for the e?ect of study-level covariates(meta-regression), signi?cantly expanding the capabilities of the current neuroimaging meta-analysis methods available. Weapply our methodology to synthetic data and neuroimaging meta-analysis datasets
Informal Insurance in the Presence of Poverty Traps: Evidence from Southern Ethiopia
No full textFieldwork for this paper was conducted under the Pastoral Risk Management (PARIMA) project of the Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program (GL CRSP), funded by the Office of Agriculture and Food Security, Global Bureau, USAID, under grant number DAN-1328-G-00-0046-00, and analysis was underwritten by the USAID SAGA cooperative agreement, grant number HFM-A-00-01-00132-00. Financial support was also provided by the Social Science Research Council's Program in Applied Economics on Risk and Development (through a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation), The Pew Charitable Trusts (through the Christian Scholars Program of the University of Notre Dame), the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), and the Graduate School of Cornell University. Thanks are due to ILRI - Ethiopia for their hospitality and support and to Action for Development (Yabello) for logistical support. We thank Getachew Gebru and our field assistants, Ahmed Ibrahim and Mohammed Ibrahim, for their invaluable assistance in data collection. This is a much revised version of an earlier paper that circulated under the title: "Safety nets or social insurance in the presence of poverty traps? Evidence from southern Ethiopia". We thank Michael Carter, Stefan Dercon, Andrew Foster, Vivian Hoffman, Dhushyanth Raju, Steve Younger and participants at various conferences and seminars for comments that greatly improved this paper. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent any official agency. Any remaining errors are our own.risk, informal insurance, social networks, poverty traps, Ethiopia, Risk and Uncertainty, Z13, I3, O13,
The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author-function
No full textThis thesis is situated within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia, and explores the mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture compared to that of a Read/Only tradition. The hypothesis of this study is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such, represents new functions and attributes, distinct from a more conventional concept of authorship, in which the roles of audience and author are more separate. Read/Write and participatory culture, as defined by this study, is focused on collaboration, and includes the influences of D.I.Y. culture, Open-Source practices and the production of text by multiple authors. Multi-authorship presents a re-thinking of several concepts which support the notion of the individual author, since the focus of multi-authorship is not on attribution and ownership of a finished text, but on the continued malleability of a text. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, whilst concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names form an important context to this study, since primary research involves the construction of an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology and the interaction of thirty nine participants, who are invited to create a body of work under the collective pseudonym Karen Karnak. The data generated by this experiment is analysed using aspects of Michel Foucault's author-function to identify and determine power structures inherent in the WikiMedia context. The interplay of power structures, including concepts such as identity, ownership and the body of work, affect the resulting mode of authorship and contribute to the construction of Karen Karnak, suggesting further areas of research into the emerging multi-author
Barriers to accessing child care subsidies in Oregon: report in response to House Bill 2346
No full textprepared by: Megan Pratt, Kelly D. Chandler, Brenda Barrett-Rivera, Asia Thogmartin, & Bobbie Weber, Oregon State University.Title from PDF cover (viewed on October 19, 2020).This archived document is maintained by the State Library of Oregon as part of the Oregon Documents Depository Program. It is for informational purposes and may not be suitable for legal purposes.Includes bibliographical references.Mode of access: Internet from the Oregon Government Publications Collection.Text in English
Regularity of projection operators attached to worm domains
No full textThis paper considers the non-smooth unbounded worm domains
Dβ={(z1,z2)∈C2:Re(z1e−ilogz2z⎯⎯⎯2)>0,|logz2z⎯⎯2|<β−π2},
where β>π2. These model domains were important when the first author [Acta Math. 168 (1992), no. 1-2, 1–10; MR1149863] used them to show that on the Diederich-Fornæss worm domains [K. Diederich and J. E. Fornæss, Math. Ann. 225 (1977), no. 3, 275–292; MR0430315] the Bergman projection does not map the Sobolev space Wk into itself when k≥π/(total amount of winding). In the paper under review, the authors construct an oblique projection operator on Dβ which preserves the level of the Sobolev spaces. More precisely, let
L2j(Dβ)={f∈L2(Dβ):f∘ρθ=eijθf},
where ρθ=(z1,eiθz2) is a rotation on Dβ. Define Bj(Dβ):=L2j(Dβ)∩{holomorphic functions on Dβ}, Wsj(Dβ):=L2j(Dβ)∩Ws(Dβ), and Ws(Dβ) the closure of :=C∞0(Dβ) in Ws(Dβ). The main theorem of the paper shows that for all j∈Z there exists a bounded linear projection Tj:=L2(Dβ)→Bj(Dβ)
which satisfies Tj:Ws(Dβ)→Wsj(Dβ)for every s≥0
Paper watermark imaging using electron and low energy x-ray radiography
No full textHistorians and librarians are interested in watermarks and mould surface patterns in historic papers, because they represent the “fingerprints” of antique papers. However, these features are usually covered or hidden by printing, writing or other media. Different techniques have been developed to extract the watermarks in the paper while avoiding interference from media on the paper. Beta radiography provides good results, but this method cannot be widely used because of radiation safety regulations and the long exposure times required due to weak isotope sources employed. In this work, two promising methods are compared which can be used to extract digital high-resolution images for paper watermarks and these are electron radiography and low energy X-ray radiography. For electron radiography a “sandwich” of a lead sheet, the paper object, and a film in a dark cassette, is formed and it is exposed at higher X-ray potentials (> 300 kV). The photoelectrons escaping from the lead sheet penetrate the paper and expose the film. After development, the film captures the watermark and mould surface pattern images for the paper being investigated. These images are then digitized using an X-ray film digitizer. The film employed could potentially be replaced by a special type of imaging plate with a very thin protection layer to directly generate digital images using computed radiography (CR). For the second method, a low energy X-ray source is used with the specimen paper placed on a digital detector array (DDA). This method directly generates a low energy digital radiography (DR) image. Both methods provide high quality images without interference from the printing media, and provide the potential to generate a “fingerprint” database for historical papers. There were nevertheless found to be differences in the images obtained using the two methods. The second method, using a low energy X-ray source, has the potential to be integrated in a portable device with a small footprint incorporating user safety requirements. Differences obtained using the two methods are shown and discussed.This proceeding may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This proceeding appeared in Zhang, Zhan, Uwe Ewert, Timothy D. Barrett, and Leonard J. Bond. "Paper watermark imaging using electron and low energy x-ray radiography." AIP Conference Proceedings 2102, no. 1 (2019): 030004, and may be found at DOI: 10.1063/1.5099750. Posted with permission.</p
The Influence of Literature in 1960s British Popular Music: Approaches to Popular Composition
No full textThere is a noticeable influence of literature and literary techniques in the popular music songs of the countercultural period in Britain (1965-71). These dates, as noted by Jonathon Green, characterize the beginning of the UK countercultural movement of the 1960s, culminating with the 1971 trial of the OZ magazine, which Green regards as marking the end of the period (1999).
There are three main questions that this project explores. In what ways did songwriters of the era use literature as an inspiration in the compositional process? How can literary influenced songwriting techniques be used and extended in contemporary popular composition? How useful are these techniques and the extensions of these techniques in the compositional process?
This project investigates the influence of literature on the songwriters of the era by analysing relevant song examples and subsequently inventing systematic forms that songwriters today can use as a basis for composition. A portfolio of original compositions is included, which demonstrates various approaches to composition that abide by the systematic forms, which stem from the literary influence of the 1960s songwriters. This project makes a contribution to our knowledge and understanding of popular music, as the influence of literature, especially the application of literary techniques in the compositional process, is a subject that has not been researched previously in any great depth. The abundance of available literary techniques and the possibilities for the invention of techniques is an exciting prospect when applied to popular composition.
After highlighting certain issues such as the homogeneity of songwriters and poets, a brief contextual background is given concerning 1960s counterculture and popular music. A taxonomy of systematic forms is created, into which are placed literary influenced techniques used by songwriters such as Syd Barrett and John Lennon, illustrated by a number of examples. Explanations of the original compositions included in the portfolio highlight the attributes of various songwriting approaches and conclusions are drawn that look into the differing levels of constraint and artistic intuition and how these factors affect the compositional process
Neural correlates of processing valence and arousal in affective words
No full textPsychological frameworks conceptualize emotion along 2 dimensions, "valence" and "arousal." Arousal invokes a single axis of intensity increasing from neutral to maximally arousing. Valence can be described variously as a bipolar continuum, as independent positive and negative dimensions, or as hedonic value (distance from neutral). In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to characterize neural activity correlating with arousal and with distinct models of valence during presentation of affective word stimuli. Our results extend observations in the chemosensory domain suggesting a double dissociation in which subregions of orbitofrontal cortex process valence, whereas amygdala preferentially processes arousal. In addition, our data support the physiological validity of descriptions of valence along independent axes or as absolute distance from neutral but fail to support the validity of descriptions of valence along a bipolar continuum
Longitudinal audit of assessment and pharmaceutical intervention for cardiovascular risk in the Australasian Diabetes Data Network
No full textFirst published: 29 October 2021Abstract not available.Claire A. Robertson, Arul Earnest, Melissa Chee, Maria E. Craig, Peter Colman, Helen L. Barrett, Philip Bergman, Fergus Cameron, Elizabeth A. Davis, Kim C. Donaghue, P. Gerry Fegan, P. Shane Hamblin, D. Jane Holmes–Walker, Craig Jefferies, Stephanie Johnson, Meng T. Mok, Bruce R. King, Richard Sinnott, Glenn Ward, Benjamin J. Wheeler, Anthony Zimmermann, Timothy W. Jones, Jenny J. Couper, the ADDN Study Grou
- …
