Cervical cancer survival in a high risk urban population

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer remains an important public health problem, particularly for the urban minority population. To the authors' knowledge, determinants of cervical cancer survival have not been studied in this high risk population. METHODS: This study included all 158 women diagnosed and treated for invasive cervical cancer from January 1, 1986, through December 31, 1992, at the Grady Memorial Hospital and Clinics (Atlanta, GA). Medical records were abstracted to determine age at diagnosis, race, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) clinical stage, treatment, and survival. Pathologic material was reviewed to confirm the diagnosis. RESULTS: Most patients (80%) were African American, and the stage distribution was similar for African American and white patients. Sixty-six (42%) had FIGO Stage I disease; 50%, Stage II or III; and 8%, Stage IV. Four-year actuarial survival differed significantly according to clinical stage (Ia = 94%, Ib = 79%, II = 39%, III = 26%, IV = 0%). Overall survival was lower for patients with glandular carcinomas than for those with squamous cell carcinomas (26% vs. 55%, P = 0.09). This difference was almost entirely due to increased mortality in patients with Stage Ib adenocarcinomas (53% vs. 88% for squamous cell carcinoma, Stage Ib, P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: The major prognostic markers for cervical cancer survival in this high risk patient population were clinical stage and histology, factors identical to those identified for other populations.     

Affect Analysis of Web Forums and Blogs Using Correlation Ensembles

Analysis of affective intensities in computer mediated communication is important in order to allow a better understanding of online users' emotions and preferences. Despite considerable research on textual affect classification, it is unclear which features and techniques are most effective. In this study we compared several feature representations for affect analysis, including learned n-grams and various automatically and manually crafted affect lexicons. We also proposed the support vector regression correlation ensemble (SVRCE) method for enhanced classification of affect intensities. SVRCE uses an ensemble of classifiers each trained using a feature subset tailored towards classifying a single affect class. The ensemble is combined with affect correlation information to enable better prediction of emotive intensities. Experiments were conducted on four test beds encompassing web forums, blogs, and online stories. The results revealed that learned n-grams were more effective than lexicon based affect representations. The findings also indicated that SVRCE outperformed comparison techniques, including Pace regression, semantic orientation, and WordNet models. Ablation testing showed that the improved performance of SVRCE was attributable to its use of feature ensembles as well as affect correlation information. A brief case study was conducted to illustrate the utility of the features and techniques for affect analysis of large archives of online discourse.     

Clinical evaluation in organ transplant patients of a polymerase chain reaction test for CMV DNA applied on white blood cells and serum

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for CMV DNA was evaluated for clinical usefulness. Leukocytes and serum were sampled from 36 patients who had recently undergone organ transplantation. Clinical symptoms, virus culture, and IgG and IgM antibodies were used to identify, in retrospect, patients with CMV disease certified beyond all doubt, with probable disease, with asymptomatic infection, or without infection. PCR tests for CMV DNA in leukocytes (BC-PCR) and serum (SE-PCR) were then evaluated. BC-PCR was positive in all patients with certified CMV disease but also in 31% of the samples from patients without infection. SE-PCR was positive in 11/13 patients with certified disease and was concordant with CMV culture in 192/231 tests. Of the 39 discordant cases, 27 had a positive SE-PCR with a negative culture. The effect of ganciclovir treatment could not be predicted by any test. In conclusion, a negative BC-PCR is strong evidence against CMV disease and a positive SE-PCR strongly suggests CMV disease, but the opposite results are of little clinical help.     

Fabrication of 2-D photonic bandgap structures in GaAs/AlGaAs

The authors report the first realisation of a two-dimensional photonic bandgap structure with a period of λ₀/2n in the GaAs/AlGaAs material system. The structure consists of a honeycomb lattice with a wall thickness of ~30 nm and a period of 160 nm. It was found that, to realise patterns of such small size and periodicity, it is crucial to control the shape of the exposed features     

Enhancement-Mode GaAs MOSFETs With an In0.3 Ga0.7As Channel, a Mobility of Over 5000 cm2/V ·s, and Transconductance of Over 475 μS/μm

We present metal-gate high-k-dielectric enhancement-mode (e-mode) III-V MOSFETs with the highest reported effective mobility and transconductance to date. The devices employ a GaGdO high-k (k = 20) gate stack, a Pt gate, and a delta-doped InGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs hetero-structure. Typical 1-mum gate length device figures of merit are given as follows: saturation drive current, I_d,sat = 407 muA/mum; threshold voltage, V_t = +0.26 V; maximum extrinsic transconductance, g_m = 477 muS/mum (the highest reported to date for a III-V MOSFET); gate leakage current, I_g = 30 pA; subthreshold swing, S = 102 mV/dec; on resistance, R_on = 1920 Omega-mum; I_on/I_off ratio = 6.3 x 10⁴; and output conductance, g_d = 11 mS/mm. A peak electron mobility of 5230 cm²/V. s was extracted from low-drain-bias measurements of 20 mum long-channel devices, which, to the authors' best knowledge, is the highest mobility extracted from any e-mode MOSFET. These transport and device data are highly encouraging for future high-performance n-channel complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor solutions based on III-V MOSFETs.     

Denitrogenation of steel melts with oxygen and sulphur by injection of argon under reduced pressure

Denitrogenation of steel melts with oxygen and sulphur was studied under reduced pressure by injection of argon. The rate of nitrogen desorption was found to obey a reaction of second order. The macrokinetic rate increases with increasing Ar flowrate until bubble coalescence occurs in the melts. The effects of sulphur and oxygen on nitrogen desorption were evaluated from the experimental data. The dimensionless rate constant for nitrogen is described by . A reasonable agreement was obtained in comparison with the results of other investigators.     

Meat and fish freshness evaluation by functionalized cantilever-based biosensors

Meat spoilage is a result of an increase in the number of microorganisms and increased levels of biogenic amines (e.g. cadaverine). Destruction of non-spoiled meat products results in substantial waste of resources each year. Currently, the expiration date of meat-products is determined by either subjective sensory and/or expensive and time-consuming microbiological analysis. Cadaverine levels have been demonstrated to be related to the product freshness; however current sensing methods require bulky and expensive chromatography techniques. In this work, the cadaverine binding to a functionalization layer of cyclam (1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane) is demonstrated by a systematic study of cyclam/solvent solution influence on morphology and binding. The degradation of the functionalization layer due to storage conditions has also been investigated, and the optimum solvent for the functionalization solution is found to be ethoxyethanol. Functionalized surfaces and cantilevers have been exposed to different types of meat (beef, fish, chicken or pork) and the cadaverine binding has been demonstrated, either by morphology changes (surfaces) or by changes on cantilever resonance frequency due to mass increase (cantilever). The results show a higher cadaverine emission rate for fish, followed by chicken, beef and finally pork.