Many reservoir problems require multiple regression solutions. As the training set is often small in practice, it is important to quantify the relative relevance of all input attributes (or drivers) ...and select only the significant ones. This paper compares the performance of two techniques for ranking drivers for a fractured reservoir characterization problem. The techniques are rank order correlation and fuzzy curves. The case study contains 49 geological and geophysical drivers linking to a fractured intensity indicator. The results of the case study show that the fuzzy curve method has many practical limitations in the presence of noisy data and poorly populated data regions, and its ranking results are less conclusive. On the other hand, the rank correlation technique gives more satisfactory results and is more robust. An improved version of rank correlation technique, namely “optimized piecewise rank correlation” (or OPRAC), is also presented.
Our study sought to describe the MR imaging features and the patterns of spread in secondary tumor involvement of the uterus by nonuterine tumors.
Direct extension of an adjacent tumor to the uterus ...is the most common pattern of secondary tumor involvement. Concomitant invasion of other pelvic organs is also typical. Although less common, hematogenous or lymphatic metastases to the uterus are encountered in clinical practice. Metastases should be added to the differential diagnosis of apparently malignant masses in the uterine body or cervix, especially in patients with metastatic disease or in patients whose uterus shows a preserved shape with involvement by an infiltrative heterogeneously enhancing process.
Pulmonary disease in otherwise healthy patients can occur by secondary exposure to nontuberculous mycobacteria from hot tubs. The pathology of hot tub lung may be related to an infection, a ...hypersensitivity reaction or both. Previous reports of hot tub lung have highlighted distinct pathological features that have distinguished this entity from classic hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Two cases of hot tub lung in Ontario, which presented at very different time points in their disease course, are reported; one patient presented more fulminantly with a clinical picture resembling subacute hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and the other presented with chronic disease. Both cases exhibited clinical, radiological and pathological findings closely mimicking classic subacute and chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
The study compares physicians and the nursing staff of a hospital in terms of their extra-role behavior. Matters of interest include the extent of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) shown on ...the one hand and on the other hand which conditions stimulate the OCB of both physicians and nurses, respectively.
The comparison was conducted by applying a questionnaire on n = 70 physicians and n = 112 nurses in a nursing department of a municipal hospital.
The results can be summarized as follows: (1) The extra-role behavior in terms of sportsmanship, individual initiative, and conscientiousness show equally high values with respect to physicians as well as nurses. In contrast, nurses rate their own helping behavior towards colleagues higher than the physicians do. Therefore, the extent of OCB does not seem to be job-specific in the narrower sense. (2) Differences between physicians and nurses exist indeed with respect to the conditions for the occurrence of OCB: Although the extent of OCB shown by physicians and nurses is independent from age, department tenure, and organizational tenure, job experience does play a role for the degree of conscientiousness (physicians) and individual initiative (nurses). Furthermore, gender affects the sub dimension sportsmanship (nurses). (3) While job characteristics (job control and stress) play a certain role for the degree of nurses' OCB, the physicians' extra-role behavior is independent from job control and strain. Vice versa, the analyzed person-related characteristics job insecurity and strain play a role for the extra-role behavior of physicians, while the behavior of nurses remains unaffected hereof. In other words: Nurses show the same OCB at high and low levels of strain and job insecurity, while physicians lower their OCB when strain and job insecurity rise. (4) For both physicians and nurses, job satisfaction is the most important predictor for extra-role behavior.
When trying to enhance the extent of OCB within a hospital, it is -- according to our results -- primarily essential to increase the job satisfaction of physicians as well as nurses. Within the nursing department, it is additionally recommended to enhance the employees' scope of action, if possible. However, for the enhancement of OCB it must be kept in mind -- according to our results -- that with rising OCB the stress (e. g. time pressure and interruptions) rise at the same time. The latter might result in higher strain for employees. In the group of physicians, on the other hand, a person-related approach seems promising: it is essential to reduce the physicians' subjectively felt strains as well as the job insecurity.
This paper examines how knowledge created by firm experience (learning economies) and scale and scope economies affect performance in firms' development activities. The empirical results suggest that ...each factor has a significant effect on development performance. Moreover, knowledge that results from greater experience within a particular technological area, when combined with knowledge spillovers from greater scope in other technological areas, significantly improves development performance. The results suggest that experience shapes and facilitates firms' abilities to absorb knowledge spillovers. Our empirical findings thus provide a more nuanced examination of the drivers of performance and have implications for the management of firms' development activities. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Objective. Prophylactic oophorectomy (PO) is an accepted treatment strategy for women who are at high risk for the development of ovarian carcinoma, particularly women who are BRCA mutation-positive. ...This study sought to assess the utility of peritoneal lavage cytology at the time of PO in detecting occult malignancy in this group of patients.
Methods. Thirty-five high-risk women, who were not suspected of having any malignancy or ovarian mass, underwent peritoneal lavage at the time of PO. Thirty-one of the thirty-five women had undergone BRCA mutation analysis (BRCA1+, 18; BRCA2+, 10; BRCA−, 3). Intensive histopathologic examination was used in all 35 cases to identify occult carcinoma. Lavage specimens were reviewed for the presence of malignant cells and endosalpingiosis. The cytologic review was conducted without knowledge of either the histopathologic or BRCA results.
Results. In 32 of the 35 lavage specimens no malignancy was detected. In the remaining three cases malignant cells were detected; in two of these cases histopathologic examination confirmed an ovarian/tubal occult carcinoma. Two of these women were BRCA1 mutation positive. Endosalpingiosis was detected in the peritoneal lavage specimens of 7 of the 32 cases showing no evidence of malignancy. All of these 7 women were BRCA mutation positive or unknown.
Conclusion. Peritoneal lavage cytology can detect occult carcinoma at the time of PO and should be performed at PO. The significance of occult carcinoma detected by either histopathologic or cytopathologic examination is uncertain. Whether the prevalence of endosalpingiosis detectable by lavage cytology is increased in BRCA mutation-positive patients requires further study.
Comparison of the binding affinity to a CD30-positive Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) cell line and biodistribution in HL bearing mice of new anti-CD30 radioimmunoconjugates (RICs) of varying structure and ...labelling nuclides.
The antibodies Ki-4 and 5F11 were radioiodinated by the chloramine T method or labelled with (111)In via p-NCS-Benzyl-DOTA. In addition, the Ki-4-dimer was investigated in the iodinated form. The RICs were analyzed for retained immunoreactivity by immunochromatography. In-vitro binding studies were performed on CD30-positive L540 cell lines. For in-vivo biodistribution studies, SCID mice bearing human HL xenografts were injected with the various radioimmunoconjugates. After 24 h, activities in the organs and tumour were measured for all 5 RICs. Tumour-free animals were studied in the same way with (131)I- Ki-4 24 h p. i. The three RICs with the highest tumour/background ratios 24 h p.i. ((131)I-Ki-4, (131)I-5F11, (111)In-bz-DOTA-Ki-4) were analysed further at 48 h and 72 h.
All the RICs were successfully labelled with high specific activities (28-47 TBq/mmol) and sufficient radiochemical yields (>80%). Scatchard plot analysis proved high tumour affinity (KD = 20-220 nmol/l). In-vivo tumour accumulation in % of injected dose per g tissue (%ID/g) lay between 2.6 ((131)I-5F11) and 12.3 % ID/g ((131)I-Ki-4) with permanently high background in blood. Tumour/blood-ratios of all RICs were below one at all time points.
In-vitro tumour cell affinities of all RICs were promising. However, in-vivo biokinetics tested in the mouse model did not meet expectations. This highlights the importance of developing and testing further new anti-CD30 conjugates.
MCF-7 human breast cancer cells are widely utilized to study apoptotic processes. Recent studies demonstrated that these cells lack procaspase-3. In the present study, caspase activation and activity ...were examined in this cell line after treatment with the microtubule poison paclitaxel. When cells were harvested 72 h after the start of a 24-h treatment with 100 nmpaclitaxel, 37 ± 5% of the cells were nonadherent and displayed apoptotic morphological changes. Although mitochondrial cytochromec release and caspase-9 cleavage were detectable by immunoblotting, assays of cytosol and nuclei prepared from the apoptotic cells failed to demonstrate the presence of activity that cleaved the synthetic caspase substrates LEHD-7-amino-4-trifluoromethylcoumarin (LEHD-AFC), DEVD-AFC, and VEID-AFC. Likewise, the paclitaxel-treated MCF-7 cells failed to cleave a variety of caspase substrates, including lamin A, β-catenin, gelsolin, protein kinase Cδ, topoisomerase I, and procaspases-6, -8, and -10. Transfection of MCF-7 cells with wild type procaspase-3 partially restored cleavage of these polypeptides but did not result in detectable activities that could cleave the synthetic caspase substrates. Immunoblotting revealed that caspase-9, and -3, which were proteolytically cleaved in paclitaxel-treated MCF-7/caspase-3 cells, were sequestered in a salt-resistant sedimentable fraction rather than released to the cytosol. Immunofluorescence indicated large cytoplasmic aggregates containing cleaved caspase-3 in these apoptotic cells. These observations suggest that sequestration of caspases can occur in some model systems, causing tetrapeptide-based activity assays to underestimate the amount of caspase activation that has occurredin situ.
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