Under the auspices of the College of American Pathologists, the current state of knowledge regarding pathologic prognostic factors (factors linked to outcome) and predictive factors (factors ...predicting response to therapy) in colorectal carcinoma was evaluated. A multidisciplinary group of clinical (including the disciplines of medical oncology, surgical oncology, and radiation oncology), pathologic, and statistical experts in colorectal cancer reviewed all relevant medical literature and stratified the reported prognostic factors into categories that reflected the strength of the published evidence demonstrating their prognostic value. Accordingly, the following categories of prognostic factors were defined. Category I includes factors definitively proven to be of prognostic import based on evidence from multiple statistically robust published trials and generally used in patient management. Category IIA includes factors extensively studied biologically and/or clinically and repeatedly shown to have prognostic value for outcome and/or predictive value for therapy that is of sufficient import to be included in the pathology report but that remains to be validated in statistically robust studies. Category IIB includes factors shown to be promising in multiple studies but lacking sufficient data for inclusion in category I or IIA. Category III includes factors not yet sufficiently studied to determine their prognostic value. Category IV includes factors well studied and shown to have no prognostic significance.
The medical literature was critically reviewed, and the analysis revealed specific points of variability in approach that prevented direct comparisons among published studies and compromised the quality of the collective data. Categories of variability recognized included the following: (1) methods of analysis, (2) interpretation of findings, (3) reporting of data, and (4) statistical evaluation. Additional points of variability within these categories were defined from the collective experience of the group. Reasons for the assignment of an individual prognostic factor to category I, II, III, or IV (categories defined by the level of scientific validation) were outlined with reference to the specific types of variability associated with the supportive data. For each factor and category of variability related to that factor, detailed recommendations for improvement were made. The recommendations were based on the following aims: (1) to increase the uniformity and completeness of pathologic evaluation of tumor specimens, (2) to enhance the quality of the data needed for definitive evaluation of the prognostic value of individual prognostic factors, and (3) ultimately, to improve patient care.
Factors that were determined to merit inclusion in category I were as follows: the local extent of tumor assessed pathologically (the pT category of the TNM staging system of the American Joint Committee on Cancer and the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer AJCC/UICC); regional lymph node metastasis (the pN category of the TNM staging system); blood or lymphatic vessel invasion; residual tumor following surgery with curative intent (the R classification of the AJCC/UICC staging system), especially as it relates to positive surgical margins; and preoperative elevation of carcinoembryonic antigen elevation (a factor established by laboratory medicine methods rather than anatomic pathology). Factors in category IIA included the following: tumor grade, radial margin status (for resection specimens with nonperitonealized surfaces), and residual tumor in the resection specimen following neoadjuvant therapy (the ypTNM category of the TNM staging system of the AJCC/UICC). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)
The super Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment (sPHENIX) at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider will perform high-precision measurements of jets and heavy flavor observables for a ...wide selection of nuclear collision systems, elucidating the microscopic nature of strongly interacting matter ranging from nucleons to the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma. A prototype of the sPHENIX calorimeter system was tested at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility as experiment T-1044 in the spring of 2016. The electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) prototype is composed of scintillating fibers embedded in a mixture of tungsten powder and epoxy. The hadronic calorimeter (HCal) prototype is composed of tilted steel plates alternating with the plastic scintillator. Results of the test beam reveal the energy resolution for electrons in the EMCal is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">2.8\%\oplus 15.5\%/\sqrt {E} </tex-math></inline-formula> and the energy resolution for hadrons in the combined EMCal plus HCal system is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">13.5\%\oplus 64.9\%/\sqrt {E} </tex-math></inline-formula>. These results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed calorimeter system satisfies the sPHENIX specifications.
High statistics data sets from experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with small and large collision species have enabled a wealth of new flow ...measurements, including the event-by-event correlation between observables. One exciting such observable $ρ(v^2_n, p_T)$ gauges the correlation between the mean transverse momentum of particles in an event and the various flow coefficients (vn) in the same event P. Bozek, Phys. Rev. C 93, 044908 (2016). Recently it has been proposed that very low multiplicity events may be sensitive to initial-state glasma correlations G. Giacalone, B. Schenke, and C. Shen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 192301 (2020) rather than flow-related dynamics. We find utilizing the ip-jazma framework that the color domain explanation for the glasma results are incomplete. We then explore predictions from pythia8, and the version for including nuclear collisions called pythia-angantyr, which have only nonflow correlations, and from the ampt model which has both nonflow and flow-type correlations. We find that pythia-angantyr has nonflow contributions to $ρ(v^2_n, p_T)$ in p + O, p + Pb, and O + O collisions that are positive at low multiplicity and comparable to the glasma correlations. It is striking that in pythia8 in p + p collisions there is actually a sign change from positive to negative $ρ(v^2_n, p_T)$ as a function of multiplicity. The ampt results match the experimental data general trends in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC, except at low multiplicity where ampt has the opposite sign. In p + Pb collisions, ampt has the opposite sign from experimental data and we explore this within the context of parton geometry. Predictions for p + O, O + O, and Xe + Xe are also presented.
When the effects of heat stress are detrimental during maturation, cumulus cells are intimately associated with the oocyte. To determine the extent to which heat stress affects these cells, in this ...study, transcriptome profiles of the cumulus that surrounded control and heat-stressed oocytes (41 °C during the first 12 h only and then shifted back to 38.5 °C) during in vitro maturation (IVM) were compared using Affymetrix bovine microarrays. The comparison of cumulus-derived profiles revealed a number of transcripts whose levels were increased (n=11) or decreased (n=13) ≥ twofold after heat stress exposure (P<0.01), sufficient to reduce the development of blastocysts by 46.4%. In a separate study, quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to confirm heat-induced differences in the relative abundances of the transcripts of five different genes (caveolin 1, matrix metallopeptidase 9, FSH receptor, Indian hedgehog homolog, and inducible nitric oxide synthase). Heat stress exposure resulted in >1.7-fold decrease in the protein levels of latent matrix metallopeptidase 9 (proMMP9). Heat-induced reductions in transcript levels were noted at 6 h IVM with reductions in proMMP9 protein levels at 18 h IVM (P=0.0002). Independent of temperature, proMMP9 levels at 24 h IVM were positively correlated with the development rate of blastocysts (R²=0.36; P=0.002). The production of progesterone increased during maturation; heat-induced increases were evident by 12 h IVM (P=0.002). Both MMP9 and progesterone are associated with the developmental competence of the oocyte; thus, it seems plausible for some of the negative consequences of heat stress on the cumulus-oocyte complex to be mediated through heat-induced perturbations occurring in the surrounding cumulus.
The field of heavy ion physics is at a crossroads in understanding experimental signatures of collectivity in small collision systems, p + p and p(d,3 He)+A, at RHIC and the LHC. A wealth of data ...obtained in the latter class of asymmetric systems indicate the existence of particle emission patterns similar to those observed in larger A+A collisions J. L. Nagle, W. A. Zajc, Small System Collectivity in Relativistic Hadron and Nuclear Collisions, arXiv:1801.03477. This raises the question whether the same physics is responsible for these signatures in both small and large collision systems. In this talk, we present an extension of earlier studies using the quasiparticle transport model ampt to predict particle emission patterns in the smallest of collision systems, namely p + p and e+e−. The e+e− results have been previously published J. L. Nagle, R. Belmont, K. Hill, J. Orjuela Koop, D. V. Perepelitsa, P. Yin, Z.-W. Lin, D. McGlinchey, Minimal conditions for collectivity in e+e− and p+p collisions, Phys. Rev. C97 (2) (2018) 024909. arXiv:1707.02307, doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.97.024909 and we thus focus here on an extended set of calculations, as shown at the Quark Matter 2018 Conference.
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