Citations

Two strains of mice (C-57 B1 and DBA) were given skin allografts from Swiss ICR/HA mice and were treated with varying doses of concanavalin A; the dosage ranged from only two injections of 25 micrograms during the experiment to daily doses of 1000 micrograms intraperitoneally. Immunosuppression was present at all dosages, the most prolonged and consistent effect being observed at 300 micrograms per day. Grafts survived for 14 to 21 days at this dosage compared to 4 to 9 days for controls.

The practice of oncology can be a source of both great satisfaction and great stress. Although many oncologists experience burnout, depression, and dissatisfaction with work, others experience tremendous career satisfaction and achieve a high overall quality of life. Identifying professional goals, optimizing career fit, identifying and managing stressors specific to practice type, and achieving the optimal personal work–life balance can increase the likelihood of individual oncologists' achieving personal and professional satisfaction. In this article, we will explore how oncologists can accomplish these tasks and will examine several pervasive professional myths that often distort perspective. The article concludes in a conversation with four oncologists regarding what they find most meaningful about their work, how they manage career-specific stressors, and how they achieve balance between their personal and professional lives.

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is a consortium that comprises leading informaticians, biologists, clinicians, and ontologists, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap, to develop innovative technology and methods that allow scientists to record, manage, and disseminate biomedical information and knowledge in machine-processable form. The goals of the Center are (1) to help unify the divergent and isolated efforts in ontology development by promoting high quality open-source, standards-based tools to create, manage, and use ontologies, (2) to create new software tools so that scientists can use ontologies to annotate and analyze biomedical data, (3) to provide a national resource for the ongoing evaluation, integration, and evolution of biomedical ontologies and associated tools and theories in the context of driving biomedical projects (DBPs), and (4) to disseminate the tools and resources of the Center and to identify, evaluate, and communicate best practices of ontology development to the biomedical community. Through the research activities within the Center, collaborations with the DBPs, and interactions with the biomedical community, our goal is to help scientists to work more effectively in the e-science paradigm, enhancing experiment design, experiment execution, data analysis, information synthesis, hypothesis generation and testing, and understand human disease. This paper is part of the special issue of OMICS on data standards.

A cDNA library, prepared from poly(A)+ RNA isolated from quiescent AKR-2B cells 4 hr after stimulation with epidermal growth factor in the presence of cycloheximide, was screened to identify RNA transcripts whose abundance is specifically increased as a primary response to growth stimulation. Approximately 40% of the inducible clones detected by this procedure corresponded to either cytoskeletal beta- or gamma-actin genes. One nonactin clone, designated c99, was found to be derived from an 8.5-kilobase RNA whose abundance began to increase as early as 30 min after stimulation. DNA sequencing established the identity of this RNA as fibronectin. Several additional mitogens were then tested and found to efficiently induce fibronectin mRNA. These included fetal calf serum, platelet-derived growth factor, and transforming growth factor type beta. For at least one inducer, fetal calf serum, the increase in mRNA was preceded by an increase in fibronectin gene transcription. This increase was rapid, reaching maximal levels within 10 min, and was accompanied by near-coordinate increases in both c-fos and beta-actin transcription. These results indicate that fibronectin is a member of a class of "early-response" genes, typified by c-fos and including beta-actin, whose rapid expression may be important in mediating cellular responses to peptide growth factors.

OBJECTIVETo review the recent innovations in hearing aid technology.STUDY DESIGNReview of the literature.SETTINGPrivate tertiary referral otology/neurotology practice.RESULTSRecent innovations including digital signal processing (DSP), directional microphone technology, and open mold hearing aid fitting have resulted in improved satisfaction with current hearing aids.CONCLUSIONCurrent hearing aid technology with its innovations better meet needs of individuals who are hard of hearing.SIGNIFICANCEThe image commonly held of hearing aids by the general public is a negative one that can be improved with greater education.

Purpose A randomized three-arm phase II study was undertaken to evaluate the optimum administration schedule of pemetrexed and gemcitabine in chemotherapy-naïve patients with non–small-cell lung cancer. Patients and Methods Patients were randomly assigned to three schedules of pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 plus gemcitabine 1,250 mg/m2, separated by a 90-minute interval, on a 21-day cycle as follows: schedule A, pemetrexed followed by gemcitabine on day 1 and gemcitabine on day 8; schedule B, gemcitabine followed by pemetrexed on day 1 and gemcitabine on day 8; and schedule C, gemcitabine on day 1 and pemetrexed followed by gemcitabine on day 8. Results One hundred fifty-two eligible patients (schedule A, n = 59; schedule B, n = 31, and schedule C, n = 62) received a median of five (schedule A), two (schedule B), and four (schedule C) treatment cycles. Overall, 66% of patients experienced grade 3 or 4 neutropenia. Common grade 3 and 4 nonhematologic toxicities were dyspnea (11%), fatigue (16%), and transaminase elevation (9%). Schedule A seemed less toxic compared with schedule C (grade 3 or 4 events: 86% v 94%, respectively; P = .19; grade 4 events: 39% v 48%, respectively; P = .30). Schedule B was closed at interim analysis for inferior efficacy. Schedule A, with a confirmed response rate of 31% (95% CI, 20% to 45%), met the protocol-defined efficacy criteria, whereas schedule C, with a confirmed response rate of 16.1% (95% CI, 11% to 34%), did not. Median survival time and time to progression were 11.4 and 4.4 months, respectively, with no observable difference between the arms. Conclusion Pemetrexed and gemcitabine administered as outlined for schedule A met the protocol-defined efficacy criteria, was less toxic compared with the other treatment schedules, and should be further evaluated.