There have been two recent trends in living kidney donation: increased acceptance of living donors and increased acceptance of laparoscopic nephrectomy (LN). We surveyed 234 UNOS-listed kidney transplant programs to determine current living donor morbidity and mortality for open nephrectomy, hand-assisted LN, and non-hand-assisted LN. Of the 234 centers, 171 (73%) responded. Between 1/1/1999 an...

We verify a very recent conjecture of Farmer and Rhoades on the asymptotic rate of growth of the derivatives of the Riemann xi function at s = 1/2. We give two separate proofs of this result, with the more general method not restricted to s = 1/2. We briefly describe other approaches to our results, give a heuristic argument, and mention supporting numerical evidence. Introduction Let ξ be the ...

We study the evolution of mutation rates for an asexual population living on a static fitness landscape, consisting of multiple peaks forming an evolutionary staircase. The optimal mutation rate is found by maximizing the diffusion towards higher fitness. Surprisingly the optimal genomic copying fidelity is given by Qopt = e − 1 ln ν (where ν is the genome length), independent of all other para...

UNLABELLED The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of radioactive iodine therapy (RIT) on vocal function during the early follow-up period after total thyroidectomy (TT) using perceptive and objective measurements, questionnaires regarding subjective symptoms, and data on vocal function in a prospectively enrolled and serially followed thyroid cancer cohort. METHODS Of 212 patien...

OBJECTIVE Clinical data are presented on patients with tumor thrombosis (TT) incidentally detected on FDG PET/CT imaging, as well as determining its prevalence and metabolic characteristics. MATERIALS AND METHODS Out of 12,500 consecutive PET/CT examinations of patients with malignancy, the PET/CT images of 15 patients with TT as an incidental finding were retrospectively investigated. A visu...

objective(s): lupus nephritis (ln) is the main cause of mortality and disability in systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) patients. therefore, utilizing a reliable and non-invasive method for serial measurements of renal function seems to be necessary. the aim of this study was to evaluate the role of urinary lipocalin-2 as a biomarker of renal involvement in sle patients.   materials and methods:...

Consider an entire (absolutely convergent in $\mathbb{C}$) Dirichlet series $F$ with the exponents $\lambda_n$, i.e., of form $F(s)=\sum_{n=0}^\infty a_ne^{s\lambda_n}$, and, for all $\sigma\in\mathbb{R}$, put $\mu(\sigma,F)=\max\{|a_n|e^{\sigma\lambda_n}:n\ge0\}$ and $M(\sigma,F)=\sup\{|F(s)|:\operatorname{Re}s=\sigma\}$. Previously, first authors M.M.~Sheremeta proved that if $\omega(\lambda)...

There are similar time intervals between starting testosterone therapy (TT) and development of thrombotic (~4.5 months) or cardiovascular (CVD) events (~3 months) which may, speculatively, reflect a shared pathophysiology. We have described thrombotic events 5 months (median) after starting TT in 38 men and 4 women, including 27 with deep venous thrombosis-pulmonary embolism, 12 with osteonecro...

BACKGROUND Interleukin (IL) 28B single nucleotide polymorphisms can predict sustained virological response (SVR) in hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients following pegylated interferon-alpha (PEG IFN-α) and ribavirin treatment. AIM To design a meta-analysis to determine IL28B genotypes', rs12979860 CC and rs8099917 TT, correlation with SVR in PEG IFN-α/ribavirin-treated HCV patients. METHODS Met...

During extravasation, neutrophils migrate through the perivascular basement membrane (BM), a specialized extracellular matrix rich in laminins. Laminins 8 (LN-8) ( 4 1 1) and 10 (LN-10) ( 5 1 1) are major components of the endothelial BM, but expression, recognition, and use of these laminin isoforms by neutrophils are poorly understood. In the present study, we provide evidence, using a panel ...