BACKGROUND Historically, African American (AA) patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have had inferior survival compared with Caucasian patients. Recent studies suggest that the survival disparity between races may be worsening since the advent of targeted therapies for RCC. In this study, survival rates among AA and Caucasian patients with advanced RCC are examined over time to determine wh...

African Americans (AA) have a higher incidence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) risk factors. Few studies have examined the racial differences in the prevalence and etiology of PH and direct comparison of invasive hemodynamics between AAs and Caucasians has rarely been reported. In this study, we examined whether racial differences exist in patients referred for right heart catheterization (RHC) ...

CONTEXT Little is known about genetic susceptibility to cigarette smoke in relation to adverse pregnancy outcomes. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the association between maternal cigarette smoking and infant birth weight differs by polymorphisms of 2 maternal metabolic genes: CYP1A1 and GSTT1. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Case-control study conducted in 1998-2000 among 741 mothers (1...

Elements and techniques of state-of-the-art automatically veriied constrained global optimization algorithms are reviewed, including a description of ways of rigorously verifying feasibility for equality constraints and a careful consideration of the role of active inequality constraints. Previously developed algorithms and general work on the subject are also listed. Limitations of present kno...

Although articular cartilage has extraordinary mechanical properties, able to maintain almost frictionless motion over a lifetime, it is vulnerable to traumatic injury and subsequent degeneration. Poor vascularity and inability to access undifferentiated cell populations that would facilitate a response to injury, are responsible for articular cartilage’s limited ability to self-repair. The cre...

A novel algorithmic method for weaving design is presented, inspired by the recently discovered AA Fractals. The method is capable of producing a weaving pattern from any binary sequence or pair of sequences. All generated patterns can be woven in the simplest (4-shaft) dobby looms. An algorithm for generating input binary sequences is also presented, and the sequences produced by this algorith...

Regeneration was studied in the Ambystoma annulatum by the amputation of the right forearm of twenty-four adults, over a twelve month period. Atthe termination of the experiment the limbs were reamputated 1-2 mm proximal to the original amputation site. The regenerated portions were staged, examined at the gross morphological level, and prepared for histological examination. Gross examination r...

This paper questions the extent to which current critical engagements with postcolonial realities may exhibit an exoticising tendency they simultaneously decry as colonialism’s orientalist reflex. Contemporary instances of the exoticization of the “other”, however, are not necessarily the result of a practice of cultural translation that becomes ‘the superimposition of a dominant way of seeing,...