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People in a rural white working-class music scene in the southeastern United States frequently labeled themselves and others as certain kinds of people, in categories like age, gender, class, race, kinship, and more. This socially generative practice—the explicit recognition of categorical group difference and sameness—was a frequent point of friction with white middle-class musicians from a nearby city who rejected being "fenced in" by such labels. With few exceptions, these musicians found the imposition of categories of commonality or difference between people to be generally uncomfortable and problematic in social interaction, preferring to emphasize the unique and agentive aspects of their lives. This conflict reveals an area of underappreciated and persistent class conflict—"ideologies of categorization"—here constituting a politically meaningful internal division in whiteness. I explain this conflict and examine its profound implications for academic theory and for a class-aware leftist identity politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conference was a mash-up of anthropology and African and African American studies, and I began to see that my approach to anthropology was "a thing." At the turn of the twentieth century, James H. N. Waring was the chair of the Colored Law and Order League and the Principal of the Colored High and Training School in Baltimore. I think I asked every anthropologist at Portland State whether they knew Zora Neale Hurston was an anthropologist and whether they thought the Harlem Renaissance scholars influenced Franz Boas up the street in Morningside Heights. For this audience, I wanted to demonstrate that anthropology has been an important force in American history, and African American anthropologists have been an important force in that anthropology. [Extracted from the article]

'Replicative stress' is one of the main factors underlying neoplasia from its early stages. Genes involved in DNA synthesis may therefore represent an underexplored source of potential prognostic markers for cancer. To this aim, we generated gene expression profiles from two independent cohorts (France, n = 206; United Kingdom, n = 117) of patients with previously untreated primary breast cancers. We report here that among the 13 human nuclear DNA polymerase genes, DNA Polymerase [theta] (POLQ) is the only one significantly up-regulated in breast cancer compared with normal breast tissues. Importantly, POLQ up-regulation significantly correlates with poor clinical outcome (4.3-fold increased risk of death in patients with high POLQ expression), and this correlation is independent of Cyclin E expression or the number of positive nodes, which are currently considered as markers for poor outcome. POLQ expression provides thus an additional indicator for the survival outcome of patients with high Cyclin E tumor expression or high number of positive lymph nodes. Furthermore, to decipher the molecular consequences of POLQ up-regulation in breast cancer, we generated human MRC5-SV cell lines that stably overexpress POLQ. Strong POLQ expression was directly associated with defective DNA replication fork progression and chromosomal damage. Therefore, POLQ overexpression may be a promising genetic instability and prognostic marker for breast cancer. specialized DNA replication | prognosis marker | S-phase checkpoint doi/ 10.1073/pnas.0910759107

The role of race in the history of U.S. anthropology is discussed, with a focus on the career of Daniel G. Brinton. Topics include Brinton's career as an anthropologist, membership in the American Philosophical Association, establishment of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Brinton's role as a public intellectual at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, his views on racial hierarchies, views of Franz Boas, and Brinton's 1895 presidential address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

This article describes a scalable, configurable and cluster-based hierarchical hardware accelerator through custom hardware architecture for Sparsey, a cortical learning algorithm. Sparsey is inspired by the operation of the human cortex and uses a Sparse Distributed Representation to enable unsupervised learning and inference in the same algorithm. A distributed on-chip memory organization is designed and implemented in custom hardware to improve memory bandwidth and accelerate the memory read/write operations for synaptic weight matrices. Bit-level data are processed from distributed on-chip memory and custom multiply-accumulate hardware is implemented for binary and fixed-point multiply-accumulation operations. The fixed-point arithmetic and fixed-point storage are also adapted in this implementation. At 16 nm, the custom hardware of Sparsey achieved an overall 24.39x speedup, 353.12x energy efficiency per frame, and 1.43x reduction in silicon area against a state-of-the-art GPU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Reagan administration, commitments to affirmative action programs have waned precipitously, inner cities have been decimated, high-paying manufacturing jobs have been replaced by high-tech service sector jobs, and a burgeoning Black middle class has developed; yet racial inequality persists. Although great strides have been made, people of color still confront racism in various arenas. One of the most difficult areas in which to identify subtle but pernicious forms of racism is professional office settings. This article explores how power relations are signified by subtle cultural rules. Specifically, it demonstrates how the cultural rules used by co-workers to address each other emerge as a way of articulating interethnic power relations in office settings. The research concludes that even the best efforts is to diversify the workforce of an organization often perpetuate racial inequality because members of various ethnic groups are still underrepresented in the top management positions. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Abstract Background Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in intron 2 of the Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor Type 2 (FGFR2) gene, including rs2981582, contribute to multifactorial breast cancer susceptibility. The high risk polymorphism haplotype in the FGFR2 gene has been associated with increased mRNA transcription and altered transcription factor binding but the effect on FGFR2 protein expression is unknown. 40 breast tumours were identified from individuals with known rs2981582 genotype. Tumour sections were stained for FGFR2 protein expression, and scored for nuclear and cytoplasmic staining in tumour and surrounding normal tissue. Findings FGFR2 immunohistochemistry demonstrated variable nuclear staining in normal tissue and tumour tissue, as well as consistent cytoplasmic staining. We did not find an association between nuclear staining for FGFR2 and genotype, and there was no association between FGFR2 staining and estrogen or progestogen receptor status. There was an association between presence of nuclear staining for FGFR2 in normal tissue and presence of nuclear staining in the adjacent tumour (Fishers exact test, p = 0.002). Conclusions Variable nuclear staining for FGFR2 in breast cancer, but an absence of correlation with rs2981582 genotype suggests that the mechanism of action of polymorphisms at the FGFR2 locus may be more complex than a direct effect on mRNA expression levels in the final cancer. The effect may relate to FGFR2 function or localisation during breast development or tumourigenesis. Nuclear localisation of FGFR2 suggests an important additional role for this protein in breast development and breast cancer, in addition to its function as a classical cell surface receptor.

Abstract Background AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) acts as a cellular fuel gauge that responds to energy stress by suppressing cell growth and biosynthetic processes, thus ensuring that energy-consuming processes proceed only if there are sufficient metabolic resources. Malfunction of the AMPK pathway may allow cancer cells to undergo uncontrolled proliferation irrespective of their molecular energy levels. The aim of this study was to examine the state of AMPK phosphorylation histologically in primary breast cancer in relation to clinical and pathological parameters. Methods Immunohistochemistry was performed using antibodies to phospho-AMPK (pAMPK), phospho-Acetyl Co-A Carboxylase (pACC) an established target for AMPK, HER2, ERα, and Ki67 on Tissue Micro-Array (TMA) slides of two cohorts of 117 and 237 primary breast cancers. The quick score method was used for scoring and patterns of protein expression were compared with clinical and pathological data, including a minimum 5 years follow up. Results Reduced signal, compared with the strong expression in normal breast epithelium, using a pAMPK antibody was demonstrated in 101/113 (89.4%) and 217/236 (91.9%) of two cohorts of patients. pACC was significantly associated with pAMPK expression (p = 0.007 & p = 0.014 respectively). For both cohorts, reduced pAMPK signal was significantly associated with higher histological grade (p = 0.010 & p = 0.021 respectively) and axillary node metastasis (p = 0.061 & p = 0.039 respectively). No significant association was found between pAMPK and any of HER2, ERα, or Ki67 expression, disease-free survival or overall survival. Conclusion This study extends in vitro evidence through immunohistochemistry to confirm that AMPK is dysfunctional in primary breast cancer. Reduced signalling via the AMPK pathway, and the inverse relationship with histological grade and axillary node metastasis, suggests that AMPK re-activation could have therapeutic potential in breast cancer.

This paper proposes Entity‐Netted Notionals (ENNs) as a metric of interest rate risk transfer in the interest rate swap (IRS) market. Unlike the ubiquitous metric of notional amount, ENNs normalize for risk and account for the netting of longs and shorts within counterparty relationships. Using regulatory data for U.S.‐reporting entities, the size of the market measured by notional amount is $231 trillion, but, measured by ENNs, is only $13.9 trillion 5‐year swap equivalents, which is the same order of magnitude as other large U.S. fixed income markets. This paper also quantifies the size and direction of IRS positions across and within various business sectors. Among the empirical findings are that 92% of entities using IRS are exclusively long or exclusively short. Hence, the vast majority of market participants are prototypical end users, and the extensive amount of netting in the market is attributable to the activity of relatively few, larger entities. Finally, some sector‐specific empirical findings are inconsistent with widespread, prior beliefs. For example, pension funds and insurance companies are typically thought to be long IRS to hedge their long‐term liabilities, and these sectors are indeed net long, but approximately 50% of individual entities in these sectors are actually net short. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Introduction A functional polymorphism within MDM2, SNP309 T>G, has been linked to early onset cancer. This study examined clinical associations of breast cancer with SNP309 in a Scottish Caucasian population and investigated additional MDM2 intron 1 polymorphisms. Methods Intron 1 of MDM2 was PCR amplified and directly sequenced from 299 breast cancer patients and 275 cancer free controls and compared with clinical and pathological parameters. Results SNP309 was observed, for the control and breast cancer cohorts respectively, at frequencies of: T/T = 44.7% and 39.5%; G/T = 42.2% and 47.2%; G/G = 13.1% and 13.4%, indicating that SNP309 is not a predisposing factor for breast cancer. The 309G/G genotype was associated with high grade tumours (OR = 1.64, 95%CI = 1.06–2.53, p = 0.025) and greater nodal involvement (OR = 2.51, 95%CI = 1.26–4.98, p = 0.009). SNP309 was not associated with an earlier age of cancer diagnosis. No association was observed between genotype and age of breast cancer diagnosis when patients were stratified by menopausal status and estrogen receptor status. Three additional low frequency SNPs were identified: 344T>A, 285G>C and 443G>T, the latter two novel. SNP285 was in complete linkage disequilibrium with SNP309 (D' = 1.0) with the minor alleles being in phase with each other. Moreover, the 285C/C, 309G/G double homozygous genotype was only observed in the breast cancer cohort. Conclusion SNP309G/G is associated with poor prognostic breast cancer features in the Scottish population. Additionally, a novel SNP, SNP285, that is in linkage disequilibrium with SNP309, may also have a role in breast tumorigenesis.

PURPOSE Cancer clinical trials offices (CTOs) support the investigation of cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment at cancer centers across North America. CTOs are a centralized resource for clinical trial conduct and typically use research staff with expertise in four functional areas of clinical research: finance, regulatory, clinical, and data operations. To our knowledge, there are no publicly available benchmark data sets that characterize the size, cost, volume, and efficiency of these offices, nor whether the metrics differ by National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation. The Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) steering committee developed a survey to address this knowledge gap. METHODS An 11-question survey that addressed CTO budget, accrual and trial volume, full-time equivalents (FTEs), staff turnover, and activation timelines was developed by the AACI CRI steering committee and sent to 92 academic cancer research centers in North America (n = 90 in the United States; n = 2 in Canada), with 79 respondents completing the survey (86% completion rate). RESULTS The number of FTE employees working in the CTOs ranged from 4.5 to 811 (median, 104). The median number of analytic cases (ie, newly diagnosed or received first course of treatment) reported by the main center was 3,856. Annual CTO budgets ranged from $250,000 to $23,900,000 (median, $8.2 million). The median trial activation time, based on 61 centers, was 167 days. The median number of accruals per center was 480 (range, 5-6,271) and median number of trials per center was 282 (range, 31-1,833). Budget and FTE ranges varied by NCI designation. CONCLUSION The response rate to the survey was high. These data will allow cancer centers to evaluate their CTO infrastructure, funding, portfolio, and/or accrual goals as compared with peers. A wide range in each of the outcomes was noted, in keeping with the wide variation in size and scope of cancer center CTOs across the United States and Canada. These variations may warrant additional investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous current initiatives underscore planning's role in improving the nation's health by combating environments that could potentially build in problems, Lee Baker reports. Planners have been challenged to follow in [...]

Plans to even out growth in the English regions by more closely aligning spatial and economic strategies have been cautiously welcomed by business and the green lobby, notes Lee Baker. [...]