Risk Prediction for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer in 11 United States-Based Case-Control Studies: Incorporation of Epidemiologic Risk Factors and 17 Confirmed Genetic Loci.

Previously developed models for predicting absolute risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer have included a limited number of risk factors and have had low discriminatory power (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) < 0.60). Because of this, we developed and internally validated a relative risk prediction model that incorporates 17 established epidemiologic risk factors and 17 genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using data from 11 case-control studies in the United States (5,793 cases; 9,512 controls) from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (data accrued from 1992 to 2010). We developed a hierarchical logistic regression model for predicting case-control status that included imputation of missing data. We randomly divided the data into an 80% training sample and used the remaining 20% for model evaluation. The AUC for the full model was 0.664. A reduced model without SNPs performed similarly (AUC = 0.649). Both models performed better than a baseline model that included age and study site only (AUC = 0.563). The best predictive power was obtained in the full model among women younger than 50 years of age (AUC = 0.714); however, the addition of SNPs increased the AUC the most for women older than 50 years of age (AUC = 0.638 vs. 0.616). Adapting this improved model to estimate absolute risk and evaluating it in prospective data sets is warranted.

Fossil associations from the middle and upper Eocene strata of the Pamplona Basin and surrounding areas (Navarre, western Pyrenees)

Fossil associations from the middle and upper Eocene (Bartonian and Priabonian) sedimentary succession of the Pamplona Basin are described. This succession was accumulated in the western part of the South Pyrenean peripheral foreland basin and extends from deep-marine turbiditic (Ezkaba Sandstone Formation) to deltaic (Pamplona Marl, Ardanatz Sandstone and Ilundain Marl formations) and marginal marine deposits (Gendulain Formation). The micropalaeontological content is high. It is dominated by foraminifera, and common ostracods and other microfossils are also present. The fossil ichnoasssemblages include at least 23 ichnogenera and 28 ichnospecies indicative of Nereites, Cruziana, Glossifungites and ?Scoyenia-Mermia ichnofacies. Body macrofossils of 78 taxa corresponding to macroforaminifera, sponges, corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, annelids, molluscs, arthropods, echinoderms and vertebrates have been identified. Both the number of ichnotaxa and of species (e. g. bryozoans, molluscs and condrichthyans) may be considerably higher. Body fossil assemblages are comparable to those from the Eocene of the Nord Pyrenean area (Basque Coast), and also to those from the Eocene of the west-central and eastern part of South Pyrenean area (Aragon and Catalonia). At the European scale, the molluscs assemblages seem endemic from the Pyrenean area, although several Tethyan (Italy and Alps) and Northern elements (Paris basin and Normandy) have been recorded. Palaeontological data of studied sedimentary units fit well with the shallowing process that throughout the middle and late Eocene occurs in the area, according to the sedimentological and stratigraphical data.

Haematological and biochemical blood study in baby alpaca with diarrhoea

The aim of this study was to determine the haematological value and biochemical blood in baby alpacas with enteric disorder. A total of 30 blood and serum samples were collected from alpacas of 1 month old with diarrhoea and 5 blood samples of clinically healthy baby alpacas (controls). The animals were from communities in the central Andes from Peru. About haematology were determined haematocrit, haemoglobin concentration, red blood count and white blood count that were not significantly different between control animals and animals with diarrhoea. Moreover, biochemical blood parameters as total protein, albumin and calcium decrease significantly (p<0.05). We conclude that our results could be considered as factors in the mortality of baby alpaca by infectious diarrhoea.

Deconstrucción de los relatos evangélicos de la pasión. Sobre el arraigo de la ficción en la Historia de las religiones

Las más elementales exigencias de rigor crítico e independencia siguen a menudo sin cumplirse hoy en día en la reconstrucción histórica de la figura del judío Yeshua ben Yosef (Jesús el galileo), en parte porque el carácter inconsistente de las fuentes evangélicas no es tomado en serio. El presente artículo analiza las incongruencias de los relatos de la pasión, muestra en ellos los indicios de un proceso de despolitización, y señala el carácter insostenible de varias afirmaciones clave de muchos historiadores contemporáneos sobre el predicador galileo.

Telenovela’s orality: from medium to a linguistic-discursive construction

Telenovela’s orality: from medium to a linguistic-discursive construction. Studies about telenovelas usually highlight their "orality". However, a literature review, specifically for Latin American telenovelas, shows that the term "orality" has been used with varying senses. In contrast with those devoted to telenovelas, literary studies have addressed the question by conceptualizing it as fictional orality. This paper takes fictional orality as a key concept to explain telenovela’s discursive peculiarities, and on that base, it distinguishes several dimensions of linguistic and discursive variation, in which such orality is being portrayed.

Genregulation in der Drosophila Spermatogenese am Beispiel der Mst(3)CGP-Genfamilie

In dieser Dissertation wird die Rolle des zentralen Kontrollelementes TCE auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen der Genexpression untersucht. Das TCE verhindert die Translation prämeiotisch gebildeter mRNAs in der Spermatogenese von Drosophila bis zu einem späten postmeiotischen Stadium. Gleichzeitig provoziert es Transkriptionsaktivität. Das TCE wurde zunächst in einer kleinen Genfamilie identifiziert und am Beispiel des Gens Mst87F detaillierter untersucht. In EMSA-Experimenten wurde die Komplexbildung mit regulatorischen Proteinen aus Proteinextrakten des Hodengewebes am TCE der Mst87F mRNA nachgewiesen. Massenspektrometrische Analysen ergaben u.a. die Kandidatenproteine Exuperantia (Exu), dFmr1 und CG3213. Die Komplexbildung an einem zweiten Mitglied der Genfamilie - Mst98Ca -, welches sich in der Genstruktur und dem Proteinaufbau von Mst87F unterscheidet, belegt die Allgemeingültigkeit dieser Interaktion. Beim Einsatz von veränderten TCE-Sequenzen ergibt sich ein abweichendes Erscheinungsbild der Komplexe, was mit dem Verlust der Funktion korreliert. Auch die Komplexbildung mit den rekombinanten Proteinen von exuperantia und dfmr1 erfolgt an beiden RNAs in gleicher Weise. In Kombination wird ein stärkerer Shift erzeugt. In einer Exu-defizienten Mutante beobachtet man drastische Veränderungen in der Lokalisation von einem Mst87F-GFP- bzw. CG3213-GFP-Fusionsprotein. Analysen mittels der qPCR zeigen eine drastische Verringerung der Mst87F mRNA Menge. Beides lässt vermuten, dass das Fehlen von Exu bereits in frühen Stadien zu molekularen Defekten führt. Um die Translationskontrolle zu umgehen, wurden Transgene mit einer IRES (aus dem Gen reaper) an verschiedenen Positionen des 5'UTRs erzeugt. Die erwartete Translationsinitiation durch die IRES blieb aus. Northern- und qPCR-Analysen zeigen eine starke Reduktion des mRNA-Niveaus. Somit kann aufgrund der drastischen Deregulation auf Transkriptionsebene der Effekt auf die Translationskontrolle nicht mehr analysiert werden. Überraschenderweise wurden durch die Verwendung einer anderen IRES (aus der Genkassette CG31311) die Expressionscharakteristika des Ursprungsgens auf Mst87F übertragen. Das Fusionsprotein lässt sich plötzlich in den Ommatidien der Komplexaugen nachweisen. Da aus früheren Arbeiten bereits eine Rolle des TCE auf Transkriptionsebene nachgewiesen ist, wurde die Komplexbildung auf Mst87F-DNA-Fragmente mit TCE ausgedehnt. Analysen unter Verwendung der rekombinanten Proteine Exu und dFmr1 verliefen negativ. Daraufhin sollten massenspektrometrische Experimente neue Kandidaten für regulatorische Proteine auf DNA-Ebene identifizieren. Von vier weiteren Kandidaten zeigen zwei unter RNAi-Einfluß komplette Sterilität und starke Defekte in der Spermienentwicklung.

Beyond Policy - Empowerment as choice or empowerment as voice?

Att 'bilda sig' eller att 'bilda sig'? : Om religionslärarens frirum som medborgarbildare i den nya ämnesplanen för religionskunskap på gymnasiet

 I den här texten lyfter jag fram den nya ämnesplanen i religionskunskap på gymnasiet. Syftet med detta är att sätta denna ämnesplan i relation till religionslärarens medborgarbildande uppgift. Med utgångspunkt i bildningsbegreppet diskuteras denna uppgift som en fråga om att se till religionslärarens frirum. Diskussionen utmynnar i ett resonemang om betydelsen av att läraren inte ensidigt ser till vissa bildningsmål i ämnesundervisningen på bekostnad av andra.

Citizenship formation for a new millennium in Sweden : a prognosis of our time

The aim of this article is to forecast the present situation of citizenship formation in the field of Swedish education. In highlighting trends and tendencies in the educational assignment to provide for democratic citizenship in the first decade of the 21st century, which can be characterised as lacking collective visions for change, three depictions of citizenship are prevailing: citizenship formation for deliberation, for entrepreneurship and for therapeutic intervention. These depictions are analysed in terms of the direction for action taking and attention that they stress and produce as concerns citizenship in the making. The first one, citizenship formation for deliberation, stresses an inward-looking and inward-feeling citizenship. The second one, citizenship formation for entrepreneurship, stresses an inward-looking and outward-making citizenship, and the third one, citizenship formation for therapeutic intervention, stresses an inward-looking and outward-making citizenship. Taking on this forecast, which actualises democracy as something that is already achieved as a consequence of an assumedly post political situation, we argue that citizenship as well as society itself risks being pictured as apolitical and democratically “saturated.” This situation is hazardous, we argue, as it does not open up for change to come into question as desirable or even possible. Put differently, it leaves us with the notion that things have to be as they are, as we are living in the best of worlds. 

Democracy lessons in market-oriented schools : The case of Swedish upper secondary education

Based on recent ethnographic research, this article explores young people’s opportunities of formal and informal democracy learning and expressions of such learning in the highly market-influenced Swedish upper secondary education. With its ambitious democracy-fostering goals and far-reaching marketisation, Swedish education constitutes an interesting case in this respect. The analysis indicates that ‘voting with the feet’ emerges as an important way of exerting student influence. At the same time, young people’s voice is surprisingly neglected in classroom practice. Increased focus on performance and goal attainment tends to overshadow less ‘rewarding’ aspects of the curriculum, such as democracy teaching and learning, both from the side of teachers and students. Students are also increasingly expected to act as school representatives and to avoid giving negative impressions of their school.

Democratic Citizenship - A Conditioned Apprenticeship : A Call for Destabilisation of Democracy in Education

We live in times when the search for a citizenship education that can transcend national, ethnical and cultural borders is an important part of educational policy. In times of increased pressure by the European Union on its nation states to provide for nation-transcending democracy, this question becomes crucial for national policymaking in Europe. In this text, Swedish education policy will be taken as a case in point in order to shed light on how this question is being handled in this particular national policy setting. It is argued that the policy’s citizen fostering agenda tends to be counterproductive in the sense that it is still situated in national notions of the relationship between democracy and education, which tend to exclude certain individuals and groups of people on an age-related and (ethno) cultural basis. It is further argued that these excluding features can be related to educational ideas about socialisation. The aim of this text is underlined by suggesting a different way of framing democracy and democratic citizenship education: to increase the potential of education as regards the renewal of democracy and democratic citizenship.

Opening discourses of citizenship education : a theorization with Foucault

We argue two major difficulties in current discourses of citizenship education. The first is a relative masking of student discourses of citizenship by positioning students as lacking citizenship and as outside the community that acts. The second is in failing to understand the discursive and material support for citizenship activity. We, thus, argue that it is not a lack of citizenship that education research might address, but identification and exploration of the different forms of citizenship that students already engage in. We offer a fragmentary, poststructuralist theorization oriented to explore the contemporary limits of the necessary', drawing on specific resources from the work of Michel Foucault and others for the constitution of local, partial accounts of citizenship discourses and activities, and exploration of their possibilities and constraints. We argue this as a significant tactic of theorization in support of an opening of discourses of citizenship and in avoiding the discursive difficulties that we have identified. Our theorization, then, is significant in its potential to unsettle discourses that confine contemporary thought regarding citizenship education and support exploration of what might be excessive to that confinement.