Public, Private and University Collaboration: Applying a Retrospective Study of the Central Massachusetts Bio-Medical Cluster, Cluster Project Summary for Mosakowski Institute

Three Clark faculty members are studying the development of the Worcester Biotechnology Cluster for any lessons it might hold for current efforts to catalyze the growth of a sustainable energy/green jobs cluster in Worcester or elsewhere. Mary Ellen Boyle (GSOM), Jennie Stephens (IDCE/ESP), and Jing Zhang (GSOM) have conducted extensive in-depth interviews and combed the literature of cluster development to produce several articles and working papers.

Prevalence of anaemia in inflammatory bowel disease in Switzerland: A cross-sectional study in patients from private practices and university hospitals

BACKGROUND: Anaemia represents a common complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Most studies on anaemia in IBD patients have been performed in tertiary referral centres (RC) and data from gastroenterologic practices (GP) are lacking. We investigated the frequency and severity of anaemia in IBD patients from tertiary referral centres and gastroenterologic practices compared to the general population. METHODS: Data were acquired from patients included in the Swiss IBD Cohort Study. IBD activity was evaluated by CDAI and modified Truelove and Witts severity index (MTWSI). Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin ≤120g/L in women and ≤130g/L in men. RESULTS: 125 patients from RC (66 with Crohn's disease (CD) and 59 with ulcerative colitis (UC)) and 116 patients from GP (71 CD and 45 UC) were included and compared to 6074 blood donors. Anaemia was found in 21.2% (51/241) of the IBD patients and more frequently in patients from RC as compared to GP and healthy controls (28.8% vs. 12.9% vs. 3.4%; P<0.01). IBD patients from RC suffered more frequently from active disease compared to IBD patients in GP (36% vs. 23%, P=0.032). Supplementation therapy (iron, vitamin B12, folic acid) was performed in 40% of anaemic IBD patients in GP as compared to 43% in RC. CONCLUSIONS: Anaemia is a common complication in patients with IBD and significantly more prevalent in patients from referral centres as compared to patients from gastroenterologic practices. Physicians treating IBD patients should pay attention to the presence of anaemia and ensure sufficient supplementation therapy.

Spatial-temporal clustering of companion animal enteric syndrome: detection and investigation through the use of electronic medical records from participating private practices

SUMMARY There is interest in the potential of companion animal surveillance to provide data to improve pet health and to provide early warning of environmental hazards to people. We implemented a companion animal surveillance system in Calgary, Alberta and the surrounding communities. Informatics technologies automatically extracted electronic medical records from participating veterinary practices and identified cases of enteric syndrome in the warehoused records. The data were analysed using time-series analyses and a retrospective space-time permutation scan statistic. We identified a seasonal pattern of reports of occurrences of enteric syndromes in companion animals and four statistically significant clusters of enteric syndrome cases. The cases within each cluster were examined and information about the animals involved (species, age, sex), their vaccination history, possible exposure or risk behaviour history, information about disease severity, and the aetiological diagnosis was collected. We then assessed whether the cases within the cluster were unusual and if they represented an animal or public health threat. There was often insufficient information recorded in the medical record to characterize the clusters by aetiology or exposures. Space-time analysis of companion animal enteric syndrome cases found evidence of clustering. Collection of more epidemiologically relevant data would enhance the utility of practice-based companion animal surveillance.

Richard Seaford. Cosmology and the Polis. The social Construction of Space and Time in the Tragedies of Aeschylus, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012, xiii + 366 pp.

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

Richard Seaford. Cosmology and the Polis. The social Construction of Space and Time in the Tragedies of Aeschylus, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012, xiii + 366 pp.

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

Mathematics, compiled from the best authors, and intended to be the text-book of the course of private lectures on these sciences in the university at Cambridge.

Part of: Theodore P. Hill collection of early American mathematics books.

Product cipher negotiation with on-line evaluation for private communication over computer networks

A method is proposed to offer privacy in computer communications, using symmetric product block ciphers. The security protocol involved a cipher negotiation stage, in which two communicating parties select privately a cipher from a public cipher space. The cipher negotiation process includes an on-line cipher evaluation stage, in which the cryptographic strength of the proposed cipher is estimated. The cryptographic strength of the ciphers is measured by confusion and diffusion. A method is proposed to describe quantitatively these two properties. For the calculation of confusion and diffusion a number of parameters are defined, such as the confusion and diffusion matrices and the marginal diffusion. These parameters involve computationally intensive calculations that are performed off-line, before any communication takes place. Once they are calculated, they are used to obtain estimation equations, which are used for on-line, fast evaluation of the confusion and diffusion of the negotiated cipher. A technique proposed in this thesis describes how to calculate the parameters and how to use the results for fast estimation of confusion and diffusion for any cipher instance within the defined cipher space.