Commentary on the famous Buddhist Sutra of the wise and the foolish (Mdzangs blun zhes bya baʼi mdo).

Background and Objectives: Quantitative methods to assess port wine stain skin response to laser therapy are needed to improve therapeutic outcome. In this study, PWS skin erythema was analyzed using erythema index difference images before and after treatment to investigate systematically subject-dependent response to laser therapy. Study Design/Materials and Methods: Cross-polarized digital skin color images were acquired from 17 subjects with facial PWS and the associated ΔEI images were computed. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of PWS skin erythema were performed with (...) ΔEI images, in which ranges of 40-6 and 5-0 represented PWS and normal skin, respectively. Results: After laser therapy, we qualitatively observed α reduction in the ΔEI values for all subjects. Regression fitting of ΔEI values before and after PWS laser therapy was associated with strong positive linear correlation. Conclusions: The imaging modality and analysis method allowed systematic analysis of PWS skin erythema in response to laser therapy. PWS skin response was dependent on pretreatment ΔEI values, suggesting that erythema can be utilized as an effective parameter to monitor PWS response to laser therapy. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. (shrink)

PURPOSE. To investigate the use of high-resolution Fourierdomain optical coherence tomography to image choroidal neovascular membranes associated with exudative age-related macular degeneration. METHODS. An Fd-OCT instrument with axial resolution of 4 to 4.5 μm and transverse resolution of 10 to 15 μm was used to image 21 eyes with newly diagnosed eAMD. A raster series of 100 B-scans separated by 60 μm was used to study the growth pattern of CNVM and associated morphologic changes. CNVM size was determined using 250 (...) to 300 serial virtual C-scans of reconstructed three-dimensional macular volume. RESULTS. A highly reflective subretinal and/or subretinal pigment epithelial lesion that co-localized with the CNVM seen on fluorescein angiography was detected in all eyes by Fd-OCT. Although a combined subretinal and sub-RPE growth pattern of various degrees was noted in 15 eyes, a statistically significant difference in the distribution of growth pattern was noted when classic CNVM was compared with occult CNVM. CONCLUSIONS. Fd-OCT is a promising potential alternative modality to visualize CNVM with AMD. Angiographic lesion size and type correlated with growth pattern and size of CNVM on Fd-OCT, with correlation being stronger for classic lesions. © Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. (shrink)

The complex hexaploid wheat genome offers many challenges for genomics research. Expressed sequence tags facilitate the analysis of gene-coding regions and provide a rich source of molecular markers for mapping and comparison with model organisms. The objectives of this study were to construct a high-density EST chromosome bin map of wheat homoeologous group 2 chromosomes to determine the distribution of ESTs, construct a consensus map of group 2 ESTs, investigate synteny, examine patterns of duplication, and assess the colinearity with rice (...) of ESTs assigned to the group 2 consensus bin map. A total of 2600 loci generated from 1110 ESTs were mapped to group 2 chromosomes by Southern hybridization onto wheat aneuploid chromosome and deletion stocks. A consensus map was constructed of 552 ESTs mapping to more than one group 2 chromosome. Regions of high gene density in distal bins and low gene density in proximal bins were found. Two interstitial gene-rich islands flanked by relatively gene-poor regions on both the short and long arms and having good synteny with rice were discovered. The map locations of two ESTs indicated the possible presence of a small pericentric inversion on chromosome 2B. Wheat chromosome group 2 was shown to share syntenous blocks with rice chromosomes 4 and 7. (shrink)

Background Protecting a person’s right to privacy and confidentiality is important in healthcare services. As future health professionals, nursing students should bear the same responsibility as qualified health professionals in protecting patient privacy. Objectives To investigate nursing students’ practices of patient privacy protection and to identify factors associated with their practices. Research design A cross-sectional study design was adopted. A two-part survey was used to collect two types of data on nursing students: (1) personal characteristics, including demographics, clinical experience and (...) use of information and communication technology and social media and (2) practice of patient privacy protection, collected using the Patient Privacy Scale. Participants and research context: A total of 319 nursing students aged 18 or above, studying pre-registration nursing programmes and who had attended at least one block of clinical placement, were recruited from a university in Hong Kong. Ethical considerations The study received ethical approval from the Survey and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The participants were informed of the study aim and written consent was obtained before completing the survey. Findings: The mean total score on the Patient Privacy Scale was 119.7 out of 135. Nursing students who were regular users of Instagram and those who had never taken photographs with patients and hence did not need to obtain patient consent were associated with better practices of patient privacy protection (higher total scores on the Patient Privacy Scale). Conclusions The findings improve our understanding of nursing students’ practice of patient privacy protection and the associated factors. This will inform the development and revision of current strategies to enhance nursing students’ practice of patient privacy protection, especially their use of social media. (shrink)

Manley and Wasserman criticize the conditional analysis of dispositions, arguing that whilst it invites the ‘strategy of getting specific’, this strategy creates more problems than it solves. I show that their understanding both of the phenomenon of masking and also of the strategy of getting specific is deeply defective, which wreaks havoc with their principal critique of the conditional analysis of dispositions.

The complexity of Supplemental Security Income regulations and procedures allegedly inhibits eligible persons with serious mental illness from obtaining and retaining support. This study examined factors affecting continued SSI support among 393 sheltered care residents with serious mental illness ten years after an initial positive eligibility determination. At follow-up between 1983 and 1985 of 225 cohort members, 182 were receiving SSI benefits, 28 were eligible for SSI due to their low income but were not receiving benefits, and 15 were income-ineligible. (...) The financially needy were most likely to receive SSI support for longer periods of time, and the most severely disturbed spent the least amount of time on SSI. Income-eligible nonrecipients were likely to be young, transient patients using emergency room services as opposed to receiving out-patient counseling. (shrink)

Port-wine stain birthmarks are one class of benign congenital vascular malformation. Laser therapy is the most successful treatment modality of PWS. Unfortunately, this approach has limited efficacy, with only 10% of patients experiencing complete blanching of the PWS. To address this problem, several research groups have developed technologies and methods designed to study treatment outcome and improve treatment efficacy. This article reviews seven optical imaging techniques currently in use or under development to assess treatment efficacy, focusing on: reflectance spectrophotometers/tristimulus colorimeters; (...) laser Doppler flowmetry and laser Doppler imaging; cross-polarized diffuse reflectance colour imaging system; reflectance confocal microscopy; optical coherence tomography; spatial frequency domain imaging; and laser speckle imaging. © 2012 The Authors. BJD © 2012 British Association of Dermatologists 2012. (shrink)

Purpose: To describe maculopathy diagnosed with high-resolution Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography among eyes with previously unexplained visual loss. Methods: Nine eyes from six patients with previously unexplained vision loss based on funduscopy, fluorescein angiography, and Stratus optical coherence tomography and 32 eyes from 25 asymptomatic age-matched control subjects were imaged with a Fourierdomain optical coherence tomography instrument with axial resolution of 4 mm to 4.5 mm and transverse resolution of 10 mm to 15 mm. Results: Among eyes with unexplained vision (...) loss, visual acuity ranged from 20/20 to 20/80 and central scotoma was noted in all eyes by microperimetry or Amsler grid. Fourierdomain optical coherence tomography showed abnormality in the foveal photoreceptor layer in six eyes from four subjects. These abnormalities include focal loss of the PR layer with microcystoid changes in the macula, focal discontinuity of the PR layer, and focal elevation and blurring of the PR layer associated with a mild epiretinal membrane. Among age-matched control eyes, no foveal PR abnormality was seen. Conclusion: Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography detected subtle changes in the foveal PR layer in some eyes with vision loss and central scotoma unexplained with routine clinical diagnostic tests. © by Ophthalmic Communications Society, Inc. (shrink)

Precision targeting of specific white matter bundles that traverse the subcallosal cingulate has been linked to efficacy of deep brain stimulation for treatment resistant depression. Methods to confirm optimal target engagement in this heterogenous region are now critical to establish an objective treatment protocol. As yet unexamined are the time-frequency features of the SCC evoked potential, including spectral power and phase-clustering. We examined these spectral features—evoked power and phase clustering—in a sample of TRD patients with implanted SCC stimulators. Electroencephalogram was (...) recorded during wakeful rest. Location of electrical stimulation in the SCC target region was the experimental manipulation. EEG was analyzed at the surface level with an average reference for a cluster of frontal sensors and at a time window identified by prior study. Morlet wavelets generated indices of evoked power and inter-trial phase clustering. Enhanced phase clustering at theta frequency was observed in every subject and was significantly correlated with SCC-EP magnitude, but only during left SCC stimulation. Stimulation to dorsal SCC evinced stronger phase clustering than ventral SCC. There was a weak correlation between phase clustering and white matter density. An increase in evoked delta power was also coincident with SCC-EP, but was less consistent across participants. DBS evoked time-frequency features index mm-scale changes to the location of stimulation in the SCC target region and correlate with structural characteristics implicated in treatment optimization. Results also imply a shared generative mechanism between evoked potentials evinced by electrical stimulation and evoked potentials evinced by auditory/visual stimuli and behavioral tasks. Understanding how current injection impacts downstream cortical activity is essential to building new technologies that adapt treatment parameters to individual differences in neurophysiology. (shrink)

Background and Objective Current treatments of port-wine stain birthmarks typically involve use of a pulsed dye laser combined with cooling of the skin. Currently, PDL therapy protocols result in varied success, as some patients experience complete blanching, while others do not. Over the past decade, we have studied the use of photodynamic therapy as either a replacement or adjuvant treatment option to photocoagulate both small and large vasculature. The objective of the current study was to evaluate a PDT protocol that (...) involves use of an alternate intravascular photosensitizer mono-L-aspartylchlorin-e6 activated by an array of low-cost light emitting diodes. Study Design/Materials and Methods To monitor the microvasculature, a dorsal window chamber model was installed on 22 adult male mice. The light source consisted of a custom-built LED array that emitted 10 W at a center wavelength of 664 nm. The light source was positioned at a fixed distance from the window chamber to achieve a fixed irradiance of 127 mW/cm 2. A retroorbital injection of NPe6 was performed to deliver the drug into the bloodstream. Laser irradiation was initiated immediately after injection. To monitor blood-flow dynamics in response to PDT, we used laser speckle imaging. We employed a dose-response experimental design to evaluate the efficacy of NPe6-mediated PDT. Results We observed three general hemodynamic responses to PDT: At low radiant exposures, we did not observe any persistent vascular shutdown; at intermediate radiant exposures, we observed an acute decrease in blood flow followed by gradual restoration of blood flow over the 7-day monitoring period; and at high radiant exposures, we observed acute vascular shutdown that persisted during the entire 7-day monitoring period. Dose-response analysis enabled identification of 85 J/cm 2 as a characteristic radiant exposure required to achieve persistent vascular shutdown at Day 7 following PDT. Conclusion The experimental data suggest that NPe6-mediated PDT can achieve persistent vascular shutdown of normal microvasculature. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This paper shows how analytic modeling research in the Marketing field is focused on answering questions of "How?" and "Why?" It describes the disciplines involved in analytic modeling; examines how the key criteria of parsimony and robustness help to define a good model; and discusses other goodness criteria, including appropriate use of analytic techniques, applicability of the model to institutionally rich, real-world problems, non-obvious results, generalizability, and ability to provide insight where other research techniques do not work. The paper defines (...) and discusses key concepts in analytic models of distribution channels, including double marginalization, coordination, incentive alignment and contract design, strategic substitutability and complementarity, externalities, and principal-agent problems. Next, the paper summarizes research presented in the session on analytic models in channels at the Erin Anderson conference; and finally, the paper suggests avenues for future analytic modeling research. (shrink)

Background: African Americans experience significant tobacco-related health disparities despite the fact that over half of African American smokers are light smokers. African Americans have been under-represented in smoking cessation research, and few studies have evaluated treatment for light smokers. This paper describes the study design, measures, and baseline characteristics from Kick It at Swope III, the first treatment study of bupropion for African American light smokers.Methods: Five hundred forty African American light smokers were randomly assigned to receive bupropion or placebo (...) for 7 weeks. All participants received written materials and health education counseling. Participants responded to survey items and provided blood samples for evaluation of phenotype and genotype of CYP2A6 and CYP2B6 enzymes involved in nicotine and bupropion metabolism. Primary outcome was cotinine-verified 7-day point prevalence smoking abstinence at Week 26 follow-up.Results: Of 2,628 individuals screened, 540 were eligible, consented, and randomized to treatment. Participants had a mean age of 46.5 years and 66.1% were women. Participants smoked an average of 8.0 cigarettes per day, had a mean exhaled carbon monoxide of 16.4ppm and a mean serum cotinine of 275.8ng/ml. The mean Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence was 3.2, and 72.2% of participants smoked within 30 minutes of waking. The average number of quit attempts in the past year was 3.7 and 24.2% reported using pharmacotherapy in their most recent quit attempt. Motivation and confidence to quit were high.Conclusion: KIS-III is the first study designed to examine both nicotine and bupropion metabolism, evaluating CYP2A6 and CYP2B6 phenotype and genotype in conjunction with psychosocial factors, in the context of treatment of African American light smokers. Of 1629 smokers screened for study participation, only 18 were ineligible to participate in the study because they refused blood draws, demonstrating the feasibility of recruiting and enrolling African American light smokers into a clinical treatment trial involving biological data collection and genetic analyses. Future evaluation of individual factors associated with treatment outcome will contribute to advancing tailored tobacco use treatment with the goal of enhancing treatment and reducing health disparities for African American light smokers. © 2011 Cox et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. (shrink)

Selected response items and constructed response items are often found in the same test. Conventional psychometric models for these two types of items typically focus on using the scores for correctness of the responses. Recent research suggests, however, that more information may be available from the CR items than just scores for correctness. In this study, we describe an approach in which a statistical topic model along with a diagnostic classification model was applied to a mixed item format formative test (...) of English and Language Arts. The DCM was used to estimate students’ mastery status of reading skills. These mastery statuses were then included in a topic model as covariates to predict students’ use of each of the latent topics in their written answers to a CR item. This approach enabled investigation of the effects of mastery status of reading skills on writing patterns. Results indicated that one of the skills, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, helped detect and explain students’ writing patterns with respect to students’ use of individual topics. (shrink)

Firefighters and police officers have the third highest prevalence of obesity among 41 male occupational groups in the United States. However, few studies have examined the relationship of firefighter working conditions and health behaviors with obesity. This paper presents a theoretical framework describing the relationship between working conditions, health behaviors, and obesity in firefighters. In addition, the paper describes a detailed study plan for exploring the role of occupational and behavioral risk factors in the development of obesity in firefighters enrolled (...) in the Orange County Fire Authority Wellness Fitness Program. The study plan will be described with emphasis on its methodological merits: adopting a participatory action research approach, developing a firefighter-specific work and health questionnaire, conducting both a cross-sectional epidemiological study using the questionnaire and a sub-study to assess the validity of the questionnaire with dietary intake and physical activity measures, and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the body mass index as an obesity measure in comparison to skinfold-based percent body fat. The study plan based on a theoretical framework can be an essential first step for establishing effective intervention programs for obesity among professional and voluntary firefighters. Copyright © 2011 by Safety and Health at Work. (shrink)

Adding small fractions of cholesterol decreases the interfacial viscosity of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine monolayers by an order of magnitude per wt %. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction shows that cholesterol at these small fractions does not mix ideally with DPPC but rather induces nanophase separated structures of an ordered, primarily DPPC phase bordered by a line-active, disordered, mixed DPPC-cholesterol phase. We propose that the free area in the classic Cohen and Turnbull model of viscosity is inversely proportional to the number of molecules in (...) the coherence area, or product of the two coherence lengths. Cholesterol significantly reduces the coherence area of the crystals as well as the interfacial viscosity. Using this free area collapses the surface viscosity data for all surface pressures and cholesterol fractions to a universal logarithmic relation. The extent of molecular coherence appears to be a fundamental factor in determining surface viscosity in ordered monolayers. © 2014 American Chemical Society. (shrink)

Previous studies suggest that optimal port wine stain laser treatment parameters require knowledge of skin characteristics such as blood vessel size, depth, and distribution. Effective and rapid imaging modalities are not widely available. In the present study, photothermal tomography images of an in vivo hamster window model and human PWS skin were obtained and analyzed. Subtherapeutic laser light pulses at 585 and 600 nm were applied to skin surface and image sequences acquired with an infrared camera. A nonnegatively constrained conjugate (...) gradient algorithm was used to reconstruct a PTT image of the initial temperature distribution immediately following pulsed laser irradiation. Vessel dimensions determined from PTT images of hamster window model skin compared well with those measured directly using video microscopy. PTT images of human PWS skin contained vessels with estimated diameters of 200-250 μm over a 250-320 μm depth range. Use of dual wavelength excitation analysis allowed for imaging of shallow vessels. (shrink)

Background and Objectives: Previous in vitro studies demonstrated the potential utility of benzoporphyrin derivative monoacid ring A photodynamic therapy for vascular destruction. Moreover, the effects of PDT were enhanced when this intervention was followed immediately by pulsed dye laser irradiation. We further evaluate vascular effects of PDT alone, PDL alone and PDT/PDL in an in vivo rodent dorsal skinfold model. Study Design/Materials and Methods: A dorsal skin-fold window chamber was installed surgically on female Sprague-Dawley rats. One milligram per kilogram of (...) BPD solution was administered intravenously via a jugular venous catheter. Evaluated interventions were: control, PDT alone, PDL alone at 7 J/cm2, PDL alone at 10 J/cm2, PDT/PDL, and PDT/PDL. To assess changes in microvascular blood flow, laser speckle imaging was performed before, immediately after, and 18 hours post-intervention. Results: Epidermal irradiation was accomplished without blistering, scabbing or ulceration. A reduction in perfusion was achieved in all intervention groups. PDT/PDL at 7 J/ cm2 resulted in the greatest reduction in vascular perfusion. Conclusions: BPD PDT can achieve safe and selective vascular flow reduction. PDT/PDL can enhance diminution of microvascular blood flow. Our results suggest that PDT and PDT/PDL should be evaluated as alternative therapeutic options for treatment of hypervascular skin lesions including port wine stain birthmarks. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. (shrink)

Objectives: To elucidate the visual significance of the foveal pit by measuring foveal architecture and function and to reassess use of the term foveal hypoplasia. Methods: We describe 4 patients who lack a foveal pit. Visual acuities ranged from 20/20 to 20/50. Stratus and Cirrus optical coherence tomographs and multifocal electroretinograms were obtained. High-resolution retinal imaging on 2 of the participants was obtained by using a high-resolution Fourier-domain OCT and an adaptive optics flood-illuminated fundus camera. Results: No participants had a (...) visible foveal pit with conventional OCT. Central widening of the outer nuclear layer and lengthening of cone outer segments were seen with high-resolution Fourier-domain OCT. Adaptive optics imaging showed normal cone diameters in the central 1° to 2°. Central multifocal electroretinogram responses were normal. Conclusions: We show that a foveal pit is not required for foveal cone specialization, anatomically or functionally. This helps to explain the potential for good acuity in the absence of a pit and raises questions about the visual role of the foveal pit. Because the term foveal hypoplasia commonly carries a negative functional implication, it may be more proper to call the anatomic lack of a pit fovea plana. ©2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. (shrink)

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.The superconducting transition temperature in a FeSe monolayer on SrTiO3 is enhanced up to 100 K. High TC is also found in bulk iron chalcogenides with similar electronic structure to that of monolayer FeSe, which suggests that higher TC may be achieved through electron doping, pushing the Fermi surface topology towards leaving only electron pockets. Such an observation, however, has been limited to chalcogenides, and is in contrast to the iron pnictides, for which (...) the maximum TC is achieved with both hole and electron pockets forming considerable FS nesting instability. Here, we report angle-resolved photoemission characterization revealing a monotonic increase of TC from 24 to 41.5 K upon surface doping on optimally doped Ba2As2. The doping changes the overall FS topology towards that of chalcogenides through a rigid downward band shift. Our findings suggest that higher electron doping and concomitant changes in FS topology are favourable conditions for the superconductivity, not only for iron chalcogenides, but also for iron pnictides. (shrink)

Background and Objectives: Objective methods to assess quantitatively port wine stain blanching in response to laser therapy are needed to improve laser therapeutic outcome. Previous studies have attempted to assess objectively PWS color based on point measurement devices. To date, these approaches have typically been limited by a number of factors such as small test area and need for contact. To address these issues, a cross-polarized diffuse reflectance imaging system and color image analysis method has been developed to evaluate quantitatively (...) erythema and melanin content in PWS skin. Study Design/Materials and Methods: A cross-polarized diffuse reflectance system has been constructed to acquire high resolution digital images while minimizing artifacts such as glare, shadowing, and nonuniform illumination effects that can compromise image fidelity. Furthermore, an image analysis algorithm has also been developed to analyze normal and PWS skin in terms of CIEL*a*b* color space parameters. Using the algorithm, images of color space intensity, L*, and saturation, a*, indices have been calculated to extract quantitative metrics of melanin and erythema, respectively. Results: Compared to the cross-polarized diffuse reflectance image, the a* index image enhanced the contrast in regions of high and low erythema and seems to have quasi correlation with the L* index image. In the presented PWS patient example, the relative a* index difference image showed less erythema in PWS skin after laser treatment when compared to pre-treatment values. Conclusions: Our cross-polarized imaging system and color image analysis method is a simple, noncontact technique that can indirectly provide quantitative measurement of erythema and melanin content in PWS skin. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. (shrink)

The turbidity of most biologic tissues hinders the use of lasers for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Hyperosmotic agents such as glycerol have been used to alter the optical scattering properties of turbid tissues. The mechanism of this effect, "optical clearing", however, remains incompletely understood. Multiphoton microscopy utilizing second harmonic generation can be used to monitor collagen structural changes in the presence of glycerol. This study suggests that the use of glycerol for tissue "optical clearing" screens noncovalent intermolecular interactions between low-order (...) collagen structures, resulting in fiber disassembly. Dissociation of collagen fibers in native and engineered tissues in the presence of glycerol and reassociation with the application of saline are imaged dynamically. Collagen fiber reassembly is governed by the displacement of glycerol by saline in native and engineered skin. These results reveal the assembly process of high-order collagen structures and propose a molecular mechanism for the increase in tissue transparency observed after glycerol application. (shrink)

We have combined Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography with a closed-loop Adaptive Optics system. The AO-OCT instrument has been used for in vivo retinal imaging. High-lateral resolution of our AO-OCT system allows visualization of the microscopic retinal structures not accessible by standard OCT instruments. © 2005 SPIE and OSA.

We describe a novel instrument that combines adaptive optics - Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography with an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope. Both systems share a common AO sub-system and vertical scanner to permit simultaneous acquisition of retinal images from both OCT and SLO. One of the benefits of combining OCT with SLO includes automatic co-registration between the two imaging modalities and potential for correcting lateral and transversal eye motion resulting in motion artifact-free volumetric retinal imaging. Results of using this system (...) for eye model imaging are presented. Feasibility for clinical application is briefly discussed as well as potential further improvements of the current system. © 2009 SPIE. (shrink)

Recent developments in adaptive optics - optical coherence tomography allow for ultra-high isotropic resolution imaging of the in-vivo retina, offering unprecedented insight into its volumetric microscopic and cellular structures. In addition to this promising achievement, the clinical impact and application of this technology still needs to be explored. This includes assessment of limitations and challenges for existing as well as future AO-OCT systems, especially in the context of potential transfer of this technology from an optical bench to a portable imaging (...) system. To address these issues we will describe our current AO-UHR-OCT focusing on its sub-components, as well as application for clinical imaging. Additionally, we describe some directions for future development of our AO-OCT instrument that would improve its clinical utility including: new compact AO-OCT design, new improved AO sub-system, and new generations of Fourier-domain-OCT. © 2008 SPIE. (shrink)

A total of 37 original cDNA libraries and 9 derivative libraries enriched for rare sequences were produced from Chinese Spring wheat, five other hexaploid wheat genotypes, tetraploid durum wheat, diploid wheat, and two other diploid members of the grass tribe Triticeae. The emphasis in the choice of plant materials for library construction was reproductive development subjected to environmental factors that ultimately affect grain quality and yield, but roots and other tissues were also included. Partial cDNA expressed sequence tags were examined (...) by various measures to assess the quality of these libraries. All ESTs were processed to remove cloning system sequences and contaminants and then assembled using CAPS. Following these processing steps, this assembly yielded 101,107 sequences derived from 89,043 clones, which defined 16,740 contigs and 33,213 singletons, a total of 49,953 "unigenes." Analysis of the distribution of these unigenes among the libraries led to the conclusion that the enrichment methods were effective in reducing the most abundant unigenes and to the observation that the most diverse libraries were from tissues exposed to environmental stresses including heat, drought, salinity, or low temperature. (shrink)

Port-wine stain birthmarks are congenital, low-flow vascular malformations of the skin. Lasers are the modality of choice for the treatment of PWS birthmarks, and for most patients the pulsed-dye laser in conjunction with epidermal cooling offers the greatest efficacy and safety. Other light devices, including the 532-nm frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser, intense pulsed light, 1064-nm Nd:YAG laser, and combined 1064/532-nm system, may be useful during a treatment course for resistant PWS. Laser treatment results in blanching of most lesions, although complete resolution (...) may not occur and some resistant PWS birthmarks respond minimally, if at all. Factors limiting laser treatment include variable vascular geometry, inadequate damage of some vessels, and lesional posttreatment recurrence as a result of neovascularization. Alternative or adjunct treatment options that address these limitations should be explored, including noninvasive real-time imaging to optimize the selection of treatment settings, photodynamic therapy, and perioperative use of antiangiogenic compounds. (shrink)