Harvard University

About: Harvard University is a education organization based out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 208150 authors who have published 530388 publications receiving 38152182 citations. The organization is also known as: Harvard & University of Harvard.

Clinical End Points in Coronary Stent Trials A Case for Standardized Definitions

Abstract: Background— Although most clinical trials of coronary stents have measured nominally identical safety and effectiveness end points, differences in definitions and timing of assessment have created confusion in interpretation. Methods and Results— The Academic Research Consortium is an informal collaboration between academic research organizations in the United States and Europe. Two meetings, in Washington, DC, in January 2006 and in Dublin, Ireland, in June 2006, sponsored by the Academic Research Consortium and including representatives of the US Food and Drug Administration and all device manufacturers who were working with the Food and Drug Administration on drug-eluting stent clinical trial programs, were focused on consensus end point definitions for drug-eluting stent evaluations. The effort was pursued with the objective to establish consistency among end point definitions and provide consensus recommendations. On the basis of considerations from historical legacy to key pathophysiological mechani...

Theory of Dynamic Critical Phenomena

Abstract: An introductory review of the central ideas in the modern theory of dynamic critical phenomena is followed by a more detailed account of recent developments in the field. The concepts of the conventional theory, mode-coupling, scaling, universality, and the renormalization group are introduced and are illustrated in the context of a simple example---the phase separation of a symmetric binary fluid. The renormalization group is then developed in some detail, and applied to a variety of systems. The main dynamic universality classes are identified and characterized. It is found that the mode-coupling and renormalization group theories successfully explain available experimental data at the critical point of pure fluids, and binary mixtures, and at many magnetic phase transitions, but that a number of discrepancies exist with data at the superfluid transition of $^{4}\mathrm{He}$.

Relaxation Effects in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Absorption

Abstract: The exchange of energy between a system of nuclear spins immersed in a strong magnetic field, and the heat reservoir consisting of the other degrees of freedom (the "lattice") of the substance containing the magnetic nuclei, serves to bring the spin system into equilibrium at a finite temperature. In this condition the system can absorb energy from an applied radiofrequency field. With the absorption of energy, however, the spin temperature tends to rise and the rate of absorption to decrease. Through this "saturation" effect, and in some cases by a more direct method, the spin-lattice relaxation time ${T}_{1}$ can be measured. The interaction among the magnetic nuclei, with which a characteristic time $T_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ is associated, contributes to the width of the absorption line. Both interactions have been studied in a variety of substances, but with the emphasis on liquids containing hydrogen.Magnetic resonance absorption is observed by means of a radiofrequency bridge; the magnetic field at the sample is modulated at a low frequency. A detailed analysis of the method by which ${T}_{1}$ is derived from saturation experiments is given. Relaxation times observed range from ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ to ${10}^{2}$ seconds. In liquids ${T}_{1}$ ordinarily decreases with increasing viscosity, in some cases reaching a minimum value after which it increases with further increase in viscosity. The line width meanwhile increases monotonically from an extremely small value toward a value determined by the spin-spin interaction in the rigid lattice. The effect of paramagnetic ions in solution upon the proton relaxation time and line width has been investigated. The relaxation time and line width in ice have been measured at various temperatures.The results can be explained by a theory which takes into account the effect of the thermal motion of the magnetic nuclei upon the spin-spin interaction. The local magnetic field produced at one nucleus by neighboring magnetic nuclei, or even by electronic magnetic moments of paramagnetic ions, is spread out into a spectrum extending to frequencies of the order of $\frac{1}{{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}}$, where ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$ is a correlation time associated with the local Brownian motion and closely related to the characteristic time which occurs in Debye's theory of polar liquids. If the nuclear Larmor frequency $\ensuremath{\omega}$ is much less than $\frac{1}{{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}}$, the perturbations caused by the local field nearly average out, ${T}_{1}$ is inversely proportional to ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$, and the width of the resonance line, in frequency, is about $\frac{1}{{T}_{1}}$. A similar situation is found in hydrogen gas where ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$ is the time between collisions. In very viscous liquids and in some solids where $\ensuremath{\omega}{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}g1$, a quite different behavior is predicted, and observed. Values of ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$ for ice, inferred from nuclear relaxation measurements, correlate well with dielectric dispersion data.Formulas useful in estimating the detectability of magnetic resonance absorption in various cases are derived in the appendix.

Estimating Wealth Effects without Expenditure Data or Tears: With an Application to Educational Enrollments in States of India

Abstract: The relationship between household wealth and educational enrollment of children can be estimated without expenditure data. A method for doing so - which uses an index based on household asset ownership indicators - is proposed and defended in this paper. In India, children from the wealthiest households are over 30 percentage points more likely to be in school than those from the poorest households, although this gap varies considerably across states. To estimate the relationship between household wealth and the probability that a child (aged 6 to 14) is enrolled in school, Filmer and Pritchett use National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data collected in Indian states in 1992 and 1993. In developing their estimate Filmer and Pritchett had to overcome a methodological difficulty: The NFHS, modeled closely on the Demographic and Health Surveys, measures neither household income nor consumption expenditures. As a proxy for long-run household wealth, they constructed a linear asset index from a set of asset indicators, using principal components analysis to derive the weights. This asset index is robust, produces internally coherent results, and provides a close correspondence with data on state domestic product and on state level poverty rates. They validate the asset index using data on consumption spending and asset ownership from Indonesia, Nepal, and Pakistan. The asset index has reasonable coherence with current consumption expenditures and, more importantly, works as well as - or better than - traditional expenditure-based measures in predicting enrollment status. The authors find that on average a child from a wealthy household (in the top 20 percent on the asset index developed for this analysis) is 31 percent more likely to be enrolled in school than a child from a poor household (in the bottom 40 percent). This paper - a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to inform educational policy. The study was funded by the Bank`s Research Support Budget under the research project Educational Enrollment and Dropout (RPO 682-11).

Normalization of Tumor Vasculature: An Emerging Concept in Antiangiogenic Therapy

Abstract: Solid tumors require blood vessels for growth, and many new cancer therapies are directed against the tumor vasculature. The widely held view is that these antiangiogenic therapies should destroy the tumor vasculature, thereby depriving the tumor of oxygen and nutrients. Here, I review emerging evidence supporting an alternative hypothesis-that certain antiangiogenic agents can also transiently "normalize" the abnormal structure and function of tumor vasculature to make it more efficient for oxygen and drug delivery. Drugs that induce vascular normalization can alleviate hypoxia and increase the efficacy of conventional therapies if both are carefully scheduled. A better understanding of the molecular and cellular underpinnings of vascular normalization may ultimately lead to more effective therapies not only for cancer but also for diseases with abnormal vasculature, as well as regenerative medicine, in which the goal is to create and maintain a functionally normal vasculature.