University of Kansas

About: University of Kansas is a education organization based out in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 38183 authors who have published 81381 publications receiving 2986312 citations. The organization is also known as: KU & Univ of Kansas.

Inherited Mutations in 17 Breast Cancer Susceptibility Genes Among a Large Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cohort Unselected for Family History of Breast Cancer

Abstract: Purpose Recent advances in DNA sequencing have led to the development of breast cancer susceptibility gene panels for germline genetic testing of patients. We assessed the frequency of mutations in 17 predisposition genes, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, in a large cohort of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) unselected for family history of breast or ovarian cancer to determine the utility of germline genetic testing for those with TNBC. Patients and Methods Patients with TNBC (N 1,824) unselected for family history of breast or ovarian cancer were recruited through 12 studies, and germline DNA was sequenced to identify mutations. Results Deleterious mutations were identified in 14.6% of all patients. Of these, 11.2% had mutations in the BRCA1 (8.5%) and BRCA2 (2.7%) genes. Deleterious mutations in 15 other predisposition genes were detected in 3.7% of patients, with the majority observed in genes involved in homologous recombination, including PALB2 (1.2%) and BARD1, RAD51D, RAD51C, and BRIP1 (0.3% to 0.5%). Patients with TNBC with mutations were diagnosed at an earlier age (P .001) and had higher-grade tumors (P .01) than those without mutations. Conclusion Deleterious mutations in predisposition genes are present at high frequency in patients with TNBC unselected for family history of cancer. Mutation prevalence estimates suggest that patients with TNBC, regardless of age at diagnosis or family history of cancer, should be considered for germline genetic testing of BRCA1 and BRCA2. Although mutations in other predisposition genes are observed among patients with TNBC, better cancer risk estimates are needed before these mutations are used for clinical risk assessment in relatives. J Clin Oncol 33:304-311. © 2014 by American Society of Clinical Oncology

The Meaning and Consequences of Perceived Discrimination in Disadvantaged and Privileged Social Groups

Abstract: The subjective meaning and consequences of perceived discrimination depend on the position of one's group in the social structure. For members of disadvantaged groups, attributions to prejudice are likely to be internal, stable, uncontrollable, and convey widespread exclusion and devaluation of one's group. For members of privileged groups, the meaning of attributions to prejudice is more localized. Because of such meaning differences, attributions to prejudice are considerably more harmful for the psychological well-being of members of disadvantaged groups than they are for members of privileged groups. According to the Rejection-Identification Model (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999), members of disadvantaged groups cope with the pain of attributions to prejudice by increasing identification with their disadvantaged group. We conclude with an exploration of the social contextual factors that can affect how the disadvantaged cope, and a discussion of the challenges facing future research on attributio...

Textural Infornation in SAR Images

Abstract: A multiplicative model was used to relate the image variance for a given land-use category to the individual variances associated with image speckle and target texture. Speckle was treated as a random process governed by signal fading and was considered to be statistically independent of the textural variations associated with the spatial variations of the scattering properties of visually "uniform" distributed targets. Seasat SAR imagery of Oklahoma was used to evaluate the textural autocorrelation function of five land-use categories: water, forest, pasture, urban, and cultivated. It was found that the maximum classification accuracy achievable using first-order statistics was 72 percent and that this level of accuracy was obtainable only by significantly degrading the spatial resolution in order to increase the number of independent samples per pixel. In contrast, second-order statistics-specifically, image contrast and inverse moment-provided a classification accuracy of 88 percent, with only a modest degradation in spatial resolution. A second study using SIR-A imagery of five forested regions has shown that the use of textural information can improve the classification accuracy among the five forest types from 75 to 93 percent.

Community‐Derived Standards for LA‐ICP‐MS U‐(Th‐)Pb Geochronology – Uncertainty Propagation, Age Interpretation and Data Reporting

Abstract: The LA-ICP-MS U-(Th-)Pb geochronology international community has defined new standards for the determination of U-(Th-)Pb ages. A new workflow defines the appropriate propagation of uncertainties for these data, identifying random and systematic components. Only data with uncertainties relating to random error should be used in weighted mean calculations of population ages; uncertainty components for systematic errors are propagated after this stage, preventing their erroneous reduction. Following this improved uncertainty propagation protocol, data can be compared at different uncertainty levels to better resolve age differences. New reference values for commonly used zircon, monazite and titanite reference materials are defined (based on ID-TIMS) after removing corrections for common lead and the effects of excess 230Th. These values more accurately reflect the material sampled during the determination of calibration factors by LA-ICP-MS analysis. Recommendations are made to graphically represent data only with uncertainty ellipses at 2s and to submit or cite validation data with sample data when submitting data for publication. New data-reporting standards are defined to help improve the peer-review process. With these improvements, LA-ICP-MS U-(Th-)Pb data can be considered more robust, accurate, better documented and quantified, directly contributing to their improved scientific interpretation.