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While the sector seeks to play its part in tackling climate change by delivering more efficient buildings, there has also been much talk of bringing about greater circularity around how [...]

Objective: Over the past three decades, there has been a disproportionate increase in premature deaths among young Black Males (YMBs) in the US. This devastating trend has been largely driven by suicide in YBMs. Ecological and interpersonal psychological theories can be leveraged to understand the etiology of premature death in YBMs through both risk and protective factors. This cross-sectional study assessed the influence of depression, self-reliance, Ubuntu (a commonly noted feature of the Afrocentric worldview), and attitudes toward mental health help-seeking behaviors on suicidal ideation among YBMs. Method: Participants (n = 422) who were identified as male, Black American, or African American and aged 18–29 years old completed an online survey between June and July 2022. Ordinal logistic regression correctly classified 76.5% of cases and found a statistically significant difference between observed and expected values. Results: The odds of reporting suicidal ideation were higher among those with more symptoms of depression and self-reliance and lower among participants who reported more compassion compared to the reference group. Conclusion: These findings suggest that compassion, an important aspect of Ubuntu, may have a protective effect against suicidal ideation, whereas high levels of depression and self-reliance may be linked to a greater vulnerability to suicidal ideation. As such, the current study recommends that interventions should reduce suicidal ideation and increase mental well-being among YBMs.

A number of policies mandate that autistic transition-age youth receive employment services to prepare for the workforce before high school graduation. A key limitation to these services is the job interview component, which relies on non-standardized, resource-intensive, staff-led role-plays to help autistic transition-age youth improve their interview skills. The autism community has called for better job interview preparation. To address this gap in services, our team, collaborated with the autism community to adapt the intervention, Virtual Reality Job Interview Training (VR-JIT; effective among adults with serious mental illness), into Virtual Interview Training for Transition Age Youth (VIT-TAY). This adapted intervention was tailored to meet the needs of autistic transition age youth while maintaining the core components of VR-JIT(i.e., an online job interview simulator with four levels of automated feedback and e-learning content). A pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated VIT-TAY's feasibility and initial effectiveness at improving job interview skills, reducing anxiety, and increasing employment rates within six months when added to transition services or pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS). Thus, the overarching goal of this Hybrid Type 1 effectiveness-implementation study protocol is to conduct a fully-powered RCT of VIT-TAY across 16 schools in various geographical locations. Our specific aims are to 1) Evaluate whether Pre-ETS (or transition services) with VIT-TAY, as compared to Pre-ETS (or transition services) with an active control intervention (i.e., job interview didactics/e-learning with a series of 3–5 min videos of employed autistic adults talking about their career pathways) enhances employment outcomes; 2) Evaluate mechanisms of employment by nine months post-randomization; and 3) Conduct a multilevel, mixed-method process evaluation of the initial implementation of VIT-TAYacross settings (e.g., acceptability, feasibility, and barriers and facilitators of implementation).

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Our 1990 exchange of letters showed a senator's delight in tweaking the press. Jesse Helms went to the U.S. Senate in 1973, the same year I joined the Observer as [...]

The role of technical assistance centers in dealing with employer concerns about employing deaf or hearing-impaired workers is discussed. The Job Accommodations Network, the 10 regional Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers and the state-level Assistive Technology Projects are among these centers.

Racism and its ramifications are salient societal-level factors that detrimentally affect African American youth and families. Few studies have investigated how African American youth experience discrimination within families and society and colorism’s impact on racial identity, despite extensive racial discrimination research. We assessed whether the perceptions of African American youth of their skin tone affected their racial identity, familial functioning, and everyday discrimination, using the National Survey of American Life–Adolescent Supplement data. We found no significant relationships among skin tone perception, racial identity, familial functioning, or everyday experiences of discrimination. Conversely, age and gender differences were significant predictors of racial identity, family functioning, and discrimination reports. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for social work practice.

It is well understood that there is no single best way to keep an organisation secure against cyberthreats. Every enterprise has its own unique configuration of network infrastructure, hardware and software applications, as well as its own risk profile and security priorities. With so many variables, the combinations are close to infinite – and so is the potential for security vulnerabilities. Outdated or misconfigured systems and applications can create easy attack paths for any threat actors who discover them – and this is increasingly easy for them to do thanks to the use of automated tools. Every enterprise has its unique network infrastructure, hardware and software applications. With so many variables, the potential for security vulnerabilities is high. Security testing is the key to discovering and closing these vulnerabilities before they are exploited. However, businesses often fail to utilise testing effectively. Using automated tools to identify the bulk of vulnerabilities and deeper human-led testing to find more advanced threats, organisations can keep pace with the advancing capabilities of adversaries and close off vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, says Ed Williams, SpiderLabs at Trustwave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to systematically characterize the content and patterning of companion’s communicative behavior during oncology consultations for older African-American male patients. Companions and family members often play an important role in patient-centered communication for patients with cancer. Despite their disproportionate cancer burden, little is known about how companions facilitate patient-provider communication for older African-American men with cancer. This study represents a secondary qualitative analysis of 14 video-recorded doctor patient-companion medical visits for African-American male patients with cancer. Videos were captured with consent and institutional review board approval at a Midwest comprehensive cancer center between 2002 and 2006. These medical visits were transcribed, deidentified, and analyzed for the content, frequency, co-occurrence, and thematic clustering of companions’ active participation behaviors during the interaction. Results were well aligned with existing studies on accompanied oncology visits. Patients were on average, 60.14 years old and all but one of the 16 companions was a woman. A total 782 companion behaviors were coded across 14 medical interactions. While companions communicated directly with providers (eg, asking questions, providing medical history) and directly with patients (eg, clarifying information, giving advice), there was a lack of triadic communication. This study clarifies the role of mainly spousal companions as important intermediaries in the patient-provider communication dynamic for older African-American men with cancer.

The article presents an exhibition review "Liverpool Biennial: uMoya" from 10 June – 17 September 2023 showing Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the legacy of colonialism for today's culture and identity within the city.

The Internet is neither a doomsday for sales professionals nor a panacea for businesses. It will challenge companies of all sizes to adjust their sales processes to sell effectively using […]

I'VE BEEN WORKING with very good editorial cartoonists, Doug Marlette and Kevin Siers, for 25 years. Here is the sum of the wisdom I've derived from the experience: It is [...]

This study represents an effort to contribute to the limited body of research on biopsychosocial contextual factors that influence or contribute to mobility limitations for older African American men. Specifically, we were interested in examining associations between socio-demographic, physical and emotional health experiences with mobility limitations. A secondary analysis of 1666 older African American men was performed to investigate socio-demographic, mental and physical health correlates to a specific measures of mobility limitation. In the final model, difficulty with self-care, severe pain interference, and problems with usual activities were most strongly associated with mobility limitations. Men who were married were significantly less likely to experience mobility limitations. Findings highlighted the relationship between mobility limitations and difficulty performing activities of daily living. Additional research should examine the impact of poor emotional health and the buffering effects of marriage on mobility for older African American men, a population at high risk of experiencing disparate health outcomes.

Autistic transition-age youth experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment, in part due to the social challenges they may face when having conversations in the workplace. In an effort to help enhance conversational abilities in the workplace, our collaborative team partnered to develop WorkChat: A Virtual Workday. Specifically, our team of scientists, community partners, and diversity and inclusion experts participated in a community-engaged process to develop WorkChatusing iterative feedback from autistic transition-age youth and their teachers. With initial development complete, this study reports on the protocol that our collaborative team developed, reviewed, and approved to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the real-world effectiveness and initial implementation process outcomes of WorkChatwhen integrated into post-secondary pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS). Our aims are to: 1) evaluate whether services-as-usual in combination with WorkChat, compared to services-as-usual with an attention control, enhances social cognition and work-based social ability (between pre- and post-test); reduces anxiety about work-based social encounters (between pre- and post-test), and increases sustained employment by 9-month follow-up; 2) evaluate whether social cognitive ability and work-based social ability mediate the effect of WorkChaton sustained employment; and 3) conduct a multilevel, mixed-method process evaluation of WorkChatimplementation.

Some editors are reluctant to offer public officials an opportunity to advocate their views on the op-ed page. They argue that officials have ample opportunity tO explain their views and [...]

"A Survival Response" Experts, shelter staff and even police agree: Cops aren't the best people to deal with these kids. When police responded, Jennifer Reese, a shelter manager, told Officer Mariah Gonzales about the boy's history, their conversation recorded by Gonzales' body camera. CYFD staff called police and urged officers to arrest her, saying they planned to press charges." It's not safe for staff or any of our youth right now to have her there in the state of mind she's in", Leticia Salinas, a CYFD regional manager, told state police officer Kevin Smith.But the girl's actions didn't warrant juvenile detention, Smith replied. [Extracted from the article]

In 1998, The Charlotte Observer's publisher, Peter Ridder, had been here a year. A U.S. Senate race was on the ballot. One candidate, a political novice, was generally in tune [...]

You'll find no better place to practice strong, engaged advocacy than on the editorial page. Assemble a half-dozen newspaper folks these days and you have the makings of a debate [...]

John Berry's message about the challenges of running a public library ('Run It Like a Library,' Blatant Berry, LJ 3/15/12, p. 10) is informed and provocative. As a trustee of [...]

Quality of life is growing in significance among the factors that a company considers when deciding where to put down its roots. Many factors can and do influence a company's [...]

SOME EDITORS MUST LOVE the political endorsement process. They interview dozens of candidates, hundreds, thousands even. Like ultra-marathoners, they relish the grueling task. At the end they're aching and exhausted [...]

Editor: When are our legislators going to understand that they are wasting our time and money in Jackson. Every time they go down there and argue about nothing in the [...]

I This story was originally published by i ProPublica I . i Hours after Jaidryon Platero attempted suicide, an employee of New Mexico's child welfare agency visited the 16-year-old in the hospital to investigate whether he was a victim of child neglect. Platero's grandmother couldn't physically care for him, a CYFD worker wrote in his case plan. Bowen Belt, administrator of the San Juan County Juvenile Services Center, a complex that includes the shelter where Platero spent six months, has gotten those referral requests from CYFD. Homeless shelters are one of the few options left for CYFD case workers, who contact one after another looking for a bed, according to children's attorneys and the CYFD employees. [Extracted from the article]

Here's the background. Recently two local police officers were shot and killed in a condominium complex parking lot by a guy who had a minor-league criminal history. Of course, the [...]

Mohawk's new SmartStrand[TM] fiber made with DuPont[TM] Sorona[R] polymer cannot be overestimated. It is the biggest innovation in fiber in the last 20 years. With its exceptional resilience, engineered-in stain [...]

People responsible for opinion pages should have two goals in mind. One is to deal promptly and authoritatively with topics in the news. The other is to deal effectively with [...]

By early 2002, The Brandywine Conference & Visitors Bureau will have completed a business card-sized compact disc (CD) with a multi-media presentation highlighting meeting facilities and attractions in the area, [...]

Sii-DAC reports 27% increase in wells drilled, 19% gain in total footage for 1980; drilling activity statistics.

Journalists should seek to remain calm and deal firmly with public relations personnel who pester them with continuous telephone calls. Some journalists feel antagonized by PR people and are openly aggressive in their dealings with them, but they should consider that PR people may have pertinent information to impart and that they are only trying to pursue their clients' interests. Journalists should be decisive and polite in telephone conversations and only meet with the PR people if they want to.

REPORTAGE REPORTAGE LAST YEAR, DINEH BENALLY, the former president of the San Juan River Farm Board on the Navajo Nation, oversaw the transformation of 400 acres of cropland into illegal marijuana farms across the Shiprock chapter in the northeast corner of the reservation. Last November, law enforcement agencies seized more than 60,000 pounds of illegal marijuana plants from grow sites in Shiprock - one of the largest cannabis busts in the country, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. On March 16, the San Juan River Farm Board voted to start the process of stripping land-use rights from farmers who participated in Benally's marijuana operation - a fraught process that, if successful, would take away farming rights from dozens of families. [Extracted from the article]

Being a summer trainee in the Chronicle-Telegram as part of the fellowship program offered by American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) for journalism professors provided valuable hands-on learning experiences. The newspaper, with its 33,000 daily circulation and 35 reporters and editors, presented new lessons in terms of local coverage. These lessons were helpful in terms of their applications to teaching journalism.

Women and Change at the U.S.‐Mexico Border by Doreen J. Mattingly and Ellen R. Hanson (eds.) The University of Arizona Press, Tucson: (2006)BORDERLANDS: Comparing Border Security in North America and Europe by Emmanuel Brunet‐Jailly (ed.) University of Ottawa Press: (2007)Permeable Borders: The Great Lakes Basin as Transnational Region, 1650–1990 by John J. Bukowczyk, Nora Faires, David R. Smith and Randy William Widdis University of Calgary Press, Calgary and University of Pittsburg Press, Pittsburg: (2005)

• Curtains of Iron and Gold: Reconstructing Borders and Scales of Interaction.Edited by Heikki Eskelinen, Ilkka Liikanen,and Jukka Oksa.1999. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing. Pp. 416. ISBN 1-84014-460-2.• The U.S.‐Mexican Border: Transcending Divisions, Contesting Identities.Edited by David Spenerand Kathleen Staudt.1998. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Pp. 264. ISBN 1-55587-796-6.• Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados: Class and Culture on the South Texas Border.Chad Richardson.1999. Austin: University of Texas Press. Pp. 292. ISBN 0-292-77090-1.

We have correlated the morphological features of 30 human thyroid carcinomas with the cellular localisation of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) mRNA and IGF-1 receptor peptide using in situ hybridisation with digoxigenin-labelled oligoprobes and immunohistochemistry. Four of the five follicular carcinomas studied showed a consistent, uniform, strong positivity for IGF-1 mRNA in tumour cells compared with weakly positive surrounding normal follicular tissue and negative stroma. The majority of papillary carcinomas showed weak to moderate epithelial positivity for IGF-1 mRNA and negative stroma. Immunohistochemistry for IGF-1 receptor showed moderate positivity confined to the tumour epithelial cells in both follicular and the majority of papillary carcinomas. However, in a subgroup of papillary carcinomas characterised by a diffuse stromal lymphoid infiltration (n = 5), the stromal cells showed a much stronger reactivity for IGF-1 mRNA than the tumour or background thyroid, and the tumour cells showed a uniformly high level of immunoreactivity for IGF-1 receptor. These results are compatible with the growth of the papillary carcinoma in these cases being the result of a symbiotic relationship between the stromal lymphoid cells and the tumour epithelium with the lymphoid cells responding to an antigen produced by the tumour cells and the tumour cells responding to a growth factor produced by the lymphoid infiltrate. We suggest that this mechanism may be important in other tumours regularly associated with a widespread lymphoid infiltrate.

A total of 154 cases of thyroid cancer in children under 15 were registered in England and Wales over a period of 30 years, an incidence of about 0.5 per million per year. A total of 4.5 cases per year were registered in 1963-72, 4.9 in 1973-82 and 5.8 in 1983-92. A rapid rise in incidence with age occurred after the age of 5. Malignancy was confirmed in 92% of the cases in which tissue was available. Of these, 68% were papillary carcinomas, 11% follicular carcinomas and 17% medullary carcinomas. There were two spindle cell tumours with mucous cysts and one teratoma. The increased frequency but small size of medullary carcinomas in the second half of the period suggested that this increase was due to the introduction of screening; it accounted for most of the rise in crude incidence rats with time. The sex ratio (F:M) in all registered cases in the differentiated follicular cell carcinoma groups in children aged under 10 was 1.2:1, and 3.6:1 in the older children. Five children with differentiated thyroid cancer of follicular cell origin died up to 17 years after diagnosis. Two of the eight children aged 9 or less with a 20 year follow-up died, compared with three of 28 older children. An unusual group of differentiated carcinomas showed solid or follicular architecture. These tumours were unencapsulated, often widely invasive, contained psammoma bodies but little or no papillary architecture and the nuclei often lacked prominent grooving. This childhood type of papillary carcinoma contrasted with the classical type commonly found in the adult, which was present in one of 13 confirmed papillary carcinomas in children aged less than 10, compared with 20 of 35 older children. These observations show that thyroid carcinoma in very young children has a different spectrum of histological types from both older children and adults. From the age of about 10 well-differentiated papillary carcinomas rapidly increase in frequency in females, so that the other types come to form only a small proportion of the total. These differences, and the lower incidence but poorer prognosis of thyroid carcinoma in men and the poorer prognosis in post- as compared with premenopausal women, are compatible with a major role for sex hormones in thyroid carcinogenesis in females during the reproductive period. This study documents the incidence of childhood thyroid cancer in England and Wales, explains the rise in crude incidence rates, shows differences between carcinomas in children under and over the age of ten which may correlate with puberty, and draws attention to an unusual aggressive type of childhood papillary carcinoma. It illustrates the value to crude registry data of a pathology review.

We have investigated the oestrogen receptor (ER) status of 20 cervical adenocarcinomas by immunocytochemistry for ER protein and non-isotopic in situ hybridisation for ER mRNA. Both methods, which are applicable to paraffin sections, were developed and validated in breast carcinomas with known ER content. Six cervical adenocarcinomas contained immunocytochemically demonstrable ER protein; all contained ER mRNA, but staining was less intense in poorly differentiated areas of four tumours. This disparity between protein and mRNA detection needs further investigation as does the possibility that oestrogens may play a role in the pathogenesis of cervical adenocarcinoma.

Longterm goitrogen administration to rodents is well known to result in multiple proliferative lesions of the thyroid. The regression of these lesions on withdrawal of goitrogen has led to their neoplastic nature being questioned, and they have been regarded as 'nodules' rather than as true tumours. We have induced multiple thyroid lesions by the combined use of high dose radiation as a mutagen, together with goitrogen administration to induce prolonged TSH growth stimulation. G6PD histochemistry was used in heterozygous G6PD deficient female mice to show that all the thyroid lesions induced by this regime were monophenotypic, and therefore monoclonal in origin. The great majority of induced tumours were adenomas, a minority were carcinomas. The number of carcinomas observed was significantly lower in a group of animals from which goitrogen was withdrawn for 4 weeks prior to killing, when compared to animals killed while on goitrogen treatment. Both adenomas and carcinomas, including areas of intravascular tumour, showed morphological features of regression on withdrawal of the goitrogen. There are three key cellular changes which must occur in spontaneous thyroid carcinogenesis--escape from a growth limiting mechanism, acquisition of TSH independent growth and acquisition of invasiveness. In the natural selection of mutations or epimutations during carcinogenesis, prolonged high levels of TSH are likely to remove any selective advantage from mutations that lead to TSH independent growth. Tumours induced by a regime including prolonged goitrogen treatment may therefore develop following two rather than three key stages. They will occur with an increased frequency relative to lesions observed in spontaneous carcinogenesis, but will retain TSH dependency. We speculate that several mechanisms may lead to loss of the growth limiting mechanism, including translocation of an oncogene to the region of a TSH induced promoter. Other carcinogenic regimes may also increase the yield of tumours by creating conditions which reduce the number of essential steps required for carcinogenesis, and may involve translocation to a carcinogen inducible promoter.

We have investigated the possibility that structural alterations of the 'nuclear' oncogene family (c-myc, N-myc, L-myc, fos, myb and p53) leading to aberrant expression might, as in several other tumour types, play a role in the multi-stage development of tumorigenesis in the human thyroid follicular cell. Direct analysis of expression by slot and Northern blot RNA hybridisation showed that normal thyroid expresses surprisingly high levels of fos, and to a lesser extent c-myc, c-myc expression was markedly increased in all tumours, both benign and malignant, but no increase was seen in any other nuclear oncogene. fos expression was reduced specifically in one type of malignant tumour-follicular carcinoma-in inverse correlation with differentiation. Southern blot analysis showed no evidence of rearrangement or amplification of c-myc, or of any other 'nuclear' oncogene in any thyroid tumour. We conclude that there is no evidence that a primary abnormality of these genes plays a role in thyroid follicular cell tumorigenesis and suggest that the observed changes in expression can be adequately explained as secondary consequences of the tumour phenotype.

The proliferative responses to IGF-1 (Somatomedin C) and TSH, as assessed by 3H-thymidine (3H-TdR) incorporation and autoradiographic labelling index (LI), of suspension and monolayer cultures of human thyroid follicular epithelium derived from both normal and adenoma tissue have been compared. In cultures of normal follicles, whilst neither TSH nor IGF-1 alone produced any effect, a combination of TSH (0.1 mU ml-1) together with IGF-1 (10 ng ml-1) induced a highly significant proliferative response as shown by a peak of 3HTdR incorporation and LI, 4-5 days after growth factor addition. The TSH concentration-effect curve was bell-shaped, a higher concentration of TSH (10 mU ml-1) resulting in a reduced response. In cultures derived from adenoma tissue, however, TSH alone at 0.1 mU ml-1 was sufficient to permit a highly significant proliferative response (equivalent to, or greater than the normal) in 4 out of 5 adenomas examined; again a higher concentration of TSH (10 mU ml-1) resulted in a diminished response. Addition of IGF-1 (10 ng ml-1) produced no significant change in the response to TSH (0.1 mU ml-1) in 3 of these 4 adenomas, and significantly inhibited the response in the fourth adenoma. It is concluded that escape from the requirement for an exogenous source of IGF-1 may be a key step in the development of human thyroid epithelial (follicular cell) neoplasia.

The possibility of an association between restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) at the Ha-ras gene locus and susceptibility to develop colorectal cancer has been investigated. Leucocyte DNA from 46 carcinoma patients and 49 controls was analysed by Southern blotting to determine the size distribution of restriction fragments containing the variable tandem repeat 3' to the Ha-ras gene. Four predominant allelic fragments were found in both groups (in AvaII digests having sizes of 1.55, 2.0, 2.65 and 3.15 kilobases [kb]), together with a variety of 'rare' alleles (with individual frequencies less than 5%). The overall prevalence of rare alleles was not significantly different between cancer and control groups. The distribution of the common alleles, however, differed significantly. The combined frequency of the two larger alleles (a3 and a4) was approximately twice as high in the cancer group (34%) as in controls (18%) (P less than 0.025), which was reflected in a highly significant increase in the proportion of individuals carrying an a3 or a4 allele.

To promote the effective implementation of transition policy, Congress has made funds available for state systems change projects. Many of the states receiving systems change funds employ a demonstration site strategy. In this study, preliminary data are presented, which compare individualized education program (IEP) development in three demonstration and three nondemonstration sites. In demonstration sites, there were significantly more (a) individuals attending IEP meetings, (b) service options included on the IEP, and (c) best practice elements included in the IEP. There were no apparent differences in questions of authority and participation by those attending. These results suggest the demonstration site strategy employed by systems change projects may have utility in ensuring the implementation of transition policy.

A recombinant murine retroviral vector encoding the SV40 virus large T antigen was used to infect stably an immortal line of differentiated rat thyroid epithelial cells, FRTL-5. Expression of SV40 T transformed these cells to anchorage independence and tumorigenicity but did not alter morphology or abolish tissue-specific functions and growth factor requirements. The resulting phenotype provides a model of well-differentiated human thyroid cancer.

Hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) has recently been linked to germline defects of DNA repair genes. Colorectal tumours in HNPCC frequently show DNA microsatellite instability, but it is not certain whether this mutator phenotype occurs throughout the morphologically normal colonic mucosa. We have previously used the mPAS histochemical technique in human colorectal mucosa to identify a polymorphism for O-acetyltransferase activity that shows monogenic inheritance and to show that crypt-restricted loss of O-acetyltransferase activity in heterozygotes is due to somatic mutation. We have now used this histochemical technique to measure the somatic mutation frequency in the uninvolved colon of 12 heterozygous patients with HNPCC, 15 with ileocaecal Crohn's disease and 16 with sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC). HNPCC patients showed a significant increase in mutation frequency with age (Mann-Whitney U, P = 0.02). In HNPCC patients aged < 49 years the mean stem cell mutation frequency was significantly lower than in the slightly younger group of patients with Crohn's disease (0.8 +/- 0.9 x 10(-4) vs 3.5 +/- 3.3 x 10(-4), P < 0.01), probably reflecting an increased mutation rate relating to chronic mucosal damage in Crohn's disease. Although not statistically significant, the stem cell mutation frequency was slightly less in HNPCC patients > 50 years than in sporadic CRC cases (4.9 +/- 3.4 x 10(-4) vs 5.9 +/- 3.6 x 10(-4), P > 0.5). We conclude that germline defects in HNPCC do not result in a generalised increase in liability to mutation in normal colonic mucosa but that a second, somatic, event is required. We postulate that this second event occurs in crypt stem cells at low frequency, giving rise to scattered individual crypts composed of mutation-prone cells. The cells in these crypts are then at high risk of acquiring the mutations that lead to adenomas, and to rapid progression to carcinoma.

Activation of the RET tyrosine kinase domain occurs in a proportion of thyroid papillary carcinomas. Three chromosomal rearrangements have been described, of which PTC1 is the commonest. Wide differences (2.5-25%) in frequency of PTC1 in different populations have been reported; it is not clear whether these are due to environmental factors, racial differences or technical reasons. We have developed a simple and rapid reverse transcriptase nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR) method enabling the detection of gene expression from single 5 microns sections of formalin-fixed paraffin wax-embedded archival material. We have applied this approach to detect expression of the RET tyrosine kinase domain, allowing identification of RET activation resulting from any rearrangement, whether characterised or not, or from overexpression. A retrospective study was performed on 22 adult and 21 childhood papillary carcinomas. Thirteen of 22 (59%) adult and 10 of 21 (48%) childhood carcinomas showed evidence of RET activation, demonstrating a major role for the RET oncogene in UK thyroid papillary carcinogenesis. This study also shows a similar frequency of RET activation in both children and adults. The use of a technique that allows reliable amplification of RNA from archival material, using primers chosen in different exons so that amplified products are readily distinguished from genomic DNA, will allow correlation of translocations and chromosomal rearrangements with a variety of specific tumour types.

The article presents Robin Sage, a part of the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) that has remained constant and SFQC's two-week culmination exercise or CULEX. It indicates plans to update the UW scenario where Robin Sage guerilla training will expose students to the overall objectives and outcomes of SFQC. It cites the potential expansion of the CULEX that will make Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) Soldiers better prepared for advanced unconventional warfare (UW) training.