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Canine cutaneous mast cell tumor (MCT) is the most common canine skin tumor and exhibits variable biologic behavior. Signaling through the KIT receptor tyrosine kinase promotes cellular proliferation and survival and has been shown to play a role in MCT progression. Despite investigations into numerous biomarkers and the proposal of several grading schemas, no single marker or grading system can accurately predict outcome in canine MCT. The first aim of this study was to develop an immunohistochemical assay to measure phosphorylated KIT (pKIT) to investigate its association with 2 commonly used grading systems and other established prognostic markers for canine MCT. Thirty-four archived MCTs were evaluated for expression of pKIT and Ki-67, KIT localization, mitotic count, mutations in exons 8 and 11 in c-kit, and grading by the Patnaik and 2-tier systems. Expression of pKIT was significantly (P < .05) correlated with the 2-tier grading scheme and c-kit mutation. Correlation approached significance (P = .06) with Mitotic Index (MI) and Ki-67. An additional aim was to determine whether pKIT labeling provides a pharmacodynamic marker for predicting response to the receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor toceranib (TOC). MCTs from 4 of 7 patients demonstrated a partial response to TOC. pKIT expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in biopsies obtained before and 6 hours after the patients were treated with TOC. Reduced pKIT expression after TOC treatment was demonstrated in 3 of the 4 patients with a partial response compared to 1 of the 3 nonresponders. Collectively, these results demonstrate that immunohistochemical detection of pKIT may be a clinically relevant assay to evaluate the activation status of the major oncogenic pathway in canine MCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pheochromocytoma-associated catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy is a well-known entity in man, nonhuman primates, and mice but has not been described in dogs. In this retrospective study, 9 dogs were identified with pheochromocytomas and concurrent cardiovascular pathology observed histologically (n = 6), echocardiographically (n = 4), and/or electrocardiographically (n = 5). Cardiac lesions included multifocal cardiomyocyte necrosis with contraction bands, cardiomyocyte degeneration, myocardial hemorrhage, lymphohistiocytic myocarditis, and interstitial fibrosis. Clinical procedures, including electrocardiographic and echocardiographic examinations, Doppler blood pressure measurement, and auscultation, were available for 5 dogs and consistently revealed concentric or mixed (eccentric and concentric) ventricular hypertrophy. Additional changes observed included arrhythmias, systemic hypertension, and heart murmurs. The myocardial lesions observed in this series of dogs are similar to those observed in humans with pheochromocytoma-associated catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy. Since the clinical manifestations of catecholamine-induced cardiac disease are amenable to medical treatment, recognition of this cardiomyopathy has the potential to reduce morbidity and mortality in dogs with pheochromocytoma. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the life and works of Thomas Humphrey Marshall, president of the British Sociological Association during 1964-1969. Marshall was born in 1893. His life and work extended virtually over the whole period of the development of sociology as an organised academic discipline in Great Britain. He began his career as a Cambridge historian, translated to the London School of Economics in 1925, emerged formally as a sociologist in 1929, and alternated thereafter between academic and public service. Marshall has formed an understanding of post-feudal or post-estate society, especially in England, and most especially from the point of view of the legal basis of the institutions of class and status which interacted to produce equalities and inequalities. He absorbed the essentials of English economic history. He stood as a Labour candidate for a safe Conservative constituency in Surrey at the General Election of 1922. He was beaten and returned to Cambridge knowing that he was not suited to a career as a politician. By his tolerant appreciation of phenomenology, exchange theory, structuralism and all the fashionable enthusiasms of the 1960s and 1970s Marshall demonstrated a model of personal professionalism. He died in 1981.

Attitudes towards the power and status of the professorship are analysed among a national sample of university teachers in Britain. Discontent with both power (`professorial oligarchy') and status (the career expectation of a chair) are widespread and closely correlated. But political attitudes are more closely aligned to attitudes towards professorial power than towards professorial status. Cosmopolitanism as opposed to Iocalism is correlated with critical attitudes towards professorial power and status. Together these attitudes suggest distinct social-academic philosophies which are linked to the social and political structure of society as well as to the changing structure of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the present day advances in the sociology of education. According to the author, after the World War II, the educational thought has become especially receptive to sociological influence. In part, this has been due to the widespread pressures of technological society towards educational expansion, the search for talent, the demand for high scientific manpower and similar influences which attracted the powerful patronage of governments and research foundations to sociological inquiry. Another cause is the present day vigour of the sociology of education in the U.S. which has recruited to itself increasing numbers of able young sociologists determined to free it from its dubious ancestry in educational sociology and to study educational institutions according to the same principles and methods as those used in the study of any other social institution. All in all then the cumulation of knowledge in the sociology of education proceeds apace and the task of drawing up a syllabus for students is at once more complex and worthwhile than ever before.

Presents a letter to the editor in response to an article on sociology of education, by R. H. Turner published in the December 1960 issue of the journal "American Sociological Review."