AF remains the most common complication after CABG and consequently is a drain on hospital resources. Concerted efforts to reduce the incidence of AF and the associated increased length of stay would result in substantial cost saving and decrease patient morbidity.

The purpose of this study was to determine symptom prevalence, characteristics, and distress in children with cancer. The Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS) 10-18, a 30-item patient-rated instrument adapted from a previously validated adult version, provided multidimensional information about the symptoms experienced by children with cancer. This instrument was administered to 160 children with cancer aged 10-18 (45 inpatients, 115 outpatients). To confirm the instrument's reliability and validity, additional data about symptoms were collected from both the parents and the medical charts, and retesting was performed on a subgroup of inpatients. Patients could easily complete the scale in a mean of 11 minutes. The analyses supported the reliability and validity of the MSAS 10-18 subscale scores as measures of physical, psychological, and global symptom distress, respectively. Symptom prevalence ranged from 49.7% for lack of energy to 6.3% for problems with urination. The mean (+/- SD) number of symptoms per inpatient was 12.7 +/- 4.9 (range, 4-26), significantly more than the mean 6.5 +/- 5.7 (range, 0-28) symptoms per outpatient. Patients who had recently received chemotherapy had significantly more symptoms than patients who had not received chemotherapy for more than 4 months (11.6 +/- 6.0 vs. 5. 2 +/- 5.1), and those patients with solid tumors had significantly more symptoms than patients with either leukemia, lymphoma, or central nervous system malignancies (9.9 +/- 7.0 vs. 6.8 +/- 5.5 vs. 6.8 +/- 5.0 vs. 8.0 +/- 6.1). The most common symptoms (prevalence > 35%) were lack of energy, pain, drowsiness, nausea, cough, lack of appetite, and psychological symptoms (feeling sad, feeling nervous, worrying, feeling irritable). Of the symptoms with prevalence rates > 35%, those that caused high distress in more than one-third of patients were feeling sad, pain, nausea, lack of appetite, and feeling irritable. Subscale scores demonstrated large variability in symptom distress and could identify subgroups with high distress. The prevalence, characteristics, and distress associated with physical and psychological symptoms could be quantified in older children with cancer. The data confirm a high prevalence of symptoms overall and the existence of subgroups with high distress associated with one or multiple symptoms. Symptom distress is relatively higher among inpatients, children with solid tumors, and children who are undergoing antineoplastic treatment. Systematic symptom assessment may be useful in future epidemiological studies of symptoms and in clinical chemotherapeutic trials. Symptom epidemiology may also provide a focus for future clinical trials related to symptom management in children with cancer.

Hypoalbuminemia and low body mass index each independently predict increased morbidity and mortality after cardiac operations. Preoperative risk stratification with the use of body mass index and serum albumin may help to identify subgroups of patients at high risk for adverse outcomes after cardiac operations.

In early C. elegans embryos, signaling between a posterior blastomere, P2, and a ventral blastomere, EMS, specifies endoderm and orients the division axis of the EMS cell. Although Wnt signaling contributes to this polarizing interaction, no mutants identified to date abolish P2/EMS signaling. Here, we show that two tyrosine kinase-related genes, src-1 and mes-1, are required for the accumulation of phosphotyrosine between P2 and EMS. Moreover, src-1 and mes-1 mutants strongly enhance endoderm and EMS spindle rotation defects associated with Wnt pathway mutants. SRC-1 and MES-1 signal bidirectionally to control cell fate and division orientation in both EMS and P2. Our findings suggest that Wnt and Src signaling function in parallel to control developmental outcomes within a single responding cell.

The genetic activity of transposable elements is tightly controlled in many species. Transposons that are relatively quiescent under certain circumstances can excise or transpose at greatly increased rates under other circumstances. For example, 'genomic shock' can activate quiescent maize transposons, 'cytotype' and tissue-specific splicing regulate Drosophila P factors, copy number controls Tn5 transposition in bacteria, and developmental timing affects the production of transposon-like intracisternal A-particles in mouse embryos. The Caenorhabditis elegans transposable element Tc1 is subject to both strain-specific and tissue-specific control. Multiple copies of Tc1 are present in the genome of all C. elegans strains collected from nature. However, these elements are genetically active in only certain isolates. For example, in C. elegans variety Bristol transposition and excision of Tc1 are undetectable, but in variety Bergerac transposition and excision are frequent. Moreover, in variety Bergerac, Tc1 is about 1,000-fold more active in somatic cells than in germ cells. We have investigated the genetic basis for the germ/soma regulation of Tc1 activity. We have isolated mutants that exhibit increased frequencies of Tc1 excision in the germ line. The frequencies of Tc1 excision in the soma are unaltered in these mutants. These mutants also exhibit high frequencies of Tc1 germ-line transposition, and this results in a mutator phenotype. Nearly all mutator-induced mutations are caused by insertion of Tc1.