Graduate recital: perspective and analysis: an overview of Morton Feldman's The King of Denmark, Michael Gordon's XY, and Jacob Druckman's Reflections on the Nature of Water

Master's Project (M.Mu.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 201

Postdiagnosis sedentary behavior and health outcomes in cancer survivors: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Background High levels of sedentary behavior may negatively affect health outcomes in cancer survivors. A systematic review and meta‐analysis was performed to clarify whether postdiagnosis sedentary behavior is related to survival, patient‐reported outcomes, and anthropometric outcomes in cancer survivors. Methods The Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL (The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and SPORTDiscus databases were searched from study inception to June 2019. Studies of adults who had been diagnosed with cancer that examined the association between sedentary behavior and mortality, patient‐reported outcomes (eg, fatigue, depression), or anthropometric outcomes (eg, body mass index, waist circumference) were eligible for inclusion. Meta‐analyses were performed to estimate hazard ratios for the highest compared with the lowest levels of sedentary behavior for all‐cause and colorectal cancer‐specific mortality outcomes. The ROBINS‐E (Risk of Bias in Nonrandomized Studies‐of Exposures tool) and the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) system were used to assess the risk of bias and the strength of evidence, respectively. Results Thirty‐three eligible publications from a total of 3569 identified articles were included in the review. A higher level of postdiagnosis sedentary behavior was associated with an increased risk of all‐cause mortality (hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.06‐1.41; heterogeneity [I2 statistic], 33.8%) as well as colorectal cancer‐specific mortality (hazard ratio, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.14‐2.06; I2, 0%). No clear or consistent associations between sedentary behavior and patient‐reported or anthropometric outcomes were identified. The risk of bias in individual studies ranged from moderate to serious, and the strength of evidence ranged from very low to low. Conclusions Although avoiding high levels of sedentary behavior after a cancer diagnosis may improve survival, further research is required to help clarify whether the association is causal.Jeff K. Vallance is supported by the Canada Research Chairs program. Brigid Lynch is supported by a fellowship from the Victorian Cancer Agency (MCRF18005).Published onlin

Sex differences in oncogenic mutational processes.

Sex differences have been observed in multiple facets of cancer epidemiology, treatment and biology, and in most cancers outside the sex organs. Efforts to link these clinical differences to specific molecular features have focused on somatic mutations within the coding regions of the genome. Here we report a pan-cancer analysis of sex differences in whole genomes of 1983 tumours of 28 subtypes as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. We both confirm the results of exome studies, and also uncover previously undescribed sex differences. These include sex-biases in coding and non-coding cancer drivers, mutation prevalence and strikingly, in mutational signatures related to underlying mutational processes. These results underline the pervasiveness of molecular sex differences and strengthen the call for increased consideration of sex in molecular cancer research

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

Ship Simulation Study of Grays Harbor Navigation Project, Grays Harbor, Washington

Source: https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/Grays Harbor is a log exporting port on the coast of Washington. The harbor comprises an outer region, which crosses the bay section of Grays Harbor, and the inner section, which follows the Chehalis River. The navigation channel presently can accommodate lumber ships only up to 85 ft in beam and 34 ft in draft because of the very constricted railroad and highway bridge spans that cross the inner part of the harbor. Local economic interests desire to bring wider and deeper lumber ships into the harbor. To accommodate this change, the US Army Engineer District, Seattle, recommended widening and deepening the channel to allow ships up to 100 ft in width and 36.5 ft in draft. The existing 125-ft navigation span through the bridges is to be increased to 185 ft by replacing the railroad bridge with a new design. The proposed changes also call for the construction of a new turning basin at the upstream end of the deepwater project. This report presents results of numerous ship simulation tests in the inner as well as the outer region of the harbor. The primary navigation difficulties experienced by the pilots were the outer region bends and the inner region sharp turns and bridge passage. The study concluded that the channel width in the outer region can be maintained at its existing 350 ft and does not require widening to the proposed 400 ft. Bend wideners were required on the outside of the bends where it is already deep to compensate for the tendency of the pilots to drift out of the channel with the larger proposed ship. In the inner region, the study showed that the larger ships could safely make the transit through the proposed bridge span and turn around in the proposed turning basin, resulting in increased project benefits. Some modifications to the District proposed channel are presented

Mercury Isotope Values in Shoreline Spiders Reveal the Transfer of Aquatic Mercury Sources to Terrestrial Food Webs

The transfer of aquatic contaminants, including mercury (Hg), to terrestrial food webs is an often-overlooked exposure pathway to terrestrial animals. While research has implemented the use of shoreline spiders to assess aquatic to terrestrial Hg transfer, it is unclear whether Hg sources, estimated from isotope ratios, can be successfully resolved to inform site assessments and remedy effectiveness. To examine aquatic to terrestrial Hg transfer, we collected shoreline spiders (Tetragnatha spp.) and aquatic insect larvae (suborder Anisoptera) across a mosaic of aquatic and shoreline habitats in the St. Louis River and Bad River, tributaries to Lake Superior. The fraction of industrial Hg in sediments was reflected in the δ202Hg values of aquatic dragonfly larvae and predatory fish, connecting benthic Hg sources to the aquatic food web. Shoreline spiders mirrored these aquatic Hg source signatures with highly positive correlations in δ202Hg between tetragnathids and dragonfly larvae (r2 = 0.90). Further assessment of different spider taxa (i.e., araneids and pisaurids) revealed that differences in prey consumption and foraging strategies resulted in isotope differences, highlighting the importance of spider taxa selection for Hg monitoring efforts