Spatial variations in the incidence of breast cancer and potential risks associated with soil dioxin contamination in Midland, Saginaw, and Bay Counties, Michigan, USA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High levels of dioxins in soil and higher-than-average body burdens of dioxins in local residents have been found in the city of Midland and the Tittabawassee River floodplain in Michigan. The objective of this study is threefold: (1) to evaluate dioxin levels in soils; (2) to evaluate the spatial variations in breast cancer incidence in Midland, Saginaw, and Bay Counties in Michigan; (3) to evaluate whether breast cancer rates are spatially associated with the dioxin contamination areas.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We acquired 532 published soil dioxin data samples collected from 1995 to 2003 and data pertaining to female breast cancer cases (<it>n </it>= 4,604) at ZIP code level in Midland, Saginaw, and Bay Counties for years 1985 through 2002. Descriptive statistics and self-organizing map algorithm were used to evaluate dioxin levels in soils. Geographic information systems techniques, the Kulldorff's spatial and space-time scan statistics, and genetic algorithms were used to explore the variation in the incidence of breast cancer in space and space-time. Odds ratio and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals, with adjustment for age, were used to investigate a spatial association between breast cancer incidence and soil dioxin contamination.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>High levels of dioxin in soils were observed in the city of Midland and the Tittabawassee River 100-year floodplain. After adjusting for age, we observed high breast cancer incidence rates and detected the presence of spatial clusters in the city of Midland, the confluence area of the Tittabawassee, and Saginaw Rivers. After accounting for spatiotemporal variations, we observed a spatial cluster of breast cancer incidence in Midland between 1985 and 1993. The odds ratio further suggests a statistically significant (<it>α </it>= 0.05) increased breast cancer rate as women get older, and a higher disease burden in Midland and the surrounding areas in close proximity to the dioxin contaminated areas.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that increased breast cancer incidences are spatially associated with soil dioxin contamination. Aging is a substantial factor in the development of breast cancer. Findings can be used for heightened surveillance and education, as well as formulating new study hypotheses for further research.</p

Recent Trends in Computational Intelligence

Traditional models struggle to cope with complexity, noise, and the existence of a changing environment, while Computational Intelligence (CI) offers solutions to complicated problems as well as reverse problems. The main feature of CI is adaptability, spanning the fields of machine learning and computational neuroscience. CI also comprises biologically-inspired technologies such as the intellect of swarm as part of evolutionary computation and encompassing wider areas such as image processing, data collection, and natural language processing. This book aims to discuss the usage of CI for optimal solving of various applications proving its wide reach and relevance. Bounding of optimization methods and data mining strategies make a strong and reliable prediction tool for handling real-life applications

Improving Swimming Performance and Flow Sensing by Incorporating Passive Mechanisms

As water makes up approximately 70% of the Earth\u27s surface, humans have expanded operations into aquatic environments out of both necessity and a desire to gain potential innate benefits. This expansion into aquatic environments has consequently developed a need for cost-effective and safe underwater monitoring, surveillance, and inspection, which are missions that autonomous underwater vehicles are particularly well suited for. Current autonomous underwater vehicles vastly underperform when compared to biological swimmers, which has prompted researchers to develop robots inspired by natural swimmers. One such robot is designed, built, tested, and numerically simulated in this thesis to gain insight into the benefits of passive mechanisms and the development of reduced-order models. Using a bio-inspired robot with multiple passive tails I demonstrate herein the relationship between maneuverability and passive appendages. I found that the allowable rotation angle, relative to the main body, of the passive tails corresponds to an increase in maneuverability. Using panel method simulations I determined that the increase in maneuverability was directly related to the change in hydrodynamic moment caused by modulating the circulation sign and location of the shed vortex wake. The identification of this hydrodynamic benefit generalizes the results and applies to a wide range of robots that utilize vortex shedding through tail flapping or body undulations to produce locomotion. Passive appendages are a form of embodied control, which manipulates the fluid-robot interaction and analogously such interaction can be sensed from the dynamics of the body. Body manipulation is a direct result of pressure fluctuations inherent in the surrounding fluid flow. These pressure fluctuations are unique to specific flow conditions, which may produce distinguishable time series kinematics of the appendage. Using a bio-inspired foil tethered in a water tunnel I classified different vortex wakes with the foil\u27s kinematic data. This form of embodied feedback could be used for the development of control algorithms dedicated to obstacle avoidance, tracking, and station holding. Mathematical models of autonomous vehicles are necessary to implement advanced control algorithms such as path planning. Models that accurately and efficiently simulate the coupled fluid-body interaction in freely swimming aquatic robots are difficult to determine due, in part, to the complex nature of fluids. My colleagues and I approach this problem by relating the swimming robot to a terrestrial vehicle known as the Chaplygin sleigh. Using our novel technique we determined an analogous Chaplygin sleigh model that accurately represents the steady-state dynamics of our swimming robot. We additionally used the subsequent model for heading and velocity control in panel method simulations. This work was inspired by the similarities in constraints and velocity space limit cycles of the swimmer and the Chaplygin sleigh, which makes this technique universal enough to be extended to other bio-inspired robots

Head pose estimation and attentive behavior detection

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Modeling spatial and temporal textures

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-161).by Fang Liu.Ph.D

Cell Migration within 3D Microenvironments: an Integrative Perspective from the Membrane to the Nucleus

La migración celular es fundamental para la vida y el desarrollo. Desafortunadamente, la movilidad celular también está asociada con algunas de las principales causas de morbilidad y mortalidad, incluidos los trastornos inmunitarios, esqueléticos y cardiovasculares, así como la metástasis del cáncer. Las células dependen en su capacidad para percibir y responder a estímulos externos en muchos procesos fisiológicos y patológicos (p. ej., desarrollo embrionario, angiogénesis, reparación de tejidos y progresión tumoral). El objetivo global de esta tesis doctoral fue investigar la respuesta migratoria de células individuales a señales bioquímicas y biofísicas. En particular, el enfoque de esta investigación se centró en los mecanismos que permiten a las células percibir e internalizar señales bioquímicas y biofísicas y la influencia de estos estímulos en la respuesta migratoria de las células individuales.El primer estudio tuvo como objetivo establecer una metodología para facilitar la integración de estudios teóricos con datos experimentales. Al minimizar la intervención del usuario, el sistema propuesto basado en técnicas de optimización Bayesiana gestionó de manera eficiente la calibración de los modelos in silico, que de otro modo sería tediosa y propensa a errores. Posteriormente, se construyó un modelo in silico para investigar cómo los estímulos bioquímicos y biofísicos influyen en el movimiento celular en tres dimensiones. Este modelo computacional integró algunos de los principales actores que permiten a las células percibir y responder a señales externas, que pueden actuar a diferentes escalas e interactuar entre sí. Los resultados mostraron, por un lado, que las células cambian su comportamiento migratorio en función de la pendiente de los gradientes químicos y la concentración absoluta de factores químicos (por ejemplo, factores de crecimiento) a su alrededor. Por otro lado, estos resultados revelaron que la respuesta migratoria de las células a la rigidez y densidad de la matriz depende de su fenotipo. En general, la tesis destaca la dependencia de la migración celular tridimensional al fenotipo de las células (es decir, el tamaño de su núcleo, la deformabilidad del mismo) y las propiedades del microambiente circundante (por ejemplo, el perfil químico, la rigidez de la matriz, el confinamiento).Cell migration is fundamental for life and development. Unfortunately, cell motility is also associated with some of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, including immune, skeletal, and cardiovascular disorders as well as cancer metastasis. Cells rely on their ability to perceive and respond to external stimuli in many physiological and pathological processes (e.g., embryonic development, angiogenesis, tissue repair, and tumor progression). The global objective of this doctoral thesis was to investigate the migratory response of individual cells to biochemical and biophysical cues. In particular, the focus of this research was on the mechanisms enabling cells to perceive and internalize biochemical and biophysical cues and the influence of these stimuli on the migratory response of individual cells. The first study aimed at establishing a methodology to facilitate the integration of theoretical studies with experimental data. By minimizing user intervention, the proposed framework based on Bayesian optimization techniques efficiently handled the otherwise tedious and error-prone calibration of in silico models. Afterward, an in silico model was built to investigate how biochemical and biophysical stimuli influence three-dimensional cell motion. This computational model integrated some of the main actors enabling cells to probe and respond to external cues, which may act at different scales and interact with each other. The results showed, on the one hand, that cells change their migratory behavior based on the slope of chemical gradients and the absolute concentration of chemical factors (e.g., growth factors) around them. On the other hand, these results revealed that cells’ migratory response to matrix stiffness and density depends on their phenotype. Overall, this thesis highlights the dependence of three-dimensional cell migration on both cells’ phenotype (i.e., nucleus size, deformability) and the properties of the surrounding microenvironment (e.g., chemical profile, matrix rigidity, confinement).<br /