A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study: Will Anxiety Disorders Increase Subsequent Cancer Risk?

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate a possible association between malignancy and anxiety disorders (AD) in Taiwan. METHODS: We employed data from the National Health Insurance system of Taiwan. The AD cohort contained 24,066 patients with each patient randomly frequency matched according to age and sex with 4 individuals from the general population without AD. Cox's proportional hazard regression analysis was conducted to estimate the influence of AD on the risk of cancer. RESULTS: Among patients with AD, the overall risk of developing cancer was only 1% higher than among subjects without AD, and the difference was not significant (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.01, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 0.95-1.07). With regard to individual types of cancer, the risk of developing prostate cancer among male patients with AD was significantly higher (HR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.02-1.71). On the other hand, the risk of cervical cancer among female patients with AD was marginally significantly lower than among female subjects without AD (HR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.51-1.03). LIMITATIONS: One major limitation is the lack of information regarding the life style or behavior of patients in the NHI database, such as smoking and alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the failure to identify a relationship between AD and the overall risk of cancer, we found that Taiwanese patients with AD had a higher risk of developing prostate cancer and a lower risk of developing cervical cancer

Seismic risk assessment for developing countries : Pakistan as a case study

Modern Earthquake Risk Assessment (ERA) methods usually require seismo-tectonic information for Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) that may not be readily available in developing countries. To bypass this drawback, this paper presents a practical event-based PSHA method that uses instrumental seismicity, available historical seismicity, as well as limited information on geology and tectonic setting. Historical seismicity is integrated with instrumental seismicity to determine the long-term hazard. The tectonic setting is included by assigning seismic source zones associated with known major faults. Monte Carlo simulations are used to generate earthquake catalogues with randomized key hazard parameters. A case study region in Pakistan is selected to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. The results indicate that the proposed method produces seismic hazard maps consistent with previous studies, thus being suitable for generating such maps in regions where limited data are available. The PSHA procedure is developed as an integral part of an ERA framework named EQRAM. The framework is also used to determine seismic risk in terms of annual losses for the study region

Petrology and geochemistry of amphibolites and greenschists from the metamorphic sole of the Muslim Bagh ophiolite (Pakistan): implications for protolith and ophiolite emplacement

© 2014, Saudi Society for Geosciences. Metamorphic sole rocks are exposed beneath both the Jang Tor Ghar Massif (JTGM) and Saplai Tor Ghar Massif (STGM) of the Muslim Bagh ophiolite. The sole rocks comprise the basal mylonitic part of the ophiolite peridotites and the sub-ophiolitic metamorphic rock series showing inverted metamorphic gradients. The latter mainly consist of garnetiferous amphibolites, amphibolites and greenschists. The mineralogy of the amphibolites (hornblende + plagioclase ± quartz ± biotite ± epidote ± apatite ± opaque) and garnet amphibolites in the metamorphic sole rocks of the Muslim Bagh ophiolite is similar except for the presence of garnet in the latter. Greenschists contain minerals such as chlorite + plagioclase + epidote ± actinolite ± quartz ± opaques. The mineral assemblages of these rocks suggest that they are meta-basites. Geochemical analyses indicate that the garnetiferous amphibolites are metamorphosed tholeiitic to alkaline basalts, akin to ocean island basalts (OIB). By contrast, the amphibolites and greenschists have geochemical signatures akin to mid-oceanic ridge basalts (MORB). Basalts of OIB type are also found in the hyaloclastite-mudstone unit (Bhm), while the MORB-type basalts are found in the basalt-chert unit (Bbc) of Bagh complex underlying the ophiolite nappe. Here, we interpret an early stage OIB-type basalt accretion to the base of the obducted plate associated with extrusion of volcanic rocks in the Bhm unit of Bagh complex followed by amphibolite facies metamorphism. During the later stage of the advancing ophiolitic thrust sheet, MORB-like basalts, such as those found in the Bbc unit of the Bagh complex, are underplated and metarmophosed to greenschist facies with subsequent accretion of the entire sequence of the Muslim Bagh ophiolite and the Bagh complex onto the Indian Platform sediments