59 research outputs found
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Tampon use, environmental chemicals and oxidative stress in the BioCycle study
Background
Tampons are used by up to 86% of US women and are a rarely considered potential source of pesticide and metal exposure. Tampons may be of particular concern given the likely higher absorption that occurs in the vagina. Our objective was to examine the potential associations between tampon use and metal concentrations, and biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress among healthy women.
Methods
We used information from a prospective cohort of 259 regularly menstruating women, aged 18–44, followed for two menstrual cycles. Tampon use was assessed using information provided in participant study diaries. Metal concentrations were measured from a blood sample collected at enrollment. Oxidative stress and inflammation biomarker concentrations were determined from blood samples collected at up to 8 clinic visits for each cycle. Linear regression models were used to estimate associations of tampon use with metal exposure, and linear mixed models to estimate associations of tampon use with inflammation and oxidative stress biomarkers at different times during the menstrual cycle.
Results
We observed non-significantly higher mean levels of mercury for tampon users compared to non-tampon users (exp(β) = 1.25, 95% CI = 0.93, 1.68). We found no evidence of an association between tampon use and inflammation biomarkers. We observed consistently higher isoprostane levels, an oxidative stress biomarker, among tampon users compared to non-tampon users (e.g. exp.(β) = 1.05, 95%CI = 0.96, 1.16, for the average isoprostane during the menstruating week); however, these results were not statistically significant.
Conclusions
While our results are not statistically significant, we observed suggestive associations between tampon use and elevated levels of mercury and oxidative stress biomarkers. Although our finding should be interpreted in light of our limitations, they indicate that tampons may be a source of exposure to metals and chemicals that have been largely ignored, and any related health effects are an important public health concern
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The Impact of Dietary Folate Intake on Reproductive Function in Premenopausal Women: A Prospective Cohort Study
Background: Folic acid is recommended to reproductive-aged women to prevent birth defects, though little is known about the effects of dietary intake on other reproductive outcomes. Improved pregnancy rates have been documented after folic acid supplement use, suggesting a possible link with ovulation, however research is limited. Our objective was to evaluate the association between dietary folate intake, hormone levels, and sporadic anovulation in healthy, regularly menstruating women. Methodology/Principal Findings: The BioCycle study (2005–2007) prospectively followed 259 healthy women aged 18–44 years from the western New York region for up to 2 menstrual cycles. Total folate and specific sources of folate were assessed up to 4 times per cycle by 24-hour recall. Estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone were measured in serum up to 8 times per cycle, timed using fertility monitors. Anovulation was defined as a cycle with peak progesterone concentration ≤5 ng/mL and no LH peak in the mid/late luteal phase. Higher intake of dietary folate (in dietary equivalents) across tertiles had a marginally significant association with greater luteal progesterone levels (P trend 0.08). Higher intake of synthetic folate was significantly associated with higher luteal progesterone levels (P trend 0.05). Specifically, women in the 3rd tertile of synthetic folate intake had, on average, 16.0% (95% CI, 0.5–33.8%) higher luteal progesterone levels compared to women in the 1st tertile. Moreover, consumption of synthetic folate was significantly and inversely associated with anovulation such that women in the 3rd tertile had a 64% (95% CI, 8–86%) decreased odds of anovulation compared to the women in the 1st tertile (P trend 0.03). Conclusions/Significance: These findings suggest that a diet high in synthetic folate may be associated with increased progesterone levels and lower risk of sporadic anovulation. Further study of the effect of dietary folate and folic acid supplement use on reproductive health is warranted
Occupational Exposures Among Hair and Nail Salon Workers: a Scoping Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review the literature published from 2014 to 2019 on hair and nail salon workers concerning exposure
assessment, reproductive and respiratory endpoints, and endocrine disruption, in relation to workplace exposures.
RECENT FINDINGS: We identified 29 relevant peer-reviewed publications. Overall, there were insufficient studies to determine
whether working in these settings is associated with reproductive health endpoints, although prior studies suggest that reproductive effects are of concern. There is consistent evidence that working in hair and nail salons may increase the risk of respiratory
effects. Also, despite the fact that many hair and nail care products contain endocrine disrupting compounds, no recent studies
have evaluated endocrine-related endpoints. Moreover, few studies have evaluated chemical exposures in these settings and
biomonitoring studies are sparse.
SUMMARY: Improved exposure assessment of chemical hazards in hair and nail salons is necessary to properly characterize
occupational exposures and assess their potential health risks. Further studies on endpoints related to endocrine disruption and
reproductive health outcomes among hair and nail salon workers are needed. Improved exposure and epidemiologic studies will
help inform chemical exposure mitigation efforts in a vulnerable occupational population, as well as policies related to workplace
and consumer product safet
Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury in Relation to Reproductive Hormones and Anovulation in Premenopausal Women
Background: Metals can interfere with hormonal functioning by binding at the receptor site and through indirect mechanisms; thus, they may be associated with hormonal changes in premenopausal women
Study of Z boson production in pPb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV
The production of Z bosons in pPb collisions at root S-NN = 5.02 TeV is studied by the CMS experiment via the electron and muon decay channels. The inclusive cross section is compared to pp collision predictions, and found to scale with the number of elementary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The differential cross sections as a function of the Z boson rapidity and transverse momentum are measured. Though they are found to be consistent within uncertainty with theoretical predictions both with and without nuclear effects, the forward-backward asymmetry suggests the presence of nuclear effects at large rapidities. These results provide new data for constraining nuclear parton distribution functions
Search for standard model production of four top quarks in the lepton + jets channel in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV
Open Access, Copyright CERN, for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration. Article funded by SCOAP3.Abstract: A search is presented for standard model (SM) production of four top quarks (Formula presented.) in pp collisions in the lepton + jets channel. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 fb−1 recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The expected cross section for SM (Formula presented.) production is (Formula presented.). A combination of kinematic reconstruction and multivariate techniques is used to distinguish between the small signal and large background. The data are consistent with expectations of the SM, and an upper limit of 32 fb is set at a 95% confidence level on the cross section for producing four top quarks in the SM, where a limit of 32 ± 17 fb is expected
Empirical Studies on Cash Payments
Cash is still the most common means of daily payments. The large number
of cash payments is supported by a costly distribution system in which
retailers, banks and central banks participate. Currency is issued in a
range of bank note and coin denominations to facilitate efficiency in
cash payments.
The purpose of this thesis is to study the performance of a currency
range in practice. It presents a number of empirical studies on cash
payments at the individual payment level, whereby cash payments
are viewed as the outcome of a choice process. This type of analysis calls
for labor-intensive data collection methods and the development of a
sophisticated econometric model. This thesis introduces such a model
for cash payments, and it reviews its application to three unique data
sets of cash payments. The data concern payments in the Netherlands
before and after the transition from the guilder to the euro in 2002,
and payments in an experimental setting. The estimation results
allow for an assessment of the use of different bank note and coin
denominations in cash payments, and of possible preferences for one
of more denominations.
Currency research generally approaches currency use from a macroeconomic
point of view. The novelty of this thesis is that it contributes
to currency research by focusing on individual cash payments.Jeanine Kippers (1973) obtained her master´s degree in econometrics from the Erasmus
University Rotterdam in 1997. In the same year she was employed by De Nederlandsche
Bank. She participated in the preparations of the cash changeover from guilder to euro in
2002, and contributed to the development of a European cash distribution system and the
restructuring of the national distribution system. During her employment at the central
bank she started her research on currency use, which resulted in several papers that have
been published or are currently under review. In January 2004 she joined the Pensionand
Insurance Supervisory authority, as a policy advisor in the (international) field of
insurance supervision
31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two
Background
The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd.
Methods
We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background.
Results
First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001).
Conclusions
In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival
Does Older Age Modify Associations between Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Fecundability?
Urinary concentrations of several endocrine disrupting chemicals, including phthalate metabolites, bisphenol A (BPA), and benzophenone (BP)-type ultraviolet (UV) filters, have been associated with a longer time-to-pregnancy (TTP). Potential modification of these associations by couple’s age has not been studied. TTP was defined as the number of prospectively observed menstrual cycles a couple attempted pregnancy until the occurrence of a human chorionic gonadotropic-detected pregnancy. Urinary concentrations of two BP-type UV filters and three phthalate metabolites were measured at baseline. Fecundability odds ratios (FORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for each chemical adjusting for age, body mass index, serum cotinine, creatinine, and accounting for right censoring and left truncation. Models evaluated effect modification between EDC concentrations and TTP by partner’s age, dichotomized at 35 years. Separate models were run for male and female partners. No significant effect modification was observed for any EDC for either partner, but data were suggestive of a longer TTP among females aged ≥35 years, particularly for BP-2 (FOR = 0.61, 95% CI 0.36, 1.05) and 4-hydroxybenzophenone (FOR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.46, 1.09) reflecting 39% and 29% reductions in fecundability, respectively. We saw no evidence of effect modification by couples’ age on associations between TTP and urinary phthalate or BPA metabolite concentrations. Across the EDCs we examined, we found little evidence that age modifies TTP-exposure associations
Risk Perception and Use of Personal Care Products by Race and Ethnicity among A Diverse Population
Background: Personal care products (PCPs) can contain phthalates, parabens, and other endocrine-disrupting
chemicals. However, information on perception of risks from PCP use and how use varies by race and ethnicity
is limited.
Objective: We evaluated differences in PCP use and risk perception in a diverse sample of participants
recruited from a U.S. college campus and online.
Methods: A self-administered questionnaire captured information on sociodemographic factors, PCP use
trends, and perception of risk associated with PCPs. Pearson's Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to
determine differences in PCP use and risk perception by race and ethnicity. Ordered logistic regressions were
performed to measure associations between PCP use frequency across racial/ethnic categories.
Results: Participant (n=770) mean age was 22.8 years (SD ± 6.0). Daily use of make-up (eye = 29.3%;
other=38.0%; all=33.7%) and skincare products (55%) was most frequently reported among Middle Eastern
and North African (MENA) participants. Non-Hispanic Black (NHB) participants reported the highest daily use
of hairstyling products (52%) and lotion (78%). Daily make-up use was more frequently reported among
females (41%) than males (24.6%). Levels of agreement were similar across racial and ethnic groups, that PCP
manufacturers should be required to list all ingredients (≥87%). There were significant associations between
the frequency of use o
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