The influence of semantic and phonological factors on syntactic decisions: An event-related brain potential study

During language production and comprehension, information about a word's syntactic properties is sometimes needed. While the decision about the grammatical gender of a word requires access to syntactic knowledge, it has also been hypothesized that semantic (i.e., biological gender) or phonological information (i.e., sound regularities) may influence this decision. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while native speakers of German processed written words that were or were not semantically and/or phonologically marked for gender. Behavioral and ERP results showed that participants were faster in making a gender decision when words were semantically and/or phonologically gender marked than when this was not the case, although the phonological effects were less clear. In conclusion, our data provide evidence that even though participants performed a grammatical gender decision, this task can be influenced by semantic and phonological factors

Discovery and Preclinical Validation of Salivary Transcriptomic and Proteomic Biomarkers for the Non-Invasive Detection of Breast Cancer

A sensitive assay to identify biomarkers using non-invasively collected clinical specimens is ideal for breast cancer detection. While there are other studies showing disease biomarkers in saliva for breast cancer, our study tests the hypothesis that there are breast cancer discriminatory biomarkers in saliva using de novo discovery and validation approaches. This is the first study of this kind and no other study has engaged a de novo biomarker discovery approach in saliva for breast cancer detection. In this study, a case-control discovery and independent preclinical validations were conducted to evaluate the performance and translational utilities of salivary transcriptomic and proteomic biomarkers for breast cancer detection.Salivary transcriptomes and proteomes of 10 breast cancer patients and 10 matched controls were profiled using Affymetrix HG-U133-Plus-2.0 Array and two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE), respectively. Preclinical validations were performed to evaluate the discovered biomarkers in an independent sample cohort of 30 breast cancer patients and 63 controls using RT-qPCR (transcriptomic biomarkers) and quantitative protein immunoblot (proteomic biomarkers). Transcriptomic and proteomic profiling revealed significant variations in salivary molecular biomarkers between breast cancer patients and matched controls. Eight mRNA biomarkers and one protein biomarker, which were not affected by the confounding factors, were pre-validated, yielding an accuracy of 92% (83% sensitive, 97% specific) on the preclinical validation sample set.Our findings support that transcriptomic and proteomic signatures in saliva can serve as biomarkers for the non-invasive detection of breast cancer. The salivary biomarkers possess discriminatory power for the detection of breast cancer, with high specificity and sensitivity, which paves the way for prediction model validation study followed by pivotal clinical validation

Gender Nonconformity During Adolescence:Links with Stigma, Sexual Minority Status, and Psychosocial Outcomes

Both gender nonconformity and sexual minority status during adolescence are associated with elevated levels of victimization and harassment, experiences that have serious consequences for adolescent psychosocial outcomes. While gender nonconformity and sexual minority status reflect separate constructs, they are associated because (1) sexual minority youth report higher levels of gender nonconformity and (2) gender nonconformity is frequently used to attribute sexual minority status by others. Following from classic stigma theory, the current chapter focuses on the role of gender nonconformity in explaining variation in social exclusion and victimization among both sexual minority and sexual majority youth. Of particular interest is the potential for gender nonconformity to mediate or moderate the association between sexual minority status and individual mental health and wellbeing outcomes. Gender differences will also be discussed, focusing on differences between girls and boys in the links between sexual minority status, gender nonconformity, experiences of victimization, and negative psychosocial outcomes. Additionally, the emerging literature on conceptualizing gender nonconformity among trans and non-binary youth will be addressed. Finally, the current chapter will finish with a discussion of how and why gender nonconformity must be taken into consideration in the development of programs aimed at reducing homophobia among adolescent populations

Salivary Markers for Oral Cancer Detection

Oral cancer refers to all malignancies that arise in the oral cavity, lips and pharynx, with 90% of all oral cancers being oral squamous cell carcinoma. Despite the recent treatment advances, oral cancer is reported as having one of the highest mortality ratios amongst other malignancies and this can much be attributed to the late diagnosis of the disease. Saliva has long been tested as a valuable tool for drug monitoring and the diagnosis systemic diseases among which oral cancer. The new emerging technologies in molecular biology have enabled the discovery of new molecular markers (DNA, RNA and protein markers) for oral cancer diagnosis and surveillance which are discussed in the current review

Gynecologic oncology group trials of chemotherapy for metastatic and recurrent cervical cancer

Because only 16% of patients with metastatic cervical cancer are alive 5 years after diagnosis, the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) has carefully designed and conducted many phase II studies to identify promising drugs. Cisplatin has emerged as the most active single agent with overall response rates of 19%. Recent phase III trials have documented response rates of 27% and 39% when cisplatin has been combined with either paclitaxel or topotecan, respectively. The comparison of cisplatin to cisplatin plus topotecan in GOG-179 has yielded the first study to show a statistically significant impact on the overall response rate, median progression-free survival, and median survival, with all outcome measures favoring the two-drug regimen. Despite these encouraging results, however, most of the responses are partial and of short duration. The need for novel combinations and the implementation of active biologic agents is implicit. The accumulated data in this disease setting, as evidenced by the experience of the GOG, are presented in this review