Life Events may Contribute to Family Communication About Cancer Risk Following BRCA1/2 Testing

Abstract We assessed whether certain life events contributed to the communication about cancer risk within families who have undergone BRCA1/2 testing. We also explored what type of resources participants would have valued to help in supporting family communication about genetic information. Two hundred and forty-six individuals (218 women, 28 men) who received a BRCA1/2 genetic test result 3 to 10 years earlier (mean of 6.4 years) participated in a telephone interview. Participants were asked about the occurrence of a number of life events (cancer diagnosis, death, uptake of prophylactic surgery, and providing care to a family member with cancer) in their family since their BRCA1/2 test result disclosure and, for each occurrence, whether it fostered family communication about cancer risk. A total of 182 participants (74 %) reported that they or one of their relatives received a cancer diagnosis, 176 (72 %) reported that someone died in their family, and 73 (30 %) stated that they or one of their relatives undertook a prophylactic surgery. During this period, 109 participants (44 %) also provided care for a family member who had cancer. Among participants who reported these life events, family communication was fostered by these events in proportions varying from 50 % (death) to 69 % (cancer diagnosis). Our results indicate that life events may contribute to family communication about cancer risk. Further research is needed to determine whether these events provide a "window of opportunity" to reach family members, address their needs and concerns about cancer, update family cancer history, and introduce genetic counseling and risk assessment

Genomic Dissection of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, Including 28 Subphenotypes

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Genomic Dissection of Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, Including 28 Subphenotypes journaltitle: Cell articlelink: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.05.046 content_type: article copyright: © 2018 Elsevier Inc

Effect of Multiple Passes Treatment in Waterjet Peening on Fatigue Performance

The influence of waterjet peening on the residual stresses and fatigue performance of AISI 304 is investigated. The specimen surfaces were treated with multiple jet passes. The fatigue strength was evaluated using an alternating bending fatigue tester. The results of XRD measurements showed that a higher amount of compressive residual stresses is induced in the treated specimens. This strengthening layer is limited within the first 100 �m below the surface, which had been confirmed by micro hardness measurements. Even though the treated specimens showed compressive residual stresses the fatigue limit is lower than that of the untreated specimens. The roughness of the surface and the resulting notch effect seems to be stronger than the positive effect of the hardened layer

Electron backscatter diffraction-analysis of deformed micro-milled commercially pure-titanium specimens at different strain values

The surface structuring process micro-milling introducessmall grooves, which act as geometrical notches and influencethe mechanical properties of the component, into thesurface. The mechanical behaviour depends on the relationof the notch size to the grain size. Micro-milling processeswere applied to improve the functional properties of componentsurfaces. They are used in mechanically loaded environmentsas well as in biotechnological applications.Therefore, commercially-pure-titanium is a favoured materialof investigation. To determine the effect of the notches,a detailed analysis of the deformation behaviour of thestructured material is indispensable. In the present work,structured specimens were tested under quasi-static loading.The testing was interrupted at different strain values.The micro-sections of the specimens were characterizedby means of electron backscatter diffraction analysis to obtaininformation about the first indication of plastic deformationand the development of the deformation features.The results show inhomogeneous deformation behaviourof the material. The deformation mechanisms, the developmentof small angle and high angle grain boundaries as wellas twinning are shown

Effect of Multiple Jet Passes Treatment in Waterjet Peening on Fatigue Performance

Waterjet technology started in early 1960s. Water is normally compressed up to about 600 MPa and discharged from a small orifice. Applications: machining, cleaning, coating removal, peening (WJP)etc

Gene Expression Profile in Genetic Models of Generalized Epilepsy: Clues into Underlying Mechanism

64th Annual Meeting of the American-Academy-of-Neurology (AAN)7

Fast-track virtual reality software to facilitate 3-dimensional reconstruction in congenital heart disease

International audienceOBJECTIVES Two limitations of the clinical use of 3-dimensional (3D) reconstruction and virtual reality systems are the relatively high cost and the amount of experience required to use hardware and software to effectively explore medical images. We have tried to simplify the process and validate a new tool developed for this purpose with a novel software package. METHODS Five patients with right partial anomalous pulmonary venous return with adequate preoperative images acquired with magnetic resonance imaging were enrolled. Five volunteers with no previous experience in the field of 3D reconstruction were instructed to use the software after viewing a short video tutorial. Users were then asked to create a 3D model of each patient's heart using DIVA software. Their results were compared quantitatively and qualitatively with a benchmark reconstruction performed by an experienced user. RESULTS All our participants recreated 3D models in a relatively short time, maintaining a good overall quality (average quality score ≥ 3 on a scale of 1–5). The overall trend of all the parameters analysed showed a statistical improvement between case 1 and case 5, as users became more and more experienced. CONCLUSIONS DIVA is a simple software program that allows accurate 3D reconstruction in a relatively short time (“fast-track” virtual reality). In this study, we demonstrated the potential use of DIVA by inexperienced users, with a significant improvement in quality and time after a few cases were performed. Further studies are needed to confirm the potential application of this technology on a larger scale