Dropping the Curtain

This study examines the religious-secular party cleavage in German morality politics from a new perspective by tracing politicization patterns at the individual level. It builds on the idea of issue competition and explores whether conflicts between Christian Democrats and secular parties align with the traditional denominational divide between Catholics and non-Catholics or with religiosity. By means of logistic regressions of Member of Parliaments’ politicization behavior in the German Bundestag (1998–2002) with regard to three morality policies, the study provides evidence that German politics is still structured by a conflict between Catholics and non-Catholics, whereas the influence of religiosity is secondary. If party competition is at work, non-Catholics draw attention to morality policies, while Catholics refrain from doing so. This finding contradicts research pointing to a decreasing significance of Catholicism for Christian Democracy. Moreover, the study proposes an innovative way to re-examine party cleavages at the individual level and in between elections

An original phylogenetic approach identified mitochondrial haplogroup T1a1 as inversely associated with breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers

Introduction: Individuals carrying pathogenic mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have a high lifetime risk of breast cancer. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are involved in DNA double-strand break repair, DNA alterations that can be caused by exposure to reactive oxygen species, a main source of which are mitochondria. Mitochondrial genome variations affect electron transport chain efficiency and reactive oxygen species production. Individuals with different mitochondrial haplogroups differ in their metabolism and sensitivity to oxidative stress. Variability in mitochondrial genetic background can alter reactive oxygen species production, leading to cancer risk. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that mitochondrial haplogroups modify breast cancer risk in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. Methods: We genotyped 22,214 (11,421 affected, 10,793 unaffected) mutation carriers belonging to the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 for 129 mitochondrial polymorphisms using the iCOGS array. Haplogroup inference and association detection were performed using a phylogenetic approach. ALTree was applied to explore the reference mitochondrial evolutionary tree and detect subclades enriched in affected or unaffected individuals. Results: We discovered that subclade T1a1 was depleted in affected BRCA2 mutation carriers compared with the rest of clade T (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.55; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.34 to 0.88; P = 0.01). Compared with the most frequent haplogroup in the general population (that is, H and T clades), the T1a1 haplogroup has a HR of 0.62 (95% CI, 0.40 to 0.95; P = 0.03). We also identified three potential susceptibility loci, including G13708A/rs28359178, which has demonstrated an inverse association with familial breast cancer risk. Conclusions: This study illustrates how original approaches such as the phylogeny-based method we used can empower classical molecular epidemiological studies aimed at identifying association or risk modification effects.Peer reviewe

Bi-Directional Axial Transmission measurements applied in a clinical environment.

Accurate measurement of cortical bone parameters may improve fracture risk assessment and help clinicians on the best treatment strategy. Patients at risk of fracture are currently detected using the current X-Ray gold standard DXA (Dual XRay Absorptiometry). Different alternatives, such as 3D X-Rays, Magnetic Resonance Imaging or Quantitative Ultrasound (QUS) devices, have been proposed, the latter having advantages of being portable and sensitive to mechanical and geometrical properties. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the performance of a Bi-Directional Axial Transmission (BDAT) device used by trained operators in a clinical environment with older subjects. The device, positioned at one-third distal radius, provides two velocities: VFAS (first arriving signal) and VA0 (first anti-symmetrical guided mode). Moreover, two parameters are obtained from an inverse approach: Ct.Th (cortical thickness) and Ct.Po (cortical porosity), along with their ratio Ct.Po/Ct.Th. The areal bone mineral density (aBMD) was obtained using DXA at the femur and spine. One hundred and six patients (81 women, 25 men) from Marien Hospital and St. Anna Hospital (Herne, Germany) were included in this study. Age ranged from 41 to 95 years, while body mass index (BMI) ranged from 16 to 47 kg.m-2. Three groups were considered: 79 non-fractured patients (NF, 75±13years), 27 with non-traumatic fractures (F, 80±9years) including 14 patients with non-vertebral fractures (NVF, 84±7years). Weak to moderate significant Spearman correlations (R ranging from 0.23 to 0.53, p < 0.05) were found between ultrasound parameters and age, BMI. Using multivariate Partial Least Square discrimination analyses with Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation (PLS-LOOCV), we found the combination of VFAS and the ratio Ct.Po/Ct.Th to be predictive for all non traumatic fractures (F) with the odds ratio (OR) equals to 2.5 [1.6-3.4] and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) equal to 0.63 [0.62-0.65]. For the group NVF, combination of four parameters VA0. Ct.Th, Ct.Po and Ct.Po/Ct.Po, along with age provides a discrimination model with OR and AUC equals to 7.5 [6.0-9.1] and 0.75 [0.73-0.76]. When restricted to a smaller population (87 patients) common to both BDAT and DXA, BDAT ORs and AUCs are comparable or slightly higher to values obtained with DXA. The fracture risk assessment by BDAT method in older patients, in a clinical setting, suggests the benefit of the affordable and transportable device for the routine use