230 research outputs found
Does language matter? A case study of epidemiological and public health journals, databases and professional education in French, German and Italian.
Epidemiology and public health are usually context-specific. Journals published in different languages and countries play a role both as sources of data and as channels through which evidence is incorporated into local public health practice. Databases in these languages facilitate access to relevant journals, and professional education in these languages facilitates the growth of native expertise in epidemiology and public health. However, as English has become the lingua franca of scientific communication in the era of globalisation, many journals published in non-English languages face the difficult dilemma of either switching to English and competing internationally, or sticking to the native tongue and having a restricted circulation among a local readership. This paper discusses the historical development of epidemiology and the current scene of epidemiological and public health journals, databases and professional education in three Western European languages: French, German and Italian, and examines the dynamics and struggles they have today.Published versio
Mortality from chronic liver diseases in diabetes
OBJECTIVES: Mortality from chronic liver diseases (CLDs) is increased in diabetes, but little is known about the etiology. The aim of this study was to assess mortality rates from CLD by etiology in known diabetic subjects living in the Veneto Region, Northern Italy.
METHODS: A total of 167,621 diabetic subjects, aged 30-89 years (54.6% men), were identified in the year 2007 and their vital status was assessed between 2008 and 2010. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed with regional mortality rates as reference. The underlying cause of death and all comordidities reported on the certificate were scrutinized in order to identify CLD deaths and their main etiologies. The latter were grouped into the following three categories: (i) virus-related, (ii) alcohol-related, and (iii) non-virus, non-alcohol-related (mainly represented by nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD).
RESULTS: Analyses were based upon 473,374 person-years of follow-up and 17,134 deaths. We observed an increased risk of dying from CLD in diabetic subjects with an SMR of 2.47 (95% CI=2.19-2.78) in men and 2.70 (2.24-3.23) in women. SMRs were 2.17 (1.90-2.47), 2.25 (1.98-2.54), and 2.86 (2.65-3.08) for virus-related, alcohol-related, and non-virus, non-alcohol-related CLD, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: Diabetic patients have a twofold to threefold higher risk of dying of CLD, mainly associated with a non-virus and non-alcohol-related etiology, which is largely attributable to NAFLD. An early diagnosis and treatment of NAFLD, if any, may have a beneficial clinical impact on the survival of diabetic patients
Constraining primordial non-Gaussianity with cosmological weak lensing: shear and flexion
We examine the cosmological constraining power of future large-scale weak
lensing surveys on the model of \emph{Euclid}, with particular reference to
primordial non-Gaussianity. Our analysis considers several different estimators
of the projected matter power spectrum, based on both shear and flexion, for
which we review the covariances and Fisher matrices. The bounds provided by
cosmic shear alone for the local bispectrum shape, marginalized over
, are at the level of . We consider
three additional bispectrum shapes, for which the cosmic shear constraints
range from (equilateral shape) up to (orthogonal shape). The competitiveness of cosmic
flexion constraints against cosmic shear ones depends on the galaxy intrinsic
flexion noise, that is still virtually unconstrained. Adopting the very high
value that has been occasionally used in the literature results in the flexion
contribution being basically negligible with respect to the shear one, and for
realistic configurations the former does not improve significantly the
constraining power of the latter. Since the flexion noise decreases with
decreasing scale, by extending the analysis up to
cosmic flexion, while being still subdominant, improves the shear constraints
by when added. However on such small scales the highly non-linear
clustering of matter and the impact of baryonic physics make any error
estimation uncertain. By considering lower, and possibly more realistic, values
of the flexion intrinsic shape noise results in flexion constraining power
being a factor of better than that of shear, and the bounds on
and being improved by a factor of upon
their combination. (abridged)Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables. To appear on JCA
Cluster Lenses
Clusters of galaxies are the most recently assembled, massive, bound
structures in the Universe. As predicted by General Relativity, given their
masses, clusters strongly deform space-time in their vicinity. Clusters act as
some of the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe. Light rays
traversing through clusters from distant sources are hence deflected, and the
resulting images of these distant objects therefore appear distorted and
magnified. Lensing by clusters occurs in two regimes, each with unique
observational signatures. The strong lensing regime is characterized by effects
readily seen by eye, namely, the production of giant arcs, multiple-images, and
arclets. The weak lensing regime is characterized by small deformations in the
shapes of background galaxies only detectable statistically. Cluster lenses
have been exploited successfully to address several important current questions
in cosmology: (i) the study of the lens(es) - understanding cluster mass
distributions and issues pertaining to cluster formation and evolution, as well
as constraining the nature of dark matter; (ii) the study of the lensed objects
- probing the properties of the background lensed galaxy population - which is
statistically at higher redshifts and of lower intrinsic luminosity thus
enabling the probing of galaxy formation at the earliest times right up to the
Dark Ages; and (iii) the study of the geometry of the Universe - as the
strength of lensing depends on the ratios of angular diameter distances between
the lens, source and observer, lens deflections are sensitive to the value of
cosmological parameters and offer a powerful geometric tool to probe Dark
Energy. In this review, we present the basics of cluster lensing and provide a
current status report of the field.Comment: About 120 pages - Published in Open Access at:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j183018170485723/ . arXiv admin note:
text overlap with arXiv:astro-ph/0504478 and arXiv:1003.3674 by other author
Mutational concordance between primary and metastatic melanoma: A next-generation sequencing approach
Background: Cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) is one of the most common skin cancers worldwide. Limited information is available in the current scientific literature on the concordance of genetic alterations between primary and metastatic CMM. In the present study, we performed next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis of the main genes participating in melanoma pathogenesis and progression, among paired primary and metastatic lesions of CMM patients, with the aim to evaluate levels of discrepancies in mutational patterns. Methods: Paraffin-embedded tumor tissues of the paired lesions were retrieved from the archives of the institutions participating in the study. NGS was performed using a specific multiple-gene panel constructed by the Italian Melanoma Intergroup (IMI) to explore the mutational status of selected regions (343 amplicons; amplicon range: 125-175 bp; coverage 100%) within the main 25 genes involved in CMM pathogenesis; sequencing was performed with the Ion Torrent PGM System. Results: A discovery cohort encompassing 30 cases, and a validation cohort including eleven Sardinian patients with tissue availability from both the primary and metachronous metastatic lesions were identified; the global number of analyzed tissue specimens was 90. A total of 829 genetic non-synonymous variants were detected: 101 (12.2%) were pathogenic/likely pathogenic, 131 (15.8%) were benign/likely benign, and the remaining 597 (72%) were uncertain/unknown significance variants. Considering the global cohort, the consistency in pathogenic/pathogenic like mutations was 76%. Consistency for BRAF and NRAS mutations was 95.2% and 85.7% respectively, without statistically significant differences between the discovery and validation cohort. Conclusions: Our study showed a high level of concordance in mutational patterns between primary and metastatic CMM, especially when pathogenic mutations in driver genes were considered
Risk of thyroid as a first or second primary cancer. A population-based study in Italy, 1998–2012
Background: The number of patients living after a cancer diagnosis is increasing, especially after thyroid cancer (TC). This study aims at evaluating both the risk of a second primary cancer (SPC) in TC patients and the risk of TC as a SPC. Methods: We analyzed two population-based cohorts of individuals with TC or other neoplasms diagnosed between 1998 and 2012, in 28 Italian areas covered by population-based cancer registries. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of SPC were stratified by sex, age, and time since first cancer. Results: A total of 38,535 TC patients and 1,329,624 patients with other primary cancers were included. The overall SIR was 1.16 (95% CI: 1.12–1.21) for SPC in TC patients, though no increase was shown for people with follicular (1.06) and medullary (0.95) TC. SPC with significantly increased SIRs was bone/soft tissue (2.0), breast (1.2), prostate (1.4), kidney (2.2), and hemolymphopoietic (1.4) cancers. The overall SIR for TC as a SPC was 1.49 (95% CI: 1.42–1.55), similar for all TC subtypes, and it was significantly increased for people diagnosed with head and neck (2.1), colon–rectum (1.4), lung (1.8), melanoma (2.0), bone/soft tissue (2.8), breast (1.3), corpus uteri (1.4), prostate (1.5), kidney (3.2), central nervous system (2.3), and hemolymphopoietic (1.8) cancers. Conclusions: The increased risk of TC after many other neoplasms and of few SPC after TC questions the best way to follow-up cancer patients, avoiding overdiagnosis and overtreatment for TC and, possibly, for other malignancies
Cause specific mortality in an Italian pool of asbestos workers cohorts
Background Asbestos is a known human carcinogen and is causally associated with malignant mesothelioma, lung, larynx and ovarian cancers.Methods Cancer risk was studied among a pool of formerly asbestos-exposed workers in Italy. Fifty-two Italian asbestos cohorts (asbestos-cement, rolling-stock, shipbuilding, and other) were pooled and their mortality follow-up was updated to 2018. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed for major causes of death considering duration of exposure and time since first exposure (TSFE), using reference rates by region, age and calendar period.Results The study included 63,502 subjects (57,156 men and 6346 women): 40% who were alive, 58% who died (cause known for 92%), and 2% lost to follow-up. Mortality was increased for all causes (SMR: men = 1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03-1.05; women = 1.15, 95% CI 1.11-1.18), all malignancies (SMR: men = 1.21, 95% CI 1.18-1.23; women = 1.29, 95% CI 1.22-1.37), pleural and peritoneal malignancies (men: SMR = 10.46, 95% CI 9.86-11.09 and 4.29, 95% CI 3.66-5.00; women: SMR = 27.13, 95% CI 23.29-31.42 and 7.51, 95% CI 5.52-9.98), lung (SMR: men = 1.28, 95% CI 1.24-1.32; women = 1.26, 95% CI 1.02-1.53), and ovarian cancer (SMR = 1.42, 95% CI 1.08-1.84). Pleural cancer mortality increased during the first 40 years of TSFE (latency), reaching a plateau thereafter.Conclusions Analyses by time-dependent variables showed that the risk for pleural neoplasms increased with latency and no longer increases at long TSFE, consistent with with asbestos clearance from the lungs. Peritoneal neoplasm risk increased over all observation time
Mucinous histology predicts for poor response rate and overall survival of patients with colorectal cancer and treated with first-line oxaliplatin- and/or irinotecan-based chemotherapy
The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of first-line chemotherapy containing irinotecan and/or oxaliplatin in patients with advanced mucinous colorectal cancer. Prognostic factors associated with response rate and survival were identified using univariate and multivariate logistic and/or Cox proportional hazards analyses. The population included 255 patients, of whom 49 (19%) had mucinous and 206 (81%) had non-mucinous colorectal cancer. The overall response rates for mucinous and non-mucinous tumours were 18.4 (95% CI, 7.5–29.2%) and 49% (95% CI, 42.2–55.8%), respectively (P=0.0002). After a median follow-up of 45 months, median overall survival for the mucinous patients was 14.0 months compared with 23.4 months for the non-mucinous group (hazard ratio (HR), 1.74; CI 95%, 1.27–3.31; P=0.0034). After adjustment for significant features by multivariate Cox regression analysis, mucinous histology was associated with poor overall survival (HR, 1.593, 95% CI, 1.05–2.40; P=0.0267), together with performance status ECOG 2, number of metastatic sites ⩾2, and peritoneal metastases. This retrospective analysis shows that patients with mucinous colorectal cancer have poor responsiveness to oxaliplatin/irinotecan-based first-line combination chemotherapy and an unfavourable prognosis compared with non-mucinous colorectal cancer patients
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