A comparative analysis of chiropractic and general practitioner patients in North America: Findings from the joint Canada/United States survey of health, 2002–03

BACKGROUND: Scientifically rigorous general population-based studies comparing chiropractic with primary-care medical patients within and between countries have not been published. The objective of this study is to compare care seekers of doctors of chiropractic (DCs) and general practitioners (GPs) in the United States and Canada on a comprehensive set of sociodemographic, quality of life, and health-related variables. METHODS: Data are from the Joint Canada/U.S. Survey of Health (JCUSH), 2002–03, a random sample of adults in Canada (N = 3505) and the U.S. (N = 5183). Respondents were categorized according to their pattern of health-care use in the past year. Distributions, percentages, and estimates (adjusted odds ratios) weighted to reflect the complex survey design were produced. RESULTS: Nearly 80% of respondents sought care from GPs; 12% sought DC care. Compared with GP only patients, DC patients in both countries tend to be under 65 and white, with arthritis and disabling back or neck pain. U.S. DC patients are more likely than GP only patients to be obese and to lack a regular doctor; Canadian DC patients are more likely than GP only patients to be college educated, to have higher incomes, and dissatisfied with MD care. Compared with seekers of both GP and DC care, DC only patients in both countries have fewer chronic conditions, take fewer drugs, and have no regular doctor. U.S. DC only patients are more likely than GP+DC patients to be uninsured and dissatisfied with health care; Canadian DC only patients are more likely than GP+DC patients to be under 45, male, less educated, smokers, and not obese, without disabling back or neck pain, on fewer drugs, and lacking a regular doctor. CONCLUSION: Chiropractic and GP patients are dissimilar in both Canada and the U.S., with key differences between countries and between DC patients who do and do not seek care from GPs. Such variation has broad and potentially far-reaching health policy and research implications

Deletion of vascular endothelial growth factor in myeloid cells accelerates tumorigenesis.

Angiogenesis and the development of a vascular network are required for tumour progression, and they involve the release of angiogenic factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A), from both malignant and stromal cell types. Infiltration by cells of the myeloid lineage is a hallmark of many tumours, and in many cases the macrophages in these infiltrates express VEGF-A. Here we show that the deletion of inflammatory-cell-derived VEGF-A attenuates the formation of a typical high-density vessel network, thus blocking the angiogenic switch in solid tumours in mice. Vasculature in tumours lacking myeloid-cell-derived VEGF-A was less tortuous, with increased pericyte coverage and decreased vessel length, indicating vascular normalization. In addition, loss of myeloid-derived VEGF-A decreases the phosphorylation of VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) in tumours, even though overall VEGF-A levels in the tumours are unaffected. However, deletion of myeloid-cell VEGF-A resulted in an accelerated tumour progression in multiple subcutaneous isograft models and an autochthonous transgenic model of mammary tumorigenesis, with less overall tumour cell death and decreased tumour hypoxia. Furthermore, loss of myeloid-cell VEGF-A increased the susceptibility of tumours to chemotherapeutic cytotoxicity. This shows that myeloid-derived VEGF-A is essential for the tumorigenic alteration of vasculature and signalling to VEGFR2, and that these changes act to retard, not promote, tumour progression

Anti-inflammatory properties of desipramine and fluoxetine

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Disparities in self-reported postpartum depression among Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women in Hawai‘i: Pregnancy, Risk, Assessment, and Monitoring System (PRAMS), 2004-2007

Postpartum depression affects 10–20% of women and causes significant morbidity and mortality among mothers, children, families, and society, but little is known about postpartum depression among the individual Asian and Pacific Islander racial/ethnic groups. This study sought to identify the prevalence of postpartum depression among common Asian and Pacific Islander racial/ethnic groups. Data from the Hawaii Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (PRAMS), a population-based surveillance system on maternal behaviors and experiences before, during, and after the birth of a live infant, were analyzed from 2004 through 2007 and included 7,154 women. Questions on mood and interest in activities since giving birth were combined to create a measure of Self-reported Postpartum Depressive Symptoms (SRPDS). A series of generalized logit models with maternal race or ethnicity adjusted for other sociodemographic characteristics evaluated associations between SRPDS and an intermediate level of symptoms as possible indicators of possible SRPDS. Of all women in Hawaii with a recent live birth, 14.5% had SRPDS, and 30.1% had possible SRPDS. The following Asian and Pacific Islander racial or ethnic groups were studied and found to have higher odds of SRPDS compared with white women: Korean (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.8;95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.0–4.0), Filipino (AOR = 2.2;95% CI: 1.7–2.8), Chinese (AOR = 2.0;95% CI: 1.5–2.7), Samoan (AOR = 1.9;95% CI: 1.2–3.2), Japanese (AOR = 1.6;95% CI: 1.2–2.2), Hawaiian (AOR = 1.7;95% CI: 1.3–2.1), other Asian (AOR = 3.3;95% CI: 1.9–5.9), other Pacific Islander (AOR = 2.2;95% CI: 1.5–3.4), and Hispanic (AOR = 1.9;95% CI: 1.1–3.4). Women who had unintended pregnancies (AOR = 1.4;95% CI: 1.2–1.6), experienced intimate partner violence (AOR = 3.7;95% CI: 2.6–5.5), smoked (AOR = 1.5;95% CI: 1.2–2.0), used illicit drugs (AOR = 1.9;95% CI: 1.3–3.9), or received Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) benefits during pregnancy (AOR = 1.4;95% CI: 1.2–2.6) were more likely to have SRPDS. Several groups also were at increased risk for possible SRPDS, although this risk was not as prominent as seen with the risk for SRPDS. One in seven women reported SRPDS, and close to a third reported possible SRPDS. Messages about postpartum depression should be incorporated into current programs to improve screening, treatment, and prevention of SRPDS for women at risk

MicroRNA Expression and Clinical Outcome of Small Cell Lung Cancer

The role of microRNAs in small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) is largely unknown. miR-34a is known as a p53 regulated tumor suppressor microRNA in many cancer types. However, its therapeutic implication has never been studied in SCLC, a cancer type with frequent dysfunction of p53. We investigated the expression of a panel of 7 microRNAs (miR-21, miR-29b, miR-34a/b/c, miR-155, and let-7a) in 31 SCLC tumors, 14 SCLC cell lines, and 26 NSCLC cell lines. We observed significantly lower miR-21, miR-29b, and miR-34a expression in SCLC cell lines than in NSCLC cell lines. The expression of the 7 microRNAs was unrelated to SCLC patients' clinical characteristics and was neither prognostic in term of overall survival or progression-free survival nor predictive of treatment response. Overexpression or downregulation of miR-34a did not influence SCLC cell viability. The expression of these 7 microRNAs also did not predict in vitro sensitivity to cisplatin or etoposide in SCLC cell lines. Overexpression or downregulation of miR-34a did not influence sensitivity to cisplatin or etoposide in SCLC cell lines. In contrast to downregulation of the miR-34a target genes cMET and Axl by overexpression of miR-34a in NSCLC cell lines, the intrinsic expression of cMET and Axl was low in SCLC cell lines and was not influenced by overexpression of miR-34a. Our results suggest that the expression of the 7 selected microRNAs are not prognostic in SCLC patients, and miR-34a is unrelated to the malignant behavior of SCLC cells and is unlikely to be a therapeutic target

Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome performed worse than controls in a controlled repeated exercise study despite a normal oxidative phosphorylation capacity

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that a decreased mitochondrial ATP synthesis causes muscular and mental fatigue and plays a role in the pathophysiology of the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME).Methods: Female patients (n = 15) and controls (n = 15) performed a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) by cycling at a continuously increased work rate till maximal exertion. The CPET was repeated 24 h later. Before the tests, blood was taken for the isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), which were processed in a special way to preserve their oxidative phosphorylation, which was tested later in the presence of ADP and phosphate in permeabilized cells with glutamate, malate and malonate plus or minus the complex I inhibitor rotenone, and succinate with rotenone plus or minus the complex II inhibitor malonate in order to measure the ATP production via Complex I and II, respectively. Plasma CK was determined as a surrogate measure of a decreased oxidative phosphorylation in muscle, since the previous finding that in a group of patients with external ophthalmoplegia the oxygen consumption by isolated muscle mitochondria correlated negatively with plasma creatine kinase, 24 h after exercise.Results: At both exercise tests the patients reached the anaerobic threshold and the maximal exercise at a much lower oxygen consumption than the controls and this worsened in the second test. This implies an increase of lactate, the product of anaerobic glycolysis, and a decrease of the mitochondrial ATP production in the patients. In the past this was also found in patients with defects in the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. However the oxidative phosphorylation in PBMC was similar in CFS/ME patients and controls. The plasma creatine kinase levels before and 24 h after exercise were low in patients and controls, suggesting normality of the muscular mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation.Conclusion: The decrease in mitochondrial ATP synthesis in the CFS/ME patients is not caused by a defect in the enzyme complexes catalyzing oxidative phosphorylation, but in another factor

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Measurement of the cross-section of high transverse momentum vector bosons reconstructed as single jets and studies of jet substructure in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the cross-section for high transverse momentum W and Z bosons produced in pp collisions and decaying to all-hadronic final states. The data used in the analysis were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV;{\rm Te}{\rm V}$and correspond to an integrated luminosity of$4.6\;{\rm f}{{{\rm b}}^{-1}}$. The measurement is performed by reconstructing the boosted W or Z bosons in single jets. The reconstructed jet mass is used to identify the W and Z bosons, and a jet substructure method based on energy cluster information in the jet centre-of-mass frame is used to suppress the large multi-jet background. The cross-section for events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson, with transverse momentum${{p}_{{\rm T}}}\gt 320\;{\rm Ge}{\rm V}$and pseudorapidity$|\eta |\lt 1.9$, is measured to be${{\sigma }_{W+Z}}=8.5\pm 1.7$ pb and is compared to next-to-leading-order calculations. The selected events are further used to study jet grooming techniques