The relationship between quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30) and survival in patients with gastro-oesopohageal cancer

It remains unclear whether any aspect of quality of life has a role in predicting survival in an unselected cohort of patients with gastro-oesophageal cancer. Therefore the aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30), clinico-pathological characteristics and survival in patients with gastro-oesophageal cancer. Patients presenting with gastric or oesophageal cancer, staged using the UICC tumour node metastasis (TNM) classification and who received either potentially curative surgery or palliative treatment between November 1997 and December 2002 (n=152) participated in a quality of life study, using the EORTC QLQ-C30 core questionnaire. On univariate analysis, age (P < 0.01), tumour length (P < 0.0001), TNM stage (P<0.0001), weight loss (P<0.0001), dysphagia score (P<0.001), performance status (P<0.1) and treatment (P<0.0001) were significantly associated with cancer-specific survival. EORTC QLQ-C30, physical functioning (P<0.0001), role functioning (P<0.001), cognitive functioning (P<0.01), social functioning (P<0.0001), global quality of life (P<0.0001), fatigue (P<0.0001), nausea/vomiting (P<0.01), pain (P<0.001), dyspnoea (P<0.0001), appetite loss (P<0.0001) and constipation (P<0.05) were also significantly associated with cancer-specific survival. On multivariate survival analysis, tumour stage (P<0.0001), treatment (P<0.001) and appetite loss (P<0.0001) were significant independent predictors of cancer-specific survival. The present study highlights the importance of quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30) measures, in particular appetite loss, as a prognostic factor in these patients

Heterogenous expression of beta-catenin, p16, e-cadherin, and c-myc in multi-stage colorectal carcinogenesis detected by tissue microarray

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Expression of Avian Influenza Virus Receptors and H5N1 Virus Infection In Human Respiratory Tract

Oral Presentations - Virus Structure/Function and Receptor BindingReceptor specificity restricts influenza virus cross species transmission, with SAα2,6 Gal and SAα2,3 Gal sialic acids recognized by human and avian influenza viruses, respectively. This study investigated the distribution of these two species of sialic acids in the human respiratory tract. The SAα2,3 Gal species was infrequently detected in the upper respiratory tract, but prevalent in the lower part, while the SAα2,6 Gal species is more common in the upper respiratory tract. Though alveolus cells are more susceptible than trachea and bronchus epithelial cells to avian influenza H5N1 virus infection in the ex vivo experiment, H5N1 virus was found to infect the upper respiratory tract epithelial cells of a human case. It was also found that H5N1 virus infection occurs in the epithelial cells of the respiratory tract which do not express detectable SA α2,3Gal. These observations may be important to investigate further if the currently-observed limited human to human transmission by H5N1 virus is associated with the differential expression of SAα2,3 Gal in human upper respiratory tract among individuals.postprin

Exosomes and the kidney: Blaming the messenger

Exosomes are membrane-bound vesicles of endosomal origin, present in awide range of biological fluids, including blood and urine. They rangebetween 30 and 100 nm in diameter, and consist of a limiting lipid bilayer,transmembrane proteins and a hydrophilic core containing proteins,mRNAs and microRNAs (miRNA). Exosomes can act as extracellular vehi-cles by which cells communicate, through the delivery of their functionalcargo to recipient cells, with many important biological, physiologicaland pathological implications. The exosome release pathway contributestowards protein secretion, antigen presentation, pathogen transfer andcancer progression. Exosomes and exosome-mediated signalling have beenimplicated in disease processes such as atherosclerosis, calcification andkidney diseases. Circulating levels of exosomes and extracellular vesicles canbe influenced by the progression of renal disease. Advances in methods forpurification and analysis of exosomes are leading to potential diagnostic andtherapeutic avenues for kidney diseases. This review will focus on biophysi-cal properties and biogenesis of exosomes, their pathophysiological rolesand their potential as biomarkers and therapeutics in kidney diseases

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Roller Nanoimprint Process: Adhesion and Other Mechanical Characteristics

Molecular dynamics simulations using tight-binding many body potential are carried out to study the roller imprint process of a gold single crystal. The effect of the roller tooth’s taper angle, imprint depth, imprint temperature, and imprint direction on the imprint force, adhesion, stress distribution, and strain are investigated. A two-stage roller imprint process was obtained from an imprint force curve. The two-stage imprint process included the imprint forming with a rapid increase of imprint force and the unloading stage combined with the adhesion stage. The results show that the imprint force and adhesion rapidly increase with decreasing taper angle and increasing imprint depth. The magnitude of the maximum imprint force and the time at which this maximum occurs are proportional to the imprint depth, but independent of the taper angle. In a comparison of the imprint mechanisms with a vertical imprint case, while high stress and strain regions are concentrated below the mold for vertical imprint, they also occur around the mold in the case of roller imprint. The regions were only concentrated on the substrate atoms underneath the mold in vertical imprint. Plastic flow increased with increasing imprint temperature

Proactive and politically skilled professionals: What is the relationship with affective occupational commitment?

The aim of this study is to extend research on employee affective commitment in three ways: (1) instead of organizational commitment the focus is on occupational commitment; (2) the role of proactive personality on affective occupational commitment is examined; and (3) occupational satisfaction is examined as a mediator and political skills as moderator in the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. Two connected studies, one in a hospital located in the private sector and one in a university located in the public sector, are carried out in Pakistan, drawing on a total sample of over 400 employees. The results show that proactive personality is positively related to affective occupational commitment, and that occupational satisfaction partly mediates the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. No effect is found for a moderator effect of political skills in the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. Political skills however moderate the relationship between proactive personality and affective organizational commitment

Modes of Transmission of Influenza B Virus in Households

Introduction:While influenza A and B viruses can be transmitted via respiratory droplets, the importance of small droplet nuclei "aerosols'' in transmission is controversial. Methods and Findings: In Hong Kong and Bangkok, in 2008-11, subjects were recruited from outpatient clinics if they had recent onset of acute respiratory illness and none of their household contacts were ill. Following a positive rapid influenza diagnostic test result, subjects were randomly allocated to one of three household-based interventions: hand hygiene, hand hygiene plus face masks, and a control group. Index cases plus their household contacts were followed for 7-10 days to identify secondary infections by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing of respiratory specimens. Index cases with RT-PCR-confirmed influenza B were included in the present analyses. We used a mathematical model to make inferences on the modes of transmission, facilitated by apparent differences in clinical presentation of secondary infections resulting from aerosol transmission. We estimated that approximately 37% and 26% of influenza B virus transmission was via the aerosol mode in households in Hong Kong and Bangkok, respectively. In the fitted model, influenza B virus infections were associated with a 56%-72% risk of fever plus cough if infected via aerosol route, and a 23%-31% risk of fever plus cough if infected via the other two modes of transmission. Conclusions: Aerosol transmission may be an important mode of spread of influenza B virus. The point estimates of aerosol transmission were slightly lower for influenza B virus compared to previously published estimates for influenza A virus in both Hong Kong and Bangkok. Caution should be taken in interpreting these findings because of the multiple assumptions inherent in the model, including that there is limited biological evidence to date supporting a difference in the clinical features of influenza B virus infection by different modes.published_or_final_versio

Principled Selection of Baseline Covariates to Account for Censoring in Randomized Trials with a Survival Endpoint

The analysis of randomized trials with time-to-event endpoints is nearly always plagued by the problem of censoring. As the censoring mechanism is usually unknown, analyses typically employ the assumption of non-informative censoring. While this assumption usually becomes more plausible as more baseline covariates are being adjusted for, such adjustment also raises concerns. Pre-specification of which covariates will be adjusted for (and how) is difficult, thus prompting the use of data-driven variable selection procedures, which may impede valid inferences to be drawn. The adjustment for covariates moreover adds concerns about model misspecification, and the fact that each change in adjustment set, also changes the censoring assumption and the treatment effect estimand. In this paper, we discuss these concerns and propose a simple variable selection strategy that aims to produce a valid test of the null in large samples. The proposal can be implemented using off-the-shelf software for (penalized) Cox regression, and is empirically found to work well in simulation studies and real data analyses

“Excellence R Us”: university research and the fetishisation of excellence

The rhetoric of “excellence” is pervasive across the academy. It is used to refer to research outputs as well as researchers, theory and education, individuals and organisations, from art history to zoology. But does “excellence” actually mean anything? Does this pervasive narrative of “excellence” do any good? Drawing on a range of sources we interrogate “excellence” as a concept and find that it has no intrinsic meaning in academia. Rather it functions as a linguistic interchange mechanism. To investigate whether this linguistic function is useful we examine how the rhetoric of excellence combines with narratives of scarcity and competition to show that the hypercompetition that arises from the performance of “excellence” is completely at odds with the qualities of good research. We trace the roots of issues in reproducibility, fraud, and homophily to this rhetoric. But we also show that this rhetoric is an internal, and not primarily an external, imposition. We conclude by proposing an alternative rhetoric based on soundness and capacity-building. In the final analysis, it turns out that that “excellence” is not excellent. Used in its current unqualified form it is a pernicious and dangerous rhetoric that undermines the very foundations of good research and scholarship

Half-Metallic Graphene Nanoribbons

Electrical current can be completely spin polarized in a class of materials known as half-metals, as a result of the coexistence of metallic nature for electrons with one spin orientation and insulating for electrons with the other. Such asymmetric electronic states for the different spins have been predicted for some ferromagnetic metals - for example, the Heusler compounds- and were first observed in a manganese perovskite. In view of the potential for use of this property in realizing spin-based electronics, substantial efforts have been made to search for half-metallic materials. However, organic materials have hardly been investigated in this context even though carbon-based nanostructures hold significant promise for future electronic device. Here we predict half-metallicity in nanometre-scale graphene ribbons by using first-principles calculations. We show that this phenomenon is realizable if in-plane homogeneous electric fields are applied across the zigzag-shaped edges of the graphene nanoribbons, and that their magnetic property can be controlled by the external electric fields. The results are not only of scientific interests in the interplay between electric fields and electronic spin degree of freedom in solids but may also open a new path to explore spintronics at nanometre scale, based on graphene