Partner Choices in Long Established Migrant Communities in Belgium

This paper aims to shed light on the partner choices of Moroccan, Turkish, Congolese, and Algerian migrants in Belgium. Three partner choices are distinguished: marrying a partner from the country of origin (partner migration), marrying a local co-ethnic partner, and establishing a mixed marriage. We focused on the role of migration history and transnational links, culture (religion, language), skin colour and structural characteristics of the district migrants live in (mainly community size) to gain further insight into the partner choices of migrants in Belgium. Our data comprise an extraction of the Belgian national register (2001-2008) and focus on first marriages among first, 1.5, and second generation migrants of Moroccan, Turkish, Algerian, and Congolese origin (N=52,142). We apply a multinomial logistic multilevel design to simultaneously incorporate individual and contextual effects at the district level. The main conclusion from this paper is that the partner selection pattern in early 21st century Belgian society still bears the traces of the starting conditions that migrant groups experienced when they first entered the country. While this continuity is important to understand the situation citizens with a migrant origin have to deal with today, it does not make change impossible. In fact, for the Turkish and Moroccan group, research recently showed a quite strong decline in transnational marriages and a modest increase in mixed marriages. These are indications that after 50 years of migration a transition towards full inclusion in Belgian society is not beyond reach. The conditions analysed in this paper, namely the strength of transnational networks, the cultural boundaries and the ethnic community size, may help to understand why this inclusion takes such a long period of time

Factors influencing participation in randomised clinical trials among patients with early Barrett's neoplasia: a multicentre interview study

OBJECTIVES: Strong recruitment and retention into randomised controlled trials involving invasive therapies is a matter of priority to ensure better achievement of trial aims. The BRIDE (Barrett's Randomised Intervention for Dysplasia by Endoscopy) Study investigated the feasibility of undertaking a multicentre randomised controlled trial comparing argon plasma coagulation and radiofrequency ablation, following endoscopic resection, for the management of early Barrett's neoplasia. This paper aims to identify factors influencing patients' participation in the BRIDE Study and determine their views regarding acceptability of a potential future trial comparing surgery with endotherapy. DESIGN: A semistructured telephone interview study was performed, including both patients who accepted and declined to participate in the BRIDE trial. Interview data were analysed using the constant comparison approach to identify recurring themes. SETTING: Interview participants were recruited from across six UK tertiary centres where the BRIDE trial was conducted. PARTICIPANTS: We interviewed 18 participants, including 11 participants in the BRIDE trial and 7 who declined. RESULTS: Four themes were identified centred around interviewees' decision to accept or decline participation in the BRIDE trial and a potential future trial comparing endotherapy with surgery: (1) influence of the recruitment process and participant-recruiter relationship; (2) participants' views of the design and aim of the study; (3) conditional altruism as a determining factor and (4) participants' perceptions of surgical risks versus less invasive treatments. CONCLUSION: We identified four main influences to optimising recruitment and retention to a randomised controlled trial comparing endotherapies in patients with early Barrett's-related neoplasia. These findings highlight the importance of qualitative research to inform the design of larger randomised controlled trials

Acetic acid guided biopsies in Barrett’s surveillance for neoplasia detection versus non-targeted biopsies (Seattle protocol):a feasibility study for a randomised tandem endoscopy trial. The ABBA study.

Background and study aims - Barrett’s esophagus is a potentially pre-cancerous condition, affecting 375,000 people in the UK. Patients receive a 2-yearly endoscopy to detect cancerous changes, as early detection and treatment results in better outcomes. Current treatment requires random mapping biopsies along the length of Barrett’s, in addition to biopsy of visible abnormalities. As only 13 % of precancerous changes appear as visible nodules or abnormalities, areas of dysplasia are often missed. Acetic acid chromoendoscopy (AAC) has been shown to improve detection of pre-cancerous and cancerous tissue in observational studies, but no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been performed to date. Patients and methods - A “tandem” endoscopy cross-overdesign. Participants will be randomized to endoscopy usingmapping biopsies or AAC, in which dilute acetic acid issprayed onto the surface of the esophagus, highlighting tissuethrough an whitening reaction and enhancing visibilityof areas with cellular changes for biopsy. After 4 to 10weeks, participants will undergo a repeat endoscopy, usingthe second method. Rates of recruitment and retention willbe assessed, in addition to the estimated dysplasia detectionrate, effectiveness of the endoscopist training program,and rates of adverse events (AEs). Qualitative interviewswill explore participant and endoscopist acceptabilityof study design and delivery, and the acceptability ofswitching endoscopic techniques for Barrett's surveillance. Results - Endoscopists’ ability to diagnose dysplasia in Barrett’sesophagus can be improved. AAC may offer a simple,universally applicable, easily-acquired technique to improvedetection, affording patients earlier diagnosis and treatment,reducing endoscopy time and pathology costs. TheABBA study will determine whether a crossover “tandem”endoscopy design is feasible and acceptable to patientsand clinicians and gather outcome data to power a definitivetrial

Acetic acid guided biopsies in Barrett’s surveillance for neoplasia detection versus non-targeted biopsies (Seattle protocol):a feasibility study for a randomised tandem endoscopy trial. The ABBA study.

<div><p>MiRNAs function in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression and play very important roles in plant development. <i>Lonicera japonica</i> is one of the important medicinal plants in China. However, few studies on the discovery of conserved and novel miRNAs from <i>L</i>. <i>japonica</i> were reported. In this study, we employed deep sequencing technology to identify miRNAs in leaf and flower tissues of <i>L</i>. <i>japonica</i>. A total of 22.97 million clean reads from flower and leaf tissues were obtained, which generated 146 conserved miRNAs distributed in 20 families and 110 novel miRNAs. Accordingly, 72 differentially expressed miRNAs (P≤0.001) between leaves and flowers and their potential target genes were identified and validated. The qRT-PCR validation showed that majority of the differentially expressed miRNAs showed significant tissue-specific expression in <i>L</i>. <i>japonica</i>. Furthermore, the miRNA-mRNA and mRNA-mRNA regulatory networks were constructed using Cytoscape software. Taken together, this study identified a large number of miRNAs and target genes in <i>L</i>. <i>japonica</i>, which not only provides the first global miRNA expression profiles, but also sheds light on functional genomics research on <i>L</i>. <i>japonica</i> in the future.</p></div

Endoscopic management of Barrett’s dysplasia and early neoplasia: efficacy, safety and long-term outcomes in a UK tertiary centre

Background and Objectives: Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) are effective treatments for dysplastic Barrett’s esophagus (BE). This study evaluates efficacy, durability and safety in a single high-volume UK tertiary centre with 15-years’ experience.Methods: Prospective data from Nottingham University Hospitals 2004-2019 for endotherapy of dysplastic BE or intramucosal adenocarcinoma. Procedural outcome measures: complete resection, complications and surgery rates. Efficacy outcomes: complete remission of dysplasia (CR-D) and intestinal metaplasia (CR-IM), recurrence, treatment failure rates, durability of RFA, median follow up and tumour associated mortality. Results: 319 lesions were resected. 671 RFAs were performed on 239 patients. Median age was 67(±9.5) years, male:female ratio was 5:1 and median BE length was C3(IQR:6) M6(IQR:5). The most common lesion was Paris IIa(64%) with a median size of 10mm(3-70). Final histology was adenocarcinoma in 50%. Complete resection rates were 96%. The multiband mucosectomy technique (91%) was most commonly used. The median number of RFA sessions was 3(IQR:2). The rates of CR-D and CR-IM were 90.4%% and 89.8% achieved after a median of 20.1(IQR:14) months. The most common complications: EMR was bleeding 2.2% and RFA was stricture (5.4%) requiring a median of 2 (range 1-7) dilatations. Median follow up post CR-IM/CR-D was 38 months(14-60). Metachronous lesions developed in 4.7% after CR-D and tumour related mortality was 0.8%. Dysplasia and intestinal metaplasia free survival at 5 years was 95% and 90% respectively. Conclusions: BE endotherapy is minimally invasive, effective, safe and deliverable in a day-case settin

Increased chromosomal radiosensitivity in asymptomatic carriers of a heterozygous BRCA1 mutation

Background: Breast cancer risk increases drastically in individuals carrying a germline BRCA1 mutation. The exposure to ionizing radiation for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes of BRCA1 mutation carriers is counterintuitive, since BRCA1 is active in the DNA damage response pathway. The aim of this study was to investigate whether healthy BRCA1 mutations carriers demonstrate an increased radiosensitivity compared with healthy individuals. Methods: We defined a novel radiosensitivity indicator (RIND) based on two endpoints measured by the G2 micronucleus assay, reflecting defects in DNA repair and G2 arrest capacity after exposure to doses of 2 or 4 Gy. We investigated if a correlation between the RIND score and nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) could be established. Results: We found significantly increased radiosensitivity in the cohort of healthy BRCA1 mutation carriers compared with healthy controls. In addition, our analysis showed a significantly different distribution over the RIND scores (p = 0.034, Fisher’s exact test) for healthy BRCA1 mutation carriers compared with non-carriers: 72 % of mutation carriers showed a radiosensitive phenotype (RIND score 1–4), whereas 72 % of the healthy volunteers showed no radiosensitivity (RIND score 0). Furthermore, 28 % of BRCA1 mutation carriers had a RIND score of 3 or 4 (not observed in control subjects). The radiosensitive phenotype was similar for relatives within several families, but not for unrelated individuals carrying the same mutation. The median RIND score was higher in patients with a mutation leading to a premature termination codon (PTC) located in the central part of the gene than in patients with a germline mutation in the 5′ end of the gene. Conclusions: We show that BRCA1 mutations are associated with a radiosensitive phenotype related to a compromised DNA repair and G2 arrest capacity after exposure to either 2 or 4 Gy. Our study confirms that haploinsufficiency is the mechanism involved in radiosensitivity in patients with a PTC allele, but it suggests that further research is needed to evaluate alternative mechanisms for mutations not subjected to NMD