Risk of fractures in half a million survivors of 20 cancers: a population-based matched cohort study using linked English electronic health records.

BACKGROUND: A history of multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, and breast cancer has been associated with adverse bone health, but associations across a broader range of cancers are unclear. We aimed to compare the risk of any bone fracture and major osteoporotic fractures in survivors of a wide range of cancers versus cancer-free individuals. METHODS: In this population-based matched cohort study, we used electronic health records from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked to hospital data. We included adults (aged ≥18 years) eligible for linkage, and we restricted the study start to Jan 2, 1998, onwards and applied administrative censoring on Jan 31, 2020. The cancer survivor group included survivors of the 20 most common cancers. Each individual with cancer was matched (age, sex, and general practice) to up to five controls (1:5) who were cancer-free. The primary outcomes were any bone fracture and any major osteoporotic fracture (pelvic, hip, wrist, spine, or proximal humeral fractures) occurring more than 1 year after index date (ie, the diagnosis date of the matched individual with cancer). We used Cox regression models, adjusted for shared risk factors, to estimate associations between cancer survivorship and bone fractures. FINDINGS: 578 160 adults with cancer diagnosed in 1998-2020 were matched to 3 226 404 cancer-free individuals. Crude incidence rates of fractures in cancer survivors ranged between 8·39 cases (95% CI 7·45-9·46) per 1000 person-years for thyroid cancer and 21·62 cases (20·18-23·18) per 1000 person-years for multiple myeloma. Compared with cancer-free individuals, the risk of any bone fracture was increased in 15 of 20 cancers, and of major osteoporotic fractures in 17 of 20 cancers. Effect sizes varied: adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were largest for multiple myeloma (1·94, 95% CI 1·77-2·13) and prostate cancer (1·43, 1·39-1·47); HRs in the range 1·20-1·50 were seen for stomach, liver, pancreas, lung, breast, kidney, and CNS cancers; smaller associations (HR <1·20) were observed for malignant melanoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukaemia, and oesophageal, colorectal, and cervical cancers. Increased risks of major osteoporotic fracture were noted most substantially in multiple myeloma (2·25, 1·96-2·58) and CNS (2·12, 1·56-2·87), liver (1·62, 1·01-2·61), prostate (1·60, 1·53-1·67), and lung cancers (1·60, 1·44-1·77). Effect sizes tended to reduce over time since diagnosis but remained elevated for more than 5 years in several cancers, such as multiple myeloma and stomach, lung, breast, prostate, and CNS cancers. INTERPRETATION: Survivors of most types of cancer were at increased risk of bone fracture for several years after cancer, with variation by cancer type. These findings can help to inform mitigation and prevention strategies. FUNDING: Wellcome Trust

High and low states of the system AM Herculis

Context: We investigate the distribution of optically high and low states of the system AM Herculis (AM Her). Aims: We determine the state duty cycles, and their relationships with the mass transfer process and binary orbital evolution of the system. Methods: We make use of the photographic plate archive of the Harvard College Observatory between 1890 and 1953 and visual observations collected by the American Association of Variable Star Observers between 1978 and 2005. We determine the statistical probability of the two states, their distribution and recurrence behaviors. Results: We find that the fractional high state duty cycle of the system AM Her is 63%. The data show no preference of timescales on which high or low states occur. However, there appears to be a pattern of long and short duty cycle alternation, suggesting that the state transitions retain memories. We assess models for the high/low states for polars (AM Her type systems). We propose that the white-dwarf magnetic field plays a key role in regulating the mass transfer rate and hence the high/low brightness states, due to variations in the magnetic-field configuration in the system.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Asteroseismology of massive stars with the TESS mission: the runaway Beta Cep pulsator PHL 346 = HN Aqr

We report an analysis of the first known Beta Cep pulsator observed by the TESS mission, the runaway star PHL 346 = HN Aqr. The star, previously known as a singly-periodic pulsator, has at least 34 oscillation modes excited, 12 of those in the g-mode domain and 22 p modes. Analysis of archival data implies that the amplitude and frequency of the dominant mode and the stellar radial velocity were variable over time. A binary nature would be inconsistent with the inferred ejection velocity from the Galactic disc of 420 km/s, which is too large to be survivable by a runaway binary system. A kinematic analysis of the star results in an age constraint (23 +- 1 Myr) that can be imposed on asteroseismic modelling and that can be used to remove degeneracies in the modelling process. Our attempts to match the excitation of the observed frequency spectrum resulted in pulsation models that were too young. Hence, asteroseismic studies of runaway pulsators can become vital not only in tracing the evolutionary history of such objects, but to understand the interior structure of massive stars in general. TESS is now opening up these stars for detailed asteroseismic investigation.Comment: accepted for ApJ

Modeling Kepler Observations of Solar-like Oscillations in the Red-giant Star HD 186355

We have analysed oscillations of the red giant star HD 186355 observed by the NASA Kepler satellite. The data consist of the first five quarters of science operations of Kepler, which cover about 13 months. The high-precision time-series data allow us to accurately extract the oscillation frequencies from the power spectrum. We find the frequency of the maximum oscillation power, {\nu}_max, and the mean large frequency separation, {\Delta}{\nu}, are around 106 and 9.4 {\mu}Hz respectively. A regular pattern of radial and non-radial oscillation modes is identified by stacking the power spectra in an echelle diagram. We use the scaling relations of {\Delta}{\nu} and {\nu}_max to estimate the preliminary asteroseismic mass, which is confirmed with the modelling result (M = 1.45 \pm 0.05 M_sun) using the Yale Rotating stellar Evolution Code (YREC7). In addition, we constrain the effective temperature, luminosity and radius from comparisons between observational constraints and models. A number of mixed l = 1 modes are also detected and taken into account in our model comparisons. We find a mean observational period spacing for these mixed modes of about 58 s, suggesting that this red giant branch star is in the shell hydrogen-burning phase.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures and 2 table

Properties of 42 Solar-type Kepler Targets from the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal

Recently the number of main-sequence and subgiant stars exhibiting solar-like oscillations that are resolved into individual mode frequencies has increased dramatically. While only a few such data sets were available for detailed modeling just a decade ago, the Kepler mission has produced suitable observations for hundreds of new targets. This rapid expansion in observational capacity has been accompanied by a shift in analysis and modeling strategies to yield uniform sets of derived stellar properties more quickly and easily. We use previously published asteroseismic and spectroscopic data sets to provide a uniform analysis of 42 solar-type Kepler targets from the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal (AMP). We find that fitting the individual frequencies typically doubles the precision of the asteroseismic radius, mass and age compared to grid-based modeling of the global oscillation properties, and improves the precision of the radius and mass by about a factor of three over empirical scaling relations. We demonstrate the utility of the derived properties with several applications.Comment: 12 emulateapj pages, 9 figures, 1 online-only extended figure, 1 table, ApJS accepted (typo corrected in Eq.8

European patterns of local adaptation planning—a regional analysis

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024.While European regions face a range of different climate hazards, little is known about how these differences affect local climate adaptation planning. We present an analytical framework for evaluating local climate adaptation plans (LCAPs) and apply it to 327 cities in 28 countries across different European regions. To do this, we use statistical methods to identify regional clusters based on overall plan quality, impacts, vulnerable population groups, and sectors addressed by LCAPs. By comparing both geographic and statistical clusters, we found (1) significant spatial heterogeneity across European cities but (2) higher average plan quality scores and more consistent strategies across cities in Central and Eastern Europe. Notably, we found no regional differences regarding (a) the climate impacts and vulnerable communities identified in plans: (b) the most commonly addressed impacts, which were urban temperature and changing precipitation patterns; and (c) the residents that cities identified as most vulnerable, namely older people, women, infants, and the sick. Our study provides a spatial analysis of European LCAPs to uncover regional policy perspectives on local climate adaptation issues. Such approaches can effectively inform broader EU, national and regional strategies that aim to support local adaptation planning in a context of multi-level governance

Polaris the Cepheid returns: 4.5 years of monitoring from ground and space

We present the analysis of 4.5 years of nearly continuous observations of the classical Cepheid Polaris, which comprise the most precise data available for this star. We have made spectroscopic measurements from ground and photometric measurements from the WIRE star tracker and the SMEI instrument on the Coriolis satellite. Measurements of the amplitude of the dominant oscillation (P = 4 days), that go back more than a century, show a decrease from 120 mmag to 30 mmag (V magnitude) around the turn of the millennium. It has been speculated that the reason for the decrease in amplitude is the evolution of Polaris towards the edge of the instability strip. However, our new data reveal an increase in the amplitude by about 30% from 2003-2006. It now appears that the amplitude change is cyclic rather than monotonic, and most likely the result of a pulsation phenomenon. In addition, previous radial velocity campaigns have claimed the detection of long-period variation in Polaris (P > 40 days). Our radial velocity data are more precise than previous datasets, and we find no evidence for additional variation for periods in the range 3-50 days with an upper limit of 100 m/s. However, in the WIRE data we find evidence of variation on time-scales of 2-6 days, which we interpret as being due to granulation.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. 8 pages. Quality of figures 1+3+7 degrade