Risk of Cancer After Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer share several risk factors. Although preclinical models show that various types of CVD can accelerate cancer progression, clinical studies have not determined the impact of atherosclerosis on cancer risk. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine whether CVD, especially atherosclerotic CVD, is independently associated with incident cancer. METHODS: Using IBM MarketScan claims data from over 130 million individuals, 27 million cancer-free subjects with a minimum of 36 months of follow-up data were identified. Individuals were stratified by presence or absence of CVD, time-varying analysis with multivariable adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors was performed, and cumulative risk of cancer was calculated. Additional analyses were performed according to CVD type (atherosclerotic vs nonatherosclerotic) and cancer subtype. RESULTS: Among 27,195,088 individuals, those with CVD were 13% more likely to develop cancer than those without CVD (HR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.12-1.13). Results were more pronounced for individuals with atherosclerotic CVD (aCVD), who had a higher risk of cancer than those without CVD (HR: 1.20; 95% CI: 1.19-1.21). aCVD also conferred a higher risk of cancer compared with those with nonatherosclerotic CVD (HR: 1.11; 95% CI: 1.11-1.12). Cancer subtype analyses showed specific associations of aCVD with several malignancies, including lung, bladder, liver, colon, and other hematologic cancers. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with CVD have an increased risk of developing cancer compared with those without CVD. This association may be driven in part by the relationship of atherosclerosis with specific cancer subtypes, which persists after controlling for conventional risk factors

Genomic prediction of dry matter intake in dairy cattle from an international data set consisting of research herds in Europe, North America, and Australasia

peer-reviewedFinancial support for gDMI from CRV (Arnhem, the Netherlands), ICBF (Cork, Ireland), CONAFE (Madrid, Spain), DairyCo (Warwickshire, UK) directly to the gDMI consortium, and The Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and DairyGen Council of Canadian Dairy Network (Guelph, ON, Canada) is gratefully appreciated, as well as the EU FP7 IRSES SEQSEL (Grant no. 317697).With the aim of increasing the accuracy of genomic estimated breeding values for dry matter intake (DMI) in Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle, data from 10 research herds in Europe, North America, and Australasia were combined. The DMI records were available on 10,701 parity 1 to 5 records from 6,953 cows, as well as on 1,784 growing heifers. Predicted DMI at 70 d in milk was used as the phenotype for the lactating animals, and the average DMI measured during a 60- to 70-d test period at approximately 200 d of age was used as the phenotype for the growing heifers. After editing, there were 583,375 genetic markers obtained from either actual high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes or imputed from 54,001 marker SNP genotypes. Genetic correlations between the populations were estimated using genomic REML. The accuracy of genomic prediction was evaluated for the following scenarios: (1) within-country only, by fixing the correlations among populations to zero, (2) using near-unity correlations among populations and assuming the same trait in each population, and (3) a sharing data scenario using estimated genetic correlations among populations. For these 3 scenarios, the data set was divided into 10 sub-populations stratified by progeny group of sires; 9 of these sub-populations were used (in turn) for the genomic prediction and the tenth was used for calculation of the accuracy (correlation adjusted for heritability). A fourth scenario to quantify the benefit for countries that do not record DMI was investigated (i.e., having an entire country as the validation population and excluding this country in the development of the genomic predictions). The optimal scenario, which was sharing data, resulted in a mean prediction accuracy of 0.44, ranging from 0.37 (Denmark) to 0.54 (the Netherlands). Assuming near-unity among-country genetic correlations, the mean accuracy of prediction dropped to 0.40, and the mean within-country accuracy was 0.30. If no records were available in a country, the accuracy based on the other populations ranged from 0.23 to 0.53 for the milking cows, but were only 0.03 and 0.19 for Australian and New Zealand heifers, respectively; the overall mean prediction accuracy was 0.37. Therefore, there is a benefit in collaboration, because phenotypic information for DMI from other countries can be used to augment the accuracy of genomic evaluations of individual countries.financial support for gDMI from CRV (Arnhem, the Netherlands), ICBF (Cork, Ireland), CONAFE (Madrid, Spain), DairyCo (Warwickshire, UK) directly to the gDMI consortium, and The Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and DairyGen Council of Canadian Dairy Network (Guelph, ON, Canada) is gratefully appreciated, as well as the EU FP7 IRSES SEQSEL (Grant no. 317697).financial support for gDMI from CRV (Arnhem, the Netherlands), ICBF (Cork, Ireland), CONAFE (Madrid, Spain), DairyCo (Warwickshire, UK) directly to the gDMI consortium, and The Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and DairyGen Council of Canadian Dairy Network (Guelph, ON, Canada) is gratefully appreciated, as well as the EU FP7 IRSES SEQSEL (Grant no. 317697)

Increasing long-acting reversible contraceptives: the Australian Contraceptive ChOice pRoject (ACCORd) cluster randomized trial

BACKGROUND: Long-active reversible contraceptives reduce unintended pregnancy and abortions, but uptake is low. Interventions to increase uptake in family medicine settings are untested. OBJECTIVE: The Australian Contraceptive ChOice pRoject, which was adapted from the successful US Contraceptive CHOICE study, aimed to evaluate whether a complex intervention in family medicine practices resulted in increased long-active reversible contraceptive uptake. STUDY DESIGN: This cluster randomized controlled trial was set in family practices in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. From April 2016 to January 2017, we recruited 57 family physicians by mail invitation. Each family physician aimed to recruit at least 14 female patients. Eligible family physicians worked ≥3 sessions per week in computerized practices. Eligible women were English-speaking, sexually active, not pregnant, not planning a pregnancy in the next year, 16-45 years old, and interested in discussing contraception or in starting a new, reversible method. With the use of a randomization sequence with permuted blocks that were stratified by whether the family physician performed long-active reversible contraceptive insertion or not, family physicians were assigned randomly to a complex intervention that involved training to provide structured effectiveness-based contraceptive counselling and access to rapid referral to long-active reversible contraceptive insertion clinics. The 6-hour, online educational intervention was based on the US Contraceptive CHOICE Project and adapted for the Australian context. The control family physicians received neither the educational intervention nor access to the long-active reversible contraceptive rapid referral clinics and conducted their usual contraception counselling. We used the chi-square test, which was adjusted for clustering and stratification by whether the family physician inserted long-active reversible contraceptives, and binary regression models with generalized estimating equations and robust standard errors to compare, between the intervention and control groups, the proportions of women who had a long-active reversible contraceptive inserted. The primary outcome was the proportion of women with long-active reversible contraceptives that were inserted at 4 weeks. Secondary outcomes included women’s choice of contraceptive method, quality of life, and long-active reversible contraceptive use at 6 and 12 months. Analyses were performed according to intention-to-treat. RESULTS: A total of 25 intervention and 32 control family physicians recruited 307 and 433 women, respectively (N=740). Within 4 weeks, 19.3% of women in the intervention group and 12.9% of women in the control group had long-active reversible contraceptive inserted (relative risk, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-3.9; P=.033). By 6 months, this number had risen to 44.4% and 29.3%, respectively (relative risk, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-2.17; P=.001); by 12 months, it had risen to 46.6% and 32.8%, respectively (relative risk, 1.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-2.0; P=.0015). The levonorgestrel intrauterine system was the most commonly chosen long-active reversible contraceptive by women in the intervention group at all time points. Differences between intervention and control groups in mean quality-of-life scores across all domains at 6 and 12 months were small. CONCLUSION: A complex intervention combination of family physician training on contraceptive effectiveness counselling and rapid access to long-active reversible contraceptive insertion clinics resulted in greater long-active reversible contraceptive uptake and has the potential to reduce unintended pregnancies

Measurement of Angular Distributions and R= sigma_L/sigma_T in Diffractive Electroproduction of rho^0 Mesons

Production and decay angular distributions were extracted from measurements of exclusive electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson over a range in the virtual photon negative four-momentum squared 0.5< Q^2 <4 GeV^2 and the photon-nucleon invariant mass range 3.8< W <6.5 GeV. The experiment was performed with the HERMES spectrometer, using a longitudinally polarized positron beam and a ^3He gas target internal to the HERA e^{+-} storage ring. The event sample combines rho^0 mesons produced incoherently off individual nucleons and coherently off the nucleus as a whole. The distributions in one production angle and two angles describing the rho^0 -> pi+ pi- decay yielded measurements of eight elements of the spin-density matrix, including one that had not been measured before. The results are consistent with the dominance of helicity-conserving amplitudes and natural parity exchange. The improved precision achieved at 47 GeV, reveals evidence for an energy dependence in the ratio R of the longitudinal to transverse cross sections at constant Q^2.Comment: 15 pages, 15 embedded figures, LaTeX for SVJour(epj) document class Revision: Fig. 15 corrected, recent data added to Figs. 10,12,14,15; minor changes to tex

Spatio-temporal Models of Lymphangiogenesis in Wound Healing

Several studies suggest that one possible cause of impaired wound healing is failed or insufficient lymphangiogenesis, that is the formation of new lymphatic capillaries. Although many mathematical models have been developed to describe the formation of blood capillaries (angiogenesis), very few have been proposed for the regeneration of the lymphatic network. Lymphangiogenesis is a markedly different process from angiogenesis, occurring at different times and in response to different chemical stimuli. Two main hypotheses have been proposed: 1) lymphatic capillaries sprout from existing interrupted ones at the edge of the wound in analogy to the blood angiogenesis case; 2) lymphatic endothelial cells first pool in the wound region following the lymph flow and then, once sufficiently populated, start to form a network. Here we present two PDE models describing lymphangiogenesis according to these two different hypotheses. Further, we include the effect of advection due to interstitial flow and lymph flow coming from open capillaries. The variables represent different cell densities and growth factor concentrations, and where possible the parameters are estimated from biological data. The models are then solved numerically and the results are compared with the available biological literature.Comment: 29 pages, 9 Figures, 6 Tables (39 figure files in total

Observation of a Coherence Length Effect in Exclusive Rho^0 Electroproduction

Exclusive incoherent electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson from 1H, 2H, 3He, and 14N targets has been studied by the HERMES experiment at squared four-momentum transfer Q**2>0.4 GeV**2 and positron energy loss nu from 9 to 20 GeV. The ratio of the 14N to 1H cross sections per nucleon, known as the nuclear transparency, was found to decrease with increasing coherence length of quark-antiquark fluctuations of the virtual photon. The data provide clear evidence of the interaction of the quark- antiquark fluctuations with the nuclear medium.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 3 figure

Determination of the Deep Inelastic Contribution to the Generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn Integral for the Proton and Neutron

The virtual photon absorption cross section differences [sigma_1/2-sigma_3/2] for the proton and neutron have been determined from measurements of polarised cross section asymmetries in deep inelastic scattering of 27.5 GeV longitudinally polarised positrons from polarised 1H and 3He internal gas targets. The data were collected in the region above the nucleon resonances in the kinematic range nu < 23.5 GeV and 0.8 GeV**2 < Q**2 < 12 GeV**2. For the proton the contribution to the generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn integral was found to be substantial and must be included for an accurate determination of the full integral. Furthermore the data are consistent with a QCD next-to-leading order fit based on previous deep inelastic scattering data. Therefore higher twist effects do not appear significant.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, revte

Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging of Low Galactic Latitude Fields: Technical Summary and Data Release

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) mosaic camera and telescope have obtained five-band optical-wavelength imaging near the Galactic plane outside of the nominal survey boundaries. These additional data were obtained during commissioning and subsequent testing of the SDSS observing system, and they provide unique wide-area imaging data in regions of high obscuration and star formation, including numerous young stellar objects, Herbig-Haro objects and young star clusters. Because these data are outside the Survey regions in the Galactic caps, they are not part of the standard SDSS data releases. This paper presents imaging data for 832 square degrees of sky (including repeats), in the star-forming regions of Orion, Taurus, and Cygnus. About 470 square degrees are now released to the public, with the remainder to follow at the time of SDSS Data Release 4. The public data in Orion include the star-forming region NGC 2068/NGC 2071/HH24 and a large part of Barnard's loop.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures (3 missing to save space), accepted by AJ, in press, see http://photo.astro.princeton.edu/oriondatarelease for data and paper with all figure

The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

Randomised, open-label, phase II study of Gemcitabine with and without IMM-101 for advanced pancreatic cancer

Background: Immune Modulation and Gemcitabine Evaluation-1, a randomised, open-label, phase II, first-line, proof of concept study (NCT01303172), explored safety and tolerability of IMM-101 (heat-killed Mycobacterium obuense; NCTC 13365) with gemcitabine (GEM) in advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Methods: Patients were randomised (2 : 1) to IMM-101 (10 mg ml−l intradermally)+GEM (1000 mg m−2 intravenously; n=75), or GEM alone (n=35). Safety was assessed on frequency and incidence of adverse events (AEs). Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall response rate (ORR) were collected. Results: IMM-101 was well tolerated with a similar rate of AE and serious adverse event reporting in both groups after allowance for exposure. Median OS in the intent-to-treat population was 6.7 months for IMM-101+GEM v 5.6 months for GEM; while not significant, the hazard ratio (HR) numerically favoured IMM-101+GEM (HR, 0.68 (95% CI, 0.44–1.04, P=0.074). In a pre-defined metastatic subgroup (84%), OS was significantly improved from 4.4 to 7.0 months in favour of IMM-101+GEM (HR, 0.54, 95% CI 0.33–0.87, P=0.01). Conclusions: IMM-101 with GEM was as safe and well tolerated as GEM alone, and there was a suggestion of a beneficial effect on survival in patients with metastatic disease. This warrants further evaluation in an adequately powered confirmatory study