Accuracy of adults’ recall of childhood social class: findings from the Aberdeen children of the 1950s study

<b>Background</b>: Although adult reported childhood socioeconomic position has been related to health outcomes in many studies, little is known about the validity of such distantly recalled information. This study evaluated the validity of adults’ reports of childhood paternal social class. <b>Methods</b>: Data are drawn from the Aberdeen children of the 1950s study, a cohort of 12 150 people born in Aberdeen (Scotland) who took part in a school based survey in 1962. In this survey, two indices of early life socioeconomic position were collected: occupational social class at birth (abstracted from maternity records) and occupational social class in childhood (reported during the 1962 survey by the study participants). Between 2000 and 2003, a questionnaire was mailed to traced middle aged cohort members in which inquiries were made about their fathers’ occupation when they were aged 12 years. The level of agreement between these reports and prospectively collected data on occupational social class was assessed. <b>Results</b>: In total, 7183 (63.7%) persons responded to the mid-life questionnaire. Agreement was moderate between social class of father recalled in adulthood and that measured in early life ( statistics were 0.47 for social class measured at birth, and 0.56 for social class reported by the child). The relation of occupational social class to birth weight and childhood intelligence was in the expected directions, although weaker for adults’ reports in comparison with prospectively gathered data. <b>Conclusions</b>: In studies of adult disease aetiology, associations between childhood social class based on adult recall of parental occupation and health outcomes are likely to underestimate real effects

Arrival time and magnitude of airborne fission products from the Fukushima, Japan, reactor incident as measured in Seattle, WA, USA

We report results of air monitoring started due to the recent natural catastrophe on 11 March 2011 in Japan and the severe ensuing damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor complex. On 17-18 March 2011, we registered the first arrival of the airborne fission products 131-I, 132-I, 132-Te, 134-Cs, and 137-Cs in Seattle, WA, USA, by identifying their characteristic gamma rays using a germanium detector. We measured the evolution of the activities over a period of 23 days at the end of which the activities had mostly fallen below our detection limit. The highest detected activity amounted to 4.4 +/- 1.3 mBq/m^3 of 131-I on 19-20 March.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, published in Journal of Environmental Radioactivit

Pyrochlore Photons: The U(1) Spin Liquid in a S=1/2 Three-Dimensional Frustrated Magnet

We study the S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the pyrochlore lattice in the limit of strong easy-axis exchange anisotropy. We find, using only standard techniques of degenerate perturbation theory, that the model has a U(1) gauge symmetry generated by certain local rotations about the z-axis in spin space. Upon addition of an extra local interaction in this and a related model with spins on a three-dimensional network of corner-sharing octahedra, we can write down the exact ground state wavefunction with no further approximations. Using the properties of the soluble point we show that these models enter the U(1) spin liquid phase, a novel fractionalized spin liquid with an emergent U(1) gauge structure. This phase supports gapped S^z = 1/2 spinons carrying the U(1) ``electric'' gauge charge, a gapped topological point defect or ``magnetic'' monopole, and a gapless ``photon,'' which in spin language is a gapless, linearly dispersing S^z = 0 collective mode. There are power-law spin correlations with a nontrivial angular dependence, as well as novel U(1) topological order. This state is stable to ALL zero-temperature perturbations and exists over a finite extent of the phase diagram. Using a convenient lattice version of electric-magnetic duality, we develop the effective description of the U(1) spin liquid and the adjacent soluble point in terms of Gaussian quantum electrodynamics and calculate a few of the universal properties. The resulting picture is confirmed by our numerical analysis of the soluble point wavefunction. Finally, we briefly discuss the prospects for understanding this physics in a wider range of models and for making contact with experiments.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures. Further minor changes. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Does CDX2 expression predict Barrett's metaplasia in oesophageal columnar epithelium without goblet cells?

Background: Intestinal metaplasia (Barrett's oesophagus), but not cardiac-type mucosa in columnar-lined oesophagus, is regarded as premalignant. As intestinal metaplasia and cardiac-type mucosa are endoscopically indiscernible, it is difficult to take targeted samples from columnar-lined oesophagus with consequently a risk of having undetected intestinal metaplasia. Aim: To investigate whether the intestinal markers CDX2, MUC2 and villin can predict the presence of undetected intestinal metaplasia in columnar-lined oesophagus. Methods: Presence of intestinal metaplasia or cardiac-type mucosa was identified in 122 biopsy sets of columnar-lined oesophagus from 61 patients, collected at two subsequent follow-up upper endoscopies. CDX2, MUC2 and villin expression were determined by immunohistochemistry. Results: All intestinal metaplasia samples (55) were positive for CDX2 and MUC2 and 32 of 55 for vil

Bounce and cyclic cosmology in extended nonlinear massive gravity

We investigate non-singular bounce and cyclic cosmological evolutions in a universe governed by the extended nonlinear massive gravity, in which the graviton mass is promoted to a scalar-field potential. The extra freedom of the theory can lead to certain energy conditions violations and drive cyclicity with two different mechanisms: either with a suitably chosen scalar-field potential under a given Stuckelberg-scalar function, or with a suitably chosen Stuckelberg-scalar function under a given scalar-field potential. Our analysis shows that extended nonlinear massive gravity can alter significantly the evolution of the universe at both early and late times.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, version published at JCA

Rationale and protocol for the 7- And 8-year longitudinal assessments of eye health in a cohort of young adults in the Raine Study

Introduction Eye diseases and visual impairment more commonly affect elderly adults, thus, the majority of ophthalmic cohort studies have focused on older adults. Cohort studies on the ocular health of younger adults, on the other hand, have been few. The Raine Study is a longitudinal study that has been following a cohort since their birth in 1989-1991. As part of the 20-year follow-up of the Raine Study, participants underwent a comprehensive eye examination. As part of the 27- and 28-year follow-ups, eye assessments are being conducted and the data collected will be compared with those of the 20-year follow-up. This will provide an estimate of population incidence and updated prevalence of ocular conditions such as myopia and keratoconus, as well as longitudinal change in ocular parameters in young Australian adults. Additionally, the data will allow exploration of the environmental, health and genetic factors underlying inter-subject differential long-term ocular changes. Methods and analysis Participants are being contacted via telephone, email and/or social media and invited to participate in the eye examination. At the 27-year follow-up, participants completed a follow-up eye screening, which assessed visual acuity, autorefraction, ocular biometry and ocular sun exposure. Currently, at the 28-year follow-up, a comprehensive eye examination is being conducted which, in addition to all the eye tests performed at the 27-year follow-up visit, includes tonometry, optical coherence tomography, funduscopy and anterior segment topography, among others. Outcome measures include the incidence of refractive error and pterygium, an updated prevalence of these conditions, and the 8-year change in ocular parameters. Ethics and dissemination The Raine Study is registered in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry. The Gen2 20-year, 27-year and 28-year follow-ups are approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Western Australia. Findings resulting from the study will be published in health or medical journals and presented at conferences. Trial registration number ACTRN12617001599369; Active, not recruiting

The path to a better biomarker: Application of a risk management framework for the implementation of PD-L1 and TILs as immuno-oncology biomarkers in breast cancer clinical trials and daily practice

Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies targeting PD-1/PD-L1 are now the standard of care in oncology across several hematologic and solid tumor types, including triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Patients with metastatic or locally advanced TNBC with PD-L1 expression on immune cells occupying 651% of tumor area demonstrated survival benefit with the addition of atezolizumab to nab-paclitaxel. However, concerns regarding variability between immunohistochemical PD-L1 assay performance and inter-reader reproducibility have been raised. High tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have also been associated with response to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in patients with breast cancer (BC). TILs can be easily assessed on hematoxylin and eosin\u2013stained slides and have shown reliable inter-reader reproducibility. As an established prognostic factor in early stage TNBC, TILs are soon anticipated to be reported in daily practice in many pathology laboratories worldwide. Because TILs and PD-L1 are parts of an immunological spectrum in BC, we propose the systematic implementation of combined PD-L1 and TIL analyses as a more comprehensive immuno-oncological biomarker for patient selection for PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition-based therapy in patients with BC. Although practical and regulatory considerations differ by jurisdiction, the pathology community has the responsibility to patients to implement assays that lead to optimal patient selection. We propose herewith a risk-management framework that may help mitigate the risks of suboptimal patient selection for immuno-therapeutic approaches in clinical trials and daily practice based on combined TILs/PD-L1 assessment in BC. \ua9 2020 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Application of a risk-management framework for integration of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in clinical trials

Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are a potential predictive biomarker for immunotherapy response in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). To incorporate sTILs into clinical trials and diagnostics, reliable assessment is essential. In this review, we propose a new concept, namely the implementation of a risk-management framework that enables the use of sTILs as a stratification factor in clinical trials. We present the design of a biomarker risk-mitigation workflow that can be applied to any biomarker incorporation in clinical trials. We demonstrate the implementation of this concept using sTILs as an integral biomarker in a single-center phase II immunotherapy trial for metastatic TNBC (TONIC trial, NCT02499367), using this workflow to mitigate risks of suboptimal inclusion of sTILs in this specific trial. In this review, we demonstrate that a web-based scoring platform can mitigate potential risk factors when including sTILs in clinical trials, and we argue that this framework can be applied for any future biomarker-driven clinical trial setting