Bounds in Competing Risks Models and the War on Cancer

In 1971 President Nixon declared war on cancer and increased the federal funds allocated to cancer research dramatically. Thirty years later, many have declared this war a failure. Overall cancer statistics confirm this view: age-adjusted mortality in 2000 was essentially unchanged from the early 1970s. At the same time, age-adjusted mortality rates from cardiovascular disease have fallen quite dramatically. Since the causes underlying cancer and cardiovascular disease are likely to be correlated, the decline in mortality rates from cardiovascular disease may be somewhat responsible for the rise in cancer mortality. It is natural to model mortality with more than one cause of death as a competing risks model. Such models are fundamentally unidentified, and it is therefore difficult to get a clear picture of the progress in cancer. This paper derives bounds for aspects of the underlying distributions under a number of different assumptions. Most importantly, we do not assume that the underlying risks are independent, and impose weak parametric assumptions in order to obtain identification. The theoretical contribution of the paper is to provide a framework to estimate competing risk models with interval data and discrete explanatory variables, both of which are common in empirical applications. We use our method to estimate changes in cancer and cardiovascular mortality since 1970. The estimated bounds for the effect of time on the duration until death for either cause are fairly tight and we find that trends in cancer show much larger improvements than previously estimated. For example, we find that time until death from cancer increased by about 10% for white males and 20% for white women.

Bounds in Competing Risks Models and the War on Cancer

Competing risks models are fundamentally unidentified. This paper derives bounds for aspects of the underlying distributions under a number of different assumptions. These bounds are then applied to mortality data from the US. We find that trends in cancer show much larger improvements than was previously estimated.Bounds; Competing Risks; Cancer

Pau-rosa - Aniba rosaeodora Ducke.

Pau-rosa: distribuição geográfica; variabilidade, silvicultura, produtividade no Estado do Amazonas (Brasil).bitstream/CPAA-2009-09/4322/1/Folder_Pau-rosa.pd

O potencial das palmeiras tropicais no Brasil: acertos e fracassos das últimas décadas.

Palmeiras oleaginosas. Palmeiras para alimentação. Palmeiras para palmito. Palmeiras para cosméticos

Considerações sobre distribuição geográfica e taxonomia do guaraná (Paullinia cupana var. Sorbilis) e taxa afins na Amazônia.

Aspectos taxonômicos. Algumas características das espécies da seção Pleuroto echus, no gênero Paullinia. Distribuição geográfica

Quantitative interaction mapping reveals an extended UBX domain in ASPL that disrupts functional p97 hexamers

Interaction mapping is a powerful strategy to elucidate the biological function of protein assemblies and their regulators. Here, we report the generation of a quantitative interaction network, directly linking 14 human proteins to the AAA+ ATPase p97, an essential hexameric protein with multiple cellular functions. We show that the high-affinity interacting protein ASPL efficiently promotes p97 hexamer disassembly, resulting in the formation of stable p97:ASPL heterotetramers. High-resolution structural and biochemical studies indicate that an extended UBX domain (eUBX) in ASPL is critical for p97 hexamer disassembly and facilitates the assembly of p97:ASPL heterotetramers. This spontaneous process is accompanied by a reorientation of the D2 ATPase domain in p97 and a loss of its activity. Finally, we demonstrate that overproduction of ASPL disrupts p97 hexamer function in ERAD and that engineered eUBX polypeptides can induce cell death, providing a rationale for developing anti-cancer polypeptide inhibitors that may target p97 activity

Ecofisiologia de plantas da Amazônia. 2 - Anatomia foliar e ecofisiologia de Bertholletia excelsa Humb. & Benpl. (Castanha-do-pará) - Lecythidaceae.

Anatomical variations of the leaves of Bertholletia excelsa (Brazil nut) collected at different heights of the same tree are presented here. The results agree with the postulates proposed in Zalenski's Law. It was found that from the base to the canopy of the tree (as conditions gradually become more xeric) the number of stomata/mm2 increased, the mesophyll became thicker, the leaves decreased in size, and the number of vessels increased. Our results were somewhat different from what was found in Pogonophora schomburgkiana (Leite & Lieras, 1978) where the statiscally significant differences were between the basal-middle strata, whereas in Bertholletia they were between the middle and canopy strata. This was taken to reflect differences in growing conditions and not in the mechanism of phenotypic variation (allthough we do not wish to imply that there is no difference). Comparison of the results here presented with those of Medri (1977) for Hevea brasiliensis suggests that this species is phenotypically more plastic (for leaves) than Bertolletia excelsa as in general, characters varied in a wider range. It is suggested that some phenotypically highly sensitive species may, in time, be used as bio-indicators.", 'enVariações anatômicas nas folhas de Bertholletia excelsa (Castanha-do-pará) coletadas a diferentes alturas da mesma árvore são apresentadas aqui. Encontrou-se que da base para a copa da árvore (com as condições tornando-se gradualmente mais xéricas) o número de estômatos/mm2 aumentou, o mesófilo tornou-se mais espesso, as folhas diminuíram de tamanho e o número de vasos aumentou. Estes resultados diferem do que foi encontrado para Pogonophora schomburgkiana (Leite & Lleras, 1978) onde as diferenças estatisticamente significantes foram entre os estratos basal e médio, enquanto em Bertholletia foram entre os estratos médio e apical. Isto foi considerado como refletindo diferenças em condições de crescimento e não no mecanismo de variação fenotípica (porém, não quer isso implicar que não exista esta diferença). Comparação dos resultados aqui apresentados com os de Medri (1977) para Hevea brasiliensis, sugere que esta espécie é fenotipicamente mais plástica (em folhas) que Bertholletia excelsa, pois em geral os caracteres apresentaram uma faixa de variação mais ampla. Sugere-se que algumas espécies de alta sensitividade fenotípica poderão, com o tempo, ser utilizadas como bioindicadores