446 research outputs found
Interaction between alcohol dehydrogenase II gene, alcohol consumption, and risk for breast cancer
MaeIII Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism in exon 3 of the alcohol dehydrogenase II was assessed in serum from 467 randomly selected German women and 278 women with invasive breast cancer to evaluate the interaction between a polymorphism of the alcohol dehydrogenase II gene, alcohol consumption and risk for breast cancer. In both groups, usual consumption of different alcoholic beverages was asked for using semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires. We used multivariable logistic regression to separately estimate the association between alcohol consumption and alcohol dehydrogenase II polymorphism in the population sample and women with breast cancer. The alcohol dehydrogenase II polymorphism was detected in 14 women from the population sample (3.0%) and in 27 women with invasive breast cancer (9.7%). Frequency of alcohol consumption was independent of the genotype in the population sample. In women with breast cancer, there was a significant inverse association between the alcohol dehydrogenase II polymorphism and frequency of alcohol consumption (adjusted case-only odds ratio over increasing frequency of alcohol consumption=0.5; P for interaction=0.02). We observed a gene-environment interaction between the alcohol dehydrogenase II polymorphism, alcohol consumption, and risk for breast cancer. Breast cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption may vary according to the alcohol dehydrogenase II polymorphism, probably due to differences in alcohol metabolism
Pancreatic hyperamylasemia during acute gastroenteritis: incidence and clinical relevance
BACKGROUND: Many case reports of acute pancreatitis have been reported but, up to now, pancreatic abnormalities during acute gastroenteritis have not been studied prospectively. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the incidence and the clinical significance of hyperamylasemia in 507 consecutive adult patients with acute gastroenteritis. METHODS: The clinical significance of hyperamylasemia, related predisposing factors and severity of gastroenteritis were assessed. RESULTS: Hyperamylasemia was detected in 10.2 % of patients studied. Although amylasemia was found over four times the normal values in three cases, the clinical features of acute pancreatitis were recorded in only one case (0.1%). Hyperamylasemia was more likely (17%) where a microorganism could be identified in the stools (p < 0.01). Among patients with positive stool samples, Salmonella spp. and in particular S. enteritidis, was the microorganism most frequently associated with hyperamylasemia [17/84 (20.2 %) and 10/45 (22.2%), respectively], followed by Rotavirus, Clostridium difficile and Campylobacter spp. Patients with hyperamylasemia had more severe gastroenteritis with an increased incidence of fever (80 % vs 50.6 %, O.R. 3.0; P < 0.01), dehydration (18% vs 8.5%; O.R. 2.5; P < 0.05), and a higher mean number of evacuations per day (9.2 vs 7.5; P < 0.05) than those with amylasemia in the normal range. Hyperamylasemia was significantly associated with cholelithiasis, (30.0 % vs 10.7%, O.R. 3.5; P < 0.01) and chronic gastritis or duodenal ulceration (22.0 % vs 10.2%, O.R. 2.4, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Hyperamylasemia is relatively frequent, and is associated with severe gastroenteritis. However, acute pancreatitis in the setting of acute gastroenteritis, is a rare event
Studying the Underlying Event in Drell-Yan and High Transverse Momentum Jet Production at the Tevatron
We study the underlying event in proton-antiproton collisions by examining
the behavior of charged particles (transverse momentum pT > 0.5 GeV/c,
pseudorapidity |\eta| < 1) produced in association with large transverse
momentum jets (~2.2 fb-1) or with Drell-Yan lepton-pairs (~2.7 fb-1) in the
Z-boson mass region (70 < M(pair) < 110 GeV/c2) as measured by CDF at 1.96 TeV
center-of-mass energy. We use the direction of the lepton-pair (in Drell-Yan
production) or the leading jet (in high-pT jet production) in each event to
define three regions of \eta-\phi space; toward, away, and transverse, where
\phi is the azimuthal scattering angle. For Drell-Yan production (excluding the
leptons) both the toward and transverse regions are very sensitive to the
underlying event. In high-pT jet production the transverse region is very
sensitive to the underlying event and is separated into a MAX and MIN
transverse region, which helps separate the hard component (initial and
final-state radiation) from the beam-beam remnant and multiple parton
interaction components of the scattering. The data are corrected to the
particle level to remove detector effects and are then compared with several
QCD Monte-Carlo models. The goal of this analysis is to provide data that can
be used to test and improve the QCD Monte-Carlo models of the underlying event
that are used to simulate hadron-hadron collisions.Comment: Submitted to Phys.Rev.
Precision measurement of the top quark mass from dilepton events at CDF II
We report a measurement of the top quark mass, M_t, in the dilepton decay
channel of
using an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb^{-1} of p\bar{p} collisions collected
with the CDF II detector. We apply a method that convolutes a leading-order
matrix element with detector resolution functions to form event-by-event
likelihoods; we have enhanced the leading-order description to describe the
effects of initial-state radiation. The joint likelihood is the product of the
likelihoods from 78 candidate events in this sample, which yields a measurement
of M_{t} = 164.5 \pm 3.9(\textrm{stat.}) \pm 3.9(\textrm{syst.})
\mathrm{GeV}/c^2, the most precise measurement of M_t in the dilepton channel.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, version includes changes made prior to
publication by journa
Measurement of the Ratios of Branching Fractions B(Bs -> Ds pi pi pi) / B(Bd -> Dd pi pi pi) and B(Bs -> Ds pi) / B(Bd -> Dd pi)
Using 355 pb^-1 of data collected by the CDF II detector in \ppbar collisions
at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron, we study the fully
reconstructed hadronic decays B -> D pi and B -> D pi pi pi. We present the
first measurement of the ratio of branching fractions B(Bs -> Ds pi pi pi) /
B(Bd -> Dd pi pi pi) = 1.05 pm 0.10 (stat) pm 0.22 (syst). We also update our
measurement of B(Bs -> Ds pi) / B(Bd -> Dd pi) to 1.13 pm 0.08 (stat) pm 0.23
(syst) improving the statistical uncertainty by more than a factor of two. We
find B(Bs -> Ds pi) = [3.8 pm 0.3 (stat) pm 1.3 (syst)] \times 10^{-3} and B(Bs
-> Ds pi pi pi) = [8.4 pm 0.8 (stat) pm 3.2 (syst)] \times 10^{-3}.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Cross Section Measurements of High- Dilepton Final-State Processes Using a Global Fitting Method
We present a new method for studying high- dilepton events
(, , ) and simultaneously
extracting the production cross sections of , , and p\bar{p} \to \ztt at a center-of-mass energy of TeV. We perform a likelihood fit to the dilepton data in a parameter
space defined by the missing transverse energy and the number of jets in the
event. Our results, which use of data recorded with the CDF
II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, are pb, pb, and
\sigma(\ztt) =291^{+50}_{-46} pb.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, to be submitted to PRD-R
Measurement of the Dipion Mass Spectrum in X(3872) -> J/Psi Pi+ Pi- Decays
We measure the dipion mass spectrum in X(3872)--> J/Psi Pi+ Pi- decays using
360 pb-1 of pbar-p collisions at 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector.
The spectrum is fit with predictions for odd C-parity (3S1, 1P1, and 3DJ)
charmonia decaying to J/Psi Pi+ Pi-, as well as even C-parity states in which
the pions are from Rho0 decay. The latter case also encompasses exotic
interpretations, such as a D0-D*0Bar molecule. Only the 3S1 and J/Psi Rho
hypotheses are compatible with our data. Since 3S1 is untenable on other
grounds, decay via J/Psi Rho is favored, which implies C=+1 for the X(3872).
Models for different J/Psi-Rho angular momenta L are considered. Flexibility in
the models, especially the introduction of Rho-Omega interference, enable good
descriptions of our data for both L=0 and 1.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures -- Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Top Quark Mass Measurement from Dilepton Events at CDF II with the Matrix-Element Method
We describe a measurement of the top quark mass using events with two charged
leptons collected by the CDF II detector from collisions with TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The likelihood in top mass is
calculated for each event by convoluting the leading order matrix element
describing
with detector resolution functions. The presence of background events in the
data sample is modeled using similar calculations involving the matrix elements
for major background processes. In a data sample with integrated luminosity of
340 pb, we observe 33 candidate events and measure This
measurement represents the first application of this method to events with two
charged leptons and is the most precise single measurement of the top quark
mass in this channel.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figure
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