Acute Malnutrition and Under-5 Mortality, Northeastern Part of India.

We assessed the prevalence of childhood acute malnutrition and under-five mortality rate (U5MR) in Darbhanga district, India, using a two-stage 49-cluster household survey. A total of 1379 households comprising 8473 people were interviewed. During a 90-day recall period, U5MR was 0.5 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.2-1.4] per 10 000 per day. The prevalence of global acute malnutrition among 1405 children aged 6-59 months was 15.4% (NCHS) and 19.4% (2006 WHO references). This survey suggests that in Darbhanga district, the population is in a borderline food crisis with few food resources. Appropriate strategies should be developed to improve the overall nutritional and health status of children

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017 (IDP2017) is the second publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2016. The IDP2017 includes data from the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Southern and Indian oceans, with about twice the data volume of the previous IDP2014. For the first time, the IDP2017 contains data for a large suite of biogeochemical parameters as well as aerosol and rain data characterising atmospheric trace element and isotope (TEI) sources. The TEI data in the IDP2017 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at crossover stations. The IDP2017 consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 450 TEIs as well as standard hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing an on-line atlas that includes more than 590 section plots and 130 animated 3D scenes. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. Users can download the full data packages or make their own custom selections with a new on-line data extraction service. In addition to the actual data values, the IDP2017 also contains data quality flags and 1-σ data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering and for statistical analysis. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2017 as section plots and rotating 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes combine data from many cruises and provide quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. These 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of tracer plumes near ocean margins or along ridges. The IDP2017 is the result of a truly international effort involving 326 researchers from 25 countries. This publication provides the critical reference for unpublished data, as well as for studies that make use of a large cross-section of data from the IDP2017. This article is part of a special issue entitled: Conway GEOTRACES - edited by Tim M. Conway, Tristan Horner, Yves Plancherel, and Aridane G. González

A mobile visual diary for personal pain management

Back-pain is one of the most prolific health problems within the population and costs industry lost revenue due to the amount of days people have to take off in order to recover. In this paper, we have targeted this problem and suggested a mobile app for visually diarizing the pain experience of patients. The Android platform is utilized and its technology stack forms the basis for this 3D centric application. Positive evaluations obtained provide evidence of the promising nature of the approach and indicate several future directions of research within mobile pain management

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017 (IDP2017) is the second publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2016. The IDP2017 includes data from the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Southern and Indian oceans, with about twice the data volume of the previous IDP2014. For the first time, the IDP2017 contains data for a large suite of biogeochemical parameters as well as aerosol and rain data characterising atmospheric trace element and isotope (TEI) sources. The TEI data in the IDP2017 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at crossover stations. The IDP2017 consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 450 TEIs as well as standard hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing an on-line atlas that includes more than 590 section plots and 130 animated 3D scenes. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. Users can download the full data packages or make their own custom selections with a new on-line data extraction service. In addition to the actual data values, the IDP2017 also contains data quality flags and 1-s data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering and for statistical analysis. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2017 as section plots and rotating 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes combine data from many cruises and provide quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. These 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of tracer plumes near ocean margins or along ridges. The IDP2017 is the result of a truly international effort involving 326 researchers from 25 countries. This publication provides the critical reference for unpublished data, as well as for studies that make use of a large cross-section of data from the IDP2017. This article is part of a special issue entitled: Conway GEOTRACES-edited by Tim M. Conway, Tristan Horner, Yves Plancherel, and Aridane G. Gonzalez

Mitochondrial Toxicogenomics for Antiretroviral Management: HIV Post-exposure Prophylaxis in Uninfected Patients

Background: Mitochondrial genome has been used across multiple fields in research, diagnosis, and toxicogenomics. Several compounds damage mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), including biological and therapeutic agents like the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but also its antiretroviral treatment, leading to adverse clinical manifestations. HIV-infected and treated patients may show impaired mitochondrial and metabolic profile, but specific contribution of viral or treatment toxicity remains elusive. The evaluation of HIV consequences without treatment interference has been performed in naïve (non-treated) patients, but assessment of treatment toxicity without viral interference is usually restricted to in vitro assays. Objective: The objective of the present study is to determine whether antiretroviral treatment without HIV interference can lead to mtDNA disturbances. We studied clinical, mitochondrial, and metabolic toxicity in non-infected healthy patients who received HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent further infection. We assessed two different PEP regimens according to their composition to ascertain if they were the cause of tolerability issues and derived toxicity. Methods: We analyzed reasons for PEP discontinuation and main secondary effects of treatment withdrawal, mtDNA content from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and metabolic profile, before and after 28 days of PEP, in 23 patients classified depending on PEP composition: one protease inhibitor (PI) plus Zidovudine/Lamivudine (PI plus AZT + 3TC; n = 9) or PI plus Tenofovir/Emtricitabine (PI plus TDF + FTC; n = 14). Results: Zidovudine-containing-regimens showed an increased risk for drug discontinuation (RR = 9.33; 95% CI = 1.34-65.23) due to adverse effects of medication related to gastrointestinal complications. In the absence of metabolic disturbances, 4-week PEP containing PI plus AZT + 3TC led to higher mitochondrial toxicity (−17.9 ± 25.8 decrease in mtDNA/nDNA levels) than PI plus TDF + FTC (which increased by 43.2 ± 24.3 units mtDNA/nDNA; p < 0.05 between groups). MtDNA changes showed a significant and negative correlation with baseline alanine transaminase levels (p < 0.05), suggesting that a proper hepatic function may protect from antiretroviral toxicity. Conclusions: In absence of HIV infection, preventive short antiretroviral treatment can cause secondary effects responsible for treatment discontinuation and subclinical mitochondrial damage, especially pyrimidine analogs such as AZT, which still rank as the alternative option and first choice in certain cohorts for PEP. Forthcoming efforts should be focused on launching new strategies with safer clinical and mitotoxic profile

Sonidegib as a Locally Advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma Therapy in Real-life Clinical Setting: A National Multicentre Study

Background: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most prevalent cancer. A minority of BCCs have an aggressive behaviour (laBCC) and may require hedgehog pathway inhibitors such as sonidegib as its treatment. Objective: To describe the use of sonidegib in a large number of patients and provide more data on its real-life efficacy and safety profile.Methods: We conducted a retrospective and multicentric study that included patients treated with sonidegib. Epidemiological, effectiveness and safety data were collected.Results: A total of 82 patients with a mean age of 73.9 years were included. Ten patients had Gorlin syndrome. Median treatment duration was 6 months. Median follow-up duration was 34.2 months. Globally, 81.7% of the patients showed clinical improvement (52.4% partial response and 29.3% complete response), 12.2% clinical stability and 6.1% disease progression. There was no statistically significant difference in clinical improvement between the 24 h and 48 h sonidegib posology. After 6 months of treatment, 48.8% of the patients discontinued sonidegib. Prior vismodegib treatment and recurrent primary BCC were associated with a poorer response to sonidegib. At 6 months of treatment, 68.3% of the patients experienced at least one adverse effect. Conclusion: Sonidegib shows good effectiveness and acceptable safety profile in usual clinical practice.& COPY; 2023 AEDV. Published by Elsevier Espan & SIM;a, S.L.U.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017 (IDP2017) is the second publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2016. The IDP2017 includes data from the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Southern and Indian oceans, with about twice the data volume of the previous IDP2014. For the first time, the IDP2017 contains data for a large suite of biogeochemical parameters as well as aerosol and rain data characterising atmospheric trace element and isotope (TEI) sources. The TEI data in the IDP2017 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at crossover stations. The IDP2017 consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 450 TEIs as well as standard hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing an on-line atlas that includes more than 590 section plots and 130 animated 3D scenes. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. Users can download the full data packages or make their own custom selections with a new on-line data extraction service. In addition to the actual data values, the IDP2017 also contains data quality flags and 1-σ data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering and for statistical analysis. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2017 as section plots and rotating 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes combine data from many cruises and provide quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. These 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of tracer plumes near ocean margins or along ridges. The IDP2017 is the result of a truly international effort involving 326 researchers from 25 countries. This publication provides the critical reference for unpublished data, as well as for studies that make use of a large cross-section of data from the IDP2017. This article is part of a special issue entitled: Conway GEOTRACES - edited by Tim M. Conway, Tristan Horner, Yves Plancherel, and Aridane G. González.We gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) through grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, including grants OCE-0608600, OCE0938349, OCE-1243377, and OCE-1546580. Financial support was also provided by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Ministry of Earth Science of India, the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, l'Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse, the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées Toulouse, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Kiel Excellence Cluster The Future Ocean, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, The University of Tokyo, The University of British Columbia, The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, the GEOMAR-Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and the Alfred Wegener Institut

Celecoxib concentration predicts decrease in prostaglandin E2 concentrations in nipple aspirate fluid from high risk women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epidemiologic studies suggest that long term low dose celecoxib use significantly lowers breast cancer risk. We previously demonstrated that 400 mg celecoxib taken twice daily for 2 weeks lowered circulating plasma and breast nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) prostaglandin (PG)E₂concentrations in post- but not premenopausal high risk women. We hypothesized that circulating concentrations of celecoxib influenced PGE₂response, and that plasma levels of the drug are influenced by menopausal status. To address these hypotheses, the aims of the study were to determine: 1) if circulating plasma concentrations of celecoxib correlated with the change in plasma or NAF PGE₂concentrations from baseline to end of treatment, and 2) whether menopausal status influenced circulating levels of celecoxib.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Matched NAF and plasma were collected from 46 high risk women who were administered celecoxib twice daily for two weeks, 20 subjects receiving 200 mg and 26 subjects 400 mg of the agent. NAF and plasma samples were collected before and 2 weeks after taking celecoxib.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In women taking 400 mg bid celecoxib, plasma concentrations of the agent correlated inversely with the change in NAF PGE₂levels from pre- to posttreatment. Nonsignificant trends toward higher celecoxib levels were observed in post- compared to premenopausal women. There was a significant decrease in NAF but not plasma PGE₂concentrations in postmenopausal women who took 400 mg celecoxib (p = 0.03).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In high risk women taking 400 mg celecoxib twice daily, plasma concentrations of celecoxib correlated with downregulation of PGE₂production by breast tissue. Strategies synergistic with celecoxib to downregulate PGE₂are of interest, in order to minimize the celecoxib dose required to have an effect.</p

Reduction in the risk of human breast cancer by selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic and laboratory investigations suggest that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have chemopreventive effects against breast cancer due to their activity against cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), the rate-limiting enzyme of the prostaglandin cascade. METHODS: We conducted a case control study of breast cancer designed to compare effects of selective and non-selective COX-2 inhibitors. A total of 323 incident breast cancer patients were ascertained from the James Cancer Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, during 2003–2004 and compared with 649 cancer free controls matched to the cases at a 2:1 ratio on age, race, and county of residence. Data on the past and current use of prescription and over the counter medications and breast cancer risk factors were ascertained using a standardized risk factor questionnaire. Effects of COX-2 inhibiting agents were quantified by calculating odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Results showed significant risk reductions for selective COX-2 inhibitors as a group (OR = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.14–0.59), regular aspirin (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.26–0.94), and ibuprofen or naproxen (0.36, 95% CI = 0.18–0.72). Acetaminophen, a compound with negligible COX-2 activity and low dose aspirin (81 mg) produced no significant change in the risk of breast cancer. CONCLUSION: Selective COX-2 inhibitors (celecoxib and rofecoxib) were only recently approved for use in 1999, and rofecoxib (Vioxx) was withdrawn from the marketplace in 2004. Nevertheless, even in the short window of exposure to these compounds, the selective COX-2 inhibitors produced a significant (71%) reduction in the risk of breast cancer, underscoring their strong potential for breast cancer chemoprevention

Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in tumour and stroma compartments in cervical cancer: clinical implications

This study aims at investigating the relationship between cyclooxygenase-2 expression in tumour vs stroma inflammatory compartment and its possible clinical role. The study included 99 stage IB-IV cervical cancer patients: immunostaining of tumour tissue sections was performed with rabbit antiserum against cyclooxygenase-2. CD3, CD4, CD8, CD25, Mast Cell Tryptase monoclonal antibodies were used to characterise stroma inflammatory cells in nine cervical tumours. An inverse relation was found between cyclooxygenase-2 levels (cyclooxygenase-2 IDV) of tumour vs stroma compartment (r=−0.44, P<0.0001). The percentage of cases showing high tumour/stromal cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio was significantly higher in patients who did not respond to treatment (93.3%) with respect to patients with partial (60.5%), and complete (43.7%) response (P= 0.009). Cases with a high tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio had a shorter overall survival rate than cases with a low tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV (P<0.0001). In the multivariate analysis advanced stage and the status of tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio retained an independent negative prognostic role. The proportion of CD3+, CD4+, and CD25+ cells was significantly lower in tumours with high tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio, while a higher percentage of mast cells was detected in tumours showing high tumour/stroma cyclooxygenase-2 IDV ratio. Our study showed the usefulness of assessing cyclooxygenase-2 status both in tumour and stroma compartment in order to identify cervical cancer patients endowed with a very poor chance of response to neoadjuvant therapy and unfavourable prognosis