The impact of young age on cancer-specific and non-cancer-related survival after surgery for colorectal cancer: 10-year follow-up

<b>Background</b>: It has been reported that although young patients present with more advanced disease, when adjusted for stage, cancer-specific survival is not different after surgery for colorectal cancer. However, few studies have examined non-cancer survival in young patients and 10-year survival has rarely been reported. Moreover, the largest study included patients of old age as a comparator. The aim of this study was to compare cancer-specific and non-cancer-related survival at 10 years in a young age cohort and a middle age cohort in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer. <b>Methods</b>: Two thousand and seventy seven patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer between 1991 and 1994 in 11 hospitals in Scotland were included in the study. Ten-year cancer-specific and non-cancer-related survival and the hazard ratios (HR) were calculated according to age groups (<45/45–54/55–64/65–74 years). <b>Results</b>: On follow-up, 1066 patients died of their cancer and 369 died of non-cancer-related causes. At 10 years, overall survival was 32%, cancer-specific was 45%, and non-cancer-related survival was 72%. On multivariate analysis of all factors, sex (HR 0.77, 95% CI 0.68–0.88, P<0.001), mode of presentation (HR 1.64, 95% CI 1.44–1.87, P<0.01), Dukes' stage (HR 2.69, 95% CI 2.49–2.90, P<0.001), and specialisation (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.04–1.44, P<0.01) were independently associated with cancer-specific survival. On multivariate analysis of all factors, age (HR 2.46, 2.04–2.97, P<0.001), sex (HR 0.56, 0.45–0.70, P<0.001), and deprivation (HR 1.16, 1.10–1.24, P<0.001) were independently associated with non-cancer-related survival. <b>Conclusion</b>: The results of this study confirm that young age does not have a negative impact on cancer-specific survival. Moreover, they show that, with 10-year follow-up, young age does not have a negative impact on non-cancer-related survival

Oxidative Stress Impairs the Heat Stress Response and Delays Unfolded Protein Recovery

Background: Environmental changes, air pollution and ozone depletion are increasing oxidative stress, and global warming threatens health by heat stress. We now face a high risk of simultaneous exposure to heat and oxidative stress. However, there have been few studies investigating their combined adverse effects on cell viability. Principal Findings: Pretreatment of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) specifically and highly sensitized cells to heat stress, and enhanced loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. H 2O 2 exposure impaired the HSP40/HSP70 induction as heat shock response (HSR) and the unfolded protein recovery, and enhanced eIF2a phosphorylation and/or XBP1 splicing, land marks of ER stress. These H2O2-mediated effects mimicked enhanced heat sensitivity in HSF1 knockdown or knockout cells. Importantly, thermal preconditioning blocked H 2O 2–mediated inhibitory effects on refolding activity and rescued HSF1 +/+ MEFs, but neither blocked the effects nor rescued HSF1-/- MEFs. These data strongly suggest that inhibition of HSR and refolding activity is crucial for H2O2–mediated enhanced heat sensitivity. Conclusions: H2O2 blocks HSR and refolding activity under heat stress, thereby leading to insufficient quality control and enhancing ER stress. These uncontrolled stress responses may enhance cell death. Our data thus highlight oxidative stres

Can Volunteer Community Health Workers Decrease Child Morbidity and Mortality in Southwestern Uganda? An Impact Evaluation

BACKGROUND: The potential for community health workers to improve child health in sub-Saharan Africa is not well understood. Healthy Child Uganda implemented a volunteer community health worker child health promotion model in rural Uganda. An impact evaluation was conducted to assess volunteer community health workers' effect on child morbidity, mortality and to calculate volunteer retention. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two volunteer community health workers were selected, trained and promoted child health in each of 116 villages (population ∼61,000) during 2006-2009. Evaluation included a household survey of mothers at baseline and post-intervention in intervention/control areas, retrospective reviews of community health worker birth/child death reports and post-intervention focus group discussions. Retention was calculated from administrative records. Main outcomes were prevalence of recent child illness/underweight status, community health worker reports of child deaths, focus group perception of effect, and community health worker retention. After 18-36 months, 86% of trained volunteers remained active. Post-intervention surveys in intervention households revealed absolute reductions of 10.2% [95%CI (-17.7%, -2.6%)] in diarrhea prevalence and 5.8% [95%CI (-11.5%, -0.003%)] in fever/malaria; comparative decreases in control households were not statistically significant. Underweight prevalence was reduced by 5.1% [95%CI (-10.7%, 0.4%)] in intervention households. Community health worker monthly reports revealed a relative decline of 53% in child deaths (<5 years old), during the first 18 months of intervention. Focus groups credited community health workers with decreasing child deaths, improved care-seeking practices, and new income-generating opportunities. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A low-cost child health promotion model using volunteer community health workers demonstrated decreased child morbidity, dramatic mortality trend declines and high volunteer retention. This sustainable model could be scaled-up to sub-Saharan African communities with limited resources and high child health needs

Localized-Statistical Quantification of Human Serum Proteome Associated with Type 2 Diabetes

BACKGROUND: Recent advances in proteomics have shed light to discover serum proteins or peptides as biomarkers for tracking the progression of diabetes as well as understanding molecular mechanisms of the disease. RESULTS: In this work, human serum of non-diabetic and diabetic cohorts was analyzed by proteomic approach. To analyze total 1377 high-confident serum-proteins, we developed a computing strategy called localized statistics of protein abundance distribution (LSPAD) to calculate a significant bias of a particular protein-abundance between these two cohorts. As a result, 68 proteins were found significantly over-represented in the diabetic serum (p<0.01). In addition, a pathway-associated analysis was developed to obtain the overall pathway bias associated with type 2 diabetes, from which the significant over-representation of complement system associated with type 2 diabetes was uncovered. Moreover, an up-stream activator of complement pathway, ficolin-3, was observed over-represented in the serum of type 2 diabetic patients, which was further validated with statistic significance (p = 0.012) with more clinical samples. CONCLUSIONS: The developed LSPAD approach is well fit for analyzing proteomic data derived from biological complex systems such as plasma proteome. With LSPAD, we disclosed the comprehensive distribution of the proteins associated with diabetes in different abundance levels and the involvement of ficolin-related complement activation in diabetes

Directed Self-Assembly: Expectations and Achievements

Nanotechnology has been a revolutionary thrust in recent years of development of science and technology for its broad appeal for employing a novel idea for relevant technological applications in particular and for mass-scale production and marketing as common man commodity in general. An interesting aspect of this emergent technology is that it involves scientific research community and relevant industries alike. Top–down and bottom–up approaches are two broad division of production of nanoscale materials in general. However, both the approaches have their own limits as far as large-scale production and cost involved are concerned. Therefore, novel new techniques are desired to be developed to optimize production and cost. Directed self-assembly seems to be a promising technique in this regard; which can work as a bridge between the top–down and bottom–up approaches. This article reviews how directed self-assembly as a technique has grown up and outlines its future prospects

Consumer–brand identification revisited: An integrative framework of brand identification, customer satisfaction, and price image and their role for brand loyalty and word of mouth

Consumer–brand identification has received considerable attraction among scholars and practitioners in recent years. We contribute to previous research by proposing an integrative model that includes consumer–brand identification, customer satisfaction, and price image to investigate the interrelationships among these constructs as well as their effects on brand loyalty and positive word of mouth. To provide general results, we empirically test the model using a sample of 1443 respondents from a representative consumer panel and 10 service/product brands. The results demonstrate that identification, satisfaction, and price image significantly influence both loyalty and word of mouth. Moreover, we find significant interrelationships among the constructs: Identification positively influences both satisfaction and price image, which also increases satisfaction. By disclosing the relative importance of three separate ways of gaining and retaining customers, this study helps managers more appropriately choose the right mix of branding, pricing, and relationship marketing. From an academic point of view, our research is the first to explicitly examine the effects of the concept of identification for price management and to integrate variables from the fields of branding, relationship marketing, and behavioral pricing, which have separately been identified as particularly important determinants of marketing outcomes

Dynamics of Disks and Warps

This chapter reviews theoretical work on the stellar dynamics of galaxy disks. All the known collective global instabilities are identified, and their mechanisms described in terms of local wave mechanics. A detailed discussion of warps and other bending waves is also given. The structure of bars in galaxies, and their effect on galaxy evolution, is now reasonably well understood, but there is still no convincing explanation for their origin and frequency. Spiral patterns have long presented a special challenge, and ideas and recent developments are reviewed. Other topics include scattering of disk stars and the survival of thin disks.Comment: Chapter accepted to appear in Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, vol 5, ed G. Gilmore. 32 pages, 17 figures. Includes minor corrections made in proofs. Uses emulateapj.st

Relativistic Binaries in Globular Clusters

Galactic globular clusters are old, dense star systems typically containing 10\super{4}--10\super{7} stars. As an old population of stars, globular clusters contain many collapsed and degenerate objects. As a dense population of stars, globular clusters are the scene of many interesting close dynamical interactions between stars. These dynamical interactions can alter the evolution of individual stars and can produce tight binary systems containing one or two compact objects. In this review, we discuss theoretical models of globular cluster evolution and binary evolution, techniques for simulating this evolution that leads to relativistic binaries, and current and possible future observational evidence for this population. Our discussion of globular cluster evolution will focus on the processes that boost the production of hard binary systems and the subsequent interaction of these binaries that can alter the properties of both bodies and can lead to exotic objects. Direct {\it N}-body integrations and Fokker--Planck simulations of the evolution of globular clusters that incorporate tidal interactions and lead to predictions of relativistic binary populations are also discussed. We discuss the current observational evidence for cataclysmic variables, millisecond pulsars, and low-mass X-ray binaries as well as possible future detection of relativistic binaries with gravitational radiation.Comment: 88 pages, 13 figures. Submitted update of Living Reviews articl