Relationship Between Plasma Glucose Levels and Malignant Uterine Cervical Neoplasias

Background There is a direct correlation between glycemic load and the risk of developing many malignant neoplasms. Aims The aim of this study was to determine the plasma glucose levels in women with cervical cancer. Methods The study included 177 women with anatomopathologically diagnosed uterine cervical cancer (stages 0–IV) treated between 1980 and 2008 at the Gynecology and Obstetrics outpatient service of the UFTM, Brazil. The plasma glucose levels of all patients were assayed at the time of diagnosis and correlated with tumor staging. Results We statistically compared the plasma glucose levels of group 1 (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2–3), group 2 (stage I–II), group 3 (stage III–IV), and group 4 (control group: leiomyomas). Patient groups with poor prognosis (groups 2 and 3) showed significantly higher plasma glucose levels ( P 90 mg/dl showed CIN versus I/II: P = 0.0753; OR = 2.018; (95% CI: 0.9236 to 4.410) and CIN versus III/IV: P = 0.0975; OR = 2.400; (95% CI: 0.8335 to 6.911). Conclusion We observed an association between high plasma glucose levels and cervical cancer cases with poor prognoses. Plasma glucose tests should be routinely used as additional prognostic parameters in patients with cervical neoplasias

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is a second generation water Cherenkov detector designed to determine whether the currently observed solar neutrino deficit is a result of neutrino oscillations. The detector is unique in its use of D2O as a detection medium, permitting it to make a solar model-independent test of the neutrino oscillation hypothesis by comparison of the charged- and neutral-current interaction rates. In this paper the physical properties, construction, and preliminary operation of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory are described. Data and predicted operating parameters are provided whenever possible.Comment: 58 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Nucl. Inst. Meth. Uses elsart and epsf style files. For additional information about SNO see http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca . This version has some new reference

Amyloid and tau pathology associations with personality traits, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and cognitive lifestyle in the preclinical phases of sporadic and autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease

Background Major prevention trials for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are now focusing on multidomain lifestyle interventions. However, the exact combination of behavioral factors related to AD pathology remains unclear. In 2 cohorts of cognitively unimpaired individuals at risk of AD, we examined which combinations of personality traits, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and cognitive lifestyle (years of education or lifetime cognitive activity) related to the pathological hallmarks of AD, amyloid-β, and tau deposits. Methods A total of 115 older adults with a parental or multiple-sibling family history of sporadic AD (PREVENT-AD [PRe-symptomatic EValuation of Experimental or Novel Treatments for AD] cohort) underwent amyloid and tau positron emission tomography and answered several questionnaires related to behavioral attributes. Separately, we studied 117 mutation carriers from the DIAN (Dominant Inherited Alzheimer Network) study group cohort with amyloid positron emission tomography and behavioral data. Using partial least squares analysis, we identified latent variables relating amyloid or tau pathology with combinations of personality traits, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and cognitive lifestyle. Results In PREVENT-AD, lower neuroticism, neuropsychiatric burden, and higher education were associated with less amyloid deposition (p = .014). Lower neuroticism and neuropsychiatric features, along with higher measures of openness and extraversion, were related to less tau deposition (p = .006). In DIAN, lower neuropsychiatric burden and higher education were also associated with less amyloid (p = .005). The combination of these factors accounted for up to 14% of AD pathology. Conclusions In the preclinical phase of both sporadic and autosomal dominant AD, multiple behavioral features were associated with AD pathology. These results may suggest potential pathways by which multidomain interventions might help delay AD onset or progression

Detectable clonal mosaicism and its relationship to aging and cancer

In an analysis of 31,717 cancer cases and 26,136 cancer-free controls from 13 genome-wide association studies, we observed large chromosomal abnormalities in a subset of clones in DNA obtained from blood or buccal samples. We observed mosaic abnormalities, either aneuploidy or copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity, of >2 Mb in size in autosomes of 517 individuals (0.89%), with abnormal cell proportions of between 7% and 95%. In cancer-free individuals, frequency increased with age, from 0.23% under 50 years to 1.91% between 75 and 79 years (P = 4.8 × 10(-8)). Mosaic abnormalities were more frequent in individuals with solid tumors (0.97% versus 0.74% in cancer-free individuals; odds ratio (OR) = 1.25; P = 0.016), with stronger association with cases who had DNA collected before diagnosis or treatment (OR = 1.45; P = 0.0005). Detectable mosaicism was also more common in individuals for whom DNA was collected at least 1 year before diagnosis with leukemia compared to cancer-free individuals (OR = 35.4; P = 3.8 × 10(-11)). These findings underscore the time-dependent nature of somatic events in the etiology of cancer and potentially other late-onset diseases

Exploratory survey about dietary supplement use: a hazardous and erratic way to improve one's health?

INTRODUCTION: Dietary supplement (DS) use increased rapidly in recent years. However, evidence of benefits of many DSs for healthy users is scarce and may not equate with known risks of overdose, drug interaction and recently discovered negative long-term effects. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the perceptions and motivations of DS users in Lausanne, Switzerland. METHOD: A convenience sample (n = 147) was recruited at the entrances of local sales points. Data were collected in on-site semistructured interviews that assessed dietary supplementation habits. RESULTS: The majority of DSs were all-in-one products, containing a mixture of minerals and vitamins, or products containing only minerals. Among the 147 users, 72 (49%) used one all-in-one product and 3 (2%) used two all-in-one products. Thirty-one (21%) consumers did not know for at least one product what the purpose of their DS use was. Seventy-five percent of participants thought that DS use presents no risk or nearly no risk. Only 49% of participants stated that their physicians were informed about their consumption. Although men searched more often for potential risks (p <0.001), they turned less frequently to health professionals to get this information (p = 0.007). DISCUSSION: As in other surveys performed elsewhere, our study shows that, in Lausanne (Switzerland), DSs are commonly used as mixed products. Risk perception seems generally low among DS users. Physicians should be trained to evaluate patients' perceived needs and DS consumption in order to provide good evidence-based information or to propose alternatives to DS use

Planning for a mobile robot to attend a conference

Abstract. The AAAI Mobile Robot Challenge requires robots to start from the entrance of the conference site, find their own way to the registration desk, socially interact with people and perform volunteer duties as required, then report at a prescribed time in a conference hall to give a talk and answer questions. These specifications convey some interesting planning problems that appear to be too complex for some of the most efficient AI planning systems that we analyzed. Based on this analysis, we present a new planning approach that we are developing to meet the challenge. Preliminary results show that our approach performs much better on robot conference planning problems than any of the other AI planning systems we tested.

Dietary insulin load, dietary insulin index, and risk of pancreatic cancer

BACKGROUND: Although hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance have been hypothesized to be involved in pancreatic carcinogenesis, studies that have examined glycemic load or individual dietary components that influence glucose concentrations yielded inconclusive results. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to investigate whether dietary insulin load and dietary insulin index are associated with the risk of pancreatic cancer. DESIGN: We prospectively followed 86,740 women and 46,147 men who were free of cancer and diabetes at baseline in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. During /=27.5) or with low physical activity, a high insulin load was associated with small, nonsignificant increases in the risk of pancreatic cancer; in a comparison of the highest with the lowest tertile of intake, the positive association became more apparent in those who were both overweight and inactive (RR: 2.03; 95% CI: 1.05, 3.93; P-trend = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: A diet that induces an elevated postprandial insulin response does not influence the overall risk of pancreatic cancer. However, a diet with a high insulin load may increase the risk in individuals with a preexisting state of insulin resistance