Improving employee well-being through worksite health promotion? The employees' perspective

Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential of worksite health promotion to improve individual well-being from the employees' perspective, analyze benefit categories and develop suggestions for future worksite health promotion program designs. Subjects and methods: A questionnaire based on a qualitative study was distributed in four Austrian organizations to cover state-owned, private, and non-profit organizations. A total of 237 white-collar employees participated in the survey. Results: Workplace health promotion does improve individual well-being from the employees' perspective. A factor analysis of the changes in well-being reported yields a three-factor solution with a physical/ cognitive element, a social component, and an emotional factor. In the sample tested, the physical-cognitive and emotional elements of perceived benefits were felt the most. Conclusion: The current theoretical grouping of potential WHP effects requires further testing and might profit from being differentiated into more categories. Research on WHP could gain from a consideration of the employee's perspective by showing which program elements to focus on. Strengthening the emotional components of WHP information and program elements is proposed for increasing participation rates and the subsequent individual benefits derived

Design and imaging performance of achromatic diffractive/refractive X-ray and Gamma-ray Fresnel lenses

Achromatic combinations of a diffractive Phase Fresnel Lens and a refractive correcting element have been proposed for X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy and for microlithography, but considerations of absorption often dictate that the refractive component be given a stepped profile, resulting in a double Fresnel lens. The imaging performance of corrected Fresnel lenses, with and without `stepping' is investigated and the trade-off between resolution and useful bandwidth in different circumstances is discussed. Provided the focal ratio is large, correction lenses made of low atomic number materials can be used with X-rays in the range approximately 10--100 keV without stepping. The use of stepping extends the possibility of correction to higher aperture systems, to energies as low as a few kilo electron volts and to gamma-rays of $\sim$ mega electron volt energy.Comment: To be published in 'Applied Optics

Evaluation of auto-antibody serum biomarkers for breast cancer screening and in silico analysis of sero-reactive proteins

Aberrantly expressed proteins in tumours evoke an immunological response. These immunogenic proteins can serve as potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis of cancers. In this study, we performed a candidate marker screen on macroarrays containing 38,016 human proteins, derived from a human fetal-brain expression library, with the pools of sera from breast cancer patients (1 pool of benign samples, 3 pools of ductal carcinoma and 2 pools of lobular carcinoma) and 1 pool of sera from healthy women. A panel of 642 sero-reactive clones were deduced from these macroarray experiments which include 284 in-frame clones. Over-representation analyses of the sero-reactive in-frame clones enabled the identification of the sets of genes over-expressed in various pathways of the functional categories (KEGG, Transpath, Pfam and GO). Protein microarrays, generated using the His-tag proteins derived from the macroarray experiments, were used to evaluate the sera from breast cancer patients (24 malignant, 16 benign) and 20 control individuals. Using the PAM algorithm we elucidated a panel of 50 clones which enabled the correct classification prediction of 93% of the breast-nodule positive group (benign & malignant) sera from healthy individuals’ sera with 100% sensitivity and 85% specificity. This was followed by over-representation analysis of the significant clones derived from the class prediction

Identification of SERPINA1 as single marker for papillary thyroid carcinoma through microarray meta analysis and quantification of its discriminatory power in independent validation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several DNA microarray based expression signatures for the different clinically relevant thyroid tumor entities have been described over the past few years. However, reproducibility of these signatures is generally low, mainly due to study biases, small sample sizes and the highly multivariate nature of microarrays. While there are new technologies available for a more accurate high throughput expression analysis, we show that there is still a lot of information to be gained from data deposited in public microarray databases. In this study we were aiming (1) to identify potential markers for papillary thyroid carcinomas through meta analysis of public microarray data and (2) to confirm these markers in an independent dataset using an independent technology.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We adopted a meta analysis approach for four publicly available microarray datasets on papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) nodules versus nodular goitre (NG) from N2-frozen tissue. The methodology included merging of datasets, bias removal using distance weighted discrimination (DWD), feature selection/inference statistics, classification/crossvalidation and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). External Validation was performed on an independent dataset using an independent technology, quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) in our laboratory.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>From meta analysis we identified one gene (SERPINA1) which identifies papillary thyroid carcinoma against benign nodules with 99% accuracy (n = 99, sensitivity = 0.98, specificity = 1, PPV = 1, NPV = 0.98). In the independent validation data, which included not only PTC and NG, but all major histological thyroid entities plus a few variants, SERPINA1 was again markedly up regulated (36-fold, p = 1:3*10^-10) in PTC and identification of papillary carcinoma was possible with 93% accuracy (n = 82, sensitivity = 1, specificity = 0.90, PPV = 0.76, NPV = 1). We also show that the extracellular matrix pathway is strongly activated in the meta analysis data, suggesting an important role of tumor-stroma interaction in the carcinogenesis of papillary thyroid carcinoma.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We show that valuable new information can be gained from meta analysis of existing microarray data deposited in public repositories. While single microarray studies rarely exhibit a sample number which allows robust feature selection, this can be achieved by combining published data using DWD. This approach is not only efficient, but also very cost-effective. Independent validation shows the validity of the results from this meta analysis and confirms SERPINA1 as a potent mRNA marker for PTC in a total (meta analysis plus validation) of 181 samples.</p

Methyl-binding domain protein-based DNA isolation from human blood serum combines DNA analyses and serum-autoantibody testing

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Circulating cell free DNA in serum as well as serum-autoantibodies and the serum proteome have great potential to contribute to early cancer diagnostics via non invasive blood tests. However, most DNA preparation protocols destroy the protein fraction and therefore do not allow subsequent protein analyses. In this study a novel approach based on methyl binding domain protein (MBD) is described to overcome the technical difficulties of combining DNA and protein analysis out of one single serum sample.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serum or plasma samples from 98 control individuals and 54 breast cancer patients were evaluated upon silica membrane- or MBD affinity-based DNA isolation via qPCR targeting potential DNA methylation markers as well as by protein-microarrays for tumor-autoantibody testing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In control individuals, an average DNA level of 22.8 ± 25.7 ng/ml was detected applying the silica membrane based protocol and 8.5 ± 7.5 ng/ml using the MBD-approach, both values strongly dependent on the serum sample preparation methods used. In contrast to malignant and benign tumor serum samples, cell free DNA concentrations were significantly elevated in sera of metastasizing breast cancer patients. Technical evaluation revealed that serum upon MBD-based DNA isolation is suitable for protein-array analyses when data are consistent to untreated serum samples.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>MBD affinity purification allows DNA isolations under native conditions retaining the protein function, thus for example enabling combined analyses of DNA methylation and autoantigene-profiles from the same serum sample and thereby improving minimal invasive diagnostics.</p