No significant association between the promoter region polymorphisms of factor VII gene and risk of venous thrombosis in cancer patients

Factor VII (FVII) plays an important role in blood coagulation. The role of common polymorphisms influencing the FVII plasma levels in thromboembolic disorders has been evaluated but there is no published data related to the effect of FVII gene polymorphisms on the venous thrombosis risk in cancer. Aim: To investigate the association of three common functional polymorphisms in the promoter region of FVII gene: a decanucleotide insertion at position-323 (-323ins10-bp), a G to T substitution at position-401 (-401GT), and a G to A substitution at position-402 (-401GT) with venous thrombosis in cancer patients. Materials and Methods: The study included 60 cancer patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) (group 1) and 130 cancer patients without VTE (group 2). Genotyping of -323ins10-bp, -401GT, and -402GA polymorphisms in the promoter region of FVII gene was performed by the method of single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and sequencing. Factor V Leiden (FVL) was also determined in all cases. Results: The frequency of FVL was significantly greater in cancer patients with VTE compared with group 2 patients (p 0.05). The results did not change significantly after the exclusion of patients carrying the FVL (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The screening for the -323ins10-bp, -401GT, and -402GA olymorphisms of FVII gene did not contribute to a meaningful diagnostic nvestigation in cancer patients with venous thrombosis

Plasma proteome correlates of lipid and lipoprotein: biomarkers of metabolic diversity and inflammation in children of rural Nepal.

Proteins involved in lipoprotein metabolism can modulate cardiovascular health. While often measured to assess adult metabolic diseases, little is known about the proteomes of lipoproteins and their relation to metabolic dysregulation and underlying inflammation in undernourished child populations. The objective of this population study was to globally characterize plasma proteins systemically associated with HDL, LDL, and triglycerides in 500 Nepalese children. Abnormal lipid profiles characterized by elevated plasma triglycerides and low HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations were common, especially in children with subclinical inflammation. Among 982 proteins analyzed, the relative abundance of 11, 12, and 52 plasma proteins was correlated with LDL-cholesterol (r = -0.43∼0.70), triglycerides (r = -0.39∼0.53), and HDL-C (r = -0.49∼0.79) concentrations, respectively. These proteins included apolipoproteins and numerous unexpected intracellular and extracellular matrix binding proteins, likely originating in hepatic and peripheral tissues. Relative abundance of two-thirds of the HDL proteome varied with inflammation, with acute phase reactants higher by 4∼40%, and proteins involved in HDL biosynthesis, cholesterol efflux, vitamin transport, angiogenesis, and tissue repair lower by 3∼20%. Untargeted plasma proteomics detects comprehensive sets of both known and novel lipoprotein-associated proteins likely reflecting systemic regulation of lipoprotein metabolism and vascular homeostasis. Inflammation-altered distributions of the HDL proteome may be predisposing undernourished populations to early chronic disease

Local differences of the position of the mental foramen

The mental foramen has been reported to vary in position in different ethnic groups. Repeated failures during injections and operative procedures involving the mental foramen suggest the presence of local differences in a given population. The aim of the present study was to investigate possible local differences of the mental foramen in Eastern Anatolian individuals in the Turkish population. The present investigation is based on the examination of 70 adult mandibles. The study consisted of three measurements, to include the relations of the mental foramen to the following: 1) the lower teeth; 2) the body of mandible; 3) the mandibular symphysis and posterior border of the ramus of the mandible. The most common position of the foramen was in line with the longitudinal axis of the second premolar tooth (relation IV), at the midpoint of the mandibular body height and at 1/3.5 of the distance from the mandibular symphysis to the posterior border of the ramus. Local differences of the mental foramen may occur in a population. Prior to surgery knowledge of the most common location of the foramen peculiar to a local population may enable effective mental block anaesthesia to be provided. (Folia Morphol 2008; 67: 32-35)

2000 Families: identifying the research potential of an origins - of migration study

Despite extensive recent advances in the empirical and theoretical study of migration, certain critical areas in the analysis of European migration remain relatively underdeveloped both theoretically and empirically. Specifically, we lack studies that both incorporate an origin comparison and trace processes of intergenerational transmission across migrants over multiple generations and incorporating family migration trajectories. This paper outlines the development, data and design of such a study, the 2000 Families study, framed within a theoretical perspective of ?dissimilation? from origins and over generations. We term the study an origins-of-migration study, in that it captures the country of origin, the family origins and potentially the originating causes of migration processes and outcomes. The resulting data comprised nearly 2,000 migrant and non-migrant Turkish families with members across three or more generations, covering. 50,000 individuals. We reflect on the potential of this study for migration research

Comparison of a thigh worn accelerometer algorithm with diary estimates of time in bed and time asleep: the 1970 British Cohort Study

Background: Thigh-worn accelerometers have established reliability and validity for measurement of free-living physical activity-related behaviors. However, comparisons of methods for measuring sleep and time in bed using the thigh-worn accelerometer are rare. The authors compared the thigh-worn accelerometer algorithm that estimates time in bed with the output of a sleep diary (time in bed and time asleep). Methods: Participants (N = 5,498), from the 1970 British Cohort Study, wore an activPAL device on their thigh continuously for 7 days and completed a sleep diary. Bland–Altman plots and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine associations between the algorithm derived and diary time in bed and asleep. Results: The algorithm estimated acceptable levels of agreement with time in bed when compared with diary time in bed (mean bias of −11.4 min; limits of agreement −264.6 to 241.8). The algorithm-derived time in bed overestimated diary sleep time (mean bias of 55.2 min; limits of agreement −204.5 to 314.8 min). Algorithm and sleep diary are reasonably correlated (ρ = .48, 95% confidence interval [.45, .52] for women and ρ = .51, 95% confidence interval [.47, .55] for men) and provide broadly comparable estimates of time in bed but not for sleep time. Conclusions: The algorithm showed acceptable estimates of time in bed compared with diary at the group level. However, about half of the participants were outside of the ±30 min difference of a clinically relevant limit at an individual level

Dehydration of potato slices following brief dipping in osmotic solutions: effect of conditions and understanding the mechanism of water loss

A novel variant of osmotic dehydration, named here as post-dipping dehydration – where a material is dipped in a salt or sugar solution for a very short time followed by simple exposure to ambient conditions was explored with the aim of lowering water content of potato slices but at the same time not gain a high level of sugar/salt. The rate of water loss, which was rapid initially, was found to approach equilibrium. This paper also explored whether the water loss process could subsequently be kick started once again, by employing a multi-stage process, where each stage consisted of osmotic solution dipping followed by ambient holding of the potato slices that had reached equilibrium in the earlier stage. Water loss values comparable to conventional osmotic dehydration could be achieved thus, but with significantly lower overall solid gain (less than 50%) – which can potentially yield a significantly healthy product option

Changes in physical activity and adiposity with all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality

BACKGROUND: The relationship between joint changes in physical activity and adiposity with mortality is not well understood. We examined the association of changes in these two established risk factors with all-cause (ACM), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer mortality. METHODS: We used longitudinal data from Taiwan’s MJ Cohort, comprising 116,228 general population adults recruited from 1998-2013 with repeated measures 4.6 y (2.5) apart and followed up for mortality for 11.9 y (3.5). Physical activity, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and body fat percentage (BF%) groups and changes were based on public health and clinical guidelines. RESULTS: Compared to stable-insufficient physical activity, increasing physical activity from any baseline level was associated with lower ACM (HR [95%CI]): 0.85 [0.74, 0.96]) and CVD mortality (0.72 [0.55, 0.93]) risk. This was approximately equal to meeting physical activity guidelines at both timepoints (eg: 0.71 [0.58, 0.88] for CVD mortality). Compared to stable-overweight/moderate adiposity, decreasing adiposity level attenuated but did not offset mortality risk for all three outcomes (eg: BMI = 0.95 [0.76, 1.16] for CVD mortality). Only maintaining a healthy adiposity level at both timepoints offset mortality risk (BMI = 0.75 [0.61, 0.89]) for CVD mortality). In the joint changes analyses, lower mortality risk was a consequence of increases in physical activity across adiposity change groups (eg: WC decrease = 0.57 [0.48, 0.67]; WC stability = 0.73 [0.66, 0.80], WC increase = 0.83 [0.72, 0.97] for ACM). Decreasing adiposity attenuated the negative associations of decreased physical activity (BF% = 1.13 [0.95, 1.35] for ACM). CONCLUSIONS: We found a lower risk for ACM, CVD, and cancer mortality from increasing physical activity and an attenuation from decreasing adiposity regardless of baseline levels. The beneficial associations of joint changes were primarily driven by physical activity, suggesting lower mortality risk may be more immediate through physical activity improvements compared to adiposity improvements alone

Sampling rate-corrected analysis of irregularly sampled time series

The analysis of irregularly sampled time series remains a challenging task requiring methods that account for continuous and abrupt changes of sampling resolution without introducing additional biases. The edit distance is an effective metric to quantitatively compare time series segments of unequal length by computing the cost of transforming one segment into the other. We show that transformation costs generally exhibit a nontrivial relationship with local sampling rate. If the sampling resolution undergoes strong variations, this effect impedes unbiased comparison between different time episodes. We study the impact of this effect on recurrence quantification analysis, a framework that is well suited for identifying regime shifts in nonlinear time series. A constrained randomization approach is put forward to correct for the biased recurrence quantification measures. This strategy involves the generation of a type of time series and time axis surrogates which we call sampling-rate-constrained (SRC) surrogates. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with a synthetic example and an irregularly sampled speleothem proxy record from Niue island in the central tropical Pacific. Application of the proposed correction scheme identifies a spurious transition that is solely imposed by an abrupt shift in sampling rate and uncovers periods of reduced seasonal rainfall predictability associated with enhanced El Niño-Southern Oscillation and tropical cyclone activity

Large-Area (over 50 cm × 50 cm) Freestanding Films of Colloidal InP/ZnS Quantum Dots

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We propose and demonstrate the fabrication of flexible, freestanding films of InP/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) using fatty acid ligands across very large areas (greater than 50 cm x 50 cm), which have been developed for remote phosphor applications in solid-state lighting. Embedded in a poly(methyl methacrylate) matrix, although the formation of stand alone films using other QDs commonly capped with trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) and oleic acid is not efficient, employing myristic acid as ligand in the synthesis of these QDs, which imparts a strongly hydrophobic character to the thin film, enables film formation and ease of removal even on surprisingly large areas, thereby avoiding the need for ligand exchange. When pumped by a blue LED, these Cd-free QD films allow for high color rendering, warm white light generation with a color rendering index of 89.30 and a correlated color temperature of 2298 K. In the composite film, the temperature-dependent emission kinetics and energy transfer dynamics among different-sized InP/ZnS QDs are investigated and a model is proposed. High levels of energy transfer efficiency (up to 80%) and strong donor lifetime modification (from 18 to 4 ns) are achieved. The suppression of the nonradiative channels is observed when the hybrid film is cooled to cryogenic temperatures. The lifetime changes of the donor and acceptor InP/ZnS QDs in the film as a result of the energy transfer are explained well by our theoretical model based on the exciton-exciton interactions among the dots and are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. The understanding of these excitonic interactions is essential to facilitate improvements in the fabrication of photometrically high quality nanophosphors. The ability to make such large-area, flexible, freestanding Cd-free QD films pave the way for environmentally friendly phosphor applications including flexible, surface-emitting light engines