Association of insurance disparities and survival in adults with multiple myeloma: A non-concurrent cohort study

Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) accounts for 10 % of all hematological malignancies. As recent advances in MM treatment continue to improve survival rates, socioeconomic barriers need to be identified to ensure equal treatment. This study evaluates the association between insurance status and survival in patients with MM. Methods: This study analyzed patients with MM from the 2007?2016 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program database. Insurance status was categorized as uninsured, Medicaid, private insurance, and other insurance. Cancer-specific survival was measured at one- and five-years post diagnosis. Results: From 2007?2016, there were 41,846 patients with MM extracted from the SEER database. Those with private insurance had a higher proportion of participants that identified as married (65.5 %), resided in metropolitan cities (90.1 %), and identified as white (76 %) and non-Hispanic (90.8 %). The uninsured group had the highest proportion of Black participants compared to other insurance groups (37.4 %). After adjustment for age, sex, race, ethnicity, marital status, and residence, the likelihood of five-year survival was significantly lower in those respondents with Medicaid (adjusted (adj) Hazard Ratio (HR): 1.44; 95 % Confidence Interval (CI): 1.36-1.53), when compared with private insurance holders. Those who were uninsured had a 26 % increased mortality hazard than those with private insurance (95 % CI 1.04-1.53). Conclusion: After adjustment, insurance status can influence the survival of adults with MM. As treatment modalities for MM continue to advance, the insurance status of a patient should not hinder their ability to receive the most effective and timely therapies.Peer reviewe

Electrical isolation and transparency in ion-irradiated p-InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs structures

He+-ion irradiation was applied for electrical isolation of p-In0.49Ga0.51P in InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs structures. Sheet resistance of approximately 1x10(6) Omega/square was achieved with doses above 1x10(13) cm(-2) at 100 keV. Thermal stability of isolation was maintained for annealing temperatures up to 500 degreesC. Photoluminescence results show that InGaP transparency to InGaAs/GaAs quantum-well emission is closely related to sheet resistance changes in the irradiated structure. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021- 8979(01)02401-X].88127354735

Amorphous oxygen-containing hydrogenated carbon films formed by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Films were deposited from glow discharge plasmas of acetylene-oxygen-argon mixtures in a deposition system fed with radio frequency power. The principal variable was the proportion of oxygen in the gas feed, X(ox). The chemical structure and elemental composition of the films were investigated by transmission infrared spectrophotometry and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Optical properties-refractive index, absorption coefficient, and optical gap-were determined from transmission ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy data. The latter also allowed the determination of film thicknesses and hence deposition rates. It was found that the oxygen content of the films and, within limits, the refractive index are controllable by the selection of X(ox). (C) 1996 American Vacuum Society.14111812

Adiposity in preadolescent children: Associations with cardiorespiratory fitness

Lifestyle factors contribute to childhood obesity risk, however it is unclear which lifestyle factors are most strongly associated with childhood obesity. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to simultaneously investigate the associations among dietary patterns, activitybehaviors, and physical fitness with adiposity (body fat %, fat mass, body mass index [BMI],and waist to hip ratio) in preadolescent children. Preadolescent children (N = 392, 50% female, age: 9.5 ± 1.1year, BMI: 17.9 ± 3.3 kg/m2) were recruited. Body fat (%) and fat mass(kg) were measured with bioelectrical impedance analysis. Cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2 max), muscular strength (hand-grip strength), activity, sleep, and dietary pattern was assessed. Multivariable analysis revealed that cardiorespiratory fitness associated most strongly with all four indicators of adiposity (body fat (%) (ß = -0.2; p < .001), fat mass (ß = -0.2; p < .001), BMI (ß = -0.1; p < .001) and waist to hip ratio (ß = -0.2; p < .001). Additionally, fruit and vegetable consumption patterns were associated with body fat percentage, but the association was negligible (ß = 0.1; p = 0.015). Therefore, future interventions should aim to promote the use of cardiorespiratory fitness as a means of reducing the obesity epidemic in children

A Cross-Sectional Investigation of Preadolescent Cardiometabolic Health: Associations with Fitness, Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, Nutrition, and Sleep

Background: Cardiometabolic disease (CMD) risk often begins early in life. Healthy lifestylebehaviors can mitigate risk, but the optimal combination of behaviors has not been determined. This cross-sectional study simultaneously examined the associations between lifestyle factors (fitness, activity behaviors, and dietary patterns) and CMD risk in preadolescent children. Methods: 1480 New Zealand children aged 8–10 years were recruited. Participants included 316 preadolescents (50% female, age: 9.5 ± 1.1 years, BMI: 17.9 ± 3.3 kg/m2). Fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness [CRF], muscular fitness), activity behaviors (physical activity, sedentary, sleep), and dietary patterns were measured. Factor analysis was used to derive a CMD risk score from 13 variables (adiposity, peripheral and central hemodynamics, glycemic control, and blood lipids). Results: Only CRF (ß = -0.45, p < 0.001) and sedentary time (ß = 0.12, p = 0.019) were associated with the CMD risk score in the adjustedmultivariable analysis. CRF was found to be nonlinear (VO2 max = ˜42 mL/kg/min associatedwith higher CMD risk score), and thus a CRF polynomial term was added, which was also associated (ß = 0.19, p < 0.001) with the CMD risk score. Significant associations were not found with sleep or dietary variables. Conclusion: The findings indicate that increasing CRF and decreasing sedentary behavior may be important public health targets in preadolescent children

Master regulators of FGFR2 signalling and breast cancer risk.

The fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) locus has been consistently identified as a breast cancer risk locus in independent genome-wide association studies. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying FGFR2-mediated risk are still unknown. Using model systems we show that FGFR2-regulated genes are preferentially linked to breast cancer risk loci in expression quantitative trait loci analysis, supporting the concept that risk genes cluster in pathways. Using a network derived from 2,000 transcriptional profiles we identify SPDEF, ERα, FOXA1, GATA3 and PTTG1 as master regulators of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 signalling, and show that ERα occupancy responds to fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 signalling. Our results indicate that ERα, FOXA1 and GATA3 contribute to the regulation of breast cancer susceptibility genes, which is consistent with the effects of anti-oestrogen treatment in breast cancer prevention, and suggest that fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 signalling has an important role in mediating breast cancer risk.This is the final version of the article. It was originally published in Nature Communications here: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/130917/ncomms3464/full/ncomms3464.html

Efficient Genotyping of KRAS Mutant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Using a Multiplexed Droplet Digital PCR Approach

© 2015 Pender et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) can be used to detect low frequency mutations in oncogenedriven lung cancer. The range of KRAS point mutations observed in NSCLC necessitates a multiplex approach to efficient mutation detection in circulating DNA. Here we report the design and optimisation of three discriminatory ddPCR multiplex assays investigating nine different KRAS mutations using PrimePCRddPCRMutation Assays and the Bio-Rad QX100 system. Together these mutations account for 95% of the nucleotide changes found in KRAS in human cancer. Multiplex reactions were optimised on genomic DNA extracted from KRAS mutant cell lines and tested on DNA extracted from fixed tumour tissue from a cohort of lung cancer patients without prior knowledge of the specific KRAS genotype. The multiplex ddPCR assays had a limit of detection of better than 1 mutant KRAS molecule in 2,000 wild-type KRAS molecules, which compared favourably with a limit of detection of 1 in 50 for next generation sequencing and 1 in 10 for Sanger sequencing. Multiplex ddPCR assays thus provide a highly efficient methodology to identify KRAS mutations in lung adenocarcinoma

A de Sitter Hoedown

Rotating black holes in de Sitter space are known to have interesting limits where the temperatures of the black hole and cosmological horizon are equal. We give a complete description of the thermal phase structure of all allowed rotating black hole configurations. Only one configuration, the rotating Nariai limit, has the black hole and cosmological horizons both in thermal and rotational equilibrium, in that both the temperatures and angular velocities of the two horizons coincide. The thermal evolution of the spacetime is shown to lead to the pure de Sitter spacetime, which is the most entropic configuration. We then provide a comprehensive study of the wave equation for a massless scalar in the rotating Nariai geometry. The absorption cross section at the black hole horizon is computed and a condition is found for when the scattering becomes superradiant. The boundary-to-boundary correlators at finite temperature are computed at future infinity. The quasinormal modes are obtained in explicit form. Finally, we obtain an expression for the expectation value of the number of particles produced at future infinity starting from a vacuum state with no incoming particles at past infinity. Some of our results are used to provide further evidence for a recent holographic proposal between the rotating Nariai geometry and a two-dimensional conformal field theory.Comment: 35 + 1 pages, 9 figures; v3: typos correcte

Towards Noncommutative Fuzzy QED

We study in one-loop perturbation theory noncommutative fuzzy quenched QED_4. We write down the effective action on fuzzy S**2 x S**2 and show the existence of a gauge-invariant UV-IR mixing in the model in the large N planar limit. We also give a derivation of the beta function and comment on the limit of large mass of the normal scalar fields. We also discuss topology change in this 4 fuzzy dimensions arising from the interaction of fields (matrices) with spacetime through its noncommutativity.Comment: 33 page