The association between patient attitudes and values and the strength of consideration for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy in a population‐based sample of breast cancer patients

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140052/1/cncr30924_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140052/2/cncr30924.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140052/3/cncr30924-sup-0002-suppinfo.pd

Measure of indigenous perennial staple crop, Ensete ventricosum, associated with positive food security outcomes in southern Ethiopian highlands

Enset-based food systems are unique to southern Ethiopia where they serve as a staple food for millions of households. Enset, a banana relative of which the entire pseudostem and corm are edible, possesses a highly unusual combination of crop traits including perenniality, highly flexible planting and harvest times, and tolerance of a very wide range of environmental conditions, which together earn it the local name of “the tree against hunger.” Previous studies have identified the strategic food security value of mature enset stands for household food security, but a multisector panel data set makes identifying wider enset food security associations tractable for the first time. We assess whether household data on area of mature enset is associated with four indicators of food security together with demographic, asset, and consumption covariates. We find that area of mature enset significantly improves estimates for three of four food security indicators, thus improving our understanding of the role of understudied indigenous crops. Consistent and reliable food security indicators are needed to improve monitoring, particularly with regard to stability. Variance components of multilevel longitudinal models indicate that exposure to both idiosyncratic and covariate disturbance affects food security stability in a way that is consistent with reports of enset acting as both a food security buffer and an active adaptation strategy in the face of shocks or change. Here we show that living assets comprising culturally relevant indigenous crops such as enset can improve accuracy of food insecurity assessments, which may encourage wider investigation of other agrifood system-specific asset-like natural stores of value associated with food security and resilience

Lactation and neonatal nutrition: defining and refining the critical questions.

This paper resulted from a conference entitled "Lactation and Milk: Defining and refining the critical questions" held at the University of Colorado School of Medicine from January 18-20, 2012. The mission of the conference was to identify unresolved questions and set future goals for research into human milk composition, mammary development and lactation. We first outline the unanswered questions regarding the composition of human milk (Section I) and the mechanisms by which milk components affect neonatal development, growth and health and recommend models for future research. Emerging questions about how milk components affect cognitive development and behavioral phenotype of the offspring are presented in Section II. In Section III we outline the important unanswered questions about regulation of mammary gland development, the heritability of defects, the effects of maternal nutrition, disease, metabolic status, and therapeutic drugs upon the subsequent lactation. Questions surrounding breastfeeding practice are also highlighted. In Section IV we describe the specific nutritional challenges faced by three different populations, namely preterm infants, infants born to obese mothers who may or may not have gestational diabetes, and infants born to undernourished mothers. The recognition that multidisciplinary training is critical to advancing the field led us to formulate specific training recommendations in Section V. Our recommendations for research emphasis are summarized in Section VI. In sum, we present a roadmap for multidisciplinary research into all aspects of human lactation, milk and its role in infant nutrition for the next decade and beyond

Explorations, Vol. 5, No. 1

Articles include: Cover: What Have We Done with Tomorrow? by Leslie C. Hyde, UMCES Extension Agent for Knox-Lincoln Counties. Editorial Reflections, Carole J. Bombard UMCES: an overview Conversation with the Director: Assistant Vice-President Judith Bailey Reaching Out for Teen Awareness, by Theresa M. Ferrari Profile of a Harbormaster, by Carole J. Bombard Minding Maine’s Business, by Mary S. Bowie Family Resource Management: Learning to ease the burden, by Olive Dubord and Doris Cushman Breaking Free and Taking Control: Helen Sawyer’s Story, by Doris Manley Partnership in Conservation: The Josephine Newman Sanctuary, by Nancy Coverstone The Mount Desert Island Health Promotion Project, by Ron Beard Dynamics of Weed Control in Agriculture, by Leigh Morrow From Generation to Generation: An Extension Homemaker Family, by Nadine B. Reimer ICLAD: The Institute for Community Leadership and Development, by Jim Killacky and Deb Burwell Exploding the Cinderella Syndrome: Strengthening Stepfamilies, by Wendy Pollock Integrated Pest Management: Bringing it all together, by Glen Koehler and Jim Dill Addressing the Issues, by Patricia M. Pierson Anti-Bruise: What’s It All About? Maine Potato Harvest Anti-Bruise Program, by Neal D. Hallee H.O.P.E. Addresses Teenage Pregnancy, by Jane M. Kelly Saving Money and the Environment, by Vaughn H. Holyoke Reservoir Tillage in Nonirrigated Potato Production, by Leigh Morrow Managing Pesticide Drift, by James D. Dwyer, Leigh S. Morrow and James F. Dill The St. George River Project — what have we done with tomorrow? Putting Research to Work, by Stephen Belyea The Best Maine Blue: Fresh Pack Blueberries, by Tom DeGomez Maine’s Green Sea Urchin, by Benjamin A. Baxter Interfaces and Cooperation: Wildlife and Fisheries Sampler, by Catherine A. Elliott Extension Responds to the Salmonella Scare, by Nellie Hedstrom and Mahmoud El-Begearm

Extensive DNA End Processing by Exo1 and Sgs1 Inhibits Break-Induced Replication

Homology-dependent repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by gene conversion involves short tracts of DNA synthesis and limited loss of heterozygosity (LOH). For DSBs that present only one end, repair occurs by invasion into a homologous sequence followed by replication to the end of the chromosome resulting in extensive LOH, a process called break-induced replication (BIR). We developed a BIR assay in Saccharomyces cerevisiae consisting of a plasmid with a telomere seeding sequence separated from sequence homologous to chromosome III by an I-SceI endonuclease recognition site. Following cleavage of the plasmid by I-SceI in vivo, de novo telomere synthesis occurs at one end of the vector, and the other end invades at the homologous sequence on chromosome III and initiates replication to the end of the chromosome to generate a stable chromosome fragment (CF). BIR was infrequent in wild-type cells due to degradation of the linearized vector. However, in the exo1Δ sgs1Δ mutant, which is defective in the 5′-3′ resection of DSBs, the frequency of BIR was increased by 39-fold. Extension of the invading end of the plasmid was detected by physical analysis two hours after induction of the I-SceI endonuclease in the wild-type exo1Δ, sgs1Δ, and exo1Δ sgs1Δ mutants, but fully repaired products were only visible in the exo1Δ sgs1Δ mutant. The inhibitory effect of resection was less in a plasmid-chromosome gene conversion assay, compared to BIR, and products were detected by physical assay in the wild-type strain. The rare chromosome rearrangements due to BIR template switching at repeated sequences were increased in the exo1Δ sgs1Δ mutant, suggesting that reduced resection can decrease the fidelity of homologous recombination

Putting Youth on the Map: A Pilot Instrument for Assessing Youth Well-Being

Extant measures of adolescent well-being in the United States typically focus on negative indicators of youth outcomes. Indices comprised of such measures paint bleak views of youth and orient action toward the prevention of problems over the promotion of protective factors. Their tendency to focus analyses at a state or county geographic scale produces limited information about localized outcome patterns that could inform policymakers, practitioners and advocacy networks. We discuss the construction of a new geo-referenced index of youth well-being based on positive indicators of youth development. In demonstrating the index for the greater Sacramento, California region of the United States, we find that overall youth well-being falls far short of an optimal outcome, and geographic disparities in well-being appear to exist across school districts at all levels of our analysis. Despite its limitations, the sub-county geographic scale of this index provides needed data to facilitate local and regional interventions

High Uptake of Exclusive Breastfeeding and Reduced Early Post-Natal HIV Transmission

BACKGROUND. Empirical data showing the clear benefits of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for HIV prevention are needed to encourage implementation of lactation support programs for HIV-infected women in low resource settings among whom replacement feeding is unsafe. We conducted a prospective, observational study in Lusaka, Zambia, to test the hypothesis that EBF is associated with a lower risk of postnatal HIV transmission than non-EBF. METHODS AND RESULTS. As part of a randomized trial of early weaning, 958 HIV-infected women and their infants were recruited and all were encouraged to breastfeed exclusively to 4 months. Single-dose nevirapine was provided to prevent transmission. Regular samples were collected from infants to 24 months of age and tested by PCR. Detailed measurements of actual feeding behaviors were collected to examine, in an observational analysis, associations between feeding practices and postnatal HIV transmission. Uptake of EBF was high with 84% of women reporting only EBF cumulatively to 4 months. Post-natal HIV transmission before 4 months was significantly lower (p = 0.004) among EBF (0.040 95% CI: 0.024–0.055) than non-EBF infants (0.102 95% CI: 0.047–0.157); time-dependent Relative Hazard (RH) of transmission due to non-EBF = 3.48 (95% CI: 1.71–7.08). There were no significant differences in the severity of disease between EBF and non-EBF mothers and the association remained significant (RH = 2.68 95% CI: 1.28–5.62) after adjusting for maternal CD4 count, plasma viral load, syphilis screening results and low birth weight. CONCLUSIONS. Non-EBF more than doubles the risk of early postnatal HIV transmission. Programs to support EBF should be expanded universally in low resource settings. EBF is an affordable, feasible, acceptable, safe and sustainable practice that also reduces HIV transmission providing HIV-infected women with a means to protect their children's lives. TRIAL REGISTRATION. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00310726National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; National Institutes of Health (R01 HD 39611, R01 HD 40777); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Global AIDS Program; Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; USAID Country Research (GHS-A-00-00020-00

Tailoring therapies—improving the management of early breast cancer: St Gallen International Expert Consensus on the Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer 2015

The 14th St Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference (2015) reviewed new evidence on locoregional and systemic therapies for early breast cancer. This manuscript presents news and progress since the 2013 meeting, provides expert opinion on almost 200 questions posed to Consensus Panel members, and summarizes treatment-oriented classification of subgroups and treatment recommendation

Nested inversion polymorphisms predispose chromosome 22q11.2 to meiotic rearrangements [RETRACTED]

Inversion polymorphisms between low-copy repeats (LCRs) might predispose chromosomes to meiotic non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) events and thus lead to genomic disorders. However, for the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), the most common genomic disorder, no such inversions have been uncovered as of yet. Using fiber-FISH, we demonstrate that parents transmitting the de novo 3 Mb LCR22A–D 22q11.2 deletion, the reciprocal duplication, and the smaller 1.5 Mb LCR22A–B 22q11.2 deletion carry inversions of LCR22B–D or LCR22C–D. Hence, the inversions predispose chromosome 22q11.2 to meiotic rearrangements and increase the individual risk for transmitting rearrangements. Interestingly, the inversions are nested or flanking rather than coinciding with the deletion or duplication sizes. This finding raises the possibility that inversions are a prerequisite not only for 22q11.2 rearrangements but also for all NAHR-mediated genomic disorders