3,417 research outputs found
Projecting prevalence by stage of care for prostate cancer and estimating future health service needs: protocol for a modelling study
Introduction Current strategies for the management of prostate cancer are inadequate in Australia. We will, in this study, estimate current service needs and project the future needs for prostate cancer patients in Australia. Methods and analysis First, we will project the future prevalence of prostate cancer for 2010-2018 using data for 1972-2008 from the New South Wales (NSW) Central Cancer Registry. These projections, based on modelled incidence and survival estimates, will be estimated using PIAMOD (Prevalence, Incidence, Analysis MODel) software. Then the total prevalence will be decomposed into five stages of care: initial care, continued monitoring, recurrence, last year of life and long-term survivor. Finally, data from the NSW Prostate Cancer Care and Outcomes Study, including data on patterns of treatment and associated quality of life, will be used to estimate the type and amount of services that will be needed by prostate cancer patients in each stage of care. In addition, Central Cancer Registry episode data will be used to estimate transition rates from localised or locally advanced prostate cancer to metastatic disease. Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits data, linked with Prostate Cancer Care and Outcomes Study data, will be used to complement the Cancer Registry episode data. The methods developed will be applied Australia-wide to obtain national estimates of the future prevalence of prostate cancer for different stages of clinical care. Ethics and dissemination This study was approved by the NSW Population and Health Services Research Ethics Committee. Results of the study will be disseminated widely to different interest groups and organisations through a report, conference presentations and peer-reviewed articles.This work is supported by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (grant number: PCFA – YI 0410). Both David Smith and Xue Qin Yu are supported by an Australian NHMRC Training Fellowship (Ref 1016598, 550002). Mark Clements is supported by an Australian NHMRC Career Development Award (Ref 471491)
Stroke-associated pattern of gene expression previously identified by machine-learning is diagnostically robust in an independent patient population
Our group recently employed genome-wide transcriptional profiling in tandem with machine-learning based analysis to identify a ten-gene pattern of differential expression in peripheral blood which may have utility for detection of stroke. The objective of this study was to assess the diagnostic capacity and temporal stability of this stroke-associated transcriptional signature in an independent patient population. Publicly available whole blood microarray data generated from 23 ischemic stroke patients at 3, 5, and 24Â h post-symptom onset, as well from 23 cardiovascular disease controls, were obtained via the National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression Omnibus. Expression levels of the ten candidate genes (ANTXR2, STK3, PDK4, CD163, MAL, GRAP, ID3, CTSZ, KIF1B, and PLXDC2) were extracted, compared between groups, and evaluated for their discriminatory ability at each time point. We observed a largely identical pattern of differential expression between stroke patients and controls across the ten candidate genes as reported in our prior work. Furthermore, the coordinate expression levels of the ten candidate genes were able to discriminate between stroke patients and controls with levels of sensitivity and specificity upwards of 90% across all three time points. These findings confirm the diagnostic robustness of the previously identified pattern of differential expression in an independent patient population, and further suggest that it is temporally stable over the first 24Â h of stroke pathology
Sustained expression of microRNA-155 in hematopoietic stem cells causes a myeloproliferative disorder
Mammalian microRNAs are emerging as key regulators of the development and function of the immune system. Here, we report a strong but transient induction of miR-155 in mouse bone marrow after injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) correlated with granulocyte/monocyte (GM) expansion. Demonstrating the sufficiency of miR-155 to drive GM expansion, enforced expression in mouse bone marrow cells caused GM proliferation in a manner reminiscent of LPS treatment. However, the miR-155–induced GM populations displayed pathological features characteristic of myeloid neoplasia. Of possible relevance to human disease, miR-155 was found to be overexpressed in the bone marrow of patients with certain subtypes of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Furthermore, miR-155 repressed a subset of genes implicated in hematopoietic development and disease. These data implicate miR-155 as a contributor to physiological GM expansion during inflammation and to certain pathological features associated with AML, emphasizing the importance of proper miR-155 regulation in developing myeloid cells during times of inflammatory stress
Investigating a predicted metallicity [Fe/H] variation in the Type II Globular Cluster NGC 362
NGC 362 is a non-common Type II Galactic globular cluster, showing a complex
pseudo two-color diagram or 'chromosome map'. The clear separation of its
stellar populations in the color-magnitude diagram and the distribution of the
giant stars in the chromosome map strongly suggests that NGC 362 could host
stars with both cluster-nominal as well as enhanced heavy-element abundances,
and one of them could be iron. However, despite previous spectroscopic
observations of NGC 362, no such iron variation has been detected. Our main
goal is to confirm or disprove this result by searching for any internal
variation of [Fe/H] which would give us insight into the formation and
evolution of this interesting globular cluster. In this paper, we present the
abundance analysis for a sample of 11 red giant branch members based on
high-resolution and high S/N spectra obtained with the MIKE echelle
spectrograph mounted at the Magellan-Clay telescope. HST and GAIA photometry
and astrometry has been used to determine atmospheric parameters and
membership. We obtained T, log(g) and v for our
target stars and measured the mean iron content of the sample and its
dispersion with three different methods, which lead to
[Fe/H]=-1.10, [Fe/H]=-1.09 and
[Fe/H]=-1.10, while the internal dispersion turned out to be
=0.06,
=0.03 and
=0.05 respectively. The error analysis gives
an internal dispersion due to observational error of 0.05 dex. Comparing the
observed dispersion with the internal errors, we conclude that NGC 362 does not
show any trace of an internal iron spread.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
Photodisintegration of Three-Body Nuclei with Realistic 2N and 3N Forces
Total photonuclear absorption cross sections of H and He are studied
using realistic NN and NNN forces. Final state interactions are fully included.
Two NN potential models, the AV14 and the r-space Bonn-A potentials, are
considered. For the NNN forces the Urbana-VIII and Tucson-Melbourne models are
employed. We find the cross section to be sensitive to nuclear dynamics. Of
particular interest in this work is the effect which NNN forces have on the
cross section. The addition of NNN forces not only lowers the peak height but
increases the cross section beyond 70 MeV by roughly 15%. Cross sections are
computed using the Lorentz integral transform method.Comment: Results for Bonn potential with model Bonn rA instead of model rB.
The Bonn rB results contained a small inexactness. After the correction it
turned out that Bonn rA is more suited for our purpose because it leads to a
binding energy of 8.15 MeV (about 0.25 MeV more than Bonn rB). In addition
the results for the other realistic potentials models are improved at low
energies (HH expansion was not completely convergent for the low-energy
results). LaTeX, 8 pages, 4 ps figure
Cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets as sources of singlet delta oxygen for biomedical applications
Comparison of human uterine cervical electrical impedance measurements derived using two tetrapolar probes of different sizes
BACKGROUND
We sought to compare uterine cervical electrical impedance spectroscopy measurements employing two probes of different sizes, and to employ a finite element model to predict and compare the fraction of electrical current derived from subepithelial stromal tissue.
METHODS
Cervical impedance was measured in 12 subjects during early pregnancy using 2 different sizes of the probes on each subject.
RESULTS
Mean cervical resistivity was significantly higher (5.4 vs. 2.8 Ωm; p < 0.001) with the smaller probe in the frequency rage of 4–819 kHz. There was no difference in the short-term intra-observer variability between the two probes. The cervical impedance measurements derived in vivo followed the pattern predicted by the finite element model.
CONCLUSION
Inter-electrode distance on the probes for measuring cervical impedance influences the tissue resistivity values obtained. Determining the appropriate probe size is necessary when conducting clinical studies of resistivity of the cervix and other human tissues
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