288 research outputs found

    Role of p53 and CDKN2A Inactivation in Human Squamous Cell Carcinomas

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    p53 tumor suppressor gene is the most commonly mutated gene in human and mouse cancers. Disruption of the p53 and Rb pathways is a fundamental trend of most human cancer cells. Inactivation of CDKN2A can lead to deregulation of these two pathways. Genetic abnormalities in CDKN2A gene have been well documented in human melanoma but their involvement in human nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and in particular in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is less clear. Several studies have shown that human SCCs harbour unique mutations in the p53 gene as well as inactivation of the CDKN2A gene. While mutations in the p53 gene are induced by UV radiation and represent tumor initiating events, the majority of alterations detected in the CDKN2A gene do not appear to be UV-dependent. In conclusion, in addition to p53 mutations, silencing of the CDKN2A gene might play a significant role in SCC development

    Excellent intra and inter-observer reproducibility of wrist circumference measurements in obese children and adolescents

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    In a previous study, we found that wrist circumference, in particular its bone component,was associated with insulin resistance in a population of overweight/obese children. Theaim of the present study was to evaluate the intra- and inter-operator variability in wrist cir-cumference measurement in a population of obese children and adolescents. One hundredand two (54 male and 48 female) obese children and adolescents were consecutivelyenrolled. In all subjects wrist circumferences were measured by two different operators twotimes to assess intra- and inter-operator variability. Statistical analysis was performed usingSAS v.9.4 and JMP v.12. Measurements of wrist circumference showed excellent inter-operator reliability with Intra class Correlation Coefficients (ICC) of 0.96 and ICC of 0.97 forthe first and the second measurement, respectively. The intra-operator reliability was, also,very strong with a Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC) of 0.98 for both operators.The high reproducibility demonstrated in our results suggests that wrist circumference mea-surement, being safe, non-invasive and repeatable can be easily used in out-patient set-tings to identify youths with increased risk of insulin-resistance. This can avoid testing theentire population of overweight/obese children for insulin resistance parameter

    The impact of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease on renal function in children with overweight/obesity

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    The association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and chronic kidney disease has attracted interest and attention over recent years. However, no data are available in children. We determined whether children with NAFLD show signs of renal functional alterations, as determined by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urinary albumin excretion. We studied 596 children with overweight/obesity, 268 with NAFLD (hepatic fat fraction >= 5% on magnetic resonance imaging) and 328 without NAFLD, and 130 healthy normal-weight controls. Decreased GFR was defined as eGFR < 90 mL/min/1.73 m(2). Abnormal albuminuria was defined as urinary excretion of >= 30 mg/24 h of albumin. A greater prevalence of eGFR < 90 mL/min/1.73 m2 was observed in patients with NAFLD compared to those without liver involvement and healthy subjects (17.5% vs. 6.7% vs. 0.77%; p < 0.0001). The proportion of children with abnormal albuminuria was also higher in the NAFLD group compared to those without NAFLD, and controls (9.3% vs. 4.0% vs. 0; p < 0.0001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that NAFLD was associated with decreased eGFR and/or microalbuminuria (odds ratio, 2.54 (confidence interval, 1.16-5.57); p < 0.05) independently of anthropometric and clinical variables. Children with NAFLD are at risk for early renal dysfunction. Recognition of this abnormality in the young may help to prevent the ongoing development of the disease

    Patterns of recurrences in sinonasal cancers undergoing an endoscopic surgery-based treatment: Results of the MUSES* on 940 patients: *MUlti-institutional collaborative Study on Endoscopically treated Sinonasal cancers

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    The improvements in survival with expansion of the survivors' population, along with evolution of endoscopically-based treatment modalities, have contributed to emphasize the clinical relevance of recurrences in sinonasal cancers. However, at present, literature is scant regarding the pattern of recurrences and the therapeutic strategies available to manage long survivors who experienced single or multiple failures. The aim of the present study was to analyze sinonasal cancers recurrences to provide data regarding rates and patterns of relapse, predictors of failure and prognostic impact of the recurrence

    Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

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    One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

    Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

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    This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

    Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

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    Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

    Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

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    Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

    Search for anomalous production of events with three or more leptons in pp collisions at √s = 8TeV

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    Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5fb-1 of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy s=8TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying τ leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t→cH), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, λtcH and λctH, respectively, of |λtcH|2+|λctH|2<0.21
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