African-specific improvement of a polygenic hazard score for age at diagnosis of prostate cancer

Polygenic hazard score (PHS) models are associated with age at diagnosis of prostate cancer. Our model developed in Europeans (PHS46) showed reduced performance in men with African genetic ancestry. We used a cross-validated search to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that might improve performance in this population. Anonymized genotypic data were obtained from the PRACTICAL consortium for 6253 men with African genetic ancestry. Ten iterations of a 10-fold cross-validation search were conducted to select SNPs that would be included in the final PHS46+African model. The coefficients of PHS46+African were estimated in a Cox proportional hazards framework using age at diagnosis as the dependent variable and PHS46, and selected SNPs as predictors. The performance of PHS46 and PHS46+African was compared using the same cross-validated approach. Three SNPs (rs76229939, rs74421890 and rs5013678) were selected for inclusion in PHS46+African. All three SNPs are located on chromosome 8q24. PHS46+African showed substantial improvements in all performance metrics measured, including a 75% increase in the relative hazard of those in the upper 20% compared to the bottom 20% (2.47-4.34) and a 20% reduction in the relative hazard of those in the bottom 20% compared to the middle 40% (0.65-0.53). In conclusion, we identified three SNPs that substantially improved the association of PHS46 with age at diagnosis of prostate cancer in men with African genetic ancestry to levels comparable to Europeans

Hydroponic technologies

This open access book, written by world experts in aquaponics and related technologies, provides the authoritative and comprehensive overview of the key aquaculture and hydroponic and other integrated systems, socio-economic and environmental aspects. Aquaponic systems, which combine aquaculture and vegetable food production offer alternative technology solutions for a world that is increasingly under stress through population growth, urbanisation, water shortages, land and soil degradation, environmental pollution, world hunger and climate change.Hydroponics is a method to grow crops without soil, and as such, these systems are added to aquaculture components to create aquaponics systems. Thus, together with the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), hydroponic production forms a key part of the aqua-agricultural system of aquaponics. Many different existing hydroponic technologies can be applied when designing aquaponics systems. This depends on the environmental and financial circumstances, the type of crop that is cultivated and the available space. This chapter provides an overview of different hydroponic types, including substrates, nutrients and nutrient solutions, and disinfection methods of the recirculating nutrient solutions

Insect herbivory (Choristoneura fumiferana, Tortricidea) underlies tree population structure (Picea glauca, Pinaceae)

Variation in insect herbivory can lead to population structure in plant hosts as indicated by defence traits. In annual herbaceous, defence traits may vary between geographic areas but evidence of such patterns is lacking for long-lived species. This may result from the variety of selection pressures from herbivores, long distance gene flow, genome properties, and lack of research. We investigated the antagonistic interaction between white spruce (Picea glauca) and spruce budworm (SBW, Choristoneura fumiferana) the most devastating forest insect of eastern North America in common garden experiments. White spruces that are able to resist SBW attack were reported to accumulate the acetophenones piceol and pungenol constitutively in their foliage. We show that levels of these acetophenones and transcripts of the gene responsible for their release is highly heritable and that their accumulation is synchronized with the most devastating stage of SBW. Piceol and pungenol concentrations negatively correlate with rate of development in female SBW and follow a non-random geographic variation pattern that is partially explained by historical damage from SBW and temperature. Our results show that accumulation of acetophenones is an efficient resistance mechanism against SBW in white spruce and that insects can affect population structure of a long-lived plant

Marital status and prostate cancer incidence: a pooled analysis of 12 case-control studies from the PRACTICAL consortium.

While being in a committed relationship is associated with a better prostate cancer prognosis, little is known about how marital status relates to its incidence. Social support provided by marriage/relationship could promote a healthy lifestyle and an increased healthcare seeking behavior. We investigated the association between marital status and prostate cancer risk using data from the PRACTICAL Consortium. Pooled analyses were conducted combining 12 case-control studies based on histologically-confirmed incident prostate cancers and controls with information on marital status prior to diagnosis/interview. Marital status was categorized as married/partner, separated/divorced, single, or widowed. Tumours with Gleason scores ≥ 8 defined high-grade cancers, and low-grade otherwise. NCI-SEER's summary stages (local, regional, distant) indicated the extent of the cancer. Logistic regression was used to derive odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between marital status and prostate cancer risk, adjusting for potential confounders. Overall, 14,760 cases and 12,019 controls contributed to analyses. Compared to men who were married/with a partner, widowed men had an OR of 1.19 (95% CI 1.03-1.35) of prostate cancer, with little difference between low- and high-grade tumours. Risk estimates among widowers were 1.14 (95% CI 0.97-1.34) for local, 1.53 (95% CI 1.22-1.92) for regional, and 1.56 (95% CI 1.05-2.32) for distant stage tumours. Single men had elevated risks of high-grade cancers. Our findings highlight elevated risks of incident prostate cancer among widowers, more often characterized by tumours that had spread beyond the prostate at the time of diagnosis. Social support interventions and closer medical follow-up in this sub-population are warranted