The relationship of psychosocial factors to mammograms, physical activity, and fruit and vegetable consumption among sisters of breast cancer patients

This study examined the relationship of psychosocial factors to health-promoting behaviors in sisters of breast cancer patients. One hundred and twenty sisters of breast cancer patients completed questionnaires assessing response efficacy of mammography screenings, physical activity, and fruit and vegetable consumption on decreasing breast cancer risk, breast cancer worry, involvement in their sister’s cancer care, mammography screenings, physical activity, and fruit and vegetable consumption. Results indicate that greater perceived effectiveness for mammograms was associated with a 67% increase in odds of yearly mammograms. Greater involvement in the patient’s care was associated with a 7% decrease in odds of yearly mammograms. Greater perceived effectiveness for physical activity was significantly related to greater physical activity. There was a trend for greater perceived effectiveness for fruits and vegetables to be associated with consuming more fruits and vegetables. Breast cancer worry was not significantly associated with the outcomes. While perceived effectiveness for a specific health behavior in reducing breast cancer risk was consistently related to engaging in that health behavior, women reported significantly lower perceived effectiveness for physical activity and fruits and vegetables than for mammograms. Making women aware of the health benefits of these behaviors may be important in promoting changes

A Transfer Matrix for the Backbone Exponent of Two-Dimensional Percolation

Rephrasing the backbone of two-dimensional percolation as a monochromatic path crossing problem, we investigate the latter by a transfer matrix approach. Conformal invariance links the backbone dimension D_b to the highest eigenvalue of the transfer matrix T, and we obtain the result D_b=1.6431 \pm 0.0006. For a strip of width L, T is roughly of size 2^{3^L}, but we manage to reduce it to \sim L!. We find that the value of D_b is stable with respect to inclusion of additional ``blobs'' tangent to the backbone in a finite number of points.Comment: 19 page

Critical points in coupled Potts models and critical phases in coupled loop models

We show how to couple two critical Q-state Potts models to yield a new self-dual critical point. We also present strong evidence of a dense critical phase near this critical point when the Potts models are defined in their completely packed loop representations. In the continuum limit, the new critical point is described by an SU(2) coset conformal field theory, while in this limit of the the critical phase, the two loop models decouple. Using a combination of exact results and numerics, we also obtain the phase diagram in the presence of vacancies. We generalize these results to coupling two Potts models at different Q.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

The Generation of Successive Unmarked Mutations and Chromosomal Insertion of Heterologous Genes in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae Using Natural Transformation

We have developed a simple method of generating scarless, unmarked mutations in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae by exploiting the ability of this bacterium to undergo natural transformation, and with no need to introduce plasmids encoding recombinases or resolvases. This method involves two successive rounds of natural transformation using linear DNA: the first introduces a cassette carrying cat (which allows selection by chloramphenicol) and sacB (which allows counter-selection using sucrose) flanked by sequences to either side of the target gene; the second transformation utilises the flanking sequences ligated directly to each other in order to remove the cat-sacB cassette. In order to ensure efficient uptake of the target DNA during transformation, A. pleuropneumoniae uptake sequences are added into the constructs used in both rounds of transformation. This method can be used to generate multiple successive deletions and can also be used to introduce targeted point mutations or insertions of heterologous genes into the A. pleuropneumoniae chromosome for development of live attenuated vaccine strains. So far, we have applied this method to highly transformable isolates of serovars 8 (MIDG2331), which is the most prevalent in the UK, and 15 (HS143). By screening clinical isolates of other serovars, it should be possible to identify other amenable strains

Cognitive effects of cancer and its treatments at the intersection of aging: what do we know; what do we need to know?

There is a fairly consistent, albeit non-universal body of research documenting cognitive declines after cancer and its treatments. While few of these studies have included subjects aged 65 years and older, it is logical to expect that older patients are at risk of cognitive decline. Here, we use breast cancer as an exemplar disease for inquiry into the intersection of aging and cognitive effects of cancer and its therapies. There are a striking number of common underlying potential biological risks and pathways for the development of cancer, cancer-related cognitive declines, and aging processes, including the development of a frail phenotype. Candidate shared pathways include changes in hormonal milieu, inflammation, oxidative stress, DNA damage and compromised DNA repair, genetic susceptibility, decreased brain blood flow or disruption of the blood-brain barrier, direct neurotoxicity, decreased telomere length, and cell senescence. There also are similar structure and functional changes seen in brain imaging studies of cancer patients and those seen with "normal" aging and Alzheimer's disease. Disentangling the role of these overlapping processes is difficult since they require aged animal models and large samples of older human subjects. From what we do know, frailty and its low cognitive reserve seem to be a clinically useful marker of risk for cognitive decline after cancer and its treatments. This and other results from this review suggest the value of geriatric assessments to identify older patients at the highest risk of cognitive decline. Further research is needed to understand the interactions between aging, genetic predisposition, lifestyle factors, and frailty phenotypes to best identify the subgroups of older patients at greatest risk for decline and to develop behavioral and pharmacological interventions targeting this group. We recommend that basic science and population trials be developed specifically for older hosts with intermediate endpoints of relevance to this group, including cognitive function and trajectories of frailty. Clinicians and their older patients can advance the field by active encouragement of and participation in research designed to improve the care and outcomes of the growing population of older cancer patients

Recommendations for high-priority research on cancer-related fatigue in children and adults.

Over the past decades, some scientific progress has been made in understanding and treating cancer-related fatigue (CRF). However, three major problems have limited further progress: lack of agreement about measurement, inadequate understanding of the underlying biology, and problems in the conduct of clinical trials for CRF. This commentary reports the recommendations of a National Cancer Institute Clinical Trials Planning Meeting and an ongoing National Cancer Institute working group to address these problems so that high-priority research and clinical trials can be conducted to advance the science of CRF and its treatment. Recommendations to address measurement issues included revising the current case definition to reflect more rigorous criteria, adopting the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System fatigue scales as standard measures of CRF, and linking legacy measures to the scales. With regard to the biology of CRF, the group identified the need for longitudinal research to examine biobehavioral mechanisms underlying CRF and testing mechanistic hypotheses within the context of intervention research. To address clinical trial issues, recommendations included using only placebo-controlled trial designs. setting eligibility to minimize sample heterogeneity or enable subgroup analysis, establishing a CRF severity threshold for participation in clinical trials, conducting dissemination trials of efficacious interventions (such as exercise), and combining nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic interventions to exploit the potential synergy between these approaches. Accomplishing these goals has the potential to advance the science of CRF and improve the clinical management of this troubling symptom