Totarol content and cytotoxicity varies significantly in different types of propolis

Propolis is a complex honeybee product deposited in the beehives, where it protects the hive and its occupants from microbial infection. Propolis has several reported medical applications in view of its numerous bioactive properties. The water insoluble fraction of crude Maltese honeybee propolis was extracted in methanol. Analysis by gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) showed the diterpenoid totarol to be the predominant constituent in all samples. The evaporated methanol residue was dissolved in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and used for cytotoxicity testing on human cancer cell lines using standard 3-[4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays. Results obtained show that the propolis collected from Malta has cytotoxic activity in cancer cells in vitro. However, propolis collected from different sites, only a few miles apart and at different times of the year, showed marked variations in the cytotoxicity, which correlated clearly with totarol content. This reflects the differences in the species of plants, on which the bees had foraged and indicates the importance of collection site and season of collection on the bioactivity of propolis products.peer-reviewe

Many Labs 2: Investigating Variation in Replicability Across Samples and Settings

We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings, with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance, to examine variation in effect magnitudes across samples and settings. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples that comprised 15,305 participants from 36 countries and territories. Using the conventional criterion of statistical significance (p < .05), we found that 15 (54%) of the replications provided evidence of a statistically significant effect in the same direction as the original finding. With a strict significance criterion (p < .0001), 14 (50%) of the replications still provided such evidence, a reflection of the extremely highpowered design. Seven (25%) of the replications yielded effect sizes larger than the original ones, and 21 (75%) yielded effect sizes smaller than the original ones. The median comparable Cohen’s ds were 0.60 for the original findings and 0.15 for the replications. The effect sizes were small (< 0.20) in 16 of the replications (57%), and 9 effects (32%) were in the direction opposite the direction of the original effect. Across settings, the Q statistic indicated significant heterogeneity in 11 (39%) of the replication effects, and most of those were among the findings with the largest overall effect sizes; only 1 effect that was near zero in the aggregate showed significant heterogeneity according to this measure. Only 1 effect had a tau value greater than .20, an indication of moderate heterogeneity. Eight others had tau values near or slightly above .10, an indication of slight heterogeneity. Moderation tests indicated that very little heterogeneity was attributable to the order in which the tasks were performed or whether the tasks were administered in lab versus online. Exploratory comparisons revealed little heterogeneity between Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) cultures and less WEIRD cultures (i.e., cultures with relatively high and low WEIRDness scores, respectively). Cumulatively, variability in the observed effect sizes was attributable more to the effect being studied than to the sample or setting in which it was studied.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIP

Breast cancer management pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic: outcomes from the UK ‘Alert Level 4’ phase of the B-MaP-C study

Abstract: Background: The B-MaP-C study aimed to determine alterations to breast cancer (BC) management during the peak transmission period of the UK COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impact of these treatment decisions. Methods: This was a national cohort study of patients with early BC undergoing multidisciplinary team (MDT)-guided treatment recommendations during the pandemic, designated ‘standard’ or ‘COVID-altered’, in the preoperative, operative and post-operative setting. Findings: Of 3776 patients (from 64 UK units) in the study, 2246 (59%) had ‘COVID-altered’ management. ‘Bridging’ endocrine therapy was used (n = 951) where theatre capacity was reduced. There was increasing access to COVID-19 low-risk theatres during the study period (59%). In line with national guidance, immediate breast reconstruction was avoided (n = 299). Where adjuvant chemotherapy was omitted (n = 81), the median benefit was only 3% (IQR 2–9%) using ‘NHS Predict’. There was the rapid adoption of new evidence-based hypofractionated radiotherapy (n = 781, from 46 units). Only 14 patients (1%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during their treatment journey. Conclusions: The majority of ‘COVID-altered’ management decisions were largely in line with pre-COVID evidence-based guidelines, implying that breast cancer survival outcomes are unlikely to be negatively impacted by the pandemic. However, in this study, the potential impact of delays to BC presentation or diagnosis remains unknown

Dose rate mapping of VMAT treatments

Human tissues exhibit a varying response to radiation dose depending on the dose rate and fractionation scheme used. Dose rate effects have been reported for different radiations, and tissue types. The literature indicates that there is not a significant difference in response for low-LET radiation when using dose rates between 1 Gy min(-1) and 12 Gy min(-1) but lower dose rates have an observable sparing effect on tissues and a differential effect between tissues. In intensity-modulated radiotherapy such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) the dose can be delivered with a wide range of dose rates. In this work we developed a method based on time-resolved Monte Carlo simulations to quantify the dose rate frequency distribution for clinical VMAT treatments for three cancer sites, head and neck, lung, and pelvis within both planning target volumes (PTV) and normal tissues. The results show a wide range of dose rates are used to deliver dose in VMAT and up to 75% of the PTV can have its dose delivered with dose rate

New high-precision measurements of the isotopic composition of atmospheric argon

Earth’s atmosphere is used as a standard reference gas for mass spectrometric determinations of argon (Ar) isotopes used principally in geochronology. There are three published independent determinations of the Ar isotope composition of modern atmosphere that differ subtly. We have made newhigh-precisionmeasurements of Ar isotope ratios of five different sources of air using a high-sensitivity multi-collector noble gas mass spectrometer in order to distinguish between them. The isotope ratios, corrected only for backgrounds, reside on a inverse square-root mass law fractionation line that passes through the air value proposed by Lee et al. [Lee J. Y., Marti K., Severinghaus J. P., Kawamura K., Yoo H. S., Lee J. B. and Kim J. S. (2006) A redetermination of the isotopic abundances of atmospheric Ar. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta70, 4507–4512]. They are distinct from both the other proposed compositions and provide the first independent confirmation of the atmospheric Ar isotope composition. We suggest that the revised values should now be in routine employment

A novel time dependent gamma evaluation function for dynamic 2D and 3D dose distributions

Modern external beam radiotherapy requires detailed verification and quality assurance so that confidence can be placed on both the delivery of a single treatment fraction and on the consistency of delivery throughout the treatment course. To verify dose distributions, a comparison between prediction and measurement must be made. Comparisons between two dose distributions are commonly performed using a Gamma evaluation which is a calculation of two quantities on a pixel by pixel basis; the dose difference, and the distance to agreement. By providing acceptance criteria (e.g. 3%, 3 mm), the function will find the most appropriate match within its two degrees of freedom. For complex dynamic treatments such as IMRT or VMAT it is important to verify the dose delivery in a time dependent manner and so a gamma evaluation that includes a degree of freedom in the time domain via a third parameter, time to agreement, is presented here. A C++ (mex) based gamma function was created that could be run on either CPU and GPU computing platforms that would allow a degree of freedom in the time domain. Simple test cases were created in both 2D and 3D comprising of simple geometrical shapes with well-defined boundaries varying over time. Changes of varying magnitude in either space or time were introduced and repeated gamma analyses were performed varying the criteria. A clinical VMAT case was also included, artificial air bubbles of varying size were introduced to a patient geometry, along with shifts of varying magnitude in treatment time. For all test cases where errors in distance, dose or time were introduced, the time dependent gamma evaluation could accurately highlight the errors. The time dependent gamma function presented here allows time to be included as a degree of freedom in gamma evaluations. The function allows for 2D and 3D data sets which are varying over time to be compared using appropriate criteria without penalising minor offsets of subsequent radiation fields in time