Incidence and drug treatment of emotional distress after cancer diagnosis : a matched primary care case-control study

Notes This work is published under the standard license to publish agreement. After 12 months the work will become freely available and the license terms will switch to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Multidimensional heritability analysis of neuroanatomical shape

In the dawning era of large-scale biomedical data, multidimensional phenotype vectors will play an increasing role in examining the genetic underpinnings of brain features, behaviour and disease. For example, shape measurements derived from brain MRI scans are multidimensional geometric descriptions of brain structure and provide an alternate class of phenotypes that remains largely unexplored in genetic studies. Here we extend the concept of heritability to multidimensional traits, and present the first comprehensive analysis of the heritability of neuroanatomical shape measurements across an ensemble of brain structures based on genome-wide SNP and MRI data from 1,320 unrelated, young and healthy individuals. We replicate our findings in an extended twin sample from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). Our results demonstrate that neuroanatomical shape can be significantly heritable, above and beyond volume, and can serve as a complementary phenotype to study the genetic determinants and clinical relevance of brain structure.National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (U.S.) (P41EB015896)United States. National Institutes of Health (S10RR023043)United States. National Institutes of Health (S10RR023401)United States. National Institutes of Health (K25CA181632)United States. National Institutes of Health (K01MH099232)United States. National Institutes of Health (K99MH101367)United States. National Institutes of Health (R21AG050122-01A1)United States. National Institutes of Health (R41AG052246-01)United States. National Institutes of Health (1K25EB013649-01)United States. National Institutes of Health (K24MH094614)United States. National Institutes of Health (R01MH101486

Statistical biopsy: An emerging screening approach for early detection of cancers

Despite large investment cancer continues to be a major source of mortality and morbidity throughout the world. Traditional methods of detection and diagnosis such as biopsy and imaging, tend to be expensive and have risks of complications. As data becomes more abundant and machine learning continues advancing, it is natural to ask how they can help solve some of these problems. In this paper we show that using a person's personal health data it is possible to predict their risk for a wide variety of cancers. We dub this process a “statistical biopsy.” Specifically, we train two neural networks, one predicting risk for 16 different cancer types in females and the other predicting risk for 15 different cancer types in males. The networks were trained as binary classifiers identifying individuals that were diagnosed with the different cancer types within 5 years of joining the PLOC trial. However, rather than use the binary output of the classifiers we show that the continuous output can instead be used as a cancer risk allowing a holistic look at an individual's cancer risks. We tested our multi-cancer model on the UK Biobank dataset showing that for most cancers the predictions generalized well and that looking at multiple cancer risks at once from personal health data is a possibility. While the statistical biopsy will not be able to replace traditional biopsies for diagnosing cancers, we hope there can be a shift of paradigm in how statistical models are used in cancer detection moving to something more powerful and more personalized than general population screening guidelines

An approach to measure compliance to clinical guidelines in psychiatric care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to measure six months compliance to Swedish clinical guidelines in psychiatric care after an active supported implementation process, using structured measures derived from the guidelines.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this observational study four psychiatric clinics each participated in active implementation of the clinical guidelines for the assessment and treatment of depression and guidelines for assessment and treatment of patients with suicidal behaviours developed by The Stockholm Medical Advisory Board for Psychiatry. The implementation programme included seminars, local implementation teams, regular feedback and academic visits. Additionally two clinics only received the guidelines and served as controls. Compliance to guidelines was measured using indicators, which operationalised requirements of preferred clinical practice. 725 patient records were included, 365 before the implementation and 360 six months after.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analyses of indicators registered showed that the actively implementing clinics significantly improved their compliance to the guidelines. The total score differed significantly between implementation clinics and control clinics for management of depression (mean scores 9.5 (1.3) versus 5.0 (1.5), p < 0.001) as well as for the management of suicide (mean scores 8.1 (2.3) versus 4.5 (1.9), p < 0.001). No changes were found in the control clinics and only one of the OR was significant.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Compliance to clinical guidelines measured by process indicators of required clinical practice was enhanced by an active implementation.</p

Brain Genomics Superstruct Project initial data release with structural, functional, and behavioral measures

The goal of the Brain Genomics Superstruct Project (GSP) is to enable large-scale exploration of the links between brain function, behavior, and ultimately genetic variation. To provide the broader scientific community data to probe these associations, a repository of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans linked to genetic information was constructed from a sample of healthy individuals. The initial release, detailed in the present manuscript, encompasses quality screened cross-sectional data from 1,570 participants ages 18 to 35 years who were scanned with MRI and completed demographic and health questionnaires. Personality and cognitive measures were obtained on a subset of participants. Each dataset contains a T1-weighted structural MRI scan and either one (n=1,570) or two (n=1,139) resting state functional MRI scans. Test-retest reliability datasets are included from 69 participants scanned within six months of their initial visit. For the majority of participants self-report behavioral and cognitive measures are included (n=926 and n=892 respectively). Analyses of data quality, structure, function, personality, and cognition are presented to demonstrate the dataset’s utility

Telephone Consultation for Improving Health of People Living with or at Risk of HIV: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Low cost, effective interventions are needed to deal with the major global burden of HIV/AIDS. Telephone consultation offers the potential to improve health of people living with HIV/AIDS cost-effectively and to reduce the burden on affected people and health systems. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of telephone consultation for HIV/AIDS care. METHODS: We undertook a comprehensive search of peer-reviewed and grey literature. Two authors independently screened citations, extracted data and assessed the quality of randomized controlled trials which compared telephone interventions with control groups for HIV/AIDS care. Telephone interventions were voice calls with landlines or mobile phones. We present a narrative overview of the results as the obtained trials were highly heterogeneous in design and therefore the data could not be pooled for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The search yielded 3321 citations. Of these, nine studies involving 1162 participants met the inclusion criteria. The telephone was used for giving HIV test results (one trial) and for delivering behavioural interventions aimed at improving mental health (four trials), reducing sexual transmission risk (one trial), improving medication adherence (two trials) and smoking cessation (one trial). Limited effectiveness of the intervention was found in the trial giving HIV test results, in one trial supporting medication adherence and in one trial for smoking cessation by telephone. CONCLUSIONS: We found some evidence of the benefits of interventions delivered by telephone for the health of people living with HIV or at risk of HIV. However, only limited conclusions can be drawn as we only found nine studies for five different interventions and they mainly took place in the United States. Nevertheless, given the high penetration of low-cost mobile phones in countries with high HIV endemicity, more evidence is needed on how telephone consultation can aid in the delivery of HIV prevention, treatment and care

Productivity links morphology, symbiont specificity, and bleaching in the evolution of Caribbean octocoral symbioses

Many cnidarians host endosymbiotic dinoflagellates from the genus Symbiodinium. It is generally assumed that the symbiosis is mutualistic, where the host benefits from symbiont photosynthesis while providing protection and photosynthetic substrates. Diverse assemblages of symbiotic gorgonian octocorals can be found in hard bottom communities throughout the Caribbean. While current research has focused on the phylo- and population genetics of gorgonian symbiont types and their photo-physiology, relatively less work has focused on biogeochemical benefits conferred to the host and how these benefits vary across host species. Here, we examine this symbiosis among 11 gorgonian species collected in Bocas del Toro, Panama. By coupling light and dark bottle incubations (P/R) with 13C-bicarbonate tracers, we quantified the link between holobiont oxygen metabolism with carbon assimilation and translocation from symbiont to host. Our data show that P/R varied among species, and was correlated with colony morphology and polyp size. Sea fans and sea plumes were net autotrophs (P/R > 1.5) while nine species of sea rods were net heterotrophs with most below compensation (P/R < 1.0). 13C assimilation corroborated the P/R results, and maximum δ13Chost values were strongly correlated with polyp size, indicating higher productivity by colonies with high polyp SA:V. A survey of gorgonian-Symbiodinium associations revealed that productive species maintain specialized, obligate symbioses and are more resistant to coral bleaching, whereas generalist and facultative associations are common among sea rods that have higher bleaching sensitivities. Overall, productivity and polyp size had strong phylogenetic signals with carbon fixation and polyp size showing evidence of trait covariance.published_or_final_versio

Radon 222 and tropospheric vertical transport

Radon 222 is an inert gas whose loss is due only to radioactive decay with a half life of 3. 83 days (5. 51-day 'exponential' lifetime). It is a very useful tracer of continental air because only ground level continental sources are significant. Previously published measured **2**2**2Rn profiles are analyzed here by averaging for the summer, winter, and spring-fall seasons. The analysis shows that in summer, about 55% of the **2**2**2Rn is transported above the planetary boundary layer, considerably more than during the other seasons. Similarly, in summer, about 20% rises to over 5. 5 km (500 mbar). The average profiles have been used to derive vertical eddy diffusion coefficients with maximum values of 5-7 multiplied by 10**5 cm**2 s** minus **1 in the midtroposphere and 8 multiplied by 10**3 to 5 multiplied by 10**4 cm**2 s** minus **1 near the surface