Maternal factors associated with the breastfeeding Status in Sana'a, Yemen

A survey was conducted during April-May 2013 in Sana'a City, Yemen, and 319 mothers from Sana'a City were interviewed about breastfeeding practices. Each mother had a living child aged less than 12 months. About 84% of mothers were breastfed their infants in the first month and the median of duration of breastfeeding was found only a half month. The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that mothers aged 30 or more years are likely higher to continue breastfeeding than younger women. Educated mothers are more likely to continue breastfeeding than illiterate mothers. Housewives are likely higher to breastfeed than those who are working. Mothers who initiated breastfeeding at less than two hours are likely to continue breastfeeding. Mothers who have more than one child are likely to wean earlier than mothers with more than one child. Key Words: Breastfeeding, Maternal factors, logistic regression

A novel digital score for abundance of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes predicts disease free survival in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type of head and neck (H&N) cancers with an increasing worldwide incidence and a worsening prognosis. The abundance of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) has been shown to be a key prognostic indicator in a range of cancers with emerging evidence of its role in OSCC progression and treatment response. However, the current methods of TIL analysis are subjective and open to variability in interpretation. An automated method for quantification of TIL abundance has the potential to facilitate better stratification and prognostication of oral cancer patients. We propose a novel method for objective quantification of TIL abundance in OSCC histology images. The proposed TIL abundance (TILAb) score is calculated by first segmenting the whole slide images (WSIs) into underlying tissue types (tumour, lymphocytes, etc.) and then quantifying the co-localization of lymphocytes and tumour areas in a novel fashion. We investigate the prognostic significance of TILAb score on digitized WSIs of Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stained slides of OSCC patients. Our deep learning based tissue segmentation achieves high accuracy of 96.31%, which paves the way for reliable downstream analysis. We show that the TILAb score is a strong prognostic indicator (p = 0.0006) of disease free survival (DFS) on our OSCC test cohort. The automated TILAb score has a significantly higher prognostic value than the manual TIL score (p = 0.0024). In summary, the proposed TILAb score is a digital biomarker which is based on more accurate classification of tumour and lymphocytic regions, is motivated by the biological definition of TILs as tumour infiltrating lymphocytes, with the added advantages of objective and reproducible quantification

Distribution and sources of linear alkyl benzenes (LABs) in surface sediments from Johor Bahru Coast and the Kim Kim River, Malaysia

This study focuses on sewage pollution, which is one of the most important issues concerning Malaysians. The main location of this study is in Johor Bahru as it is one of the most populated areas in Malaysia. The distribution and sources of linear alkyl benzenes (LABs) were evaluated in surface sediments collected from Johor Bahru Coast and the Kim Kim River, Peninsular Malaysia. The samples were extracted, fractionated and analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This study found that LABs concentrations ranged from 87.6 to 188.7 ng/g dw and 88.2 to 119.02 ng/g dw in surface sediments from Johor Bahru Coast and the Kim Kim River, respectively. Johor Bahru Coast showed an increasing trend of LABs concentrations due to rapid industrialization and population growth. The ratio of internal to external isomers (I/E ratio) of LABs in sediment samples from Johor Bahru Coast ranged from 1.76 to 2.04 while the I/E ratios in sediments from the Kim Kim River ranged from 1.72 to 1.91. All I/E ratios at Johor Bahru Coast and the Kim Kim River stations indicate that the areas were receiving primary and secondary effluents

Socioeconomic status and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma risk in Kashmir, India

Studies have persistently associated esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) risk with low socioeconomic status (SES), but this association is unexplored in Kashmir, an area with a high incidence of ESCC in the northernmost part of India. We carried out a case-control study to assess the association of multiple indicators of SES and ESCC risk in the Kashmir valley. A total number of 703 histologically confirmed ESCC cases and 1664 controls matched to the cases for age, sex, and district of residence were recruited from October 2008 to January 2012. Conditional logistic regression models were used to calculate unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Composite wealth scores were constructed based on the ownership of several appliances using multiple correspondence analyses. Higher education, living in a kiln brick or concrete house, use of liquefied petroleum gas and electricity for cooking, and higher wealth scores all showed an inverse association with ESCC risk. Compared to farmers, individuals who had government jobs or worked in the business sector were at lower risk of ESCC, but this association disappeared in fully adjusted models. Occupational strenuous physical activity was strongly associated with ESCC risk. In summary, we found a strong relationship of low SES and ESCC in Kashmir. The findings need to be studied further to understand the mechanisms through which such SES parameters increase ESCC risk. \ua9 2013 Japanese Cancer Association

Erratum: Hookah smoking, nass chewing, and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Kashmir, India (British Journal of Cancer (2012) 107 (1618-1623) DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2012.449)

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Hookah smoking, nass chewing, and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Kashmir, India

Background: Although cigarette smoking is an established risk factor for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), there is little information about the association between other smoking and smokeless tobacco products, including hookah and nass, and ESCC risk. We conducted a casecontrol study in Kashmir Valley, India, where hookah smoking, nass chewing, and ESCC are common, to investigate the association of hookah smoking, nass use, and several other habits with ESCC. Methods: We recruited 702 histologically confirmed ESCC cases and 1663 hospital-based controls, individually matched to the cases for age, sex, and district of residence from September 2008 to January 2012. Conditional logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Results: Ever-hookah smoking (OR1.85; 95% CI, 1.412.44) and nass chewing (OR2.88; 95% CI, 2.064.04) were associated with ESCC risk. These associations were consistent across different measures of use, including intensity, duration, and cumulative amount of use, and after excluding ever users of the other product and cigarette smokers. Our results also suggest an increased risk of ESCC associated with ever-gutka chewing and-bidi smoking. However, the latter associations were based on small number of participants. Conclusion: This study shows that hookah and nass use are associated with ESCC risk. As prevalence of hookah use seems to be increasing among young people worldwide, these results may have relevance not only for the regions in which hookah use has been a traditional habit, but also for other regions, including western countries. © 2012 Cancer Research UK All rights reserved