Prediagnostic adult body mass index change and esophageal adenocarcinoma survival

Background: We examined whether body mass index (BMI) changes in adulthood, prior to disease onset, are associated with overall survival among esophageal adenocarcinoma patients. Methods: We included 285 histologically confirmed patients with a complete baseline BMI questionnaire. Using extended Cox regression models, we obtained adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for the associations between overall survival and BMI at diagnosis, BMI 6 months before diagnosis, self-reported average adult BMI, and ΔBMI (BMI 6 months before diagnosis minus average adult BMI), categorized into tertiles 25 and <35 kg/m2 was associated with better overall survival. Compared to patients with stable BMI in adulthood, patients who gained BMI throughout adulthood had 1.68 times the all-cause hazard of death (95% CI: 1.17-2.43; P <.01), independent of diagnosis BMI and percent weight loss 6 months before diagnosis. Compared to patients with average adult BMI < 27.5 who maintained stable adult BMI, patients with average adult BMI ≥ 27.5 kg/m2 who gained BMI had the worst survival (HR = 3.05; 95% CI 1.62-5.72; P <.01). Conclusion: Body mass index gain in adulthood is associated with poor overall survival, and maintaining a normal body weight throughout adulthood is associated with the best overall survival among esophageal adenocarcinoma patients, independent of BMI at diagnosis

Bucket and mini-bucket Schemes for M Best Solutions over Graphical Models

The paper focuses on finding the m best solutions of a combinatorial optimization problem defined over a graphical model (e.g., the m most probable explanations for a Bayesian network). We describe elimm-opt, a new bucket elimination algorithm for solving the m-best task, provide efficient implementation of its defining combination and marginalization operators, analyze its worst-case performance, and compare it with that of recent related algorithms. An extension to the mini-bucket framework, yielding a collection of bounds for each of the m-best solutions is discussed and empirically evaluated. We also formulate the m-best task as a regular reasoning task over general graphical models defined axiomatically, which makes all other inference algorithms applicable.

Allelopathic effect of endemic South American Bothriochloa species (Poaceae: Andropogoneae)

The essential oil composition of Bothriochloa velutina has been studied. The principal compounds of essential oils of three South American endemics, B. eurylemma, B. meridionalis and B. velutina were isolated. In laboratory bioassays, the principal compounds inhibited the seed germination and root and shoot growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), maize (Zea mays L.), wintergreen paspalum (Paspalum guenoarum Arechav.) and lovegrass [Eragrostis curvula (Schard.) Nees] test species. The aqueous extracts from different plant parts of three species of Bothriochloa inhibited the seed germination and root and shoot growth of test species. Aqueous extracts were more inhibitory to shoot and root elongation than to seed germination. Significant inhibition in shoot length at all concentrations indicated the phytotoxic activity of extracts. The toxicity enhanced with increasing aqueous extract concentrations. The compounds isolated can interfere with seed germination and seedling growth of plants. Consequently, the study of these chemical interactions might be useful to develop new classes of environmentally safe herbicides.Fil: Scrivanti, Lidia Raquel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Anton, Ana Maria Ramona. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentin