Growth and CD4 patterns of adolescents living with perinatally acquired HIV worldwide, a CIPHER cohort collaboration analysis

Introduction: Adolescents living with HIV are subject to multiple co-morbidities, including growth retardation and immunodeficiency. We describe growth and CD4 evolution during adolescence using data from the Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research (CIPHER) global project. Methods: Data were collected between 1994 and 2015 from 11 CIPHER networks worldwide. Adolescents with perinatally acquired HIV infection (APH) who initiated antiretroviral therapy (ART) before age 10 years, with at least one height or CD4 count measurement while aged 10–17 years, were included. Growth was measured using height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ, stunting if <-2 SD, WHO growth charts). Linear mixed-effects models were used to study the evolution of each outcome between ages 10 and 17. For growth, sex-specific models with fractional polynomials were used to model non-linear relationships for age at ART initiation, HAZ at age 10 and time, defined as current age from 10 to 17 years of age. Results: A total of 20,939 and 19,557 APH were included for the growth and CD4 analyses, respectively. Half were females, two-thirds lived in East and Southern Africa, and median age at ART initiation ranged from <3 years in North America and Europe to >7 years in sub-Saharan African regions. At age 10, stunting ranged from 6% in North America and Europe to 39% in the Asia-Pacific; 19% overall had CD4 counts <500 cells/mm3. Across adolescence, higher HAZ was observed in females and among those in high-income countries. APH with stunting at age 10 and those with late ART initiation (after age 5) had the largest HAZ gains during adolescence, but these gains were insufficient to catch-up with non-stunted, early ART-treated adolescents. From age 10 to 16 years, mean CD4 counts declined from 768 to 607 cells/mm3. This decline was observed across all regions, in males and females. Conclusions: Growth patterns during adolescence differed substantially by sex and region, while CD4 patterns were similar, with an observed CD4 decline that needs further investigation. Early diagnosis and timely initiation of treatment in early childhood to prevent growth retardation and immunodeficiency are critical to improving APH growth and CD4 outcomes by the time they reach adulthood

Breast cancer risk genes: association analysis in more than 113,000 women

BACKGROUNDGenetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility is widely used, but for many genes, evidence of an association with breast cancer is weak, underlying risk estimates are imprecise, and reliable subtype-specific risk estimates are lacking.METHODSWe used a panel of 34 putative susceptibility genes to perform sequencing on samples from 60,466 women with breast cancer and 53,461 controls. In separate analyses for protein-truncating variants and rare missense variants in these genes, we estimated odds ratios for breast cancer overall and tumor subtypes. We evaluated missense-variant associations according to domain and classification of pathogenicity.RESULTSProtein-truncating variants in 5 genes (ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2, and PALB2) were associated with a risk of breast cancer overall with a P value of less than 0.0001. Protein-truncating variants in 4 other genes (BARD1, RAD51C, RAD51D, and TP53) were associated with a risk of breast cancer overall with a P value of less than 0.05 and a Bayesian false-discovery probability of less than 0.05. For protein-truncating variants in 19 of the remaining 25 genes, the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval of the odds ratio for breast cancer overall was less than 2.0. For protein-truncating variants in ATM and CHEK2, odds ratios were higher for estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease than for ER-negative disease; for protein-truncating variants in BARD1, BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, RAD51C, and RAD51D, odds ratios were higher for ER-negative disease than for ER-positive disease. Rare missense variants (in aggregate) in ATM, CHEK2, and TP53 were associated with a risk of breast cancer overall with a P value of less than 0.001. For BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53, missense variants (in aggregate) that would be classified as pathogenic according to standard criteria were associated with a risk of breast cancer overall, with the risk being similar to that of protein-truncating variants.CONCLUSIONSThe results of this study define the genes that are most clinically useful for inclusion on panels for the prediction of breast cancer risk, as well as provide estimates of the risks associated with protein-truncating variants, to guide genetic counseling. (Funded by European Union Horizon 2020 programs and others.)Molecular tumour pathology - and tumour geneticsMTG1 - Moleculaire genetica en pathologie van borstkanke

Track reconstruction and matching between emulsion and silicon pixel detectors for the SHiP-charm experiment

In July 2018 an optimization run for the proposed charm cross section measurement for SHiP was performed at the CERN SPS. A heavy, moving target instrumented with nuclear emulsion films followed by a silicon pixel tracker was installed in front of the Goliath magnet at the H4 proton beam-line. Behind the magnet, scintillating-fibre, drift-tube and RPC detectors were placed. The purpose of this run was to validate the measurement's feasibility, to develop the required analysis tools and fine-tune the detector layout. In this paper, we present the track reconstruction in the pixel tracker and the track matching with the moving emulsion detector. The pixel detector performed as expected and it is shown that, after proper alignment, a vertex matching rate of 87% is achieved

Full-scale application of a dimensional quality assessment technique to precast concrete panels using terrestrial laser scanning

Nowadays, precast concrete panels are one of the most popular construction components. To safeguard the overall quality of construction projects, it is important to ensure that the dimensional quality of precast concretes conform to the design specifications. In order to achieve this, a terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)-based automated dimensional quality assessment technique has been developed by the author's group. The scope of this paper is such that the developed dimensional quality assessment technique is further advanced so that this technique can also be applied to full-scale precast concrete panels with complex geometries. A full-scale precast slab with dimensions of 10,610 mm1,980 mm in a precast manufacturing company is used as a test target to validate the effectiveness of the dimensional quality assessment technique. The challenges encountered during the data analysis of the full-scale test are investigated and resolved using optimized algorithms. Furthermore, comparison of the effectiveness between the conventional technique (deviation analysis) and the proposed technique is conducted. The average dimensional error for the proposed technique is 5.2 mm, while that of the conventional deviation analysis is 10.2 mm, demonstrating that the proposed technique can have high potentials in estimating and assessing the dimensional properties of the precast concrete panel © ASCE 2014

Oxidation Behaviors of Porous Ferritic Stainless Steel Support for Metal-supported SOFC

11kc

Printed Organic Light-Emitting Diodes on Fabric with Roll-to-Roll Sputtered ITO Anode and Poly(vinyl alcohol) Planarization Layer

Electronic textiles, which are a combination of fabrics and electronics, can help realize wearable electronic devices by changing the rigidity of these textiles. We demonstrate organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) by directly printing the emitting material on fabric substrates using the nozzle-printing technique. Printing the emitting material directly on a fabric substrate with a rough surface is difficult. To address this, we introduce a planarization layer by using a synthesized 3.5 wt % poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) solution. The sputtered ITO anode with the thermally annealed PVA planarization layer on a fabric substrate achieves a low sheet resistance in the range of 60-80 ω/sq, whereas the ITO electrode without a PVA layer exhibits high sheet resistance values of 10-25 kω/sq. This result is because the thermally annealed PVA layer on the fabric surface has a uniform surface morphology and a water contact angle as high as 96°, thus acting as a protective layer with a waterproofing effect; in contrast, the water is completely absorbed on the rough surface without a PVA layer. The fabric-based OLEDs with a thermally annealed PVA layer exhibit a lower turn-on voltage of 3 V and higher luminance values of 5346 cd/m2 at 8 V compared with the devices without a PVA layer (7 V and 3622 cd/m2) at 18 V. These fabric-based OLEDs with a PVA planarization layer can be produced by the nozzle-printing process and can achieve selective patterning as well as direct printing of the emitting material and ITO sputtering on a fabric substrate; furthermore, they emit well even when it bent into a circle with a radius of 1 cm.11Nsciescopu