Risk of advanced colorectal neoplasia according to age and gender.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer related morbidity and death. Despite the fact that the mean age at diagnosis of CRC is lower in men, screening by colonoscopy or fecal occult blood test (FOBT) is initiated at same age in both genders. The prevalence of the common CRC precursor lesion, advanced adenoma, is well documented only in the screening population. The purpose of this study was to assess the risk of advanced adenoma at ages below screening age. We analyzed data from a census of 625,918 outpatient colonoscopies performed in adults in Bavaria between 2006 and 2008. A logistic regression model to determine gender- and age-specific risk of advanced neoplasia was developed. Advanced neoplasia was found in 16,740 women (4.6%) and 22,684 men (8.6%). Male sex was associated with an overall increased risk of advanced neoplasia (odds ratio 1.95; 95% confidence interval, CI, 1.91 to 2.00). At any age and in any indication group, more colonoscopies were needed in women than in men to detect advanced adenoma or cancer. At age 75 14.8 (95% CI, 14.4-15.2) screening, 18.2 (95% CI, 17.7-18.7) diagnostic, and 7.9 (95% CI, 7.6-8.2) colonoscopies to follow up on a positive FOBT (FOBT colonoscopies) were needed to find advanced adenoma in women. At age 50 39.0 (95% CI, 38.0-40.0) diagnostic, and 16.3 (95% CI, 15.7-16.9) FOBT colonoscopies were needed. Comparable numbers were reached 20 and 10 years earlier in men than in women, respectively. At any age and independent of the indication for colonoscopy, men are at higher risk of having advanced neoplasia diagnosed upon colonoscopy than women. This suggests that starting screening earlier in life in men than in women might result in a relevant increase in the detection of asymptomatic preneoplastic and neoplastic colonic lesions

Bundles of Interacting Strings in Two Dimensions

Bundles of strings which interact via short-ranged pair potentials are studied in two dimensions. The corresponding transfer matrix problem is solved analytically for arbitrary string number N by Bethe ansatz methods. Bundles consisting of N identical strings exhibit a unique unbinding transition. If the string bundle interacts with a hard wall, the bundle may unbind from the wall via a unique transition or a sequence of N successive transitions. In all cases, the critical exponents are independent of N and the density profile of the strings exhibits a scaling form that approaches a mean-field profile in the limit of large N.Comment: 8 pages (latex) with two figure

Die Schweineweide als Lebensraum für Vögel (Aves) und Laufkäfer (Coleoptera: Carabidae) : dargestellt am Beispiel des Echeler Bruches in der Warburger Börde (Kreis Höxter)

Das Verbundforschungsvorhaben “Schweinefreilandhaltung im Rahmender Landschaftspflege“ hat sich in den Jahren 1999-2003 mit der Frage beschäftigt, inwieweit die extensive Haltung von Hausschweinen einen Beitrag zum Erhalt gefährdeter Offenlandstandorte leisten kann, bzw. ob und in welchem Umfang gefährdete Arten von der Wühltätigkeit der Tiereprofitieren. Am Beispiel einer bis zur Einrichtung der Schweineweide brachliegenden Niedermoorfläche in der Warburger Börde(Kr. Höxter, Ostwestfalen) werden die Auswirkungen der Schweinebeweidung auf tierische Lebensgemeinschaften am Beispiel der Vögel und Laufkäfer erörtert und die Wertigkeiten der Zönosen im Vergleich zu benachbarten Brachflächen bzw.konventionell genutzten Feuchtgrünländern diskutiert. Trotz gewisser Einschränkungen aufgrund der relativ geringen Flächengrößen der Untersuchungsfläche und der damit einhergehenden Randeffekte sowie fehlender Versuchswiederholungen könnenbezüglich der Avifauna folgende Schlussfolgerungen gezogen werden: Extensiv genutzte Schweineweiden in Feuchtgebieten bieten ganzjährig geeignete Habitate und Strukturen für Vogelarten des Offenlandes, der Feuchtwiesen und der Röhrichte bzw. Hochstaudenfluren. Aufgrund der engen Verzahnung unterschiedlichster Strukturen geschieht dies selbst auf vergleichsweise kleinen Flächen in einem Umfang, wie es von anderen landwirtschaftlichen Nutzungen nicht gewährleistet wird. Insbesondere zur Förderung der in Mitteleuropa stark gefährdeten Wiesenbrüter stellt die Schweinebeweidung in Abhängigkeit von den standörtlichen Parametern eine geeignete Nutzungsform dar. Bezüglich der Laufkäferfauna ist festzuhalten, dass die Artengemeinschaft in erster Linie von der Bodenfeuchte bzw. der Dauer der Überstauung bestimmt wird – dies spiegelt sich auch bei der Betrachtung ausgewählter funktioneller Merkmale wider. Erst an zweiter Stelle wirkt sich die Nutzung der Flächen auf die Zusammensetzung der Lebensgemeinschaft aus. Insbesondere die Strukturparameter "Offenbodenanteil" und "Vegetationshöhe/-dichte" beeinflussen die Laufkäferzönosen maßgeblich. Die Schweineweide wies mit 41 nachgewiesenen Laufkäferarten im Vergleich zu benachbarten Brachen (36 Arten) eine höhere Diversität auf– die Käfer zeigten dort ebenfalls höhere Aktivitätsdichten. Typische Feuchtgrünlandsbzw. Niedermoorarten waren überwiegend auf den lange überstauten,nassen Teilbereichen der Untersuchungsflächen anzutreffen,wobei mehrere Arten – darunter der seltene Elaphrusuliginosus – Präferenzen für die Schweineweide zeigten. Demgegenüber drangen auf die frisch-feuchten Teilbereiche vermehrt euryöke Grünlands- und Ackerarten vor. Der Vergleich mit nahe gelegenen, als Wiesen genutzten Niedermoorresten ergab nur sehr geringe Übereinstimmungen. Hierfür dürfte die unterschiedliche Nutzungsgeschichte, aber auch die verschiedene Erfassungsmethodik eine Rolle spielen. Insgesamt kann aus Sicht der untersuchten Tiergruppen die neu eingeführte extensive, saisonale Schweinebeweidung im Bereich des degradierten Niedermoores als erfolgreich bewertet werden. Die charakteristischen Artengemeinschaften konnten erhalten bzw. neu etabliert werden, darüber hinaus profitierten einige selten bzw. gefährdete Arten von der neuen Nutzungsform. 98 Wichtige Ziele des Naturschutzes, wie die Förderung der Biodiversität oder die Schaffung geeigneter Lebensräume für gefährdete Arten, konnten somit realisiert werden

JNK inhibition sensitises hepatocellular carcinoma cells but not normal hepatocytes to the TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand.

Background: cJun terminal kinase (JNK) is constitutively activated in most hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), yet its exact role in carcinogenesis remains controversial. While tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosisinducing ligand (TRAIL) is known as a major mediator of acquired immune tumour surveillance, and is currently being tested in clinical trials as a novel cancer therapy, the resistance of many tumours to TRAIL and concerns about its toxicity in vivo represent obstacles to its clinical application. In this study we investigated whether JNK activity in HCC could contribute to the resistance to apoptosis in these tumours. Methods: The effect of JNK/Jun inhibition on receptormediated apoptosis was analysed by pharmacological inhibition or RNA interference in cancer cells and nontumour cells isolated from human liver or transgenic mice lacking a phosphorylation site for Jun. Results: JNK inhibition caused cell cycle arrest, enhanced caspase recruitment, and greatly sensitised HCC cells but not normal hepatocytes to TRAIL. TRAILinduced activation of JNK could be effectively interrupted by administration of the JNK inhibitor SP600125. Conclusions: Expression and TRAIL-dependent feedback activation of JNK likely represent a mechanism by which cancer cells escape TRAIL-mediated tumour surveillance. JNK inhibition might represent a novel strategy for specifically sensitising HCC cells to TRAIL thus opening promising therapeutic perspectives for safe and effective use of TRAIL in cancer treatment

Synthesis and Properties of Bis(nitrocarbamoylethyl) Nitramine - A New Energetic Open-Chain Nitrocarbamate

The nitrocarbamate derivative of the well-known and intensively investigated nitro ester DINA was prepared and studied. Starting with bis(hydroxyethyl) nitramine obtained from DINA, the corresponding carbamate was obtained by treatment with chlorosulfonyl isocyanate (CSI). Using fuming nitric acid only as nitration reagent, the target compound bis(nitrocarbamoylethyl) nitramine was synthesized. Furthermore, a route to the salt bis(nitrocarbamoylethyl)ammonium nitrate by a simple two step synthesis starting from diethanolamine was revealed. The compounds were fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, vibrational analysis and elemental analysis. The sensitivities towards impact and friction of the energetic compounds were measured, as well as their energetic properties determined by using the energies of formation, calculated on the CBS4-M level of theory, with the EXPLO5 computer code

Magnetotransport in wide parabolic PbTe quantum wells

The 3D- and 2D- behaviour of wide parabolic PbTe single quantum wells, which consist of PbTe p-n-p-structures, are studied theoretically and experimentally. A simple model combines the 2D- subband levels and the 3D-Landau levels in order to calculate the density of states in a magnetic field perpendicular to the 2D plane. It is shown that at a channel width of about 300nm on can expect to observe 3D- and 2D-behaviour at the same time. Magnetotransport experiments in selectively contacted Hall bar samples are performed at temperatures down to T = 50 mK and at magnetic fields up to B = 17 T.Comment: postscript file including 2 figs, 4 pages, Paper presented at EP2DS-XI, Nottingham 199

New nonuniform black string solutions

We present nonuniform vacuum black strings in five and six spacetime dimensions. The conserved charges and the action of these solutions are computed by employing a quasilocal formalism. We find qualitative agreement of the physical properties of nonuniform black strings in five and six dimensions. Our results offer further evidence that the black hole and the black string branches merge at a topology changing transition. We generate black string solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory by using a Harrison transformation. We argue that the basic features of these solutions can be derived from those of the vacuum black string configurations.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures; v2: more details on numerical method, references added; v3: references added, minor revisions, version accepted by journa

Rotating nonuniform black string solutions

We explore via linearized perturbation theory the Gregory-Laflamme instability of rotating black strings with equal magnitude angular momenta. Our results indicate that the Gregory-Laflamme instability persists up to extremality for all even dimensions between six and fourteen. We construct rotating nonuniform black strings with two equal magnitude angular momenta in six dimensions. We see a first indication for the occurrence of a topology changing transition, associated with such rotating nonuniform black strings. Charged nonuniform black string configurations in heterotic string theory are also constructed by employing a solution generation technique.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figures, final versio

Electroweak Sphalerons with Spin and Charge

We show that, at finite weak mixing angle the sphaleron solution of Weinberg-Salam theory can be endowed with angular momentum proportional to the electric charge. Carrying baryon number 1/2 these sphalerons with spin and charge may contribute to baryon number violating processes.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure