Milk Consumption Across Life Periods in Relation to Lower Risk of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Multicentre Case-Control Study

Background: The much higher incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in men suggests sex hormones as a risk factor, and dairy products contain measurable amounts of steroid hormones. Milk consumption has greatly increased in endemic regions of NPC. We investigated the association between NPC and milk consumption across life periods in Hong Kong.Methods: A multicentre case-control study included 815 histologically confirmed NPC incident cases and 1,502 controls who were frequency-matched on age and sex at five major hospitals in Hong Kong in 2014–2017. Odds ratios (ORs) of NPC (cases vs. controls) for milk consumption at different life periods were estimated by unconditional logistic regression, adjusting for sex, age, socioeconomic status score, smoking and alcohol drinking status, exposure to occupational hazards, family history of cancer, IgA against Epstein-Barr virus viral capsid antigen, and total energy intake.Results: Compared with abstainers, lower risks of NPC were consistently observed in regular users (consuming ≥5 glasses of milk [fresh and powdered combined] per month) across four life periods of age 6–12 (adjusted OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.54–0.86), 13–18 (0.68, 0.55–0.84), 19–30 (0.68, 0.55–0.84), and 10 years before recruitment (0.72, 0.59–0.87). Long-term average milk consumption of ≤2.5, >2.5, and ≤12.5, >12.5 glasses per month yielded adjusted OR (95% CI) of 1.00 (0.80–1.26), 0.98 (0.81–1.18), 0.95 (0.76–1.18), and 0.55 (0.43–0.70), respectively (all P-values for trend < 0.05).Conclusion: Consumption of milk across life periods was associated with lower risks of NPC. If confirmed to be causal, this has important implications for dairy product consumption and prevention of NPC

Meta-analysis Followed by Replication Identifies Loci in or near CDKN1B, TET3, CD80, DRAM1, and ARID5B as Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Asians

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototype autoimmune disease with a strong genetic involvement and ethnic differences. Susceptibility genes identified so far only explain a small portion of the genetic heritability of SLE, suggesting that many more loci are yet to be uncovered for this disease. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on SLE in Chinese Han populations and followed up the findings by replication in four additional Asian cohorts with a total of 5,365 cases and 10,054 corresponding controls. We identified genetic variants in or near CDKN1B, TET3, CD80, DRAM1, and ARID5B as associated with the disease. These findings point to potential roles of cell-cycle regulation, autophagy, and DNA demethylation in SLE pathogenesis. For the region involving TET3 and that involving CDKN1B, multiple independent SNPs were identified, highlighting a phenomenon that might partially explain the missing heritability of complex diseases

Mechanism of assembly of the tyrosyl radical-diiron(III) cofactor of E. coli ribonucleotide reductase

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry, 1996.Includes bibliographical references.by Wing Hang Tong.Ph.D

Distinct iron–sulfur cluster assembly complexes exist in the cytosol and mitochondria of human cells

Iron–sulfur (Fe–S) clusters are cofactors found in many proteins that have important redox, catalytic or regulatory functions. In mammalian cells, almost all known Fe–S proteins are found in the mitochondria, but at least one is found in the cytosol. Here we report cloning of the human homologs to IscU and NifU, iron-binding proteins that play a critical role in Fe–S cluster assembly in bacteria. In human cells, alternative splicing of a common pre-mRNA results in synthesis of two proteins that differ at the N-terminus and localize either to the cytosol (IscU1) or to the mitochondria (IscU2). Biochemical analyses demonstrate that IscU proteins specifically associate with IscS, a cysteine desulfurase that is proposed to sequester inorganic sulfur for Fe–S cluster assembly. Protein complexes containing IscU and IscS can be found in the mitochondria as well as in the cytosol, implying that Fe–S cluster assembly takes place in multiple subcellular compartments in mammalian cells. The possible roles of the IscU proteins in mammalian cells and the potential implications of compartmentalization of Fe–S cluster assembly are discussed

Functions of mitochondrial ISCU and cytosolic ISCU in mammalian iron–sulfur cluster biogenesis and iron homeostasis

Iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters are required for the functions of mitochondrial aconitase, mammalian iron regulatory protein 1, and many other proteins in multiple subcellular compartments. Recent studies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae indicated that Fe-S cluster biogenesis also has an important role in mitochondrial iron homeostasis. Here we report the functional analysis of the mitochondrial and cytosolic isoforms of the human Fe-S cluster scaffold protein, ISCU. Suppression of human ISCU by RNAi not only inactivated mitochondrial and cytosolic aconitases in a compartment-specific manner but also inappropriately activated the iron regulatory proteins and disrupted intracellular iron homeostasis. Furthermore, endogenous ISCU levels were suppressed by iron deprivation. These results provide evidence for a coordinated response to iron deficiency that includes activation of iron uptake, redistribution of intracellular iron, and decreased utilization of iron in Fe-S proteins

A New Solder Paste Inspection Device: Design and Algorithm

Abstract-In this paper, we present an innovative design of a solder paste inspection device which can be practically integrated into existing solder paste printing machines. Since solder paste inspection systems usually occupy a large space in vertical direction, we designed a mirror box that can re-direct the transmission of fringe pattern. In this way, a new parallel solder paste inspection device with a significant reduction in the vertical constraint is developed. We also developed a hybrid weighting algorithm that applied the distance and fringe contrast to acquire the height of solder pastes

Salmonella Osteomyelitis of the Pelvis in Healthy Adults: A Case Report

We report a case of a healthy 32-year-old patient suffering from Salmonella osteomyelitis of the pelvis. He was treated successfully with surgical debridement and third-generation cephalosporin

Retrospective Estimation of Infectious Source Strength of an Influenza Outbreak during Air Travel using Computational Fluid Dynamics and Likelihood Estimation

Infectious source strength is a crucial parameter in assessing infection risk and predicting the spread of infection. Descriptive informa tion reg arding the outbreak can be revealed fro m ep idemiological investiga tion, but descriptive epidemiology o ften can not provide quantitative information, such as the infectious source strength. Some additional mathematical models are required to estimate this quantitative information from the outcome of the outbreak. In cases of airborne transmissible diseases in indoor environments, spatial patterns of the cases of infection can often be observed as the occupants were likely to have been exposed to different concentrations of the infectious particles. Existing models cannot incorporate the spatial pattern of infection in an outbreak when estimating the infectious source strength, which may cause errors in estimation. This research aims at performing retrospective estimation of the infectious source strength of an influenza outbreak case during a flight with the aid of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and likelihood estimation. The approach allows consideration of the spatial distribution of infection in the outbreak in the infectious source strength estimation. In 1999, 20 of 74 passengers were infected with influenza during a 3 hour flight in Australia. The case was reconstructed using CFD. Expiratory aerosols were released from the index case's mouth in the numerical model. Spatial and temporal distribution of the expiratory aerosols in the other passengers' breathing zones and the number of expiratory aerosols deposited on different surfaces were then obtained. Based on the distribution data, the Wells-Riley approach was then used to perform a set of infection risk assessments on the passengers by using a range of quantum generation rate values. Likelihood estimation was then used to correlate the passengers' infection risks to the actual outcome of the outbreak. The quantum generation rate resulting in the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) was most likely to be the true infectious source strength in the case. Comparison between the infectious source strength estimated by this approach and that ignoring the spatial infection pattern was made. It is found the approach used in the current study gave a more reasonable estimation. This study shows that CFD and MLE can be used to estimate the infectious source strengths in outbreaks of airborne transmissible diseases. The estimated quantum generation rate can be used as the infectious source strength in other scenarios to perform infection risk assessment of influenza. © 2011 ASHRAE