Interview of Edward A. Turzanski, M.A.

From the La Salle University website (12/5/2013): Edward Turzanski is a political and national security analyst who has held a number of posts with the federal government, and can authoritatively comment on the following areas: International Relations; U. S. Foreign and Defense Policy; Intelligence and Counterintelligence: Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Domestic and Foreign policy issues related to the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; Congress and the American Presidency; Media-Political process and relations. In addition to his classroom work, Turzanski is also La Salle University\u27s Assistant Vice President for Government and Community Relations. In that capacity, he maintains active and regular contact with elected, appointed, and civil service governmental authorities on all levels; and with business and other civic leaders and entities

My Approach to Art

Art became really worthwhile to me when I discovered that it was a personal thing; when I learned that it is not an activity defined by someone a thousand years ago, or ten years ago, or even last year. It is something I define, something that I care about, that I work with and actively develop. Simple as my work may appear, the feeling that brings the work into being and that which the work again brings to my feeling can be very complex. Being in a constant state of development, the area of feeling dealt with seems to elude finite classification and requires a continuous letting go for one to have any sense of it at all. &nbsp;</p

Risk Factors for Prenatal Depressive Symptoms Among Hispanic Women

Prior studies of risk factors for depressive symptoms during pregnancy are sparse and the majority have focused on non-Hispanic white women. Hispanics are the largest minority group in the US and have the highest birth rates

Obesity as risk factor for subtypes of breast cancer: results from a prospective cohort study

Background: Earlier epidemiological studies indicate that associations between obesity and breast cancer risk may not only depend on menopausal status and use of exogenous hormones, but might also differ by tumor subtype. Here, we evaluated whether obesity is differentially associated with the risk of breast tumor subtypes, as defined by 6 immunohistochemical markers (ER, PR, HER2, Ki67, Bcl-2 and p53, separately and combined), in the prospective EPIC-Germany Study (n = 27,012). Methods: Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor tissues of 657 incident breast cancer cases were used for histopathological analyses. Associations between BMI and breast cancer risk across subtypes were evaluated by multivariable Cox regression models stratified by menopausal status and hormone therapy (HT) use. Results: Among postmenopausal non-users of HT, higher BMI was significantly associated with an increased risk of less aggressive, i.e. ER+, PR+, HER2-, Ki67low, Bcl-2+ and p53- tumors (HR per 5 kg/m2: 1.44 [1.10, 1.90], p = 0.009), but not with risk of more aggressive tumor subtypes. Among postmenopausal users of HT, BMI was significantly inversely associated with less aggressive tumors (HR per 5 kg/m2: 0.68 [0.50, 0.94], p = 0.018). Finally, among pre- and perimenopausal women, Cox regression models did not reveal significant linear associations between BMI and risk of any tumor subtype, although analyses by BMI tertiles showed a significantly lower risk of less aggressive tumors for women in the highest tertile (HR: 0.55 [0.33, 0.93]). Conclusion: Overall, our results suggest that obesity is related to risk of breast tumors with lower aggressiveness, a finding that requires replication in larger-scale analyses of pooled prospective data

Development of a standardised set of metrics for monitoring site performance in multicentre randomised trials : a Delphi study

Funding This study was supported by an NIHR Clinical Trials Unit Support Funding grant for supporting efficient and innovative delivery of NIHR research. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, receives core funding from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates. The study was not registered. Availability of data and materials The data generated or analysed during the current study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files). Additional information is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Comparative Study on the WCRF International/University of Bristol Methodology for Systematic Reviews of Mechanisms Underpinning Exposure-Cancer Associations

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) International and the University of Bristol have developed a novel framework for providing an overview of mechanistic pathways and conducting a systematic literature review of the biologically plausible mechanisms underlying exposure-cancer associations. Two teams independently applied the two-stage framework on mechanisms underpinning the association between body fatness and breast cancer to test the framework feasibility and reproducibility as part of a WCRF-commissioned validation study. In stage I, a "hypothesis-free" approach was used to provide an overview of potential intermediate mechanisms between body fatness and breast cancer. Dissimilar rankings of potential mechanisms were observed between the two teams due to different applications of the framework. In stage II, a systematic review was conducted on the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) chosen as an intermediate mechanism. Although the studies included differed, both teams found inconclusive evidence for the body fatness-IGF1R association and modest evidence linking IGF1R to breast cancer, and therefore concluded that there is currently weak evidence for IGF1R as mechanism linking body fatness to breast cancer. The framework is a good starting point for conducting systematic reviews by integrating evidence from mechanistic studies on exposure-cancer associations. On the basis of our experience, we provide recommendations for future users. (C) 2017 AACR