1,037 research outputs found
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Immune factors preceding diagnosis of glioma: a Prostate Lung Colorectal Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial nested case-control study.
BackgroundEpidemiological studies of adult glioma have identified genetic and environmental risk factors, but much remains unclear. The aim of the current study was to evaluate anthropometric, disease-related, and prediagnostic immune-related factors for relationship with glioma risk.MethodsWe conducted a nested case-control study among the intervention arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer (PLCO) Screening Trial. One hundred and twenty-four glioma cases were identified and each matched to four controls. Baseline characteristics were collected at enrollment and were evaluated for association with glioma status. Serum specimens were collected at yearly intervals and were analyzed for immune-related factors including TGF-β1, TNF-α, total IgE, and allergen-specific IgE. Immune factors were evaluated at baseline in a multivariate conditional logistic regression model, along with one additional model that incorporated the latest available measurement.ResultsA family history of glioma among first-degree relatives was associated with increased glioma risk (OR = 4.41, P = .002). In multivariate modeling of immune factors at baseline, increased respiratory allergen-specific IgE was inversely associated with glioma risk (OR for allergen-specific IgE > 0.35 PAU/L: 0.59, P = .03). A logistic regression model that incorporated the latest available measurements found a similar association for allergen-specific IgE (P = .005) and showed that elevated TGF-β1 was associated with increased glioma risk (P-value for trend <.0001).ConclusionThe results from this prospective prediagnostic study suggest that several immune-related factors are associated with glioma risk. The association observed for TGF-β1 when sampling closer to the time of diagnosis may reflect the nascent brain tumor's feedback on immune function
Description of Atmospheric Conditions at the Pierre Auger Observatory Using Meteorological Measurements and Models
Atmospheric conditions at the site of a cosmic ray observatory must be known
well for reconstructing observed extensive air showers, especially when
measured using the fluorescence technique. For the Pierre Auger Observatory, a
sophisticated network of atmospheric monitoring devices has been conceived.
Part of this monitoring was a weather balloon program to measure atmospheric
state variables above the Observatory. To use the data in reconstructions of
air showers, monthly models have been constructed. Scheduled balloon launches
were abandoned and replaced with launches triggered by high-energetic air
showers as part of a rapid monitoring system. Currently, the balloon launch
program is halted and atmospheric data from numerical weather prediction models
are used. A description of the balloon measurements, the monthly models as well
as the data from the numerical weather prediction are presented
Atmospheric aerosols at the Pierre Auger Observatory and environmental implications
The Pierre Auger Observatory detects the highest energy cosmic rays.
Calorimetric measurements of extensive air showers induced by cosmic rays are
performed with a fluorescence detector. Thus, one of the main challenges is the
atmospheric monitoring, especially for aerosols in suspension in the
atmosphere. Several methods are described which have been developed to measure
the aerosol optical depth profile and aerosol phase function, using lasers and
other light sources as recorded by the fluorescence detector. The origin of
atmospheric aerosols traveling through the Auger site is also presented,
highlighting the effect of surrounding areas to atmospheric properties. In the
aim to extend the Pierre Auger Observatory to an atmospheric research platform,
a discussion about a collaborative project is presented.Comment: Regular Article, 16 pages, 12 figure
The Central Laser Facility at the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Central Laser Facility is located near the middle of the Pierre Auger
Observatory in Argentina. It features a UV laser and optics that direct a beam
of calibrated pulsed light into the sky. Light scattered from this beam
produces tracks in the Auger optical detectors which normally record nitrogen
fluorescence tracks from cosmic ray air showers. The Central Laser Facility
provides a "test beam" to investigate properties of the atmosphere and the
fluorescence detectors. The laser can send light via optical fiber
simultaneously to the nearest surface detector tank for hybrid timing analyses.
We describe the facility and show some examples of its many uses.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to 29th ICRC Pune Indi
POEMMA: Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics
The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) mission is being
designed to establish charged-particle astronomy with ultra-high energy cosmic
rays (UHECRs) and to observe cosmogenic tau neutrinos (CTNs). The study of
UHECRs and CTNs from space will yield orders-of-magnitude increase in
statistics of observed UHECRs at the highest energies, and the observation of
the cosmogenic flux of neutrinos for a range of UHECR models. These
observations should solve the long-standing puzzle of the origin of the highest
energy particles ever observed, providing a new window onto the most energetic
environments and events in the Universe, while studying particle interactions
well beyond accelerator energies. The discovery of CTNs will help solve the
puzzle of the origin of UHECRs and begin a new field of Astroparticle Physics
with the study of neutrino properties at ultra-high energies.Comment: 8 pages, in the Proceedings of the 35th International Cosmic Ray
Conference, ICRC217, Busan, Kore
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Breast Cancer DNA Methylation Profiles Are Associated with Tumor Size and Alcohol and Folate Intake
Although tumor size and lymph node involvement are the current cornerstones of breast cancer prognosis, they have not been extensively explored in relation to tumor methylation attributes in conjunction with other tumor and patient dietary and hormonal characteristics. Using primary breast tumors from 162 (AJCC stage I–IV) women from the Kaiser Division of Research Pathways Study and the Illumina GoldenGate methylation bead-array platform, we measured 1,413 autosomal CpG loci associated with 773 cancer-related genes and validated select CpG loci with Sequenom EpiTYPER. Tumor grade, size, estrogen and progesterone receptor status, and triple negative status were significantly (Q-values <0.05) associated with altered methylation of 209, 74, 183, 69, and 130 loci, respectively. Unsupervised clustering, using a recursively partitioned mixture model (RPMM), of all autosomal CpG loci revealed eight distinct methylation classes. Methylation class membership was significantly associated with patient race (P<0.02) and tumor size (P<0.001) in univariate tests. Using multinomial logistic regression to adjust for potential confounders, patient age and tumor size, as well as known disease risk factors of alcohol intake and total dietary folate, were all significantly (P<0.0001) associated with methylation class membership. Breast cancer prognostic characteristics and risk-related exposures appear to be associated with gene-specific tumor methylation, as well as overall methylation patterns
Performance and science reach of the Probe of Extreme Multimessenger Astrophysics for ultrahigh-energy particles
The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is a potential
NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission designed to observe ultra-high energy
cosmic rays (UHECRs) and cosmic neutrinos from space. POEMMA will monitor
colossal volumes of the Earth's atmosphere to detect extensive air showers
(EASs) produced by extremely energetic cosmic messengers: UHECRs above 20 EeV
over the full sky and cosmic neutrinos above 20 PeV. We focus most of this
study on the impact of POEMMA for UHECR science by simulating the detector
response and mission performance for EAS from UHECRs. We show that POEMMA will
provide a significant increase in the statistics of observed UHECRs at the
highest energies over the entire sky. POEMMA will be the first UHECR
fluorescence detector deployed in space that will provide high-quality
stereoscopic observations of the longitudinal development of air showers.
Therefore, it will be able to provide event-by-event estimates of the
calorimetric energy and nuclear mass of UHECRs. The particle physics in the
interactions limits the interpretation of the shower maximum on an event by
event basis. In contrast, the calorimetric energy measurement is significantly
less sensitive to the different possible final states in the early
interactions. We study the prospects to discover the origin and nature of
UHECRs using expectations for measurements of the energy spectrum, the
distribution of arrival direction, and the atmospheric column depth at which
the EAS longitudinal development reaches maximum. We also explore supplementary
science capabilities of POEMMA through its sensitivity to particle interactions
at extreme energies and its ability to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos and
photons produced by top-down models including cosmic strings and super-heavy
dark matter particle decay in the halo of the Milky Way.Comment: 40 pages revtex, with 42 figure
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