Risk Factors for Nonsynchronous Second Primary Malignancy and Related Death in Patients with Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) survivors are at increased risk of developing nonsynchronous second primary malignancy (NSPM). This study aims to examine possible risk factors leading to occurrence of NSPM as well as risk factors leading to NSPM-related death in patients with DTC. METHODS: Of the 1,106 patients with DTC managed at our institution, 92 (8.3%) patients developed NSPM and 40 (3.6%) patients died of NSPM. All causes of death were confirmed by medical record, autopsy report or death certificate. Clinicopathological variables were compared between those without NSPM and with NSPM as well as between those who died of NSPM and did not die of NSPM. Significant variables on univariate analysis were entered into a Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: The median latency period from diagnosis of DTC to NSPM was 142.7 (range 16.8-511.0) months. For occurrence of NSPM, age at DTC diagnosis >/=50 years old [relative risk (RR) = 2.35], cumulative radioactive iodine (RAI) activity 3.0-8.9 GBq (RR = 2.38), and external local radiotherapy (ERT) (RR = 1.95) were significant risk factors. For NSPM-related death, age at DTC diagnosis >/=50 years old (RR = 3.32) and nonbreast cancer (RR = 5.76) were significant risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: NSPM accounted for 18.7% of all deaths in DTC, but mortality was high (43.5%). Age at DTC diagnosis >/=50 years old, cumulative RAI activity 3.0-8.9 GBq, and ERT were significant risk factors for occurrence of NSPM, whereas age at DTC diagnosis >/=50 years old and the diagnosis of nonbreast cancer were significant risk factors for NSPM-related death.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Impacts of subsidy policies on vaccination decisions in contact networks

Author name used in this publication: Hai-Feng ZhangVersion of RecordPublishe

Knocking down 10-formyltetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase increased oxidative stress and impeded zebrafish embryogenesis by obstructing morphogenetic movement

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Hybridization interactions between probesets in short oligo microarrays lead to spurious correlations

BACKGROUND: Microarrays measure the binding of nucleotide sequences to a set of sequence specific probes. This information is combined with annotation specifying the relationship between probes and targets and used to make inferences about transcript- and, ultimately, gene expression. In some situations, a probe is capable of hybridizing to more than one transcript, in others, multiple probes can target a single sequence. These 'multiply targeted' probes can result in non-independence between measured expression levels. RESULTS: An analysis of these relationships for Affymetrix arrays considered both the extent and influence of exact matches between probe and transcript sequences. For the popular HGU133A array, approximately half of the probesets were found to interact in this way. Both real and simulated expression datasets were used to examine how these effects influenced the expression signal. It was found not only to lead to increased signal strength for the affected probesets, but the major effect is to significantly increase their correlation, even in situations when only a single probe from a probeset was involved. By building a network of probe-probeset-transcript relationships, it is possible to identify families of interacting probesets. More than 10% of the families contain members annotated to different genes or even different Unigene clusters. Within a family, a mixture of genuine biological and artefactual correlations can occur. CONCLUSION: Multiple targeting is not only prevalent, but also significant. The ability of probesets to hybridize to more than one gene product can lead to false positives when analysing gene expression. Comprehensive annotation describing multiple targeting is required when interpreting array data

Direct and indirect control of the initiation of meiotic recombination by DNA damage checkpoint mechanisms in budding yeast

Meiotic recombination plays an essential role in the proper segregation of chromosomes at meiosis I in many sexually reproducing organisms. Meiotic recombination is initiated by the scheduled formation of genome-wide DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). The timing of DSB formation is strictly controlled because unscheduled DSB formation is detrimental to genome integrity. Here, we investigated the role of DNA damage checkpoint mechanisms in the control of meiotic DSB formation using budding yeast. By using recombination defective mutants in which meiotic DSBs are not repaired, the effect of DNA damage checkpoint mutations on DSB formation was evaluated. The Tel1 (ATM) pathway mainly responds to unresected DSB ends, thus the sae2 mutant background in which DSB ends remain intact was employed. On the other hand, the Mec1 (ATR) pathway is primarily used when DSB ends are resected, thus the rad51 dmc1 double mutant background was employed in which highly resected DSBs accumulate. In order to separate the effect caused by unscheduled cell cycle progression, which is often associated with DNA damage checkpoint defects, we also employed the ndt80 mutation which permanently arrests the meiotic cell cycle at prophase I. In the absence of Tel1, DSB formation was reduced in larger chromosomes (IV, VII, II and XI) whereas no significant reduction was found in smaller chromosomes (III and VI). On the other hand, the absence of Rad17 (a critical component of the ATR pathway) lead to an increase in DSB formation (chromosomes VII and II were tested). We propose that, within prophase I, the Tel1 pathway facilitates DSB formation, especially in bigger chromosomes, while the Mec1 pathway negatively regulates DSB formation. We also identified prophase I exit, which is under the control of the DNA damage checkpoint machinery, to be a critical event associated with down-regulating meiotic DSB formation

Sensible heat has significantly affected the global hydrological cycle over the historical period

Globally, latent heating associated with a change in precipitation is balanced by changes to atmospheric radiative cooling and sensible heat fluxes. Both components can be altered by climate forcing mechanisms and through climate feedbacks, but the impacts of climate forcing and feedbacks on sensible heat fluxes have received much less attention. Here we show, using a range of climate modelling results, that changes in sensible heat are the dominant contributor to the present global-mean precipitation change since preindustrial time, because the radiative impact of forcings and feedbacks approximately compensate. The model results show a dissimilar influence on sensible heat and precipitation from various drivers of climate change. Due to its strong atmospheric absorption, black carbon is found to influence the sensible heat very differently compared to other aerosols and greenhouse gases. Our results indicate that this is likely caused by differences in the impact on the lower tropospheric stability

Multi-objective optimization of gate location and processing conditions in injection molding using MOEAs: experimental assessment

The definition of the gate location in injection molding is one of the most important factors in achieving dimensionally accuracy of the parts. This paper presents an optimization methodology for addressing this problem based on a Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA). The algorithm adopted here is named Reduced Pareto Set Genetic Algorithm (RPSGA) and was used to create a balanced filling pattern using weld line characterization. The optimization approach proposed in this paper is an integration of evolutionary algorithms with Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) software (Autodesk Moldflow Plastics software). The performance of the proposed optimization methodology was illustrated with an example consisting in the injection of a rectangular part with a non-symmetrical hole. The numerical results were experimentally assessed. Physical meaning was obtained which guaranteed a successful process optimization.This work was supported by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia under grant SFRH/BD/28479/2006 and IPC/I3N – Institute for Polymers and Composites, University of Minho.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Information Visualisation for Project Management: Case Study of Bath Formula Student Project

This paper contributes to a better understanding and design of dashboards for monitoring of engineering projects based on the projects’ digital footprint and user-centered design approach. The paper presents an explicit insight-based framework for the evaluation of dashboard visualisations and compares the performance of two groups of student engineering project managers against the framework: a group with the dashboard visualisations and a group without the dashboard. The results of our exploratory study demonstrate that student project managers who used the dashboard generated more useful information and exhibited more complex reasoning on the project progress, thus informing knowledge of the provision of information to engineers in support of their project understanding

Evaluation of range of motion restriction within the hip joint

In Total Hip Arthroplasty, determining the impingement free range of motion requirement is a complex task. This is because in the native hip, motion is restricted by both impingement as well as soft tissue restraint. The aim of this study is to determine a range of motion benchmark which can identify motions which are at risk from impingement and those which are constrained due to soft tissue. Two experimental methodologies were used to determine motions which were limited by impingement and those motions which were limited by both impingement and soft tissue restraint. By comparing these two experimental results, motions which were limited by impingement were able to be separated from those motions which were limited by soft tissue restraint. The results show motions in extension as well as flexion combined with adduction are limited by soft tissue restraint. Motions in flexion, flexion combined with abduction and adduction are at risk from osseous impingement. Consequently, these motions represent where the maximum likely damage will occur in femoroacetabular impingement or at most risk of prosthetic impingement in Total Hip Arthroplasty