Increased risk for other cancers in individuals with Ewing sarcoma and their relatives.

BackgroundThere are few reports of the association of other cancers with Ewing sarcoma in patients and their relatives. We use a resource combining statewide genealogy and cancer reporting to provide unbiased risks.MethodsUsing a combined genealogy of 2.3 million Utah individuals and the Utah Cancer Registry (UCR), relative risks (RRs) for cancers of other sites were estimated in 143 Ewing sarcoma patients using a Cox proportional hazards model with matched controls; however, risks in relatives were estimated using internal cohort-specific cancer rates in first-, second-, and third-degree relatives.ResultsCancers of three sites (breast, brain, complex genotype/karyotype sarcoma) were observed in excess in Ewing sarcoma patients. No Ewing sarcoma patients were identified among first-, second-, or third-degree relatives of Ewing sarcoma patients. Significantly increased risk for brain, lung/bronchus, female genital, and prostate cancer was observed in first-degree relatives. Significantly increased risks were observed in second-degree relatives for breast cancer, nonmelanoma eye cancer, malignant peripheral nerve sheath cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and translocation sarcomas. Significantly increased risks for stomach cancer, prostate cancer, and acute lymphocytic leukemia were observed in third-degree relatives.ConclusionsThis analysis of risk for cancer among Ewing sarcoma patients and their relatives indicates evidence for some increased cancer predisposition in this population which can be used to individualize consideration of potential treatment of patients and screening of patients and relatives

A Study of Biochemical, Pharmacokinetic, Physiological and Psychomotor Variables and Ethanol Sensitivity after Low-dose Ethanol

The influence of ALDH2 and ADH2 genotype on the biochemical, physiological, psychomotor and subjective responses of Asian subjects to a challenge dose of ethanol were investigated. One hundred and ten healthy male and female subjects of fill] or partial North East Asian descent (with ancestral origins in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam), who were living in Australia at the time of testing, were genotyped for alcohol dehydrogenase (ADHz) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDHz) enzymes using a combination of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with restriction enzyme digestion, allele specific oligonucleotide probing, or constant denaturant gel electrophoresis methods. Volunteers were given a low oral dose (0.3 g kg^-1) of ethanol and were assessed subjectively for their degree of flush and for performance impairment using a battery of psychomotor tests (including divided attention, digit symbol coding, standing steadiness and critical flicker fusion frequency threshold). Self-report questionnaires were used to assess the subjects' perception of their intoxication and impairment. Blood ethanol concentrations (BECs) were monitored by breath analysis every fifteen minutes and blood samples were obtained from subjects before and at 15, 60 and 120 minutes afier ethanol administration. Measurements were made of the blood or plasma levels of acetaldehyde, acetate, pyruvate, lactate and ethanol. The blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), heart rate and facial temperature were also recorded at regular intervals. The effects of the ADHz genotype, ALDH; genotype, ALDHZ/ ADHz combination genotype, the degree of flush and gender on the psychomotor performance, physiological, biochemical, pharmacokinetic and subjective responses of the subjects were explored to determine their influence on the response to ethanol. When subjects were classified by ALDHz genotype, the BEC curve, acetaldehyde concentration, acetate concentration, facial temperature, heart rate, critical flicker fusion frequency threshold, digit symbol coding reaction time, standing steadiness and divided attention delay and excursion were all affected by whether the subject was ALDH; Homoll, Het or Hom022. The psychomotor performance of ALDHz Hom022 subjects was found to be more impaired in the divided attention delay, excursion and digit symbol coding reaction time tasks than in either Het or Homoll subjects. The standing steadiness epoch time and critical flicker fusion frequency threshold were also most affected by ethanol in the ALDHz Hom022 group. The effect of ethanol on the pyruvate concentration, heart rate, CFFF threshold and standing steadiness also differed significantly among subjects of different ADH; genotype. The ADHz Homozygote-22 (Hom022) subjects had a higher standing steadiness epoch time and critical flicker fusion frequency threshold than either Heterozygote (Het) or Homozygote—ll (Homol 1) subjects. The subjectively rated degree of flush was associated with differences in acetaldehyde concentration, acetate concentration, digit symbol coding reaction time, divided attention delay, facial temperature and heart rate measured. Psychomotor impairment in the divided attention delay task was greatest for the subjects who flushed with intermediate severity, although at two hours post-ethanol, the group which produced the most severe flushing was more severely affected. In the digit symbol coding reaction time, the subjects who produced the most severe flushing reactions were also most impaired

Focusing on surgical and laser advances in glaucoma management

Introduction: Lowering the IOP remains the mainstay treatment to stop the progression of glaucoma. Different modalities can be used to achieve this including IOP lowering medications, laser, and surgeries. Nowadays, minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries and newer lasers are becoming more popular due to their safety profile, and their efficacy, allowing the patients to be less dependent on life long medications and substituting more invasive procedures as trabeculectomy, and shunt operations. / Areas covered: This review will go through how lasers and surgery are used to lower the IOP, and the newest techniques, and modalities used to achieve this. / Expert opinion: the authors of this review believe that in five years’ time lasers and minimally invasive glaucoma procedures will replace eye drops and surgeries like trabeculectomy and shunt procedures

Differences in body composition between Singapore Chinese, Beijing Chinese and Dutch children

n/

Electrocardiographic markers of structural heart disease and predictors of death in 2332 unselected patients undergoing outpatient Holter recording

To test the hypothesis that the QS interval of ventricular ectopic beats (VEBs) (ventricular ectopic QS interval, VEQSI) would provide a marker for the presence of structural heart disease and a predictor of mortality

A review of implant provision for hypodontia patients within a Scottish referral centre

Background: Implant treatment to replace congenitally missing teeth often involves multidisciplinary input in a secondary care environment. High quality patient care requires an in-depth knowledge of treatment requirements. Aim: This service review aimed to determine treatment needs, efficiency of service and outcomes achieved in hypodontia patients. It also aimed to determine any specific difficulties encountered in service provision, and suggest methods to overcome these. Methods: Hypodontia patients in the Unit of Periodontics of the Scottish referral centre under consideration, who had implant placement and fixed restoration, or review completed over a 31 month period, were included. A standardised data collection form was developed and completed with reference to the patient's clinical record. Information was collected with regard to: the indication for implant treatment and its extent; the need for, complexity and duration of orthodontic treatment; the need for bone grafting and the techniques employed and indicators of implant success. Conclusion: Implant survival and success rates were high for those patients reviewed. Incidence of biological complications compared very favourably with the literature

Orientation relationships between icosahedral clusters in hexagonal MgZn2 and monoclinic Mg4Zn7 phases in Mg-Zn(-Y) alloys

Intermetallic precipitates formed in heat-treated and aged Mg-Zn and Mg-Zn-Y alloys have been investigated via electron microscopy. Coarse spheroidal precipitates formed on deformation twin boundaries contained domains belonging to either the MgZn2 hexagonal Laves phase or the monoclinic Mg4Zn7 phase. Both phases are structurally related to the quasi-crystalline phase formed in Mg-Zn-Y alloys, containing icosahedrally coordinated zinc atoms arranged as a series of broad rhombohedral units. This rhombohedral arrangement was also visible in intragranular precipitates where local regions with the structures of hexagonal MgZn2 and Mg4Zn7 were found. The orientation adopted by the MgZn2 and Mg4Zn7 phases in twin-boundary and intragranular precipitates was such that the icosahedral clusters were aligned similarly. These results highlight the close structural similarities between the precipitates of the Mg-Zn-Y alloy system.Comment: Corrected proof. 11 pages, 5 figures. Eleventh International Conference on Quasicrystals:13-18 June 2010, Sapporo. This is an electronic version of an article published in Philosophical Magazine, 91(19-21):2634-2644, 2011. doi: 10.1080/14786435.2010.541168 Philosophical Magazine is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tphm2

Dissolved heavy metals and water quality in the surface waters of rivers and drainages of the West Peninsular Malaysia

The dissolved concentrations of metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, Fe and Zn), temperature, total dissolved solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity and conductivity were determined in the surface waters of 24 geographical sampling sites including city and urban drainages and rivers, from the west Peninsular Malaysia, collected in January to April 2005. From these sampling sites, the ranges (min-max) of dissolved metal concentrations (mg/L) were Cd: 0.001-0.055, Cu: 0.001-0.1773, Pb: 0.001-1.523, Ni: 0.001-0.246, Fe: 0.001-35.67 and Zn: 0.0001-0.609 while for the water quality are pH: 4.96-9.81, dissolved oxygen (0.39-7.26 mg/L), total dissolved solids (0.002-10.02 mg/L), salinity (0.00-8.93 ppt), conductivity (3.33-17423 μS/cm) and temperature (27.8-35.3�). Some sites with elevated dissolved concentrations of heavy metals and poor water quality indicated the anthropogenic inputs of industrial and urban wastes. Regular monitoring of water quality in all drainage waters is recommended

Prediction of the amount of PCA for mechanical milling

Abstract Process control agent (PCA) can strongly in¯uence the size of ball milled powder particles. Experimental results show that the mean particle size is affected by: (1) the types of the PCA, (2) the amount of PCA, and (3) the milling duration. Two kinds of materials, namely Al and Mg, were used in the experiment and analysis of the in¯uence of process control agent. It was found that there is a critical amount of process control agent below which the size of the powder particles tends to increase and above which it tends to decrease. In order to predict the amount of PCA required for a particular mean particle size under a particular milling duration resulting from a particular mechanical alloying process, a back-propagation neural network is employed. For each combination of base material and PCA, a neural network is trained using experimental data to achieve the correlation between the amount of PCA and a given particle size under a particular milling duration, i.e., PCA amountf(particle size, milling duration). The testing results show that the trained networks have a fairly good generalization capability # 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved

Three Dimensional Measurements of Asphaltene Deposition in a Transparent Micro-Channel

This study describes a novel experimental approach to directly measure the thicknesses of asphaltene deposits in micro-channels. The thickness of the asphaltene deposit is estimated using a visualization technique based on 3D digital microscopy. The working fluid is a mixture of n-heptane and dead oil. Induced by the addition of n-heptane, the asphaltenes present in crude oil phase separate at ambient temperature to form aggregates of asphaltene-rich phase. Part of the asphaltene aggregates deposit on the walls of the transparent micro-channel. A two-dimensional profile of the deposit across the channel at selected axial sections is measured. The influences of injection mixture volume on the growth of the thickness of deposited asphaltenes is investigated using two experimental conditions, (i) varying elapsed time at constant flow rate and (ii) increasing the flow rate at a constant elapsed time. In both cases the deposit thickness of asphaltene (δ) increases with the total injection volume (V). The experimental results obtained in this work provide new insights into the deposition process at the micro-scale level, which can be used to facilitate the development of more accurate numerical model for this applicatio