Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Cancer Rates in the United States

Introduction: Spatial, temporal and racial patterns of cancer remain largely unexplained in the United States. Time trends of cancer incidence and mortality can be used to estimate the current cancer burden, anticipate clinical care needs, and suggest hypotheses regarding possible etiologic explanations for underlying trends. Methods: Using U.S. 1979-2003 cancer incidence and 1969-2003 cancer mortality data, age-period-cohort and Joinpoint regression models were fit to summarize gender- and race-specific temporal trends for three broad cancer categories that include tobacco-related cancer, screen-detectable cancer, and cancer unrelated to tobacco and screening. Demographic patterns and time trends of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) incidence between Pennsylvania and the U.S. from 1985 to 2004 were compared. Using Idaho cancer incidence, 1990-2005, and arsenic levels in ground water, 1990-2005, spatial analysis was conducted to identify geographic patterns of cancer incidence and to evaluate the relationship between arsenic exposure in ground water and cancer incidence in Idaho. Results: Over the last three decades, tobacco-related cancer incidence declined among men and increased among women. Screen-detectable cancer incidence increased, more rapidly among men than women. For cancer unrelated to tobacco and screening, incidence increased in every gender-and-race group. Though not identical, NHL incidence patterns, with substantial increases, were similar in the U.S. and Pennsylvania. NHL incidence was higher in Pennsylvania counties with a greater percentage of urban residents. Although spatial clustering was demonstrated in Idaho cancer incidence, no relationship was found between arsenic exposure in ground water and Idaho cancer incidence. Conclusion: NHL and other cancers unrelated to smoking or screening have increased in the U.S. in the past two decades in white and black men and women. Etiologic research should attempt to identify modifiable risk factors, including environmental exposures, responsible for the increasing incidence of NHL and cancer unrelated to tobacco and screening. The ecologic association observed in Pennsylvania between NHL incidence and urban residence may be relevant to NHL risk in the entire United States. Additional environmental and demographic information should be evaluated in order to clarify the arsenic-related cancer risk in Idaho counties where ground water has been found to contain higher levels of arsenic. Public Health Significance: Age, period and cohort modeling of cancer incidence and mortality provides important indications of current and future health care needs and also suggests hypotheses for future research. The results of this analysis provide health professionals, researchers, and policy-makers with detailed information and an understandable overview of cancer patterns in the United States. Hypotheses should be generated about these unexplained patterns of cancer so that avoidable cancer risks can be identified that will decrease the cancer burden and associated requirements for health care

A Study on Transcriptomic Profiling of Differentially Expressed Genes Relevant to Innate and Adaptive Immune Pathways in Transgenic Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Harboring Cecropin P1 Transgene

Introduction of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes into fish genome by the transgenic technology provided a promising solution to control fish disease. Cecropin P1, a known porcine originated AMP, had been introduced into the rainbow trout genome for production of transgenic fish by Chiou et al. (2014) in Chen’s laboratory. Repeated, in vivo, challenge studies demonstrated that these transgenic fish exhibited resistant characteristic to infection by microbial pathogens. Here, we hypothesized that cecropin P1 transgene product may not only directly eliminate microbial pathogens, but also indirectly exert immunomodulatory activity in the transgenic hosts to elevate their disease resistance. To address this hypothesis, I have employed the technologies of mRNA deep sequencing (mRNA-Seq) and reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) array. In a preliminary cDNA microarray analysis, Lo et al. (2014) reported functional perturbations of the immune relevant pathways in three immune competent tissues (namely, the spleen, kidney and liver) of the cecropin P1 transgenic rainbow trout. To overcome the technical limitations of the cDNA microarray, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of immune relevant pathways in the spleen, kidney and liver of two families of transgenic rainbow trout was analyzed by de novo mRNA-Seq. By sorting of Reads Per Kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads, the DEGs were determined. From the GeneCodis enrichment analysis, functional alterations of biological processes with identifiers of Gene Ontology: Biological Process and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases were observed. Via pathway analyses, immune relevant processes in the spleen and kidney, and energy metabolism relevant processes in the liver were significantly perturbed. By employing a custom-layout RT-qPCR array with pre-defined immune relevant DEGs, the expression patterns in three remaining transgenic families were profiled. The results of mRNA-Seq and RT-qPCR array analyses supported the hypothesis that the combined effects of transgenic cecropin P1 elevate the host disease resistance. Furthermore, the RT-qPCR array with pre-defined DEGs as bio-markers promises a fast, effective and inexpensive technique for screening of disease resistant fish strains for aquaculture

Facade of democracy : realizing the architecture of the fourth wall

This thesis project explored the scope of democracy and seek the opportunity to relate the research into the discipline of architecture. This one-year thesis journey started from “Democracy in Words”, “Democracy as a Rule of Drawing”, which seek to develop a representation system under the wide topic of democracy. The second part, “Behind the Democratic Illustration”, used a series of collages and drawings to understand a contemporary democratic crisis. And in the last part of the thesis “Reveal the Democratic Truth”, develop an architectural project based on the previous knowledge to reveal the predicament of the society through a counter-design architectural proposal

A photochemical flow reactor for large scale syntheses of aglain and rocaglate natural product analogues

Published in final edited form as: Bioorg Med Chem. 2017 Dec 1; 25(23): 6197–6202. Published online 2017 Jun 11. doi: [10.1016/j.bmc.2017.06.010]Herein, we report the development of continuous flow photoreactors for large scale ESIPT-mediated [3+2]-photocycloaddition of 2-(p-methoxyphenyl)-3-hydroxyflavone and cinnamate-derived dipolarophiles. These reactors can be efficiently numbered up to increase throughput two orders of magnitude greater than the corresponding batch reactions.Financial support from Boston University and National Institutes of Health (ABB R33AI105944) is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Dr. Norman Lee (Boston University) for high-resolution mass spectrometry data. NMR (CHE-0619339) and MS (CHE-0443618 facilities at Boston University are supported by the NSF. (Boston University; ABB R33AI105944 - National Institutes of Health; CHE-0619339 - NSF; CHE-0443618 - NSF)Accepted manuscrip

Synthesis and Study of Rigidified Nucleosides Analogues for Probing the Importance of the Deoxyribose DNA Backbone

Thesis advisor: Larry W. McLaughlinThesis advisor: Mary F. RobertsNucleic acids are the only biopolymers capable of encoding and transferring information, this property has placed them at the fundamental core of all living organisms, and made them a topic of intense research for over a century. The former studies in our laboratory on simplified nucleic acid backbones provided insight into how we might rationally alter nucleic acid structure into one that possesses properties not observed in natural DNA and RNA. Here the work began as an investigation into rigidified nucleic acid systems capable of functioning as DNA. The first rigidified nucleic acid system we designed, the cyclo-2'-deoxynucleic acids, has a linkage between the C5' of the ribose sugar and base to lock the ӽ angle into the similar angle as the native nucleoside. These rigidified bases show great impact towards the DNA structure, destabilizing double helix formation. This in fact can also be found in nature to inhibit the TATA binding protein associating with its target region. The next generation of rigidified nucleosides has an extended 7-membered ring instead of the 6-membered ring that was present in the first generation to push the base closer to the helical center. Both diastereomers of the ring-expanded-cyclo-2'-deoxyadenosine have been successfully synthesized and characterized and are ready to perform further studies. The third system is the hydroxymethyl-cyclo-nucleosides. The modified nucleosides in this project not only have the same linkage as the cyclo-nucleosides in the first system to restrict the base rotation, but also have an extra carbon (C6') to give the backbone more flexibility which might better stabilize a double helix than the first generation.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry

Product Cycle and Industrial Hollowing-out: The Case of the Electrical and Electronics Sector of Taiwan

This paper traces the route of Taiwan's industrial restructuring from 1980 to 1999, during which period Taiwan switched from a capital inflowing country to a capital-outflowing one. By establishing an empirical model based on the idea of Vernon's product cycle theory, we construct a quantitative measurement of product turnover and product upgrading. Tests are applied to the electrical and electronic industry to see whether its product turnover and product upgrading has significantly slowed down in the 1990s. If so, we may conclude that the industrial hollowing-out may have appeared. The empirical results show that product turnover and product upgrading do not significantly deteriorate in 1990s though the performances of the sub-industries within the EE industry are largely differentiated in 1990s compared with that in 1980s.

Modeling Autoregressive Models in Cool Island Effects associated with Remote Telemeter Technology (ASTER) in Taiwan: A GIS Approach

AbstractA microclimate is the unique climate of a small-scale region, such as a field or parts of urban or rural areas. The weather variables in a microclimate include temperature, wind, humidity, land forms, and water regimes. In Northern Taiwan's Taoyuan County, irrigation ponds take a long time to heat up during the summer months, keeping these rural areas cooler than surrounding urbanized areas. Based on Geographic Information System (GIS) layers associated with Digital Terrain Modeling (DTM), along with Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) images, this paper examines temperature variables in four counties/cities in Taiwan for the past century. Urban development is found to have contributed to temperature increases, but an understanding of the cooling mechanism is still incomplete. Temperatures in the Taoyuan tableland have declined, at odds with trends in other areas in Taiwan as well as on a global scale. In Taoyuan, the Times-Series Regression Model was used to extrapolated a downward trend from a mean current temperature of 21.3°C currently down to 19.72°C in 2099, assuming the area of irrigation ponds remain unchanged

Modeling the pulse signal by wave-shape function and analyzing by synchrosqueezing transform

We apply the recently developed adaptive non-harmonic model based on the wave-shape function, as well as the time-frequency analysis tool called synchrosqueezing transform (SST) to model and analyze oscillatory physiological signals. To demonstrate how the model and algorithm work, we apply them to study the pulse wave signal. By extracting features called the spectral pulse signature, {and} based on functional regression, we characterize the hemodynamics from the radial pulse wave signals recorded by the sphygmomanometer. Analysis results suggest the potential of the proposed signal processing approach to extract health-related hemodynamics features