Lower Sodium Intake and Risk of Headaches: Results From the Trial of Nonpharmacologic Interventions in the Elderly.

ObjectivesTo determine the effect of sodium (Na) reduction on occurrence of headaches.MethodsIn the Trial of Nonpharmacologic Interventions in the Elderly, 975 men and woman (aged 60-80 years) with hypertension were randomized to a Na-reduction intervention or control group and were followed for up to 36 months. The study was conducted between 1992 and 1995 at 4 clinical centers (Johns Hopkins University, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the University of Tennessee).ResultsMean difference in Na excretion between the Na-reduction intervention and control group was significant at each follow-up visit (P < .001) with an average difference of 38.8 millimoles per 24 hours. The occurrence of headaches was significantly lower in the Na-reduction intervention group (10.5%) compared with control (14.3%) with a hazard ratio of 0.59 (95% confidence interval = 0.40, 0.88; P = .009). The risk of headaches was significantly associated with average level of Na excretion during follow-up, independent of most recent blood pressure. The relationship appeared to be nonlinear with a spline relationship and a knot at 150 millimoles per 24 hours.ConclusionsReduced sodium intake, currently recommended for blood pressure control, may also reduce the occurrence of headaches in older persons with hypertension

Segmentation of the Prostatic Gland and the Intraprostatic Lesions on Multiparametic Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using Mask Region-Based Convolutional Neural Networks

Purpose: Accurate delineation of the prostate gland and intraprostatic lesions (ILs) is essential for prostate cancer dose-escalated radiation therapy. The aim of this study was to develop a sophisticated deep neural network approach to magnetic resonance image analysis that will help IL detection and delineation for clinicians. Methods and Materials: We trained and evaluated mask region-based convolutional neural networks to perform the prostate gland and IL segmentation. There were 2 cohorts in this study: 78 public patients (cohort 1) and 42 private patients from our institution (cohort 2). Prostate gland segmentation was performed using T2-weighted images (T2WIs), although IL segmentation was performed using T2WIs and coregistered apparent diffusion coefficient maps with prostate patches cropped out. The IL segmentation model was extended to select 5 highly suspicious volumetric lesions within the entire prostate. Results: The mask region-based convolutional neural networks model was able to segment the prostate with dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of 0.88 ± 0.04, 0.86 ± 0.04, and 0.82 ± 0.05; sensitivity (Sens.) of 0.93, 0.95, and 0.95; and specificity (Spec.) of 0.98, 0.85, and 0.90. However, ILs were segmented with DSC of 0.62 ± 0.17, 0.59 ± 0.14, and 0.38 ± 0.19; Sens. of 0.55 ± 0.30, 0.63 ± 0.28, and 0.22 ± 0.24; and Spec. of 0.974 ± 0.010, 0.964 ± 0.015, and 0.972 ± 0.015 in public validation/public testing/private testing patients when trained with patients from cohort 1 only. When trained with patients from both cohorts, the values were as follows: DSC of 0.64 ± 0.11, 0.56 ± 0.15, and 0.46 ± 0.15; Sens. of 0.57 ± 0.23, 0.50 ± 0.28, and 0.33 ± 0.17; and Spec. of 0.980 ± 0.009, 0.969 ± 0.016, and 0.977 ± 0.013. Conclusions: Our research framework is able to perform as an end-to-end system that automatically segmented the prostate gland and identified and delineated highly suspicious ILs within the entire prostate. Therefore, this system demonstrated the potential for assisting the clinicians in tumor delineation

The Methylation Status and Expression of Epstein-Barr Virus Early Genes BARF1 and BHRF1 in Epstein-Barr Virus-Associated Gastric Carcinomas

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an important DNA virus which establishes latent infection in human malignancies. Expression of EBVencoded genes in the associated tumors is strongly modulated by promoter CpG methylation of EBV genome. This study aimed to explore the methylation status of the promoters of EBV BamHI-A rightward frame 1 (BARF1) and BamHI-H rightward open reading frame 1 (BHRF1) and their influence on transcriptional expression, to further understand the roles of BARF1 and BHRF1 in the occurrence of EBV-associated cancer. We evaluated the methylation status of BARF1 and BHRF1 promoters in 43 EBV-associated gastric carcinoma (EBVaGC) tissues and EBV-positive cell lines. Their expressions were evaluated by realtime quantitative PCR. We found that the promoters of BARF1 and BHRF1 were methylated by varying degrees in different EBV-positive cell lines and were almost hypermethylated in all EBVaGC tissues. The methylation status of BARF1 and BHRF1 promoters were significantly reduced by 5-Aza-CdR along with the increasing gene expressions. Hypermethylation of Ap and Hp mediates the frequent silencing of BARF1 and BHRF1 in EBV-associated tumors, which could be reactivated by a demethylation agent, suggesting that promoter demethylation and activation is important for BARF1 and BHRF1 transcription and their further action

MicroRNAs Up-Regulated by CagA of Helicobacter pylori Induce Intestinal Metaplasia of Gastric Epithelial Cells

CagA of Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium-derived oncogenic protein closely associated with the development of gastric cancers. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of widespread non-coding RNAs, many of which are involved in cell growth, cell differentiation and tumorigenesis. The relationship between CagA protein and miRNAs is unclear. Using mammalian miRNA profile microarrays, we found that miRNA-584 and miRNA-1290 expression was up-regulated in CagA-transformed cells, miRNA-1290 was up-regulated in an Erk1/2-dependent manner, and miRNA-584 was activated by NF-κB. miRNA-584 sustained Erk1/2 activities through inhibition of PPP2a activities, and miRNA-1290 activated NF-κB by knockdown of NKRF. Foxa1 was revealed to be an important target of miRNA-584 and miRNA-1290. Knockdown of Foxa1 promoted the epithelial-mesenchymal transition significantly. Overexpression of miRNA-584 and miRNA-1290 induced intestinal metaplasia of gastric epithelial cells in knock-in mice. These results indicate that miRNA-584 and miRNA-1290 interfere with cell differentiation and remodel the tissues. Thus, the miRNA pathway is a new pathogenic mechanism of CagA

Nondestructive measurement of kiwifruit firmness, soluble solid content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), and sensory quality by vibration spectrum

Maturity is a key attribute to evaluate the quality and acceptability of fruit products. In this study, the impact method was used for nondestructive measurement of kiwifruit maturity. The fruit was vertically dropped onto an impact plate, and an accelerometer was used to measure the response signal. Then, fruit firmness, soluble solid content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), and sensory scores were measured to determine the kiwifruit maturity. In addition, different modeling methods were proposed for data analysis. The results showed that the optimized prediction results were obtained by the principal component analysis–back-propagation neural network (PCA-BPNN) method for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The optimized correlation coefficient between prediction and actual values (rp) and root mean square error of prediction (RESEP) for firmness, SSC, TA, and sensory score were 0.881 (2.359N), 0.641 (1.511 Brix), 0.568 (0.023%), and 0.935 (0.693), respectively. The optimized discriminant accuracy for immature, mature, and overmature kiwifruits was 94.2% and 92.1% for calibration and validation, respectively. Such results indicated the feasibility of the proposed impact method for kiwifruit maturity evaluation

Optimal pricing strategy for new products considering reference price effect in advance selling

Previous research has shown that retailers’ operations and consumers’ purchase choices are significantly influenced by reference prices. This study explores a retailer selling some new products to strategic consumers in advance selling, and addresses the impact of reference price effect on the advance selling strategy and corresponding pricing decisions. Consumers’ choices are determined by their purchasing utilities which are dependent on the selling price in current period and the reference price. We first drive optimal selling prices and corresponding profits of the retailer under the scenarios of no advance selling, advance selling without considering the reference price effect, and advance selling with considering the reference price effect, respectively. We find an advance selling strategy is not always beneficial for the retailer. Besides, results present that the retailer benefits from considering reference price effects only if the positive reference effect is relatively high. Finally, numerical studies show that dynamic pricing is dominated by price commitment, which reaches the maximum when positive and negative reference effects parameters are both the highest