Incorporating patient preferences into cancer care decisions: Challenges and opportunities

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156174/2/cncr32959_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156174/1/cncr32959.pd

Identification of neutral tumor evolution across cancer types

A.S. is supported by The Chris Rokos Fellowship in Evolution and Cancer. B.W. is supported by the Geoffrey W. Lewis Post-Doctoral Training fellowship. This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (105104/Z/14/Z). C.P.B. acknowledges funding from the Wellcome Trust through a Research Career Development Fellowship (097319/Z/11/Z). This work was supported by a Cancer Research UK Career Development Award to T.A.G. M.J.W. is supported by a UK Medical Research Council student fellowship

Epipelagic mesozooplankton distribution and abundance over the Mascarene Plateau and Basin, south-western Indian Ocean

The crescent shaped Mascarene Plateau (southwestern Indian Ocean), some 2200 km in length, forms a partial barrier to the (predominantly westward) flow of the South Equatorial Current. Shallow areas of the Mascarene Plateau effectively form a large shelf sea without an associated coastline. Zooplankton sampling transects were made across the plateau and also the basin to the west, to investigate the role the partial interruption of flow has on zooplankton biomass and community structure over the region. Biomass data from Optical Plankton Counter (OPC) analysis, and variability in community structure from taxonomic analysis, appear to indicate that the obstruction by the plateau causes upwelling, nutrient enrichment and enhanced chlorophyll and secondary production levels downstream. The Mascarene Basin is clearly distinguishable from the ridge itself, and from the waters to the south and north, both in terms of size-distributed zooplankton biomass and community structure. Satellite remote sensing data, particularly remotely-sensed ocean colour imagery and the sea surface height anomaly (SSHA), indicate support for this hypothesis. A correlation was found between OPC biovolume and SSHA and sea surface temperature (SST), which may indicate the physical processes driving mesozooplankton variability in this area. Biomass values away from the influence of the ridge averaged 24 mg m-3, but downstream if the ridge biomass averaged 263 mg m-3. Copepods comprised 60% of the mean total organisms. Calanoid copepods varied considerably between regions, being lowest away from the influence of the plateau, where higher numbers of the cyclopoid copepods Oithona spp., Corycaeus spp. and Oncaea spp., and the harpacticoid Microsetella spp. were found

New Constraints (and Motivations) for Abelian Gauge Bosons in the MeV-TeV Mass Range

We survey the phenomenological constraints on abelian gauge bosons having masses in the MeV to multi-GeV mass range (using precision electroweak measurements, neutrino-electron and neutrino-nucleon scattering, electron and muon anomalous magnetic moments, upsilon decay, beam dump experiments, atomic parity violation, low-energy neutron scattering and primordial nucleosynthesis). We compute their implications for the three parameters that in general describe the low-energy properties of such bosons: their mass and their two possible types of dimensionless couplings (direct couplings to ordinary fermions and kinetic mixing with Standard Model hypercharge). We argue that gauge bosons with very small couplings to ordinary fermions in this mass range are natural in string compactifications and are likely to be generic in theories for which the gravity scale is systematically smaller than the Planck mass - such as in extra-dimensional models - because of the necessity to suppress proton decay. Furthermore, because its couplings are weak, in the low-energy theory relevant to experiments at and below TeV scales the charge gauged by the new boson can appear to be broken, both by classical effects and by anomalies. In particular, if the new gauge charge appears to be anomalous, anomaly cancellation does not also require the introduction of new light fermions in the low-energy theory. Furthermore, the charge can appear to be conserved in the low-energy theory, despite the corresponding gauge boson having a mass. Our results reduce to those of other authors in the special cases where there is no kinetic mixing or there is no direct coupling to ordinary fermions, such as for recently proposed dark-matter scenarios.Comment: 49 pages + appendix, 21 figures. This is the final version which appears in JHE

Radiocarbon in food: a non-problem of health effects

Recently it has come to our attention that a paper was published in this journal entitled “recycling greenhouse gas fossil fuel emissions into low radiocarbon food products to reduce human genetic damage” (Williams in Environ Chem Lett 5:197–202, 2007). In this article, it is argued that food grown in a greenhouse is healthier for people, when the greenhouse is fertilised with CO2 prepared from fossil fuels. In this comment, however, we argue that the effect on human health is completely negligible

Remembering the forgotten non-communicable diseases

The forthcoming post-Millennium Development Goals era will bring about new challenges in global health. Low- and middle-income countries will have to contend with a dual burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Some of these NCDs, such as neoplasms, COPD, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, cause much health loss worldwide and are already widely recognised as doing so. However, 55% of the global NCD burden arises from other NCDs, which tend to be ignored in terms of premature mortality and quality of life reduction. Here, experts in some of these 'forgotten NCDs' review the clinical impact of these diseases along with the consequences of their ignoring their medical importance, and discuss ways in which they can be given higher global health priority in order to decrease the growing burden of disease and disability.MerckUniv Melbourne, Sch Populat & Global Hlth, Melbourne, Vic 3053, AustraliaUniv London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, St Marys Hosp, Dept Med, London W2 1NY, EnglandKEMRI Wellcome Trust Res Programme, Kilifi, KenyaUniv British Columbia, St Pauls Hosp, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y8, CanadaVA Med Ctr, Med Serv, Birmingham, AL USAVA Med Ctr, Ctr Surg Med Acute Care Res & Transit, Birmingham, AL USAUniv Alabama Birmingham, Sch Med, Dept Med, Birmingham, AL 35294 USAUniv Alabama Birmingham, Sch Publ Hlth, Div Epidemiol, Birmingham, AL 35294 USAMayo Clin, Coll Med, Dept Orthoped Surg, Rochester, MN 55905 USAUniv London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, Natl Heart & Lung Inst, London, EnglandCtr Addict & Mental Hlth, Toronto, ON, CanadaTech Univ Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, GermanyUniv Toronto, Dalla Lana Sch Publ Hlth, Toronto, ON, CanadaUniv Toronto, Dept Psychiat, Toronto, ON, CanadaUofT, Inst Med Sci, Toronto, ON, CanadaNIDA, NIH, Rockville, MD USANIAAA, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892 USAHosp Alemao Oswaldo Cruz, Inst Educ & Hlth Sci, BR-01323903 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Psychobiol, BR-04023062 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Psychobiol, BR-04023062 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Tumor Susceptibility Gene 101 (TSG101) Is a Novel Binding-Partner for the Class II Rab11-FIPs

The Rab11-FIPs (Rab11-family interacting proteins; henceforth, FIPs) are a family of Rab11a/Rab11b/Rab25 GTPase effector proteins implicated in an assortment of intracellular trafficking processes. Through proteomic screening, we have identified TSG101 (tumor susceptibility gene 101), a component of the ESCRT-I (endosomal sorting complex required for transport) complex, as a novel FIP4-binding protein, which we find can also bind FIP3. We show that α-helical coiled-coil regions of both TSG101 and FIP4 mediate the interaction with the cognate protein, and that point mutations in the coiled-coil regions of both TSG101 and FIP4 abrogate the interaction. We find that expression of TSG101 and FIP4 mutants cause cytokinesis defects, but that the TSG101-FIP4 interaction is not required for localisation of TSG101 to the midbody/Flemming body during abscission. Together, these data suggest functional overlap between Rab11-controlled processes and components of the ESCRT pathway