Background: Eye injuries are a prevalent workplace injury and cause substantial disability when vision is impaired.
Objective: To examine work-relatedness of demographic, injury, and clinical ...characteristics of eye injuries in a large clinic in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Methods: We performed a nine-year retrospective study of patients admitted with an eye injury to the Canton Hospital in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzeogvina. Controlling for age and sex, we used logistic regression to examine the influence of work-relatedness on patient and injury characteristics and clinical outcomes.
Results: Of 258 patients, 71 (27.5%) had work-related and 180 (69.8%) had non-work-related eye injuries. Work-related eye injury was associated with age, education, occupation, and injury type. Agricultural workers were eight times more likely to experience work-related eye injury (95%CI = 1.21-152.0) compared to manual workers. Work-relatedness of injury did not predict final visual acuity or length of hospital stay.
Conclusion: Promotion of eye safety is needed countrywide. Occupational eye protection is a priority due to the relatively proportion of eye injuries and the workplace being a relatively controlled environment.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly fatal cancer characterized by high intra-tumor heterogeneity (ITH). A panoramic understanding of its tumor evolution, in relation to its clinical ...trajectory, may provide novel prognostic and treatment strategies.
Through the Asia-Pacific Hepatocellular Carcinoma trials group (NCT03267641), we recruited one of the largest prospective cohorts of patients with HCC, with over 600 whole genome and transcriptome samples from 123 treatment-naïve patients.
Using a multi-region sampling approach, we revealed seven convergent genetic evolutionary paths governed by the early driver mutations, late copy number variations and viral integrations, which stratify patient clinical trajectories after surgical resection. Furthermore, such evolutionary paths shaped the molecular profiles, leading to distinct transcriptomic subtypes. Most significantly, although we found the coexistence of multiple transcriptomic subtypes within certain tumors, patient prognosis was best predicted by the most aggressive cell fraction of the tumor, rather than by overall degree of transcriptomic ITH level – a phenomenon we termed the ‘bad apple’ effect. Finally, we found that characteristics throughout early and late tumor evolution provide significant and complementary prognostic power in predicting patient survival.
Taken together, our study generated a comprehensive landscape of evolutionary history for HCC and provides a rich multi-omics resource for understanding tumor heterogeneity and clinical trajectories.
This prospective study, utilizing comprehensive multi-sector, multi-omics sequencing and clinical data from surgically resected hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), reveals critical insights into the role of tumor evolution and intra-tumor heterogeneity (ITH) in determining the prognosis of HCC. These findings are invaluable for oncology researchers and clinicians, as they underscore the influence of distinct evolutionary paths and the 'bad apple' effect, where the most aggressive tumor fraction dictates disease progression. These insights not only enhance prognostic accuracy post-surgical resection but also pave the way for personalized treatment strategies tailored to specific tumor evolutionary and transcriptomic profiles. The coexistence of multiple subtypes within the same tumor prompts a re-appraisal of the utilities of depending on single samples to represent the entire tumor and suggests the need for clinical molecular imaging. This research thus marks a significant step forward in the clinical understanding and management of HCC, underscoring the importance of integrating tumor evolutionary dynamics and multi-omics biomarkers into therapeutic decision-making.
NCT03267641 (Observational cohort).
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•A large multi-sector HCC cohort (n = 123) was assembled for paired WGS and RNA-seq analysis.•Evolution of HCC converged to seven paths that were significantly prognostic.•The most aggressive tumor part determined prognosis – termed the "bad apple" effect.•Evolutionary pathways and molecular profiles jointly dictate HCC prognosis.
Many common and rare variants associated with hematologic traits have been discovered through imputation on large-scale reference panels. However, the majority of genome-wide association studies ...(GWASs) have been conducted in Europeans, and determining causal variants has proved challenging. We performed a GWAS of total leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil counts generated from 109,563,748 variants in the autosomes and the X chromosome in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, which included data from 61,802 individuals of diverse ancestry. We discovered and replicated 7 leukocyte trait associations, including (1) the association between a chromosome X, pseudo-autosomal region (PAR), noncoding variant located between cytokine receptor genes (CSF2RA and CLRF2) and lower eosinophil count; and (2) associations between single variants found predominantly among African Americans at the S1PR3 (9q22.1) and HBB (11p15.4) loci and monocyte and lymphocyte counts, respectively. We further provide evidence indicating that the newly discovered eosinophil-lowering chromosome X PAR variant might be associated with reduced susceptibility to common allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis and asthma. Additionally, we found a burden of very rare FLT3 (13q12.2) variants associated with monocyte counts. Together, these results emphasize the utility of whole-genome sequencing in diverse samples in identifying associations missed by European-ancestry-driven GWASs.
The Wonders of a Watershed Young, Tracy
The Elementary STEM Journal,
12/2021, Volume:
26, Issue:
2
Journal Article, Trade Publication Article
Adhere with masking tape if needed. * Remind students how to add the sponge in a lowland area on top of the white plastic to represent a wetland. * Create specific places such as a car wash; a ...factory; and a farm with blocks, cars, and animals (on top of the garbage bag). * After the basic watershed model is constructed, using the spray bottle of water, have students simulate a rainstorm on their watershed by spraying water. * Discuss their observations of where the water flows. * Explain point source pollution and nonpoint source pollution to students. * ? Point source pollution is pollution originating from a single, identifiable source, such as a discharge pipe from a factory or sewage plant. * Nonpoint source pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. Nonpoint source pollution can include excess fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides from agricultural lands and residential areas as well as oil, grease, and toxic chemicals from urban runoff and energy production * Have students/children "pollute" the watershed using the Dixie® cups of pollutants by carefully placing each one where it belongs. * Salt - all over * Vegetable oil - all over * Detergent - by the car wash * Paper - all over * Red water - by the factory * Soil - by the farm After the polluted watershed is completed, using the spray bottle of water, have students again simulate a rainstorm on their watershed. * Discuss their observations. What do they notice now that they did not notice earlier? * Discuss how this relates to what they see in your local community. * Have the students/children discuss the effects of the simulated point source pollution (detergent and red water) and nonpoint source pollution (salt, vegetable oil, paper waste, soil) pollution have on the watershed model. * Instruct students/children to pick up the sponge and examine it closely.
Purpose
People experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) often seek, or are referred to, specialized service providers such as shelter workers, counsellors in programs for children exposed to IPV, ...and facilitators for men’s behaviour change programs. This paper discusses the process of collaborating with service providers and survivors across Canada to articulate the often-unrecognized knowledge and skills of IPV specialists.
Methods
Work included a scoping review and analysis of 140 academic and practice papers, interviews with 62 expert service providers, eight Delphi-method surveys and over 70 hours of collaborative discussion with expert working groups of experienced service providers and survivors.
Results
Areas of knowledge and skill were drafted based on the review of literature and analysis of interviews with experienced service providers, then rated in Delphi surveys, and discussed by expert working groups. Consensus was reached on the Flourishing Practice Model which identifies nine areas of capability shared across IPV specialists, as well as unique knowledge and skills used to support and collaborate with survivors, recognize and respond to infant, child and youth experiences of violence and intervene to end abusive behaviours. The “stem” recognizes the critical role of IPV specialist organizations and leaders in supporting service providers’ capabilities. “Blank petals” are included to signify expertise that has not yet been documented and to recognize ongoing growth.
Conclusions
The combination of methods and processes allowed for the integration of research and practice knowledge with survivor and service provider voices to gain deeper insight into the knowledge and skills of IPV specialists.
The availability of high-quality RNA-sequencing and genotyping data of post-mortem brain collections from consortia such as CommonMind Consortium (CMC) and the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for ...Alzheimer's Disease (AMP-AD) Consortium enable the generation of a large-scale brain cis-eQTL meta-analysis. Here we generate cerebral cortical eQTL from 1433 samples available from four cohorts (identifying >4.1 million significant eQTL for >18,000 genes), as well as cerebellar eQTL from 261 samples (identifying 874,836 significant eQTL for >10,000 genes). We find substantially improved power in the meta-analysis over individual cohort analyses, particularly in comparison to the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Project eQTL. Additionally, we observed differences in eQTL patterns between cerebral and cerebellar brain regions. We provide these brain eQTL as a resource for use by the research community. As a proof of principle for their utility, we apply a colocalization analysis to identify genes underlying the GWAS association peaks for schizophrenia and identify a potentially novel gene colocalization with lncRNA RP11-677M14.2 (posterior probability of colocalization 0.975).
Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) exhibit reduced strength and aerobic capacity, which may limit their ability to perform functional tasks of daily living.
This study was conducted to examine the ...relationship between timed performance on functional tasks of daily living and age, knee isometric strength, and peak aerobic capacity in a group of individuals with DS.
This was a cross-sectional study involving 35 individuals (27 +/- 7.5 yr) with DS. Participants completed an isometric test of knee extensor and flexor strength, an individualized exercise test to measure peak aerobic capacity, and three timed functional tasks of daily living, which included chair rise, gait speed, and stair ascent and descent. Multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the relationship between timed task performance and age, knee isometric strength, and peak aerobic capacity.
The multiple regression models explained 11-29% of the variance in timed task performance. Knee extensor strength was the most influential variable in predicting timed task performance (squared semipartial correlation coefficient sr2 = 0.11-0.20), followed by aerobic capacity (sr2 = 0.10-0.14). Age was not a significant predictor of timed task performance.
These findings suggest that physical fitness (defined here as aerobic capacity and knee extensor strength) limits the ability of adults with DS to perform functional tasks of daily living. Randomized controlled trials should be performed to test the probable causal relationship between exercises designed to improve physical fitness and functional tasks of daily living.
Some bacterial pathogens can establish life-long chronic infections in their hosts. Persistence is normally established after an acute infection period involving activation of both the innate and ...acquired immune systems. Bacteria have evolved specific pathogenic mechanisms and harbor sets of genes that contribute to the establishment of a persistent lifestyle that leads to chronic infection. Persistent bacterial infection may involve occupation of a particular tissue type or organ or modification of the intracellular environment within eukaryotic cells. Bacteria appear to adapt their immediate environment to favor survival and may hijack essential immunoregulatory mechanisms designed to minimize immune pathology or the inappropriate activation of immune effectors.
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