Cancer Statistics for Hispanics/Latinos, 2018 Miller, Kimberly D.; Goding Sauer, Ann; Ortiz, Ana P. ...
CA: a cancer journal for clinicians,
November/December 2018, Letnik:
68, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Cancer is the leading cause of death among Hispanics/Latinos, who represent the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the United States, accounting for 17.8% (57.5 million) of the total population ...in the continental United States and Hawaii in 2016. In addition, more than 3 million Hispanic Americans live in the US territory of Puerto Rico. Every 3 years, the American Cancer Society reports on cancer occurrence, risk factors, and screening for Hispanics in the United States based on data from the National Cancer Institute, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the first time, contemporary incidence and mortality rates for Puerto Rico, which has a 99% Hispanic population, are also presented. An estimated 149,100 new cancer cases and 42,700 cancer deaths will occur among Hispanics in the continental United States and Hawaii in 2018. For all cancers combined, Hispanics have 25% lower incidence and 30% lower mortality compared with non‐Hispanic whites, although rates of infection‐related cancers, such as liver, are up to twice as high in Hispanics. However, these aggregated data mask substantial heterogeneity within the Hispanic population because of variable cancer risk, as exemplified by the substantial differences in the cancer burden between island Puerto Ricans and other US Hispanics. For example, during 2011 to 2015, prostate cancer incidence rates in Puerto Rico (146.6 per 100,000) were 60% higher than those in other US Hispanics combined (91.6 per 100,000) and 44% higher than those in non‐Hispanic whites (101.7 per 100,000). Prostate cancer is also the leading cause of cancer death among men in Puerto Rico, accounting for nearly 1 in 6 cancer deaths during 2011‐2015, whereas lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among other US Hispanic men combined. Variations in cancer risk are driven by differences in exposure to cancer‐causing infectious agents and behavioral risk factors as well as the prevalence of screening. Strategies for reducing cancer risk in Hispanic populations include targeted, culturally appropriate interventions for increasing the uptake of preventive services and reducing cancer risk factor prevalence, as well as additional funding for Puerto Rico‐specific and subgroup‐specific cancer research and surveillance.
Abstract
STUDY QUESTION
Is it possible to determine the receptivity status of an endometrium by combined quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) expression analysis of genes involved in ...endometrial proliferation and immunity?
SUMMARY ANSWER
The new ER Map®/ER Grade® test can predict endometrial receptivity status by RT-qPCR using a new panel of genes involved in endometrial proliferation and the maternal immune response associated to embryonic implantation.
WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
The human endometrium reaches a receptive status adequate for embryonic implantation around Days 19-21 of the menstrual cycle. During this period, known as the window of implantation (WOI), the endometrium shows a specific gene expression profile suitable for endometrial function evaluation. The number of molecular diagnostic tools currently available to characterize this process is very limited. In this study, a new system for human endometrial receptivity evaluation was optimized and presented for the first time.
STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION
ER Map®/ER Grade® validation was achieved on 312 endometrial samples including fertile women and patients undergoing fertility treatment between July 2014 and March 2016. Expression analyses of 184 genes involved in endometrial receptivity and immune response were performed. Samples were additionally tested with an independent endometrial receptivity test.
PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS
A total of 96 fertile women and 120 assisted reproduction treatment (ART) patients participated in the study. Endometrial biopsy samples were obtained at LH + 2 and LH + 7 days in fertile subjects in a natural cycle and at the window of implantation (WOI) in patients in a hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) cycle. Total RNA was purified, quality-checked and reverse-transcribed. Gene expression was quantified by high-throughput RT-qPCR and statistically analyzed. Informative genes were selected and used to classify samples into four different groups of endometrial receptivity status.
MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE
Significantly different gene expression levels were found in 85 out of 184 selected genes when comparing LH + 2 and LH + 7 samples (paired t-test, P < 0.05). Gene ontology analyses revealed that cell division and proliferation, cell signaling and response, extracellular organization and communication, immunological activity, vascular proliferation, blood pressure regulation and embryo implantation are the most over-represented biological terms in this group of genes. Principal component analysis and discriminant functional analysis showed that 40 of the differentially expressed genes allowed accurate classification of samples according to endometrial status (proliferative, pre-receptive, receptive and post-receptive) in both fertile and infertile groups.
LARGE SCALE DATA
N/A.
LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
To evaluate the efficacy of this new tool to improve ART outcomes, further investigations such as non-selection studies and randomized controlled trials will also be required.
WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
A new comprehensive system for human endometrial receptivity evaluation based on gene expression analysis has been developed. The identification of the optimal time for embryo transfer is essential to maximize the effectiveness of ART. This study is a new step in the field of personalized medicine in human reproduction which may help in the management of endometrial preparation for embryo transfer, increasing the chances of pregnancy for many couples.
STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)
The authors have no potential conflict of interest to declare. No external funding was obtained for this study.
Orion BN/KL is an example of a poorly understood phenomena in star-forming regions involving the close encounters of young stellar objects. The explosive structure, the great variety of molecules ...observed, the energy involved in the event, and the mass of the region suggest a contribution to the chemical diversity of the local interstellar medium. Nevertheless, the frequency and duration of other, similar events have not been determined. In this paper, we explore a recent analytic model that takes into account the interaction of a clump with its molecular environment. We show that the widespread kinematic ages of the Orion fingers-500 to 4000 yr-are a consequence of the interaction of the explosion debris with the surrounding medium. This model explains satisfactorily the age discrepancy of the Orion fingers, and infers the initial conditions together with the lifetime of the explosion. Moreover, our model can explain why some CO streamers do not have an associated H2 finger.
The present study provides a comprehensive assessment of the synthesis, crystal evolution, and degree of inversion of the spinel CoCr2O4 (i.e., cochromite) by a modified sol–gel method using ...propylene oxide and ultrasonication. Ultrasonic assistance promotes the dissociation and dispersibility of Co2+ and Cr3+ precursors, contributing to the hydrolysis reaction to form hydrated ions. Propylene oxide serves as a proton scavenger to provide the conditions needed for homogeneous gelation. Heat treatments at different temperatures (400, 550, and 700 °C) for different durations (1, 4, and 8 h) have been applied to follow the crystal evolution and the inversion of the spinel system. The formation of CoCr2O4 particles was observed at approximately 400 °C. An increase in calcination temperature induced particle size growth (from 12 to 42 nm) and sintering effects. A significant decrease in the specific surface area (from 144 to 33 m2 g−1) was observed with changes in the lattice parameter (8.304–8.334 Å). Raman, XPS, XRD, and Rietveld analyses indicated the presence of a pure cochromite phase. The Bertaut method has been applied to monitor the inversion process of CoCr2O4 during post-synthesis heat treatment. The spinel conformation became a regular type beyond 700 °C, whereas a fully inverted structure was obtained at lower temperatures. The modified sol–gel method may be convenient for large-scale production to synthesize other spinel-type compounds.
•High-purity CoCr2O4 was obtained by sol gel with propylene oxide and sonochemistry.•A synthesis mechanism explains the phase formation with the aid of ultrasound.•Particle size and morphology are moderated by temperature and calcination time.•The degree of spinel inversion is dependent on the calcination conditions.•There is complete inversion of the spinel for samples treated at 400 °C for 1 h.
Liquid-crystal blue phases (BPs) are highly ordered at two levels. Molecules exhibit orientational order at nanometer length scales, while chirality leads to ordered arrays of double-twisted ...cylinders over micrometer scales. Past studies of polycrystalline BPs were challenged by the existence of grain boundaries between randomly oriented crystalline nanodomains. Here, the nucleation of BPs is controlled with precision by relying on chemically nanopatterned surfaces, leading to macroscopic single-crystal BP specimens where the dynamics of mesocrystal formation can be directly observed. Theory and experiments show that transitions between two BPs having a different network structure proceed through local reorganization of the crystalline array, without diffusion of the double-twisted cylinders. In solid crystals, martensitic transformations between crystal structures involve the concerted motion of a few atoms, without diffusion. The transformation between BPs, where crystal features arise in the submicron regime, is found to be martensitic in nature when one considers the collective behavior of the double-twist cylinders. Single-crystal BPs are shown to offer fertile grounds for the study of directed crystal nucleation and the controlled growth of soft matter.
Liquid crystals (LCs) can serve as sensitive reporters of interfacial events, and this property has been used for sensing of synthetic or biological toxins. Here it is demonstrated that LCs can ...distinguish distinct molecular motifs and exhibit a specific response to beta‐sheet structures. That property is used to detect the formation of highly toxic protofibrils involved in neurodegenerative diseases, where it is crucial to develop methods that probe the early‐stage aggregation of amyloidogenic peptides in the vicinity of biological membranes. In the proposed method, the amyloid fibrils formed at the lipid–decorated LC interface can change the orientation of LCs and form elongated and branched structures that are amplified by the mesogenic medium; however, nonamyloidogenic peptides form ellipsoidal domains of tilted LCs. Moreover, a theoretical and computational analysis is used to reveal the underlying structure of the LC, thereby providing a detailed molecular‐level view of the interactions and mechanisms responsible for such motifs. The corresponding signatures can be detected at nanomolar concentrations of peptide by polarized light microscopy and much earlier than the ones that can be identified by fluorescence‐based techniques. As such, it offers the potential for early diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases and for facile testing of inhibitors of amyloid formation.
Liquid‐crystal‐based sensors exhibit unique responses to peptides that aggregate at membrane interfaces. β‐sheet forming peptides, such as human islet amyloid polypeptide, aggregate into fibrils at lipid–decorated liquid crystal interfaces, giving rise to branch‐like structures. By contrast, rat islet amyloid polypeptide molecules, which possess α‐helical character, exhibit weak protein–lipid interactions and form circular domains.
The surface coil, which measures the magnetic flux rate from the sample surface, is the most used sensor for Magnetic Barkhausen signal measurement. However, there is little knowledge about how the ...magnetic flux corresponding to Barkhausen events is leaked from the sample surface and which components of the magnetic flux density contributes to the induced signal. The present work shows an effort to answer these questions by measuring the normal and tangential components of the signals induced in the surface coil and analyzing these measurements using a micro-mesoscopic model of Barkhausen effect. The results show that the presence of even a small tilt angles of the surface coil induces not only components of the applied field in the coil, as thought so far, but also induces tangential components of the Barkhausen signal. The presence of both components of the Barkhausen effect in the induced signal due to the tilt of the surface coil could be a result of the sample surface irregularities or due to the non-uniformity of the coil winding. Finally, the outcomes also reveal that magnetic flux contributing to the induced signal comes from a ring of the material surface surrounding the surface coil. These findings have important implications for Barkhausen setup and applications.
•Analyze the components of the surface magnetic flux rate contributing to MBN.•Proposes a new model for analyzing the measurement of the MBN signal.•Reveal the region of the material surface that actual induces the MBN in the coil.
•Kesterite thin films are synthetized from evaporated ternary and binary precursors.•Four different off-stoichiometric types are obtained at 450 °C and 500 °C.•Electrical conductivity and optical ...bandgap are dominated by the respective defects.
Kesterite thin films with four different off-stoichiometry have been synthetized by sequential evaporation of ternary (Cu2SnS3 or Cu3SnS4) and binary (ZnS) layers, following sulfurization (with elemental S) at 450 °C or 500 °C. Zn-poor compositions (Zn/Sn < 1.0) are used to study the effect of substitutional SnZn defects, together with VZn defects when Cu/Sn ∼ 2.0 (sample CZTS1) or with CuZn defects for Cu/Sn > 2.0 (sample CZTS2). Besides, the effect of cationic disorder is also studied for Zn/Sn ∼ 1.0, producing ZnCu and SnCu defects when Cu/Sn ∼ 2.0 (sample CZTS3) or CuZn and CuSn for Cu/Sn > 2.0 (sample CZTS4). The crystalline structure, morphology, optical and electrical properties of the different samples have been analyzed comparatively by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), spectrophotometry and coplanar electrical measurements. The highest crystallinity was achieved by the reaction of Cu3SnS4 and ZnS (sample CZTS4) at 450 °C, with a wide bandgap and low resistivity, which remain unchanged when increasing the heating temperature to 500 °C.
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This investigation presents a novel three-dimensional simulation model designed for the analysis of Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN). The model’s formulation is directly deduced from Maxwell’s ...equations, establishing a Boundary Value Problem (BVP) with boundary conditions tailored to a specific configuration involving a lengthy steel rod encased within a solenoid, subjected to sinusoidal current excitation, all contained within an air enclosure. This chosen configuration holds physical equivalence to the majority of setups commonly utilized in Barkhausen experiments. Utilizing the proposed three-dimensional model, it became feasible, for the first time, to computationally assess the voltage induced in the coil by the flux emanating from all spatial directions. The findings indicate that the MBN signal is primarily generated by the flux rate aligned with the direction of the applied field. Nevertheless, simulations confirm additional contributions to the signal originating from magnetic flux in directions significantly deviating from the applied field direction. It is demonstrated that these contributions from lateral flux significantly influence the angular dependence of the Barkhausen signal energy, showcasing a notable alignment between the proposed model and experimental results. The results underscore the capability of the proposed model to facilitate the simulation of Barkhausen Noise.
•Propose a model for three-dimensional simulation of MBN.•Demonstrated that transversal flux contributes to the measured MBN signal.•Reveal the cause of some imprecisions in the estimation of MCE using MBN.
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