History of cholelithiasis and cancer risk in a network of case-control studies.

Background We analyzed the relationship between cholelithiasis and cancer risk in a network of case-control studies conducted in Italy and Switzerland in 1982-2009. Methods The analyses included 1997 oropharyngeal, 917 esophageal, 999 gastric, 23 small intestinal, 3726 colorectal, 684 liver, 688 pancreatic, 1240 laryngeal, 6447 breast, 1458 endometrial, 2002 ovarian, 1582 prostate, 1125 renal cell, 741 bladder cancers, and 21 284 controls. The odds ratios (ORs) were estimated by multiple logistic regression models. Results The ORs for subjects with history of cholelithiasis compared with those without were significantly elevated for small intestinal (OR = 3.96), prostate (OR = 1.36), and kidney cancers (OR = 1.57). These positive associations were observed ≥10 years after diagnosis of cholelithiasis and were consistent across strata of age, sex, and body mass index. No relation was found with the other selected cancers. A meta-analysis including this and three other studies on the relation of cholelithiasis with small intestinal cancer gave a pooled relative risk of 2.35 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.82-3.03]. Conclusion In subjects with cholelithiasis, we showed an appreciably increased risk of small intestinal cancer and suggested a moderate increased risk of prostate and kidney cancers. We found no material association with the other cancers considered.

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The quality of environmental data analysis and propagation of errors are heavily affected by the representativity of the initial sampling design [CRE 93, DEU 97, KAN 04a, LEN 06, MUL07]. Geostatistical methods such as kriging are related to field samples, whose spatial distribution is crucial for the correct detection of the phenomena. Literature about the design of environmental monitoring networks (MN) is widespread and several interesting books have recently been published [GRU 06, LEN 06, MUL 07] in order to clarify the basic principles of spatial sampling design (monitoring networks optimization) based on Support Vector Machines was proposed. Nonetheless, modelers often receive real data coming from environmental monitoring networks that suffer from problems of non-homogenity (clustering). Clustering can be related to the preferential sampling or to the impossibility of reaching certain regions.

Processus intégratifs et gouvernance clinique dans la psychiatrie institutionnelle [Integration processes and clinical governance in the psychiatric network]

The Swiss Medical Insurance Act (LAMaL) requires the planning of psychiatric care. This necessitates a coordination between the Department of Public Health and the institutional governance. Given the difficulties to draw comparisons between a wide range of systems in a federal country, the Swiss Conference of the State Directors of Health (CDS) proposed as a first step that each canton present some of the key programs they had developed. In the canton Vaud, the implementation of mobile community treatment teams and of an early intervention program for psychosis was chosen. The main challenges faced were to go past traditional divides within the organisation of the Swiss Health system and to conciliate the requirements of public health with the needs of treating teams, in order to promote early intervention in mental health disorders.

Personalized drug administrations using Support Vector Machine

The decision-making process regarding drug dose, regularly used in everyday medical practice, is critical to patients' health and recovery. It is a challenging process, especially for a drug with narrow therapeutic ranges, in which a medical doctor decides the quantity (dose amount) and frequency (dose interval) on the basis of a set of available patient features and doctor's clinical experience (a priori adaptation). Computer support in drug dose administration makes the prescription procedure faster, more accurate, objective, and less expensive, with a tendency to reduce the number of invasive procedures. This paper presents an advanced integrated Drug Administration Decision Support System (DADSS) to help clinicians/patients with the dose computing. Based on a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm, enhanced with the random sample consensus technique, this system is able to predict the drug concentration values and computes the ideal dose amount and dose interval for a new patient. With an extension to combine the SVM method and the explicit analytical model, the advanced integrated DADSS system is able to compute drug concentration-to-time curves for a patient under different conditions. A feedback loop is enabled to update the curve with a new measured concentration value to make it more personalized (a posteriori adaptation).

Network governance and the domestic adoption of soft rules

European regulatory networks (ERNs) are in charge of producing and disseminating non-bindings standards, guidelines and recommendations in a number of important domains, such as banking and finance, electricity and gas, telecommunications, and competition regulation. The goal of these soft rules is to promote 'best practices', achieve co-ordination among regulatory authorities and ensure the consistent application of harmonized pro-competition rules across Europe. This contribution examines the domestic adoption of the soft rules developed within the four main ERNs. Different factors are expected to influence the process of domestic adoption: the resources of regulators; the existence of a review panel; and the interdependence of the issues at stake. The empirical analysis supports hypotheses about the relevance of network-level factors: monitoring and public reporting procedures increase the final level of adoption, while soft rules concerning highly interdependent policy areas are adopted earlier.

Problèmes dus aux fistules d'hémodialyse: un réseau régional de prise en charge [Problems related to haemodialysis vascular accesses: a regional network of care]

The number of patients treated by haemodialysis (HD) is continuously increasing. The complications associated with vascular accesses represent the first cause of hospitalisation in these patients. Since 2001 nephrologists, surgeons, angiologists and radiologists at the CHUV are working to develop a multidisciplinary model that includes planning and monitoring of HD accesses. In this setting the echo-Doppler represents an important tool of investigation. Every patient is discussed and decisions are taken during a weekly multidisciplinary meeting. A network has been created with nephrologists of peripheral centres and other specialists. This model allows to centralize investigational information and coordinate patient care while keeping and even developing some investigational activities and treatment in peripheral centres.

How a haemosporidian parasite of bats gets around: the genetic structure of a parasite, vector and host compared.

Parasite population structure is often thought to be largely shaped by that of its host. In the case of a parasite with a complex life cycle, two host species, each with their own patterns of demography and migration, spread the parasite. However, the population structure of the parasite is predicted to resemble only that of the most vagile host species. In this study, we tested this prediction in the context of a vector-transmitted parasite. We sampled the haemosporidian parasite Polychromophilus melanipherus across its European range, together with its bat fly vector Nycteribia schmidlii and its host, the bent-winged bat Miniopterus schreibersii. Based on microsatellite analyses, the wingless vector, and not the bat host, was identified as the least structured population and should therefore be considered the most vagile host. Genetic distance matrices were compared for all three species based on a mitochondrial DNA fragment. Both host and vector populations followed an isolation-by-distance pattern across the Mediterranean, but not the parasite. Mantel tests found no correlation between the parasite and either the host or vector populations. We therefore found no support for our hypothesis; the parasite population structure matched neither vector nor host. Instead, we propose a model where the parasite's gene flow is represented by the added effects of host and vector dispersal patterns.

ENFIN--A European network for integrative systems biology.

Integration of biological data of various types and the development of adapted bioinformatics tools represent critical objectives to enable research at the systems level. The European Network of Excellence ENFIN is engaged in developing an adapted infrastructure to connect databases, and platforms to enable both the generation of new bioinformatics tools and the experimental validation of computational predictions. With the aim of bridging the gap existing between standard wet laboratories and bioinformatics, the ENFIN Network runs integrative research projects to bring the latest computational techniques to bear directly on questions dedicated to systems biology in the wet laboratory environment. The Network maintains internally close collaboration between experimental and computational research, enabling a permanent cycling of experimental validation and improvement of computational prediction methods. The computational work includes the development of a database infrastructure (EnCORE), bioinformatics analysis methods and a novel platform for protein function analysis FuncNet.