Young people, parents and radical right voting: The case of the Swiss People's Party

It is commonly found that young people tend to adopt the political party choice of their parents. However, far less is known about the applicability of this theory when investigating radical right support. Using the Swiss Household panel data (1999e2007), this study empirically identifies the relationship between parents' preference for the Swiss radical right party SVP and their attitudes toward immigrants and the EU, and their offspring's preference for the SVP. Disaggregating fathers' and mothers' influence reveals that in particular, mothers' SVP support plays a role in SVP support among young people, even after controlling for educational similarities. We also demonstrate that girls are more likely to be influenced by their mothers than are boys. Furthermore, parents' negative attitudes toward the EU exert a positive influence on their children's radical right voting, independent of their voting pattern.

Performance comparison of an active matrix flat panel imager, computed radiography system, and a screen-film system at four standard radiation qualities.

Four standard radiation qualities (from RQA 3 to RQA 9) were used to compare the imaging performance of a computed radiography (CR) system (general purpose and high resolution phosphor plates of a Kodak CR 9000 system), a selenium-based direct flat panel detector (Kodak Direct View DR 9000), and a conventional screen-film system (Kodak T-MAT L/RA film with a 3M Trimax Regular screen of speed 400) in conventional radiography. Reference exposure levels were chosen according to the manufacturer's recommendations to be representative of clinical practice (exposure index of 1700 for digital systems and a film optical density of 1.4). With the exception of the RQA 3 beam quality, the exposure levels needed to produce a mean digital signal of 1700 were higher than those needed to obtain a mean film optical density of 1.4. In spite of intense developments in the field of digital detectors, screen-film systems are still very efficient detectors for most of the beam qualities used in radiology. An important outcome of this study is the behavior of the detective quantum efficiency of the digital radiography (DR) system as a function of beam energy. The practice of users to increase beam energy when switching from a screen-film system to a CR system, in order to improve the compromise between patient dose and image quality, might not be appropriate when switching from screen-film to selenium-based DR systems.

Expression of neutral endopeptidase, endothelin-1, and nuclear factor kappa B in prostate cancer: interrelations and associations with prostate-specific antigen recurrence after radical prostatectomy.

Objective. To study the impact of the neutral endopeptidase (NEP)/neuropeptides (NPs) axis and nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB) as predictors of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) recurrence after radical prostatectomy (RP). Patients and Methods. 70 patients with early-stage PC were treated with RP and their tumor samples were evaluated for expression of NEP, endothelin-1 (ET-1) and NFκB (p65). Time to PSA recurrence was correlated with the examined parameters and combined with preoperative PSA level, Gleason score, pathological TNM (pT) stage, and surgical margin (SM) assessment. Results and Limitations. Membranous expression of NEP (P < 0.001), cytoplasmic ET-1 (P = 0.002), and cytoplasmic NFκB (P < 0.001) were correlated with time to PSA relapse. NEP was associated with ET-1 (P < 0.001) and NFκB (P < 0.001). ET-1 was also correlated with NFκB (P < 0.001). NEP expression (P = 0.017), pT stage (P = 0.013), and SMs (P = 0.036) were independent predictors of time to PSA recurrence. Conclusions. There seems to be a clinical model of NEP/NPs and NFκB pathways interconnection, with their constituents following inverse patterns of expression in accordance with their biological roles and molecular interrelations.

p53 and cyclooxygenase-2 expression are directly associated with cyclin D1 expression in radical prostatectomy specimens of patients with hormone-naïve prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a potentially curable disease when diagnosed in early stages and subsequently treated with radical prostatectomy (RP). However, a significant proportion of patients tend to relapse early, with the emergence of biochemical failure (BF) as an established precursor of progression to metastatic disease. Several candidate molecular markers have been studied in an effort to enhance the accuracy of existing predictive tools regarding the risk of BF after RP. We studied the immunohistochemical expression of p53, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and cyclin D1 in a cohort of 70 patients that underwent RP for early stage, hormone naïve PCa, with the aim of prospectively identifying any possible interrelations as well as correlations with known prognostic parameters such as Gleason score, pathological stage and time to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) relapse. We observed a significant (p = 0.003) prognostic role of p53, with high protein expression correlating with shorter time to BF (TTBF) in univariate analysis. Both p53 and COX-2 expression were directly associated with cyclin D1 expression (p = 0.055 and p = 0.050 respectively). High p53 expression was also found to be an independent prognostic factor (p = 0.023). Based on previous data and results provided by this study, p53 expression exerts an independent negative prognostic role in localized prostate cancer and could therefore be evaluated as a useful new molecular marker to be added in the set of known prognostic indicators of the disease. With respect to COX-2 and cyclin D1, further studies are required to elucidate their role in early prediction of PCa relapse after RP.

CD10 is inversely associated with nuclear factor-kappa B and predicts biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy.

INTRODUCTION: The cell surface endopeptidase CD10 (neutral endopeptidase) and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) have been independently associated with prostate cancer (PC) progression. We investigated the correlations between these two factors and their prognostic relevance in terms of biochemical (prostate-specific antigen, PSA) relapse after radical prostatectomy (RP) for localized PC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The immunohistochemical expression of CD10 and NF-κB in samples from 70 patients who underwent RP for localized PC was correlated with the preoperative PSA level, Gleason score, pathological stage and time to PSA failure. RESULTS: CD10 expression was inversely associated with NF-κB expression (p < 0.001), stage (p = 0.03) and grade (p = 0.003), whereas NF-κB was directly related with stage (p = 0.006) and grade (p = 0.002). The median time to PSA failure was 56 months. CD10 and NF-κB were directly (p < 0.001) and inversely (p < 0.001) correlated with biochemical recurrence-free survival, respectively. CD10 expression (p = 0.022) and stage (p = 0.018) were independently associated with time to biochemical recurrence. CONCLUSION: Low CD10 expression is an adverse prognostic factor for biochemical relapse after RP in localized PC, which is also associated with high NF-κB expression. Decreased CD10 expression which would lead to increased neuropeptide signaling and NF-κB activity may be present in a subset of early PCs.

Respiratory responses associated with affective processing of film stimuli

We investigated respiratory responses during film clip viewing and their relation to the affective dimensions of valence and arousal. Seventy-six subjects participated in a study using a between groups design. To begin with, all participants viewed an emotionally neutral film clip. Then, they were presented with one out of four emotional film clips: a positive high-arousal, a positive low-arousal, a negative high-arousal and a negative low-arousal clip. Respiration, skin conductance level, heart rate, corrugator activity and affective judgments were measured. Expiratory time was shorter and inspiratory duty cycle, mean expiratory flow and minute ventilation were larger during the high-arousal clips compared to the low-arousal clips. The pleasantness of the stimuli had no influence on any respiratory measure. These findings confirm the importance of arousal in respiratory responding but also evidence differences in comparison to previous studies using visual and auditory stimuli. [Authors]

Guidelines for perioperative care after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer: enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS(®)) society recommendations.

PURPOSE: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathways have significantly reduced complications and length of hospital stay after colorectal procedures. This multimodal concept could probably be partially applied to major urological surgery. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to systematically assess the evidence of ERAS single items and protocols applied to cystectomy patients. The secondary objective was to address a grade of recommendation to each item, based on the evidence and, if lacking, on consensus opinion from our ERAS Society working group. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A systematic literature review was performed on ERAS for cystectomy by searching EMBASE and Medline. Relevant articles were selected and quality-assessed by two independent reviewers using the GRADE approach. If no study specific to cystectomy was available for any of the 22 given items, the authors evaluated whether colorectal guidelines could be extrapolated. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Overall, 804 articles were retrieved from electronic databases. Fifteen articles were included in the present systematic review and 7 of 22 ERAS items were studied. Bowel preparation did not improve outcomes. Early nasogastric tube removal reduced morbidity, bowel recovery time and length of hospital stay. Doppler-guided fluid administration allowed for reduced morbidity. A quicker bowel recovery was observed with a multimodal prevention of ileus, including gum chewing, prevention of PONV and minimally invasive surgery. CONCLUSIONS: ERAS has not yet been widely implemented in urology and evidence for individual interventions is limited or unavailable. The experience in other surgical disciplines encourages the development of an ERAS protocol for cystectomy.