Association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms in growth factor genes and quality of life in men with prostate cancer and the general population

Purpose Improved survival for men with prostate cancer has led to increased attention to factors influencing quality of life (QOL). As protein levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) have been reported to be associated with QOL in people with cancer, we sought to identify whether single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of these genes were associated with QOL in men with prostate cancer. Methods Multiple linear regression of two data sets (including approximately 750 men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer and 550 men from the general population) was used to investigate SNPs of VEGF and IGF-1 (10 SNPs in total) for associations with QOL (measured by the SF-36v2 health survey). Results Men with prostate cancer who carried the minor ‘T’ allele for IGF-1 SNP rs35767 had higher mean Role-Physical scale scores (≥0.3 SD) compared to non-carriers (p < 0.05). While this association was not identified in men from the general population, one IGF-1 SNP rs7965399 was associated with higher mean Bodily Pain scale scores in men from the general population that was not found in men with prostate cancer. Men from the general population who carried the rare ‘C’ allele had higher mean Bodily Pain scale scores (≥0.3 SD) than non-carriers (p < 0.05). Conclusions Through identifying SNPs that are associated with QOL in men with prostate cancer and men from the general population, this study adds to the mapping of complex interrelationships that influence QOL and suggests a role for IGF-I in physical QOL outcomes. Future research may identify biomarkers associated with increased risk of poor QOL that could assist in the provision of pre-emptive support for those identified at risk.

Design intersection: The growth of community-led technology enabled companies

The sharing economy or collaborative consumption based firms have the potential to disrupt long-standing traditional industries. However, little is known on the topic, specifically the role of design in these successful community-led, technology enable firms. It is the proposition of this research that the intrinsic innovation of collaborative consumption firms is not merely a technological one. With successful firms being identified by being able to marry both technological advancement and human insight on product meaning. Therefore, the authors suggest the use of design as an effective way to capitalise and build on product meaning, not only technological advancements in order to foster the growth of a community. To explore this further, the research team decided to investigate two fast growing examples of industry disrupting, sharing economy businesses; Airbnb and Uber. Of the two cases, the use of design was found to be more evident within, Airbnb, due to wide profession of using design techniques. Each case study has been mapped on Guenther’s (2012) framework of techno-economic innovation to help illustrate this marriage of innovation agendas. This paper explored the role of design in community-led companies by presenting an argument for why they have succeeded due to an understanding of human need and key market trends, instead of only technological innovation alone. Findings and implication of these case studies suggest the future role of design as a method to achieve this success. Built on the core tenants of design thinking, these techniques rationalise technology, human needs and business viability to product innovative solutions. Upon these findings, the research team has created a new framework for understanding community-led technology enabled companies, one that builds upon the work of Guenther’s (2012) model of enterprise design innovation. This paper is the first step in a new research agenda.

One-step synthesis of high quality kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4nanocrystals: A hydrothermal approach

The present work demonstrates a systematic approach for the synthesis of pure kesterite-phase Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanocrystals with a uniform size distribution by a one-step, thioglycolic acid (TGA)-assisted hydrothermal route. The formation mechanism and the role of TGA in the formation of CZTS compound were thoroughly studied. It has been found that TGA interacted with Cu2+ to form Cu+ at the initial reaction stage and controlled the crystal-growth of CZTS nanocrystals during the hydrothermal reaction. The consequence of the reduction of Cu2+ to Cu+ led to the formation Cu2−xS nuclei, which acted as the crystal framework for the formation of CZTS compound. CZTS was formed by the diffusion of Zn2+ and Sn4+ cations to the lattice of Cu2−xS during the hydrothermal reaction. The as-synthesized CZTS nanocrystals exhibited strong light absorption over the range of wavelength beyond 1000 nm. The band gap of the material was determined to be 1.51 eV, which is optimal for application in photoelectric energy conversion device.

On the growth process of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 absorber layer formed by selenizing Cu–ZnS–SnS precursors and its photovoltaic performance

Sputtering and subsequent sulfurization(orselenization)is one of the methods that have been extensively employed to fabricate Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) thin films. However, there are limited reports on the effect of precursor stacking order of the sputtered source materials on the properties of the synthesized CZTSSe films. In this work,the morphology and crystallization process of the CZTSSe films which were prepared by selenizing Cu–ZnS–SnS precursor layers with different stacking sequences and the adhesion property between the as-synthesized CZTSSe layer and Mosubstrate have been thoroughly investigated. It has been found that the growth of CZTSSe material and the morphology of the film strongly depend on the location of Culayer in the precursor film. The formation of CZTSSe starts from the diffusion of Cu–Se to Sn(S,Se)layert o form Cu–Sn–(S,Se) compound,followed by the reaction with Zn(S,Se). The investigation of themorphology of the CZTSSe films has shown that large grains are formed in the film with the precursor stacking order of Mo/SnS/ZnS/Cu,which is attributed to a bottom-to-top growth mechanism. In contrast, the film made from a precursor with a stacking sequence of Mo/ZnS/ SnS/Cu is mainly consisted of small grains due to a top-to-bottom growth mechanism. The best CZTSSe solar cell with energy conversion efficiency of3.35%has been achieved with the selenized Mo/ZnS/ SnS/Cu film, which is attributed to a good contact between the absorber layer and the Mosubstrate.

Sequential MRI reveals individual level deformities in the growing scoliotic spine that are clinically masked by the Cobb angle

Introduction Clinically, the Cobb angle method measures the overall scoliotic curve in the coronal plane but does not measure individual vertebra and disc wedging. The contributions of the vertebrae and discs in the growing scoliotic spine were measured to investigate coronal plane deformity progression with growth. Methods A 0.49mm isotropic 3D MRI technique was developed to investigate the level-by-level changes that occur in the growing spine of a group of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) patients, who received two to four sequential scans (spaced 3-12 months apart). The coronal plane wedge angles of each vertebra and disc in the major curve were measured to capture any changes that occurred during their adolescent growth phase. Results Seventeen patients had at least two scans. Mean patient age was 12.9 years (SD 1.5 years). Sixteen were classified as right-sided major thoracic Lenke Type 1 (one left sided). Mean standing Cobb angle at initial presentation was 31° (SD 12°). Six received two scans, nine three scans and two four scans, with 65% showing a Cobb angle progression of 5° or more between scans. Overall, there was no clear pattern of deformity progression of individual vertebrae and discs, nor between patients who progressed and those who didn’t. There were measurable changes in the wedging of the vertebrae and discs in all patients. In sequential scans, change in direction of wedging was also seen. In several patients there was reverse wedging in the discs that counteracted increased wedging of the vertebrae such that no change in overall Cobb angle was seen. Conclusion Sequential MRI data showed complex patterns of deformity progression. Changes to the wedging of individual vertebrae and discs may occur in patients who have no increase in Cobb angle measure; the Cobb method alone may be insufficient to capture the complex mechanisms of deformity progression.

Sequential MRI of growing scoliotic spines reveals individual level deformities that are clinically masked by the cobb angle

INTRODUCTION. Clinically, the Cobb angle method measures the overall scoliotic curve in the coronal plane but does not measure individual vertebra and disc wedging. The contributions of the vertebrae and discs in the growing scoliotic spine were measured to investigate coronal plane deformity progression with growth. METHODS. A 0.49mm isotropic 3D MRI technique was developed to investigate the level-by-level changes that occur in the growing spine of a group of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) patients, who received two to four sequential scans (spaced 3-12 months apart). The coronal plane wedge angles of each vertebra and disc in the major curve were measured to capture any changes that occurred during their adolescent growth phase. RESULTS. Seventeen patients had at least two scans. Mean patient age was 12.9 years (SD 1.5 years). Sixteen were classified as right-sided major thoracic Lenke Type 1 (one left sided). Mean standing Cobb angle at initial presentation was 31° (SD 12°). Six received two scans, nine three scans and two four scans, with 65% showing a Cobb angle progression of 5° or more between scans. Overall, there was no clear pattern of deformity progression of individual vertebrae and discs, nor between patients who progressed and those who didn’t. There were measurable changes in the wedging of the vertebrae and discs in all patients. In sequential scans, change in direction of wedging was also seen. In several patients there was reverse wedging in the discs that counteracted increased wedging of the vertebrae such that no change in overall Cobb angle was seen. CONCLUSION. Sequential MRI data showed complex patterns of deformity progression. Changes to the wedging of individual vertebrae and discs may occur in patients who have no increase in Cobb angle measure; the Cobb method alone may be insufficient to capture the complex mechanisms of deformity progression.

Long-term growth and anthropometry after childhood liver transplantation

Objectives: To describe longitudinal height, weight, and body mass index changes up to 15 years after childhood liver transplantation. Study design: Retrospective chart review of patients who underwent liver transplant from 1985-2004 was performed. Subjects were age <18 years at transplant, survived ≥5 years, with at least 2 recorded measurements, of which one was ≥5 years post-transplant. Measurements were recorded pre-transplant, 1, 5, 10, and 15 years later. Results: Height and weight data were available in 98 and 104 patients, respectively; 47% were age <2 years at transplant; 58% were Australian, and the rest were from Japan. Height recovery continued for at least 10 years to reach the 26th percentile (Z-score -0.67) 15 years after transplant. Australians had better growth recovery and attained 47th percentile (Z-score -0.06) at 15 years. Weight recovery was most marked in the first year and continued for 15 years even in well-nourished children. Growth impaired and malnourished children at transplant exhibited the best growth, but remained significantly shorter and lighter even 15 years later. No effect of sex or age at transplant was noted on height or weight recovery. Post-transplant factors significantly impact growth recovery and likely caused the dichotomous growth recovery between Australian and Japanese children; 9% (9/98) of patients were overweight on body mass index calculations at 10-15 years but none were obese. Conclusions: After liver transplant, children can expect ongoing height and weight recovery for at least 10-15 years. Growth impairment at transplant and post-transplant care significantly impact long-term growth recovery. Copyright © 2013 Mosby Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of transforming growth factor β1 gene polymorphisms in ankylosing spondylitis

Objectives. To determine whether genetic polymorphisms in or near the transforming growth factor β1 (TGFB1) locus were associated d with susceptibility to or severity of ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods. Five intragenic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and three microsatellite markers flanking the TGFB1 locus were genotyped. Seven hundred and sixty-two individuals from 184 multiplex families were genotyped for the microsatellite markers and two of the promoter SNPs. One thousand and two individuals from 212 English and 170 Finnish families with AS were genotyped for all five intragenic SNPs. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the age of symptom onset, disease duration and disease severity scores, including the BASDAI (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index) and BASFI (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index). Results. A weak association was noted between the rare TGFB1 + 1632 T allele and AS in the Finnish population (P = 0.04) and in the combined data set (P = 0.03). No association was noted between any other SNPs or SNP haplotype and AS, even among those families with positive non-parametric linkage scores. The TGFB1 +1632 polymorphism was also associated with a younger age of symptom onset (English population, allele 2 associated with age of onset greater by 4.2 yr, P = 0.05; combined data set, allele 2 associated with age of onset greater by 3.2 yr, P = 0.02). A haplotype of coding region SNPs (TGFB1 +869/ +915+1632 alleles 2/1/2) was associated with age of symptom onset in both the English parent-case trios and the combined data set (English data set, haplotype 2/1/2 associated with age of onset greater by 4.9 yr, P = 0.03; combined data set, haplotype 2/1/2 associated with greater age of onset by 4.2 yr, P = 0.006). Weak linkage with AS susceptibility was noted and the peak LOD score was 1.3 at distance 2 cM centromeric to the TGFB1 gene. No other linkage or association was found between quantitative traits and the markers. Conclusion. This study suggests that the polymorphisms within the TGFB1 gene play at most a small role in AS and that other genes encoded on chromosome 19 are involved in susceptibility to the disease.

An Approximate Solution Of One-Dimensional Piston Problem

A new theory of shock dynamics has been developed in the form of a finite number of compatibility conditions along shock rays. It has been used to study the growth or decay of shock strength for accelerating or decelerating piston starting with a nonzero piston velocity. The results show good agreement with those obtained by Harten's high resolution TVD scheme.

Patterned growth of nanoscale in clusters on the Si(111)-7×7 and Si(111)-Ge(5×5) reconstructions

Results of a study designed to investigate the possibility of using the Si(111)- Ge(5×5) surface reconstruction as a template for In cluster growth are described. As with Si(111)-7×7, the In adatoms preferentially adsorb in the faulted half-unit cell, but on Si(111)- Ge(5×5) a richer variety of cluster geometries are found. In addition to the clusters that occupy the faulted half-unit cell, clusters that span two and four half-unit cells are found. The latter have a triangular shape spanning one unfaulted and three, nearest neighbor, faulted half-unit cells, Triangular clusters in the opposite orientation were not found. Many of the faulted halfunit cells have a streaked appearance consistent with adatom mobility.

Synthesis of One-Dimensional ZnO Nanostructures from Zn Powder/Granule

We report the growth of one-dimensional ZnO nanostructures with different morphologies such as nanoneedles, nanorods, nanobelts from Zn powder/granule. The growth process is different from the conventional vapor-solid mechanism. The advantage of this method is that neither a catalyst nor any gas flow is required for the synthesis of nanostructures. Depending upon the Zn powder or Zn granules as the starting material different nanostructures have been synthesized which demonstrates the versatility of the technique.

The dilemma of international capital tax competition in the presence of public capital and endogenous growth

Using an OLG-model with endogenous growth and public capital we show, that an international capital tax competition leads to inefficiently low tax rates, and as a consequence to lower welfare levels and growth rates. Each national government has an incentive to reduce the capital income tax rates in its effort to ensure that this policy measure increases the domestic private capital stock, domestic income and domestic economic growth. This effort is justified as long as only one country applies this policy. However, if all countries follow this path then all of them will be made worse off in the long run.

Rapid assessment of genotype-by-environment interactions and heritability for growth rate in aquaculture species using in vitro fertilisation and DNA tagging

Commercial environments may receive only a fraction of expected genetic gains for growth rate as predicted from the selection environment This fraction is the result of undesirable genotype-by-environment interactions (G x E) and measured by the genetic correlation (r(g)) of growth between environments. Rapid estimates of genetic correlation achieved in one generation are notoriously difficult to estimate with precision. A new design is proposed where genetic correlations can be estimated by utilising artificial mating from cryopreserved semen and unfertilised eggs stripped from a single female. We compare a traditional phenotype analysis of growth to a threshold model where only the largest fish are genotyped for sire identification. The threshold model was robust to differences in family mortality differing up to 30%. The design is unique as it negates potential re-ranking of families caused by an interaction between common maternal environmental effects and growing environment. The design is suitable for rapid assessment of G x E over one generation with a true 0.70 genetic correlation yielding standard errors as low as 0.07. Different design scenarios were tested for bias and accuracy with a range of heritability values, number of half-sib families created, number of progeny within each full-sib family, number of fish genotyped, number of fish stocked, differing family survival rates and at various simulated genetic correlation levels

Stochastic growth models for analyzing crustacean data

The contemporary methodology for growth models of organisms is based on continuous trajectories and thus it hinders us from modelling stepwise growth in crustacean populations. Growth models for fish are normally assumed to follow a continuous function, but a different type of model is needed for crustacean growth. Crustaceans must moult in order for them to grow. The growth of crustaceans is a discontinuous process due to the periodical shedding of the exoskeleton in moulting. The stepwise growth of crustaceans through the moulting process makes the growth estimation more complex. Stochastic approaches can be used to model discontinuous growth or what are commonly known as "jumps" (Figure 1). However, in stochastic growth model we need to ensure that the stochastic growth model results in only positive jumps. In view of this, we will introduce a subordinator that is a special case of a Levy process. A subordinator is a non-decreasing Levy process, that will assist in modelling crustacean growth for better understanding of the individual variability and stochasticity in moulting periods and increments. We develop the estimation methods for parameter estimation and illustrate them with the help of a dataset from laboratory experiments. The motivational dataset is from the ornate rock lobster, Panulirus ornatus, which can be found between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Due to the presence of sex effects on the growth (Munday et al., 2004), we estimate the growth parameters separately for each sex. Since all hard parts are shed too often, the exact age determination of a lobster can be challenging. However, the growth parameters for the aforementioned moult processes from tank data being able to estimate through: (i) inter-moult periods, and (ii) moult increment. We will attempt to derive a joint density, which is made up of two functions: one for moult increments and the other for time intervals between moults. We claim these functions are conditionally independent given pre-moult length and the inter-moult periods. The variables moult increments and inter-moult periods are said to be independent because of the Markov property or conditional probability. Hence, the parameters in each function can be estimated separately. Subsequently, we integrate both of the functions through a Monte Carlo method. We can therefore obtain a population mean for crustacean growth (e. g. red curve in Figure 1). [GRAPHICS]

A maximum likelihood approach for estimating growth from tag–recapture data

The Fabens method is commonly used to estimate growth parameters k and l infinity in the von Bertalanffy model from tag-recapture data. However, the Fabens method of estimation has an inherent bias when individual growth is variable. This paper presents an asymptotically unbiassed method using a maximum likelihood approach that takes account of individual variability in both maximum length and age-at-tagging. It is assumed that each individual's growth follows a von Bertalanffy curve with its own maximum length and age-at-tagging. The parameter k is assumed to be a constant to ensure that the mean growth follows a von Bertalanffy curve and to avoid overparameterization. Our method also makes more efficient use nf thp measurements at tno and recapture and includes diagnostic techniques for checking distributional assumptions. The method is reasonably robust and performs better than the Fabens method when individual growth differs from the von Bertalanffy relationship. When measurement error is negligible, the estimation involves maximizing the profile likelihood of one parameter only. The method is applied to tag-recapture data for the grooved tiger prawn (Penaeus semisulcatus) from the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.