Mammography screening participation: effects of a media campaign targeting Italian-speaking women

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of a radio and newspaper campaign encouraging Italian-speaking women aged 50-69 years to attend a population-based mammography screening program. Methods: A series of radio scripts and newspaper advertisements ran weekly in the Italian-language media over two, four-week periods. Monthly mammography screens were analysed to determine if numbers of Italian-speaking women in the program increased during the two campaign periods, using interrupted time series regression analysis. A survey of Italian-speaking women attending BreastScreen NSW during the campaign period (n=240) investigated whether individuals had heard or seen the advertisements. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the number of initial or subsequent mammograms in Italian-speaking women between the campaign periods and the period prior to (or after) the campaign. Twenty per cent of respondents cited the Italian media campaign as a prompt to attend. Fifty per cent had heard the radio ad and 30% had seen the newspaper ad encouraging Italian-speaking women to attend BSNSW. The most common prompt to attend was the BSNSW invitation letter, followed by information or recommendation from a GP. Conclusion: Radio and newspaper advertisements developed for the Italian community did not significantly increase attendance to BSNSW. Implications: Measures of program effectiveness based on self-report may not correspond to aggregate screening behaviour. The development of the media campaign in conjunction with the Italian community, and the provision of appropriate levels of resourcing, did not ensure the media campaign's success.

Population-based mammography screening and breast cancer incidence in New South Wales, Australia

To analyse breast cancer incidence trends in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, in relation to population-based mammography screening targeting women aged 50 to 69 years. Trends in age-specific incidence of invasive breast cancers in NSW women aged >= 40 years were examined in relation to mammography screening rates and screening cancer detection rates. Incidence of invasive breast cancer in NSW women increased in all age-groups over 1972 to 2002. The incidence trend for women aged 50 to 69 years showed that the steepest rise was associated with increased participation in population-based mammography screening, which was implemented from 1988 and achieved state-wide coverage in 1995. The elevated incidence of invasive cancer significantly exceeded pre-screening levels, and persisted after rates of initial screens declined. This elevated incidence was sustained by the contribution of cancers diagnosed through subsequent screening, and resulted from increased cancer detection rates in subsequent screens. The recent increase in invasive breast cancer incidence in NSW is associated with mammography screening, and occurred mostly in the target age-group women. Persistence of higher incidence after 1994 was not explicable by inflation of cancer incidence due to detection of prevalent screen cases, but was associated with a trend of increased cancer detection rates in subsequent screening rounds, probably consequent to quality improvements in mammography screening diagnosis.

Cancer detection and mammogram volume of radiologists in a population-based screening programme

This study investigates the relationship between the number of screening mammograms read by radiologists and the screening breast cancer detection rate. Cancer detection rates for incident screens (all women aged >= 40 years) were compared by increasing categories of reader volume using Poisson regression. Data from New South Wales (NSW) for a 2 year period (2000-2001) were obtained from the BreastScreen NSW programme. Cancer detection rates increased with the number of mammograms read in the programme, reaching a plateau of approximately 40 per 10,000 after 1375 mammograms per year. No significant differences in cancer detection were evident above 875 mammograms (compared to below 875 mammograms) per year (RR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.63-0.99). (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Atrogin-1 and MuRF1 regulate cardiac MyBP-C levels via different mechanisms

Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) is frequently caused by cardiac myosin-binding protein C (cMyBP-C) gene mutations, which should result in C-terminal truncated mutants. However, truncated mutants were not detected in myocardial tissue of FHC patients and were rapidly degraded by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) after gene transfer in cardiac myocytes. Since the diversity and specificity of UPS regulation lie in E3 ubiquitin ligases, we investigated whether the muscle-specific E3 ligases atrogin-1 or muscle ring finger protein-1 (MuRF1) mediate degradation of truncated cMyBP-C. Human wild-type (WT) and truncated (M7t, resulting from a human mutation) cMyBP-C species were co-immunoprecipitated with atrogin-1 after adenoviral overexpression in cardiac myocytes, and WT-cMyBP-C was identified as an interaction partner of MuRF1 by yeast two-hybrid screens. Overexpression of atrogin-1 in cardiac myocytes decreased the protein level of M7t-cMyBP-C by 80% and left WT-cMyBP-C level unaffected. This was rescued by proteasome inhibition. In contrast, overexpression of MuRF1 in cardiac myocytes not only reduced the protein level of WT- and M7t-cMyBP-C by > 60%, but also the level of myosin heavy chains (MHCs) by > 40%, which were not rescued by proteasome inhibition. Both exogenous cMyBP-C and endogenous MHC mRNA levels were markedly reduced by MuRF1 overexpression. Similar to cardiac myocytes, MuRF1-overexpressing (TG) mice exhibited 40% lower levels of MHC mRNAs and proteins. Protein levels of cMyBP-C were 29% higher in MuRF1 knockout and 34% lower in TG than in WT, without a corresponding change in mRNA levels. These data suggest that atrogin-1 specifically targets truncated M7t-cMyBP-C, but not WT-cMyBP-C, for proteasomal degradation and that MuRF1 indirectly reduces cMyBP-C levels by regulating the transcription of MHC.

Developmental changes of gene expression after spinal cord injury in neonatal opossums

Changes in gene expression have been measured 24 h after injury to mammalian spinal cords that can and cannot regenerate In opossums there is a critical period of development when regeneration stops being possible at 9 days postnatal cervical spinal cords regenerate, at 12 days they do not By the use of marsupial cDNA microarrays we detected 158 genes that respond differentially to injury at the two ages critical for regeneration For selected candidates additional measurements were made by real time PCR and sites of their expression were shown by immunostaining Candidate genes have been classified so as to select those that promote or prevent regeneration Up regulated by injury at 8 days and/or down regulated by injury at 13 days were genes known to promote growth, such as Mitogen activated protein kinase kinase 1 or transcripton factor TCF7L2 By contrast, at 13 days up regulation occurred of Inhibitory molecules including annexins ephrins and genes related to apoptosis and neurodegeneranve diseases Certain genes such as calmodulin 1 and NOGO changed expression similarly in animals that could and could not regenerate without any additional changes in response to injury These findings confirmed and extended changes of gene expression found in earlier screens on 9 and 12 day preparations without lesions and provide a comprehensive list of genes that serve as a basis for testing how identified molecules singly or in combination, promote and prevent central nervous system regeneration (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved

Exploiting the versatility of human cytochrome P450 enzymes: The promise of blue roses from biotechnology

The cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes involved in drug metabolism are among the most versatile biological catalysts known. A small number of discrete forms of human P450 are capable of catalyzing the monooxygenation of a practically unlimited variety of xenobiotic substrates, with each enzyme showing a more or less wide and overlapping substrate range. This versatility makes P450s ideally suited as starting materials for engineering designer catalysts for industrial applications. In the course of heterologous expression of P450s in bacteria, we observed the unexpected formation of blue pigments. Although this was initially assumed to be an artifact, subsequent work led to the discovery of a new function of P450s in intermediary metabolism and toxicology, new screens for protein engineering, and potential applications in the dye and horticulture industries.

Production of mosquitoes in rainwater tanks and wells on Yorke Island, Torres Strait: Preliminary study

The Torres Strait in northernmost Queensland, Australia, is subject to periodic outbreaks of dengue. A large outbreak of dengue 2 in 1996-97 affected five islands, resulting in 200 confirmed cases. On most of the affected islands, rainwater tanks were a common breeding site for vector mosquitoes. Rainwater tanks, wells and household containers filled with water are the most common breeding sites for dengue mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti), the primary vector of dengue in Queensland. We report on surveys conducted in February 2002 to measure the productivity of rainwater tanks and wells on Yorke Is. (Torres Strait), the first time the productivity of rainwater tanks has been measured in Australia. Of 60 rainwater tanks sampled, 10 had broken screens. Using a sticky emergence trap, 179 adult mosquitoes were collected, consisting of 63 Aedes scutellaris and 116 Culex quinquefasciatus. One unscreened tank produced 177 (99%) of the adults. A plankton net was used to sample 16 wells; 12 positive wells yielded 111 immature (larvae and pupae) mosquitoes, consisting of 57% and 43% Ae. scutellaris and Cx. quinquefasciatus, respectively. The apparent displacement of Ae. aegypti by Ae. scutellaris is discussed. Measures to reduce the likelihood of future dengue outbreaks are recommended.

Use of heterologously-expressed cytochomre P450 and glutathione transferase enzymes in toxicity assays

Our groups have had a long-term interest in utilizing bacterial systems in the characterization of bioactivation and detoxication reactions catalyzed by cytochrome P450 (P450) and glutathione transferase (GST) enzymes. Bacterial systems remain the first choice for initial screens with new chemicals and have advantages, including high-throughput capability. Most human P450s of interest in toxicology have been readily expressed in Escherichia coli with only minor sequence modification. These enzymes can be readily purified and used in assays of activation of chemicals. Bicistronic systems have been developed in order to provide the auxiliary NADPH-P450 reductase. Alternative systems involve these enzymes expressed together within bacteria. In one approach, a lac selection system is used with E. coli and has been applied to the characterization of inhibitors of P450s 1A2 and 1131, as well as in basic studies involving random mutagenesis. Another approach utilizes induction of the SOS (umu) response in Salmonella typhimurium, and systems have now been developed with human P450s 1A1, 1A2, 1B1, 2C9, 2D6, 2E1, and 3A4, which have been used to report responses from heterocyclic amines. S. typhimurium his reporter systems have also been used with GSTs, first to demonstrate the role of rat GST 5-5 in the activation of dihalomethanes. These systems have been used to compare these GSTs with regard to activation of dihaloalkanes and potential toxicity. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identification of residues and domains of Raf important for function in vivo and in vitro

Random mutagenesis and genetic screens for impaired Raf function in Caenorhabditis elegans were used to identify six loss-of-function alleles of lin-45 raf that result in a substitution of a single amino acid. The mutations were classified as weak, intermediate, and strong based on phenotypic severity. We engineered these mutations into the homologous residues of vertebrate Raf-1 and analyzed the mutant proteins for their underlying biochemical defects. Surprisingly, phenotype strength did not correlate with the catalytic activity of the mutant proteins. Amino acid substitutions Val-589 and Ser-619 severely compromised Raf kinase activity, yet these mutants displayed weak phenotypes in the genetic screen. Interestingly, this is because these mutant Raf proteins efficiently activate the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) cascade in living cells, a result that may inform the analysis of knockout mice. Equally intriguing was the observation that mutant proteins with non-functional Ras-binding domains, and thereby deficient in Ras-mediated membrane recruitment, displayed only intermediate strength phenotypes. This confirms that secondary mechanisms exist to couple Ras to Raf in vivo. The strongest phenotype in the genetic screens was displayed by a S508N mutation that again did not correlate with a significant loss of kinase activity or membrane recruitment by oncogenic Ras in biochemical assays. Ser-508 lies within the Raf-1 activation loop, and mutation of this residue in Raf-1 and the equivalent Ser-615 in B-Raf revealed that this residue regulates Raf binding to MEK. Further characterization revealed that in response to activation by epidermal growth factor, the Raf-S508N mutant protein displayed both reduced catalytic activity and aberrant activation kinetics: characteristics that may explain the C. elegans phenotype.

Comparação de desempenho entre a formulação direta do Método dos Elementos de Contorno com Funções Radiais e o Método dos Elementos Finitos em problemas de Poisson e Helmholtz

O presente trabalho objetiva avaliar o desempenho do MECID (Método dos Elementos de Contorno com Interpolação Direta) para resolver o termo integral referente à inércia na Equação de Helmholtz e, deste modo, permitir a modelagem do Problema de Autovalor assim como calcular as frequências naturais, comparando-o com os resultados obtidos pelo MEF (Método dos Elementos Finitos), gerado pela Formulação Clássica de Galerkin. Em primeira instância, serão abordados alguns problemas governados pela equação de Poisson, possibilitando iniciar a comparação de desempenho entre os métodos numéricos aqui abordados. Os problemas resolvidos se aplicam em diferentes e importantes áreas da engenharia, como na transmissão de calor, no eletromagnetismo e em problemas elásticos particulares. Em termos numéricos, sabe-se das dificuldades existentes na aproximação precisa de distribuições mais complexas de cargas, fontes ou sorvedouros no interior do domínio para qualquer técnica de contorno. No entanto, este trabalho mostra que, apesar de tais dificuldades, o desempenho do Método dos Elementos de Contorno é superior, tanto no cálculo da variável básica, quanto na sua derivada. Para tanto, são resolvidos problemas bidimensionais referentes a membranas elásticas, esforços em barras devido ao peso próprio e problemas de determinação de frequências naturais em problemas acústicos em domínios fechados, dentre outros apresentados, utilizando malhas com diferentes graus de refinamento, além de elementos lineares com funções de bases radiais para o MECID e funções base de interpolação polinomial de grau (um) para o MEF. São geradas curvas de desempenho através do cálculo do erro médio percentual para cada malha, demonstrando a convergência e a precisão de cada método. Os resultados também são comparados com as soluções analíticas, quando disponíveis, para cada exemplo resolvido neste trabalho.

Style and performance of international socially responsible funds in Europe

This paper analyses the performance and investment styles of internationally oriented Socially Responsible Investment (SRI)funds, domiciled in eight European markets, in comparison with characteristics-matched conventional funds. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first multi-country study, focused on international SRI funds (investing in Global and in European equities), to combine the matched-pairs approach with the use of robust conditional multi-factor performance evaluation models, which allow for both time-varying alphas and betas and also control for home biases and spurious regression biases.In general, the results show that differences in the performance of international SRI funds and their conventional peers are not statistically significant. Regarding investment styles, SRI and conventional funds exhibit similar factor exposures in most cases. In addition,conventional benchmarks present a higher explaining power of SRI fund returns than SRI benchmarks. Our results also show significant differences in the investment styles of SRI funds according to whether they use “best-in-class” screening strategies or not. When compared to SRI funds that employ simple negative and/or positive screens, SRI “best-in-class” funds present significantly lower exposures to small caps and momentum strategies and significantly higher exposures to local stocks.

Performance of european socially responsible funds during market crises: evidence from France

This paper investigates the performance, investment styles andmanagerial abilities of French socially responsible investment (SRI) funds investing in Europe during crisis and non-crisis periods. Our results show that SRI funds significantly underperformcharacteristics-matched conventional funds during non-crisis periods, but match the performance of their peers duringmarket downturns. The underperformance of SRI funds during good economic states is driven by funds that use negative screens, since funds that use only positive screens performsimilarly to conventional funds across differentmarket conditions. SRI and conventional funds showsignificant differences in risk exposures during non-crisis periods but exhibit much more similar investment styles during crises. Furthermore,we find little evidence of significant differences inmanagerial abilities during bad economic states. Yet, during non-crisis periods, SRI and conventional fund managers exhibit significantly different style-timing abilities and these differences are also related to screening strategies.

Blue-enhanced thin-film photodiode for dual-screen x-ray imaging

This article reports on a-Si:H-based low-leakage blue-enhanced photodiodes for dual-screen x-ray imaging detectors. Doped nanocrystalline silicon was incorporated in both the n- and p-type regions to reduce absorption losses for light incoming from the top and bottom screens. The photodiode exhibits a dark current density of 900 pA/cm(2) and an external quantum efficiency up to 90% at a reverse bias of 5 V. In the case of illumination through the tailored p-layer, the quantum efficiency of 60% at a 400 nm wavelength is almost double that for the conventional a-Si:H n-i-p photodiode.

Structural Color and Iridescence in Transparent Sheared Cellulosic Films

Shear transparent cellulose free-standing thin films can develop iridescence similar to that found in petals of the tulip Queen of the Night. The iridescence of the film arises from the modulation of the surface into bands periodically spread perpendicular to the shear direction. Small amounts of nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) rods in the precursor liquid-crystalline solutions do not disturb the optical properties of the solutions but enhance the mechanical characteristics of the films and affects their iridescence. Smaller bands periodicity, not affected by the NCC rods, slightly deviated from the shear direction is also observed. NCCs are crucial to tune and understand the film's surface features formation. Our findings could lead to new materials for application in soft reflective screens and devices.

Publicidade interactiva na televisão em Portugal e no mundo

Num contexto de mudança a nível de hábitos sociais em que impera a necessidade de comunicar de uma forma mais natural e instantânea quanto possível, o cada vez mais informado e exigente consumidor tem vindo a adquirir um papel mais participativo na comunicação e construção das marcas. Se outrora assistíamos passivamente a uma comunicação unidirecional e desprovida de interactividade, hoje impera a possibilidade de podermos manipular ou construir conteúdos de acordo com as nossas necessidades e preferências individuais. Neste contexto, a comunicação nos novos meios tecnológicos tem procurado responder à dispersão de atenção por parte do consumidor, que se socorre simultaneamente de diversos ecrãs. Porém, no ecrã em que o novo consumidor mais despende o seu tempo, e com o qual ainda se sente mais à vontade, a televisão, a comunicação interactiva ainda se encontra pouca explorada. Para os profissionais de publicidade, e sobretudo para os anunciantes, o conceito de publicidade interactiva, quando inserida no meio televisivo, é deveras recente, carecendo de um maior aprofundamento teórico e empírico. Tendo em vista este aprofundamento, o objectivo geral deste trabalho consiste na caracterização do panorama da publicidade interactiva na televisão em Portugal tendo como termo de comparação o estrangeiro. A dissertação assumiu a forma de um estudo exploratório e misto sequencial, desenvolvido com base na análise de conteúdo de um conjunto de casos nacionais de Publicidade Interactiva na Televisão fornecidos pelo MEO e de casos estrangeiros publicados na Internet. Assentando a análise numa grelha própria, procurou caracterizar-se o panorama actual da Publicidade Interactiva na Televisão nacional tendo como termo de comparação o que se passa lá fora, do ponto de vista dos conteúdos, da partilha destes, da dependência de um second screen e dos objectivos subjacentes aos anúncios. Foi possível concluir com este estudo que, apesar de a Publicidade Interactiva na Televisão se encontrar mais desenvolvida no estrangeiro, em Portugal observaram-se características singulares e positivas, o que aponta que nos encontramos a evoluir a passos largos para alcançar melhores experiências interactivas.