Molecular markers for predicting recurrence, progression and outcomes of bladder cancer (do the poster boys need new posters

Purpose of review
Molecular markers for bladder cancer recurrence and
progression continue to drive many research programmes.
Translating the laboratory findings into the clinical environment
where these markers are used in clinical decision making has
proved problematic. In the clinical arena, stage and grade are
still the main focus for decisions about patient management.
There is however an evolution in bladder cancer research from
single-marker/single-pathway research to a more global
assessment of the tumour cell with DNA microarrays and
proteomics.
Recent findings
In the last year, DNA microarray assessment has revealed
several interesting molecular markers such as p33ING1 and
DEK. Parallel ‘conventional’ single-pathway research has
focused on new novel markers such as HER2/neu, survivin and
matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2). Molecular markers that
have a long-standing association with bladder cancer
progression such as p53, E-cadherin and Ki-67 have been
reviewed by both single-marker studies and by microarray
studies and their status remains important.
Summary
It is an exciting time in the molecular biology research of bladder
cancer as the focus changes to assess the global genetic and
protein expression within tumour cells. From such a wealth of
information it is likely that molecular markers will make the
translation from benchside to bedside.

Diabetes in the young - a global view and worldwide estimates of numbers of children with type 1 diabetes

This paper describes the methodology, results and limitations of the 2013 International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Atlas (6th edition) estimates of the worldwide numbers of prevalent cases of type 1 diabetes in children (<15 years). The majority of relevant information in the published literature is in the form of incidence rates derived from registers of newly diagnosed cases. Studies were graded on quality criteria and, if no information was available in the published literature, extrapolation was used to assign a country the rate from an adjacent country with similar characteristics. Prevalence rates were then derived from these incidence rates and applied to United Nations 2012 Revision population estimates for 2013 for each country to obtain estimates of the number of prevalent cases. Data availability was highest for the countries in Europe (76%) and lowest for the countries in sub-Saharan Africa (8%). The prevalence estimates indicate that there are almost 500,000 children aged under 15 years with type 1 diabetes worldwide, the largest numbers being in Europe (129,000) and North America (108,700). Countries with the highest estimated numbers of new cases annually were the United States (13,000), India (10,900) and Brazil (5000). Compared with the prevalence estimates made in previous editions of the IDF Diabetes Atlas, the numbers have increased in most of the IDF Regions, often reflecting the incidence rate increases that have been well-documented in many countries. Monogenic diabetes is increasingly being recognised among those with clinical features of type 1 or type 2 diabetes as genetic studies become available, but population-based data on incidence and prevalence show wide variation due to lack of standardisation in the studies. Similarly, studies on type 2 diabetes in childhood suggest increased incidence and prevalence in many countries, especially in Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, but detailed population-based studies remain limited.

Economic Ideas and the Political Construction of the Financial Crash of 2008

This article is a short introduction to a special section on economic ideas and the political construction of the financial crash. It begins by explaining why economic ideas and the politics of appeals to certain ideas are so integral to the historical significance of the crash of 2008 and the question of whether it can be considered a crash at all. The first section covers the literature on ideas and economic crisis. The second section highlights that the contribution of the special section is to engage in a stock taking exercise of the empirical and conceptual patterns concerning the politics of ideational change underway in the areas of: comparative fiscal policy; monetary policy and Euro zone debt management; capital controls; and financial and securities market regulation and standard setting. The final section outlines the structure of this special section and content of the individual articles.

The value of tests in the diagnosis and management of glaucoma.

PURPOSE:

To assess the noneconomic value of tests used in the diagnosis and management of glaucoma, and explore the contexts and factors that determine such value.

DESIGN:

Perspective.

METHODS:

Selected articles from primary and secondary sources were reviewed and interpreted in the context of the authors' clinical and research experience, influenced by our perspectives on the tasks of reducing the global problem of irreversible blindness caused by glaucoma. The value of any test used in glaucoma is addressed by 3 questions regarding: its contexts, its kind of value, and its implicit or explicit benefits.

RESULTS:

Tonometry, slit-lamp gonioscopy, and optic disc evaluation remain the foundation of clinic-based case finding, whether in areas of more or less abundant resources. In resource-poor areas, there is urgency in identifying patients at risk for severe functional loss of vision; screening strategies have proven ineffective, and efforts are hindered by the inadequate allocation of support. In resource-abundant areas, the wider spectrum of glaucoma is addressed, with emphasis on early detection of structural changes of little functional consequence; these are increasingly the focus of new and expensive technologies whose clinical value has not been established in longitudinal and population-based studies. These contrasting realities in part reflect differences among the value ascribed, often implicitly, to the tests used in glaucoma.

CONCLUSIONS:

The value of any test is determined by 3 aspects: its context of usage; its comparative worth and to whom its benefit accrues; and how we define historically what we are testing. These multiple factors

Does consideration of future consequences moderate the relationship between aggression and alcohol use in adolescents? Results from the United Kingdom

Background: An increasing body of literature suggests that those who give greater consideration to the future consequences (CFC) of their present behaviours are at a reduced risk of negative health outcomes. The present study examined whether CFC moderated the relationship between four domains of aggression and alcohol use in adolescents in the United Kindgom. Methods: Participants were 1058 adolescents from Northern Ireland. Participants completed questionnaires assessing: Anger; Hostility; Verbal Aggression; Physical Aggression; Consideration of Future Consequences; and alcohol use. Results: In line with extant research males scored significantly higher than females on measures of verbal and physical aggression, with no significant gender differences observed for other dependent measures. Results also revealed that CFC moderated the relationship between aggression and alcohol use, but only for females. Conclusions: These findings add to the increasing body of literature examining the temporal-health relationship. However more work is needed to help untangle the gender-specific effects.

Integrated techno-economic and environmental assessments of sixty scenarios for co-firing biomass with coal and natural gas

Displacement of fossil fuel-based power through biomass co-firing could reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuels. In this study, data-intensive techno-economic models were developed to evaluate different co-firing technologies as well as the configurations of these technologies. The models were developed to study 60 different scenarios involving various biomass feedstocks (wood chips, wheat straw, and forest residues) co-fired either with coal in a 500 MW subcritical pulverized coal (PC) plant or with natural gas in a 500 MW natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plant to determine their technical potential and costs, as well as to determine environmental benefits. The results obtained reveal that the fully paid-off coal-fired power plant co-fired with forest residues is the most attractive option, having levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) of $53.12–$54.50/MW h and CO2 abatement costs of $27.41–$31.15/tCO2. When whole forest chips are co-fired with coal in a fully paid-off plant, the LCOE and CO2 abatement costs range from $54.68 to $56.41/MW h and $35.60 to $41.78/tCO2, respectively. The LCOE and CO2 abatement costs for straw range from $54.62 to $57.35/MW h and $35.07 to $38.48/tCO2, respectively.

Evidence for the reliability and validity, but not the practical utility of the two-factor Consideration of Future Consequences Scale-14

Researchers have proposed 1-factor, 2-factor, and bifactor solutions to the 12-item Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFCS-12). In order to overcome some measurement problems and to create a robust and conceptually useful two-factor scale the CFCS-12 was recently modified to include two new items and to become the CFCS-14. Using a University sample, we tested four competing models for the CFCS-14: (a) a 12-item unidimensional model, (b) a model fitted for two uncorrelated factors (CFC-Immediate and CFC-Future), (c) a model fitted for two correlated factors (CFC-I and CFC-F), and (d) a bifactor model. Results suggested that the addition of the two new items has strengthened the viability of a two factor solution of the CFCS-14. Results of linear regression models suggest that the CFC-F factor is redundant. Further studies using alcohol and mental health indicators are required to test this redundancy.

Visible Difference, Stigmatising Language(s) and the Distinctive Construction of Prejudices against Others in Leeds and Warsaw

The chapter argues that language and cultural communication matter in a transnational world and that the transmission of prejudices against minorities has to be closely analysed while contextualising national histories with minorities. Looking at two spatial sites (Leeds and Warsaw) and analysing interview material that was drawn from a larger study, the authors discuss the way local people address difference particularly through the axes of gendered ethnicity (Muslim men) and gendered class (male underclass). It explores how the same categories of difference are discursively produced in Poland and the UK/ England; to what degree they differ or overlap.