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The impact of oral cancer: raising awareness through art
No full textThe rise of oral cancer cases in the UK has shown an alarming upward trajectory in recent years. In 2024 alone, a total of 10,825 new cases have been diagnosed. This represents a staggering increase of 38% over the past decade and a 133% increase compared to 20 years ago.1 According to the State of Mouth Cancer Report 2024, roughly 68% of oral cancer cases are diagnosed in men and around 64% of diagnosed oral cancers were found in individuals older than 60 years of age.2 The key risk factors have been identified as alcohol consumption and tobacco use which could contribute towards approximately 75% of identified cases. People who smoke cigarettes have been shown to be at a roughly ten times higher risk of developing oral cancer compared to non-smokers.3 In addition, the human papillomavirus (HPV) type-16 and 18 are linked to around three-in-four (73%) of oropharyngeal cancers and more than one-in-ten (12%) oral cavity and hypopharynx cancers.4 On a personal level, most of us have close friends or relatives that have been affected by a cancer diagnosis of some form, or are currently undergoing treatment for cancer
Migration Delays at Head-of-Tide Weirs are a Function of Tidal Cycles and River Flows in Anadromous Twaite Shad Alosa fallax
Get PDFRiverine barriers can have significant negative impacts on the spawning migrations of anadromous fishes, with barriers of low passage efficiency limiting access to upstream spawning areas. Even fish that pass a barrier can be negatively affected via migration delays and energetic costs. The spawning migrations of 74 twaite shad Alosa fallax were tracked at two head-of-tide weirs on a bifurcated channel in the River Severn’s upper estuary, western England, to test how barriers in tidal areas can affect river entry and incur migration delays. Although the weirs had a combined passage efficiency of 98.9%, median passage time was 19.8 h, with the longest passage time being 16.8 days, and those passing fastest being relatively large fish that approached during spring tides and higher river flows. A higher proportion of fish approached and passed the weir on the larger channel that generally had the dominant flow, yet the weir on the other channel had the higher probability of passage, with the effect of elevated river levels being less important, and individuals approaching this weir were less delayed. With river level being a function of the cyclical nature of the lunar and daily tidal cycles, temporal variation in passage efficiencies was predictable. As the environmental conditions that stimulated the entry of fish into the upper estuary were largely unrelated to the conditions facilitating weir passage, there was a high potential for migration delays at these barriers that potentially incurred considerable energetic costs
Low-energy multi-photon scattering at tree-level and one-loop order in a homogeneous electromagnetic field
Get PDFWe study low energy photons coupled to scalar and spinor matter in the presence of an arbitrary homogeneous electromagnetic field in a first-quantised (worldline) approach. Utilising a Fock-Schwinger gauge for both the scattering photons and homogeneous background, simple compact expressions are found for both the photon- and background-dressed effective action and propagator in scalar and spinor quantum electrodynamics. The low-energy limit allows identification of the coupling of the scattering photons as one of an effective homogeneous superposition of their field strengths, with amplitudes following from application of a suitable linearisation operator. To treat the linearisation, several techniques are employed, including a functional expansion based on the proper time formalism and worldline Green functions, linearised vertex operators under a worldline path integral, and a matrix expansion in the field strengths. We find, in particular, that a replacement rule converting scalar amplitudes to spinor amplitudes at one-loop order can, surprisingly, be extended to tree level amplitudes in the low energy limit. Finally, we discuss a novel worldline representation of the momentum space matter propagators, obtaining a suitable worldline Green function for this path integral satisfying homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions and momentum space vertex operators representing the scattering photons already in momentum space
Isothermal sloshing in a circular tank (CCP-WSI Test Case 017 Dataset)
No full textPhysical modelling dataset used for CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 5. The description is available on the CCP-WSI catalogue under Test Case ID 017 : https://ccp-wsi.ac.uk/catalogue/test_cases/test_case_01
Responsible research impact: Ethics for making a difference
Get PDFThe need for ethical guidelines that support and empower researchers who aim to enhance the societal impact of research has become critical. Recognizing the growing emphasis on research impact by governments and funding bodies worldwide, this article investigates the often overlooked ethical dimensions of generating and evaluating research impact. We focus on ethical issues and practices that are specific to the process of intentionally working to develop societal impacts from research. We highlight the complexities and ethical dilemmas encountered when researchers engage with non-academic groups, such as policymakers, industries, and local communities. Through a combination of literature review and insights from participatory workshops, the article identifies key issues and offers a new ethical framework for responsible research impact. This framework aims to guide researchers and institutions through the process of limiting potential harm while delivering societal benefits in a way that is realistic and balanced. The aim is to establish ethical practices for engagement and impact, without making the process so onerous that researchers are less likely to undertake such activities. The article concludes with actionable recommendations for policymakers, research funders, research performing organizations, institutional review boards and/or ethics committees, and individual researchers. Making use of such recommendations can foster an ethically responsible approach to research impact across academic disciplines
Cardiovascular toxicities in cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: multicenter study using natural language processing on Belgian hospital data
Get PDFBackgroundImmune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) use may be associated with diverse cardiovascular (CV) adverse events (AEs), but their baseline prevalence and incidence after ICI initiation are poorly known. We aimed to describe CV events using real-world hospital data from Belgian cancer patients.Materials and methodsElectronic health records (EHRs) from patients receiving at least one ICI between March 2017 and August 2022 at three Belgian hospitals were processed into an Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model warehouse. Structured data were enriched with unstructured data that were processed using a natural language processing (NLP) pipeline. We analyzed CV events from first ICI administration until last follow-up, identifying and validating the first detection of a CV event at the patient level.ResultsWe included 1571 patients (66% male, median age 67 years); CV events were detected in 196 (12.5%) patients [median (min-max) follow-up: 8 (0-63) months]. The CV AEs detected were heart failure (5.3%), atrial fibrillation (4.6%), myocardial infarction (2.0%), atrioventricular block (1.9%), myocarditis (1.2%), vasculitis (0.8%), pericarditis (0.4%), and Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (\u3c0.3%). Median time (min-max) to onset ranged from 109 days (17-849 days) for myocarditis to 529 days (91-967 days) for Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study using a dataset enriched with NLP-processed EHRs that describes the frequency and onset time of CV events. CV event frequencies were higher than those reported in clinical trials, but similar to other real-world studies. However, we observed a later time to onset. Hence, clinicians should note that CV AEs can present in various ways and at any time during or after treatment
Tucatinib and trastuzumab in HER2-mutated metastatic breast cancer: a phase 2 basket trial.
Get PDFHuman epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2, also known as ERBB2) signaling promotes cell growth and differentiation, and is overexpressed in several tumor types, including breast, gastric and colorectal cancer. HER2-targeted therapies have shown clinical activity against these tumor types, resulting in regulatory approvals. However, the efficacy of HER2 therapies in tumors with HER2 mutations has not been widely investigated. SGNTUC-019 is an open-label, phase 2 basket study evaluating tucatinib, a HER2-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in combination with trastuzumab in patients with HER2-altered solid tumors. The study included a cohort of 31 heavily pretreated female patients with HER2-mutated metastatic breast cancer who were also HER2 negative per local testing. Hormone receptor (HR)-positive patients also received fulvestrant. The overall response rate (primary endpoint) was 41.9% (90% confidence interval (CI): 26.9–58.2). Secondary endpoints of duration of response and progression-free survival were 12.6 months (90% CI: 4.7 to not estimable) and 9.5 months (90% CI: 5.4–13.8), respectively. No new safety signals were detected. Responses were observed across various HER2 mutations, including mutations in the tyrosine kinase and extracellular domains. The chemotherapy-free regimen of tucatinib and trastuzumab showed clinically meaningful antitumor activity with durable responses and favorable tolerability in heavily pretreated patients with HER2 mutations. These data support further investigation of HER2-targeted therapies in this patient population. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT04579380