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Disparities in Cancer Mortality Worldwide:A Novel Metric for Measuring Global Disparities and Prioritizing Cancer Control Efforts
Get PDFPURPOSE: Cancer incidence is rising worldwide and estimated to double by 2040. A systematic method of allocating resources and prioritizing cancer control efforts is needed. We aimed to develop and test a simple metric to quantify disparities in cancer mortality.METHODS: We extracted country-specific incidence and mortality rates for 33 cancers from 185 countries using data from Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) 2020. Mortality-to-incidence ratios (MIRs) were calculated for each cancer in every country. Delta MIRs (dMIRs) were calculated as the difference between a country's MIR and the MIR of the highest performing country for each cancer. dMIR was validated against human development index (HDI), gender development index (GDI), and life expectancy index (LEI) using scatter plots, correlation coefficients, and linear regression.RESULTS: Among 185 countries in the GLOBOCAN 2020 data set, mortality and incidence estimates were available for 54 high-income, 47 upper-middle-income, 54 lower-middle-income, and 27 low-income countries. The United States was the highest performing country for 10 of the 33 cancer subtypes, and South Korea was the highest performing country for eight cancer subtypes. Significant variation in dMIR was observed across the globe. The highest dMIRs were in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, and the lowest dMIRs were in North America, Western Europe, and Australasia. dMIR showed strong correlations with HDI, GDI, and LEI.CONCLUSION: In conclusion, dMIR is a novel and robust metric that can be used to track disparities in global cancer mortality and prioritize cancer control initiatives. We benchmarked cancer care performance for 33 cancers across 182 countries and provide country- and cancer-specific priority lists.</p
The Heirs of Avicenna:Philosophy in the Islamic East, 12–13th Centuries - Logic and Epistemology
No full textThis is the second in a series of sourcebooks charting the reception of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d.1037) in the Islamic East (from Syria to central Asia) in the 12th-13th centuries CE. Moving on from the metaphysical and theological concerns covered in the first book, this volume looks at issues in logic and epistemology in the reception of Avicenna’s thought. Across dozens of authors and hundreds of passages, the translated material covers a wide range of topics including the subject matter of logic, the nature of knowledge and self-knowledge, questions in philosophy of language and syllogistic theory, and paradoxes
Constructing an organizational identity with political ideology:The case of Huawei, 1987-2020
No full textLeveraging archival data, we study how Huawei used Chinese communist political ideology to construct its organizational identity. Covering the time from its founding in 1987 to 2020, we show how Huawei appropriated Fen Dou as a core idea-element of the Chinese communist political ideology to develop its identity as a “national industry revitalizer,” neutralized it as it internationalized and claimed to be an “international corporate citizen,” and then repurposed it as it sought to help advance all of humankind—akin to a “global technology leader.” By mapping the historical evolution of Huawei across different junctures and processual periods, we develop middle-range theory on the role of political ideology in identity construction. We contribute to the literature by introducing political ideology as a resource for identity construction, mapping the process of identity construction with ideology across different contexts, and articulating a resonant theoretical narrative whereby political ideology emerges as a double-edged sword. Our study reveals how political ideology helps create resonance with certain stakeholders, but how the commitment to a particular ideology carries meaningful risks.</p
Bias in estimating returns to tenure:The impact of monopsony power
No full textThis note revisits the bias in returns to tenure estimates (RTT) that arises when firm employment and wages comove through firm-specific (FS) wage shocks — shocks to wages that likely occur in the presence of monopsony power(MP). In an earlier paper, Snell et al. (2018), found that adding firm-year fixed effects to a Mincer regression for workers in a small sample of firms in German and Portuguese panel data raised the estimated RTT schedules by about 30%. Here we re-examine the sign and magnitude of this bias using the universe of workers in Portugal. We find the bias remains negative and large. We then split the data into low and high labour market concentration firms to examine the role MP plays in these results. We find that the RTT bias arising from FS wage shocks is larger in firms with high MP than low MP. The results reinforce the need to control for FS wage shocks in RTT estimation exercises especially where comparisons across different workers in different firms are made
Prediction of obstructive coronary artery disease using coronary calcification and epicardial adipose tissue assessments from CT calcium scoring scans
No full textBackgroundLow-cost/no-cost non-contrast CT calcium scoring (CTCS) exams can provide direct evidence of coronary atherosclerosis. In this study, using features from CTCS images, we developed a novel machine learning model to predict obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), as defined by the coronary artery disease-reporting and data system (CAD-RADS).MethodsThis study analyzed 1324 patients from the SCOT-HEART trial who underwent both CTCS and CT angiography. Obstructive CAD was defined as CAD-RADS 4A-5, while CAD-RADS 0–3 were considered non-obstructive CAD. We analyzed clinical, Agatston-score-derived, and epicardial fat-omics features to predict obstructive CAD. The most predictive features were selected using elastic net logistic regression and used to train a CatBoost model. Model performance was evaluated using 1000 repeated five-fold cross-validation and survival analyses to predict major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) and revascularization. Generalizability was assessed using an external validation set of 2316 patients for survival predictions.ResultsAmong the 1324 patients, obstructive CAD was identified in 334 patients (25.2 %). Elastic net regression identified the top 14 features (5 clinical, 2 Agatston-score-derived, and 7 fat-omics). The proposed method achieved excellent performance for classifying obstructive CAD, with an AUC of 90.1 ± 0.9 % and sensitivity/specificity/accuracy of 83.5 ± 5.5 %/93.7 ± 1.9 %/82.4 ± 2.0 %. The inclusion of Agatston-score-derived and fat-omics features significantly improved classification performance. Survival analyses showed that both actual and predicted obstructive CAD significantly differentiated patients who experienced MACE and revascularization.ConclusionsWe developed a novel machine learning model to predict obstructive CAD from non-contrast CTCS scans. Our findings highlight the potential clinical benefits of CTCS imaging in identifying patients likely to benefit from advanced imaging
Field Trials of Low‐Cost Bi‐TiO2‐P25 Solar Photo Catalyst for Water Treatment
Get PDFA low-cost, easy to make Bi-TiO2-P25 composite is synthesized via a reverse micelle sol-gel route and is tested for its ability to be activated under solar light. The photocatalyst is coated on recycled glass chips and glass slides (used as substrates) and is tested for degradation of 4-Chlorophenol (4-CP) and the removal of Escherichia coli (E. coli) from water. Field tests are conducted in rural India for solar photo catalytic reduction of microbial contaminants in natural water. Two water sources are tested: well water used for drinking, with an initial count of 4800 colony-forming unit (CFU)/100 mL for total coliforms, and pond water, used for washing and bathing, with an initial count of 92,000 CFU/100 mL for total coliforms and 3000 CFU/mL for E. coli. These water samples are filled into commercial polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles along with the catalyst coated chips and are exposed to sunlight. It is observed that the total coliform count have been reduced by up to 99% and E. coli by up to 99.9% in just 2 h, with excellent results in reusability tests. This study demonstrates the potential of solar photo catalysis to be used in real world drinking water treatment and will promote future advancements in this field
TransLeish: Identification of membrane transporters essential for survival of intracellular Leishmania parasites in a systematic gene deletion screen
Get PDFFor the protozoan parasite Leishmania, completion of its life cycle requires sequential adaptation of cellular physiology and nutrient scavenging mechanisms to the different environments of a sand fly alimentary tract and the acidic mammalian host cell phagolysosome. Transmembrane transporters are the gatekeepers of intracellular environments, controlling the flux of solutes and ions across membranes. To discover which transporters are vital for survival as intracellular amastigote forms, we carried out a systematic loss-of-function screen of the L. mexicana transportome. A total of 312 protein components of small molecule carriers, ion channels and pumps were identified and targeted in a CRISPR-Cas9 gene deletion screen in the promastigote form, yielding 188 viable null mutants. Forty transporter deletions caused significant loss of fitness in macrophage and mouse infections. A striking example is the Vacuolar H+ ATPase (V-ATPase), which, unexpectedly, was dispensable for promastigote growth in vitro but essential for survival of the disease-causing amastigotes
Integrative structural analysis of NF45-NF90 heterodimers reveals architectural rearrangements and oligomerisation on binding dsRNA.
Get PDFComplexes of nuclear factors 45 and 90 (NF45-NF90) play a multitude of roles in co- and post-transcriptional RNA processing, including regulating adenosine-to-inosine editing, cassette exon and back splicing, and splicing fidelity. NF45-NF90 complexes recognize double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and, in human cells, primarily interact with Alu inverted repeats (AluIRs) that are commonly inserted into introns and other non-coding RNA regions. Intronic AluIRs of ∼300 bp can regulate splicing outcomes, such as generation of circular RNAs. We examined domain reorganization of NF45-NF90 domains on dsRNAs exceeding 50 bp to gain insight into its RNA recognition properties on longer dsRNAs. Using a combination of phylogenetic analysis, solution methods (including small angle X-ray scattering and quantitative cross-linking mass spectrometry), machine learning, and negative stain electron microscopy, we generated a model of NF45-NF90 complex formation on dsRNA. Our data reveal that different interactions of NF45-NF90 complexes allow these proteins to coat long stretches of dsRNA. This property of the NF45-NF90 complex has important implications for how long, nuclear dsRNAs are recognized in the nucleus and how this might promote (co)-regulation of specific RNA splicing and editing events that shape the mammalian transcriptome.</p
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