Adolescent diet and risk of breast cancer.

Background: Early life exposures, including diet, have been implicated in the etiology of breast cancer.

Methods: A nested case-control study was conducted among participants in the Nurses' Health Study who completed a 24-item questionnaire about diet during high school. There were 843 eligible cases diagnosed between onset of study (1976) and before the return of the high school diet questionnaire (1986), who were matched 10:1 with controls on the basis of age.

Membrane-bound orientation and position of the synaptotagmin I C2A domain by site-directed spin labeling.

Site-directed spin labeling was used to determine the membrane orientation and insertion of the C2A domain from synaptotagmin I. A series of single cysteine mutants of the C2A domain of synaptotagmin I was prepared and labeled with a sulfhydryl specific spin label. Upon Ca2+ or membrane binding, the EPR line shapes of these mutants reveal dramatic decreases in label mobility within the Ca2+-binding loops.

Smoking, getting drunk, and engaging in bulimic behaviors: in which order are the behaviors adopted?

Objective: To assess the relation between beginning to binge-eat or purge, beginning to smoke, and getting drunk for the first time.

Method: Prospective study of 11,358 girls and boys, 10 to 15 years of age, in an ongoing cohort study who completed questionnaires in 1997 and 1998. The outcome measures were beginning to engage in bulimic behaviors, beginning to smoke, and getting drunk for the first time between 1997 and 1998.

Use of sunscreen, sunburning rates, and tanning bed use among more than 10 000 US children and adolescents.

Objectives: To describe the association of sunscreen use, sunburning, and tanning bed use by age, sex, residence, and psychosocial variables associated with tan-seeking behaviors, and to compare these findings with sun protection recommendations from federal agencies and cancer organizations.

Methods: A cross-sectional study, from all 50 states, of 10 079 boys and girls 12 to 18 years of age in 1999. Data were collected from self-report questionnaires with the children of the participants from the Nurses Health Study (Growing Up Today Study).

Prevalence and correlates of pelvic examinations in sexually active female adolescents.

Objectives: The pelvic examination is an important component of reproductive health services for adolescent girls and is recommended for those who become sexually active. The aims of this study were to describe self-reported rates of pelvic examinations in sexually active adolescent girls and to determine factors associated with having obtained an examination.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from a national self-administered survey of nurses' adolescent daughters were used.

Membrane orientation and position of the C2 domain from cPLA2 by site-directed spin labeling.

The C2 domain is a ubiquitous Ca(2+)-binding motif that triggers the membrane docking of many key signaling proteins during intracellular Ca(2+) signals. Site-directed spin labeling was carried out on the C2 domain of cytosolic phospholipase A(2) in order to determine the depth of penetration and orientation of the domain at the membrane interface. Membrane depth parameters, Phi, were obtained by EPR spectroscopy for a series of selectively spin-labeled C2 domain cysteine mutants, and for spin-labeled lipids and spin-labeled bacteriorhodopsin cysteine mutants.

Geometric scaling effects in electrical field flow fractionation. 2. Experimental results.

Geometric scaling of microelectrical field flow fractionation (micro-EFFF) systems is investigated experimentally and compared to theory and to macroscale EFFF systems. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate that the miniaturized system operates according to the scaling theory associated with the system. Demonstrated improvements in the channels include increased retention and resolution and decreased peak broadening, electrical time constants, relaxation time, power consumption, and sample size.

A microfabricated thermal field-flow fractionation system.

A microscale thermal field-flow fractionation (micro-TFFF) system has been designed, fabricated, and characterized. Motivation for miniaturization of TFFF systems was established by examining the geometrical scaling of the fundamental TFFF theory. Miniaturization of conventional macroscale TFFF systems was made possible through utilization of micromachining technologies.

High lane density slab-gel electrophoresis using micromachined instrumentation.

In this paper, micromachined pipette arrays (MPAs) and microcombs were studied as a means of enabling high lane density gel electrophoresis. The MPA provide a miniaturized format to interface sub-microliter volumes of samples between macroscale sample preparation formats and microscale biochemical analysis systems. The microcombs provide a means of creating sample loading wells in the gel material on the same center-to-center spacing as the MPAs.

Patient and physician satisfaction with a telephone-based anticoagulation service.

Objectives: To compare the satisfaction and knowledge of patients who have their warfarin managed by their physician or by a multidisciplinary, telephone-based anticoagulation service (ACS) and to assess referring physicians' satisfaction with the ACS.

Design And Participants: We surveyed 300 patients taking warfarin (mean age 73 years): 150 at health centers randomized to have access to an ACS, and 150 at control health centers without ACS access. We also surveyed 17 physicians who refer patients to the ACS.

Adolescents' perceptions of social status: development and evaluation of a new indicator.

Objective: Eliminating health disparities, including those that are a result of socioeconomic status (SES), is one of the overarching goals of Healthy People 2010. This article reports on the development of a new, adolescent-specific measure of subjective social status (SSS) and on initial exploratory analyses of the relationship of SSS to adolescents' physical and psychological health.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of 10 843 adolescents and a subsample of 166 paired adolescent/mother dyads who participated in the Growing Up Today Study was conducted.

Geometric scaling effects in electrical field flow fractionation. 1. Theoretical analysis.

This work outlines the fundamental scaling laws associated with electrical field flow fractionation channels. Although general FFF theory indicates few advantages from miniaturization, EFFF theory indicates clear advantages to miniaturization of the EFFF channel. Retention, plate heights, resolution, equilibration times, and time constants are examined.

Risk of overweight among adolescents who were breastfed as infants.

Context: Overweight during adolescence predicts short- and long-term morbidity as well as obesity in adulthood. The prevalence of overweight among adolescents is high and continues to increase. Physiological and behavioral mechanisms and preliminary epidemiologic data suggest that breastfeeding could lower the risk of subsequent obesity in adolescence.

Comparing physical activity questionnaires for youth: seasonal vs annual format.

Background: In large cohort studies of older children, self-report is the only practical way to assess physical activity. Assessing usual activity over the entire year is desirable, but children and adolescents may overestimate activities with high seasonal variability. Use of questionnaires in which individuals report each activity by season may improve accuracy.

Fetuin, a negative acute phase protein, attenuates TNF synthesis and the innate inflammatory response to carrageenan.

Activation of the innate immune system, even by relatively innocuous stimuli, stimulates the release of cytokines (e.g. TNF) that can injure or kill the host.

Cost-effectiveness of screening for colorectal cancer in the general population.

Context: A recent expert panel recommended that persons at average risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) begin screening for CRC at age 50 years using 1 of several strategies. However, many aspects of different CRC screening strategies remain uncertain.

Objective: To assess the consequences, costs, and cost-effectiveness of CRC screening in average-risk individuals.

Relation of childhood diet and body size to menarche and adolescent growth in girls.

Adolescent growth and development may be affected by factors such as dietary intake and body size from much earlier in childhood. In a longitudinal study of 67 Caucasian girls in Boston, Massachusetts, data were collected prospectively from birth during the 1930s and 1940s. Heights and weights were measured semiannually, and dietary history interviews were conducted with mothers.

Association of adolescent cigar use with other high-risk behaviors.

Objectives: To describe the association of cigar use with use of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and alcohol among adolescents; and to examine the association of self-esteem, physical activity, and use of tobacco promotional items with cigar use.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of 7104 girls and 5499 boys 10 to 15 years of age in 1997. Data were collected from self-report questionnaires.

Micromachined pipette arrays.

In this paper, the design and characterization of batch fabricated metallic micromachined pipette arrays is described. The process used to fabricate the micromachined pipette arrays (MPA) includes p+ etch-stop membrane technology, anisotropic etching of silicon in potassium hydroxide, sacrificial thick photoresist micromolding technology, and electrodeposition. Arrays of one to ten pipettes have been fabricated using nickel as the structural material and palladium as the biocompatible coating of inside walls.

Activity, dietary intake, and weight changes in a longitudinal study of preadolescent and adolescent boys and girls.

Objective: To examine the role of physical activity, inactivity, and dietary patterns on annual weight changes among preadolescents and adolescents, taking growth and development into account.

Study Design: We studied a cohort of 6149 girls and 4620 boys from all over the United States who were 9 to 14 years old in 1996. All returned questionnaires in the fall of 1996 and a year later in 1997.

Family dinner and diet quality among older children and adolescents.

Context: The proportion of children eating dinner with their families declines with age and has decreased over time. Few data exist concerning the nutritional effect of eating family dinner.

Objective: To examine the associations between frequency of eating dinner with family and measures of diet quality.

From the archives of the AFIP: pulmonary vasculature: hypertension and infarction.

Pulmonary hypertension is the hemodynamic consequence of vascular changes within the precapillary (arterial) or postcapillary (venous) pulmonary circulation. These changes may be idiopathic, as in primary pulmonary hypertension or pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, but more commonly they represent a secondary response to alterations in pulmonary blood flow. The pulmonary and systemic bronchial circulations form broad anastomoses that largely prevent infarction except in settings of markedly elevated pulmonary venous pressure, underlying malignancy, or excessive embolic burden.

Prevalence and distribution of extraperitoneal hemorrhage associated with splenic injury in infants and children.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and distribution of associated extraperitoneal hemorrhage in infants and children with splenic injury.

Conclusion: Splenic injury occasionally resulted in extraperitoneal hemorrhage that tracked into the anterior pararenal space. Extraperitoneal hemorrhage always occurred in association with intraperitoneal hemorrhage.