CUL4B protects kidneys from acute injury by restraining p53/PAI-1 signaling.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) caused by nephrotoxins, ischemia reperfusion (IR) or sepsis is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Unveiling new mechanisms underlying AKI can help develop new therapeutic strategy. Cullin 4B (CUL4B) is a scaffold protein in the CUL4B-RING E3 ubiquitin ligase (CRL4B) complex.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, apolipoproteins and the risk of coronary heart disease in US men and women.

Background: Existing evidence for associations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) with blood lipids, lipoproteins and apolipoproteins (apo), and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk is limited and inconsistent. This study aims to explore associations between plasma PFASs, blood lipoprotein subspecies defined by apolipoproteins, and CHD risk.

Methods: A case-control study of CHD was conducted in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) and Nurses' Health Study (NHS).

Test for comparing the associations of multiple exposures with a common outcome.

Introduction: With advancement of medicine, alternative exposures or interventions are emerging with respect to a common outcome, and there are needs to formally test the difference in the associations of multiple exposures.

Methods: The paper proposes a duplication method-based multivariate Wald test in the Cox proportional hazard regression model to test the difference in the associations of multiple exposures with a same outcome. This method applies to continuous or categorical exposures.

Modifiable lifestyle factors in the primordial prevention of hypertension in three US cohorts.

Background: Evidence is lacking on the relative contributions of specific lifestyle factors and their overall contribution to prevention of hypertension, in particular early-onset hypertension.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included participants of the Nurses' Health Study (NHS, N = 52,780 women, aged 40-67 in 1986), the NHS II (N = 83,871 women, aged 27-46 in 1991), and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS, N = 31,269 men, aged 40-75 in 1986), who were free from hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer at baseline. Four modifiable lifestyles were evaluated based on hypertension guidelines: BMI, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) score, and alcohol intake.

Hypothesis testing for detecting outlier evaluators.

In epidemiological studies, the measurements of disease outcomes are carried out by different evaluators. In this paper, we propose a two-stage procedure for detecting outlier evaluators. In the first stage, a regression model is fitted to obtain the evaluators' effects.

New Quadratic Discriminant Analysis Algorithms for Correlated Audiometric Data.

Paired organs like eyes, ears, and lungs in humans exhibit similarities, and data from these organs often display remarkable correlations. Accounting for these correlations could enhance classification models used in predicting disease phenotypes. To our knowledge, there is limited, if any, literature addressing this topic, and existing methods do not exploit such correlations.

Cullin 4B-RING E3 ligase negatively regulates the immunosuppressive capacity of mesenchymal stem cells by suppressing iNOS.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells that can exert immunomodulatory capacity upon stimulation with pro-inflammatory cytokines. Our previous work has identified Cullin 4B (CUL4B), a scaffold protein in the CUL4B-RING E3 ligase (CRL4B) complex, as a key regulator in the differentiation of MSCs. Here, we demonstrate the critical role of CUL4B in regulating the immunosuppressive function of MSCs.

All-cause and cause-specific mortality risk and loss in life expectancy associated with incident type 2 diabetes onset age and duration.

Background: Evidence on type 2 diabetes onset age and duration on mortality risk has been limited by short follow-up, inadequate control for confounding, missing repeated measurements, and inability to cover the full range of onset age, duration, and major causes of death. Moreover, scarce data dissect how type 2 diabetes onset age and duration shape life expectancy.

Methods: We evaluate prospectively these topics based on 270,075 eligible participants in the Nurses' Health Studies and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, leveraging repeated measurements throughout up to 40 years of follow-up.

21-Gene Recurrence Score and Survival Outcomes in the Phase III Multicenter TAILORx Clinical Trial.

Background: Recurrence score (RS) based on a 21-gene genomic assay is frequently used to estimate risk of distant recurrence for choice of adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. It remains unclear whether RS is an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) and overall survival (OS) in the TAILORx trial population.

Methods: We evaluated the association of RS with BCSS and OS plus recurrence-free interval (RFI) and invasive disease-free survival (DFS) using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, adjusting for clinicopathologic measures, in 8,916 patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative, node-negative breast cancer.

Estimating intracluster correlation for ordinal data.

In this paper, we consider the estimation of intracluster correlation for ordinal data. We focus on pure-tone audiometry hearing threshold data, where thresholds are measured in 5 decibel increments. We estimate the intracluster correlation for tests from iPhone-based hearing assessment applications as a measure of test/retest reliability.

Sedentary Behaviors, Light-Intensity Physical Activity, and Healthy Aging.

Importance: Sleep duration and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) are associated with healthy aging, but the associations of sedentary behaviors and light-intensity physical activity (LPA) with healthy aging are still unclear.

Objective: To examine the independent association of sedentary behaviors and LPA with healthy aging, and to estimate the theoretical association of replacing sedentary behavior with LPA, MVPA, or sleep with healthy aging.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In this cohort study using data from the Nurses' Health Study, participants aged 50 years or older and free of major chronic diseases in 1992 were prospectively followed up for 20 years.

Adherence to Healthy and Unhealthy Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Gout.

Importance: Plant-based diets are increasing in popularity due, in part, to their health benefits for selected cardiometabolic diseases as well as favorable environmental impact. Little is known about how such a diet is related to gout risk.

Objective: To examine associations between adherence to a plant-based diet (including healthy and unhealthy versions of this diet), as well as its 18 individual food groups, and incident gout.

Calibration of citrus intake assessed by food frequency questionnaires using urinary proline betaine in an observational study setting.

Background: Whether observational study can be employed to establish calibration equations for self-reported dietary intake using food biomarkers is unknown.

Objectives: This study aims to demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining calibration equations based on food biomarkers and 7-d diet records (7DDRs) to correct measurement errors of food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) in an observational study setting.

Methods: The study population consisted of 669 males and 749 females from the Women's and Men's Lifestyle Validation Studies.

Identifying modifiable risk factors to prevent aggressive colorectal cancer.

It remains unclear if pre-diagnostic factors influence the developmental pathways of colorectal cancer (CRC) that could enhance tumor aggressiveness. This study used prospective data from 205,489 cancer-free US health professionals to investigate the associations of 31 known or putative risk factors with the risk of aggressive CRC. Tumor aggressiveness was characterized by three endpoints: aggressive CRC (cancer that causes death within 5 years of diagnosis), fatal CRC, and tumor stage at diagnosis.

Weighting estimation in the cause-specific Cox regression with partially missing causes of failure.

Complex diseases are often analyzed using disease subtypes classified by multiple biomarkers to study pathogenic heterogeneity. In such molecular pathological epidemiology research, we consider a weighted Cox proportional hazard model to evaluate the effect of exposures on various disease subtypes under competing-risk settings in the presence of partially or completely missing biomarkers. The asymptotic properties of the inverse and augmented inverse probability-weighted estimating equation methods are studied with a general pattern of missing data.

Dietary Fiber Intake and Risk of Advanced and Aggressive Forms of Prostate Cancer: A Pooled Analysis of 15 Prospective Cohort Studies.

Background: Evidence of an association between dietary fiber intake and risk of advanced and aggressive forms of prostate cancer (PC) and PC mortality is limited.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine associations between intakes of dietary fiber overall and by food source and risk of advanced and aggressive forms of PC.

Design: The study design was a pooled analysis of the primary data from 15 cohorts in 3 continents.