Introducing a novel sub-millimeter lung CT image registration error quantitation tool.

Background: Lung computed tomography (CT) scan image registration is being used for lung function analysis such as ventilation. Given the high sensitivity of functional analyses to image registration errors, an image registration error scoring tool that can measure submillimeter image registration errors is needed.

Purpose: To propose an image registration error scoring tool, termed λ, whose spatial sensitivity can be used to quantify image registration errors in steep image gradient regions under realistic noise conditions.

Motion compensated cone-beam CT reconstruction using anmotion model from CT simulation: a pilot study.

. To combat the motion artifacts present in traditional 4D-CBCT reconstruction, an iterative technique known as the motion-compensated simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (MC-SART) was previously developed. MC-SART employs a 4D-CBCT reconstruction to obtain an initial model, which suffers from a lack of sufficient projections in each bin.

Dataset of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) risk associated with serum polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) by age at diagnosis and histologic types.

In a population-based case control study of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT), we reported a strong positive association between serum levels of Wolff's Group 1 (potentially estrogenic) polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) and risk of TGCT, and the observed associations were similar for both seminoma and non-seminoma. While the observed specific associations between TGCT and Wolff's Group 1 PCBs cannot be easily explained by bias or confounding, a question can still be asked, that is, could the relationship between PCBs and TGCT differ by age at diagnosis? PCBs tend to bioaccumulate, with more heavily chlorinated PCB congeners tending to have longer half-lives. Half-lives of PCB congeners were reported ranging from 4.

Serum polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels and risk of testicular germ cell tumors: A population-based case-control study in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The incidence rate of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) has continuously increased in Western countries over the last several decades. Some epidemiologic studies have reported that the endocrine disrupting polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in serum may be associated with TGCT risk, but the evidence is inconsistent. Our goal was to investigate whether serum levels of PCBs are associated with the increase of TGCT risk.

Efforts needed for preventing breast and colorectal cancer through changes in dietary patterns.

Background: Prospective cohort studies on diet and cancer report risk associations as hazard ratios. But hazard ratios do not inform on the number of people who need to alter their dietary behaviours for preventing cancer. The objective of this study is to estimate the number of people that need to alter their diet for preventing one additional case of female breast or colorectal cancer.

The Profile of Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Analyzing the NCD burden, research outputs and international research collaboration.

Objectives: Despite the rising risk factor exposure and non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality across the Middle East and the North African (MENA) region, public health policy responses have been slow and appear discordant with the social, economic and political circumstances in each country. Good health policy and outcomes are intimately linked to a research-active culture, particularly in NCD. In this study we present the results of a comprehensive analysis of NCD research with particular a focus on cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in 10 key countries that represent a spectrum across MENA between 1991 and 2018.

Alignment with Indices of A Care Pathway Is Associated with Improved Survival: An Observational Population-based Study in Colon Cancer Patients.

Background: Causes of variations in outcomes from cancer care in developed countries are often unclear. Australia has developed health system pathways describing consensus standards of optimal cancer care across the phases of prevention through to follow-up or end-of-life. These Optimal Care Pathways (OCP) were introduced from 2013 to 14.

Cancer in Africa: the way forward.

While progress in oncology has been remarkable in recent decades, not every cancer patient is benefitting from the advances made in treating their disease. The contrast in diagnosis, treatment and its outcome between high-resource and low-resource countries is dramatic. Africa presents an enormous challenge with population growth and life expectancy increasing in many countries as the toll of AIDS and other communicable diseases declines.

The long-term rapid increase in incidence of adenocarcinoma of the kidney in the USA, especially among younger ages.

Background: We previously observed a rapid increase in the incidence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in men and women between 1935 and 1989 in the USA, using data from the Connecticut Tumor Registry. This increase appeared to be largely explained by a positive cohort effect, but no population-based study has been conducted to comprehensively examine age-period-cohort effects by histologic types for the past decade.

Methods: We calculated age-adjusted and age-specific incidence rates of the two major kidney-cancer subtypes RCC and renal urothelial carcinoma, and conducted an age-period-cohort analysis of 114 138 incident cases of kidney cancer reported between 1992 and 2014 to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results programme.

The information distortion bias: implications for medical decisions.

Context: Every diagnosis involves an act of decision making, which requires proper evaluation of information. However, even seemingly objective information can require interpretation, often without our conscious awareness. In this cross-cutting edge article we describe the phenomenon of leader-driven information distortion (ID) and its implications for medical education.

Novel |V_{us}| Determination Using Inclusive Strange τ Decay and Lattice Hadronic Vacuum Polarization Functions.

We propose and apply a new approach to determining |V_{us}| using dispersion relations with weight functions having poles at Euclidean (spacelike) momentum which relate strange hadronic τ decay distributions to hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) functions obtained from lattice quantum chromodynamics. We show examples where spectral integral contributions from the region where experimental data have large errors or do not exist are strongly suppressed but accurate determinations of the relevant lattice HVP combinations remain possible. The resulting |V_{us}| agrees well with determinations from K physics and three-family Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity.

Small and light arms violence reduction as a public health measure: the case of Libya.

The conflict environment in Libya is characterized by continued pervasive insecurity amidst the widespread availability of small arms and light weapons (SALW). After the First Civil War, armed brigades took the law into their own hands and the resulting violence terminated a short-lived post-conflict period that has relapsed into a Second Civil War. The Libyan government has struggled to assert authority over armed groups and these brigades, refusing to disarm have contributed directly the initiation of a second conflict; some are motivated by self-defense, status, criminality, vindication or political aims.

The effect of explosive remnants of war on global public health: a systematic mixed-studies review using narrative synthesis.

Background: Explosive remnants of war (ERW)-landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO)-have been recognised as a threat to health since the 1990s. We aimed to study the effect of ERW on global public health.

Methods: In this systematic mixed-studies review, we searched the Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and ProQuest databases, and hand searched relevant websites, for articles published between Jan 1, 1990, and Aug 31, 2015.

Incretin-Based Therapies and the Short-term Risk of Pancreatic Cancer: Results From Two Retrospective Cohort Studies.

Objective: Concerns have been raised about a possible increased risk of pancreatic cancer associated with incretin-based therapies. We examined the risk of pancreatic cancer among patients with diabetes prescribed incretin drugs.

Research Design And Methods: With the use of public health insurance databases of Belgium and the Lombardy Region, Italy, we created two retrospective cohorts that included adult patients who were first prescribed an incretin drug or another noninsulin antidiabetic drug (NIAD) from 1 July 2008 to 31 December 2013 in Belgium and from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2012 in the Lombardy Region.

Meta-analysis of occupational exposures in the rubber manufacturing industry and risk of cancer.

Background: Occupational exposures in the rubber manufacturing industry showed an increased risk of cancer and have been classified as a group 1 carcinogen, largely from studies on workers employed before 1950s. Cancer sites considered as causally associated are bladder, lung and stomach, and leukaemia. Recent studies did not report an increased risk of cancer.

Physical activity and change in fasting glucose and HbA1c: a quantitative meta-analysis of randomized trials.

Aims: A systematic review was conducted of randomized trials which evaluated the impact of physical activity on the change in fasting glucose and HbA1c.

Methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed until December 2015. Studies reporting glucose or HbA1c at baseline and at the end of study were included, and the change and its variance were estimated from studies with complete data.

Assessment of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and weight change: a prospective cohort study.

Background: In prospective studies, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) have been associated with weight increase. However, most prospective studies examine changes in body weight over time according to amounts of SSB intake at baseline, generally without considering changes over time in SSB, energy intake and physical activity. The objective of the present study was to examine how SSB intakes influence changes in weight, according to the way SSB intakes are analysed.

An assessment of the barriers to accessing the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in Afghanistan: was the BPHS a success?

Afghanistan is one of the most fragile and conflict-affected countries in the world. It has experienced almost uninterrupted conflict for the last thirty years, with the present conflict now lasting over a decade. With no history of a functioning healthcare system, the creation of the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) in 2003 was a response to Afghanistan's dire health needs following decades of war.

Changing global policy to deliver safe, equitable, and affordable care for women's cancers.

Breast and cervical cancer are major threats to the health of women globally, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Radical progress to close the global cancer divide for women requires not only evidence-based policy making, but also broad multisectoral collaboration that capitalises on recent progress in the associated domains of women's health and innovative public health approaches to cancer care and control. Such multisectoral collaboration can serve to build health systems for cancer, and more broadly for primary care, surgery, and pathology.

Endogenous and exogenous testosterone and the risk of prostate cancer and increased prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level: a meta-analysis.

Objective: To review and quantify the association between endogenous and exogenous testosterone and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate cancer.

Methods: Literature searches were performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Prospective cohort studies that reported data on the associations between endogenous testosterone and prostate cancer, and placebo-controlled randomized trials of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) that reported data on PSA and/or prostate cancer cases were retained.

Eradicating polio in Pakistan: an analysis of the challenges and solutions to this security and health issue.

Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988 the global incidence of poliomyelitis has fallen by nearly 99 %. From a situation where wild type poliovirus was endemic in 125 countries across five continents, transmission is now limited to regions of just three countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. A sharp increase in Pakistan's poliomyelitis cases in 2014 prompted the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee to declare the situation a 'public health emergency of international concern'.

Maps and atlases of cancer mortality: a review of a useful tool to trigger new questions.

In this review we illustrate our view on the epidemiological relevance of geographically mapping cancer mortality. In the first part of this work, after delineating the history of cancer mapping with a view on interpretation of Cancer Mortality Atlases, we briefly illustrate the 'art' of cancer mapping. Later we summarise in a non-mathematical way basic methods of spatial statistics.

Effects of Environmental Exposures on Fetal and Childhood Growth Trajectories.

Delayed fetal growth and adverse birth outcomes are some of the greatest public health threats to this generation of children worldwide because these conditions are major determinants of mortality, morbidity, and disability in infancy and childhood and are also associated with diseases in adult life. A number of studies have investigated the impacts of a range of environmental conditions during pregnancy (including air pollution, endocrine disruptors, persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals) on fetal and child development. The results, while provocative, have been largely inconsistent.