Physical activity and incident cardiovascular disease in breast cancer survivors: the pathways study.

Purpose: Breast cancer survivors experience higher rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than women without breast cancer, due in part to cardiotoxic cancer treatments and shared lifestyle risk factors. Physical activity is associated with lower mortality risk in breast cancer survivors, but associations with CVD have not been examined in detail.

Methods: The Pathways Study is a prospective cohort study of 4,504 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 2005 and 2013.

Pathogenic variants in cancer susceptibility genes predispose to Ductal Carcinoma In situ of the breast.

Purpose: To determine the relationship between germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in cancer predisposition genes and the risk of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

Methods: Germline PV frequencies in breast cancer predisposition genes (ATM, BARD1, BRCA1, BRCA2, CDH1, CHEK2, PALB2, RAD51C, and RAD51D) were compared between DCIS cases and unaffected controls, and between DCIS and infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) cases from a clinical-testing cohort (n=9,887), a population-based cohort (n=3,876) and the UK Biobank (n=2421). The risk of contralateral breast cancer for DCIS cases with PVs was estimated in the population-based cohort.

Research progress on extraction techniques, structure-activity relationship, and biological functional mechanism of berry polysaccharides: A review.

In recent years, polysaccharides extracted from berries have received great attention due to their various bioactivities. However, the preparation and application of berry polysaccharides have been greatly limited due to the lack of efficient extraction techniques, unclear structure-activity relationships, and ambiguous functional mechanisms. This review discusses the technological progress in solvent extraction, assisted extraction, critical extraction, and combination extraction.

Deciphering the differences of bacterial communities between high- and low-productive wheat fields using high-throughput sequencing.

Microbial communities have been demonstrated to be essential for healthy and productive soil ecosystems. However, an understanding of the relationship between soil microbial community and soil productivity levels is remarkably limited. In this study, bulk soil (BS), rhizosphere soil (RS), and root (R) samples from the historical high-productive (H) and low-productive (L) soil types of wheat in Hebei province of China were collected and analyzed by high-throughput sequencing.

Detrimental Impact of Chemotherapy Dose Reduction or Discontinuation in Early Stage Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Treated With Pembrolizumab and Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A Multicenter Experience.

Background: Pembrolizumab combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is the current standard of care in early stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) based on higher event-free survival and pathological complete response (pCR) in Keynote-522 (KN-522) clinical trial. However, this aggressive five-drug regimen is associated with increased risks for immune-related adverse events (irAEs). We investigated real-world clinical outcomes and toxicity of this regimen as well as factors predictive of pCR and irAEs.

Under-Representation and Under-Reporting of Minoritized Racial and Ethnic Groups in Clinical Trials on Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors.

Purpose: Minoritized racial/ethnic groups are historically under-represented in cancer clinical trials, which may be exacerbated in recent trials on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). We examined the representation and reporting of the racial/ethnic composition of participants in clinical trials on ICIs.

Methods: We examined English full-text trials on ICIs published from 2007 to 2022.

[Analysis of Bacterial Community Characteristics in Maize Root Zones Under Maize-soybean Compound Planting Mode].

Maize-soybean compound intercropping has the potential to increase yield and is being tested for spreading in Huang-Huai-hai Plain. However, the main regulatory regions of this cropping pattern on soil microbial communities have not been clarified. In the present study, the tested samples were collected from three maize root zones of bulk soil, rhizosphere soil, and roots under mono- and intercropping planting modes, respectively.

Enhancement of lipid synthesis by the transcription factor Asg1 in Saitozyma podzolica zwy-2-3 under dissolved oxygen stress.

Microbial oils have been of considerable interest as food additives and biofuel resources due to high lipid contents, but lipid accumulation of oleaginous microorganisms can be induced by environmental stresses, such as dissolved oxygen (DO), which limit large-scale lipid production. Here, DO stress gave rise to the endogenous nitric oxide (NO) level to mediate S-nitrosylation of SpAsg1, regulating the lipid accumulation in Saitozyma podzolica zwy-2-3. Notably, qRT-PCR, yeast one-hybrid, dual-luciferase reporter assays, and metabolomics analysis exhibited that overexpression of SpAsg1 promoted lipid synthesis by directly regulation of glucose metabolism, enhancing glucose uptake, ATP and NADPH contents under DO stress.

Genome-wide study identifies novel genes associated with bone toxicities in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Bone toxicities are common among paediatric patients treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) with potentially major negative impact on patients' quality of life. To identify the underlying genetic contributors, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) in 260 patients of European-descent from the DFCI 05-001 ALL trial, with validation in 101 patients of European-descent from the DFCI 11-001 ALL trial. We identified a significant association between rs844882 on chromosome 20 and bone toxicities in the DFCI 05-001 trial (p = 1.

Targeting the tumor microenvironment to improve clinical outcomes in triple negative breast cancer patients and bridge the current disparity gap.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogenous disease that disproportionately affects Black women. TNBC outcomes among Black women are dismal secondary to multiple factors, such as poor healthcare accessibility resulting in delays in diagnosis, and aggressive disease biology in addition to a pro-tumor immune microenvironment (TME). Black women with breast cancer exhibit elevated levels of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines, and a pro-tumorigenic TME with higher immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (Tregs), M2 macrophages and exhausted CD8 T cells.

Genome-wide identification, phylogenetic, structural and functional evolution of the core components of ABA signaling in plant species: a focus on rice.

A genome-wide analysis had identified 642 ABA core component genes from 20 plant species, which were further categorized into three distinct subfamilies. The gene structures and evolutionary relationships of these genes had been characterized. PP2C_1, PP2C_2, and SnRK2_1 had emerged as key players in mediating the ABA signaling transduction pathway, specifically in rice, in response to abiotic stresses.

A validation study for measuring Asian- and Hispanic-serving sociocultural institutions in neighborhoods using business listing data and potential implications for health.

Ethnic enclaves influence the health of Asian American and Hispanic or Latinx/a/o populations, likely via neighborhood social, economic, and built environments. To facilitate studies aiming to disentangle these specific neighborhood mechanisms, we describe the creation and validation of two novel measures-Asian-serving and Hispanic-serving sociocultural institutions (SCIs)-to estimate the social, cultural, and economic character of ethnic enclaves in California. Business listing data were used to identify SCIs or businesses that promote cultural and social identity, including arts, civic, historical, religious, social service, and membership organizations.

When Trustworthiness Meets Face: Facial Design for Social Robots.

As a technical application in artificial intelligence, a social robot is one of the branches of robotic studies that emphasizes socially communicating and interacting with human beings. Although both robot and behavior research have realized the significance of social robot design for its market success and related emotional benefit to users, the specific design of the eye and mouth shape of a social robot in eliciting trustworthiness has received only limited attention. In order to address this research gap, our study conducted a 2 (eye shape) × 3 (mouth shape) full factorial between-subject experiment.

An Improved Ordinary State-Based Peridynamic Model for Granular Fractures in Cubic Crystals and the Effects of Crystal Orientations on Crack Propagation.

Material anisotropy caused by crystal orientation is an essential factor affecting the mechanical and fracture properties of crystal materials. This paper proposes an improved ordinary state-based peridynamic (OSB-PD) model to study the effect of arbitrary crystal orientation on the granular fracture in cubic crystals. Based on the periodicity of the equivalent elastic modulus of a cubic crystal, a periodic function regarding the crystal orientation is introduced into peridynamic material parameters, and a complete derivation process and expressions of correction factors are given.

Robust Quantum Gates against Correlated Noise in Integrated Quantum Chips.

As quantum circuits become more integrated and complex, additional error sources that were previously insignificant start to emerge. Consequently, the fidelity of quantum gates benchmarked under pristine conditions falls short of predicting their performance in realistic circuits. To overcome this problem, we must improve their robustness against pertinent error models besides isolated fidelity.

An Intermittent Fasting Intervention for Black Adults Can Be Feasibly Implemented in Black Churches: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.

Background: Intensive lifestyle interventions, including modest reductions in daily caloric intake (ie, continuous calorie energy reduction [CER]), are recommended by US national professional health organizations (eg, American Heart Association). However, they are less effective in Black communities. A burgeoning literature has reported the promise of intermittent fasting (IF) as an alternative strategy for weight loss.

A prospective study of vitamin D, proinflammatory cytokines, and risk of fragility fractures in women on aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer.

Background: Vitamin D is critical to bone health by regulating intestinal absorption of calcium, whereas proinflammatory cytokines, including IL-1, IL-6, IL-12, and TNF-α, are known to increase bone resorption. We hypothesized that vitamin D and these cytokines at the time of breast cancer diagnosis were predictive for fragility fractures in women receiving aromatase inhibitors (AIs).

Methods: In a prospective cohort of 1,709 breast cancer patients treated with AIs, we measured the levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12, and TNF-α from baseline blood samples.