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Background: British 5-year survival from colorectal cancer (CRC) is below the European average, but the reasons are unclear. This study explored if longer provider delays (time from presentation to treatment) were associated with more advanced stage disease at diagnosis and poorer survival. Methods: Data on 958 people with CRC were linked with the Scottish Cancer Registry, the Scottish Death Registry and the acute hospital discharge (SMR01) dataset. Time from first presentation in primary care to first treatment, disease stage at diagnosis and survival time from date of first presentation in primary care were determined. Logistic regression and Cox survival analyses, both with a restricted cubic spline, were used to model stage and survival, respectively, following sequential adjustment of patient and tumour factors. Results: On univariate analysis, those with <4 weeks from first presentation in primary care to treatment had more advanced disease at diagnosis and the poorest prognosis. Treatment delays between 4 and 34 weeks were associated with earlier stage (with the lowest odds ratio occurring at 20 weeks) and better survival (with the lowest hazard ratio occurring at 16 weeks). Provider delays beyond 34 weeks were associated with more advanced disease at diagnosis, but not increased mortality. Following adjustment for patient, tumour factors, emergency admissions and symptoms and signs, no significant relationship between provider delay and stage at diagnosis or survival from CRC was found. Conclusions: Although allowing for a nonlinear relationship and important confounders, moderately long provider delays did not impact adversely on cancer outcomes. Delays are undesirable because they cause anxiety; this may be fuelled by government targets and health campaigns stressing the importance of very prompt cancer diagnosis. Our findings should reassure patients. They suggest that a health service's primary emphasis should be on quality and outcomes rather than on time to treatment.

Enthält Rezensionen von: Sumit Ganguly; Rahul Mukherji: India since 1980. - New York/N.Y. : Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011. - ISBN 978-0-521-67804-9

Magnetic interactions can play an important role in the heating efficiency of magnetic nanoparticles. Although most of the time interparticle magnetic interactions are a dominant source, in specific cases such as multigranular nanostructures intraparticle interactions are also relevant and their effect is significant. In this work, we have prepared two different multigranular magnetic nanostructures of iron oxide, nanorings (NRs) and nanotubes (NTs), with a similar thickness but different lengths (55 nm for NRs and 470 nm for NTs). In this way, we find that the NTs present stronger intraparticle interactions than the NRs. Magnetometry and transverse susceptibility measurements show that the NTs possess a higher effective anisotropy and saturation magnetization. Despite this, the AC hysteresis loops obtained for the NRs (0-400 Oe, 300 kHz) are more squared, therefore giving rise to a higher heating efficiency (maximum specific absorption rate, SAR(max) = 110 W/g for the NRs and 80 W/g for the NTs at 400 Oe and 300 kHz). These results indicate that the weaker intraparticle interactions in the case of the NRs are in favor of magnetic hyperthermia in comparison with the NTs. ; This research was funded by the Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED), grant number 103.02-2019.314. The Spanish Government is acknowledged for the Nanotechnology in translational hyperthermia (HIPERNANO) research network (RED2018-102626-T) and for funding under the project number MAT2017-83631-C3. Research at USF was supported by US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Award No. DE-FG02-07ER46438. Basque Government is also acknowledged for funding under the project number IT-1005-16 and for the postdoctoral fellowship POS_2020_1_0028.

Srinivasan Ayyanaar,1 Chandrasekar Balachandran,2 Rangaswamy Chinnabba Bhaskar,3 Mookkandi Palsamy Kesavan,4 Shin Aoki,2,5 Ramachandran Palpandi Raja,6 Jegathalaprathaban Rajesh,7 Thomas J Webster,8 Gurusamy Rajagopal1 1PG and Research Department of Chemistry, Chikkanna Government Arts College, Tiruppur 641 602, Tamilnadu, India; 2Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, Noda 278-8510, Japan; 3Department of Chemistry, School of Advanced Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, Tamil Nadu, India; 4Department of Chemistry, Hajee Karutha Rowther Howdia College, Uthamapalayam 625 533, Tamil Nadu, India; 5Research Institute of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Noda 278-8510, Japan; 6Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai 600 025, Tamil Nadu, India; 7Chemistry Research Centre, Mohamed Sathak Engineering College, Kilakarai 623 806, Tamil Nadu, India; 8Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USACorrespondence: Jegathalaprathaban Rajesh; Thomas J Webster Email mkuraji@gmail.com; th.webster@neu.eduBackground and Objective: Cancer cells accumulate high concentrations of reactive oxygen species as a result of their faster and uninhibited metabolic activity. Cancer chemotherapeutic agents release an excess of severe adverse reactions as a result of targeting normal cells. This demands an improvement in targeted drug-delivery systems to selectively discharge anticancer drugs in the vicinity of such highly metabolically and mitotically active cells.Materials and Methods: Here, magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized by a traditional co-precipitation technique. Fe3O4@OA-CS-5-FLU-NPs were synthesized by an easy and rapid in situ loading method. The proposed Fe3O4@OA-CS-5-FLU-NPs were productively prepared as well as characterized by various spectroscopic and microscopic studies.Results: The targeted drug release profile of the Fe3O4@OA-CS-5-FLU-NPs was studied in the presence of ROS including H2O2 and pH induction. The released product, Fe3O4@OA-CS-5-FLU-NP, exhibited desirable levels of cytotoxicity and demonstrated morphological changes and inhibition of colony formation for A549 and HeLa S3 cancer cells. The IC50 values at 24 hours were 12.9 and 23 μg/mL, respectively.Conclusion: In summary, results from the MTT assay, fluorescence staining as well as colony formation assays, revealed that the Fe3O4@OA-CS-5-FLU-NPs were active and safe for anticancer biomedical applications. In summary, the present investigation provides a powerful nanostructured based system for improved cancer theranostics that should be further studied.Keywords: magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, oleic acid, chitosan, 5-fluorouracil, cytotoxicity, targeted drug delivery

Public concern over environmental issues such as ecosystem degradation is high. However, restoring coupled human-natural systems requires integration across many science, technology, engineering, management, and governance topics that are presently fragmented. Here, we synthesized 544 peer-reviewed articles published through September 2020 on the desiccation and nascent recovery of Lake Urmia in northwest Iran. We answered nine questions of scientific and popular interest about causes, impacts, stabilization, recovery, and next steps. We find: (1) Expansion of irrigated agriculture, dam construction, and mismanagement impacted the lake more than temperature increases and precipitation decreases. (2) Aerosols from Lake Urmia's exposed lakebed are negatively impacting human health. (3) Researchers disagree on how a new causeway breach will impact salinity, evaporation, and ecosystems in the lake's north and south arms. (4) Most researchers tried to restore to a single, uniform, government specified lake level of 1274.1 m intended to recover Artemia. (5) The Iranian government motivated and funded a large and growing body of lake research. (6) Ecological and limnological studies mostly focused on salinity, Artemia, and Flamingos. (7) Few studies shared data, and only three studies reported engagement with stakeholders or managers. (8) Researchers focused on an integration pathway of climate downscaling, reservoirs, agricultural water releases, and lake level. (9) Numerous suggestions to improve farmer livelihoods and governance require implementation. We see an overarching next step for lake recovery is to couple human and natural system components. Examples include: (a) describe and monitor the system food webs, hydrologic, and human components; (b) adapt management to monitored conditions such as lake level, lake evaporation, lake salinity, and migratory bird populations; (c) improve livelihoods for poor, chronically stressed farmers beyond agriculture; (d) manage for diverse ecosystem services and lake levels; ...

This document describes the final bundle of server side components, including a description of their functionality, and links to their full designs, documentation and downloadable versions. For a full description of the related client-side components of this workpackage, please refer to D2.4 - Final Bundle of Client-side Components (WP2). All the updated asset information is always available on-line at the public repositories where the assets are stored. Notice that those assets as open software will be continuously improved by their creators till the end of the project (the project has decided to extend that WP task till month 48) and beyond it. This bundle aggregates only the WP2 assets. Other server-side assets not described here will be covered in the final WP3 deliverables (e.g. SUGAR engine). ; This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Objective In this study, we evaluated the validity of the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) as a means for promoting mindlessness in vigilance performance. Background Vigilance tasks typically require observers to respond to critical signals and to withhold responding to neutral events. The SART features the opposite response requirements, which supposedly leads it to promote a mindless, nonthoughtful approach to the vigilance task. To test that notion, we compared the SART to the traditional vigilance format (TVF) in terms of diagnostic accuracy assessed through decision theory measures of positive and negative predictive power (PPP and NPP), perceived mental workload indexed by the Multiple Resource Questionnaire, and oculomotor activity reflected in the Nearest Neighbor Index and fixation dwell times. Method Observers in TVF and SART conditions monitored a video display for collision flight paths in a simulated air traffic control task. Results Diagnostic accuracy in terms of NPP was high in both format conditions. While PPP was poorer in the SART than in the TVF, that result could be accounted for by a loss of motor control rather than a lack of mindfulness. Identical high levels of workload were generated by the TVF and SART tasks, and observers in both conditions showed similar dynamic scanning of the visual scene. Conclusion The data indicate that the SART is not an engine of mindlessness. Application The results challenge the widespread use of the SART to support a model in which mindlessness is considered to be the principal root of detection failures in vigilance.