Objectives: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a very common condition in the primary healthcare settings. Few studies have investigated whether sociodemographic factors are related to UI. This nationwide study aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship between sociodemographic factors and UI in women. Methods: A nationwide open cohort study included 2,044,065 women aged 15–50 years. Several n

Epilepsy is a severe neurological disease characterized by spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS). A complex pathophysiological process referred to as epileptogenesis transforms a normal brain into an epileptic one. Prevention of epileptogenesis is a subject of intensive research. Cur-rently, there are no clinically approved drugs that can act as preventive medication. Our previous studies have reve

Climate change — the ultimate challenge of our time: COVID-19 pandemic aside, climate change is the ultimate challenge of our time. However, to date, there has been insufficient political thrust to make that much-needed climate action a reality. Climate change and infectious diseases: Infectious diseases represent only one facet of the threats arising from climate change. Direct impacts from clima

p53 is a transcription factor that participates in cell cycle checkpoint processes and apoptosis. The protein product of the murine double minute gene 2 (mdm-2) plays a central role in the regulation of p53. In response to DNA-damaging agents, the wild-type p53-activated fragment 1 (WAF1 also known as p21) is an important downstream effector in the p53-specific growth arrest pathway. In breast can

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of two alternative chemotherapy regimes on the quality of life (QoL) of patients with advanced breast cancer. In a multicentre trial, 283 patients were randomised to receive either docetaxel (T) or sequential methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (MF). QoL was assessed at baseline and before each treatment using the European Organization for Research

AIM: We aimed to study the importance of erbB2 status in early stage postmenopausal breast cancer for patients who participated in a trial of five vs. two years of adjuvant tamoxifen.PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analysed the erbB2 status of the tumours from 577 patients participating in the trial, either by a DNA amplification assay (n = 181) or by measurement of the protein level with flow cytometry

S-phase fraction (SPF) is a reference for cell-kinetic analysis. In this study, the links between SPF and the essential enzymes participating in the pyrimidine synthesis were investigated in breast cancer and their relationships with the natural history of the disease were compared. We measured thymidine kinase (TK) for salvage synthesis, thymidylate synthase (TS) for de novo synthesis and thymidy

AIM OF THE STUDY: To produce an empirical estimate of the nature and magnitude of the error produced by incorrect timing quality of life (QoL) measurements in patients receiving chemotherapy.DESIGN: In a multicentre trial, 283 patients were randomized to receive either docetaxel (T) or sequential methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (MF). The QoL was assessed at baseline and before each treatment using

Background: Diffusion-weighted imaging plays a key role in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of breast tumors. However, it remains unclear how to interpret single diffusion encoding with respect to its link with tissue microstructure. The purpose of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to use tensor-valued diffusion encoding to investigate the underlying microstructure of invasive ductal ca

Biomicrofluidic devices and organ-on-a-chip (OOC) systems with integrated membranes are often fabricated from two different thermoplastic materials but bonding of such dissimilar thermoplastics remains challenging to manufacture at scale. Here, we present a method to bond poly(methylmethacrylate) layers to a polyethylene terephthalate porous membrane to create membrane-based microfluidic devices f

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women. Although the prognosis generally is good, a substantial number of patients still suffer from relapse, emphasizing the need for novel treatments. Smac mimetics were developed to facilitate cell death by blocking inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). It has been suggested that TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) c

The car is one of the most expensive household consumer goods, yet there is a limited understanding of its private (internal) and social (external) cost per vehicle-km, year, or lifetime of driving. This paper provides an overview of 23 private and ten social cost items, and assesses these for three popular car models in Germany for the year 2020. Results confirm that motorists underestimate the f

The hot erosion of turbine tip and the maintenance of tip reliability and service times have always been great challenges for researchers. This work presents a novel design of a tip wall with the internal surface fitted with delta-winglet vortex generator pairs (DVGP). Various spacing of DVGP is considered to study the influence of spacing on the internal tip heat transfer and flow behavior in the

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are industrial chemicals resistant to degradation and have been shown to have adverse effects on reproductive health in wildlife and humans. Although regulations have reduced their levels, they are still ubiquitously present and pose a global concern. Here, we studied a cohort of 185 women aged 21–43 years with a median of 2 years of infertility who were seekin

To meet stringent emissions regulations on soot emissions, it is critical to further advance the fundamental understanding of in-cylinder soot formation and oxidation processes. Among several optical techniques for soot quantification, diffuse back-illumination extinction imaging (DBI-EI) has recently gained traction mainly due to its ability to compensate for beam steering, which if not addressed

In recent years, panintestinal capsule endoscopy (PCE) with double-headed capsules has been used to perform complete, single-sitting exploration of both small bowel and colon in different clinical conditions. Double-headed capsules for colonic examination (CCE) have been exploited first in this setting, followed by newer generations of capsules (i.e. PillCam Crohn, PCC) specifically engineered for

OBJECTIVE: This analysis aimed to compare failure to rescue (FTR) after pancreatoduodenectomy across the Atlantic. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: FTR, or mortality after development of a major complication, is a quality metric originally created to compare hospital results. FTR has been studied in North American and Northern European patients undergoing pancreatoduodenectomy (PD). However, a direct comp

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple common breast cancer susceptibility variants. Many of these variants have differential associations by estrogen receptor (ER) status, but how these variants relate with other tumor features and intrinsic molecular subtypes is unclear. Methods: Among 106,571 invasive breast cancer cases and 95,762 controls of European ances

BACKGROUND: Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has an excellent prognosis, and recurrence is rare in patients with no evidence of disease (NED) after initial treatment. Despite this, several guidelines recommend long and costly follow-up, with limited evidence of improved patient outcomes. This study aims to examine the value of follow-up in patients with NED after treatment for PTC, by determining th

Individuals are expected to avoid mating with relatives as inbreeding can reduce offspring fitness, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. This has led to the widespread assumption that selection will favour individuals that avoid mating with relatives. However, the strength of inbreeding avoidance is variable across species and there are numerous cases where related mates are not avoided. H