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Objectives This study evaluated whether individuals with affected family member adhered to healthy behaviours. Design and setting This was a cross-sectional study of participants selected from health examinees who underwent the national health check-up programme of Korea in 39 centres between 2004 and 2013. Participants The baseline data of 128 520 participants enrolled in the Health Examinees-Gem study were used for analysis. Main outcomes and measures Associations of family history of diabetes with adherence to regular exercise, healthy diet and body composition, and clusters of healthy behaviours were evaluated while adjusting for potential confounders selected by a directed acyclic graph. Results Participants with a family history of diabetes were more likely to adhere to a regular exercise regimen (OR=1.12, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.18 for men and OR=1.10, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.14 for women) and healthy diet (OR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12 for men and OR=1.06, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.12 for women) but were less likely to have a normal body composition (OR=0.83, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.87 for men and OR=0.83, 95% CI 0.80 to 0.86 for women). These associations were strengthened when the affected family members were siblings, the number of affected members was increased or the age at diagnosis of the affected member was younger than 50 years. In men and women, having a normal body composition is important in determining the cluster of behaviours, and those with a family history of diabetes were less likely to adhere to the normal body composition cluster. Conclusions The group with high risk of diabetes showed healthy behaviors, but they did not have a normal body composition. Policies and campaigns targeting integrated health behaviors will be needed to reduce the burden of diseases and improve public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The occupational exposure limit for trichloroethylene (TCE) in different countries varies from 1 to 100 ppm as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA). Many countries currently use 10 ppm as the regulatory standard for occupational exposures, but the biological effects in humans at this level of exposure remain unclear. The objective of our study was to evaluate alterations in immune and renal biomarkers among workers occupationally exposed to low levels of TCE below current regulatory standards.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional molecular epidemiology study of 80 healthy workers exposed to a wide range of TCE (ie, 0.4-229 ppm) and 96 comparable unexposed controls in China, and previously reported that TCE exposure was associated with multiple candidate biological markers related to immune function and kidney toxicity. Here, we conducted further analyses of all of the 31 biomarkers that we have measured to determine the magnitude and statistical significance of changes in the subgroup of workers (n=35) exposed to <10 ppm TCE compared with controls.Results: Six immune biomarkers (ie, CD4+ effector memory T cells, sCD27, sCD30, interleukin-10, IgG and IgM) were significantly decreased (% difference ranged from -16.0% to -72.1%) and one kidney toxicity marker (kidney injury molecule-1, KIM-1) was significantly increased (% difference: +52.5%) among workers exposed to <10 ppm compared with the control group. These associations remained noteworthy after taking into account multiple comparisons using the false discovery rate (ie, <0.20).Conclusion: Our results suggest that occupational exposure to TCE below 10 ppm as an 8-hour TWA may alter levels of key markers of immune function and kidney toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a human matches two images, the viewer has a natural tendency to view the wide area around the target pixel to obtain clues of right correspondence. However, designing a matching cost function that works on a large window in the same way is difficult. The cost function is typically not intelligent enough to discard the information irrelevant to the target pixel, resulting in undesirable artifacts. In this letter, we propose a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) module to learn a stereo matching cost with a large-sized window. Unlike conventional pooling layers with strides, the proposed per-pixel pyramid-pooling layer can cover a large area without a loss of resolution and detail. Therefore, the learned matching cost function can successfully utilize the information from a large area without introducing the fattening effect. The proposed method is robust despite the presence of weak textures, depth discontinuity, illumination, and exposure difference. The proposed method achieves near-peak performance on the Middlebury benchmark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate the risk for all-cause and cause-specific mortality in diagnostic medical radiation workers in South Korea.Methods: The study population included all diagnostic medical radiation workers enrolled in the National Dosimetry Registry (NDR) between 1996 and 2011. NDR data were linked with mortality data obtained from national registries through 2015. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) and relative standardised mortality ratios (rSMRs) were calculated for external comparison and for adjustment of the cohort's overall healthiness.Results: A total of 1099 deaths (974 in men and 125 in women) were reported from among 80 837 medical radiation workers. The SMRs for all causes of death were significantly lower than expected in both men (SMR 0.45, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.48) and women (SMR 0.49, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.58). No excesses were observed for any specific cause of death. The findings were similar by job title, calendar year of entry and year of birth. However, relative to all causes of death, mortality from all cancers (rSMR 1.60, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.82), leukaemia, colon cancer, stomach cancer and diseases of the circulatory system increased significantly among male workers. The results for female workers were limited due to small number of deaths; however, the rSMR for all cancers was significantly elevated (rSMR 1.70, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.46).Conclusions: This cohort showed lower mortality among diagnostic medical radiation workers than in the general population. However, occupational factors may have been involved in the increased relative mortality for several causes of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carcinogenic potential of trichloroethylene (TCE) continues to generate much controversy, even after the US Environmental Protection Agency raised its classification to 'carcinogenic to humans'. We conducted a meta-analysis of published cohort and case--control studies exploring occupational TCE exposure in relation to five different lymphatic and haematopoietic cancers: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL, N=24), Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL, N=13), multiple myeloma (MM, N=11), leukaemia (N=12) and chronic/small lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL/SLL, N=7). Studies published between 1950 and 2011 were identified through a PubMed Medline search. All studies included in analyses were classified as those that assessed either occupational TCE exposure specifically ('TCE-exposure' studies) or a broader classification of all chlorinated solvents ('chlorinated solvent-exposure' studies). A significantly raised summary estimate for NHL was seen for all cohort and case--control 'TCE-exposure' studies combined (N=19; relative risk (RR)=1.32, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.54; I²=25.20; p-heterogeneity=0.12) and for cohort 'TCEexposure' studies (N=10; RR=1.52, 95% CI 1.29 to 1.79; I²=7.09; p-heterogeneity=0.63). A non-significant but raised summary estimate was seen for NHL case--control 'TCE-exposure' studies. No significant association with NHL risk was detected overall for any 'chlorinated solvent-exposure' studies. Summary estimates for occupational TCE exposure were not associated with risk of HL, MM, leukaemia or CLL/SLL. Our updated metaanalysis of NHL, which incorporates new analytical results from three cohort and four case--control studies, supports an association between occupational TCE exposure and NHL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Inconsistent epidemiological findings, debate over interpretation, and extrapolation of findings from animal studies to humans have produced uncertainty surrounding the carcinogenicity of trichloroethylene (TCE) exposure in occupational settings. We updated meta-analyses of published case--control and cohort studies exploring occupational TCE exposure and kidney cancer risk, incorporating new analytical results from three recently published cohort studies and a case--control study. Methods PubMed MEDLINE was searched for studies published from 1950 to 2011 assessing occupational exposure to chlorinated solvents, degreasers or TCE. All cohort (N=15) and case--control (N=13) studies included in analyses were stratified by assessment of occupational exposure to TCE specifically and to any chlorinated solvent. Results Significantly elevated estimates were observed for cohort studies (relative risk (RR) 1.26, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.56; p heterogeneity=0.65), case--control studies (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.57; p heterogeneity= 0.41), and cohort and case--control studies combined (RR 1.32, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.50, p heterogeneity=0.63) that specifically assessed TCE exposure after excluding outlier studies that contributed to heterogeneity. Non-significantly elevated estimates were generally observed for studies of workers exposed to chlorinated solvents but who were not assessed for TCE specifically. Conclusions Regardless of study design, significant and stronger estimates were only observed in studies specifically assessing occupational exposure to TCE. Estimates were lower in studies assessing occupational exposure to chlorinated solvents. This updated meta-analysis supports an association between occupational TCE exposure and kidney cancer and provides evidence that exposure misclassification may weaken estimates assessing exposure to the broader class of chlorinated solvents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although a number of experimental studies have suggested the role of lipocalin-2 (LCN2) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in breast cancer progression, limited numbers of epidemiological studies have examined the relationship between the levels of lipocalin-2 and MMP-9 and breast cancer survival. Methods: Preoperative serum levels of lipocalin-2 and MMP-9 were measured in 303 breast cancer patients and 74 healthy controls recruited between 2004 and 2007. We examined the association between lipocalin-2 and MMP-9 levels and disease-free survival (DFS) using Cox proportional hazard regression model. Results: The serum levels of lipocalin-2 and MMP-9 were not significantly different between patients and controls (P>0.05). Elevated lipocalin-2 and MMP-9 levels were associated with reduced DFS of breast cancer (Ptrend = 0.029 and Ptrend = 0.063, respectively). When lipocalin-2 and MMP-9 levels were categorized based on the combined risk score, patients with higher levels of both lipocalin-2 and MMP-9 exhibited poor DFS compared to patients with lower levels (Ptrend= 0.004). Furthermore, these effects were profound in patients with BMI less than 25 kg/m2 (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR), 3.17; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.66-6.06, Ptrend<0.001) or lymph-node negative breast cancer (aHR, 5.36; 95% CI, 2.18-13.2, Ptrend<0.001). Conclusions: Our study suggests that the elevated levels of lipocalin-2 and MMP-9 are associated with reduced breast cancer survival, particularly in patients with lower BMI and lymph-node negative breast cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIM: To analyze the association between the p73 G4C14- to-A4T14 polymorphism (a.k.a., the GC/AT variation) and colorectal cancer risk and survival in the Korean population, and to evaluate the relationships between p73 polymorphism and the p73 protein expression or clinicopathological characteristics of colorectal cancer. METHODS: Three hundred and eighty-three histologically confirmed cases and 469 healthy controls, recruited at one teaching hospital in Pusan, Korea from 2001 and 2007, were genotyped for p73 G4C14-to-A4T14 by PCR with confronting two-pair primers (PCR-CTPP) and the expression profile of p73 in cancer tissues (n = 383) was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by unconditional logistic regression model adjusted for age and gender. Compared with the GC/GC genotypes, the GC/AT and AT/AT genotypes were significantly associated with colorectal cancer risk (GC/AT vs GC/GC: OR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.10-1.94; AT/AT vs GC/GC: 1.72, 0.98-3.03; P trend = 0.01). When stratified by age and gender, the association was restricted to those less than 60 years of age (GC/AT or AT/AT vs GC/GC: 2.22, 1.39-3.55) and male (GC/AT or AT/AT vs GC/GC: 1.91, 1.31-2.77). The expression of p73 was associated with invasion depth (P = 0.003) and advanced Duke's stage (P = 0.06) of colorectal cancer. The patients with the GC/GC genotype were associated with worse survival compared with those with the other genotypes (P = 0.02). However, no significant relationship was observed between the p73 G4C14-to-A4T14 polymorphism and p73 protein expression in cancer tissues. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the p73 GC/AT polymorphism is associated with an increased colorectal cancer risk and survival in the Korean population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the immunosuppressive effects of job stress in female nurses, an 8-month longitudinal study was conducted at a major university hospital. Methods: Four groups of ten subjects each were constructed to represent high versus low objective stress and high versus low subjective stress based on their responses to a job stress questionnaire and objective stress ratings of the hospital’s work units. Number of white blood cells (i.e., T cells, B cells, and natural killer cells), and lymphocytic proliferation to mitogens (concanavalin A, phytohemagglutinin, and pokeweed) and toxoid (tetanus) were measured by flow cytometry and radioimmunoassay. Serum levels of hydrocortisol, IL-1β, IFN-γ, and TNF-α, and salivary IgA were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance controlling for age and smoking. Results: The level of white blood cells was lower among high objective stress group (median: 7,170/m; range: 5,386–10,057) compared with that among low objective stress group (8,063; 5,888–9,875) ( P = 0.03), however, no other cellular blood variables were found to be significant. In terms of humoral immuno-biomarkers, the level of TNF-α was moderately lower among high objective stress group (1.7 ng/ml; 0.3–2.7) compared with that among low objective stress group (2.2; 0.5–3.5) ( P = 0.07), whereas the level of total sIgA was significantly higher among higher objective stress group (72.9 end-point titer/mg/ml/min; 14.4–153.4) compared with that among low objective stress group (44.8; 9.9–123.8) ( P = 0.02). Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that psychological job stress affects the levels of some immunological biomarkers in female nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the role of common variation in innate immunity-related genes as susceptibility factors to breast cancer risk in Korean women. Methods: Total 1536 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 203 genes were analyzed by Illumina GoldenGate assay in 209 cases and the same numbers of controls. Both SNP and gene-based tests were used to evaluate the association with breast cancer risk. The robustness of results was further evaluated with permutation method, false discovery rate and haplotype analyses. Results: Both SNP and gene-based analyses showed promising associations with breast cancer risk for 17 genes: OR10J3, FCER1A, NCF4, CNTNAP1, CTNNB1, KLKB1, ITGB2, ALOX12B, KLK2, IRAK3, KLK4, STAT6, NCF2, CCL1, C1QR1, MBP and NOS1. The most significant association with breast cancer risk was observed for the OR10J3 SNP (rs2494251, P-value = 1.2 × 10−4) and FCER1A SNP (rs7548864, P-value = 7.7 × 10−4). Gene-based permutation and false discovery rate P-values for OR10J3 SNP (rs2494251) with breast cancer risk were also significant (P = 4 × 10−5 and 0.008, respectively). Haplotype analyses supported these findings that OR10J3 and FCER1A were most significantly associated with risk for breast cancer (P = 2 × 10−4 and 0.004, respectively). Conclusion: This study suggests that common genetic variants in the OR10J3 and FCER1A be strongly associated with breast cancer risk among Korean women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nitric oxide (NO) induces cytotoxicity and angiogenesis, and may play a role in prostate carcinogenesis, potentially modulated by environmental exposures. We evaluated the association of prostate cancer with genetic polymorphisms in two genes related to intracellular NO: NOS2A [inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS); −2892T>C, Ex16 + 14C>T (S608L), IVS16 + 88T>G and IVS20 + 524G>A] and NOS3 [endothelial NOS; IVS1 − 762C>T, Ex7 − 43C>T (D258D), IVS7 − 26A>G, Ex8 − 63G>T (E298D) and IVS15 − 62G>T]. Prostate cancer cases (n = 1320) from the screening arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial were frequency matched to controls (n = 1842), by age, race, time since initial screening and year of blood draw. An antioxidant score [range 3–12; low (3–7) versus high (8–12)] was created by summing the quartile levels of vitamin E, β-carotene and lycopene, which were coded from 1 to 4, respectively. The global tests for all eight single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (excluding NOS2A −2892T>C, with low minor allele frequency) were statistically significant for prostate cancer (P = 0.005), especially for aggressive cancer (stage III–IV or Gleason score ≥ 7) (P = 0.01). The NOS2A IVS16 + 88 GT/TT was associated with increased prostate caner risk (odds ratio = 1.24, 95% confidence interval = 1.00–1.54), whereas the IVS20 + 524 AG/GG was associated with decreased risk (0.77, 0.66–0.90). The NOS3 IVS7 − 26GG was associated with increased prostate caner risk (1.33, 1.07–1.64). All these SNPs showed significant associations with aggressive cancer and not for non-aggressive cancer. In the evaluation of effect modification, the effect of the NOS2A IVS16 + 88 GT/TT on aggressive cancer was stronger among subjects with higher antioxidant intake (1.61, 1.18–2.19; Pinteraction = 0.01). Our results suggest that NOS gene polymorphisms are genetic susceptibility factors for aggressive prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objectives   This study was conducted to evaluate the potential role of CASP8 genetic polymorphisms in the etiology of breast cancer in a case–control study, Korea. Methods  Incident breast cancer cases confirmed histologically (n = 1,599) were recruited from two hospitals in Seoul during 2001–2005. Control subjects (n = 1,536) were selected from the Health Examinee Cohort from Seoul and Gyeonggi Province surrounding Seoul, Korea. Three SNPs (D302H D > H, 5′-UTR C > T, and K337K G > A) were genotyped by the primer extension assay. The CASP8 D302H, which was not polymorphic in 48 samples, was excluded in further genotyping. Odds ratios and 95% confidential intervals (95% CIs) were estimated by unconditional logistic regression model adjusted for age at enrollment, education, age at first full-term pregnancy, cigarette smoking, and family history of breast cancer. Results  The 5′-UTR T allele containing genotypes (CT/TT) were associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, compared with those with the CC genotype (OR = 1.13, 95% CI = 0.95–1.34; and OR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.04–2.10, respectively; P-trend = 0.02). When stratified by the estrogen and progesterone receptor status, the association between the 5′-UTR T allele and breast cancer risk was prominent in ER(+) and PR(+) cases among pre-menopausal women (OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.00–1.72 and OR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.06–1.85, respectively), whereas the association was found prominent in ER(−) or PR(−) cases (OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 0.93–1.87 and OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.04–1.94, respectively) among post-menopausal women. Conclusion  Our results thus suggest that the CASP8 5′-UTR C > T are associated with breast cancer risks and the effect may be modified by estrogen and progesterone receptor status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new building detection and description algorithm for lidar data and photogrammetric imagery using directional histograms, splitting and merging segments, and line segments matching. Our algorithm consists of three steps. In the first step, we extract initial building regions from lidar data. Here, we apply a modified local maxima technique coupled with directional histograms and the entropies of these histograms. In the second step, given the color segmentation results from the photogrammetric imagery, we extract coarse building boundaries based on the lidar results with region segmentation and merging from aerial imagery. In the third step, we extract precise building boundaries based on the coarse building boundaries using line segments matching and perceptual grouping. Experimental results on multisensor data demonstrate that the proposed algorithm produces accurate and reliable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]