How stress management improves quality of life after treatment for breast cancer.

The range of effects of psychosocial interventions on quality of life among women with breast cancer remains uncertain. Furthermore, it is unclear which components of multimodal interventions account for such effects. To address these issues, the authors tested a 10-week group cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention among 199 women newly treated for nonmetastatic breast cancer, following them for 1 year after recruitment. The intervention reduced reports of social disruption and increased emotional well-being, positive states of mind, benefit finding, positive lifestyle change, and positive affect for up to 12 months (indeed, some effects strengthened over time). With respect to mechanisms tested, the intervention increased confidence in being able to relax at will. There was also evidence that effects of the intervention on the various outcomes examined were mediated by change in confidence about being able to relax. Thus, this intervention had beneficial effects on diverse aspects of quality of life after treatment for breast cancer, which appear linked to a specific stress management skill taught in the intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Systematic study of shallow junction formation on germanium substrates

Published results on Ge junctions are benchmarked systematically using R_S-X_J plots. The electrical activation level required to meet the ITRS targets is calculated. Additionally, new results are presented on shallow furnace-annealed B junctions and shallow laser-annealed As junctions. Co-implanting B junctions with F is shown to degrade junction properties.     

Glucoraphanin does not reduce plasma homocysteine in rats with sufficient Se supply via the induction of liver ARE-regulated glutathione biosynthesis enzymes

Data from human and animal trials have revealed contradictory results regarding the influence of selenium (Se) status on homocysteine (HCys) metabolism. It was hypothesised that sufficient Se reduces the flux of HCys through the transsulphuration pathway by decreasing the expression of glutathione (GSH) synthesising enzymes. Glucoraphanin (GRA) is a potent inducer of genes regulated via an antioxidant response element (ARE), including those of GSH biosynthesis. We tested the hypothesis that GRA supplementation to rat diets lowers plasma HCys levels by increasing GSH synthesis. Therefore 96 weaned albino rats were assigned to 8 groups of 12 and fed diets containing four different Se levels (15, 50, 150 and 450 μg kg(diet)(-1)), either without GRA (groups: C15, C50, C150 and C450) or in combination with 700 μmol GRA kg(diet)(-1) (groups G15, G50, G150 and G450). Rats fed the low Se diets C15 and G15 showed an impressive decrease of plasma HCys. Se supplementation increased plasma HCys and lowered GSH significantly by reducing the expression of GSH biosynthesis enzymes. As new molecular targets explaining these results, we found a significant down-regulation of the hepatic GSH exporter MRP4 and an up-regulation of the HCys exporter Slco1a4. In contrast to our hypothesis, GRA feeding did not reduce plasma HCys levels in Se supplemented rats (G50, G150 and 450) through inducing GSH biosynthesis enzymes and MRP4, but reduced their mRNA in some cases to a higher extent than Se alone. We conclude: 1. That the long-term supplementation of moderate GRA doses reduces ARE-driven gene expression in the liver by increasing the intestinal barrier against oxidative stress. 2. That the up-regulation of ARE-regulated genes in the liver largely depends on GRA cleavage to free sulforaphane and glucose by plant-derived myrosinase or bacterial β-glucosidases. As a consequence, higher dietary GRA concentrations should be used in future experiments to test if GRA or sulforaphane can be established as HCys lowering compounds.     

Noise equalization for detection of microcalcification clusters in direct digital mammogram images

Equalizing image noise is shown to be an important step in the automatic detection of microcalcifications in digital mammography. This study extends a well established film-screen noise equalization scheme developed by Veldkamp et al. for application to full-field digital mammogram (FFDM) images. A simple noise model is determined based on the assumption that quantum noise is dominant in direct digital X-ray imaging. Estimation of the noise as a function of the gray level is improved by calculating the noise statistics using a truncated distribution method. Experimental support for the quantum noise assumption is presented for a set of step wedge phantom images. Performance of the noise equalization technique is also tested as a preprocessing stage to a microcalcification detection scheme. It is shown that the square root model based approach which FFDM allows leads to a robust estimation of the high frequency image noise. This provides better microcalcification detection performance when compared to the film-screen noise equalization method developed by Veldkamp. Substantially better results are obtained than when noise equalization is omitted. A database of 124 direct digital mammogram images containing 28 microcalcification clusters was used for evaluation of the method.