FAM83H-AS1 is a potential modulator of cancer driver genes across different tumors and a prognostic marker for ER/PR + BRCA patients.

Breast cancer (BRCA) is a serious public health problem, as it is the most frequent malignant tumor in women worldwide. BRCA is a molecularly heterogenic disease, particularly at gene expression (mRNAs) level. Recent evidence shows that coding RNAs represent only 34% of the total transcriptome in a human cell. The rest of the 66% of RNAs are non-coding, so we might be missing relevant biological, clinical or regulatory information. In this report, we identified nine novel tumor types from TCGA with FAM83H-AS1 deregulation. We used survival analysis to demonstrate that FAM83H-AS1 expression is a marker for poor survival in IHC-detected ER and PR positive BRCA patients and found a significant correlation between FAM83H-AS1 overexpression and tamoxifen resistance. Estrogen and Progesterone receptor expression levels interact with FAM83H-AS1 to potentiate its effect in OS prediction. FAM83H-AS1 silencing impairs two important breast cancer related pathways: cell migration and cell death. Among the most relevant potential FAM83H-AS1 gene targets, we found p63 and claudin 1 (CLDN1) to be deregulated after FAM83H-AS1 knockdown. Using correlation analysis, we show that FAM83H-AS1 can regulate a plethora of cancer-related genes across multiple tumor types, including BRCA. This evidence suggests that FAM83H-AS1 is a master regulator in different cancer types, and BRCA in particular.

Road building, land use and climate change: prospects for environmental governance in the Amazon.

Some coupled land-climate models predict a dieback of Amazon forest during the twenty-first century due to climate change, but human land use in the region has already reduced the forest cover. The causation behind land use is complex, and includes economic, institutional, political and demographic factors. Pre-eminent among these factors is road building, which facilitates human access to natural resources that beget forest fragmentation. While official government road projects have received considerable attention, unofficial road building by interest groups is expanding more rapidly, especially where official roads are being paved, yielding highly fragmented forest mosaics. Effective governance of natural resources in the Amazon requires a combination of state oversight and community participation in a 'hybrid' model of governance. The MAP Initiative in the southwestern Amazon provides an example of an innovative hybrid approach to environmental governance. It embodies a polycentric structure that includes government agencies, NGOs, universities and communities in a planning process that links scientific data to public deliberations in order to mitigate the effects of new infrastructure and climate change.

A methodology for evaluating organizational change in community-based chronic disease interventions.

BACKGROUND: In 2003, the Monterey County Health Department, serving Salinas, California, was awarded one of 12 grants from the Steps to a HealthierUS Program to implement a 5-year, multiple-intervention community approach to reduce diabetes, asthma, and obesity. National adult and youth surveys to assess long-term outcomes are required by all Steps sites; however, site-specific surveys to assess intermediate outcomes are not required. CONTEXT: Salinas is a medically underserved community of primarily Mexican American residents with high obesity rates and other poor health outcomes. The health department's Steps program has partnered with traditional organizations such as schools, senior centers, clinics, and faith-based organizations as well as novel organizations such as employers of agricultural workers and owners of taquerias. METHODS: The health department and the Stanford Prevention Research Center developed new site-specific, community-focused partner surveys to assess intermediate outcomes to augment the nationally mandated surveys. These site-specific surveys will evaluate changes in organizational practices, policies, or both following the socioecological model, specifically the Spectrum of Prevention. CONSEQUENCES: Our site-specific partner surveys helped to 1) identify promising new partners, select initial partners from neighborhoods with the greatest financial need, and identify potentially successful community approaches; and 2) provide data for evaluating intermediate outcomes matched to national long-term outcomes so that policy and organizational level changes could be assessed. These quantitative surveys also provide important context-specific qualitative data, identifying opportunities for strengthening community partnerships. INTERPRETATION: Developing site-specific partner surveys in multisite intervention studies can provide important data to guide local program efforts and assess progress toward intermediate outcomes matched to long-term outcomes from nationally mandated surveys.

Dengue hemorrágico en el Estado Aragua. Informe preliminar / Hemorrhagic dengue in the Aragua state: preliminary report

La epidemia de DH es reconocida en el Estado Aragua, el 25-11-89, El caso índice fue un preescolar de tres años de edad, que ingresa con el diagnóstico de DH/SSH y fallece a las dos horas de su ingreso. Los estudios serológicos caracterizaron el serotipo Dengue-2. Desde entonces se declara la alerta epidemiológica y se inicia un programa de lucha contra el vector y además se realizan múltiples revisiones bibliográficas. Se elaboran, apresuradamente, para el reconocimiento de los casos, criterios para la hospitalización oportuna y la difusión de las medidas preventivas, por los medios de Comunicación de masas de las medidas preventivas