Lentigo maligna (LM) is a melanoma in situ and the incidence is still rising in The Netherlands. LM is mostly located in the face, therefore radical surgical removal, which is the first choice of treatment, can be challenging in this delicate anatomical region. Staged excision is considered a useful alternative. The initial diagnosis of clinically suspicious LM is usually based on just one or a few biopsies, which may lead to reclassification into lentigo maligna melanoma (LMM) based on histological evaluation of the excision specimen. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 170 breast cancer susceptibility loci. Here we hypothesize that some risk-associated variants might act in non-breast tissues, specifically adipose tissue and immune cells from blood and spleen. Using expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) reported in these tissues, we identify 26 previously unreported, likely target genes of overall breast cancer risk variants, and 17 for estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer, several with a known immune function. We determine the directional effect of gene expression on disease risk measured based on single and multiple eQTL. In addition, using a gene-based test of association that considers eQTL from multiple tissues, we identify seven (and four) regions with variants associated with overall (and ER-negative) breast cancer risk, which were not reported in previous GWAS. Further investigation of the function of the implicated genes in breast and immune cells may provide insights into the etiology of breast cancer. Over 170 susceptibility loci have been identified by genome-wide association studies in breast cancer. Here, the authors interrogated the role of risk-associated variants from non-breast tissue, and using expression quantitative trait loci, identify potential target genes of known breast cancer susceptibility variants, as well as 11 regions not previously known to be associated with breast cancer risk.

Tractography is a family of algorithms that use diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data to reconstruct the white matter pathways of the brain. Although it has been proven to be particularly effective for studying non-invasively the neuronal architecture of the brain, recent studies have highlighted that the large incidence of false positive connections retrieved by these techniques can significantly bias any connectivity analysis. Some solutions have been proposed to overcome this issue and the ones relying on convex optimization framework showed a significant improvement. Here we propose an evolution of the Convex Optimization Modeling for Microstructure Informed Tractography (COMMIT) framework, that combines basic prior knowledge about brain anatomy with group-sparsity regularization into the optimization problem. We show that the new formulation dramatically reduces the incidence of false positives in synthetic DW-MRI data.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2018/3078031.].

The selection of sustainable supplier has a strategic significance and represents critical phase for whole sustainable supply chain.From this activity depend on the process of functioning of the supply chain. The aim of this paper is defining the most important criteria for assessment and selection of sustainable supplier in the company for the production of lime. For decision-making of this process expert’s team for comparison and assessment of the criteria grouped in two levels has formed. In the first level are economic, social and environmental criteria which consist of seven sub-criteria for each main group. For determining significance of criteria Full Consistency method (FUCOM) has applied. Obtained results show the significance of criteria on both levels of decision-making for sustainable supplier selection. Adequate supplier selection using sustainable criteria ensuring the possibility for timely and quality production. This provides a growing of competition in the market for companies.

Dear Editor, We highly appreciate Dr Altundag's feedback regarding our recently published manuscript in The Breast Journal.1 We are also thankful to the editor in chief (Dr S. Masood) for giving us the opportunity to address Dr Altundag's comments. Neo‐adjuvant chemotherapy has been widely used for breast cancer treatment due to the effective pathologic responses seen with newer therapeutic agents.2 Recently, it has also been introduced for the treatment of early breast cancer.3 Despite this, there is ongoing debate and controversies related to the use of neo‐adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer (critically appraised in a recent review by Vaidya et al2). We find Dr Altundag's point regarding our neo‐adjuvant cohort quite valid. In our study, ~43% of patients with invasive apocrine carcinoma (IAC) presented at the advanced stage (III or IV) with only 19% of the patients having the tumor size ≤2 cm at presentation. This is mainly due to the lack of organized screening program at the national level. In this regard, our small IAC cohort treated in neo‐adjuvant setting is somehow biased but it essentially reflected the previous and current overall breast cancer presentation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Consequently, the response rates to neo‐adjuvant therapy in our study may be different from the previously published data. Noteworthy, IAC is a rare breast cancer subtype (~1%‐2% of all breast cancers)4,5 and future larger and multi‐institutional studies are required to validate the effectiveness of (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with IAC.

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities1,2. This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity3–6. Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017—and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions—was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing—and in some countries reversal—of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS While non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is rapidly becoming the most common liver disease worldwide, its treatment remains elusive. Since metabolic impairment plays a major role in NAFLD pathogenesis, any pharmaceuticals, such as molecular hydrogen (H2), that advance lipid and glucose metabolism could be appropriate to tackle this complex condition. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of 28-day hydrogen-rich water intake on liver fat deposition, body composition and lab chemistry profiles in overweight patients suffering from mild-to-moderate NAFLD. METHODS Twelve overweight outpatients with NAFLD (age 56.2 ± 10.0 years; body mass index 37.7 ± 5.3 kg/m2; 7 women and 5 men) voluntarily participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial. All patients were allocated to receive either 1 L per day of hydrogen-rich water (HRW) or placebo water for 28 days. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (ID NCT03625362). RESULTS Dual-echo MRI revealed that HRW significantly reduced liver fat accumulation in individual liver regions-of-interest at 28-day follow-up, as compared to placebo administration (P < 0.05). Baseline liver fat content was reduced from 284.0 ± 118.1 mM to 256.5 ± 108.3 mM after hydrogen treatment at 28-day follow-up (percent change 2.9%; 95% CI from 0.5 to 5.5). Serum aspartate transaminase levels dropped by 10.0% (95% CI; from -23.2 to 3.4) after hydrogen treatment at 28-day follow-up. No significant differences were observed between treatment groups in either weight or body composition among participants. CONCLUSIONS Although preliminary, the results of this trial perhaps nominate HRW as an adjuvant treatment for mild-to-moderate NAFLD. These observations provide a rationale for further clinical trials to establish safety and efficacy of molecular hydrogen in NAFLD.

Na uzorku od 25 vaterpolista različitog kvalitativnog nivoa izvršena je procjena značaja kvaliteta „škara“ na jačinu bacanja vaterpolo lopte u uslovima optimalnog stanja aktuelne muskulature, kao i nakon pojave lokalnog zamora te procjena maksimalne sile ispitanika ostvarene prilikom simulacije suta primjenom klasicne dinamometrije. Tehniku ispitanika vrednovala je grupa eksperata dodjelom ocjena u rasponu od 5 do 10. Na osnovu ekspertskih ocjena uzorak je podjeljen u tri kvalitativne grupe: uslovno majstori (4 ispitanika), prosječni vaterpolisti (16 ispitanika) i uslovno početnici (5 ispitanika). Uvidom u dobijene rezultate statističke analize u potpunosti je potvrđena pretpostavka da zamor manje posledice ostavlja kod najkvalitetnijih takmičara. Realizovani nivoi značajnosti, naime, bili su niži od teorijskog limita (Sig.<,05) samo u subuzorcima tehnički prosječnih i najslabijih vaterpolista, dok su u grupi najkvalitetnijih ispitanika razlike izostale. Iako je i kod najjače grupe preciznost u prosjeku opala gotovo za jednu petinu (za oko 19%), ta promjena nije bila dovoljna da bi se proglasila i statistički signifikantnom. U grupi prosječnih i grupi početnika, relativni pad dužine bacanja je bio čak i niži nego u najjačoj grupi (15,99% u srednjoj grupi i 18,4% u najslabijoj), ali je ta promjena, zbog značajno nižih početnih vrijednosti (dobijenih u pretestu) bila ocjenjena kao statistički značajna.

In 2018, massive street protests against its corruption forced the long-dominant political party in Armenia to relinquish power to its nemesis, who himself had been imprisoned for leading protests ten years earlier. The peaceful transition earned the name the “Velvet Revolution.” The new Armenian government hosted the principal author of this essay at a week-long conference on anticorruption policy in Yerevan, its capital, with judges, prosecutors, and investigators selected for their integrity and competence. Based on the attitudes and concerns they expressed, publicly available documents reflecting years of research on the Armenian government and corruption and the circumstances of the Velvet Revolution, the authors sought to determine whether particular background conditions and/or characteristics of the peaceful rebellion were especially conducive to the successful implementation of a more fully democratic leadership, opposed to corruption and committed to the rule of law. In the literature addressing such questions in other national contexts, the authors found a similar pattern of background conditions and characteristics, leading to their conclusion that such elements can indeed foster successful transitions. Further research should assess future developments in Armenia, and determine how widely the lessons of its experience can be applied.