Nocturnal acid breakthrough is frequently seen on proton pump inhibitors twice daily and is often accompanied by oesophageal reflux. This has important implications for medical therapy in patients with severe gastro-oesophageal reflux and Barrett's oesophagus.

Childhood obesity is a major public health challenge and its prevalence continues to increase in many, but not all, countries worldwide. International data indicate that the prevalence of obesity is greater among boys than girls 5–19 years of age in the majority of high and upper middle-income countries worldwide. Despite this observed sex difference, relatively few studies have investigated sex-based and gender-based differences in childhood obesity. We propose several hypotheses that may shape the research agenda on childhood obesity. Differences in obesity prevalence may be driven by gender-related influences, such as societal ideals about body weight and parental feeding practices, as well as sex-related influences, such as body composition and hormones. There is an urgent need to understand the observed sex differences in the prevalence of childhood obesity; incorporation of sex-based and gender-based analysis in all childhood obesity studies may ultimately contribute to improved prevention and treatment.

Background: Surgical mortality data are collected routinely in high-income countries, yet virtually no low-or middle-income countries have outcome surveillance in place. The aim was prospectively to collect worldwide mortality data following emergency abdominal surgery, comparing findings across countries with a low, middle or high Human Development Index (HDI).Methods: This was a prospective, multicentre, cohort study. Self-selected hospitals performing emergency surgery submitted prespecified data for consecutive patients from at least one 2-week interval during July to December 2014. Postoperative mortality was analysed by hierarchical multivariable logistic regression.

Background: Vitamin D, from diet and sunlight exposure, may be associated with reduced breast-cancer risk. This study investigated if candidate gene variants in vitamin D pathways are associated with breast cancer risk, or modify the associations between breast cancer and vitamin D exposure.Methods: Breast cancer cases aged 25 to 74 years were identified from the Ontario Cancer Registry (histopathologically confirmed and diagnosed [2002][2003] and population-based controls were identified through random digit dialing of Ontario households. Saliva (DNA) was available for 1,777 cases and 1,839 controls. Multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate associations between 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in vitamin D related genes, including vitamin D binding protein (GC), vitamin D receptor (VDR), and cytochrome P450 type 24A1 (CYP24A1). Statistical interactions were assessed using the likelihood ratio test.Results: Some SNPs were found to be significantly associated with breast cancer risk. For example, breast cancer risk was associated with the GC rs7041 TT genotype (age-adjusted odds ratio (OR) ¼ 1.23; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.51) and inversely with the VDR Fok1 (rs2228570) ff genotype (OR ¼ 0.71; 95% CI: 0.57, 0.88). Few significant gene-environment interactions were observed between dietary vitamin D and genetic variants.Conclusion: Our study suggests certain vitamin D related genetic variants may influence breast-cancer risk and we found limited evidence that genetic variants modify the associations between vitamin D exposure and breast cancer risk.Impact: Variation in vitamin D-related genotypes may help to explain inconsistent results from previous epidemiologic studies and may lead to targeted prevention strategies. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(8); 1708-17. '2011 AACR.

Objectives Pancreatic adenocarcinoma has one of the worst survival rates of all the cancers. Established risk factors for this malignancy are smoking, body mass index (BMI) and family history of pancreatic cancer. Findings are inconsistent regarding pancreatitis, diabetes, allergies, intake of fruit, vegetables, red meat, alcohol, caffeine, vitamin C, calcium, and folate supplements. Possible pancreatic cancer risk factors were evaluated within the population-based Ontario Pancreas Cancer Study. Methods Pathologically confirmed pancreatic cancer cases (n = 422) were identified from the Ontario Cancer Registry between 2003 and 2007. Controls (n = 312) were recruited through random digit dialing. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. Multivariate logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios. Results Smoking, BMI, family history of pancreatic cancer, and caffeine were significantly associated with increased pancreatic cancer risk, while fruit intake and allergies significantly decreased risk. No other significant associations were observed in the multivariate model. Effect modification by smoking status was suggested for caffeine, family history of pancreatic cancer, BMI, and fruit. Conclusions This study further clarifies the association between several lifestyle, dietary and medical history factors, and pancreatic cancer risk, many of which are potentially modifiable. Possible effect modification by smoking status should be further explored in future etiologic studies.

Two prospective studies of ingrowing toenail management were conducted. In the first, 163 patients (204 ingrowing nail edges) who had not had previous surgery were randomised and treated by total nail avulsion, nail edge excision, or nail edge excision with phenolisation of the germinal matrix; recurrence rates one year postoperatively were 73%, 73% and 9% respectively. In the second study, 63 ingrowing nail edges which had recurred after previous operations underwent nail edge excision and phenolisation. There was a 5% recurrence rate and 5% incidence of dystrophy of the nail one year after operation.

We consider the issue of deadline tardiness under global multiprocessor scheduling algorithms. We present a general tardiness-bound derivation that is applicable to a wide variety of such algorithms (including some whose tardiness behavior has not been analyzed before). Our derivation is very general: job priorities may change rather arbitrarily at runtime, capacity restrictions may exist on certain processors, and, under certain conditions, non-preemptive regions are allowed. Our results show that, with the exception of static-priority algorithms, most global algorithms considered previously have bounded tardiness. In addition, our results provide a simple means for checking whether tardiness is bounded under newly-developed algorithms.

BackgroundIt is unknown if young children’s parent-reported physical activity and sedentary time are correlated with direct measures. The study objectives were to compare parent-reported physical and sedentary activity versus directly measured accelerometer data in early childhood.MethodsFrom 2013 to 2014, 117 healthy children less than 6 years of age were recruited to wear Actical accelerometers for 7 days. Accelerometer data and questionnaires were available on 87 children (74 %). Average daily physical activity was defined as the sum of activity ≥100 counts per minute, and sedentary time as the sum of activity <100 counts per minute during waking hours. Parents reported daily physical activity (unstructured free play in and out of school, and organized activities) and selected sedentary behaviors (screen time, stroller time, time in motor vehicle). Spearman correlation coefficients and Bland–Altman plots were used to assess the validity of parent-reported measures compared to accelerometer data.ResultsTotal physical activity was significantly greater when measured by accelerometer than parent-report; the median difference was 131 min/day (p < 0.001). Parent-reported child physical activity was weak to moderately correlated with directly measured total physical activity (r = 0.39, 95 % CI 0.19, 0.56). The correlations between types of physical activity (unstructured free play in and outside of school/daycare, and organized structured activity) and accelerometer were r = 0.30 (95 % CI 0.09, 0.49); r = 0.42 (95 % CI 0.23, 0.58); r = 0.26 (95 % CI 0.05, 0.46), respectively. There was no correlation between parent-reported and accelerometer-measured total sedentary time in children (r = 0.10, 95 % CI −0.12, 0.33). When the results were stratified by age group (<18, 18–47, and 48–70 months of age) no statistically significant correlations were observed and some inverse associations were observed.ConclusionsThe correlation between parent-report of young children’s physical activity and accelerometer-measured activity was weak to moderate depending on type of activity and age group. Parent-report of children’s sedentary time was not correlated with accelerometer-measured sedentary time. Additional validation studies are needed to determine if parent-reported measures of physical activity and sedentary time are valid among children less than 6 years of age and across these young age groups.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-015-1648-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.