A multitude of dietary factors from dietary fat to macro and micronutrients intakes have been associated with breast cancer, yet data are still equivocal. Therefore, utilizing data from the large, multi-year, cross-sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we applied a novel, modern statistical shrinkage technique, logistic least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression, to examine the association between dietary intakes in women, ≥50 years, with self-reported breast cancer (n = 286) compared with women without self-reported breast cancer (1144) from the 1999–2010 NHANES cycle. Logistic LASSO regression was used to examine the relationship between twenty-nine variables, including dietary variables from food, as well as well-established/known breast cancer risk factors, and to subsequently identify the most relevant variables associated with self-reported breast cancer. We observed that as the penalty factor (λ) increased in the logistic LASSO regression, well-established breast cancer risk factors, including age (β = 0.83) and parity (β = −0.05) remained in the model. For dietary macro and micronutrient intakes, only vitamin B12 (β = 0.07) was positively associated with self-reported breast cancer. Caffeine (β = −0.01) and alcohol (β = 0.03) use also continued to remain in the model. These data suggest that a diet high in vitamin B12, as well as alcohol use may be associated with self-reported breast cancer. Nonetheless, additional prospective studies should apply more recent statistical techniques to dietary data and cancer outcomes to replicate and confirm the present findings.

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Abstract. We derive bounds on the variance of a finite universe. Some related inequalities for the roots of the polynomial equations and bounds for the largest and smallest eigenvalues of a square matrix with real spectrum are obtained.Mathematics subject classification (2010): 60E15, 15A42.

As in other areas of North America, Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts were ubiquitous in surface waters of the Ottawa, Canada, region, although the rivers studied are considered relatively pristine. Concentrations of Cryptosporidium oocysts, Giardia cysts, fecal and total coliforms, fecal streptococci, Aeromonas sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Clostridium perfringens, algae, and coliphages were measured in each of 51 raw water samples from rivers in the Ottawa (Canada) region over three months. This study also examined correlations between the protozoa concentrations and current or potential indicators of water quality in raw surface water. The article also reports the concentrations of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia lamblia cysts in two water treatment plants and in one wastewater plant. Significant correlations between fecal streptococci and Cryptosporidium oocysts and between Giardia and both somatic coliphages and algae were observed in raw surface water samples, but the relationships appear to be watershed‐dependent. No significant correlation was obtained between the presence of the protozoa and that of Clostridium perfringens or any of the other indicators.

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Bamboo, a lignocellulosic material, is a renewable source of interest as feedstock for production of cellulose derivatives by chemical functionalization. Optimization of hydroxypropylation of cellulosic material (average DP 816), isolated from bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) was, therefore, performed with respect to maximum percent hydroxylpropoxyl (% HP) contents under varying reaction conditions and studying their effect on the % HP. The optimized reaction conditions were aqueous NaOH concentration 22%, propylene oxide concentration 17.4 mol/AGU, temperature 50 C, duration of hydroxypropylation 4 h to yield hydroxypropyl cellulose of % HP 65.89. The g app of 1 and 2% solutions of the optimized product showed it to be non-Newtonian pseudoplastic.

The thermal degradation of polyacrylonitrile and copolymers of acrylonitrile (AN) with each of vinylacetate (VAC), methallyl sulfonate sodium salt (MASS), and 2‐acrylamido 2‐methyl propane sulfonate sodium salt (2‐AMPSS) i.e., P(AN–VAC), P(AN–MASS), P(AN–AMPSS), and P(AN–VAC–MASS), has been investigated using the technique of thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The initial decomposition temperature (IDT) and integral procedural decomposition temperature (IPDT) for all the copolymers are less than that for polyacrylonitrile irrespective of the nature of the vinyl comonomers. TGA thermograms indicate faster rate of degradation in copolymers compared to polyacrylonitrile. Variation in the glass transition temperature is correlated to the polarity of the functional groups in the polyacrylonitrile copolymers.

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