Lifetime Risk of Radiation Induced Severe Hereditary Stochastic (SHS) Effects in Medical Radiation Personnel

Background: Hereditary risk assessments in medical radiation workers must be accentuated as a precaution against genetic diseases. Ionizing radiations can induce hereditary or genetic radiation effects. Aim: To evaluate the lifetime risk of severe hereditary stochastic (SHS) effects in INMOL’s medical radiation personnel. Methods: The determination of the ‘whole-body’ effective doses was performed by ‘dose assessment algorithm’. We adopted the procedure described by ICRP for the assessment of lifetime severe hereditary annual risks by using ‘nominal probability coefficient’. Results: The AAEDs were between 1.41-1.79 mSv (in NM), 1.07-1.43 mSv (in RT) and 1.21-1.70 mSv (in RD) during 2014-2018. A declining trend is observed in AAED values in five consecutive years, due to improvements in radiation protection and safety measures. The risks of severe hereditary effects were also decreased from 2014-2018. The SHS risk was decreased from 5.012×10-4 to 3.948 ×10-4 in NM, 4.004×10-4 to 2.996×10-4 in RT and 4.76×10-4 to 3.388×10-4 in DR department. Conclusion: This study is emphasizing towards evaluating risks of hereditary effects from chronic exposure of radiations in occupational workers to avoid further late genetic complications. Such quantitative indicators would be useful in comparing other lifetime death risks from other harmful substances. Keywords: Hereditary Stochastic Effects; Annual Average Effective Doses; Nominal Probability Coefficient; Medical Radiation; Occupational Radiation Risk Assessments

Global Stability of Switched HIV/AIDS Models with Drug Treatment Involving Caputo-Fractional Derivatives

In this paper, we formulate and investigate new switched HIV/AIDS models with drug treatment involving Caputo-fractional derivatives. Initially, due to the fractional derivative order related to the memory and hereditary effects and supposing that the model coefficients are time-varying parameters, we develop a Caputo-fractional order HIV/AIDS models with switching parameters and study their dynamics utilizing Lyapunov–Razumikhin technique. Furthermore, the results show that the fractional derivative α ( 0 < α < 1 ) and the switching parameters are related to the critical threshold value ( R ^ or R ¯ ) which ensures disease eradication under the condition of R ^ < 1 or R ¯ < 1 . Then, a treatment compartment is introduced into the above model from the asymptomatic infected individuals until the full blown AIDS individuals. Novel sufficient conditions on the threshold value are derived to verify that the disease is eventually cleared as the critical threshold parameter is below unity. Finally, some simulations are employed to support the main results and one future research direction is presented.

Exponential Attractors for the 3D Fractional-order Bardina Turbulence Model With Memory and Horizontal Filtering

We consider the 3D simplified Bardina turbulence model with horizontal filtering, fractional dissipation, and the presence of a memory term incorporating hereditary effects. We analyze the regularity properties and the dissipative nature of the considered system and, in our main result, we show the existence of a global exponential attractor in a suitable phase space.

Ionizing Radiation-Induced Epigenetic Modifications and Their Relevance to Radiation Protection

The present system of radiation protection assumes that exposure at low doses and/or low dose-rates leads to health risks linearly related to the dose. They are evaluated by a combination of epidemiological data and radiobiological models. The latter imply that radiation induces deleterious effects via genetic mutation caused by DNA damage with a linear dose-dependence. This picture is challenged by the observation of radiation-induced epigenetic effects (changes in gene expression without altering the DNA sequence) and of non-linear responses, such as non-targeted and adaptive responses, that in turn can be controlled by gene expression networks. Here, we review important aspects of the biological response to ionizing radiation in which epigenetic mechanisms are, or could be, involved, focusing on the possible implications to the low dose issue in radiation protection. We examine in particular radiation-induced cancer, non-cancer diseases and transgenerational (hereditary) effects. We conclude that more realistic models of radiation-induced cancer should include epigenetic contribution, particularly in the initiation and progression phases, while the impact on hereditary risk evaluation is expected to be low. Epigenetic effects are also relevant in the dispute about possible “beneficial” effects at low dose and/or low dose-rate exposures, including those given by the natural background radiation.

Matthew Tindal i redukcja chrześcijaństwa do religii naturalnej

In his Christianity as Old as the Creation Matthew Tindal has reduced Christian religion to the natural religion. His reduction was the last stage of purification of Protestant religion from its supernatural elements. This whole process was taking place in England between 1534 and 1730. The main conclusion of this English deist sounded: the revealed religion was the only repetition of the eternal natural religion, based on the law of nature and human reason. Simultaneously he claimed that any Christian proprium (specific Christian content) did not exist in relation to any other non Christian religion. In this article I put this problem through critical assesment, making analysis of Tindal’s argumentation and confronting it with (to some degree) Thomas Becconsall views, expressed in his The Grounds and Foundation of Natural Religion. In contrast to Becconsall Tindal understands the nature of man in another way. This latter rejects the opinion that human nature was burdened with certain moral ineffectuality. According to it human being is more prone to misdeeds than to good deeds. In Christian religion it was possible to explain by the original sin and its hereditary effects in the history of mankind. Matthew Tindal rejects this Christian dogma. In reality he understands man’s existence in the state of pure nature and with reason acting without limitations. It corresponds to the situation of man before the Fall into the original sin. But Tindal is not any atheist. He is convinced of God’s existence as the Creator of the world and people. The reason of human beings participates in the light of Divine Wisdom. Thus cognition of God and human moral duties are possible (in practice) by intellectual effort directed to the sensible creatures only. This kind of rational investigation is characteristic for methaphysical cognition. In fact, there is small step from deism to atheism. English Enlightenment, based on the enlightened reason, was initially deistic character, afterwards on the Continent (especially in France) it quickly assumed atheistic form. In considerable degree it was possible owing to English deists like Matthew Tindal. They draw the ultimate conclusion from the plurality of Protestant denominations.

The Selby-Russell Dispute Regarding the Nonreporting of Critical Data in the Mega-Mouse Experiments of Drs William and Liane Russell That Spanned Many Decades: What Happened, Current Status, and Some Ramifications

The Russells began their studies of the hereditary effects of radiation in the late 1940s, and their experiments contributed much to what is known about the induction of gene mutations in mice. I had a close association with them for about 26 years, and they relied on me considerably for database management and statistical support. In 1994, I was shocked to discover that, in experiments on males, they had failed to report numerous spontaneous mutations that arose during the perigametic interval and were detected as clusters of mutations. I realized that their nondisclosure of this information meant that the decades-long application of their data to estimate hereditary risks of radiation to humans using the doubling-dose approach had resulted in a several-fold overestimation of risk. I accordingly reported the situation to funding agencies. The resulting complicated situation is referred to here as the Selby-Russell Dispute. Highlights of the resulting investigation, as well as what occurred afterward, are described, and reasons will be provided to show why, in my opinion, the hereditary risk from radiation in humans was likely overestimated by at least 10-fold because the Russells decided not to report critical information from their massive experiments.

Fertility and sterility in some Iraqi families

The present study aims at examining some hereditary effects (sterility and fertility) in sampled Iraqi families. The study includes 1000 families chosen from different areas. The samples are randomly chosen and from different cultural levels. The results show that there are normal differences in the ratio of the influencing factors on reproduction, such as fertility and sterility among foreign married and consanguineous ones. The high rate is found in the first step Consanguineous marriage where it reaches 3.5 (9.2-7.9X2) with the possibility of 0.05 free degree for the first and the second steps as compared with the foreign marriage. The ratio of the spontaneous abortion, the embryo death and the child death under the age of two years are high as compared with the rate of the foreign marriage which are as follows: (22.1), (3.3) and (5.2) respectively (valued 6.8-8.3X2) with the possibility of 0.05 free degree. Also, it is noticed that the ratio of the reproduction disorder of the sample under study is 53%, which is high as compared with the rate of the other studies that were carried out in Iraq. Also, it has been seen that there is a decrease in the internal marriage factor (F=0.27) and the ratio of Consanguineous marriage in this study is 56.6%, which is high as compared with other studies. This is evidence that the heredity danger awareness from the consanguineous marriage is below the required level.

Variance Components Models for Analysis of Big Family Data of Health Outcomes in the Lifelines Cohort Study

Large multigenerational cohort studies offer powerful ways to study the hereditary effects on various health outcomes. However, accounting for complex kinship relations in big data structures can be methodologically challenging. The traditional kinship model is computationally infeasible when considering thousands of individuals. In this article, we propose a computationally efficient alternative that employs fractional relatedness of family members through a series of founding members. The primary goal of this study is to investigate whether the effect of determinants on health outcome variables differs with and without accounting for family structure. We compare a fixed-effects model without familial effects with several variance components models that account for heritability and shared environment structure. Our secondary goal is to apply the fractional relatedness model in a realistic setting. Lifelines is a three-generation cohort study investigating the biological, behavioral, and environmental determinants of healthy aging. We analyzed a sample of 89,353 participants from 32,452 reconstructed families. Our primary conclusion is that the effect of determinants on health outcome variables does not differ with and without accounting for family structure. However, accounting for family structure through fractional relatedness allows for estimating heritability in a computationally efficient way, showing some interesting differences between physical and mental quality of life heritability. We have shown through simulations that the proposed fractional relatedness model performs better than the standard kinship model, not only in terms of computational time and convenience of fitting using standard functions in R, but also in terms of bias of heritability estimates and coverage.

Radiosensitivity and transgenerational effects in non-human species

The ALLIANCE working group on effects of ionising radiation on wildlife brings together European researchers to work on the topics of radiosensitivity and transgenerational effects in non-human biota. Differences in radiation sensitivity across species and phyla are poorly understood, but have important implications for understanding the overall effects of radiation and for radiation protection; for example, sensitive species may require special attention in monitoring and radiation protection, and differences in sensitivity between species also lead to overall effects at higher levels (community, ecosystem), since interactions between species can be altered. Hence, understanding the mechanisms of interspecies radiation sensitivity differences may help to clarify mechanisms underpinning intraspecies variation. Differences in sensitivity may only be revealed when organisms are exposed to ionising radiation over several generations. This issue of potential long-term or hereditary effects for both humans and wildlife exposed to low doses of ionising radiation is a major concern. Animal and plant studies suggest that gamma irradiation can lead to observable effects in the F1 generation that are not attributable to inheritance of a rare stable DNA mutation. Several studies have provided evidence of an increase in genomic instability detected in germ or somatic cells of F1 organisms from exposed F0 organisms. This can lead to induced radiosensitivity, and can result in phenotypic effects or lead to reproductive effects and teratogenesis. In particular, studies have been conducted to understand the possible role of epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, or expression of non-coding RNAs in radiosensitivity, as well as in adaptation effects. As such, research using biological models in which the relative contribution of genetic and epigenetic processes can be elucidated is highly valuable.