by Virginie Vignard  and Delphine Fradin

Received: 13 March 2018;  Published: 15 May 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1802020

Melanoma is a highly aggressive skin cancer with high incidence worldwide. There is growing evidence that aberrantly expressed non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) play a role in the development, progression and dissemination of melanoma tumor cells. Among the many types of ncRNAs described in this review, the functions of micro- and long non-coding RNAs are described and related to the six hallmarks of cancer. Recently, ncRNAs discovered in body fluids have become known as one of the most promising groups of oncological bioma [...]

by Stephanie Bryan  , Maryellen Hamilton  and Elizabeth Finn

Received: 21 February 2018;  Published: 15 May 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.icm.1802006

Purpose: High levels of mindfulness correspond with some positive health behaviors such as exercise participation, fruit and vegetable intake, and effective stress management. This study provided mindfulness meditation during an academic semester to a group of predominantly minority college students derived from a population in which 77.9% of the students are considered economically disadvantaged, to assess the effects of mindful meditation on various health behaviors and mindfulness to combat avoidable health ineq [...]

by Andrew Hanna  and Aileen M. Pidgeon

Received: 04 April 2018;  Published: 15 May 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.icm.1802007

Objective: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have shown promise in cultivating resilience and are widely accepted as efficacious in the treatment of a range of psychological disorders. This paper explores the feasibility of a Mindful-Awareness and Resilience Skills Training (MARST) program to enhance mindfulness and resilience, as a means of increasing psychological well-being and alleviating burnout and compassion fatigue in human service professionals. Method: In this randomised control trial, 46 human servi [...]

by Peter Bauer  , Gabriele Wildhardt  , Dieter Gläser  , Clemens Müller-Reible  , Hanno J. Bolz  , Hanns-Georg Klein  , Ulrich Finckh  and Ute Hehr

Received: 24 September 2017;  Published: 28 April 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1802019

On behalf of the German Society of Human Genetics, we present guidelines for molecular genetic diagnostic testing using high-throughput technology, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS). These guidelines have been formulated by an expert group and reviewed by members of the German Society of Human Genetics. Building on the existing EuroGentest guidelines for diagnostic NGS, these updated guidelines incorporate additional aspects and country-specific topics. New considerations include the introduction of a check [...]

by Masayuki Shimoda  and Shinichi Matsumoto

Received: 25 February 2018;  Published: 25 April 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1802008

More than 10 million people worldwide suffer from type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Allogeneic islet transplantation has been established to prevent severe hypoglycemia in unstable T1DM patients although there is a serious shortage of donors. Islet xenotransplantation using porcine islets is a promising solution to this issue. Porcine islets offer several advantages over human islets, including unlimited and on-demand supplies, a higher quality of islets from healthy donors, greater safety with designated pathogen-f [...]

by Fung Kei Cheng

Received: 02 March 2018;  Published: 23 April 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.icm.1802005

Background: Dementia erodes the quality of life of patients and their caregivers, and the growing dementia population threatens public finance in the health and social services. In addition to formal medical treatments, complementary and alternative medicine is applicable to dementia, in which acupuncture has become an option for prevention, remedy, and rehabilitation. Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medical method that uses needle penetration at acupoints (specific points throughout the body which will be sti [...]

by Michael Frass

Received: 07 April 2018;  Published: 20 April 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.icm.1802004

Oncology patients often suffer from the side-effects of conventional therapy, such as chemotherapy, radiation and/or surgery. Additive complementary medicine, such as homeopathy might be beneficial in the support of these patients. Several case reports as well as some studies have suggested the beneficial effects of homeopathy in cancer patients. Furthermore, homeopathy may also be helpful in improving quality of life (QoL). Homeopathic remedies also offer the advantage that they can be combined with a variety of c [...]

by Stanislav Birko  , Marie-Eve Lemoine  , Minh Thu Nguyen  and Vardit Ravitsky

Received: 10 February 2018;  Published: 19 April 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1802018

Women’s reproductive autonomy, and its translation into informed free choice regarding prenatal screening, is a dominant concept in the bioethical discourse concerning prenatal screening. This discourse is based on the premise that access to information regarding the pregnancy promotes autonomous decision-making. However, studies show that the offer of prenatal screening as a routine part of pregnancy care is not supported, to a large degree, by appropriate informed consent mechanisms. This means that the implement [...]

by Nagarajan Paramasivam  , Martin Granzow  , Christina Evers  , Katrin Hinderhofer  , Stefan Wiemann  , Claus R. Bartram  , Roland Eils  and Matthias Schlesner

Received: 24 October 2017;  Published: 16 April 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.1802017

Background: With genome sequencing entering clinics as a diagnostic tool to detect genetic disorders, there is an increasing need for bioinformatics-based solutions that enable precise causal variant identification in a timely manner. Workflows for the identification of candidate disease-causing variants usually perform the following tasks: i) identification of variants; ii) filtering of variants to remove polymorphisms and technical artifacts; and iii) prioritization of remaining variants to provide a small set of [...]

by Richard Sarnat

Received: 09 March 2018;  Published: 12 April 2018;  doi: 10.21926/obm.icm.1802003

While “miraculous healings” of various disease states have been scientifically reported previously, the exact mechanism, which allow for these seeming miracles or spontaneous remissions is poorly understood. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15] By contrast, the mechanism of action underlying the “miraculous healings” in the three case studies reported herein: Sarcoidosis, Chronic Lyme disease and Fibromyalgia seems to be understood with greater clarity, as these case reports are representative of the many hundreds [...]