BACKGROUND Important risk factors for cutaneous melanoma (CM) are recognized, but standardized scores for individual assessment must still be developed. OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to develop a risk score of CM for a Brazilian sample. METHODS To verify the estimates of the main risk factors for melanoma, derived from a meta-analysis (Italian-based study), and externally valid...

OBJECTIVES To describe the constitutional risk factors for malignant melanoma and exposure to sunlight in a population sample in Iceland. METHODS Information on various risk factors for malignant melanoma was collected through mailed questionnaires sent to a random sample of the Icelandic population. The information collected was the first phase of a prospective study on malignant melanoma am...

S cience rarely allows the " is " —the way the world is—to become the " ought " of the way we think it should be. However, one particular aspect of modern biology may be of interest in this respect, namely, the history of our own genetic inheritance. As has been so often said, human evolution is the greatest story in history. We will use our own work on red hair and skin type genetics as an exa...

We have previously shown that a quantitative-trait locus linked to the OCA2 region of 15q accounts for 74% of variation in human eye color. We conducted additional genotyping to clarify the role of the OCA2 locus in the inheritance of eye color and other pigmentary traits associated with skin-cancer risk in white populations. Fifty-eight synonymous and nonsynonymous exonic single-nucleotide pol...

Recent studies demonstrated pigmented cells both in the murine heart, in pulmonary veins, and in brain arteries. Moreover, a role for melanocytes in the downregulation of inflammatory processes was suggested. As there is increasing evidence that inflammation is contributing significantly to the pathogenesis of intracranial aneurysms, melanocyte-like cells may be relevant in preventing age-relat...

We have previously described the role of red hair (melanocortin-1 receptor, MC1R) and blue eye (oculocutaneous albinism type II, OCA2) gene polymorphisms in modulating the risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) in a highly sun-exposed population of European descent. A number of recent studies, including genome-wide association studies, have identified numerous polymorphisms controlling huma...

Individualswith darker skin types comprise themajority of the global population. By the year 2050, the United States census data suggest that at least 50% of Americans will represent darker racial ethnic groups. There are myriad cutaneous advantages associated with deeply pigmented skin. The unique photoprotective effects of increased epidermal melanin minimize photodamage and decrease the inci...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the impressions made by different styles of dress and appearance adopted by physicians on patients, medical students and other physicians in Brazil. METHODS Two hundred fifty nine patients, 119 students, and 99 physicians answered questions related to a panel of male and female physicians' pictures covering the following styles: white clothing; white coat; formal, inf...

Risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) is increased in sun-exposed whites, particularly those with a pale complexion. This study was designed to investigate the relationship of the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) genotype to CMM risk, controlled for pigmentation phenotype. We report the occurrence of five common MC1R variants in an Australian population-based sample of 460 individuals with f...

This paper proposes a simple framework for face photo-sketch synthesis. We first describe the shadow details on faces and extract the prominent facial feature by two-scale decomposition using bilateral filtering. Then, we enhance the hair and some unapparent facial feature regions by combining the edge map and hair color similarity map. Finally, we obtain the face photo sketch by adding the res...