Sex and gender in biomedicine: theories, methodologies, results

Sex and gender in biomedicine are innovative research concepts of theoretical and clinical medicine that enable a better understanding of health and disease, evidence-based knowledge, effective therapies, and better health outcomes for women and men. Gender Medicine stimulates new ways of doing research: that is to consider sex and gender at all levels of research, from basic research into gene polymorphisms to health behaviour. New research questions have been put forward that focus not on differences per se but on the development of differences. In this book, contributions from the field of neuroscience, addiction research, and organ transplantation exemplify concepts, approaches, methods and results in the field

Sex and gender in biomedicine - theories, methodologies, results

Sex and gender in biomedicine are innovative research concepts of theoretical and clinical medicine that enable a better understanding of health and disease, evidence-based knowledge, effective therapies, and better health outcomes for women and men. Gender Medicine stimulates new ways of doing research: that is to consider sex and gender at all levels of research, from basic research into gene polymorphisms to health behaviour. New research questions have been put forward that focus not on differences per se but on the development of differences. In this book, contributions from the field of neuroscience, addiction research, and organ transplantation exemplify concepts, approaches, methods and results in the field.Sex and gender in biomedicine are innovative research concepts of theoretical and clinical medicine that enable a better understanding of health and disease, evidence-based knowledge, effective therapies, and better health outcomes for women and men. Gender Medicine stimulates new ways of doing research: that is to consider sex and gender at all levels of research, from basic research into gene polymorphisms to health behaviour. New research questions have been put forward that focus not on differences per se but on the development of differences. In this book, contributions from the field of neuroscience, addiction research, and organ transplantation exemplify concepts, approaches, methods and results in the field

Sex and gender in biomedicine

Sex and gender in biomedicine are innovative research concepts of theoretical and clinical medicine that enable a better understanding of health and disease, evidence-based knowledge, effective therapies, and better health outcomes for women and men. Gender Medicine stimulates new ways of doing research: that is to consider sex and gender at all levels of research, from basic research into gene polymorphisms to health behaviour. New research questions have been put forward that focus not on differences per se but on the development of differences. In this book, contributions from the field of neuroscience, addiction research, and organ transplantation exemplify concepts, approaches, methods and results in the field

Sex and gender in biomedicine - theories, methodologies, results

Sex and gender in biomedicine are innovative research concepts of theoretical and clinical medicine that enable a better understanding of health and disease, evidence-based knowledge, effective therapies, and better health outcomes for women and men. Gender Medicine stimulates new ways of doing research: that is to consider sex and gender at all levels of research, from basic research into gene polymorphisms to health behaviour. New research questions have been put forward that focus not on differences per se but on the development of differences. In this book, contributions from the field of neuroscience, addiction research, and organ transplantation exemplify concepts, approaches, methods and results in the field

Association Between Intent to Persist, Self-Efficacy, and Burnout among College First-Year STEM Students

This quantitative non-experimental predictive correlational study aimed to explore the relationship between intent to persist, academic self-efficacy, and burnout among college first-year STEM students. The study is important since there are high dropouts of undergraduate college STEM students that cause vast gaps in the STEM labor market. This study utilized a convenience sample of 112 STEM first-year students enrolled from a private university in southern United States for the spring semester of the 2023 school year. The setting for the study was primarily through virtual collaboration. Participation was voluntary and contact with participants was via social media and flyers with a link to the survey questionnaire. The students completed the online survey using the instruments College Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (CASES), Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) survey, and the Intention to Terminate Studies or Switch Majors Scale. Multiple linear regression was used for this study since this technique was best when working with two or more predictors and one criterion to assess the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic burnout, which has four scales: (exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive and emotional impairment) and intent to persist. Only two predictors were statistically significant. Based on the coefficients, it was found that emotional impairment and self-efficacy were the best predictors of intent to persist scores where p \u3c .001. Future research recommended includes replication studies in STEM colleges in different states as well as to recognize how the variables are forecasted within ethnicities and gender in diverse STEM colleges

Added value of acute multimodal CT-based imaging (MCTI) : a comprehensive analysis

Introduction: MCTI is used to assess acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients.We postulated that use of MCTI improves patient outcome regardingindependence and mortality.Methods: From the ASTRAL registry, all patients with an AIS and a non-contrast-CT (NCCT), angio-CT (CTA) or perfusion-CT (CTP) within24 h from onset were included. Demographic, clinical, biological, radio-logical, and follow-up caracteristics were collected. Significant predictorsof MCTI use were fitted in a multivariate analysis. Patients undergoingCTA or CTA&CTP were compared with NCCT patients with regards tofavourable outcome (mRS ≤ 2) at 3 months, 12 months mortality, strokemechanism, short-term renal function, use of ancillary diagnostic tests,duration of hospitalization and 12 months stroke recurrence

Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa

Cite: Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), (2006). Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa. [Online] Available at: DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/assaf/0038Two strands of influence have affected the publication of local scholarly journals in South Africa in the recent past. The first of these was the establishment of the Bureau of Scientific Publications that subsidized the publication of a number of journals that had been established during the 20th century. The ‘Bureau journals’ were an attempt to foster academic publication in South Africa and to make their products available to an international readership – quality of material was to be coupled to quality of production. In this respect the establishment of the Bureau was mimicking a similar development in Australia and could be seen as a mechanism for fostering home-grown talent. The second influence was a new mechanism of funding universities, which rewarded them directly for the academic publications that they produced. Both of these influences had a significant impact on the development of local journals, the behaviour of individuals, the financial sustainability of learned societies that produced the journals, and the institutions that received the ‘output’ subsidy. The Bureau was recently closed, with only one journal, The South Africa Journal of Science, continuing to receive support through the Academy of Science of South Africa on the basis of its international impact. The funding for ‘outputs’ of the tertiary institutions has continued, although in a modified form that includes a reward for completed masters and doctoral degrees. These developments raised two related questions. The first was whether it was appropriate for the state to support the publication of (some) learned journals in the interest of fostering intellectual exchange. The second question was whether all of the articles, published in journals recognized for the output subsidy of universities, deserved to receive recognition, in view of the wide variation in quality of the material produced. The Academy was commissioned in 2001 in this context by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (now the Department of Science and Technology) to undertake a study to address these two questions, with a view to making recommendations for the optimal development of policy in the future. The effect of globalization on knowledge exchange, which is mediated very largely through scientific journals being published in English, and having their origins in Europe and North America, has resulted in the neglect of regional journals. It has also led to the development of benchmarks based on bibliometric analysis of publication patterns that has resulted in global ranking of tertiary institutions. These trends are being countered in the African context, with its relatively neglected tertiary sector, by a need that is expressed by the African Academies of Science that are members of the Network of African Scientific Academies (NASAC), to consider the publication of high-quality journals that report work of significance to African scientists. The degree to which such a project is feasible, and whether it could be successfully implemented both in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent, needs to be explored after the release of this report. Although the report was prepared at the request of, and with funding from the Department of Science and Technology, in order amongst other matters to address specific questions that had been raised about the subsidy for scholarly outputs, its potential impact both in understanding international trends in scholarly knowledge production and in giving guidance to those who would like to foster the publication of indigenous journals, will be great if careful attention is given to the recommendations that are contained in this study. The report was developed and has been guided to a successful conclusion by Prof Wieland Gevers who initiated it during his tenure as President of the Academy and has now brought it to fruition as the Academy’s Executive Officer, with the invaluable assistance of Dr Xola Mati as study director. He and the authors of the various chapters are thanked for the care and attention with which they have produced a seminal analysis of South African publication patterns. They will receive their reward in full measure through the impact that this report will have on the further development of the National System of Innovation.Department of Science and Technolog

Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs) Use in Patients with Renal Insufficiency and Obesity

The popularity of Direct Oral AntiCoagulants (DOACs) for approved indications has risen dramatically following their introduction to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) due to their convenience of dosing surpassing warfarin. However, prescribing these medications to high-risk patients has been challenging since mainly due to uncertainties around limited clinical trial data. Patients with chronic kidney disease and obesity pose a risk in particular as DOAC dosing was significantly affected by the variables such as, body weight and renal function. Due to the increased prevalence of CKD and obesity among the NHS patient population, the cost savings of preferring DOACs over warfarin was no longerbeneficial due to higher costs of mortalities and consequential morbidities (e.g., strokes and bleeding events). There are very limited interventional studies to rationalise the sample sizes to generalise findings. Therefore, a retrospective real-world data-driven approach was used in this thesis in an attempt to optimise the DOACs dosing regimen for patients with renal impairment and obesity.The main data-driven techniques used in the thesis employed machine learning and multivariate logistic regression (The systematic review in Chapter 6 describes the potential of in-silico modelling). These were applied to a pre-processed dataset, carefully collected from Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust Hospitals, and profiled accordingly. The methodology was executed in three phases: overall analysis of the full dataset, comprising different BMI categories (Chapter 3), the data analyses comprising patients with morbid obesity only (Chapter 4), and the analyses of the overall dataset comprising patients with different categories of renal impairment (Chapter 5).The factors that influenced the clinical outcomes (such as mortality, ischaemic stroke, clinically relevant non-major bleeding (CRNMB), thromboembolism, length of stay, and emergency visits) in renal impairment and obesity were then determined following data analysis. Some of these factors, which included the individual DOACs administered, exerted a protective effect, while others worsened the safety and, or efficacy indicators. Also, it was found that some of the machine learning models employed in the thesis predicted the target (i.e., DOAC dose regimen) more accurately than others. Chapter 7 provides a discussion of the findings and makes reference and comparison with the existing evidence in the literature. More importantly, the results from patients with renal impairment and obesity were compared. Overall, the aim of generating real-world evidence for optimising DOACs safety and effectiveness in obesity and renal impairment was achieved. Our findings would support clinicians’ decision-making by reducing the uncertainty in DOACs prescribing.There is a need to validate the thesis findings with well-designed prospective studies. There is also a need to explore pharmacometrics analyses and advanced data-driven techniques such as reinforcement learning to arrive at more precise DOAC dosing estimates for patients with renal impairment and obesity