91 research outputs found
Exploration of risk factors for weight loss in head and neck cancer patients
Introduction: Head and neck cancer patients receiving radiotherapy can experience a number of toxicities, including weight loss and malnutrition, which can impact upon the quality of treatment. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study is to evaluate weight loss and identify predictive factors for this patient group.
Method and materials: 40 patients treated with radiotherapy since 2012 at the study centre were selected for analysis. Data was collected from patient records. The association between potential risk factors and weight loss was investigated.
Results: Mean weight loss was 5 kg (6%). 24 patients lost >5% starting body weight. Age, Tstage,N-stage, chemotherapy and starting body weight were individually associated with significant differences in weight loss. On multiple linear regression analysis age and nodal status were predictive.
Conclusion: Younger patients and those with nodal disease were most at risk of weight loss. Other studies have identified the same risk factors along with several other variables. The relative significance of each along with a number of other potential factors is yet to be fully understood. Further research is required to help identify patients most at risk of weight loss; and assess interventions aimed at preventing weight loss and malnutrition.</p
Sport Specificity and Training Influence Bone and Body Composition In Women Collegiate Athletes
Sport Specificity and Training Influence Bone and Body Composition In Women Collegiate Athletes
Jennifer M. Markos†, Aaron F. Carbuhn†, Tara E. Fernandez‡, Amy F. Bragg‡, John S. Green‡, FACSM, and Stephen F. Crouse‡, FACSM. Department of Health and Kinesiology and Department of Athletics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, (Sponsor: S.F. Crouse)
This is a novel descriptive study to characterize off-season, pre-season, and post-season bone and body composition measures in women collegiate athletes.
PURPOSE: To quantify changes in women collegiate athletes’ bone mineral content, bone mineral density (BMD), arm BMD, leg BMD, pelvis BMD, spine BMD, and body composition (i.e., total body mass, lean mass, fat mass, and percent body fat) within each sport through the seasonal periods, and among the sports at each seasonal period. METHODS: 67 women collegiate athletes from softball (n = 17), basketball (n = 10), volleyball (n = 7), swimming (n = 16), and track jumpers and sprinters (n = 17) were scanned using duel energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at three seasonal periods: 1) before pre-season training defined as off-season (OFF), 2) at end of preseason training (PRE), and 3) after the competitive season (POST).
Summary of RESULTS: Repeated measures ANOVA within-sport seasonal changes in table; PRE/POST = highest value measured at PRE or POST. α \u3c 0.05 for all tests of significance. Seasonal Period %Body fat BMD (g/cm2) Pelvis BMD (g/cm2) Spine BMD (g/cm2) Softball OFF 27.1±5.0* 1.254±0.081* 1.385±0.127 1.216±0.149 PRE/POST 25.7±5.0 1.261±0.082 1.405±0.141 1.268±0.154 Basketball OFF 25.5±5.5* 1.333±0.064* 1.469±0.123* 1.356±0.178 PRE/POST 22.7±5.6 1.349±0.055 1.494±0.119 1.391±0.146 Volleyball OFF 27.7±4.1 1.284±0.065* 1.366±0.139 1.254±0.102* PRE/POST 27.1±5.1 1.310±0.071 1.371±0.149 1.360±0.121 Swimming OFF 22.0±4.3 1.112±0.067 1.110±0.104* 1.063±0.127* PRE/POST 21.9±4.1 1.121±0.067 1.124±0.105 1.105±0.126 Track Jumpers and Sprinters OFF 15.4±4.6* 1.292±0.075* 1.432±0.124* 1.280±0.135* PRE/POST 14.3±3.9 1.307±0.080 1.470±0.128 1.337±0.140 Values are means ± standard deviations. *Significant difference between off-season and pre or post-season
ANOVA for differences by sports at the PRE/POST period showed results for both pelvis BMD and spine BMD as follows: softball = basketball = volleyball = track \u3e swimmers.
CONCLUSION: These data serve as sport-specific benchmarks for comparisons at in-season and off-season training periods among women collegiate athletes in various sports. They also serve to document changes in body composition and bone density with training, and may serve to guide coaches in the development of sport specific nutritional and strength and conditioning programs to optimize athletic performance.
Research supported in part by the Sydney & J.L. Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performanc
Relatedly: Scaffolding Literature Reviews with Existing Related Work Sections
Scholars who want to research a scientific topic must take time to read,
extract meaning, and identify connections across many papers. As scientific
literature grows, this becomes increasingly challenging. Meanwhile, authors
summarize prior research in papers' related work sections, though this is
scoped to support a single paper. A formative study found that while reading
multiple related work paragraphs helps overview a topic, it is hard to navigate
overlapping and diverging references and research foci. In this work, we design
a system, Relatedly, that scaffolds exploring and reading multiple related work
paragraphs on a topic, with features including dynamic re-ranking and
highlighting to spotlight unexplored dissimilar information, auto-generated
descriptive paragraph headings, and low-lighting of redundant information. From
a within-subjects user study (n=15), we found that scholars generate more
coherent, insightful, and comprehensive topic outlines using Relatedly compared
to a baseline paper list
CiteSee: Augmenting Citations in Scientific Papers with Persistent and Personalized Historical Context
When reading a scholarly article, inline citations help researchers
contextualize the current article and discover relevant prior work. However, it
can be challenging to prioritize and make sense of the hundreds of citations
encountered during literature reviews. This paper introduces CiteSee, a paper
reading tool that leverages a user's publishing, reading, and saving activities
to provide personalized visual augmentations and context around citations.
First, CiteSee connects the current paper to familiar contexts by surfacing
known citations a user had cited or opened. Second, CiteSee helps users
prioritize their exploration by highlighting relevant but unknown citations
based on saving and reading history. We conducted a lab study that suggests
CiteSee is significantly more effective for paper discovery than three
baselines. A field deployment study shows CiteSee helps participants keep track
of their explorations and leads to better situational awareness and increased
paper discovery via inline citation when conducting real-world literature
reviews
Sport Specificity And Training Influence Bone And Body Composition In Women Collegiate Athletes
Validation of the Survey Simulator tool for the NEO Surveyor mission using NEOWISE data
The Near Earth Object Surveyor mission has a requirement to find two-thirds
of the potentially hazardous asteroids larger than 140 meters in size. In order
to determine the mission's expected progress toward this goal during design and
testing, as well as the actual progress during the survey, a simulation tool
has been developed to act as a consistent and quantifiable yardstick. We test
that the survey simulation software is correctly predicting on-sky positions
and thermal infrared fluxes by using it to reproduce the published measurements
of asteroids from the NEOWISE mission. We then extended this work to find
previously unreported detections of known near Earth asteroids in the NEOWISE
data archive, a search that resulted in 21,661 recovery detections, including
1,166 objects that had no previously reported NEOWISE observations. These
efforts demonstrate the reliability of the NEOS Survey Simulator tool, and the
perennial value of searchable image and source catalog archives for extending
our knowledge of the small bodies of the Solar System.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in PS
UBVRI Light Curves of 44 Type Ia Supernovae
We present UBVRI photometry of 44 type-Ia supernovae (SN Ia) observed from
1997 to 2001 as part of a continuing monitoring campaign at the Fred Lawrence
Whipple Observatory of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The
data set comprises 2190 observations and is the largest homogeneously observed
and reduced sample of SN Ia to date, nearly doubling the number of
well-observed, nearby SN Ia with published multicolor CCD light curves. The
large sample of U-band photometry is a unique addition, with important
connections to SN Ia observed at high redshift. The decline rate of SN Ia
U-band light curves correlates well with the decline rate in other bands, as
does the U-B color at maximum light. However, the U-band peak magnitudes show
an increased dispersion relative to other bands even after accounting for
extinction and decline rate, amounting to an additional ~40% intrinsic scatter
compared to B-band.Comment: 84 authors, 71 pages, 51 tables, 10 figures. Accepted for publication
in the Astronomical Journal. Version with high-res figures and electronic
data at http://astron.berkeley.edu/~saurabh/cfa2snIa
The Semantic Reader Project: Augmenting Scholarly Documents through AI-Powered Interactive Reading Interfaces
Scholarly publications are key to the transfer of knowledge from scholars to
others. However, research papers are information-dense, and as the volume of
the scientific literature grows, the need for new technology to support the
reading process grows. In contrast to the process of finding papers, which has
been transformed by Internet technology, the experience of reading research
papers has changed little in decades. The PDF format for sharing research
papers is widely used due to its portability, but it has significant downsides
including: static content, poor accessibility for low-vision readers, and
difficulty reading on mobile devices. This paper explores the question "Can
recent advances in AI and HCI power intelligent, interactive, and accessible
reading interfaces -- even for legacy PDFs?" We describe the Semantic Reader
Project, a collaborative effort across multiple institutions to explore
automatic creation of dynamic reading interfaces for research papers. Through
this project, we've developed ten research prototype interfaces and conducted
usability studies with more than 300 participants and real-world users showing
improved reading experiences for scholars. We've also released a production
reading interface for research papers that will incorporate the best features
as they mature. We structure this paper around challenges scholars and the
public face when reading research papers -- Discovery, Efficiency,
Comprehension, Synthesis, and Accessibility -- and present an overview of our
progress and remaining open challenges
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