Mapping the spectrum of psychological and behavioural responses to low-dose CT lung cancer screening offered within a Lung Health Check

BACKGROUND: Research on the psychological impact of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screening has typically been narrow in scope and restricted to the trial setting. OBJECTIVE: To explore the range of psychological and behavioural responses to LDCT screening offered as part of a Lung Heath Check (LHC), including lung cancer risk assessment, spirometry testing, a carbon monoxide reading and smoking cessation advice. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 28 current and former smokers (aged 60-75), who had undergone LDCT screening as part of a LHC appointment and mostly received an incidental or indeterminate result (n = 23). Framework analysis was used to map the spectrum of responses participants had across the LHC appointment and screening pathway, to their LDCT results and to surveillance. RESULTS: Interviewees reported a diverse range of both positive and negative psychological responses, beginning at invitation and spanning the entire LHC appointment (including spirometry) and LDCT screening pathway. Similarly, positive behavioural responses extended beyond smoking cessation to include anticipated implications for other cancer prevention and early detection behaviours, such as symptom presentation. Individual differences in responses appeared to be influenced by smoking status and LDCT result, as well as modifiable factors including perceived risk and health status, social support, competing priorities, fatalism and perceived stigma. CONCLUSIONS: The diverse ways in which participants responded to screening, both psychologically and behaviourally, should direct a broader research agenda to ensure all stages of screening delivery and communication are designed to promote well-being, motivate positive behaviour change and maximize patient benefit

A reevaluation of achromatic spatio-temporal vision: nonoriented filters are monocular, they adapt, and can be used for decision making at high flicker speeds

Masking, adaptation, and summation paradigms have been used to investigate the characteristics of early spatio-temporal vision. Each has been taken to provide evidence for (i) oriented and (ii) nonoriented spatial-filtering mechanisms. However, subsequent findings suggest that the evidence for nonoriented mechanisms has been misinterpreted: those experiments might have revealed the characteristics of suppression (eg, gain control), not excitation, or merely the isotropic subunits of the oriented detecting mechanisms. To shed light on this, we used all three paradigms to focus on the ‘high-speed’ corner of spatio-temporal vision (low spatial frequency, high temporal frequency), where cross-oriented achromatic effects are greatest. We used flickering Gabor patches as targets and a 2IFC procedure for monocular, binocular, and dichoptic stimulus presentations. To account for our results, we devised a simple model involving an isotropic monocular filter-stage feeding orientation-tuned binocular filters. Both filter stages are adaptable, and their outputs are available to the decision stage following nonlinear contrast transduction. However, the monocular isotropic filters (i) adapt only to high-speed stimuli—consistent with a magnocellular subcortical substrate—and (ii) benefit decision making only for high-speed stimuli (ie, isotropic monocular outputs are available only for high-speed stimuli). According to this model, the visual processes revealed by masking, adaptation, and summation are related but not identical

Elemental carbon concentrations: Estimation of an historical data base

While recent advances in instrumentation permit routine determination of elemental carbon concentrations in atmospheric aerosol samples, historical data on elemental C concentrations are absent. Two methods are available for the estimation of an historical data base for elemental C concentrations: calibration of reflectance-based tape samplers and analysis of archived high volume sampler filters. These methods are described and applied to the problem of reconstructing an historical data base for elemental C concentrations in Los Angeles. Twenty-four year average elemental C concentrations at seven monitoring sites in the Los Angeles area are estimated to range from 6.4 μg m^(−3) at Downtown Los Angeles to 4.5 μg m^(−3) at West Los Angeles. At most monitoring sites studied, elemental C concentrations were lower in recent years than during the late 1950s and early 1960s

"We sometimes hold on to ours" - Professionals' views on factors that both delay and facilitate transition to adult care

© 2016 Aldiss, Cass, Ellis and Gibson. Background: The transition from child to adult services is a crucial time in the health of young people who may potentially fall into a poorly managed "care gap." Health service provision, which fails to meet the needs of young people and families at this time of significant change, may result in deterioration in health or disengagement with services, which can have negative long-term consequences. Developing transitional care packages has become a focus of activity in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Indeed, policy documents have been trying to guide practice for many years, with some variable success. There is much work still to be done, particularly around how guidance and the sharing of best practice, when combined can result in a change in practice. Objective: This study aimed to explore the views of professionals involved in transitional care, the process of transition in their services, and the barriers and facilitators to transition. Methods: This was a qualitative study using focus group methodology. Four focus groups were carried out, attended by 36 health professionals across child and adult services. They had expertise in working with young people with various health conditions and disabilities. Transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Eight key factors that impact on transition emerged from the data. These included factors associated with the patient group (such as age, health condition, having complex needs) as well as factors associated with services (such as the availability of equivalent services within adult care and the links between child and adult team). Conclusion: It is imperative that health professionals consider the population they are working with when planning transitional care and take into account the factors which can lead to delayed transition, so that this can be avoided if possible. Numerous examples of initiatives to facilitate more timely transition were shared: these have been reflected in our "Benchmarks for Transition from Child to Adult Health Services." We offer these benchmarks to inform and guide the practice of others and illustrate their potential for use in the context of the findings shared here

A Multi-Code Analysis Toolkit for Astrophysical Simulation Data

The analysis of complex multiphysics astrophysical simulations presents a unique and rapidly growing set of challenges: reproducibility, parallelization, and vast increases in data size and complexity chief among them. In order to meet these challenges, and in order to open up new avenues for collaboration between users of multiple simulation platforms, we present yt (available at http://yt.enzotools.org/), an open source, community-developed astrophysical analysis and visualization toolkit. Analysis and visualization with yt are oriented around physically relevant quantities rather than quantities native to astrophysical simulation codes. While originally designed for handling Enzo's structure adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) data, yt has been extended to work with several different simulation methods and simulation codes including Orion, RAMSES, and FLASH. We report on its methods for reading, handling, and visualizing data, including projections, multivariate volume rendering, multi-dimensional histograms, halo finding, light cone generation and topologically-connected isocontour identification. Furthermore, we discuss the underlying algorithms yt uses for processing and visualizing data, and its mechanisms for parallelization of analysis tasks.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, emulateapj format. Resubmitted to Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series with revisions from referee. yt can be found at http://yt.enzotools.org

Aerosol optical properties during INDOEX based on measured aerosol particle size and composition

The light scattering and light absorption as a function of wavelength and relative humidity due to aerosols measured at the Kaashidhoo Climate Observatory in the Republic of the Maldives during the INDOEX field campaign has been calculated. Using size-segregated measurements of aerosol chemical composition, calculated light scattering and absorption has been evaluated against measurements of light scattering and absorption. Light scattering coefficients are predicted to within a few percent over relative humidities of 20–90%. Single scattering albedos calculated from the measured elemental carbon size distributions and concentrations in conjunction with other aerosol species have a relative error of 4.0% when compared to measured values. The single scattering albedo for the aerosols measured during INDOEX is both predicted and observed to be about 0.86 at an ambient relative humidity of 80%. These results demonstrate that the light scattering, light absorption, and hence climate forcing due to aerosols over the Indian Ocean are consistent with the chemical and physical properties of the aerosol at that location

Hypernovae/GRB in the Galactic Center as possible sources of Galactic Positrons

The observation of a strong and extended positron-electron line annihilation emission in the central regions of the Galaxy by INTEGRAL-SPI, consistent with the Galactic bulge geometry, without any counterpart in the gamma-ray range, neither at high energy nor in the 1809 keV $^{26}$Al decay line, is challenging. Leaving aside the geometrical question, we address the problem of the adequate positron sources, showing the potentiality of a new category of SN Ic, exemplified by SN2003dh, which is associated to a gamma-ray burst. This kind of supernova/hypernova/GRB event is interpreted as the result of a bipolar Wolf-Rayet explosion, which produces a large amount of $^{56}$Ni and ejects it at high velocity along the rotation axis. The bulk of positrons resulting from $^{56}$Co decay escapes in the surrounding medium due to the rapid thinning of the ejecta in the polar direction. We show that a rate of about 0.02 SN2003dh-like events per century in the central region of the Galaxy is sufficient to explain the positron flux detected by INTEGRAL-SPI. In order to explain this flux by SN Ia events alone, a rate of 0.5 per century is necessary, much higher than indicated by Galactic evolutionary models applied to the bulge. Further observations of late light curves of SNe Ia and SNe Ic in the bulge of spiral galaxies, together with 3D hydrodynamic calculations of anisotropic ejections of $^{56}$Ni in SN Ic/GRB events, will allow to estimate the separate contributions of SNe Ia and SNe Ic to positron injection.Comment: 7 pages, 0 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2003 12 0