The experiences of women receiving brachytherapy for cervical cancer: A systematic literature review

© 2018 The College of Radiographers Objectives: To determine women's experiences of brachytherapy for cervical cancer. Key findings: Nineteen studies were included for data extraction/synthesis. Twelve studies focussed on psychological issues, seven on pharmacological aspects of women's experiences. Themes of anxiety, distress, pain, informational needs and non-pharmacological interventions were found. Nine out of ten psychological studies described brachytherapy as a distressing experience causing anxiety and distress for most women. Non-pharmacological interventions were found to be effective and inexpensive adjuncts. Peri and post-operative pharmacological management was variable, but duration of procedure was an important factor. Conclusion: Brachytherapy for gynaecological cancer causes varying levels of pain, anxiety and distress. To improve women's experiences there needs to be better pain management, patient information and the development of non-pharmacological interventions. Future recommendations are to develop clinical support guidelines, audit the quality of services and develop effective interventions to improve women's experiences of brachytherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer

The feasibility of using sonoelastography to identify the effect of joint hypermobility syndrome on elasticity of gastrocnemius muscle

Background: Joint hypermobility syndrome (JHS) is a heritable connective tissue disorder in which multiple synovial joints demonstrate a painful and extraordinary range of motion. Genetically there are abnormal changes in the connective tissue matrix in people with JHS, and that may alter the viscoelasticity of their muscular tissue. Sonoelastography (SEG) is a new technology in musculoskeletal practice for assessing tissue elasticity. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of using SEG to distinguish between those with and without a diagnosis of JHS. Gastrocnemius muscle (GM) elasticity was examined, as it is essential for balance and walking.Methods: Twenty participants were examined in a cross-sectional feasibility study: 10 participants diagnosed with JHS and 10 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. The dominant GM was scanned three times using SEG. The colours of the SEG images indicate soft (red), intermediate (green) and hard (blue) tissues. ImageJ software was used to analyse the images by identifying the mean percentage of pixels of each colour.Results: For the JHS group, nine females and one male were examined, with a mean age of 38.9 years (S.D. 15.53). Similarly, for the non-JHS group, nine females and one male were examined, with a mean age of 38.9 years (S.D. 12.37). The groups were comparable in terms of age, gender and BMI (P = 1.00, 1.00, and 0.77, respectively).The JHS group had a significantly higher percentage of blue (hard tissue) pixels when compared with the control group (P = 0.035). No significant differences were found in the mean percentage of green (intermediate) and red (soft) pixels (P = 0.55 and P = 0.051, respectively).SEG required a reasonable amount of training for clinicians with sufficient background in musculoskeletal anatomy, 4 h of observation and practical training. The examination was completed in < 5 min, so it may be reasonable for use in clinical practice, and it was well tolerated by patients. The SEG image was analysed in < 5 minutes.Conclusion: The results indicate that the GM in people with JHS had more areas of hard tissue when compared with the control group, contradicting the expected results. However, GM hyperactivity has been identified during walking in people with JHS, and increased muscle tone might therefore explain the findings. The findings need to be verified in a much larger future study. The SEG seems a feasible tool for quantifying muscular tissue elasticity in JHS

Coping with climatic extremes: Dietary fat content decreased the thermal resilience of barramundi (Lates calcarifer)

Aquatic organisms, including important cultured species, are forced to contend with acute changes in water temperature as the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events worsen. Acute temperature spikes are likely to threaten aquaculture species, but dietary intervention may play an important protective role. Increasing the concentration of macronutrients, for example dietary fat content, may improve the thermal resilience of aquaculture species, however, this remains unexplored. To evaluate this hypothesis, we used two commercially available diets (20% versus 10% crude fat) to examine if dietary fat content improves the growth performance of juvenile barramundi (Lates calcarifer) while increasing their resilience to acute thermal stress. Fish were fed their assigned diets for 28-days before assessing the upper thermal tolerance (CTMAX) and the thermal sensitivity of swimming performance (UCRIT) and metabolism. We found that feeding fish a high fat diet resulted in heavier fish, but did not affect the thermal sensitivity of swimming performance or metabolism over an 18 °C temperature range (from 20 to 38 °C). Thermal tolerance was compromised in fish fed the high fat diet by 0.48 °C, showing significantly lower CTMAX. Together, these results suggest that while a high fat diet increases juvenile L. calcarifer growth, it does not benefit physiological performance across a range of relevant water temperatures and may even reduce fish tolerance of extreme water temperatures. These data may have implications for aquaculture production in a warming world, where episodic extremes of temperature are likely to become more frequent

The effects of acute exercise on tobacco cravings and withdrawal symptoms in temporary abstinent pregnant smokers

Introduction: Smoking during pregnancy is common, and quitting at any point during pregnancy can yield benefits to both the fetus and mother. Smoking cessation is typically followed by withdrawal symptoms and a strong desire to smoke, both of which are likely to contribute to relapse. Research has shown that a bout of exercise minimizes cravings and tobacco withdrawal symptoms (TWS) after temporary abstinence in smokers, but these findings have not been replicated in pregnant smokers. This study examined the effect of 20. min of exercise on cravings (primary outcome) and TWS (secondary outcomes) among temporary abstinent, inactive pregnant smokers. Methods: Thirty female smokers (Mean(M) age = 25.7. years, Standard Deviation(SD) = 5.5; M weeks pregnant = 18.2, SD = 5.3; Fagerstrom Test for Cigarette Dependence = 3.3, SD = 2.2; M 9.3 cigarettes/day, SD = 4.7; M hours abstained = 17.2, SD = 2.8) were randomized to 20. min of mild-to-moderate intensity exercise (EC; n= 14) or passive (PC; n= 16) condition. Cravings and TWS were assessed immediately before, during (at 10. min), immediately post, and at 10, 20, and 30. min post-condition. Results: A 2 (condition)×6 (time) repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the EC significantly (p\u3c0.05) reduced cravings (ή2=0.46) compared with the PC, across time. Non-significant, but nevertheless, large effects were evident favouring the EC over time for TWS restlessness (ή2=0.34), stress (ή2=0.24), irritability (ή2=0.21), tension (ή2=0.15), and depression (ή2=0.14). Conclusions: Consistent with previous research, this study reveals that in pregnant smokers, a bout of exercise is associated with a reduction in cravings and similar patterns exist for TWS. Therefore, exercise may have the potential to assist in the initial stages of smoking cessation attempts during pregnancy. © 2013

Bird collisions with power lines: prioritizing species and areas by estimating potential population-level impacts

Biodiversity ResearchAim: Power lines can represent an important source of bird mortality through collision. The identification of more susceptible species, in terms of expected populationlevel impacts, requires detailed biological and mortality information that is often difficult to obtain. Here, we propose a species prioritization method based on relatively easily accessed information, aimed to identify both species and areas with the potentially highest extinction risk due to collision with power lines. Location: As a case study, we applied this method to the communities of resident breeding birds of Spain and Portugal. Methods: For each considered species, the method takes into account the morphobehavioural susceptibility to collision with power lines, the susceptibility to extinction and the spatial exposure to collision with power lines. Results: Our method highlighted that the most susceptible species were large, longlived and slow‐reproducing birds, often habitat specialists with hazardous behavioural traits (especially flight height and flocking flight), with high spatial exposure to collision risk with power lines and unfavourable conservation status. Based on the distribution ranges of these species, we produced a map of hotspots for extinction risk due to collision of such priority species for each country. These areas should be considered a priority for the implementation of mitigation measures including route planning and wire marking. Main conclusions: Overall, the proposed method can be applied to any bird community in any geographic area of the world where information on power‐line distribution and published information on species traits, distribution and conservation status is available, generating valuable lists of both priority species and areas in which collision risk with power lines can potentially produce local or even global extinctionsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A dynamic explanation for the origin of the western Mediterranean organic-rich layers

The eastern Mediterranean sapropels are among the most intensively investigated phenomena in the paleoceanographic record, but relatively little has been written regarding the origin of the equivalent of the sapropels in the western Mediterranean, the organic-rich layers (ORLs). ORLs are recognized as sediment layers containing enhanced total organic carbon that extend throughout the deep basins of the western Mediterranean and are associated with enhanced total barium concentration and a reduced diversity (dysoxic but not anoxic) benthic foraminiferal assemblage. Consequently, it has been suggested that ORLs represent periods of enhanced productivity coupled with reduced deep ventilation, presumably related to increased continental runoff, in close analogy to the sapropels. We demonstrate that despite their superficial similarity, the timing of the deposition of the most recent ORL in the Alboran Sea is different than that of the approximately coincident sapropel, indicating that there are important differences between their modes of formation. We go on to demonstrate, through physical arguments, that a likely explanation for the origin of the Alboran ORLs lies in the response of the western Mediterranean basin to a strong reduction in surface water density and a shoaling of the interface between intermediate and deep water during the deglacial period. Furthermore, we provide evidence that deep convection had already slowed by the time of Heinrich Event 1 and explore this event as a potential agent for preconditioning deep convection collapse. Important differences between Heinrich-like and deglacial-like influences are highlighted, giving new insights into the response of the western Mediterranean system to external forcing

Composition of bird nests is a species-specific characteristic

Bird nests represent an extended phenotype of individuals expressed during reproduction and so exhibit variability in composition, structure and function. Descriptions of nests based on qualitative observations suggest that there is interspecific variation in size and composition but there are very few species in which this has been confirmed. For these species, data of the amounts of different materials indicate that nest construction behaviour is plastic and affected by a variety of factors, such as prevailing temperature, geographic location, and availability of materials. The lack of data on nest composition is hampering our understanding of how nests achieve their various functions and how different species solve the problem of building a nest that will accommodate incubation and allow successful hatching of eggs. This study deconstructed nests of four species of the Turdidae, four species of the Muscicapidae, and six species of the Fringillidae and quantified the size of the nests and their composition. These data were used to test: (1) whether nest size correlated with adult bird mass; (2) whether it was possible to distinguish between species on the basis of their nest composition; and (3) whether, within a species, it was possible to distinguish between the cup lining and the rest of the nest based on composition. Most but not all nest dimensions correlated with bird mass. Principal component analysis revealed species differences based on nest composition and discriminant analysis could distinguish cup lining from the outer nest based on material composition. Intraspecific variation in composition varied among species and in general fewer types of material were found in the cup lining than the outer nest. These data provide insight into how nests are constructed by the different species and in conjunction with studies of the mechanical, thermal and hydrological properties of a nest, will begin to reveal how and why individual species select particular combinations of materials to build a nest

Longer wings for faster springs – wing length relates tospring phenology in a long-distanc e migrant across its range

In migratory birds, morphological adaptations for efficient migratory flight often oppose morphological adaptations for efficient behavior during resident periods. This includes adaptations in wing shape for either flying long distances or foraging in the vegetation and in climate-driven variation of body size. In addition, the timing of migratory flights and particularly the timely arrival at local breeding sites is crucial because fitness prospects depend on site-specific phenology. Thus, adaptations for efficient long-distance flights might be also related to conditions at destination areas. For an obligatory long-distance migrant, the common nightingale, we verified that wing length as the aerodynamically important trait, but not structural body size increased from the western to the eastern parts of the species range. In contrast with expectation from aerodynamic theory, however, wing length did not increase with increasing migration distances. Instead, wing length was associated with the phenology at breeding destinations, namely the speed of local spring green-up. We argue that longer wings are beneficial for adjusting migration speed to local conditions for birds breeding in habitats with fast spring green-up and thus short optimal arrival periods. We suggest that the speed of spring green-up at breeding sites is a fundamental variable determining the timing of migration that fine tune phenotypes in migrants across their range

Migration distance does not predict blood parasitism in a migratory songbird

Migration can influence host–parasite dynamics in animals by increasing exposure to parasites, by reducing the energy available for immune defense, or by culling of infected individuals. These mechanisms have been demonstrated in several comparative analyses; however, few studies have investigated whether conspecific variation in migration distance may also be related to infection risk. Here, we ask whether autumn migration distance, inferred from stable hydrogen isotope analysis of summer‐grown feathers (δ 2Hf) in Europe, correlates with blood parasite prevalence and intensity of infection for willow warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus ) wintering in Zambia. We also investigated whether infection was correlated with individual condition (assessed via corticosterone, scaled mass index, and feather quality). We found that 43% of birds were infected with Haemoproteus palloris (lineage WW1). Using generalized linear models, we found no relationship between migration distance and either Haemoproteus infection prevalence or intensity. There was spatial variation in breeding ground origins of infected versus noninfected birds, with infected birds originating from more northern sites than noninfected birds, but this difference translated into only slightly longer estimated migration distances (~214 km) for infected birds. We found no relationship between body condition indices and Haemoproteus infection prevalence or intensity. Our results do not support any of the proposed mechanisms for migration effects on host–parasite dynamics and cautiously suggest that other factors may be more important for determining individual susceptibility to disease in migratory bird species