Health and health belief factors associated with screening and help-seeking behaviours for breast cancer symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the European evidence

Purpose: The aim of this systematic review was to identify health or health belief factors associated with mammography attendance or with self-initiated medical help-seeking for breast cancer symptoms among women in Europe. Methods: Five databases were searched for articles published between 2005 and 2018. Meta-analyses were conducted for 13 factors related to screening attendance and two factors associated with help-seeking behaviour. Where there were too few studies to include in the meta-analysis a narrative synthesis was undertaken. Results: Sixty-five studies were included. Never having had cervical screening (d=-0.72, p<0.001) and higher perceived barriers to mammography (d=-0.40, p<0.001) were associated with lower levels of screening attendance. Possessing health insurance (d=0.49, p<0.001), greater perceived benefits (d=0.31, p<0.001) and motivation (d=0.36, p=0.003) towards screening, and higher perceived seriousness (d=0.24, p=0.019) and susceptibility (d=0.20, p=0.024) towards breast cancer were associated with a higher level of screening attendance. Presenting with a non-lump symptom was associated with a longer time to presentation (d=0.32, p<0.001). The narrative synthesis revealed that previous benign breast disease was associated with a higher level of screening attendance but with a longer time to presentation. Conclusions: The review identified key similarities in factors associated with screening and help-seeking behaviours which offer scope for combined interventions aimed at women that target both behaviours. Furthermore, the review highlighted that fewer studies have focused on help-seeking behaviour, despite two thirds of breast cancer cases being self-detected. Future research should further examine predictors of help-seeking behaviour including a focus on modifiable factors, such as BMI, and physical activity

Innovation capability and its role in enhancing the relationship between TQM practices and innovation performance

Innovation plays a critical role in predicting the long-term survival of organizations, determining an organization’s success and sustaining its global competitiveness, especially in an environment where technologies, competitive position and customer demands can change almost overnight, and where the life-cycle of products and services are becoming shorter.Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to extend the existing knowledge as to the relationship between TQM practices and innovation performance by exploring the expected role of innovation capability as mediator to enhance this relationship.At the same time, this study attempted to shed a light on how to improve innovation performance of manufacturing companies in Malaysia.The gained results indicated that innovation capability mediates the relationship between TQM practices and innovation performance. More importantly, this study supports the findings of the past studies that questioned the role of TQM practices in improving innovation performance. Finally, in light of the obtained results, several recommendations were introduced to assist decision makers in manufacturing companies

Evaluation of Uncertainty Contributions of Measurement Surface and Number of Microphone Positions in Determination of Sound Power Levels

Sound power level of a noise source is determined by means of sound pressure level or sound intensity level measurements performed in accordance to relevant ISO standards. The determination of sound power level according to ISO 3744, 3745 and 3746 standards is used for free field or for approximated free field conditions. Kinds of measurement surfaces, enveloping the noise source, number of microphones and their positions over the measurement surface are stated in the applied ISO standard. The effects of measurement surface and number of microphone positions on the determination of sound power level were investigated theoretically. As a measurement surface; hemisphere, parallelepiped rectangular box and cylindrical surfaces were selected. Key and additional microphone positions were taken into account in the calculations as well. Sound pressure levels of a commercially available reference sound source were measured in hemi-anechoic room using FFT with 4 Hz steps and also at 1/1, 1/3, 1/12 and 1/24 octave bands for all surfaces defined in ISO 3744 and 3746 standards. Sound power level, directivity index and uncertainty contributions resulting from measurement surfaces and number of microphone positions were calculated by using data obtained in measurements. In this paper the theoretical and experimental results are presented

The genotoxic effect of nicotine on chromosomes of human fetal cells: The first report described as an important study

PubMedID: 22035122Context: Recent studies have suggested a direct contribution of nicotine - the addictive component of tobacco and tobacco smoke - to human carcinogenesis, and it remains the most common harmful substance to which pregnant women are exposed. Also, it has deleterious effects on the fetus. The sperm of smoking fathers and newborns of smoking mothers have elevated frequencies of chromosome translocations and DNA strand breaks. Objective: We tried to understand the genotoxic effect of nicotine in pregnancies of active or passive smoking mothers. For this reason, we provide the evidence that nicotine exposure in vitro has detrimental effects on fetal cells. Materials and methods: We examined the effect of nicotine sulphate on amniotic cells by designing an experimental setting consisting fetal cells grown in nicotine containing medium (25ng/mL) in study group and fetal cells grown in control medium, which did not contain nicotine. Results: According to our findings, there is a significant difference of chromosomal aberrations (CAs) between nicotine containing medium grown cells and control medium grown cells, determined by the ?2 test (P <0.001). We found CAs in 21.5% of cells analyzed. The 19.4% of the all cells had numerical aberrations. Chromosomes 21, 22, 8, 15 and 20 related numerical abnormalities were found to be the most frequent numerical abnormalities. Conclusion: Results of this study confirm that the nicotine leads to significant direct genotoxic effects in human fetal cells in vitro. We speculate that there is an association between prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke and in utero aneuploidies. © 2011 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc

Calvarial tuberculosis

We report a six-year-old boy who presented with swelling of the forehead, and had calvarial tuberculosis, a rare form of tuberculosis osteitis

Electrooxidation of Phenazopyridine Hydrochloride and its Voltammetric and HPLC Determination in Human Urine and Tablet Dosage Form

WOS: 000319861000071The electrochemical oxidation of phenazopyridine hydrochloride (PAP) was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques at ultra trace graphite electrode (UTGE). PAP exhibited a diffusion controlled process which is pH dependence. The dependence of the current and potential on pH, the concentration and nature of buffer, and scan rate was investigated to optimize the experimental conditions for the determination of PAP. It was found that the optimum buffer for the determination of PAP is 0.1 NaOH solutions with the pH 12.97. In the concentration range from 6.0x10(-8) to 1.0x10(-6) M, the current measured by DPV present a good linear property as a function of the concentration of PAP. Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were obtained as 8.1x10(-10) and 2.7x10(-9) M, respectively. PAP was determined in human urine and tablet dosage form. Precision and accuracy of the developed technique were checked by recovery studies in spiked urine and tablet dosage form. In addition, for the comparison, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique was applied for the determination of PAP in the same samples.Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [TBAG-2173, 102T062]; Ege University Department of Scientific Research Projects (BAP)Ege University [05/ECZ/007]The authors gratefully acknowledge to the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK, Grant No: TBAG-2173; 102T062). The authors would also like to thank Faco Inc., (Istanbul, Turkey) for supplying pure PAP and its commercial tablet forms for proposed voltammety and comparison HPLC technique. Emrah KILINC acknowledges financial support from Ege University Department of Scientific Research Projects (BAP, Project number: 05/ECZ/007)