Factors affecting acceptability of an email-based intervention to increase fruit and vegetable consumption

Background: Fresh Facts is a 30-day email-delivered intervention designed to increase the fruit and vegetable consumption of Australian young adults. This study investigated the extent to which the program was acceptable to members of the target audience and examined the relationships between participant and intervention characteristics, attrition, effectiveness, and acceptability ratings. Methods: Young adults were randomised to two levels of message frequency: high-frequency (n = 102), low-frequency (n = 173). Individuals in the high-frequency group received daily emails while individuals in the low-frequency group received an email every 3 days.Results: Individuals in the high-frequency group were more likely to indicate that they received too many emails than individuals in the low-frequency group. No other differences in acceptability were observed. Baseline beliefs about fruit and vegetables were an important predictor of intervention acceptability. In turn, acceptability was associated with a number of indicators of intervention success, including change in fruit and vegetable consumption. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of considering the relationship between these intervention and participant factors and acceptability in intervention design and evaluation. Results support the ongoing use of email-based interventions to target fruit and vegetable consumption within young adults. However, the relationships between beliefs about fruit and vegetable consumption and acceptability suggest that this intervention may be differentially effective depending on individual’s existing beliefs about fruit and vegetable consumption. As such, there is a pressing need to consider these factors in future research in order to minimize attrition and maximize intervention effectiveness when interventions are implemented outside of a research context

Dynorphin knockout reduces fat mass and increases weight loss during fasting in mice

Endogenous opioids, particularly dynorphins, have been implicated in regulation of energy balance, but it is not known how they mediate this in vivo. We investigated energy homeostasis in dynorphin knockout mice (Dyn -/- mice) and probed the interactions between dynorphins and the neuropeptide Y (NPY) system. Dyn-/- mice were no different from wild types with regards to body weight and basal and fasting-induced food intake, but fecal output was increased, suggesting decreased nutrient absorption, and they had significantly less white fat and lost more weight during a 24-h fast. The neuroendocrine and thermal responses to fasting were at least as pronounced in Dyn-/- as in wild types, and there was no stimulatory effect of dynorphin knockout on 24-h energy expenditure (kilocalories of heat produced) or physical activity. However, Dyn-/- mice showed increased circulating concentrations of 3,4-dihydroxyphenlacetic acid and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol, suggesting increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system. The respiratory exchange ratio of male but not female Dyn-/- mice was reduced, demonstrating increased fat oxidation. Interestingly, expression of the orexigenic acting NPY in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus was reduced in Dyn-/- mice. However, fasting-induced increases in pre-prodynorphin expression in the arcuate nucleus, the paraventricular nucleus, and the ventromedial hypothalamus but not the lateral hypothalamus were abolished by deletion of Y1 but not Y2 receptors. Therefore, ablation of dynorphins results in increases in fatty acid oxidation in male mice, reductions in adiposity, and increased weight loss during fasting, possibly via increases in sympathetic activity, decreases in intestinal nutrient absorption, and interactions with the NPYergic system

Aristotle’s assertoric syllogistic and modern relevance logic

This paper sets out to evaluate the claim that Aristotle’s Assertoric Syllogistic is a relevance logic or shows significant similarities with it. I prepare the grounds for a meaningful comparison by extracting the notion of relevance employed in the most influential work on modern relevance logic, Anderson and Belnap’s Entailment. This notion is characterized by two conditions imposed on the concept of validity: first, that some meaning content is shared between the premises and the conclusion, and second, that the premises of a proof are actually used to derive the conclusion. Turning to Aristotle’s Prior Analytics, I argue that there is evidence that Aristotle’s Assertoric Syllogistic satisfies both conditions. Moreover, Aristotle at one point explicitly addresses the potential harmfulness of syllogisms with unused premises. Here, I argue that Aristotle’s analysis allows for a rejection of such syllogisms on formal grounds established in the foregoing parts of the Prior Analytics. In a final section I consider the view that Aristotle distinguished between validity on the one hand and syllogistic validity on the other. Following this line of reasoning, Aristotle’s logic might not be a relevance logic, since relevance is part of syllogistic validity and not, as modern relevance logic demands, of general validity. I argue that the reasons to reject this view are more compelling than the reasons to accept it and that we can, cautiously, uphold the result that Aristotle’s logic is a relevance logic

Blood vessel density correlates with the effects of targeted intra-arterial carboplatin infusion with concurrent radiotherapy for squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity and oropharynx

Our aim was first to evaluate the association between blood vessel density (BVD) and free platinum concentration in experimentally induced tumours in rabbits. We also investigated the association between tumour BVD and the clinical response of patients who had undergone targeted carboplatin intra-arterial (i.a.) chemoradiotherapy. VX2 carcinoma cells were transplanted into 46 inbred female Japanese white rabbits. In the i.a. group, carboplatin was infused into the lingual artery, and in the intravenous (i.v.) group, carboplatin was infused through the auricular vein. In the clinical study, we evaluated 19 patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity and oropharynx, who had undergone targeted carboplatin i.a. chemoradiotherapy and had been administered i.a. tegafur/uracil chemotherapy before surgery. We quantified angiogenesis in both studies. Increased BVD was associated with a higher free platinum concentration in the tumour region in the i.a. group of rabbits. In the clinical study, using multivariate logistic regression analysis, only the BVD was related independently to the treatment effect. Therefore, BVD is a valid predictor of the effects of i.a. targeted carboplatin chemotherapy and concurrent radiotherapy for treating human oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas

Multidisciplinary cancer care in Spain, or when the function creates the organ: qualitative interview study

Background The Spanish National Health System recognised multidisciplinary care as a health priority in 2006, when a national strategy for promoting quality in cancer care was first published. This institutional effort is being implemented on a co-operative basis within the context of Spain's decentralised health care system, so a high degree of variability is to be expected. This study was aimed to explore the views of professionals working with multidisciplinary cancer teams and identify which barriers to effective team work should be considered to ensure implementation of health policy. Methods Qualitative interview study with semi-structured, one-to-one interviews. Data were examined inductively, using content analysis to generate categories and an explanatory framework. 39 professionals performing their tasks, wholly or in part, in different multidisciplinary cancer teams were interviewed. The breakdown of participants' medical specialisations was as follows: medical oncologists (n = 10); radiation oncologists (n = 8); surgeons (n = 7); pathologists or radiologists (n = 6); oncology nurses (n = 5); and others (n = 3). Results Teams could be classified into three models of professional co-operation in multidisciplinary cancer care, namely, advisory committee, formal co-adaptation and integrated care process. The following barriers to implementation were posed: existence of different gateways for the same patient profile; variability in development and use of clinical protocols and guidelines; role of the hospital executive board; outcomes assessment; and the recording and documenting of clinical decisions in a multidisciplinary team setting. All these play a key role in the development of cancer teams and their ability to improve quality of care. Conclusion Cancer team development results from an specific adaptation to the hospital environment. Nevertheless, health policy plays an important role in promoting an organisational approach that changes the way in which professionals develop their clinical practice

Multidisciplinary cancer care in Spain, or when the function creates the organ: qualitative interview study

Background The Spanish National Health System recognised multidisciplinary care as a health priority in 2006, when a national strategy for promoting quality in cancer care was first published. This institutional effort is being implemented on a co-operative basis within the context of Spain's decentralised health care system, so a high degree of variability is to be expected. This study was aimed to explore the views of professionals working with multidisciplinary cancer teams and identify which barriers to effective team work should be considered to ensure implementation of health policy. Methods Qualitative interview study with semi-structured, one-to-one interviews. Data were examined inductively, using content analysis to generate categories and an explanatory framework. 39 professionals performing their tasks, wholly or in part, in different multidisciplinary cancer teams were interviewed. The breakdown of participants' medical specialisations was as follows: medical oncologists (n = 10); radiation oncologists (n = 8); surgeons (n = 7); pathologists or radiologists (n = 6); oncology nurses (n = 5); and others (n = 3). Results Teams could be classified into three models of professional co-operation in multidisciplinary cancer care, namely, advisory committee, formal co-adaptation and integrated care process. The following barriers to implementation were posed: existence of different gateways for the same patient profile; variability in development and use of clinical protocols and guidelines; role of the hospital executive board; outcomes assessment; and the recording and documenting of clinical decisions in a multidisciplinary team setting. All these play a key role in the development of cancer teams and their ability to improve quality of care. Conclusion Cancer team development results from an specific adaptation to the hospital environment. Nevertheless, health policy plays an important role in promoting an organisational approach that changes the way in which professionals develop their clinical practice