Combining Information from Two Surveys to Estimate County-Level Prevalence Rates of Cancer Risk Factors and Screening

Cancer surveillance requires estimates of the prevalence of cancer risk factors and screening for small areas such as counties. Two popular data sources are the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a telephone survey conducted by state agencies, and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an area probability sample survey conducted through face-to-face interviews. Both data sources have advantages and disadvantages. The BRFSS is a larger survey, and almost every county is included in the survey; but it has lower response rates as is typical with telephone surveys, and it does not include subjects who live in households with no telephones. On the other hand, the NHIS is a smaller survey, with the majority of counties not included; but it includes both telephone and non-telephone households and has higher response rates. A preliminary analysis shows that the distributions of cancer screening and risk factors are different for telephone and non-telephone households. Thus, information from the two surveys may be combined to address both nonresponse and noncoverage errors. A hierarchical Bayesian approach that combines information from both surveys is used to construct county-level estimates. The proposed model incorporates potential noncoverage and nonresponse biases in the BRFSS as well as complex sample design features of both surveys. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo method is used to simulate draws from the joint posterior distribution of unknown quantities in the model based on the design-based direct estimates and county-level covariates. Yearly prevalence estimates at the county level for 49 states, as well as for the entire state of Alaska and the District of Columbia, are developed for six outcomes using BRFSS and NHIS data from the years 1997-2000. The outcomes include smoking and use of common cancer screening procedures. The NHIS/BRFSS combined county-level estimates are substantially different from those based on BRFSS alone

Effects of Methoxyisoflavone, Ecdysterone, and Sulfo-Polysaccharide Supplementation on Training Adaptations in Resistance-Trained Males

PURPOSE: Methoxyisoflavone (M), 20-hydroxyecdysone (E), and sulfo-polysaccharide (CSP3) have been marketed to athletes as dietary supplements that can increase strength and muscle mass during resistancetraining. However, little is known about their potential ergogenic value. The purpose of this study was to determine whether these supplements affect training adaptations and/or markers of muscle anabolism/catabolism in resistance-trained athletes. METHODS: Forty-five resistance-trained males (20.5±3 yrs; 179±7 cm, 84±16 kg, 17.3±9 % body fat) were matched according to FFM and randomly assigned to ingest in a double blind manner supplements containing either a placebo (P); 800 mg/day of M; 200 mg of E; or, 1,000 mg/day of CSP3 for 8-weeks during training. At 0, 4, and 8-weeks, subjects donated fasting blood samples and completed comprehensive muscular strength, muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, and body composition analysis. Data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: No significant differences (p>0.05) were observed in training adaptations among groups in the variables FFM, percent body fat, bench press 1RM, leg press 1RM or sprint peak power. Anabolic/catabolic analysis revealed no significant differences among groups in active testosterone (AT), free testosterone (FT), cortisol, the AT to cortisol ratio, urea nitrogen, creatinine, the blood urea nitrogen to creatinine ratio. In addition, no significant differences were seen from pr

(G)hosting television: Ghostwatch and its medium

This article’s subject is Ghostwatch (BBC, 1992), a drama broadcast on Halloween night of 1992 which adopted the rhetoric of live non-fiction programming, and attracted controversy and ultimately censure from the Broadcasting Standards Council. In what follows, we argue that Ghostwatch must be understood as a televisually-specific artwork and artefact. We discuss the programme’s ludic relationship with some key features of television during what Ellis (2000) has termed its era of ‘availability’, principally liveness, mass simultaneous viewing, and the flow of the television super-text. We trace the programme’s television-specific historicity whilst acknowledging its allusions and debts to other media (most notably film and radio). We explore the sophisticated ways in which Ghostwatch’s visual grammar and vocabulary and deployment of ‘broadcast talk’ (Scannell 1991) variously ape, comment upon and subvert the rhetoric of factual programming, and the ends to which these strategies are put. We hope that these arguments collectively demonstrate the aesthetic and historical significance of Ghostwatch and identify its relationship to its medium and that medium’s history. We offer the programme as an historically-reflexive artefact, and as an exemplary instance of the work of art in television’s age of broadcasting, liveness and co-presence

Frequency of 22q11 deletions in patients with conotruncal defects

AbstractObjectives. This study was designed to determine the frequency of 22q11 deletions in a large, prospectively ascertained sample of patients with conotruncal defects and to evaluate the deletion frequency when additional cardiac findings are also considered.Background. Chromosome 22q11 deletions are present in the majority of patients with DiGeorge, velocardiofacial and conotruncal anomaly face syndromes in which conotruncal defects are a cardinal feature. Previous studies suggest that a substantial number of patients with congenital heart disease have a 22q11 deletion.Methods. Two hundred fifty-one patients with conotruncal defects were prospectively enrolled into the study and screened for the presence of a 22q11 deletion.Results. Deletions were found in 50.0% with interrupted aortic arch (IAA), 34.5% of patients with truncus arteriosus (TA), and 15.9% with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). Two of 6 patients with a posterior malalignment type ventricular septal defect (PMVSD) and only 1 of 20 patients with double outlet right ventricle were found to have a 22q11 deletion. None of the 45 patients with transposition of the great arteries had a deletion. The frequency of 22q11 deletions was higher in patients with anomalies of the pulmonary arteries, aortic arch or its major branches as compared to patients with a normal left aortic arch regardless of intracardiac anatomy.Conclusions. A substantial proportion of patients with IAA, TA, TOF and PMVSD have a deletion of chromosome 22q11. Deletions are more common in patients with aortic arch or vessel anomalies. These results begin to define guidelines for deletion screening of patients with conotruncal defects