4,565 research outputs found
The development of a new measure of quality of life in the management of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease: the Reflux Questionnaire.
INTRODUCTION
This paper reports on the development of a new measure of health-related quality of life for use among patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), funded as part of the REFLUX trial. This is a large UK multi centre trial that aims to compare the clinical and cost effectiveness of minimal access surgery with best medical treatment for patients with GORD within the NHS.
Method Potential items were identified via a series of interviews and focus groups carried out with patients who were receiving/had received medical or surgical treatment for GORD. The final measure consisted of 31 items covering 7 categories (Heartburn; Acid reflux; Wind; Eating and swallowing; Bowel movements; Sleep; Work, physical and social activities). The measure produced two outputs: a quality of life score (RQLS) and five Reflux symptom scores. Reliability (internal consistency), criterion validity with the SF-36 and, sensitivity to change in terms of relationship with reported change in prescribed medication were assessed amongst a sample of 794 patients recruited into the trial.
RESULTS
The measure was shown to be internally consistent, to show criterion validity with the SF-36 and sensitive to changes in patients use of prescribed medication at baseline and 3 month follow-up.
DISCUSSION
The Reflux questionnaire is a new self-administered questionnaire for use amongst patients with GORD. Initial findings suggest that the new measure is valid, reliable, acceptable to respondents and simple to administer in both a clinical and research context
Hungry for change: the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance
The Sydney Food Fairness Alliance is one of a growing number of nascent food movements in Australia to have emerged out of concern for the country’s food future, as well as the deleterious effect the present food system is having on its citizens’ health and the continent’s fragile environment. The Alliance’s structure and activities clearly position it as a new social movement (NSM) engaged in collective action on a specific issue, in this instance, food security/justice, and operating outside the political sphere while aiming to influence and affect societal change. Food security as a human right lies at the heart of the Alliance’s philosophy, and equitable, sustainable food policies for New South Wales are a core focus of its advocacy work. The authors argue that the Alliance is a distinctive food movement in that it positions itself as an \u27umbrella\u27 organization representing a wide range of stakeholders in the food system. This chapter reflects on the values, achievements, issues of concern, strengths and weaknesses, and future of the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance.
This resource is Chapter 8 in \u27Food Security in Australia: Challenges and Prospects for the Future\u27 published by Springer in 2013
Child deaths due to injury in the four UK countries: a time trends study from 1980 to 2010
Injuries are an increasingly important cause of death in children worldwide, yet injury mortality is highly preventable. Determining patterns and trends in child injury mortality can identify groups at particularly high risk. We compare trends in child deaths due to injury in four UK countries, between 1980 and 2010
Imaging the human hippocampus with optically-pumped magnetoencephalography
Optically-pumped (OP) magnetometers allow magnetoencephalography (MEG) to be performed while a participant’s head is unconstrained. To fully leverage this new technology, and in particular its capacity for mobility, the
activity of deep brain structures which facilitate explorative behaviours such as navigation, must be detectable
using OP-MEG. One such crucial brain region is the hippocampus. Here we had three healthy adult participants
perform a hippocampal-dependent task – the imagination of novel scene imagery – while being scanned using OPMEG. A conjunction analysis across these three participants revealed a significant change in theta power in the
medial temporal lobe. The peak of this activated cluster was located in the anterior hippocampus. We repeated the
experiment with the same participants in a conventional SQUID-MEG scanner and found similar engagement of
the medial temporal lobe, also with a peak in the anterior hippocampus. These OP-MEG findings indicate exciting
new opportunities for investigating the neural correlates of a range of crucial cognitive functions in naturalistic
contexts including spatial navigation, episodic memory and social interactions
A comparison of transgenic rodent mutation and in vivo comet assay responses for 91 chemicals.
A database of 91 chemicals with published data from both transgenic rodent mutation (TGR) and rodent comet assays has been compiled. The objective was to compare the sensitivity of the two assays for detecting genotoxicity. Critical aspects of study design and results were tabulated for each dataset. There were fewer datasets from rats than mice, particularly for the TGR assay, and therefore, results from both species were combined for further analysis. TGR and comet responses were compared in liver and bone marrow (the most commonly studied tissues), and in stomach and colon evaluated either separately or in combination with other GI tract segments. Overall positive, negative, or equivocal test results were assessed for each chemical across the tissues examined in the TGR and comet assays using two approaches: 1) overall calls based on weight of evidence (WoE) and expert judgement, and 2) curation of the data based on a priori acceptability criteria prior to deriving final tissue specific calls. Since the database contains a high prevalence of positive results, overall agreement between the assays was determined using statistics adjusted for prevalence (using AC1 and PABAK). These coefficients showed fair or moderate to good agreement for liver and the GI tract (predominantly stomach and colon data) using WoE, reduced agreement for stomach and colon evaluated separately using data curation, and poor or no agreement for bone marrow using both the WoE and data curation approaches. Confidence in these results is higher for liver than for the other tissues, for which there were less data. Our analysis finds that comet and TGR generally identify the same compounds (mainly potent mutagens) as genotoxic in liver, stomach and colon, but not in bone marrow. However, the current database content precluded drawing assay concordance conclusions for weak mutagens and non-DNA reactive chemicals
Bordetella bronchiseptica pneumonia in a man with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: a case report
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p><it>Bordetella bronchiseptica </it>can be a cause of virulent pneumonia in humans with impaired immune systems. Few cases have been reported in the medical literature where <it>Bordetella bronchiseptica </it>has been the only pathogen isolated during a course of interstitial pneumonia.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 42-year-old African-American man with human immunodeficiency virus presented with pulmonary symptoms that mimicked <it>Pneumocystis jiroveci </it>pneumonia. A sputum culture grew <it>Bordetella brochiseptica</it>, a common respiratory commensal of wild and domestic animals, rarely implicated in human infections.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>Bordetella bronchiseptica </it>should be added to the differential list of pathogens which can affect people with human immunodeficiency virus and pulmonary symptoms. Sputum culture, as well as history of animal exposure, in these patients is advised.</p
Limit on the mass of a long-lived or stable gluino
We reinterpret the generic CDF charged massive particle limit to obtain a
limit on the mass of a stable or long-lived gluino. Various sources of
uncertainty are examined. The -hadron spectrum and scattering cross sections
are modeled based on known low-energy hadron physics and the resultant
uncertainties are quantified and found to be small compared to uncertainties
from the scale dependence of the NLO pQCD production cross sections. The
largest uncertainty in the limit comes from the unknown squark mass: when the
squark -- gluino mass splitting is small, we obtain a gluino mass limit of 407
GeV, while in the limit of heavy squarks the gluino mass limit is 397 GeV. For
arbitrary (degenerate) squark masses, we obtain a lower limit of 322 GeV on the
gluino mass. These limits apply for any gluino lifetime longer than
ns, and are the most stringent limits for such a long-lived or stable gluino.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in JHE
Optically pumped magnetoencephalography in epilepsy
We demonstrate the first use of Optically Pumped Magnetoencephalography (OP-MEG) in an epilepsy patient with unrestricted head movement. Current clinical MEG uses a traditional SQUID system, where sensors are cryogenically cooled and housed in a helmet in which the patient's head is fixed. Here, we use a different type of sensor (OPM), which operates at room temperature and can be placed directly on the patient's scalp, permitting free head movement. We performed OP-MEG recording in a patient with refractory focal epilepsy. OP-MEG-identified analogous interictal activity to scalp EEG, and source localized this activity to an appropriate brain region
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