Development of the ways of helping questionnaire: A measure of preferred coping strategies for older African American cancer survivors

Although researchers have identified beneficial coping strategies for cancer patients, existing coping measures do not capture the preferred coping strategies of older African American cancer survivors. A new measure, the Ways of Helping Questionnaire (WHQ), was evaluated with 385 African American cancer survivors. Validity evidence from factor analysis resulted in 10 WHQ subscales (Others There for Me, Physical and Treatment Care Needs, Help from God, Church Family Support, Helping Others, Being Strong for Others, Encouraging My Healthy Behaviors, Others Distract Me, Learning about Cancer, and Distracting Myself). Reliability evidence was generally strong. Evidence regarding hypothesized relationships with measures of well-being and another coping measure was mixed. The WHQ’s content coverage makes it especially relevant for older African American cancer survivors

Distribution of Metals in the Termite Tumulitermes tumuli (Froggatt): Two Types of Malpighian Tubule Concretion Host Zn and Ca Mutually Exclusively

The aim of this study was to determine specific distribution of metals in the termite Tumulitermes tumuli (Froggatt) and identify specific organs within the termite that host elevated metals and therefore play an important role in the regulation and transfer of these back into the environment. Like other insects, termites bio-accumulate essential metals to reinforce cuticular structures and utilize storage detoxification for other metals including Ca, P, Mg and K. Previously, Mn and Zn have been found concentrated in mandible tips and are associated with increased hardness whereas Ca, P, Mg and K are accumulated in Malpighian tubules. Using high resolution Particle Induced X-Ray Emission (PIXE) mapping of whole termites and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spot analysis, localised accumulations of metals in the termite T. tumuli were identified. Tumulitermes tumuli was found to have proportionally high Mn concentrations in mandible tips. Malpighian tubules had significant enrichment of Zn (1.6%), Mg (4.9%), P (6.8%), Ca (2.7%) and K (2.4%). Synchrotron scanning X-ray Fluorescence Microprobe (XFM) mapping demonstrated two different concretion types defined by the mutually exclusive presence of Ca and Zn. In-situ SEM EDX realisation of these concretions is problematic due to the excitation volume caused by operating conditions required to detect minor amounts of Zn in the presence of significant amounts of Na. For this reason, previous researchers have not demonstrated this surprising finding

The impact of using computer decision-support software in primary care nurse-led telephone triage:Interactional dilemmas and conversational consequences

Telephone triage represents one strategy to manage demand for face-to-face GP appointments in primary care. Although computer decision-support software (CDSS) is increasingly used by nurses to triage patients, little is understood about how interaction is organized in this setting. Specifically any interactional dilemmas this computer-mediated setting invokes; and how these may be consequential for communication with patients. Using conversation analytic methods we undertook a multi-modal analysis of 22 audio-recorded telephone triage nurse-caller interactions from one GP practice in England, including 10 video-recordings of nurses' use of CDSS during triage. We draw on Goffman's theoretical notion of participation frameworks to make sense of these interactions, presenting 'telling cases' of interactional dilemmas nurses faced in meeting patient's needs and accurately documenting the patient's condition within the CDSS. Our findings highlight troubles in the 'interactional workability' of telephone triage exposing difficulties faced in aligning the proximal and wider distal context that structures CDSS-mediated interactions. Patients present with diverse symptoms, understanding of triage consultations, and communication skills which nurses need to negotiate turn-by-turn with CDSS requirements. Nurses therefore need to have sophisticated communication, technological and clinical skills to ensure patients' presenting problems are accurately captured within the CDSS to determine safe triage outcomes. Dilemmas around how nurses manage and record information, and the issues of professional accountability that may ensue, raise questions about the impact of CDSS and its use in supporting nurses to deliver safe and effective patient care

Assessment of polygenic effects links primary open-angle glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are leading causes of irreversible blindness. Several loci have been mapped using genome-wide association studies. Until very recently, there was no recognized overlap in the genetic contribution to AMD and POAG. At genome-wide significance level, only ABCA1 harbors associations to both diseases. Here, we investigated the genetic architecture of POAG and AMD using genome-wide array data. We estimated the heritability for POAG (h2 g = 0.42 ± 0.09) and AMD (h2 g = 0.71 ± 0.08). Removing known loci for POAG and AMD decreased the h2 g estimates to 0.36 and 0.24, respectively. There was evidence for a positive genetic correlation between POAG and AMD (rg = 0.47 ± 0.25) which remained after removing known loci (rg = 0.64 ± 0.31). We also found that the genetic correlation between sexes for POAG was likely to be less than 1 (rg = 0.33 ± 0.24), suggesting that differences of prevalence among genders may be partly due to heritable factors

The HIPASS Catalogue - II. Completeness, Reliability, and Parameter Accuracy

The HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS) is a blind extragalactic HI 21-cm emission line survey covering the whole southern sky from declination -90 to +25. The HIPASS catalogue (HICAT), containing 4315 HI-selected galaxies from the region south of declination +2, is presented in Meyer et al. (2004a, Paper I). This paper describes in detail the completeness and reliability of HICAT, which are calculated from the recovery rate of synthetic sources and follow-up observations, respectively. HICAT is found to be 99 per cent complete at a peak flux of 84 mJy and an integrated flux of 9.4 Jy km/s. The overall reliability is 95 per cent, but rises to 99 per cent for sources with peak fluxes >58 mJy or integrated flux > 8.2 Jy km/s. Expressions are derived for the uncertainties on the most important HICAT parameters: peak flux, integrated flux, velocity width, and recessional velocity. The errors on HICAT parameters are dominated by the noise in the HIPASS data, rather than by the parametrization procedure.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages, 11 figures. Paper with higher resolution figures can be downloaded from http://hipass.aus-vo.or

The quality of surgical pathology care for men undergoing radical prostatectomy in the U.S.

BACKGROUND. The authors assessed adherence with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) radical prostatectomy (RP) practice protocol in a national sample of men who underwent RP for early-stage prostate cancer. METHODS. Using the National Cancer Data Base, the authors identified a nationally representative sample of 1240 men (unweighted) who underwent RP. For each patient, local cancer registrars performed an explicit medical record review to assess patient-level compliance with surgical pathology report documentation of 7 morphologic criteria (ie, quality indicators). Applying the CAP prognostic factor classification framework, composite measures and all-or-none measures of quality indicator compliance were calculated for the following analytic categories: 1) a strict subset of CAP category I prognostic factors (3 indicators), 2) a broad subset of CAP category I factors (6 indicators), and 3) the full set of 7 indicators. RESULTS. Among a weighted sample of 24,420 patients who underwent RP, compliance with documentation of the CAP category I factors varied from 54% (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 50–58%) for pathologic tumor, lymph node, metastases classification (according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system) to 97% (95% CI, 96–99%) for Gleason score. In composite, RP pathology reports contained 83% (95% CI, 81–84%), 85% (95% CI, 84–87%), and 79% (95% CI, 78–80%) of the recommended data elements measured by the strict CAP category I subset, the broad CAP category I subset, and the full set of 7 indicators, respectively. In contrast to the generally higher composite scores, only 52% (95% CI, 48–56%) and 41% (95% CI, 37–45%) of men who underwent RP had complete documentation in their pathology reports for the strict and broad CAP category I subsets, respectively. CONCLUSIONS. RP surgical pathology reports contained most of the recommended data elements; however, the frequent absence of pathologic stage provides an opportunity for quality improvement. Cancer 2007. © 2007 American Cancer Society.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56046/1/22698_ftp.pd

THE CONCISE GUIDE TO PHARMACOLOGY 2021/22:Transporters

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2021/22 is the fifth in this series of biennial publications. The Concise Guide provides concise overviews, mostly in tabular format, of the key properties of nearly 1900 human drug targets with an emphasis on selective pharmacology (where available), plus links to the open access knowledgebase source of drug targets and their ligands (www.guidetopharmacology.org), which provides more detailed views of target and ligand properties. Although the Concise Guide constitutes over 500 pages, the material presented is substantially reduced compared to information and links presented on the website. It provides a permanent, citable, point-in-time record that will survive database updates. The full contents of this section can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/bph.15543. Transporters are one of the six major pharmacological targets into which the Guide is divided, with the others being: G protein-coupled receptors, ion channels, nuclear hormone receptors, catalytic receptors and enzymes. These are presented with nomenclature guidance and summary information on the best available pharmacological tools, alongside key references and suggestions for further reading. The landscape format of the Concise Guide is designed to facilitate comparison of related targets from material contemporary to mid-2021, and supersedes data presented in the 2019/20, 2017/18, 2015/16 and 2013/14 Concise Guides and previous Guides to Receptors and Channels. It is produced in close conjunction with the Nomenclature and Standards Committee of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (NC-IUPHAR), therefore, providing official IUPHAR classification and nomenclature for human drug targets, where appropriate

Screening of healthcare workers for SARS-CoV-2 highlights the role of asymptomatic carriage in COVID-19 transmission.

Significant differences exist in the availability of healthcare worker (HCW) SARS-CoV-2 testing between countries, and existing programmes focus on screening symptomatic rather than asymptomatic staff. Over a 3 week period (April 2020), 1032 asymptomatic HCWs were screened for SARS-CoV-2 in a large UK teaching hospital. Symptomatic staff and symptomatic household contacts were additionally tested. Real-time RT-PCR was used to detect viral RNA from a throat+nose self-swab. 3% of HCWs in the asymptomatic screening group tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. 17/30 (57%) were truly asymptomatic/pauci-symptomatic. 12/30 (40%) had experienced symptoms compatible with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)>7 days prior to testing, most self-isolating, returning well. Clusters of HCW infection were discovered on two independent wards. Viral genome sequencing showed that the majority of HCWs had the dominant lineage B∙1. Our data demonstrates the utility of comprehensive screening of HCWs with minimal or no symptoms. This approach will be critical for protecting patients and hospital staff.This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowships 108070/Z/15/Z to MPW, 215515/Z/19/Z to SGB and 207498/Z/17/Z to IGG; Collaborative award 206298/B/17/Z to IGG; Principal Research Fellowship 210688/Z/18/Z to PJL; Investigator Award 200871/Z/16/Z to KGCS; Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (to MPW, SGB, IGG and PJL); the Medical Research Council (CSF MR/P008801/1 to NJM); NHS Blood and Transfusion (WPA15-02 to NJM); National Institute for Health Research (Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre at CUHNFT), to JRB, MET, AC and GD, Academy of Medical Sciences and the Health Foundation (Clinician Scientist Fellowship to MET), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P031447/1 and EP/N031938/1 to RS),Cancer Research UK (PRECISION Grand Challenge C38317/A24043 award to JY). Components of this work were supported by the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, (COG-UK), which is supported by funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and Genome Research Limited, operating as the Wellcome Sanger Institut

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2023/24:Transporters

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2023/24 is the sixth in this series of biennial publications. The Concise Guide provides concise overviews, mostly in tabular format, of the key properties of approximately 1800 drug targets, and over 6000 interactions with about 3900 ligands. There is an emphasis on selective pharmacology (where available), plus links to the open access knowledgebase source of drug targets and their ligands (https://www.guidetopharmacology.org/), which provides more detailed views of target and ligand properties. Although the Concise Guide constitutes almost 500 pages, the material presented is substantially reduced compared to information and links presented on the website. It provides a permanent, citable, point-in-time record that will survive database updates. The full contents of this section can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.16182. Transporters are one of the six major pharmacological targets into which the Guide is divided, with the others being: G protein-coupled receptors, ion channels, nuclear hormone receptors, catalytic receptors and enzymes. These are presented with nomenclature guidance and summary information on the best available pharmacological tools, alongside key references and suggestions for further reading. The landscape format of the Concise Guide is designed to facilitate comparison of related targets from material contemporary to mid-2023, and supersedes data presented in the 2021/22, 2019/20, 2017/18, 2015/16 and 2013/14 Concise Guides and previous Guides to Receptors and Channels. It is produced in close conjunction with the Nomenclature and Standards Committee of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (NC-IUPHAR), therefore, providing official IUPHAR classification and nomenclature for human drug targets, where appropriate.</p

Serology describes a profile of declining malaria transmission in Farafenni, The Gambia

BACKGROUND: Malaria morbidity and mortality has declined in recent years in a number of settings. The ability to describe changes in malaria transmission associated with these declines is important in terms of assessing the potential effects of control interventions, and for monitoring and evaluation purposes. METHODS: Data from five cross-sectional surveys conducted in Farafenni and surrounding villages on the north bank of River Gambia between 1988 and 2011 were compiled. Antibody responses to MSP-119 were measured in samples from all surveys, data were normalized and expressed as seroprevalence and seroconversion rates (SCR) using different mathematical models. RESULTS: Results showed declines in serological metrics with seroprevalence in children aged one to 5 years dropping from 19 % (95 % CI 15-23 %) in 1988 to 1 % (0-2 %) in 2011 (p value for trend in proportions < 0.001) and the SCR dropping from 0.069 year(-1) (0.059-0.080) to 0.022 year(-1) (0.017-0.028; p = 0.004). The serological data were consistent with previously described drops in both parasite prevalence in children aged 1-5 years (62 %, 57-66 %, in 1988 to 2 %, 0-4 %, in 2011; p < 0.001), and all-cause under five mortality rates (37 per 1000 person-years, 34-41, in 1990 to 17, 15-19, in 2006; p = 0.059). CONCLUSIONS: This analysis shows accurate reconstruction of historical malaria transmission patterns in the Farafenni area using anti-malarial antibody responses. Demonstrating congruence between serological measures, and conventional clinical and parasitological measures suggests broader utility for serology in monitoring and evaluation of malaria transmission