Patient Reported Outcomes in Lung Cancer

This thesis describes research about patient reported outcomes in patients with lung cancer.The aims of this thesis were: 1) to improve the knowledge of physicians, researchers, and other health care professionals about the concepts, definitions, and application of some of the most frequently used patient reported outcomes (PROs) in lung cancer, 2) to stimulate the use of QoL measurement in lung cancer by testing the psychometric properties of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF instrument (WHOQOL-BREF), 3) to identify clinical and sociodemographic variables that are related to HRQoL and QoL in lung cancer, 4) to investigate the association between patients’ feelings about treatment and HRQoL and QoL in lung cancer, and 5) to explore the process of treatment decision making in patients with lung cancer

Application of Fuzzy Logic in Automated Cow Status Monitoring

Sensors that measure yield, temperature, electrical conductivity of milk, and animal activity can be used for automated cow status monitoring. The occurrence of false-positive alerts, generated by a detection model, creates problems in practice. We used fuzzy logic to classify mastitis and estrus alerts; our objective was to reduce the number of false-positive alerts and not to change the level of detected cases of mastitis and estrus. Inputs for the fuzzy logic model were alerts from the detection model and additional information, such as the reproductive status. The output was a classification, true or false, of each alert. Only alerts that were classified true should be presented to the herd manager. Additional information was used to check whether deviating sensor measurements were caused by mastitis or estrus, or by other influences. A fuzzy logic model for the classification of mastitis alerts was tested on a data set from cows milked in an automatic milking system. All clinical cases without measurement errors were classified correctly. The number of false-positive alerts over time from a subset of 25 cows was reduced from 1266 to 64 by applying the fuzzy logic model. A fuzzy logic model for the classification of estrus alerts was tested on two data sets. The number of detected cases decreased slightly after classification, and the number of false-positive alerts decreased considerably. Classification by a fuzzy logic model proved to be very useful in increasing the applicability of automated cow status monitoring

Strategies for estimating human exposure to mycotoxins via food

In this review, five strategies to estimate mycotoxin exposure of a (sub-) population via food, including data collection, are discussed with the aim to identify the added values and limitations of each strategy for risk assessment of these chemicals. The well-established point estimate, observed individual mean, probabilistic and duplicate diet strategies are addressed, as well as the emerging human biomonitoring strategy. All five exposure assessment strategies allow the estimation of chronic (long-term) exposure to mycotoxins, and, with the exception of the observed individual mean strategy, also acute (short-term) exposure. Methods for data collection, i.e. food consumption surveys, food monitoring studies and total diet studies are discussed. In food monitoring studies, the driving force is often enforcement of legal limits, and, consequently, data are often generated with relatively high limits of quantification and targeted at products suspected to contain mycotoxin levels above these legal limits. Total diet studies provide a solid base for chronic exposure assessments since they provide mycotoxin levels in food based on well-defined samples and including the effect of food preparation. Duplicate diet studies and human biomonitoring studies reveal the actual exposure but often involve a restricted group of human volunteers and a limited time period. Human biomonitoring studies may also include exposure to mycotoxins from other sources than food, and exposure to modified mycotoxins that may not be detected with current analytical methods. Low limits of quantification are required for analytical methods applied for data collection to avoid large uncertainties in the exposure due to high numbers of left censored data, i.e. with levels below the limit of quantification

Predicting Entrepreneurial Burnout in a Moderated Mediated Model of Job Fit

We introduce, and empirically test, a model of entrepreneurial burnout that highlights the relationships among job fit, entrepreneurial passion, destiny beliefs, and burnout. Using a sample of 326 individuals involved in entrepreneurial jobs, we tested the link between job fit and two forms of passion—harmonious and obsessive—and the moderating role of entrepreneurs\u27 destiny beliefs about work (i.e., the belief that a successful career is “meant to be”). Findings illustrated that their job fit perceptions were positively related to harmonious passion, which in turn negatively predicted burnout. Additionally, the relationship between job fit and obsessive passion was moderated by destiny beliefs, such that it was positive at high and average levels of destiny beliefs. In turn, obsessive passion was positively related to burnout. We discuss implications for both theory and practice

Human keratinocyte sensitivity towards inflammatory cytokines varies with culture time

Proliferating keratinocyte cultures have been reported to synthesize higher concentrations of prostaglandin (PG) E than confluent ones. As interleukin-1 (IL-1) stimulates keratinocyte PGE synthesis we investigated whether the degree of confluency of the keratinocyte culture modified the response of the cells to IL-1. It was found that IL-1α (100 U/ml) stimulated PGE2 synthesis by proliferating (7 days in culture) but not differentiating (14 days in culture) keratinocytes. Similar effects were observed using tumour necrosis factor-α. Both arachidonic acid (AA) and the calcium ionophore A23187 stimulated PGE2 synthesis by 7 and 14 day cultures although the increase was greatest when 7 day cultures were used. Our data indicate that there is a specific down-regulation of the mechanism(s) by which some inflammatory cytokines stimulate keratinocyte eicosanoid synthesis as cultured keratinocytes begin to differentiate

Applying suitability distributions in a geological context

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