396 research outputs found
Relationship of menopausal status and climacteric symptoms to sleep in women undergoing chemotherapy
Relationship of menopausal status and climacteric symptoms to sleep in women undergoing chemotherapy
Goals of workThe goal of this study was to examine the relationship between menopausal symptoms, sleep quality, and mood as measured by actigraphy and self-report prior to treatment and at the end of four cycles of chemotherapy in women with breast cancer.Patients and methodsData on sleep quality (measured using actigraphy and self-report) and mood were collected prior to treatment and 12 weeks later at the end of four cycles of chemotherapy in 69 women with newly diagnosed breast cancer. In addition, each filled out the Greene Climacteric Scale. Based on reported occurrence of menses, participants were categorized post hoc into three menopausal status groups: pre-menopausal before and after chemotherapy (Pre-Pre), pre-menopausal or peri-menopausal before and peri-menopausal after chemotherapy (Pre/Peri-Peri), and post-menopausal before and after chemotherapy (Post-Post).Main resultsResults suggested that women within the Pre-Pre group evidenced more fragmented sleep with less total sleep time (TST) after chemotherapy compared to baseline. Compared to the other groups, the Pre-Pre group also experienced less TST and more awakenings before and after chemotherapy. Although the Pre/Peri-Peri group evidenced a greater increase in vasomotor symptoms after chemotherapy, there was no relationship with sleep. All groups evidenced more depressive symptoms after chemotherapy, but depression was not related to measures of sleep.ConclusionsContrary to the study hypothesis, these results suggest that women who are pre-menopausal or having regular menses before and after four cycles of chemotherapy have worse sleep following chemotherapy. Those women who maintain or become peri-menopausal (irregular menses) experience an increase in climacteric symptoms but do not experience an associated worsening of sleep. These results are preliminary and more research is necessary to further explain these findings
Intraoperative PaO2 is not related to the development of surgical site infections after major cardiac surgery
Producción CientíficaBackground: The perioperative use of high inspired oxygen fraction (FIO2) for preventing surgical site infections (SSIs) has demonstrated a reduction in their incidence in some types of surgery however there exist some discrepancies in this respect. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between PaO2 values and SSIs in cardiac patients. Methods: We designed a prospective study in which 1,024 patients undergoing cardiac surgery were analyzed. Results: SSIs were observed in 5.3% of patients. There was not significant difference in mortality at 30 days between patients with and without SSIs. In the uni and multivariate analysis no differences in function of the inspired oxygen fraction administrated were observed. Conclusions: We observed that the PaO2 in adult cardiac surgery patients was not related to SSI rate
Observations of the Askaryan Effect in Ice
We report on the first observations of the Askaryan effect in ice: coherent impulsive radio Cherenkov radiation from the charge asymmetry in an electromagnetic (EM) shower. Such radiation has been observed in silica sand and rock salt, but this is the first direct observation from an EM shower in ice. These measurements are important since the majority of experiments to date that rely on the effect for ultra-high energy neutrino detection are being performed using ice as the target medium. As part of the complete validation process for the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, we performed an experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in June 2006 using a 7.5 metric ton ice target, yielding results fully consistent with theoretical expectations
Thermal photons in QGP and non-ideal effects
We investigate the thermal photon production-rates using one dimensional
boost-invariant second order relativistic hydrodynamics to find proper time
evolution of the energy density and the temperature. The effect of
bulk-viscosity and non-ideal equation of state are taken into account in a
manner consistent with recent lattice QCD estimates. It is shown that the
\textit{non-ideal} gas equation of state i.e behaviour
of the expanding plasma, which is important near the phase-transition point,
can significantly slow down the hydrodynamic expansion and thereby increase the
photon production-rates. Inclusion of the bulk viscosity may also have similar
effect on the hydrodynamic evolution. However the effect of bulk viscosity is
shown to be significantly lower than the \textit{non-ideal} gas equation of
state. We also analyze the interesting phenomenon of bulk viscosity induced
cavitation making the hydrodynamical description invalid. We include the
viscous corrections to the distribution functions while calculating the photon
spectra. It is shown that ignoring the cavitation phenomenon can lead to
erroneous estimation of the photon flux.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in JHE
A variable absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of a magnetar
Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are slowly
rotating, isolated neutron stars that sporadically undergo episodes of
long-term flux enhancement (outbursts) generally accompanied by the emission of
short bursts of hard X-rays. This behaviour can be understood in the magnetar
model, according to which these sources are mainly powered by their own
magnetic energy. This is supported by the fact that the magnetic fields
inferred from several observed properties of AXPs and SGRs are greater than -
or at the high end of the range of - those of radio pulsars. In the peculiar
case of SGR 0418+5729, a weak dipole magnetic moment is derived from its timing
parameters, whereas a strong field has been proposed to reside in the stellar
interior and in multipole components on the surface. Here we show that the
X-ray spectrum of SGR 0418+5729 has an absorption line, the properties of which
depend strongly on the star's rotational phase. This line is interpreted as a
proton cyclotron feature and its energy implies a magnetic field ranging from
2E14 gauss to more than 1E15 gauss.Comment: Nature, 500, 312 (including Supplementary Information
X-ray emission from isolated neutron stars
X-ray emission is a common feature of all varieties of isolated neutron stars
(INS) and, thanks to the advent of sensitive instruments with good
spectroscopic, timing, and imaging capabilities, X-ray observations have become
an essential tool in the study of these objects. Non-thermal X-rays from young,
energetic radio pulsars have been detected since the beginning of X-ray
astronomy, and the long-sought thermal emission from cooling neutron star's
surfaces can now be studied in detail in many pulsars spanning different ages,
magnetic fields, and, possibly, surface compositions. In addition, other
different manifestations of INS have been discovered with X-ray observations.
These new classes of high-energy sources, comprising the nearby X-ray Dim
Isolated Neutron Stars, the Central Compact Objects in supernova remnants, the
Anomalous X-ray Pulsars, and the Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters, now add up to
several tens of confirmed members, plus many candidates, and allow us to study
a variety of phenomena unobservable in "standard'' radio pulsars.Comment: Chapter to be published in the book of proceedings of the 1st Sant
Cugat Forum on Astrophysics, "ICREA Workshop on the high-energy emission from
pulsars and their systems", held in April, 201
New Limits on the Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Neutrino Flux from the ANITA Experiment
We report initial results of the first flight of the Antarctic Impulsive
Transient Antenna (ANITA-1) 2006-2007 Long Duration Balloon flight, which
searched for evidence of a diffuse flux of cosmic neutrinos above energies of 3
EeV. ANITA-1 flew for 35 days looking for radio impulses due to the Askaryan
effect in neutrino-induced electromagnetic showers within the Antarctic ice
sheets. We report here on our initial analysis, which was performed as a blind
search of the data. No neutrino candidates are seen, with no detected physics
background. We set model-independent limits based on this result. Upper limits
derived from our analysis rule out the highest cosmogenic neutrino models. In a
background horizontal-polarization channel, we also detect six events
consistent with radio impulses from ultra-high energy extensive air showers.Comment: 4 pages, 2 table
The Eyes Have It: Sex and Sexual Orientation Differences in Pupil Dilation Patterns
Recent research suggests profound sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual response. These results, however, are based on measures of genital arousal, which have potential limitations such as volunteer bias and differential measures for the sexes. The present study introduces a measure less affected by these limitations. We assessed the pupil dilation of 325 men and women of various sexual orientations to male and female erotic stimuli. Results supported hypotheses. In general, self-reported sexual orientation corresponded with pupil dilation to men and women. Among men, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in bisexual-identified men. In contrast, among women, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in heterosexual-identified women. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed. Because the measure of pupil dilation is less invasive than previous measures of sexual response, it allows for studying diverse age and cultural populations, usually not included in sexuality research
Systemic chemotherapy induces microsatellite instability in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of breast cancer patients
INTRODUCTION: Systemic chemotherapy is an important part of treatment for breast cancer. We conducted the present study to evaluate whether systemic chemotherapy could produce microsatellite instability (MSI) in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell fraction of breast cancer patients. METHODS: We studied 119 sequential blood samples from 30 previously untreated breast cancer patients before, during and after chemotherapy. For comparison, we also evaluated 20 women who had no relevant medical history (control group). RESULTS: In 27 out of 30 patients we observed MSI in at least one sample, and six patients had loss of heterozygosity. We found a significant correlation between the number of MSI events per sample and chemotherapy with alkylating agents (P < 0.0001). We also observed an inverse correlation between the percentage of cells positive for hMSH2 and the number of MSI events per sample (P = 0.00019) and use of alkylating agents (P = 0.019). CONCLUSION: We conclude that systemic chemotherapy may induce MSI and loss of heterozygosity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from breast cancer patients receiving alkylating agents, possibly mediated by a chemotherapy-induced decrease in the expression of hMSH2. These effects may be related to the generation of secondary leukaemia in some patients, and may also intensify the genetic instability of tumours and increase resistance to treatment
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