204 research outputs found
Off-trial evaluation of bisphosphonates in patients with metastatic breast cancer
BACKGROUND: Bisphosphonate therapy has been readily accepted as standard of care for individuals with bone metastases from breast cancer. In this study we determined whether the proportion of patients experiencing a skeletal related event (SRE) in a clinical practice population was similar to that observed in phase III randomized controlled studies. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted of 110 patients receiving intravenous bisphosphonates for advanced breast cancer. The proportion of patients experiencing at least one SRE after 12 months of therapy was determined. SRE included vertebral or non-vertebral fracture, cord compression, surgery and/or radiotherapy to bone. RESULTS: The proportion of patients who had an SRE was 30% (28 individuals) and the median time to first event was greater than 350 days. Non-vertebral events and radiotherapy were the most frequent type of SRE, while cord compression and hypercalcaemia were rare (1%). Most patients in the study had bone-only disease (58.2%) and most had multiple bone lesions. In the first 12 months the mean duration of exposure to intravenous bisphosphonates was 261 days and most patients remained on treatment until just before death (median 27 days). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the rate of clinically relevant SREs is substantially lower than the event rate observed in phase III clinical trials. We attribute this lower rate to observational bias. In the clinical trial setting it is possible that over-detection of skeletal events occurs due to the utilisation of regular skeletal survey or radionucleotide bone scan, whereas these procedures are not routine in clinical practice. Phase IV observational studies need to be conducted to determine the true benefits of bisphosphonate therapy in order to implement rationale use of bisphosphonates
Photoproduction of phi(1020) mesons on the proton at large momentum transfer
The cross section for meson photoproduction on the proton has been
measured for the first time up to a four-momentum transfer -t = 4 GeV^2, using
the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. At low
four-momentum transfer, the differential cross section is well described by
Pomeron exchange. At large four-momentum transfer, above -t = 1.8 GeV^2, the
data support a model where the Pomeron is resolved into its simplest component,
two gluons, which may couple to any quark in the proton and in the .Comment: 5 pages; 7 figure
Dependence of Quadrupole Strength in the Transition
Models of baryon structure predict a small quadrupole deformation of the
nucleon due to residual tensor forces between quarks or distortions from the
pion cloud. Sensitivity to quark versus pion degrees of freedom occurs through
the dependence of the magnetic (), electric (), and
scalar () multipoles in the
transition. We report new experimental values for the ratios
and over the range = 0.4-1.8 GeV, extracted from
precision data using a truncated multipole expansion.
Results are best described by recent unitary models in which the pion cloud
plays a dominant role.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. To be published in Phys. Rev. Lett.
(References, figures and table updated, minor changes.
The e p -> e' p eta reaction at and above the S11(1535) baryon resonance
New cross sections for the reaction e p -> ep eta are reported for total
center of mass energy W = 1.5--1.86 GeV and invariant momentum transfer Q^2 =
0.25--1.5 GeV^2. This large kinematic range allows extraction of important new
information about response functions, photocouplings, and eta N coupling
strengths of baryon resonances. Expanded W coverage shows sharp structure at W
\~ 1.7 GeV; this is shown to come from interference between S and P waves and
can be interpreted in terms of known resonances. Improved values are derived
for the photon coupling amplitude for the S11(1535) resonance.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Measurement of Inclusive Spin Structure Functions of the Deuteron
We report the results of a new measurement of spin structure functions of the
deuteron in the region of moderate momentum transfer ( = 0.27 -- 1.3
(GeV/c)) and final hadronic state mass in the nucleon resonance region (
= 1.08 -- 2.0 GeV). We scattered a 2.5 GeV polarized continuous electron beam
at Jefferson Lab off a dynamically polarized cryogenic solid state target
(ND) and detected the scattered electrons with the CEBAF Large
Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS). From our data, we extract the longitudinal
double spin asymmetry and the spin structure function . Our
data are generally in reasonable agreement with existing data from SLAC where
they overlap, and they represent a substantial improvement in statistical
precision. We compare our results with expectations for resonance asymmetries
and extrapolated deep inelastic scaling results. Finally, we evaluate the first
moment of the structure function and study its approach to both the
deep inelastic limit at large and to the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule
at the real photon limit (). We find that the first moment varies
rapidly in the range of our experiment and crosses zero at between
0.5 and 0.8 (GeV/c), indicating the importance of the resonance at
these momentum transfers.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, ReVTeX 4, final version as accepted by Phys.
Rev.
Exclusive Photoproduction of the Cascade (Xi) Hyperons
We report on the first measurement of exclusive Xi-(1321) hyperon
photoproduction in gamma p --> K+ K+ Xi- for 3.2 < E(gamma) < 3.9 GeV. The
final state is identified by the missing mass in p(gamma,K+ K+)X measured with
the CLAS detector at Jefferson Laboratory. We have detected a significant
number of the ground-state Xi-(1321)1/2+, and have estimated the total cross
section for its production. We have also observed the first excited state
Xi-(1530)3/2+. Photoproduction provides a copious source of Xi's. We discuss
the possibilities of a search for the recently proposed Xi5-- and Xi5+
pentaquarks.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
Reproductive health and access to healthcare facilities: risk factors for depression and anxiety in women with an earthquake experience
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The reproductive and mental health of women contributes significantly to their overall well-being. Three of the eight Millennium Development Goals are directly related to reproductive and sexual health while mental disorders make up three of the ten leading causes of disease burden in low and middle-income countries. Among mental disorders, depression and anxiety are two of the most prevalent. In the context of slower progress in achieving Millennium Development Goals in developing countries and the ever-increasing man-made and natural disasters in these areas, it is important to understand the association between reproductive health and mental health among women with post-disaster experiences.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a cross-sectional study with a sample of 387 women of reproductive age (15-49 years) randomly selected from the October 2005 earthquake affected areas of Pakistan. Data on reproductive health was collected using the Centers for Disease Control reproductive health assessment toolkit. Depression and anxiety were measured using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25, while earthquake experiences were captured using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. The association of either depression or anxiety with socio-demographic variables, earthquake experiences, reproductive health and access to health facilities was estimated using multivariate logistic regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Post-earthquake reproductive health events together with economic deprivation, lower family support and poorer access to health care facilities explained a significant proportion of differences in the experiencing of clinical levels of depression and anxiety. For instance, women losing resources for subsistence, separation from family and experiencing reproductive health events such as having a stillbirth, having had an abortion, having had abnormal vaginal discharge or having had genital ulcers, were at significant risk of depression and anxiety.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The relationship between women's post-earthquake mental health and reproductive health, socio-economic status, and health care access is complex and explained largely by the socio-cultural role of women. It is suggested that interventions that consider gender differences and that are culturally appropriate are likely to reduce the incidence.</p
DRAFT: Photoproduction of the meson on the proton at large momentum transfer
The differential cross section, , for meson
photoproduction on the proton above the resonance region ( GeV) was
measured up to a momentum transfer GeV using the CLAS detector at
the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The channel was
extracted from the measured two charged-pion cross section by fitting the
and invariant masses. The low momentum transfer region
shows the typical diffractive pattern expected from Reggeon-exchange. The
flatter behavior at large -t cannot be explained solely in terms of
QCD-inspired two-gluon exchange models. The data indicate that other processes,
like quark interchange, are important to fully describe photoproduction.Comment: submitted to PRL, 5pages, 4 figure
- …