Supportive Care Needs in Glioma Patients and Their Caregivers in Clinical Practice: Results of a Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: Supportive care needs in glioma patients often remain unrecognized, and optimization in assessment is required. First, we aimed at assessing the support needed using a simple structured questionnaire. Second, we investigated the psychosocial burden and support requested from caregivers.Methods: Patients were assessed at three centers during their outpatient visits. They completed the Distress Thermometer (DT; score ≥ 6 indicated significant burden in brain tumor patients), the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ)-C30+BN20, and the Patients' Perspective Questionnaire (PPQ) that assessed psychosocial distress as well as support requested and received by patients for specific domains (e.g., family, doctor, and mobile care). In each subgroup, patients' caregivers were assessed simultaneously by a questionnaire developed for the study. Multivariate backward logistic regressions were performed for investigating predictors of patients' request for support.Results: Assessments were conducted for 232 patients. Most patients (82%) had a high-grade glioma and a mean age of 52 years (range 20–87). The male to female ratio was 1.25:1. According to the PPQ results, 38% (87) of the patients felt depressed; 44% (103), anxious; and 39% (91), tense/nervous. Desired support was highest from doctors (59%) and psychologists (19%). A general request for support was associated with lower global health status (p = 0.03, odds ratio (OR) = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.92–0.99) according to EORTC QLQ-C30. Most of the assessed caregivers (n = 96) were life partners (64%; n = 61) who experienced higher distress than the corresponding patients (caregivers: 6.5 ± 2.5 vs. patients: 5.3 ± 2.4). When patients were on chemotherapy, caregivers indicated DT ≥ 6 significantly more frequently than patients themselves (p = 0.02).Conclusion: Our data showed that glioma patients and their caregivers were both highly burdened. The PPQ allowed us to evaluate the psychosocial support requested and perceived by patients, detect supportive care needs, and provide information at a glance. Patients in poorer clinical condition are at risk of having unmet needs. The caregivers' burden and unmet needs are not congruent with the patients' need for support. In particular, caregivers of patients on chemotherapy were more highly burdened than patients themselves

The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems

Stable isotope records from speleothems provide information on past climate changes, most particularly information that can be used to reconstruct past changes in precipitation and atmospheric circulation. These records are increasingly being used to provide “out-of-sample” evaluations of isotope-enabled climate models. SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis) is an international working group of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The working group aims to provide a comprehensive compilation of speleothem isotope records for climate reconstruction and model evaluation. The SISAL database contains data for individual speleothems, grouped by cave system. Stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon (δ 18O, δ 13C) measurements are referenced by distance from the top or bottom of the speleothem. Additional tables provide information on dating, including information on the dates used to construct the original age model and sufficient information to assess the quality of each data set and to erect a standardized chronology across different speleothems. The metadata table provides location information, information on the full range of measurements carried out on each speleothem and information on the cave system that is relevant to the interpretation of the records, as well as citations for both publications and archived data. The compiled data are available at https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.147

Evaluating model outputs using integrated global speleothem records of climate change since the last glacial

Although quantitative isotopic data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, so it is timely to evaluate different approaches to use the speleothem data for data-model comparisons. Here, we illustrate this using 456 globally-distributed speleothem δ18O records from an updated version of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database and palaeoclimate simulations generated using the ECHAM5-wiso isotope-enabled atmospheric circulation model. We show that the SISAL records reproduce the first-order spatial patterns of isotopic variability in the modern day, strongly supporting the application of this dataset for evaluating model-derived isotope variability into the past. However, the discontinuous nature of many speleothem records complicates procuring large numbers of records if data-model comparisons are made using the traditional approach of comparing anomalies between a control period and a given palaeoclimate experiment. To circumvent this issue, we illustrate techniques through which the absolute isotopic values during any time period could be used for model evaluation. Specifically, we show that speleothem isotope records allow an assessment of a model’s ability to simulate spatial isotopic trends. Our analyses provide a protocol for using speleothem isotopic data for model evaluation, including screening the observations to take into account the impact of speleothem mineralogy on 18O values, the optimum period for the modern observational baseline, and the selection of an appropriate time-window for creating means of the isotope data for palaeo time slices

Agricultural economics and transition: What was expected, what we observed, the lessons learned Proceedings (Volume I / II)

Over fifteen years have elapsed since the transition from the centrally planned economic system started in the early 1990’s. During this time agricultural and rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe have undergone profound structural changes with wide variations in the degree of transformation and in the rate of success in creating a competitive market and private ownership based food and agricultural system. By becoming member of the European Union the "transition" in its traditional interpretation has been concluded in ten of the Central East European countries. The transition to market based agriculture, however, is far from completion in Southern and Eastern Europe and especially in the CIS countries. International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) and European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) in collaboration with the Corvinus University of Budapest and with a number of other institutions in Hungary organized an inter-conference seminar on the subject of agricultural transition in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The major objective of the seminar was to discuss and draw conclusions on the role of agricultural policy in the transition process in the light of actual progress and current situation in Central and East European countries and in formal Soviet States. In addition the contribution of agricultural economics – both from the West and from the East – as a discipline and a profession to the transition process in agriculture were discussed. A specific objective was to identify priorities and means to strengthen the agricultural economics profession in the transition countries and determine research and educational priorities for the future. The seminar was attended by 118 participants representing 26 countries from Europe, North America and Asia. The Seminar was the largest professional meeting organized by the two associations in 2007. Over 110 abstracts were submitted and evaluated by the International Program Committee. In the two day program of the meeting, 8 presentations were made during the 3 plenary sessions, 66 papers were presented in the 15 contributed paper sessions in 8 subject categories. In addition there were 15 posters discussed in the poster session and the findings of a World Bank study on distortions of agricultural incentives in the region was the subject of a pre-conference workshop. Plenary speakers included Ulrich Koester, Johan Swinnen, Jerzy Wilkin, Zvi Lerman, Eugenia Serova and József Popp-Gábor Udovecz. At the end of the seminar David Colman, President of IAAE gave a global assessment of the status of agricultural economics discipline and profession, while Csaba Csáki, former President of IAAE made summary comments on major issues discussed during the seminar. This volume includes the plenary and contributed papers presented at the seminar and submitted for publications by the authors as well as the abstracts of the poster papers discussed. The seminar was supported and sponsored by a number of organizations and persons. All of their contributions have to be greatly acknowledged. First the two international organizations IAAE and EAAE have to be mentioned, which provided overall organizational framework and logistical support. The IAAE provided in addition a generous grant to support the participation of young agricultural economists from Central and Eastern Europe on the seminar. On the Hungarian side the Corvinus University of Budapest, the Szent István University of Gödöllő, the Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, the Hungarian Agricultural Economics Association, the Hungarian Association of Agricultural Sciences and the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were the major material and organizational supporters. The International Program committee was chaired by David Colman and Csaba Csáki and included Ulrich Koester, Joe Swinnen, Eugenia Serova and Jerzy Wilkin. The local Organizing committee was chaired by Csaba Forgács and István Szűcs and included Zoltán Lakner, András Nábrádi, József Popp, József Tóth, Gábor Udovecz, László Vajda, László Villányi, Krisztina Fodor, Attila Jámbor and Tamás Mizik. Finally IAMO, Halle facilitated the publication of this proceedings

Agricultural economics and transition: What was expected, what we observed, the lessons learned Proceedings (Volume I / II)

Over fifteen years have elapsed since the transition from the centrally planned economic system started in the early 1990âs. During this time agricultural and rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe have undergone profound structural changes with wide variations in the degree of transformation and in the rate of success in creating a competitive market and private ownership based food and agricultural system. By becoming member of the European Union the "transition" in its traditional interpretation has been concluded in ten of the Central East European countries. The transition to market based agriculture, however, is far from completion in Southern and Eastern Europe and especially in the CIS countries. International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) and European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) in collaboration with the Corvinus University of Budapest and with a number of other institutions in Hungary organized an inter-conference seminar on the subject of agricultural transition in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The major objective of the seminar was to discuss and draw conclusions on the role of agricultural policy in the transition process in the light of actual progress and current situation in Central and East European countries and in formal Soviet States. In addition the contribution of agricultural economics â both from the West and from the East â as a discipline and a profession to the transition process in agriculture were discussed. A specific objective was to identify priorities and means to strengthen the agricultural economics profession in the transition countries and determine research and educational priorities for the future. The seminar was attended by 118 participants representing 26 countries from Europe, North America and Asia. The Seminar was the largest professional meeting organized by the two associations in 2007. Over 110 abstracts were submitted and evaluated by the International Program Committee. In the two day program of the meeting, 8 presentations were made during the 3 plenary sessions, 66 papers were presented in the 15 contributed paper sessions in 8 subject categories. In addition there were 15 posters discussed in the poster session and the findings of a World Bank study on distortions of agricultural incentives in the region was the subject of a pre-conference workshop. Plenary speakers included Ulrich Koester, Johan Swinnen, Jerzy Wilkin, Zvi Lerman, Eugenia Serova and József Popp-Gábor Udovecz. At the end of the seminar David Colman, President of IAAE gave a global assessment of the status of agricultural economics discipline and profession, while Csaba Csáki, former President of IAAE made summary comments on major issues discussed during the seminar. This volume includes the plenary and contributed papers presented at the seminar and submitted for publications by the authors as well as the abstracts of the poster papers discussed. The seminar was supported and sponsored by a number of organizations and persons. All of their contributions have to be greatly acknowledged. First the two international organizations IAAE and EAAE have to be mentioned, which provided overall organizational framework and logistical support. The IAAE provided in addition a generous grant to support the participation of young agricultural economists from Central and Eastern Europe on the seminar. On the Hungarian side the Corvinus University of Budapest, the Szent István University of GödöllÅ, the Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, the Hungarian Agricultural Economics Association, the Hungarian Association of Agricultural Sciences and the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were the major material and organizational supporters. The International Program committee was chaired by David Colman and Csaba Csáki and included Ulrich Koester, Joe Swinnen, Eugenia Serova and Jerzy Wilkin. The local Organizing committee was chaired by Csaba Forgács and István Szűcs and included Zoltán Lakner, András Nábrádi, József Popp, József Tóth, Gábor Udovecz, László Vajda, László Villányi, Krisztina Fodor, Attila Jámbor and Tamás Mizik. Finally IAMO, Halle facilitated the publication of this proceedings.Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Industrial Organization, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics,