Smoking and acute urinary retention: The Olmsted County study of urinary symptoms and health status among men

BACKGROUND Previous reports have suggested an inverse relationship between smoking and surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). We hypothesized that acute urinary retention (AUR), an adverse outcome of this disease and indication for surgical treatment, may be related to smoking. METHODS Study subjects were randomly selected from Olmsted County men aged 40–79 identified through the Rochester Epidemiology Project. Of the 3,854 eligible men, 2,089 (54%) completed a questionnaire that included the American Urological Association Symptom Score and assessed smoking status. Community medical records were examined for occurrence of AUR with documented catheterization in the subsequent 10 years and occurrence of BPH surgery. Proportional hazard models were used to assess the relationship between baseline smoking status and subsequent retention. RESULTS In the 18,307 person-years of follow-up, 114 men had AUR. When compared to 727 never-smokers, there was a trend among the 336 current smokers to be at lower risk (Relative risk (RR) = 0.62, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 0.33, 1.18) whereas the 1,026 former smokers were at similar risk to non-smokers (RR = 1.0, 95%CI = 0.67, 1.46). Among men with moderate-severe symptoms at baseline, current smokers were at lower risk of retention compared to non-smokers (RR = 0.65, 95%CI = 0.22, 1.91) but the association approached the null among those with none-mild symptoms (RR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.40, 2.06). CONCLUSIONS Community-dwelling men who currently smoke may be at a modestly reduced risk of AUR. The magnitude of this association is sufficiently small that it seems unlikely that this explains a sizable proportion of the inverse association between smoking and surgically treated BPH. Prostate 69: 699–705, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62129/1/20914_ftp.pd

Behind Revolution, Beyond Reform: José M. Aricó and the Search for a Democratic Marxism

Historians, sociologists, philosophers, and revolutionaries have all taken an interest in the relationship between Marxism and Latin America. One of the region’s most prominent voices on this matter, José Maria Aricó, has become a focus of recent scholarship in various fields. Aricó, born in Argentina in 1931, engaged Marxism as a translator, editor, and author. He narrated the mid 20th century from the perspective of a Global South intellectual and was always in the process of searching for a distinctly “Latin American Marxism.” Nested in Argentina’s tumultuous period from the postwar to the the last military dictatorship, Aricó imagined himself in a dynamic national and global conversation. This paper will argue that Aricó’s trajectory should be conceived as a whole, rather than in its disparate parts. It will read Aricó’s later work in the 1980s as emerging from the framework he developed in the 1960s. Previous scholars and Aricó himself have conceived of his work along the lines of rupture. The Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 stands as a historical trauma that displaced Aricó’s thinking, sending him into exile and making the post-dictatorship present irreconcilable with the past. In particular, the post-dictatorship period’s association with democracy became unconditionally opposed to the revolutionary aspirations of the 1960s and 70s. This paper will explore Aricó’s theoretical approach to social and political categories by unearthing continuities in his trajectory, particularly around the concept of democracy, demonstrating how the periodization of his thought and the creation of exclusive categories can obfuscate important continuities. Ultimately, this argument points towards wider conceptions of rupture, memory, and socialism around the conclusion of the Cold War, and the persistence of these structures to this day

Smoking-Related Attitudes and Knowledge Among Medical Students and Recent Graduates in Argentina: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Physicians in Argentina smoke at rates similar to the general population, and do not have a clear role in tobacco control strategies. OBJECTIVE: To describe the attitudes and knowledge of medical students and recent graduates towards smoking behavior in Argentina. DESIGN: Cross-sectional self-administered online survey conducted in 2011. PARTICIPANTS: Medical students and recent medical graduates from the University of Buenos Aires. MAIN MEASURES: Attitudes and knowledge were evaluated by responses to 16 statements regarding the effects of smoking cigarettes and the role of physicians in tobacco control. Rates of agreement with a full ban on indoor smoking in different public settings were assessed. KEY RESULTS: The sample included 1659 participants (response rate: 35.1 %), 453 of whom (27.3 %) were current smokers. Only 52 % of participants agreed that doctors should set an example for their patients by not smoking, 30.9 % thought that medical advice had little effect on patients’ cessation behavior, and 19.4 % believed that physicians could decline to care for smoking patients who failed to quit. In adjusted logistic regression models, current smokers had less supportive attitudes about tobacco control and were less likely than non-smokers to agree with a full indoor smoking ban in hospitals (OR: 0.30; 95 % CI 0.16–0.58), universities (OR: 0.55; 95 % CI 0.41–0.73), workplaces (OR: 0.67; 95 % CI 0.50–0.88), restaurants (OR: 0.42; 95 % CI 0.33–0.53), cafes (OR: 0.41; 95 % CI 0.33–0.51), nightclubs (OR: 0.32; 95 % CI 0.25–0.40), and bars (0.35; 95 % CI 0.28–0.45). Recent medical graduates had more accurate knowledge about cessation and were more likely to agree with a full smoking ban in recreational venues. CONCLUSIONS: Although most participants reported a strong anti-tobacco attitude, a proportion still failed to recognize the importance of their role as physicians in tobacco control strategies. Current smokers and current students were less likely to support indoor smoking bans. Specific educational curricula could address these factors.Fil: Salgado, Maria Victoria. Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mejia, Raul Mariano. Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Kaplan, Celia. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Perez Stable, Eliseo. National Institutes of Health; Estados Unido

New Directions: Faculty Use of Technology and Attitudes Toward Library Research Instruction

The authors conducted a survey of the faculty at Western Michigan University to determine how faculty are using technology in instruction and how they perceive library research instruction, in order to determine how librarians can successfully incorporate technology into library instruction. Primary Research Questions How are faculty using technology in instruction? How do faculty perceive library research instruction? How can librarians incorporate technology into library instruction

Reining in Information Literacy Instruction: Using Faculty Survey Data to Guide the Process

Administering a successful and sustainable information literacy program depends upon dialog between librarians and disciplinary faculty as key stakeholders. Two academic institutions surveyed their faculties on the importance of information literacy for student success, the applicability of the ACRL Framework, and attitudes toward collaborating with librarians. This session will present quantitative and qualitative data and discuss how the institutions will use it to align instruction with the expressed values of faculty to help strategically guide integration of the Framework into programs and leverage strengths in an environment of constricting budgets and staffing. The presentation will examine survey responses, reviewing similarities and differences from both institutional and disciplinary perspectives, including to what degree faculty value information literacy. Using survey data as well as themes from the qualitative data related to motivations and barriers to collaboration, we will engage the audience in predicting faculty responses to the ACRL Frames and in discussing ways librarians can respond to collaboration barriers. Presenters will offer examples of how the data will guide their program planning and changes, capitalizing on strengths, and continuing to offer what faculty value in a challenging budgetary landscape. With shrinking budgets and staff, information literacy programs must prioritize efforts. The survey data offers a tool to rein in ever-increasing demands on information literacy programs by using faculty perspectives to help guide the process of incorporating the Framework and identifying what disciplines and courses can be best served by an information literacy program. Participants will: use the two most highly ranked ACRL Frames selected by faculty in the survey in order to guide prioritizing learning goals when planning instruction sessions critically examine suggested faculty language for describing the Frames in order to plan how to initiate a conversation about the Frames with their faculty examine faculty preferences for collaboration with a librarian in order to identify potentially successful approaches Intended audience: Brand new to the topic, At least some experience with the topic NOTE: Presenter notes to the slides can be found under the icon in the upper left corner of the slide on the PDF

Inhibiting Multiple Deubiquitinases to Reduce Androgen Receptor Expression in Prostate Cancer Cells

Prostate cancer (PCa), a leading cause of cancer-related death in men, becomes resistant to androgen deprivation therapy by inducing androgen receptor (AR) activity, which is known as castration-resistant PCa (CRPC). Enzalutamide is an approved drug that inhibits AR activity and increases overall survival. However, resistance to enzalutamide develops rapidly often by increasing AR activity, suggesting that new therapies are required for CRPC. We investigated whether betulinic acid (BA), a small molecule from plants that inhibits multiple deubiquitinases (DUBs), reduces AR, and selectively kills PCa cells, can provide an adjuvant strategy for CRPC. Our data indicated that BA reduced AR protein stability and mRNA expression, making it an attractive agent for CRPC. BA decreased AR mRNA possibly by inhibiting a histone 2A DUB thereby increasing ubiquitinated histone 2A, a transcriptional repressor. We identified multiple and specific DUBs inhibited by BA either in PCa cells or using recombinant DUBs. Similar results were obtained using another multi-DUB inhibitor WP1130, suggesting that these DUB inhibitors can decrease AR expression and increase PCa-specific death. Our results also suggest that combining multi-DUB inhibitors BA or WP1130 with enzalutamide may provide a novel strategy for CRPC by further decreasing AR expression and increasing apoptotic cell death.</p