865 research outputs found
Antiviral Drug Allergy
Antiviral drugs used to treat HIV and hepatitis C are common causes of delayed drug hypersensitivities for which many of the more severe reactions have been recently shown to be immunogenetically mediated such as abacavir hypersensitivity where HLA-B*57:01 is now used routinely as a screening test to exclude patients carrying this allele from abacavir prescription. Most antiviral drug allergies consist of mild to moderate delayed rash without other serious features (e.g. fever, mucosal involvement, blistering rash, organ impairment. In these cases treatment can be continued with careful observation and symptomatic management and the discontinuation rate is low
The Ph.D. as a learning process
The main question being addressed by this research was 'how do postgraduate
research students experience the process of doing a Ph.D.?' The way this
question was investigated was to discover how the students involved solved
the problems which confronted them when doing a research degree.
Seven case studies of Ph.D. students and their supervisors are
reported. The student and supervisor pairs came from different disciplines
and two universities. The case studies were conducted through interviews
and the repertory grid was used as a tool throughout the three years of
field work. Additional methods used included rating forms and free writing.
The focus of the study was the postgraduates' changing perceptions of their
Ph.D.
The topics investigated in order to monitor these changes included:
1) The students' relationship with their supervisors
2) The difference between what they expected to accomplish in a given time
and what they actually did accomplish
3) Writing up the results of their work.
Results indicated that the process was similar in these respects for
Arts and Science students. It was found that:
a - it was necessary for students to develop an ability to evaluate their
own work. The rate of this development appeared to be related to the
degree to which the students were allowed to remain dependent on their
supervisors. It is suggested that some kind of 'weaning' process
should be introduced into the student and supervisor relationship as
the postgraduates develop the self-confidence to monitor their own
work.
b - The students' ability to estimate accurately what work they could
accomplish in a given period of time did not improve over the three
years. The observed discrepancies between what the students expected
to achieve and what they actually did achieve are used as the basis
for describing a hypothetical mechanism by which plans are revised as
goals and time limits are adjusted.
c - Writing helped to clarify thinking but was seen by the postgraduates
as a difficult activity and of minor importance. This was because it
served specific functions. At the ideas generating stage of the work
writing helped the students to think more creatively and at the
presentation of results stage it helped to organize their work into a
coherent whole.
d - Their enthusiasm for their Ph.D. diminished due to the length of time
they had to spend working on a single problem. The postgraduates'
perceptions changed from seeing the Ph.D. as something special and
unique to seeing it as a job of work that had to be completed.
Throughout this thesis, the students' changing perceptions of their
Ph.D.s are presented as vital to completion of the higher degree
course.
All these points taken together are presented as important in developing
the skills needed to engage in professional research. They are suggested
to be significant aspects of the Ph.D. as a learning process
Global data on earthworm abundance, biomass, diversity and corresponding environmental properties
Global data on earthworm abundance, biomass, diversity and corresponding environmental properties
Earthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provided directly by authors, were collated with information on site locations, including coordinates, habitat cover, and soil properties. Datasets were required, at a minimum, to include abundance or biomass of earthworms at a site. Where possible, site-level species lists were included, as well as the abundance and biomass of individual species and ecological groups. This global dataset contains 10,840 sites, with 184 species, from 60 countries and all continents except Antarctica. The data were obtained from 182 published articles, published between 1973 and 2017, and 17 unpublished datasets. Amalgamating data into a single global database will assist researchers in investigating and answering a wide variety of pressing questions, for example, jointly assessing aboveground and belowground biodiversity distributions and drivers of biodiversity change
Creating more comparable cohorts in observational palliative care studies: a proposed framework to improve applicability and replicability of research
BackgroundPalliative care is characterised by heterogeneous patient and caregiver populations who are provided care in different health systems and a research base including a large proportion of observational, mostly retrospective studies. The inherent diversity of palliative care populations and the often inadequate study descriptions challenge the application of new knowledge into practice and reproducibility for confirmatory studies. Being able to define systematically study populations would significantly increase their generalisability and effective translation into practice. ProposalBased on an informal consensus process by active palliative care researchers challenged by this problem and a review of the current evidence, we propose an approach to creating more comparable cohorts in observational (non-randomised) palliative care studies that relies on defining the study population in relation to a fixed, well-defined event from which analyses are built (‘anchoring’). In addition to providing a detailed and complete description of the study population, anchoring is the critical step in creating more comparable cohorts in observational palliative care studies. Anchoring can be done with respect to a single or multiple data points, and can support both prospective and retrospective data collection and analysis. DiscussionAnchoring the cohort to reproducible data points will help create more comparable cohorts in palliative care whilst mitigating its inherent heterogeneity. This, in turn, will help optimise the generalisability, applicability and reproducibility of observational palliative care studies to strengthen the evidence base and improve practice
Relationship between emergency presentation, systemic inflammatory response, and cancer-specific survival in patients undergoing potentially curative surgery for colon cancer
Background
Emergency presentation is recognized to be associated with poorer cancer-specific survival following curative resection for colorectal cancer. The present study examined the hypothesis that an enhanced systemic inflammatory response, prior to surgery, might explain the impact of emergency presentation on survival.
Methods
In all, 188 patients undergoing potentially curative resection for colorectal cancer were studied. Of these, 55 (29%) presented as emergencies. The systemic inflammatory response was assessed using the Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS), which is the combination of an elevated C-reactive protein (>10 mg/L) and hypoalbuminemia (<35 g/L).
Results
In the emergency group, tumor stage was greater (P < 0.01), more patients received adjuvant therapy (P < 0.01) more patients had an elevated mGPS (P < 0.01), and more patients died of their disease (P < 0.05). The minimum follow-up was 12 months; the median follow-up of the survivors was 48 months. Emergency presentation was associated with poorer 3-year cancer-specific survival in those patients aged 65 to 74 years (P < 0.01), in both males and females (P < 0.05), in the deprived (P < 0.01), in patients with tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage II disease (P < 0.01), in those who received no adjuvant therapy (P < 0.01), and in the mGPS 0 and 1 groups (P < 0.05) groups. On multivariate survival analysis of patients undergoing potentially curative surgery for TNM stage II colon cancer, emergency presentation (P < 0.05) and mGPS (P < 0.05) were independently associated with cancer-specific survival.
Conclusions
These results suggest that emergency presentation and the presence of systemic inflammatory response prior to surgery are linked and account for poorer cancer-specific survival in patients undergoing potentially curative surgery for colon cancer. Both emergency presentation and an elevated mGPS should be taken into account when assessing the likely outcome of these patients
Renal crystal deposits and histopathology in patients with cystine stones
We have biopsied the papillae of patients who have cystine stones asking if this stone type is associated with specific tissue changes. We studied seven cystine stone formers (SF) treated with percutaneous nephrolithotomy using digital video imaging of renal papillae for mapping and obtained papillary biopsies. Biopsies were analyzed by routine light and electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, electron diffraction, and micro-CT. Many ducts of Bellini (BD) had an enlarged ostium, and all such were plugged with cystine crystals, and had injured or absent lining cells with a surrounding interstitium that was inflamed to fibrotic. Crystal plugs often projected into the urinary space. Many inner medullary collecting ducts (IMCD) were dilated with or without crystal plugging. Apatite crystals were identified in the lumens of loops of Henle and IMCD. Abundance of interstitial Randall's plaque was equivalent in amount to that of non-SF. In the cortex, glomerular obsolescence and interstitial fibrosis exceeded normal. Cystine crystallizes in BD with the probable result of cell injury, interstitial reaction, nephron obstruction, and with the potential of inducing cortical change and loss of IMCD tubular fluid pH regulation, resulting in apatite formation. The pattern of IMCD dilation, and loss of medullary structures is most compatible with such obstruction, either from BD lumen plugs or urinary tract obstruction from stones themselves
Transport Properties near the z=2 Insulator-Superconductor Transition
We consider here the fluctuation conductivity near the point of the
insulator-superconductor transition in a system of regular Josephson junction
arrays in the presence of particle-hole asymmetry or equivalently homogeneous
charge frustration. The transition is characterised by the dynamic critical
exponent , opening the possibility of the perturbative
renormalization-group (RG) treatment. The quartic interaction in the
Ginzburg-Landau action and the coupling to the Ohmic heat bath, giving the
finite quasiparticle life-time, lead to the non-monotonic behavior of the dc
conductivity as a function of temperature in the leading logarithmic
approximation.Comment: Revised version for publication. To appear in PR
Strobilurin fungicides in house dust: is wallboard a source?
Strobilurin fungicides are used primarily in fruits and vegetables, but recently, a patent was issued for one strobilurin fungicide, azoxystrobin, in mold-resistant wallboard. This raises concerns about the potential presence of these chemicals in house dust and potential exposure indoors, particularly in young children. Furthermore, recent toxicological studies have suggested that strobilurins may cause neurotoxicity. Currently, it is not clear whether or not azoxystrobin applications in wallboard lead to exposures in the indoor environments. The purpose of this study was to determine if azoxystrobin, and related strobilurins, could be detected in house dust. We also sought to characterize the concentrations of azoxystrobin in new wallboard samples. To support this study, we collected and analyzed 16 new dry wall samples intentionally marketed for use in bathrooms to inhibit mold. We then analyzed 188 house dust samples collected from North Carolina homes in 2014–2016 for azoxystrobin and related strobilurins, including pyraclostrobin, trifloxystrobin, and fluoxastrobin using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Detection frequencies for azoxystrobin, pyraclostrobin, trifloxystrobin, and fluoxastrobin ranged from 34–87%, with azoxystrobin being detected most frequently and at the highest concentrations (geometric mean = 3.5 ng/g; maximum = 10,590 ng/g). Azoxystrobin was also detected in mold-resistant wallboard samples, primarily in the paper covering where it was found at concentrations up to 88.5 µg/g. Cumulatively, these results suggest that fungicides present in wallboard may be migrating to the indoor environment, leading to exposure in the residences that would constitute a separate exposure pathway independent of dietary exposures
Alternative farrowing systems: design criteria for farrowing systems based on the biological needs of sows and piglets
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