Study protocol of a multicentre randomised controlled trial of self-help cognitive behaviour therapy for working women with menopausal symptoms (MENOS@Work)

Background Hot flushes and night sweats (HFNS) – the main symptoms of the menopause transition – can reduce quality of life and are particularly difficult to manage at work. A cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) intervention has been developed specifically for HFNS that is theoretically based and shown to reduce significantly the impact of HFNS in several randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Self-help CBT has been found to be as effective as group CBT for these symptoms, but these interventions are not widely available in the workplace. This paper describes the protocol of an RCT aiming to assess the efficacy of CBT for menopausal symptoms implemented in the workplace, with a nested qualitative study to examine acceptability and feasibility. Methods/Design One hundred menopausal working women, aged 45–60 years, experiencing bothersome HFNS for two months will be recruited from several (2–10) large organisations into a multicentre randomised controlled trial. Women will be randomly assigned to either treatment (a self-help CBT intervention lasting 4 weeks) or to a no treatment-wait control condition (NTWC), following a screening interview, consent, and completion of a baseline questionnaire. All participants will complete follow-up questionnaires at 6 weeks and 20 weeks post-randomisation. The primary outcome is the rating of HFNS; secondary measures include HFNS frequency, mood, quality of life, attitudes to menopause, HFNS beliefs and behaviours, work absence and presenteeism, job satisfaction, job stress, job performance, disclosure to managers and turnover intention. Adherence, acceptability and feasibility will be assessed at 20 weeks post-randomisation in questionnaires and qualitative interviews. Upon trial completion, the control group will also be offered the intervention. Discussion This is the first randomised controlled trial of a self-management intervention tailored for working women who have troublesome menopausal symptoms

Vanishing Fe 3d orbital moments in single-crystalline magnetite

We show detailed magnetic absorption spectroscopy results of an in situ cleaved high quality single crystal of magnetite. In addition the experimental setup was carefully optimized to reduce drift, self absorption, and offset phenomena as far as possible. In strong contradiction to recently published data, our observed orbital moments are nearly vanishing and the spin moments are quite close to the integer values proposed by theory. This very important issue supports the half metallic full spin polarized picture of magnetite.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Disorder-induced microscopic magnetic memory

Using coherent x-ray speckle metrology, we have measured the influence of disorder on major loop return point memory (RPM) and complementary point memory (CPM) for a series of perpendicular anisotropy Co/Pt multilayer films. In the low disorder limit, the domain structures show no memory with field cycling--no RPM and no CPM. With increasing disorder, we observe the onset and the saturation of both the RPM and the CPM. These results provide the first direct ensemble-sensitive experimental study of the effects of varying disorder on microscopic magnetic memory and are compared against the predictions of existing theories.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters in Nov. 200

Explaining individual differences in infant visual sensory seeking

Individual differences in infants’ engagement with their en-vironment manifest early in development and are noticed by parents. Three views have been advanced to explain differ-ences in seeking novel stimulation. The optimal stimulation hypothesis suggests that individuals seek further stimulation when they are under-responsive to current sensory input. The processing speed hypothesis proposes that those capable of processing information faster are driven to seek stimulation more frequently. The information prioritization hypothesis suggests the differences in stimulation seeking index variation in the prioritization of incoming relative to ongoing informa-tion processing. Ten-month-old infants saw 10 repetitions of a video clip and changes in frontal theta oscillatory amplitude were measured as an index of information processing speed. Stimulus-locked P1 peak amplitude in response to checker-boards briefly overlaid on the video at random points during its presentation indexed processing of incoming stimulation. Parental report of higher visual seeking did not relate to re-duced P1 peak amplitude or to a stronger decrease in fron-tal theta amplitude with repetition, thus not supporting either the optimal stimulation or the processing speed hypotheses. Higher visual seeking occurred in those infants whose P1 peak amplitude was greater than expected based on their theta amplitude. These findings indicate that visual sensory seeking in infancy is explained by a bias toward novel stimulation, thus supporting the information prioritization hypothesis

Observation of a multiply ionized plasma with index of refraction greater than one

Includes bibliographical references (pages 035005-4).We present clear experimental evidence showing that the contribution of bound electrons can dominate the index of refraction of laser-created plasmas at soft x-ray wavelengths. We report anomalous fringe shifts in soft x-ray laser interferograms of Al laser-created plasmas. The comparison of measured and simulated interferograms shows that this results from the dominant contribution of low charge ions to the index of refraction. This usually neglected bound electron contribution can affect the propagation of soft x-ray radiation in plasmas and the interferometric diagnostics of plasmas for many elements

Hydrodynamic Simulations and Soft X-ray Laser Interferometric Studies of Energy Transport in Tightly Focused Laser-Heated Aluminum Plasmas

Contains the benefits of short wavelength ps probes for measuring plasmas

Management of hot flushes in UK breast cancer patients: clinician and patient perspectives

Introduction: Menopausal problems are among the most prevalent and distressing problems following breast cancer treatment, with 70% women experiencing hot flushes and night sweats (HFNS). A working party was set up to support the development of new research into the management of these problems. Methods: We conducted surveys to explore the need as perceived by women with breast cancer and establish current UK management practices. A patient survey was conducted through a charity, Breast Cancer Care, and a health professional survey via the UK Breast Intergroup. The HFNS Problem Rating Scale was used, as well as specific questions addressing the aims of the study. Results: Six hundred and sixty-five patients responded and 185 health professionals. Twenty-eight percent women had considered stopping adjuvant endocrine treatment because of HFNS, yet 34% had never been asked about HFNS by any health professional. The most commonly offered interventions were SSRIs, such as venlafaxine, yet only 25% patients had been offered these drugs. Cognitive behavioural therapy was rarely suggested (2%) despite good evidence. Discussion: This study shows a lack of coherence in the management of HFNS in breast cancer survivors, which may lead to reduced adherence to adjuvant therapy. There is an urgent need to develop guidelines to support management of HFNS after breast cancer

Advice About Life Plans and Personal Problems in Late Adolescent Sibling Relationships

This study examined older adolescents' perceptions of the following sibling relationship characteristics: advice about life plans and personal problems, satisfaction with support, and sibling influence on interests and goals. Little is known about late adolescent sibling relationships and siblings' role in the identity formation process. Differences between first- and secondborns, males and females, and opposite- and same-gender sibling pairs were explored. Participants were 223 adolescents ( M = 17.5 years old) who filled out a survey in their senior year of high school. All adolescents were from always-married families and had one sibling between the ages of 13 and 23. Analyses revealed that both secondborns and females reported receiving more advice, being more satisfied with sibling support, and being influenced more by their sibling than firstborns and males, respectively. In addition, those in female–female sibling pairs received more advice from their siblings than those in male–male and mixed gender pairs. Findings revealed that adolescents do sometimes rely on their siblings as a source of advice about life plans and personal problems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45282/1/10964_2004_Article_423236.pd

Disentangling Direct from Indirect Co-Evolution of Residues in Protein Alignments

Predicting protein structure from primary sequence is one of the ultimate challenges in computational biology. Given the large amount of available sequence data, the analysis of co-evolution, i.e., statistical dependency, between columns in multiple alignments of protein domain sequences remains one of the most promising avenues for predicting residues that are contacting in the structure. A key impediment to this approach is that strong statistical dependencies are also observed for many residue pairs that are distal in the structure. Using a comprehensive analysis of protein domains with available three-dimensional structures we show that co-evolving contacts very commonly form chains that percolate through the protein structure, inducing indirect statistical dependencies between many distal pairs of residues. We characterize the distributions of length and spatial distance traveled by these co-evolving contact chains and show that they explain a large fraction of observed statistical dependencies between structurally distal pairs. We adapt a recently developed Bayesian network model into a rigorous procedure for disentangling direct from indirect statistical dependencies, and we demonstrate that this method not only successfully accomplishes this task, but also allows contacts with weak statistical dependency to be detected. To illustrate how additional information can be incorporated into our method, we incorporate a phylogenetic correction, and we develop an informative prior that takes into account that the probability for a pair of residues to contact depends strongly on their primary-sequence distance and the amount of conservation that the corresponding columns in the multiple alignment exhibit. We show that our model including these extensions dramatically improves the accuracy of contact prediction from multiple sequence alignments

Correction: AGAPE (Automated Genome Analysis PipelinE) for Pan-Genome Analysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The characterization and public release of genome sequences from thousands of organisms is expanding the scope for genetic variation studies. However, understanding the phenotypic consequences of genetic variation remains a challenge in eukaryotes due to the complexity of the genotype-phenotype map. One approach to this is the intensive study of model systems for which diverse sources of information can be accumulated and integrated. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an extensively studied model organism, with well-known protein functions and thoroughly curated phenotype data. To develop and expand the available resources linking genomic variation with function in yeast, we aim to model the pan-genome of S. cerevisiae. To initiate the yeast pan-genome, we newly sequenced or re-sequenced the genomes of 25 strains that are commonly used in the yeast research community using advanced sequencing technology at high quality. We also developed a pipeline for automated pan-genome analysis, which integrates the steps of assembly, annotation, and variation calling. To assign strain-specific functional annotations, we identified genes that were not present in the reference genome. We classified these according to their presence or absence across strains and characterized each group of genes with known functional and phenotypic features. The functional roles of novel genes not found in the reference genome and associated with strains or groups of strains appear to be consistent with anticipated adaptations in specific lineages. As more S. cerevisiae strain genomes are released, our analysis can be used to collate genome data and relate it to lineage-specific patterns of genome evolution. Our new tool set will enhance our understanding of genomic and functional evolution in S. cerevisiae, and will be available to the yeast genetics and molecular biology community