Testosterone reduces conscious detection of signals serving social correction - Implications for antisocial behavior

Item does not contain fulltextElevated levels of testosterone have repeatedly been associated with antisocial behavior, but the psychobiological mechanisms underlying this effect are unknown. However, testosterone is evidently capable of altering the processing of facial threat, and facial signals of fear and anger serve sociality through their higher-level empathy-provoking and socially corrective properties. We investigated the hypothesis that testosterone predisposes people to antisocial behavior by reducing conscious recognition of facial threat. In a within-subjects design, testosterone (0.5 mg) or placebo was administered to 16 female volunteers. Afterward, a task with morphed stimuli indexed their sensitivity for consciously recognizing the facial expressions of threat (disgust, fear, and anger) and nonthreat (surprise, sadness, and happiness). Testosterone induced a significant reduction in the conscious recognition of facial threat overall. Separate analyses for the three categories of threat faces indicated that this effect was reliable for angry facial expressions exclusively. This testosterone-induced impairment in the conscious detection of the socially corrective facial signal of anger may predispose individuals to antisocial behavior

Age-specific differences in the treatment of cervical cancer in the east and the south of The Netherlands 1989–2004

Objective: This study aims to describe trends and variation in treatment and survival of cervical cancer in two regions in The Netherlands and to relate this to adherence to the treatment recommendations.Study design: Patient characteristics, tumour characteristics, treatment and follow-up data were collected for 1954 cervical cancer cases diagnosed in the period 1989–2004.Results: In FIGO stages IB-IIA 93% of patients were treated according to the recommendations of The Netherlands Working Group Gynaecologic Oncology. Older patients received radiotherapymore often than younger patients: 48% (95%CI 40–57) of patients older than 70 compared to 15% (95%CI 10–20) of patients aged 50–69 and 5% (95%CI 3–7) of patients aged 50 or younger (p < 0.05). In FIGO stages IIB-IVA 76% of patients were treated according to the recommendations of the Working Group. Chemoradiation was given to older patients less often than to younger patients: 2% (95%CI 0.5–5) versus 23% (95%CI 16–29). A decreased risk of death was found for patients receiving chemoradiation (RER 0.6, 95%CI 0.3–0.9) compared to those receiving “radiotherapy only”.Conclusion: Far from being always followed, the treatment recommendations were better implemented for treatment of patients with FIGO IB-IIA. Elderly patients received different treatment compared to younger patients in this study and showed an independent increased risk of death in the lower stages, which confirms that the need becomes stronger for paying attention to treatment of elderly patients

The number of metastatic sites for stage IIIA endometrial carcinoma, endometrioid cell type, is a strong negative prognostic factor

The aim of this study was to look at the impact of the number of sites with tumour involvement on outcome for patients with stage IIIA endometrioid-type endometrial carcinoma. Patients and methods. 141 patients stage IIIA were included. A central histopathological review was performed. Patients staged solely on the presence of a positive peritoneal washing were excluded. Follow-up ranged from 2 to 217 months with a median of 43 months. Endpoints of the study were locoregional recurrence rates, distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), disease-free survival (DFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS). Results. In multivariate analyses the number of involved sites showed to be the only independent significant variable for DMFS, DFS, and DSS with a Hazard Ratio of 2.1, 2.2, and 2.2, respectively. The DSS was significantly related to the number of involved sites, with a 5-year DSS of 70.4% for one site, 42.8% for two sites, and 43.9% for three sites, respectively (p = 0.001). Conclusion. The number of involved sites outside the corpus uterine for stage IIIA seems to be a strong negative prognostic factor for stage IIIA endometrial carcinoma. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Biological, physical and clinical aspects of cancer treatment with ionising radiatio

Safety Problems Are NP-complete for Flat Integer Programs with Octagonal Loops

Abstract. This paper proves the NP-completeness of the reachability problem for the class of flat counter machines with difference bounds and, more generally, octagonal relations, labeling the transitions on the loops. The proof is based on the fact that the sequence of powers {Ri}∞i=1 of such relations can be encoded as a periodic sequence of matrices, and that both the prefix and the period of this sequence are 2O(||R||2) in the size of the binary encoding ||R||2 of a relation R. This result allows to characterize the complexity of the reachability problem for one of the most studied class of counter machines [8, 11], and has a potential impact on other problems in program verification.

Cost-effectiveness of laparoscopy as diagnostic tool before primary cytoreductive surgery in ovarian cancer

Item does not contain fulltextOBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a diagnostic laparoscopy prior to primary cytoreductive surgery to prevent futile primary cytoreductive surgery (i.e. leaving >1cm residual disease) in patients suspected of advanced stage ovarian cancer. METHODS: An economic analysis was conducted alongside a randomized controlled trial in which patients suspected of advanced stage ovarian cancer who qualified for primary cytoreductive surgery were randomized to either laparoscopy or primary cytoreductive surgery. Direct medical costs from a health care perspective over a 6-month time horizon were analyzed. Health outcomes were expressed in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and utility was based on patient's response to the EQ-5D questionnaires. We primarily focused on direct medical costs based on Dutch standard prices. RESULTS: We studied 201 patients, of whom 102 were randomized to laparoscopy and 99 to primary cytoreductive surgery. No significant difference in QALYs (utility=0.01; 95% CI 0.006 to 0.02) was observed. Laparoscopy reduced the number of futile laparotomies from 39% to 10%, while its costs were euro 1400 per intervention, making the overall costs of both strategies comparable (difference euro -80 per patient (95% CI -470 to 300)). Findings were consistent across various sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION: In patients with suspected advanced stage ovarian cancer, a diagnostic laparoscopy reduced the number of futile laparotomies, without increasing total direct medical health care costs, or adversely affecting complications or quality of life