The influence of breast cancer-related lymphedema on women's return-to-work

The majority of women who develop breast cancer are under retirement age. Therefore, occupational functioning and employment are issues of significant concern. Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is one of the major treatment complications for breast cancer patients and it has been shown to be associated with adverse work outcomes. This study is one of the first to ask "how and why" lymphedema may interact with breast cancer survivors' return-to-work. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), which was adopted to guide research design and analysis of data related to health outcomes, was used as a platform for thinking about the phenomenon of return-to-work. Case study methodologies drawn from Yin's (2014) definition were employed in this dissertation study. Thirteen women with BCRL were enrolled in this study. Participants completed a survey and then participated in a sixty-minute semi-structured individual interview. The results suggested that the return-to-work experience was shaped by interactions of the disease processes, the work activities required, the individual, and an array of environmental factors. Four main themes emerged: 1) BCRL affects physical and emotional functioning associated with work; 2) On-going treatment for BCRL creates challenges for work; 3) Environmental factors affect the work experience; and 4) Personal factors play a key role in adjusting to return-to-work. The findings shared considerable agreement with ICF model and suggested new perspectives towards understanding the model. This study suggests implications for BCRL education, clinical practice, health policy, and research.Includes bibliographical reference

Evaluation of passenger comfort with road field test multi-axis vibration

Using objective vibration evaluation to produce results highly consistent with real road ride comfort is challenging. The deficiencies in traditional evaluation indices, adopting an average operator, maximum operator, or cumulative operator as the main vibration information integration logic, are reported here through 19 designed road field tests in which major vibration information distribution covers all axes and vibration information is distributed in spacetime in various patterns. A new evaluation index which adopted a combination of maximum and cumulative operator is proposed to overcome these deficiencies and an interactive mechanism which standardized the process of selecting vibration information distributed among axes and spacetime is devised between the localized major vibrations. The results show that the proposed road ride comfort evaluation index is more consistent and accurate than the evaluation indices proposed by ISO 2631-1 and can be used more generally

Numerical solution of fractional differential equations using the generalized block pulse operational matrix

AbstractThe Riemann–Liouville fractional integral for repeated fractional integration is expanded in block pulse functions to yield the block pulse operational matrices for the fractional order integration. Also, the generalized block pulse operational matrices of differentiation are derived. Based on the above results we propose a way to solve the fractional differential equations. The method is computationally attractive and applications are demonstrated through illustrative examples

Work in breast cancer survivors : a literature review

"Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women globally (American Cancer Society, 2011). It is estimated approximately 70,000 people are diagnosed with cancer between ages 15 to 39, estimated more than 250,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 or younger, and more than 13,000 young women will be diagnosed every year in United States (Young Survival Coalition, 2012). Work is an important social function in lives. Breast cancer survivors in their employment years are likely to go back to their jobs and social lives after the primary treatment. In order to holistically support the breast cancer survivors with their rehabilitation, including their social function recovery, the related knowledge (status, problems, etc.) of their return to work after primary treatment needs to be studied."--Introduction

The influence of breast cancer related lymphedema on women’s return-to-work

Background:Lymphedema is one of the major treatment complications following breast cancer surgery and radiation. As the majority of women who develop breast cancer are at the age of employment, occupational functioning and employment are issues of concern. This study is novel in exploring the ways that lymphedema affects their work experience.Methods:A multiple-case study methodology drawn from Yin’s definition was employed. A total of 13 female survivors who developed breast cancer–related lymphedema participated by completing a survey and a 60-min semi-structured interview.Results:Four main themes emerged: (1) breast cancer–related lymphedema affects physical and emotional functioning associated with work; (2) ongoing treatment for breast cancer–related lymphedema creates challenges for work; (3) environmental factors affect the return-to-work experience; and (4) personal factors play a key role in adjusting to return-to-work.Conclusion:Both breast cancer–related lymphedema and its treatment have direct and indirect effects on work, with environmental and personal factors also shaping the work-return experience. This study suggests that breast cancer survivors with lymphedema who wish to return to work face potential barriers, and that gaps remain in the availability of supports

Women's concerns of mammography for breast cancer screening : to promote greater patients engagement and control over breast screening process

"Goal: Encouraging greater compliance with breast cancer prevention screening, reducing health disparities surrounding breast cancer detection through the development of a low-cost adjunct to current screening processes, and promoting greater patient engagement and control over the breast screening process."--Background

Research on Comprehensive Multi-Infrastructure Optimization in Transportation Asset Management: The Case of Roads and Bridges

Optimization is the core of transportation asset management, but current optimization approaches are still in the stage of single infrastructure management, which seriously hinders the development and application of transportation asset management. This paper establishes a comprehensive multi-infrastructure optimization model for transportation assets consisting of roads and bridges, which is aimed at achieving the goal of transportation asset comfort, integrity, and security, taking budget funds as constraint conditions, and applying the optimization technique of goal programming and integer programming. An interactive fuzzy linear-weighted optimum-order algorithm is presented to solve the comprehensive optimization model. Finally, the comprehensive multi-infrastructure optimization model and algorithm are verified to be effective by practical data in a case study. The results indicate that the model and algorithm can provide a satisfactory and reasonable maintenance and rehabilitation schedule for transportation asset management agencies

A complex amplitude control method of metasurface based on full phase modulation

Unlike the Pancharatnam-Berry phase and spin-decoupled metasurface, which only modifies the phase of the cross-polarization components, the full-phase modulation metasurface achieves independent wavefront control of the co– and cross-polarization components of circularly polarized waves. As a result, a novel concept for multifunctional manipulation of the metasurface is presented in this paper, which is a complex amplitude control method based on full-phase modulation via a metasurface. This method allows for simultaneous and independent amplitude and phase manipulation of the co– and cross-polarization components of circularly polarized waves. At 980 nm wavelength, the results of complex amplitude control for incident circularly polarized light (left circularly polarized or right circularly polarized) demonstrate the feasibility of the method

Characterization of Alternative Splicing Events in Porcine Skeletal Muscles with Different Intramuscular Fat Contents

Meat quality is one of the most important economic traits in pig breeding and production. Intramuscular fat (IMF) is a major factor that improves meat quality. To better understand the alternative splicing (AS) events underlying meat quality, long-read isoform sequencing (Iso-seq) was used to identify differential (D)AS events between the longissimus thoracis (LT) and semitendinosus (ST), which differ in IMF content, together with short-read RNA-seq. Through Iso-seq analysis, we identified a total of 56,789 novel transcripts covering protein-coding genes, lncRNA, and fusion transcripts that were not previously annotated in pigs. We also identified 456,965 AS events, among which 3930 were DAS events, corresponding to 2364 unique genes. Through integrative analysis of Iso-seq and RNA-seq, we identified 1174 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), among which 122 were DAS genes, i.e., DE-DAS genes. There are 12 overlapped pathways between the top 20 DEGs and DE-DAS genes, as revealed by KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis, indicating that DE-DAS genes play important roles in the differential phenotype of LT and ST. Further analysis showed that upregulated DE-DAS genes are more important than downregulated ones in IMF deposition. Fatty acid degradation and the PPAR (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor) signaling pathway were found to be the most important pathways regulating the differential fat deposition of the two muscles. The results update the existing porcine genome annotations and provide data for the in-depth exploration of the mechanisms underlying meat quality and IMF deposition