701 research outputs found
Sexual health and fertility in Duchenne muscular dystrophy—An exploratory study
Introduction/Aims
Recent clinical guidelines recommend that adolescents with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) who are on daily glucocorticoid treatment should be offered pubertal induction in order to ensure adult levels of sex hormones as they reach adulthood. However, it remains unclear how gonadal status, including androgen concentrations, impacts physical function and future fertility. The aim of this study was to give a voice to adults with DMD, exploring their perspectives around sexual health, hormone treatment, and fertility.
Methods
Qualitative data was collected from six adults with DMD through two online focus groups. Participants were recruited through Pathfinders Neuromuscular Alliance and Duchenne UK and invited to take part if they had DMD and were 18 years of age or older. Conversations were transcribed verbatim and an interpretivist paradigm was used with thematic analysis.
Results
The main themes identified were (1) the need for communication and information about sexual health, (2) dealing with the potential fear of rejection, (3) physical barriers to relationships including sex, (4) testosterone supplementation in DMD, and (5) parenthood and fertility.
Discussion
We recommend that clinicians work with young people with DMD individually, to explore the benefits of testosterone treatment for them and their personal sexual health needs. If they are offered treatment, this should always be accompanied by the opportunity for psychological support. This work highlights the need for further research to establish the role of testosterone supplementation in adults with DMD and its effects on fertility and the value of specific emotional and practical support for sexual health
Assessing Guest Selectivity within Metallacrown Host Compartments
15-MC-5 complexes associate in the solid state to form chiral compartments capable of binding guests. Using small molecular yardsticks, we are able to assess the size restrictions of these structures. Dicarboxylate guests that are too short to span the Gd III ions are stabilized by solvates that hydrogen bond to the uncoordinated carboxylate, while guests that are too long destroy the weakly associated structure. We also demonstrate that all that is required for guest encapsulation is unsaturation of the chain connection carboxylates rather than necessitating the presence of aromaticity. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56027/1/1347_ftp.pd
The Full Range of Predictions for B Physics From Iso-singlet Down Quark Mixing
We extend the range of predictions of the isosinglet (or vector) down quark
model to the fully allowed physical ranges, and also update this with the
effect of new physics constraints. We constrain the present allowed ranges of
sin(2*beta) and sin(2*alpha), gamma, x_s, and A_{B_s}. In models allowing
mixing to a new isosinglet down quark (as in E_6) flavor changing neutral
currents are induced that allow a Z^0 mediated contribution to B-Bbar mixing
and which bring in new phases. In (rho, eta), (x_s, sin(gamma)), and (x_s,
A_{B_s}) plots for the extra isosinglet down quark model which are herein
extended to the full physical range, we find new allowed regions that will
require experiments on sin(gamma) and/or x_s to verify or to rule out an extra
down quark contribution.Comment: 13 pages in RevTeX, 7 postscript figure
Iso-singlet Down Quark Mixing And CP Violation Experiments
We confront the new physics models with extra iso-singlet down quarks in the
new CP violation experimental era with and
measurements, events, and
limits. The closeness of the new experimental results to the standard
model theory requires us to include full SM amplitudes in the analysis. In
models allowing mixing to a new isosinglet down quark, as in E, flavor
changing neutral currents are induced that allow a mediated contribution
to mixing and which bring in new phases. In ,
, and plots we still find much
larger regions in the four down quark model than in the SM, reaching down to
, , , and down to zero, all at 1. We elucidate
the nature of the cancellation in an order four down quark mixing
matrix element which satisfies the experiments and reduces the number of
independent angles and phases. We also evaluate tests of unitarity for the
CKM submatrix.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, REVTeX
Patient-reported adverse drug reactions and drug-drug interactions: a cross-sectional study on Malaysian HIV/AIDS patients
Objective: This study aimed to explore the adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported by patients and to identify drug-drug interactions (DDIs) among human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) patients. Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Medication Therapy Adherence Clinic, Hospital Sungai Buloh, an HIV/AIDS referral centre. The patients were randomly selected and were encouraged to describe ADRs caused specifically by any of the prescribed antiretroviral drugs (ARDs). Sociodemographic characteristics were recorded from the patients’ medical records. In addition data on antiretroviral treatment (ART), DDIs and other conventional medication were also documented. Results: A total of 325 randomly selected HIV/AIDS patients with a mean age of 22.94 years participated in the study. The most frequently prescribed ARDs were lamivudine (64.6%), zidovudine (40.6%) and efavirenz (42.5%). Commonly reported ADRs were fatigue (54.8%), allergic reactions (41.5%), weight loss (41.5%), dry mouth (35.1%) and memory loss (35.1%). Female (87.8%), non-complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) users (87.3%) and participants below 50 years old (81.1%) were identified as having a higher prevalence of ADRs compared to males (79.6%), CAM users (78.7%) and participants aged 50 years or more (77.5%). Patient age was found to be significantly associated (p = 0.048) with the ADRs. In addition, a total of 44 cases of DDIs belonging to category D were also found in this study. Conclusions: This study enabled us to identify the most common ADRs and DDIs associated with the use of ART. Safe and effective treatment depends on the healthcare providers’ knowledge of the same
Search for the Lepton-Number-Violating Decay
A sensitive search for the lepton-number-violating decay has been performed using a sample of hyperons
produced in 800 GeV/ -Cu collisions. We obtain at 90% confidence, improving on the best
previous limit by four orders of magnitude.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let
SIP-based proactive and adaptive mobility management framework for heterogeneous networks
Abstract In this paper, we present and evaluate the performance of a mobility management system called the Proactive and Adaptive Handover (PAHO) system. PAHO is an application-level approach that uses SIP to manage client-initiated connection handoff across heterogeneous networks based on the IEEE 802.21 framework with designated user/configuration policy. Unlike conventional systems which make sub-optimal decision when managing connection handoff due to limited awareness of the relevant context for the application/service being delivered, PAHO defines proper interface to interact with the application as to determine when and to where the handoff and/or codec switching should take place in the event of network performance degradation. The results showed that using the PAHO approach on an audio/video conferencing session helps reducing the overall handover delay from 10.766 s (on non-PAHO system) down to at least 288 ms, and slowing down the degradation of MOS value throughout the entire experiment in the event of signal degradation as well as network congestion. It is also shown that load balancing among the access points (AP) could be achieved with an improved Information Server (IS). r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Evidence for the Decay Sigma+ -> p mu+ mu-
We report the first evidence for the decay Sigma+ -> p mu+ mu- from data
taken by the HyperCP experiment(E871) at Fermilab. Based on three observed
events, the branching ratio is B(Sigma+ -> p,mu+,mu-) = [8.6 +6.6,-5.4(stat)
+/-5.5(syst)] x 10**-8. The narrow range of dimuon masses may indicate that the
decay proceeds via a neutral intermediate state, Sigma+ -> p P0, P0 -> mu+ mu-,
with a P0 mass of 214.3 +/- 0.5 MeV/c**2 and branching ratio B(Sigma+ -> p P0;
P0 -> mu+ mu-) = [3.1 +2.4,-1.(stat) +/-1.5(syst)] x 10**-8.Comment: As published in PR
MicroRNA Genes and Their Target 3′-Untranslated Regions Are Infrequently Somatically Mutated in Ovarian Cancers
MicroRNAs are key regulators of gene expression and have been shown to have altered expression in a variety of cancer types, including epithelial ovarian cancer. MiRNA function is most often achieved through binding to the 3′-untranslated region of the target protein coding gene. Mutation screening using massively-parallel sequencing of 712 miRNA genes in 86 ovarian cancer cases identified only 5 mutated miRNA genes, each in a different case. One mutation was located in the mature miRNA, and three mutations were predicted to alter the secondary structure of the miRNA transcript. Screening of the 3′-untranslated region of 18 candidate cancer genes identified one mutation in each of AKT2, EGFR, ERRB2 and CTNNB1. The functional effect of these mutations is unclear, as expression data available for AKT2 and EGFR showed no increase in gene transcript. Mutations in miRNA genes and 3′-untranslated regions are thus uncommon in ovarian cancer
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