2,949 research outputs found
Public preferences for using quantitative faecal immunochemical test (FIT) vs colonoscopy (CC) as diagnostic test for colorectal cancer: Evidence from an online survey
Background: There has been interest in using the non-invasive, home-based quantitative faecal
immunochemical test (FIT) to rule out colorectal cancer (CRC) in high-risk symptomatic patients.
Aim: To elicit public preferences for FIT versus colonoscopy (CC) and its delivery in primary care.
Design & setting: A cross-sectional online survey in England.
Method: A total of 1057 adults (without CRC symptoms and diagnosis) aged 40–59 years were invited
from an English online survey panel. Responders were asked to imagine they had been experiencing
CRC symptoms that would qualify them for a diagnostic test. Participants were presented with choices
between CC and FIT in ascending order of number of CRCs missed by FIT (from 1–10%). It was
measured at what number of missed CRCs responders preferred CC over FIT.
Results: While 150 participants did not want either of the tests when both missed 1% CRCs, the
majority (n = 741, 70.0%) preferred FIT to CC at that level of accuracy. However, this preference
reduced to 427 (40.4%) when FIT missed one additional cancer. Women were more likely to tolerate
missing CRC when using FIT. Having lower numeracy and perceiving a higher level of risk meant
participants were less likely to tolerate a false negative test. Most of those who chose FIT preferred
to return it by mail (62.2%), to be informed about normal test results by letter (42.1%), and about
abnormal test results face to face (32.5%).
Conclusion: While the majority of participants preferred FIT over CC when both tests had the same
sensitivity, tolerance for missed CRCs was low
Attitudes towards faecal immunochemical testing in patients at increased risk of colorectal cancer: an online survey of GPs in England
Background: There is increasing interest in using a quantitative faecal immunochemical test (FIT) to rule out colorectal cancer (CRC) in patients with high-risk symptoms in primary care. Aim: This study aimed to investigate GPs’ attitudes and willingness to use a FIT over an urgent 2-week wait (2WW) referral. Design and setting: A cross-sectional online survey involving 1024 GPs working across England. Method: Logistic regression models were used to explore the likelihood of GPs using a FIT instead of a 2WW referral, and reported using odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Results: Just over one-third of GPs (n = 365) preferred to use a FIT as a rule-out test over a 2WW referral. GPs were more willing if they were: aged 36–45 years (OR 1.59 [95% CI = 1.04 to 2.44]); 46–55 years (OR 1.99 [95% CI = 1.14 to 3.47]); thought a FIT was highly accurate (OR 1.63 [95% CI = 1.16 to 2.29]); thought patients would benefit compared with having a colonoscopy (OR 2.02 [95% CI = 1.46 to 2.79]); and were highly confident about discussing the benefits of a FIT (OR 2.14 [95% CI = 1.46 to 3.16]). GPs were less willing if they had had >10 urgent referrals in the past year (OR 0.62 [95% CI = 0.40 to 0.94]) and thought that longer consultations would be needed (OR 0.61 [95% CI = 0.44 to 0.83]). Conclusion: The study findings suggest that the acceptability of using a FIT as a rule-out test in primary care is currently low, with less than half of GPs who perceived the test to be accurate preferring it over colonoscopy. Any potential guideline changes recommending a FIT in patients with high-risk symptoms, instead of urgent referral to rule out CRC, are likely to require intensive supporting educational outreach to increase GP confidence in the accuracy and application of a FIT in this context
Inducibility of d-ary trees
CITATION: Czabarka, E. et al. 2020. Inducibility of d-ary trees. Discrete Mathematics, 343(2). doi:10.1016/j.disc.2019.111671.The original publication is available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/discrete-mathematicsImitating the binary inducibility, a recently introduced invariant of binary trees (Cz-
abarka et al., 2017), we initiate the study of the inducibility of d-ary trees (rooted trees whose vertex outdegrees are bounded from above by d ≥ 2). We determine the exact inducibility for stars and binary caterpillars. For T in the family of strictly d-ary trees (every vertex has 0 or d children), we prove that the difference between the maximum
density of a d-ary tree D in T and the inducibility of D is of order O(|T |−1/2) compared
to the general case where it is shown that the difference is O(|T |−1) which, in particular,
responds positively to a conjecture on the inducibility in binary trees. We also discover
that the inducibility of a binary tree in d-ary trees is independent of d. Furthermore, we
establish a general lower bound on the inducibility and also provide a bound for some
special trees. Moreover, we find that the maximum inducibility is attained for binary
caterpillars for every d.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012365X19303498Publishers versio
Direct evidence for income comparisons and subjective well-being across reference groups
Tristan e Isolda
Director Halasz LaszloDrama lÃric en tres actes, llibret i música de R. WagnerEmpresa J.F. ArquerFunció a benefici dels empleats permanents, acomodadors i porters del G.T. del LiceuMestre de Cor : Vittorio Barbieri ; Decorats : J. Mestres i Cabane
Toward unsupervised outbreak detection through visual perception of new patterns
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Statistical algorithms are routinely used to detect outbreaks of well-defined syndromes, such as influenza-like illness. These methods cannot be applied to the detection of emerging diseases for which no preexisting information is available.</p> <p>This paper presents a method aimed at facilitating the detection of outbreaks, when there is no a priori knowledge of the clinical presentation of cases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The method uses a visual representation of the symptoms and diseases coded during a patient consultation according to the International Classification of Primary Care 2<sup>nd </sup>version (ICPC-2). The surveillance data are transformed into color-coded cells, ranging from white to red, reflecting the increasing frequency of observed signs. They are placed in a graphic reference frame mimicking body anatomy. Simple visual observation of color-change patterns over time, concerning a single code or a combination of codes, enables detection in the setting of interest.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The method is demonstrated through retrospective analyses of two data sets: description of the patients referred to the hospital by their general practitioners (GPs) participating in the French Sentinel Network and description of patients directly consulting at a hospital emergency department (HED).</p> <p>Informative image color-change alert patterns emerged in both cases: the health consequences of the August 2003 heat wave were visualized with GPs' data (but passed unnoticed with conventional surveillance systems), and the flu epidemics, which are routinely detected by standard statistical techniques, were recognized visually with HED data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Using human visual pattern-recognition capacities to detect the onset of unexpected health events implies a convenient image representation of epidemiological surveillance and well-trained "epidemiology watchers". Once these two conditions are met, one could imagine that the epidemiology watchers could signal epidemiological alerts, based on "image walls" presenting the local, regional and/or national surveillance patterns, with specialized field epidemiologists assigned to validate the signals detected.</p
STRAW-b (STRings for Absorption length in Water-b): the second pathfinder mission for the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment
Since 2018, the potential for a high-energy neutrino telescope, named the
Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE), has been thoroughly examined by two
pathfinder missions, STRAW and STRAW-b, short for short for Strings for
Absorption Length in Water. The P-ONE project seeks to install a neutrino
detector with a one cubic kilometer volume in the Cascadia Basin's deep marine
surroundings, situated near the western shores of Vancouver Island, Canada. To
assess the environmental conditions and feasibility of constructing a neutrino
detector of that scale, the pathfinder missions, STRAW and STRAW-b, have been
deployed at a depth of 2.7 km within the designated site for P-ONE and were
connected to the NEPTUNE observatory, operated by Ocean Networks Canada (ONC).
While STRAW focused on analyzing the optical properties of water in the
Cascadia Basin, \ac{strawb} employed cameras and spectrometers to investigate
the characteristics of bioluminescence in the deep-sea environment. This report
introduces the STRAW-b concept, covering its scientific objectives and the
instrumentation used. Furthermore, it discusses the design considerations
implemented to guarantee a secure and dependable deployment process of STRAW-b.
Additionally, it showcases the data collected by battery-powered loggers, which
monitored the mechanical stress on the equipment throughout the deployment. The
report also offers an overview of STRAW-b's operation, with a specific emphasis
on the notable advancements achieved in the data acquisition (DAQ) system and
its successful integration with the server infrastructure of ONC.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, 2 table
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