Identity, connectedness, and sexual health in the gay sauna

Introduction: This study focuses on the meanings and experiences that men living in Leicester, UK attribute to the gay sauna, the role of the gay sauna in their sense of identity, and how they construe their sexual behavior in this context. Methods: In 2015, twenty male sauna users participated in a qualitative interview study. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The analysis yielded four themes: (1) identity authenticity in the gay sauna; (2) social connectedness among sauna users; (3) sexual risk and sexual health in the sauna; and (4) protecting the identity functions of the gay sauna. The themes show that engagement with the gay sauna can enhance feelings of identity authenticity and belongingness, and that individuals seek to protect these identity functions of the gay sauna despite recognizing the gay sauna as a “high-risk” environment. To protect identity, the notion of sexual risk is distanced from their own identities. Discussion: Sauna users may experience better psychological health as a result of frequenting the sauna – it may promote identity authenticity and belongingness, and alleviate isolation, loneliness, and depression. The promotion of sexual health information and services in gay saunas may enable us to access individuals who might not ordinarily engage with sexual health services. Social Policy Implications: There must be closer collaboration between sexual health services, sexual health outreach, and gay saunas in the area of sexual health, and identity concerns must be incorporated into the design of interventions

Long term chemoradiotherapy-related dental and skeletal complications in a young female with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

We describe the long-term complications six years after chemoradiotherapy in a 20-year old woman with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We wanted to know whether the radiation dose was constant throughout the oral cavity, and thus uniformly affecting the corresponding dental and skeletal structures. Clinical and radiologic findings are described six years after chemoradiotherapy based on a two-dimensional computerized treatment planning system. This revealed radiation caries limited only to posterior teeth, proximal caries in the anterior teeth, limited but continuous salivary flow, mild periodontal infection, mild xerostomia, and a regenerative capacity of bones and the developmental process. The quantitative assessment of radiation delivered to the mandible revealed a high radiation dose in the posterior area and a minimal dose in the anterior area. This explains the differences in caries manifestation between the anterior and posterior teeth. According to the present study, individualized radiation fields, using a two-dimensional treatment planning system, result in restriction of severe damage of the dental and skeletal structures, which usually follows chemoradiotherapy. Orthodontic treatment could be initiated according to individual patient needs

merGeo: Integration Platform for Linked Data Management Tools

Στις μέρες μας, ο Σημασιολογικός Ιστός αντιπροσωπεύει την επόμενη σημαντική εξέλιξη στη σύνδεση πληροφοριών. Επιτρέπει τη σύνδεση δεδομένων από μια πηγή σε οποιαδήποτε άλλη πηγή στον ιστό, καθώς και την κατανόηση των δεδομένων αυτών από τους υπολογιστές, ώστε να μπορούν να εκτελούν ολοένα και πιο εξελιγμένες διεργασίες για λογαριασμό μας. Έχοντας αυτό κατά νου, οι ερευνητές και οι επαγγελματίες έχουν δημιουργήσει πολλά εργαλεία που επικεντρώνονται στη διαχείριση αυτής της αφθονίας των νέων δεδομένων ιστού. Αν και αυτή η διαδικασία διαχείρισης είναι αρκετά απαιτητική και περίπλοκη, με τη χρήση των κατάλληλων εργαλείων που επικεντρώνονται στη μετατροπή, την εξερεύνηση ή την οπτικοποίηση αυτών των δεδομένων μπορεί να γίνει πιο απλή. Ωστόσο, μέχρι στιγμής κάθε εργαλείο επικεντρώνεται σε μόνο μία από τις προαναφερθείσες διαδικασίες και ως αποτέλεσμα, o συνδυασμός αυτών των εργαλείων θα μπορούσε να χρησιμοποιηθεί για να αναβαθμιστεί ο τρόπος διαχείρισης των διασυνδεδεμένων δεδομένων. Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι να συμβάλει στη διαδικασία διαχείρισης, διερεύνησης και οπτικοποίησης των διασυνδεδεμένων δεδομένων με την ανάπτυξη του merGeo, μιας εφαρμογής που επικεντρώνεται στην παροχή μιας εύχρηστης πλατφόρμας η οποία συνδυάζει τις δυνατότητες τριών ήδη γνωστών εργαλείων διαχείρισης διασυνδεδεμένων δεδομένων: του GeoTriples, του Strabon και του Sextant. Το merGeo προσφέρει μια φιλική προς το χρήστη εφαρμογή που επιτρέπει τόσο σε ειδήμονες του αντικειμένου όσο και σε μη ειδικούς να εκμεταλλευτούν εργαλεία και τεχνολογίες του σημασιολογικού ιστού και να τους πείσει να υιοθετήσουν αυτές τις τεχνολογίες παρουσιάζοντας τα οφέλη του να χρησιμοποιείς διαφορετικές εφαρμογές που βασίζονται σε διασυνδεδεμένα δεδομένα.Nowadays, Semantic Web represents the next major evolution in connecting information. It enables data to be linked from one source to any other source on the web and to be understood by computers so that they can perform increasingly sophisticated tasks on our behalf. With this in mind, researchers and practitioners have engineered many tools that focus on manipulating this abundance of new web data. Although this managing process is quite demanding and complicated, with the use of appropriate tools that concentrate on transformation, exploration or visualization of these data, this whole handling process could become simpler. However, till now each tool focuses only on a single one of the aforementioned procedures and as a result, a combination of them could be used to take the linked data manipulation to the next level. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to linked data management, exploration and visualization process by engineering merGeo, a web application which is focused on providing a user-friendly platform that combines the features of three already known linked data management tools: GeoTriples, Strabon and Sextant. MerGeo provides an easily operated platform that allows both to domain experts and daily users to take full advantage of semantic web tools and technologies and also convinces them to embrace these tools and technologies by demonstrating the benefits of using together different applications whose center of attention is linked data

'There’s this glorious pill': gay and bisexual men in the English midlands navigate risk responsibility and pre-exposure prophylaxis

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is currently being trialed for seronegative gay and other men who have sex with men (GMSM) at risk of HIV infection in England. However, research from other countries where PrEP is available shows limited literacy and uptake by GMSM at risk of HIV. We collected focus group data from 18 GMSM (13 HIV− and 5 HIV+) from Leicester, an ethnically diverse city in the English Midlands. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and three themes are presented. The first theme 'I can’t get my head around people like that': Representations of PrEP users within and beyond gay communities explores how PrEP users are vilified by some GMSM and the wider media. The second theme, 'There's a culture of anti-trust': PrEP, stigma and the interpersonal politics of HIV disclosure discusses how PrEP influences HIV disclosure and sexual decision-making in casual sero-discordant sexual encounters in a context where seropositive men experienced pervasive HIV stigma and HIV− men were suspicious of HIV+ sexual partners. In the final theme, 'I’m still suspicious': Discourses of doubt and distrust participants voiced concern over the safety of PrEP and the motives of drug companies, healthcare agencies and PrEP activists. We consider these findings through a critical lens of wider theorising around the relationship between public health agencies and GMSM communities and consider the impact of these perspectives on likely engagement with PrEP in an English context. We call for more critically informed and nuanced ways of promoting health and well-being amongst men from these communities

Legal Text Classification based on Greek Legislation

Η επεξεργασία νομικού κειμένου είναι ένας αναδυόμενος και σημαντικός τομέας στην Επε- ξεργασία Φυσικής Γλώσσας, με τις εφαρμογές του να είναι πολύτιμες όχι μόνο για τους νομικούς επαγγελματίες αλλά και για την κοινωνία. Για το σκοπό αυτό, στην παρούσα μελέτη, ασχολούμαστε με την ταξινόμηση νομικού κειμένου βασισμένου στην ελληνική νομοθεσία. Παρουσιάζουμε και διαθέτουμε στο κοινό ένα νέο σύνολο δεδομένων βασι- σμένο στην ελληνική νομοθεσία, που αποτελείται από περισσότερους από 47 χιλιάδες επίσημους, ταξινομημένους πόρους ελληνικής νομοθεσίας. Πραγματοποιούμε πειράματα και αξιολογούμε μια σειρά από υπερσύγχρονες μεθόδους και ταξινομητές, που κυμαίνον- ται από παραδοσιακή μηχανική μάθηση και επαναλαμβανόμενα μοντέλα έως υπερσύγ- χρονα μοντέλα μεταφοράς μάθησης. Τα αποτελέσματα αποδεικνύουν την αδυναμία των παραδοσιακών ταξινομητών μηχανικής μάθησης έναντι πιο εξελιγμένων μεθόδων, παρά τον καθορισμό επαρκών βάσεων για τις περισσότερες από τις ερευνηθείσες εργασίες. Οι επαναλαμβανόμενες αρχιτεκτονικές με εξειδικευμένες διανυσματικές παραστάσεις λέξεων προσφέρουν βελτιωμένη συνολική απόδοση, ενώ είναι ανταγωνιστικές ακόμη και σε μο- ντέλα που βασίζονται σε μετασχηματιστές. Ωστόσο, τα υπερσύγχρονα πολυγλωσσικά και μονογλωσσικά μοντέλα που βασίζονται σε μετασχηματιστές φιλονικούν στην κορυφή της κατάταξης των ταξινομητών, προκαλώντας μας να αμφισβητήσουμε την αναγκαιότητα εκ- παίδευσης μονογλωσσικών μοντέλων μεταφοράς μάθησης κατά κανόνα. Από όσα γνωρί- ζουμε, αυτή είναι η πρώτη φορά που το έργο της ταξινόμησης ελληνικού νομικού κειμένου ερευνάται σε τέτοιο βαθμό. Αναμένουμε ότι αυτή η μελέτη θα αποτελέσει μια ισχυρή βάση, συμβάλλοντας σημαντικά στη μελλοντική έρευνα της ελληνικής κοινότητας επεξεργασίας φυσικής γλώσσας.Legal text processing is an emerging and significant field in Natural Language Processing, with its applications being valuable not only to legal professionals but also to society. Towards this end, in this study, we engage in legal text classification based on Greek legislation. We introduce and make publicly available a novel dataset based on Greek legislation, consisting of more than 47k official, classified Greek legislation resources. We experiment with and evaluate a battery of advanced methods and classifiers, varying from traditional machine learning and recurrent models to state-of-the-art transfer learning models. Results evince the shortcoming of traditional machine learning classifiers against more sophisticated methods, despite setting adequate baselines for most of the considered tasks. Recurrent architectures with domain-specific word embeddings offer improved overall performance while being competitive even to Transformer-based models. Still, cutting-edge multilingual and monolingual Transformer-based models brawl on the top of the classifiers’ ranking, inducing us to question the necessity of training monolingual transfer learning models as a rule of thumb. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the project of Greek legal text classification is researched to such an extent. We anticipate this study to be a strong groundwork, contributing significantly to the future research of the Greek NLP community

Long-term radiotherapy related complications in children with head and neck cancer: Another era for pediatric oncologic pathology

Long-term radiotherapy-related complications in children with head and neck cancer have been frequently reported, especially facial growth disorders and dental abnormalities. We report on two male children (8 and 14 years old) with head and neck cancer, who were successfully treated with chemoradiotherapy and presented with growth deficiency of middle face and mandible hypoplasia, eight years and one year later, respectively. These severe growth complications attributed to chemoradiotherapy, while the patients survived primary malignancy. Patient age at irradiation was significantly correlated with the severity of disorders. We consider late sequelae in children with head and neck cancer due to chemoradiotherapy another era for pediatric oncologic pathology for prevention, if possible, or to manage them efficiently

Non-pharmacological interventions for Covid-19: How to improve adherence

Non pharmacological interventions (NPIs) have been widely recommended in the battle against Covid-19. Numerous NPIs, including personal protection, social distancing, and environment and travel measures, have been implemented globally to reduce Covid-19 incidence and mortality. Adherence to these measures is crucial in determining their effectiveness. This article discusses some important barriers and facilitators to adherence, based on existing knowledge and mainly recent literature in the area. We propose three ways in which adherence may be improved, including: (i) targeting individual-level barriers; (ii) addressing structural and societal factors; and (iii) facilitating healthy social norms/social emotions. Collectively, these highlight the important role of individual behavior (and adherence) in containing, and mitigating the impact of, Covid-19 now and into the future

Extraction of consensus protein patterns in regions containing non-proline cis peptide bonds and their functional assessment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In peptides and proteins, only a small percentile of peptide bonds adopts the <it>cis </it>configuration. Especially in the case of amide peptide bonds, the amount of <it>cis </it>conformations is quite limited thus hampering systematic studies, until recently. However, lately the emerging population of databases with more 3D structures of proteins has produced a considerable number of sequences containing non-proline <it>cis </it>formations (<it>cis</it>-nonPro).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In our work, we extract regular expression-type patterns that are descriptive of regions surrounding the <it>cis</it>-nonPro formations. For this purpose, three types of pattern discovery are performed: i) exact pattern discovery, ii) pattern discovery using a chemical equivalency set, and iii) pattern discovery using a structural equivalency set. Afterwards, using each pattern as predicate, we search the Eukaryotic Linear Motif (ELM) resource to identify potential functional implications of regions with <it>cis</it>-nonPro peptide bonds. The patterns extracted from each type of pattern discovery are further employed, in order to formulate a pattern-based classifier, which is used to discriminate between <it>cis</it>-nonPro and <it>trans</it>-nonPro formations.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In terms of functional implications, we observe a significant association of <it>cis</it>-nonPro peptide bonds towards ligand/binding functionalities. As for the pattern-based classification scheme, the highest results were obtained using the structural equivalency set, which yielded 70% accuracy, 77% sensitivity and 63% specificity.</p

Comprehensive Management of Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma

Urothelial carcinoma of the upper urinary tract represents only 5% of all urothelial cancers. The 5-year cancer-specific survival in the United States is roughly 75% with grade and stage being the most powerful predictors of survival. Nephroureterectomy with excision of the ipsilateral ureteral orifice and bladder cuff en bloc remains the gold standard treatment of the upper urinary tract urothelial cancers, while endoscopic and laparoscopic approaches are rapidly evolving as reasonable alternatives of care depending on grade and stage of disease. Several controversies remain in their management, including a selection of endoscopic versus laparoscopic approaches, management strategies on the distal ureter, the role of lymphadenectomy, and the value of chemotherapy in upper tract disease. Aims of this paper are to critically review the management of such tumors, including endoscopic management, laparoscopic nephroureterectomy and management of the distal ureter, the role of lymphadenectomy, and the emerging role of chemotherapy in their treatment