Barriers to flexible sigmoidoscopy colorectal cancer screening in low uptake socio-demographic groups: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To synthesise qualitative evidence related to barriers and facilitators of flexible sigmoidoscopy screening (FSS) intention and uptake, particularly within low socio-demographic uptake groups. FSS uptake is lower amongst women, lower socio-economic status (SES), and Asian ethnic groups within the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America. METHODS: A total of 12 168 articles were identified from searches of four databases: EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science. Eligibility criteria included: individuals eligible to attend FSS and empirical peer-reviewed studies that analysed qualitative data. The Critical Appraisal Skills Program tool evaluated the methodological quality of included studies, and thematic synthesis was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Ten qualitative studies met the inclusion criteria. Key barriers to FSS intention and uptake centred upon procedural anxieties. Women, including UK Asian women, reported shame and embarrassment, anticipated pain, perforation risk, and test preparation difficulties to elevate anxiety levels. Religious and cultural-influenced health beliefs amongst UK Asian groups were reported to inhibit FSS intention and uptake. Competing priorities, such as caring commitments, particularly impeded women's ability to attend certain FSS appointments. The review identified a knowledge gap concerning factors especially associated with FSS participation amongst lower SES groups. CONCLUSIONS: Studies mostly focussed on barriers and facilitators of intention to participate in FSS, particularly within UK Asian groups. To determine the barriers associated with FSS uptake, and further understand how screening intention translates to behaviour, it is important that future qualitative research is equally directed towards factors associated with screening behaviour

A Novel Visual Word Co-occurrence Model for Person Re-identification

Person re-identification aims to maintain the identity of an individual in diverse locations through different non-overlapping camera views. The problem is fundamentally challenging due to appearance variations resulting from differing poses, illumination and configurations of camera views. To deal with these difficulties, we propose a novel visual word co-occurrence model. We first map each pixel of an image to a visual word using a codebook, which is learned in an unsupervised manner. The appearance transformation between camera views is encoded by a co-occurrence matrix of visual word joint distributions in probe and gallery images. Our appearance model naturally accounts for spatial similarities and variations caused by pose, illumination & configuration change across camera views. Linear SVMs are then trained as classifiers using these co-occurrence descriptors. On the VIPeR and CUHK Campus benchmark datasets, our method achieves 83.86% and 85.49% at rank-15 on the Cumulative Match Characteristic (CMC) curves, and beats the state-of-the-art results by 10.44% and 22.27%.Comment: Accepted at ECCV Workshop on Visual Surveillance and Re-Identification, 201

Dimensionality and dynamics in the behavior of C. elegans

A major challenge in analyzing animal behavior is to discover some underlying simplicity in complex motor actions. Here we show that the space of shapes adopted by the nematode C. elegans is surprisingly low dimensional, with just four dimensions accounting for 95% of the shape variance, and we partially reconstruct "equations of motion" for the dynamics in this space. These dynamics have multiple attractors, and we find that the worm visits these in a rapid and almost completely deterministic response to weak thermal stimuli. Stimulus-dependent correlations among the different modes suggest that one can generate more reliable behaviors by synchronizing stimuli to the state of the worm in shape space. We confirm this prediction, effectively "steering" the worm in real time.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, minor correction

Overview of (pro-)Lie group structures on Hopf algebra character groups

Character groups of Hopf algebras appear in a variety of mathematical and physical contexts. To name just a few, they arise in non-commutative geometry, renormalisation of quantum field theory, and numerical analysis. In the present article we review recent results on the structure of character groups of Hopf algebras as infinite-dimensional (pro-)Lie groups. It turns out that under mild assumptions on the Hopf algebra or the target algebra the character groups possess strong structural properties. Moreover, these properties are of interest in applications of these groups outside of Lie theory. We emphasise this point in the context of two main examples: The Butcher group from numerical analysis and character groups which arise from the Connes--Kreimer theory of renormalisation of quantum field theories.Comment: 31 pages, precursor and companion to arXiv:1704.01099, Workshop on "New Developments in Discrete Mechanics, Geometric Integration and Lie-Butcher Series", May 25-28, 2015, ICMAT, Madrid, Spai

Postglacial expansion of the arctic keystone copepod calanus glacialis

Calanus glacialis, a major contributor to zooplankton biomass in the Arctic shelf seas, is a key link between primary production and higher trophic levels that may be sensitive to climate warming. The aim of this study was to explore genetic variation in contemporary populations of this species to infer possible changes during the Quaternary period, and to assess its population structure in both space and time. Calanus glacialis was sampled in the fjords of Spitsbergen (Hornsund and Kongsfjorden) in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2012. The sequence of a mitochondrial marker, belonging to the ND5 gene, selected for the study was 1249 base pairs long and distinguished 75 unique haplotypes among 140 individuals that formed three main clades. There was no detectable pattern in the distribution of haplotypes by geographic distance or over time. Interestingly, a Bayesian skyline plot suggested that a 1000-fold increase in population size occurred approximately 10,000 years before present, suggesting a species expansion after the Last Glacial Maximum.GAME from the National Science Centre, the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education Iuventus Plus [IP2014 050573]; FCT-PT [CCMAR/Multi/04326/2013]; [2011/03/B/NZ8/02876

The potential for research-based information in public health: Identifying unrecognised information needs

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether there is a potential for greater use of research-based information in public health practice in a local setting. Secondly, if research-based information is relevant, to explore the extent to which this generates questioning behaviour. DESIGN: Qualitative study using focus group discussions, observation and interviews. SETTING: Public health practices in Norway. PARTICIPANTS: 52 public health practitioners. RESULTS: In general, the public health practitioners had a positive attitude towards research-based information, but believed that they had few cases requiring this type of information. They did say, however, that there might be a potential for greater use. During five focus groups and six observation days we identified 28 questions/cases where it would have been appropriate to seek out research evidence according to our definition. Three of the public health practitioners identified three of these 28 cases as questions for which research-based information could have been relevant. This gap is interpreted as representing unrecognised information needs. CONCLUSIONS: There is an unrealised potential in public health practice for more frequent and extensive use of research-based information. The practitioners did not appear to reflect on the need for scientific information when faced with new cases and few questions of this type were generated

Person Re-identification Using Clustering Ensemble Prototypes

Abstract. This paper presents an appearance-based model to deal with the person re-identification problem. Usually in a crowded scene, it is ob-served that, the appearances of most people are similar with regard to the combination of attire. In such situation it is a difficult task to distin-guish an individual from a group of alike looking individuals and yields an ambiguity in recognition for re-identification. The proper organiza-tion of the individuals based on the appearance characteristics leads to recognize the target individual by comparing with a particular group of similar looking individuals. To reconstruct a group of individual accord-ing to their appearance is a crucial task for person re-identification. In this work we focus on unsupervised based clustering ensemble approach for discovering prototypes where each prototype represents similar set of gallery image instances. The formation of each prototype depends upon the appearance characteristics of gallery instances. The estimation of k-NN classifier is employed to specify a prototype to a given probe image. The similarity measure computation is performed between the probe and a subset of gallery images, that shares the same prototype with the probe and thus reduces the number of comparisons. Re-identification perfor-mance on benchmark datasets are presented using cumulative matching characteristic (CMC) curves.

Ileosigmoid fistula and delayed ileal obstruction secondary to blunt abdominal trauma: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Abdominal trauma is a source of significant mortality and morbidity. Bowel injury as a result of blunt abdominal trauma is usually evident within hours or days of the accident.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 38-year-old Caucasian Greek man presented with a subtle and delayed small bowel obstruction caused by a post-traumatic ileosigmoid fistula and ileal stricture four months after a road traffic accident.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Delayed occurrence of post-traumatic small bowel stricture and ileosigmoid fistula is an uncommon surgical emergency. General surgeons as well as emergency physicians should bear this manifestation in mind should a patient return to the hospital several weeks or even years after blunt abdominal trauma with symptoms or signs of bowel obstruction.</p

Just-in-Time Information Improved Decision-Making in Primary Care: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: The "Just-in-time Information" (JIT) librarian consultation service was designed to provide rapid information to answer primary care clinical questions during patient hours. This study evaluated whether information provided by librarians to answer clinical questions positively impacted time, decision-making, cost savings and satisfaction. METHODS AND FINDING: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted between October 2005 and April 2006. A total of 1,889 questions were sent to the service by 88 participants. The object of the randomization was a clinical question. Each participant had clinical questions randomly allocated to both intervention (librarian information) and control (no librarian information) groups. Participants were trained to send clinical questions via a hand-held device. The impact of the information provided by the service (or not provided by the service), additional resources and time required for both groups was assessed using a survey sent 24 hours after a question was submitted. The average time for JIT librarians to respond to all questions was 13.68 minutes/question (95% CI, 13.38 to 13.98). The average time for participants to respond their control questions was 20.29 minutes/question (95% CI, 18.72 to 21.86). Using an impact assessment scale rating cognitive impact, participants rated 62.9% of information provided to intervention group questions as having a highly positive cognitive impact. They rated 14.8% of their own answers to control question as having a highly positive cognitive impact, 44.9% has having a negative cognitive impact, and 24.8% with no cognitive impact at all. In an exit survey measuring satisfaction, 86% (62/72 responses) of participants scored the service as having a positive impact on care and 72% (52/72) indicated that they would use the service frequently if it were continued. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, providing timely information to clinical questions had a highly positive impact on decision-making and a high approval rating from participants. Using a librarian to respond to clinical questions may allow primary care professionals to have more time in their day, thus potentially increasing patient access to care. Such services may reduce costs through decreasing the need for referrals, further tests, and other courses of action. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN96823810