Factors influencing young men's decision to undergo health screening in Malaysia: a qualitative study

Objectives: Uptake of health screening is low in men, particularly among those aged <40 years. This study aimed to explore factors that influence health screening behaviour in younger men. Design: This qualitative study employed an interpretive descriptive approach. Two trained researchers conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) using a semi-structured topic guide, which was developed based on literature review and behavioural theories. All IDIs and FGDs were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Two researchers analysed the data independently using a thematic approach. Participants and setting: Men working in a banking institution in Kuala Lumpur were recruited to the study. They were purposively sampled according to their ethnicity, job position, age and screening status in order to achieve maximal variation. Results: Eight IDIs and five FGDs were conducted (n=31) and six themes emerged from the analysis. (1) Young men did not consider screening as part of prevention and had low risk perception. (2) The younger generation was more receptive to health screening due to their exposure to health information through the internet. (3) Health screening was not a priority in young men except for those who were married. (4) Young men had limited income and would rather invest in health insurance than screening. (5) Young men tended to follow doctors' advice when it comes to screening and preferred doctors of the same gender and ethnicity. (6) Medical overuse was also raised where young men wanted more screening tests while doctors tended to promote unnecessary screening tests to them. Conclusions: This study identified important factors that influenced young men's screening behaviour. Health authorities should address young men's misperceptions, promote the importance of early detection and develop a reasonable health screening strategy for them. Appropriate measures must be put in place to reduce low value screening practices

Dimensional reduction by pressure in the magnetic framework material CuF2_{2}(D2_{2}O)2_{2}pyz: from spin-wave to spinon excitations

Metal organic magnets have enormous potential to host a variety of electronic and magnetic phases that originate from a strong interplay between the spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom. We control this interplay in the quantum magnet CuF$_2$(D$_2$O)$_2$pyz by using high pressure to drive the system through a structural and magnetic phase transition. Using neutron scattering, we show that the low pressure state, which hosts a two-dimensional square lattice with spin-wave excitations and a dominant exchange coupling of 0.89 meV, transforms at high pressure into a one-dimensional spin-chain hallmarked by a spinon continuum and a reduced exchange interaction of 0.43 meV. This direct microscopic observation of a magnetic dimensional crossover as a function of pressure opens up new possibilities for studying the evolution of fractionalised excitations in low dimensional quantum magnets and eventually pressure-controlled metal--insulator transitions

Barriers and facilitators to health screening in men: A systematic review.

RATIONALE: Men have poorer health status and are less likely to attend health screening compared to women. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review presents current evidence on the barriers and facilitators to engaging men in health screening. METHODS: We included qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method studies identified through five electronic databases, contact with experts and reference mining. Two researchers selected and appraised the studies independently. Data extraction and synthesis were conducted using the 'best fit' framework synthesis method. RESULTS: 53 qualitative, 44 quantitative and 6 mixed-method studies were included. Factors influencing health screening uptake in men can be categorized into five domains: individual, social, health system, healthcare professional and screening procedure. The most commonly reported barriers are fear of getting the disease and low risk perception; for facilitators, they are perceived risk and benefits of screening. Male-dominant barriers include heterosexual -self-presentation, avoidance of femininity and lack of time. The partner's role is the most common male-dominant facilitator to screening. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review provides a comprehensive overview of barriers and facilitators to health screening in men including the male-dominant factors. The findings are particularly useful for clinicians, researchers and policy makers who are developing interventions and policies to increase screening uptake in men

Sensitivity of a Bolometric Interferometer to the CMB power spectrum

Context. The search for B-mode polarization fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background is one of the main challenges of modern cosmology. The expected level of the B-mode signal is very low and therefore requires the development of highly sensitive instruments with low systematic errors. An appealing possibility is bolometric interferometry. Aims. We compare in this article the sensitivity on the CMB angular power spectrum achieved with direct imaging, heterodyne and bolometric interferometry. Methods. Using a simple power spectrum estimator, we calculate its variance leading to the counterpart for bolometric interferometry of the well known Knox formula for direct imaging. Results. We find that bolometric interferometry is less sensitive than direct imaging. However, as expected, it is finally more sensitive than heterodyne interferometry due to the low noise of the bolometers. It therefore appears as an alternative to direct imagers with different and possibly lower systematic errors, mainly due to the absence of an optical setup in front of the horns.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. This last version matches the published version (Astronomy and Astrophysics 491 3 (2008) 923-927). Sensitivity of Heterodyne Interferometers modified by a factor of tw

Dynamic Multi-Objective Optimization With jMetal and Spark: a Case Study

Technologies for Big Data and Data Science are receiving increasing research interest nowadays. This paper introduces the prototyping architecture of a tool aimed to solve Big Data Optimization problems. Our tool combines the jMetal framework for multi-objective optimization with Apache Spark, a technology that is gaining momentum. In particular, we make use of the streaming facilities of Spark to feed an optimization problem with data from different sources. We demonstrate the use of our tool by solving a dynamic bi-objective instance of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) based on near real-time traffic data from New York City, which is updated several times per minute. Our experiment shows that both jMetal and Spark can be integrated providing a software platform to deal with dynamic multi-optimization problems.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Multiferroicity in the generic easy-plane triangular lattice antiferromagnet RbFe(MoO4)2

RbFe(MoO4)2 is a quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) triangular lattice antiferromagnet (TLA) that displays a zero-field magnetically-driven multiferroic phase with a chiral spin structure. By inelastic neutron scattering, we determine quantitatively the spin Hamiltonian. We show that the easy-plane anisotropy is nearly 1/3 of the dominant spin exchange, making RbFe(MoO4)2 an excellent system for studying the physics of the model 2D easy-plane TLA. Our measurements demonstrate magnetic-field induced fluctuations in this material to stabilize the generic finite-field phases of the 2D XY TLA. We further explain how Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions can generate ferroelectricity only in the zero field phase. Our conclusion is that multiferroicity in RbFe(MoO4)2, and its absence at high fields, results from the generic properties of the 2D XY TLA.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted in PRB as a Rapid Communicatio

Phase separation and the segregation principle in the infinite-U spinless Falicov-Kimball model

The simplest statistical-mechanical model of crystalline formation (or alloy formation) that includes electronic degrees of freedom is solved exactly in the limit of large spatial dimensions and infinite interaction strength. The solutions contain both second-order phase transitions and first-order phase transitions (that involve phase-separation or segregation) which are likely to illustrate the basic physics behind the static charge-stripe ordering in cuprate systems. In addition, we find the spinodal-decomposition temperature satisfies an approximate scaling law.Comment: 19 pages and 10 figure

Should we screen for the sexually-transmitted infection Mycoplasma genitalium? Evidence synthesis using a transmission-dynamic model

There is increasing concern about Mycoplasma genitalium as a cause of urethritis, cervicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), infertility and ectopic pregnancy. Commercial nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) are becoming available, and their use in screening for M. genitalium has been advocated, but M. genitalium's natural history is poorly-understood, making screening's effectiveness unclear. We used a transmission-dynamic compartmental model to synthesise evidence from surveillance data and epidemiological and behavioural studies to better understand M. genitalium's natural history, and then examined the effects of implementing NAAT testing. Introducing NAAT testing initially increases diagnoses, by finding a larger proportion of infections; subsequently the diagnosis rate falls, due to reduced incidence. Testing only symptomatic patients finds relatively little infection in women, as a large proportion is asymptomatic. Testing both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients has a much larger impact and reduces cumulative PID incidence in women due to M. genitalium by 31.1% (95% range:13.0%-52.0%) over 20 years. However, there is important uncertainty in M. genitalium's natural history parameters, leading to uncertainty in the absolute reduction in PID and sequelae. Empirical work is required to improve understanding of key aspects of M. genitalium's natural history before it will be possible to determine the effectiveness of screening

Demonstration of InAsBi photoresponse beyond 3.5 μm

An Indium Arsenide Bismide photodiode has been grown, fabricated, and characterized to evaluate its performance in the Mid Wave Infrared region of the spectrum. Spectral response from the diode has been obtained up to a diode temperature of 225 K. At this temperature, the diode has a cut off wavelength of 3.95 μm, compared to 3.41 μm in a reference Indium Arsenide diode, indicating that Bismuth has been incorporated to reduce the band gap of Indium Arsenide by 75 meV. Similar band gap reduction was deduced from the cut off wavelength comparison at 77 K. From the dark current data, shunt resistance values of 8 and 39 Ω at temperatures of 77 and 290 K, respectively, were obtained in our photodiode

Stripe structure, spectral feature and soliton gap in high Tc cuprates

We show that the lightly doped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} can be described in terms of a stripe magnetic structure or soliton picture. The internal relationship between the recent neutron observation of the diagonal (x=0.05) to vertical (x >= 0.06) stripe transition, which was predicted, and the concomitant metal-insulator transition is clarified by this solitonic physics. The phase diagram with the unidentified transition lines between antiferromagnetic to stripe phases, the doping dependence of the modulation period, the origin of the mid-infrared optical absorption are investigated comparatively with other single layer systems: La_{2-x}Sr_{x}NiO_{4} and (La,Nd)_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4}. The novel type of quasi-particles and holes is fully responsible for metallic conduction and ultimately superconductivity.Comment: 4 pages RevTex, 5 figure