The effect of individual radiographers on rates of attendance to breast screening: A 7-year retrospective study

AIM: To establish whether individual radiographers had significantly different rescreening rates whilst controlling for other known confounding factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Women aged 50e69 years were identified from a state-wide screening database at their first screening attendance during the study period (2007e2013). The radiographer performing this index screen and potential confounding factors were recorded and subsequent screening behaviour was assessed. Clients with abnormal screens and those known to have died during the time period were excluded. A univariate analysis of the data from 160,028 women was assessed using the chi-square test to compare those women who attended their next mammography with non-re-attenders. Logistic regression was used to calculate the likelihood of “re-attendance success” across a range of variables. The probability of re-attendance for 11 randomly selected radiographers was determined from the logistic regression model, whilst controlling for other variables. RESULTS: Comparison of non-re-attenders (n¼49,698) with 110,330 (69%) women attending the next round of screening revealed significant differences, including radiographer (Wald statistics¼1188, p\u3c0.000) even when all other known factors were controlled. CONCLUSION: This large, population-level study demonstrates that individual radiographer factors appear to influence a women’s decision to return for their next screening round. Further research is required to identify reasons for differing rescre

The importance of left atrial volume assessment in identifying the cause of ischemic stroke

Separating cardioembolic from large artery stroke has important treatment implications. We investigated whether echocardiography could improve Cardioembolic Stroke (CES) prediction compared with traditional measures and cholesterol biomarkers. Data from 40 consecutive patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke which included brain and carotid imaging, ECG, echo, serum cholesterol and apolipoproteins were independently reviewed. Patients were classified into two groups: a) CES, defined by sustained or paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and \u3c50% stenosis of a perfusing cerebral artery; b) Large artery stroke (LAS) defined as \u3e 50% stenosis of an ipsilateral perfusing cerebral artery, with no evidence of AF on monitoring or evidence of small artery disease on neuroimaging and confirmed by an independent neurologist. Other than the CES group being older, the baseline characteristics of the two groups were similar. Left Atrial Volume (indexed for body surface area, LAVi) was significantly larger in CES (57.9 +/- 19.4 vs 31.1 +/- 8.3ml/m2, p\u3c0.01), with a simple equation that utilised age, LAVi and E wave accurately predicting 90% of CES. The difference in LAVi for CES was beyond that anticipated from the presence of AF alone. No differences in any of the lipid biomarkers were observed. These finding indicate that LAVi is the most important predictor of CES due to atrial fibrillation and is highly predictive of patients with CES due to atrial fibrillation. Cholesterol biomarkers offered no additional discriminatory value

Improvements in heat transfer network modelling for oil-cooled power transformer windings

Papers presented to the 11th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 20-23 July 2015.In this paper accurate modelling of heat transfer from power transformer winding conductors to cooling oil is envisaged. To this end the network model of Radakovic & Sorgic [1] is validated against more detailed CFD simulation results. Based on this comparison, three model improvements to the network model are proposed. They concern the governing heat transfer correlation, the introduction of thermal boundary layer tracking and an improved description for the thermal resistance in the solid. The improved network model results in more accurate results.The authors acknowledge support from the IWT, in the context of a Baekeland Mandate.am201

Study protocol for the evaluation of an Infant Simulator based program delivered in schools: a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial

Background: This paper presents the study protocol for a pragmatic randomised controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a school based program developed to prevent teenage pregnancy. The program includes students taking care of an Infant Simulator; despite growing popularity and an increasing global presence of such programs, there is no published evidence of their long-term impact. The aim of this trial is to evaluate the Virtual Infant Parenting (VIP) program by investigating pre-conceptual health and risk behaviours, teen pregnancy and the resultant birth outcomes, early child health and maternal health. Methods and Design: Fifty-seven schools (86% of 66 eligible secondary schools) in Perth, Australia were recruited to the clustered (by school) randomised trial, with even randomisation to the intervention and control arms. Between 2003 and 2006, the VIP program was administered to 1,267 participants in the intervention schools, while 1,567 participants in the non-intervention schools received standard curriculum. Participants were all female and aged between 13-15 years upon recruitment. Pre and post-intervention questionnaires measured short-term impact and participants are now being followed through their teenage years via data linkage to hospital medical records, abortion clinics and education records. Participants who have a live birth are interviewed by face-to-face interview. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and proportional hazards regression will test for differences in pregnancy, birth and abortion rates during the teenage years between the study arms.Discussion: This protocol paper provides a detailed overview of the trial design as well as initial results in the form of participant flow. The authors describe the intervention and its delivery within the natural school setting and discuss the practical issues in the conduct of the trial, including recruitment. The trial is pragmatic and will directly inform those who provide Infant Simulator based programs in school settings