Emerging cancer incidence, mortality, hospitalisation and associated burden among Australian cancer patients, 1982 - 2014: an incidence-based approach in terms of trends, determinants and inequality

Objective Cancer is a leading killer worldwide, including Australia. Cancer diagnosis leads to a substantial burden on the individual, their family and society. The main aim of this study is to understand the trends, determinants and inequalities associated with cancer incidence, hospitalisation, mortality and its burden over the period 1982 to 2014 in Australia. Settings The study was conducted in Australia. Study design An incidence-based study design was used. Methods Data came from the publicly accessible Australian Institute of Health and Welfare database. This contained 2 784 148 registered cancer cases over the study period for all types of cancer. Erreygers' concentration index was used to examine the magnitude of socioeconomic inequality with regards to cancer outcomes. Furthermore, a generalised linear model was constructed to identify the influential factors on the overall burden of cancer. Results The results showed that cancer incidence (annual average percentage change, AAPC=1.33%), hospitalisation (AAPC=1.27%), cancer-related mortality (AAPC=0.76%) and burden of cancer (AAPC=0.84%) all increased significantly over the period. The same-day (AAPC=1.35%) and overnight (AAPC=1.19%) hospitalisation rates also showed an increasing trend. Further, the ratio (least-most advantaged economic resources ratio, LMR of mortality (M) and LMR of incidence (I)) was especially high for cervix (M/I=1.802), prostate (M/I=1.514), melanoma (M/I=1.325), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (M/I=1.325) and breast (M/I=1.318), suggesting that survival inequality was most pronounced for these cancers. Socioeconomically disadvantaged people were more likely to bear an increasing cancer burden in terms of incidence, mortality and death. Conclusions Significant differences in the burden of cancer persist across socioeconomic strata in Australia. Policymakers should therefore introduce appropriate cancer policies to provide universal cancer care, which could reduce this burden by ensuring curable and preventive cancer care services are made available to all people

Scaling properties of Wilson loops pierced by P-vortices

P-vortices, in an SU(N) lattice gauge theory, are excitations on the center-projected Z(N) lattice. We study the ratio of expectation values of SU(2) Wilson loops, on the unprojected lattice, linked to a single P-vortex, to that of Wilson loops which are not linked to any P-vortices. When these ratios are plotted versus loop area in physical units, for a range of lattice couplings, it is found that the points fall approximately on a single curve, consistent with scaling. We also find that the ratios are rather insensitive to the point where the minimal area of the loop is pierced by the P-vortex.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The changing relationship between health burden and work disability of Australian cancer survivors, 2003–2017: Evidence from a longitudinal survey

Background The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the cancer health burden and the magnitude of work disability on cancer survivors in Australia from 2003 to 2017. Methods A longitudinal prospective study design was undertaken among cancer patients using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. The longitudinal effect was captured using a fixed effect multinomial logistic regression model, which predicted changes in the relationship between cancer burden and work disability level controlling for socio-demographic, lifestyle and life conditions predictors. Results The prevalence of long-term disability among cancer survivors was 50%, with 18% of patients experiencing extreme work disability. The magnitude of disability levels increased significantly with the level of health burden. Cancer survivors who faced a severe health burden were at 5.32 times significantly higher risk of having work disability compared with patients who had no health burden. Other potential predictors, such as older patients (relative risk ratio, RRR = 1.82; 95% CI: 1.57, 5.87), those engaged in lower levels of physical activities (RRR = 1.91; 95% CI: 1.07, 3.40), those who drink alcohol (RRR = 1.29; 95% CI: 1.15, 1.49), and poor socioeconomic status (RRR = 1.28; 95% CI: 1.16, 2.23) were all significantly associated with extreme work disability. Conclusion A substantial proportion of cancer survivors experienced work disability which was more pronounced with the magnitude of the cancer health burden. The different dimensions of disability might be prevented by introducing cancer survivor-specific evidence-based interventions, and incorporating comprehensive social support. Recommendations to improve public health policy aimed at reducing population-level unhealthy lifestyle behaviours include: using these findings to better outline the management of a sequelae course of treatment for cancer survivors; and identifying those who should undergo more intensive physical rehabilitation aimed at reducing their work disability level

Depth-integrated steric height as a tool for detecting non-Sverdrup behavior in the global ocean

Godfrey\u27s (1989) (referred to below as G89) calculation of the global field of annual mean Depth-Integrated Steric Height, or Sverdrup et al.\u27s (1942) Transport Function, (Q) is revisited, using newer products for wind stresses, temperature and salinity. Observed Q and its wind-estimated equivalent QW are compared more extensively along eastern oceanic boundaries than in G89. Q and QW are also compared along the inner edge of the Pacific western boundary, at locations where G89 theory suggests that such a comparison is possible. A similar comparison along the western Atlantic improves after a 16 Sv correction for the supply of North Atlantic Deep Water. The observed circumpolar zero contour of Q is used to define an ACC boundary. South of it, G89 fails grossly as expected. North of the boundary in each ocean basin, a tongue of high Q, about 1000 km wide, extends much farther eastward from its western boundary source than in comparable features in the northern hemisphere. The uninterrupted existence of this tongue across the full width of the Indian Ocean occurs because there is no analog in Q to the strong meridional tip jet west of southern Tasmania, found in QW—i.e. the East Australian Current is weaker in observed Q than predicted by G89. Elsewhere, each MTJ in QW does have an analog in observed Q; but the latter jets tend to follow local Sverdrup flow rather than being zonal. A final section provides qualitative discussion of the possible dynamics of these observed departures of Q from Sverdrup balance, north of the ACC

Episodic volunteering and retention: An integrated theoretical approach

Episodic volunteers (EVs) are vital for non-profit organization activities. However, theory-based research on episodic volunteering is scant and the determinants of episodic volunteering are not well understood. This study integrates the volunteer process model and three-stage model of volunteers’ duration of service to explore determinants of EV retention. A cross-sectional survey of 340 EVs assessed volunteering antecedents, experiences, and retention. Social/enjoyment (β =.17) and benefit (β = −.15) motives, social norm (β =.20), and satisfaction (β =.56) predicted Novice EV (first experience) retention, satisfaction (β =.47) and commitment (β =.38) predicted Transition EV (2-4 years intermittently) retention, and supporting the organization financially (β =.31), social norm (β =.18), satisfaction (β =.41), and commitment (β =.19) predicted Sustained EV (5-6 years consecutively) retention. Integrated theoretical approaches appear efficacious for understanding EV retention. An Episodic Volunteer Engagement and Retention model is proposed for further testing in prospective work. © 2015, © The Author(s) 2015

A systematic review of episodic volunteering in public health and other contexts

Background: Episodic volunteers are a critical resource for public health non-profit activities but are poorly understood. A systematic review was conducted to describe the empirical evidence about episodic volunteering (EV) in the public health sector and more broadly. Study location, focus and temporal trends of EV research were also examined. Methods. Twelve key bibliographic databases (1990-April week 2, 2014) were searched, including Google Scholar. Empirical studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals that identified participants as EVs who volunteered to support Not-for-Profit organisations in the health and social welfare sectors were included. EV definitions, characteristics, economic costs, antecedents and outcomes and theoretical approaches were examined. Results: 41 articles met initial review criteria and 20 were specific to the health or social welfare sectors. EV definitions were based on one or more of three dimensions of duration, frequency, and task. EVs were predominantly female, middle aged, Caucasian (North American) and college/university educated. Fundraising was the most common EV activity and 72% had volunteered at least once. No studies examined the economic costs of EV. There was little consistency in EV antecedents and outcomes, except motives which primarily related to helping others, forming social connections, and self-psychological or physical enhancement. Most studies were atheoretical. Three authors proposed new theoretical frameworks. Conclusions: Research is required to underpin the development of an agreed consensus definition of EV. Moreover, an EV evidence-base including salient theories and measures is needed to develop EV engagement and retention strategies for the health and social welfare sectors

Deciding to enrol in a cancer trial: A systematic review of qualitative studies

© 2020 Viljoen et al. Background: Clinical trials are essential for the advancement of cancer treatments; how-ever, participation by patients is suboptimal. Currently, there is a lack of synthesized qualitative review evidence on the patient experience of trial entry from which to further develop decision support. The aim of this review is to synthesise literature reporting experiences of participants when deciding to enrol in a cancer clinical trial in order to inform practice. Methods: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies were conducted to describe the experiences of adult cancer patients who decided to enrol in a clinical trial of an anti-cancer treatment. Results: Forty studies met eligibility criteria for inclusion. Three themes were identified representing the overarching domains of experience when deciding to enrol in a cancer trial: 1) need for trial information; (2) trepidation towards participation; and (3) justifying the decision. The process of deciding to enrol in a clinical trial is one marked by uncertainty, emotional distress and driven by the search for a cure. Conclusion: Findings from this review show that decision support modelled by shared decision-making and the quality of a shared decision needs to be accompanied by tailored or personalised psychosocial and supportive care. Although the decision process bears simila-rities to theoretical processes outlined in decision-making frameworks, there are a lack of supportive interventions for cancer patients that are adapted to the clinical trial context. Theory-based interventions are urgently required to support the specific needs of patients deciding whether to participate in cancer trials

Ontology-based knowledge representation of experiment metadata in biological data mining

According to the PubMed resource from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, over 750,000 scientific articles have been published in the ~5000 biomedical journals worldwide in the year 2007 alone. The vast majority of these publications include results from hypothesis-driven experimentation in overlapping biomedical research domains. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of information being generated by the biomedical research enterprise has made it virtually impossible for investigators to stay aware of the latest findings in their domain of interest, let alone to be able to assimilate and mine data from related investigations for purposes of meta-analysis. While computers have the potential for assisting investigators in the extraction, management and analysis of these data, information contained in the traditional journal publication is still largely unstructured, free-text descriptions of study design, experimental application and results interpretation, making it difficult for computers to gain access to the content of what is being conveyed without significant manual intervention. In order to circumvent these roadblocks and make the most of the output from the biomedical research enterprise, a variety of related standards in knowledge representation are being developed, proposed and adopted in the biomedical community. In this chapter, we will explore the current status of efforts to develop minimum information standards for the representation of a biomedical experiment, ontologies composed of shared vocabularies assembled into subsumption hierarchical structures, and extensible relational data models that link the information components together in a machine-readable and human-useable framework for data mining purposes

Partial pressure of oxygen in the human body: a general review

The human body is a highly aerobic organism, in which it is necessary to match oxygen supply at tissue levels to the metabolic demands. Along metazoan evolution, an exquisite control developed because although oxygen is required as the final acceptor of electron respiratory chain, an excessive level could be potentially harmful. Understanding the role of the main factors affecting oxygen availability, such as the gradient of pressure of oxygen during normal conditions, and during hypoxia is an important point. Several factors such as anaesthesia, hypoxia, and stress affect the regulation of the atmospheric, alveolar, arterial, capillary and tissue partial pressure of oxygen (PO2). Our objective is to offer to the reader a summarized and practical appraisal of the mechanisms related to the oxygen's supply within the human body, including a facilitated description of the gradient of pressure from the atmosphere to the cells. This review also included the most relevant measuring methods of PO2 as well as a practical overview of its reference values in several tissues