1,442 research outputs found
Ovarian cancer symptom awareness and anticipated delayed presentation in a population sample
Background: While ovarian cancer is recognised as having identifiable early symptoms, understanding of the key determinants of symptom awareness and early presentation is limited. A population-based survey of ovarian cancer awareness and anticipated delayed presentation with symptoms was conducted as part of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP). Methods: Women aged over 50 years were recruited using random probability sampling (n = 1043). Computer-assisted telephone interviews were used to administer measures including ovarian cancer symptom recognition, anticipated time to presentation with ovarian symptoms, health beliefs (perceived risk, perceived benefits/barriers to early presentation, confidence in symptom detection, ovarian cancer worry), and demographic variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the contribution of independent variables to anticipated presentation (categorised as < 3 weeks or ≥ 3 weeks). Results: The most well-recognised symptoms of ovarian cancer were post-menopausal bleeding (87.4%), and persistent pelvic (79.0%) and abdominal (85.0%) pain. Symptoms associated with eating difficulties and changes in bladder/bowel habits were recognised by less than half the sample. Lower symptom awareness was significantly associated with older age (p ≤ 0.001), being single (p ≤ 0.001), lower education (p ≤ 0.01), and lack of personal experience of ovarian cancer (p ≤ 0.01). The odds of anticipating a delay in time to presentation of ≥ 3 weeks were significantly increased in women educated to degree level (OR = 2.64, 95% CI 1.61 – 4.33, p ≤ 0.001), women who reported more practical barriers (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.34 – 1.91, p ≤ 0.001) and more emotional barriers (OR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.06 – 1.40, p ≤ 0.01), and those less confident in symptom detection (OR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.42 – 0.73, p ≤ 0.001), but not in those who reported lower symptom awareness (OR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.91 – 1.07, p = 0.74). Conclusions: Many symptoms of ovarian cancer are not well-recognised by women in the general population. Evidence-based interventions are needed not only to improve public awareness but also to overcome the barriers to recognising and acting on ovarian symptoms, if delays in presentation are to be minimised
Stress-Activity Mapping: Physiological Responses During General Duty Police Encounters
Policing is a highly stressful and dangerous profession that involves a complex set of environmental, psychosocial, and health risks. The current study examined autonomic stress responses experienced by 64 police officers, during general duty calls for service (CFS) and interactions with the public. Advancing previous research, this study utilized GPS and detailed operational police records as objective evidence of specific activities throughout a CFS. These data were then used to map officers’ heart rate to both the phase of a call (e.g., dispatch, enroute) and incident factors (e.g., call priority, use-of-force). Furthermore, physical movement (i.e., location and inertia) was tracked and assisted in differentiating whether cardiovascular reactivity was due to physical or psychological stress. Officer characteristics, including years of service and training profiles, were examined to conduct a preliminary exploration of whether experience and relevant operational skills training impacted cardiovascular reactivity. Study results provide foundational evidence that CFS factors, specifically the phase of the call (i.e., arrival on scene, encountering a subject) and incident factors (i.e., call priority, weapons, arrest, use-of-force), influence physiologica
Aerobic capacity, activity levels and daily energy expenditure in male and female adolescents of the kenyan nandi sub-group
The relative importance of genetic and socio-cultural influences contributing to the success of east Africans in endurance athletics remains unknown in part because the pre-training phenotype of this population remains incompletely assessed. Here cardiopulmonary fitness, physical activity levels, distance travelled to school and daily energy expenditure in 15 habitually active male (13.9±1.6 years) and 15 habitually active female (13.9±1.2) adolescents from a rural Nandi primary school are assessed. Aerobic capacity ([Formula: see text]) was evaluated during two maximal discontinuous incremental exercise tests; physical activity using accelerometry combined with a global positioning system; and energy expenditure using the doubly labelled water method. The [Formula: see text] of the male and female adolescents were 73.9±5.7 ml(.) kg(-1.) min(-1) and 61.5±6.3 ml(.) kg(-1.) min(-1), respectively. Total time spent in sedentary, light, moderate and vigorous physical activities per day was 406±63 min (50% of total monitored time), 244±56 min (30%), 75±18 min (9%) and 82±30 min (10%). Average total daily distance travelled to and from school was 7.5±3.0 km (0.8-13.4 km). Mean daily energy expenditure, activity-induced energy expenditure and physical activity level was 12.2±3.4 MJ(.) day(-1), 5.4±3.0 MJ(.) day(-1) and 2.2±0.6. 70.6% of the variation in [Formula: see text] was explained by sex (partial R(2) = 54.7%) and body mass index (partial R(2) = 15.9%). Energy expenditure and physical activity variables did not predict variation in [Formula: see text] once sex had been accounted for. The highly active and energy-demanding lifestyle of rural Kenyan adolescents may account for their exceptional aerobic fitness and collectively prime them for later training and athletic success
The Hubble Space Telescope Treasury Program on the Orion Nebula Cluster
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury Program on the Orion Nebula Cluster
has used 104 orbits of HST time to image the Great Orion Nebula region with the
Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2)
and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi Object Spectrograph (NICMOS) instruments
in 11 filters ranging from the U-band to the H-band equivalent of HST. The
program has been intended to perform the definitive study of the stellar
component of the ONC at visible wavelengths, addressing key questions like the
cluster IMF, age spread, mass accretion, binarity and cirumstellar disk
evolution. The scanning pattern allowed to cover a contiguous field of
approximately 600 square arcminutes with both ACS and WFPC2, with a typical
exposure time of approximately 11 minutes per ACS filter, corresponding to a
point source depth AB(F435W) = 25.8 and AB(F775W)=25.2 with 0.2 magnitudes of
photometric error. We describe the observations, data reduction and data
products, including images, source catalogs and tools for quick look preview.
In particular, we provide ACS photometry for 3399 stars, most of them detected
at multiple epochs, WFPC2 photometry for 1643 stars, 1021 of them detected in
the U-band, and NICMOS JH photometry for 2116 stars. We summarize the early
science results that have been presented in a number of papers. The final set
of images and the photometric catalogs are publicly available through the
archive as High Level Science Products at the STScI Multimission Archive hosted
by the Space Telescope Science Institute.Comment: Accepted for publication on the Astrophysical Journal Supplement
Series, March 27, 201
Direct Observation and Anisotropy of the Contribution of Gap nodes in the Low Temperature Specific Heat of YBa_2Cu_3O_7
The specific heat due to line nodes in the superconducting gap of YBa2Cu3O7
has been obscured up to now by magnetic terms of extrinsic origin, even for
high quality crystals. We report the specific heat of a new single crystal
grown in a non-corrosive BaZrO3 crucible, for which paramagnetic terms are
reduced to less than one spin-1/2 center for 20'000 Cu atoms. The contribution
of line nodes shows up directly in the difference C(B,T) - C(0,T) at fixed
temperatures (T < 5 K) as a function of the magnetic field parallel to the
c-axis (B<=14 T). These data illustrate the smooth crossover from C propotional
to T^2 at low fields to C propotional to TB^1/2 at high fields, and provide new
values for gap parameters which are quantitatively consistent with tunneling
spectroscopy and thermal conductivity in the framework of dx^2-y^2 pairing
symmetry. Data for B along the nodal and antinodal directions in the ab-plane
are also provided. The in-plane anisotropy predicted in the clean limit is not
observed.Comment: 29 pages(using Revtex style), 14 postscript figures, submitted to
Phys. Rev. B Content of the file changed after replacin
Quasiparticle spectra in the vicinity of a d-wave vortex
We discuss the evolution of the local quasiparticle spectral density and the
related tunneling conductance measurable by the scanning tunneling microscope,
as a function of distance r and angle \theta from the vortex core in a
d_{x^2-y^2} superconductor. We consider the effects of electronic disorder and
of a strongly anisotropic tunneling matrix element, and show that in real
materials they will likely obscure the ~1/r asymptotic tail in the zero-bias
tunneling conductance expected from the straightforward semiclassical analysis.
We also give a prediction for the tunneling conductance anisotropy around the
vortex core and establish a connection to the structure of the tunneling matrix
element.Comment: 9 pages REVTeX + 5 PostScript figures. For related work and info
visit http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~fran
Call to adopt a nominal set of astrophysical parameters and constants to improve the accuracy of fundamental physical properties of stars
The increasing precision of astronomical observations of stars and stellar
systems is gradually getting to a level where the use of slightly different
values of the solar mass, radius and luminosity, as well as different values of
fundamental physical constants, can lead to measurable systematic differences
in the determination of basic physical properties. An equivalent issue with an
inconsistent value of the speed of light was resolved by adopting a nominal
value that is constant and has no error associated with it. Analogously, we
suggest that the systematic error in stellar parameters may be eliminated by:
(1) replacing the solar radius Rsun and luminosity Lsun by the nominal values
that are by definition exact and expressed in SI units: 1 RnomSun = 6.95508 x
10^8 m and 1 LnomSun = 3.846 x 10^{26} W; (2) computing stellar masses in terms
of Msun by noting that the measurement error of the product G.Msun is 5 orders
of magnitude smaller than the error in G; (3) computing stellar masses and
temperatures in SI units by using the derived values Msun(2010) = 1.988547 x
10^{30} kg and Tsun(2010) = 5779.57 K; and (4) clearly stating the reference
for the values of the fundamental physical constants used. We discuss the need
and demonstrate the advantages of such a paradigm shift.Comment: 6 pages, 3 table
Dimethyl fumarate is an allosteric covalent inhibitor of the p90 ribosomal S6 kinases
Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) has been applied for decades in the treatment of psoriasis and now also multiple sclerosis. However, the mechanism of action has remained obscure and involves high dose over long time of this small, reactive compound implicating many potential targets. Based on a 1.9 Å resolution crystal structure of the C-terminal kinase domain of the mouse p90 Ribosomal S6 Kinase 2 (RSK2) inhibited by DMF we describe a central binding site in RSKs and the closely related Mitogen and Stress-activated Kinases (MSKs). DMF reacts covalently as a Michael acceptor to a conserved cysteine residue in the αF-helix of RSK/MSKs. Binding of DMF prevents the activation loop of the kinase from engaging substrate, and stabilizes an auto-inhibitory αL-helix, thus pointing to an effective, allosteric mechanism of kinase inhibition. The biochemical and cell biological characteristics of DMF inhibition of RSK/MSKs are consistent with the clinical protocols of DMF treatment.</p
Recommended from our members
Measuring societal awareness of the rural agrarian landscape: indicators and scale issues
The work presented in this report is part of the effort to define the landscape state and diversity indicator in the
frame of COM (2006) 508 “Development of agri-environmental indicators for monitoring the integration of
environmental concerns into the common agricultural policy”. The Communication classifies the indicators
according to their level of development, which, for the landscape indicator is “in need of substantial
improvements in order to become fully operational”. For this reason a full re-definition of the indicator has been
carried out, following the initial proposal presented in the frame of the IRENA operation (“Indicator Reporting on
the Integration of Environmental Concerns into Agricultural Policy”). The new proposal for the landscape state
and diversity indicator is structured in three components: the first concerns the degree of naturalness, the
second landscape structure, the third the societal appreciation of the rural landscape. While the first two
components rely on a strong bulk of existing literature, the development of the methodology has made evident
the need for further analysis of the third component, which is based on a newly proposed top-down approach.
This report presents an in-depth analysis of such component of the indicator, and the effort to include a social
dimension in large scale landscape assessment
- …