Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Follow-up after treatment for breast cancer: One strategy fits all? An investigation of patient preferences using a discrete choice experiment

Abstract Clinical guidelines for the follow-up after breast cancer recommend frequent outpatient clinic visits to be examined for a possible recurrence or a second primary breast tumour, and to receive information and psychosocial support. However, needs and preferences for follow-up may differ between patients, raising the question whether the current ‘one size fits all’ approach is appropriate. This study explored patients’ preferences for follow-up. Patients and methods. A discrete choice experiment survey with 16 choice tasks was filled out by 331 breast cancer patients. Each choice task consisted of two hypothetical follow-up scenarios for the first year after treatment, described by levels of the following characteristics; attendance at an educational group programme, frequency of visits, waiting time, contact mode, and type of healthcare provider. Results. The healthcare provider and contact mode were the most important characteristics of follow-up to patients. The medical specialist was the most preferred to perform the follow-up, but a combination of the medical specialist and breast care nurse alternating was also acceptable to patients. Face-to-face contact was strongly preferred to telephone contact. Follow-up visits every three months were preferred over visits every four, six, or 12 months. Heterogeneity in preference between patients was strong, especially for the healthcare provider and attendance at an educational group programme. Age, education, and previous experience with follow-up characteristics influenced preferences, but treatment modality did not. Conclusion. The results of this study show that overall patient satisfaction would not differ significantly if patients have follow-up by medical specialist and breast care nurse alternating compared to follow-up by a medical specialist only. Furthermore, we found heterogeneity in preferences for most attributes, indicating that one strategy does not fit all. Individualised follow-up seems to offer the potential for significant increases in patient satisfaction.
A Comparison of Target Detection and Rifle Marksmanship During Live and Simulator Firing with and without Caffeine Consumption

Abstract : This study compared the effects of caffeine ingestion on target detection and rifle marksmanship during live and simulated firing. thirteen male, rifle-trained Canadian Forces (CF) reservists performed a total of 1 familiarization and 4 experimental sessions over an 8 day period. Familiarization was conducted on the small arms trainer (SAT), while the 4 experimental sessions were randomly and evenly distributed between 2 sessions of SAT and Automated Targetry System (ATS) live shooting. Each session was comprised of 8 shooting sequences one hour following the ingestion of 300 mg of caffeine or placebo. Shooting sequences included both friend-foe (FF) and vigilance (Vici) tasks and were performed in the following sequence: two FF engagements (4 minutes each), four VIG engagements (30 minutes each), and two FF engagements (4 minutes each). The shooting session lasted approximately 2.5 hours for both the caffeine and placebo trials. Performance measures during the shooting session included friend-foe discrimination, and marksmanship accuracy and precision. Assessments of thermal comfort and tiredness preceded and followed the shooting session. The Environmental Symptoms Questionnaire was administered pre- and post-shooting, while the Task Load Index was administered post-shooting only. Blood was sampled immediately prior to the beginning of the shooting session and was used to determine plasma caffeine levels. Caffeine resulted in lower subjective sensations of effort and an increased initial level of thirst. Subjects reported feeling colder on the ATS, and experienced blurred vision and lower levels on wakefullness on the SAT. Marksmanship performance was substantially poorer in the SAT and adversely affected by caffeine. No caffeine-induced performance decrements were noted on the ATS, but caffeine resulted in a greater number of shots taken on both the SAT and ATS.
Influence of physician confidentiality assurances on adolescents' willingness to disclose information and seek future health care. A randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT Adolescents' concerns about privacy in clinical settings decrease their willingness to seek health care for sensitive problems and may inhibit their communication with physicians. OBJECTIVE To investigate the influence of physicians' assurances of confidentiality on adolescents' willingness to disclose information and seek future health care. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTING Three suburban public high schools in California. PARTICIPANTS The 562 participating adolescents represented 92% of students in mandatory classes. INTERVENTION After random assignment to 1 of 3 groups, the adolescents listened to a standardized audiotape depiction of an office visit during which they heard a physician who assured unconditional confidentiality, a physician who assured conditional confidentiality, or a physician who did not mention confidentiality. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Adolescents' willingness to disclose general information, willingness to disclose information about sensitive topics, intended honesty, and likelihood of return visits to the physician depicted in the scenario were assessed by anonymous written questionnaire. RESULTS Assurances of confidentiality increased the number of adolescents willing to disclose sensitive information about sexuality, substance use, and mental health from 39% (68/175) to 46.5% (178/383) (beta=.10, P=.02) and increased the number willing to seek future health care from 53% (93/175) to 67% (259/386) (beta=.17, P<.001). When comparing the unconditional with the conditional groups, assurances of unconditional confidentiality increased the number of adolescents willing to return for a future visit by 10 percentage points, from 62% (122/196) to 72% (137/190) (beta=.14, P=.001). CONCLUSIONS Adolescents are more willing to communicate with and seek health care from physicians who assure confidentiality. Further investigation is needed to identify a confidentiality assurance statement that explains the legal and ethical limitations of confidentiality without decreasing adolescents' likelihood of seeking future health care for routine and nonreportable sensitive health concerns.
Research anxiety and students' perceptions of research: An experiment. Part II. Content analysis of their writings on two experiences

This is Part II of an experimental study investigating students' perceptions of research and research paper anxiety. The study integrates quantitative and qualitative designs to collect complimentary data. The participants were students in four sections of an upper division undergraduate course on technical and professional writing during the fall of 1999. A survey instrument used the Critical Incident Technique to solicit writings in students' own words about a memorable past research and writing experience at the beginning of the semester and the current research and writing at the end of the semester. The quantitative part of the survey measured students' perceptions about research using a questionnaire with five‐point Likert scale, and students' anxiety levels using a standard state anxiety test (STAI Y‐1). The first article, Part I, provides a detailed description of the experimental design and reports on quantitative results. This article reports on content analysis of students' writings about their experiences of the two research projects. Analysis of the data confirmed Kuhlthau's Information Search Process (ISP) model and revealed additional affective and cognitive aspects related to research and writing.
Sporadic “Transitional” Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains from Health Care Facilities in the United States

ABSTRACT We describe phenotypic and genotypic traits of a group of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clones that are either remnants of unsuccessful community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) clones or represent a transitional state with some yet-to-be-acquired characteristics of CA-MRSA. These rare strains (n = 20) were identified during a 10-year period (1990-1999) from 13 unrelated health care facilities in Wisconsin. The isolates were recovered from patients in nosocomial or long-term chronic care facilities (60%) and outpatient settings (40%). Sixty percent (n = 12) of the isolates were recovered from skin and soft tissue infections, whereas the remaining isolates (n = 8) were from invasive infections. Ninety percent of isolates were susceptible to all antibiotic classes tested or resistant to erythromycin and clindamycin. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, multilocus sequence typing, and spa typing clustered these isolates into 8, 8, and 14 clonal groups, respectively. Eight plasmid profiles were represented in these strains. All four agr types were represented, with type IV being predominant (40%). All strains harbored subtypes of type IV staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec but lacked genes for the virulence factor Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL). The strains harbored one or more of the following toxin genes: sea, seb, sec, sed, see, seh, sej, sek, sel, seg, sei, sem, sen, and seo. Individual clonal groups maintained the same set of enterotoxin genes even though they were isolated over extended time periods, suggesting significant genomic stability. The potential role of PVL-carrying phages and plasmids in the success of CA-MRSA clones has been discussed.
STUDIES ON FACTORS WHICH PREDISPOSE FERMENTED COCOA (Theobroma cacao) BEANS TO MYCOTOXIN CONTAMINATION

To investigate the effects of pod integrity, pod surface contamination and effective bean drying on the level of Ochratoxin A contamination in dried cocoa beans from Ghana, ripe cocoa pods were harvested at Akim Tafo (Eastern Region) and sorted into four groups: healthy pods, diseased pods, diseased and damaged pods and damaged/broken pods. Each group was subjected to three main recommended fermentation systems, i.e. traditional heap, tray and box. Some of the treatments were replicated in two other ecological zones in Ghana where cocoa is produced viz Assin-Worakese (Central Region) and Wantram (Western Region). Fermented beans were dried in the open sun for a minimum period of nine days during which samples were taken for quantitative analysis of the level of Ochratoxin A using commercially available kit from Helica Biosystem Inc. Ochratoxin A contamination appear to be associated with the integrity (intactness) of the pods from which they were obtained, duration and conditions of drying, farm to farm practices and season of primary processing. Beans obtained from diseased pods and damage/broken pods gave the highest Ochratoxin A levels. None of the levels detected was however in the range considered by the European Union as inimical to human health. Ghana Cocoa Board recommendation to farmers is that damaged and diseased pods should not be fermented with wholesome pods, and that beans should be dried to completion in maximum of seven days. The study shows that if these conditions are adhered to, contamination of Ghana’s Cocoa beans by Ochratoxin A can be entirely prevented.
Towards a typology of nursing turnover: the role of shocks in nurses' decisions to leave.

AIMS The paper reports a study to explore the decision process nurses go through before leaving, focusing on leaving decisions that are precipitated by a single, jarring event or shock. BACKGROUND Nursing turnover is a significant problem. Although a range of initiatives has been adopted to improve retention, recent insights from the academic literature on labour turnover have additional implications for how this problem might be managed. METHOD A structured questionnaire, with some open-ended items, was used to collect data. For respondents who reported a shock (n = 153), responses were cluster analysed (hierarchical, agglomerative clustering generated a solution and k-means clustering enhanced the solution). Clusters were validated using responses to open items. RESULTS There were three broad clusters of nursing turnover: cluster 1 described nurses whose decision to leave was precipitated by a shock that was work-related, negative and unexpected; cluster 2 described those whose decision was precipitated by a shock that was personal, positive and expected; cluster 3 describes those whose decision unfolded more gradually. Cluster 3 described the conventional picture of how turnover occurs (i.e where there is no shock), whereas clusters 1 and 2 were evidence of different types, where a shock prompts the quitting. CONCLUSION In many cases of nurse turnover, a single, jarring event, or shock, initiates thoughts of quitting. Understanding the role of shocks has implications for a range of management activities. Allocation of education, promotion and distribution of other benefits should be managed in such a way as to minimize the likelihood of shocks. Profiling of nurse leavers should be undertaken so that managers have an accurate and detailed picture of turnover.
The Role of Prosody and Speech Register in Word Segmentation: A Computational Modelling Perspective

This study explores the role of speech register and prosody for the task of word segmentation. Since these two factors are thought to play an important role in early language acquisition, we aim to quantify their contribution for this task. We study a Japanese corpus containing both infant- and adult-directed speech and we apply four different word segmentation models, with and without knowledge of prosodic boundaries. The results showed that the difference between registers is smaller than previously reported and that prosodic boundary information helps more adult- than infant-directed speech.
Association of improved pulmonary phenotype in irish cystic fibrosis patients with a 3′ enhancer polymorphism in alpha‐1‐antitrypsin

Modifier genes other than CFTR are thought to influence lung disease phenotype in cystic fibrosis (CF). In this study, we investigated the relationship between a polymorphism (1237 G → A) in the 3′ enhancer region of the alpha‐1‐antitrypsin (AAT) gene and pulmonary disease severity in 320 CF patients recruited from two independent adult referral centers in Ireland, and evaluated the in vivo effect of the polymorphism on AAT levels during acute infection. When corrected for confounding variables, the polymorphism was found to make a small but significant contribution to variance in percent predicted forced expired volume in 1 sec (FEV1) (1.1%, P = 0.05), with possession of the A allele being associated with better pulmonary function (AA/AG genotype: percent predicted FEV1, 70.8 ± 3.9; GG genotype: percent predicted FEV1, 62.0 ± 1.4). As would be expected of a modifier effect, the influence of the polymorphism was more marked in patient groups traditionally associated with more severe lung disease, contributing 3.2% (P = 0.033) to the variance in percent predicted FEV1 in patients homozygous for DF508, 3.3% (P = 0.007) to those infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 3% (P = 0.024) in female patients. In each instance, a positive association between possession of the A variant and higher percent predicted FEV1 was observed. We did not, however, find any evidence that possession of the A allele effected upregulation of AAT during acute infection in vivo. This lack of a demonstrable functional effect in vivo suggests that the polymorphism is a marker for a modifying effect on pulmonary phenotype in the Irish CF population by a mechanism that is yet to be explained. Pediatr Pulmonol. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Expression of adhesion molecules on circulating PMN during hyperdynamic endotoxemia.

In a porcine model of hyperdynamic endotoxemia, we studied the numerical expression of L-selectin and beta 2-integrins on circulating polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). Functional changes of beta 2-integrins were determined by the adhesion of PMN to C3-coated zymosan particles. Anesthesized pigs received a continuous infusion of Salmonella abortus-equi endotoxin (5 micrograms.kg body wt-1.h-1) for 270 min (endotoxin group; n = 7). A control group received 0.9% NaCl (n = 6). L-selectin had decreased 30 min after the induction of endotoxemia [59.1 +/- 11.9 vs. 91.6 +/- 15.5 relative fluorescence units (RFU) at baseline; P < 0.05], reaching minimal values after 150 min (23.9 +/- 3.9 RFU in endotoxin group vs. 95.2 +/- 30.4 RFU in control group; P < 0.05). PMN adhesion to C3-coated zymosan increased at 30 min (41.3 +/- 9.9% in endotoxin group vs. 2.4 +/- 1.1% in control group; P < 0.05) and remained significantly elevated thereafter. In contrast to the rapid shedding of L-selectin and functional upregulation of beta 2-integrins, the numerical expression of beta 2-integrins remained unchanged until 60 min (44.8 +/- 2.8 vs. 32.2 +/- 1.7 RFU at baseline; P < 0.05); compared with the control group, significantly elevated values were observed 150 min after the start of endotoxin (48.9 +/- 2.4 RFU in endotoxin group vs. 36.5 +/- 2.7 RFU in control group; P < 0.05). We conclude that numerical and functional expressions of beta 2-integrins are dissociated during endotoxemia. Although upregulation of beta 2-integrins might render PMN more adhesive to the vascular endothelium, the presence of activated PMN in the circulation suggests that low expression of L-selectin might impede adhesion.
Helicobacter felis gastritis in gnotobiotic rats: an animal model of Helicobacter pylori gastritis

The gastric spirillum Helicobacter felis, originally isolated from the cat stomach, colonizes the stomachs of germfree rats. Studies were designed to examine the pathological and serological responses of germfree rats inoculated orally with H. felis. At 2 weeks postinoculation, the gastric mucosa of germfree rats had lymphocytes and eosinophils scattered in small foci throughout the subglandular region of the antrum. Small numbers of lymphocytes were present in the subglandular portion of the antral mucosa that focally extended through the lamina propria towards the luminal surface. Eight weeks postinoculation, the inflammation was confined to the antrum. It was characterized by increased numbers of lymphocytes and eosinophils in the subglandular areas, with focal aggregates of lymphocytes in the submucosa. Some lymphoid aggregates extended from the submucosa through the muscularis mucosa and lamina propria to the luminal surface. H. felis was demonstrated with the Warthin-Starry stain, bacterial culture, and urease assay, particularly in the antrum. H. felis also produced a significant immunoglobulin G antibody titer at 2, 4, and 8 weeks postinoculation as well as a transitory immunoglobulin M response at 2 to 4 weeks postinoculation. Contact control rats were not infected, inferring that fecal-oral spread of H. felis did not occur.
Lack of social support and incidence of coronary heart disease in middle‐aged Swedish men.

&NA; Lack of social support has been found to predict all causes of mortality in population studies. It has often been assumed that the lack of social ties is associated with the general social conditions related to mortality and has little to do with specific disease etiology. So far, the association between lack of support and cardiovascular disease incidence has not been demonstrated. We have measured both emotional support from very close persons (“attachment”) and the support provided by the extended network (“social integration”). This measure was applied along with standard measures of traditional risk factors to a random sample of 50‐year‐old men born in Gothenborg in 1933. All men (n = 736) were followed for 6 years and the incidence of myocardial infarction and death from coronary heart disease (CHD) was determined. Both “attachment” and “social integration” were lower in men who contracted CHD, with a significant effect for social integration (p = 0.04) and an almost significant effect for attachment (p = 0.07). When controlling for other risk factors in multiple logistic regression analyses, both factors remained as significant predictors of new CHD events. Smoking and lack of social support were the two leading risk factors for CHD in these middle‐aged men.
Topographic O rganization of Sensory Projection to the O lfactory Bulb

The detection of odorant receptor mRNAs within the axon terminals of sensory neurons has permitted us to ask whether neurons expressing a given receptor reject their axons to common glomeruli within the olfactory bulb. In situ hybridization with five different receptor probes demonstrates that axons from neurons expressing a given receptor converge on one, or at most, a few glomeruli within the olfactory bulb. Moreover, the position of specific glomeruli is bilaterally symmetric and is constant in different individuals within a species. These data support a model in which exposure to a given odorant may result in the stimulation of a spatially restricted set of glomeruli, such that the individual odorants would be associated with specific topographic patterns of activity within the olfactory bulb.
Differences between the mechanism of action of MDMA, MBDB, and the classic hallucinogens. Identification of a new therapeutic class: entactogens.

The widc,pre.ld u e of psychedelic drug • ,>uch a Iy t:rgic acid dit:lh) IJmide (LSD), dunng Ihe 1960's and 1970' led 10 ev re reaclion by govern menIal agencies and pro criplion~ a '. lin~1 Iheir u e. However, wilh Ihe hi 'h degree 01 inkr ',I in mind-31lering drug in Ihe lllHled Sllh:,. a, t:\'lIlenc d by Ih ' Ir" Idc,prt:ad popular11), il \~ a, only a III. II 'r 01 lillie hl! fore n,'w drug ap(l\! ared lit ' . t:rc d \ dOl I ul Ide of Ihe pharmJct:ulical com-
De novo direct duplication 3 (p25→pter): a previously undescribed chromosomal aberration

We report on a case of de novo direct duplication for the distal part of chromosome 3p: 46, XY, dir dup (3) (p25→pter). At the age of 4 years and 7 months, the boy presented with moderate growth and mental retardation, muscular hypotonia, hypoplasia of the left kidney, a short neck, and a square‐shaped face characterized by a broad and flat nasal bridge, slight epicanthus, and full cheeks. So far, only a few cases with such a small distal 3p duplication have been described, and none of them has a de novo direct duplication for this region. In our patient, dysmorphic signs are less impressive, and developmental delay is relatively moderate.
A comparison between magnetization transfer ratios and myelin water percentages in normals and multiple sclerosis patients

Magnetization transfer and T2 relaxation data were obtained for five white and six gray matter brain structures from 10 normal volunteers and 9 multiple sclerosis patients. Thirty MS lesions were also anatyzed. Magnetization transfer ratios and myelin water percentages were compared. Both techniques showed a significant difference between the average of white and gray matter of the normal volunteers as well as the average of nor mal‐appearing white matter and gray matter of the multiple sclerosis patients. The average magnetization transfer ratio and myelin water percentage for lesions were significantly lower than those of normal‐appearing white matter. Myelin water per centages and magnetization transfer ratios were uncorrelated in white and gray matter but showed a small (R = 0.5, P = 0.005) but significant correlation in multiple sclerosis lesions. In sum mary, the myelin water percentage and the magnetization trans fer ratio provide quantifiable but largely independent measures of multiple sclerosis lesion pathology.