Research on traditional sexual scripts and Sexual Script Theory is widely research, but its applications on online dating is a fairly new area that is not fully understood. Specifically, sexual ...scripts research examining how scripts differ between demographics (i.e., sex and sexual orientation) and the type of relationship one is pursuing is not present. To address this gap, the current study adds to the current body of literature in examining online dating sexual scripts within the conditions of one’s sex (male or female), sexual orientation (heterosexual, self-identified gay or lesbian), and type of relationship pursuing (long- or short-term). A series of two studies were conducted using a quasi-factorial experimental and mixed-method design. Eight different hypothetical sexual scripts were conceptualized from Study 1 (n = 80), while Study 2 (n = 316) aimed to identify whether the 8 sexual scripts created from Study 1 matched participants actual sexual scripts from a recently recalled first date. Findings in the current study indicate that sexual scripts have unique and specific actions depending on the condition (i.e., prepping for sex for gay men within short-term relationship). The results also suggests that heterosexual women still follow along the lines of traditional sexual scripts, however sexual scripts of heterosexual men are deviating from traditional gendered expectations. These results have both theoretical implications towards the theories discussed in this study and practical implications for dating behavior within heterosexual relationships.
The prevalence of advanced liver disease and listing for liver transplantation is increasing. Prior assessments of quality of care neither incorporate nor emphasize the patient perspective on quality ...of care, which may impact clinical outcomes. Our aim was to identify patients’ perceptions on what constitutes high quality of care, comparing the findings to existing frameworks and assessments to determine if a patient‐derived tool assessing quality of care could facilitate efforts to improve health care. We conducted semistructured interviews of patients wait‐listed for liver transplantation, asking patients to describe the quality of their health care with a specific focus on how coordination, communication, office visits, hospitalizations, and cost affect their perceptions of the quality of their care. Data collection conducted concurrently with analyses determined emerging themes and saturation. Themes were mapped to an existing quality‐of‐care conceptual framework. Qualitative analysis revealed thematic saturation after 15 interviews, and an additional 15 interviews were analyzed that confirmed thematic saturation, maximizing the strength of the results. The 30 patients had a median age of 56 years (range, 32‐72 years) and included 15 (50%) men. Although patients believed they received a high quality of care, which was substantiated on current existing measures, a qualitative analysis suggested that patient priorities emphasized 5 themes not currently assessed: managing expectations, providing education, responding to patient needs, executing the care plan efficiently, and utilizing interdisciplinary communication and coordination of care. In conclusion, transplant candidates perceived 5 themes that constitute quality of care, and existing quality‐of‐care measures do not assess these domains, suggesting a role for creating a patient‐derived quality‐of‐care tool to improve health care and clinical outcomes.
Meningeal solitary fibrous tumors (SFT) are rare and have a high frequency of local recurrence and distant metastasis. In a cohort of 126 patients (57 female, 69 male; mean age at surgery 53.0 years) ...with pathologically confirmed meningeal SFTs with extended clinical follow-up (median 9.9 years; range 15 days-43 years), we performed extensive molecular characterization including genome-wide DNA methylation profiling (n = 80) and targeted TERT promoter mutation testing (n = 98). Associations were examined with NAB2::STAT6 fusion status (n = 101 cases; 51 = ex5-7::ex16-17, 26 = ex4::ex2-3; 12 = ex2-3::exANY/other and 12 = no fusion) and placed in the context of 2021 Central Nervous System (CNS) WHO grade. NAB2::STAT6 fusion breakpoints (fusion type) were significantly associated with metastasis-free survival (MFS) (p = 0.03) and, on multivariate analysis, disease-specific survival (DSS) when adjusting for CNS WHO grade (p = 0.03). DNA methylation profiling revealed three distinct clusters: Cluster 1 (n = 38), Cluster 2 (n = 22), and Cluster 3 (n = 20). Methylation clusters were significantly associated with fusion type (p < 0.001), with Cluster 2 harboring ex4::ex2-3 fusion in 16 (of 20; 80.0%), nearly all TERT promoter mutations (7 of 8; 87.5%), and predominantly an "SFT" histologic phenotype (15 of 22; 68.2%). Clusters 1 and 3 were less distinct, both dominated by tumors having ex5-7::ex16-17 fusion (respectively, 25 of 33; 75.8%, and 12 of 18; 66.7%) and with variable histological phenotypes. Methylation clusters were significantly associated with MFS (p = 0.027), but not overall survival (OS). In summary, NAB2::STAT6 fusion type was significantly associated with MFS and DSS, suggesting that tumors with an ex5::ex16-17 fusion may have inferior patient outcomes. Methylation clusters were significantly associated with fusion type, TERT promoter mutation status, histologic phenotype, and MFS.
Meningioma is the most common primary intracranial tumor and patients present with diverse neurologic symptoms related to meningioma location. This study aimed to systematically quantify the ...presenting symptoms of meningioma and identify prognostic factors for symptomatic outcome following resection.
Two-hundred and eighty-three patients who underwent resection of a total of 313 meningiomas at a single institution were retrospectively identified, including 161 World Health Organization grade I (52.6%), 108 grade II (35.5%), and 37 grade III meningiomas (12.1%). Patient-reported symptoms were extracted from the medical record and dichotomized into acute (<3 months) and long-term (3–12 months) categories. The χ2 test and multivariate regression were used to compare groups.
Patients presented primarily with headaches (48.2%) and either cerebral dysfunctions (48.5%) with convexity meningiomas or cranial nerve deficits (38.9%) with skull base meningiomas. Symptomatic improvement in the acute postoperative period was significantly correlated with long term symptomatic improvement (P ≤ 0.01). Headaches and seizures had the greatest rates of symptomatic improvement after surgery (78%), and the vast majority of patients with symptom improvement experienced complete resolution (86%). In contrast, symptoms persisted in >60% of patients with anosmia, sensory changes, or frontal, temporal, or cerebellar symptoms. Multivariate regression identified subtotal resection as a prognostic factor for persistent symptoms (odds ratio, 0.62; 95% confidence interval, 0.03–1.21; P = 0.041).
Symptoms improve in the majority of patients after resection of meningioma, with the rate of improvement varying according to symptom type and extent of resection. These data may be a useful when counseling patients about symptoms after resection of meningiomas.
Alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) is a leading cause of liver failure and indication for liver transplantation that arises in the setting of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Previous reviews of ...transplantation for ALD are limited in scope of outcomes and type of ALD studied. A comprehensive systematic review could improve use of transplantation in ALD and improve future research. We hypothesize that while transplanting ALD may improve mortality and relapse, findings will be limited by pre-specified causes of heterogeneity - assessment and treatment of AUD, definition of ALD, spectrum of ALD studied, assessment and rates of relapse, and study quality and bias.
To optimize liver transplantation for ALD, understanding existing research to guide future research, we conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis.
We conducted a systematic review, comparing liver transplant to no-transplant in patients with ALD, with a primary outcome of both short- and long-term mortality and relapse. We performed a comprehensive search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library databases for peer-reviewed journal articles comparing use of liver transplant in ALD to no-transplant. Two reviewers independently conducted screening, full text review, and data extraction according to the PRISMA guidelines. We report the quality of the evidence according to the GRADE criteria.
We analyzed data from 10 studies. Of 1332 participants, 34.2% (456/1332) had undergone liver transplantation, while 65.8% (876/1332) had not. While random effects meta-analysis suggested transplant in comparison to no-transplant had an association of reduced mortality that did not reach statistical significance, relative risk (RR) = 0.51 (0.25-1.05), but not relapse risk, RR = 0.52 (0.18-1.53), significant heterogeneity limited these findings. When restricted to prospective data, transplant compared to no-transplant significantly reduced mortality, RR = 0.25 (0.13-0.46,
< 0.01), and relapse, RR = 0.25 (0.14-0.45,
< 0.01), with insignificant heterogeneity but persistent small-study effects. The overall quality of the evidence was Very Low. Heterogeneity analysis suggested that AUD assessment and treatment was often not reported while ALD, relapse assessment and rate, and data collection were institutionally rather than standardly defined.
Systematic review of liver transplantation for ALD suggests reduced mortality and relapse in heterogeneous, institution-specific populations with inherent bias. To understand efficacy of transplanting ALD, our research approach must change.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Pediatric embryonal brain tumors include medulloblastoma, supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor, and pineoblastoma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ...prognostic utility of quantitative three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomic analysis for primary pediatric embryonal brain tumors.
METHODS
Thirty-four pediatric embryonal brain tumor patients with concurrent pre-operative T1-weighted post contrast (T1PG) and T2-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MR images were identified from an institutional database. The median imaging follow-up was 5.2 years. Radiomic features were extracted from axial T1PG and FLAIR contours using MATLAB, and 15 features were selected for analysis based on qualitative radiographic features with known prognostic significance for pediatric embryonal brain tumors. Logistic regression, linear regression, receiver operating characteristic curve, Harrells C index and Somers D index were used to test the relationships between radiomic features, demographic variables and clinical outcomes.
RESULTS
We found that pediatric embryonal brain tumors in older patients had increased normalized mean tumor intensity (P=0.05, T1PG), decreased tumor volume (P=0.02, T1PG) and increased markers of heterogeneity (P0.01, T1PG and FLAIR) relative to younger patients. We identified 10 quantitative radiomic features that delineated between medulloblastoma, pineoblastoma and supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor, including size and heterogeneity (P0.05, T1PG and FLAIR). Decreased markers of tumor heterogeneity were predictive of neuraxis metastases and trended towards significance (P=0.1, FLAIR). Tumors with increased size (AUC=0.7, FLAIR) and decreased heterogeneity (AUC=0.7, FLAIR) at diagnosis were more likely to recur. CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative radiomic features are associated with pediatric embryonal brain tumor patient age, histology, neuraxis metastases and recurrence, and could be used for risk stratification.
IntroductionEarly diagnosis of prediabetes based on blood sampling for the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is crucial for intervention but multiple barriers hinder its uptake. This study aimed to ...assess the feasibility and precision of a self-administered capillary OGTT for type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in high-risk individuals.Research design and methodsParticipants with history of gestational diabetes or prediabetes were recruited in primary care. Due to their prediabetic status and previous diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus, a proportion of participants had previous experience doing OGTT. They self-administered the capillary OGTT and concurrently their venous glucose samples were obtained. They filled a questionnaire to collect their demographic information, views of their capillary OGTT, and their preferred site of the test.ResultsAmong 30 participants enrolled in this feasibility study, 93.3% of them felt confident of performing the capillary OGTT themselves, and 70.0% preferred the test at home. Older, less educated participants found it less acceptable. Mean capillary glucose values were significantly higher than venous glucose values, with mean difference at 0.31 mmol/L (95% CI 0.13 to 0.49) at fasting, and 0.47 mmol/L (95% CI 0.12 to 0.92) 2 hours post-OGTT. Capillary and venous glucose measurements were correlated for fasting (r=0.95; p<0.001) and 2-hour-post-OGTT (r=0.95;p<0.001). The Fleiss-Kappa Score (0.79, p<0.0001) indicated fair agreement between the two methods. The capillary OGTT had excellent sensitivity (94.1%) and negative predictive value (NPV=91.7%) in identifying prediabetes or T2DM status, vis-a-vis to venous glucose samples.ConclusionSelf-administered capillary OGTT is feasible and acceptable, especially among younger adults, with excellent sensitivity and NPV compared with plasma-based OGTT.
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