A low‐resource visually monitored deep inspiration breath‐hold (VM‐DIBH) technique was successfully implemented in our clinic to reduce cardiac dose in left‐sided breast radiotherapy. In this study, ...we retrospectively characterized the chest wall and heart positioning accuracy of VM‐DIBH using cine portal images from 42 patients. Central chest wall position from field edge and in‐field maximum heart distance (MHD) were manually measured on cine images and compared to the planned positions based on the digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs). An in‐house program was designed to measure left anterior descending artery (LAD) and chest wall separation on the planning DIBH CT scan with respect to breath‐hold level (BHL) during simulation to determine a minimum BHL for VM‐DIBH eligibility. Systematic and random setup uncertainties of 3.0 mm and 2.6 mm, respectively, were found for VM‐DIBH treatment from the chest wall measurements. Intrabeam breath‐hold stability was found to be good, with over 96% of delivered fields within 3 mm. Average treatment MHD was significantly larger for those patients where some of the heart was planned in the field compared to patients whose heart was completely shielded in the plan (p < 0.001). No evidence for a minimum BHL was found, suggesting that all patients who can tolerate DIBH may yield a benefit from it.
PACS number(s): 87.53.Jw, 87.53.Kn, 87.55.D‐
Asthma is now widely recognised to be a heterogeneous disease. The last two decades have seen the identification of a number of biological targets and development of various novel therapies. Despite ...this, asthma still represents a significant health and economic burden worldwide. Why some individuals should continue to suffer remains unclear.
The Wessex Asthma Cohort of Difficult Asthma (WATCH) is an ongoing 'real-life', prospective study of patients in the University Hospital Southampton Foundation Trust (UHSFT) Difficult Asthma service. Research data capture is aligned with the extensive clinical characterisation required of a commissioned National Health Service (NHS) Specialist Centre for Severe Asthma. Data acquisition includes detailed clinical, health and disease-related questionnaires, anthropometry, allergy and lung function testing, radiological imaging (in a small subset) and collection of biological samples (blood, urine and sputum). Prospective data are captured in parallel to clinical follow up appointments, with data entered into a bespoke database.
The pragmatic ongoing nature of the WATCH study allows comprehensive assessment of the real world clinical spectrum seen in a Specialist Asthma Centre and allows a longitudinal perspective of deeply phenotyped patients. It is anticipated that the WATCH cohort would act as a vehicle for potential collaborative asthma studies and will build upon our understanding of mechanisms underlying difficult asthma.
Previous research suggests that homosexual male rape victims receive more blame than heterosexual victims. In this study, we examined effects of victim gender and sexuality on judgments of victims of ...stranger rape by a male perpetrator. Participants read a rape vignette in which victim gender and sexuality varied, and then rated the amount of blame they attributed to the perpetrator and victim. Victims were attributed more blame if their sexual orientation suggested potential attraction to the perpetrator: gay men and heterosexual women received more blame than did lesbians and heterosexual men. Further, homophobic attitudes toward gay male victims increased the blame attributed to them: perpetrators of rape of gay men were seen as least responsible for their actions, and the character of gay male victims was seen to be a stronger contributory factor than it was for other victims. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
We report a method to optically control the effective permittivity of a composite dielectric in which the active inclusions are fabricated from pulverized semi-insulating GaAs. The electric dipoles ...from the inclusions are controlled by photo-generation of charge carriers using infrared light. An infrared transparent binder provides the matrix material. Our primary purpose is to develop a low-cost pigment-based ink, or paint, for optically tuning electromagnetic devices including metamaterials, frequency-selective surfaces, filters, phase delays, and antennas. In bulk form, applications of the optically controllable dielectric are imagined including a gradient index lens in which inhomogeneous light intensity can provide a dynamic response for focusing or steering of beams. An important feature is that the effective permittivity is linear with electric field intensity over a usable parameter space. We present experimental results as well as a simple model to describe the behavior qualitatively.
In recent years, large sets of national surveys with shared content have increasingly been used for cross-national opinion research. But scholars have not yet settled on the most flexible and ...efficient models for utilizing such data. We present a two-step strategy for such analysis that takes advantage of the fact that in such datasets each “cluster” (i.e., country sample) is large enough to sustain separate analysis of its internal variances and covariances. We illustrate the method by examining a puzzle of comparative electoral behavior—why does turnout decline rather than increase with the number of parties competing in an election (Blais and Dobryzynska 1998, for example)? This discussion demonstrates the ease with which a two-step strategy incorporates confounding variables operating at different levels of analysis. Technical appendices demonstrate that the two-step strategy does not lose efficiency of estimation as compared with a pooling strategy.
In 2013, the U.S. Navy disclosed an electrochemistry procedure intended to produce MeV-energy nuclear particles, based on eV-energy electrical inputs, which may be indicative of a new scientific ...phenomenon. This work is based on the 2013 disclosure and shows initial evidence validating the prior claims of nuclear particle generation. Additionally, several variations on the 2013 electrochemical recipe are made in order to find a highly repeatable recipe for future replications by other teams. The experiments described here produced dense collections of tracks in solid-state nuclear track detectors, radio frequency (RF) emissions, and anomalous heat flux, which are indicative of potential nuclear, or unusual chemical, reactions. Experimental results include tracks in solid-state nuclear track detectors similar in size to tracks produced by 4.7 MeV alpha particles on identical detectors exposed to radioactive Th-230; RF pulses up to 6 dB above the noise floor, which indicate that these signals were likely not background noise and not caused by known chemical reactions; and heat flux of 10 s of kJ, measured to 6σ significance, over and above input electrical energy, indicative of unknown exothermic reactions. Six out of six nuclear track detectors, utilized in experiments and interrogated for tracks post-experiment, produced positive results that our team attributes to thousands of individual particle impacts in dense clusters, likely with energies between 0.1 and 20 MeV. Similar nuclear particle, thermal, and RF results have separately appeared in prior reports, but in this work, all three categories of anomalous behavior are reported. Results indicate that the 2013 procedure may be a useful guide toward a set of highly repeatable reference experiments, showing initial but not overwhelming evidence of a new scientific phenomenon. Repeatable recipes are shared so that other groups may replicate and extend the present work.
We describe a circuit model for photosensitive capacitance in bulk semi-insulating GaAs toward tunable resonant applications. Capacitances from two separate regions are considered to interpret ...experimental results. A smaller valued capacitance exists between the depletion edges within the bulk material. Photodoping in this region progressively shorts out the bulk capacitance, leaving only the higher valued depletion capacitance. The depletion capacitance also increases with illumination, and numerical simulation is used to aid interpretation. Thus, the series combination of capacitance can be optically varied over orders of magnitude. Our results indicate that capacitance is nearly independent of applied voltage over a usable parameter space, making the concept attractive for linear application.
Bisphosphonate drugs alter the balance of bone resorption and formation, leading to a net increase in bone density. Therefore, these drugs are commonly used to treat osteoporosis or as an adjunct to ...cancer chemotherapy. Local delivery of bisphosphonates, such as alendronate, from polymeric
films has the potential to improve efficacy and decrease side-effects common to oral bisphosphonate therapy. Alendronate was effectively encapsulated in film formulations composed of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) blended with poly(DL-lactic acid)-block-methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)
(diblock co-polymer) and the films were characterized for elasticity, swelling, thermal and drug-release properties. Increasing the proportion of diblock co-polymer in the formulation decreased the glass transition temperature of PLGA, allowing for improved handling via increases in
film elasticity. Immersion in aqueous media caused a rapid stiffening and swelling of the films. The inclusion of diblock co-polymer increased the rate of drug release from the films over a 3-week period. Drug-loaded polymeric films containing 0.25% alendronate increased osteoblast viability
after 4 days compared to polymer alone. After 5 weeks, there was a significant increase in alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium nodule formation in osteoblasts grown on films containing 1.25% alendronate in 5% diblock co-polymer in PLGA.
This study explores identity motives for using a microblogging site (Twitter) among Internet users in Saudi Arabia and the UK. The former boasts the world's highest per capita use of Twitter, which ...provides a forum in which users have more opportunity for self-expression than they do in the offline world, and is not subject to the heavy censorship which the Saudi government imposes on other Internet content 1. Approximately 5000 tweets from the period April-May 2013 were coded and analyzed, using Motivated Identity Construction Theory as a conceptual framework 2. This theory proposes six universal identity motives of meaning, belonging, continuity, distinctiveness, efficacy, and self-esteem. We consider these motives in turn, and examine their relative prominence in an online context. Support was found for all six universal motives, but the relative prominence of motives and the ways in which they were pursued appeared to depend on the affordances of both the OSN in question, Twitter and the cultural context in which the user was posting: Saudi users appeared to seek distinctiveness, whereas for British users, belonging was a more salient motive. Themes related to meaning, efficacy, and self-esteem were detected frequently, whereas themes related to continuity were less apparent.
There has been an increase in the interest and availability of products asserting to contain cannabidiol (CBD).
To describe demographic and clinical patterns in cases involving CBD exposures ...documented by the America's Poison Centers (AAPCC).
We extracted human exposure cases involving CBD from the U.S. National Poison Data System between July 2014 and June 2021. We described monthly case counts and data on demographics, exposure reason, clinical effects, medical outcomes, and co-exposures, overall and by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval status.
We identified 6,496 cases, of these, 85.2% involved exposures to non-FDA approved CBD. The monthly number of cases peaked at 336 in March 2021. Cases often occurred in children ages 2-12 years (36.2%). Although in this age group unintentional exposures represented most cases (94.1%), we identified therapeutic errors (3.9%), intentional use (3.0%), and adverse reactions (1.6%) in cases involving exposures to non-FDA approved CBD. Among the 5,248 (80.8%) cases involving exposure to a single product, we identified 44 major medical outcomes, all related to exposures to non-FDA approved CBD. The most frequent clinical effects included neurological, cardiac, and gastrointestinal effects. Among the 1,248 (19.2%) involving exposure to more than one product, the most frequent co-exposures included stimulants and street drugs, sedatives-hypnotics, antipsychotics, and analgesics.
This case series identified an increasing trend in CBD exposure cases managed by AAPCC. It showed serious medical outcomes in temporal association with exposure to non-FDA approved CBD products. Our findings also suggest both unintentional and intentional use of non-FDA approved CBD in children. Consumers should keep these products out of reach of children and exercise caution when purchasing and using non-FDA approved CBD products.
PDF
