Breast cancer research gaps: a questionnaire-based study to determine overall priorities and compare the priorities of patients, the public, clinicians and scientists.

Objective: This study aims to prioritise the themes identified from the three gap analyses performed by a combination of scientists, clinicians, patients and members of the public to determine areas in breast cancer care where research is lacking. We also aimed to compare the priorities of areas of agreed research need between patients, the public, clinicians and scientists.

Design: A cross-section of patients, public, clinicians and scientists completed a prioritisation exercise to rank the identified themes where research is lacking in breast cancer care.

Surgical Outcome Measures in a Cohort of Patients at High Risk of Breast Cancer Treated by Bilateral Risk-Reducing Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction.

Background: Women with breast cancer-related genetic pathogenic variants (e.g., BRCA1 , BRCA2 ) or with a strong family history carry lifetime risks of developing breast cancer of up to 80 to 90 percent.

A Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial of a Parenting Intervention Offered to Women With Severe Mental Health Problems and Delivered in a Mother and Baby Unit Setting: The IMAgINE Study Outcomes.

Background: Approximately 1-2% of mothers may experience severe mental illness (SMI) requiring admission to an inpatient Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). MBUs aim to provide mental health assessment and treatment and strengthen the mother-infant relationship, essential for infant development. Whilst MBUs offer various interventions, they do not routinely offer structured parenting interventions.

Patient reported outcome measures in a cohort of patients at high risk of breast cancer treated by bilateral risk reducing mastectomy and breast reconstruction.

Background: Many women with increased lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, due to pathogenic gene variants or family history, choose to undergo bilateral risk reducing mastectomies (BRRM). Patient reported outcome measures (PROMS) are an increasingly important part of informed consent but are little studied in women undergoing BRRM.

Methods: We used a validated PROMS tool for breast reconstruction (BREAST-Q) in 297 women who had BRRM and breast reconstruction, 81% of whom had no malignancy (Benign Group, BG) and 19% in whom a perioperative breast cancer was diagnosed (Cancer Group, CG).

Longitudinal crossover and the dynamics of uniform electron ellipsoids focused by a linear chirp.

High-resolution single-shot nonrelativistic ultrafast electron microscopy (UEM) relies on adaptive optics to compress high-intensity bunches using radio frequency (RF) cavities. We present a comprehensive discussion of the analytic approaches available to characterize bunch dynamics as an electron bunch goes through a longitudinal focal point after an RF cavity where space charge effects can be large. Methods drawn from the Coulomb explosion literature, the accelerator physics literature, and the analytic Gaussian model developed for UEM are compared, utilized, and extended in some cases.

Patient and public priorities for breast cancer research: a qualitative study in the UK.

Objective: Internationally recognised specialist breast cancer scientists, clinicians and healthcare professionals have published breast cancer research gaps that are informing research funding priorities in the UK and worldwide. We aimed to determine the breast cancer research priorities of the public to compare with those identified by clinicians and scientists.

Design: We conducted a qualitative study and thematic analysis using 'listening events' where patients with breast cancer and public representatives used a patient's breast cancer journey to identify research themes.

Transient lensing from a photoemitted electron gas imaged by ultrafast electron microscopy.

Understanding and controlling ultrafast charge carrier dynamics is of fundamental importance in diverse fields of (quantum) science and technology. Here, we create a three-dimensional hot electron gas through two-photon photoemission from a copper surface in vacuum. We employ an ultrafast electron microscope to record movies of the subsequent electron dynamics on the picosecond-nanosecond time scale.

Active control of bright electron beams with RF optics for femtosecond microscopy.

A frontier challenge in implementing femtosecond electron microscopy is to gain precise optical control of intense beams to mitigate collective space charge effects for significantly improving the throughput. Here, we explore the flexible uses of an RF cavity as a longitudinal lens in a high-intensity beam column for condensing the electron beams both temporally and spectrally, relevant to the design of ultrafast electron microscopy. Through the introduction of a novel atomic grating approach for characterization of electron bunch phase space and control optics, we elucidate the principles for predicting and controlling the phase space dynamics to reach optimal compressions at various electron densities and generating conditions.

Systematic review of the effectiveness of polyurethane-coated compared with textured silicone implants in breast surgery.

Background: Silicone gel implants are used worldwide for breast augmentation and breast reconstruction. Textured silicone implants are the most commonly placed implant, but polyurethane-coated implants are increasingly being used in an attempt to ameliorate the long-term complications associated with implant insertion.

Methods: This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines.

Exploration of metastability and hidden phases in correlated electron crystals visualized by femtosecond optical doping and electron crystallography.

Characterizing and understanding the emergence of multiple macroscopically ordered electronic phases through subtle tuning of temperature, pressure, and chemical doping has been a long-standing central issue for complex materials research. We report the first comprehensive studies of optical doping-induced emergence of stable phases and metastable hidden phases visualized in situ by femtosecond electron crystallography. The electronic phase transitions are triggered by femtosecond infrared pulses, and a temperature-optical density phase diagram is constructed and substantiated with the dynamics of metastable states, highlighting the cooperation and competition through which the macroscopic quantum orders emerge.

Algorithm for systematic peak extraction from atomic pair distribution functions.

The study presents an algorithm, ParSCAPE, for model-independent extraction of peak positions and intensities from atomic pair distribution functions (PDFs). It provides a statistically motivated method for determining parsimony of extracted peak models using the information-theoretic Akaike information criterion (AIC) applied to plausible models generated within an iterative framework of clustering and chi-square fitting. All parameters the algorithm uses are in principle known or estimable from experiment, though careful judgment must be applied when estimating the PDF baseline of nanostructured materials.

Current attitudes to breast reconstruction surgery for women at risk of post-mastectomy radiotherapy: A survey of UK breast surgeons.

Decision-making for women requiring reconstruction and post-mastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) includes oncological safety, cosmesis, patient choice, potential delay/interference with adjuvant treatment and surgeon/oncologist preference. This study aimed to quantitatively assess surgeons' attitudes and perceptions about reconstructive options in this setting, and to ascertain if surgical volume influenced advice given. A questionnaire was sent to surgical members of the UK Association of Breast Surgery (ABS) in March-June 2014.

Ab-initio reconstruction of complex Euclidean networks in two dimensions.

Reconstruction of complex structures is an inverse problem arising in virtually all areas of science and technology, from protein structure determination to bulk heterostructure solar cells and the structure of nanoparticles. We cast this problem as a complex network problem where the edges in a network have weights equal to the Euclidean distance between their endpoints. We present a method for reconstruction of the locations of the nodes of the network given only the edge weights of the Euclidean network.

Percolating bulk heterostructures from neutron reflectometry and small-angle scattering data.

We generate percolating fullerene-polymer bulk heterostructures that are consistent with the experimental characterization of a nanostructure, in particular neutron reflectometry and small-angle neutron scattering data from as-cast and annealed poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester systems. Transport simulations correlate changes in exciton dissociation efficiency and charge collection efficiency with morphological features including characteristic domain size, fullerene concentration profile, degree of fullerene sequestration, and degree of P3HT crystallization.

Decoupling of structural and electronic phase transitions in VO2.

Using optical, TEM, and ultrafast electron diffraction experiments we find that single crystal VO(2) microbeams gently placed on insulating substrates or metal grids exhibit different behaviors, with structural and metal-insulator transitions occurring at the same temperature for insulating substrates, while for metal substrates a new monoclinic metal phase lies between the insulating monoclinic phase and the metallic rutile phase. The structural and electronic phase transitions in these experiments are strongly first order and we discuss their origins in the context of current understanding of multiorbital splitting, strong correlation effects, and structural distortions that act cooperatively in this system.

Statistical properties and robustness of biological controller-target networks.

Cells are regulated by networks of controllers having many targets, and targets affected by many controllers, in a "many-to-many" control structure. Here we study several of these bipartite (two-layer) networks. We analyze both naturally occurring biological networks (composed of transcription factors controlling genes, microRNAs controlling mRNA transcripts, and protein kinases controlling protein substrates) and a drug-target network composed of kinase inhibitors and of their kinase targets.

Systems approaches and algorithms for discovery of combinatorial therapies.

Effective therapy of complex diseases requires control of highly nonlinear complex networks that remain incompletely characterized. In particular, drug intervention can be seen as control of cellular network activity. Identification of control parameters presents an extreme challenge due to the combinatorial explosion of control possibilities in combination therapy and to the incomplete knowledge of the systems biology of cells.

Exploring the needs, concerns and behaviours of people with existing respiratory conditions in relation to the H1N1 'swine influenza' pandemic: a multicentre survey and qualitative study.

Background: People with respiratory conditions are a 'high-risk' group for H1N1 pandemic swine influenza ('swine flu'), hence they and their families may have information needs, worries and concerns regarding the condition. Health-related behaviours, including vaccination, are recommended during the pandemic; understanding uptake of these is important.

Objectives: To explore and compare information needs, worries and concerns, and health-related behaviours regarding swine flu in people with respiratory conditions and their family members.

The Liga algorithm for ab initio determination of nanostructure.

Computational techniques for nanostructure determination of substances that resist standard crystallographic methods are often laborious processes starting from initial guess solutions not derived from experimental data. The Liga algorithm can create nanostructures using only lists of lengths or distances between atom pairs, providing an experimental basis for starting structures. These distance lists may be extracted from a variety of experimental probes and we illustrate the procedure with distances determined from the pair distribution function.

Polymer chain swelling induced by dispersed nanoparticles.

The dimensions of individual deuterated polystyrene (d-PS) chains in a well-dispersed mixture of protonated polystyrene and chemically identical nanoparticles was determined by neutron scattering. A 10%-20% increase in the radius of gyration of d-PS was found when the nanoparticles are homogeneously dispersed in the polymer, an effect that occurs only when the radius of gyration of the polymer is larger than the nanoparticle radius. These results are reconciled with the existing literature.