Identification of meaningful individual-level change thresholds for worsening on the patient-reported outcomes version of the common terminology criteria for adverse events (PRO-CTCAE®).

Background: We derived meaningful individual-level change thresholds for worsening in selected patient-reported outcomes version of the common terminology criteria for adverse events (PRO-CTCAE®) items and their composite scores.

Methods: We used two data sources, the PRO-TECT trial (Alliance AFT-39) that collected PRO-CTCAE data from adults with advanced cancer at 26 United States (U.S.

Impact of gender representativeness in online symptom survey and clinical trial participation among patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) face chronic symptom burden. Online symptom assessment studies allow for recruitment of large numbers of motivated patients, but patient self-selection can lead to sampling bias. This study evaluated how gender representativeness in MPN symptom surveys and trials impacted symptom score mean estimates, using data from 4825 survey respondents and 291 trial participants with MPNs.

Combined bottom-up and top-down pressures drive catastrophic population declines of Arctic skuas in Scotland.

Understanding drivers of population change is critical for effective species conservation. In the northeast Atlantic Ocean, recent changes amongst seabird communities are linked to human and climate change impacts on food webs. Many species have declined severely, with food shortages, and increased predation reducing productivity.

Use of atmospheric non-thermal plasma as a disinfectant for objects contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Background: Health care-associated infections because of methicillin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are increasing worldwide despite current infection control measures. Novel methods for disinfection of MRSA would be useful.

Methods: We tested the effectiveness of atmospheric, non-thermal plasma discharge at killing S aureus, including USA300 strains, and at disinfecting experimentally contaminated hospital pagers.