Predator and prey activity levels jointly influence the outcome of long-term foraging bouts.

Consistent interindividual differences in behavior (i.e., "behavioral types") may be a key factor in determining the outcome of species interactions.

Physicians infrequently adhere to hepatitis vaccination guidelines for chronic liver disease.

Background And Goals: Hepatitis A (HAV) and hepatitis B (HBV) vaccination in patients with chronic liver disease is an accepted standard of care. We determined HAV and HBV vaccination rates in a tertiary care referral hepatology clinic and the impact of electronic health record (EHR)-based reminders on adherence to vaccination guidelines.

Methods: We reviewed the records of 705 patients with chronic liver disease referred to our liver clinic in 2008 with at least two follow-up visits during the subsequent year.

Critical assessment of high-circulation print newspaper coverage of the Institute of Medicine report Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D.

Objective: To evaluate high-circulation US and Canadian newspaper coverage of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D and assess pre-report and post-report reporter-specific vitamin D-related coverage.

Design: Two independent reviewers analysed the newspaper articles. The key report findings cited, proportion of sentences describing the IOM report and proportion of sentences describing critical viewpoints on the report were calculated.

Familial breast cancer genetic testing in the West of Ireland.

Aims: The majority of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers are associated with highly penetrant mutations in two genes: BRCA 1 and 2. Our aim was to investigate the prevalence and types of BRCA mutations in patients from the West of Ireland.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was undertaken that included all patients from the counties, Mayo, Sligo, Galway, Roscommon, and Clare, who were referred to the National Centre for Medical Genetics (NCMG) for testing for mutations in BRCA 1 or 2 between 2000 and 2010.

Comparison of HRQL between unicompartmental knee arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty for the treatment of osteoarthritis.

This retrospective study evaluates the health related quality of life (HRQL) of patients following unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) compared to total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for osteoarthritis treatment. The Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis index (WOMAC) and the Oxford Knee score (OKS) were recorded at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Analysis of 317 UKAs and 425 TKAs showed no significant differences in HRQL between the two groups at baseline, but the TKA group was significantly older and more likely to be male.

Establishing best practices and guidance in population modeling: an experience with an internal population pharmacokinetic analysis guidance.

This tutorial describes the development of a population pharmacokinetic (Pop PK) analysis guidance within Pfizer, which strives for improved consistency and efficiency, and a more systematic approach to model building. General recommendations from the Pfizer internal guidance and a suggested workflow for Pop PK model building are discussed. A description is also provided for mechanisms by which conflicting opinions were captured and resolved across the organization to arrive at the final guidance.

Molecular imaging in the development of a novel treatment paradigm for glioblastoma (GBM): an integrated multidisciplinary commentary.

Current therapeutic strategies against glioblastoma (GBM) have failed to prevent disease progression and recurrence effectively. The part played by molecular imaging (MI) in the development of novel therapies has gained increasing traction in recent years. For the first time, using expertise from an integrated multidisciplinary group of authors, herein we present a comprehensive evaluation of state-of-the-art GBM imaging and explore how advances facilitate the emergence of new treatment options.

The prognostic significance of nodal ratio on breast cancer recurrence and its potential for incorporation in a new prognostic index.

Axillary nodal status is an inherent part of prognostic tools such as the Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI). Literature suggests that nodal ratio is a stronger predictive parameter than the total number of positive nodes sampled. Studies also note improved survival in node-negative patients with a larger proportion of nodes excised.

Spinal level of myelomeningocele lesion as a contributing factor in posterior fossa volume, intracranial cerebellar volume, and cerebellar ectopia.

Object: McLone and Knepper's unified theory of Chiari malformation Type II (CM-II) describes how the loss of CSF via the open posterior neuropore fails to create adequate distending pressure for the developing rhomboencephalic vesicle. The authors of the present article describe the relationship between the posterior fossa volume and intracranial cerebellar volume as being related to the distance from the obex of the fourth ventricle to the myelomeningocele lesion using a common mathematical model, the Hagen-Poiseuille law.

Methods: All newborns who required closure of a myelomeningocele at the authors' institution between 2008 and 2011 and who were between 4 weeks premature and 2 months, corrected gestational age, at the time of MRI were included in this study.

The use of ensemble empirical mode decomposition with canonical correlation analysis as a novel artifact removal technique.

Biosignal measurement and processing is increasingly being deployed in ambulatory situations particularly in connected health applications. Such an environment dramatically increases the likelihood of artifacts which can occlude features of interest and reduce the quality of information available in the signal. If multichannel recordings are available for a given signal source, then there are currently a considerable range of methods which can suppress or in some cases remove the distorting effect of such artifacts.

A methodology for validating artifact removal techniques for physiological signals.

Artifact removal from physiological signals is an essential component of the biosignal processing pipeline. The need for powerful and robust methods for this process has become particularly acute as healthcare technology deployment undergoes transition from the current hospital-centric setting toward a wearable and ubiquitous monitoring environment. Currently, determining the relative efficacy and performance of the multiple artifact removal techniques available on real world data can be problematic, due to incomplete information on the uncorrupted desired signal.

Synergistic and Selective Cancer Cell Killing Mediated by the Oncolytic Adenoviral Mutant AdΔΔ and Dietary Phytochemicals in Prostate Cancer Models.

AdΔΔ is an oncolytic adenoviral mutant that has been engineered to selectively target tumors with deregulated cell cycle and apoptosis pathways. AdΔΔ potentiates apoptotic cell death induced by drugs, including mitoxantrone and docetaxel, which are commonly used to treat prostate cancer. Here, we demonstrate that AdΔΔ can also interact synergistically with dietary phytochemicals known to have anti-cancer activities, without incurring the toxic side effects of chemodrugs.

Study protocol: the Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) study.

Background: Patient encounters are the core learning activity of Australian general practice (family practice) training. Exposure to patient demographics and presentations may vary from one general practice registrar (vocational trainee) to another. This can affect comprehensiveness of training.

Careers in medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine: an innovative approach to specialty exploration and selection.

Research on resident attrition rates suggests that medical students would benefit from more comprehensive career advising programs during medical school. Responding to this need, students and administrators at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (Vanderbilt) introduced a broad Careers in Medicine (CiM) program in 2005 to complement the CiM resources offered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). In this article, the authors detail the Vanderbilt CiM program's four core components: career-related events, an elective course, specialty interest groups, and career advising.

Spatial repellents: from discovery and development to evidence-based validation.

International public health workers are challenged by a burden of arthropod-borne disease that remains elevated despite best efforts in control programmes. With this challenge comes the opportunity to develop novel vector control paradigms to guide product development and programme implementation. The role of vector behaviour modification in disease control was first highlighted several decades ago but has received limited attention within the public health community.

Artifact removal in physiological signals--practices and possibilities.

The combination of reducing birth rate and increasing life expectancy continues to drive the demographic shift toward an aging population. This, in turn, places an ever-increasing burden on healthcare due to the increasing prevalence of patients with chronic illnesses and the reducing income-generating population base needed to sustain them. The need to urgently address this healthcare "time bomb" has accelerated the growth in ubiquitous, pervasive, distributed healthcare technologies.

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) synthetic data generation.

Accurately modelled computer-generated data can be used in place of real-world signals for the design, test and validation of signal processing techniques in situations where real data is difficult to obtain. Bio-signal processing researchers interested in working with fNIRS data are restricted due to the lack of freely available fNIRS data and by the prohibitively expensive cost of fNIRS systems. We present a simplified mathematical description and associated MATLAB implementation of model-based synthetic fNIRS data which could be used by researchers to develop fNIRS signal processing techniques.

A methodology for validating artifact removal techniques for fNIRS.

fNIRS recordings are increasingly utilized to monitor brain activity in both clinical and connected health settings. These optical recordings provide a convenient measurement of cerebral hemodynamic changes which can be linked to motor and cognitive performance. Such measurements are of clinical utility in a broad range of conditions ranging from dementia to movement rehabilitation therapy.

Locoregional recurrence after breast cancer surgery: a systematic review by receptor phenotype.

Molecular subtyping confirms that breast cancer comprises at least four genetically distinct entities based on the expression of specific genes including estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2/neu receptor. The quantitative influence of subtype on ipsilateral locoregional recurrence (LRR) is unknown. The aim of this study was to systematically appraise the influence of breast cancer subtype on LRR following breast conserving therapy (BCT) and mastectomy.

The use of plasma aldosterone and urinary sodium to potassium ratio as translatable quantitative biomarkers of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism.

Background: Accumulating evidence supports the role of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. These findings have generated renewed interest in novel MR antagonists with improved selectivity against other nuclear hormone receptors and a potentially reduced risk of hyperkalemia. Characterization of novel MR antagonists warrants establishing translatable biomarkers of activity at the MR receptor.

The effect of breast cancer awareness month on internet search activity--a comparison with awareness campaigns for lung and prostate cancer.

Background: This work aimed to assess the effects of the annual breast cancer awareness campaign on internet search activity, and to compare these effects with those of similar campaigns in prostate and lung cancer. We further aimed to assess overall levels of online activity relating to all three neoplasms between 2004 and 2009.

Methods: Google Insights for Search was employed to examine search trends for the term "breast cancer", across all Google domains between January 2004 and December 2009 (6 years).

Randomized trial of group cognitive behavioral therapy compared with a pain education control for low-literacy rural people with chronic pain.

Chronic pain is a common and costly experience. Cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) are efficacious for an array of chronic pain conditions. However, the literature is based primarily on urban (white) samples.

Quality of life after immediate breast reconstruction and skin-sparing mastectomy - a comparison with patients undergoing breast conserving surgery.

Background: Historically breast cancer surgery was associated with significant psychosocial morbidity and suboptimal cosmetic outcome. Recent emphasis on women's quality of life following breast cancer treatment has drawn attention to the importance of aesthetic outcome and potential benefits of immediate breast reconstruction (IBR). Our primary aim was to assess patient's quality of life after IBR, compared to a matched group undergoing breast conservation.