44,417 research outputs found
Bridging pre-surgical endocrine therapy for breast cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic: outcomes from the B-MaP-C study
No full textPurpose: The B-MaP-C study investigated changes to breast cancer care that were necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we present a follow-up analysis of those patients commenced on bridging endocrine therapy (BrET), whilst they were awaiting surgery due to reprioritisation of resources.
Methods: This multicentre, multinational cohort study recruited 6045 patients from the UK, Spain and Portugal during the peak pandemic period (Feb-July 2020). Patients on BrET were followed up to investigate the duration of, and response to, BrET. This included changes in tumour size to reflect downstaging potential, and changes in cellular proliferation (Ki67), as a marker of prognosis.
Results: 1094 patients were prescribed BrET, over a median period of 53 days (IQR 32-81 days). The majority of patients (95.6%) had strong ER expression (Allred score 7-8/8). Very few patients required expedited surgery, due to lack of response (1.2%) or due to lack of tolerance/compliance (0.8%). There were small reductions in median tumour size after 3 months' treatment duration; median of 4 mm [IQR - 20, 4]. In a small subset of patients (n = 47), a drop in cellular proliferation (Ki67) occurred in 26 patients (55%), from high (Ki67 ≥ 10%) to low (
Discussion: This study describes real-world usage of pre-operative endocrine therapy as necessitated by the pandemic. BrET was found to be tolerable and safe. The data support short-term (≤ 3 months) usage of pre-operative endocrine therapy. Longer-term use should be investigated in future trials.</p
Are girls more at risk of intrauterine acquired HIV infection than boys?
No full textTo investigate whether previously described sex differences in virological and immunological markers in vertically infected children are preceded by sex differences in the overall risk or timing of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) we analysed 3231 mother-child pairs enrolled in the European Collaborative Study. Girls were at a 1.5 times increased risk of MTCT overall, but the sex effect was limited to elective caesarean section deliveries, suggesting that girls may have an increased risk of intrauterine transmission compared with boys
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
The TP53 colorectal cancer international collaborative study on the prognostic and predictive significance of p53 mutation: influence of tumor site, type of mutation, and adjuvant treatment
Get PDFPURPOSE: The aims of the TP53 Colorectal Cancer (CRC) International Collaborative Study were to evaluate the possible associations between specific TP53 mutations and tumor site, and to evaluate the prognostic and predictive significance of these mutations in different site, stage, and treatment subgroups.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 3,583 CRC patients from 25 different research groups in 17 countries were recruited to the study. Patients were divided into three groups according to site of the primary tumor. TP53 mutational analyses spanned exons 4 to 8.
RESULTS: TP53 mutations were found in 34% of the proximal colon tumors and in 45% of the distal colon and rectal tumors. They were associated with lymphatic invasion in proximal tumors. In distal colon tumors, deletions causing loss of amino acids were associated with worse survival. In proximal colon tumors, mutations in exon 5 showed a trend toward statistical significance (P < .05) when overall survival was considered. Dukes' C tumors with wild-type TP53 and those with mutated TP53 (proximal tumors) showed significantly better prognosis when treated with adjuvant chemotherapy.
CONCLUSION: Analysis of TP53 mutations from a large cohort of CRC patients has identified tumor site, type of mutation, and adjuvant treatment as important factors in determining the prognostic significance of this genetic alteration
Establishment of the 1st World Health Organization International Standard for Plasmodium falciparum DNA for nucleic acidamplification technique (NAT)-based assays
No full textBackground: In order to harmonize results for the detection and quantification of Plasmodium
falciparum DNA by nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based assays, a World Health
Organization (WHO) collaborative study was performed, evaluating a series of candidate standard
preparations.
Methods: Fourteen laboratories from 10 different countries participated in the collaborative
study. Four candidate preparations based upon blood samples parasitaemic for P. falciparum were
evaluated in the study. Sample AA was lyophilized, whilst samples BB, CC and DD were liquid/
frozen preparations. The candidate standards were tested by each laboratory at a range of dilutions
in four independent assays, using both qualitative and quantitative NAT-based assays. The results
were collated and analysed statistically.
Results: Twenty sets of data were returned from the participating laboratories and used to
determine the mean P. falciparum DNA content for each sample. The mean log10 "equivalents"/ml
were 8.51 for sample AA, 8.45 for sample BB, 8.35 for sample CC, and 5.51 for sample DD. The
freeze-dried preparation AA, was examined by accelerated thermal degradation studies and found
to be highly stable.
Conclusion: On the basis of the collaborative study, the freeze-dried material, AA (NIBSC code
No. 04/176) was established as the 1st WHO International Standard for P. falciparum DNA NATbased
assays and has been assigned a potency of 109 International Units (IU) per ml. Each vial
contains 5 × 108 IU, equivalent to 0.5 ml of material after reconstitution
Does highly active antiretroviral therapy increase the risk of congenital abnormalities in HIV- infected women?
No full textA Framework for collaborative writing with recording and post-meeting retrieval capabilities
No full textFrom a HCI perspective, elucidating and supporting the context in which collaboration takes place is key to implementing successful collaborative systems. Synchronous collaborative writing usually takes place in contexts involving a “meeting” of some sort. Collaborative writing meetings can be face-to-face or, increasingly, remote Internet-based meetings. The latter presents software developers with the possibility of incorporating multimedia recording and information retrieval capabilities into the collaborative environment. The collaborative writing that ensues can be seen as an activity encompassing asynchronous as well as synchronous aspects. In order for revisions, information retrieval and other forms of post-meeting, asynchronous work to be effectively supported, the synchronous collaborative editor must be able to appropriately detect and record meeting metadata. This paper presents a collaborative editor that supports recording of user actions and explicit metadata production. Design and technical implications of introducing such capabilities are discussed with respect to document segmentation, consistency control, and awareness mechanisms
Developing Collaborative XML Editing Systems
Get PDFIn many areas the eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) is becoming the standard exchange and data format. More and more applications not only support XML as an exchange format but also use it as their data model or default file format for graphic, text and database (such as spreadsheet) applications. Computer Supported Cooperative Work is an interdisciplinary field of research dealing with group work, cooperation and their supporting information and communication technologies. One part of it is Real-Time Collaborative Editing, which investigates the design of systems which allow several persons to work simultaneously in real-time on the same document, without the risk of inconsistencies.
Existing collaborative editing research applications specialize in one or at best, only a small number of document types; for example graphic, text or spreadsheet documents. This research investigates the development of a software framework which allows collaborative editing of any XML document type in real-time. This presents a more versatile solution to the problems of real-time collaborative editing.
This research contributes a new software framework model which will assist software engineers in the development of new collaborative XML editing applications. The devised framework is flexible in the sense that it is easily adaptable to different workflow requirements covering concurrency control, awareness mechanisms and optional locking of document parts. Additionally this thesis contributes a new framework integration strategy that enables enhancements of existing single-user editing
applications with real-time collaborative editing features without changing their source code
Collaborative knowledge management—A construction case study
Get PDFDue to the new threats and challenges faced by the construction industry today, construction
companies must seek new solutions in order to remain ahead of the competition. Knowledge
has been identified to be a significant organisational resource, which if used effectively can
provide competitive advantage. A lot of emphasis is being put on how to identify, capture and
share knowledge in today’s organisations. It has been argued over the years that due to the
fragmented nature of the construction industry and ad-hoc nature of the construction
projects, capture and reuse of valuable knowledge gathered during a construction project
poses a challenge. As a result critical mistakes are repeated on projects and construction
professionals have to keep “reinventing the wheel”. Given the nature of construction projects,
collaborative knowledge management seems to be the most appropriate solution to capture
project based knowledge. Information and communication technologies offer a number of
solutions to implement collaborative knowledge management solutions. This paper discusses a
range of these solutions and presents a case study where a collaborative Knowledge
Management solution is implemented across a multi functional construction company.
The work presented in the case study was carried out while the first author was employed by
the case study organisation. A social web application was implemented to solve a particular
knowledge sharing problem within the organisation’s concrete pumping business. The new
solution provided an effective and simple way to create knowledge by taking employees’ ideas
through an iterative cycle of discussion
Investigations of collaborative design environments: A framework for real-time collaborative 3D CAD
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This research investigates computer-based collaborative design environments, in particular issues of real-time collaborative 3D CAD. The thesis first presents a broad perspective of collaborative design environments with a preliminary case study of team design activities in a conventional and a computer mediated setting. This study identifies the impact and the feasibility of computer support for collaborative design and suggests four kinds of essential technologies for a successful collaborative design environment: information-sharing systems, synchronous and asynchronous co- working tools, project management systems, and communication systems. A new conceptual framework for a real-time collaborative 3D design tool, Shared Stage, is proposed based upon the preliminary study. The Shared Stage is defined as a shared 3D design workspace aiming to smoothly incorporate shared 3D workspaces into existing individual 3D workspaces. The addition of a Shared Stage allows collaborating designers to interact in real-time and to have a dynamic and interactive exchange of intermediate 3D design data. The acceptability of collaborative features is maximised by maintaining consistency of the user interface between 3D CAD systems. The framework is subsequently implemented as a software prototype using a new software development environment, customised by integrating related real-time and 3D graphic software development tools. Two main components of the Shared Stage module in the prototype, the Synchronised Stage View (SSV) and the Data Structure Diagram (DSD), provide essential collaborative features for real-time collaborative 3D CAD. These features include synchronised shared 3D representation, dynamic data exchange and awareness support in 3D workspaces. The software prototype is subsequently evaluated to examine the usefulness and usability. A range of quantitative and qualitative methods is used to evaluate the impact of the Shared Stage. The results, including the analysis of collaborative interactions and user perception, illustrate that the Shared Stage is a feasible and valuable addition for real-time collaborative 3D CAD. This research identifies the issues to be addressed for collaborative design environments and also provides a new framework and development strategy of a novel real-time collaborative 3D CAD system. The framework is successfully demonstrated through prototype implementation and an analytical usability evaluation.Financial support from the Department and from the UK government through the Overseas Research Studentship Awards
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