Raman spectroscopic study of the magnesium carbonate mineral– hydromagnesite Mg5[(CO3)4(OH)2]•4H2O

Magnesium minerals are important for the understanding of the concept of geosequestration. One method of studying the hydrated hydroxy magnesium carbonate minerals is through vibrational spectroscopy. A combination of Raman and infrared spectroscopy has been used to study the mineral hydromagnesite. An intense band is observed at 1121 cm-1 attributed CO32- ν1 symmetric stretching mode. A series of infrared bands at 1387, 1413, 1474 cm-1 are assigned to the CO32- ν3 antisymmetric stretching modes. The CO32- ν3 antisymmetric stretching vibrations are extremely weak in the Raman spectrum and are observed at 1404, 1451, 1490 and 1520 cm-1. A series of Raman bands at 708, 716, 728, 758 cm-1 are assigned to the CO32- ν2 in-plane bending mode. The Raman spectrum in the OH stretching region is characterised by bands at 3416, 3516 and 3447 cm-1. In the infrared spectrum a broad band is found at 2940 cm-1 assigned to water stretching vibrations. Infrared bands at 3430, 3446, 3511, 2648 and 3685 cm-1 are attributed to MgOH stretching modes.

How do allied health professionals evaluate new models of care? What are we measuring and why?

The aim of this study was to identify what outcome measures or quality indicators are being used to evaluate advanced and new roles in nine allied health professions and whether the measures are evaluating outcomes of interest to the patient, the clinician, or the healthcare provider. A systematic search strategy was used. Medical and allied health databases were searched and relevant articles extracted. Relevant studies with at least 1 outcome measure were evaluated. A total of 106 articles were identified that described advanced roles, however, only 23 of these described an outcome measure in sufficient detail to be included for review. The majority of the reported measures fit into the economic and process categories. The most reported outcome related to patients was satisfaction surveys. Measures of patient health outcomes were infrequently reported. It is unclear from the studies evaluated whether new models of allied healthcare can be shown to be as safe and effective as traditional care for a given procedure. Outcome measures chosen to evaluate these services often reflect organizational need and not patient outcomes. Organizations need to ensure that high-quality performance measures are chosen to evaluate the success of new health service innovations. There needs to be a move away from in-house type surveys that add little or no valid evidence as to the effect of a new innovation. More importance needs to be placed on patient outcomes as a measure of the quality of allied health interventions.

Measuring multidisciplinary team effectiveness in a ward-based healthcare setting : development of the Team Functioning Assessment Tool

Nontechnical skills relating to team functioning are vital to the effective delivery of patient care and safety. In this study, we develop a reliable behavioral marker tool for assessing nontechnical skills that are critical to the success of ward-based multidisciplinary healthcare teams. The Team Functioning Assessment Tool (TFAT) was developed and refined using a literature review, focus groups, card-sorting exercise, field observations, and final questionnaire evaluation and refinement process. Results demonstrated that Clinical Planning, Executive Tasks, and Team Relations are important facets of effective multidisciplinary healthcare team functioning. The TFAT was also shown to yield acceptable inter-rater agreement.

Validity of accelerometry for measurement of activity in people with brain injury

Purpose To evaluate the validity of a uniaxial accelerometer (MTI Actigraph) for measuring physical activity in people with acquired brain injury (ABI) using portable indirect calorimetry (Cosmed K4b(2)) as a criterion measure. Methods Fourteen people with ABI and related gait pattern impairment (age 32 +/- 8 yr) wore an MTI Actigraph that measured activity (counts(.)min-(1)) and a Cosmed K4b(2) that measured oxygen consumption (mL(.)kg(-1.)min(-1)) during four activities: quiet sitting (QS) and comfortable paced (CP), brisk paced (BP), and fast paced (FP) walking. MET levels were predicted from Actigraph counts using a published equation and compared with Cosmed measures. Predicted METs for each of the 56 activity bouts (14 participants X 4 bouts) were classified (light, moderate, vigorous, or very vigorous intensity) and compared with Cosmed-based classifications. Results Repeated-measures ANOVA indicated that walking condition intensities were significantly different (P < 0.05) and the Actigraph detected the differences. Overall correlation between measured and predicted METs was positive, moderate, and significant (r = 0.74). Mean predicted METs were not significantly different from measured for CP and BP, but for FP walking, predicted METs were significantly less than measured (P < 0.05). The Actigraph correctly classified intensity for 76.8% of all activity bouts and 91.5% of light- and moderate-intensity bouts. Conclusions Actigraph counts provide a valid index of activity across the intensities investigated in this study. For light to moderate activity, Actigraph-based estimates of METs are acceptable for group-level analysis and are a valid means of classifying activity intensity. The Actigraph significantly underestimated higher intensity activity, although, in practice, this limitation will have minimal impact on activity measurement of most community-dwelling people with ABI.

Metachronous carcinomas in colorectum and its clinicopathological significance

PURPOSE The study was designed to examine the significance of colorectal metachronous carcinoma in a large cohort of patients. METHODS Over a mean follow-up period of 10 years, the clinicopathological features, microsatellite instability (MSI) and clinical follow-up of 56 patients with metachronous colorectal carcinoma were analysed. RESULTS The prevalence of metachronous colorectal carcinoma was 2.1 %. The metachronous colorectal carcinomas appeared between 7 and 246 months (mean = 66 months) after surgical resection of the index colorectal carcinomas. Thirty-six per cent (n = 20) of the metachronous carcinoma occurred more than 5 years after the operation of the index carcinoma. Of the 56 patients, 20 % (n = 11) of the metachronous colorectal carcinomas were mucinous adenocarcinoma. Cancers detected in the secondary operations (metachronous colorectal carcinomas), when compared with the primary index cancers, were smaller, showed higher proportions of mucinous adenocarcinoma and more often located in the proximal colon. Patients with metachronous colorectal cancers had higher prevalence of mucinous adenocarcinoma, loss of staining for MSI markers and better survival rates than other patients with colorectal cancers. CONCLUSIONS Patients with metachronous colorectal carcinomas have characteristic features, and attention to these features is important for better management of this group of cancer.

2nd ESMO consensus conference on lung cancer : early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer consensus on diagnosis, treatment and follow-up

To complement the existing treatment guidelines for all tumour types, ESMO organises consensus conferences to focus on specific issues in each type of tumour. The 2nd ESMO Consensus Conference on Lung Cancer was held on 11-12 May 2013 in Lugano. A total of 35 experts met to address several questions on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in each of four areas: pathology and molecular biomarkers, first-line/second and further lines in advanced disease, earlystage disease and locally advanced disease. For each question, recommendations were made including reference to the grade of recommendation and level of evidence. This consensus paper focuses on early-stage disease. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved.

Polyacrylic Acid Assisted Synthesis of Cu2ZnSnS4 by Hydrothermal Method

Pure phase Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized via polyacrylic acid (PAA) assisted one-pot hydrothermal route. The morphology, crystal structure, composition and optical properties as well as the photoactivity of the as-synthesized CZTS nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and photoelectrochemical measurement. The influence of various synthetic conditions, such as the reaction temperature, reaction duration and the amount of PAA in the precursor solution on the formation of CZTS compound was systematically investigated. The results have shown that the crystal phase, morphology and particle size of CZTS can be tailored by controlling the reaction conditions. The formation mechanism of CZTS in the hydrothermal reaction has been proposed based on the investigation of time-dependent phase evolution of CZTS which showed that metal sulfides (e.g., Cu2S, SnS2 and ZnS) were formed firstly during the hydrothermal reaction before forming CZTS compound through nucleation. The band gap of the as-synthesized CZTS nanoparticles is 1.49 eV. The thin film electrode based on the synthesized CZTS nanoparticles in a three-electrode photoelectrochemical cell generated pronounced photocurrent under illumination provided by a red light-emitting diode (LED, 627 nm), indicating the photoactivity of the semiconductor material.

Prediction of individual genetic risk to prostate cancer using a polygenic score

BACKGROUND Polygenic risk scores comprising established susceptibility variants have shown to be informative classifiers for several complex diseases including prostate cancer. For prostate cancer it is unknown if inclusion of genetic markers that have so far not been associated with prostate cancer risk at a genome-wide significant level will improve disease prediction. METHODS We built polygenic risk scores in a large training set comprising over 25,000 individuals. Initially 65 established prostate cancer susceptibility variants were selected. After LD pruning additional variants were prioritized based on their association with prostate cancer. Six-fold cross validation was performed to assess genetic risk scores and optimize the number of additional variants to be included. The final model was evaluated in an independent study population including 1,370 cases and 1,239 controls. RESULTS The polygenic risk score with 65 established susceptibility variants provided an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.67. Adding an additional 68 novel variants significantly increased the AUC to 0.68 (P = 0.0012) and the net reclassification index with 0.21 (P = 8.5E-08). All novel variants were located in genomic regions established as associated with prostate cancer risk. CONCLUSIONS Inclusion of additional genetic variants from established prostate cancer susceptibility regions improves disease prediction. Prostate 75:1467–1474, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.