Predictors of participation in genetic testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer

Up to 10% of all breast and ovarian cancers are attributable to mutations in cancer susceptibility genes. Clinical genetic testing for deleterious gene mutations that predispose to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) syndrome is available. Mutation carriers may benefit from following high-risk guidelines for cancer prevention and early detection; however, few studies have reported the uptake of clinical genetic testing for HBOC. This study identified predictors of HBOC genetic testing uptake among a case series of 268 women who underwent genetic counseling at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center from October, 1996, through July, 2000. Women completed a baseline questionnaire that measured psychosocial and demographic variables. Additional medical characteristics were obtained from the medical charts. Logistic regression modeling identified predictors of participation in HBOC genetic testing. Psychological variables were hypothesized to be the strongest predictors of testing uptake—in particular, one's readiness (intention) to have testing. Testing uptake among all women in this study was 37% (n = 99). Contrary to the hypotheses, one's actual risk of carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation was the strongest predictor of testing participation (OR = 15.37, CI = 5.15, 45.86). Other predictors included religious background, greater readiness to have testing, knowledge about HBOC and genetic testing, not having female children, and adherence to breast self-exam. Among the subgroup of women who were at ≥10% risk of carrying a mutation, 51% (n = 90) had genetic testing. Consistent with the hypotheses, predictors of testing participation in the high-risk subgroup included greater readiness to have testing, knowledge, and greater self-efficacy regarding one's ability to cope with test results. Women with CES-D scores ≥16, indicating the presence of depressive symptoms, were less likely to have genetic testing. Results indicate that among women with a wide range of risk for HBOC, actual risk of carrying an HBOC-predisposing mutation may be the strongest predictor of their decision to have genetic testing. Psychological variables (e.g., distress and self-efficacy) may influence testing participation only among women at highest risk of carrying a mutation, for whom genetic testing is most likely to be informative. ^

Analysis of participation in the federally mandated coal workers' health surveillance program

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 required that periodic chest radiographs be offered to underground coal miners to protect the miners from the development of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis (CWP) and progression of the disease to progressive massive fibrosis (PMF). These examinations are administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) through the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP). The mine operator is required to provide each miner with the opportunity to have the chest radiograph at no cost to the miner.^ Three rounds of examinations have been conducted since 1969 and the fourth is underway. The decrease in participation over rounds is of great concern if the incidence and progression of CWP are to be understood and controlled.^ This study developed rates of participation for each of 558 West Virginia underground coal mines who submitted or had NIOSH assigned plans for making chest radiographs available during the third round, July 1978 through December 1980. These rates were analyzed in relation to desired levels of participation and to reinforcing, predisposing and enabling factors presumed to affect rates of participation in disease prevention and surveillance programs.^ Two reinforcing factors, size of mine and inclusion of the mine in the National Coal Study (NCS) epidemiology research program, and the enabling factor, use of an on-site radiograph facility, demonstrated highly significant relationships to participation rates.^ The major findings of the study were: (1) Participation in the CWHSP is even lower than previously estimated; (2) CWHSP program evaluation is not systematic and program data base is not complete and comprehensive; and (3) NIOSH program policy is not clear and administration of the CWHSP is fragmented and lacks adequate fiscal and personnel resources. ^

Determinants of participation in worksite health risk appraisal (HRA) programs

The purpose of this study was to apply the Behavioral Model of Health Services Utilization to examine an existing worksite HRA program to identify and examine the roles of determinants of participation in HRA programs. The program consisted of three activities: questionnaire, physical examination, and group interpretation sessions. All of the 1821 employees were eligible for the program; 523 (29%) participated in at least one activity. Results from bivariate analyses suggest that being female, being white, having fewer dependents, and having higher medical claims for the past year were positively associated with participation. Results of logistic regression suggest that Age, Sex, Race, Marital, Number of Dependents, Job Title, Months with the Company, and a log transformed value of Employee's Total Medical Claims were all significant determinants of participation. Applications of the logistic regression models, other factors that should be investigated in future studies, and the limitations of the study were discussed. ^

Organizational perspectives on the management and evaluation of large -scale multicenter controlled clinical trials: An exploratory study of participation in the beta -blocker heart attack trial

A review of literature related to appointment-keeping served as the basis for the development of an organizational paradigm for the study of appointment-keeping in the Beta-blocker Heart Attack Trial (BHAT). Features of the organizational environment, demographic characteristics of BHAT enrollees, organizational structure and processes and previous organizational performance variables were measured so as to provide exploratory information relating to the appointment-keeping behavior of 3,837 participants enrolled at thirty-two Clinical Centers. Results suggest that the social context of individual behavior is an important consideration for the understanding of patient compliance. In particular, the degree to which previous organizational performance--as measured by obtaining recruitment goals--and the ability to utilize resources had particularly strong bivariate associations with appointment-keeping. Implications for future theory development, research and practical implications were provided as was a suggestion for the development of multidisciplinary research efforts conducted within the context of Centers for the study and application of adherence behaviors. ^

Máquinas o atmósferas: La estética de la energía en la arquitectura, 1750-2000 = From Machines to Atmospheres: The Aesthetics of Energy in Architecture, 1750-2000

La energía es ya un tema arquitectónico, pero su incorporación al proyecto ha sido hasta ahora fundamentalmente técnica, dando pie a una especie de funcionalismo ecológico cuyo destino es acaso repetir los errores de los viejos funcionalismos en su confianza de encontrar modos ‘objetivos’ de transmutar la energía en forma construida, pero sin que en tal proceso parezca haber hueco para mediaciones de tipo estético. Sin embargo, son precisamente tales mediaciones las que necesitan analizarse para que la adopción de los temas energéticos resulte fructífera en la arquitectura, y asimismo para dar cuenta de otras perspectivas complementarias —filosóficas, científicas, artísticas— que hoy forman el complejo campo semántico de la energía. Partiendo de la fecha de 1750 —que da comienzo simbólicamente al proceso de contaminaciones ‘modernas’ entre la arquitectura y otras disciplinas—, esta tesis analiza los diferentes modos con los que proyectos y edificios han expresado literal y analógicamente ciertos temas o ideales energéticos, demostrando la existencia de una ‘estética de la energía’ en la arquitectura y también de una tradición proyectual e intelectual sostenida en ella. Con este fin, se han seleccionados siete metáforas que vinculan tanto técnica como ideológicamente a la arquitectura con la energía: la metáfora de la máquina, asociada al ideal de movimiento y la autorregulación; las metáforas del arabesco, del cristal y del organismo, afines entre sí en su modo de dar cuenta del principio de la morfogénesis o energía creadora de la naturaleza; la metáfora de la actividad interna de los materiales; la metáfora del gradiente, que expresa la condición térmica y climática de la arquitectura, y, finalmente, la de la atmósfera que, recogiendo los sentidos anteriores, los actualiza en el contexto de la estética contemporánea. La selección de estas siete metáforas se ha llevado a cabo después de un barrido exhaustivo de la bibliografía precedente, y ha estructurado un relato cuyo método combina la perspectiva general —que permite cartografiar las continuidades históricas— con la cercana —que atiende a las problemas específicos de cada tema o metáfora—, complementándolas con una aproximación de sesgo iconográfico cuyo propósito es incidir en los vínculos que se dan entre lo ideológico y lo morfológico. El análisis ha puesto de manifiesto cómo detrás de cada una de estas metáforas se oculta un principio ideológico común —la justificación de la arquitectura desde planteamientos externos procedentes de la ciencia, la filosofía y el arte—, y cómo en cada uno de los casos estudiados las asimilaciones más fructíferas de la energía se han producido según mecanismos de mímesis analógica que inciden más en los procesos que en las formas que estos generan, y que en último término son de índole estética, lo cual constituye un indicio de los métodos de la arquitectura por venir. ABSTRACT Although it is already an architectural theme, the matter of incorporating energy into projects has up to now been mainly technical, giving rise to a kind of ecological functionalism which may be bound to old funcionalist mistakes in hopes of finding “objective” ways of transmuting energy into built forms without aesthetic considerations. However, it is precisely such considerations that need to be analyzed if the adoption of energy issues in architecture is to bear fruit and also to account for other complementary perspectives – philosophical, scientific, artistic – which today form the complex fabric of the energy semantic field. Beginning in 1750 – symbolic start of ‘modern’ contaminations between architecture and other disciplines –, this thesis analyzes the different ways in which projects and buildings have literally and analogically expressed certain subjects or ideals on energy, and demonstrates the existence of an “aesthetics of energy” in architecture, as well as of an intellectual and design tradition based on such aesthetics. For this purpose, seven metaphors are selected to link energy to architecture both technically and ideologically: the machine’s metaphor, associated with the ideal of mouvement and self-regulation; the arabesque, glass and the organism’s metaphors, which account for the morphogenesis principle, i.e. creative energy of nature; the metaphor linked to matter and the ideal of internal activity; the gradient’s metaphor, which expressed the thermal and climatic condition of architecture, and, finally, that of the atmosphere which, collecting the above meanings, updates them in the context of contemporary aesthetics. The selection of these seven metaphors was carried out after a thorough scan of the preceding literature, and has structured a reasoning that combines the overview method – which accounts for historical continuities – with the nearby one – which meets the specifics problems of each theme or metaphor –, both supplemented with an iconographic bias, the purpose of which is to visually express the links existing between the ideological and the morphological. So presented, the analysis shows how, behind each of these metaphors, lies a common ideological principle – the justification of architecture from scientific, philosophical and artistic “external” angles –, and how in each of the studied cases the most successful assimilation of energy were those produced by aesthetic mechanisms of analogical mimesis not focused in forms but in processes that generate them: an indication of the methods of architecture to come.

Random allocation or allocation at random? Patients’ perspectives of participation in a randomised controlled trial

Objectives To explore trial participants’ understandings of randomisation.

Eliciting Euphoria Online: The Aesthetics of “ASMR” Video Culture

“Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response” (ASMR) is a term that has emerged online to describe a mysterious tingling sensation that some people experience in response to particular audiovisual and interpersonal “triggers.” Initially coalescing via discussion threads on health forums, ASMR culture quickly began using platforms like YouTube and Reddit to exchange trigger videos. This paper frames the emergence of ASMR video culture as an example of how bodies and algorithms are conspiring to bring into being new cultural forms that can seem literally inexplicable on first encounter. Treating videos as “inputs,” judged not as messages to be understood or interpreted but by their ability to elicit particular affective and somatic “outputs,” ASMR communities cultivate a quasi-cybernetic relationship with the moving image, using video as a vehicle for “feeling out” phenomena that seem to thwart linguistic articulation and rational comprehension.

Amateurism and the Aesthetics of Lego Stop-Motion on YouTube

Do the “democratization” of media and the proliferation of online participatory culture undermine the aesthetic hegemony of professional filmmakers? This article is a case study of both more and less popular animated Lego videos, also called “brickfilms,” that asks how amateur videos adhere to and/or depart from professionalized aesthetic standards. It addresses the definitions of professionalism and amateurism and proposes that the dichotomy between democratization and ongoing elitism is insufficient to describe the complex dialogue between professional film aesthetics and amateur production—a dialogue that is diverse but nonetheless follows certain patterns. These patterns link Lego videos to silent era cinema as well as contemporary professional live-action and stop-motion animation. Furthermore, a mixture of parody, pastiche, and homage suggest that amateur work has a variety of affective relationships to professional work. Ultimately, amateur filmmaking indicates a negotiation of professional standards rather than slavish adherence.

“How Do You ‘Do’ Bokeh?” The Aesthetics of How-to Videos about Background Blur and Eroticized Women

Producers of online instructional videos about bokeh emphasize disks of light and out-of-focus backgrounds. They demonstrate how camera lenses and technical features can render bokeh, or unfocused areas. Photographic and video bokeh ordinarily appears away from the center of attention. The bokeh genre, in opposition to typical photography and video practices, foregrounds the peripheral and proposes aesthetics and ways of looking by seeing and not seeing objects. However, producers of online instructional videos about bokeh sometimes couple their sensual aestheticization of backgrounds to their stated attempts to satisfy viewers’ investments in filling foregrounds with images of objectified women. These producers emphasize unconventional aesthetics as a means of establishing their creative and technical expertise and obscuring their reproduction of traditional conceptions of women as viewable and controllable. Close textual analysis, literature on photography and transparency, and feminist considerations of representation allow me to consider the aesthetics and functions of this how-to form.

The roots of participation in farmer cooperatives /

Includes bibliographical references.

Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm : history of participation by the U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010-5422, 7 August 1990 - 31 December 1991.

"15 October 1992"--1st prelim. p.

$29,385,000 certificates of participation (Bureau of the Budget) Series 1995A : official notice of sale and bid form.

At head of title: Official notice of sale and bid form.

$17,610,000 certificates of participation (Bureau of the Budget) Series 1996A.

At head of title: Official notice of sale and bid form.