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Simple Summary: The current evidence regarding Indigenous* women and breast cancer in Australia shows lower prevalence but higher mortality rates. There are a range of reasons for this, including co-morbidities, lack of access to health services and low health information fluency. Perhaps most importantly, breast cancer health policy and service delivery practice do not meet the needs of Indigenous women in Australia, according to Indigenous women. Talking and listening to Indigenous women about breast cancer highlight that the solutions to improve breast cancer outcomes are available and that they are not complex. Indigenous women must be involved in the improvement of policy and practice in order for these outcomes to improve. *Terminology: We respectfully refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as "Indigenous". In Australia, the incidence rate of breast cancer is lower in Indigenous* women than non-Indigenous women; however, the mortality rate is higher, with Indigenous women 1.2 times more likely to die from the disease. This paper provides practical and achievable solutions to improve health outcomes for Indigenous women with breast cancer in Australia. This research employed the Context–Mechanism–Outcome (CMO) framework to reveal potential mechanisms and contextual factors that influence breast cancer outcomes for Indigenous women, stratified into multiple levels, namely, micro (interpersonal), meso (systemic) and macro (policy) levels. The CMO framework allowed us to interpret evidence regarding Indigenous women and breast cancer and provides nine practical ways to improve health outcomes and survival rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an icon-based methodology for the design of prototype aggregated production planning software that addresses the complexity of multi-process and multi-product production. Aggregate planning is a critical task in production management, which involves coordinating the production of multiple products in different processes to meet demand efficiently. The approach focuses on the use of visual icons to represent key elements of the production process, such as products, processes, resources, and constraints. These icons allow an intuitive representation of information and facilitate communication between production team members. In addition, this paper presents a conceptual structure that defines the relationships between the icons and how they are used to model and simulate aggregate production planning. The prototype software based on a conceptual foundation allows planners to easily create and adjust production plans in a visual environment. This method improves the ability to make informed and rapid decisions in response to changes in demand or production capacity. The prototype is based on icons and programmed in Excel spreadsheets to facilitate the planner's planning. At the end of the document, the application of a case study is shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Pancreatic cancer (PCa) is a highly aggressive and deadly form of cancer with a low five-year survival rate. This paper explores the role of pharmacologic anthropology in understanding and addressing health disparities related to PCa. Pharmacologic anthropology examines how cultural, social, economic, and behavioral factors affect the use and effectiveness of pharmaceutical treatments. In the context of PCa, it helps us understand why different population groups experience disparities in PCa outcomes. By adopting this interdisciplinary approach, researchers, healthcare providers, and policymakers can better understand the complex dynamics of PCa health disparities. This understanding can lead to culturally sensitive interventions, improved communication between patients and providers, increased community engagement, and policies that enhance access to quality care for all PCa patients. Pancreatic cancer (PCa) remains a formidable global health challenge, with high mortality rates and limited treatment options. While advancements in pharmacology have led to improved outcomes for various cancers, PCa continues to exhibit significant health disparities, disproportionately affecting certain populations. This paper explores the intersection of pharmacology and anthropology in understanding the health disparities associated with PCa. By considering the socio-cultural, economic, and behavioral factors that influence the development, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of PCa, pharmacologic anthropology provides a comprehensive framework to address these disparities and improve patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Many anti-cancer drugs are prescribed at a 'one-size fits all' starting dose, without considering individual differences. This is a problem for many cancer patients as this fixed dose might be too much for an individual which could lead to adverse effects and toxicity. Similarly, the fixed-dose might not be enough for some patients which could lead to therapeutic failure. Achieving the right amount of anti-cancer drugs in the body is critical, however, currently, the anti-cancer drug concentrations are not monitored in routine care. Our group used our extensive experience, existing published frameworks and recommendations to establish our own framework to implement a program that enables individualized dosing of anti-cancer drugs in routine care. This paper describes this framework with a simple 6-step process that can be utilised for the implementation of individualised dosing programs for anti-cancer drugs. Precision medicine in oncology involves identifying the 'right drug', at the 'right dose', for the right person. Currently, many orally administered anti-cancer drugs, particularly kinase inhibitors (KIs), are prescribed at a standard fixed dose. Identifying the right dose remains one of the biggest challenges to optimal patient care. Recently the Precision Dosing Group established the Accurate Dosing of Anti-cancer Patient-centred Therapies (ADAPT) Program to address individualised dosing; thus, use existing anti-cancer drugs more safely and efficiently. In this paper, we outline our framework, based on the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework, with a simple 6-step process and strategies which have led to the successful implementation of the ADAPT program in South Australia. Implementation strategies in our 6-step process involve: (1) Evaluate the evidence and identify the cancer drugs: Literature review, shadowing other experts, establishing academic partnerships, adaptability/flexibility; (2) Establishment of analytical equipment for drug assays for clinical purposes: assessment for readiness, accreditation, feasibility, obtaining formal commitments, quality assurance to all stakeholders; (3) Clinical preparation and education: educational material, conducted educational meetings, involve opinion leaders, use of mass media, promote network weaving, conduct ongoing training; (4) Blood collection, sample preparation and analyses: goods received procedures, critical control points (transport time); (5) Interpret and release results with recommendations: facilitate the relay of clinical data to providers; (6) Clinical application: providing ongoing consultation, identify early adopters, identify, and prepare champions. These strategies were selected from the 73 implementation strategies outlined in the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) study. The ADAPT program currently provides routine plasma concentrations for patients on several orally administered drugs in South Australia and is currently in its evaluation phase soon to be published. Our newly established framework could provide great potential and opportunities to advance individualised dosing of oral anti-cancer drugs in routine clinical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Cancer treatment during pregnancy can raise many difficult questions. Currently available clinical practice guidelines offer very limited ethical guidance for healthcare professionals. This article offers a theoretical framework and a practical ethics checklist for ethical and patient-centred care. It takes a holistic view to patient treatment, care and counselling that emphasises the need to recognise the relational context of individual patient's autonomy; balance maternal and foetal beneficence obligations; balance maternalistic and relational approaches to evidence-based personalised patient care; consider protection of the vulnerable in light of responsibilities towards the unborn; and ensure reasonable and just resource allocation. At the moment, very few studies have explored clinicians' attitudes and patients' experiences when cancer treatment is delivered during pregnancy. Therefore, future work will require patient engagement to develop ethical guidance in this setting. (1) Background: Caring for pregnant cancer patients is clinically and ethically complex. There is no structured ethical guidance for healthcare professionals caring for these patients. (2) Objective: This concept paper proposes a theoretically grounded framework to support ethical and patient-centred care of pregnant cancer patients. (3) Methodological approach: The framework development was based on ethical models applicable to cancer care during pregnancy—namely principle-based approaches (biomedical ethics principles developed by Beauchamp and Childress and the European principles in bioethics and biolaw) and relational, patient-focused approaches (relational ethics, ethics of care and medical maternalism)—and informed by a systematic review of clinical practice guidelines. (4) Results: Five foundational discussion themes, summarising the key ethical considerations that should be taken into account by healthcare professionals while discussing treatment and care options with these patients, were identified. This was further developed into a comprehensive ethics checklist that can be used during clinical appointments and highlights the need for a holistic view to patient treatment, care and counselling while providing ethical, patient-centric care. (5) Conclusion: The proposed framework was further operationalised into an ethics checklist for healthcare professionals that aims to help them anticipate and address ethical concerns that may arise when attending to pregnant cancer patients. Further studies exploring clinicians' attitudes towards cancer treatment in the course of pregnancy and patient experiences when diagnosed with cancer while pregnant and wider stakeholder engagement are needed to inform the development of further ethical, patient-centred guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Testicular cancer is a prevalent malignancy in young men aged 15 to 35 years. Sonoelastography is an emerging technique for distinguishing between non-neoplasms, benignities, and malignancies by characterizing the tissue stiffness of testes. This review provides a summary of studies on the diagnostic accuracy of sonoelastography for identifying benign and malignant lesions, as well as tumors and non-tumors. The objective of this review was to summarize the applications of sonoelastography in testicular tumor identification and inquire about their test performances. Two authors independently searched English journal articles and full conference papers from CINAHL, Embase, IEEE Xplore®, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception and organized them into a PIRO (patient, index test, reference test, outcome) framework. Eleven studies (n = 11) were eligible for data synthesis, nine of which (n = 9) utilized strain elastography and two (n = 2) employed shear-wave elastography. Meta-analyses were performed on the distinction between neoplasm (tumor) and non-neoplasm (non-tumor) from four study arms and between malignancy and benignity from seven study arms. The pooled sensitivity of classifying malignancy and benignity was 86.0% (95%CI, 79.7% to 90.6%). There was substantial heterogeneity in the classification of neoplasm and non-neoplasm and in the specificity of classifying malignancy and benignity, which could not be addressed by the subgroup analysis of sonoelastography techniques. Heterogeneity might be associated with the high risk of bias and applicability concern, including a wide spectrum of testicular pathologies and verification bias in the reference tests. Key technical obstacles in the index test were manual compression in strain elastography, qualitative observation of non-standardized color codes, and locating the Regions of Interest (ROI), in addition to decisions in feature extractions. Future research may focus on multiparametric sonoelastography using deep learning models and ensemble learning. A decision model on the benefits–risks of surgical exploration (reference test) could also be developed to direct the test-and-treat strategy for testicular tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-simulation is an emerging method for cyber-physical energy system (CPES) assessment and validation. Combining simulators of different domains into a joint experiment, co-simulation provides a holistic framework to consider the whole CPES at system level. In this paper, we present a systematic structuration of co-simulation based on a conceptual point of view. A co-simulation framework is then considered in its conceptual, semantic, syntactic, dynamic and technical layers. Coupling methods are investigated and classified according to these layers. This paper would serve as a solid theoretical base for specification of future applications of co-simulation and selection of coupling methods in CPES assessment and validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we want to shed some light on what we mean by backward induction and forward induction reasoning in dynamic games. To that purpose, we take the concepts of common belief in future rationality (Perea [1]) and extensive form rationalizability (Pearce [2], Battigalli [3], Battigalli and Siniscalchi [4]) as possible representatives for backward induction and forward induction reasoning. We compare both concepts on a conceptual, epistemic and an algorithm level, thereby highlighting some of the crucial differences between backward and forward induction reasoning in dynamic games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]