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Purpose In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (First Nations population) often have low overall cancer survival, as do all residents of geographically remote areas. This study aimed to quantify the survival disparity between First Nations and other Queenslanders for 12 common cancer types by remoteness areas. Methods For all Queensland residents aged 20–89 years diagnosed with a primary invasive cancer during 1997–2016, we ran flexible parametric survival models incorporating age, First Nations status, sex, diagnosis time period, area-level socioeconomic status, remoteness categories and where appropriate, broad cancer type. Three survival measures were predicted: cause-specific survival, survival differences and the comparative survival ratio, each standardised to First Nations peoples’ covariate distributions. Results The standardised five-year cause-specific cancer survival was 60% for urban First Nations and 65% for other Queenslanders, while remote residents were 54% (First Nations) and 58% (other). The absolute survival differential between First Nations and other Queenslanders was often similar, regardless of remoteness of residence. The greatest absolute difference in five-year standardised cancer survival was for head and neck cancers, followed by cervical cancer. The five-year comparative survival ratio (First Nations: other Queenslanders) for urban cancer patients was 0.91 (95% CI 0.90–0.93), similar to outer regional, inner regional and remote areas. The greatest comparative survival differential was for oesophageal cancer. Conclusion First Nations’ survival inequalities are largely independent of geographical remoteness. It remains a priority to determine the contribution of other potential factors such as the availability of culturally acceptable diagnostic, management and/or support services.

e24028 Background: Given the impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous and ethnic minority populations observed globally, keeping COVID-19 out of vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous Australian) communities remains a priority. Compared to non-Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australians experience disparities in cancer incidence and outcomes due to social disadvantage, increased cancer-related modifiable risk factors, poorer access to health services and lower participation in screening. During the pandemic, cancer-related investigations and treatment reduced significantly in Australia, leading to potential decreases in cancer diagnoses and consequences for future survival outcomes. Concerned about the risk of morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 for Indigenous Australians, as well as worsening cancer outcomes, Cancer Australia undertook strategic health promotion initiatives, to inform and support optimal cancer care. Methods: In consultation with respected Indigenous colleagues to ensure cultural appropriateness of language and information, we published a dedicated webpage titled ‘ Cancer and COVID-19 – what it means for our Mob*’ with tailored information, advice, and links to key resources and support services for Indigenous Australians. We also released a video titled ‘ Act early for our Mob’s Health’, providing targeted, culturally appropriate, consumer-friendly information to encourage Indigenous Australians to see their doctor or Aboriginal Health Worker with symptoms that may be due to cancer. Results: The information hub has been well-received among the Indigenous Australian community, receiving over 3,200 visits, and the social media campaigns have received over 1.4 million impressions and 46,000 video views between mid-March 2020 to mid-February 2021. This campaign has supported proactivity among the Indigenous population in keeping their communities safe during the pandemic, maintaining a population rate of COVID-19 of less than one percent of all confirmed cases in Australia. Conclusions: Culturally appropriate information and resources developed through the process of co-design can help to influence positive health behaviour change in Indigenous populations. We predict that our strategic, multi-channel health promotion campaign is contributing to keeping the Indigenous Australian community safe and informed during the pandemic, with additional work needed to monitor cancer rates and outcomes and address the ongoing information needs of the community. *Mob is a colloquial term to identify a group of Indigenous Australians associated with a family or community from a certain place.

An altered response to methylamine (MA) has been used to identify genes involved in nitrogen metabolism in many microbes and as an uncoupler of proton motive force in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The aim of this study was to attempt the use of MA to identify critical genes for response to exogenous nitrogen sources in Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress). EMS mutagenesis and selection on MA were used to identify a series of mutants that showed increased sensitivity to MA but failed to identify any MA resistant mutants. The eight sensitive mutants were allelic as judged by segregation and map location so one mutant, gsr1-1, was selected for intensive analysis. Co-segregation of gsr1 with DNA markers showed the gene was on chromosome 5 between markers CA72 and nga151, an interval of about 0.42 Mbp. The co-segregating mutant phenotypes associated with gsr1 included; yellow color caused by a reduction in chloroplast number; reduced chlorophyll content; decreased nitrate reductase (EC 1.7.1.3) activity in the root; and increased glutamate dehydrogenase (EC 1.4.1.2) activity in root and shoot. Decreased transcripts included those encoding several nitrogen metabolism enzymes. In contrast, the mutation increased only 4 and 7 transcript abundances by more than two fold. RT-PCR showed that in the dark, regulation of transcript abundance by exogenously applied glutamine and to a lesser extent sucrose were altered. Gene action of the gsr1 mutant was recessive for chloroplast number but co-dominant for transcript abundances and co-dominant for enzyme activities. Supplementary data from the analysis of preliminary microarray data from AFGC used 10,560 targets and two reverse labeled slides to show that more than 351 ESTs were increased in transcript abundance by more than 2 fold in the green plants. In yellow plants only seventy-three ESTs were up-regulated in transcript abundance by more than 2 fold. Therefore, the gsr1 locus may regulate responses to endogenous and exogenous glutamine in an organ-specific fashion that could coordinately regulate the activity of genes enzymes and metabolic pathways that determine cellular nitrogen, carbon and bioenergetic (redox) status.

Broad-based community education strategies have been implemented in a rural South Carolina county since fall, 1983, to prevent unintended teen pregnancy. Indices of pregnancy among teens show reductions from 1984–1987. Public sector costs were projected for Medicaid, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and Food Stamps for families begun by first live births to 17 and under teens in the target county and three comparison counties. Assuming continuation of births/costs from preintervention time period, and as compared to actual number of births in 1984–1987, the reduced numbers in the target county realized a 20-year projected savings of $611,688. Two comparison counties realized a 20-year projected savings of $180,726 and $13,902, while the third comparison county increased projected costs by $305,844. Considering that program implementation costs of $260,000 were required from 1982 to 1987, the savings of this intervention approach are substantial for taxpayers and have meaning for public po...

Procedures and tools for evaluation of reference x-ray powder patterns in the JCPDSICDD Powder Diffraction File are illustrated by a review of air-stable binary oxides. The reference patterns are evaluated using an available microcomputer version of the NBS*A1DS83 editorial program and PDF patterns retrieved directly from the CD-ROM in the program's input format. The patterns are compared to calculated and experimental diffractograms. The majority of the oxide patterns have been found to be in good agreement with the calculated and observed diffractograms, but are often missing some weak reflections routinely observed with a modern diffractometer. These weak reflections are added to the PDF pattern. For the remainder of the phases, patterns are redetermined.

It is well recognised that medicine manifests social and cultural values and that the institution of healthcare cannot be structurally disengaged from the sociopolitical processes that create such values. As with many other indigenous peoples, Aboriginal Australians have a lower heath status than the rest of the community and frequently experience the effects of prejudice and racism in many aspects of their lives. In this paper the authors highlight values and ethical convictions that may be held by Aboriginal peoples in order to explore how health practitioners can engage Aboriginal patients in a manner that is more appropriate. In doing so the authors consider how the ethics, values, and beliefs of the dominant white Australian culture have framed the treatment and delivery of services that Aboriginal people receive, and whether sufficient effort has been made to understand or acknowledge the different ethical predispositions that form the traditions and identity of Aboriginal Australia(ns).

The Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND), located at the LANSCE (formerly LAMPF) linear accelerator at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has seen evidence for the oscillation of neutrinos, and hence neutrino mass. That discovery was the impetus for this LDRD project, begun in 1996. The goal of this project was to define the appropriate technologies to use in a follow up experiment and to set in place the requirements for such an experiment.

Unequal Partnerships: Beyond the Rhetoric of Philanthropic Collaboration, by Ira Silver. New York: Routledge, 2006. 160 pp., $70.00 cloth.

The development of practice guidelines for evaluating adult patients who develop new fever in the intensive care unit (ICU) for the purpose of guiding clinical practice.A task force of 13 experts in disciplines related to critical care medicine, infectious diseases, and surgery was convened from the membership of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Infectious Disease Society of America.The task force members provided personal experience and determined the published literature (articles retrieved with use of MEDLINE or textbooks) from which consensus would be sought. The published literature was reviewed and classified into one of four categories, according to study design and scientific value.The task force met several times in person and twice monthly by teleconference over a 1-year period to identify the pertinent literature and arrive at consensus recommendations. Consideration was given to the relationship between the weight of scientific evidence and the experts' opinions. Draft documents were composed and debated by the task force until consensus was reached by nominal group process.The panel concluded that because fever can have many infectious and noninfectious etiologies, a new fever in an adult patient in the ICU should trigger a careful clinical assessment rather than automatic orders for laboratory and radiological tests. A cost-conscious approach to obtaining diagnostic studies should be undertaken if they are indicated after a clinical evaluation. The goal of such an approach is to determine, in a directed manner, whether infection is present so that additional testing can be avoided and therapeutic options can be identified.

To develop practice parameters for the evaluation of adult patients who develop a new fever in the intensive care unit (ICU) for the purpose of guiding clinical practice.A task force of 13 experts in disciplines related to critical care medicine, infectious diseases, and surgery was convened from the membership of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the Infectious Disease Society of America.The task force members provided the personal experience and determined the published literature (MEDLINE articles, textbooks, etc.) from which consensus would be sought. Published literature was reviewed and classified into one of four categories, according to study design and scientific value.The task force met several times in person and twice monthly by teleconference over a 1-yr period of time to identify the pertinent literature and arrive at consensus recommendations. Consideration was given to the relationship between the weight of scientific evidence and the experts' opinions. Draft documents were composed and debated by the task force until consensus was reached by nominal group process.The panel concluded that, because fever can have many infectious and noninfectious etiologies, a new fever in a patient in the ICU should trigger a careful clinical assessment rather than automatic orders for laboratory and radiologic tests. A cost-conscious approach to obtaining cultures and imaging studies should be undertaken if it is indicated after a clinical evaluation. The goal of such an approach is to determine, in a directed manner, whether or not infection is present, so additional testing can be avoided and therapeutic options can be made.

This is the final report of a three-year Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The study of quark and antiquark distributions in the nucleon has been a major endeavor in nuclear and particle physics. Results from a recent deep-inelastic scattering experiment suggest the surprising possibility that the up and down antiquark distributions in the proton are not symmetric. A sensitive and direct determination of the antiquark distributions in the proton can be made by comparing the Drell-Yan cross sections on hydrogen versus deuterium targets. The authors have proposed a new experiment (E866) at Fermilab to carry out such measurements. E866 has been taking data since September 1996. Preliminary results show that the apparatus is working very well. The authors anticipate having seven months of beam in 1997, which would allow them to achieve the sensitivities for a definitive measurement of flavor symmetry of sea quarks in the proton.

Confirming our previous proposal, we show within a continuum random-phase approximation calculation that the ratio of proton-to-neutron neutrino-induced quasielastic yield is a sensitive way to determine the strange quark axial form factor of the nucleon. Particularly, we find that the ratio is virtually independent of final state interactions (accounted for by a finite-range force derived from the Bonn meson-exchange potential) and nuclear structure effects. We present the ratio calculated for the neutrino beam available in an experiment currently approved at LAMPF.

OBJECTIVE--To develop a model for creating a joint general practice-hospital formulary, using the example of ulcer healing drugs. DESIGN--A joint formulary development group produced draft guidelines based on an earlier hospital formulary, which were sent to interested local general practitioners for consultation. Revised guidelines were then drawn up and forwarded to the health board's medicines committee for approval and distribution. SETTING--Grampian Health Board. SUBJECTS--Nine members of joint formulary development group plus local general practitioners who were invited to comment on a list of 11 ulcer healing drugs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE--Degree of coincidence of drugs selected by hospital doctors and general practitioners. RESULTS--The ulcer healing drugs selected by the panel of general practitioners and by hospital doctors were highly coincident. The cost of one day's treatment with drugs varied considerably between hospital and general practice--for example, one drug cost 46p in hospital and 1 pounds in general practice and another cost 1.26 pounds in hospital and 1.01 pounds in general practice. Overall, six drugs cost more in hospital and five cost more in general practice. CONCLUSIONS--A joint formulary for use in hospitals and general practice in a health board can be devised fairly simply by consultation as virtually the same drugs are used in both types of practice. It should influence the health board's expenditure on drugs and affect the choice of drugs when a patient is discharged from hospital or is referred to any hospital in the region.

The Level III Powder Diffraction File Computer Database can be used for many purposes beyond phase identification. The data file as received from the ICDD must be implemented via a data management system for efficient utilization. The results of one such implementation, and applications using the Mineral Powder Diffraction Subfile are reported. The applications include studies of space group statistics and density distributions as well as searches for cubic sulfide and uniaxial potentially pyroelectric minerals.

K[Cr(C4H6N2O3)2·C4H6N2O2·2H2O, Mr = 501.44, crystallizes in the mono-clinic space group P21/c, with a = 11.364(4), b = 12.333(6), c = 14.630(7) A, β = 107.39(4)°, V = 1956.6 A3 and Z = 4. The structure was solved by direct methods and converged to a final R value of 0.062 (Rw = 0.072). The incorporation of piperazine-2,5-dione, formed by self-condensation of glycylglycine, in the crystal structure results in some changes in bond lengths and bond angles and a many-fold increase in the luminescence lifetime of the chromium complex, relative to the structure without piperazinedione.

Solid solutions are pervasive in minerals and in industrial inorganic materials. The analyst is often called upon to provide qualitative and quantitative X-ray phase analysis for specimens containing solid solutions when all that is available are Powder Diffraction File (PDF) data or commercial standards for the end members. In an earlier paper (1) we presented several examples of substantial errors in accuracy of quantitative analysis that can arise when the crystallinity and composition of the analyte standard do not match those of the analyte in the sample of interest. We recommended that to obtain more accurate quantitative analyses, one should determine the analyte composition (e.g., from XRF on grains seen in a SEM or from comparison of cell parameters with those of the end members) and synthesize an analyte standard with this composition and with a crystallinity approximating that of the analyte (e.g., as determined from peak breadth or α1/ α2 splitting).

Coordination of substituted pyridine N-oxides with oxovanadium /IV/ cations, noting stoichiometric variations with changes

It is recommended that a self-consistent set of sigma constants be used to obtain linear free energy relations with pyridine 1-oxides rather than using adjusted benzoic acid sigma constants. These recommended constants are derived from the literature values of the acid dissociated constants of the protonated substituted pyridine 1-oxides. A survey and discussion of linear free energy relations using these new constants (σPyNO) is given. Comparisons of correlations using adjusted benzoic acid sigma constants and (σPyNO) are presented.

Eulytite, Bi4(SiO4)3, is a cubic mineral, S.G. = \( I\overline {43} d\), with irregular (BiO6) polyhedra and (SiO4) tetrahedra. With the substitution of P for Si, the charge balancing (3A2+ + Ln3+) for 4Bi is possible. Eulytite structure phosphates, A3Ln(PO4)3, are one of the ternary phases that form in the A0-Ln203-P205 systems currently under investigation in our laboratories. Synthesis and crystal data for phosphate eulytites where A = Ca, Sr, Ba, Pb and B = La→Lu, Y, Sc, In are included here.

Of 435 infants with diarrhoea aged under one year, 6% were found to have Giardia lamblia; the incidence ranged from 3% housed infants to 12% in itinerant infants. All infants had duodenal fluid and faeces examined. Infants under 12 weeks may experience severe diarrhoea in association with infection by this parasite, but seem more likely to respond to metronidazole than older infants.

We propose a precise measurement of the A dependence of the Drell-Yan process for 900 GeV protons on targets of deuterium and calcium using the E605 spectrometer. Emphasis will be placed on the kinematic region M > 4 GeV and x{sub F} > 0.2, where one is most sensitive to beam-valence-quark, target-antiquark annihilation. Such measurements will be very sensitive to the A dependence of the target sea quark distribution in the range 0.05 < x{sub 2} < 0.3, and hence provide important clues about the origin-of the EMC (European Muon Collaboration) effect, and unique information on the general issue of quark distributions in nuclear systems. Only minor modifications (liquid deuterium target, and reduced-size beam dump) of the E605 spectrometer will be required.

Five patients are described with disseminated histoplasmosis and systemic salmonellosis. Four of these patients were also immunocompromised because of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in two patients and renal transplantation in another two patients. Histologic studies in two patients showed histiocytes that were heavily laden with Histoplasma capsulatum yeast-phase organisms. We postulate that diffuse parasitization of the reticuloendothelial system (RES) by Histoplasma organisms may cause "RES blockade," which then predisposes to systemic salmonellosis, as reported in certain other infections and in sickle cell anemia.

Laser synthesized silicon powders have been used to make reaction bonded silicon nitride samples. Maximum hardness (11.3 GNm−2), fracture toughness (3.6 MNm−3/2), pore size (Hg porosimetry 50–300Å radius) and strength (∼460 MNm−2) values reflect the superior microstructures that are observed. With anaerobic anhydrous processing, these powders nitride to completion in less than 7 hours at 1400°C.

Progressive thoracic myelopathy occurred in a patient with AIDS. Concurrent opportunistic infections included disseminated systemic cytomegalovirus, aspergillosis, and cutaneous herpes simplex virus (HSV). At autopsy, immune stains indicated that the myelopathy was caused by HSV type 2 infection of the spinal cord.