Correspondence between proxy and self-reports on smoking in a full family study

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the reliability of proxy reports obtained from family members with self-reports on adolescent and parental lifetime and current smoking status. METHODS: Data were assessed from 416 families, consisting of both biological parents and two adolescent siblings aged 13-17 years. These families were assessed at baseline and 1 year later. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated to test whether proxy reports corresponded with self-reports. RESULTS: Mothers scored higher than fathers on most measures on lifetime and current smoking status of both children. The sensitivity was low for parental reports, but moderate to high for children's reports. Specificity and positive predictive value were high in all proxy reports. The negative predictive value was moderate (parents as proxy reporters) to low (children as proxy reporters) on lifetime smoking, but high on current smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents, aged 13-17 years, can be used as a reliable source to assess the smoking status of their mothers and fathers. Parents, however, appeared to accurately identify the smoking status of their adolescent children less reliably.     

Imitation of cigarette smoking: an experimental study on smoking in a naturalistic setting

AIMS: Examine whether smokers imitate smoking behaviour of strangers and to what extent this is moderated by the nature of social interactions. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: An experiment with a three (heavy smoking, light smoking, or no smoking condition) by two (warm versus cold social interaction condition) factorial design. Daily smoking young adults were exposed to same-gender confederates and were observed in a bar laboratory. MEASUREMENTS: Smoking and social behaviour were observed and coded during a 30-min break between two tasks, consisting of rating television advertisements. FINDINGS: Participants imitated the smoking behaviour of confederates. After controlling for young people's craving, confederate's smoking explains 35% of the variance in the number of cigarettes smoked. Participants are more likely to smoke and to continue smoking in the warm social interaction condition. Lighting up the first cigarette was affected by confederate's smoking and participant's urges to smoke. Lighting up a second was affected by the heavy smoking condition and warm social interaction condition. Lighting up a third cigarette was affected only by the heavy smoking condition. CONCLUSION: Imitation largely explains why individuals light up a cigarette and continue to smoke.     

Perspectives on microbes as oncogenic infectious agents and implications for breast cancer

Cancer management is partly based on weighing risk factors attributed to noninfectious agents, human genes and epigenetic factors. Infectious disease causation has largely been restricted to genes directly responsible for causing cancer after sustaining damage i.e. oncogenes. Lately, evidence has emerged linking infectious agents to a number of chronic diseases. These studies have recognized the influence that acute, atypical, latent and chronic infections may play in tricking the immune system and affecting disease etiology. Similar evidence is emerging in model systems with respect to the role of infectious agents in gastrointestinal, liver and lung cancers. Although viruses have been found in association with breast cancer, skepticism remains about a role for other infectious agents, notably microbes in the disease etiology. Improved experimental designs employed in different cancer studies and a less rigid definition of infectious causation may aid in confirming or refuting a microbe-breast cancer connection. Cancer recurrence could potentially be minimized and treatment options further tailored on a case by case basis if microbes/microbial components/strain variants associated with breast cancer are identified; probiotics are employed to reduce treatment side-effects and if microbes could effectively be harnessed in immunotherapy.     

Non-tuberculous mycobacterium bacteraemia in a pregnant systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patient: a case review and pooled case analysis

Clinical Rheumatology - Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are recognized as an important cause of human diseases and infections. It is commonly known to cause infections of the skin, soft tissue...     

Evaluation of PIRs Post-Fire Pull-Out Strength in Concrete Exposed to ISO 834-1 Fire

Post-installed rebars (PIRs) using mortar can offer bond strength at ambient temperature equal or higher to that of cast-in place rebars. However, high temperatures have the effect of weakening the bond, typically governed by the chemical and physical properties of the mortar which is often sensitive to temperature increase. Therefore, the behavior of PIRs in a fire situation becomes vulnerable. Moreover, after exposure of PIRs to high temperature, the heat transfer continues during the post-fire phase, which might endanger the construction after a fire event. In order to evaluate the evolution of the pull-out capacity during fire, Pinoteau et al. have developed the bond resistance integration method (Pinoteau’s RIM) to predict the bond resistance value of a rebar subjected to various temperatures in accordance with the fire exposure curves. Therefore, accurate temperature profiles during the post-fire phase are needed to ensure a correct calculation of the post-fire behavior of the PIR connection. This paper presents 3D finite element thermal simulations of PIRs in concrete exposed to ISO 834-1 fire conditions then cooled with ambient air. Numerical thermal profiles are then compared to the experimental results (i.e., post-fire pull-out tests). The proposed model provides guidelines for conducting numerical simulations to determine the thermal entry data necessary for predicting thermal profiles in PIRs during heating and cooling phases. Then, the post-fire pull-out capacity of PIRs in concrete is calculated using Pinoteau’s RIM, and compared to experimental post-fire pull-out results.     

ADad 2: The Validation of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders for Anxiety Disorders Among Adolescents in a Rural Community Population in India

Objective

Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), a measure found useful in different settings and cultures has not been validated in the subcontinent. This study validated this measure for identifying Anxiety Disorder (AD) among adolescents in an Indian community context.

Methods

Five hundred adolescents were assessed with SCARED and DSM-IV-TR reference standard for diagnosis of AD. The interviewers were experienced raters who were further trained to interview participants using Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children/Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL). Sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios and predictive values for various SCARED cut-off scores were calculated. Test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability of SCARED were examined. The dichotomized SCARED score was correlated with the DSM-IV-TR clinical diagnosis of AD to establish the criterion validity of SCARED as a measure of AD.

Results

A SCARED total score of ≥21(Sn?=?84.62 %, Sp?=?87.36 %; AUC?=?90 %) is suggested for diagnostic use in Indian population. Specific threshold scores were identified for the Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder subscales. The inter-rater reliability (ICC?=?0.87) and test-retest reliability (ICC?=?0.90) for SCARED is good. Besides the adequate face and content validity, SCARED demonstrates good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α?=?0.89) and item-total correlation. There is a high concordance rate with the reference standard, DSM-IV-TR diagnosis [81 %; Cohen’s κ?=?0.42 (95 % CI?=?0.31 to 0.52); P?=?0.001] in classifying AD.

Conclusions

SCARED has adequate psychometric properties and is now available for clinical and research work in India.