MethodMultiple databases were searched, considering only quantitative studies using validated needs assessment instruments and focusing uniquely on women diagnosed with BC.
ResultsOut of 761 hits, 23 studies answered to all eligibility criteria. Nineteen were cross-sectional, and the remaining four were longitudinal. Most included patients at different moments along the BC trajectory, from diagnosis to decades into survivorship, with the major proportion of patients under treatment. CHIR99021 Only five concentrated on the posttreatment phase into extended survivorship. The concerns of women diagnosed with BC clustered around
psychological and information needs, with the top concern being fear of the cancer returning’. Predictors of higher levels of needs included advanced disease stage, greater symptom burden, shorter time since diagnosis, higher levels of distress, and younger age. Prevalence differed between cultures with SCH 900776 Asian women reporting greater information needs and lower psychological needs compared with Western women.
ConclusionsRevealing which needs BC patients consider most urgent and the factors related to greater needs will permit the development of improved and targeted supportive care. Future research should comprise longitudinal designs concentrating
on women at specific moments along the BC trajectory for a dynamic understanding of these needs. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.”
“The morphology of polymer nanocomposites is usually characterized by various GSK621 supplier methods like X-ray diffraction (XRD) or transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In this work, a new approach for characterizing nanocomposites is developed: the results of
small angle x-ray scattering, on-line extensional rheometry (level of melt strength) and Young’s modulus out of tensile test are correlated with those of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The disadvantages of the common characterization methods are high costs and very time consuming sample preparation and testing. In contrast, NIR spectroscopy has the advantage to be measured in-line and in real time directly in the melt. The results were obtained for different aggregate states (NIR spectroscopy and on-line rheotens test in melt state, tensile test, and XRD in solid state). Therefore, important factors like crystallization could not be considered. Nevertheless, this work demonstrates that the NIR-technology is perfectly suitable for quantitative in-line characterization. The results show that, by the installation of a NIR spectrometer on a nanocomposite-processing compounder, a powerful instrument for quality control and optimization of compounding process, in terms of increased and constant quality, is available. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.