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Growing Proportion (growing + proportion)
Selected AbstractsContent of ecstasy in the Netherlands: 1993,2008ADDICTION, Issue 12 2009Neeltje Vogels ABSTRACT Aims The present paper outlines the results of analyses carried out on the content of tablets sold as ecstasy, collected in the Netherlands by the Drugs Information Monitoring System (DIMS) from January 1993 to December 2008. Methods During a period of 16 years, the DIMS analysed the content of 33 006 tablets sold as ecstasy that were handed in by numerous individual (potential) substance users. The DIMS results were compared with the results from various seized tablets to determine whether the DIMS is a monitor of the ecstasy consumer market. Results The DIMS system appears to be a market monitor that gives an accurate reflection of what is actually available on the hidden Dutch ecstasy market. During 16 years of monitoring, the purity [tablets containing only 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)] was lowest around 1997. During this time-period many tablets contained other substances in addition to or instead of MDMA [e.g. 3,4-methylene-dioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4-methylene-dioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA) and N-methyl-a-(1,3-benzodixol-5-yl)-2-butamine (MBDB), amphetamine and caffeine]. From 1998 to 2008, the number of high-dose tablets (,106 mg MDMA per tablet) gradually increased. The same holds true for the proportion of tablets that contained only MDMA, reaching the highest levels in 2000 and 2004. After 2004, the purity of ecstasy tablets decreased again, caused mainly by a growing proportion of tablets containing meta-chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP). Conclusions The DIMS results provide valuable qualitative information on the content of ecstasy tablets in the Netherlands, and its changes throughout the years. Moreover, the results were used for national and international risk assessments and important warning and prevention activities. [source] Period and Cohort Effects on Religious Nonaffiliation and Religious Disaffiliation: A Research NoteJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 2 2010Philip Schwadel Period and cohort effects on reports of no religious preference and religious disaffiliation are estimated. Results show that by 2006, the probability of reporting no religious preference had risen to almost .16. Additionally, the growing proportion of Americans raised with no religious preference substantially influences the increase in reporting no religious preference. Two recently developed analysis techniques for disentangling period and cohort effects are used: intrinsic estimator models and cross-classified, random-effects models. Results show (1) period-based increases in the probability of reporting no religious preference from 1990 to 2006, (2) across-cohort increases in no religious preference beginning with those born in the 1940s, and (3) a decline in the likelihood of religious disaffiliation (being raised with a religious preference but currently reporting no religious preference) for those born in the 1960s and 1970s compared to those born between 1945 and 1959. [source] In situ X-ray diffraction analysis of iron ore sinter phasesJOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2004Nicola V. Y. Scarlett Owing to the depletion of world lump iron ore stocks, pre-treated agglomerates of fine ores are making up a growing proportion of blast-furnace feedstock (,80%). These agglomerations, or `sinters', are generally composed of iron oxides, ferrites (most of which are silicoferrites of calcium and aluminium, SFCAs), glasses and dicalcium silicates (C2S). SFCA is the most important bonding phase in iron ore sinter, and its composition, structural type and texture greatly affect its physical properties. Despite its prevalence and importance, the mechanism of SFCA formation is not fully understood. In situ powder X-ray diffraction investigations have been conducted into the formation of SFCA, allowing the study of the mechanism of its formation and the observation of intermediate phases with respect to time and temperature. Studies have been carried out to investigate the effects of changing the substitution levels of aluminium for iron. The use of the Rietveld method for phase quantification gives an indication of the order and comparative rates of phase formation throughout the experiments. [source] Introduction: Role of the hospitalist in secondary stroke prevention care,JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE, Issue S4 2008David J. Likosky MD Abstract Stroke is a prevalent and often devastating condition that is likely to affect a growing proportion of the United States population in the coming decades. Individuals who have experienced a stroke or transient ischemic attack are at elevated risk for recurrent events, which are frequently more severe. Therefore, secondary prevention has become the focus of much clinical research and widespread initiatives to deliver evidence-based care. Hospitalists are in a unique position to contribute substantially to these efforts. The 4 articles in this supplement are a call to action for hospital-based physicians. They are based on the conclusions of a panel of hospitalists, neurohospitalists, vascular neurologists, and neurointensivists who met for a roundtable discussion in March 2007. This, the first of the 4 articles, discusses the opportunity for hospitalists to take a leadership role in creating stroke systems of care that integrate secondary stroke prevention with inpatient treatment of acute stroke. The articles that follow will summarize the consensus of roundtable participants on stroke care best practices and their implementation. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2008;3(4 Suppl):S1,S5. © 2008 Society of Hospital Medicine. [source] Psychosocial adjustment of female partners of men with prostate cancer: a review of the literaturePSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 11 2006Jeremy Couper Abstract Advances in prostate cancer treatments since the 1990s have led to a growing proportion of patients living with the effects of the cancer. Various challenges face the man and his partner from the point of learning of the diagnosis: deciding among numerous diverse treatment options, dealing with side-effects of treatment and possibly facing the terminal phase of the illness. This invariably has an impact on the patient's family and, in view of the older age group of men usually affected, the experience of a partner is particularly relevant. A thorough review of the research literature reporting directly from partners of prostate cancer patients has not been undertaken previously. For this review, five databases were searched for the decade 1994,2005, during which most of the work in this field has been done. Very few evaluations of psychosocial interventions involving the partner were found, but there was a preponderance of qualitative studies involving small numbers of participants and quantitative surveys with little consistency in the measures used. The literature suggests that partners report more distress than patients, yet believe that patients are the more distressed, and the focus of concern of patients on their sexual function is not shared to an equal degree by their partners. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Pathologic stage T2a and T2b prostate cancer in the recent prostate-specific antigen era: Implications for unilateral ablative therapyTHE PROSTATE, Issue 13 2008Thomas J. Polascik Abstract BACKGROUND Early detection of small volume prostate cancer (PCa) has led to the concept of focal therapy to treat in an organ-sparing manner. We evaluated trends in pathologic staging among patients with localized PCa undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP), defining the frequency of unilateral cancers during 1988,1995, 1996,2000 and 2001,2006. METHODS Data were abstracted from the Duke Prostate Cancer Outcome database selecting 3,676 men with available pathology treated with RP. Based on surgical pathology, trends in as pathological T (pT) stage, pathological Gleason Score (pGS), and percent tumor involvement (PTI) were evaluated. RESULTS pT2a increased from 2.8% of men undergoing RP in 1988,1995 to 13.0% during 2001,2006 (P,,<,,0.0005). PTI analysis shifted towards low volume disease, e.g. PTI,,,5% increased from 10% during 1988,1995, to 37% in 2001,2006 (P,<,0.005). Of all pT2a disease throughout 1988,2006, an increase in proportion of pT2a tumors from 10% during 1988,1995 to 69.4% during 2001,2006 was identified. Over three eras, pT2a had minimal (65% had PTI,,,5%) or small volume (14% had PTI 5.01,10.00) disease, and 59% were low grade (pGS,,,6). Using a Cox Hazard model, pT2a versus pT2b disease, surgical margins, PTI, and PSA statistically contributed to PSA disease-free survival in the contemporary era 2001,2006. CONCLUSIONS The increasing prevalence of unilateral pT2a/T2b PCa characterizes a growing proportion of men recently electing RP. These tumors are associated with lower PTI, pGS,,,7, and demonstrated better PSA-free survival in the 2001,2006 era. These low risk pathologic characteristics may allow for unilateral focal therapy in carefully selected patients. Prostate 68: 1380,1386, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Investigating the relationship between affluence and elective caesarean sectionsBJOG : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 7 2005Bernadette Alves The proportion of women delivering by caesarean section has increased dramatically in England and many westernised countries. It has been suggested that one important reason for this increase is the growing proportion of women opting for elective caesareans for lifestyle reasons, a trend that is, it is argued, most common among the affluent. We investigated the hypothesis that affluent women are more likely to deliver by elective caesarean section. Logistic regression modelling was used to analyse data from half a million women who delivered in English NHS hospitals between 1996 and 2000. We found that women living in the most affluent areas of England were significantly more likely to have an elective caesarean section than their deprived counterparts. 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