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Kate Smith

Publications and source records attributed to Kate Smith.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Artificial neural networks and job-specific modules to assess occupational exposure.

Job-specific modules (JSMs) were used to collect information for expert retrospective exposure assessment in a community-based non-Hodgkins Lymphoma study in New South Wales, Australia. Using exposure assessment by a hygienist, artificial neural networks were developed to predict overall and intermittent benzene exposure among the module of tanker drivers. Even with a small data set (189 drivers), neural networks could assess benzene exposure with an average of 90% accuracy. By appropriate choice of cutoff (decision threshold), the neural networks could reliably reduce the expert's workload by approximately 60% by identifying negative JSMs. The use of artificial neural networks shows promise in future applications to occupational assessment by JSMs and expert assessment.

Benzene↗
PubMed2003

HIV-1 protease and reverse transcriptase mutation patterns responsible for discordances between genotypic drug resistance interpretation algorithms.

Several rules-based algorithms have been developed to interpret results of HIV-1 genotypic resistance tests. To assess the concordance of these algorithms and to identify sequences causing interalgorithm discordances, we applied four publicly available algorithms to the sequences of isolates from 2,045 individuals in northern California. Drug resistance interpretations were classified as S for susceptible, I for intermediate, and R for resistant. Of 30,675 interpretations (2,045 sequences x 15 drugs), 4.4% were completely discordant, with at least one algorithm assigning an S and another an R; 29.2% were partially discordant, with at least one algorithm assigning an S and another an I, or at least one algorithm assigning an I and another an R; and 66.4% displayed complete concordance, with all four algorithms assigning the same interpretation. Discordances between nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor interpretations usually resulted from several simple, frequently occurring mutational patterns. Discordances between protease inhibitor interpretations resulted from a larger number of more complex mutation patterns. Discordances between nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor interpretations were uncommon and resulted from a small number of individual drug resistance mutations. Determining the clinical significance of these mutation patterns responsible for interalgorithm discordances will improve interalgorithm concordance and the accuracy of genotypic resistance interpretation.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2003

Unmarried parenthood: new insights from the Millennium Cohort Study.

This study uses information from the Millennium Cohort Study to examine the characteristics of families where children are born within a marriage, within a cohabiting union or outside of a co-residential partnership. For this latter group, for the first time in a national data set, an assessment can be made of the 'strength' of the parent's relationship at the time of the birth. We show that the context of childbearing varies with respect to geography, ethnicity, age, parity and educational status of the mother, and that the socioeconomic wellbeing of families varies according to the partnership status of their parents. A closer look at the non-partnered parents shows that the extent to which the fathers were involved with the mother of the child around the time the baby was born was related to the presence of the father at the birth of the child and whether his name was recorded on the child's birth certificate; as well as to subsequent behaviour, such as, whether they moved in with the mother, saw their children on a regular basis or contributed money to the child's maintenance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile following oral administration of the phosphodiesterase (PDE)4 inhibitor V11294A in healthy volunteers.

AIMS: To assess the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile of the novel PDE4 inhibitor V11294A (3-(3-cyclopentyloxy-4-methoxybenzyl)-6-ethylamino-8-isopropyl-3H purine hydrochloride) in healthy male volunteers. METHODS: This was a double-blind, single dose, randomized crossover study in eight healthy volunteers who received a single oral, fasting dose of V11294A (300 mg) or placebo. Blood samples were taken before and 0.5, 1, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 h after oral dosing for determination of plasma concentrations of V11294A. Blood samples were also taken before and 3 and 24 h after dosing for the assessment of the effect of V11294A on mononuclear cell proliferation and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) release in whole blood. RESULTS: Following a single oral dose of 300 mg V11294A, plasma concentrations of V11294A and its active metabolite V10332 reached Cmax (ng ml-1; mean +/- s.d.; 1398 +/- 298, 1000 +/- 400, respectively) after 2.63 +/- 0.79 and 5.9 +/- 2.3 h, respectively. For V11294A and V10332, t1/2 were 9.7 +/- 3.9 and 9.5 +/- 1.7 h, and AUC(0, infinity ) were 18100 +/- 6100 and 18600 +/- 8500 ng ml-1 h, respectively. At 3 h dosing, plasma concentrations of V11294A and V10332 (3-(3-cyclopentyloxy-4-methoxy-benzyl)-8-isopropyl-3H-purin-6-ylamine) were 1300 +/- 330 and 860 +/- 300 ng ml-1, 7 and 3 times their in vitro IC50s for inhibition of TNF release and proliferation, respectively. Treatment with V11294A resulted in a significant reduction of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced TNF release at 3 h (P < 0.001) and at 24 h (P < 0.05) post ingestion. The amount of TNF released (pmol ml-1) in response to a submaximal concentration of LPS (4 ng ml-1) was not significantly altered following placebo treatment (before 681 +/- 68 vs 3 h postdose 773 +/- 109, P = 0.27). In contrast, there was a significant reduction in the amount of TNF released following treatment with V11294A (before 778 +/- 87 vs 3 h postdose 566 +/- 72, P = 0.02). Phytohaemagluttinin (PHA) stimulated the incorporation of [3H]-thymidine in whole blood prior to drug administration. V11294A inhibited the PHA-induced proliferation at 3 h (P < 0.05). No adverse reactions were noted following single oral administration of V11294A. CONCLUSIONS: A single oral 300 mg dose of V11294A administered to healthy volunteers results in plasma concentrations adequate to inhibit activation of inflammatory cells ex vivo, which persists for at least 24 h without any adverse reactions.

3',5'-Cyclic-AMP Phosphodiesterases↗
PubMed2002

The Millennium Cohort Study.

The Millennium Cohort Study is the latest in the line of British birth cohort studies. MCS resembles its predecessors which follow people born in 1946, 1958 and 1970 in the intention to become multi-purpose longitudinal data resource charting many aspects of individual's lives over time. The families of a sample of around 20,000 babies are being interviewed during 2001-02, when eligible babies reach 9 months, to establish the conditions from which they set out in life. The survey contrasts with the previous cohort studies in various ways. Instead of taking all births in one week, the sample of births is spread over a year; the births are from a selection of electoral wards, thereby enabling eventual analysis by neighbourhood characteristics; it also over samples children living in deprived areas, wards with high ethnic minority populations and samples have been boosted in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The latter UK country has not been covered by the other studies. It interviews fathers as well as mothers, and given that its initial funding comes via the ESRC, puts a greater emphasis on socio-economic data than in early parts of the other studies. MCS has been enhanced by additional Government funding. The research team, based at the Institute of Education, aims to deposit a multi-purpose dataset for public use at the ESRC data Archive in the Spring of 2003.

Birth Rate↗