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Background and objectives Living donor kidney transplantation, the treatment of choice for ESRD, is underused by women and blacks. To better understand sex differences in the context of potential barriers to living donor kidney transplantation, the Dialysis Patient Transplant Questionnaire was administered in two urban, predominantly black hemodialysis units. Results Women were less likely to want living donor kidney transplantation compared with men (58.5% versus 87.5%, P=0.003), despite being nearly two times as likely as men to receive unsolicited offers for kidney transplant (73.2% versus 43.2%, P=0.02). They were also less likely to have been evaluated for a kidney transplant (28.3% versus 52.2%, P=0.01). The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that sex was a statistically significant predictor of wanting living donor kidney transplantation (women versus men odds ratio, 0.13; 95% confidence interval, 0.04 to 0.46), controlling for various factors known to influence transplant decisions. A sensitivity analysis indicated that mode of administration did not bias these results. ConclusionsIn contrast to previous studies, the study found that black women were less likely to want living donor kidney transplantation compared with black men. Black women were also less likely to be evaluated for a kidney transplant, although they were more likely to receive an unsolicited living donor kidney transplantation offer.

We report on new measurements of the electric Generalized Polarizability (GP) of the proton α E in a kinematic region where a puzzling dependence on momentum transfer has been observed, and we have found that α E = (5.3 ± 0.6 stat ± 1.3 sys ) 10 −4 f m 3 at Q 2 = 0.20 (GeV /c) 2 . The new measurements, when considered along with the rest of the world data, suggest that α E can be described by either a local plateau or by an enhancement in the region Q 2 = 0.20 (GeV /c) 2 to 0.33 (GeV /c) 2 . The experiment also provides the first measurement of the Coulomb quadrupole amplitude in the N → ∆ transition through the exploration of the p(e, e ′ p)γ reaction. The new measurement gives CM R = (−4.4 ± 0.8 stat ± 0.6 sys ) % at Q 2 = 0.20 (GeV /c) 2 and is consistent with the results from the pion electroproduction world data. It has been obtained using a completely different extraction method, and therefore represents a strong validation test of the world data model uncertainties.

A methodology for correcting spatial distortions in planar images for small Field Of View (FOV) γ-Camera systems based on Position Sensitive Photomultiplier Tubes (PSPMT) and pixelated scintillation crystals is described. The process utilizes a correction matrix whose elements are derived from a prototyped planar image obtained through irradiation of the scintillation crystal by a 60 Co point source and without a collimator. The method was applied to several planar images of a SPECT experiment with a simple phantom construction at different detection angles. The tomographic images are obtained using the Maximum-Likelihood Expectation-Maximization (MLEM) reconstruction technique. Corrected and uncorrected images are compared and the applied correction methodology is discussed.

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