bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effects of a home‐based aerobic exercise programme in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus
Authors: Wong Ching‐Hsiang , Chiang Yi‐Chien , Wai Jackson Pui Man , Lo Fu‐Sung , Yeh Chao‐Hsing , Chung Shih‐Chi , Chang Chi‐Wen 
Published: February 2011

Aims.  To explore the effects of exercise programme on glycosylated haemoglobin and peak oxygen uptake in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus.Background.  Regular exercise has been shown to be effective in blood glucose control, which includes improving glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, decreasing glycosylated haemoglobin levels and improving cardiorespiratory fitness.Design.  Quasi‐experimental design with a twelve‐week home‐based aerobic exercise programme.Method.  Twenty‐eight participants completed the study: 12 in the home‐based exercise group, 11 in the non‐exercise control group and five in the self‐directed exercise group. A mixed model was used to capture longitudinal change in glycosylated haemoglobin levels.Results.  The home‐based aerobic exercise group showed no significant effect on glycemic control and peak oxygen uptake in this study across assessment times. However, a group difference in glycosylated haemoglobin levels at the nine‐month follow‐up was significant (general linear model: F = 4·06, p = 0·03). A Bonferroni test indicated that glycosylated haemoglobin levels in the home‐based exercise group were higher than in the self‐directed exercise group (p < 0·05) and higher in the control group than in the self‐directed exercise group (p < 0·05) at the nine‐month follow‐up. Home‐based aerobic exercise showed no significant effect on peak oxygen uptake in this study.Conclusions.  A three‐month home‐based aerobic exercise programme has no significant effect on glycosylated haemoglobin and peak oxygen uptake levels in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus.Relevance to clinical practice.  Our exercise programme has designed that children can practice exercise at home and is a viable component of self‐care intervention to improve patient’s self‐care skill and diabetes care control. However, how to encourage patients to adhere the exercise programme is a challenge for health care providers.
The effect of patient education and home monitoring on medication compliance, hypertension management, healthy lifestyle behaviours and BMI in a primary health care setting
Authors: Hacihasanoğlu Rabia , Gözüm Sebahat 
Published: February 2011

Aim.  The aim of this study was to determine the effect of anti‐hypertensive patient‐oriented education and in‐home monitoring for medication adherence and management of hypertension in a primary care setting, by providing education on healthy lifestyle behaviours and medication adherence.Background.  Hypertension is the third most common cause of death worldwide. Prevalence of hypertension in Turkey is approximately 30% in the general population and 45–50% in population over 50.Design.  Randomised controlled study.Methods.  This study conducted in Turkey used a study group comprised of 120 subjects (40 Group A, 40 Group B, 40 controls), all previously diagnosed with hypertension and who started medication therapy at least one year prior to start of study. The study was conducted between February–November 2006 at public primary health care facilities and homes of the study participants. Participants in Group A and B received a total of six monthly education sessions, four times during clinic visits and two home visits. Medication adherence education for Groups A and B and education about healthy lifestyle behaviours for Group B were administered in a structured and individualised format. The control group was routinely monitored in health care facilities.Results.  Healthy lifestyle behaviours and perception of self‐efficacy regarding medication adherence showed improvement after education sessions in Groups A and B. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures of subjects in Group A and B showed a significant decrease compared with those of the control group; the blood pressure decrease in Group B was greater than in Group A.Conclusion.  Nurses play an important role in uncontrolled hypertension detection and can improve medication adherence and healthy lifestyle behaviours.Relevance to clinical practice.  Patient education medication adherence alone and in combination with healthy lifestyle behaviour teaching is an effective tool for blood pressure reduction in the hypertensive population in primary health care settings.
Physical exercise: does it help in relieving pain and increasing mobility among older adults with chronic pain?
Authors: Tse Mimi MY , Wan Vanessa TC , Ho Suki SK 
Published: February 2011

Aim.  To provide a physical exercise programme for older adults living in nursing homes.Background.  Pain is common among older persons and for those already in long‐term care and having difficulty in coping with pain will be at risk of further reducing their optimal independent function.Design.  A quasi‐experimental single group pretest‐posttest design.Method.  Older persons from a nursing home were invited to join an eight‐week physical exercise programme. Each session lasted an hour and sessions were conducted once a week by physiotherapist and nurses. Physical exercise programme consisted of stretching, strengthening, balancing, towel dancing and self‐administered massage to various acupressure points. On completion of each session, older persons were given a pamphlet with pictures to illustrate the exercise of the day and they were encouraged to practise these exercises by themselves. Outcome measures including pain intensity, range of movement, activities of daily living and mobility were collected before and after the physical exercise programme.Results.  There were 75 older adult participants (57 female and 18 male, mean age 85·14 SD 5·30). Seventy‐three percent (n = 55) of them had pain in the previous three months and were referred as pain group, while 25% (n = 20) were no pain group. Pain scores of 4·89 (on a 10‐point scale) indicated medium pain intensity before the intervention for the pain group; the location of pain was mainly in the knee, back and shoulder. On completion of the physical exercise programme, there was a significant decrease in pain intensity to 2·89 (SD 2·14) (p < 0·01). There was a significant increase in range of movement in the neck, shoulder, back, hip and knee rotation, flex and abduction (p < 0·01). Mobility level was significantly increased post intervention, yet activities of daily living remained unchanged.Conclusions.  The present study demonstrated the effectiveness of a physical exercise programme in relieving pain and enhancing functional mobility for older persons.Relevance to clinical practice.  It is important to educate older persons, especially those living in nursing homes, on the importance of engaging in regular physical exercise and maintaining mobility.
Predictors of postpartum stress
Authors: Hung Chich‐Hsiu , Lin Chia‐Ju , Stocker Joel , Yu Ching‐Yun 
Published: February 2011

Aim.  To predict important factors in women’s postpartum stress.Background.  The transition to motherhood is often accompanied by stress, but research on predictors of postpartum stress is scant.Design.  A cross‐sectional survey was used in the study.Methods.  Proportional stratified quota sampling based on births at 11 registered general hospitals and seven specialty clinics in the Kaohsiung area of southern Taiwan was used to obtain a high degree of representation. Eight hundred and fifty‐nine women participated in the study within six weeks postpartum. The Hung postpartum stress scale, the social support scale and the 12‐item Chinese Health Questionnaire were used in this study.Results.  Women with minor psychiatric morbidity, one or two children, junior college educational level, formula feeding for their infants, preference for an infant boy and a low level of social support were important predictors for women’s postpartum stress.Conclusion.  Our findings provide information and data for service planning and community care for the prevention and amelioration of postpartum stress.Relevance to clinical practice.  Postpartum women face a constellation of factors that could put them at risk for high levels of postpartum stress. Postpartum stress could significantly negatively impact women’s health status. Nursing interventions should be tailored to decrease women’s postpartum stress as a means of promoting postpartum women’s pursuit of well‐being.
Indicators of acute deterioration in adult patients nursed in acute wards: a factorial survey
Authors: Rattray Janice E , Lauder William , Ludwick Ruth , Johnstone Carolyn , Zeller Richard , Winchell Janice , Myers Elizabeth , Smith Anne 
Published: February 2011

Objectives.  The primary objective of the study was to determine which professional, situational and patient characteristics predict nurses’ judgements of patient acuity and likelihood of referral for further review. A secondary aim was to test the feasibility of the factorial survey method in an acute area.Background.  There is increasing recognition that indicators of deterioration in acutely unwell adults are being missed and referrals delayed. The reasons for this are unclear and require exploration. Assessing nurses’ clinical decision‐making or judgements in a ‘real‐world’ situation is problematic.Design.  The study used a factorial survey design where participants completed randomly generated paper‐based vignettes on one occasion.Methods.  The dependent variables were assessment of patient acuity and likelihood of referral. Independent variables consisted of a number of patient characteristics, i.e. heart rate, blood pressure, nurse characteristics, i.e. clinical experience, and situational characteristics i.e. staffing.Setting and participants.  Participants were registered nurses working in acute areas excluding intensive care and theatre. Ninety‐nine participants responded resulting in 1940 completed vignettes.Results.  An early warning score was the single most significant predictor of referral behaviour accounting for 9·6% of the variance. When this was not included in the vignette, nurses used physiological characteristics e.g. respiratory rate, urine output, neurological status. These explained 12% of the variance in the model predicting assessment of patient acuity and 9·4% or the variance predicting likelihood of referral.Conclusions.  When given a series of vignettes, nurses appear to use appropriate physiological parameters to make decisions about patient acuity and need for referral. Our results support the use of early warning scoring systems. Education and professional development should focus more on developing and maximising clinical experience and expertise rather than knowledge acquisition alone. A factorial survey method is feasible to explore decision‐making in this area.Relevance to practice.  This study has several implications for practice. The emergence of an early warning scoring system as a significant individual predictor supports the use of such systems. However, the small amount of explained variance suggests that there are other influences on nurses’ assessment of patient acuity and referral decisions that were not measured by the factorial survey approach. Educational provision might focus not just on knowledge acquisition but include educational delivery methods that incorporate or mimic real‐ward settings.
Experiences of supernumerary status and the hidden curriculum in nursing: a new twist in the theory–practice gap?
Authors: Allan Helen T , Smith Pam , O’Driscoll Mike 
Published: February 2011

Aims and objectives.  This paper aims to increase our understanding about how student nurses’ experiences of supernumerary status are embedded in the hidden curriculum in clinical practice and contribute to the theory–practice gap in nursing.Background.  Current literature suggests that the hidden curriculum exists in many professional curricula and that it functions to socialise students into professional behaviours and practice. However, in nursing, there is a gap in our understanding of how these socialisation processes have been influenced by supernumerary status and what forms the hidden curriculum might take currently in clinical practice.Design.  An ethnographic case study design.Method.  Data were collected in four sites using fieldwork in clinical practice as well as interviews with students, mentors and key stakeholders, an online survey of student bodies and curriculum analysis in four universities. The findings in this paper are drawn from the qualitative fieldwork and interviews and were analysed thematically.Results.  The findings suggest that supernumerary status is an important aspect of the hidden curriculum in clinical learning for nursing students; that students are expected by trained staff to work while they learn and that on registration, they are expected to be competent to work immediately as registered nurses. These expectations are at odds with those of academic nurses and contribute to a theory–practice gap for student nurses. These expectations form part of the hidden curriculum that shapes the clinical context, and students have to learn to negotiate their status as supernumerary students in practice to meet these expectations.Conclusion.  Consequently, students have to learn in a disintegrated learning context where opposing values of learning exist.Relevance to clinical practice.  To reintegrate student nurses’ learning, educators in universities and clinical practice have to understand how the hidden curriculum and expectations around supernumerary status among trained staff affect learning for students.
Predictors of health‐related quality of life in a sample of children and adolescents: a school survey
Authors: Haraldstad Kristin , Christophersen Knut‐Andreas , Eide Hilde , Nativg Gerd K , Helseth Sølvi 
Published: February 2011

Aim.  The aim is to study the health‐related quality of life in a school sample of children and adolescents aged 8–18 years and to examine the relationship between health‐related quality of life and the following variables; age, gender, perceived pain, body image, body mass index and bullying.Background.  The study of health‐related quality of life in children and adolescents have received little attention compared with adults in health care research and still little is known about the associations between health‐related quality of life and other variables.Design.  A cross‐sectional design was chosen.Method.  We measured the health‐related quality of life using the generic questionnaire KIDSCREEN‐10. We administered the KIDSCREEN 52‐item, and the 10 items were selected from this according to the KIDSCREEN manual. Multilevel regression models were used to evaluate the associations between health‐related quality of life and the independent variables.Results.  The sample included 1066 children and adolescents, 576 girls and 490 boys, with a response rate of 74%. The results show that body mass index was not significant associated with health‐related quality of life in full model. However, in addition to age, being bullied, pain and body image were significant associated with health‐related quality of life. Of these predictors, body image has the strongest impact in terms of explained variance in health‐related quality of life.Conclusion.  The subjective sense of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with one’s body, perceived body image, is a powerful predictor of health‐related quality of life.Relevance to clinical practice.  Knowledge about predictors of health‐related quality of life is especially important for public health nurses. Health promotion and intervention programmes that aim to strengthen psychosocial well‐being, especially those that strengthen body image, should be developed for both genders.
Novel non‐motile phenotypes of Yersinia ruckeri suggest expansion of the current clonal complex theory
Authors: Tinsley J W , Austin D A , Lyndon A R , Austin B 
Published: February 2011

AbstractThe biochemical and cell surface characteristics of 63 non‐motile isolates of Yersinia ruckeri from various sources were compared using the API 20E rapid identification system and conventional phenotypic methods. Eight individual phenotypic groups from a variety of fish species were observed from the data set. Non‐motile isolates were not exclusively observed from serogroup O1; membership of biotype 2 was recorded for representatives from serogroups O2–O7. Variations in phenotypes highlights that new clonal groups are arising and that the current typing scheme requires expansion. Previously, it was hypothesized that disease was caused by a few virulent clones; data in this paper suggests that this assumption is not the case. The lipopolysaccharide (O antigen) type in the non‐motile biotype was different from other isolates of Y. ruckeri.
Aspergillus nidulans transcription factor AtfA interacts with the MAPK SakA to regulate general stress responses, development and spore functions
Authors: Lara‐Rojas Fernando , Sánchez Olivia , Kawasaki Laura , Aguirre Jesús 
Published: February 2011

SummaryFungi utilize a phosphorelay system coupled to a MAP kinase module for sensing and processing environmental signals. In Aspergillus nidulans, response regulator SskA transmits osmotic and oxidative stress signals to the stress MAPK (SAPK) SakA. Using a genetic approach together with GFP tagging and molecular bifluorescence we show that SakA and ATF/CREB transcription factor AtfA define a general stress‐signalling pathway that plays differential roles in oxidative stress responses during growth and development. AtfA is permanently localized in the nucleus, while SakA accumulates in the nucleus in response to oxidative or osmotic stress signals or during normal spore development, where it physically interacts with AtfA. AtfA is required for expression of several genes, the conidial accumulation of SakA and the viability of conidia. Furthermore, SakA is active (phosphorylated) in asexual spores, remaining phosphorylated in dormant conidia and becoming dephosphorylated during germination. SakA phosphorylation in spores depends on certain (SskA) but not other (SrrA and NikA) components of the phosphorelay system. Constitutive phosphorylation of SakA induced by the fungicide fludioxonil prevents both, germ tube formation and nuclear division. Similarly, Neurospora crassa SakA orthologue OS‐2 is phosphorylated in intact conidia and gets dephosphorylated during germination. We propose that SakA–AtfA interaction regulates gene expression during stress and conidiophore development and that SAPK phosphorylation is a conserved mechanism to regulate transitions between non‐growing (spore) and growing (mycelia) states.
The YvcK protein is required for morphogenesis via localization of PBP1 under gluconeogenic growth conditions in Bacillus subtilis
Authors: Foulquier Elodie , Pompeo Frédérique , Bernadac Alain , Espinosa Leon , Galinier Anne 
Published: February 2011

SummaryThe YvcK protein was previously shown to be dispensable when B. subtilis cells are grown on glycolytic carbon sources but essential for growth and normal shape on gluconeogenic carbon sources. Here, we report that YvcK is localized as a helical‐like pattern in the cell. This localization seems independent of the actin‐like protein, MreB. A YvcK overproduction restores a normal morphology in an mreB mutant strain when bacteria are grown on PAB medium. Reciprocally, an additional copy of mreB restores a normal growth and morphology in a yvcK mutant strain when bacteria are grown on a gluconeogenic carbon source like gluconate. Furthermore, as already observed for the mreB mutant, the deletion of the gene encoding the penicillin‐binding protein PBP1 restores growth and normal shape of a yvcK mutant on gluconeogenic carbon sources. The PBP1 is delocalized in an mreB mutant grown in the absence of magnesium and in a yvcK mutant grown on gluconate medium. Interestingly, its proper localization can be rescued by YvcK overproduction. Therefore, in gluconeogenic growth conditions, YvcK is required for the correct localization of PBP1 and hence for displaying a normal rod shape.
A sweet twist gets Bacillus into shape
Authors: Mignolet Johann , Viollier Patrick H. 
Published: February 2011

SummaryA protective organelle that is essential for viability under most conditions, the cell wall is a dynamic structure that is continuously remodelled with the growth of the bacterial cell. Because the cell wall also moulds the bacterium, the mechanisms of cell wall homeostasis can be deciphered using cell shape as a convenient proxy. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Foulquier et al. illuminate a connection between cell shape regulation and metabolism in Bacillus subtilis. They find that the putative NAD(P)‐binding enzyme YvcK organizes into helical subcellular structures that exert shape control by directing the cell wall biosynthetic enzyme PBP1 along the cell cylinder and to the septum, a function shared with the MreB actin cytoskeleton. Unlike MreB, however, the role of YvcK in cell shape control is manifested only on certain carbon sources, presumably by way of a previously unknown metabolic feed that taps into cell morphogenesis.
Small RNA‐mediated control of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens GABA binding protein
Authors: Wilms Ina , Voss Björn , Hess Wolfgang R. , Leichert Lars I. , Narberhaus Franz 
Published: February 2011

SummaryWounded plants activate a complex defence programme in response to Agrobacterium tumefaciens. They synthesize the non‐proteinogenic amino acid γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA), which stimulates degradation of the quorum sensing signal N‐(3‐oxo‐octanoyl) homoserine lactone. GABA is transported into A. tumefaciens via an ABC transporter dependent on the periplasmic binding protein Atu2422. We demonstrate that expression of atu2422 and two other ABC transporter genes is downregulated by the conserved small RNA (sRNA) AbcR1 (for ABC regulator). AbcR1 is encoded in tandem with another sRNA, which is similar in sequence and structure. Both sRNAs accumulate during stationary phase but only the absence of AbcR1 resulted in significant accumulation of Atu2422 and increased GABA import. AbcR1 inhibits initiation of atu2422 translation by masking its Shine–Dalgarno sequence and thereby reduces stability of the atu2422 transcript. It is the first described bacterial sRNA that controls uptake of a plant‐generated signalling molecule. Given that similar sRNAs and ABC transporter genes are present in various Rhizobiaceae and in Brucella, it is likely that such sRNA‐mediated control impacts a number of host–microbe interactions.
Escherichia coli Rep DNA helicase and error‐prone DNA polymerase IV interact physically and functionally
Authors: Sladewski Thomas E. , Hetrick Kyle M. , Foster Patricia L. 
Published: February 2011

Summary Escherichia coli DNA polymerase IV, encoded by the dinB gene, is a member of the Y family of specialized DNA polymerases. Pol IV is capable of synthesizing past DNA lesions and may help to restart stalled replication forks. However, Pol IV is error‐prone, contributing to both DNA damage‐induced and stress‐induced (adaptive) mutations. Here we demonstrate that Pol IV interacts in vitro with Rep DNA helicase and that this interaction enhances Rep's helicase activity. In addition, Pol IV polymerase activity is stimulated by interacting with Rep, and Pol IV β clamp‐binding motif appears to be required for this stimulation. However, neither Rep's helicase activity nor its ability to bind DNA is required for it to stimulate Pol IV's polymerase activity. The interaction between Rep and Pol IV is biologically significant in vivo as Rep enhances Pol IV's mutagenic activity in stationary‐phase cells. These data indicate a new role for Rep in contributing to Pol IV‐dependent adaptive mutation. This functional interaction also provides new insight into how the cell might control or target Pol IV's mutagenic activity.