bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A critical evaluation of different methods for the determination of areas of endemism and biotic elements: an Alpine study
Authors: Casazza Gabriele , Minuto Luigi 
Published: July 2009

AbstractAim  The main aim of this study was to compare different methods for the determination of both areas of endemism (AoEs) and biotic elements by analysing all the endemic plant species of a region, using our own data on the distribution of such taxa in the Maritime and Ligurian Alps. Our other goals were to use indicator species analysis (INDVAL) to identify and compare the species significantly associated with the AoEs detected by cluster analysis and parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE), to compare these species with the results obtained by biotic element analysis, and to discuss the biogeographical meaning of the results obtained by all three methods.Location  Maritime and Ligurian Alps, bordering north‐western Italy and south‐eastern France.Methods  A presence/absence matrix of 36 endemic plant species was analysed using cluster analysis, PAE and biotic element analysis. INDVAL was used to compare the results obtained using these three methods.Results  In an area such as the Maritime and Ligurian Alps, where the present distribution pattern of endemic taxa mainly reflects the influence of ecological factors, PAE and cluster analysis defined comparable AoEs characterized by the species that constituted the biotic elements. However, the biotic element analysis and AoE approaches revealed different relationships between the area/taxa congruence and the congruence among taxa ranges.Main conclusions  The combined use of different methods seems to be useful for a complete description of the distribution patterns of taxa in a study area. INDVAL should be considered as a useful tool in biogeographical analysis for various reasons. It provides an objective criterion for dendrogram pruning based on the association rate between areas and taxon ranges. Because it identifies the strongest indicator species of each geographic unit, it allows comparison of the results of PAE and cluster analysis with those of biotic element analysis. Finally, INDVAL provides the rate of exclusivity and the rate of occupancy of each taxon in a given area.
Use of Folk Remedies among Families of Children Hospitalised in Taiwan
Authors: Chen Li‐Li , Huang Li‐Chi , Lin Shu‐Chuan , Smith Marlaine , Liu Shwu‐Jiuan 
Published: July 2009

Aims.  To describe the attitudes toward and the use of folk remedies among caregivers of children who were hospitalised in Taiwan.Background.  Parents incorporate folk remedies into the care of sick children in many cultures, including Taiwan. Twelve common folk remedies are commonly used in the Taiwanese culture for the care of sick children.Design.  The study employed a descriptive, exploratory design using survey methods. Participants were 92 caregivers (parents) whose children were hospitalised for at least three days in a hospital in the middle district of Taiwan.Results.  Sixty per cent of the participants used some form of folk remedies in the care of their hospitalised children. The most frequently used remedies were: spirit‐calling (63%); carrying a cross or incense bag (47%), praying a Buddhist mantra (36%). There was a positive relationship between a positive attitude towards folk remedies and current use with children (p < 0·05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that parents’ previous experience of using folk remedies (odds ratio = 0·272, p = 0·037), and parents’ knowledge of the care of disease (odds ratio = 18·044, p = 0·015) were the strongest predictors of use of folk remedies. Almost three‐fourths (73%) of all participants expected that health care providers would respect and not interfere with their use of folk remedies; 72% of parents stated that they would not tell healthcare providers about the use of folk remedies.Conclusions.  The majority of the parents of hospitalised children in Taiwan can be expected to use folk remedies for the purpose of psychological and spiritual support during child hospitalised.Relevance to clinical practice.  Healthcare providers need to be aware of the folk remedies used within various cultural groups so that culturally appropriate and safe care can be provided for the child and family.
An educational intervention to improve women’s ability to cope with childbirth
Authors: Ip Wan‐Yim , Tang Catherine SK , Goggins William B 
Published: July 2009

Aim and objective. To test the effectiveness of an efficacy‐enhancing educational intervention to promote women’s self‐efficacy for childbirth and coping ability in reducing anxiety and pain during labour.Background. The evidence of the effective application of the self‐efficacy theory in health‐promoting interventions has been well established. Little effort has been made by health professionals to integrate self‐efficacy theory into childbirth care.Design. Randomised controlled trial.Methods. An efficacy‐enhancing educational intervention based on Bandura’s self‐efficacy theory was evaluated. The eligible Chinese first‐time pregnant women were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 60) or a control group (n = 73). The experimental group received two 90‐minute sessions of the educational programme in between the 33rd–35th weeks of pregnancy. Follow‐up assessments on outcome measures were conducted within 48 hours after delivery. The short form of the Chinese Childbirth Self‐Efficacy Inventory was used to measure maternal self‐efficacy prior to labour. Evaluation of pain and anxiety during the three stages of labour and performance of coping behaviour during labour were measured by the Visual Analogue Scale and Childbirth Coping Behaviour Scale respectively.Results. The experimental group was significantly more likely than the control group to demonstrate higher levels of self‐efficacy for childbirth (p < 0·0001), lower perceived anxiety (p < 0·001, early stage andp = 0·02, middle stage) and pain (p < 0·01, early stage andp = 0·01, middle stage) and greater performance of coping behaviour during labour (p < 0·01).Conclusions. The educational intervention based on Bandura’s self‐efficacy theory is effective in promoting pregnant women’s self‐efficacy for childbirth and reducing their perceived pain and anxiety in the first two stages of labour.Relevance to clinical practice. Relief of pain and anxiety is an important issue for both women and childbirth health professionals. The efficacy‐enhancing educational intervention should be further developed and integrated into childbirth educational interventions for promoting women’s coping ability during childbirth.
The meaning of feeling well in people with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury
Authors: Jumisko Eija , Lexell Jan , Söderberg Siv 
Published: July 2009

Aim.  The aim of this study was to elucidate the meaning of feeling well for people with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury.Background.  Considerable attention has been given to research consequences, quality of life and satisfaction with life in people with traumatic brain injury. Most studies reveal negative aspects of living with traumatic brain injury. Knowledge that provides an understanding of the meaning of feeling well for people with a traumatic brain injury entails the possibility that they could receive support to feel well, despite their injury.Design.  This study used a qualitative research approach, as the aim was to elucidate meaning.Methods.  Data were collected through qualitative research interviews with two women and six men with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury who had lived with the injury for between 7–15 years. A phenomenological hermeneutic method was used to interpret the data.Results.  The meaning of feeling well for people with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury was that the initially unfamiliar life with traumatic brain injury became familiar. This included finding strength, regaining control over everyday life, being close to someone and being good enough. People with traumatic brain injury felt well when they became reconciled with the circumstances of their life and created a new entity in that life, in which their complete health had been lost.Relevance to clinical practice.  This study helps professionals to enhance their understanding and awareness of the possibilities for people with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury to feel well. The study showed that people with traumatic brain injury needed a lot of strength to achieve this. Professionals can help them to feel well by getting to know them and thus find ways to support the person’s feeling of wellbeing.
Garment needs of pregnant women based on content analysis of in‐depth interviews
Authors: Ho Simone SM , Yu Winnie WM , Lao Terence T , Chow Daniel HK , Chung Joanne WY , Li Yi 
Published: July 2009

Aims.  This study aims to identify the needs, concerns and problems of pregnant women when using maternity support garments.Background.  Maternity support belt is regarded as helpful in reducing low back pain during pregnancy. However, several garment‐related problems exist which might lead to poor adherence behaviour undermining the benefit of garment therapy.Design.  A qualitative exploratory study.Methods.  Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 10 pregnant Chinese women who experienced low back pain during pregnancy. All the interviews followed an interview guide and different maternity support garments were shown to the participants as a method of tangible objects to stimulate responses. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.Results.  The results showed that 60% of pregnant women discontinued using maternity support garments due to excessive heat, perceived ineffectiveness, itchiness, excessive pressure around the abdomen and inconvenience of adjustment. The content analysis generated five main themes of needs including effective function, safety, skin comfort, ease to put on and take off and aesthetics of maternity support garments.Discussion.  The findings of the five main themes of needs were largely consistent with previous studies examining medical garments for overall satisfaction and compliance. The results revealed that women’s physiological and psychological changes during pregnancy influenced their clothing preferences on both functional and aesthetical values.Conclusions.  Maternity support garments are convenient and easily‐accessible therapy to manage LBP during pregnancy and are frequently recommended and worn by pregnant women. However, inappropriate choice of garment therapy not only led to ineffectiveness but also undesirable effects. The key findings of the five main themes of garment needs in pregnant women will facilitate healthcare professionals in providing evidence‐based advice to assist patients in the selection of an appropriate and optimal maternity support garment.Relevance to clinical practice.  These recommendations in the clinical practice will assist patients in making well informed treatment decisions and ultimately improve the quality of care.
Staff attitudes towards institutionalised dementia residents
Authors: Kada Sundaran , Nygaard Harald A , Mukesh Bickol N , Geitung Jonn T 
Published: July 2009

Aim.  To explore the attitudes of staff caring for institutionalised dementia residents and the variables associated with these attitudes.Methods.  Fourteen nursing homes and one hospital‐based geriatric ward in Bergen, Norway were surveyed, using the translation of an Approach to Dementia Questionnaire. The study population (n = 291) was a mixture of registered nurses, auxiliary nurses, nursing assistants and non‐trained aides.Design.  Survey.Results.  Significant differences in hope and person‐centred attitudes were identified in this study. Nursing assistants, compared with registered nurses (p = 0·02), had significantly lower hope attitudes· Staff over 50 years of age reported significantly lower hope attitudes (p = 0·01) than those under 40 years of age. Staff with 10 and fewer years of work experience reported significantly lower hope attitudes (p = 0·02) than those with more than 10 years of experience. Nurses with specialised training in geriatrics, psychiatry or dementia care had significantly higher hope attitudes, compared with nurses without any special training (p = 0·04). The person‐centred attitude was lower among participants who were over 50 years old, compared with their counterparts under the age of 40 (p ≤ 0·01).Discussion.  Education, age, work experience, care unit size and specialised training are associated with differences in attitudes. We recommend that employers be proactive in encouraging and facilitating staff development by offering further training that aims to impart more positive attitudes.Relevance to clinical practice.  Improvements in staff competency levels will be more important in the future, as a result of the forecasted increase in the percentage of the population who will suffer from dementia and reside in nursing homes.
Enhanced frugivory on invasive Silene latifolia in its native range due to increased oviposition
Authors: Elzinga Jelmer A. , Bernasconi Giorgina 
Published: July 2009

Summary 1.  Why some species become invasive is a timely question in ecology. Most hypotheses assume that changed ecological interactions, especially enemy release, allow species to become invasive. This paper investigates how the release from a specialist frugivore may lead to relaxed selection on avoidance and defence strategies in an invasive plant. 2.
Silene latifolia was introduced from Europe to North America where its main enemies are absent. Reintroduced North American plants suffer greater damage than European plants by their specialist frugivore Hadena bicruris, which lays eggs in flowers. However, the mechanism is unclear: increased oviposition preference, decreased defence leading to higher egg and larval survival, or a closer phenological match. 3.  We exposed plants from European and North American populations to this enemy by allowing natural oviposition and also by manually adding eggs. We recorded reproductive traits potentially associated with interactions with the seed predator and monitored the different stages of fruit attack (oviposition, larval growth and survival) to study the relative roles of increased attractiveness versus decreased defence. 4.  North American plants received significantly more eggs (40.2 ± 2.1 eggs per plant) than European plants (28.4 ± 3.0 eggs per plant) and natural fruit predation was twice as high on North American than on European plants. Oviposition preference rates for North American over European plants persisted also after variation in flower size and phenology were accounted for. 5.  European and North American plants did not differ significantly in larval survival, larval mass at emergence or in the rate of defensive fruit abscission, indicating that greater susceptibility of plants from the introduced range to the seed predator is largely due to an increased preference for oviposition rather than to changes in palatability or defence after oviposition. 6.
Synthesis. Our results are consistent with the idea that introduced plants may evolve after introduction, if evolutionary constraints such as those imposed by plant–frugivore interactions, are broken down in the invasive range. For S. latifolia, release from its native predator H. bicruris may have allowed evolution of increased attractiveness to pollinators without the burden of attracting the frugivore.
Melanomacrophages in three species of free‐ranging sharks from the northwestern Atlantic, the blue shark Prionacae glauca (L.), the shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrhinchus Rafinesque, and the thresher, Alopias vulpinus (Bonnaterre)
Authors: Borucinska J D , Kotran K , Shackett M , Barker T 
Published: July 2009

AbstractThe melanomacrophage aggregates or cells (MMC) are commonly used as biomarkers of exposure to pollution in fish, albeit their numbers and morphological characteristics can be influenced not only by environmental toxins but also by a range of physiological parameters and pathological conditions. Accordingly, before we can use MMC as biomarkers in any fish species, their normal, ‘background’ characteristics have to be established in apparently healthy fish. The knowledge of MMC in sharks is minimal. The aim of this study was to characterize MMC from 51 free‐ranging, large pelagic sharks from the northwestern Atlantic, including shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrhinchus, thresher, Alopias vulpinus and blue shark, Prionacae glauca. The rationale of this study was twofold. First, because, sharks have life histories predisposing them to the accumulation of environmental toxins they constitute good sentinel species of the health of the global marine ecosystem. Second, because many shark populations are in decline or threatened by extinction, we need to expand our understanding of their health status in order to develop appropriate protective measures. All sharks were collected by sports fishing gear between June and August in 2007. Their health condition was assessed by necropsy, morphometrics, and by microscopic examination of gonads, livers, spleens and kidneys. Routine, haematoxylin and eosin and/or Pearl’s reagent‐stained paraffin embedded sections were studied by light microscopy. Our results provide the first data on the morphometric and morphological characteristics of MMC in viscera of apparently healthy free‐ranging sharks from the northwestern Atlantic.
The relationship between subjective appetite sensations, markers of inflammation and appetite in dialysis patients
Authors: Zabel R. , Ash S. , King N. , Bauer J. 
Published: July 2009

AbstractBackground:  Poor appetite is a marker of morbidity and mortality in haemodialysis patients, making it an important area for research. Visual analogue scales (VAS) can capture a range of subjective sensations related to appetite (such as hunger, desire to eat or fullness), but have not been commonly used to measure appetite in dialysis patients. The present study aimed to explore the association between retrospective ratings of appetite using VAS and a range of clinical variables, as well as biomarkers of appetite in haemodialysis patients.Methods:  Twenty‐eight haemodialysis patients [mean age 61 ± 17 years, 50% male, median dialysis vintage 19.5 (4–101) months] rated their appetite using VAS for hunger, fullness and desire to eat and a five‐point categorical scale measuring general appetite. Blood levels of the appetite peptides leptin, ghrelin and peptide YY were also measured.Results:  Hunger ratings measured by VAS were significantly (P < 0.05) correlated with a range of clinical, nutritional and inflammatory markers: age (r = −0.376), co‐morbidities, (r = −0.380) Patient‐Generated Subjective Global Assessment score (r = −0.451), weight (r = −0.375), fat‐free mass (r = −0.435), C‐reactive protein (r = −0.383) and intercellular adhesion molecule (r = −0.387). There was a consistent relationship between VAS and appetite on a five‐point categorical scale for questions of hunger, and a similar trend for desire to eat, but not for fullness. Neither method for measuring subjective appetite correlated with appetite peptides.Conclusions:  Retrospective ratings of hunger on a VAS are associated with a range of clinical variables and further studies are warranted to support their use as a method for measuring appetite in dialysis patients.
The effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy on intellectual disabilities among 8‐year‐old children
Authors: Braun Joe M. , Daniels Julie L. , Kalkbrenner Amy , Zimmerman Judith , Nicholas Joyce S. 
Published: July 2009

SummaryPrenatal tobacco smoke exposure has been implicated as a risk factor for cognitive deficits in children. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between prenatal tobacco smoke exposure and diagnosis of intellectual disabilities (ID) among 8‐year‐old children living in Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina and Utah. In 2002 and 2004, 965 ID case children were identified through a surveillance network and compared with the population of children born in the surveillance region during the same period (n = 104 607). Prenatal tobacco smoke exposure was determined from birth certificates. We estimated the effect of prenatal tobacco smoke exposure (none, <10, 10–19 and ≥20 cigarettes per day) on ID using logistic regression.Generally, the risk of ID was mildly elevated among children whose mothers smoked ≥20 cigarettes per day during pregnancy [RR 1.34; 95% (confidence interval) CI 0.96, 1.87] after adjustment for maternal education, maternal race, maternal age, marital status, child sex, birth year and study site. However, the effect of exposure to ≥20 cigarettes per day significantly differed for males [RR 1.77, 95% CI 1.20, 2.62] compared with females [RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.44, 1.50]. Supplemental analyses reveal substantial confounding of this relationship by socio‐economic indicators. A differential effect of tobacco smoke exposure on the risk of ID is suggested for males and females and deserves further investigation; however, the interpretation is tempered by the potential for residual confounding.
Microstructural white matter changes in euthymic bipolar patients: a whole‐brain diffusion tensor imaging study
Authors: Wessa Michèle , Houenou Josselin , Leboyer Marion , Chanraud Sandra , Poupon Cyril , Martinot Jean‐Luc , Paillère‐Martinot Marie‐Laure 
Published: July 2009

Objectives:  Brain structures of a distributed ventral‐limbic and dorsal brain network have been associated with altered mood states and emotion regulation in affective disorders. So far, diffusion tensor imaging studies in bipolar patients have focused on frontal/prefrontal brain regions and found alterations in white matter integrity in manic, depressed, and euthymic bipolar patients, observed as changes in fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity. To extend previous findings, we investigated whole‐brain modifications in white matter integrity in euthymic bipolar patients with minimal manic and depressive symptoms.Methods:  Twenty‐two patients with a DSM‐IV‐TR diagnosis of bipolar I and II disorder in remission, with no lifetime or present comorbidities of substance abuse, and 21 sex‐ and age‐matched healthy controls underwent diffusion tensor imaging with diffusion gradients applied along 41 directions. Fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity group differences were explored using two voxel‐based, whole‐brain analyses that differ in their normalization approaches.Results:  Fractional anisotropy was significantly increased in bipolar patients relative to healthy controls in medial frontal, precentral, inferior parietal, and occipital white matter. No group differences in mean diffusivity were found.Conclusions:  The result of increased fractional anisotropy in euthymic bipolar patients in the present study suggests increased directional coherence of white matter fibers in bipolar patients during remission.