bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of clean intermittent self‐catheterization on quality of life: a qualitative study
Authors: Shaw Chris , Logan Karen , Webber Irene , Broome Lynne , Samuel Sandra 
Published: February 2008

AbstractTitle.  Effect of clean intermittent self‐catheterization on quality of life: a qualitative study Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to describe the experience of people carrying out clean intermittent self‐catheterization and the impact on their quality of life.Background.  Clean intermittent self‐catheterization is a recommended treatment for people experiencing urinary voiding difficulties. The majority of the literature to date has focused on biomedical issues such as complication rates and use of different catheters.Method.  A qualitative approach was used based on grounded theory. Fifteen users (eight men and seven women) of intermittent self‐catheterization took part in semi‐structured interviews during 2006. Ages ranged from 33 to 81 years (median 65 years). Reasons for self‐catheterization included multiple sclerosis, urethral stricture and high residual volumes. Thematic analysis was used to develop hypotheses about the causes and consequences of the core category ‘quality of life’.Findings.  The core category consisted of two subcategories of positive and negative impacts. Positive impacts were related to improvement in lower urinary tract symptoms, whereas the negative impacts resulted from the practical difficulties encountered, and the psychological and cultural context of worry and stigma. The factors influencing variations in quality of life impacts were sex, lifestyle, frequency and duration of carrying out self‐catheterization, technical difficulties, type of catheter, co‐morbidities and individual predispositions.Conclusion.  The model has the potential to help professionals to identify the factors likely to influence response to clean intermittent self‐catheterization, and could be used as a tool to help identify those who may have difficulty complying with the treatment or to aid advice‐giving on situations that may cause difficulties.
Coping, anxiety and quality of life after coronary artery bypass graft surgery
Authors: Tung Heng‐Hsin , Hunter Anita , Wei Jen 
Published: February 2008

AbstractTitle.  Coping, anxiety and quality of life after coronary artery bypass graft surgery Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to explore the relationship between ways of coping, anxiety level and quality of life for patients after coronary artery bypass grafting.Background.  Coronary artery bypass grafting requires appropriate coping strategies to achieve successful adaptation. In Taiwan, the incidence of this surgery is increasing, but research on adaptation following surgery is limited, with no research examining outcomes for women, who often have poorer adaptation outcomes than men.Methods.  An integrated research design, based on Lazarus and Folkman’s transaction coping theory, was used. The research employed convenience sampling with four instruments: the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist, State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory, Short Form 36‐Health Survey, and a demographic questionnaire, sent to 50 men and 50 women who were recruited from a medical centre in Taiwan. Additionally, qualitative data from interviews with three men and three women, who had completed the instruments, were analysed.Findings.  Better quality of life was associated with lower anxiety level, greater use of problem‐focused coping strategies and those who had more gender role responsibility. Women scored lower on the physical dimensions of quality of life, used more self‐blaming coping strategies and experienced slightly higher levels of anxiety compared to men. The qualitative analysis supported the conclusions of the quantitative analysis.Conclusion.  The results will help nurses design specific interventions intended to lower anxiety levels, promote the use of problem‐focused strategies and identify patients’ values, necessary to achieve optimal quality of life.
Efficacy of an insomnia intervention on fatigue, mood and quality of life in breast cancer survivors
Authors: Dirksen Shannon R. , Epstein Dana R. 
Published: February 2008

AbstractTitle. Efficacy of an insomnia intervention on fatigue, mood and quality of life in breast cancer survivorsAim. This paper is a report of a study to describe the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia on fatigue, mood and quality of life in breast cancer survivors.Background. Women who receive primary treatment for breast cancer often complain of insomnia. Rarely evaluated in insomnia intervention studies is the effect of cognitive behavioural treatment on the psychosocial outcomes of fatigue, mood and quality of life.Method. Data were collected between December 2002 and March 2004 with 72 women who were at least 3 months post‐completion of primary treatment without current evidence of disease. Women were randomly assigned to either the cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia group, which received stimulus control instructions, sleep restriction therapy and sleep education and hygiene, or the component control group which received sleep education and hygiene only. The 10‐week study consisted of 2 weeks of pre‐treatment, 6 weeks of treatment and 2 weeks of post‐treatment. Fatigue, mood and quality of life were measured at pre‐ and post‐treatment.Findings. Women receiving cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia had significant improvements in fatigue, trait anxiety, depression and quality of life. The component control group also had statistically significant increases in quality of life, with a trend suggestive of lower depression at post‐treatment.Conclusion. Globally, as the number of survivors in this population continues to grow, it is imperative that nurses continue testing interventions that may positively affect quality of life and the commonly experienced symptoms of fatigue, anxiety and depression.
The multidimensionality of caring: a confirmatory factor analysis of the Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction Short Scale
Authors: Cossette Sylvie , Pepin Jacinthe , Côté José K. , De Courval François Poulin 
Published: February 2008

AbstractTitle.  The multidimensionality of caring: a confirmatory factor analysis of the Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction Short Scale Aim.  This paper is a report of a study to evaluate the construct validity of the four‐dimensional Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction–Short Scale using confirmatory factor analysis.Background.  Validating theoretical structures of caring is an ongoing challenge in the discipline of nursing. Our previous work has contributed to this literature by the exploration of the dimensionality of the Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction Short Scale via an exploratory factor analysis. The Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction Short Scale comprises 23 items reflecting four caring domains: humanistic care, relational care, clinical care and comforting care.Method.  A methodological study was conducted involving a convenience sample of 531 nursing students in a baccalaureate nursing programme (20% were already Registered Nurses). Data were collected in 2002 and 2004. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction Short Scale was performed.Findings.  As expected with large samples and models, the chi‐squared‐associated P‐value was statistically significant (χ2 = 811·43, d.f. = 224, P < 0·01). However, the other indices reached acceptable levels with 0·054 for the standardized root mean‐squared residuals, 0·070 for the root mean‐square error of approximation, 0·88 for the goodness of fit index, 0·98 for the comparative fit index and 0·97 for the normal fit index. The factor loadings for all items with their hypothesized factor were ≥0·48 and statistically significant at the 0·01 level.Conclusion.  The Caring Nurse–Patient Interaction Short Scale model was judged to fit the data adequately. Although further testing of the scale with different samples of patients is warranted, our model emerged as a middle‐range theory during the construct validity process and still reflects Watson’s theory while offering a structure that is testable in clinical research.
Temporal shifts from facilitation to competition occur between closely related taxa
Authors: Valiente‐Banuet Alfonso , Verdú Miguel 
Published: February 2008

Summary

The relative contribution of positive and negative interactions to the organization of ecological communities is an important area, though poorly understood because of the complexity inherent to long‐term interactions. For example, positive interactions like plant facilitation turn into negative interactions (competition) along the ontogeny of a plant or in response to temporal fluctuations in the environment. Furthermore, when many plants grow together indirect effects are usually positive and alleviate direct competitive effects.
The large number of direct and indirect interactions potentially occurring in natural communities and the temporal scale necessary to account for the ontogenetic shifts in the sign of the interaction makes a fully experimental approach prohibitive. Here, we propose that the phylogenetic distance among co‐occurring species is a good proxy to detect competition as a long‐term force assembling community composition. Our proposal is based on the observation that closely related species tend to be phenotypically similar and therefore compete for the same niche.
We test the relationship between phylogenetic relatedness and the persistence of pairwise (nurse‐facilitated) interactions occurring between 102 woody species in three Mexican semi‐arid communities in order to quantify the balance between competition and facilitation at the community level.
Our results indicate that facilitation turns into competition with increasing taxa relatedness. After validating the association between competition and phylogenetic relatedness, we estimate that 57% of the interactions remain with time while 43% become competitive. [Correction added after publication, 4 March 2008: in the preceding sentence, values corrected from 53% and 47%, respectively.] The preponderance of positive interactions may be explained if facilitation is considered as a mutualism in which both species benefit leading to vegetation clumps in communities.
Synthesis. We provide a new perspective on the balance between positive and negative interactions based on a phylogenetically structured network of interactions. This approach promises to contribute to our understanding of long standing issues in plant ecology and to reveal new areas of future research by testing the existence and the nature of the mutualisms as well as their complexity–stability properties on communities as a whole.
Independent measures of insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity during the same test: the glucagon–insulin tolerance test
Authors: Dorkhan M. , Tripathy D. , Malm G. , Asgharian H. , Tuomi T. , Groop L. 
Published: February 2008

Abstract.Background.  To validate a test for independent assessment of insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity during the same occasion for metabolic studies in clinical practice, i.e. combined glucagon‐stimulated C‐peptide test and insulin tolerance test (GITT).Subjects and methods.  We measured C‐peptide response to 0.5 mg of intravenous glucagon followed 30 min later by administration of 0.05 U kg−1 insulin (insulin tolerance test, ITT). Ten subjects with normal glucose tolerance participated on different days in an ITT, glucagon‐C‐peptide test, ITT followed by glucagon‐C‐peptide test and glucagon‐C‐peptide test followed by ITT to establish whether and how the tests could be combined. The test was then repeated in nine patients with type 2 diabetes to investigate its reproducibility. In 20 subjects with varying degrees of glucose tolerance, the test was compared with the Botnia clamp (an intravenous glucose tolerance test combined with a euglycaemic hyperinsulinemic clamp).Results.  When ITT preceded the glucagon test, C‐peptide response was blunted. Therefore, we first administered glucagon and then insulin (GITT). The KITT from the GITT was reproducible (CV = 13 %) and correlated strongly with the glucose disposal rate from the Botnia clamp (r = 0.87, r2 = 0.75, P < 0.001). The C‐peptide response to glucagon was reproducible (CV = 13 %). The disposition index, providing a measure of beta‐cell function adjusted for insulin sensitivity, calculated from the GITT showed good discrimination between individuals with varying degrees of glucose tolerance.Conclusions.  The GITT provides simple, reproducible and independent estimates of insulin sensitivity and secretion on the same occasion for metabolic studies in individuals with normal and abnormal glucose tolerance.
MicroRNAs and cancer
Authors: Dalmay T. 
Published: February 2008

Abstract.The Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology was awarded to the RNA interference (RNAi) field in 2006 because of the huge therapeutic potential this technique harbours. However, the RNAi technology is based on a natural mechanism that utilizes short noncoding RNA molecules (microRNAs) to regulate gene expression. This paper reviews our current knowledge about microRNAs focusing on their involvement in cancer and their potential as diagnostics and therapeutics.
Use of B‐type natriuretic peptide in the risk stratification of community‐acquired pneumonia
Authors: Christ‐Crain M. , Breidthardt T. , Stolz D. , Zobrist K. , Bingisser R. , Miedinger D. , Leuppi J. , Tamm M. , Mueller B. , Mueller C. 
Published: February 2008

Abstract.Background.  Community‐acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the leading infectious cause of death in developed countries. Risk stratification has previously been difficult.Methods.  Markers of cardiac stress (B‐type natriuretic peptide, BNP) and inflammation (C‐reactive protein, white blood cell count, procalcitonin) as well as the pneumonia severity index (PSI) were determined in 302 consecutive patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with CAP. The accuracy of these parameters to predict death was evaluated as the primary endpoint. Prediction of treatment failure was considered as the secondary endpoint.Results.  B‐type natriuretic peptide levels increased with rising disease severity as classified by the PSI (P = 0.015). BNP levels were significantly higher in nonsurvivors compared to survivors [median 439.2 (IQR 137.1–1384.6) vs. 114.3 (51.3–359.6) pg mL−1, P < 0.001]. In a receiver operating characteristic analysis for the prediction of survival the area under the curve (AUC) for BNP was comparable to the AUC of the PSI (0.75 vs. 0.71, P = 0.52). Importantly, the combination of BNP and the PSI significantly improved the prognostic accuracy of the PSI alone (AUC 0.78 vs. 0.71; P = 0.02). The optimal cut‐off for BNP was 279 pg mL−1. The accuracy of BNP to predict treatment failure was identical to the accuracy to predict death (AUC 0.75).Conclusions.  In patients with CAP, BNP levels are powerful and independent predictors of death and treatment failure. When used in conjunction with the PSI, BNP levels significantly improve the risk prediction when compared with the PSI alone.
Multilocus analysis of variation using a large empirical data set: phenylpropanoid pathway genes in Arabidopsis thaliana
Authors: RAMOS‐ONSINS S. E , PUERMA E , BALAÑÁ‐ALCAIDE D , SALGUERO D , AGUADÉ M 
Published: February 2008

AbstractDetecting the signature of adaptation on nucleotide variation is often difficult in species that like Arabidopsis thaliana might have a complex demographic history. Recent re‐sequencing surveys in this species provided genome‐wide information that would mainly reflect its demographic history. We have used a large empirical data set (LED) as well as multilocus coalescent simulations to analyse sequence variation at loci involved in the phenylpropanoid pathway of this species. We surveyed and examined DNA sequence variation at nine of these loci (about 19.7 kb) in 23 accessions of A. thaliana and one accession of its closely related species Arabidopsis lyrata. Nucleotide variation was lower at nonsynonymous sites than at silent sites in all loci, indicating generalized functional constraint at the protein level. No association between variation and position in the metabolic pathway was detected. When the data were contrasted against the standard neutral model, significant deviations for silent variation were detected with Tajima's D, Fu's FS and Fay and Wu's H multilocus test statistics. These deviations were in the same direction than in previous large‐scale multilocus analyses, suggesting a genome‐wide effect. When the nine‐locus data set was contrasted against the large empirical data set, the level (Watterson's θ) and pattern of variation (Tajima's D) detected in these loci did not deviate either at the single‐locus or multilocus level from the corresponding empirical distributions. These results would support an important role of the demographic history of A. thaliana in shaping nucleotide variation at the nine studied phenylpropanoid loci. The potential and limitations of the empirical distribution approach are discussed.
Relative influences of historical and contemporary forces shaping the distribution of genetic variation in the Atlantic killifish,Fundulus heteroclitus
Authors: DUVERNELL DAVID D. , LINDMEIER JAMES B. , FAUST KATHERINE E. , WHITEHEAD ANDREW 
Published: February 2008

AbstractA major goal of population genetics research is to identify the relative influences of historical and contemporary processes that serve to structure genetic variation. Most population genetic models assume that populations exist in a state of migration‐drift equilibrium. However, in the past this assumption has rarely been verified, and is likely rarely achieved in natural populations. We assessed the equilibrium status at both local and regional scales of the Atlantic killifish,Fundulus heteroclitus. This species is a model organism for the study of adaptive clinal variation, but has also experienced a complicated history of range expansion and secondary contact following allopatric divergence, potentially obscuring the influence of contemporary evolutionary processes. Presumptively neutral genetic markers (microsatellites) demonstrated zones of secondary intergradation among coastal populations centred around northern New Jersey and the Chesapeake Bay region. Analysis of genetic variation indicated isolation by distance among some populations and provided supporting evidence that the Delaware Bay, but not the Chesapeake Bay, has acted as a barrier to dispersal among coastal populations. Bayesian estimates indicated large effective population sizes and low migration rates, and were in good agreement with empirically derived estimates of population and neighbourhood size from mark–recapture studies. These data indicate that populations are not in migration‐drift equilibrium at a regional scale, and suggest that contributing factors include large population size combined with relatively low migration rates. These conditions should be considered when interpreting the evolutionary significance of the distribution of genetic variation amongF. heteroclituspopulations.
Around or across the Carpathians: colonization model of the Danube basin inferred from genetic diversification of stone loach (Barbatula barbatula) populations
Authors: ŠEDIVÁ ALENA , JANKO KAREL , ŠLECHTOVÁ VENDULA , KOTLÍK PETR , SIMONOVIĆ PREDRAG , DELIC ANTUN , VASSILEV MILEN 
Published: February 2008

AbstractDespite increasing information about postglacial recolonization of European freshwater systems, very little is known about pre‐Pleistocene history. We used data on the recent distribution and phylogenetic relationships of stone loach mitochondrial lineages to reconstruct the initial colonization pattern of the Danube river system, one of the most important refuges for European freshwater ichthyofauna. Fine‐scale phylogeography of the Danubian populations revealed five highly divergent lineages of pre‐Pleistocene age and suggested the multiple origin of the Danubian stone loach. The mean sequence divergence among lineages extended from 7.0% to 13.4%, which is the highest intraspecific divergence observed so far within this river system. Based on the phylogeographical patterns, we propose the following hypothesis to relate the evolution and dispersal of the studied species with the evolution of the Danube river system and the Carpathian Mountains: (i) during the warmer period in the Miocene, the areas surrounding the uplifting Alps and Carpathians served as mountainous refuges for cold‐water adapted fish and promoted the diversification of its populations, and (ii) from these refuges, colonization of the emerging Danube river system may have taken place following the retreat of the Central Paratethys. Co‐existence of highly divergent mtDNA lineages in a single river system shows that range shifts in response to climatic changes during the Quaternary did not cause extensive genetic homogenization in the stone loach populations. However, the wide distribution of some mtDNA lineages indicates that the Pleistocene glaciations promoted the dispersal and mixing of populations through the lowlands.
Historical fragmentation of islands and genetic drift in populations of Galápagos lava lizards (Microlophus albemarlensiscomplex)
Authors: JORDAN M. A. , SNELL H. L. 
Published: February 2008

AbstractThe formation of islands following a rise in sea level at the end of Pleistocene is expected to disrupt the equilibrium between genetic drift and gene flow in species with limited ability to disperse. Here, we test the hypothesis that genetic drift in isolation has caused the differentiation of Galápagos lava lizards (Microlophus albemarlensiscomplex) found on 12 islets that are likely to have been connected to a larger island, Isla Santa Cruz, during the late Pleistocene. Using 11 microsatellite loci, screened on 524 individuals from 17 localities distributed among and within 15 islands, we found marked differences in allelic richness and heterozygosity. Genetic differentiation was strong (globalFST = 0.44), with pairwise differences found among populations on islets being larger than differences among three localities sampled within Isla Santa Cruz. As expected under a scenario of drift in isolation, there was a positive correlation of genetic diversity with island size, no relationship between genetic and geographical distance and a strong negative correlation between heterozygosity and measures of genetic differentiation. We conclude that seawater is a significant barrier to gene flow in lava lizards on this timescale. Our results suggest that the shallow diversification of theM. albemarlensiscomplex is not due to recent gene flow and that genetic drift may have played a substantial role in observed patterns of phenotypic variation among islands.