bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Initiation and Maintenance of Health Behaviors
Authors: Conner Mark 
Published: January 2008

The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) has made important contributions to understanding health behavior change through emphasising the distinction between motivational and volitional influences on behavior and focusing attention on maintenance as well as initiation of health behaviors. The present commentary draws out a number of issues in relation to the contribution of the HAPA to our understanding of health behaviors. Five issues are highlighted: What are the key motivational influences on behavior? What are the key volitional influences on behavior? How does recent research on intention–behavior moderators provide further insights into volitional influences on health behaviors? What are the problems of blurring a distinction between continuum and stage models as is done in the HAPA? What is the value of a distinction between initiation and maintenance of a health behavior?L’Approche des Processus d’Action en faveur de la Santé (HAPA) a apporté une contribution importante à la compréhension des modifications du comportement liéà la santé en soulignant la différence entre les influences motivationnelles et volitionnelles sur la conduite et en s’intéressant aussi bien à la continuité qu’à l’amorce des comportements de santé. Ce commentaire aborde quelques questions en rapport avec la contribution de l’HAPA à notre compréhension des comportements relatifs à la santé. Cinq questions sont posées: quelles sont les influences motivationnelles majeures sur la conduite? Quelles sont les influences volitionnelles majeures sur la conduite? En quoi des recherches récentes sur les modérateurs intention–comportement permettent‐elles de mieux appréhender les influences volitionnelles sur les comportements favorisant la santé; le problème de l’atténuation de la différenciation apparue dans l’HAPA entre les modèles en stades et en continuum; la valeur de la distinction entre adoption et maintien d’un comportement favorable à la santé.
Some Burning Issues in Research on Health Behavior Change
Authors: Schwarzer Ralf 
Published: January 2008

This response to five excellent commentaries is intended to clarify some issues in research on health behavior change that appear to be ambiguous or controversial, such as the debate about stage models versus continuum models or the search for moderators and mediators. The assumption of stages can be useful, but the quest for truly existing stages is considered fruitless because stage is a scientific construct, not nature. The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) is designed as an implicit or explicit stage model, based on the distinction between a motivational and a volitional phase. As a template for targeted interventions, it suggests grouping individuals into preintenders, intenders, and actors. Due to indistinct boundaries between stages and to unstable social‐cognitive constructs, the validity of stage assessment becomes the foremost problem. However, if stage‐tailored interventions turn out to be superior to nontailored interventions, then the choice of the corresponding stage model is justified. When analysing the mechanisms of health behavior change or when predicting behaviors, the HAPA is also in line with nonstage (continuum) models. In the latter case, it examines moderators and mediators within a path‐analytic research design. It is suggested that more research be conducted on moderated mediation.Cette réponse aux cinq excellents commentaires tente de clarifier certains des résultats des recherches sur la modification des comportements relatifs à la santé, résultats qui semblent ambigus ou sujets à controverse, ce qui est le cas de la discussion sur les modèles en stades ou en continuum ou encore de la recherche de modérateurs et de médiateurs. L’hypothèse des stades peut se révéler fructueuse, mais il est inutile de considérer que les stades existent réellement puisque le stade, concept scientifique, ne relève pas de la nature. L’Approche des Processus d’Action en faveur de la Santé (HAPA) est par construction un modèle en stades implicites ou explicites basé sur la distinction entre une étape motivationnelle et une étape volitionnelle. Comme cadre pour des interventions ciblées, il propose de regrouper les individus en trois catégories: ceux qui n’ont pas encore l’intention d’agir, ceux qui ont cette intention et enfin ceux qui agissent. En raison des frontières fluctuantes entre les stades et de l’instabilité des concepts socio‐cognitifs, la validité de l’évaluation des stades devient le problème principal. Cependant, si les interventions programmées à partir des stades se révèlent plus efficaces que les autres, le choix de ce modèle est défendable. Quand on analyse les mécanismes des modifications du comportement en faveur de la santé ou quand on prédit ces comportements, l’HAPA accepte aussi le modèle en continuum. En ce cas, elle aborde les modérateurs et les médiateurs avec un plan de recherche en pistes causales. Il faut développer les recherches sur modérateurs et médiateurs.
The changing pattern of kidney cancer incidence and mortality in Europe
Authors: Levi Fabio , Ferlay Jacques , Galeone Carlotta , Lucchini Franca , Negri Eva , Boyle Peter , La Vecchia Carlo 
Published: January 2008

OBJECTIVETo update trends in kidney cancer mortality in 32 European countries and the European Union (EU) as a whole, as mortality from kidney cancer has increased throughout Europe until the late 1980s or early 1990s, and has tended to stabilise or decline thereafter.METHODSData from the World Health Organization mortality database over the period 1980–2004 were used to compute age‐specific and age‐standardized (world standard) rates per 100 000 persons at all ages, and truncated to 35–64 years.RESULTSIn men in the EU, mortality rates from kidney cancer peaked at 4.8 per 100 000 in 1990–1994, and declined to 4.1 (−13%) in 2000–2004. In women in the EU, the corresponding values were 2.1 in 1990–1994 and 1.8 (−17%) in 2000–2004. The main decreases were in Scandinavian countries, and other western European countries. In most eastern European countries kidney mortality rates tended to stabilise, even if values remained high, especially in the Czech Republic and Baltic countries. For kidney cancer incidence, there were decreases in rates for both sexes in Sweden throughout the 25‐year calendar period considered. In the last 10 years considered, incidence rates decreased or tended to stabilise also in other northern European countries in both sexes, except in the UK.CONCLUSIONThe present work confirms and further quantifies the recent favourable trends in kidney cancer mortality and (to a lesser degree) in incidence across most European countries. Thus, improvements in diagnosis and treatments cannot largely explain the declines in mortality. Apart from a favourable role of reduced tobacco smoking in men, the interpretation of these trends remains undefined.
Tumour growth inhibition by an imidazoquinoline is associated with c‐Myc down‐regulation in urothelial cell carcinoma
Authors: Liu Huixian , Schwartz Michael J. , Hwang David H. , Scherr Douglas S. 
Published: January 2008

OBJECTIVETo detect and characterize the potential role of c‐Myc in the inhibition of proliferation and induction of cell death of urothelial cell carcinoma by imidazoquinolines, Toll‐like receptor‐7 (TLR7) agonists, that are thought to exert their immunogenic effects through the MyD88/NF‐κB pathway.MATERIALS AND METHODSHuman (T24) and murine (MBT‐2) bladder cancer cell lines were cultured in normal culture medium or medium supplemented with imidazoquinoline. The effects of imidazoquinoline on gene expression, transcription and tumorigenesis were then evaluated. Effects of imidazoquinoline onin vivobladder tumour growth and gene expression were investigated using a mouse model of orthotopic bladder cancer.RESULTSThere was a dose‐dependent decrease in c‐Myc expression in bladder cancer cells treated with imidazoquinoline; the transcriptional activity of c‐Myc was also significantly reduced. Furthermore, thein vitroproliferation and tumorigenesis of MBT‐2 cells were suppressed in a dose‐dependent manner. Forin vivoexperiments, a third of mice with bladder cancer treated with intravesical imidazoquinoline showed evidence of residual bladder tumour, vs all the placebo‐treated mice.In vivoexpression of c‐Myc, cyclin D2 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen in the bladder tumour tissue were also down‐regulated.CONCLUSIONSImidazoquinolines can inhibit c‐Myc expression and directly affect cell growth and tumorigenesis of bladder cancer cells, independent of an immune response. These direct effects might be synergistic with previously described immunogenic actions of imidazoquinolines. Our findings could broaden the potential application of imidazoquinoline therapy beyond dermatological malignancies, and further clinical studies are warranted.
The shape of thought
Authors: Markson Lori , Diesendruck Gil , Bloom Paul 
Published: January 2008

Abstract When children learn the name of a novel object, they tend to extend that name to other objects similar in shape – a phenomenon referred to as the shape bias. Does the shape bias stem from learned associations between names and categories of objects, or does it derive from more general properties of children's understanding of language and the world? We argue here for the second alternative, presenting evidence that the shape bias emerges early in development, is not limited to names, and is intimately related to how children make sense of categories.
BEYOND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR REASONABLENESS
Authors: FRIEDMAN ALEX 
Published: January 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper is a critique of Norman Daniels' and James Sabin's ‘Accountability for Reasonableness’ framework for making priority‐setting decisions in health care in the face of widespread disagreement about values. Accountability for Reasonableness has been rapidly gaining worldwide acceptance, arguably to the point of becoming the dominant paradigm in the field of health policy. The framework attempts to set ground rules for a procedure that ensures that whatever decisions result will be fair, reasonable, and legitimate to the extent that even those who would be adversely affected will have reason to abide by them. I argue that the framework's four conditions are inadequate to this task. While we certainly require a fair and legitimate procedure for making priority setting decisions in health care despite a lack of consensus on relevant ethical and political issues, we must significantly revise the four conditions, and we cannot avoid facing our substantive disagreements head on if we hope to arrive at decisions that would (and should) be acceptable to everyone. I offer two suggestions. First, there is need for greater public involvement in all stages of deliberation. Second, we should give up on the idea that we can simplify the task of democratic deliberation by disallowing particular kinds or reasons and types of reasoning. Reasons of all kinds should be on the table, but then should be judged on their merits, such as consistency, plausibility and explanatory power, without any regard for their alleged sources of authority.
ETHICALLY PROBLEMATIC TREATMENT DECISIONS: A PHYSICIAN SURVEY
Authors: SAARNI SAMULI I. , PARMANNE PIITU , HALILA RITVA 
Published: January 2008

ABSTRACTBackground: Experiencing ethical problems requires both ethically problematic situations and ethical sensitivity. Ethically problematic treatment decisions are distressing and might reflect health care quality problems. Whether all physicians actually experience ethical problems, what these problems are and how they vary according to physician age, gender and work sector are largely unknown.Methods: A mail survey of all non‐retired physicians licensed in Finland (n = 17,172, response rate 75.6%).Results: The proportion of physicians reporting having made ethically problematic treatment decisions decreased in linear fashion from 60% at ages below 30 years to 21% at ages over 63 years. The only problem that did not decrease in frequency with age was having withdrawn necessary treatments. Women and primary care physicians reported problematic decisions most often, although gender differences were small. Primary care physicians most often reported having performed too many investigations or having pressured patients, whereas hospital physicians emphasized having withdrawn necessary treatments. Performing unnecessary treatments or investigations was explained by pressure from patients or relatives, and performing too few treatments or investigations was explained by inadequate resources.Conclusions: In general, young physicians felt pressured to do too much, whereas older physicians felt they could not do enough due to inadequate resources. Older physicians might be less exposed to ethically problematic situations, be more able to handle them or have lower ethical sensitivity. Young physicians could benefit from support in resisting pressure to perform unnecessary treatments, whereas older physicians might benefit from training in recognizing ethical issues.
ALTERNATE NUCLEAR TRANSFER IS NO ALTERNATIVE FOR EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH
Authors: FENNEL JOHN A. 
Published: January 2008

ABSTRACTRecent developments allow for the creation of human stem cells without the creation of human embryos, a process called alternate nuclear transfer (‘ANT’). Pursuing this method of stem cell research makes sense for pro‐lifers if arguments for the sanctity of the human embryo do not apply to ANT. However, the technology that makes ANT possible undermines the erstwhile technical barrier between human embryos and somatic cell DNA. These advances bring home the force of hypothetical arguments about the potential of the DNA in somatic cells, showing that there is not a morally relevant difference between the potential of an embryo and the potential of the DNA in a somatic cell. Therefore, the supposed distinction between entities that are potential human life and entities that are human life does not give any support to arguments for the sanctity of the human embryo because those arguments extend value to too many entities.
Children's Accounts of Sibling Jealousy and Their Implicit Theories about Relationships
Authors: Thompson Julie A. , Halberstadt Amy G. 
Published: January 2008

AbstractIn two studies, fifth‐ and sixth‐grade children's descriptive accounts of sibling jealousy were related to their implicit theories about relationships. Children's jealousy accounts were collected via structured interviews; their implicit theories were assessed by questionnaire. In both studies, children reported experiencing mild to moderate jealousy with diverted attention and favoritism as primary causes. In Study 1 (N = 63; M age = 11 years, 9 months), children who endorsed malleable (incremental) theories about relationships reported longer and more intense jealousy than children who reported fixed (entity) theories about relationships. Findings from Study 2 (N = 42; M age = 10 years, 9 months) replicated Study 1 and additionally demonstrated that malleable theorists' time being jealous was spent generating more mastery‐oriented ways to deal with the situation as compared to fixed theorists.
Intergenerational Allocation of Government Expenditures: Externalities and Optimal Taxation
Authors: IQBAL KAZI , TURNOVSKY STEPHEN J. 
Published: January 2008

AbstractThis paper studies optimal capital and labor income taxes when the benefits of public goods are age‐dependent. Provided the government can impose a consumption tax, it can attain the first‐best resource allocation. This involves the uniform taxation of the cohorts' labor income and a zero capital income tax. With no consumption tax and optimally chosen government spending, labor income should be taxed nonuniformly across cohorts and the capital income tax should be nonzero. Deviations of the public goods from their respective optima create distortions. These affect the labor supply decisions of both cohorts and capital accumulation, providing a further reason to tax (or subsidize) capital income.
Efficiency of Screening and Labor Income Inequality
Authors: ECKWERT BERNHARD , ZILCHA ITZHAK 
Published: January 2008

AbstractWe analyze the importance of information about individual skills for understanding human capital accumulation and income inequality. The paper uses the framework of an overlapping generations economy with endogenous investment in human capital. Agents in each generation differ by random individual ability, or talent, which affects the screening process. The human capital of an agent depends on both his talent and his investment in education. The investment decision is based on a public signal (test outcome), which screens all agents for their talents. We analyze how a better information system, which allows more efficient screening, affects investment in education and, hence, income inequality in equilibrium. As a main result, we find that, typically, less inequality in the distribution of actual incomes can only be achieved at the expense of more inequality in the distribution of income opportunities.
A novel simple technique for en face endothelial observations using water‐soluble media –‘thinned‐wall’ preparations
Authors: Jelev L. , Surchev L. 
Published: January 2008

AbstractA new, easily applicable technique providing en face preparations for light microscopy observations of the rat aorta and human thin wall arteries is described here. The major steps of the technique include attachment of the fixed and flattened vessel with the endothelium face down on a glass slide, covered with a water‐soluble adhesive medium; drying and softening the vessel wall with another water‐soluble medium; removal of the adventitia and most of the media; detaching the layer by placing the glass slide in water; and final attachment of the layer with the endothelium upwards. On such ‘thinned‐wall’ preparations, 40–50 µm in thickness, the stained endothelial cells are clearly visible. Because of the preparation thickness and the use of water‐soluble media during the preparation, some subendothelial lipid accumulations, characteristic of the early stages of atherosclerosis process, are well preserved.
Comparative anatomy and muscle architecture of selected hind limb muscles in the Quarter Horse and Arab
Authors: Crook T. C. , Cruickshank S. E. , McGowan C. M. , Stubbs N. , Wakeling J. M. , Wilson A. M. , Payne R. C. 
Published: January 2008

AbstractThe Quarter Horse (bred for acceleration) and the Arab (bred for endurance) are situated at either end of the equine athletic spectrum. Studies into the form and function of the leg muscles in human sprint and endurance runners have demonstrated that differences exist in their muscle architecture. It is not known whether similar differences exist in the horse. Six Quarter Horse and six Arab fresh hind limb cadavers were dissected to gain information on the muscle mass and architecture of the following muscles: gluteus medius; biceps femoris; semitendinosus; vastus lateralis; gastrocnemius; tibialis cranialis and extensor digitorum longus. Specifically, muscle mass, fascicle length and pennation angle were quantified and physiological cross‐sectional area (PCSA) and maximum isometric force were estimated. The hind limb muscles of the Quarter Horse were of a significantly greater mass, but had similar fascicle lengths and pennation angles when compared with those of the Arab; this resulted in the Quarter Horse hind limb muscles having greater PCSAs and hence greater isometric force potential. This study suggests that Quarter Horses as a breed inherently possess large strong hind limb muscles, with the potential to accelerate their body mass more rapidly than those of the Arab.
Molecular characterization of the injury‐induced aromatase transcript in the adult zebra finch brain
Authors: Wynne Ryan D. , Maas Stefan , Saldanha Colin J. 
Published: January 2008

AbstractIn the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), the aromatase gene is transcribed from one of two promoters resulting in two transcripts constitutively expressed in brain or ovary. These transcripts differ only in Exon 1 which lies in the 5′ un‐translated region (UTR). An inducible form of aromatase is expressed following brain injury in glia. Towards characterizing this transcript, we (a) examined the up‐regulation of amplicons within the aromatase transcript using quantitative PCR (qPCR), (b) performed 5′ and 3′ rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) on injured brain RNA and (c) sequenced the injury‐induced aromatase transcript. qPCR suggested that inducible aromatase may contain a novel 3′UTR. However, neither 3′ nor 5′ RACE revealed novel UTRs in the injured telencephalon. We then sequenced aromatase from injured entopallium, a region that lacks detectable constitutive aromatase. Inducible aromatase was identical in sequence to the known neural aromatase transcript. These data suggest that injury‐induced aromatase differs from ovarian, but is indistinguishable from neuronal aromatase. We suggest that an injury‐specific signal in glia may modulate aromatase transcription. Alternatively, injury‐induced aromatase transcription may be silenced under constitutive conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that documents the sequence of inducible aromatase in any vertebrate.
Full‐thickness eyelid penetration during cosmetic blepharopigmentation causing eye injury
Authors: De Monya , Marshak Harry , Uzcategui Nicolas , Chang Eli 
Published: January 2008

SummaryPurpose   This paper aims to present a case of iatrogenic injury to the globe during cosmetic eyelid blepharopigmentation (tattooing).Design/Methods   Observational case report.Results   A 46‐year‐old Asian female presented with chemosis and injection of the conjunctiva one day following cosmetic blepharopigmentation. The tattoo needle had penetrated full‐thickness through the lid margin, resulting in a line of pigment along the superior bulbar conjunctiva with an associated inflammatory reaction. The conjunctivitis resolved with treatment, but the pigment remained.Conclusion   Physicians should be aware of the potential complications of cosmetic tattooing. Some measures for the prevention of iatrogenic injury are suggested.