bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The effects of five‐year growth hormone replacement therapy on muscle strength in elderly hypopituitary patients
Authors: Götherström Galina , Bengtsson Bengt‐Åke , Sunnerhagen Katharina Stibrant , Johannsson Gudmundur , Svensson Johan 
Published: January 2005

SummaryObjective  Little is known of the long‐term effects of GH replacement therapy on muscle strength in elderly adults with adult onset GH deficiency (GHD). In this study, the effects of 5 years of GH replacement therapy on muscle function were determined in adults over 60 years of age with adult onset GHD.Design  A prospective, open‐label, single‐centre study.Patients  Twenty‐six (12 male and 14 female) consecutive hypopituitary adults with adult onset GHD, mean age 65·0 (range 61–74) years.Measurements  Upper leg muscle strength was measured using a Kin‐Com dynamometer. Right and left handgrip strength were measured using an electronic grip force instrument.Results  The mean insulin‐like growth factor‐I (IGF‐I) SD score increased from −1·10 at baseline to 1·21 at end of the study. Body weight was unchanged during the 5‐year study. A sustained increase in lean body mass and a sustained reduction of body fat was observed as measured using dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The GH replacement therapy induced a sustained increase in isometric (60°) knee flexor strength. After statistical correction for age and sex variables using observed/predicted value ratios, a sustained increase was also observed in concentric knee flexor strength at an angular velocity of 60°/s, concentric knee extensor strength at 60°/s and 180°/s, and peak right handgrip strength. At baseline, knee flexor strength was 90–96% of predicted, knee extensor strength was 85–87% of predicted, and hand‐grip strength was 74–80% of predicted values. At study end, knee flexor strength was 98–106% of predicted, knee extensor strength was 90–100% of predicted, and hand‐grip strength was 80–87% of predicted values.Conclusion  Elderly patients with adult onset GH deficiency had decreased baseline muscle strength also after correction for age and sex. The 5‐year GH replacement therapy normalized knee flexor strength and improved, but did not fully normalize, knee extensor strength and handgrip strength.
Misunderstandings about illness and treatment among patients with type 2 diabetes
Authors: Holmström Inger M. , Rosenqvist Urban 
Published: January 2005

Aims.  This paper reports a study whose aim was to describe the misunderstandings that Swedish patients with type 2 diabetes have about their illness and treatment.Background.  It is well known that patients with type 2 diabetes need extensive support and education to learn to manage and live with their illness. However, a Swedish survey has shown that only 34% of these patients had good metabolic control. Despite intensive education and support, misunderstandings about both the illness and treatment seem to be common. Furthermore, patients are currently complaining that health care services sometimes obstruct rather than support self‐care and learning.Methods.  We videotaped 18 authentic encounters between a patient with diabetes and a physician, or a diabetes nurse. Patients then viewed the video and reflected on what took place during the consultation. Video‐recordings and transcribed reflections were analysed thematically.Results.  Five themes emerged from the analysis: (a) Type 2 diabetes is not ‘real diabetes’; (b) Complications – horror visions or suppression; (c) Self‐monitoring of blood glucose and medication is a routine, not a learning tool; (d) Diet – the important thing is to reduce fat and (e) ‘Physical exercise is good, they tell us’. Four of the 18 patients showed no misunderstandings. Misunderstandings of diabetes and its treatment were thus common and numerous, despite regular checkups and good access to care. The patients adhered to prescribed regimens but did not know why they performed many routines or how they could benefit from them.Conclusion.  The results show that misunderstandings of illness and treatment were common. We suggest that diabetes educators should base their education on this variation of understanding, using a phenomenological approach to learning. Reflecting on this kind of varied experiences can be a powerful tool to help people to move from ‘novice to expert’ and apply basic routines to new situations.
Health visiting and refugee families: issues in professional practice
Authors: Drennan Vari M. , Joseph Judy 
Published: January 2005

Aim.  This paper reports on the perceptions of experienced health visitors working with refugee families in Inner London.Background.  Women who are refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom are more likely to experience depression than either non‐refugee women or male asylum seekers. Health visitors provide a universal public health service to all women on the birth of a child, or with children aged under five, and as such are well placed to identify emotional and mental health problems of women who are refugees. Despite successive waves of refugees to the United Kingdom in the 20th century, there are no empirical studies of health visiting practice with this vulnerable group. There is also no body of evidence to inform the practice of health visitors new to working with asylum seekers and refugees.Methods.  An exploratory study was undertaken in Inner London in 2001. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 13 health visitors experienced in working with women and families who are refugees.Findings.  A range of structural challenges was identified that mediated against the development of a health‐promoting relationship between health visitors and refugee women. With refugee families, who were living in temporary accommodation, health visitors were prioritizing basic needs that had to be addressed: in addition, they prioritized the needs of children before those of women. Health visitors were aware of the emotional needs of women and had strategies for addressing these with women in more settled circumstances. Health visitors considered themselves ill‐prepared to deal with the complexities of working with women in these situations.Conclusions.  This study identifies issues for further exploration, not least from the perspective of refugee women receiving health visiting services. Health visitors in countries receiving refugee women are framing their work with these women in ways that reflect Maslow's theory of a hierarchy of needs. This study suggests ways that public health nursing practice could be improved, and identifies issues for further study.
Worker reproduction in the antFormica fusca
Authors: Helanterä H. , Sundström L. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractWe studied the kin conflict over male parentage in the antFormica fusca. The conflict arises because each worker and queen is most related to her own sons and is thus predicted to lay eggs. Microsatellite analysis of eggs revealed that workers laid eggs in more than half the queenright experimental nests. Nevertheless, almost exclusively diploid offspring were reared in the presence of a queen. This also occurred when worker‐laid haploid male eggs were experimentally introduced in to the nests. Because our experimental setup allowed us to exclude the possibility of queen policing, we conclude that worker laid eggs are removed by other workers, either as a response to their parentage or gender. Our results suggest that worker reproduction inF. fuscais ultimately an interplay of conflicts over male parentage and sex allocation and that both worker and self policing have roles as proximate mechanisms of resolution.
Potential fitness benefits from mate selection in the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)
Authors: Rudolfsen G. , Figenschou L. , Folstad I. , Nordeide J. T. , Søreng E. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractLittle evidence of benefits from female mate choice has been found when males provide no parental care or resources. Yet, good genes models of sexual selection suggest that elaborated male sexual characters are reliable signals of mate quality and that the offspring of males with elaborate sexual ornaments will perform better than those of males with less elaborate ornaments. We used cod (Gadus morhua L.), an externally fertilizing species where males provide nothing but sperm, to examine the potential of optimal mate selection with respect to offspring survival. By applying in vitro fertilizations, we crossed eight females with nine males in all possible combinations and reared each of the 72 sib groups. We found that offspring survival was dependent on which female was mated with which male and that optimal mate selection has the potential to increase mean offspring survival from 31.9 to 55.6% (a 74% increase). However, the size of the male sexual ornaments and sperm quality (i.e. sperm velocity and sperm density) could not predict offspring survival. Thus, even if there may be large fitness benefits of mate selection, we might not yet have identified the male characteristics generating high offspring survival.
Estimation of effective population size and detection of a recent population decline coinciding with habitat fragmentation in a ground beetle
Authors: Keller I. , Excoffier L. , Largiadèr C. R. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractWe assess the impact of habitat fragmentation on the effective size (Ne) of local populations of the flightless ground beetleCarabus violaceusin a small (<25 ha) and a large (>80 ha) forest fragment separated by a highway.Newas estimated based on the temporal variation of allele frequencies at 13 microsatellite loci using two different methods. In the smaller fragment,Neestimates ranged between 59 and a few hundred, whereas values between 190 and positive infinity were estimated for the larger fragment. In both samples, we detected a signal of population decline, which was stronger in the small fragment. The estimated time of onset of thisNereduction was consistent with the hypothesis that recent road constructions have divided a continuous population into several isolated subpopulations. In the small fragment,Neof the local population may be so small that its long‐term persistence is endangered.
The evolution of repeated mating under sexual conflict
Authors: Härdling R. , Kaitala A. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractIn insects, repeated mating by females may have direct effects on female fecundity, fertility, and longevity. In addition, a female's remating rate affects her fitness through mortality costs of male harassment and ecological risks of mating such as predation. We analyse a model where these female fitness factors are put into their life‐history context, and traded against each other, while accounting for limitations because of mate availability. We solve analytically for the condition when female multiple mating will evolve. We show that the probability that a female mates with a courting male decreases with increases in population density. The extent of conflict between the sexes thus automatically becomes larger at higher densities. However, because at higher densities females meet males at a higher rate, the resulting ESS female remating rate is independent of population density. The female remating probability is in conflict with male adaptations that increase male mating rate by persuading or forcing females to mate, and also in conflict with male adaptations for protecting the own sperm from being removed by future female mates. We show that the relative importance of these conflicts depends on population density.
Co‐evolution of male and female reproductive characters across the Scathophagidae (Diptera)
Authors: Minder A. M. , Hosken D. J. , Ward P. I. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractSperm morphometry is extremely variable across species, but a general adaptive explanation for this diversity is lacking. As sperm must function within the female, variation in sperm form may be associated with variation in female reproductive tract morphology. We investigated this and other potential evolutionary associations between male and female reproductive characters across the Scathophagidae. Sperm length was positively associated with the length of the spermathecal (sperm store) ducts, indicating correlated evolution between the two. No association was found between sperm length and spermathecal size. However, the size of the spermathecae was positively associated with testis size indicating co‐evolution between male investment in sperm production and female sperm storage capacity. Furthermore, species with a higher degree of polyandry (larger testes) had longer spermathecal ducts. However, no associations between sperm length or length variation and testis size were found which suggests greater sperm competitionsensu strictodoes not select for longer sperm.
Mutation and the experimental evolution of outcrossing in Caenorhabditis elegans
Authors: Cutter A. D. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractAn understanding of the forces that contribute to the phylogenetically widespread phenomenon of sexual reproduction has posed a longstanding problem in evolutionary biology. Mutational theories contend that sex can be maintained when the deleterious mutation rate is sufficiently high, although empirical evidence is equivocal and experimental studies are rare. To test the influence of mutation on the evolution of obligate outcrossing, I introduced a genetic polymorphism for breeding system into populations of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans with high‐ and low‐mutation rate genetic backgrounds and tracked the change in frequency of females, hermaphrodites, and males over approximately 21 generations. Hermaphrodites invaded all populations, regardless of mutational background. However, experimental populations with elevated mutation rates experienced more outcrossing and greater retention of females. This provides experimental evidence consistent with deleterious mutational explanations for the evolution of sex in principle, but the action of other processes is required to explain the evolution of sex in entirety.
Genetic and environmental effects on secondary sex traits in guppies (Poecilia reticulata)
Authors: Hughes K. A. , Rodd F. H. , Reznick D. N. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractMale guppies (Poecilia reticulata) exhibit extreme phenotypic and genetic variability for several traits that are important to male fitness, and several lines of evidence suggest that resource level affects phenotypic expression of these traits in nature. We tested the hypothesis that genetic variation for male secondary sex traits could be maintained by genotype‐specific effects of variable resource levels (genotype–environment interaction). To do this, we measured genetic variation and covariation under two environmental conditions – relatively low and relatively high food availability. We found high levels of genetic variation for most traits, but we only found a significant G × E interaction across food levels for one trait (body size) for one population. The across‐environment correlations for size were large and positive, indicating that the reaction norms for size did not cross. We also found that male colour pattern elements had nearly an order of magnitude more genetic variation than did male size. Heritability estimates indicated that Y‐linked genes are responsible for some of the genetic variation in male size and colour traits. We discuss implications of these results for theories of the maintenance of genetic variation in male secondary sexual traits in guppies.
Mechanisms of constraints: the contributions of selection and genetic variance to the maintenance of cotyledon number in wild radish
Authors: Conner J. K. , Agrawal A. A. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractThe evolutionary mechanisms underlying the maintenance of invariant traits are poorly understood, partly because the lack of variance makes these mechanisms difficult to study. Although the number of cotyledons that plant species produce is highly canalized, populations of plants frequently contain individuals with abnormal cotyledon numbers. In a garden study with 1857 wild radish plants from 75 paternal half‐sibling families, 89 (almost 5%) had cotyledon numbers less or greater than two. We found evidence for direct selection on cotyledon number, but no evidence for additive genetic variation for cotyledon number. In spite of the very large sample size, our power to detect variation and selection was hampered by the small number of individuals (10) producing more than two cotyledons. Thus, our results provide support for both a lack of genetic variation and selection as reasons for the current lack of variation in wild radish cotyledon number.
Evidence for bilateral control of skilled movements: ipsilateral skilled forelimb reaching deficits and functional recovery in rats follow motor cortex and lateral frontal cortex lesions
Authors: Gonzalez Claudia L. R. , Gharbawie Omar A. , Williams Preston T. , Kleim Jeffrey A. , Kolb Bryan , Whishaw Ian Q. 
Published: January 2005

AbstractUnilateral damage to cortical areas in the frontal cortex produces sensorimotor deficits on the side contralateral to the lesion. Although there are anecdotal reports of bilateral deficits after stroke in humans and in experimental animals, little is known of the effects of unilateral lesions on the same side of the body. The objective of the present study was to make a systematic examination of the motor skills of the ipsilateral forelimb after frontal cortex lesions to either the motor cortex by devascularization of the surface blood vessels (pial stroke), or to the lateral cortex by electrocoagulation of the distal branches of the middle cerebral artery (MCA stroke). Plastic processes in the intact hemisphere were documented using Golgi–Cox dendritic analysis and by intracortical microstimulation analysis. Although tests of reflexive responses in forelimb placing identified a contralateral motor impairment following both cortical lesions, quantitative and qualitative measures of skilled reaching identified a severe ipsilateral impairment from which recovery was substantial but incomplete. Golgi‐impregnated pyramidal cells in the forelimb area showed an increase in dendritic length and branching. Electrophysiological mapping showed normal size forelimb representations in the lesioned rats relative to control animals. The finding of an enduring ipsilateral impairment in skilled movement is consistent with a large but more anecdotal literature in rats, nonhuman primates and humans, and suggests that plastic changes in the intact hemisphere are related to that hemisphere's contribution to skilled movement.
Differential effects of prolonged high frequency stimulation and of excitotoxic lesion of the subthalamic nucleus on dopamine denervation‐induced cellular defects in the rat striatum and globus pallidus
Authors: Bacci Jean‐Jacques , Absi El Hadi , Manrique Christine , Baunez Christelle , Salin Pascal , Kerkerian‐Le Goff Lydia 
Published: January 2005

AbstractThis study examined the effects of prolonged (4 days) high frequency stimulation (HFS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), in comparison with those of STN lesion, on the dopamine denervation‐mediated cellular changes in the basal ganglia in a Wistar rat model of Parkinson's disease. STN HFS counteracted the dopamine lesion‐induced increase in GAD67 mRNA expression in the output structures of the basal ganglia, as shown previously after STN lesion, providing cellular support for the similar antiparkinsonian benefits produced by the two surgical procedures. The dopamine denervation‐induced increase in GAD67 mRNA levels in the globus pallidus was partially antagonized after HFS and totally reversed after ibotenate‐induced STN lesion. The overexpression of striatal enkephalin mRNA tended to be further increased by HFS but was antagonized by STN lesion. The decrease in striatal substance P mRNA levels was affected neither by STN HFS nor lesion. As STN HFS for two hours was previously found not to interfere with the effects of dopamine lesion in the globus pallidus and striatum, the present data provide strong evidence that the effects of STN surgery in these structures involve long‐term adaptive processes and that the rearrangements mediated by HFS and lesion are, at least in part, different.
Functional dissociation between serotonergic pathways in dorsal and ventral hippocampus in psychotomimetic drug‐induced locomotor hyperactivity and prepulse inhibition in rats
Authors: Kusljic Snezana , Van Den Buuse Maarten 
Published: January 2005

AbstractAltered hippocampal function and brain serotonin activity are implicated in the development and symptoms of schizophrenia. We have previously shown that lesions of the median raphe nucleus, but not the dorsal raphe nucleus, produced a marked enhancement of locomotor hyperactivity induced by phencyclidine and disruption of prepulse inhibition. The dorsal and ventral hippocampus receive serotonin projections predominantly from the median raphe nucleus and dorsal raphe nucleus, respectively. Therefore, we investigated the effect of local lesions of serotonin projections into the dorsal and ventral hippocampus on psychotomimetic drug‐induced locomotor hyperactivity and prepulse inhibition. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were anaesthetized with pentobarbitone and stereotaxically microinjected with 5 µg of the serotonergic neurotoxin 5,7‐dihydroxytryptamine into either the dorsal or the ventral hippocampus. Two weeks after surgery, dorsal hippocampus‐lesioned rats showed a 100% enhancement of the locomotor hyperactivity caused by phencyclidine treatment and a slight but significant reduction of the effect of amphetamine. Prepulse inhibition was significantly disrupted in lesioned rats and serotonin levels in the dorsal hippocampus were reduced by 80%. Rats with lesions of the ventral hippocampus showed 85% depletion of serotonin and partial disruption of prepulse inhibition, but no significant changes in the effect of phencyclidine or amphetamine. These results suggest that serotonin projections from the median raphe nucleus to the dorsal hippocampus play an important role in locomotor hyperactivity and prepulse inhibition in rats, animal models of aspects of schizophrenia. This suggests that these serotonin projections may be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia symptomology.