INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES IN DOCTOR – PATIENT COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH: SELECTION CRITERIA

Background. Communication between doctor and patient is an important component of the treatment process. The main task of the doctor is to collect all the necessary information about the patient’s problem and the history of its occurrence, to clarify all the circumstances of the situation and to offer options for action. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to use certain speech means that should help the doctor get all the information and get what they want from the patient. Questions are one of the means that determine the effectiveness of interaction. Purpose. The purpose of the study of this article is to analyze the interrogative sentences used in the doctor – patient dialogues in English, to determine their communicative load, to identify the most frequent constructions and to describe the criteria for choosing the types of interrogative sentences. Materials and methods. The material of the study was the scripts of conversations between doctors and patients in English, presented in open sources. In the course of the study, a continuous sample of interrogative sentences used by the doctor was carried out. The questions were divided into types according to their grammatical structure, the communicative load of each type was determined. The most and least frequent types of questions are singled out, possible grounds for such a pattern are identified. Results. The article describes the main types of questions in English in terms of their grammatical structure: general, special, alternative and disjunctive. The results of own research based on the material of audio recordings and their scripts of conversations between doctors of various specialties and their patients at various stages of the treatment process are presented. In the process of research, each type of questions was analyzed in the context of their use in order to describe their communicative load. This approach made it possible to identify criteria for selecting certain types of questions, which are determined by the target settings of the communicative “doctor-patient” situation. Practical implications. The results of the study can be applied in the practice of teaching Medical English, in the professional activities of healthcare professionals when communicating with patients, in theoretical courses on English grammar

Modelling and mapping how common guillemots balance their energy budgets over a full annual cycle

The ability of individual animals to balance their energy budgets throughout the annual cycle is important for their survival, reproduction and population dynamics. However, the annual cycles of many wild, mobile animals are difficult to observe and our understanding of how individuals balance their energy budgets throughout the year therefore remains poor. We developed a hierarchical Bayesian state-space model to investigate how key components of animal energy budgets (namely individual energy gain and storage) varied in space and time. Our model used biologger-derived estimates of time-activity budgets, locations and energy expenditure to infer year-round time series of energy income and reserves. The model accounted for seasonality in environmental drivers such as sea surface temperature and daylength, allowing us to identify times and locations of high energy gain. Our study system was a population of common guillemots Uria aalge breeding at a western North Sea colony. These seabirds manage their energy budgets by adjusting their behaviour and accumulating fat reserves. However, typically during severe weather conditions, birds can experience an energy deficit over a sustained period, leading to starvation and large-scale mortality events. We show that guillemot energy gain varied in both time and space. Estimates of guillemot body mass varied throughout the annual cycle and birds periodically experienced losses in mass. Mass losses were likely to have either been adaptive, or due to energetic bottlenecks, the latter leading to increased susceptibility to mortality. Guillemots tended to be lighter towards the edge of their spatial distribution. We describe a framework that combines biologging data, time-activity budget analysis and Bayesian state-space modelling to identify times and locations of high energetic reward or potential energetic bottlenecks in a wild animal population. Our approach can be extended to address ecological and conservation-driven questions that were previously unanswerable due to logistical complexities in collecting data on wild, mobile animals across full annual cycles

Among-year and within-population variation in foraging distribution of European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis over two decades: implications for marine spatial planning

Marine spatial planning aims to deliver sustainable use of marine resources by minimizing environmental impacts of human activities and designating Marine Protected Areas. This poses a challenge where species’ distributions show spatio-temporal heterogeneity. However, due to logistic constraints and challenging timescales many studies of distribution are undertaken over few years or on a restricted subset of the population. Long-term studies can help identify the degree of uncertainty in those less comprehensive in space and time. We quantify inter-annual and sub-colony variation in the summer foraging distribution of a population of European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis, using a tracking data set comprising 320 individuals and 1106 foraging trips in 15 years from 1987 to 2010. Foraging distribution over the study period was concentrated in three areas. Data from one and two years captured an average of 54% and 64% of this distribution, respectively, but it required 8 years’ data to capture over 90% of the distribution. Foraging range increased with population size when breeding success was low, suggesting interplay between extrinsic and intrinsic effects. Furthermore, females had foraging ranges on average 36% greater than males. Finally, sub-colony segregation occurred in foraging areas up to 4 km from the colony and in the most distant locations (>10 km), whilst there was considerable overlap at intermediate distances (6–10 km). Our study highlights important considerations for marine spatial planning in particular, and species conservation in general, notably the proportion of the population distribution identified, the prevailing conditions experienced and the need for balanced sampling across the population

Na,K-ATPase Acts as a Beta-Amyloid Receptor Triggering Src Kinase Activation

Beta-amyloid (Aβ) has a dual role, both as an important factor in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease and as a regulator in brain physiology. The inhibitory effect of Aβ42 oligomers on Na,K-ATPase contributes to neuronal dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. Still, the physiological role of the monomeric form of Aβ42 interaction with Na,K-ATPase remains unclear. We report that Na,K-ATPase serves as a receptor for Aβ42 monomer, triggering Src kinase activation. The co-localization of Aβ42 with α1- and β1-subunits of Na,K-ATPase, and Na,K-ATPase with Src kinase in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, was observed. Treatment of cells with 100 nM Aβ42 causes Src kinase activation, but does not alter Na,K-ATPase transport activity. The interaction of Aβ42 with α1β1 Na,K-ATPase isozyme leads to activation of Src kinase associated with the enzyme. Notably, prevention of Na,K-ATPase:Src kinase interaction by a specific inhibitor pNaKtide disrupts the Aβ-induced Src kinase activation. Stimulatory effect of Aβ42 on Src kinase was lost under hypoxic conditions, which was similar to the effect of specific Na,K-ATPase ligands, the cardiotonic steroids. Our findings identify Na,K-ATPase as a Aβ42 receptor, thus opening a prospect on exploring the physiological and pathological Src kinase activation caused by Aβ42 in the nervous system

Multi-colony tracking reveals spatio-temporal variation in carry-over effects between breeding success and winter movements in a pelagic seabird

Carry-over effects, whereby events in one season have consequences in subsequent seasons, have important demographic implications. Although most studies examine carry-over effects across 2 seasons in single populations, the effects may persist beyond the following season and vary across a species’ range. To assess potential carry-over effects across the annual cycle and among populations, we deployed geolocation loggers on black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla at 10 colonies in the north-east Atlantic and examined relationships between the timing and destination of migratory movements and breeding success in the year of deployment and subsequent season. Both successful and unsuccessful breeders wintered primarily in the north-west Atlantic. Breeding success affected the timing of migration, whereby unsuccessful breeders departed the colony earlier, arrived at the post-breeding and main wintering areas sooner, and departed later the following spring. However, these patterns were only apparent in colonies in the south-west of the study region. Furthermore, the effect of breeding success was stronger on migration timing in the first part of the winter than later. Timing of migratory movements was weakly linked to subsequent breeding success, and there was no detectable association between breeding success in the 2 seasons. Our results indicate temporal structure and spatial hetero - geneity in the strength of seasonal interactions among kittiwakes breeding in the north-east Atlantic. Variable fitness consequences for individuals from different colonies could have important implications for population processes across the species’ range and suggest that the spatio-temporal dynamics of carry-over effects warrant further study

Quantifying annual spatial consistency in chick-rearing seabirds to inform important site identification

Animal tracking has afforded insights into patterns of space use in numerous species and thereby informed area-based conservation planning. A crucial consideration when estimating spatial distributions from tracking data is whether the sample of tracked animals is representative of the wider population. However, it may also be important to track animals in multiple years to capture changes in distribution in response to varying environmental conditions. Using GPS-tracking data from 23 seabird species, we assessed the importance of multi-year sampling for identifying important sites for conservation during the chick-rearing period, when seabirds are most spatially constrained. We found a high degree of spatial overlap among distributions from different years in most species. Multi-year sampling often captured a significantly higher portion of reference distributions (based on all data for a population) than sampling in a single year. However, we estimated that data from a single year would on average miss only 5 % less of the full distribution of a population compared to equal-sized samples collected across three years (min: −0.3 %, max: 17.7 %, n = 23). Our results suggest a key consideration for identifying important sites from tracking data is whether enough individuals were tracked to provide a representative estimate of the population distribution during the sampling period, rather than that tracking necessarily take place in multiple years. By providing an unprecedented multi-species perspective on annual spatial consistency, this work has relevance for the application of tracking data to informing the conservation of seabirds

Number Sense and Mathematics: Which, When and How?

Individual differences in number sense correlate with mathematical ability and performance, although the presence and strength of this relationship differs across studies. Inconsistencies in the literature may stem from heterogeneity of number sense and mathematical ability constructs. Sample characteristics may also play a role as changes in the relationship between number sense and mathematics may differ across development and cultural contexts. In this study, 4,984 16-year-old students were assessed on estimation ability, one aspect of number sense. Estimation was measured using two different tasks: number line and dot-comparison. Using cognitive and achievement data previously collected from these students at ages 7, 9, 10, 12, and 14 years of age, the study explored for which of the measures and when in development these links are observed; how strong these links are and how much these links are moderated by other cognitive abilities. The two number sensemeasures correlated modestly with each other (r = .22), but moderately with mathematics at age 16. Both measures were also associated with earlier mathematics; but this association was uneven across development and was moderated by other cognitive abilities

A network analysis to identify mediators of germline-driven differences in breast cancer prognosis.

Identifying the underlying genetic drivers of the heritability of breast cancer prognosis remains elusive. We adapt a network-based approach to handle underpowered complex datasets to provide new insights into the potential function of germline variants in breast cancer prognosis. This network-based analysis studies ~7.3 million variants in 84,457 breast cancer patients in relation to breast cancer survival and confirms the results on 12,381 independent patients. Aggregating the prognostic effects of genetic variants across multiple genes, we identify four gene modules associated with survival in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative and one in ER-positive disease. The modules show biological enrichment for cancer-related processes such as G-alpha signaling, circadian clock, angiogenesis, and Rho-GTPases in apoptosis

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer.

Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM -/- patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors