Concealed concern: Fathers' experience of having a child with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Despite increased research into families of chronically ill children, more needs to be known about the father’s experience. We address this issue through asking: ‘What is it like to be the father of a child with juvenile idiopathic arthritis?’ (JIA). Four members of eight families with an adolescent diagnosed with JIA, including seven fathers, were interviewed and transcripts analyzed using grounded theory. This study suggests that fathers of children with JIA experience several severe losses which are exacerbated through comparisons they make between their own situation and that of fathers of healthy children. In addition, the fathers faced several constraints which reduced their opportunities to communicate with their ill child through shared activities. Fathers appeared to conceal their distress by adopting strategies of denial and distraction however their adjustment was facilitated, to some extent, by social support. They could also develop greater acceptance of their situation over time as the care of their ill child became assimilated into family life and constraints upon their life gradually reduced through the increased maturity of their son or daughter with JIA. These findings have implications for healthcare professionals and voluntary organizations

Innovator resilience potential: A process perspective of individual resilience as influenced by innovation project termination

Innovation projects fail at an astonishing rate. Yet, the negative effects of innovation project failures on the team members of these projects have been largely neglected in research streams that deal with innovation project failures. After such setbacks, it is vital to maintain or even strengthen project members’ innovative capabilities for subsequent innovation projects. For this, the concept of resilience, i.e. project members’ potential to positively adjust (or even grow) after a setback such as an innovation project failure, is fundamental. We develop the second-order construct of innovator resilience potential, which consists of six components – self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, optimism, hope, self-esteem, and risk propensity – that are important for project members’ potential of innovative functioning in innovation projects subsequent to a failure. We illustrate our theoretical findings by means of a qualitative study of a terminated large-scale innovation project, and derive implications for research and management

Shotgun Lipidomics Identifies a Paired Rule for the Presence of Isomeric Ether Phospholipid Molecular Species

Ether phospholipids are abundant membrane constituents present in electrically active tissues (e.g., heart and the brain) that play important roles in cellular function. Alterations of ether phospholipid molecular species contents are associated with a number of genetic disorders and human diseases.Herein, the power of shotgun lipidomics, in combination with high mass accuracy/high resolution mass spectrometry, was explored to identify a paired rule for the presence of isomeric ether phospholipid molecular species in cellular lipidomes. The rule predicts that if an ether phospholipid A'-B is present in a lipidome, its isomeric counterpart B'-A is also present (where the ' represents an ether linkage). The biochemical basis of this rule results from the fact that the enzymes which participate in either the sequential oxidation of aliphatic alcohols to fatty acids, or the reduction of long chain fatty acids to aliphatic alcohols (metabolic precursors of ether lipid synthesis), are not entirely selective with respect to acyl chain length or degree of unsaturation. Moreover, the enzymatic selectivity for the incorporation of different aliphatic chains into the obligatory precursor of ether lipids (i.e., 1-O-alkyl-glycero-3-phosphate) is also limited.This intrinsic amplification of the number of lipid molecular species present in biological membranes predicted by this rule and demonstrated in this study greatly expands the number of ether lipid molecular species present in cellular lipidomes. Application of this rule to mass spectrometric analyses provides predictive clues to the presence of specific molecular species and greatly expands the number of identifiable and quantifiable ether lipid species present in biological samples. Through appropriate alterations in the database, use of the paired rule increases the number of identifiable metabolites in metabolic networks, thereby facilitating identification of biomarkers presaging disease states

Measuring the health impact of human rights violations related to Australian asylum policies and practices: A mixed methods study

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2009 Johnston et al.BACKGROUND: Human rights violations have adverse consequences for health. However, to date, there remains little empirical evidence documenting this association, beyond the obvious physical and psychological effects of torture. The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether Australian asylum policies and practices, which arguably violate human rights, are associated with adverse health outcomes. METHODS: We designed a mixed methods study to address the study aim. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 71 Iraqi Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) refugees and 60 Iraqi Permanent Humanitarian Visa (PHV) refugees, residing in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to a recent policy amendment, TPV refugees were only given temporary residency status and had restricted access to a range of government funded benefits and services that permanent refugees are automatically entitled to. The quantitative results were triangulated with semi-structured interviews with TPV refugees and service providers. The main outcome measures were self-reported physical and psychological health. Standardised self-report instruments, validated in an Arabic population, were used to measure health and wellbeing outcomes. RESULTS: Forty-six percent of TPV refugees compared with 25% of PHV refugees reported symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of clinical depression (p = 0.003). After controlling for the effects of age, gender and marital status, TPV status made a statistically significant contribution to psychological distress (B = 0.5, 95% CI 0.3 to 0.71, p </= 0.001) amongst Iraqi refugees. Qualitative data revealed that TPV refugees generally felt socially isolated and lacking in control over their life circumstances, because of their experiences in detention and on a temporary visa. This sense of powerlessness and, for some, an implicit awareness they were being denied basic human rights, culminated in a strong sense of injustice. CONCLUSION: Government asylum policies and practices violating human rights norms are associated with demonstrable psychological health impacts. This link between policy, rights violations and health outcomes offers a framework for addressing the impact of socio-political structures on health.This research was supported by an Australian National and Medical Research Council PhD Scholarship (N. 251782) and a Victorian Health Promotion Foundation research grant (No. 2002-0280)

Evaluation of a School–Community Linked Physical Activity Intervention Targeting 7- to 12-Year-Olds: A Sociocultural Perspective

ABSTRACT Background: Public health professionals advocate school-based and community physical activity (PA) interventions as an effective method to increase PA levels and improve physical fitness. Purpose: This evaluation independently assessed a school–community linked PA intervention by exploring the provision, process, and impact of the program and its outcomes. Methods: Students 10 aged 7 to 12 years (n = 468, intervention group [IG]; n = 128, control group [CG]), teachers (n = 19), head teachers (n = 4), school program contacts (n = 4), and program administrator (n = 1) took part in the evaluation. Program content and processes were assessed using questionnaires and semistructured interviews. A mixed effect model was used to assess changes in physical fitness, PA levels, and attitudes toward PA at baseline and postintervention. Results: CG increased 15 body mass (P > .001), aerobic capacity (P > .001), and push-ups (P = .005), as well as improved attitudinal scores toward health and fitness and vertigo (P < .05) compared to the IG. Process evaluation revealed struggles with implementation and design, including pedagogical issues to facilitate program goals. The intervention did not improve attitudinal outcomes, PA levels, or physical fitness above that of the CG. Translation to Health Education Practice: Sustainable PA 20 interventions need to adopt a sociocultural approach that is grounded in learning models and delivered by staff with relevant pedagogical content knowledge

Analysis of spatial relationships in three dimensions: tools for the study of nerve cell patterning

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multiple technologies have been brought to bear on understanding the three-dimensional morphology of individual neurons and glia within the brain, but little progress has been made on understanding the rules controlling cellular patterning. We describe new matlab-based software tools, now available to the scientific community, permitting the calculation of spatial statistics associated with 3D point patterns. The analyses are largely derived from the Delaunay tessellation of the field, including the nearest neighbor and Voronoi domain analyses, and from the spatial autocorrelogram.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our tools enable the analysis of the spatial relationship between neurons within the central nervous system in 3D, and permit the modeling of these fields based on lattice-like simulations, and on simulations of minimal-distance spacing rules. Here we demonstrate the utility of our analysis methods to discriminate between two different simulated neuronal populations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Together, these tools can be used to reveal the presence of nerve cell patterning and to model its foundation, in turn informing on the potential developmental mechanisms that govern its establishment. Furthermore, in conjunction with analyses of dendritic morphology, they can be used to determine the degree of dendritic coverage within a volume of tissue exhibited by mature nerve cells.</p

Phase transitions in biological membranes

Native membranes of biological cells display melting transitions of their lipids at a temperature of 10-20 degrees below body temperature. Such transitions can be observed in various bacterial cells, in nerves, in cancer cells, but also in lung surfactant. It seems as if the presence of transitions slightly below physiological temperature is a generic property of most cells. They are important because they influence many physical properties of the membranes. At the transition temperature, membranes display a larger permeability that is accompanied by ion-channel-like phenomena even in the complete absence of proteins. Membranes are softer, which implies that phenomena such as endocytosis and exocytosis are facilitated. Mechanical signal propagation phenomena related to nerve pulses are strongly enhanced. The position of transitions can be affected by changes in temperature, pressure, pH and salt concentration or by the presence of anesthetics. Thus, even at physiological temperature, these transitions are of relevance. There position and thereby the physical properties of the membrane can be controlled by changes in the intensive thermodynamic variables. Here, we review some of the experimental findings and the thermodynamics that describes the control of the membrane function.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure

Cytomegalovirus antibodies in dried blood spots: a minimally invasive method for assessing stress, immune function, and aging

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a prevalent herpesvirus with links to both stress and aging. This paper describes and validates a minimally invasive method for assessing antibodies against CMV in finger stick whole blood spot samples for use as an indirect marker of an aspect of cell-mediated immunity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analysis of CMV in dried blood spot samples (DBS) was based on modifications of a commercially available protocol for quantifying CMV antibodies in serum or plasma. The method was evaluated through analysis of precision, reliability, linearity, and correlation between matched serum and DBS samples collected from 75 volunteers. Correlation between DBS and plasma values was linear and high (Pearson correlation <it>R </it>= .96), and precision, reliability, and linearity of the DBS assay were within acceptable ranges.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The validity of a DBS assay for CMV antibodies will enable its inclusion in population-based surveys and other studies collecting DBS samples in non-clinical settings, increasing scientific understanding of the interaction of social and biological stress and immune function.</p

Stress, ageing and their influence on functional, cellular and molecular aspects of the immune system

The immune response is essential for keeping an organism healthy and for defending it from different types of pathogens. It is a complex system that consists of a large number of components performing different functions. The adequate and controlled interaction between these components is necessary for a robust and strong immune response. There are, however, many factors that interfere with the way the immune response functions. Stress and ageing now consistently appear in the literature as factors that act upon the immune system in the way that is often damaging. This review focuses on the role of stress and ageing in altering the robustness of the immune response first separately, and then simultaneously, discussing the effects that emerge from their interplay. The special focus is on the psychological stress and the impact that it has at different levels, from the whole system to the individual molecules, resulting in consequences for physical health

Having a lot of a good thing: multiple important group memberships as a source of self-esteem.

Copyright: © 2015 Jetten et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedMembership in important social groups can promote a positive identity. We propose and test an identity resource model in which personal self-esteem is boosted by membership in additional important social groups. Belonging to multiple important group memberships predicts personal self-esteem in children (Study 1a), older adults (Study 1b), and former residents of a homeless shelter (Study 1c). Study 2 shows that the effects of multiple important group memberships on personal self-esteem are not reducible to number of interpersonal ties. Studies 3a and 3b provide longitudinal evidence that multiple important group memberships predict personal self-esteem over time. Studies 4 and 5 show that collective self-esteem mediates this effect, suggesting that membership in multiple important groups boosts personal self-esteem because people take pride in, and derive meaning from, important group memberships. Discussion focuses on when and why important group memberships act as a social resource that fuels personal self-esteem.This study was supported by 1. Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT110100238) awarded to Jolanda Jetten (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 2. Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP110200437) to Jolanda Jetten and Genevieve Dingle (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 3. support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being Program to Nyla Branscombe, S. Alexander Haslam, and Catherine Haslam (see http://www.cifar.ca)