15 research outputs found
Development of Trust in an Online Breast Cancer Forum: A Qualitative Study
Background: Online health forums provide peer support for a range of medical conditions, including
life-threatening and terminal illnesses. Trust is an important component of peer-to-peer support,
although relatively little is known about how trust forms within online health forums.
Objective: The aim of this paper is to examine how trust develops and influences sharing among
users of an online breast cancer forum.
Methods: An interpretive qualitative approach was adopted. Data were collected from forum posts
from 135 threads on nine boards on the UK charity, Breast Cancer Care (BCC). Semi-structured
interviews were conducted with 14 BCC forum users. Both datasets were analysed thematically using
Braun and Clarkeās [2006] approach and combined to triangulate analysis.
Results: Trust operates in three dimensions, structural, relational and temporal, which intersect with
each other and do not operate in isolation. The structural dimension relates to how the affordances
and formal rules of the site affected trust. The relational dimension refers to how trust was
necessarily experienced in interactions with other forum users: it emerged within relationships and
was a social phenomenon. The temporal dimension relates to how trust changed over time and was
influenced by the length of time users spent on the forum.
Conclusions: Trust is a process that changes over time, and which is influenced by structural features
of the forum and informal but collectively understood relational interactions among forum users.
The study provides a better understanding of how the intersecting structural, relational and
temporal aspects that support the development of trust facilitate sharing in online environments.
These findings will help organisations developing online health forums
Androgen and retinoic acid interaction in LNCaP cells, effects on cell proliferation and expression of retinoic acid receptors and epidermal growth factor receptor
BACKGROUND: Modulation of the expression of retinoic acid receptors (RAR) Ī± and Ī³ in adult rat prostate by testosterone (T) suggests that RAR signaling events might mediate some of the androgen effects on prostate cells. METHOD: In this study, we examined the interactions between T and retinoic acid (RA) in cell growth of human prostate carcinoma cells, LNCaP, and their relationship with the expression of RAR and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R). RESULTS: Both T and RA, when administered alone, stimulated (3)H-thymidine incorporation in LNCaP cells in a dose-dependent manner; the effect of each agent was reciprocally attenuated by the other agent. Testosterone treatment of LNCaP cells also resulted in dose dependent, biphasic increases in RAR Ī± and Ī³ mRNAs; increases paralleled that of (3)H-thymidine incorporation and were attenuated by the presence of 100 nM RA. These results suggest a link between RAR signaling and the effect of T on LNCaP cell growth. Gel electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed the presence of putative androgen responsive element (ARE) in the promoter region of RAR Ī± gene, suggesting that a direct AR-DNA interaction might mediate the effects of T on RAR Ī± gene. Furthermore, treatment of LNCaP cells with 20 nM T resulted in an increase in EGF-R. In contrast, EGF-R was suppressed by 100 nM RA that also suppressed the effect of T. CONCLUSIONS: Current results demonstrate interactions between T and RA in the expression of RARs and cell growth in LNCaP cells. The presence of putative ARE in the promoter of the RAR Ī± gene suggests that AR-DNA interaction might mediate the effects of T on RAR Ī± gene. The opposite effects of T and RA on the expression of RAR and EGF-R suggest that signal events of these receptors might be involved in the interaction between T and RA in the control of LNCaP cell growth
Muscadine grape skin extract reverts snail-mediated epithelial mesenchymal transition via superoxide species in human prostate cancer cells
Receptor activator of NF-ĪŗB Ligand (RANKL) expression is associated with epithelial to mesenchymal transition in human prostate cancer cells
ZnO nanostructures grown on AlN/sapphire substrates by MOCVD
ZnO nanorods and nanotubes are successful synthesized on AlN/sapphire substrates by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). The different morphology and structure properties of ZnO nanorods and nanotubes are found to be allected by the AlN under-layer. The photoluminescence spectra show the optical properties of the ZnO nanorods and nanotubes, in which a blueshift of UV emission is observed and is attributed to the surface effect