Turning to art as a positive way of living with cancer: A qualitative study of personal motives and contextual influences

Why do some women turn to creative art-making after a diagnosis of cancer? Eleven women provided qualitative accounts that were analyzed following guidelines for interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Some described taking up artistic leisure activities initially in order to manage emotional distress. Others emphasized their need for positive well-being, taking up art to experience achievement and satisfaction, to regain a positive identity, and to normalize family dynamics in the context of living with cancer. Participants’ turn to art-making was facilitated by biographical and contextual factors, including pre-existing craft skills, long-standing personal values and coping philosophies, family role models for managing adversity, and the supportive encouragement of family and friends. Other research has acknowledged that positive lifestyle change and post-traumatic growth can occur after a cancer diagnosis, and this study reveals a multi-faceted process. The findings suggest a need for further research into the experiences that facilitate positive lifestyle change and subjective well-being among people who are living with cancer

Developmental trajectory classes in psychological dysregulation predict later decision-making competence

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are developmental periods associated with increased risk taking, including alcohol and substance use and antisocial behaviors. Typical psychological growth from adolescence into early adulthood reflects increases in traits related to psychological regulation (e.g., greater emotional stability and less impulsivity), which are typically considered protective factors against risk behaviors. However, individuals may vary greatly in their development of these characteristics. This study examines the degree to which heterogeneity in developmental trajectories of psychological regulation are associated with later performance on decision-making skills battery. In this study, psychological regulation was assessed at age 10–12, with follow-up assessments at 14, 16, and 19 years. At age 19, we administered the Youth Decision-Making Competence (DMC; Parker & Fischhoff, 2005) measure. Correlational analyses revealed that lower psychological regulation, as early as age 10, was associated with lower DMC scores. A latent class growth mixture model yielded three distinct developmental trajectory classes of psychological dysregulation: (a) a Moderate-Stable group, a modal class that demonstrated stable and average regulative tendencies throughout adolescence, (b) a Low-Decreasing group, which demonstrated greater self-regulation throughout childhood, and a (c) High-Increasing group, which demonstrated low self-regulative tendencies (higher dysregulation) at age 10 that became increasingly dysregulated throughout adolescence. Individuals in the High-Increasing group demonstrated lower DMC performance than those in the Moderate-Stable and Low-Decreasing groups. Our findings also reinforce past work that indicates considerable individual differences in intra-individual change across adolescence, and that early patterns of psychological dysregulation development can impact later decision-making tendencies

Using interpretative phenomenological analysis to inform physiotherapy practice: An introduction with reference to the lived experience of cerebellar ataxia

The attached file is a pre-published version of the full and final paper which can be found at the link below.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Qualitative research methods that focus on the lived experience of people with health conditions are relatively underutilised in physiotherapy research. This article aims to introduce interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), a research methodology oriented toward exploring and understanding the experience of a particular phenomenon (e.g., living with spinal cord injury or chronic pain, or being the carer of someone with a particular health condition). Researchers using IPA try to find out how people make sense of their experiences and the meanings they attach to them. The findings from IPA research are highly nuanced and offer a fine grained understanding that can be used to contextualise existing quantitative research, to inform understanding of novel or underresearched topics or, in their own right, to provoke a reappraisal of what is considered known about a specified phenomenon. We advocate IPA as a useful and accessible approach to qualitative research that can be used in the clinical setting to inform physiotherapy practice and the development of services from the perspective of individuals with particular health conditions.This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Assembly of Miscible Supramolecular Network Blends Using DDA·AAD Hydrogen-Bonding Interactions of Pendant Side-Chains

The formation of polymer blends can result in materials with superior properties through combination of homo- or co-polymers with divergent functionalities. However, the contrasting physical properties of different polymers often result in phase separation. Herein we induce miscible blend formation of immiscible poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene polymers through triple donor–donor–acceptor and acceptor–acceptor–donor (DDA·AAD) hydrogen bonding between complementary heterodimers on pendent side-chains. RAFT polymerization is used to synthesize a series of poly (methylmethacrylate) and polystyrene co-polymers bearing complementary side-chain hydrogen bonding motifs. Mixing of these polymers promoted miscible blend formation as demonstrated by atomic force microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The effectiveness of blend formation was shown to depend upon the extent of incorporation of hydrogen-bonding motif bearing co-monomer; lower degrees of incorporation lead to ineffective blending, whereas higher degree of incorporation, suppress phase separation and promote miscibility

The high-Eddington NLS1 Ark 564 has the coolest corona

Ark 564 is an archetypal narrow-line Seyfert 1 that has been well observed in soft X-rays from 0.3–10 keV, revealing a steep spectrum, strong soft excess, iron K emission line and dramatic variability on the order of hours. Because of its very steep spectrum, observations of the source above 10 keV have been sparse. We report here on the first NuSTAR observation of Ark 564. The source was observed for 200 ks with NuSTAR, 50 ks of which were concurrent with Suzaku observations. NuSTAR and Suzaku observed a dramatic flare, in which the hard emission is clearly delayed with respect to the soft emission, consistent with previous detections of a low-frequency hard lag found in XMM–Newton data. The NuSTAR spectrum is well described by a low-temperature Comptonization continuum (with an electron temperature of 15 ± 2 keV), which irradiates a highly ionized disc. No further relativistic broadening or ionized absorption is required. These spectral results show that Ark 564 has one of the lowest temperature coronae observed by NuSTAR to date. We discuss possible reasons for low-temperature coronae in high-Eddington sources.European Research Council (340442

A 15.65 solar mass black hole in an eclipsing binary in the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 33

Stellar-mass black holes are discovered in X-ray emitting binary systems, where their mass can be determined from the dynamics of their companion stars. Models of stellar evolution have difficulty producing black holes in close binaries with masses >10 solar masses, which is consistent with the fact that the most massive stellar black holes known so all have masses within 1 sigma of 10 solar masses. Here we report a mass of 15.65 +/- 1.45 solar masses for the black hole in the recently discovered system M33 X-7, which is located in the nearby galaxy Messier 33 (M33) and is the only known black hole that is in an eclipsing binary. In order to produce such a massive black hole, the progenitor star must have retained much of its outer envelope until after helium fusion in the core was completed. On the other hand, in order for the black hole to be in its present 3.45 day orbit about its 70.0 +/- 6.9 solar mass companion, there must have been a ``common envelope'' phase of evolution in which a significant amount of mass was lost from the system. We find the common envelope phase could not have occured in M33 X-7 unless the amount of mass lost from the progenitor during its evolution was an order of magnitude less than what is usually assumed in evolutionary models of massive stars.Comment: To appear in Nature October 18, 2007. Four figures (one color figure degraded). Differs slightly from published version. Supplementary Information follows in a separate postin

Cisplatin-induced emesis: systematic review and meta-analysis of the ferret model and the effects of 5-HT3 receptor antagonists

PURPOSE: The ferret cisplatin emesis model has been used for ~30 years and enabled identification of clinically used anti-emetics. We provide an objective assessment of this model including efficacy of 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists to assess its translational validity. METHODS: A systematic review identified available evidence and was used to perform meta-analyses. RESULTS: Of 182 potentially relevant publications, 115 reported cisplatin-induced emesis in ferrets and 68 were included in the analysis. The majority (n = 53) used a 10 mg kg(−1) dose to induce acute emesis, which peaked after 2 h. More recent studies (n = 11) also used 5 mg kg(−1), which induced a biphasic response peaking at 12 h and 48 h. Overall, 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists reduced cisplatin (5 mg kg(−1)) emesis by 68% (45–91%) during the acute phase (day 1) and by 67% (48–86%) and 53% (38–68%, all P < 0.001), during the delayed phase (days 2, 3). In an analysis focused on the acute phase, the efficacy of ondansetron was dependent on the dosage and observation period but not on the dose of cisplatin. CONCLUSION: Our analysis enabled novel findings to be extracted from the literature including factors which may impact on the applicability of preclinical results to humans. It reveals that the efficacy of ondansetron is similar against low and high doses of cisplatin. Additionally, we showed that 5-HT(3) receptor antagonists have a similar efficacy during acute and delayed emesis, which provides a novel insight into the pharmacology of delayed emesis in the ferret

Subchronic administration of phencyclidine produces hypermethylation in the parvalbumin gene promoter in rat brain

Aim: A deficit in parvalbumin neurons is found in schizophrenia and several animal models of the disease. In this preliminary study, we determined whether one such model, phencyclidine (PCP) administration, results in changes in DNA methylation in the rat Pvalb promoter. Materials & methods: DNA from hippocampus and prefrontal cortex from rats, which 6 weeks previously received either 2 mg/kg PCP or vehicle for 7 days, underwent bisulphite pyrosequencing to determine methylation. Results: PCP administration induced significantly greater methylation at one of two Pvalb CpG sites in both prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, while no significant difference was found in long interspersed nucleotide element-1, a global measure of DNA methylation. Conclusion: Subchronic PCP administration results in a specific hypermethylation in the Pvalb promoter which may contribute to parvalbumin deficits in this animal model of psychosis