The impact of emotional well-being on long-term recovery and survival in physical illness: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis synthesized studies on emotional well-being as predictor of the prognosis of physical illness, while in addition evaluating the impact of putative moderators, namely constructs of well-being, health-related outcome, year of publication, follow-up time and methodological quality of the included studies. The search in reference lists and electronic databases (Medline and PsycInfo) identified 17 eligible studies examining the impact of general well-being, positive affect and life satisfaction on recovery and survival in physically ill patients. Meta-analytically combining these studies revealed a Likelihood Ratio of 1.14, indicating a small but significant effect. Higher levels of emotional well-being are beneficial for recovery and survival in physically ill patients. The findings show that emotional well-being predicts long-term prognosis of physical illness. This suggests that enhancement of emotional well-being may improve the prognosis of physical illness, which should be investigated by future research

The Quality of Registration of Clinical Trials

BACKGROUND: Lack of transparency in clinical trial conduct, publication bias and selective reporting bias are still important problems in medical research. Through clinical trials registration, it should be possible to take steps towards resolving some of these problems. However, previous evaluations of registered records of clinical trials have shown that registered information is often incomplete and non-meaningful. If these studies are accurate, this negates the possible benefits of registration of clinical trials. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A 5% sample of records of clinical trials that were registered between 17 June 2008 and 17 June 2009 was taken from the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) database and assessed for the presence of contact information, the presence of intervention specifics in drug trials and the quality of primary and secondary outcome reporting. 731 records were included. More than half of the records were registered after recruitment of the first participant. The name of a contact person was available in 94.4% of records from non-industry funded trials and 53.7% of records from industry funded trials. Either an email address or a phone number was present in 76.5% of non-industry funded trial records and in 56.5% of industry funded trial records. Although a drug name or company serial number was almost always provided, other drug intervention specifics were often omitted from registration. Of 3643 reported outcomes, 34.9% were specific measures with a meaningful time frame. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical trials registration has the potential to contribute substantially to improving clinical trial transparency and reducing publication bias and selective reporting. These potential benefits are currently undermined by deficiencies in the provision of information in key areas of registered records

P-odd and CP-odd Four-Quark Contributions to Neutron EDM

In a class of beyond-standard-model theories, CP-odd observables, such as the neutron electric dipole moment, receive significant contributions from flavor-neutral P-odd and CP-odd four-quark operators. However, considerable uncertainties exist in the hadronic matrix elements of these operators strongly affecting the experimental constraints on CP-violating parameters in the theories. Here we study their hadronic matrix elements in combined chiral perturbation theory and nucleon models. We first classify the operators in chiral representations and present the leading-order QCD evolutions. We then match the four-quark operators to the corresponding ones in chiral hadronic theory, finding symmetry relations among the matrix elements. Although this makes lattice QCD calculations feasible, we choose to estimate the non-perturbative matching coefficients in simple quark models. We finally compare the results for the neutron electric dipole moment and P-odd and CP-odd pion-nucleon couplings with the previous studies using naive factorization and QCD sum rules. Our study shall provide valuable insights on the present hadronic physics uncertainties in these observables.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures. This is the final version. A discussion of the uncertainty of the calculation is adde

Postoperative IOP prophylaxis practice following uncomplicated cataract surgery: a UK-wide consultant survey

BACKGROUND: In order to minimise postoperative intraocular pressure (IOP) rise, after routine uncomplicated cataract surgery, prophylaxis may be adopted. Currently, there are no specific guidelines in this regard resulting in wide variation in practice across the UK. We sought to document these variations through a questionnaire survey. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to all consultant ophthalmic surgeons in the UK. RESULTS: 62.6% of surgeons did not use any IOP lowering agents. 37.4% surgeons routinely prescribed some form of medication. The majority (86.8%) used oral diamox. 20.6% of surgeons said they based their practice on evidence, 43.3% on personal experience, and 17.6% on unit policy. Surprisingly, among the two groups of surgeons (those who gave routine prophylaxis, and those who did not) the percentages of surgeons quoting personal experience, unit policy, or presence of evidence was strikingly similar. The timing of the first postoperative IOP check varied from the same day to beyond 2 weeks. Only 20.2% of surgeons had ever seen an adverse event related to IOP rise; this complication is thus very rare. CONCLUSION: This survey highlights a wide variation in the practice and postoperative management of phacoemulsification cataract surgery. What is very striking is that there is a similar proportion of surgeons in the diametrically opposite groups (those who give or do not give routine IOP lowering prophylaxis) who believe that there practice is evidence based. The merits of this study suggests that consideration must be given to drafting a uniform guideline in this area of practice

How do you say ‘hello’? Personality impressions from brief novel voices

On hearing a novel voice, listeners readily form personality impressions of that speaker. Accurate or not, these impressions are known to affect subsequent interactions; yet the underlying psychological and acoustical bases remain poorly understood. Furthermore, hitherto studies have focussed on extended speech as opposed to analysing the instantaneous impressions we obtain from first experience. In this paper, through a mass online rating experiment, 320 participants rated 64 sub-second vocal utterances of the word ‘hello’ on one of 10 personality traits. We show that: (1) personality judgements of brief utterances from unfamiliar speakers are consistent across listeners; (2) a two-dimensional ‘social voice space’ with axes mapping Valence (Trust, Likeability) and Dominance, each driven by differing combinations of vocal acoustics, adequately summarises ratings in both male and female voices; and (3) a positive combination of Valence and Dominance results in increased perceived male vocal Attractiveness, whereas perceived female vocal Attractiveness is largely controlled by increasing Valence. Results are discussed in relation to the rapid evaluation of personality and, in turn, the intent of others, as being driven by survival mechanisms via approach or avoidance behaviours. These findings provide empirical bases for predicting personality impressions from acoustical analyses of short utterances and for generating desired personality impressions in artificial voices

Corporate constructed and dissent enabling public spheres: differentiating dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility

I here distinguish dissensual from consensual corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the grounds that the former is more concerned to organize (or portray) corporate-civil society disagreement than it is corporate-civil society agreement. In doing so, I first conceive of consensual CSR, and identify a positive and negative view thereof. Second, I conceive of dissensual CSR, and suggest that it can be actualized through the construction of dissent enabling, rather than consent-oriented, public spheres. Following this, I describe four actor-centred institutional theories-i.e. a sociological, ethical, transformative and economic perspective, respectively-and suggest that an economic perspective is generally well suited to explaining CSR activities at the organizational level. Accordingly, I then use the economic perspective to analyse a dissent enabling public sphere that Shell has constructed, and within which Greenpeace participated. In particular, I explain Shell's employment of dissensual CSR in terms of their core business interests; and identify some potential implications thereof for Shell, Greenpeace, and society more generally. In concluding, I highlight a number of ways in which the present paper can inform future research on business and society interactions

CAP defines a second signalling pathway required for insulin-stimulated glucose transport

Insulin stimulates the transport of glucose into fat and muscle cells. Although the precise molecular mechanisms involved in this process remain uncertain, insulin initiates its actions by binding to its tyrosine kinase receptor, leading to the phosphorylation of intracellular substrates. One such substrate is the Cbl protooncogene product(1). Cbl is recruited to the insulin receptor by interaction with the adapter protein CAP, through one of three adjacent SH3 domains in the carboxy terminus of CAP(2). Upon phosphorylation of Cbl, the CAP-Cbl complex dissociates from the insulin receptor and moves to a caveolin-enriched, triton-insoluble membrane fraction(3). Here, to identify a molecular mechanism underlying this subcellular redistribution, we screened a yeast two-hybrid library using the amino-terminal region of CAP and identified the caveolar protein flotillin. Flotillin forms a ternary complex with CAP and Cbl, directing the localization of the CAP-Cbl complex to a lipid raft subdomain of the plasma membrane. Expression of the N-terminal domain of CAP in 3T3-L1 adipocytes blocks the stimulation of glucose transport by insulin, without affecting signalling events that depend on phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase. Thus, localization of the Cbl-CAP complex to lipid rafts generates a pathway that is crucial in the regulation of glucose uptake.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62940/1/407202a0.pd

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

Treatment of hemangiomas in children using a Nd:YAG laser in conjunction with ice cooling of the epidermis: techniques and results

BACKGROUND: Hemangiomas are the most common type of congenital anomaly in childhood. Although many resolve spontaneously, intervention is required when their growth could damage vital adjacent structures. Various therapeutic approaches to childhood hemangiomas with different types of laser have been described previously. The objective of this study was to determine whether the cooling of the epidermis during irradiation of hemangiomas with a Nd:YAG laser prevents thermal damage and decreases the number of sessions required to treat these lesions. METHODS: Between 1993 and 2001, 110 patients aged 3 months to 4 years, with cutaneous hemangiomas were treated with a Nd:YAG laser. The lesion was cooled with ice prior to, during, and after the irradiation. During each session the laser beam passed through the pieces of ice. The laser power was between 35–45 W with a pulse length of 2–10 seconds. RESULTS: After 6 months of follow-up, from the first session of laser treatment, total resolution was obtained in 72 (65.5%) patients. A second or third session followed in 30 out of 38 patients in which, the initial results were good, moderate, or poor. The parents of the remaining eight children refused this second session and these patients excluded from the study Complications were seen in nine (8.8%) patients. One patient had postoperative bleeding which stopped spontaneously, while atrophic scars occurred in six (5.8%) patients, and hypertrophic scars in two (1.9%) patients. CONCLUSIONS: Nd:YAG laser irradiation in conjunction with ice protection of the epidermis produces good cosmetic results for the treatment of cutaneous hemangiomas in children, and decreases the number of sessions for treatment of these lesions