Validation of the Thai version of the family reported outcome measure (FROM-16)© to assess the impact of disease on the partner or family members of patients with cancer

© The Author(s). 2019Background: Cancer not only impairs a patient's physical and psychosocial functional behaviour, but also contributes to negative impact on family members' health related quality of life. Currently, there is an absence of a relevant tool in Thai with which to measure such impact. The aim of this study was to translate and validate the Family Reported Outcome Measure (FROM-16) in Thai cancer patients' family members. Methods: Thai version of FROM-16 was generated by interactive forward-backward translation process following standard guidelines. This was tested for psychometric properties including reliability and validity, namely content validity, concurrent validity, known group validity, internal consistency, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Construct validity was examined by comparing the Thai FROM-16 version with the WHOQOL-BREF-THAI. Results: The internal consistency reliability was strong (Cronbach's alpha = 0.86). A Negative moderate correlation between the Thai FROM-16 and WHOQOL-BREF-THAI was observed (r = - 0.4545, p < 0.00), and known group validity was proved by a statistically significant higher score in family members with high burden of care and insufficient income. The factor analysis supported both 3-factor and 2-factor loading model with slight difference when compared with the original version. Conclusions: The Thai FROM-16 showed good reliability and validity in Thai family members of patients with cancer. A slight difference in factor analysis results compared to the original version could be due to cross-culture application.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Consumers’ perceived corporate social responsibility evaluation and support: the moderating role of consumer information

This study analyzes how consumers’ evaluations of various dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect their support of it and how consumers’ searches for CSR information influence such evaluations. The empirical analysis relies on data on CSR from a wide representative sample of 3543 Spanish hotel consumers. We use hierarchical multiple regressions to test the relationships and use factorial analysis to test the validity of the different CSR dimensions. The proposed positive effects of legal, ethical, economic, philanthropic and environmental dimensions of CSR on consumers’ support for corporate reputation, the selection of an establishment, and future purchase intention are corroborated, although they are only partially corroborated in the case of the economic dimension. These relationships are moderated in some cases by consumers’ search for information about hotels’ CSR practices. Managerial and economic implications are derived from the results

Application of pharmacogenomics and bioinformatics to exemplify the utility of human <i>ex vivo</i> organoculture models in the field of precision medicine

Here we describe a collaboration between industry, the National Health Service (NHS) and academia that sought to demonstrate how early understanding of both pharmacology and genomics can improve strategies for the development of precision medicines. Diseased tissue ethically acquired from patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was used to investigate inter-patient variability in drug efficacy using ex vivo organocultures of fresh lung tissue as the test system. The reduction in inflammatory cytokines in the presence of various test drugs was used as the measure of drug efficacy and the individual patient responses were then matched against genotype and microRNA profiles in an attempt to identify unique predictors of drug responsiveness. Our findings suggest that genetic variation in CYP2E1 and SMAD3 genes may partly explain the observed variation in drug response

A study on the construct validity of the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTSPC) in an urban population in Northeast Brazil

The Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTSPC) is one of the most widely used instruments in the world for investigating domestic violence against children, but targeted use has proven inadequate given the phenomenon's complexity. This study focused on the factor structure of CTSPC scales in an urban population in Northeast Brazil. We conducted a cross-sectional study in a cohort of 1,370 children in Salvador, Bahia State. Factor analysis with promax oblique rotation was performed, and the Kuder-Richardson coefficient was calculated. Factor analysis showed a different distribution of items in the factors as compared to the original instrument. Violence showed a gradual profile in each factor. The Kuder-Richardson coefficient was 0.63 for factor 1, 0.59 for factor 2, and 0.42 for factor 3. The items behaved differently from the original instrument, corroborating international studies. These findings support proposing a resizing of the CTSPC

Increased chromosomal radiosensitivity in asymptomatic carriers of a heterozygous BRCA1 mutation

Background: Breast cancer risk increases drastically in individuals carrying a germline BRCA1 mutation. The exposure to ionizing radiation for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes of BRCA1 mutation carriers is counterintuitive, since BRCA1 is active in the DNA damage response pathway. The aim of this study was to investigate whether healthy BRCA1 mutations carriers demonstrate an increased radiosensitivity compared with healthy individuals. Methods: We defined a novel radiosensitivity indicator (RIND) based on two endpoints measured by the G2 micronucleus assay, reflecting defects in DNA repair and G2 arrest capacity after exposure to doses of 2 or 4 Gy. We investigated if a correlation between the RIND score and nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) could be established. Results: We found significantly increased radiosensitivity in the cohort of healthy BRCA1 mutation carriers compared with healthy controls. In addition, our analysis showed a significantly different distribution over the RIND scores (p = 0.034, Fisher’s exact test) for healthy BRCA1 mutation carriers compared with non-carriers: 72 % of mutation carriers showed a radiosensitive phenotype (RIND score 1–4), whereas 72 % of the healthy volunteers showed no radiosensitivity (RIND score 0). Furthermore, 28 % of BRCA1 mutation carriers had a RIND score of 3 or 4 (not observed in control subjects). The radiosensitive phenotype was similar for relatives within several families, but not for unrelated individuals carrying the same mutation. The median RIND score was higher in patients with a mutation leading to a premature termination codon (PTC) located in the central part of the gene than in patients with a germline mutation in the 5′ end of the gene. Conclusions: We show that BRCA1 mutations are associated with a radiosensitive phenotype related to a compromised DNA repair and G2 arrest capacity after exposure to either 2 or 4 Gy. Our study confirms that haploinsufficiency is the mechanism involved in radiosensitivity in patients with a PTC allele, but it suggests that further research is needed to evaluate alternative mechanisms for mutations not subjected to NMD

How and When Socially Entrepreneurial Nonprofit Organizations Benefit From Adopting Social Alliance Management Routines to Manage Social Alliances?

Social alliance is defined as the collaboration between for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Building on the insights derived from the resource-based theory, we develop a conceptual framework to explain how socially entrepreneurial nonprofit organizations (SENPOs) can improve their social alliance performance by adopting strategic alliance management routines. We test our framework using the data collected from 203 UK-based SENPOs in the context of cause-related marketing campaign-derived social alliances. Our results confirm a positive relationship between social alliance management routines and social alliance performance. We also find that relational mechanisms, such as mutual trust, relational embeddedness, and relational commitment, mediate the relationship between social alliance management routines and social alliance performance. Moreover, our findings suggest that different types of social alliance motivation can influence the impact of social alliance management routines on different types of the relational mechanisms. In general, we demonstrate that SENPOs can benefit from adopting social alliance management routines and, in addition, highlight how and when the social alliance management routines–social alliance performance relationship might be shaped. Our study offers important academic and managerial implications, and points out future research directions

Academic Performance and Behavioral Patterns

Identifying the factors that influence academic performance is an essential part of educational research. Previous studies have documented the importance of personality traits, class attendance, and social network structure. Because most of these analyses were based on a single behavioral aspect and/or small sample sizes, there is currently no quantification of the interplay of these factors. Here, we study the academic performance among a cohort of 538 undergraduate students forming a single, densely connected social network. Our work is based on data collected using smartphones, which the students used as their primary phones for two years. The availability of multi-channel data from a single population allows us to directly compare the explanatory power of individual and social characteristics. We find that the most informative indicators of performance are based on social ties and that network indicators result in better model performance than individual characteristics (including both personality and class attendance). We confirm earlier findings that class attendance is the most important predictor among individual characteristics. Finally, our results suggest the presence of strong homophily and/or peer effects among university students

Classifying nursing organization in wards in Norwegian hospitals: self-identification versus observation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The organization of nursing services could be important to the quality of patient care and staff satisfaction. However, there is no universally accepted nomenclature for this organization. The objective of the current study was to classify general hospital wards based on data describing organizational practice reported by the ward nurse managers, and then to compare this classification with the name used in the wards to identify the organizational model (self-identification).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a cross-sectional postal survey, 93 ward nurse managers in Norwegian hospitals responded to questions about nursing organization in their wards, and what they called their organizational models. K-means cluster analysis was used to classify the wards according to the pattern of activities attributed to the different nursing roles and discriminant analysis was used to interpret the solutions. Cross-tabulation was used to validate the solutions and to compare the classification obtained from the cluster analysis with that obtained by self-identification. The bootstrapping technique was used to assess the generalizability of the cluster solution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The cluster analyses produced two alternative solutions using two and three clusters, respectively. The three-cluster solution was considered to be the best representation of the organizational models: 32 team leader-dominated wards, 23 primary nurse-dominated wards and 38 wards with a hybrid or mixed organization. There was moderate correspondence between the three-cluster solution and the models obtained by self-identification. Cross-tabulation supported the empirical classification as being representative for variations in nursing service organization. Ninety-four per cent of the bootstrap replications showed the same pattern as the cluster solution in the study sample.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A meaningful classification of wards was achieved through an empirical cluster solution; this was, however, only moderately consistent with the self-identification. This empirical classification is an objective approach to variable construction and can be generally applied across Norwegian hospitals. The classification procedure used in the study could be developed into a standardized method for classifying hospital wards across health systems and over time.</p

Organizational commitment, knowledge sharing and organizational citizenship behaviour: the case of the Taiwanese semiconductor industry

[[abstract]]The semiconductor industry has made great contributions to Taiwan’s economy in the past 20 years. Because of competitive salaries and generous fringe benefits, some famous semiconductor manufacturers have become the best choice for students right after graduation. However, such magnetic effect has gradually faded away in the face of implementation of expensive employee bonuses. In a changeable environment, sharing knowledge will maintain organizational competitiveness and improve employees’ cohesion. As the semiconductor industry is characterized by a low-wage and high-turnover rate, the incurred job insecurities and career uncertainties have begun to force employees to change their cohesion, loyalty to organizations and even to reduce their willingness to share knowledge with others. This study aims to explore the relationships among organizational commitment (OC), knowledge sharing (KS) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the Taiwanese semiconductor industry. On the basis of 428 subjects, the results show that KS has a partial mediating effect on the OC–OCB relationship.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]紙本[[countrycodes]]GB