Living with infertility: an exploratory study of men’s experience

Research on the infertility realm is mostly dominated by the female experience and on gender differences. Despite the fact that half of the infertility issues are associated with men, research on the male experience remains limited. There has recently been a change since more studies have been carried out, but the gap remains vast. This study attends to the research imbalance and aims to minimise the gap even further. It gives men a voice in the infertility realm by shedding more light on their experience. It captures how men conceptualise their infertility, what it means to become a father and the impact their condition has on their sense of Self. The aims of the study were addressed by exploring the experience of five men with an exclusively male factor infertility. After careful consideration, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was deemed the most suitable methodology and two interviews were carried out with each participant. Following the analysis of the data, four major themes were established. These were the emerging notion of fatherhood, the disempowering impact of infertility, responding to the limitations of infertility and placing infertility in a relational frame. This study makes a significant contribution as it provides a rich exploration of the male experience and makes an important addition to the limited research on male infertility. It also highlights how essential it is to provide this client group with an easier access to psychological interventions. The provision of information in a written format and the availability of online forums are also discussed as possible ways of supporting men with an infertility diagnosis

Local E-Government in Cyprus: A Comparison of Perceptions Between Citizens and Decision Makers

This paper identifies attitudes and perceptions on e-government among two key populations: citizens of the Republic of Cyprus and local government decision makers. The research methodology is based on both secondary and primary data collection, with the latter including a questionnaire survey of the public and another of major local governments\u27 officials who were directly involved in the decision making of the services provided through local egovernment initiatives. The results of the surveys are analysed and cross-related The research has reached three principal clusters of conclusions. The first relates to a number of discrepancies found when comparing the public\u27s perceptions, needs and potentialities on e-government and the corresponding perceptions of the municipality decision makers. The second cluster relates to the wider potentialities of local e-government in Cyprus. The third cluster is provides directions and towards a successful local e-government implementation in Cyprus

Educational programmes for frail older people, their families, carers, and healthcare professionals: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: More people are living with frailty and requiring additional health and support services. To improve their management, the ‘Frailty: Core Capability Framework’ in the United Kingdom recommends frailty education for older individuals, their families, carers and health professionals. We performed a systematic review of specific educational programmes for these groups. Methods: Electronic databases were searched using dedicated search terms and inclusion criteria. To improve accuracy, two reviewers carried out the screening and selection of research papers. Information from included studies was collected using a tailored data-extraction template, and quality appraisal tools were used to assess the rigour of the studies. The findings were analysed to identify key themes. Results: Eleven studies met the criteria and were included in the review. Their study populations ranged from 12 to 603 and the research designs were heterogeneous (6 Qualitative; 2 Randomised Controlled Trials; 1 Quasi-experimental; 1 Mixed methods; 1 Cross-sectional study). Whilst some methodological shortcomings were identified, all studies contributed valuable information. Their results underwent narrative synthesis which elucidated four thematic domains: (1) Accessibility of educational programmes, (2) Empowerment, (3) Self-care, and (4) Health Promotion (especially exercise and nutrition). Conclusion: Educational programmes for older people, their carers and health professionals are important for effective frailty prevention and management. To be maximally beneficial, they should be easily accessible to all target populations and include empowerment, self-care and health promotion. Further research should explore the formulation of widely-applicable, user-friendly programmes and delivery formats that can be tailored to different client groups

Genetic background modifies amyloidosis in a mouse model of ATTR neuropathy

AbstractPenetrance and age of onset of ATTRV30M amyloidotic neuropathy varies significantly among different populations. This variability has been attributed to both genetic and environmental modifiers. We studied the effect of genetic background on phenotype in two lines of transgenic mice bearing the same ATTRV30M transgene. Amyloid deposition, transthyretin (TTR), megalin, clusterin and disease markers of endoplasmic reticulum stress, the ubiquitin-proteasome system, apoptosis, and complement activation were assessed with WB and immunohistochemistry in donor and recipient tissue. Our results indicate that genetic background modulates amyloid deposition by influencing TTR handling in recipient tissue and may partly account for the marked variability in penetrance observed in various world populations

Treatment effect modifiers in a randomized trial of the good behavior game during middle childhood.

Objective: Two key treatment effect modifiers—implementation variability and participant cumulative risk status—are examined as predictors of disruptive behavior outcomes in the context of a large cluster randomized controlled trial of a universal, school-based behavior management intervention. The core components of the Good Behavior Game (GBG) are classroom rules, team membership, monitoring behavior, and positive reinforcement. Children work in teams to win the game, which is played alongside a normal classroom activity, during which their teacher monitors infractions to classroom rules. Teams with four or fewer infractions at the end of the game win and are rewarded. Method: Seventy-seven English primary schools (N = 3,084 children, aged 6–7) were randomly assigned to deliver the GBG or continue their usual practice over 2 years. Results: Intent-to-treat analysis found no discernible impact of the intervention on children’s disruptive behavior. Additionally, subgroup analyses revealed no differential gains among children at low, moderate or high levels of cumulative risk exposure (CRE). However, complier average causal effect estimation (CACE) using dosage as a compliance marker identified a large, statistically significant intervention effect (d = −1.35) among compliers (>1,030 min of cumulative intervention exposure). Furthermore, this compliance effect varied by participant CRE, such that children at high and low levels of exposure experienced significantly greater and lesser reductions in disruptive behavior, respectively. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of optimizing implementation and demonstrate the utility of CRE as a theoretically informed approach to subgroup moderator analysis. Implications are discussed and study strengths and limitations are noted

Private Financing or Not, That is the Question: Lessons from the Light Rail Systems in Spain

The objective of this paper is to analyze if there is any difference between the light rail systems in Spain according to whether they have been carried out through public financing or private financing (totally or partially). The importance of this study lies in the fact that, for decades, the public–private partnership has been proposed as an alternative to public financing of public transport projects in order to obtain additional financial resources, reduce the public deficit, and increase efficiency. However, there are hardly any detailed studies describing how these initiatives have turned out. Therefore, the present study analyzes if there is any difference in the main variables explaining the performance of light rail projects in Spain depending on their source of funding can be found. For this, the relationship between variables related to design, operation and costs of the projects, and the percentage of private financing were statistically analyzed. As the most relevant conclusion, we underline the fact that the investment per passenger increases when financing is completely private. This would indicate that the most cost-effective lines, from a social standpoint, were financed totally or partially by the public administrations, whereas the least beneficial ones for society were assigned to private enterprises. This finding provides an advance in the knowledge of the consequences of private participation in the financing of public transport projects, indicating, moreover, that the biggest beneficiaries of this type of projects might be the construction companies and the politicians involvedThe authors would like to thank the ERDF of European Union for financial support via project ‘‘Herramienta para la evaluacio´n previa de infraestructuras de transporte pu´blico’’ (GGI3003IDIE). We also thank to Public Works Agency and Regional Ministry of Public Works and Housing of the Regional Government of Andalusia (AOPJA) and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of Spain