Feelings of burden among family caregivers of people with spinal cord injury in Turkey

Study design: The study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine the level of feelings of burden in family caregivers of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Turkey, and to explore its predictors. Setting: Turkey. Methods: One hundred family caregivers of people with SCI completed measures of burden of caregiving, depression, social support and physical health. The SCI participants completed a measure of functional independence. Multivariate statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted to identify significant predictors of caregiver burden. Results: Caregiver burden was significantly related to caregivers’ feelings of depression. SEM analysis showed that social support from family and from friends predicted caregiver burden via depression. Caregivers’ age, sex, educational level, physical health and household income did not significantly predict their feelings of depression or burden. Conclusions: Our findings revealed that support received from both families and friends is an important source for alleviating the depressive feelings of caregivers and, in return, their burden in the caregiving. In Turkey, high support from family members is expected and is important for psychological well-being, yet the current study showed that the support received from friends also has unique contribution to the well-being of the caregivers of persons with SCI. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of supportive relationships between family as well as friends for the caregivers who may have to provide lifetime care for their family member with special needs.WOS:000407265700012Scopus - Affiliation ID: 60105072PMID: 28169295Science Citation Index Expanded - Social Sciences Citation IndexQ2 - Q3ArticleUluslararası işbirliği ile yapılan - EVETAğustos2017YÖK - 2016-1

Phenotypic variation and fitness in a metapopulation of tubeworms (Ridgeia piscesae Jones) at hydrothermal vents

We examine the nature of variation in a hot vent tubeworm, Ridgeia piscesae, to determine how phenotypes are maintained and how reproductive potential is dictated by habitat. This foundation species at northeast Pacific hydrothermal sites occupies a wide habitat range in a highly heterogeneous environment. Where fluids supply high levels of dissolved sulphide for symbionts, the worm grows rapidly in a ‘‘short-fat’’ phenotype characterized by lush gill plumes; when plumes are healthy, sperm package capture is higher. This form can mature within months and has a high fecundity with continuous gamete output and a lifespan of about three years in unstable conditions. Other phenotypes occupy low fluid flux habitats that are more stable and individuals grow very slowly; however, they have low reproductive readiness that is hampered further by small, predator cropped branchiae, thus reducing fertilization and metabolite uptake. Although only the largest worms were measured, only 17% of low flux worms were reproductively competent compared to 91% of high flux worms. A model of reproductive readiness illustrates that tube diameter is a good predictor of reproductive output and that few low flux worms reached critical reproductive size. We postulate that most of the propagules for the vent fields originate from the larger tubeworms that live in small, unstable habitat patches. The large expanses of worms in more stable low flux habitat sustain a small, but long-term, reproductive output. Phenotypic variation is an adaptation that fosters both morphological and physiological responses to differences in chemical milieu and predator pressure. This foundation species forms a metapopulation with variable growth characteristics in a heterogeneous environment where a strategy of phenotypic variation bestows an advantage over specialization

N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) augmentation in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: A phase III, 20-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

Objective: Preliminary evidence has suggested that adjunctive N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an antioxidant precursor to glutathione, may reduce symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We conducted a 20-week, multi-site, randomized controlled trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of the adjunctive use of NAC in OCD. Methods: The study was a phase III, 20-week, double-blind, randomized controlled trial across multiple sites in Australia investigating 2 g to 4 g per day of NAC (titrated according to response) in 98 participants with DSM-5 diagnosed OCD. Data were analysed using linear mixed effects models for the 89 participants who attended at least one follow-up visit. Results: A modified intention-to-treat analysis of the primary outcome found no evidence that NAC reduced symptoms of OCD measured on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, relative to placebo (mean difference at week 20 = 0.53, 95% compatibility interval = −2.18, 3.23; p = 0.70; favouring placebo). There was also no evidence that NAC, compared to placebo, improved outcomes on the secondary measures including anxiety, depression, quality of life, functioning, or clinician/participant impression. NAC was well-tolerated with only mild gastrointestinal adverse events associated with the treatment. Conclusion: We found no evidence supporting the efficacy of the adjunctive use of NAC in OCD

Environmental impacts of nodule, crust and sulphide mining: an overview

The new industry of deep-sea mining (DSM) potentially offers abundant supplies of several metals from the deep ocean, but the ores will need to be recovered from pristine environments in which the ecosystems are often poorly known. Information that is available for some of these environments suggests that organisms may struggle to recover from the impacts of DSM, whilst in other areas the impacts may be somewhat less. Deep-sea mining is focussed on three distinct resources – manganese nodules (also known as polymetallic nodules), cobalt crusts and seafloor massive sulphides (SMS) (sometimes called polymetallic sulphides). These occur in different seafloor settings, each hosting very different ecosystems and each with its own set of environmental issues. Manganese nodules occur in the deep basins of the ocean where lack of sediment supply results in very slow sediment accumulation – rates that can be as low as 1 mm per thousand years – thus allowing nodules to form from slow precipitation of metals. Interest in mining manganese nodules is focussed mainly on the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the eastern equatorial Pacific and Central Indian Basin in the Indian Ocean. Here the seabed faunas are sparsely distributed but are very varied in composition. Many different species live in the upper few centimetres of the sediment or attached to the nodules. The mining process will disrupt this surface sediment layer and remove the nodules. Experiments have shown that species are very slow to return to the disrupted areas. Combined with the large areas that will need to be mined for manganese nodules, this gives rise to potentially a high environmental and ecological impact. Cobalt crusts occur as layers up to 26 cm thick coating the rocky tops and upper flanks of seamounts, with the most promising deposits occurring between 800 and 2500 m water depth. The absence of sedimentation due to currents in these areas allows the slow growth of the crust via the precipitation of minerals from seawater. Seamount faunas are not well studied but they include a large number of species, many of which are slow-growing, long-lived and slow to reproduce. This makes it difficult for the ecosystem to recover from disruption. Large areas will need to be mined because the ore occurs in a very thin layer and whole seamounts may be affected. The third resource – seafloor massive sulphides – differs from the previous two, being formed from precipitation of metals from hydrothermal fluids at oceanic plate boundaries. This process creates three-dimensional ore bodies extending metres into the seabed which are similar to some ore bodies that occur on land. Ecosystems comprising specialist organisms that can tolerate and make use of the harsh biochemical conditions are often found at active hydrothermal vents. These vent sites are probably too hot to ever be mined, so ore bodies are being sought some distance away from the active ridge axis in areas where venting is weaker or has stopped. The species occurring ‘off axis’ are more akin to those from the surrounding rocky slopes and possibly on the continental slopes in the same ocean basin. The species may occur over wide areas, and the impact of localised mining may be relatively small. In all types of deep-sea mining, the generation of plumes of sediment-laden water, both by the mining process and the transport of ores to a support ship, will have an impact on benthic and mid-water ecosystems away from the mining site. If uncontrolled, such impacts could be comparable to or of greater scale to impacts in the mined areas