The Ms. Stereotype : Could it be a Health Risk?

Two studies extend previous findings of stereotyping (a) within the nursing context (Ganong, 1993; Ganong & Coleman, 1992, Ganong et al., 1988), and (b) in relation to female title of address (Dion, 1987; Dion & Cota, 1991; Dion & Schuller, 1991; Heilder, 1975). Against the theoretical background of person perception theory and its influence upon the therapeutic nurse client relationship, study 1 investigates the extent to which nurses\u27 stereotype a vignetted female client on the basis of title of address. Fifty registered nurses from two hospitals rated their impressions and subsequent expectations of a vignetted client on the First Impressions Questionnaire (FIQ) and the Predicted Behavior of a Hospitalised Adult Questionnaire (PBHAQ). Three versions of the vignette corresponded to three titles of address: Ms., Miss, Mrs. Based on the previous findings of Ganong, (1993), it was predicted that title of address effects would be found. Results failed to support this prediction. However, feedback indicated that these results were potentially an artifact of the brevity of stimulus information supplied. Methodological, conceptual and theoretical implications of this finding were discussed. A second study was conducted to investigate these implications. Specifically, the impact of the level of apparent information upon a participant\u27s ability to form and record a stereotype was investigated. Participants consisted of 116 undergraduate psychology students who were randomly assigned to one of six conditions (explicitly preferred title of address x level of apparent information). The two title of address conditions were Ms. and Mrs. The three level of apparent information conditions were basic paragraph (low), basic plus transcript (moderate), and basic plus transcript plus audio recording (high). Participants were provided with a stimulus vignette of a female and asked to rate their first impressions and expectations of the stimulus person. Measures were the same as for study 1 (i.e., FIQ & PBHAQ) with the addition of confidence ratings. On the basis of both the previous findings of Dion (1987}, and of study 1, it was predicted that title of address and level of apparent information effects would be found. While expected level of information effects were found, no title of address effects were obtained. These·-findings were interpreted as indicating (a) the salience of level of apparent information as a methodological consideration for research, and (b) the limited replicability of title of address effects. The overall conclusion was that research, both within and without stereotyping, needs to pay more attention to examining stimulus presentation and boundedness of replicability m order to build a more valid and cohesive knowledge base

‘In een vrije markteconomie geniet het individu echte vrijheid..?’ (2): een visie op de vrije markt door de Nieuwe Communistische Partij Nederland (NCPN)

Wil van der Klift is voorzitter van de Nieuwe Communisitische Partij Nederland (NCPN), in 1992 opgericht als opvolger van de CPN

Osteoporosis: more than fractures alone : an epidemiological approach

The main purposes of this thesis are to study the incidence of and risk factors for vertebral fractures and to evaluate the interrelations between bone mineral density, atherosclerosis and breast cancer, all of which are considered to be influenced by estrogen exposure. We will look into fracture prevention; are the current methods for identifying subjects at risk for fractures adequate and should men and women be treated equally. Finally, the results of these studies are combined in a model on cost-effectiveness of fracture prevention In Chapter 2, vertebral fractures are investigated in both men and women. In chapter 2.1, the incidence of vertebral fractures will be described. In addition, the associations of incident vertebral fractures with both BMD and the presence of baseline prevalent vertebral fractures are studied. In chapter 2.2, we extended the analyses on risk factors for incident vertebral fractures for men and women. At first, we evaluated potential risk factors univariately for an association \Vith incident vertebral fractures. Then, we evaluated whether univariately sigoificant risk factors were independent from BMD, prevalent vertebral fractures and from each other. In Chapter 3, we study the value of a T -score of BMD in fracture prevention. In Chapter 3.1 it is evaluated whether the current criterion for osteoporosis, as defined by the 'WHO, of a T-score at or below -2.5, is useful in accurately identifying women who will fracture within the coming years. Chapter 3.2 discusses whether the association between BMD and fractures is similar for both men and women and if so, whether using a gender specific T -score of BMD is useful in describing the problem of osteoporosis in men. Chapter 4 describes the associations between BMD and diseases other than osteoporosis that are also considered to be influenced by estrogen exposure. First, in Chapter 4.1, the association between BMD and peripheral arterial disease, which is a measure for generalised atherosclerosis, is described. Chapter 4.2 then shows the association between BMD and incident breast cancer in women. Following the associations between BMD and morbidity, the association between femoral neck BMD and overall mortality is described for both men and women in Chapter 5. The results of a mathematical model on the cost-effectiveness of fracture prevention are discussed in Chapter 6. This model is an example of how the results as described in the previous chapters can be used to evaluate the costeffectiveness of fracture prevention. In this model, different treatment strategies ofHRT, SERMs and bisphosphonates are compared. Finally, in Chapter 7 the overall results of this thesis are placed in perspective in a general discussion. We further discuss pitfalls, as well as the clinical relevance of the research that was presented in this thesis. The general discussion ends with some suggestions for further research

Recent developments in the rapid analysis of plants and tracking their bioactive constituents

Natural products chemistry has witnessed many new developments in the last 5 years like extractions with subcritical water and ionic liquids, LC/HRMS and LC/SPE/cryo-NMR, UHPLC, TLC/MS, MS-based preparative HPLC, comprehensive chromatography (GC × GC, LC × LC), high-throughput screening, introduction of monolithic columns, miniaturisation, and automated structure identification. Nevertheless identifying bioactive constituents in complex plant extracts remains a tedious process. The classical approach of bioassay guided fractionation is time-consuming while off-line screening of extracts does not provide information on individual compounds and sometimes suffers from false positives or negatives. One way out of this is by coupling chromatography with chemical or biochemical assays, so called high resolution screening. An example is the development of HPLC on-line assays for antioxidants. By the post-column addition of a relatively stable coloured radical like DPPH¿ or ABTS¿+, radical scavengers are detected as negative peaks because in a reaction coil they reduce the model radical to its reduced, non-coloured form. When combined with LC/DAD/MS and LC/SPE/NMR, reliable identification of active constituents becomes possible without the necessity of ever isolating them in a classical sense. Also for finding leads for new drugs, combining HPLC with biochemical assays is interesting but technically more difficult. Most enzymes do not work at the organic modifier concentrations commonly encountered in RP-HPLC and the reaction time is often longer requiring dilution and lengthy coils respectively. Therefore, new techniques have to be implemented to gain the required sensitivity for on-line enzyme assays. For stable analytes, high temperature LC offers a solution to the organic modifier problem. When enzymes are highly expensive, like those used in the screening for Cytochrome P450 inhibitors, miniaturisation to chip format may offer a way out. Microreactors (chips) are not only useful for miniaturising larger assays but also offer completely new prospects in phytochemical analysis. One such application is in the sample clean-up of acids and bases like alkaloids. In a lay-out of three parallel channels of 100 ¿m width with the middle one containing organic phase and the two outer ones water of high pH (feed phase) and low pH (trapping phase) such a chip replaces two classical LLE steps but is much faster and requires less solvents and less manpower input

Does Acupuncture Needling Induce Analgesic Effects Comparable to Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Controls?

Diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC) is described as one possible mechanism of acupuncture analgesia. This study investigated the analgesic effect of acupuncture without stimulation compared to nonpenetrating sham acupuncture (NPSA) and cold-pressor-induced DNIC. Forty-five subjects received each of the three interventions in a randomized order. The analgesic effect was measured using pressure algometry at the second toe before and after each of the interventions. Pressure pain detection threshold (PPDT) rose from 299 kPa (SD 112 kPa) to 364 kPa (SD 144), 353 kPa (SD 135), and 467 kPa (SD 168) after acupuncture, NPSA, and DNIC test, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between acupuncture and NPSA at any time, but a significantly higher increase of PPDT in the DNIC test compared to acupuncture and NPSA. PPDT decreased after the DNIC test, whereas it remained stable after acupuncture and NPSA. Acupuncture needling at low pain stimulus intensity showed a small analgesic effect which did not significantly differ from placebo response and was significantly less than a DNIC-like effect of a painful noninvasive stimulus

Next-generation sequencing of immunoglobulin gene rearrangements for clonality assessment: a technical feasibility study by EuroClonality-NGS

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Dysregulated signaling, proliferation and apoptosis impact on the pathogenesis of TCRγδ+ T cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia

TCRγδ+ T-LGL leukemia is a rare form of chronic mature T cell disorders in elderly, which is generally characterized by a persisten

Etanercept for steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease

Background: Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is an important complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). High dose glucocorticosteroids, are currently recommended as first-line treatment for grade II-IV aGVHD resulting in overall complete responses (CR) in 40%-50% of patients. No standard second-line regimen has been established. Different options have been reported, including anti-TNFα antibodies. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the outcome of 15 patients with steroid-refractory (SR) aGVHD treated with etanercept at our institution. Patients were transplanted for a hematological malignancy and received either a myeloablative or a non-myeloablative conditioning regimen. Prophylaxis of GVHD consisted of cyclosporin A and mycophenolic acid. Results: Acute GVHD was diagnosed at a median of 61 days post-transplantation. All patients had grade III aGVHD of the gut. Second-line treatment with etanercept was started at a median of 13 days after initiation of first-line therapy. Overall response rate was 53%, with CR in 3 patients and PR in 5 patients. Median overall survival after initiation of treatment with etanercept was 66 days (range 5–267) for the entire group. Median overall survival was 99 days (range 47–267 days) for responders and 17 days (range 5–66 days) for non-responders (p<0.01). Nevertheless, all patients died. Causes of death were progressive GVHD in 7 patients (47%), infection in 6 patients (40%), cardiac death in 1 patient (6.7%) and relapse in 1 patient (6,7%). Conclusion: Second-line treatment with etanercept does induce responses in SR-aGVHD of the gut but appears to be associated with poor long-term survival even in responding patients

Ageing and latent CMV infection impact on maturation, differentiation and exhaustion profiles of T-cell receptor gammadelta T-cells

Ageing is a broad cellular process, largely affecting the immune system, especially T-lymphocytes. Additionally to immunosenescence alone, cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is thought to have major impacts on T-cell subset composition and exhaustion. These impacts have been studied extensively in TCRαβ+ T-cells, with reduction in naive, increase in effector (memory) subsets and shifts in CD4/CD8-ratios, in conjunction with morbidity and mortality in elderly. Effects of both ageing and CMV on the TCRγδ+ T-cell compartment remain largely elusive. In the current study we investigated Vγ- and Vδ-usage, maturation, differentiation and exhaustion marker profiles of both CD4 and CD8 double-negative (DN) and CD8+TCRγδ+ T-cells in 157 individuals, age range 20–95. We observed a progressive decrease in absolute numbers of total TCRγδ+ T-cells in blood, affecting the predominant Vγ9/Vδ2 population. Aged TCRγδ+ T-cells appeared to shift from naive to more (late-stage) effector phenotypes, which appeared more prominent in case of persistent CMV infections. In addition, we found effects of both ageing and CMV on the absolute counts of exhausted TCRγδ+ T-cells. Collectively, our data show a clear impact of ageing and CMV persistence on DN and CD8+TCRγδ+ T-cells, similar to what has been reported in CD8+TCRαβ+ T-cells, indicating that they undergo similar ageing processes