4,323 research outputs found

    Parents' Sense of “Entitlement” in Adoptive and Nonadoptive Families

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    Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72242/1/j.1545-5300.1996.00441.x.pd

    How men view genetic testing for prostate cancer risk: findings from focus groups

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    Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65567/1/j.1399-0004.2000.580303.x.pd

    Developing social capital in implementing a complex intervention: a process evaluation of the early implementation of a suicide prevention intervention in four European countries

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    <p>Background: Variation in the implementation of complex multilevel interventions can impact on their delivery and outcomes. Few suicide prevention interventions, especially multilevel interventions, have included evaluation of both the process of implementation as well as outcomes. Such evaluation is essential for the replication of interventions, for interpreting and understanding outcomes, and for improving implementation science. This paper reports on a process evaluation of the early implementation stage of an optimised suicide prevention programme (OSPI-Europe) implemented in four European countries.</p> <p>Methods: The process analysis was conducted within the framework of a realist evaluation methodology, and involved case studies of the process of implementation in four European countries. Datasets include: repeated questionnaires to track progress of implementation including delivery of individual activities and their intensity; serial interviews and focus groups with stakeholder groups; and detailed observations at OSPI implementation team meetings.</p> <p>Results: Analysis of local contexts in each of the four countries revealed that the advisory group was a key mechanism that had a substantial impact on the ease of implementation of OSPI interventions, particularly on their ability to recruit to training interventions. However, simply recruiting representatives of key organisations into an advisory group is not sufficient to achieve impact on the delivery of interventions. In order to maximise the potential of high level ‘gatekeepers’, it is necessary to first transform them into OSPI stakeholders. Motivations for OSPI participation as a stakeholder included: personal affinity with the shared goals and target groups within OSPI; the complementary and participatory nature of OSPI that adds value to pre-existing suicide prevention initiatives; and reciprocal reward for participants through access to the extended network capacity that organisations could accrue for themselves and their organisations from participation in OSPI.</p> <p>Conclusions: Exploring the role of advisory groups and the meaning of participation for these participants revealed some key areas for best practice in implementation: careful planning of the composition of the advisory group to access target groups; the importance of establishing common goals; the importance of acknowledging and complementing existing experience and activity; and facilitating an equivalence of benefit from network participation.</p&gt

    Considerations and Challenges in Defining Optimal Iron Utilization in Hemodialysis

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    Trials raising concerns about erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, revisions to their labeling, and changes to practice guidelines and dialysis payment systems have provided strong stimuli to decrease erythropoiesis-stimulating agent use and increase intravenous iron administration in recent years. These factors have been associated with a rise in iron utilization, particularly among hemodialysis patients, and an unprecedented increase in serum ferritin concentrations. The mean serum ferritin concentration among United States dialysis patients in 2013 exceeded 800 ng/ml, with 18% of patients exceeding 1200 ng/ml. Although these changes are broad based, the wisdom of these practices is uncertain. Herein, we examine influences on and trends in intravenous iron utilization and assess the clinical trial, epidemiologic, and experimental evidence relevant to its safety and efficacy in the setting of maintenance dialysis. These data suggest a potential for harm from increasing use of parenteral iron in dialysis-dependent patients. In the absence of well powered, randomized clinical trials, available evidence will remain inadequate for making reliable conclusions about the effect of a ubiquitous therapy on mortality or other outcomes of importance to dialysis patients. Nephrology stakeholders have an urgent obligation to initiate well designed investigations of intravenous iron in order to ensure the safety of the dialysis population

    Reporting of conflicts of interest from drug trials in Cochrane reviews:cross sectional study

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    Objectives To investigate the degree to which Cochrane reviews of drug interventions published in 2010 reported conflicts of interest from included trials and, among reviews that reported this information, where it was located in the review documents. Design Cross sectional study. Data sources Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Selection criteria Systematic reviews of drug interventions published in 2010 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, with review content classified as up to date in 2008 or later and with results from one or more randomised controlled trials. Results Of 151 included Cochrane reviews, 46 (30%, 95% confidence interval 24% to 38%) reported information on the funding sources of included trials, including 30 (20%, 14% to 27%) that reported information on trial funding for all included trials and 16 (11%, 7% to 17%) that reported for some, but not all, trials. Only 16 of the 151 Cochrane reviews (11%, 7% to 17%) provided any information on trial author-industry financial ties or trial author-industry employment. Information on trial funding and trial author-industry ties was reported in one to seven locations within each review, with no consistent reporting location observed. Conclusions Most Cochrane reviews of drug trials published in 2010 did not provide information on trial funding sources or trial author-industry financial ties or employment. When this information was reported, location of reporting was inconsistent across reviews

    Effect of DMSO on Protein Structure and Interactions Assessed by Collision-Induced Dissociation and Unfolding

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    Given the frequent use of DMSO in biochemical and biophysical assays, it is desirable to understand the influence of DMSO concentration on the dissociation or unfolding behavior of proteins. In this study, the effects of DMSO on the structure and interactions of avidin and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) CYP142A1 were assessed through collision-induced dissociation (CID) and collision-induced unfolding (CIU) as monitored by nanoelectrospray ionization–ion mobility–mass spectrometry (nESI-IM-MS). DMSO concentrations higher than 4% (v/v) destabilize the avidin tetramer toward dissociation and unfolding, via both its effects on charge state distribution (CSD) as well as at the level of individual charge states. In contrast, DMSO both protects against heme loss and increases the stability of CYP142A1 toward unfolding even up to 40% DMSO. Tandem MS/MS experiments showed that DMSO could modify the dissociation pathway of CYP142A1, while CIU revealed the protective effect of the heme group on the structure of CYP142A1.D.S.-H.C. acknowledges the Croucher Foundation and the Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust for receipt of a Croucher Cambridge International Scholarship. M.E.K. was supported by a Commonwealth (University of Cambridge) Scholarship awarded in conjunc-tion with the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and Cam-bridge Overseas Trust. K.J.M. and A.G.C. were supported by grants from the UK BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/I019669/1 and BB/I019227/1)

    Attention and automation: New perspectives on mental underload and performance

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    There is considerable evidence in the ergonomics literature that automation can significantly reduce operator mental workload. Furthermore, reducing mental workload is not necessarily a good thing, particularly in cases where the level is already manageable. This raises the issue of mental underload, which can be at least as detrimental to performance as overload. However, although it is widely recognized that mental underload is detrimental to performance, there are very few attempts to explain why this may be the case. It is argued in this paper that, until the need for a human operator is completely eliminated, automation has psychological implications relevant in both theoretical and applied domains. The present paper reviews theories of attention, as well as the literature on mental workload and automation, to synthesize a new explanation for the effects of mental underload on performance. Malleable attentional resources theory proposes that attentional capacity shrinks to accommodate reductions in mental workload, and that this shrinkage is responsible for the underload effect. The theory is discussed with respect to the applied implications for ergonomics research
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