Search

Background: Limited studies have examined the responsiveness of the Sitting Balance Scale (SBS) and Function in Sitting Test (FIST). No studies have investigated the psychometric properties of these tools in skilled nursing facilities. Objective: The purposes of the study were (1) to examine responsiveness of the SBS and FIST, in people with stroke, receiving rehabilitation in skilled nursing facilities; and (2) to estimate the MDC and MCID of these scales. Methods: Forty participants completed the FIST, SBS, and Barthel Index (BI) at admission and discharge. Internal responsiveness of the FIST and SBS was measured using Effect Size (ES) and Standardized Response Mean (SRM). Examining the association between the difference in scores on the SBS or FIST and the difference in scores on the BI determined external responsiveness. MDC and MCID were estimated for both measures. Results: The ES and the SRM for both scales were large (1.01–2.30) indicating excellent internal responsiveness. Both scales demonstrated satisfactory external responsiveness, showing good association with change in BI scores (p <.01). MDC90 of the SBS and the FIST were 2.3 and 3.9, respectively. Anchor-based MCID estimates were 4.5 and 3.5, and distribution-based were 3.5 and 4.8 for the SBS and FIST, respectively. Conclusions: Both scales demonstrate sufficient responsiveness in the skilled nursing setting. Our findings suggest a change of 5 on the SBS and 4 on the FIST are clinically important, and clinicians may use these values to assess patient progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries have adopted integrated community case management (iCCM) to reduce mortality among children under five years from common childhood illnesses. The 2016–2020 Malian Red Cross iCCM program trained 441 Community Health Workers (CHWs) to treat malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition for children under five years of age in six districts. Implementation strength and quality of care (QoC) were assessed through the program's supervision function, using the Malian Ministry of Health's system. This paper compares methods and results of program supervision data and an independent evaluation to assess the effectiveness of program implementation and supervision and inform program improvement. It also presents the benefits and limitations of each method. An independent QoC evaluation was conducted using tools developed by the Real Accountability: Data Analysis for Results (RADAR) project, hereafter referred to as the RADAR evaluation. RADAR evaluation data collected in July and August 2018 were compared with program supervision data collected mostly between May and December 2018. The RADAR evaluation provided detailed findings on correct assessment, classification, and treatment per illness, medication type, and dosage. Program supervision combined the findings for all illnesses, medication type, and dosage due to limitations in the data collection process. Six indicators were comparable between both methods. Findings were similar for temperature and mid-upper arm circumference measurements but diverged between program supervision and the RADAR evaluation, respectively, on correct classification for all illnesses (87.1% vs. 65.3%), correct treatment for all illnesses (69.5% vs. 39.8%), correct respiratory rate counting (88.5% vs. 54.7%), and administering the first dose by CHW (75.4% vs. 65.0%). Findings from the RADAR evaluation guided improvements in program supervision. A robust program supervision system can serve as a credible method to assess QoC. However, a rigorous independent QoC evaluation provides a valuable benchmark to gauge the effectiveness of the supervisory process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a myeloproliferative neoplasm defined by the presence of the BCR-ABL1 oncogene created by the reciprocal translocation t(9;22)(q34.1;q11.2), can often be controlled by medications that inhibit this constitutive tyrosine kinase. However, if these therapies fail, the disease may progress to a form resembling an acute leukemia. While most of these CML 'blast crises' are characterized by blasts with a myeloid (granulocytic) or lymphoid lineage, these blasts may rarely be predominantly erythroid. Cases of CML erythroid blast crises have been reported; however, secondary pure erythroid leukemia arising from a CML blast crisis has only been definitively reported once before. We report the second definitive case of pure erythroid leukemia with the t(9;22)(q34.1;q11.2) presenting as a CML blast crisis and characterize the morphologic, immunophenotypic, flow cytometric, cytogenetic, and molecular findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a class of variance estimator is proposed of a finite population variance under an adaptive cluster sampling design in the presence of information on an auxiliary variable. We obtain expressions for the mean square error and bias for the developed estimators and their performance is evaluated on a Poisson clustered process and a real data set. The simulation study evaluates the efficiency of the suggested estimators for an adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) design and the Isaki (1983) estimator of the variance for SRSWOR over the sample variance for SRSWOR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by the extended parallel process model (EPPM) and reactance theory, this study examined the relationship between efficacy beliefs, reactance, and adult smokers' responses to pictorial health warning labels (HWL) on cigarette packaging, including whether efficacy beliefs or reactance modify the relationship between HWL responses and subsequent smoking cessation behavior. Four waves of data were analyzed from prospective cohorts of smokers in Australia and Canada (n = 7,120 observations) over a period of time after implementation of more prominent, pictorial HWLs. Three types of HWL responses were studied: psychological threat responses (i.e., thinking about risks from smoking), forgoing cigarettes due to HWLs, and avoiding HWLs. The results from Generalized Estimating Equation models indicated that stronger efficacy beliefs and lower trait reactance were significantly associated with greater psychological threat responses to HWLs. Similar results were found for models predicting forgoing behavior, although response efficacy was inversely associated with it. Only response efficacy was significantly associated with avoiding HWLs, showing a positive relationship. Higher self-efficacy and stronger responses to HWLs, no matter the type, were associated with attempting to quit in the followup period; reactance was unassociated. No statistically significant interactions were found. These results suggest that stronger efficacy beliefs and lower trait reactance are associated with some stronger responses to fear-arousing HWL responses; however, these HWL responses appear no less likely to lead to cessation attempts among smokers with different levels of self-efficacy to quit, of response efficacy beliefs, or of trait reactance against attempts to control their behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To identify if dual task gait differed between persons with PD (high versus low physical activity levels) and healthy peers. Methods: Persons with PD (n = 19) and matched healthy controls (HC) (n = 19) completed Timed Up and Go single (TUGalone) and dual task conditions (TUGmotor/TUGcognitive), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and step activity monitoring. Participants with PD were classified low active (LAPD; n = 11) or high active (HAPD; n = 8) using HC mean steps/day cut-point (M = 4,658). Results: PD groups were equivalent for mental status, disease severity, and PD duration. LAPD steps/day (M = 2,482.00 ± 1,466.33) differed from HAPD (M = 5,675.13 ± 1,198.93) and HC (M = 4,657.74 ± 1,604.99) (p = 0.001). LAPD completed the TUG slower than HAPD and HC (MANOVA, p < 0.02; post-hoc analysis, p < 0.04). BDI-II scores were greater in LAPD than HC (p = 0.013). Conclusions: Physical activity impacted mobility and depression. HAPD were similar to HC in walking activities and affect but LAPD walked slower with higher levels of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pretest–posttest studies are an important and popular method for assessing the effectiveness of a treatment or an intervention in many scientific fields. While the treatment effect, measured as the difference between the two mean responses, is of primary interest, testing the difference of the two distribution functions for the treatment and the control groups is also an important problem. The Mann–Whitney test has been a standard tool for testing the difference of distribution functions with two independent samples. We develop empirical likelihood-based (EL) methods for the Mann–Whitney test to incorporate the two unique features of pretest–posttest studies: (i) the availability of baseline information for both groups; and (ii) the structure of the data with missing by design. Our proposed methods combine the standard Mann–Whitney test with the EL method of Huang, Qin and Follmann [(2008), ‘Empirical Likelihood-Based Estimation of the Treatment Effect in a Pretest–Posttest Study’,Journal of the American Statistical Association, 103(483), 1270–1280], the imputation-based empirical likelihood method of Chen, Wu and Thompson [(2015), ‘An Imputation-Based Empirical Likelihood Approach to Pretest–Posttest Studies’,The Canadian Journal of Statisticsaccepted for publication], and the jackknife empirical likelihood method of Jing, Yuan and Zhou [(2009), ‘Jackknife Empirical Likelihood’,Journal of the American Statistical Association, 104, 1224–1232]. Theoretical results are presented and finite sample performances of proposed methods are evaluated through simulation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rutishauser’s LR algorithm is extended in the context of semisimple Lie group. Explicit examples are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines associations between local food purchasing and diet-related outcomes. A population-based sample of 2228 households containing 4902 individuals completed surveys. Multilevel linear regressions determined the extent to which purchasing foods from farmers’ markets and community-supported agricultural (CSA) groups predicted individuals’ diet-related outcomes. After controlling for age, sex, education, income, and car ownership, frequency of shopping at farmers’ markets and CSAs predicted lower body mass index, B = −0.34 (0.66), P < .05 and B = −0.81 (0.37), P < .05, respectively, and waist circumference, B = −1.09 (0.40), P < .01 and B = −2.31 (0.96), P < .05, respectively, and better diet quality (for CSA use only), B = 3.46 (1.57), P < .05. Higher frequency of shopping at farmers’ markets and CSAs is associated with reduced body mass index and waist circumference, which may have important implications for agricultural and food policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study the determinants of the sum of two real matrices under the action of SO(n) ⊗ SO(n). The extremal determinants are determined. The result is a refinement of the results of Li and Mathias [C.K. Li and R. Mathias, The determinant of the sum of two matrices, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 52 (1995), pp. 425–429]. We also study the problem in the context of real classical simple Lie algebras. The results of Fiedler [M. Fiedler, Bounds for the determinant of the sum of Hermitian matrices, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 30 (1971), pp. 27–31], Li and Mathias 4 and Tam and Thompson [T.Y. Tam and M.C. Thompson, Determinant and Pfaffian of sum of skew symmetric matrices, Linear Algebra Appl. 433 (2010), pp. 412–423] are some special cases in this context. Complete solutions are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sitting Balance Scale (SBS) measures sitting balance for frail older adults who are primarily nonambulatory. Purposes were to generate items representing different functional abilities of sitting balance, reduce the number of items to make a clinically useful tool, refine the assessment, and establish reliability and validity. The study was conducted in multiple phases, with qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Content development used nominal group process, expert narratives, and literature review. After consensus was reached on content and scoring, item reduction began. Item retention and deletion decisions were based on a combination of practical considerations during field testing, expert and experienced clinician opinion of clinical relevance, and statistical information. Item retention or deletion decisions were based in part on the internal consistency analysis of the 19-item SBS based on 256 scores, which included participants who were apparently healthy and those with pathology. We applied a decision matrix to yield the final 11-item version. The 11-item SBS demonstrated good internal consistency (α == 0.762), intrarater rater reliability (ICC3,1 == 0.96 to 0.99), and interrater reliability (ICC2,1 == 0.87). On the basis of analysis of 156 scores, construct and concurrent validity were established. The SBS appears to meet the criteria required to make it a useful tool. The SBS can be used to assess sitting balance in frail individuals who are primarily nonambulatory who might exhibit floor effects for traditionally used balance measures. The SBS is the first attempt to assess lower balance abilities. Further assessment of the tool's validity with larger and varied samples is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research from recent studies (2005-2010) concerning parent feeding of preschool children and the risk for childhood obesity were included in this review. Methods: An integrative literature review method, as proposed by Whittemore and Knalf (2005), was used to analyze data from a broad array of research methods, such as qualitative and experimental, and represent research from multiple disciplines. Rigor was maintained by using clearly defined variables, maintaining an audit trail, and opening the research for review from peers and experts. Eighteen peer reviewed journal articles (3 qualitative and 15 descriptive, cross-sectional studies) were included. Results: Findings from these articles contribute to a better understanding of factors related to feeding and parents from different cultural, educational and economic backgrounds, and their children's risk for obesity. Specifically, findings concerned how parents controlled and modified their children's eating, parental perception of their children's risk for obesity, what influenced parental feeding practices and how mothers' disinhibited eating and restrictive parenting practices related to their children's risk for obesity. Conclusions: These findings may impact the efficacy of childhood obesity prevention and intervention efforts and direct future childhood obesity research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

America' s Next Top Model (ANTM), the popular reality television show produced by and starring Tyra Banks, has garnered a sizeable audience over its thirteen seasons. Synergistically marketed to readers of Young People and Teen Magazine, ANTM enjoys an audience of five million viewers mostly from the 18-35 year-old female demographic. This essay explores representations of ethnic and gendered identities constructed through the visual and discursive rhetoric of ANTM. ANTM judges define “model” femininity as those contestants whose look is “a blank palette” or “androgynous,” descriptors that signal unmarked whiteness, while nonwhite women are most often marked as “exotic” or eliminated for being “too ethnic.” This essay argues that despite Banks's expressed desire to help more women of color into the modeling business, ANTM participates in emerging, neoliberal understandings of racial and gendered identities, which, characterized by a hegemonic postfeminist and postrace worldview, obscure the operating of privilege in the young women's “choices” of how and when to perform their ethnicities. Rejecting the ANTM judges' claims to objectivity, this essay attempts to situate the gaze of the fashion industry and its aesthetic knowledge through its unspoken reliance on the notion of “optional” ethnic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a number of DNA binding transcription factors have been identified that control hematopoietic cell fate decisions, only a limited number of transcriptional corepressors (e.g., the retinoblastoma protein [pRB] and the nuclear hormone corepressor [N-CoR]) have been linked to these functions. Here, we show that the transcriptional corepressor Mtg16 (myeloid translocation gene on chromosome 16), which is targeted by t(16;21) in acute myeloid leukemia, is required for hematopoietic progenitor cell fate decisions and for early progenitor cell proliferation. Inactivation of Mtg16 skewed early myeloid progenitor cells toward the granulocytic/macrophage lineage while reducing the numbers of megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitor cells. In addition, inactivation of Mtg16 impaired the rapid expansion of short-term stem cells, multipotent progenitor cells, and megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitor cells that is required under hematopoietic stress/emergency. This impairment appears to be a failure to proliferate rather than an induction of cell death, as expression of c-Myc, but not Bcl2, complemented the Mtg16-/- defect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DPSIR framework was devised in the late 1990s as a tool for the reporting and analysis of environmental problems, ranging in scale from global systems to localized watersheds. Since then, international organizations have begun to apply this framework to the evaluation of sustainable development initiatives, to better understand and overcome barriers to sustainability. While this may seem a logical application for an integrated environmental assessment' tool, the use of DPSIR in sustainable development will likely perpetuate the least satisfactory outcomes of development. DPSIR cannot address the impact of aggregated, informal responses on the drivers and pressures related to environmental problems and sustainability challenges. This problem is not merely an oversight of the framework, but an issue that emerges within the structure of DPSIR itself through the unexamined, unacknowledged hierarchy of actors that this framework implicitly creates with its typology. Therefore, a DPSIR-centered approach is not a new direction for development within international organizations, but instead, a reproduction of existing inequalities between actors and stakeholders within current approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary objectives: To determine the usefulness of select balance and functional mobility measures in predicting fall risk in community dwelling persons with brain injury (BI) and to develop a model to quantify fall risk. Research design: An exploratory pilot study to predict fall risk in persons with BI. Non-manipulated independent variable was fall status with two levels, non-faller and faller. Dependent variables were scores on the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), the Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) and the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES); age, gender, supervision required and assistive device use. Methods and procedures: Twenty-six participants recruited from support groups and community re-entry programmes were divided into two groups, fallers and non-fallers. The FES, BBS and DGI were administered. Main outcomes and results: T-tests and chi-square tests revealed between group differences for age, FES, BBS, DGI and assistive device use. Spearman's rho statistic showed moderate relationships among the variables, FES, BBS, DGI and assistive device use. Logistic regression determined the DGI to best predict fall risk. Conclusions: This study developed a predictive model that could be used by therapists to determine an individual's fall risk in the home or outpatient settings. Assessing risk allows therapists to identify individuals who would benefit from intervention designed to improve balance and gait ability, possibly preventing future falls and a second head injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two members of the MTG/ETO family of transcriptional corepressors, MTG8 and MTG16, are disrupted by chromosomal translocations in up to 15% of acute myeloid leukemia cases. The third family member, MTGR1, was identified as a factor that associates with the t(8;21) fusion protein RUNX1-MTG8. We demonstrate that Mtgr1 associates with mSin3A, N-CoR, and histone deacetylase 3 and that when tethered to DNA, Mtgr1 represses transcription, suggesting that Mtgr1 also acts as a transcriptional corepressor. To define the biological function of Mtgr1, we created Mtgr1-null mice. These mice are proportionally smaller than their littermates during embryogenesis and throughout their life span but otherwise develop normally. However, these mice display a progressive reduction in the secretory epithelial cell lineage in the small intestine. This is not due to the loss of small intestinal progenitor cells expressing Gill, which is required for the formation of goblet and Paneth cells, implying that loss of Mtgr1 impairs the maturation of secretory cells in the small intestine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Von Recklinghausen's disease is a relatively common familial genetic disorder characterized by inactivating mutations of the Neurofibromatosis-1 (NF1) gene that predisposes these patients to malignancies, including an increased risk for juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. However, NF1 mutations are not common in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Given that the RUNX1 transcription factor is the most common target for chromosomal translocations in acute leukemia, we asked if NF1 might be regulated by RUNX1. In reporter assays, RUNX1 activated the NF1 promoter and cooperated with C/EBPα and ETS2 to activate the NF1 promoter over 80-fold. Moreover, the t(8;21) fusion protein RUNX1-MTG8 (R/M), which represses RUNX1-regulated genes, actively repressed the NF1 promoter. RrM associated with the NF1 promoter in vivo and repressed endogenous NF1 gene expression. In addition, similar to loss of NF1, R/M expression enhanced the sensitivity of primary myeloid progenitor cells to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Our results indicate that the NF1 tumor suppressor gene is a direct transcriptional target of RUNX1 and the t(8;21) fusion protein, suggesting that suppression of NF1 expression contributes to the molecular pathogenesis of AML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Timed Up and Go (TUG) assesses functional mobility. The clinical usefulness and interpretation of cutoff scores for the original TUG, however, is unclear with community ambulators. Adding a cognitive or manual task to the TUG or manipulating the test environment might better identify functional limitations in this population. The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of the TUG as a screening tool in apparently healthy individuals by examining the ability of one or more TUG variations to challenge these individuals. Young (n = 69, mean age = 25) and old subjects (n = 67, mean age = 78) performed the TUG and 7 variations in random order including combinations of cognitive and manual tasks and a compliant surface. Time on the TUG and accuracy of the cognitive task were analyzed using an ANOVA for repeated measures. All participants except two in the older group performed the TUG faster than the 20-second cutoff score. Older subjects were slower and less accurate than younger subjects. For younger subjects, post-hoc analysis revealed that 20 out of 28 pairings were significantly different. For older subjects, 19 out of 28 pairings were different. There was no difference in performance of the young subjects on the cognitive (10.05s) and manual tasks (10.27s). Older subjects took 18.8's to perform the cognitive TUG compared to 16.3s for the manual TUG. Unless clinicians assess patients under real world conditions, they may overestimate the ability of their patients to function independently. This study supports the idea that multi-tasking can be quantified. The battery may prove useful for discriminating patients whose performance falls in the grey zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oscar Wilde was dismissive of contemporary approaches to education and of Victorian constructions of childhood. His fairy tales neither empathise with children nor privilege them as characters. Nonetheless children form a distinct focus for his tales. In creating his hybrid form of the fairy tale, he elides boundaries drawn between adult and young readers and also between the forms of the literary fairy tale, the popular folk tale and contemporary literary styles. His fairy tales insistently attend to surface reality and reject psychological realism. They also reject many of the conventions of fairy tales, and are characterised by an absence of any simple equation between good and evil; by signifiers with shifting meanings; and self‐conscious use of language and complex narrative techniques. As such they demand of their readers a critical, probing approach that may be paralleled with that of members of the Philosophy with Children movement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focuses on the biographies of Austin Clarke. Alternative forms of biography; Problems of compiling data; MacGreevy chronology.

To study patterns of volcanicity it is important to use historical data. These data are, however, frequently incomplete. We develop a nonparametric procedure for estimating second-order parameters of the point process of eruption starts from a catalog. This method requires an assumption of underlying stationarity, of smoothness of the probability of recording an eruption as a function of time, and of independence of this probability from the history of the process. We illustrate the procedure on the Smithsonian catalog of worldwide volcanic eruptions. We also look separately at data from Japan and Iceland. The global and the Japanese data sets show little structure, but the Icelandic data exhibits a tendency toward periodic behavior, with a period of about 40 years. We do not see any regularity corresponding to certain long tidal cycles, as has previously been suggested in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determines mean performance times and the effect of age and gender on the up and go test (UG) with and without cane. Standardization of instructions, demonstrations and practice trials; Calculation of descriptive statistic for group and gender; Effect of performing the UG with the cane on lenght of times.

Copyright of INFOR is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A highly detailed account of the psychotherapy of one female hysterioa treatment failureis the stimulant for discussion of the genetics and dynamics of this nosology. The patient's symptomatology includes feelings of unreality, seizures, an embryo dual personality, and frigidity. Hypnosis revealed the experimental basis for these symptoms and associated adjustment di5iculties. The dynamics bear a remarkable resemblance to those advanced by Freud and Breuer, though issue is taken with several fundamental psychoanalytic concepts. The Discussion deals largely with the phenomenology of the female hysteric. It is concluded that the seemingly favorable prognosis of the hysteric is illusionary if the goal is characterologic change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]