Search

Background: People face varying obstacles when interacting with health information in their everyday lives. Objectives: This study aims to examine the applicability of a multidimensional Everyday Health Information Literacy (EHIL) screening tool in detecting people with challenges in accessing, understanding, evaluating and using health information in everyday situations. Methods: Previously collected EHIL screening tool data from Finnish upper secondary school students (n = 217), Finnish young men (n = 1450), Finnish adults with an increased risk for metabolic syndrome (n = 559) and Namibian university students (n = 271) were reanalysed to examine the factorial structure of the tool and to compare the groups. Statistical analyses included exploratory factor analyses, calculation of mean factor scores and one‐way analysis of variance. Results: A three factor structure ('awareness', 'access', 'assessment') for the screening tool was supported based on the Finnish samples. However, the Namibian data did not follow a similar structure. Significant differences in groupwise factor scores were discovered. Discussion: The findings suggest that the multidimensional EHIL screening tool can be used in pointing out areas where individuals or groups may need support. Conclusion: The tool may be useful to health information and library services workers when counselling or educating the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterisation of the interactions between susceptibility loci (epistasis) is central to a full understanding of the genetic aetiology and the molecular pathology of complex diseases. We have examined, in British and French pedigrees, evidence for epistasis between the type 2 diabetes susceptibility loci on chromosomes 1q21-25 and 10q23-26 using two complementary linkage-based approaches. Joint two-locus linkage analysis of 1q and 10q in British pedigrees provided significant evidence for interaction (P ≤ 0.003) when comparing a general epistasis model with multiplicative or additive-effects-only models. Conditional linkage analysis (which models epistasis as a deviation from multiplicativity only) confirmed these findings, with significant LOD score increases at the 1q (P = 0.0002) and 10q (P = 0.0023) loci. These analyses provided sizeable reductions in the 1-LOD support intervals for both loci. Analyses of the British and French pedigrees together yielded comparable, but not enhanced, findings, with significant (P ≤ 0.003) evidence for epistasis in joint two-locus linkage analysis, and during conditional linkage analysis significant increases in linkage evidence at the 1q (P = 0.0002) and 10q (P = 0.0036) loci. Our findings of epistasis nevertheless substantiate the evidence for genuine genetic effects at both loci, facilitate endeavours to fine-map these loci in population samples, and support further examination of this interaction at the nucleotide level by providing a robust prior hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to genetic data, North European freshwater areas were colonized from refugia along the eastern Atlantic coast, in southern and eastern basins of Baltic Sea, in Siberia, North America, and areas of the Caspian and Black seas. Probably, a refugium also existed in Southern Norway. Colonization from the sea also took place. The taxonomic position of some forms, such as members of the complex groups of Arctic chars and coregonids, was refined in the course of combined studies including morphological analysis and molecular markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A commentary on Erik Amma's "Still a Trustworthy Ally? Civil Society and the Transformation of Scandinavian Democracy," which highlights civil society differences in northern Europe due to recent democratic audits in the region, is presented. The author apprizes Amma's contributions, highlighting both the common and the diverging civil society developments that would effect the social and cultural aspects embedded in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.