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Selected AbstractsA Review of the Health Beliefs and Lifestyle Behaviors of Women with Previous Gestational DiabetesJOURNAL OF OBSTETRIC, GYNECOLOGIC & NEONATAL NURSING, Issue 5 2009Emily J. Jones ABSTRACT Objective: To critically review and synthesize original research designed to examine the health beliefs, including risk perceptions and health behaviors related to diet and physical activity of women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus. Data Sources: PubMed and CINAHL databases were searched for studies published in the last decade (1998-2008) that examined variables related to the health beliefs and behaviors of women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus. Keyword searches included health beliefs, health behaviors, perceived risk, gestational diabetes, type 2 diabetes, diet, physical activity, and postpartum. Study Selection: Eight articles, representing 6 studies, were selected that met the inclusion criteria of original research, dependent variable of health beliefs and behaviors of women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus, and measurement after pregnancy. Data Extraction: Articles were reviewed and discussed according to the concepts of risk perception and health beliefs, health behaviors related to diet and physical activity, and psychosocial factors related to women's health beliefs and behaviors. Data Synthesis: Data revealed common health beliefs and behaviors of women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus, including low risk perceptions for future type 2 diabetes mellitus and suboptimal levels of physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake. The majority of studies revealed a distinct knowledge-behavior gap among women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus, whereas others revealed a lack of knowledge regarding necessary lifestyle modifications. Conclusions: Findings from this review may assist women's health researchers and clinicians in developing appropriate interventions for increasing risk awareness, promoting self-efficacy for weight loss and physical activity behaviors, and decreasing rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease among women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus. Further research is necessary to identify factors that influence the health beliefs and behaviors of women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus. Future research should focus on populations of greater racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity, as the majority of studies have been conducted with non-Hispanic White, socioeconomically advantaged women. [source] Interventions for Weight Management in Postpartum WomenJOURNAL OF OBSTETRIC, GYNECOLOGIC & NEONATAL NURSING, Issue 1 2008Colleen Keller ABSTRACT Objective:, To report the results of a comprehensive review of published intervention studies to identify the best evidence available for guiding weight management interventions in postpartum women. Data Sources:, Electronic searches were conducted of three electronic databases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; Medline; and the Science Citation Index, Expanded, in the Web of Science from 1994 to May 2007. Keyword searches were conducted using the terms obesity, obese, overweight, postpartum, pregnancy weight, and weight management in postpartum women. Study Selection:, Six studies were selected that met the inclusion criteria of testing interventions and one that reported preintervention planning and targeted a weight management intervention for postpartum women. Data Extraction:, All six interventions showed significant impact with diet and exercise or some combination on body composition in the targeted sample of women. Data Synthesis:, The strengths of previous studies include an emphasis on precision in outcome measures and experimental conditions; limitations were that the theoretical basis for the interventions was frequently omitted and limited attention given to the cultural, social, and contextual factors established in descriptive research. Conclusions:, Interventions need to target women early in their childbearing years to have the most significant long-term impact. [source] Laparo-endoscopic single-site surgery: preliminary advances in renal surgeryBJU INTERNATIONAL, Issue 8 2009Sashi S. Kommu We reviewed the preliminary advances in laparo-endoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) as applied to renal surgery, and analyzed current publications based on animal models and human patients. We searched published reports in major urological meeting abstracts, Embase and Medline (1966 to 25 August 2008), with no language restrictions. Keyword searches included: ,scarless', ,scar free', ,single port/trocar/incision', ,intraumbilical', and ,transumbilical', ,natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery' (NOTES), ,SILS', ,OPUS' and ,LESS'. The lessons learnt from the studies using the porcine model are that further advances in instrumentation are essential to achieve optimum results, and that testing survival in animals is also necessary to further expand the NOTES and LESS techniques. Further advances in instrument technology together with increasing experience in NOTES and LESS approaches have driven the transition from porcine models to human patients. In the latter, studies show that the techniques are feasible provided that both optimal surgical technical expertise with advanced skills, and optimal instrumentation, are available. The next step towards minimal access/minimally invasive urological surgery is NOTES and LESS. It is inevitable that LESS will be extended to involve more complex and technically demanding procedures such as laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and partial nephrectomy. [source] An evidence-based appraisal of splinting luxated, avulsed and root-fractured teethDENTAL TRAUMATOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Bill Kahler For this systematic review of splinting of teeth that have been luxated, avulsed or root-fractured, the clinical PICO question is (P) what are splinting intervention decisions for luxated, avulsed and root-fractured teeth (I) considering that the splinting intervention choice may include (i) no splinting, (ii) rigid or functional splinting for the different types of trauma and (iii) different durations of the splinting period (C) when comparing these splinting choices for the different types of trauma and their effect on (O) healing outcomes for the teeth. A keyword search of PubMed was used. Reference lists from identified articles and dental traumatology texts were also appraised. The inclusion criterion for this review was either a multivariate analysis or controlled stratified analyses as many variables have the potential to confound the assessment and evaluation of healing outcomes for teeth that have been luxated, avulsed or root-fractured. A positive statistical test is not proof of a causal conclusion, as a positive statistical relationship can arise by chance, and so this review also appraises animal studies that reportedly explain biological mechanisms that relate to healing outcomes of splinted teeth. The clinical studies were ranked using the ,Centre of Evidence-based Medicine' categorization (levels 1,5). All 12 clinical studies selected were ranked as level 4. The studies generally indicate that the prognosis is determined by the type of injury rather than factors associated with splinting. The results indicate that the types of splint and the fixation period are generally not significant variables when related to healing outcomes. This appraisal identified difficulties in the design of animal experimentation to correctly simulate some dental injuries. Some of the studies employed rigid splinting techniques, which are not representative of current recommendations. Recommended splinting treatment protocols for teeth that have been luxated, avulsed or root-fractured teeth are formulated on the strength of research evidence. Despite the ranking of these studies in this appraisal as low levels of evidence, these recommendations should be considered ,best practice', a core philosophy of evidence-based dentistry. [source] An expressive and efficient language for XML information retrievalJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 6 2002Taurai Tapiwa Chinenyanga Several languages for querying and transforming XML, including XML-QL, Quilt, and XQL, have been proposed. However, these languages do not support ranked queries based on textual similarity, in the spirit of traditional IR. Several extensions to these XML query languages to support keyword search have been made, but the resulting languages cannot express IR-style queries such as "find books and CDs with similar titles." In some of these languages keywords are used merely as boolean filters without support for true ranked retrieval; others permit similarity calculations only between a data value and a constant, and thus cannot express the above query. WHIRL avoids both problems, but assumes relational data. We propose ELIXIR, an expressive and efficient language for XML information retrieval that extends XML-QL with a textual similarity operator that can be used for similarity joins, so ELIXIR is sufficiently expressive to handle the sample query above. ELIXIR thus qualifies as a general-purpose XML IR query language. Our central contribution is an efficient algorithm for answering ELIXIR queries that rewrites the original ELIXIR query into a series of XML-QL queries to generate intermediate relational data, and uses WHIRL to efficiently evaluate the similarity operators on this intermediate data, yielding an XML document with nodes ranked by similarity. Our experiments demonstrate that our prototype scales well with the size of the query and the XML data. [source] Cognitive economy and satisficing in information seeking: A longitudinal study of undergraduate information behaviorJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 12 2009Claire Warwick This article reports on a longitudinal study of information seeking by undergraduate information management students. It describes how they found and used information, and explores their motivation and decision making. We employed a use-in-context approach where students were observed conducting, and were interviewed about, information-seeking tasks carried out during their academic work. We found that participants were reluctant to engage with a complex range of information sources, preferring to use the Internet. The main driver for progress in information seeking was the immediate demands of their work (e.g., assignments). Students used their growing expertise to justify a conservative information strategy, retaining established strategies as far as possible and completing tasks with minimum information-seeking effort. The time cost of using library material limited the uptake of such resources. New methods for discovering and selecting information were adopted only when immediately relevant to the task at hand, and tasks were generally chosen or interpreted in ways that minimized the need to develop new strategies. Students were driven by the demands of the task to use different types of information resources, but remained reluctant to move beyond keyword searches, even when they proved ineffective. They also lacked confidence in evaluating the relative usefulness of resources. Whereas existing literature on satisficing has focused on stopping conditions, this work has highlighted a richer repertoire of satisficing behaviors. [source] Delivering culturally appropriate residential rehabilitation for urban Indigenous Australians: a review of the challenges and opportunitiesAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2010Kate Taylor Abstract Objective: To review the challenges facing Indigenous and mainstream services in delivering residential rehabilitation services to Indigenous Australians, and explore opportunities to enhance outcomes. Methods: A literature review was conducted using keyword searches of databases, on-line journals, articles, national papers, conference proceedings and reports from different organisations, with snowball follow-up of relevant citations. Each article was assessed for quality using recognised criteria. Results: Despite debate about the effectiveness of mainstream residential alcohol rehabilitation treatment, most Indigenous Australians with harmful alcohol consumption who seek help have a strong preference for residential treatment. While there is a significant gap in the cultural appropriateness of mainstream services for Indigenous clients, Indigenous-controlled residential organisations also face issues in service delivery. Limitations and inherent difficulties in rigorous evaluation processes further plague both areas of service provision. Conclusion: With inadequate evidence surrounding what constitutes ,best practice' for Indigenous clients in residential settings, more research is needed to investigate, evaluate and contribute to the further development of culturally appropriate models of best practice. In urban settings, a key area for innovation involves improving the capacity and quality of service delivery through effective inter-agency partnerships between Indigenous and mainstream service providers. [source] | ||||||||||