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Moderate Support (moderate + support)
Selected AbstractsDeveloping indicators for measuring Research Capacity Development in primary care organizations: a consensus approach using a nominal group techniqueHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 3 2009Gill Sarre LCST Abstract Research Capacity Development (RCD) in the National Health Service supports the production of evidence for decision-making in policy and practice. This study aimed to establish a level of consensus on a range of indicators to measure research capacity in primary care organizations. Indicators were developed in a two-stage process using workshops and modified nominal group technique. In 2005, workshops were used to generate possible indicators from a wide range of research active and research-interested people. A theoretical framework of six principles of RCD was used to explore and identify indicators. Data were thematically coded, and a 129-item, 9-point Likert scale questionnaire was developed. A purposive sample of nine experts in developing research capacity in primary care agreed to take part in a nominal group in April 2006. The questionnaire was circulated prior to the meeting, and analysis of the responses formed the basis for structured discussion. Participants were then asked to rescore the questionnaire. Only seven participants were able to take part in the discussion and rescore stages. Data were analysed in two ways: level of relevance attributed to each indicator as a measure of organizational RCD, represented by median responses (medians of 7,9 defined strong support, 4,6 indicated moderate support and 1,3 indicated weak support), and level of consensus reached by the group. Consensus was reached if 85% of the group rated an indicator within the same band. Eighty-nine (68%) indicators were ranked as strongly relevant, and for seventy-three of these indicators, a consensus was reached. The study was successful in generating a set of agreed indicators considered relevant for measuring RCD in primary care organizations. These will form the basis of a pilot tool kit to assist primary care organizations to develop research capacity. Further work will explore the applicability of the indicators in practice. [source] Cochrane Reviews of non-medication-based psychotherapeutic and other interventions for schizophrenia, psychosis, and bipolar disorder: A systematic literature reviewINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2009Xenia Tricia Jung ABSTRACT Mental health-care professionals are striving to keep up to date with health interventions that are effective and beneficial to patients. The Cochrane Reviews make available a systematic and up-to-date review of a comprehensive range of health interventions. We identified a total of 28 interventions from a systematic search and review of the Cochrane Reviews for either schizophrenia, psychosis, schizoaffective, or bipolar disorder. These interventions have been graded into tables of: strong support that merits application, moderate support that warrants consideration of application, not supported, and data that is deemed inconclusive. The tables provide a comprehensive summary and classification of evidence-based practices. This information is presented in a way to enable nurses and other health-care professionals to analyze their own practices to improve mental health services and outcomes for patients. Of the 28 interventions identified in this review, four had strong support and five had moderate support meriting application. Limitations of this review are discussed. [source] Relevance of Cues for Assessing Hallucinated Voice ExperiencesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING TERMINOLOGIES AND CLASSIFICATION, Issue 3 2003Margaret England PhD PURPOSE. To assess psychiatric nurses' views of the importance of itemized content represented on an Inventory of Voice Experiences (IVE) for ongoing assessment of atypical auditory sense perception in people who hear voices. METHODS. Over 6 months, 317 experienced psychiatric nurses rated 58 assessment cues for hallucinated voice experiences. Cronbach's alpha, Cohen's kappa, and Bartko's intraclass correlation coefficients were used to measure concordance of the nurses' judgments against two hypothetical standards derived for purposes of the study. FINDINGS. There was moderate support for both the internal consistency of the nurses' judgments concerning the importance of itemized content represented on the WE and overall equivalence of the content. There was modest-to-moderate concordance of the nurses' original and subsequent judgments but a lack of concordance of the nurses' judgments with equally weighted judgments of the principal investigator even though the judgments of the investigator were based on extant literature and published reports of voice hearers. CONCLUSIONS. Results may reflect the effects of repeated testing, but it also is possible that some nurses did not have enough knowledge or professional experience to quantify judgments about the importance of hallucinated voice descriptions tied to the items on the WE. The findings are being used to refine the IVE. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS. Findings provide nurses with opportunities for discerning specific characteristics, antecedents, and consequences of voice hearing along with their implications for health and well-being. Discernment of this information will facilitate identification of more specific and meaningful options for helping voice hearers manage their voices. Search terms: Auditory hallucinations, schizophrenia [source] Psychometric evaluation of the body investment scale for use with adolescentsJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Augustine Osman Abstract We conducted two studies to examine the psychometric properties of the Body Investment Scale (BIS; Orbach & Mikulincer, 1998) in U.S. adolescent samples. The BIS was designed to assess bodily experiences that are associated with suicide-related behaviors. In Study 1, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with data from a combined sample of 204 high school adolescents (83 boys, 121 girls) and 197 psychiatric inpatient (101 boys, 96 girls) adolescents provided moderate support for the oblique four-factor solution: Body Feelings (,=.86, 95% CI=.83,.89), Body Touch (,=.71, 95% CI=.65,.76), Body Care (,=.78, 95% CI=.71,.81), and Body Protection (,=.78, 95% CI=.73,.82); robust comparative fit index=.88 and the robust Tucker Lewis Index=.83. The second-order factor model also provided moderate fit to the data. In Study 2, results of the CFA with data from adolescent psychiatric inpatients (N=205; 101 boys, 104 girls) provided additional support for the four-factor solution. In addition, results of the receiver operating characteristic and logistic regression analyses showed that scores on the Body Feelings and Body Protection scales were most useful in differentiating the responses of suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents, all Cohen's d values >.30. The study also examined associations between scores on the BIS scales and the validation self-report measures of hopelessness, suicide-related behavior, and reasons for living. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 66: 259,276, 2010. [source] Phylogenetic signal and the utility of 12S and 16S mtDNA in frog phylogenyJOURNAL OF ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH, Issue 1 2004S. Hertwig Abstract Genes selected for a phylogenetic study need to contain conserved information that reflects the phylogenetic history at the specific taxonomic level of interest. Mitochondrial ribosomal genes have been used for a wide range of phylogenetic questions in general and in anuran systematics in particular. We checked the plausibility of phylogenetic reconstructions in anurans that were built from commonly used 12S and 16S rRNA gene sequences. For up to 27 species arranged in taxon sets of graded inclusiveness, we inferred phylogenetic hypotheses based on different a priori decisions, i.e. choice of alignment method and alignment parameters, including/excluding variable sites, choice of reconstruction algorithm and models of evolution. Alignment methods and parameters, as well as taxon sampling all had notable effects on the results leading to a large number of conflicting topologies. Very few nodes were supported in all of the analyses. Data sets in which fast evolving and ambiguously aligned sites had been excluded performed worse than the complete data sets. There was moderate support for the monophyly of the Discoglossidae, Pelobatoidea, Pelobatidae and Pipidae. The clade Neobatrachia was robustly supported and the intrageneric relationships within Bombina and Discoglossus were well resolved indicating the usefulness of the genes for relatively recent phylogenetic events. Although 12S and 16S rRNA genes seem to carry some phylogenetic signal of deep (Mesozoic) splitting events the signal was not strong enough to resolve consistently the inter-relationships of major clades within the Anura under varied methods and parameter settings. Zusammenfassung Zur Anwendung in einer phylogenetische Analyse müssen die ausgewählten Gene konservierte und detektierbare Information zum untersuchten phylogenetischen Niveau enthalten. Ribosomale Gene des Mitochondriums wurden für ein breites Spektrum phylogenetischer Fragestellungen bei verschiedenen Gruppen und insbesondere bei Froschlurchen eingesetzt. Wir untersuchten die Frage, ob Rekonstruktionen der Anuren-Phylogenie, basierend auf 12S und 16S rRNA Gensequenzen, plausibel sind. An einer Auswahl von 27 Arten, arrangiert in Taxa-Gruppen abgestufter Hierarchie, rekonstruierten wir phylogenetische Hypothesen unter verschiedenen, a priori festgelegten Bedingungen. Dazu gehörten die Auswahl verschiedener Alinierungsmethoden und,parameter, der Umgang mit variabel alinierten Positionen, die Auswahl der Algorithmen zur Baumkonstruktion sowie die Auswahl alternativer Modelle der Sequenzevolution. Die Methoden und Parameter der Alinierung und der Rekonstruktion, sowie die Auswahl der Taxa, hatten bedeutenden Einfluss auf die Resultate. Daraus resultierte eine große Anzahl alternativer Topologien, in denen nur sehr wenige Knoten in allen Analysen Unterstützung fanden. Ausschluss variabel alinierter Positionen ergaben Topologien mit niedrigem Grad der Auflösung. Die Sequenzen enthielten ein gewisses Signal für die Monophylie von Discoglossidae, Pelobatoidea, Pelobatidae und Pipidae. Der Knoten Neobatrachia wurde deutlich unterstützt. Die robuste Auflösung intragenerischer Phylogenien von Bombina und Discoglossus weisen auf eine besondere Eignung der Gene für die Untersuchung junger Aufspaltungsereignisse hin. Obwohl 12S und 16S rRNA-Gene eine heterogene Unterstützung für wenige frühe (mesozoische) phylogenetische Ereignisse zeigten, war das Signal nicht geeignet, um die Beziehungen der Taxa höherer Ordnung der Anura unter variierten Parametern und Analysemethoden konsistent aufzulösen. [source] Species discovery in marine planktonic invertebrates through global molecular screeningMOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2010ERICA GOETZE Abstract Species discovery through large-scale sampling of mitochondrial diversity, as advocated under DNA barcoding, has been widely criticized. Two of the primary weaknesses of this approach, the use of a single gene marker for species delineation and the possible co-amplification of nuclear pseudogenes, can be circumvented through incorporation of multiple data sources. Here I show that for taxonomic groups with poorly characterized systematics, large-scale genetic screening using a mitochondrial DNA marker can be a very effective approach to species discovery. Global sampling (120 locations) of 1295 individuals of 22 described species of eucalanid copepods identified 15 novel evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) within this marine holoplanktonic family. Species limits were tested under reciprocal monophyly at the mitochondrial (mt) gene 16S rRNA, and 13 of 15 lineages were reciprocally monophyletic under three phylogenetic inference methods. Five of these mitochondrial ESUs also received moderate support for reciprocal monophyly at the independently-inherited nuclear gene, internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2). Additional support for the utility of mt DNA as a proxy for species boundaries in this taxon is discussed, including results from related morphological and biogeographic studies. Minimal overlap of intra-ESU and inter-ESU 16S rRNA genetic distances was observed, suggesting that this mt marker performs well for species discovery via molecular screening. Sampling coverage required for the discovery of new ESUs was found to be in the range of >50 individuals/species, well above the sampling intensity of most current DNA Barcoding studies. Large-scale genetic screening can provide critical first data on the presence of cryptic species, and should be used as an approach to generate systematic hypotheses in groups with incomplete taxonomies. [source] Evidence for the adaptive evolution of the carbon fixation gene rbcL during diversification in temperature tolerance of a clade of hot spring cyanobacteriaMOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2003S. R. Miller Abstract Determining the molecular basis of enzyme adaptation is central to understanding the evolution of environmental tolerance but is complicated by the fact that not all amino acid differences between ecologically divergent taxa are adaptive. Analysing patterns of nucleotide sequence evolution can potentially guide the investigation of protein adaptation by identifying candidate codon sites on which diversifying selection has been operating. Here, I test whether there is evidence for molecular adaptation of the carbon fixation gene rbcL for a clade of hot spring cyanobacteria in the genus Synechococcus that has diverged in thermotolerance. Amino acid replacements during Synechococcus radiation have resulted in an increase in the number of hydrophobic residues in the RbcLs of more thermotolerant strains. A similar increase in hydrophobicity has been observed for many thermostable proteins. Maximum likelihood models which allow for heterogeneity among codon sites in the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitutions estimated a class of amino acid sites as a target of positive selection. Depending on the model, a single amino acid site that interacts with a flexible element involved in the opening and closing of the active site was estimated with either low or moderate support to be a member of this class. Site-directed mutagenesis approaches are being explored in order to directly test its adaptive significance. [source] Snake phylogeny based on osteology, soft anatomy and ecologyBIOLOGICAL REVIEWS, Issue 3 2002MICHAEL S. Y. LEE ABSTRACT Relationships between the major lineages of snakes are assessed based on a phylogenetic analysis of the most extensive phenotypic data set to date (212 osteological, 48 soft anatomical, and three ecological characters). The marine, limbed Cretaceous snakes Pachyrhachis and Haasiophis emerge as the most primitive snakes: characters proposed to unite them with advanced snakes (macrostomatans) are based on unlikely interpretations of contentious elements or are highly variable within snakes. Other basal snakes include madtsoiids and Dinilysia, both large, presumably non-burrowing forms. The inferred relationships within extant snakes are broadly similar to currently accepted views, with scolecophidians (blindsnakes) being the most basal living forms, followed by anilioids (pipesnakes), booids and booid-like groups, acrochordids (filesnakes), and finally colubroids. Important new conclusions include strong support for the monophyly of large constricting snakes (erycines, boines, pythonines), and moderate support for the non-monophyly of the ,trophidophiids' (dwarf boas). These phylogenetic results are obtained whether varanoid lizards, or amphisbaenians and dibamids, are assumed to be the nearest relatives (outgroups) of snakes, and whether multistate characters are treated as ordered or unordered. Identification of large marine forms, and large surface-active terrestrial forms, as the most primitive snakes contradicts with the widespread view that snakes arose via minute, burrowing ancestors. Furthermore, these basal fossil snakes all have long flexible jaw elements adapted for ingesting large prey (,macrostomy'), suggesting that large gape was primitive for snakes and secondarily reduced in the most basal living foms (scolecophidians and anilioids) in connection with burrowing. This challenges the widespread view that snake evolution has involved progressive, directional elaboration of the jaw apparatus to feed on larger prey. [source] | |||||||||||||