The impact of family structure and disruption on intergenerational emotional exchange in Eastern Europe

Demographic trends across Europe involve a decrease in fertility and mortality rates, and an increase in divorce and stepfamily formation. Life courses and living arrangements have become less standardized and the structure of families has changed. In this article, we examine to what extent contemporary family structure and composition resulting from demographic changes affect emotional exchange between children and their parents, both from adult child to parent and from parent to child. Because the general level of well-being has been shown to be lower in Eastern Europe, thereby potentially affecting emotional exchange within families, we focus our research on Eastern Europe. We use the “conservation of resources theory” to derive hypotheses on how family structure may affect intergenerational emotional exchange. Family ties are assumed to be important resources of affection that people want to obtain and retain throughout their lives. Data from the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) are used to test our hypotheses. In general, our data offer more support for the idea that families are resilient than for the often heard assumption that families are in decline as a consequence of the changed family structure and composition

Tratamento do câncer de próstata hormônio refratário atual e suas inovações: Revisão de literatura / Treatment of current prostate hormone refractory cancer and its innovations: Literature review

Objetivo: Propôs-se realizar com esse estudo uma revisão de literatura a respeito do avanço do tratamento do câncer de próstata hormônio refratário, analisando artigos de 2015-2020. Método: todos os dados contidos no trabalho, foram selecionados mediante prévia revisão da literatura, utilizando os seguintes descritores: câncer de prostáta; tratamento; terapia de privação hormonal; câncer de próstata avançado; abiraterona; docetaxel; prostate cancer; treatment; advanced prostate cancer; androgen deprivation therapy; abiraterone , tomando como base artigos levantados nos últimos anos publicados por meio do Pubmed e da Scielo. Como critério de inclusão, foram estabelecidos artigos publicados na íntegra, nos idiomas português e inglês, publicados no período de 2015 a 2020, utilizando os descritores citados anteriormente. Como critério de exclusão, foram retirados artigos que estavam fora do período estudado e os que não tratavam de humanos. Resultados: para realização dessa revisão bibliográfica, foi encontrado um total de 231 artigos científicos, dos quais apenas 5 foram selecionados de acordo com os critérios de inclusão. Conclusão: foi observado que os homens com câncer de próstata localizado ou avançado se beneficiam do uso da abiraterona adjunto com a terapia de privação hormonal quando comparado com ela isolada ou junta ao docetaxel. 

Outcome of prosthesis exchange for infected knee arthroplasty: the effect of treatment approach: A systematic review of the literature

Background and purpose Two-stage revision remains the gold standard in the treatment of infected knee arthroplasty. Lately, good long-term results of direct exchange arthroplasty have been reported. The purpose of this literature review is to compare the clinical outcome achieved with one-stage revision and two-stage revision with different types of spacers

Haul-Out Behavior of Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) in Hood Canal, Washington

The goal of this study was to model haul-out behavior of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) in the Hood Canal region of Washington State with respect to changes in physiological, environmental, and temporal covariates. Previous research has provided a solid understanding of seal haul-out behavior. Here, we expand on that work using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) with temporal autocorrelation and a large dataset. Our dataset included behavioral haul-out records from archival and VHF radio tag deployments on 25 individual seals representing 61,430 seal hours. A novel application for increased computational efficiency allowed us to examine this large dataset with a GLMM that appropriately accounts for temporal autocorellation. We found significant relationships with the covariates hour of day, day of year, minutes from high tide and year. Additionally, there was a significant effect of the interaction term hour of day : day of year. This interaction term demonstrated that seals are more likely to haul out during nighttime hours in August and September, but then switch to predominantly daylight haul-out patterns in October and November. We attribute this change in behavior to an effect of human disturbance levels. This study also examined a unique ecological event to determine the role of increased killer whale (Orcinus orca) predation on haul-out behavior. In 2003 and 2005 these harbor seals were exposed to unprecedented levels of killer whale predation and results show an overall increase in haul-out probability after exposure to killer whales. The outcome of this study will be integral to understanding any changes in population abundance as a result of increased killer whale predation

Plant–soil feedback of native and range-expanding plant species is insensitive to temperature

Temperature change affects many aboveground and belowground ecosystem processes. Here we investigate the effect of a 5°C temperature increase on plant–soil feedback. We compare plant species from a temperate climate region with immigrant plants that originate from warmer regions and have recently shifted their range polewards. We tested whether the magnitude of plant–soil feedback is affected by ambient temperature and whether the effect of temperature differs between these groups of plant species. Six European/Eurasian plant species that recently colonized the Netherlands (non-natives), and six related species (natives) from the Netherlands were selected. Plant–soil feedback of these species was determined by comparing performance in conspecific and heterospecific soils. In order to test the effect of temperature on these plant–soil feedback interactions, the experiments were performed at two greenhouse temperatures of 20/15°C and 25/20°C, respectively. Inoculation with unconditioned soil had the same effect on natives and non-natives. However, the effect of conspecific conditioned soil was negative compared to heterospecific soil for natives, but was positive for non-natives. In both cases, plant–soil interactions were not affected by temperature. Therefore, we conclude that the temperature component of climate change does not affect the direction, or strength of plant–soil feedback, neither for native nor for non-native plant species. However, as the non-natives have a more positive soil feedback than natives, climate warming may introduce new plant species in temperate regions that have less soil-borne control of abundance

Gender-related differences in the multi-pathway effect of social determinants on quality of life in older age—the COURAGE in Europe project

Purpose Gender-related diferences in life expectancy, prevalence of chronic conditions and level of disability in the process of ageing have been broadly described. Less is known about social determinants, which may have diferent impacts on quality of life in men and women. The investigation aims to reveal gender-related diferences in social determinants on quality of life assessed by a multi-pathway model including health, social, demographic and living place characteristics. Methods The study group consisted of 5099 participants aged 50+ representing general populations of three diferent European regions (Finland, Poland, Spain) who participated in COURAGE in EUROPE Project. Standardized tools were used to measure quality of life (WHOQOLAGE) and social determinants (COURAGE Social Network Index, OSLO-3 Social Support Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale, participation scale and trust). A multipath model considering exogenous predictors (demographic, economic), mediators (social) and endogenous outcom

Synaptic versus extrasynaptic NMDA receptor signalling: implications for neurodegenerative disorders

There is a long-standing paradox that N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) can both promote neuronal health and kill neurons. Recent studies show that NMDAR-induced responses depend on the receptor location: stimulation of synaptic NMDARs, acting primarily through nuclear Ca(2+) signaling, leads to the build-up of a neuroprotective ‘shield’, whereas stimulation of extrasynaptic NMDARs promotes cell death. These differences result from the activation of distinct genomic programmes and opposing actions on intracellular signalling pathways. Perturbations in the balance between synaptic and extrasynaptic NMDAR activity contribute to neuronal dysfunction in acute ischaemia and Huntington’s disease and could be a common theme in the aetiology of neurodegenerative diseases. Neuroprotective therapies should aim to both enhance the effect of synaptic activity and disrupt extrasynaptic NMDAR-dependent death signalling