Tests of scaling assumputions, construct validity and reliability of the Chinese child health questionnaire, partent form (CHQ-PF50) and child form (CHQ-CF87)

Poster SessionValidated instruments for assessment of quality of life in Chinese children are as yet unavailable. We determined the construct validity and reliability of the translated Chinese versions of the Child Health Questionnaires (Landgraf, Abetz & Ware, 1999) designed for completion by parents (CHQ-PF50) and children (CHQ-CF87). The Chinese versions were developed through iterative forward and backward translation processes by independent parties. The feasibility, as rated by degree of difficulty using a 4-point scale, and time for completion were evaluated for the Chinese CHQ-PF50 and CHQ-CF87 in 15 and 11 subjects, respectively. To assess the construct validity and reliability, 1143 parents of healthy children and 823 school children were invited to complete the Chinese CHQ-PF50 and CHQ-CF87, respectively. The results showed that both the Chinese CHQ-PF50 (mean rating 1.66) and CHQ-CF87 (mean rating 1.33) were easy to complete, with completion times of 14.23±5.23 minutes and 13.82±3.52 minutes, respectively. Psychometric analysis on item convergent validity and discriminant validity showed perfect or near perfect (>99%) rates of success for all ten scales in the CF87 and >94% for all but one scale in the PF50. The exception was the general health scale (86%). Minimal floor effects were observed for both questionnaires. However, substantial ceiling effects were observed for the five scales in both questionnaires (physical functioning, role-emotional, behavioral, role-physical, bodily pain and family activities). The median alpha coefficient of reliability for CF87 was 0.90 (range 0.85 to 0.94). The median alpha coefficient for PF50 was 0.80 (range 0.44 to 0.88), with the mental health scale falling just below the minimum criterion for group level analysis (0.68) and the general health scale being the lowest (0.44). These findings suggest that the Chinese translations of CHQ-PF50 and CHQ-CF87 are robust and sufficient. Additional work with regard to ceiling effects is required to assess the performance of the measures in condition groups

The Generation R study: A candidate gene study and genome-wide association study (GWAS) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of mothers and young children

Aim: The aim of this paper is to describe the Generation R study as a template that enables candidate gene study and genome-wide association study regarding health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of mothers and their young children. Methods: Generation R is a population-based prospective cohort study from fetal life onwards in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Children were born in 2002-2006. Blood from mothers and placenta cord blood were sampled. Mothers' HRQOL was measured 5 times during pregnancy and after birth using SF-12 and EQ-5D. Children's HRQOL was measured 5 times between age 1 and 5/6 years using Infant-Toddler Quality Of Life questionnaire (ITQOL), Health Status Classification System PreSchool (HSCS-PS) and Child Health Questionnaire Parent Form 28 items (CHQ-PF28), respectively. Results: DNA is available for 8,055 mothers and 5,908 children. Genotyping of various candidate genes and a genome-wide association (GWA) scan (Illumina 610K) of child DNA were done. A template for gene-HRQOL analyses is provided. We start with candidate gene study on HRQOL of mothers and children. Gene-environment interaction and interaction with medical indicators of health status will be explored. Next, GWA study on HRQOL will be performed. Conclusions: Gaining insight into the determinants of HRQOL is essential to assisting efforts in health policy and clinical application to improve well-being and health. In the future, it might be possible to complement HRQOL assessments by examinations of genetic markers. Strengths and weaknesses of the Generation R study are discussed

Quality of life in Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients prior to and after pancreas and kidney transplantation in relation to organ function

Improvement of the quality of life in Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients with severe late complications is one of the main goals of pancreas and/or kidney grafting. To assess the influences of these treatment modalities on the different aspects of the quality of life a cross-sectional study in 157 patients was conducted. They were categorized into patients pre-transplant without dialysis (n=29; Group A), pre-transplant under dialysis (n=44; Group B), post-transplant with pancreas and kidney functioning (n=31; Group C), post-transplant with functioning kidney, but insulin therapy (n=29; Group D), post-transplant under dialysis and insulin therapy again (n=15; Group E) and patients after single pancreas transplantation and rejection, with good renal function, but insulin therapy (n=9; Group F). All patients answered a mailed, self-administered questionnaire (217 questions) consisting of a broad spectrum of rehabilitation criteria. The results indicate a better quality of life in Groups C and D as compared to the other groups. In general the scores are highest in C, but without any significant difference to D. Impressive significant differences between C or D and the other groups were found especially in their satisfaction with physical capacity, leisure-time activities or the overall quality of life. The satisfaction with the latter is highest in C (mean±SEM: 4.0±0.2 on a 1 to 5-rating scale; significantly different from A: 3.1±0.1, B: 2.7±0.2 and E: 2.6±0.3; p<0.01), followed by D (3.8±0.2; significantly different from B and E; p<0.01). Group F shows a mean of 3.1±0.4, which is not significantly different from C. The percentages of patients in each group, who are not working: A: 38 %, B: 64 %, C: 74 %, D: 66 %, E: 87 % and F: 78 % indicate that there is no marked improvement in the vocational situation after successful grafting

Cognitive appraisal of environmental stimuli induces emotion-like states in fish

The occurrence of emotions in non-human animals has been the focus of debate over the years. Recently, an interest in expanding this debate to non-tetrapod vertebrates and to invertebrates has emerged. Within vertebrates, the study of emotion in teleosts is particularly interesting since they represent a divergent evolutionary radiation from that of tetrapods, and thus they provide an insight into the evolution of the biological mechanisms of emotion. We report that Sea Bream exposed to stimuli that vary according to valence (positive, negative) and salience (predictable, unpredictable) exhibit different behavioural, physiological and neuromolecular states. Since according to the dimensional theory of emotion valence and salience define a two-dimensional affective space, our data can be interpreted as evidence for the occurrence of distinctive affective states in fish corresponding to each the four quadrants of the core affective space. Moreover, the fact that the same stimuli presented in a predictable vs. unpredictable way elicited different behavioural, physiological and neuromolecular states, suggests that stimulus appraisal by the individual, rather than an intrinsic characteristic of the stimulus, has triggered the observed responses. Therefore, our data supports the occurrence of emotion-like states in fish that are regulated by the individual's perception of environmental stimuli.European Commission [265957 Copewell]; Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia [SFRH/BD/80029/2011, SFRH/BPD/72952/2010]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Health-related quality of life of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder versus children with diabetes and healthy controls

The impact of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is reported to be similar to that of other mental health and physical disorders. In this cross-sectional study, we hypothesized that children with ADHD and children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) would have significantly worse HRQoL compared with healthy children, and that better clinical status in ADHD and T1DM would be associated with better HRQoL. Children were recruited from three outpatient services in Scotland. Responses to two frequently used validated HRQoL instruments, the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) and Child Health and Illness Profile-child edition (CHIP-CE), were obtained from parents/carers and children (6–16 years) with/without ADHD or T1DM. Child and parent/carer-completed HRQoL measurements were evaluated for 213 children with ADHD, 58 children with T1DM and 117 healthy children (control group). Significantly lower self and parent/carer ratings were observed across most PedsQL (P < 0.001) and CHIP-CE (P < 0.05) domains (indicating reduced HRQoL) for the ADHD group compared with the T1DM and control groups. Parent/carer and child ratings were significantly correlated for both measures of HRQoL (PedsQL total score: P < 0.001; CHIP-CE all domains: P < 0.001), but only with low-to-moderate strength. Correlation between ADHD severity and HRQoL was significant with both PedsQL and CHIP-CE for all parent/carer (P < 0.01) and most child (P < 0.05) ratings; more ADHD symptoms were associated with poorer HRQoL. These data demonstrate that ADHD has a significant impact on HRQoL (as observed in both parent/carer and child ratings), which seems to be greater than that for children with T1DM

The effectiveness of coordinated care for people with chronic respiratory disease

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia (10 January 2008). An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of coordinated care for chronic respiratory disease. Design and setting: Community-based geographical control study, in western (intervention) and northern (comparison) metropolitan Adelaide (SA). Participants: 377 adults (223 intervention; 154 comparison) with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma or other chronic respiratory condition, July 1997 to December 1999. Intervention: Coordinated care (includes care coordinator, care guidelines, service coordinator and care mentor). Main outcome measures: Hospital admissions (any, unplanned and respiratory), functionality (activities of daily living) and quality of life (SF-36 and Dartmouth COOP). Results: At entry to the study, intervention and comparison subjects were dissimilar. The intervention group was 10 years older (P < 0.001), less likely to smoke (P = 0.014), had higher rates of hospitalisation in the previous 12 months (P < 0.001) and had worse self-reported quality of life (SF-36 physical component summary score [P < 0.001] and four of nine COOP domains [P = 0.002–0.013]). After adjustment for relevant baseline characteristics, coordinated care was not associated with any difference in hospitalisation, but was associated with some improvements in quality of life (SF-36 mental component summary score [P = 0.023] and three of nine COOP domains [P = 0.008–0.031]) compared with the comparison group. Conclusions: Coordinated care given to patients with chronic respiratory disease did not affect hospitalisation, but it was associated with an improvement in some quality-of-life measures.Brian J Smith, Heather J McElroy, Richard E Ruffin, Peter A Frith, Adrian R Heard, Malcolm W Battersby, Adrian J Esterman, Peter Del Fante and Peter J McDonal

The influence of the accessory genome on bacterial pathogen evolution

Bacterial pathogens exhibit significant variation in their genomic content of virulence factors. This reflects the abundance of strategies pathogens evolved to infect host organisms by suppressing host immunity. Molecular arms-races have been a strong driving force for the evolution of pathogenicity, with pathogens often encoding overlapping or redundant functions, such as type III protein secretion effectors and hosts encoding ever more sophisticated immune systems. The pathogens’ frequent exposure to other microbes, either in their host or in the environment, provides opportunities for the acquisition or interchange of mobile genetic elements. These DNA elements accessorise the core genome and can play major roles in shaping genome structure and altering the complement of virulence factors. Here, we review the different mobile genetic elements focusing on the more recent discoveries and highlighting their role in shaping bacterial pathogen evolution

The Pioneer Anomaly

Radio-metric Doppler tracking data received from the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft from heliocentric distances of 20-70 AU has consistently indicated the presence of a small, anomalous, blue-shifted frequency drift uniformly changing with a rate of ~6 x 10^{-9} Hz/s. Ultimately, the drift was interpreted as a constant sunward deceleration of each particular spacecraft at the level of a_P = (8.74 +/- 1.33) x 10^{-10} m/s^2. This apparent violation of the Newton's gravitational inverse-square law has become known as the Pioneer anomaly; the nature of this anomaly remains unexplained. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the physical properties of the anomaly and the conditions that led to its detection and characterization. We review various mechanisms proposed to explain the anomaly and discuss the current state of efforts to determine its nature. A comprehensive new investigation of the anomalous behavior of the two Pioneers has begun recently. The new efforts rely on the much-extended set of radio-metric Doppler data for both spacecraft in conjunction with the newly available complete record of their telemetry files and a large archive of original project documentation. As the new study is yet to report its findings, this review provides the necessary background for the new results to appear in the near future. In particular, we provide a significant amount of information on the design, operations and behavior of the two Pioneers during their entire missions, including descriptions of various data formats and techniques used for their navigation and radio-science data analysis. As most of this information was recovered relatively recently, it was not used in the previous studies of the Pioneer anomaly, but it is critical for the new investigation.Comment: 165 pages, 40 figures, 16 tables; accepted for publication in Living Reviews in Relativit

Rapidity and Centrality Dependence of Proton and Anti-proton Production from Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130GeV

We report on the rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and anti-proton transverse mass distributions from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130GeV as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. Our results are from the rapidity and transverse momentum range of |y|<0.5 and 0.35 <p_t<1.00GeV/c. For both protons and anti-protons, transverse mass distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions demonstrating characteristics of collective expansion. The measured rapidity distributions and the mean transverse momenta versus rapidity are flat within |y|<0.5. Comparisons of our data with results from model calculations indicate that in order to obtain a consistent picture of the proton(anti-proton) yields and transverse mass distributions the possibility of pre-hadronic collective expansion may have to be taken into account.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, submitted to PR