19683 research outputs found
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Oral Health Promotion Interventions in Residential Aged Care Facilities – A Systematic Review of Behaviour Change Techniques Used in Interventions
No full textBackground: The oral health status of older people living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) is found to be very poor. Many oral health promotion interventions have been tested in RACF settings around the world with varying degrees of success. Aim: The aim of this systematic review is to analyse the health promotion strategies used in oral health promotion interventions in RACF settings and map the behaviour change techniques (BCTs) used in interventions to the Behaviour Change Techniques Taxonomy Version 1 (BCTTV1). This will help us identify the BCTs that are used and how effective they are in improving oral health outcomes for residents and the knowledge, attitudes and skills of caregivers in providing mouth care assistance to residents of RACFs. Methods: A database search was conducted in MEDLINE, Cochrane CENTRAL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Web of Sciences databases to screen for articles relevant to the topic of the review; after full-text review a total of 31 articles comprising both randomised controlled trials and non-randomised intervention studies were included in this review. Risks of bias in randomised studies were assessed using the ROB2 tool and ROBINS-I was used to evaluate non-randomised studies. The description of intervention content in each study was coded for the presence of BCTs by two independent review authors trained in coding BCTs according to BCTTv1. Results: The most commonly used BCTs were ‘demonstration of behaviour’, ‘instruction on how to perform behaviour’ and ‘credible source’. These BCTs were effective in improving oral health outcomes and knowledge of caregivers on short-term follow-up. A higher number of BCTs were coded in studies that showed significant improvement in oral health outcomes of residents on long-term follow-up with rarely used BCTs related to ‘monitoring and feedback’ being coded in majority of studies that showed consistent improvement in oral health outcomes of residents. Conclusion: This review identified the most commonly used BCTs used in health promotion interventions to improve oral health among older people in RACFs and found that majority of interventions were targeted towards ‘knowledge transfer’ and were inconsistent in improving oral health outcomes for residents over long-term. Well conducted studies with use of theoretical behaviour change frameworks to develop oral health promotion interventions are needed as majority of strategies used currently do not demonstrate consistent effectiveness in improving oral health outcomes for residents of RACFs.</p
Unveiling Heterogeneity: Innovations and Challenges in Single-Vesicle Analysis for Clinical Translation
No full textExtracellular vesicles (EVs) are key mediators of intercellular communication, carrying diverse molecular cargo that reflects the dynamic physiological and pathological state of their source cell. While analyses of the entire vesicular population (bulk EV) have advanced our understanding of their roles in health and disease, these approaches often obscure the heterogeneity inherent in EV populations. Emerging single-vesicle analysis technologies offer unprecedented resolution, enabling the identification of individual EV subpopulations and their distinct molecular signatures. Such approaches, combined with digital platforms, can now analyze individual molecules from single EVs, including single-molecule features such as protein, mRNA, double-stranded DNA and single-stranded DNA. This perspective explores the transformative potential of single EV technologies in clinical diagnostics and therapeutic applications. We highlight key advancements including microfluidic platforms, super-resolution microscopy and AI-driven data analyses, that are shaping and advancing the field and its applications. With the development and advancement of clinically viable single EV technologies, we are beginning to appreciate the complexity and abundance of cell type and specific EVs. We further discussed the challenges of sensitivity, specificity, standardization and scalability hindering these technologies' broad acceptance and feasibility in clinical translation. This perspective paper originates from discussions at the Chinese Society of Extracellular Vesicles (CSEV) annual meeting, held in Guangzhou, China, on 16 November 2024. At this meeting, researchers from various fields of EV research, with a particular emphasis on single EV digital, analytical and quantitative technological platforms, discussed the opportunities and challenges of this emerging single-EV-focused technology. The paper aims to provide a roadmap for integrating single EV technologies into routine EV-research and even clinical practice, paving the way for novel scientific and diagnostic tools, personalized therapies, and a deeper understanding of EV heterogeneity and EV biology.</p
Dancing with the devil: Could native predators inside ‘predator-free’ havens be good for the conservation of threatened native prey species?
No full textAs invasive predators continue to drive global biodiversity loss, predator-free havens are rapidly being established to recover threatened fauna. An unintended consequence of these efforts is that havened populations can lose anti-predator traits, making them poorly suited for reintroduction into landscapes that contain predators. One approach showing promise in preventing the loss of these critical responses from havened populations is in situ predator exposure. Here we evaluate this via experimental translocations to determine whether predation pressure from a native mesopredator (chuditch; Dasyurus geoffroii) is effective in retaining behavioural and morphological anti-predator traits in the Endangered woylie (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi). We conducted replicated reintroductions of semi-havened (free from invasive predators but exposed to chuditch) and non-havened (control) woylies into vacant bushland containing chuditch, feral foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cats (Felis catus). We monitored woylie survival, reproduction, physiology (faecal glucocorticoid metabolites, fGCM), and proxies for behavioural and morphological anti-predator traits before and for 10 months after their release. We found no effects of source population on weight, pes length, agitation behaviour or fGCM. Survival probability was higher for males, and individuals with higher fGCM levels, but we could not attribute differences in woylie survival to whether they originated from a haven. These findings suggest that sustained predation pressure from chuditch inside the haven has been effective in maintaining anti-predator responses and supporting the survival of woylies faced with novel invasive predators. Synthesis and Applications. In situ predator exposure can be a valuable tool for preserving anti-predator traits in havened populations. However, it will be crucial to understand thresholds of predation pressure across contexts that havened fauna can withstand before recommending broad-scale adoption of this strategy.</p
A note on limsup sets of annuli
No full textWe consider the set of points in infinitely many max-norm annuli centred at rational points in (formula presented). We give Jarník–Besicovitch-type theorems for this set in terms of Hausdorff dimension. Interestingly, we find that if the outer radii are decreasing sufficiently slowly, dependent only on the dimension (formula presented), and the thickness of the annuli is decreasing rapidly, then the dimension of the set tends towards (formula presented). We also consider various other forms of annuli including rectangular annuli and quasi-annuli described by the difference between balls of two different norms. Our results are deduced through a novel combination of a version of Cassel's scaling lemma and a generalisation of the Mass Transference Principle, namely the Mass transference principle from rectangles to rectangles due to Wang and Wu (Math. Ann. 2021).</p
Assisting Ukraine in War: Loans with Repayment based on GDP Growth
No full textNo description supplied</p
Structure and functions of soil microbial communities and tree composition are more closely associated with keystone microbes than rare microbes in a subtropical forest
No full textThe significance of microbes for ecosystem functioning is well known; however, within a single system, the relative contributions of keystone and rare taxa to soil microbial functions are less well quantified, as are their shared or unique responses to abiotic conditions. Furthermore, their associations with tree community composition in natural forest ecosystems are not well understood. In this study, a total of 1287 soil samples were collected from a 20-ha subtropical forest plot and analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. Based on co-occurrence network analyses, we conducted a comparison of the associations between keystone and rare taxa with the structure, functions and stability of soil microbial communities. Additionally, we examined their associations with tree community composition. Results showed that keystone taxa made a significantly greater contribution than rare taxa in all comparisons of microbial functions and stability. Keystone taxa had direct effects on microbial community structure and also mediated indirect effects of abiotic conditions. Neither effect was evident for rare taxa. The importance of keystone taxa also extended to aboveground composition, where tree community composition was more closely associated with keystone taxa than with rare taxa. While it may still be premature to establish causality, our study represents one of the initial attempts to compare the relative importance of keystone and rare microbial taxa in forest soils. These findings offer the potential to improve natural forest ecosystem functioning and tree diversity through the manipulation of a small number of keystone soil microbial taxa, as has been demonstrated in agroecosystems.</p
Early to Mid-Holocene land use transitions in South Asia: A new archaeological synthesis of potential human impacts
No full textWhile it is clear that current human impact on the earth system is unprecedented in scope and scale, much less is known about the long-term histories of human land use and their effects on vegetation, carbon cycling, and other factors relevant to climate change. Current debates over the possible importance of human activities since the mid second millennium CE cannot be effectively resolved without evidence-based reconstructions of past land use and its consequences. The goal of the PAGES LandCover 6K working group is to reconstruct human land use and land cover over the past 12,000 years. In this paper, we present the first large-scale synthesis of archaeological evidence for human land use in South Asia at 12 and 6kya, a critical period for the transition to agriculture, arguably one of the land use transitions most consequential in terms of human impact on the Earth system. Perhaps the most important narrative we can pick out is that while there are some shifts in land use across these time windows, hunter-gatherer-fisher-foraging remained the dominant land use, and within this there was a mosaic of strategies exploiting diverse and complex landscapes and ecologies. This is not necessarily a new conclusion–it is not new to state that South Asia is comprised of many niches, but demonstrating the deep time history of how people have adapted to these and adapted them is an important step for modelling the impacts of human populations and thinking about their footprints in a longue-durée perspective. Despite the new development of food production between the early and mid-Holocene by overall area foraging life ways continued as the dominant land use practice into the 6kya time window. The development of agriculture and food production was not unimportant–it is the beginning of a land use that eventually comes to dominate the sub-continent, but at 6kya agriculture was restricted to specific contexts. Across 12kya to 6kya and different land uses, the use of mosaic ecologies, diverse strategies and the importance of water as a resource stand out as shared themes.</p
A configurational approach to strategic entrepreneurship: Unlocking customer success in new ventures in emerging economies
No full textNew ventures (NVs) in emerging economies often face significant challenges in cultivating quality customer relationships and achieving customer satisfaction. This study applies the strategic entrepreneurship framework and configurational theory to investigate how combinations of strategic behaviors, decision-making logics, resource allocation mechanisms, and leader sociocognitive characteristics influence customer-focused performance. Utilizing multi-informant data from 135 NVs (entrepreneurs and marketing managers) in Sri Lanka, our analysis reveals that NVs employing effectual decision-making and bricolage resource allocation achieve stronger alignment between entrepreneurial and market orientations, resulting in enhanced customer satisfaction and stronger relationships. Additionally, the study identifies entrepreneurs’ long-term orientation and managers’ perfectionism as critical contingency factors in these configurations. These findings offer valuable insights into the strategic configurations that drive customer success in NVs.</p
Women’s choices and preferences for subsequent mode of birth following an obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASI): A scoping review
No full textBackground: Obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASI) may result in physical and psychological maternal health consequences. Women's choice or preference for mode of birth following OASI has not been extensively researched. Objectives: The scoping review aimed to identify, appraise and synthesise published literature. Eligibility criteria: All study designs, primary peer-reviewed research publications, publications with explicit mention of maternal choice or preference for mode of birth in a subsequent birth following a previous OASI. Sources of evidence: A systematic search of CINAHL, Medline and Web of Science databases was conducted. Charting methods: Primary research, English language publications with explicit mention of maternal choice or preference for mode of birth following OASI were included. No date limits were set. Quality appraisal was performed, and results synthesised. Results: Of 1031 records screened, 63 full-text publications were assessed against inclusion criteria, resulting in 10 publications identified. Two additional publications were identified through reference list checks of included studies. Of 12 included publications, 11 used quantitative and one qualitative approach. Common themes such as mode of birth, faecal or urinary incontinence, guidance/counselling, risk of recurrence, OASI classification and sexual function were identified. Conclusions: Preference or choice of mode of birth is multifactorial. There is minimal evidence containing participant voices identified in the published literature on this topic. More qualitative research is needed to ascertain what preferences women have and why they make the choices that they do in relation to mode of birth in subsequent pregnancy. Structured Statement of significance: Obstetric anal sphincter injury can be a serious, life altering and devastating injury occurring during childbirth. Despite the impact of OASI, limited research has been undertaken regarding women's preferences and decisions surrounding subsequent mode of birth following OASI. Existing published literature has been predominantly quantitative in nature, with a notable lack of qualitative research found. This paper summarises the current body of research literature on this important women's health topic, and identifies the need for further qualitative research on this topic, allowing the voices of women to be heard regarding their lived experiences.</p
Stepping and tapping: combining motor tasks improves cognitive classification
No full textAbstract: Gait and key-tapping are individually associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. However, it is unclear if these motor functions are correlated, or whether combining them improves classification of objective (dementia, MCI) and subjective cognitive impairment (SCI). We recruited 73 participants with dementia, 106 MCI, 57 SCI, and 83 cognitively healthy controls (HC). Consensus diagnosis was made after gold-standard interdisciplinary assessment. Fast-paced gait was assessed on an electronic walkway and fast-paced key-tapping on a computer keyboard. Correlations between gait and key-tapping measures (speed, frequency, variability and contact) were tested using Pearson’s correlation. Classification accuracy was calculated using area under receiver-operating-characteristic curves (AUC) and compared to the null model comprising age, sex and education. Gait and key-tapping measures correlated moderately. Combined gait and key-tapping speed improved classification accuracy of dementia (.97), and MCI (.91), from HC, but not SCI, compared to gait (dementia: .94, MCI: .87) or the null model (dementia: .89, MCI: .79). Gait and key-tapping measures were associated with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, but the effect size for key-tapping variability was larger in vascular dementia (β: 225.71) compared to Alzheimer’s disease (β: 38.30). Gait and key-tapping variability was associated with non-amnestic MCI. Measures of gait were correlated with corresponding key-tapping measures, but their association with cognitive impairment was not the same. Combining gait and key-tapping motor measures improved classification accuracy of MCI and dementia. This suggests gait and key-tapping measures provide information about different aspects of motor-cognitive association worth further investigation.</p