reasons for living

BACKGROUND: Hypertensive disorders, especially preeclampsia, are the leading reason for provider-initiated preterm birth. We estimated how universal acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) prophylaxis might reduce rates of provider-initiated preterm birth associated with preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction, which are related conditions. METHODS: We performed a cohort study of singleton hospital births in 2013 in Canada, excluding Quebec. We estimated the proportion of term births and provider-initiated preterm births affected by preeclampsia and/or intrauterine growth restriction, and the corresponding mean maternal and newborn hospital length of stay...

Background and Objectives: U.S. Nursing homes (NH) are shifting toward a person-centered philosophy of care, where staff understand each residents preferences, goals and values, and seek to honor them throughout the care delivery process. Social interactions are a major component of life and while low rates of social interactions are typically found among NH residents, little research has examined resident preferences for specific types of social interactions. The purpose of this study is to explore, from the perspective of the NH resident, barriers to social contact preferences and situations when social preferences change...

Background The aim of the present study was to examine inpatients as well as patients living at home with respect to the frequency of antipsychotic medication use and to determine the factors leading to initial use of antipsychotics following dementia diagnosis. Methods This study included patients aged 60 years and over with an initial diagnosis of all-cause dementia (index date) by German psychiatrists in Disease Analyzer database (IMS Health). The main outcome measure was the proportion of patients who initially received an antipsychotic prescription after the index date...

The kinetics of the self-assembly of supramolecular polymers is dictated by how monomers, dimers, trimers etc., attach to and detach from each other. It is for this reasons that researchers have proposed a plethora of pathways to explain the kinetics of various self-assembling supramolecules, including sulfur, linear micelles, living polymers and protein fibrils. Recent observations hint at the importance of a hitherto ignored molecular aggregation pathway that we refer to as "body evaporation and addition"...

BACKGROUND: Paget's disease of bone leads to change in the shape and size of the bone and results in reduced bone strength, leading to the complications of deformity, arthritis, and fracture. Due to unknown reasons, Paget's disease is rare in Asian descendants. We report the cases of Paget's disease who visited our institute for 15 years and reviewed the literatures. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and radiograms of 8 patients (6 female and 2 male) who were diagnosed as Paget's disease of bone...

BACKGROUND: There is reason to believe that the diagnosis of septic and toxic shock, as indicated on the death certificate, cannot be confirmed as the cause of death without autopsy and subsequent histological analysis. The external examination of the corpse can therefore not represent the sole basis for a reliable statement about the infection status of a corpse, e. g. as a prerequisite for embalming. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The validity of autopsy in determining septic and toxic shock as the cause of death is demonstrated in 7 exemplary cases...

OBJECTIVES: By extending the indication criteria for cochlear implants (CI), the population of CI candidates increased in age, as well as range and type of hearing loss. This qualitative study identified factors that contributed to seek CI treatment in single-sided deaf individuals and gained insights how single-sided deafness (SSD) and hearing with a CI affect their lives. DESIGN: An open-ended questionnaire and a standardised inventory (IOI-HA) were used. Qualitative data reflecting the reasons to seek CI treatment and the individual experiences after CI switch-on were collected...

Telepsychiatry expands access to psychiatric care. However, telepsychiatry for elderly adults is only reimbursed in the US if the patient is assessed while in a clinical setting. This case study presents a homebound older woman previously hospitalized for schizophrenia who had not seen a psychiatrist in over 20 years. Care was provided with hybrid telepsychiatry (team-based practice with social worker traveling to the home with electronic tablet for connection with psychiatrist). The intervention resulted in detecting unrecognized depression and complex trauma...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: The capsular-fruited genus Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) is one of the most widely distributed flowering plant genera in the Pacific but is extinct in Australia today. The center of geographic origin for the genus and the reason for and timing of its extinction in Australia remain uncertain. We identify fossil Metrosideros fruits from the newly discovered Golden Fleece fossil flora in the Oligo-Miocene of Tasmania, Australia, shedding further light on these problems. METHODS: Standard paleopalynological techniques were used to date the fossil-bearing sediments...

STUDY QUESTION: Can simultaneous detection of aneuploidies and genetic diseases or chromosomal aberrations in blastocysts reduce the chance of transferring embryos with low implantation potential, guaranteeing good clinical outcomes? SUMMARY ANSWER: The screening for chromosomal aneuploidies revealed that 50.6% of blastocysts diagnosed free of genetic disease or balanced, were aneuploid, therefore avoiding the transfer of blastocysts potentially resulting in implantation failures, miscarriages, or in some cases, in health affected live births...

The enzymatic hydrolysis of chemicals, which is important for in vitro drug metabolism assays, is an important indicator of drug stability profiles during drug discovery and development. Herein, we employed a stepwise feature elimination (SFE) method with nonlinear support vector machine regression (SVR) models to predict the in vitro half-lives in human plasma/blood of various esters. The SVR model was developed using public databases and literature-reported data on the half-lives of esters in human plasma/blood...

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) form the largest family of transmembrane receptors, and their oligomerization has been suggested to be related to their functions. Despite extensive studies, their oligomeric states are highly controversial. One of the reasons is the overestimation of oligomerization by conventional methods. We recently established a stoichiometric analysis method for precisely determining the oligomeric state of membrane proteins on living cells with the combined use of the coiled-coil labeling method and a spectral imaging technique and showed that the prototypical class-A GPCR β2 -adrenergic receptor (β2 AR) did not form functional oligomers...

BACKGROUND: Despite clinical practice guidelines, asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) in older people is frequently treated. A common reason for treating ASB is a change in mental status. OBJECTIVE: To determine how often asymptomatic UTI is treated in older medically ill delirious individuals and its association with functional recovery. METHODS: Consecutive older medical in-patients were screened for delirium, and followed in hospital. Treatment for asymptomatic UTI was defined as documented treatment for a possible urinary tract infection with antibiotics, without concurrent infectious or urinary symptoms...

BACKGROUND: Antipsychotics form a class of drugs that should be used with caution among elderly people because of a high risk of adverse events. Despite the risks and modest effects, their use is estimated to be high, especially in nursing homes. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to explore the effects of medication reviews on antipsychotic drug use for elderly primary care patients and describe the extent of, and reasons for, the prescription of antipsychotics. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study in primary care in Skåne, Sweden, patients aged ≥75 years living in nursing homes or in their own homes with home care were included...

AIM: To psychometrically test the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy and compare it with the Swedish Pregnancy Planning Scale. BACKGROUND: The incidence of unplanned pregnancies is an important indicator of reproductive health. The London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy measures pregnancy planning by taking contraceptive use, timing, intention to become pregnant, desire for pregnancy, partner agreement and pre-conceptual preparations into account. It has, however, previously not been psychometrically evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: H. pylori eradication is strongly affected by various factors, including the ongoing antibiotic resistance. We describe a "real life" scenario in patients managed for H. pylori-related conditions, living in a southern Italian region (Apulia), an area with clarithromycin resistance >15%. METHODS: 2,224 subjects were studied in two tertiary referral centers in Apulia. Analyses included: reason for referral, H. pylori infection rates (13C-urea breath test - UBT or upper endoscopy), and eradication rates following distinct regimens previously prescribed or prospectively prescribed (such as the bismuth-based quadruple therapy Pylera®, recently marketed in Italy)...

BACKGROUND: Persistent acetabular dysplasia is a common reason for the failure of hip arthroscopic surgery; however, the effect of prior hip arthroscopic surgery on functional outcomes after subsequent periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) is unknown. Hypothesis/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to (1) compare demographic and radiological findings in patients who had and had not undergone previous hip arthroscopic surgery before PAO for symptomatic acetabular dysplasia and (2) compare the short-term, hip-specific patient-reported outcomes in these same patient populations...

Preventive healthcare is considered a cornerstone of good health and well-being that can play a major role in reducing a country's healthcare costs and improving both the length and quality of people's lives. Previous research on preventive healthcare behaviors has been predominantly cross-sectional, ignoring the dynamic nature of people's health behaviors over a full life span. As a result, the reasons for the development, stability, and changes of individuals' preventive healthcare behaviors over time remain relatively unknown...

Small and non-traditional food stores (e.g., corner stores) are often the most accessible source of food for residents of lower income urban neighborhoods in the U.S. Although healthy options are often limited at these stores, little is known about customers who purchase healthy, versus less healthy, foods/beverages in these venues. We conducted 661 customer intercept interviews at 105 stores (corner stores, gas marts, pharmacies, dollar stores) in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, assessing all food and beverage items purchased...

It is becoming increasingly clear that mitochondria drive cellular functions and in vivo phenotypes by directing the production rate and abundance of metabolites that are proposed to function as signaling molecules (Chandel 2015; Selak et al. 2005; Etchegaray and Mostoslavsky 2016). Many of these metabolites are intermediates that make up cellular metabolism, part of which occur in mitochondria (i.e. the TCA and urea cycles), while others are produced "on demand" mainly in response to alterations in the microenvironment in order to participate in the activation of acute adaptive responses (Mills et al...