Personality traits and pre-treatment beliefs and cognitions predicting patient adherence to continuous positive airway pressure: A systematic review.

Adherence to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) can be improved by behavioural interventions which modify patients' beliefs and cognitions about OSA, CPAP, and themselves. We have conducted the first systematic review of the literature on beliefs and cognitions held before starting treatment, and personality (which influences the former) that predict the decision to purchase or start CPAP, or CPAP adherence one month or more after CPAP initiation. A systematic search and screen of articles identified 21 eligible publications from an initial 1317.

Diversity and Distribution of Forest Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Nepal: Implications for Sustainable Forest Management.

The information available on the diversity of ant species and their distribution and interaction with forest health in Nepal remains limited. As part of a nationwide project on forest health, we conducted inventories to assess the diversity and distribution of forest ants and their role in forest management in Nepal. Ants were collected from 187 plots of 10 m × 10 m size along the north-south belt transects in eastern, central, and western Nepal.

Sex differences in COPD-related quadriceps muscle dysfunction and fibre abnormalities.

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower limb dysfunction is associated with reduced exercise capacity, increased hospitalizations and mortality. We investigated sex differences in the prevalence of quadriceps dysfunction and fibre abnormalities in a large COPD cohort, controlling for the normal sex differences in health. We compared existing data from 76 male and 38 female COPD patients where each variable was expressed as a function of gender-specific normal values (obtained from 16 male and 14 female controls).

Quadriceps muscle strength in scoliosis.

Quadriceps muscle weakness is an important component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We hypothesised that quadriceps weakness would also be a feature of restrictive lung disease due to scoliosis. We studied 10 patients with severe scoliosis (median (interquartile range (IQR)) forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1))() 35.