Publications by authors named "Skuse A"

Background: According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, persuasion can occur via two different routes (the central route and peripheral route), with the route utilized dependent on factors associated with motivation and ability. This study aimed to explore the moderating role of need for cognition (NFC) and perceived relevance on the processing of physical activity messages designed to persuade via either the central route or the peripheral route.

Method: Participants (N = 50) were randomized to receive messages optimized for central route processing or messages optimized for peripheral route processing.

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This article examines stories of men who gelded themselves in early modern England. These events, it argues, were shaped and partly motivated by a culture in which castration was seen as both degrading and potentially empowering. Religious precedents such as that of Origen of Alexandria framed self-gelding as a foolhardy activity, but one which nevertheless indicated an impressive degree of mastery over the body and its urges.

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Computer-tailored interventions, which deliver health messages adjusted based on characteristics of the message recipient, can effectively improve a range of health behaviours. Typically, the content of the message is tailored to user demographics, health behaviours and social cognitive factors (e.g.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Health-e Babies app was developed to provide pregnant women in a low socio-economic community with vital health information to boost confidence and reduce anxiety during early pregnancy.
  • A pilot study showed a low participation rate, with 76% of participants not completing the study, highlighting challenges in engaging pregnant women with the app.
  • Analysis of the data revealed that those who dropped out tended to be more anxious and had higher unemployment rates, suggesting these factors may hinder app engagement and completion.
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This essay examines medical and popular attitudes to cancer in the early modern period, .1580-1720. Cancer, it is argued, was understood as a cruel and usually incurable disease, diagnosable by a well-defined set of symptoms understood to correspond to its etymological root, (the crab).

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Background: Usage rates for information and communication technologies (ICTs) in healthcare have been increasing in recent years, but often lag behind general usage rates for populations as a whole. Research into such differential rates of ICT use across different segments of the population has identified a number of possible causal factors that limit usage.

Aim: The research investigated midwives' attitudes and experiences of ICT use to identify potential causal factors that encourage or inhibit their usage in antenatal care.

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Objective: to examine the informal approaches taken by midwives and other antenatal staff to adapt health communication to the needs of their patients, as well as their perception of the barriers faced when trying to provide tailored health promotion.

Design: qualitative research methods (participant observation, individual and group interviews) were utilised to gain an understanding of how media and communication resources were used in practice within the study hospital.

Setting: a major metropolitan teaching hospital located in the Northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.

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This paper examines how pregnant women living in South Australia use information and communication technologies (ICTs), principally Internet and mobile phones, to access pregnancy-related information. It draws on 35 semistructured interviews conducted as part of the 'Health-e Baby' project, a qualitative study designed to assess the information needs and ICT preferences of pregnant women cared for at a South Australian metropolitan teaching hospital. Our research shows that although ICTs offer exciting possibilities for health promotion and the potential for new forms of communication, networking and connection, we cannot assume the effectiveness of communicating through such channels, despite near universal levels of ICT access.

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Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) was diagnosed in eight calves from four farms in the United Kingdom on the basis of clinical, histological and ultrastructural findings. In three affected herds, pedigree Simmental bulls had been mated with Simmental-cross cows. In a fourth herd two Holstein-Friesian calves were affected.

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Ruminants are regarded as a primary reservoir for Escherichia coli O157:H7, an important human pathogen. Intimin, encoded by the Locus of Enterocyte Effacement by E. coli O157:H7 organisms, has been cited as one bacterial mechanism of colonisation of the gastrointestinal tract.

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Four 6-day-old conventionally reared lambs were inoculated orally with a total of 10(9) cfu comprising equal numbers of four enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 strains. All animals remained clinically normal. Tissues were sampled under terminal anaesthesia at 12, 36, 60 and 84 h post inoculation (hpi).

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Fibrillar deposits, distinct from amyloid deposits, were demonstrated by electron microscopy in the glomeruli and lung of an Amazonian Woolly monkey (Lagothrix lagotricha) which had died with extensive pulmonary haemorrhage. The renal lesions were typical of fibrillary glomerulonephritis in man, and IgG deposition was also demonstrated in the kidney. The association of renal and pulmonary lesions has been reported previously in man, but this is the first report of fibrillary glomerulonephritis, and a pulmonary-renal syndrome, in non-human animals.

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Ultrastructural, histochemical and immunohistochemical features of porcine intestinal lamina propria macrophages (LPMs), peripheral blood fibronectin-adherent cells (FACs) and splenic-adherent cells (SPACs) were compared. Freshly isolated FACs and SPACs were small and showed small cytoplasmic processes, little evidence of endocytic vacuoles, few lysosomes and sparse rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). Fresh FACs were negative for acid phosphatase, non-specific esterase (NSE) and beta-galactosidase activity.

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