Does patient coaching make a difference in patient-physician communication during specialist consultations? A systematic review.

Objective: To systematically review the literature on the effectiveness of a patient coach intervention on patient - physician communication in specialists consultations.

Methods: PubMed, Cochrane, PsycInfo, Cinahl and Embase were searched until November 2015. Included were papers describing interventions directed at adult outpatients in secondary care with a variety of somatic diseases.

Breast cancer genetic counseling among Dutch patients from Turkish and Moroccan descent: participation determinants and perspectives of patients and healthcare professionals.

Lower participation rates in cancer genetic counseling are observed among different ethnic minorities. The goal of our study is to gain insight into determinants of Turkish and Moroccan patients' participation in breast cancer genetic counseling and DNA testing, from the point of view of healthcare professionals and patients. Questionnaire-based telephone interviews about awareness, perceptions, and reasons for (non-) participation in cancer genetic counseling were conducted with 78 Dutch breast cancer patients from Turkish and Moroccan descent.

Structural developmental psychology and health promotion in the third age.

In response to the ever-increasing longevity in Western societies, old age has been divided into two different periods, labelled the third and fourth age. Where the third age, with its onset at retirement, mostly involves positive aspects of growing old, the fourth age involves functional decline and increased morbidity. This article focuses on the entry to the third age and its potential for health promotion initiatives.

Contract theories and partnership in health care. A philosophical inquiry to the philosophy of John Rawls and Seyla Benhabib.

Over the last 20 years, a paternalistic view in health care has been losing ground. The question about less asymmetrical positions in the healthcare professional-patient relationship is, for example, being addressed by the increased emphasis on person-centred care, promoted in disciplines such as medicine and nursing. Partnership is considered as a key component in person-centred care.

Real-time nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) assay targeting MIC1 for detection of Cryptosporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis oocysts.

Both Cryptosporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis are often associated with cryptosporidiosis in humans, but whereas humans are the main host for C. hominis, C. parvum is zoonotic and able to infect a variety of species.

From research lab to standard environmental analysis tool: Will NASBA make the leap?

Nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) is a sensitive and efficient molecular tool for amplification of RNA and has been widely adopted in clinical diagnostics. Monitoring of water and other environmental samples demands sensitive techniques, as potential pathogens may be in low concentrations and require only a few infectious units to infect their host. NASBA has qualities that should be advantageous for analysis of environmental samples, such as short reaction times, high sensitivity, and not readily affected by inhibitory substances that are often abundant in environmental samples.

Syringe test screening of microbial gas production activity: Cases denitrification and biogas formation.

Mass produced plastic syringes may be applied as vessels for cheap, simple and large scale batch culture testing. As illustrated for the cases of denitrification and of biogas formation, metabolic activity was monitored by direct reading of the piston movement due to the gas volume formed. Pressure buildup due to friction was shown to be moderate.

Motivational factors associated with physical activity and quality of life in people with severe mental illness.

Background: There has been increasing interest for investigating the role of motivation in physical activity among people with severe mental illness (SMI). Autonomous motivation has been suggested to have a potentially important role in adoption and maintenance of physical activity. However, the knowledge about factors that facilitate autonomous motivation among people with SMI is scarce.

A Qualitative Study of Clinicians Experience with Rating of the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale.

The severity of illness in psychiatry is rated using the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. The GAF scale is often used in both research settings and in the clinic. The scale ranges from 1 to 100 and is subdivided into ten 10-point intervals, each with verbal rating instructions called anchor points and examples.

Acting Out: Enabling Meaningful Participation Among People With Long-Term Mental Health Problems in a Music and Theater Workshop.

In this article, we explore what enables meaningful participation in a music and theater workshop from a first person's perspective of people with mental health problems. The study uses a hermeneutical-phenomenological approach. Data were collected from qualitative in-depth interviews with 12 participants in a music and theater workshop located in a Norwegian mental health hospital.

Experiences of support in working toward personal recovery goals: a collaborative, qualitative study.

Background: Recovery can be understood as a subjective process guided by personal expectations, goals and hopes. The aim of the study was to explore how persons using a Community Mental Health Centre (CMHC) experienced that their expectations for treatment, and goals and hopes for recovery were supported by the health professionals during treatment.

Methods: Employing a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach, eight service users were interviewed about their expectations for treatment and their goals and hopes for recovery at the start of their contact with health professionals at a CMHC.

Colonizing the High Arctic: Mitochondrial DNA Reveals Common Origin of Eurasian Archipelagic Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).

In light of current debates on global climate change it has become important to know more on how large, roaming species have responded to environmental change in the past. Using the highly variable mitochondrial control region, we revisit theories of Rangifer colonization and propose that the High Arctic archipelagos of Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, and Novaia Zemlia were colonized by reindeer from the Eurasian mainland after the last glacial maximum. Comparing mtDNA control region sequences from the three Arctic archipelagos showed a strong genetic connection between the populations, supporting a common origin in the past.

Aetiological relationships between factors associated with postnatal traumatic symptoms among Japanese primiparas and multiparas: A longitudinal study.

Objective: this study aims to identify the aetiological relationships of psychosocial factors in postnatal traumatic symptoms among Japanese primiparas and multiparas.

Design: a longitudinal, observational survey.

Setting: participants were recruited at three institutions in Tokyo, Japan between April 2013 and May 2014.

When three traits make a line: evolution of phenotypic plasticity and genetic assimilation through linear reaction norms in stochastic environments.

Genetic assimilation emerges from selection on phenotypic plasticity. Yet, commonly used quantitative genetics models of linear reaction norms considering intercept and slope as traits do not mimic the full process of genetic assimilation. We argue that intercept-slope reaction norm models are insufficient representations of genetic effects on linear reaction norms and that considering reaction norm intercept as a trait is unfortunate because the definition of this trait relates to a specific environmental value (zero) and confounds genetic effects on reaction norm elevation with genetic effects on environmental perception.

Exploring resistance to implementation of welfare technology in municipal healthcare services - a longitudinal case study.

Background: Industrialized and welfare societies are faced with vast challenges in the field of healthcare in the years to come. New technological opportunities and implementation of welfare technology through co-creation are considered part of the solution to this challenge. Resistance to new technology and resistance to change is, however, assumed to rise from employees, care receivers and next of kin.

Communication during counseling sessions about inhaled corticosteroids at the community pharmacy.

Background: Pharmaceutical care is one of the major tasks of pharmacists, which aims to improve patient outcomes. Counseling patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease about their use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) might enhance medication adherence and symptom control. Therefore, effective pharmacist-patient communication is very important.

Return to work among self-employed cancer survivors.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate whether salaried and self-employed workers differ regarding factors relevant for return to work after being diagnosed with cancer. The possible mediators of an effect of self-employment on work ability were also investigated.

Methods: A total of 1115 cancer survivors (1027 salaried and 88 self-employed) of common invasive cancer types who were in work at the time of diagnosis completed a mailed questionnaire 15-39 months after diagnosis.

Artificial Polymeric Scaffolds as Extracellular Matrix Substitutes for Autologous Conjunctival Goblet Cell Expansion.

Purpose: We fabricated and investigated polymeric scaffolds that can substitute for the conjunctival extracellular matrix to provide a substrate for autologous expansion of human conjunctival goblet cells in culture.

Methods: We fabricated two hydrogels and two silk films: (1) recombinant human collagen (RHC) hydrogel, (2) recombinant human collagen 2-methacryloylxyethyl phosphorylcholine (RHC-MPC) hydrogel, (3) arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) modified silk, and (4) poly-D-lysine (PDL) coated silk, and four electrospun scaffolds: (1) collagen, (2) poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), (3) poly(caprolactone) (PCL), and (4) poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Coverslips and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were used for comparison.

Changes in return to work among patients in vocational rehabilitation: a self-determination theory perspective.

Purpose: The aim of the current study was to examine whether patient perceptions of autonomy support from the treatment team in a vocational rehabilitation program will be associated with change (increase) in need satisfaction, autonomous motivation, perceived competence, well-being, physical activity, and return to work (RTW), and whether the self-determination theory (SDT) Model of Health Behavior will provide adequate fit to the data.

Method: A total of 90 participants were enrolled in a longitudinal study and completed measures at four time points over 15 months.

Results: Participants reported increases in all variables, and in general these changes were maintained at six weeks post-rehabilitation and at 15 months post-baseline.

The lived experience of well-being in retirement: A phenomenological study.

This phenomenological study aimed to identify and describe the general meaning structure of the experience of well-being after retirement. We interviewed nine retirees about their lived experiences with well-being and analysed the data with Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological method. The general meaning structure described well-being in retirement as a phenomenon that interweaves four constituents: (1) an awareness of and gratitude for a healthy and functioning body, (2) a new experience of time presenting possibilities for action, (3) a heightened sense of agency, and (4) being-in-place in relationships.

A Valuable but Demanding Time Family Life During Advanced Cancer in an Elderly Family Member.

This study explores experiences of elderly patients with cancer and their family members with regard to what is important and difficult in the family relationships during the palliative phase. Family group interviews were conducted with 26 families. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Writing the patient down and out: the construal of the patient in medical certificates of disability.

We analysed a set of medical certificates to investigate how GPs portray patients who seek disability benefits in Norway, focusing on patient centredness, agency and involvement. We performed a qualitative linguistic analysis of 33 medical certificates collected throughout Norway that were strategically selected based on the patients' sex, age and diagnosis. We found that patients were represented as passive carriers of symptoms, in whom agency was low, failed, conditional or non-existing, or as passive objects of the actions of impersonalised others.

Charge Transport in Two-Photon Semiconducting Structures for Solar Fuels.

Semiconducting heterostructures are emerging as promising light absorbers and offer effective electron-hole separation to drive solar chemistry. This technology relies on semiconductor composites or photoelectrodes that work in the presence of a redox mediator and that create cascade junctions to promote surface catalytic reactions. Rational tuning of their structures and compositions is crucial to fully exploit their functionality.