University of Aberdeen

About: University of Aberdeen is a education organization based out in Aberdeen, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 21174 authors who have published 49962 publications receiving 2105479 citations. The organization is also known as: Aberdeen University.

The clinical significance of adaptation to changing health: a meta-analysis of response shift.

Abstract: When individuals experience changes in their health states, they may alter their internal standards, values, or conceptualization of quality of life (QOL). Such ‘response shifts’ can affect or distort QOL outcome measurement, which is of particular concern when evaluating medical or psychosocial interventions. Although clinicians and researchers acknowledge the occurrence of response shifts, little is known about the magnitude and clinical significance of those effects. To fill this gap in knowledge about response shift phenomena, we performed a meta-analysis on published QOL articles on response shift. Extensive literature searches and multiple contacts with researchers yielded a collection of 494 articles for potential reviewing. We retained only published longitudinal studies that measured response shift, resulting in 26, of which 19 reported the requisite data for computing an effect size (ES). We calculated and compared the ESs for each study with regard to potential moderator variables: the QOL domains measured, disease group investigated, sample size, and response shift method used. We rated studies for quality to allow ES weighting. When we examined ES absolute values, we found that ES magnitude was small, with the largest ESs detected for fatigue, followed by global QOL, physical role limitation, psychological well-being, and pain (mean |ESweighted| = 0.32, 0.30, 0.24, 0.12, and 0.08, respectively). ESs varied considerably in direction. Aggregating raw ES scores over all studies led to positive and negative values canceling each other out (mean directional ESweighted = 0.17, 0.02, −0.01, 0.06, and 0.02, respectively). We found little evidence of an effect for the moderator variables examined. A definitive conclusion on the clinical significance of response shift cannot currently be drawn from existing studies. For a number of reasons, ES estimates were primarily based on then-test results, a method that is not without criticism, such as its susceptibility to recall bias. We recommend a standardized approach for reporting results of future response shift research to advance the field and to facilitate interpretation and comparisons across studies.

Women's autonomy in household decision-making: a demographic study in Nepal

Abstract: How socio-demographic factors influence women's autonomy in decision making on health care including purchasing goods and visiting family and relatives are very poorly studied in Nepal This study aims to explore the links between women's household position and their autonomy in decision making We used Nepal Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) 2006, which provided data on ever married women aged 15-49 years (n = 8257) The data consists of women's four types of household decision making; own health care, making major household purchases, making purchase for daily household needs and visits to her family or relatives A number of socio-demographic variables were used in multivariable logistic regression to examine the relationship of these variables to all four types of decision making Women's autonomy in decision making is positively associated with their age, employment and number of living children Women from rural area and Terai region have less autonomy in decision making in all four types of outcome measure There is a mixed variation in women's autonomy in the development region across all outcome measures Western women are more likely to make decision in own health care (12-16), while they are less likely to purchase daily household needs (06-09) Women's increased education is positively associated with autonomy in own health care decision making (p < 001), however their more schooling (SLC and above) shows non-significance with other outcome measures Interestingly, rich women are less likely to have autonomy to make decision in own healthcare Women from rural area and Terai region needs specific empowerment programme to enable them to be more autonomous in the household decision making Women's autonomy by education, wealth quintile and development region needs a further social science investigation to observe the variations within each stratum A more comprehensive strategy can enable women to access community resources, to challenge traditional norms and to access economic resources This will lead the women to be more autonomous in decision making in the due course

Niche specialization of terrestrial archaeal ammonia oxidizers

Abstract: Soil pH is a major determinant of microbial ecosystem processes and potentially a major driver of evolution, adaptation, and diversity of ammonia oxidizers, which control soil nitrification. Archaea are major components of soil microbial communities and contribute significantly to ammonia oxidation in some soils. To determine whether pH drives evolutionary adaptation and community structure of soil archaeal ammonia oxidizers, sequences of amoA, a key functional gene of ammonia oxidation, were examined in soils at global, regional, and local scales. Globally distributed database sequences clustered into 18 well-supported phylogenetic lineages that dominated specific soil pH ranges classified as acidic (pH <5), acido-neutral (5≤ pH <7), or alkalinophilic (pH ≥7). To determine whether patterns were reproduced at regional and local scales, amoA gene fragments were amplified from DNA extracted from 47 soils in the United Kingdom (pH 3.5–8.7), including a pH-gradient formed by seven soils at a single site (pH 4.5–7.5). High-throughput sequencing and analysis of amoA gene fragments identified an additional, previously undiscovered phylogenetic lineage and revealed similar pH-associated distribution patterns at global, regional, and local scales, which were most evident for the five most abundant clusters. Archaeal amoA abundance and diversity increased with soil pH, which was the only physicochemical characteristic measured that significantly influenced community structure. These results suggest evolution based on specific adaptations to soil pH and niche specialization, resulting in a global distribution of archaeal lineages that have important consequences for soil ecosystem function and nitrogen cycling.

An insight into the antifungal pipeline: selected new molecules and beyond.

Abstract: Invasive fungal infections are increasing in incidence and are associated with substantial mortality. Improved diagnostics and the availability of new antifungals have revolutionized the field of medical mycology in the past decades. This Review focuses on recent developments in the antifungal pipeline, concentrating on promising candidates such as new azoles, polyenes and echinocandins, as well as agents such as nikkomycin Z and the sordarins. Developments in vaccines and antibody-based immunotherapy are also discussed. Few therapeutic products are currently in active development, and progression of therapeutic agents with fungus-specific mechanisms of action is of key importance.

Defining and measuring multimorbidity: a systematic review of systematic reviews.

Abstract: Background Multimorbidity, the coexistence of multiple health conditions, is a growing public health challenge. Research and intervention development are hampered by the lack of consensus regarding defining and measuring multimorbidity. The aim of this systematic review was to pool the findings of systematic reviews examining definitions and measures of multimorbidity. Methods Medline, Embase, PubMed and Cochrane were searched from database inception to February 2017. Two authors independently screened titles, abstracts and full texts and extracted data from the included papers. Disagreements were resolved with a third author. Reviews were quality assessed. Results Of six reviews, two focussed on definitions and four on measures. Multimorbidity was commonly defined as the presence of multiple diseases or conditions, often with a cut-off of two or more. One review developed a holistic definition including biopsychosocial and somatic factors as well as disease. Reviews recommended using measures validated for the outcome of interest. Disease counts are an alternative if no validated measure exists. Conclusions To enable comparison between studies and settings, researchers and practitioners should be explicit about their choice of definition and measure. Using a cut-off of two or more conditions as part of the definition is widely adopted. Measure selection should be based on tools validated for the outcome being considered. Where there is no validated measure, or where multiple outcomes or populations are being considered, disease counts are appropriate.