University of Liverpool

About: University of Liverpool is a education organization based out in Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 40406 authors who have published 94388 publications receiving 3188970 citations. The organization is also known as: Liverpool University & The University of Liverpool.

Exercise interventions on health-related quality of life for cancer survivors.

Abstract: In the management of head and neck cancer, outcome is more than just cure and survival. The cancer and its treatment affect fundamental functions including communication, eating and social integration. There is a steady increase in the number of cancer survivors and ensuring the quality of that survival has becomes a key priority. Quality of life (QoL) as a concept has therefore become increasingly important in relation to patient outcomes following treatment for head and neck cancer. The World Health Organisation defines QoL as ‘An individual’s perceptions of their position in life taken in context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, standards and concerns’. The Calman ‘gap definition’ describes QoL as the measure between age expectations or present experience, and the perceived and actual goals. Ferrans provided a comprehensive review of definitions of health-related QoL (HRQoL) and concluded that, ‘the literature contains a bewildering array of characterizations’. Therefore, any studies will be fraught with potential idiosyncrasies. There is a broad consensus among experts regarding the major domains of HRQoL. These domains comprise subjective assessments of physical, psychological, economic, social and spiritual well-being. Physical function includes performance of self-care activities, mobility and physical activities. Psychological functions include emotional well-being, anxiety, body image and depression. Social and economic functions include work or household responsibilities and social interactions. Spiritual well-being includes perspectives on one’s life as a whole. Health-related QoL also encompasses the negative aspects of the disease or treatment, or both, such as sexual functioning, neuropathy or cognitive changes, and chronic fatigue. The benefits of exercise on health status, length of survival, promotion of HRQoL and mitigating premature death are gaining wide attention. Evidence indicates exercise increases physical functioning among cancer survivors and facilitates positive physiologic and psychological benefits in cancer survivors during and after treatment. In addition, evidence suggests exercise enhances HRQoL in head and neck cancer. This systematic review by Mishra et al. included 40 trials, 38 of which were Randomized Controlled Trials and two were Clinically Controlled Trials. These trials allocated 3694 participants to either the exercise or comparison groups. Participants enrolled in the trials had various cancer diagnoses including breast, colorectal, head and neck, and others. All trials included participants who had completed active cancer treatment; however, some trials also included participants who were currently undergoing treatment. Exercise interventions tested in the trials varied greatly and included strength training, resistance training, yoga, walking, cycling, Tai Chi and Qigong. Health-related QoL and HRQoL domains were assessed using a wide range of measures. The review finds that exercise interventions may have beneficial effects on overall HRQoL and HRQoL domains including cancer-specific concerns (e.g. breast cancer), body image/self-esteem, emotional well-being, sexuality, sleep disturbance, social functioning, anxiety, fatigue and pain at varying follow-up periods among cancer survivors who are beyond active treatment for their primary or recurrent cancer. No evidence of effect was found for HRQoL domains such as cognitive function, physical functioning, general health perspective, role function and spirituality. The lack of evidence may be due to few trials assessing these outcomes, small number of participants in trials measuring these outcomes, and substantial heterogeneity between trials measuring these outcomes on the exercise programs implemented and measures used to assess the outcomes. The authors concede that results of the review need to be interpreted with caution owing to the risk of bias. All the trials reviewedwere at high risk for performance bias because blinding of participants is not possible in exercise intervention unless more rigorously controlled comparative designs are utilised to test the effects of exercise interventions. Performance bias becomes accentuated in trials where participants are asked to provide subjective assessments of outcomes such as HRQoL and HRQoL domains. In addition, the majority of trials were at high risk for detection bias as the outcome assessors were not blinded, were at high risk for attrition bias owing to inadequate handling of incom-

Deep carbon export from a Southern Ocean iron-fertilized diatom bloom

Abstract: Fertilization of the ocean by adding iron compounds has induced diatom-dominated phytoplankton blooms accompanied by considerable carbon dioxide drawdown in the ocean surface layer. However, because the fate of bloom biomass could not be adequately resolved in these experiments, the timescales of carbon sequestration from the atmosphere are uncertain. Here we report the results of a five-week experiment carried out in the closed core of a vertically coherent, mesoscale eddy of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, during which we tracked sinking particles from the surface to the deep-sea floor. A large diatom bloom peaked in the fourth week after fertilization. This was followed by mass mortality of several diatom species that formed rapidly sinking, mucilaginous aggregates of entangled cells and chains. Taken together, multiple lines of evidence—although each with important uncertainties—lead us to conclude that at least half the bloom biomass sank far below a depth of 1,000 metres and that a substantial portion is likely to have reached the sea floor. Thus, iron-fertilized diatom blooms may sequester carbon for timescales of centuries in ocean bottom water and for longer in the sediments.

Fieldwork is Good: the Student Perception and the Affective Domain

Abstract: This paper reports on research that investigates the effectiveness of residential field courses in geography, earth science and environmental science courses at UK institutions of higher education. The research focuses on the effects of fieldwork in the affective domain, which is thought to be linked to the adoption of effective approaches to learning. Approximately 300 students were surveyed immediately before and after a field class, enabling analysis of changes in responses brought about as a result of the field experience. Potential differences were looked for between groups of students determined by gender, age, previous experience of fieldwork and place of residence. The research finds that fieldwork leads to significant effects in the affective domain. In general, student responses were very positive prior to fieldwork and became more positive as a result of the field experience. Some groups exhibited higher levels of anxiety about this learning method prior to the field class; however, such differ...

Deubiquitylases From Genes to Organism

Abstract: Ubiquitylation is a major posttranslational modification that controls most complex aspects of cell physiology. It is reversed through the action of a large family of deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs...