Treatment of child anxiety. an exploratory study of the role of maternal anxiety and behaviours in treatment outcome

Anxiety disorders are common among parents of anxious children and have been found to impede child treatment outcomes, yet it is unclear whether it is parental anxiety that needs to be targeted in therapy or associated parental behaviours. Twenty-two children (6-12 years) with a current anxiety disorder and their mothers received cognitive-behavioural treatment (CBT) for child anxiety. In addition, of the 12 mothers who met criteria for a current anxiety disorder, 6 received CBT for their own disorder. Assessments were made of the mother-child interaction. The main findings were: (1) children did less well from treatment where their mothers had a current anxiety disorder; (2) treatment of maternal anxiety disorder did not improve child treatment outcome; and (3) maternal overinvolvement and expression of fear was associated with child treatment outcome. The results suggest that in the context of maternal anxiety disorder, child treatment outcome may be improved by specifically targeting parenting behaviours. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An exploratory study of the effect of aspect-oriented programming on maintainability

In this paper we describe an exploratory assessment of the effect of aspect-oriented programming on software maintainability. An experiment was conducted in which 11 software professionals were asked to carry out maintenance tasks on one of two programs. The first program was written in Java and the second in AspectJ. Both programs implement a shopping system according to the same set of requirements. A number of statistical hypotheses were tested. The results did seem to suggest a slight advantage for the subjects using the object-oriented system since in general it took the subjects less time to answer the questions on this system. Also, both systems appeared to be equally difficult to modify. However, the results did not show a statistically significant influence of aspect-oriented programming at the 5% level. We are aware that the results of this single small study cannot be generalized. We conclude that more empirical research is necessary in this area to identify the benefits of aspect-oriented programming and we hope that this paper will encourage such research.

Knowledge and information evaluation practice: an exploratory study in a construction firm

There are a number of challenges associated with managing knowledge and information in construction organizations delivering major capital assets. These include the ever-increasing volumes of information, losing people because of retirement or competitors, the continuously changing nature of information, lack of methods on eliciting useful knowledge, development of new information technologies and changes in management and innovation practices. Existing tools and methodologies for valuing intangible assets in fields such as engineering, project management and financial, accounting, do not address fully the issues associated with the valuation of information and knowledge. Information is rarely recorded in a way that a document can be valued, when either produced or subsequently retrieved and re-used. In addition there is a wealth of tacit personal knowledge which, if codified into documentary information, may prove to be very valuable to operators of the finished asset or future designers. This paper addresses the problem of information overload and identifies the differences between data, information and knowledge. An exploratory study was conducted with a leading construction consultant examining three perspectives (business, project management and document management) by structured interviews and specifically how to value information in practical terms. Major challenges in information management are identified. An through-life Information Evaluation methodology (IEM) is presented to reduce information overload and to make the information more valuable in the future.

Eight-plex iTRAQ analysis of variant metastatic human prostate cancer cells identifies candidate biomarkers of progression: an exploratory study.

BACKGROUND: Due to the heterogeneity in the biological behavior of prostate cancer, biomarkers that can reliably distinguish indolent from aggressive disease are urgently needed to inform treatment choices. METHODS: We employed 8-plex isobaric Tags for Relative and Absolute Quantitation (iTRAQ), to profile the proteomes of two distinct panels of isogenic prostate cancer cells with varying growth and metastatic potentials, in order to identify novel biomarkers associated with progression. The LNCaP, LNCaP-Pro5, and LNCaP-LN3 panel of cells represent a model of androgen-responsive prostate cancer, while the PC-3, PC-3M, and PC-3M-LN4 panel represent a model of androgen-insensitive disease. RESULTS: Of the 245 unique proteins identified and quantified (>or=95% confidence; >or=2 peptides/protein), 17 showed significant differential expression (>or=+/-1.5), in at least one of the variant LNCaP cells relative to parental cells. Similarly, comparisons within the PC-3 panel identified 45 proteins to show significant differential expression in at least one of the variant PC-3 cells compared with parental cells. Differential expression of selected candidates was verified by Western blotting or immunocytochemistry, and corresponding mRNA expression was determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Immunostaining of prostate tissue microarrays for ERp5, one of the candidates identified, showed a significant higher immunoexpression in pre-malignant lesions compared with non-malignant epithelium (P < 0.0001, Mann-Whitney U-test), and in high Gleason grade (4-5) versus low grade (2-3) cancers (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides proof of principle for the application of an 8-plex iTRAQ approach to uncover clinically relevant candidate biomarkers for prostate cancer progression.

An exploratory study into the putative prebiotic activity of fructans isolated from Agave angustifolia and the associated anticancer activity

Linear Inulin type fructan (ITF) prebiotics have a putative role in the prevention of colorectal cancer, whereas relatively little is known about branched fructans. This study aims to investigate the fermentation properties and potential prebiotic activity of branched fructans derived from Agave angustifolia Haw, using the Simulator of Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME) model. The proximal, transverse and distal vessels were used to investigate fructan fermentation throughout the colon and to assess the alterations of the microbial composition and fermentation metabolites (short chain fatty acids and ammonia). The influence on bioactivity of the fermentation supernatant was assessed by MTT, Comet and transepithelial electrical resistance (TER), respectively. Addition of Agave fructan to the SHIME model significantly increased (P<0.05), bifidobacteria populations (proximal and transverse), SCFA concentrations (proximal, transverse and distal) and decreased ammonia concentrations in the distal vessel. Furthermore, the fermentation supernatant significantly (P<0.05) increased the TER of a Caco-2 cell monolayer (%) and decreased fluorescein-based paracellular flux, suggesting enhanced barrier function and reduced epithelial barrier permeability (proximal and distal vessel). While cytotoxicity and genotoxicity remained unaltered in response to the presence of Agave fructans. To conclude, branched Agave fructans show indications of prebiotic activity, particularly in relation to colon health by exerting a positive influence on gut barrier function, an important aspect of colon carcinogenesis.

Work Domain Analysis for understanding medication safety in care homes in England: an exploratory study

Medication safety and errors are a major concern in care homes. In addition to the identification of incidents, there is a need for a comprehensive system description to avoid the danger of introducing interventions that have unintended consequences and are therefore unsustainable. The aim of the study was to explore the impact and uniqueness of Work Domain Analysis (WDA) to facilitate an in-depth understanding of medication safety problems within the care home system and identify the potential benefits of WDA to design safety interventions to improve medication safety. A comprehensive, systematic and contextual overview of the care home medication system was developed for the first time. The novel use of the Abstraction Hierarchy (AH) to analyse medication errors revealed the value of the AH to guide a comprehensive analysis of errors and generate system improvement recommendations that took into account the contextual information of the wider system.

Proximity, strategic groups and reputation: an exploratory study of reputation in higher education

This paper explores the idea that stakeholder proximity, that is, how much/little experience a stakeholder has with a focal organization, impacts the extent to which stakeholders rely on strategic group characteristics as an anchor when judging the reputation of higher education institutions. We synthesize theories from psychology (ie, cognitive categorization theory) and management (ie, strategic group theory) to explore how stakeholder proximity may influence the formation of organizational reputation. Specifically, we examine how the proximity of three key stakeholders (N=1,049; prospective students, parents of students and hiring managers of new graduates) influences the perceived strategic character and generalized favorability of three distinct groups of post-secondary institutions (research-intensive universities, teaching-intensive universities and career colleges). Our results suggest that high proximity stakeholders rely less on strategic group characteristics, while reputation at a strategic group level is suggested to have greater influence on stakeholders who have less direct experience of and low proximity to an organization. Interestingly, our findings reveal some consistent differences between perceptions of prospective students and hiring managers that pose important theoretical questions about the role and impact of direct experiences in the reputation-building process, while also suggesting that higher education institutions may benefit significantly from differentiated marketing strategies according to issues of proximity.

The brand likeability scale: an exploratory study of likeability in firm-level brands

We develop a new measurement scale to assess consumers’ brand likeability in firm-level brands. We present brand likeability as a multidimensional construct. In the context of service experience purchases, we find that increased likeability in brands results in: (1) greater amount of positive association; (2) increased interaction interest; (3) more personified quality; and (4) increased brand contentment. The four-dimensional multiple-item scale demonstrates good psychometric properties, showing strong evidence of reliability as well as convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. Our findings reveal that brand likeability is positively associated with satisfaction and positive word of mouth. The scale extends existing branding research, providing brand managers with a metric so that likeability can be managed strategically. It addresses the need for firms to act more likeably in an interaction-dominated economy. Focusing on likeability acts as a differentiator and encourages likeable brand personality traits. We present theoretical implications and future research directions on the holistic brand likeability concept.