An ideal ocular nutritional supplement?

The role of nutritional supplementation in prevention of onset or progression of ocular disease is of interest to health care professionals and patients. The aim of this review is to identify those antioxidants most appropriate for inclusion in an ideal ocular nutritional supplement, suitable for those with a family history of glaucoma, cataract, or age-related macular disease, or lifestyle factors predisposing onset of these conditions, such as smoking, poor nutritional status, or high levels of sunlight exposure. It would also be suitable for those with early stages of age-related ocular disease. Literature searches were carried out on Web of Science and PubMed for articles relating to the use of nutrients in ocular disease. Those highlighted for possible inclusion were vitamins A, B, C and E, carotenoids beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, minerals selenium and zinc, and the herb, Ginkgo biloba. Conflicting evidence is presented for vitamins A and E in prevention of ocular disease; these vitamins have roles in the production of rhodopsin and prevention of lipid peroxidation respectively. B vitamins have been linked with a reduced risk of cataract and studies have provided evidence supporting a protective role of vitamin C in cataract prevention. Beta-carotene is active in the prevention of free radical formation, but has been linked with an increased risk of lung cancer in smokers. Improvements in visual function in patients with age-related macular disease have been noted with lutein and zeaxanthin supplementation. Selenium has been linked with a reduced risk of cataract and activates the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase, protecting cell membranes from oxidative damage while zinc, although an essential component of antioxidant enzymes, has been highlighted for risk of adverse effects. As well as reducing platelet aggregation and increasing vasodilation, Gingko biloba has been linked with improvements in pre-existing field damage in some patients with normal tension glaucoma. We advocate that vitamins C and E, and lutein/zeaxanthin should be included in our theoretically ideal ocular nutritional supplement.

Sex and diabetes:a thematic analysis of gay and bisexual men's accounts

Around 50 per cent of men with diabetes experience erectile dysfunction. Much of the literature focuses on quality of life measures with heterosexual men in monogamous relationships. This study explores gay and bisexual men's experiences of sex and diabetes. Thirteen interviews were analysed and three themes identified: erectile problems; other 'physical' problems; and disclosing diabetes to sexual partners. Findings highlight a range of sexual problems experienced by non-heterosexual men and the significance of the cultural and relational context in which they are situated. The personalized care promised by the UK government should acknowledge the diversity of sexual practices which might be affected by diabetes.

Theme and thematic patterns in Spanish and English history texts

The aim of this research project is to compare published history textbooks written for upper-secondary/tertiary study in the U.S. and Spain using Halliday's (1994) Theme/Rheme construct. The motivation for using the Theme/Rheme construct to analyze professional texts in the two languages is two-fold. First of all, while there exists a multitude of studies at the grammatical and phonological levels between the two languages, very little analysis has been carried out in comparison at the level of text, beyond that of comparing L1/L2 student writing. Secondly, thematic considerations allow the analyst to highlight areas of textual organization in a systematic way for purposes of comparison. The basic hypothesis tested here rests on the premise that similarity in the social function of the texts results in similar Theme choice and thematic patterning across languages, barring certain linguistic constraints. The corpus for this study consists of 20 texts: 10 from various history textbooks published in the U.S. and 10 from various history textbooks published in Spain. The texts chosen represent a variety of authors, in order to control for author style or preference. Three overall areas of analysis were carried out, representing Halliday's (1994) three metafunctions: the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual. The ideational analysis shows similarities across the two corpora in terms of participant roles and circumstances as Theme, with a slight difference in participants involved in material processes, which is shown to reflect a minor difference in the construal of the field of history in the two cultures. The textual analysis shows overall similarities with respect to text organization, and the interpersonal analysis shows overall similarities as regards the downplay of discrepant interpretations of historical events as well as a low frequency of interactive textual features, manifesting the informational focus of the texts. At the same time, differences in results amongst texts within each of the corpora demonstrate possible effect of subject matter, in many cases, and individual author style in others. Overall, the results confirm that similarity in content, but above all in purpose and audience, result in texts which show similarities in textual features, setting aside certain grammatical constraints.

From ideal to real:a longitudinal study of the role of implicit leadership theories on leader-member exchanges and employee outcomes

The results of the present longitudinal study demonstrate the importance of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) for the quality of leader-member exchanges (LMX) and employees' organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and well-being. Results based on a sample of 439 employees who completed the study questionnaires at 2 time points showed that the closer employees perceived their actual manager's profile to be to the ILTs they endorsed, the better the quality of LMX. Results also indicated that the implicit-explicit leadership traits difference had indirect effects on employee attitudes and well-being. These findings were consistent across employee groups that differed in terms of job demand and the duration of manager-employee relation, but not in terms of motivation. Furthermore, crossed-lagged modeling analyses of the longitudinal data explored the possibility of reciprocal effects between implicit-explicit leadership traits difference and LMX and provided support for the initially hypothesized direction of causal effects.

Type-2 TOPSIS:a group decision problem when ideal values are not extreme endpoints

In the traditional TOPSIS, the ideal solutions are assumed to be located at the endpoints of the data interval. However, not all performance attributes possess ideal values at the endpoints. We termed performance attributes that have ideal values at extreme points as Type-1 attributes. Type-2 attributes however possess ideal values somewhere within the data interval instead of being at the extreme end points. This provides a preference ranking problem when all attributes are computed and assumed to be of the Type-1 nature. To overcome this issue, we propose a new Fuzzy DEA method for computing the ideal values and distance function of Type-2 attributes in a TOPSIS methodology. Our method allows Type-1 and Type-2 attributes to be included in an evaluation system without compromising the ranking quality. The efficacy of the proposed model is illustrated with a vendor evaluation case for a high-tech investment decision making exercise. A comparison analysis with the traditional TOPSIS is also presented. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

[Review of] Ivo Mijnssen, The Quest for an Ideal Youth in Putin’s Russia I. Back to Our Future! History, Modernity and Patriotism According to Nashi, 2005–2012. Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, 2012, 202pp., e 34.90 p/b

THE YOUTH MOVEMENT NASHI (OURS) WAS FOUNDED IN THE SPRING of 2005 against the backdrop of Ukraine’s ‘Orange Revolution’. Its aim was to stabilise Russia’s political system and take back the streets from opposition demonstrators. Personally loyal to Putin and taking its ideological orientation from Surkov’s concept of ‘sovereign democracy’, Nashi has sought to turn the tide on ‘defeatism’ and develop Russian youth into a patriotic new elite that ‘believes in the future of Russia’ (p. 15). Combining a wealth of empirical detail and the application of insights from discourse theory, Ivo Mijnssen analyses the organisation’s development between 2005 and 2012. His analysis focuses on three key moments—the organisation’s foundation, the apogee of its mobilisation around the Bronze Soldier dispute with Estonia, and the 2010 Seliger youth camp—to help understand Nashi’s organisation, purpose and ideational outlook as well as the limitations and challenges it faces. As such,the book is insightful both for those with an interest in post-Soviet Russian youth culture, and for scholars seeking a rounded understanding of the Kremlin’s initiatives to return a sense of identity and purpose to Russian national life.The first chapter, ‘Background and Context’, outlines the conceptual toolkit provided by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to help make sense of developments on the terrain of identity politics. In their terms, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has experienced acute dislocation of its identity. With the tangible loss of great power status, Russian realities have become unfixed from a discourse enabling national life to be constructed, albeit inherently contingently, as meaningful. The lack of a Gramscian hegemonic discourse to provide a unifying national idea was securitised as an existential threat demanding special measures. Accordingly, the identification of those who are ‘notUs’ has been a recurrent theme of Nashi’s discourse and activity. With the victory in World War II held up as a foundational moment, a constitutive other is found in the notion of ‘unusual fascists’. This notion includes not just neo-Nazis, but reflects a chain of equivalence that expands to include a range of perceived enemies of Putin’s consolidation project such as oligarchs and pro-Western liberals.The empirical background is provided by the second chapter, ‘Russia’s Youth, the Orange Revolution, and Nashi’, which traces the emergence of Nashi amid the climate of political instability of 2004 and 2005. A particularly note-worthy aspect of Mijnssen’s work is the inclusion of citations from his interviews with Nashicommissars; the youth movement’s cadres. Although relatively few in number, such insider conversations provide insight into the ethos of Nashi’s organisation and the outlook of those who have pledged their involvement. Besides the discussion of Nashi’s manifesto, the reader thus gains insight into the motivations of some participants and behind-the-scenes details of Nashi’s activities in response to the perceived threat of anti-government protests. The third chapter, ‘Nashi’s Bronze Soldier’, charts Nashi’s role in elevating the removal of a World War II monument from downtown Tallinn into an international dispute over the interpretation of history. The events subsequent to this securitisation of memory are charted in detail, concluding that Nashi’s activities were ultimately unsuccessful as their demands received little official support.The fourth chapter, ‘Seliger: The Foundry of Modernisation’, presents a distinctive feature of Mijnssen’s study, namely his ethnographic account as a participant observer in the Youth International Forum at Seliger. In the early years of the camp (2005–2007), Russian participants received extensive training, including master classes in ‘methods of forestalling mass unrest’ (p. 131), and the camp served to foster a sense of group identity and purpose among activists. After 2009 the event was no longer officially run as a Nashi camp, and its role became that of a forum for the exchange of ideas about innovation, although camp spirit remained a central feature. In 2010 the camp welcomed international attendees for the first time. As one of about 700 international participants in that year the author provides a fascinating account based on fieldwork diaries.Despite the polemical nature of the topic, Mijnssen’s analysis remains even-handed, exemplified in his balanced assessment of the Seliger experience. While he details the frustrations and disappointments of the international participants with regard to the unaccustomed strict camp discipline, organisational and communication failures, and the controlled format of many discussions,he does not neglect to note the camp’s successes in generating a gratifying collective dynamic between the participants, even among the international attendees who spent only a week there.In addition to the useful bibliography, the book is back-ended by two appendices, which provide the reader with important Russian-language primary source materials. The first is Nashi’s ‘Unusual Fascism’ (Neobyknovennyi fashizm) brochure, and the second is the booklet entitled ‘Some Uncomfortable Questions to the Russian Authorities’ (Neskol’ko neudobnykh voprosov rossiiskoivlasti) which was provided to the Seliger 2010 instructors to guide them in responding to probing questions from foreign participants. Given that these are not readily publicly available even now, they constitute a useful resource from the historical perspective.

Parenting a child with chronic illness as they transition into adulthood:a systematic review and thematic synthesis of parents’ experiences

Objective - To understand how parents view and experience their role as their child with a long-term physical health condition transitions to adulthood and adult healthcare services. Methods - Five databases were systematically searched for qualitative articles examining parents’ views and experiences of their child’s healthcare transition. Papers were quality assessed and thematically synthesised. Results - Thirty-two papers from six countries, spanning a 17-year period were included. Long-term conditions were diverse. Findings indicated that parents view their child’s progression toward self-care as an incremental process which they seek to facilitate through up-skilling them in self-management practices. Parental perceptions of their child’s readiness, wellness, competence and long-term condition impacted on the child’ progression to healthcare autonomy. A lack of transitional healthcare and differences between paediatric and adult services served as barriers to effective transition. Parents were required to adjust their role, responsibilities and behaviour to support their child’s growing independence. Conclusion - Parents can be key facilitators of their child’s healthcare transition, supporting them to become experts in their own condition and care. To do so, they require clarification on their role and support from service providers. Practice Implications - Interventions are needed which address the transitional care needs of parents as well as young people.