Non-cell autonomous neuroprotective effect of carbon monoxide : microglia-to-neuron communication

RESUMO: A isquémia cerebral é uma das doenças mais predominantes a nivel mundial, sendo uma das principais causas de mortalidade e invalidez. Parte da propagação de dano no cérebro é causado por inflamação descontrolada, causada principalmente por disfunção da microglia. Desta forma, existe a necessidade de tentar desenvolver estratégias para melhor compreender e modular as acções destas células. O monóxido de carbono (CO), é uma molécula endógena com provas dadas como anti-neuroinflamatório em vários modelos. Assim, o principal objectivo do trabalho foi o estudo do CO como um modulador da acção da microglia, com principal foco dado à comunicação entre estas células e neurónios, tentando entender se existe um efeito neuroprotector por inibição da inflamação. Um protocolo de meio condicionado foi estabelecido usando as linhas celulares BV2 e SH-SY5Y, de microglia e neurónio. A molécula CORM-A1, que liberta expontaniamente CO, foi usada como método de entrega da molécula às celulas. Demonstrámos que o pre-tratamento de células BV2 com CORM-A1 gera neuroprotecção já que reduz a morte celular de neurónios SH-SY5Y quando são incubados com meio condicionado de microglia activada em conjunto com o pró-oxidante t-BHP (tert-butil hidroperóxido). Assim, considerámos que o CO promove neuroprotecção ao inibir as acções inflamatórias da microglia. O papel anti-inflamatório da molécula CORM-A1 foi confirmado quando se verificou que pré-tratamento desta molécula em microglia BV2 limita a secreção de TNF-α mas estimula a secreção de IL-10. Por último, a CORM-A1 induziu a expressão do receptor da microglia CD200R1, molécula que participa na comunicação neurónio-microglia e fundamental para a modulação das acções inflamatórias destas últimas. Em suma, o nosso trabalho reforçou as propriedades anti-neuroinflamatórias do CO e uma capacidade de modular viabilidade neuronal através do seu efeito a nível de comunicação célula-célula. ---------------------------- ABSTRACT: Brain ischemia is a widespread disease worldwide, being one of the main causes of mortality and permanent disability. A portion of the damage that ensues following the ischemic event is caused by unrestrained inflammation, which is mainly orchestrated by exacerbated microglial activity. Hence, developing strategies for modulating microglial inflammation is a major concern nowadays. The endogenous molecule carbon monoxide (CO) has been shown to possess anti-neuroinflammatory properties using in vitro and in vivo approaches. Thus, our objective was to study CO as modulator of microglial activity, in particular in what concerns their communication with neurons, by promoting neuronal viability and limiting inflammatory output of activated microglia. A conditioned media strategy was established with BV2 microglia and SH-SY5Y neurons as cell models. CO-releasing molecule A1 (CORM-A1), a compound that releases CO spontaneously, was used as method of CO delivery to cells. We found that CORM-A1 pre-treatment in BV2 cells yields neuroprotective results, as it limits cell death when SH-SY5Y neurons are challenged with conditioned media from LPS-activated microglia and the pro-oxidant t-BHP (tert-butyl-hydroperoxide). Thus, we assumed carbon monoxide promotes neuroprotection via inhibition of microglial inflammation, displaying a non-cell autonomous role. CORM-A1 pre-treatment limited inflammation by inhibiting BV2 secretion of TNF-α and stimulating IL-10 production. These results reinforce that CO’s anti-inflammatory role confers neuroprotection, as the alterations in these cytokines occur concurrently with the increase in SH-SY5Y viability. Finally, we showed for the first time that carbon monoxide promotes the expression of CD200R1, a microglial receptor involved in neuron-glia communication and modulation of microglia inflammation. Further studies are necessary to clarify this role. Altogether, other than just highlighting CO as an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective molecule, this work set the foundation for disclosing its involvement in cell-to-cell communication.

The global shopper & brands communication at airports

This project aims to illuminate two perspectives on travel retail. On the one hand, it describes the main character of the shopping scenario at airports, namely the Global Shopper. It covers the entire profile of the referred character, the main nationalities that represent him and the current shopping trends of the passenger. Also estimates of the booming nationalities and the future purchasing trends are accurately presented. On the other hand, the travel retail market is analyzed from the airport brands’ perspective. It is described what is currently done in terms of brands communication in the top ten airports around the world and the expected future market retail trends. To accurately explore the Global Shopper behavior and purchasing preferences, a market research was conducted with a sample of 128 respondents, male and female, from different nationalities, age groups, occupation and education backgrounds. The essay tests hypothesis regarding the relevance of several variables in the purchasing process of the Global Shopper in order to understand the most pleasant way to approach consumers in travel retail. The main variables studied concern the reasons to shop at airports, to whom the passenger shops, the preferred category and brand of purchase, feelings while shopping abroad, impulsive buying behavior, brand loyalty, the use of mobile devices in the shopping process, brands communication at airports, pre-ordering online and the attitude towards self-service stores. Some findings were in accordance with expectations, while others were a surprise and may produce valuable recommendations for future travel retail practices. 4 The main relevant results concern two areas, namely pre-ordering online and self-service stores. Results showed a certain stress about not having enough time to choose between the various offerings in travel retail, as well as difficulty in dealing with crowed stores. However, pre-ordering online was not common, which would be an initiative that could solve the discomfort at airport’s stores. Moreover, self-service would promote efficiency in stores allowing passengers to save time if they already know how to go through the shopping process by themselves. Another possible recommendation concerns differentiating the strategy in travel retail for the two genders. Some differences were found in the categories bought by male and female, as well as to how brands should shape their approach concerning the demands of each gender.

Product placement in integrated marketing communications strategy

Perinteisten markkinointiviestintäkanavien menettäessä jatkuvasti tehoaan mediakentän ja kohderyhmien sirpaloituessa yhä pienempiin yksiköihin markkinointiorganisaatiot etsivät vaihtoehtoisia tapoja tavoittaakseen kohdeyleisönsä. Yksi vaihtoehtoinen markkinointiviestintäkeino on tuotesijoittelu (product placement), jossa (merkki)tuotteita sijoitetaan erilaisten viihdetuotantojen, kuten elokuvien, televisio-ohjelmien ja tietokonepelien, tarinan yhteyteen, jotta yhä medialukutaitoisempi kohdeyleisö ei pystyisi välttämään kaupallista viestiä esimerkiksi vaihtamalla televisiokanavaa tai kääntämällä lehden sivua. Koska tuote on sijoitettu kerrottavan tarinan sisään, markkinointiviestin — eli tuotteen havaitsemisen — välttäminen on huomattavasti vaikeampaa kuin perinteisten markkinointiviestintämenetelmien kohdalla. Lisäksi, sijoitellut tuotteet ovat tavallisesti kiinteässä yhteydessä tarinan juonen ja henkilöhahmojen kanssa siten, että tuote saa näistä yhteyksistä positiivista vahvistusta imagolleen. Pro Gradu-tutkielman tarkoituksena oli selvittää tuotesijoittelun käyttökelpoisuutta markkinointiviestinnässä sekä miten kulutushyödykemarkkinoijat voivat hyödyntää menetelmää markkinointiviestintästrategioissaan. Tuotesijoittelun poikkeava luonne markkinointiviestintävälineenä tuotti kysymyksen miten tuotesijoittelua voitaisiin hyödyntää yhteistyössä muiden markkinointiviestintäkeinojen kanssa. Tätä varten tutkimuksessa tuotesijoittelu yhdistettiin integroidun markkinointiviestinnän (IMC) viitekehykseen. IMC-konsepti syntyi markkinointiviestinnässä vastaamaan samaan tarpeeseen kuin tuotesijoittelukin: pirstaloitunut mediakenttä ja yksittäiset kohderyhmät vaativat kehittyneempää ja yhtenäisempää markkinointiviestinnän suunnittelua ja toteutusta. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä tuotesijoittelu todettiin käyttökelpoiseksi markkinointiviestintäkeinoksi mikäli viestinnän tavoitteena on muu kuin tuotteen myyntiin suorasti vaikuttaminen. Tuotesijoittelu on sen sijaan erittäin tehokas tuotetietoisuuden lisäämisessä, erityisesti tunnistamisen kohdalla. Tuotesijoittelu voi myös tuottaa suoran ostotarpeen mutta tällöin viestin vastaanottajalla täytyy olla vallitseva tarve kyseisen tuoteryhmän osalta ennen altistumista ko. markkinointiviestille. Tuotesijoittelu voidaan sisällyttää IMC-suunnitteluprosessiin markkinointiviestintästrategian kiinteänä osana. Integraatio markkinointiviestinnässä siten, että tuotesijoittelua tuettaisiin muilla viestintäkeinoilla yhtenäisen kampanjan kehittämiseksi on kuitenkin paljon ennakoitua harvinaisempaa, johtuen ehkä eniten tuotesijoittelun poikkeuksellisesta luonteesta ja kyseisen viestintämuodon vaikeasta hallittavuudesta markkinoijan taholta. Tutkimus toteutettiin normatiivisena case-tutkimuksena pääasiassa sekundäärisiä tietolähteitä hyödyntäen. Case-tutkimuksia varten kerättiin primääristä tietoa kyselylomakkeella kahdesta tuotesijoittelua käyttävästä kansainvälisestä yhtiöstä, jonka lisäksi myös sekundäärisiä tietolähteitä hyödynnettiin case-osan tiedonkeruussa.

Les déterminants de l’intégration pédagogique des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (TIC) par les enseignants à l’Université de Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)

L’objectif général de cette recherche doctorale est l’étude des déterminants de l’intégration pédagogique des technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) par les professeurs à l’Université de Ouagadougou (UO). Cela nous a conduit à étudier respectivement les compétences technologiques des professeurs, les facteurs de résistance contraignant l’intégration pédagogique des TIC par ces professeurs, l’acceptation et les usages spécifiques des TIC par les professeurs. Ce travail s’est bâti autour des concepts théoriques sur les usages éducatifs des TIC, les compétences technopédagogiques, les facteurs de résistance, l’acceptation des TIC et l’intégration pédagogique des TIC. Ces concepts se sont inscrits dans les cadres d’analyses des modèles d’intégration des TIC par les professeurs et des modèles d’acceptation et d’utilisation d’une nouvelle technologie. La stratégie d’analyse des données s’est construite autour des approches descriptives et analytiques notamment au moyen de l’utilisation de la psychométrie et/ou de l’économétrie des modèles à variables dépendantes limitées. Utilisant la recherche quantitative, le recrutement de 82 professeurs par avis de consentement à participer, a permis de collecter les données sur la base de questionnaires dont la majeure partie est bâtie autour de questions à échelle de Likert. L’étude des compétences technologiques des professeurs a permis d’une part, de dresser un portrait des usages des TIC par les professeurs. En effet, les usages les plus répandus des TIC dans cette université sont les logiciels de bureautique, les logiciels de messagerie électronique et de navigation dans Internet. Elle a aussi permis de faire un portrait des compétences technologiques des professeurs. Ceux-ci utilisent à la fois plusieurs logiciels et reconnaissent l’importance des TIC pour leurs tâches pédagogiques et de recherche même si leur degré de maîtrise perçue sur certaines des applications télématiques reste à des niveaux très bas. Par rapport à certaines compétences comme celles destinées à exploiter les TIC dans des situations de communication et de collaboration et celles destinée à rechercher et à traiter des informations à l’aide des TIC, les niveaux de maîtrise par les professeurs de ces compétences ont été très élevés. Les professeurs ont eu des niveaux de maîtrise très faibles sur les compétences destinées à créer des situations d’apprentissage à l’aide des TIC et sur celles destinées à développer et à diffuser des ressources d’apprentissage à l’aide des TIC malgré la grande importance que ceux-ci ont accordée à ces compétences avancées essentielles pour une intégration efficace et efficiente des TIC à leurs pratiques pédagogiques. L’étude des facteurs de résistance a permis d’ériger une typologie de ces facteurs. Ces facteurs vont des contraintes matérielles et infrastructurelles à celles liées aux compétences informatiques et à des contraintes liées à la motivation et à l’engagement personnel des professeurs, facteurs pouvant susciter des comportements de refus de la technologie. Ces facteurs sont entre autres, la compatibilité des TIC d’avec les tâches pédagogiques et de recherche des professeurs, l’utilité perçue des TIC pour les activités pédagogiques et de recherche, les facilités d’utilisation des TIC et la motivation ou l’engagement personnel des professeurs aux usages des TIC. Il y a aussi les coûts engendrés par l’accès aux TIC et le manque de soutien et d’assistance technique au plan institutionnel qui se sont révelés enfreindre le développement de ces usages parmi les professeurs. Les estimations des déterminants de l’acceptation et des usages éducatifs des TIC par les professeurs ont montré que c’est surtout « l’intention comportementale » d’aller aux TIC des professeurs, « l’expérience d’Internet » qui affectent positivement les usages éducatifs des TIC. Les « conditions de facilitation » qui représentent non seulement la qualité de l’infrastructure technologique, mais aussi l’existence d’un soutien institutionnel aux usages des TIC, ont affecté négativement ces usages. Des éléments de recommandation issus de ce travail s’orientent vers la formation des professeurs sur des compétences précises identifiées, l’amélioration de la qualité de l’infrastructure technologique existante, la création d’un logithèque, la mise en œuvre d’incitations institutionnelles adéquates telles que l’assistance technique régulière aux professeurs, l’allègement des volumes horaires statutaires des professeurs novateurs, la reconnaissance des efforts déjà réalisés par ces novateurs en matière d’usages éducatifs des TIC dans leur institution.

Guerre, communication, public : Walter Lippmann et l’émergence d’un problème

Cette thèse interroge l’émergence de ce que j’appelle le problème guerre-communication-public dans le travail de Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), le célèbre journaliste et écrivain, pour ensuite aborder le déploiement ultérieur de ce problème au sein de deux formations contemporaines de pouvoir, le spectacle et la société de contrôle biopolitique. Au niveau théorique et méthodologique, cette thèse réactive l’analytique du pouvoir en tant que guerre proposée par Michel Foucault (1997), laquelle solidarise l’enquête historique et l’analyse du pouvoir. Adoptant cette perspective, cette thèse relève tout à la fois de l’enquête historique et de l’analyse du pouvoir et vise simultanément à produire un savoir historique original et à mobiliser ce savoir afin d’éclairer certains aspects de l’exercice contemporain du pouvoir, notamment quant aux savoirs qui y sont mobilisés. La première partie de cette thèse aborde le renversement de la relation clausewitzienne entre guerre et politique caractéristique du travail de Lippmann, lequel est central au problème guerre-communication-public. Afin d’exposer ce renversement, cette thèse revisite la question des influences intellectuelles de Lippmann à partir d’une enquête archivistique ainsi que par une analyse généalogique de la notion de guerre froide (qui est généralement attribuée à Lippmann). Ce faisant, cette partie de la thèse contribue aux débats historiographiques portant sur l’apport de Lippmann aux théories de la communication (débats avec lesquels cette thèse s’engage), notamment en proposant une nouvelle analyse du débat Dewey-Lippmann et des rapports de Lippmann à la philosophie pragmatiste. La deuxième partie de cette thèse interroge le fonctionnement contemporain du pouvoir en tant que spectacle et société de contrôle biopolitique à partir du problème guerre-communication-public. Cette démarche permet de préciser certains aspects de ces formations de pouvoir, notamment quant à leurs événements historiques, leurs modes de fonctionnement, leurs ancrages dans la guerre et la stratégie ainsi que leurs rapports mutuels.

Complexité de la communication sur un canal avec délai

Nous introduisons un nouveau modèle de la communication à deux parties dans lequel nous nous intéressons au temps que prennent deux participants à effectuer une tâche à travers un canal avec délai d. Nous établissons quelques bornes supérieures et inférieures et comparons ce nouveau modèle aux modèles de communication classiques et quantiques étudiés dans la littérature. Nous montrons que la complexité de la communication d’une fonction sur un canal avec délai est bornée supérieurement par sa complexité de la communication modulo un facteur multiplicatif d/ lg d. Nous présentons ensuite quelques exemples de fonctions pour lesquelles une stratégie astucieuse se servant du temps mort confère un avantage sur une implémentation naïve d’un protocole de communication optimal en terme de complexité de la communication. Finalement, nous montrons qu’un canal avec délai permet de réaliser un échange de bit cryptographique, mais que, par lui-même, est insuffisant pour réaliser la primitive cryptographique de transfert équivoque.

Re-engineering and Re-defining University Libraries in the context of modern Information and Communication Technologies: a study with special reference to the University Libraries in Kerala

Information and communication technologies are the tools that underpin the emerging “Knowledge Society”. Exchange of information or knowledge between people and through networks of people has always taken place. But the ICT has radically changed the magnitude of this exchange, and thus factors such as timeliness of information and information dissemination patterns have become more important than ever.Since information and knowledge are so vital for the all round human development, libraries and institutions that manage these resources are indeed invaluable. So, the Library and Information Centres have a key role in the acquisition, processing, preservation and dissemination of information and knowledge. ln the modern context, library is providing service based on different types of documents such as manuscripts, printed, digital, etc. At the same time, acquisition, access, process, service etc. of these resources have become complicated now than ever before. The lCT made instrumental to extend libraries beyond the physical walls of a building and providing assistance in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools. Thus, modern libraries are increasingly being re-defined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources.The research was conducted in the university libraries in Kerala State, India. lt was identified that even though the information resources are flooding world over and several technologies have emerged to manage the situation for providing effective services to its clientele, most of the university libraries in Kerala were unable to exploit these technologies at maximum level. Though the libraries have automated many of their functions, wide gap prevails between the possible services and provided services. There are many good examples world over in the application of lCTs in libraries for the maximization of services and many such libraries have adopted the principles of reengineering and re-defining as a management strategy. Hence this study was targeted to look into how effectively adopted the modern lCTs in our libraries for maximizing the efficiency of operations and services and whether the principles of re-engineering and- redefining can be applied towards this.Data‘ was collected from library users, viz; student as well as faculty users; library ,professionals and university librarians, using structured questionnaires. This has been .supplemented by-observation of working of the libraries, discussions and interviews with the different types of users and staff, review of literature, etc. Personal observation of the organization set up, management practices, functions, facilities, resources, utilization of information resources and facilities by the users, etc. of the university libraries in Kerala have been made. Statistical techniques like percentage, mean, weighted mean, standard deviation, correlation, trend analysis, etc. have been used to analyse data.All the libraries could exploit only a very few possibilities of modern lCTs and hence they could not achieve effective Universal Bibliographic Control and desired efficiency and effectiveness in services. Because of this, the users as well as professionals are dissatisfied. Functional effectiveness in acquisition, access and process of information resources in various formats, development and maintenance of OPAC and WebOPAC, digital document delivery to remote users, Web based clearing of library counter services and resources, development of full-text databases, digital libraries and institutional repositories, consortia based operations for e-journals and databases, user education and information literacy, professional development with stress on lCTs, network administration and website maintenance, marketing of information, etc. are major areas need special attention to improve the situation. Finance, knowledge level on ICTs among library staff, professional dynamism and leadership, vision and support of the administrators and policy makers, prevailing educational set up and social environment in the state, etc. are some of the major hurdles in reaping the maximum possibilities of lCTs by the university libraries in Kerala. The principles of Business Process Re-engineering are found suitable to effectively apply to re-structure and redefine the operations and service system of the libraries. Most of the conventional departments or divisions prevailing in the university libraries were functioning as watertight compartments and their existing management system was more rigid to adopt the principles of change management. Hence, a thorough re-structuring of the divisions was indicated. Consortia based activities and pooling and sharing of information resources was advocated to meet the varied needs of the users in the main campuses and off campuses of the universities, affiliated colleges and remote stations. A uniform staff policy similar to that prevailing in CSIR, DRDO, ISRO, etc. has been proposed by the study not only in the university libraries in kerala but for the entire country.Restructuring of Lis education,integrated and Planned development of school,college,research and public library systems,etc.were also justified for reaping maximum benefits of the modern ICTs.

Comparing cochlear implant users' and their partners' subjective assessment of verbal strategy use with objective assessment: does this change following psychosocial therapy?

This paper investigates the effectiveness of a group-based psychosocial rehabilitation program for cochlear implant patients and their frequent communication partners.

The use of computer-based learning tools for teaching and clinical purposes: Interactive computing strategy for Iraq

Medical universities and teaching hospitals in Iraq are facing a lack of professional staff due to the ongoing violence that forces them to flee the country. The professionals are now distributed outside the country which reduces the chances for the staff and students to be physically in one place to continue the teaching and limits the efficiency of the consultations in hospitals. A survey was done among students and professional staff in Iraq to find the problems in the learning and clinical systems and how Information and Communication Technology could improve it. The survey has shown that 86% of the participants use the Internet as a learning resource and 25% for clinical purposes while less than 11% of them uses it for collaboration between different institutions. A web-based collaborative tool is proposed to improve the teaching and clinical system. The tool helps the users to collaborate remotely to increase the quality of the learning system as well as it can be used for remote medical consultation in hospitals.

Parents' verbal communication and childhood anxiety: a systematic review

Parents’ verbal communication to their child, particularly the expression of fear-relevant information (e.g., attributions of threat to the environment), is considered to play a key role in children’s fears and anxiety. This review considers the extent to which parental verbal communication is associated with child anxiety by examining research that has employed objective observational methods. Using a systematic search strategy, we identified 15 studies that addressed this question. These studies provided some evidence that particular fear-relevant features of parental verbal communication are associated with child anxiety under certain conditions. However, the scope for drawing reliable, general conclusions was limited by extensive methodological variation between studies, particularly in terms of the features of parental verbal communication examined and the context in which communication took place, how child anxiety was measured, and inconsistent consideration of factors that may moderate the verbal communication–child anxiety relationship. We discuss ways in which future research can contribute to this developing evidence base and reduce further methodological inconsistency so as to inform interventions for children with anxiety problems.

A novel approach for distributed application scheduling based on prediction of communication events

The evolution of commodity computing lead to the possibility of efficient usage of interconnected machines to solve computationally-intensive tasks, which were previously solvable only by using expensive supercomputers. This, however, required new methods for process scheduling and distribution, considering the network latency, communication cost, heterogeneous environments and distributed computing constraints. An efficient distribution of processes over such environments requires an adequate scheduling strategy, as the cost of inefficient process allocation is unacceptably high. Therefore, a knowledge and prediction of application behavior is essential to perform effective scheduling. In this paper, we overview the evolution of scheduling approaches, focusing on distributed environments. We also evaluate the current approaches for process behavior extraction and prediction, aiming at selecting an adequate technique for online prediction of application execution. Based on this evaluation, we propose a novel model for application behavior prediction, considering chaotic properties of such behavior and the automatic detection of critical execution points. The proposed model is applied and evaluated for process scheduling in cluster and grid computing environments. The obtained results demonstrate that prediction of the process behavior is essential for efficient scheduling in large-scale and heterogeneous distributed environments, outperforming conventional scheduling policies by a factor of 10, and even more in some cases. Furthermore, the proposed approach proves to be efficient for online predictions due to its low computational cost and good precision. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Topic- and mode-sensitive interaction strategies : Functions of ellipsis in oral communication

In this article, we discuss ellipsis as an interactive strategy by analysing the author’s textchat corpus and the VOICE corpus of English as a Lingua Franca. It is found that there were fewer repetitions in the textchat data, and this is explained as a consequence of the textchat mode. Textchat contributions are preserved as long as the chat is active or has been saved, and therefore users can scroll through and review the discussion, compared to the more fleeting nature of oral conversation. As a result, repetition is less necessary. The frequency of other functions identified could be attributed to the topic of discourse. Discussions involve much ellipsis used to develop discourse, although some were self-presentations with repetition used to confirm details. Back-channel support and comments were often low because speakers instead used forms like yeah as supportive utterances.

Influence of stakeholder communication on consensus making in requirements negotiation

Consensus building is essential in aligning multiple stakeholder viewpoints which are commonly emerging during the process of requirements elicitation, analysis and validation [15]. In fact, agreement among diverse groups of stakeholders is deemed prerequisite to establishing project cooperation and collaboration. While individuals frequently rank the importance of their personal goals over the goals of an organisation, having an appropriate strategy for finding common ground among individuals is crucial to any project's success. This paper therefore explores factors that influence the consensus making process and develops a model that helps with understanding the role of consensus specifically during the elicitation phase of the Requirements Engineering process.

Young women with diabetes: using internet communication to create stability during life transitions

Aims and objectives. The aim of the current study was to explore and describe the strategies young women with Type 1 diabetes used to manage transitions in their lives. This paper will describe one aspect of the findings of how women with Type 1 diabetes used the Internet to interact with other people with diabetes and create stability in their lives.

Background. Individuals living with diabetes develop a range of different strategies to create stability in their lives and enhance their well-being. Changing social and emotional conditions during life transitions have a major impact on diabetes management. Although the literature indicates that strategies enabling the individuals to cope with transitions are important, they remain under-researched.

Design. Using grounded theory, interviews were conducted with 20 women with Type 1 diabetes. Constant comparative data analysis was used to analyse the data and develop an understanding of how young women with Type 1 diabetes used the Internet to create stability in their lives.

Findings. The findings revealed that the women valued their autonomy and being in control of when and to whom they reveal their diabetic status, especially during life transitions and at times of uncertainty. However, during these times they also required health and social information and interacting with other people. One of the women's main strategies in managing transitions was to use Internet chat lines as a way of obtaining information and communicating with others. This strategy gave women a sense of autonomy, enabled them to maintain their anonymity and interact with other people on their own terms.

Conclusions. Having meaningful personal interactions, social support and being able to connect with others were fundamental to the women's well being. Most importantly, preserving autonomy and anonymity during such interactions were integral to the way the women with Type 1 diabetes managed life transitions.

Relevance to clinical practice. Health professionals need to explore and incorporate Internet communication process or anonymous help lines into their practice as a way to assist people manage their diabetes.

Management communication strategies determine job satisfaction in telecommuting

The aim of this article is to examine the relationships between several management communication strategies and the job satisfaction of telecommuters. A review of the literature revealed that several management communication strategies directly influence job satisfaction of telecommuters. However, this claim has not been objectively tested on Australian telecommuters. Hence, a sample of 43 telecommuters, mostly from IBM Australia, were surveyed and the results analysed using Pearson’s product-moment correlation. Eleven aspects of the strategies were found to have significant influence on the job satisfaction of telecommuters: communicating job responsibilities; goals and objectives; deadlines and job expectations; communicating freely and regularly; providing appropriate equipment; training and career development; and reviewing work and salary regularly. This article concludes that cultural, economic and social contexts may have a distinct part to play in the impact of management communication strategies on the job satisfaction of telecommuters.