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958 results for “Data quality”
Data from: Genetic quality affects the rate of male and female reproductive ageing differently in Drosophila melanogaster
Males and females often maximize fitness by pursuing different reproductive strategies, with males commonly assumed to benefit more from increased resource allocation into current reproduction. Such investment should trade-off with somatic maintenance and may explain why males frequently live shorter than females. It also predicts that males should experience faster reproductive ageing. Here we investigate if reproductive ageing and lifespan respond to condition differently in male and female Drosophila melanogaster, as predicted if sexual selection has shaped male and female allocation patterns. We manipulate condition through genetic quality, by comparing individuals inbred or outbred for a major autosome. While genetic quality had a similar effect on condition in both sexes, condition had a much larger general effect on male than female reproductive output, as expected when sexual selection on vigour acts more strongly on males. We find no differences in reproductive ageing between the sexes in low condition, but in high condition reproductive ageing is relatively faster in males. No corresponding sex-specific change was found for lifespan. The sex difference in reproductive ageing appearing in high condition was due specifically to a decreased ageing rate in females, rather than any change in males. Our results suggest that females age slower than males in high condition primarily because sexual selection has favoured sex differences in resource allocation under high condition, with females allocating relatively more towards somatic maintenance than males.
Data from: What is behind the variation in mate quality dependent sex ratio adjustment? – A meta-analysis
Theory predicts that parents adjust the sex ratio of their brood to the sexually selected traits of their mate because the reproductive success of sons may be more dependent on inherited paternal attractiveness than that of daughters. Empirical studies vary in terms of whether they support the theory, and this variation has often been regarded as evidence against sex ratio adjustment or has been ascribed to methodological differences. Applying phylogenetic meta-analyses, we aimed to find biological explanations for the variation observed in songbirds. In particular, we tested the role extra-pair paternity, because infidelity occurs in the majority of these species and may reduce the adaptive value of adjusting brood sex ratio to the phenotype of the social mate. However, we found that the variation in effect sizes was unrelated to the proportion of extra-pair paternity. Thus future studies should consider that mate quality dependent sex ratio adjustment may be driven by direct (material) rather than indirect (genetic) benefits. We also tested if the effect sizes are influenced by whether the focal male trait is indeed under sexual selection as it is assumed by the sex allocation theory. We found that for male traits with proven role in sexual selection, effect sizes significantly differed from the null expectation of random production of sons and daughters. For male traits with only presumed sexual role in sexual selection, the deviation from the null expectation was less convincing, and the effect sizes were significantly smaller. This result indicates that studies that neglect the assumptions of the hypotheses concerned, may lead to the underestimation of the mean effect size and, eventually, false conclusions.
Data from: Corticosterone: effects on feather quality and deposition into feathers
1. The concentration of the glucocorticoid hormone corticosterone (CORT) is increasingly used in ecology and conservation biology as an integrated measure of the historical record of an individual's hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity during feather growth. However, where and how CORT is incorporated in feathers is incompletely known. 2. We therefore examined whether CORT is reliably measured with an enzyme immunoassay, where CORT is incorporated in the feather and where it affects feather quality, and whether CORT incorporation is related to plasma CORT levels, feather growth rate and melanin pigmentation. 3. During regrowth of plucked tail feathers, we injected pigeons with tritium-labelled CORT, and implanted a CORT-releasing pellet to increase plasma CORT concentration for about three days. In feather segments we measured labelled CORT (DPM3H) and we quantified CORT with an enzyme immunoassay EIA (CORTEIA) and double-checked the results with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS) (CORTMS). 4. Administered CORT affected feather structure and colour at the very base of the feather (epidermal collar, ramogenic zone) and reduced growth rate. In contrast, incorporation of CORT into the feather happened mainly in the blood quill, as shown with all three methods (DPM3H, CORTEIA, and CORTMS). 5. Incorporation of CORT into feathers was only roughly proportional to plasma concentration, proportional to feather-growth rate and increased with melanin pigmentation. 6. Measuring CORT in feather is a way to reveal past events of increased stress during feather growth in birds.
Data from: Change in quality of life for patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome following referral to a gastroenterologist: a cohort study
Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic functional condition, considerably reduces quality of life (QoL) and referral to gastroenterology is common. Until now, however, the impact of seeing a gastroenterologist for IBS on patients' QoL and utility has not been assessed. Methods: Patients referred with "probable IBS" to the Nottingham Treatment Centre between October 2012 and March 2014 were invited to complete a QoL questionnaire (EuroQol–5 Dimension) before their first appointment. Patients with confirmed IBS who completed this baseline assessment were sent follow-up questionnaires three and twelve months later. Global QoL and utility were measured at each time point and change from baseline calculated. Paired t-tests analysed the significance of any change. Results: Of 205 invited patients, 69 were eligible and recruited. Response at three and twelve months was 45% and 17% respectively. Median global QoL at baseline was 67.5 (Interquartile range [IQR] 50.0 to 80.0), with a mean increase of 3.25 (95% confidence interval [CI] -5.38 to 11.88) three months later and a mean decrease of -1.82 (95% CI -16.01 to 12.38) after one year. The median utility at baseline was 0.76 (IQR 0.69 to 0.80), with a mean increase of 0.06 (95%CI -0.01 to 0.14) at three months and no change, 0.00 (-0.16 to 0.16), after one year. Conclusion: Patients experienced a small but not statistically significant increase in QoL and utility three months after seeing a gastroenterologist for IBS, which was not maintained. Gastroenterology referral does not appear to appreciably improve Qol for most people with IBS.
Data from: Quality attracts parasites: host condition-dependent chemo-orientation of trematode larvae
1. Environmental factors impairing physiological condition of organisms are assumed to predispose them to parasite infections. This is because host immune function is typically condition-dependent. However, poor physiological condition has been reported to reduce host susceptibility to parasites in various systems. 2. We examined whether such an effect can be due to altered exposure of hosts to active parasite transmission stages by investigating chemo-orientation of free-swimming cercariae larvae of a parasite Echinoparyphium aconiatum towards its snail host Lymnaea stagnalis. 3. We used both long-term and short-term feeding treatments to manipulate the body condition and physiological traits related to food processing in experimental (i.e. target) snails and measured the preference of cercariae towards snail-conditioned water (SCW) over clean water. 4. We found that chemo-orientation of cercariae depended on the nutritional status of target snails. High physiological condition (long-term feeding) attracted parasites, but cercariae did not show preference towards SCW from individuals in poor physiological condition (long-term starvation). Food processing (short-term feeding treatments) did not affect chemo-orientation. 5. Our results suggest that host condition-dependent chemo-orientation of parasite larvae is a likely mechanism explaining the reduced susceptibility of snails to infection due to food limitation in our study system. In general, the use of condition-dependent host cues can be highly beneficial for parasites as it increases their transmission to high-quality hosts. Furthermore, evolving counter adaptations to such a transmission strategy can be very difficult for hosts.
Data from: Female Soay sheep do not adjust their maternal care behaviour to the quality of their home range
Resource availability, through its impact on the costs and benefits of parental care, is expected to influence parental care behaviour. There has, to our knowledge, been no attempt to understand how variation in the resource use of wild individuals influences individual parental care behaviour. To understand how natural resource variability affects maternal care in female St. Kilda Soay sheep, we selected 69 females whose home ranges varied in quality (measured as the mean percentage cover of Holcus lanatus), and recorded the behaviour of each individual and her lamb over the period of maternal care. Home range quality did not influence suckling or non-suckling behaviours of the female or her lamb, suggesting that maternal care did not vary with a female's access to resources. Growth rate analyses confirmed the behavioural results, with no association between home range quality and the weight gain of lambs between birth and weaning. This work suggests that female Soay sheep faced with poorer resources do not favour their own future success over that of their lamb, and thereby do not exhibit a conservative reproductive strategy. This may be because when resource levels are high during the summer, females are able to offset the costs of lactation by consuming additional resources, regardless of the location of their home range. Our results suggest that more studies characterizing the environment experienced by individual animals will be necessary to fully understand how individuals alter their behaviour in response to temporal and spatial variation in the environment.
Data from: Assessment of the quality of reporting in randomized controlled trials of acupuncture in the Korean literature using the CONSORT statement and the STRICTA guidelines
Objectives: This study aimed to assess the completeness of reporting of RCTs of acupuncture in the Korean literature. Design: Systematic review. Methods: We searched 12 Korean databases and 7 Korean journals to identify eligible RCTs of acupuncture published from 1996 to July 2011. We used the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) checklist for parallel RCTs and the revised STandards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) to assess the quality of reporting in Korean RCTs. We compared the completeness of reporting of CONSORT and STRICTA items in RCTs published in two time periods (1996-2004 referred to as the early period and 2005-2011 referred to as the late period). Results: We analysed 146 eligible RCTs using the CONSORT statement concerning RCTs of both needling and non-needling acupuncture and the STRICTA guidelines for 90 trials of needling acupuncture. Among the 103 RCTs in the late period, the proportion of RCTs that completely reported the CONSORT items of outcome definition (15.5%), sample size calculation (2.9%), randomisation (56%), allocation concealment (5.8%), implementation of allocation (11.7%), outcome assessor blinding (20.3%), flow of participants (25.2%), number of participants analysed (19.4%), ancillary analyses (0.0%), adverse events (24.3%), generalisability of findings (1.9%) and overall evidence (32.0%) remained small. Among the 61 RCTs of needling acupuncture in the late period, the STRICTA items of setting/context (24.6%) and practitioner background (27.9%) showed incomplete reporting. The completeness of reporting improved over time in several CONSORT and STRICTA items. Conclusion: The completeness of reporting of Korean RCTs of acupuncture was suboptimal according to the CONSORT and revised STRICTA statements. Trial authors and journal editors should use the CONSORT statement and the STRICTA guidelines for transparent reporting in Korean RCTs of acupuncture. The endorsement of the CONSORT and revised STRICTA statements in author instructions is also required.
Data from: PCR-Free enrichment of mitochondrial DNA from human blood and cell lines for high quality next-generation DNA sequencing
Recent advances in sequencing technology allow for accurate detection of mitochondrial sequence variants, even those in low abundance at heteroplasmic sites. Considerable sequencing cost savings can be achieved by enriching samples for mitochondrial (relative to nuclear) DNA. Reduction in nuclear DNA (nDNA) content can also help to avoid false positive variants resulting from nuclear mitochondrial sequences (numts). We isolate intact mitochondrial organelles from both human cell lines and blood components using two separate methods: a magnetic bead binding protocol and differential centrifugation. DNA is extracted and further enriched for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) by an enzyme digest. Only 1 ng of the purified DNA is necessary for library preparation and next generation sequence (NGS) analysis. Enrichment methods are assessed and compared using mtDNA (versus nDNA) content as a metric, measured by using real-time quantitative PCR and NGS read analysis. Among the various strategies examined, the optimal is differential centrifugation isolation followed by exonuclease digest. This strategy yields >35% mtDNA reads in blood and cell lines, which corresponds to hundreds-fold enrichment over baseline. The strategy also avoids false variant calls that, as we show, can be induced by the long-range PCR approaches that are the current standard in enrichment procedures. This optimization procedure allows mtDNA enrichment for efficient and accurate massively parallel sequencing, enabling NGS from samples with small amounts of starting material. This will decrease costs by increasing the number of samples that may be multiplexed, ultimately facilitating efforts to better understand mitochondria-related diseases.
Data from: A rotational cylindrical fMRI phantom for image quality control
Purpose: A novel phantom for image quality testing for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans is described. Methods: The cylindrical, rotatable, ~4.5L phantom, with eight wedge-shaped compartments, is used to simulate rest and activated states. The compartments contain NiCl2 doped agar gel with alternating concentrations of agar (1.4%, 1.6%) to produce T1 and T2 values approximating brain grey matter. The Jacard index was used to compare the image distortions for echo planar imaging (EPI) and gradient recalled echo (GRE) scans. Contrast to noise ratio (CNR) was compared across the imaging volume for GRE and EPI. Results: The mean T2 for the two agar concentrations were found to be 106.5±4.8, 94.5±4.7 ms, and T1 of 1500±40 and 1485±30 ms, respectively. The Jacard index for GRE was generally found to be higher than for EPI (0.95 versus 0.8). The CNR varied from 20 to 50 across the slices and echo times used for EPI scans, and from 20 to 40 across the slices for the GRE scans. The phantom provided a reproducible CNR over 25 days. Conclusions: The phantom provides a quantifiable signal change over a head-size imaging volume with EPI and GRE sequences, which was used for image quality assessment.
Data from: Quality of descriptions of treatments: a review of published randomised controlled trials
OBJECTIVES: To be useable in clinical practice, treatments studied in trials must provide sufficient information to enable clinicians and researchers to replicate. We sought to assess the completeness of treatment descriptions in published randomised controlled trials using a checklist and to determine the extent to which peer reviewers and editors comment on the quality of reporting of treatments. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Trials published in the BMJ, a general medical journal. PARTICIPANTS: 51 trials published in the BMJ were independently evaluated by two raters using the checklist. Reviewers' and editors' comments were also assessed for statements on treatment descriptions. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of trials rated as replicable (primary outcome). RESULTS: For 57% (29/51) of the papers, published treatment descriptions were not considered sufficient to allow replication. Most poorly described aspects were the actual procedures involved including the sequencing of the technique (what happened and when) and the physical or informational materials used (e.g. training materials): 53% and 43% not clear, respectively. For a third of treatments, the dose/duration of individual sessions was not clear and for a quarter the schedule (interval, frequency, duration, or timing) was not clear. Although the majority of problems were not picked up by reviewers and editors, when they were detected only about two-thirds were fixed before publication. CONCLUSIONS: Journals wanting to publish research of use to practicing health care professionals need to pay more attention to descriptions of treatments. Our checklist, may be useful for reviewers, and editors and could help ensure important details of treatments are provided before papers are in the public domain.
Data from: TAPBPR bridges UDP-glucose:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase 1 onto MHC class I to provide quality control in the antigen presentation pathway
Recently we revealed that TAPBPR is a peptide exchange catalyst important for optimal peptide selection by MHC class I molecules. Here we asked if any other co-factors associate with TAPBPR which would explain its effect on peptide selection. We identify an interaction between TAPBPR and UDP-glucose:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase 1 (UGT1), a folding sensor in the calnexin/calreticulin quality control cycle known to regenerate the Glc1Man9GlcNAc2 moiety on glycoproteins. Our results suggest the formation of a multimeric complex, dependent on a conserved cysteine at position 94 in TAPBPR, in which TAPBPR promotes the association of UGT1 with peptide-receptive class I molecules. We reveal that the interaction between TAPBPR and UGT1 facilities the reglucosylation of the glycan on class I, promoting their recognition by calreticulin. Our results suggest that in addition to being a peptide-editor, TAPBPR improves peptide optimisation by promoting peptide-receptive MHC class I molecules to associate with the peptide-loading complex.
Data from: A call for more transparent reporting of error rates: the quality of AFLP data in ecological and evolutionary research
Despite much discussion of the importance of quantifying and reporting genotyping error in molecular studies, it is still not standard practice in the literature. This is particularly a concern for amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) studies, where differences in laboratory, peak-calling and locus-selection protocols can generate data sets varying widely in genotyping error rate, the number of loci used and potentially estimates of genetic diversity or differentiation. In our experience, papers rarely provide adequate information on AFLP reproducibility, making meaningful comparisons among studies difficult. To quantify the extent of this problem, we reviewed the current molecular ecology literature (470 recent AFLP articles) to determine the proportion of studies that report an error rate and follow established guidelines for assessing error. Fifty-four per cent of recent articles do not report any assessment of data set reproducibility. Of those studies that do claim to have assessed reproducibility, the majority (~90%) either do not report a specific error rate or do not provide sufficient details to allow the reader to judge whether error was assessed correctly. Even of the papers that do report an error rate and provide details, many (≥23%) do not follow recommended standards for quantifying error. These issues also exist for other marker types such as microsatellites, and next-generation sequencing techniques, particularly those which use restriction enzymes for fragment generation. Therefore, we urge all researchers conducting genotyping studies to estimate and more transparently report genotyping error using existing guidelines and encourage journals to enforce stricter standards for the publication of genotyping studies.
Data from: Lifetime fitness in wild baboons: tradeoffs and individual heterogeneity in quality
Understanding the evolution of life histories requires information on how life histories vary among individuals, and how such variation predicts individual fitness. Using complete life histories for females in a well-studied population of wild baboons, we tested two non-exclusive hypotheses about the relationships among survival, reproduction, and fitness: the quality hypothesis, which predicts positive correlations between life history traits, mediated by variation in resource acquisition, and the tradeoff hypothesis, which predicts negative correlations between life history traits, mediated by tradeoffs in resource allocation. In support of the quality hypothesis, we found that females with higher rates of offspring survival were themselves better at surviving. Further, after statistically controlling for variation in female quality, we found evidence for two types of tradeoffs: females who produced surviving offspring at a slower rate had longer lifespans than those who produced surviving offspring at a faster rate, and females who produced surviving offspring at a slower rate had a higher overall proportion of offspring survive infancy than females who produced surviving offspring at a faster rate. Importantly, these tradeoffs were evident even when accounting for: (i) the influence of offspring survival on maternal birth rate, (ii) the dependence of offspring survival on maternal survival, and (iii) potential age-related changes in birth rate and/or offspring survival. Our results shed light on why tradeoffs are evident in some populations, while variation in individual quality masks tradeoffs in others.
Data from: Is telomere length a molecular marker of individual quality? insights from a long-lived bird
1. In wild vertebrates, some individuals survive and reproduce better than others and this has led to the concept of individual quality. Despite its importance when studying ecological processes and life-history trade-offs, measuring individual quality is complex because individuals must be followed during a large part of their life. 2. Recently, telomere biology has been successfully brought into ecology and telomere length has been suggested to be a promising molecular tool to evaluate individual quality in wild vertebrates ('the telomere – individual quality hypothesis'). 3. In this study, we tested this hypothesis in a long-lived species, the Black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys) by simultaneously measuring telomere length and several potential complementary phenotypic proxies of individual quality in a single year. In addition, we followed the return rate and the reproductive performance of these same albatrosses for a decade. 4. We found that long telomeres were associated with several markers of high individual quality (foraging behaviour, body size, and stress hormone levels). Furthermore, we found that a single measure of telomere length could predict future offspring productivity, for at least several years following telomere measurement (better productivity being associated with longer telomeres). 5. Altogether, these results support the 'telomere – individual quality hypothesis' and suggest that telomere length can be useful to estimate individual quality in long-lived seabirds.
Data from: Spatially variable habitat quality contributes to within-population variation in reproductive success
Variation in habitat quality is common across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats. We investigated how habitat quality influenced the reproductive potential of mud crabs across 30 oyster reefs that were degraded to different extents. We further coupled this field survey with a laboratory experiment designed to mechanistically determine the relationship between resource consumption and reproductive performance. We show a >10-fold difference in average reproductive potential for crabs across reefs of different quality. Calculated consumption rates for crabs in each reef, based on a type II functional response, suggest that differences in reproductive performance may be attributed to resource limitation in poor quality reefs. This conclusion is supported by results of our laboratory experiment where crabs fed a higher quality diet of abundant animal tissue had greater reproductive performance. Our results demonstrate that spatial variation in habitat quality can be a considerable contributor to within-population individual variation in reproductive success (i.e., demographic heterogeneity). This finding has important implications for assessing population extinction risk.
Data from: Diversity measures in environmental sequences are highly dependent on alignment quality—data from ITS and new LSU primers targeting basidiomycetes
The ribosomal DNA comprised of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 regions is widely used as a fungal marker in molecular ecology and systematics but cannot be aligned with confidence across genetically distant taxa. In order to study the diversity of Agaricomycotina in forest soils, we designed primers targeting the more alignable 28S (LSU) gene, which should be more useful for phylogenetic analyses of the detected taxa. This paper compares the performance of the established ITS1F/4B primer pair, which targets basidiomycetes, to that of two new pairs. Key factors in the comparison were the diversity covered, off-target amplification, rarefaction at different Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) cutoff levels, sensitivity of the method used to process the alignment to missing data and insecure positional homology, and the congruence of monophyletic clades with OTU assignments and BLAST-derived OTU names. The ITS primer pair yielded no off-target amplification but also exhibited the least fidelity to the expected phylogenetic groups. The LSU primers give complementary pictures of diversity, but were more sensitive to modifications of the alignment such as the removal of difficult-to align stretches. The LSU primers also yielded greater numbers of singletons but also had a greater tendency to produce OTUs containing sequences from a wider variety of species as judged by BLAST similarity. We introduced some new parameters to describe alignment heterogeneity based on Shannon entropy and the extent and contents of the OTUs in a phylogenetic tree space. Our results suggest that ITS should not be used when calculating phylogenetic trees from genetically distant sequences obtained from environmental DNA extractions and that it is inadvisable to define OTUs on the basis of very heterogeneous alignments.
Data from: Translocation tactics: a framework to support the IUCN Guidelines for wildlife translocations and improve the quality of applied methods
1. Translocation is a popular conservation tool, but the outcomes are variable. Many tactics can be used to improve the probability of success, but a comprehensive summary of these does not exist. This increases the risk that valuable tactics will be overlooked, and inhibits effective communication. 2. We assess the diversity of 'translocation tactics' used in mammal and bird translocations, by reviewing the IUCN/SSC Guidelines for Reintroduction and other Conservation Translocations, 195 peer-reviewed articles and 73 case studies from the IUCN/SSC Global Reintroduction Perspectives Series.3. We recorded descriptions of every technique used to influence the post-release performance of translocated wildlife. We developed the Translocation Tactics Classification System (TTCS) which defines a collection of 30 tactics and organize them into an ecologically relevant framework. We also assess the occurrence of tactics within the Guidelines, the primary literature and the case studies to evaluate how tactics are communicated within these mediums. 4. Our results indicate that the Guidelines are a valuable resource, but do not exhaustively cover tactics, and that detailed methodological accounts are rarely made publicly accessible. This highlights the need to develop context-specific resources to support the Guidelines, and to develop and exploit mediums that facilitate recording of methodological detail, the tactical rationale behind the design and evaluations of effectiveness. Although some forms of grey literature address this issue, the general lack of information limits the ability to investigate the relationship between tactics and translocation success. 5. Synthesis and applications. The Translocation Tactics Classification System (TTCS) provides a checklist which ensures that the full diversity of tactics is considered when developing translocation processes. Standardizing the communication of tactics, and encouraging detailed accounts of applied methodologies to be recorded, along with the tactical reasoning behind the design, will provide operational models and the data required to conduct broad-scale meta-analyses.
Data from: Comparisons of reproductive function and fatty acid fillet quality between triploid and diploid farm Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Triploidy could prevent escaped farm salmon breeding in the wild, while also improving nutrient quality within farmed fillets. Despite these potential advantages, triploid Atlantic salmon have not been widely used in aquaculture, and their reproductive function has yet to be fully evaluated. Here, we compare reproductive function and fillet composition between triploid and diploid farm salmon under standard aquaculture rearing conditions. We show that female triploids are sterile and do not develop gonads. In contrast, males produce large numbers of motile spermatozoa capable of fertilising wild salmon eggs. However, compared with diploids, reproductive development and survival rates of eggs fertilised by triploid males were significantly reduced, with less than 1% of eggs sired by triploid males reaching late eyed stages of development. Analyses of fillets showed that total lipid and fatty acid quantities were significantly lower in triploid compared to diploid Atlantic salmon fillets. However, when fatty acids were normalized to total lipid content, triploid fillets had significantly higher relative levels of important omega-3 Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids. Our results show that: (1) escaped triploid farm salmon are very unlikely to reproduce in the wild; and (2) if able to match diploid fillet lipid content, triploid farm salmon could achieve better fillet quality in terms of essential fatty acids.
Data from: Assessing the relationship between quality of life and behavioral activation using the Japanese behavioral activation for depression scale-short form
Quality of life (QOL) is an important health-related concept. Identifying factors that affect QOL can help develop and improve health-promotion interventions. Previous studies suggest that behavioral activation fosters subjective QOL, including well-being. However, the mechanism by which behavioral activation improves QOL is not clear. Considering that QOL improves when depressive symptoms improve post-treatment and that behavioral activation is an effective treatment for depression, it is possible that behavioral activation affects QOL indirectly rather than directly. To clarify the mechanism of the influence of behavioral activation on QOL, it is necessary to examine the relationships between factors related to behavioral activation, depressive symptoms, and QOL. Therefore, we attempted to examine the relationship between these factors. Participants comprised 221 Japanese undergraduate students who completed questionnaires on behavioral activation, QOL, and depressive symptoms: the Japanese versions of the Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale-Short Form (BADS-SF), WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-26), and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). The BADS-SF comprises two subscales, Activation and Avoidance, and the WHOQOL-26 measures overall QOL and four domains, Physical Health, Psychological Health, Social Relationships, and Environment. Mediation analyses were conducted with BADS-SF activation and avoidance as independent variables, CES-D as a mediator variable, and each WHO-QOL as an outcome variable. Results indicated that depression completely mediated the relationship between Avoidance and QOL, and partially mediated the relationship between Activation and QOL. In addition, analyses of each domain of QOL showed that Activation positively affected all aspects of QOL directly and indirectly, but Avoidance had a negative influence on only part of QOL mainly through depression. The present study provides behavioral activation strategies aimed at QOL enhancement.
Data from: Categorizing and assessing comprehensive drivers of provider behavior for optimizing quality of health care
<p>Inadequate quality of care in healthcare facilities is one of the primary causes of patient mortality in low- and middle-income countries, and understanding the behavior of healthcare providers is key to addressing it. Much of the existing research concentrates on improving resource-focused issues, such as staffing or training, but these interventions do not fully close the gaps in quality of care. By contrast, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the full contextual and internal drivers–such as social norms, beliefs, and emotions–that influence the clinical behaviors of healthcare providers. We aimed to provide two conceptual frameworks to identify such drivers, and investigate them in a facility setting where inadequate quality of care is pronounced. Using immersion interviews and a novel decision-making game incorporating concepts from behavioral science, we systematically and qualitatively identified an extensive set of contextual and internal behavioral drivers in staff nurses working in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) in government public health facilities in Uttar Pradesh, India. We found that the nurses operate in an environment of stress, blame, and lack of control, which appears to influence their perception of their role as often significantly different from the RMNCH program's perspective. That context influences their perceptions of risk for themselves and for their patients, as well as self-efficacy beliefs, which could lead to avoidance of responsibility, or incorrect care. A limitation of the study is its use of only qualitative methods, which provide depth, rather than prevalence estimates of findings. This exploratory study identified previously under-researched contextual and internal drivers influencing the care-related behavior of staff nurses in public facilities in Uttar Pradesh. We recommend four types of interventions to close the gap between actual and target behaviors: structural improvements, systemic changes, community-level shifts, and interventions within healthcare facilities.</p>
ScienceDex guides
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These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.