AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate nurses' perceptions of working according to standardized care plans (SCPs), regarding usability, documentation, quality of care and the implementation process. BACKGROUND: Administrative work is an extensive part of nursing practice which leads to decreased time for the near patient-related care. In addition, the number of very sick patients with shor

Bladder exstrophy is a congenital malformation of the bladder and urethra. The genetic basis of this malformation is unknown however it is well known that chromosomal aberrations can lead to defects in organ development. A few bladder exstrophy patients have been described to carry chromosomal aberrations. Chromosomal rearrangements of 22q11.2 are implicated in several genomic disorders i.e. DiGeo

Objective: Cancer quality registers are attracting increasing attention as important, but still underutilized sources of clinical data. To optimize the use of registers in quality assurance and improvement, data have to be rapidly collected, collated and presented as actionable, at-a-glance information to the reporting departments. This article presents a dashboard performance report on select qua

Individuals with diabetes mellitus are advised to achieve a healthy weight to prevent complications. However, fat mass distribution has hardly been investigated as a risk factor for diabetes complications. The authors studied associations between body mass index, waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, and waist/height ratio and mortality among individuals with diabetes mellitus. Within the European

Introduction. Both short and long sleep duration may increase risk of type 2 diabetes (diabetes). We studied if short and long sleep durations were associated with insulin resistance (IR) and insulin secretion in individuals without diabetes, and if the associations remained after we excluded individuals who reported more frequent and severe complaints of sleep apnea and insomnia. Participants and

MafA is a key transcriptional activator of islet beta cells and its exclusive expression within beta cells of the developing and adult pancreas is distinct amongst pancreatic regulators. Region 3 (base pairs -8118/-7750 relative to the transcription start site), one of six conserved 5' cis-domains of the MafA promoter, is capable of directing beta-cell-line-selective expression. Transgenic reporte

In this paper we investigate the size, structure and scaling relationships in glycogen isolated from five different animal sources. For this purpose a versatile fractionation technique, asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AsFlFFF), coupled to multi-angle light scattering, is utilized. For determination of the average degree of branching 1H NMR is utilized. The results give a detailed insig

A common variant (rs4712652) adjacent to the prolactin gene was recently associated with obesity using a genome-wide association study. The aim of this study was to replicate the association between rs4712652 and obesity and further examine if rs4712652 is associated with fat percentage and adiponectin levels in a population based Scandinavian cohort. rs4712652 was genotyped in 4879 participants (

Introduction: Hypoadiponectinaemia is an important risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, little is known about its role in the Chinese population. This study sought to assess the prevalence of NAFLD and its association with hypoadiponectinaemia in middle-aged and elderly Chinese. Material and methods: We conducted a population-based cross-sectional study in an urban S

Genome-wide association studies of glycemic traits have identified genetics variants that are associated with insulin resistance (IR) in the general population. It is unknown if people with genetic enrichment for these IR-variants respond differently to interventions that aim to improve insulin sensitivity. We built a genetic risk score based on 17 established IR-variants and their effect sizes (w

Background Point-of-care C-reactive protein (POCCRP) is a biomarker of inflammation that offers clinicians a rapid POC test to guide antibiotic prescribing decisions for acute cough and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI). However, evidence that POCCRP is cost-effective is limited, particularly outside experimental settings. Aim To assess the cost-effectiveness of POCCRP as a diagnostic tool

Objective-Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease. Autoimmune responses to low-density lipoproteins (LDL) contribute to its progression, whereas immunization with LDL may induce atheroprotective or proatherogenic responses. The objective of this study was to develop an atheroprotective vaccine by targeting a peptide of the LDL protein constituent apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100) to the nasal muc

Athletes constantly report experiences of momentum during athletic contests, and they consider momentum as being an important factor for the outcome of a competition. However, researchers trying to capture momentum with quantitative methods see themselves confronted with inconclusive results. To explain this gap between athletes’ belief and results from quantitative data, it is hypothesised that m