These findings highlight the contribution of social support to self-care in heart failure and provide guidance for future family-based interventions to improve self-care.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly. Current treatments for AD are not as effective as needed, nor is there any definitive antemortem diagnostic. Understanding the biological processes that occur during AD onset and/or progression will improve disease diagnosis and treatment. Recent applications of microarray technologies for analysis of messenger (m) RNA expression profiles have elucidated distinct changes in the brain as a function of AD dementia initiation and progression. However, mRNA analysis underestimates posttranscriptional modifications and therefore provides only a partial view of the molecular changes in the AD brain. Combining mRNA studies with protein expression analysis may provide a more global picture of the biological processes associated with AD dementia. Information gathered could lead to the development of select biological indices (biomarkers) for guiding AD diagnosis and therapy. We will provide a brief background on AD, followed by a review on the applications of microarray, proteomics, as well as microRNA expression profile analysis to develop novel diagnostic strategies that may be useful for the diagnosis AD and for monitoring disease progression. The availability of biomarkers that promote early disease diagnosis, particularly among asymptomatic patients, will lead to the application of personalized medicine in AD.
Previous research indicates that partner responsiveness and self-expansion play key roles in the creation, maintenance, and improvement of close relationships. This experiment examined the hypothesis that active (vs. passive) partner support for an individual's opportunity for self-expansion would increase relationship satisfaction. In an experimental task manipulated to be either self-expanding or stressful, dating couple members (N ¼ 116; 58 couples) received active or passive support messages, ostensibly from their partners. Among those in longer term (14-60 months), but not in shorter term relationships, relationship satisfaction increased significantly more for those who received active (vs. passive) support for self-expansion. This same pattern was not found when partners' messages responded to a stressful task or for couples in short-term relationships. This study provides the first experimental evidence for effects on relationship satisfaction of partner support for individual self-expansion. In addition, the findings suggest the potential substantial importance of relationship length for moderating self-expansion processes.
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