In this qualitative inquiry we investigated the conceptualization of family quality of life. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with 187 individuals: family members (e.g., parents, siblings) of children with a disability, individuals with a disability, family of children without a disability, service providers, and administrators. Data were collected in urban and rural settings to elicit the participants' understanding of family quality of life. Ten domains of family quality of life were identified and described in terms of subdomains, indicators, and key points raised by participants. Implications are discussed in terms of future directions for research and family support.

The concept of quality of life is increasingly being used internationally in the field of intellectual disabilities. We surveyed three respondent groups representing five geographical groupings on the importance and use of the 24 core quality of life indicators most commonly reported in the international quality of life literature. Results suggest (a) similar profiles on importance and use across respondent and geographical groups, but differences in the frequency per response category; (b) significant differences in mean quality of life importance and use scores for both respondent and geographic groupings; and (c) factors on importance and use generally grouped into eight core quality of life domains. Results are discussed in reference to the etic (universal) and emic (culture-bound) properties of the quality of life concept.

Traditional breast cancer treatments such as surgery and radiotherapy contain many inherent limitations with regards to incomplete and nonselective tumor ablation. Cold atomospheric plasma (CAP) is an ionized gas where the ion temperature is close to room temperature. It contains electrons, charged particles, radicals, various excited molecules, UV photons and transient electric fields. These various compositional elements have the potential to either enhance and promote cellular activity, or disrupt and destroy them. In particular, based on this unique composition, CAP could offer a minimally-invasive surgical approach allowing for specific cancer cell or tumor tissue removal without influencing healthy cells. Thus, the objective of this research is to investigate a novel CAP-based therapy for selectively bone metastatic breast cancer treatment. For this purpose, human metastatic breast cancer (BrCa) cells and bone marrow derived human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were separately treated with CAP, and behavioral changes were evaluated after 1, 3, and 5 days of culture. With different treatment times, different BrCa and MSC cell responses were observed. Our results showed that BrCa cells were more sensitive to these CAP treatments than MSCs under plasma dose conditions tested. It demonstrated that CAP can selectively ablate metastatic BrCa cells in vitro without damaging healthy MSCs at the metastatic bone site. In addition, our study showed that CAP treatment can significantly inhibit the migration and invasion of BrCa cells. The results suggest the great potential of CAP for breast cancer therapy.

The conceptualization of individual quality of life is reasonably well established, and now family quality of life and intellectual disability is emerging as an important field of study. This article examines comparative family quality of life in three types of families: those with a child who has Down syndrome, those with a child with autism, and those of similar household composition but without a child with a disability. Data were collected using the Family Quality of Life Survey, which was sent to participating families, and by interviews with selected families on a follow‐up basis. Data from the 3 groups were analyzed in terms of quantitative and qualitative information. The needs and choices of families were contrasted in terms of the child’s diagnosis. Findings showed that families’ satisfaction and needs varied within the 9 quality of life domains assessed, raising questions of support and care and the ability of families to pursue desired goals. The authors suggest that there is a need to both identify and provide measures of care and support that would enable families to function at an optimum level within their home and community, so they may experience a quality life similar to that of families without a child with a disability.

This study applied three family measures (ratings of service adequacy or implementation, satisfaction with the family-professional partnership, and family quality of life) to a sample of families of young children in one Midwestern U.S. state. The results suggest that: (a) families more often believe they are receiving adequate amounts of services for their child, but tend to believe they are not receiving adequate amounts of services for their family; (b) respondents tend to be satisfied with their partnerships with their primary service provider, with lower satisfaction ratings for the provider's ability to meet their child's individual needs and to provide information about services; and (c) respondents tended to be more satisfied with their family's material well-being and less so with their family's emotional well-being. Finally, we found that service adequacy ratings were a significant predictor of family quality of life, and that partnerships partially mediated this effect. We discuss the research, service, and policy implications of these findings.

Differential item functioning (DIF) occurs when the probability of responding in a particular category to an item differs for members of different groups who are matched on the construct being measured. The identification of DIF is important for valid measurement. This research evaluates an improved version of Lord's x 2 Wald test for comparing item response model parameter estimates between two groups. The improved version uses better approaches for computation of the covariance matrix and equating the item parameters across groups. There are two equating algorithms implemented in IRTPro and flexMIRT software: Wald-1 (one-stage) and Wald-2 (twostage), only one of which has been studied in simulations before. The present study evaluates for the first time the Wald-1 algorithm and Wald-1 and Wald-2 for three groups simultaneously. A comparison to two-group IRT-LR-DIF is included. Results indicate that Wald-1 performs very well and is recommended, whereas Type I error is extremely inflated for Wald-2. Performance of IRT-LR-DIF and Wald-1 was similar, even for three groups.

The International Family Quality of Life Project, begun in 1997, involves the collaboration of a team of researchers from Australia, Canada, Israel, and the United States whose aim was to conceptualize “family quality of life” and develop a survey tool. The authors describe the basis for the conceptualization and explain the survey development process. An initial version of the survey (the Family Quality of Life Survey—FQoLS‐2000) was used to collect FQoL data across several countries in the early 2000s. The experiences of survey respondents and administrators and subsequent data analysis suggested modifications that resulted in an updated version—the FQoLS‐2006. This new version focuses on 9 areas of family life: health, finances, family relationships, support from other people, support from disability‐related services, influence of values, careers and planning for careers, leisure and recreation, and community interaction. The authors explore each of these areas in relation to 6 underlying concepts: importance, opportunities, initiative, attainment, stability, and satisfaction. Other sections entail obtaining information on the family make‐up, family member, or members, with intellectual disability, and an overall summary of FQoL. The authors note that information from the FQoLS‐2006 should be useful for a wide variety of purposes related to providing supports to individuals and families.

Objective-The goal of this study was to determine the expression signature and the potential role of microRNAs in human arteries with arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO). Methods and Results-The expression profiles of microRNAs in human arteries with ASO and in normal control arteries were determined by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction array. Among the 617 detected microRNAs, multiple microRNAs were aberrantly expressed in arteries with ASO. Some of these dysregulated microRNAs were further verified by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Among them, microRNA-21 (miR-21) was mainly located in arterial smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) and was increased by more than 7-fold in ASO that was related to hypoxia inducible factor 1-␣. In cultured human ASMCs, cell proliferation and migration were significantly decreased by inhibition of miR-21. 3Ј-Untranslated region luciferase assay confirmed that tropomyosin 1 was a target of miR-21 that was involved in miR-21-mediated cellular effects, such as cell shape modulation. Key Words: atherosclerosis Ⅲ hypoxia Ⅲ peripheral arterial disease Ⅲ vascular muscle Ⅲ microRNA A rteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO) of the lower extremities is a major cause of adult limb loss worldwide. 1-3 Surgery is still the major approach in the treatment of ASO. However, many patients develop restenosis in 1 year after surgery. 1 It is well established that proliferation and migration of arterial smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) are the major cellular events and the major reasons behind ASO formation and posttreatment restenosis. 4 However, the molecular mechanisms involved in regulation of proliferation and migration of ASMCs in ASO remain unclear. Conclusion-The See accompanying articles on pages 1939 and 1941MicroRNAs are a novel class of endogenous, small noncoding RNAs that regulate approximately 30% of the encoding genes of the human genome at the posttranscriptional level by binding the 3Ј-untranslated region (UTR) of their target mRNAs. [5][6][7] The microRNA expression profile in vessels has recently been described by Ji et al 8 Several microRNAs, including microRNA-21 (miR-21), miR-221/222, and miR-145, have been found to modulate ASMC function and be involved in the process of artery stenosis in the rat carotid artery balloon injury model. 8 -10 However, the expression profiles of microRNAs in human arteries with ASO are still unknown.Tissue-specific expression is an important characteristic of microRNA expression. 11 For example, miR-1 is highly expressed in heart, but its expression in artery is low. 8 Such different expression profiles in different tissues suggest that the physiological functions of microRNA in different tissues may be different. 8 Although human ASO and artery stenosis in rat carotid artery injury models share many features, their pathological processes are different. 12,13 Thus, identifying microRNAs in ASO and clarifying their biological functions would be useful for understanding the mechanisms of ASO formation and searc...