Despite the availability of efficacious counseling methods for the reduction of sodium intake among newly diagnosed hypertensive patients (feasible within a clinical trial setting), none of these methods, in their present form, are suitable for incorporation into existing primary care settings in countries such as Canada, United States, and UK.
To determine whether patient interaction impacts on perceived disease severity and ability to cope with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) forty RA patients were assessed using joint counts, clinician global assessment, patient global assessment (PGA), VAS pain scale and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). All participants had six one-on-one conversations about their disease activity and the effect of RA on their lives. Follow-up questionnaires asked about recall of pre-conversation PGA; post-conversation PGA; change in PGA; and change in ability to cope as a result of the conversations. 87.5% of the questionnaires were returned. Pre- and post-conversation PGA were statistically reliable; PGA score improved (P = 0.004); 60.0% of participants felt their ability to cope with their disease improved as a result of this interaction. RA patients benefit from sharing information with like patients. Support groups may be an integral part of treatment strategy in patients with RA.
Cyclosporine has now been tested in over 10 clinical trials in Rheumatoid Arthritis. These show that it provides clinically important benefit in 30-50% of patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis with an acceptable side-effect profile. It should be offered to patients who fail to (or only partially respond to methotrexate. The use of Cyclosporine in combination with other slow acting agents shows promise and should be tested at different points in the natural history of the disease.
Altricial young of many species beg parents for the nutrients required for healthy development. From human crying to begging chicks, young expend precious energy reserves to communicate their hunger. Despite repeated independent evolutionary origins, the neural basis of parent-directed communication by infants is unknown. Here, we examined the sensory and neural basis of begging behavior in tadpoles of the monogamous and biparental Mimetic poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator). In this species, tadpoles beg parents for egg meals by dancing. We used this robust motor display to determine that tadpoles use multimodal cues for caregiver recognition, where olfactory cues are necessary for caregiver recognition while visual cues provide an orientation goal. We found that dopamine related brain regions have higher neural activity in begging tadpoles and that dopamine signaling had opposing modulatory effects through D1 and D2 family receptors, similar to swimming behavior in other tadpole species. We then identified caudal posterior tuberculum dopamine neurons as more active during begging behavior and sensitive to caregiver olfactory cues. Projections of these dopaminergic neurons to the spinal accessory motor nucleus are required for begging displays. These findings support the idea that dopamine regulates olfactory-guided parental recognition in young and opens many avenues for studying how new communication behaviors can evolve from ancestral motor circuits.
High school students have been reported to have difficulties solving complex algebraic problems. This study therefore investigated the effects of worked example instruction on students' learning outcomes in solving complex algebraic problems. The study was a quasi-experiment that involved a pre-test, an intervention, a post-test, and a delay test. The responses of 72 students (aged 14 to 15 years) were scored following the structure of the observed learning outcomes (SOLO) model and analysed using the Rasch model and regression analysis. The results indicated a significant effect of worked examples from the pre-test to the post-test; however, this effect was not completely retained at the delay test. Also, worked examples had a larger effect on the low-ability students than the highability students, but student gender neither influenced nor interacted with learning outcomes at the post-test and delay test. Lastly, the results revealed an interaction between the worked example effects and students' expertise level, with the highability students experiencing a full reversal of the worked example effect. These results are explained with respect to element interactivity and expertise reversal effects, and inform mathematics educators and teachers of the conditions of the worked example effect and the implications for classroom practices.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.