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BMC Neurology Jun 2024The Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (SSEQ) measures the self-confidence of the individual in functional activities after a stroke. The SSEQ is a self-report scale...
BACKGROUND
The Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (SSEQ) measures the self-confidence of the individual in functional activities after a stroke. The SSEQ is a self-report scale with 13 items that assess self-efficacy after a stroke in several functional domains.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose was to translate the Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire into Urdu Language and to find out the validity and reliability of Urdu SSEQ among stroke patients.
METHODS
The cross-cultural validation study design was used. Following COSMIN guidelines, forward and backward translation protocols were adopted. After pilot testing on 10 stroke patients, the final Urdu version was drafted. A sample of 110 stroke patients was used to evaluate the validity and reliability of the SSEQ-U. Content and Concurrent validity were determined. The intraclass correlation coefficient and Cronbach's alpha were used to measure internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 25.
RESULTS
The final version was drafted after application on 10 stroke patients. Content validity was analyzed by a content validity index ranging from 0.87 to 1. The internal consistency was calculated by Cronbach's alpha (α > 0.80). Test-retest reliability was determined by the Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC=0.956). Concurrent validity was determined by correlations with other scales by using the Spearman correlation coefficient; moderate to strong correlations (positive and negative) were found with the Functional Independence Measure (r = 0.76), Beck Depression Inventory (r=-0.54), Short Form of 12-item Scale (r = 0.68) and Fall Efficacy Scale (r = 0.82) with p < 0.05.
CONCLUSION
The Urdu version was linguistically acceptable and accurate for stroke survivors for determining self-efficacy. It showed good content and concurrent validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability.
Topics: Humans; Female; Male; Stroke; Self Efficacy; Middle Aged; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires; Aged; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Adult; Psychometrics; Translations; Language
PubMed: 38951800
DOI: 10.1186/s12883-024-03704-1 -
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies Jun 2024Traditional medicine (TM) interventions are plausible therapeutic alternatives to conventional medical interventions against emerging and endemic zoonotic diseases,... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Traditional medicine (TM) interventions are plausible therapeutic alternatives to conventional medical interventions against emerging and endemic zoonotic diseases, particularly in low-and middle-income countries that may lack resources and infrastructure. Despite the growing popularity in the usage of TM interventions, their clinical safety and effectiveness are still contested within conventional healthcare in many countries.
METHODS
We conducted a scoping review of the peer-reviewed literature that synthesises and maps the evidence on TM interventions for the treatment and prevention of zoonoses on the Indian subcontinent. The region, a global hotspot of biodiversity and emerging infections, is characterised by high prevalence of TM use. Based on the scientific literature (mostly case study research, n=l06 studies), our review (1) maps the scope of the literature, (2) synthesises the evidence on the application of TM interventions for zoonoses, and (3) critically reflects on the state of TM and identifies areas for future research focus.
RESULTS
The evidence synthesis confirmed widespread usage of TM interventions for zoonoses on the subcontinent, with the majority of research reported from India (n=99 studies, 93.4%), followed by Pakistan (n=3 studies, 2.8%), Bangladesh (n=2 studies, 1.9%), and Sri Lanka (n=1, 0.9%). Most of the reviewed studies reported on ethno-medicinal uses of plant species, primarily for treating dengue (n=20 studies), tuberculosis (n=18 studies), Escherichia coli infection (n=16 studies), lymphatic filariasis and cholera (n=9 apiece). However, the evidence on the safety and effectiveness of these reported TM interventions is limited, indicating that these data are rarely collected and/or shared within the peer-reviewed literature.
CONCLUSION
This review thus highlights that, whilst TMs are already being used and could offer more widely accessible interventions against emerging and endemic zoonoses and ectoparasites, there is an urgent need for rigorous clinical testing and validation of the safety and effectiveness of these interventions.
Topics: Humans; Zoonoses; Medicine, Traditional; Animals; India; Peer Review
PubMed: 38951780
DOI: 10.1186/s12906-024-04553-8 -
Evolutionary Anthropology Jul 2024Up to now, Allen and Bergmann's rules have been studied in modern humans by analyzing differences in limb length, height, or body mass. However, there are no...
Up to now, Allen and Bergmann's rules have been studied in modern humans by analyzing differences in limb length, height, or body mass. However, there are no publications studying the effects of latitude in the 3D configuration of the ribcage. To assess this issue, we digitally reconstructed the ribcages of a balanced sample of 109 adult individuals of global distribution. Shape and size of the ribcage was quantified using geometric morphometrics. Our results show that the ribcage belonging to tropical individuals is smaller and slenderer compared to others living in higher latitudes, which is in line with Allen and Bergmann's rules and suggests an allometric relationship between size and shape. Although sexual dimorphism was observed in the whole sample, significant differences were only found in tropical populations. Our proposal is that, apart from potential sexual selection, avoiding heat loss might be the limiting factor for sexual dimorphism in cold-adapted populations.
PubMed: 38951738
DOI: 10.1002/evan.22040 -
Scientific Reports Jul 2024Clam shrimps are a group of freshwater crustaceans who prospered during the Late Triassic. They were abundant in lacustrine sedimentary records of continental basins...
Clam shrimps are a group of freshwater crustaceans who prospered during the Late Triassic. They were abundant in lacustrine sedimentary records of continental basins distributed throughout Pangea during this time. However, they show significant taxonomic differences between the clamp shrimp faunas from the rift basins of central Pangea and the southern Gondwanan basins. In this contribution, we show new fossil clam shrimp assemblages from the lacustrine sedimentary successions of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia (the Bocas and Montebel formations), providing information on the Late Triassic species that inhabited the northwestern Gondwana basins. This study demonstrates that the basins of northwestern Gondwana shared Norian clamp shrimp species with rift basins of central Pangea and differed in their faunas with the basins of the southern portion of Gondwana. In addition, the Late Triassic clam shrimps paleobiogeographic distribution reflects the dispersal of this fauna throughout fluvial-lacustrine environments established in the rift valleys along the central Pangea. Therefore, the rift valleys produced during the early fragmentation of central Pangea could have acted as corridors for dispersion. Simultaneously, rift valleys also provided paleobiogeographic barriers that isolated the central Pangea clam shrimp faunas from southern Gondwana.
Topics: Animals; Fossils; Colombia; Geologic Sediments; Paleontology; Crustacea; Bivalvia
PubMed: 38951594
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-66015-y -
Social Science & Medicine (1982) Jun 2024Professional organizations point to the underutilization of genetic testing in cardiology as a lack of genetic literacy. Yet, few studies have examined the interpretive...
Professional organizations point to the underutilization of genetic testing in cardiology as a lack of genetic literacy. Yet, few studies have examined the interpretive work required from clinicians to make results clinically actionable. Based on interviews with twenty-nine cardiologists, we find that although genetic testing may provide epistemic closure by substantiating a suspected diagnosis at the molecular level, genetic testing often disrupted cardiologists' diagnostic inferential processes. These epistemic disruptions were not intrinsic to a particular genetic result type (positive, negative, or VUS), but arose from reconciling genetic results with the patient's symptoms and medical and family history. Drawing from the sociology of diagnosis and professional expertise, we examine how cardiologists resolved epistemic disruptions by either sidelining or repairing genetic test results. However, such attempts at making genetic test results actionable for diagnosis may not resolve epistemic disruptions. We argue that rather than clinicians lacking individual literacy, the limited uptake of genetic test results reflects a collective problem of gaps in the genetic knowledge base that leads to medical agnosis, or an inability to make sense of a patient's symptoms uncertainty, rather than diagnosis.
PubMed: 38950492
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117049 -
American Journal of Biological... Jul 2024This synthesis explores specific ethical questions that commonly arise in isotopic analysis. For more than four decades, isotope analysis has been employed in... (Review)
Review
This synthesis explores specific ethical questions that commonly arise in isotopic analysis. For more than four decades, isotope analysis has been employed in archeological studies to explore past human and animal dietary habits, mobility patterns, and the environment in which a human or animal inhabited during life. These analyses require consideration of ethical issues. While theoretical concepts are discussed, we focus on practical aspects: working with descendant communities and other rights holders, choosing methods, creating and sharing data, and working mindfully within academia. These layers of respect and care should surround our science. This paper is relevant for specialists in isotope analysis as well as those incorporating these methods into larger projects. By covering the whole of the research process, from design to output management, we appeal broadly to archaeology and provide actionable solutions that build on the discussions in the general field.
PubMed: 38949078
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24992 -
PeerJ 2024Burmese amber preserves a diverse assemblage of Cretaceous arachnids, and among pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones), ten species in five families have already...
Burmese amber preserves a diverse assemblage of Cretaceous arachnids, and among pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones), ten species in five families have already been named. Here, we describe a new fossil species from Burmese amber in the pseudoscorpion family Hyidae, providing detailed measurements, photographs and 3D-models from synchrotron scanning. Based on morphology, the new fossil, sp. nov. is placed in the genus , and is nearly identical to extant species in the genus, except for the position of trichobothrium on the pedipalpal chela, thereby indicating extreme morphological stasis in this invertebrate lineage over the last 99 million years. represents the first described fossil species in Hyidae, and the third described Burmese fossil in the superfamily Neobisioidea. It also joins the garypinid, , in representing the oldest fossil records for extant pseudoscorpion genera. Considering proposed divergence dates, the newly described fossil species bolsters a Gondwanan origin for Hyidae, and provides evidence for the "" hypothesis for the Burma Terrane, in which this landmass rifted from Gondwana in the Late Jurassic and collided with Eurasia by the Cretaceous/Eocene. Like species today, likely inhabited humicolous microhabitats in tropical forests on the Burma Terrane, supporting ecological niche stasis for this family since the Mesozoic.
Topics: Animals; Fossils; Arachnida; Amber; Biological Evolution; Myanmar; Phylogeny
PubMed: 38948233
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.17515 -
PeerJ 2024Eight fossil tetrapod footprints from lake-shore deposits in the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation at the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site (SGDS) in southwestern Utah...
Eight fossil tetrapod footprints from lake-shore deposits in the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation at the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site (SGDS) in southwestern Utah cannot be assigned to the prevalent dinosaurian (, , , , ) or crocodyliform () ichnotaxa at the site. The tridactyl and tetradactyl footprints are incomplete, consisting of digit- and digit-tip-only imprints. Seven of the eight are likely pes prints; the remaining specimen is a possible manus print. The pes prints have digit imprint morphologies and similar anterior projections and divarication angles to those of , an ichnotaxon found primarily in eolian paleoenvironments attributed to eucynodont synapsids. Although their incompleteness prevents clear referral to , the SGDS tracks nevertheless suggest a eucynodont track maker and thus represent a rare, Early Mesozoic occurrence of such tracks outside of an eolian paleoenvironment.
Topics: Fossils; Utah; Animals; Dinosaurs; Paleontology
PubMed: 38948213
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.17591 -
Archaeological and Anthropological... 2024Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has become one of the standard applications in the field of paleogenomics in recent years. It has been used for paleoenvironmental...
Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has become one of the standard applications in the field of paleogenomics in recent years. It has been used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions, detecting the presence of prehistoric species in the absence of macro remains and even investigating the evolutionary history of a few species. However, its application in archaeology has been limited and primarily focused on humans. This article argues that sedaDNA holds significant potential in addressing key archaeological questions concerning the origins, lifestyles, and environments of past human populations. Our aim is to facilitate the integration of sedaDNA into the standard workflows in archaeology as a transformative tool, thereby unleashing its full potential for studying the human past. Ultimately, we not only underscore the challenges inherent in the sedaDNA field but also provide a research agenda for essential enhancements needed for implementing sedaDNA into the archaeological workflow.
PubMed: 38948161
DOI: 10.1007/s12520-024-01999-2 -
IScience Jun 2024Comparisons of molecular phenotypes across primates provide unique information to understand human biology and evolution, and single-cell RNA-seq CRISPR interference...
Comparisons of molecular phenotypes across primates provide unique information to understand human biology and evolution, and single-cell RNA-seq CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) screens are a powerful approach to analyze them. Here, we generate and validate three human, three gorilla, and two cynomolgus iPS cell lines that carry a dox-inducible KRAB-dCas9 construct at the AAVS1 locus. We show that despite variable expression levels of KRAB-dCas9 among lines, comparable downregulation of target genes and comparable phenotypic effects are observed in a single-cell RNA-seq CRISPRi screen. Hence, we provide valuable resources for performing and further extending CRISPRi in human and non-human primates.
PubMed: 38947524
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110090