Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Transactional Analysis”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 811 records · Page 45Linked to original sources

Family conflict in dementia: prodigal sons and black sheep.

OBJECTIVE: To describe family conflict in cases of dementia referred to the Guardianship Tribunal of New South Wales, Australia. METHOD: The file notes of 50 cases of family and systems conflict in cases of dementia presented to the Guardianship Tribunal were examined. Demographics, MMSE score, and type and severity of dementia were recorded. The documents and evidence presented to the Tribunal were coded and subjected to thematic analysis to identify the themes of the conflict, the protagonists and the position of the person with dementia with respect to the conflict. RESULTS: Family conflict was most commonly seen in mild to moderate dementia. Conflict occurred most frequently between siblings (with a group of siblings allied against a 'black sheep' member) and involved other systems such as service providers in 25% of cases. The person with dementia was usually involved in the conflict or in alliance with one or other of the family members in conflict, especially when paranoid ideation was fuelled by family members. Common themes included accusations of neglect, exploitation, lack of communication or sequestration of the person with dementia. No family had received family therapy prior to the application; conciliation during the hearing was successful in 30% of cases. Legal transactions such as Powers of Attorney were frequently made and frequently revoked by persons with dementia involved in family conflict. CONCLUSION: Dementia may be a great family divider, particularly when there are cracks in family solidarity. The understanding of family conflict in dementia has ramifications for both clinical and medico-legal practice. These findings may encourage family-centered interventions which address family dynamics and interpersonal conflict. They may also assist in capacity assessments of persons with dementia who change legal documents because of family conflict.

Aged↗

New regulatory genes involved in the control of transcription initiation at the thr and ilv promoters of Escherichia coli K-12.

The gene ileR+, considered to encode a transacting protein involved in the regulation of the thr and ilv operons of Escherichia coli, has been cloned and localized to a 1.2 Kb BglII-SalI fragment of DNA. In strains harboring attenuation-defective fusions of lacZ to the promoter regions of the thr and ilv operons, ileR mutations lead to beta-galactosidase levels higher than those of the deattenuated parental strains. Reduced utilization of the thr and ilv promoters was observed in ileR cells harboring either ilvR+ plasmids or plasmids leading to the hyperproduction of Trp repressor. These results support the idea that ileR+ encodes a repressor protein that negatively affects the expression of the thr and ilv operons. Two additional trans-acting positive regulatory elements that act at the thr and ilv promoters have been identified by an analysis of deletion mutants. It thus appears that there exist positive as well as negative controlling elements that can act independently of attenuation to modulate the ilv and thr operons.

Cloning, Molecular↗

Diversity of coding profiles of mechanoreceptors in glabrous skin of kittens.

We examined stimulul-response (S-R) profiles of 35 single mechanoreceptive afferent units having small receptive fields in glabrous forepaw skin of 24 anesthetized domestic kittens. Single unit activity was recorded with tungsten microelectrodes from cervical dorsal root ganglia. The study was designed to be as quantitatively descriptive as possible. We indented each unit's receptive field with a broad battery of simple, carefully controlled stimuli whose major parameters, including amplitude, velocity, acceleration, duration, and interstimulus interval were systematically varied. Stimuli were delivered by a small probe driven by a feedback-controlled axial displacement generator. Single unit discharge data were analyzed by a variety of direct and derived measures including dot patterns, peristimulus histograms, instantaneous and mean instantaneous firing rates, tuning curves, thresholds for amplitude and velocity, adaptation rates, dynamic and static sensitivities, and others. We found that with respect to any of the S-R transactions examined, the properties of our sample of units were continuously and broadly distributed. Any one unit might exhibit either a slow or rapid rate of adaptation, or might superficially appear to preferentially code a single stimulus parameter such as amplitude or velocity. But when the entire range of responsiveness of units to the entire stimulus battery was surveyed by a variety of analytic techniques, we were unable to find any justifiable basis for designation of discrete categories of S-R profiles. Intermediate response types were always found, and in general, all units were both broadly tuned and capable of responding to integrals of several stimulus parameters, our data argue against the usefulness of evaluating a unit's S-R coding capabilities by means of a limited ste of stimulation of response analysis procedures.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Planning for advanced EDI operations in materiel management--a case study.

Florida Hospital, a 1,462-bed organization in five locations in the central Florida area, wanted to implement an EDI system that would take redundancies, paper and FTEs out of their system. They hired a consultant to educate them about EDI and help them put together an EDI business plan. They decided to implement three initial transaction sets for a price catalog, purchase orders, and PO acknowledgments. Requesting departments will be able to order routine items directly from vendors via EDI. Future transaction sets will include advance ship notice with price (857) that will generate a receipt off of which the hospital will pay, and electronic funds transfer. Translation and communication software for their mainframe system was chosen to accommodate both the most and least electronically sophisticated trading partners, and negotiations/education on doing business with the hospital via EDI are ongoing.

Accounts Payable and Receivable↗

A novel, highly conserved structural motif is present in all members of the steroid receptor superfamily.

Steroid and thyroid hormone receptor superfamily members are ligand potentiated transcription factors. Recent evidence indicates that one aspect of steroid receptor action is an interaction with other trans-acting factors, such as the glucocorticoid receptor with the AP1 transcription factor, for example. Using a structural approach to identify domains of the glucocorticoid receptor responsible for interactions with affiliated transacting factors and DNA, we have identified a putative helix-turn-zipper motif that is conserved in all steroid, thyroid hormone, retinoic acid, and vitamin-D3 receptors. This structural motif is also conserved among new members of the family, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors and the retinoid-X receptors. This structural domain is characterized by a pair of amino acids (I,L,V)P that is conserved in all superfamily members. Additional characteristics include six heptad repeats of hydrophobic amino acids, four of which form a canonical leucine zipper in the rat glucocorticoid receptor. Although this leucine repeat is not absolutely conserved among superfamily members, the periodicity of hydrophobic residues is conserved throughout. Based on sequence analyses from the GenEMBL and SwissProt databases using the Genetics Computer Group and MacVector sequence analysis software packages, and the Brookhaven structural database, we present evidence for a novel structural domain, a helix-turn-zipper that is conserved in all superfamily members, and may function in transactivation of cognate genes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Evidence for transcriptional repression of SPARC-like 1, a gene downregulated in human lung tumors.

SPARCL1 mRNA was shown to be downregulated in NSCLC as well as in prostate, colon, and bladder carcinomas. Therefore, SPARCL1 was suggested to be a tumor suppressor gene. By microsatellite analysis, real-time quantitative PCR, and sequence analysis of all exons including the intron-exon junctions and a part of the putative promoter region, we could not find any deletion or mutation that might be responsible for the downregulation of SPARCL1 in NSCLC. We conclude that SPARCL1 is therefore not a classical tumor suppressor gene with a deletion or mutation in one allele and another mutation in the second allele. To test whether SPARCL1 could be downregulated by repression of transcription we performed luciferase reporter gene assays with 10 different SPARCL1 promoter constructs. These experiments revealed that the presence of exon 1 is able to cause a reduction in luciferase activity. Furthermore, we show that the inhibitory activity of exon 1 can be transferred to a heterologous promoter. This indicates that SPARCL1 downregulation might be mediated (at least in part) through transacting factors that bind to exon 1.

Aged↗

Acculturative hassles and immigrant adolescents: a life-domain assessment for Soviet Jewish refugees.

In a sample of 146 adolescents, the authors developed and validated a measure of acculturative hassles for Soviet Jewish refugees. They based the measure on an ecological perspective, which focuses on hassles involving person-environment transactions occurring in life domains of school, family, peers, and language. The authors reviewed conceptual and methodological issues in existing instruments and incorporated efforts to address current limitations into instrument development. The measure was correlated with psychological distress, level of acculturation to Russian and U.S. cultures, and outcomes in life domains; it contributed to outcomes over and above effects of nonacculturative hassles. Implications for measurement of acculturative hassles are discussed.

Acculturation↗

Response time variations in an online search system.

The response time characteristics of the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) ELHILL bibliographic search system are examined in this article. Transactions for a five-week period are analyzed and average response times are calculated for typical search commands, by time of day, and by file being searched. Overall, the response time of the system was found to be 2.1 seconds, a very low value. Based on statistical tests of significance applied to the data, it was concluded that response time differences can be explained in terms of the number of users on the system and not the command issued by the user nor the file the user searched.

Analysis of Variance↗

Food buying habits of people who buy wine or beer: cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether people who buy wine buy healthier food items than those who buy beer. DESIGN: Cross sectional study. SETTING: Supermarkets in Denmark. Data Information on number, type of item, and total charge from 3.5 million transactions over a period of six months. RESULTS: Wine buyers bought more olives, fruit and vegetables, poultry, cooking oil, and low fat cheese, milk, and meat than beer buyers. Beer buyers bought more ready cooked dishes, sugar, cold cuts, chips, pork, butter or margarine, sausages, lamb, and soft drinks than wine buyers. CONCLUSIONS: Wine buyers made more purchases of healthy food items than people who buy beer.

Beer↗

12- and 24-month neurobehavioural follow-up of children prenatally exposed to marihuana, cigarettes and alcohol.

The motor, mental, and language development plus the home environment was examined in 217 twelve-month and 153 twenty-four-month-old children for whom prenatal exposure to marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes was previously ascertained. With this low-risk sample multiple regression analysis was used to assess the association between outcome measures and prenatal drug exposure while adjusting for potential confounding factors. Prenatal exposure to marijuana was uniquely positively associated with a series of items evaluating the child's attitudes and interests that reflect a cognitive factor. Moderate levels of alcohol were significantly associated with lower mental scores at 24 months of age. Prenatal maternal cigarette smoking was significantly associated with lower mental scores at 12 months of age and altered responses on auditory items at 12 and 24 months. However, at 24 months, the strong relationship of postnatal environmental factors with cognitive outcomes and with prenatal maternal smoking resulted in loss of significant, unique predictive power for maternal smoking. Based on the present work and supplemented by previously reported data pertaining to maternal attitudes during pregnancy and neonatal behaviour, a transactional interpretation is presented.

Alcohol Drinking↗

Medical care price indexes: theory, construction & empirical analysis of the US series 1927-1990.

The historical development of price indexes as wage adjustment mechanisms is reviewed, as is the theory of aggregation and methods for dealing with quality and technological change. The construction of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Medical Care Price Index (MCPI) is detailed. ARIMA analysis of the MCPI for the period 1927-1990 indicates that; (i) the MCPI is largely a damped and delayed function of the CPI, with an average lag of 8 months; (ii) medical care prices rose 2-4 percent faster than the all-items CPI since 1950, but not for 1927-1950; (iii) health expenditures are affected primarily by the general CPI, with little independent effect of specifically medical prices. The MCPI is a reliable measure of changes in consumer prices with strong construct validity. However, it was not designed for use as a deflator of medical expenditures, and is misleading when erroneously employed in that unintended role. The price/quantity duality and linear expenditure function which form the basis of Laspeyres price indexes are not applicable to nonconcatenable goods such as insurance or medical care. In these complex transactions, quality dominates quantity, fixed prices are replaced by reimbursement and professional judgement, and the assumption of additive separability required to use the price index as a deflator of health expenditures is not valid.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

The relation between leadership style and empowerment on job satisfaction of nurses.

OBJECTIVE: The authors explore the relation between leadership style and empowerment and its effect on job satisfaction among the nursing staff of a regional medical center. BACKGROUND: Several empirical studies on transformational leadership-found that transformational leadership behaviors were positively related to work team success and leadership effectiveness. Transformational leadership processes have also been suggested to enhance followers' work-oriented values and shape the self-efficacies of followers. Employee empowerment may be influenced by the perception that the organization cares about its employees' well-being and that their work is valued. Empowering nurses may increase job satisfaction and improve patient care. Leadership style and empowerment influence job satisfaction among workers. METHODS: All nursing department staff were invited to complete a self-report questionnaire with no identifying information. Leadership style was measured using Bass's Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, empowerment was measured with items from Spreitzer's Psychological Empowerment instrument, and job satisfaction was measured by Warr, Cook, and Wall's job satisfaction questionnaire. RESULTS: Both transformational and transactional leadership were positively related to job satisfaction, as was empowerment. Differences in the contributions of empowerment and leadership style in predicting job satisfaction for licensed and unlicensed workers was evident. CONCLUSION: Designing interventions that allow for the relative influence of leadership style as well as empowerment on varying classifications of nursing personnel may be a more effective strategy and have a greater effect on staff attitudes and behaviors.

Decision Making, Organizational↗

Finite-size effect in the Eguíluz and Zimmermann model of herd formation and information transmission.

The Eguíluz and Zimmermann model of information transmission and herd formation in a financial market is studied analytically. Starting from a formal description on the rate of change of the system from one partition of agents in the system to another, a mean-field theory is systematically developed. The validity of the mean-field theory is carefully studied against fluctuations. When the number of agents N is sufficiently large and the probability of making a transaction a<<1/N ln N, finite-size effect is found to be significant. In this case, the system has a large probability of becoming a single cluster containing all the agents. For small clusters of agents, the cluster size distribution still obeys a power law but with a much reduced magnitude. The exponent is found to be modified to the value of -3 by the fluctuation effects from the value of -5/2 in the mean-field theory.

Cluster Analysis↗

Actin and myosin multigene families: their expression during the formation and maturation of striated muscle.

The initial formation of skeletal muscle fibers is accompanied by the expression of muscle-type actin and myosin genes. During subsequent maturation of muscle fibers in vivo, developmental changes in the fetal/adult isoforms of these proteins occur. Skeletal muscle-specific transcripts coding for different myosin heavy chains accumulate sequentially both in vivo and in vitro. A genetic analysis demonstrates that these genes are clustered, implicating cis-acting regulatory factors. In contrast, actin and myosin light chain genes are dispersed in the mouse genome. These gene families show a different developmental "strategy": Genes expressed in adult cardiac tissue are coexpressed with the corresponding skeletal muscle sequence during fetal development. This phenomenon also occurs in adult tissue. Under conditions of cardiac overload, adult rat hearts accumulate skeletal actin mRNA and cardiac actin transcripts. In some mouse lines, a mutant cardiac actin gene locus is present. The presence of a second active upstream promoter at this locus depresses transcription of the bone fide gene, resulting in low levels of mature cardiac actin mRNA. In this situation skeletal actin gene transcripts accumulate. Genes expressed in the same fetal or adult muscle phenotype are not linked, suggesting that their coexpression is regulated by transacting factors. The promoter regions of such genes in the mouse have no common characteristics of primary structure with the exception of an E1A-type enhancer core sequence, which has a conserved 5' flanking element, seen for actin and myosin light chain genes. Reintroduction of these promoter regions into muscle cells provides a functional test for such potential regulatory sequences.

Actins↗

Androgen receptor mutants detected in recurrent prostate cancer exhibit diverse functional characteristics.

BACKGROUND: Alterations in the function of androgen receptor (AR) and its signaling pathway may be responsible for the progression of prostate cancer. The goal of the present study was to investigate the potential roles of AR structural and functional alterations in the progression of prostate cancer, and the relationship between the structure and function of the AR. METHODS: AR gene in 58 prostate cancer samples was examined for mutations using PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and DNA sequencing. Effects of mutations on the structure and function of AR were investigated by androgen-binding assays and transactivation assays, respectively. RESULTS: Four novel somatic mutations (G142V, D221H, E872Q, and M886I) were identified from recurrent prostate cancer samples. None of the AR mutants differed from wild-type AR (wtAR) in their abilities to bind the synthetic androgen methyltrienolone. However, these mutated AR exhibited diverse functional characteristics as compared with wtAR. G142V and D221H showed increased responses to DHT. E872Q could be abnormally activated by 17beta-estradiol, progesterone, and cyproterone acetate (CPA). Furthermore, E872Q and M886I presented increased responses to DHT in the presence of coactivators TIF-2 and CBP, but not p300. On the other hand, although overexpression of corepressors N-CoR and SMRT could result in evident inhibition on DHT- or CPA-induced transactivity of wtAR and the AR mutants, N-CoR displayed stronger inhibitory effects on DHT-induced transactivity of the AR mutants (especially for E872Q and M886I) than that of wtAR. To our knowledge, this is the first characterization of enhanced inhibitory effects of corepressors on the transactivity of the AR mutants found in prostate cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The data presented here demonstrate that AR mutants found in prostate cancer had different functional alterations, which might play an important role in the progression of prostate cancer.

Aged↗

Cloning and regulation of a stress-regulated Pennisetum glaucum vacuolar ATPase c gene and characterization of its promoter that is expressed in shoot hairs and floral organs.

We have cloned and characterized the cDNA, genomic clone and upstream promoter region of a vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase) c subunit (PgVHA-c1) from Pennisetum glaucum. The deduced amino acid sequence shows 98-71% sequence identity with V-ATPase from rice and Arabidopsis, and is a highly hydrophobic protein with four transmembrane regions. PgVHA-c1-GFP fusion protein is expressed in BY2 cells on the endo-membranes surrounding vacuoles; however, PgVHA-c1 could not functionally complement V-ATPase-c deletion mutants of yeast. The sequence analysis of the genomic clone revealed the presence of two introns in the coding region, and the splice junctions followed the typical canonical GU-AG consensus sequence. The transcript analysis showed that the expression of PgVHA-c1 was stimulated more in response to salinity stress and very marginally in response to drought and low temperature stress. Exogenous application of abscisic acid, salicylic acid and calcium stimulated the transcript level in the absence of stress. We have cloned the 5'-flanking regions of PgVHA-c1 and mapped its transcript start site at 78 bp upstream of ATG. Transgenic tobacco with promoter::GUS constructs showed that the region -288/+78 was sufficient for GUS expression. The expression of the reporter gene even with the full-length promoter was limited to shoot hairs and to male and female reproductive organs. The dehydration-responsive element (DRE) and ABA-responsive element (ABRE) in the promoter did not show consensus flanking regions; however, gel mobility shift assays showed that Pennisetum has specific transacting factors that showed binding to the core DRE, ABRE and TCA elements.

Base Sequence↗

Genetic analysis of phase change in Bordetella pertussis.

Avirulent-phase derivatives of Bordetella pertussis (those which have simultaneously lost the ability to synthesize several virulence-associated factors) and the genetic mechanism of the phase change were studied. Increased tolerance to erythromycin was shown to be an avirulent-phase marker. By the use of efficiency of plating on erythromycin, the proportion of avirulent-phase (Vir) variants in a virulent-phase (Vir+) population was determined to be between 10(-3) and 10(-6), depending on the strain. We showed that the phase shift is reversible and detected a complete Vir- to Vir+ to Vir- to cycle. In other experiments, hybridization studies with avirulent-phase mutants obtained by Tn5 mutagenesis suggested that a single region located at a unique site in the B. pertussis chromosome controls the phase change. One of the avirulent Tn5 mutants was used as a recipient in a conjugative cross with a virulent-phase donor. All recombinants which had reacquired the virulence-associated factors also lost Tn5, indicating the loss of Tn5 was required to restore the Vir+ phenotype. The Tn5 avirulent-phase mutants behave as if the insertion interrupted the function of a transacting gene product which is required for the expression of the other virulent-phase genes. A model of the molecular basis of the phase regulation is presented.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Managing data for a randomised controlled clinical trial: experience from the WHO Antenatal Care Trial. WHO Antenatal Care Trial Research Group.

The World Health Organisation, in collaboration with four developing countries, is conducting a randomised controlled clinical trial to evaluate a new programme of antenatal care. In a city or region in Argentina, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Thailand, 53 clinical units were randomly allocated to provide either the new programme or the programme currently in use. This paper describes the organisation of the data management system used to collect the data. Each woman participating in the trial is uniquely identified, and information such as her name, address and expected delivery date is recorded in the trial 'subject number list'. If the clinic belongs to the intervention group, information about the woman's eligibility is recorded on the classification form. Details of the outcome of the pregnancy are indicated on two additional case report forms: the antenatal hospital admission form and the summary form. When forms are completed by the investigators, they are submitted to the country data coordinating centre (CDCC). The CDCCs are responsible for the processing of the country study forms. This includes verification of the batch of forms, data capture into computer files, data verification, data validation, production of query sheets for data problems, maintenance and updating of study master files. All operations on data such as additions or modifications are performed using transaction processing. At monthly intervals, recruitment reports and transaction files are sent to the trial coordinating centre in Geneva. All transaction files are processed to accumulate data on the trial's consolidated master files. A monthly report including number of women recruited in the trial, adverse events reported by the countries, recruitment charts by clinic and analyses on eligible women in the intervention group is prepared and submitted to the data safety and monitoring committee. A workshop was organised in 1995, before the start of the trial, to introduce the data management system to the four participating countries. Annual site visits were made to each CDCC to monitor progress. Additional visits were made when major or critical problems could not be solved by the CDCC. At the closure of data collection, a visit is made to review and assess all data management procedures including form filling, maintenance of registers, computer files, query sheets, data modifications. In addition, final cleaning of the data is performed, and an analysis file is produced for inclusion in the centralised trial analyses and in the country-specific analyses. Based on the experience gained in this trial, the decentralised data management model can be advocated only if CDCCs that will be involved in the trial are already in place with competent and experienced staff. Uniformity of the data management system and of standard operating procedures across countries is also a crucial issue for the effective management of the data collection phase.

Argentina↗