A quasi experimental study to assess the effectiveness of back massage in reducing postoperative pain and improving quality of recovery among patients undergone orthopedic surgery at selected hospitals in Vellore District.

A Quasi experimental study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of back massage in reducing post operative pain and improving quality of recovery among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery at selected hospitals in Vellore. The objectives of the study were to assess the pre and post test level of pain and quality of recovery among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery in the control and experimental group, evaluate the effectiveness of back massage on the level of pain and quality of recovery among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery in experimental group, to correlate the level of pain with quality of recovery among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery in the control and experimental group, to find out the association between level of pain among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery and their selected demographic variables and to find out the association between level of quality of recovery among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery and their selected demographic variables. In this study a quasi experimental, non randomized control group pre test –post test design was adopted. Convenience sampling technique was used to select each 30 samples in experimental and control group. Structured interview schedule was used to collect the demographic variables. Visual analog scale and Modified post operative recovery-20 scale was used to assess the level of post operative pain and quality of recovery. Experimental group received intervention of Back massage with routine care for 15-20 minutes twice a day for 1-3 post operative days. Findings of pre test level of pain in control group on day I and Day-II shows that all 30 subjects (100%) had severe level of pain and there was no change in the post test level of pain. The pre test level of pain on Day-III, 27(90%) subjects had severe level of pain and there was no change in the post test level of pain. Whereas in experimental group, the pre test level of pain on first post operative day 22 subjects (73.3%) had severe level of pain and on third post operative day, 23 subjects (76.6%) had moderate level of pain and the post test level of pain on first post operative day 17 subjects (56.6%) had moderate level of pain, on third post operative day 19(63.3%) had mild level of pain. Findings shown that the pre test level of quality of recovery in control group, 28 of them (93.3%) had average level of quality of recovery and in the post test, 29 of them (96.6%) had average level of quality of recovery. The pre test level of quality of recovery in experimental group, 30 of them (100%) had average level of quality of recovery and in the post test, 29 of them (96.6%) had good level of quality of recovery. Findings revealed that in control group, the pre test mean score was 84.13 with SD 5.34 and the post test mean score 84.03 with SD 5.34on the day-I.On day –II, the pre test mean score was 81.7 with SD 5.32 and in the post test mean score 81.6 with SD 5.27.On day-III, the pre test mean score was 80 with SD 5.42 and in the post test mean score 79 with SD 5.32.The calculated ‘t’ values on day-I,II,III in the control groupwere1.50, 1.00, 1.00 which are not significant. It is concluded that there was no significant differences between the pre and post test level of pain among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery. Findings of experimental group shown that the pre test mean score was 80 with SD 7 and the post test mean score 73 with SD 6.46on the day-I. On Day –II the pre test mean score was 64 with SD 7.08 and in the post test mean score 57 with SD 7.59.On Day-III the pre test mean score was 49 with SD 7.42 and the post test mean score 42 with SD 6.86.The calculated’t’ value on day-I,II,III in the experimental group were 43.5, 36.84, 33 was statistically highly significant at p<0.001 level which clearly shows that there was a significant reduction in the level of pain among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery after giving back massage. The obtained‘t’ values on day-I, day-II, day-III for level of pain between the control and experimental group is 7.35, 14.64, 23.41 which were highly significant at p<0.001 level. These findings revealed that the subjects in experimental group had decreased level of pain after giving back massage compared to control group. Findings revealed that in control group, the pre test mean score was 48.1 with SD 4.64 and the post test mean score was 48.16 with SD 4.58.The calculated‘t’ value of 1.50 was non-significant which clearly shows that there was no differences between the pre and post test level of quality of recovery among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery in the control group. Whereas in experimental group, the pre test mean score was 48.4 with SD 4.27 and the post test mean score was 69 with SD 3.67.The calculated‘t’ value (21) for quality of recovery in experimental group was highly significant at p<0.001 level which clearly shows that there was a significant improvement in the level of quality of recovery among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery after giving back massage. The obtained ‘t’ value for level of quality of recovery between the experimental and control group was 19.66 which was highly significant at p<0.001 level and based on mean difference, the physical independence score was 13.33 which has greater improvement than other parameters. It is concluded that the back massage was highly effective in improving quality of recovery. There was a negative correlation (r= -0.420) between posttest level of pain and quality of recovery in experimental group at P<0.01 level. It is inferred that there was a significant improvement in quality of recovery as the pain intensity was reduced in experimental group. There was a significant association between the demographic variables such as age, gender, history of previous surgery, types of analgesics used and types of anesthesia and their level of pain. No other demographic variables were shown any association with their level of pain among patients undergone orthopaedic surgery in the experimental group

A Quasi Experimental Study to Identify the Contributing Factors and to Evaluate the Efficacy of Teaching Module regarding Knowledge on Managing the Adverse Effects of Radiotherapy among Patients with Cancer Cervix in Selected Hospital at Madurai

A Quasi experimental study to identify the contributing factors and to evaluate the efficacy of teaching module regarding knowledge on managing the adverse effects of radiotherapy among patients with cancer cervix in selected hospital at Madurai for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nursing to the Tamil Nadu Dr.M.G.R.Medical University, Chennai during the year 2020. BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the second most cancer among women and it is the primary cause of cancer related deaths in the developing countries. Cervical cancer is commonly treated by primary surgery, radiotherapy and /or Chemotherapy. Despite the common use of radiotherapy in clinical practice, its effect and efficiency in the treatment of cervical cancer is controversial. Radiotherapy including external beam radiation and branchy therapy is one of the commonly used treatment options for cervical cancer. However, the adverse effects of radiation therapy on cervical cancer survival have been poorly investigated with inconclusive results. Radiation therapy contributes to 40% of all cancer cures world-wide as well as relieving symptoms, such as pain and improving the quality of life for many others. Radiation not only kills or slows the growth of cancer cells, it can also affect nearby healthy cells. Damage to healthy cells can cause side effects. Healthy cells that are damaged during radiation treatment usually recover within a few months after treatment is over. But sometimes people may have adverse effects that do not improve. Other adverse effects may show up months or years after radiation therapy is over. These are called late effects. OBJECTIVES: 1. To identify the contributing factors of cancer cervix in experimental and control group. 2. To assess the pre-test and post-test knowledge on managing the adverse effects of radiotherapy among patients with cancer cervix in control and experimental group. 3. To evaluate the efficacy of teaching module on managing the adverse effects of radiotherapy in experimental group. 4. To find out the association between pre-test level of knowledge on managing the adverse effects of radiotherapy with their selected demographic variables in control and experimental group. HYPOTHESIS: H1: The mean post-test level of knowledge on managing the adverse effects of radiotherapy is significantly higher than the mean pre-test level of knowledge in experimental group. H2: The mean post-test level of knowledge in experimental group is significantly higher than the mean post-test level of knowledge in control group. H3: There will be a significant association between the pre-test level of knowledge on managing adverse effects of radiotherapy with their selected demographic variables in control and experimental group. METHODS: Quasi–experimental pre-test post-test control group design was adopted for the study to collect the data. A total of 60 samples in Asirvatham specialty hospital at Madurai were selected as control group (n=30) and experimental group (n=30) through non-probability convenience sampling technique. Structured questionnaire and check list regarding managing the adverse effects of radiotherapy and identifying the contributing factors were used as the tool. Teaching module was instructed to the experimental group. After seven days, post-test was done by using structured questionnaire. RESULTS: The obtained data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. • In control group pre-test mean score was (13.17 ±2.76) and post-test mean score was (13.3±2.96). The obtained ‘t’ value was 1.72 and P= 0.096 which is not statistically significant. • In experimental group pre-test mean score was (13.8 ±2.78) and post-test mean score was (23.3±3.01). The obtained ‘t’ value was 15.49 and which is statistically significant P<0.001 level. • In control group post-test mean score was (13.3 ±2.96) and in experimental group post-test mean score was (23.3±3.01), the mean difference was 10 and the calculated ‘t’ test value is 12.96, which is highly significant at P<0.001 level. The present study findings concluded that, teaching module is effective by improving the knowledge among patients with cancer cervix. RECOMMENDATION: 1. A prevalence study can be conducted with larger scale. 2. A similar study can be replicated on large sample to generalize the findings. 3. A comparative study can be carried out among the patients with cancer cervix in rural and urban areas. 4. The further research can be conducted on the effectiveness of various teaching methods

On Special forms of Splicing on Arrays and Graphs

Tom Head (1987), in his pioneering work on formal language theory applied to DNA computing, introduced a new operation of splicing on strings, while proposing a model of certain recombination behaviour of DNA molecules under the action of restriction enzymes and ligases. Since then this operation has been studied in great depth giving rise to a number of theoretical results of great interest in formal language theory. Extension of this operation of splicing to higher dimensional structures such as circular words, arrays, trees and graphs have been proposed in the literature. Here we examine the effect of certain specific forms of the splicing operation applied to arrays and graphs

SimArray: a user-friendly and user-configurable microarray design tool.

BACKGROUND: Microarrays were first developed to assess gene expression but are now also used to map protein-binding sites and to assess allelic variation between individuals. Regardless of the intended application, efficient production and appropriate array design are key determinants of experimental success. Inefficient production can make larger-scale studies prohibitively expensive, whereas poor array design makes normalisation and data analysis problematic. RESULTS: We have developed a user-friendly tool, SimArray, which generates a randomised spot layout, computes a maximum meta-grid area, and estimates the print time, in response to user-specified design decisions. Selected parameters include: the number of probes to be printed; the microtitre plate format; the printing pin configuration, and the achievable spot density. SimArray is compatible with all current robotic spotters that employ 96-, 384- or 1536-well microtitre plates, and can be configured to reflect most production environments. Print time and maximum meta-grid area estimates facilitate evaluation of each array design for its suitability. Randomisation of the spot layout facilitates correction of systematic biases by normalisation. CONCLUSION: SimArray is intended to help both established researchers and those new to the microarray field to develop microarray designs with randomised spot layouts that are compatible with their specific production environment. SimArray is an open-source program and is available from http://www.flychip.org.uk/SimArray/.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Unveiling the complexity and ecological function of aquatic macrophyte–animal networks in coastal ecosystems

Network theory offers innovative tools to explore the complex ecological mechanisms regulating species associations and interactions. Although interest in ecological networks has grown steadily during the last two decades, the application of network approaches has been unequally distributed across different study systems: while some kinds of interactions (e.g. plant-pollinator and host-parasite) have been extensively investigated, others remain relatively unexplored. Among the latter, aquatic macrophyte-animal associations in coastal environments have been largely neglected, despite their major role in littoral ecosystems. The ubiquity of macrophyte systems, their accessibility and multi-faceted ecological, economical and societal importance make macrophyte-animal systems an ideal subject for ecological network science. In fact, macrophyte-animal networks offer an aquatic counterpart to terrestrial plant-animal networks. In this review, we show how the application of network analysis to aquatic macrophyte-animal associations has the potential to broaden our understanding of how coastal ecosystems function. Network analysis can also provide a key to understanding how such ecosystems will respond to on-going and future threats from anthropogenic disturbance and environmental change. For this, we: (i) identify key issues that have limited the application of network theory and modelling to aquatic animal-macrophyte associations; (ii) illustrate through examples based on empirical data how network analysis can offer new insights on the complexity and functioning of coastal ecosystems; and (iii) provide suggestions for how to design future studies and establish this new research line into network ecology

Adaptive evolution of Toll-like receptor 5 in domesticated mammals

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous studies have proposed that mammalian toll like receptors (TLRs) have evolved under diversifying selection due to their role in pathogen detection. To determine if this is the case, we examined the extent of adaptive evolution in the TLR5 gene in both individual species and defined clades of the mammalia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In support of previous studies, we find evidence of adaptive evolution of mammalian TLR5. However, we also show that TLR5 genes of domestic livestock have a concentration of single nucleotide polymorphisms suggesting a specific signature of adaptation. Using codon models of evolution we have identified a concentration of rapidly evolving codons within the TLR5 extracellular domain a site of interaction between host and the bacterial surface protein flagellin.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results suggest that interactions between pathogen and host may be driving adaptive change in TLR5 by competition between species. In support of this, we have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in sheep and cattle TLR5 genes that are co-localised and co-incident with the predicted adaptive codons suggesting that adaptation in this region of the TLR5 gene is on-going in domestic species.</p

Evidence for geographic substructuring of mtDNA variation in the East European Hermit beetle (Osmoderma barnabita)

The genus Osmoderma is a flagship taxon of invertebrate conservation in Europe and encompasses a complex of four accepted species. While species limits amongst Osmoderma have been intensively studied, patterns of intraspecific variation are poorly known. In this paper, the authors focus on clarifying the phylogeographic structure of the East European Osmoderma barnabita using samples from Croatia to Finland. Samples of hind legs were collected from populations in Latvia and Finland (n=186) and combined with previously-published sequences from GenBank and museum specimens (n=10). In a partial sequence of the mitochondrial COI gene (759 bp), 26 closely related haplotypes were found. Beetle samples from different parts of Europe were distinct and showed no overlap in haplotype composition. The solitary population of Finland proved to be monomorphic and all 97 individuals sampled here belonged to a single haplotype unique to this region. The results suggest the Northern parts of Eastern Europe to be dominated by a single COI haplotype to which most of the other haplotypes are linked by one or two mutations. The pattern seems to reflect a founder effect or a strong bottleneck event. While O. barnabita is widely distributed over Eastern Europe, current patterns of mitochondrial genetic diversity appear influenced by population history and little homogenisation by ongoing gene flow. From a conservation perspective, the patterns suggest that regional populations might need to be managed as subunits and that the population of Finland may be affected by low genetic diversity

Crop diversity benefits carabid and pollinator communities in landscapes with semi-natural habitats

In agricultural landscapes, arthropods provide essential ecosystem services such as biological pest control and pollination. Intensified crop management practices and homogenization of landscapes have led to declines among such organisms. Semi-natural habitats, associated with high numbers of these organisms, are increasingly lost from agricultural landscapes but diversification by increasing crop diversity has been proposed as a way to reverse observed arthropod declines and thus restore ecosystem services. However, whether or not an increase in the diversity of crop types within a landscape promotes diversity and abundances of pollinating and predaceous arthropods, and how semi-natural habitats might modify this relationship, are not well understood. To test how crop diversity and the proportion of semi-natural habitats within a landscape are related to the diversity and abundance of beneficial arthropod communities, we collected primary data from seven studies focusing on natural enemies (carabids and spiders) and pollinators (bees and hoverflies) from 154 crop fields in Southern Sweden between 2007 and 2017. Crop diversity within a 1-km radius around each field was positively related to the Shannon diversity index of carabid and pollinator communities in landscapes rich in semi-natural habitats. Abundances were mainly affected by the proportion of semi-natural habitats in the landscape, with decreasing carabid and increasing pollinator numbers as the proportion of this habitat type increased. Spiders showed no response to either crop diversity or the proportion of semi-natural habitats. Synthesis and applications. We show that the joint effort of preserving semi-natural habitats and promoting crop diversity in agricultural landscapes is necessary to enhance communities of natural enemies and pollinators. Our results suggest that increasing the diversity of crop types can contribute to the conservation of service-providing arthropod communities, particularly if the diversification of crops targets complex landscapes with a high proportion of semi-natural habitats

Threats from the air: Damselfly predation on diverse prey taxa

To understand the diversity and strength of predation in natural communities, researchers must quantify the total amount of prey species in the diet of predators. Metabarcoding approaches have allowed widespread characterization of predator diets with high taxonomic resolution. To determine the wider impacts of predators, researchers should combine DNA techniques with estimates of population size of predators using mark-release-recapture (MRR) methods, and with accurate metrics of food consumption by individuals.Herein, we estimate the scale of predation exerted by four damselfly species on diverse prey taxa within a well-defined 12-ha study area, resolving the prey species of individual damselflies, to what extent the diets of predatory species overlap, and which fraction of the main prey populations are consumed.We identify the taxonomic composition of diets using DNA metabarcoding and quantify damselfly population sizes by MRR. We also use predator-specific estimates of consumption rates, and independent data on prey emergence rates to estimate the collective predation pressure summed over all prey taxa and specific to their main prey (non-biting midges or chironomids) of the four damselfly species.The four damselfly species collectively consumed a prey mass equivalent to roughly 870 (95% CL 410-1,800) g, over 2 months. Each individual consumed 29%-66% (95% CL 9.4-123) of its body weight during its relatively short life span (2.1-4.7 days; 95% CL 0.74-7.9) in the focal population. This predation pressure was widely distributed across the local invertebrate prey community, including 4 classes, 19 orders and c. 140 genera. Different predator species showed extensive overlap in diets, with an average of 30% of prey shared by at least two predator species.Of the available prey individuals in the widely consumed family Chironomidae, only a relatively small proportion (0.76%; 95% CL 0.35%-1.61%) were consumed.Our synthesis of population sizes, per-capita consumption rates and taxonomic distribution of diets identifies damselflies as a comparatively minor predator group of aerial insects. As the next step, we should add estimates of predation by larger odonate species, and experimental removal of odonates, thereby establishing the full impact of odonate predation on prey communities