Psychometric properties of a generic, patient-centred palliative care outcome measure of symptom burden for people with progressive long term neurological conditions

Background There is no standard palliative care outcome measure for people with progressive long term neurological conditions (LTNC). This study aims to determine the psychometric properties of a new 8-item palliative care outcome scale of symptom burden (IPOS Neuro-S8) in this population. Data and Methods Data were merged from a Phase II palliative care intervention study in multiple sclerosis (MS) and a longitudinal observational study in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD), multiple system atrophy (MSA) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). The IPOS Neuro-S8 was assessed for its data quality, score distribution, ceiling and floor effects, reliability, factor structure, convergent and discriminant validity, concurrent validity with generic (Palliative care Outcome Scale) and condition specific measures (Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale; Non-motor Symptoms Questionnaire; Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire), responsiveness and minimally clinically important difference. Results Of the 134 participants, MS patients had a mean Extended Disability Status Scale score 7.8 (SD = 1.0), patients with an IPD, MSA or PSP were in Hoehn & Yahr stage 3±5. The IPOS Neuro-S8 had high data quality (2% missing), mean score 8 (SD = 5; range 0±32), no ceiling effects, borderline floor effects, good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.7) and moderate test-retest reliability (intraclass coefficient = 0.6). The results supported a moderately correlated two-factor structure (Pearson's r = 0.5). It was moderately correlated with generic and condition specific measures (Pearson's r: 0.5±0.6). There was some evidence for discriminant validity in IPD, MSA and PSP (p = 0.020), and for good responsiveness and longitudinal construct validity. Conclusions IPOS Neuro-S8 shows acceptable to promising psychometric properties in common forms of progressive LTNCs. Future work needs to confirm these findings with larger samples and its usefulness in wider disease groups

Synthesis and characterization of two self-assembled [Cu6Gd3] and [Cu5Dy2] complexes exhibiting the magnetocaloric effect, slow relaxation of magnetization, and anticancer activity

Two new paths for coordination driven self-assembly reactions under the binding support of 2-((1-hydroxy-2-methylpropan-2-ylimino)methyl)-6-methoxyphenol (H2L) have been discovered from the reactions of Cu(ClO4)2·6H2O, NEt3 and GdCl3/DyCl3·6H2O in MeOH/CHCl3 (2 : 1) medium. A similar synthetic protocol is useful to provide two different types of self-aggregated molecular clusters [Cu6Gd3(L)3(HL)3(μ3-Cl)3(μ3-OH)6(OH)2]ClO4·4H2O (1) and [Cu5Dy2(L)2(HL)2(μ-Cl)2(μ3-OH)4(ClO4)2(H2O)6](ClO4)2·2NHEt3Cl·21H2O (2). The adopted reaction procedure established the importance of the HO− and Cl− ions in the mineral-like growth of the complexes, derived from solvents and metal ion salts. In the case of complex 1, one GdIII center has been trapped at the central position of the core upheld by six μ3-OH and three μ3-Cl groups, whereas for complex 2 one CuII center was trapped using four μ3-hydroxo and two μ-chlorido groups. The magnetothermal behavior of 1 has been examined for a magnetocaloric effect of −ΔSm = 11.3 J kg−1 K−1 at 2 K for ΔH = 7 T, whereas the magnetic susceptibility measurements of 2 showed slow magnetic relaxation with Ueff = 15.8 K and τ0 = 9.8 × 10−7 s in zero external dc field. Cancer cell growth inhibition studies proved the potential of both the complexes with interestingly high activity for the Cu6Gd3 complex against human lung cancer cells. Both complexes 1 and 2 also exhibited DNA and human serum albumin (HSA) binding abilities in relation to the involved binding sites and thermodynamics.</p

Tracking India within precambrian supercontinent cycles

The term supercontinent generally implies grouping of formerly dispersed continents and/or their fragments in a close packing accounting for about 75% of earth’s landmass in a given interval of geologic time. The assembly and disruption of supercontinents rely on plate tectonic processes, and therefore, much speculation is involved particularly considering the debates surrounding the applicability of differential plate motion, the key to plate tectonics during the early Precambrian. The presence of Precambrian orogenic belts in all major continents is often considered as the marker of ancient collisional or accretionary sutures, which provide us clues to the history of periodic assembly of ancient supercontinents. Testing of any model assembly/breakup depends on precise age data and paleomagnetic pole reconstruction. The record of dispersal of the continents and release of enormous stress lie in extensional geological features, such as rift valleys, regionally extensive flood basalts, granite-rhyolite terrane, anorthosite complexes, mafic dyke swarms, and remnants of ancient mid-oceanic ridges. Indian shield with extensive Precambrian rock records is known to bear signatures of the past supercontinents in a fragmentary manner. Vast tracts of Precambrian rocks exposed in peninsular India and in the Lesser Himalaya and the Shillong plateau further north and east provide valuable clues to global tectonic reconstructions and the geodynamics of the respective periods. The Indian shield is a mosaic of Archean cratonic nuclei surrounded by Proterozoic orogenic belts, which preserve the records of geologic events since the Paleoarchean/Eoarchean. Here we discuss the sojourn of the Indian plate from the Archean through Proterozoic, in light of available models for supercontinent assembly and breakup in the Precambrian. We also discuss the issues in constraining the configuration, which is mainly due to scanty exposures, lack of reliable paleomagnetic poles from different cratons, and their time of formation or amalgamation. In this chapter, we briefly review Precambrian geology of India to track her participation in the making of the supercontinents through time.Sarbani Patranabis-Deb, Dilip Saha, and M. Santos