Challenges and benefits of working in teams – Interpersonal interactions in health care

Teamwork has become the accepted way of doing one’s job. This is so true even profession’s that were considered an exception are shifting towards teamwork. Apart from the well-known benefits, there seems to be a downside of the enforcement of this work strategy. Conflicts, frictions, frustration in working groups can affect the dignity, psychological or physical integrity of team members, generally referred to as psychological harassment, workplace bullying or mobbing. The outcomes of the phenomenon are various negative organizational responses. Health care is somewhat lagging behind in this shift towards working in teams, but with increasing specialization greater coordination is needed between health care professionals. Above all, the patient wishes to be more involved in the health care process. Research suggests that patient involvement and working in teams have a positive impact on effectiveness and patient mortality, respectively. One of the challenges for health care is to include the patient in the teamwork process as an equal member of the group and at the same time overcome the drawbacks mentioned above, in a setting where a traditional, paternalistic approach is still present and the vulnerability of the patient (and his/her dignity) is evident

Kinetics of four-wave mixing for a 2D magneto-plasma in strong magnetic fields

We investigate the femtosecond kinetics of an optically excited 2D magneto-plasma at intermediate and high densities under a strong magnetic field perpendicular to the quantum well (QW). We assume an additional weak lateral confinement which lifts the degeneracy of the Landau levels partially. We calculate the femtosecond dephasing and relaxation kinetics of the laser pulse excited magneto-plasma due to bare Coulomb potential scattering, because screening is under these conditions of minor importance. In particular the time-resolved and time-integrated four-wave mixing (FWM) signals are calculated by taking into account three Landau subbands in both the valance and the conduction band assuming an electron-hole symmetry. The FWM signals exhibit quantum beats mainly with twice the cyclotron frequency. Contrary to general expectations, we find no pronounced slowing down of the dephasing with increasing magnetic field. On the contrary, one obtains a decreasing dephasing time because of the increase of the Coulomb matrix elements and the number of states in a given Landau subband. In the situation when the loss of scattering channels exceeds these increasing effects, one gets a slight increase at the dephasing time. However, details of the strongly modulated scattering kinetics depend sensitively on the detuning, the plasma density, and the spectral pulse width relative to the cyclotron frequency.Comment: 13 pages, in RevTex format, 10 figures, Phys. Rev B in pres

Differences in Beliefs About Cholesterol-Lowering Medications Among the Visegrad Group Countries: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: New cholesterol guidelines highlight more personalized risk assessments and new cholesterol-lowering drugs for people at the highest risk for cardiovascular disease. Adherence due to fear of and lack of trust in medications prevents treatment to provide better health outcomes. / Objectives: The aim of our study was to investigate the possible differences in the beliefs about the necessity and concerns regarding lipid-lowering drugs among the Visegrad Group countries. / Methods: The Beliefs About Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ-Specific) was used in our research. The responses of 205 Hungarian, 200 Slovak, 235 Czech, and 200 Polish participants, all taking cholesterol-lowering medications, were compared to each other. / Results: Hungarian participants' belief in the necessity of cholesterol-lowering drugs was significantly lower compared to the Slovak (P = 0.001), Czech (P = 0.037), and Polish (P < 0.001) participants. While no difference was observed between the Czech and Slovak responses (P = 0.154), both the Czech (P < 0.001) and Slovak (P = 0.006) respondents' belief regarding necessity was lower than that of the Polish. Regarding concerns, the only significant difference was observed between the Czech and the Polish respondents (P = 0.011). / Conclusions: While the beliefs about benefits (necessity) are most prominent among the Polish participants, except in comparison to Czech responses, the Visegrad Group countries do not differ considerably regarding their beliefs about the fear (concerns) of the treatment

Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Lingual Validation of the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ)-Specific for Cholesterol Lowering Drugs in the Visegrad Countries

The goal of this study was to translate the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire—Specific (BMQ-Specific) for cholesterol-lowering drugs, into the Hungarian, Slovak, Czech and Polish languages and test their reliability with statistical methods. For this purpose, Cronbach’s alpha, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were conducted. The analyses included 235 Czech, 205 Hungarian, 200 Polish, and 200 Slovak respondents, all of whom were taking cholesterol-lowering drugs. The translations from English into the target languages were always done by two independent translators. As part of the validation process these translations were pilot tested and after the necessary alterations, they were translated back into English by a third translator. After the approval by the creator of the questionnaire, nationwide surveys were conducted in all four countries. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis were exceptionally good for the Czech and Slovak translations, while the Polish and Hungarian translations marginally crossed the predetermined thresholds. With the exception of a single Polish question, the results of the exploratory factor analysis were deemed acceptable. The translated versions of BMQ-Specific are reliable and valid tools to assess patients’ beliefs about medication, especially medication adherence among patients taking cholesterol-lowering medication. A comparison between the four countries with this questionnaire is now possible

Assignment of the group A rotavirus NSP4 gene into genotypes using a hemi-nested multiplex PCR assay: a rapid and reproducible assay for strain surveillance studies

The rotavirus non-structural protein NSP4 has been implicated in a number of biological functions during the rotavirus cellular cycle and pathogenesis, and has been addressed as a target for vaccine development. The NSP4 gene has been classified into six genotypes (A-F). A semi-nested triplex PCR was developed for genotyping the major human NSP4 genotypes (A-C), which are common in human rotavirus strains but are also shared among most mammalian rotavirus strains. A total of 192 previously characterized human strains representing numerous G and P type specificities (such as G1P[8], G1P[4], G2P[4], G3P[3], G3P[8], G3P[9], G4P[6], G4P[8], G6P[4], G6P[9], G6P[14], G8P[10], G8P[14], G9P[8], G9P[11], G10P[11], G12P[6] and G12P[8]) were tested for NSP4 specificity by the collaborating laboratories. An additional 35 animal strains, including the reference laboratory strains SA11 (simian, G3P[2]), NCDV (bovine, G6P[1]), K9 and CU-1 (canine, G3P[3]), together with 31 field isolates (canine, G3P[3]; feline, G3P[9]; porcine, G2P[23], G3P[6], G4P[6], G5P[6], G5P[7], G5P[26], G5P[27], G9P[6] and G9P[7]) were also successfully NSP4-typed. Four human G3P[9] strains and one feline G3P[9] strain were found to possess an NSP4 A genotype, instead of NSP4 C, suggesting a reassortment event between heterologous strains. Routine NSP4 genotyping may help to determine the genomic constellation of rotaviruses of man and livestock, and identify interspecies transmission of heterologous strain

Size-dependent bandgap and particle size distribution of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals

A new analytical expression for the size-dependent bandgap of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals is proposed within the framework of the finite-depth square-well effective mass approximation in order to provide a quantitative description of the quantum confinement effect. This allows one to convert optical spectroscopic data (photoluminescence spectrum and absorbance edge) into accurate estimates for the particle size distributions of colloidal systems even if the traditional effective mass model is expected to fail, which occurs typically for very small particles belonging to the so-called strong confinement limit. By applying the reported theoretical methodologies to CdTe nanocrystals synthesized through wet chemical routes, size distributions are inferred and compared directly to those obtained from atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. This analysis can be used as a complementary tool for the characterization of nanocrystal samples of many other systems such as the II-VI and III-V semiconductor materials.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Complexes of bifunctional DO3A-N-(α-amino)propinate ligands with Mg(II), Ca(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and lanthanide(III) ions: thermodynamic stability, formation and dissociation kinetics, and solution dynamic NMR studies

The thermodynamic, kinetic, and structural properties of Ln3+ complexes with the bifunctional DO3A-ACE4− ligand and its amide derivative DO3A-BACE4− (modelling the case where DO3A-ACE4− ligand binds to vector molecules) have been studied in order to confirm the usefulness of the corresponding Gd3+ complexes as relaxation labels of targeted MRI contrast agents. The stability constants of the Mg2+ and Ca2+ complexes of DO3A-ACE4− and DO3A-BACE4− complexes are lower than for DOTA4− and DO3A3−, while the Zn2+ and Cu2+ complexes have similar and higher stability than for DOTA4− and DO3A3− complexes. The stability constants of the Ln(DO3A-BACE)− complexes increase from Ce3+ to Gd3+ but remain practically constant for the late Ln3+ ions (represented by Yb3+). The stability constants of the Ln(DO3A-ACE)4− and Ln(DO3A-BACE)4− complexes are several orders of magnitude lower than those of the corresponding DOTA4− and DO3A3− complexes. The formation rate of Eu(DO3A-ACE)− is one order of magnitude slower than for Eu(DOTA)−, due to the presence of the protonated amine group, which destabilizes the protonated intermediate complex. This protonated group causes the Ln(DO3A-ACE)− complexes to dissociate several orders of magnitude faster than Ln(DOTA)− and its absence in the Ln(DO3A-BACE)− complexes results in inertness similar to Ln(DOTA)− (as judged by the rate constants of acid assisted dissociation). The 1H NMR spectra of the diamagnetic Y(DO3A-ACE)− and Y(DO3A-BACE)− reflect the slow dynamics at low temperatures of the intramolecular isomerization process between the SA pair of enantiomers, R-Λ(λλλλ) and S-Δ(δδδδ). The conformation of the Cα-substituted pendant arm is different in the two complexes, where the bulky substituent is further away from the macrocyclic ring in Y(DO3A-BACE)− than the amino group in Y(DO3A-ACE)− to minimize steric hindrance. The temperature dependence of the spectra reflects slower ring motions than pendant arms rearrangements in both complexes. Although losing some thermodynamic stability relative to Gd(DOTA)−, Gd(DO3A-BACE)− is still quite inert, indicating the usefulness of the bifunctional DO3A-ACE4− in the design of GBCAs and Ln3+-based tags for protein structural NMR analysis.This research was funded by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Projects NKFIH K-128201, K-134694, and FK-134551)

Band gap renormalization in photoexcited semiconductor quantum wire structures in the GW approximation

We investigate the dynamical self-energy corrections of the electron-hole plasma due to electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions at the band edges of a quasi-one dimensional (1D) photoexcited electron-hole plasma. The leading-order $GW$ dynamical screening approximation is used in the calculation by treating electron-electron Coulomb interaction and electron-optical phonon Fr\"{o}hlich interaction on an equal footing. We calculate the exchange-correlation induced band gap renormalization (BGR) as a function of the electron-hole plasma density and the quantum wire width. The calculated BGR shows good agreement with existing experimental results, and the BGR normalized by the effective quasi-1D excitonic Rydberg exhibits an approximate one-parameter universality.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure