Effective peer-to-peer support for young people with end-stage renal disease: a mixed methods evaluation of Camp COOL

__Abstract__ __Background__ The Camp COOL programme aims to help young Dutch people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) develop self-management skills. Fellow patients already treated in adult care (hereafter referred to as ‘buddies’) organise the day-to-day program, run the camp, counsel the attendees, and also participate in the activities. The attendees are young people who still have to transfer to adult care. This study aimed to explore the effects of this specific form of peer-to-peer support on the self-management of young people (16–25 years) with ESRD who participated in Camp COOL (CC) (hereafter referred to as ‘participants’). __Methods__ A mixed methods research design was employed. Semi-structured interviews (n = 19) with initiators/staff, participants, and healthcare professionals were conducted. These were combined with retrospective and pre-post surveys among participants (n = 62), and observations during two camp weeks. __Results__ Self-reported effects of participants were: increased self-confidence, more disease-related knowledge, feeling capable of being more responsible and open towards others, and daring to stand up for yourself. According to participants, being a buddy or having one positively affected them. Self-efficacy of attendees and independence of buddies increased, while attendees’ sense of social inclusion decreased (measured as domains of health-related quality of life). The buddy role was a pro-active combination of being supervisor, advisor, and leader. __Conclusions__ Camp COOL allowed young people to support each other in adjusting to everyday life with ESRD. Participating in the camp positively influenced self-management in this group. Peerto- peer support through buddies was much appreciated. Support from young adults was not only beneficial for adolescent attendees, but also for young adult buddies. Paediatric nephrologists are encouraged to refer patients to CC and to facilitate such initiatives. Together with nephrologists in adult care, they could take on a role in selecting buddies

How Does Information Processing Speed Relate to the Attentional Blink?

Background When observers are asked to identify two targets in rapid sequence, they often suffer profound performance deficits for the second target, even when the spatial location of the targets is known. This attentional blink (AB) is usually attributed to the time required to process a previous target, implying that a link should exist between individual differences in information processing speed and the AB. Methodology/Principal Findings The present work investigated this question by examining the relationship between a rapid automatized naming task typically used to assess information-processing speed and the magnitude of the AB. The results indicated that faster processing actually resulted in a greater AB, but only when targets were presented amongst high similarity distractors. When target-distractor similarity was minimal, processing speed was unrelated to the AB. Conclusions/Significance Our findings indicate that information-processing speed is unrelated to target processing efficiency per se, but rather to individual differences in observers' ability to suppress distractors. This is consistent with evidence that individuals who are able to avoid distraction are more efficient at deploying temporal attention, but argues against a direct link between general processing speed and efficient information selection

H4 Histamine Receptors Mediate Cell Cycle Arrest in Growth Factor-Induced Murine and Human Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells

The most recently characterized H4 histamine receptor (H4R) is expressed preferentially in the bone marrow, raising the question of its role during hematopoiesis. Here we show that both murine and human progenitor cell populations express this receptor subtype on transcriptional and protein levels and respond to its agonists by reduced growth factor-induced cell cycle progression that leads to decreased myeloid, erythroid and lymphoid colony formation. H4R activation prevents the induction of cell cycle genes through a cAMP/PKA-dependent pathway that is not associated with apoptosis. It is mediated specifically through H4R signaling since gene silencing or treatment with selective antagonists restores normal cell cycle progression. The arrest of growth factor-induced G1/S transition protects murine and human progenitor cells from the toxicity of the cell cycle-dependent anticancer drug Ara-C in vitro and reduces aplasia in a murine model of chemotherapy. This first evidence for functional H4R expression in hematopoietic progenitors opens new therapeutic perspectives for alleviating hematotoxic side effects of antineoplastic drugs

Euclid : I. Overview of the Euclid mission

The current standard model of cosmology successfully describes a variety of measurements, but the nature of its main ingredients, dark matter and dark energy, remains unknown. Euclid is a medium-class mission in the Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) that will provide high-resolution optical imaging, as well as near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy, over about 14 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky. In addition to accurate weak lensing and clustering measurements that probe structure formation over half of the age of the Universe, its primary probes for cosmology, these exquisite data will enable a wide range of science. This paper provides a high-level overview of the mission, summarising the survey characteristics, the various data-processing steps, and data products. We also highlight the main science objectives and expected performance

Euclid Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer instrument concept and first test results obtained for different breadboards models at the end of phase C

The Euclid mission objective is to understand why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating through by mapping the geometry of the dark Universe by investigating the distance-redshift relationship and tracing the evolution of cosmic structures. The Euclid project is part of ESA's Cosmic Vision program with its launch planned for 2020 (ref [1]). The NISP (Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer) is one of the two Euclid instruments and is operating in the near-IR spectral region (900- 2000nm) as a photometer and spectrometer. The instrument is composed of: - a cold (135K) optomechanical subsystem consisting of a Silicon carbide structure, an optical assembly (corrector and camera lens), a filter wheel mechanism, a grism wheel mechanism, a calibration unit and a thermal control system - a detection subsystem based on a mosaic of 16 HAWAII2RG cooled to 95K with their front-end readout electronic cooled to 140K, integrated on a mechanical focal plane structure made with molybdenum and aluminum. The detection subsystem is mounted on the optomechanical subsystem structure - a warm electronic subsystem (280K) composed of a data processing / detector control unit and of an instrument control unit that interfaces with the spacecraft via a 1553 bus for command and control and via Spacewire links for science data This presentation describes the architecture of the instrument at the end of the phase C (Detailed Design Review), the expected performance, the technological key challenges and preliminary test results obtained for different NISP subsystem breadboards and for the NISP Structural and Thermal model (STM)

Controlling catenations, properties and relative ring-component movements in catenanes with aromatic fluorine substituents

Four new fluorine-containing macrocyclic polyethers based on bis-p-phenylene-34-crown-10 have been synthesized and subsequently catenated, separately, with cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene). The efficiencies of the catenations are strongly influenced by the aromatic ring templates in the macrocyclic polyethers. Incorporation of fluorine atom substituents into one of the hydroquinone rings in bis-p-phenylene-34-crown-10 had only a small effect on the percentage yields, whereas employing bis-p-phenylene-34-crown-10 derivatives, in which both hydroquinone rings have been at least partially fluorinated, resulted in a dramatic decrease in catenation yields. In [2]catenanes incorporating macrocyclic polyethers containing one hydroquinone and one fluorinated hydroquinone ring, in both the solution (H-1 and F-19 NMR, and UV-vis spectroscopies, electrochemical studies and molecular modeling) and solid (X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling) states, by far the major translational isomers observed were the ones with the hydroquinone ring located "inside" the cavity of the tetracationic cyclophane. The diminished strength of the noncovalent interactions arising as a result of aromatic fluorine substituents is also reflected in the rates of the movements of the two ring components (dynamic NMR spectroscopy). As well as their electron-withdrawing effect, the fluorine substituents have a pronounced effect (UV-vis spectroscopy, electrochemical studies and molecular modeling) on the geometry of the ArO-CH2 bonds within the (fluorinated) hydroquinone rings.</p

Controlling catenations, properties and relative ring-component movements in catenanes with aromatic fluorine substituents

Four new fluorine-containing macrocyclic polyethers based on bis-p-phenylene-34-crown-10 have been synthesized and subsequently catenated, separately, with cyclobis(paraquat-p-phenylene). The efficiencies of the catenations are strongly influenced by the aromatic ring templates in the macrocyclic polyethers. Incorporation of fluorine atom substituents into one of the hydroquinone rings in bis-p-phenylene-34-crown-10 had only a small effect on the percentage yields, whereas employing bis-p-phenylene-34-crown-10 derivatives, in which both hydroquinone rings have been at least partially fluorinated, resulted in a dramatic decrease in catenation yields. In [2]catenanes incorporating macrocyclic polyethers containing one hydroquinone and one fluorinated hydroquinone ring, in both the solution (H-1 and F-19 NMR, and UV-vis spectroscopies, electrochemical studies and molecular modeling) and solid (X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling) states, by far the major translational isomers observed were the ones with the hydroquinone ring located "inside" the cavity of the tetracationic cyclophane. The diminished strength of the noncovalent interactions arising as a result of aromatic fluorine substituents is also reflected in the rates of the movements of the two ring components (dynamic NMR spectroscopy). As well as their electron-withdrawing effect, the fluorine substituents have a pronounced effect (UV-vis spectroscopy, electrochemical studies and molecular modeling) on the geometry of the ArO-CH2 bonds within the (fluorinated) hydroquinone rings.</p