Luther\u27s concept of the pastoral ministry

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1964/thumbnail.jp

Reducing the use of complex words and reducing sentence length to < 15 words improves readability of patient education materials regarding sports medicine knee injuries

"Sports-related knee injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) or meniscus tears are very common. Approximately 50% of internet users have reported using the internet to learn more information about a specific medical treatment or procedure. The internet’s usefulness is dependent not only on the content available to patients, but also the health literacy of the patient consuming the information. Poor health literacy is associated with poor outcomes. The NIH and AMA recommend that online patient resources be written at or below the sixth-grade reading level. Online PEMs in Orthopaedics have consistently been shown to be written above the NIH-recommended sixth-grade reading level to the detriment of patient health literacy. “A 2018 analysis of the readability of 39 AAOS Sports Med PEMs found that all PEMs were written above the 6th-grade reading level with 36% written above a 12th-grade reading level.” (PMID: 30480008) While many studies have suggested strategies to improve the readability of PEMs, literature describing the benefit of these proposed changes is scarce. The purpose of this study is to develop a standardized method to improve readability of Orthopaedic PEMs without diluting their critical content by reducing the use of complex words (> 3 syllables) and shortening sentence length to [less than] 15 words."--Introduction

Ultrasensitive detection of lipoarabinomannan with plasmonic grating biosensors in clinical samples of HIV negative patients with tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND:Timely diagnosis of tuberculosis disease is critical for positive patient outcomes, yet potentially millions go undiagnosed or unreported each year. Sputum is widely used as the testing input, but limited by its complexity, heterogeneity, and sourcing problems. Finding methods to interrogate noninvasive, non-sputum clinical specimens is indispensable to improving access to tuberculosis diagnosis and care. In this work, economical plasmonic gratings were used to analyze tuberculosis biomarker lipoarabinomannan (LAM) from clinical urine samples by single molecule fluorescence assay (FLISA) and compared with gold standard sputum GeneXpert MTB/ RIF, culture, and reference ELISA testing results. METHODS AND FINDINGS:In this study, twenty sputum and urine sample sets were selected retrospectively from a repository of HIV-negative patient samples collected before initiation of anti-tuberculosis therapy. GeneXpert MTB/RIF and culture testing of patient sputum confirmed the presence or absence of pulmonary tuberculosis while all patient urines were reference ELISA LAM-negative. Plasmonic gratings produced by low-cost soft lithography were bound with anti-LAM capture antibody, incubated with patient urine samples, and biotinylated detection antibody. Fluorescently labeled streptavidin revealed single molecule emission by epifluorescence microscope. Using a 1 fg/mL baseline for limit of detection, single molecule FLISA demonstrated good qualitative agreement with gold standard tests on 19 of 20 patients, including accurately predicting the gold-standard-negative patients, while one gold-standard-positive patient produced no observable LAM in urine. CONCLUSIONS:Single molecule FLISA by plasmonic grating demonstrated the ability to quantify tuberculosis LAM from complex urine samples of patients from a high endemic setting with negligible interference from the complex media itself. Moreover, agreement with patient diagnoses by gold standard testing suggests that single molecule FLISA could be used as a highly sensitive test to diagnose tuberculosis noninvasively

Prevalence and correlates of geriatric depression in a rural community in Kerala, India

Background: Elderly constitutes a vulnerable group for depression, as they are especially prone to suffer adverse consequences of a depressive episode and have greater rates of completed suicides. This study aims to estimate the prevalence and determinants of geriatric depression.&nbsp; Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among 250 elderlies from 1st January 2019 to 1st January 2020 in the different rural blocks of Ernakulam district, India. The multistage sampling technique and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-30) were used to collect the data. A score of 0 9 is considered "normal", 10 19 is labeled as "mildly depressed", and 20 30 as "severely depressed". Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS software. The Chi-square test /Fisher's exact test was used to study the association between the socio-demographic and behavioral variables with depression. Results: The mean age was 69.33 ± 7.41years and male: female ratio was 0.55: 1.The overall prevalence of depression was 52.4%. Advanced age over 70years [OR=2.04;95% CI, 1.227 – 3.394; P=0.006], female gender[OR=2.844;95% CI,1.663-4.865; P =&lt;0.001], lack of gainful employment [OR=3.504; 95% CI, 1.833–6.699; P =&lt;0.001], physical dependence [OR=0.365;95% CI,0.162–0.821; P =0.012], financial dependence [OR=0.388; 95% CI, 0.219–0.687; P =&lt;0.001], presence of medical co morbidities [OR=0.428; 95% CI, 0.212–0.866; P =0.016],poor lifestyle including the lack of regular exercise [OR =2.020; 95% CI,1.174–3.473; P =0.010], addiction to alcohol [OR=4.932;95%CI,1.600-15.208; P =0.004] and addiction to tobacco smoking [OR=2.905;95%CI,1.273-6.628; P =0.009] and poor family support [OR= 5.180;95% CI,716–15.636; P = 0.002] were found to be significantly associated with depression. Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among the elderlies was high, and hence early diagnosis and prompt treatment are essential to reduce its burden in the community

Effectiveness of Platelet-Rich Fibrin with Decalcified Freeze-Dried Bone Allograft Compared to Decalcified Freeze-Dried Bone Allograft Alone in Mandibular Grade–II Furcation Defects: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) with decalcified freeze-dried bone allograft (DFDBA) compared to DFDBA alone in mandibular grade–II furcation defects. Material and Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted on nine patients with chronic periodontitis, each having two almost identical mandibular grade II furcation defects. Test sites (left mandibular first molars) were treated with open flap debridement (OFD), DFDBA, and PRF, whereas control sites (right mandibular first molars) received OFD and DFDBA alone. Clinical parameters (plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), vertical clinical attachment level (VCAL) and horizontal clinical attachment level (HCAL) into the furcation defect) and radiographic measurements (mean alveolar bone defect) were done at baseline and after six months postoperatively. Results: The gain in relative horizontal clinical attachment level (RHCAL) in the test sites was 2.94±0.52 mm compared to 1.33±0.35 mm in control sites (p=0.01). Improvement in mean alveolar bone defect (MABD) (was 1.21±0.5 mm2 at test sites compared to 1.15±0.7 mm2 at control sites) probing pocket depth (PPD), recession, relative vertical attachment level (RVCAL), and percentage of bone fill was found in the test sites compared to control, which statistically insignificant. Conclusion: The test sites had better outcomes than control sites, which was significant for the parameter RHCAL. Therefore, combining the biological benefits of autologous PRF with DFDBA is an efficient and economical treatment modality for the management of mandibular grade II furcation defects

SB-224289 Antagonizes the Antifungal Mechanism of the Marine Depsipeptide Papuamide A

In order to expand the repertoire of antifungal compounds a novel, high-throughput phenotypic drug screen targeting fungal phosphatidylserine (PS) synthase (Cho1p) was developed based on antagonism of the toxin papuamide A (Pap-A). Pap-A is a cyclic depsipeptide that binds to PS in the membrane of wild-type Candida albicans, and permeabilizes its plasma membrane, ultimately causing cell death. Organisms with a homozygous deletion of the CHO1 gene (cho1ΔΔ) do not produce PS and are able to survive in the presence of Pap-A. Using this phenotype (i.e. resistance to Pap-A) as an indicator of Cho1p inhibition, we screened over 5,600 small molecules for Pap-A resistance and identified SB-224289 as a positive hit. SB-224289, previously reported as a selective human 5-HT1B receptor antagonist, also confers resistance to the similar toxin theopapuamide (TPap-A), but not to other cytotoxic depsipeptides tested. Structurally similar molecules and truncated variants of SB-224289 do not confer resistance to Pap-A, suggesting that the toxin-blocking ability of SB-224289 is very specific. Further biochemical characterization revealed that SB-224289 does not inhibit Cho1p, indicating that Pap-A resistance is conferred by another undetermined mechanism. Although the mode of resistance is unclear, interaction between SB-224289 and Pap-A or TPap-A suggests this screening assay could be adapted for discovering other compounds which could antagonize the effects of other environmentally- or medically-relevant depsipeptide toxins