Design and psychometric evaluation of the 'Clinical Communication Self-Efficacy Toolkit'

Nursing students experience difficulties when communicating in clinical practice. Their self-efficacy in clinical communication should be explored as part of their competence assessment before they are exposed to real human interactions in the clinical setting. The aim of this study was to design and psychometrically evaluate a toolkit to comprehensively assess nursing students’ self-efficacy in clinical communication. The study followed an observational cross-sectional design. A sample of 365 nursing students participated in the study. The ‘Clinical Communication Self-Efficacy Toolkit’ (CC-SET) was comprised of three tools: the ‘Patient-Centered Communication Self-efficacy Scale’ (PCC-SES), the ‘Patient clinical Information Exchange and interprofessional communication Self-Efficacy Scale’ (PIE-SES), and the ‘Intrapersonal communication and Self-Reflection Self-Efficacy Scale’ (ISR-SES). The tools’ reliability, validity (content, criterion, and construct) and usability were rigorously tested. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the three tools comprising the CC-SET was very high and demonstrated their excellent reliability (PCC-SES = 0.93; PIE-SES = 0.87; ISR-SES = 0.86). The three tools evidenced to have excellent content validity (scales’ content validity index > 0.95) and very good criterion validity. Construct validity analysis demonstrated that the PCC-SES, PIE-SES, and ISR-SES have a clear and theoretically-congruent structure. The CC-SET is a comprehensive toolkit that allows the assessment of nursing students’ self-efficacy in interpersonal, interprofessional, and intrapersonal communication

Evaluación de la microdureza de cementos resinosos de uso odontológico: estudio in vitro

OBJETIVO: Es importante conocer las propiedades mecánicas de los materiales dentales para poder determinar críticamente su comportamiento y no limitarnos únicamente a la evaluación clínica. Por esa razón, el objetivo de este estudio fue comparar la microdureza de cuatro cementos resinosos de uso odontológico teniendo en cuenta que existe correlación entre esta propiedad mecánica y el comportamiento clínico del material.MATERIALES Y MÉTODOS: Se confeccionaron seis cuerpos de prueba para cada cemento evaluado: RelyXTM ARC(3M ESPE) = G1, Multilink® (IVOCLAR VIVADENT) = G2, MaxCem EliteTM (KERR CORPORATION) = G3 y RelyXTMU200 (3M ESPE) = G4, los que fueron almacenados durante 48 horas a temperatura ambiente y sometidos al ensayo deMicrodureza Vickers (VMH) con 200 g-f durante 10 segundos.RESULTADOS: Para el cemento resinoso dual convencional (grupo control) G1 el valor promedio de microdureza fue47.08 ± 4.52 VMH. El cemento resinoso dual de autograbado (G2) tuvo un valor promedio de 43.88 ± 2.35 VMH. Elvalor promedio de microdureza del cemento resinoso autoadhesivo G3 fue de 37.41 ± 3.10 VMH mientras que para elcemento resinoso autoadhesivo G4 se obtuvo un valor promedio de 50.58 ± 1.10 VMH.CONCLUSIÓN: Se concluye que el cemento resinoso autoadhesivo dual RelyXTM U200 presentaría un mejor comportamiento clínico ya que los valores de microdureza encontrados fueron los más altos, encontrando diferencias estadísticamente significativas con Multilink® y MaxCem EliteTM

Design and psychometric analysis of the COVID-19 prevention, recognition and home-management self-efficacy scale

In order to control the spread of COVID-19, people must adopt preventive behaviours that can affect their day-to-day life. People’s self-efficacy to adopt preventive behaviours to avoid COVID-19 contagion and spread should be studied. The aim of this study was to develop and psychometrically test the COVID-19 prevention, detection, and home-management self-efficacy scale (COVID-19-SES). We conducted an observational cross-sectional study. Six-hundred and seventy-eight people participated in the study. Data were collected between March and May 2020. The COVID-19-SES’ validity (content, criterion, and construct), reliability (internal consistency and test-retest reliability), and legibility were studied. The COVID-19-SES’ reliability was high (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.906; intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.754). The COVID-19-SES showed good content validity (scale’s content validity index = 0.92) and good criterion validity when the participants’ results on the COVID-19-SES were compared to their general self-efficacy (r = 0.38; p 0.001). Construct validity analysis revealed that the COVID-19-SES’ three-factor structure explained 52.12% of the variance found and it was congruent with the World Health Organisation’s recommendations to prevent COVID-19 contagion and spread. Legibility analysis showed that the COVID-19-SES is easy to read and understand by laypeople. The COVID-19-SES is a psychometrically robust instrument that allows for a valid and reliable assessment of people’s self-efficacy in preventing, detecting symptoms, and home-managing COVID-19

Aggressiveness of meloidogyne javanica populations on commercial potato cultivars.

Edição dos Proceedings do 6th International Congress of Nematology, Cape Town, South Africa, May 2014

Efficacy of novel indoor residual spraying methods targeting pyrethroid-resistant aedes aegypti within experimental houses

Challenges in maintaining high effectiveness of classic vector control in urban areas has renewed the interest in indoor residual spraying (IRS) as a promising approach for Aedes-borne disease prevention. While IRS has many benefits, application time and intrusive indoor applications make its scalability in urban areas difficult. Modifying IRS to account for Ae. aegypti resting behavior, named targeted IRS (TIRS, spraying walls below 1.5 m and under furniture) can reduce application time; however, an untested assumption is that modifications to IRS will not negatively impact entomological efficacy. We conducted a comparative experimental study evaluating the residual efficacy of classically-applied IRS (as developed for malaria control) compared to two TIRS application methods using a carbamate insecticide against a pyrethroid-resistant, field-derived Ae. aegypti strain. We performed our study within a novel experimental house setting (n = 9 houses) located in Merida (Mexico), with similar layouts and standardized contents. Classic IRS application (insecti-cide applied to full walls and under furniture) was compared to: a) TIRS: insecticide applied to walls below 1.5 m and under furniture, and b) Resting Site TIRS (RS-TIRS): insecticide applied only under furniture. Mosquito mortality was measured eight times post-application (out to six months post-application) by releasing 100 Ae. aegypti females/house and collecting live and dead individuals after 24 hrs exposure. Compared to Classic IRS, TIRS and RS-TIRS took less time to apply (31% and 82% reduction, respectively) and used less insecticide (38% and 85% reduction, respectively). Mortality of pyrethroid-resistant Ae. aegypti did not significantly differ among the three IRS application methods up to two months post application, and did not significantly differ between Classic IRS and TIRS up to four months post application. These data illustrate that optimizing IRS to more efficiently target Ae. aegypti

Altered Tyrosine Phosphorylation of Cardiac Proteins Prompts Contractile Dysfunction in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Altered Serine/Threonine phosphorylation of the cardiac proteome is an established hallmark of heart failure (HF). However, the contribution of tyrosine phosphorylation to the pathogenesis of these diseases remains unclear. The cardiac proteome was explored by global mapping to discover and quantify site-specific tyrosine phosphorylation in two cardiac hypertrophic models; cardiac overexpression of ErbB2 (TgErbB2) and cardiac expression of a-Myosin heavy chain R403Q (R403Q-aMyHCTg) compared to control hearts. Phosphoproteomic changes found in R403Q-aMyHC Tg mice indicated EGFR1, Focal Adhesion, VEGF, ErbB signaling, and Chemokine signaling pathways activity were likely to be activated. On the other hand, TgErbB2 mice findings displayed significant overrepresentation of Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) KEGG Pathways. In silico kinase-substrate enrichment analysis (KSEA) highlighted a marked downregulation of canonical MAPK Pathway Activity downstream of k-Ras in TgErbB2 mice and activation of EGFR, PP2 inhibition of c-Src, and Hepatocyte growth factor stimulation. In vivo ErbB2 inhibition by AG-825 decreased cardiac fibrosis, cardiomyocyte disarray, and rescued contractile function on TgErbB2 mice. These results suggest that altered tyrosine phosphorylation may play a regulatory role in cardiac hypertrophic models, suggesting that tyrosine kinase inhibitors could be used therapeutically in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Resilience of olive tree cultivars to intensive salt stress

Comunicación oral presentada en: III congreso CAOS, Granada EEZ, España. 4 mayo 2023This work was performed at the Stress, Development and Signaling in Plants of the Estación Experimental del Zaidín – Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC)- and at student’s home. The work was supported by research projects MCIN/AEI/PID2020-113324GB-100, and TED2021130015BC22 both of them co-funded by ERDF program of the EU

Deltamethrin resistance in Aedes aegypti results in treatment failure in Merida, Mexico

The operational impact of deltamethrin resistance on the efficacy of indoor insecticide applications to control Aedes aegypti was evaluated in Merida, Mexico. A randomized controlled trial quantified the efficacy of indoor residual spraying (IRS) against adult Ae. aegypti in houses treated with either deltamethrin (to which local Ae. aegypti expressed a high degree of resistance) or bendiocarb (to which local Ae. aegypti were fully susceptible) as compared to untreated control houses. All adult Ae. aegypti infestation indices during 3 months post-spraying were significantly lower in houses treated with bendiocarb compared to untreated houses (odds ratio < 0.75; incidence rate ratio < 0.65) whereas no statistically significant difference was detected between the untreated and the deltamethrin-treated houses. On average, bendiocarb spraying reduced Ae. aegypti abundance by 60% during a 3-month period. Results demonstrate that vector control efficacy can be significantly compromised when the insecticide resistance status of Ae. aegypti populations is not taken into consideration

Search for transient optical counterparts to high-energy IceCube neutrinos with Pan-STARRS1

In order to identify the sources of the observed diffuse high-energy neutrino flux, it is crucial to discover their electromagnetic counterparts. IceCube began releasing alerts for single high-energy ($E > 60$ TeV) neutrino detections with sky localisation regions of order 1 deg radius in 2016. We used Pan-STARRS1 to follow-up five of these alerts during 2016-2017 to search for any optical transients that may be related to the neutrinos. Typically 10-20 faint ($m < 22.5$ mag) extragalactic transients are found within the Pan-STARRS1 footprints and are generally consistent with being unrelated field supernovae (SNe) and AGN. We looked for unusual properties of the detected transients, such as temporal coincidence of explosion epoch with the IceCube timestamp. We found only one transient that had properties worthy of a specific follow-up. In the Pan-STARRS1 imaging for IceCube-160427A (probability to be of astrophysical origin of $\sim$50 %), we found a SN PS16cgx, located at 10.0' from the nominal IceCube direction. Spectroscopic observations of PS16cgx showed that it was an H-poor SN at z = 0.2895. The spectra and light curve resemble some high-energy Type Ic SNe, raising the possibility of a jet driven SN with an explosion epoch temporally coincident with the neutrino detection. However, distinguishing Type Ia and Type Ic SNe at this redshift is notoriously difficult. Based on all available data we conclude that the transient is more likely to be a Type Ia with relatively weak SiII absorption and a fairly normal rest-frame r-band light curve. If, as predicted, there is no high-energy neutrino emission from Type Ia SNe, then PS16cgx must be a random coincidence, and unrelated to the IceCube-160427A. We find no other plausible optical transient for any of the five IceCube events observed down to a 5$\sigma$ limiting magnitude of $m \sim 22$ mag, between 1 day and 25 days after detection.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, accepted to A&

Neutrinos below 100 TeV from the southern sky employing refined veto techniques to IceCube data

Many Galactic sources of gamma rays, such as supernova remnants, are expected to produce neutrinos with a typical energy cutoff well below 100 TeV. For the IceCube Neutrino Observatory located at the South Pole, the southern sky, containing the inner part of the Galactic plane and the Galactic Center, is a particularly challenging region at these energies, because of the large background of atmospheric muons. In this paper, we present recent advancements in data selection strategies for track-like muon neutrino events with energies below 100 TeV from the southern sky. The strategies utilize the outer detector regions as veto and features of the signal pattern to reduce the background of atmospheric muons to a level which, for the first time, allows IceCube searching for point-like sources of neutrinos in the southern sky at energies between 100 GeV and several TeV in the muon neutrino charged current channel. No significant clustering of neutrinos above background expectation was observed in four years of data recorded with the completed IceCube detector. Upper limits on the neutrino flux for a number of spectral hypotheses are reported for a list of astrophysical objects in the southern hemisphere.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, 2 table