Improving continence services for older people from the service-providers' perspective: a qualitative interview study

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial.Objective To examine in depth the views and experiences of continence service leads in England on key service and continence management characteristics in order to identify and to improve our understanding of barriers to a good-quality service and potential facilitators to develop and to improve services for older people with urinary incontinence (UI). Design Qualitative semistructured interviews using a purposive sample recruited across 16 continence services. Setting 3 acute and 13 primary care National Health Service Trusts in England. Participants 16 continence service leads in England actively treating and managing older people with UI. Results In terms of barriers to a good-quality service, participants highlighted a failure on the part of commissioners, managers and other health professionals in recognising the problem of UI and in acknowledging the importance of continence for older people and prevalent negative attitudes towards continence and older people. Patient assessment and continence promotion regardless of age, rather than pad provision, were identified as important steps for a good-quality service for older people with UI. More rapid and appropriate patient referral pathways, investment in service capacity, for example, more trained staff and strengthened interservice collaborations and a higher profile within medical and nurse training were specified as being important facilitators for delivering an equitable and high-quality continence service. There is a need, however, to consider the accounts given by our participants as perhaps serving the interests of their professional group within the context of interprofessional work. Conclusions Our data point to important barriers and facilitators of a good-quality service for older people with UI, from the perspective of continence service leads. Further research should address the views of other stakeholders, and explore options for the empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of identified service facilitators.Funding was received from the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme, led by the Economic & Social Research Council, UK (grantnumber RES-353-25-0010)

The Harvard Committee Approves...

The Harvard Report, General Education in a Free Society, with its emphasis upon the importance of discussion and debate activities, should give some comfort to forensic directors whose efforts, so frequently, meet with criticism

Interferometric scattering enables fluorescence-free electrokinetic trapping of single nanoparticles in free solution

Anti-Brownian traps confine single particles in free solution by closed-loop feedback forces that directly counteract Brownian motion. The extended-duration measurement of trapped objects allows detailed characterization of photophysical and transport properties, as well as observation of infrequent or rare dynamics. However, this approach has been generally limited to particles that can be tracked by fluorescent emission. Here we present the Interferometric Scattering Anti-Brownian ELectrokinetic trap (ISABEL trap), which uses interferometric scattering rather than fluorescence to monitor particle position. By decoupling the ability to track (and therefore trap) a particle from collection of its spectroscopic data, the ISABEL trap enables confinement and extended study of single particles that do not fluoresce, that only weakly fluoresce, or which exhibit intermittent fluorescence or photobleaching. This new technique significantly expands the range of nanoscale objects that may be investigated at the single-particle level in free solution.Comment: Manuscript and SI; videos available upon reques

Influence of professionally assessed normative orthodontic treatment need on adult OHRQoL

Introduction: There is an increasing amount of research regarding the impact of malocclusions on OHRQoL. Reviews on this topic has mostly focused on children and adolescents, and therefore the aim of this thesis is to investigate the impact of professionally assessed normative orthodontic treatment need on adult OHRQOL. Materials and methods: Four electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library and Google Scholar) were searched using a search syntax including orthodontic treatment need, malocclusion, OHRQoL. The following inclusion criteria were used: Adult study population, healthy study participants, no previous or ongoing orthodontic treatment, a focus on malocclusion and quality of life, malocclusions assessed by professionals, OHRQoL estimated using validated questionnaires, and full-text articles written in English or in the Scandinavian languages. Methodical quality was assessed according to the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Results: A total of 1152 titles and abstracts were identified after duplicates were removed and 11 studies were included for the final analysis. The studies represented a large variation in sample size, methodology and geographical spread and were assessed as being of low to moderate methodological quality. All 11 studies presented significant associations between malocclusion (indices or specific malocclusions) and OHRQoL (domains or total scores). Regression analyses disclosed most of the associations as weak to moderate. Conclusion: Adults with considerable malocclusions have significantly poorer OHRQoL than people with occlusions near or within norms. Future studies would benefit from longitudinal studies with large representative samples

Proceedings of The Global Conference on Ergot of Sorghum

In June 1996, several of us had the opportunity to see sorghum ergot in Brazil and the damage that the disease can do. We saw severe damage in seed production plots and witnessed the pain that seed producers had to go through to deal with this new problem. There was a wide spread scare in the sorghum community in the Americas because of the infamous reputation of the disease in causing damage in seed production fields. As a silver lining, we also observed first hand, the excellent research program that the Brazilians had in place. It became apparent that all of the sorghum researchers, seed producers and regulators of plant pathogens worldwide needed to come together to study and review this disease. There could be no better venue for such a Global Conference than Sete Lagoas, Brazil. Hence this meeting was proposed and with the support and assistance of the Director of Sorghum and Maize Research (CNPMS) of EMBRAPA, this meeting has been arranged. At the time the meeting was proposed, the disease was known only in a few countries but it has spread today to include much of the Americas and Australia. Obviously, we can no longer avoid the disease, we can only learn to live with it and manage it in future growing seasons. It has been my pleasure to work with the research leaders on ergot at EMBRAPA in developing this conference, to receive cooperation from many of the global leaders on ergot to bring their knowledge to the conference and financial support from the American Seed Trade Association, as well as the support and encouragement from Texas A & M University and INTSORMIL in recognizing the importance of our collaboration on combating sorghum ergot. In this conference, we will learn from the experiences of countries where ergot had existed for a long time while examining the ergot situation in newly invaded countries. We have several dedicated papers dealing with the biology of the pathogen, the epidemiology of the disease, and disease management strategies. We will also chart the movement of the disease and plot ideas on how to collaboratively work to lessen the impact of sorghum ergot in the Americas

Evaluación agronómica de diez híbridos de sorgo en la costa sur de Puerto Rico en 1993 y 1994

Annually, Puerto Rico imports close to 220,000 t of feed grain from the United States and other countries at a cost of $16.0 million, for use as livestock and chicken feed. Previous studies have shown that sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] can be successfully grown in areas of the southern coast of Puerto Rico, all of which means an alternate crop and a way to reduce grain imports. Grain yield potentials of 10 hybrids of sorghum, including seven red and three white-seeded types, were evaluated at Juana Díaz on the south coast of the island.The test was planted 5 May 1993 and 23 May 1994 following a split-plot experimental design with three replications. Three rows were planted per plot. The middle row was used for yield and other agronomic trait evaluations. Mean grain yields of the test were 5,020 kg/ha. Top-yielding Cargilt Ma Cau 90 (6,240 kg/ha) significantly exceeded yields of all other hybrids except DK-65. Mean values of other agronomic characteristics were days to anthesis, 63.9; plant height, 150.4 cm; 100-seed weight, 3.44 g; harvest index, 31$16.0 millones. Se determinó el potencial de rendimiento y comportamiento agronómico de 10 híbridos de sorgo (siete de grano rojo y tres de grano blanco) en la subestación Experimental Agrícola de Fortuna, municipalidad de Juana Díaz. El experimento se sembró el 5 de mayo de 1993 y 23 de mayo de 1994 utilizando un diseño de bloques al azar con parcelas divididas con tres replicaciones. La parcela experimental consistió de tres hileras donde la hilera central se utilizó para obtener datos de rendimiento y de otras características. En promedio los 10 híbridos produjeron 5,020 kg/ha. El híbrido de mayor rendimiento fue el Cargill Ma Cau 90 con una producción de 6,240 kg/ha, significativamente mayor que la de los demás híbridos, excepto DK-65. El híbrido Cargill Appolo fue el de menor rendimiento. Los valores promedio para otros caracteres agronómicos fueron días a mitad de florecida, 63.9 días; altura de la planta, 150.4 cm; peso de 100 semillas, 3.44 g; índice de cosecha, 31%. Además, se encontró una correlación significativa (r = 0.34) entre altura de la planta y rendimiento de grano. El rendimiento demuestra que algunos de estos híbridos tienen potencial para ser sembrados a escala comercial y ayudar a reducir la dependencia de Puerto Rico en la importación de granos para concentrado de animales

Weighted maximal regularity estimates and solvability of non-smooth elliptic systems II

We continue the development, by reduction to a first order system for the conormal gradient, of $L^2$ \textit{a priori} estimates and solvability for boundary value problems of Dirichlet, regularity, Neumann type for divergence form second order, complex, elliptic systems. We work here on the unit ball and more generally its bi-Lipschitz images, assuming a Carleson condition as introduced by Dahlberg which measures the discrepancy of the coefficients to their boundary trace near the boundary. We sharpen our estimates by proving a general result concerning \textit{a priori} almost everywhere non-tangential convergence at the boundary. Also, compactness of the boundary yields more solvability results using Fredholm theory. Comparison between classes of solutions and uniqueness issues are discussed. As a consequence, we are able to solve a long standing regularity problem for real equations, which may not be true on the upper half-space, justifying \textit{a posteriori} a separate work on bounded domains.Comment: 76 pages, new abstract and few typos corrected. The second author has changed nam