Feasibility and acceptability of psychosocial care forunsuccessful fertility treatment

Introduction Many people undergo fertility treatment to have biological children, but around four in ten patients complete all treatment cycles without having the children they desire. This triggers intense grief from which patients report taking on average 2 years to recover. Fertility guidelines and regulators stress the need to support patients through this process, but there is a scarcity of evaluated interventions to this end and evidence about when and how to offer care is lacking. This study explored patients' and healthcare professionals' (HCPs) experiences of and views about provision of psychosocial care (to patients facing unsuccessful fertility treatment, i.e., care provided by a mental health professional to address the emotional, cognitive, behavioural, relational and social needs that patients have at this stage of treatment). Methods Five qualitative online focus groups were conducted with Portuguese participants: three with patients waiting to initiate or undergoing their last cycle of in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection or having completed it within the last 2 months without achieving a pregnancy and two with HCPs working at fertility clinics. Focus groups were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and data were analysed with Framework Analysis. Results Thirteen patients and nine HCPs participated. Analysis resulted in 1293 codes, systematically organized into 13 categories, 4 themes and 1 metatheme. The latter showed high consensus about the need for psychosocial care for unsuccessful treatment, but perceived challenges in its implementation. Themes reflected (1) consensual demand for psychosocial care at all stages of treatment but particularly at the end, (2) high perceived acceptability of integrating preventive care initiated during treatment with early psychosocial care only for those patients who experience unsuccessful treatment, (3) perceived challenges of implementing psychosocial care for unsuccessful treatment at clinics and (4) suggestions to promote its acceptability and feasibility. Conclusion Patients and HCPs perceive that clinics should improve care provision across the whole treatment pathway and in particular for unsuccessful fertility treatment. Suggestions were made to inform future research focusing on the development and evaluation of psychosocial interventions to this end. Patient or Public Contribution Patients and HCPs participated in the focus groups. Two HCPs also revised the manuscript.Thanks are due to nurse Cláudia Coelho for supporting this project and to patients and healthcare professionals who participated in the focus groups. The authors are also grateful to the European Social Fund and Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. (FCT; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) for supporting the present study, through the Portuguese State Budget. Mariana Sousa-Leite has a doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BD/144429/2019), Raquel Costa has a postdoctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/117597/2016), and the EPI Unit, ITR and CIPsi (PSI/01662) are also funded by FTC, in the scope of the projects UIDB/04750/2020, LA/P/0064/2020 and UIDB/PSI/01662/2020, respectively

Structural study of the interaction of vanadate with the ligand 1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4-pyridinone (Hdmpp) in aqueous solution

The interaction of vanadate with the ligand 1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4-pyridinone (Hdmpp) was studied in aqueous solution using a combination of multinuclear NMR and EPR spectroscopies, as well as potentiometry and cyclic voltammetry. The different species in solution were identified and characterized, and their pKa values and stability constants determined. The vanadium complexes formed in solution are strongly dependent on media composition (ionic strength, presence of buffer), pH and metal-to-ligand ratio (M:L). Two major species -- V(V)/dmpp and V(V)/(dmpp)2 -- are formed in a 140 mM NaCl solution within the pH range 4.5 to 9.0, when M:L=1:2. In the presence of excess ligand (M:L<=1:5), only the 1:2 complex is present, and at pH<4 paramagnetic species are detected by EPR in solution, thus indicating a reducing capacity of the ligand. Cyclic voltammetry shows that redox processes in solution are not just electron transfer, but are accompanied by chemical reactions. The pKa values and stability constants were determined both by 51V NMR spectroscopy and potentiometry. The present results have a particular interest in the understanding of the aqueous solution chemistry in aerobic conditions of bis(1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-4-pyridinonato) oxovanadium(IV) complex, VO(dmpp)2, a vanadium compound with potential insulin-mimetic properties.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TGG-40X8DKT-3C/1/3226f220763b348a4f3d74ae0fcd0e2

Uma visão crítica sobre a utilização de cortinas de ar em estabelecimentos comerciais climatizados

Tendo por base um conjunto de ensaios realizados numa instalação experimental especialmente concebida para o efeito, é avaliada a influência de alguns parâmetros geométricos e dinâmicos sobre a eficácia da vedação térmica alcançada com a utilização de aparelhos de cortina de ar. A informação recolhida permitiu estabelecer diversas recomendações sobre a selecção, instalação e operação deste tipo de aparelho, as quais, na prática, nem sempre são seguidas, conforme se pode antever dos dados preliminares recolhidos em vistorias técnicas realizadas a estabelecimentos comerciais que utilizam este tipo de solução

Predicting trajectories of behavioral adjustment in children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Purpose Previous research showed that children with cancer are at risk for developing behavioral adjustment problems after successful treatment; however, the course of adjustment remains unclear. This study focuses on adjustment trajectories of children during treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and aims to distinguish subgroups of patients showing different trajectories during active treatment, and to identify sociodemographic, medical, and psychosocial predictors of the distinct adjustment trajectories. Methods In a multicenter longitudinal study, 108 parents of a child (response rate 80 %) diagnosed with ALL were assessed during induction treatment (T0), after induction/consolidation treatment (T1), and after end of treatment (T2). Trajectories of child behavioral adjustment (Child Behavior Checklist; CBCL) were tested with latent class growth modeling (LCGM) analyses. Results For internalizing behavior, a three-trajectory model was found: a group that experienced no problems (60 %), a group that experienced only initial problems (30 %), and a group that experienced chronic problems (10 %). For externalizing behavior, a three-trajectory model was also found: a group that experienced no problems (83 %), a group that experienced chronic problems (12 %), and a group that experienced increasing problems (5 %). Only parenting stress and baseline QoL (cancer related) were found to contribute uniquely to adjustment trajectories. Conclusions The majority of the children (77 %) showed no or transient behavioral problems during the entire treatment as reported by parents. A substantial group (23 %) shows maladaptive trajectories of internalizing behavioral problems and/or externalizing behavioral problems. Screening for risk factors for developing problems might be helpful in early identification of these children

The persistence landscape and some of its properties

Persistence landscapes map persistence diagrams into a function space, which may often be taken to be a Banach space or even a Hilbert space. In the latter case, it is a feature map and there is an associated kernel. The main advantage of this summary is that it allows one to apply tools from statistics and machine learning. Furthermore, the mapping from persistence diagrams to persistence landscapes is stable and invertible. We introduce a weighted version of the persistence landscape and define a one-parameter family of Poisson-weighted persistence landscape kernels that may be useful for learning. We also demonstrate some additional properties of the persistence landscape. First, the persistence landscape may be viewed as a tropical rational function. Second, in many cases it is possible to exactly reconstruct all of the component persistence diagrams from an average persistence landscape. It follows that the persistence landscape kernel is characteristic for certain generic empirical measures. Finally, the persistence landscape distance may be arbitrarily small compared to the interleaving distance.Comment: 18 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of the 2018 Abel Symposiu

Coordinated Multiwavelength Observations of V410Tau

In November 2001 we undertook a coordinated observing campaign to study the connection between X-ray and optical variability in the weak-line T Tauri star V410Tau. The observing plan included three 15 ksec observations with Chandra using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer for Spectroscopy scheduled for different phases of the known 1.87 d starspot cycle. Photometric and spectroscopic monitoring of V410Tau involving telescopes on three different continents was scheduled simultaneously with the Chandra exposures.Comment: 3 pages, Poster Proceedings of "1st Potsdam Thinkshop on Sunspots and Starspots", Potsdam, Germany, May 200

An Infrared Coronagraphic Survey for Substellar Companions

We have used the F160W filter (1.4-1.8 um) and the coronagraph on the Near-InfraRed Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to survey 45 single stars with a median age of 0.15 Gyr, an average distance of 30 pc, and an average H-magnitude of 7 mag. For the median age we were capable of detecting a 30 M_Jup companion at separations between 15 and 200 AU. A 5 M_Jup object could have been detected at 30 AU around 36% of our primaries. For several of our targets that were less than 30 Myr old, the lower mass limit was as low as a Jupiter mass, well into the high mass planet region. Results of the entire survey include the proper motion verification of five low-mass stellar companions, two brown dwarfs (HR7329B and TWA5B) and one possible brown dwarf binary (Gl 577B/C).Comment: 11 figures, accepted by A

The ROD crate DAQ software framework of the ATLAS data acquisition system

In the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, the ROD Crate DAQ provides a complete software framework to implement data acquisition functionality at the boundary between the detector specific electronics and the common part of the data acquisition system. Based on a plugin mechanism, it allows selecting and using common services (like data output and data monitoring channels) and developing software to control and acquire data from detector specific modules providing the infrastructure for control, monitoring and calibration. Including also event building functionality, the ROD Crate DAQ is intended to be the main data acquisition tool for the first phase of detector commissioning. This paper presents the design, functionality and performance of the ROD Crate DAQ and its usage in the ATLAS data acquisition system and during detector tests

Interpretation of the Veiling of the Photospheric Spectrum for T Tauri Stars in Terms of an Accretion Model

The problem on heating the atmospheres of T Tauri stars by radiation from an accretion shock has been solved. The structure and radiation spectrum of the emerging so-called hot spot have been calculated in the LTE approximation. The emission not only in continuum but also in lines has been taken into account for the first time when calculating the spot spectrum. Comparison with observations has shown that the strongest of these lines manifest themselves as narrow components of helium and metal emission lines, while the weaker ones decrease significantly the depth of photospheric absorption lines, although until now, this effect has been thought to be due to the emission continuum alone. The veiling by lines changes the depth of different photospheric lines to a very different degree even within a narrow spectral range. Therefore, the nonmonotonic wavelength dependence of the degree of veiling r found for some CTTS does not suggest a nontrivial spectral energy distribution of the veiling continuum. In general, it makes sense to specify the degree of veiling r only by providing the set of photospheric lines from which this quantity was determined. We show that taking into account the contribution of lines to the veiling of the photospheric spectrum can cause the existing estimates of the accretion rate onto T Tauri stars to decrease by several times, with this being also true for stars with a comparatively weakly veiled spectrum. Neglecting the contribution of lines to the veiling can also lead to appreciable errors in determining the effective temperature, interstellar extinction, radial velocity, and vsin(i)

The Gaia-ESO Survey: Chromospheric Emission, Accretion Properties, and Rotation in γ\gamma Velorum and Chamaeleon I

We use the fundamental parameters delivered by the GES consortium in the first internal data release to select the members of $\gamma$ Vel and Cha I among the UVES and GIRAFFE spectroscopic observations. A total of 140 $\gamma$ Vel members and 74 Cha I members were studied. We calculated stellar luminosities through spectral energy distributions, while stellar masses were derived by comparison with evolutionary tracks. The spectral subtraction of low-activity and slowly rotating templates, which are rotationally broadened to match the $v\sin i$ of the targets, enabled us to measure the equivalent widths (EWs) and the fluxes in the H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ lines. The H$\alpha$ line was also used for identifying accreting objects and for evaluating the mass accretion rate ($\dot M_{\rm acc}$). The distribution of $v\sin i$ for the members of $\gamma$ Vel displays a peak at about 10 km s$^{-1}$ with a tail toward faster rotators. There is also some indication of a different $v\sin i$ distribution for the members of its two kinematical populations. Only a handful of stars in $\gamma$ Vel display signatures of accretion, while many more accretors were detected in the younger Cha~I. Accreting and active stars occupy two different regions in a $T_{\rm eff}$-flux diagram and we propose a criterion for distinguishing them. We derive $\dot M_{\rm acc}$ in the ranges $10^{-11}$-$10^{-9} M_\odot$yr$^{-1}$ and $10^{-10}$-$10^{-7} M_\odot$yr$^{-1}$ for $\gamma$ Vel and Cha I accretors, respectively. We find less scatter in the $\dot M_{\rm acc}-M_\star$ relation derived through the H$\alpha$ EWs, when compared to the H$\alpha$ $10\%W$ diagnostics, in agreement with other authors