Concurrent validity of self-rating scale of self-directed learning and self-directed learning instrument among Italian nursing students

BACKGROUND: Self-Directed Learning develops when students take the initiative for their learning, recognising needs, formulating goals, identifying resources, implementing appropriate strategies and evaluating learning outcomes. This should be seen as a collaborative process between the nurse educator and the learner. At the international level, various instruments have been used to measure Self-Directed Learning abilities (SDL), both in original and in culturally-adapted versions. However, few instruments have been subjected to full validation, and no gold standard reference has been established to date. In addition, few researchers have adopted the established tools to assess the concurrent validity of the emerging new tools. Therefore, the aim of this study was to measure the concurrent validity between the Self-Rating Scale of Self-Directed Learning (SRSSDL_Ita) - Italian version and the Self-Directed Learning Instruments (SDLI) in undergraduate nursing students. METHODS: A concurrent validity study design was conducted in a Bachelor level nursing degree programme located in Italy. All nursing students attending the first, second or third year (n=428) were the target sample. The SRSSDL_Ita, and the SDLI were used. The Pearson correlation was used to determine the concurrent validity between the instruments; the confidence of intervals (CI 95%) bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap (BCa), were also calculated. RESULTS: The majority of participants were students attending their first year (47.9%), and were predominately female (78.5%). Their average age was 22.5\ub14.1. The SDL abilities scores, as measured with the SRSSDL_Ita (min 40, max 200), were, on average, 160.79 (95% CI 159.10-162.57; median 160); while with the SDLI (min 20, max 100), they were on average 82.57 (95% CI 81.79-83.38; median 83). The Pearson correlation between the SRSSDL_Ita and SDLI instruments was 0.815 (CI BCa 95% 0.774-0.848), (p=0.000). CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm the concurrent validity of the SRSSDL_Ita with the SDLI. The SRSSDL_Ita instrument can be useful in the process of identifying Self-Directed Learning abilities, which are essential for students to achieve the expected learning goals and become lifelong learners

Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Improving Hematopoietic Function: An In Vitro and In Vivo Model. Part 2: Effect on Bone Marrow Microenvironment

The aim of the present study was to determine how mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) could improve bone marrow (BM) stroma function after damage, both in vitro and in vivo. Human MSC from 20 healthy donors were isolated and expanded. Mobilized selected CD34+ progenitor cells were obtained from 20 HSCT donors. For in vitro study, long-term bone marrow cultures (LTBMC) were performed using a etoposide damaged stromal model to test MSC effect in stromal confluence, capability of MSC to lodge in stromal layer as well as some molecules (SDF1, osteopontin,) involved in hematopoietic niche maintenance were analyzed. For the in vivo model, 64 NOD/SCID recipients were transplanted with CD34+ cells administered either by intravenous (IV) or intrabone (IB) route, with or without BM derived MSC. MSC lodgement within the BM niche was assessed by FISH analysis and the expression of SDF1 and osteopontin by immunohistochemistry. In vivo study showed that when the stromal damage was severe, TP-MSC could lodge in the etoposide-treated BM stroma, as shown by FISH analysis. Osteopontin and SDF1 were differently expressed in damaged stroma and their expression restored after TP-MSC addition. Human in vivo MSC lodgement was observed within BM niche by FISH, but MSC only were detected and not in the contralateral femurs. Human MSC were located around blood vessels in the subendoestal region of femurs and expressed SDF1 and osteopontin. In summary, our data show that MSC can restore BM stromal function and also engraft when a higher stromal damage was done. Interestingly, MSC were detected locally where they were administered but not in the contralateral femur

Transmission of malaria and genotypic variability of Plasmodium falciparum on the Island of Annobon (Equatorial Guinea)

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Compressed representation of a partially defined integer function over multiple arguments

In OLAP (OnLine Analitical Processing) data are analysed in an n-dimensional cube. The cube may be represented as a partially defined function over n arguments. Considering that often the function is not defined everywhere, we ask: is there a known way of representing the function or the points in which it is defined, in a more compact manner than the trivial one

Strong Host-Feeding Preferences of the Vector Triatoma infestans Modified by Vector Density: Implications for the Epidemiology of Chagas Disease

Chagas disease is a complex zoonosis with more than 150 mammalian host species, nearly a dozen blood-sucking triatomine species as main vectors, and 9–11 million people infected with Trypanosoma cruzi (its causal agent) in the Americas. Triatoma infestans, a highly domesticated species and one of the main vectors, feeds more often on domestic animals than on humans in northern Argentina. The question of whether there are host-feeding preferences among dogs, cats, and chickens is crucial to estimating transmission risks and predicting the effects of control tactics targeting them. This article reports the first host choice experiments of triatomine bugs conducted in small huts under natural conditions. The results demonstrate that T. infestans consistently preferred dogs to chickens or cats, with host shifts occurring more frequently at higher vector densities. Combined with earlier findings showing that dogs have high infection rates, are highly infectious, and have high contact rates with humans and domestic bugs, our results reinforce the role of dogs as the key reservoirs of T. cruzi. The strong bug preference for dogs can be exploited to target dogs with topical lotions or insecticide-impregnated collars to turn them into baited lethal traps or use them as transmission or infestation sentinels

Comparing the Bacterial Diversity of Acute and Chronic Dental Root Canal Infections

This study performed barcoded multiplex pyrosequencing with a 454 FLX instrument to compare the microbiota of dental root canal infections associated with acute (symptomatic) or chronic (asymptomatic) apical periodontitis. Analysis of samples from 9 acute abscesses and 8 chronic infections yielded partial 16S rRNA gene sequences that were taxonomically classified into 916 bacterial species-level operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (at 3% divergence) belonging to 67 genera and 13 phyla. The most abundant phyla in acute infections were Firmicutes (52%), Fusobacteria (17%) and Bacteroidetes (13%), while in chronic infections the dominant were Firmicutes (59%), Bacteroidetes (14%) and Actinobacteria (10%). Members of Fusobacteria were much more prevalent in acute (89%) than in chronic cases (50%). The most abundant/prevalent genera in acute infections were Fusobacterium and Parvimonas. Twenty genera were exclusively detected in acute infections and 18 in chronic infections. Only 18% (n = 165) of the OTUs at 3% divergence were shared by acute and chronic infections. Diversity and richness estimators revealed that acute infections were significantly more diverse than chronic infections. Although a high interindividual variation in bacterial communities was observed, many samples tended to group together according to the type of infection (acute or chronic). This study is one of the most comprehensive in-deep comparisons of the microbiota associated with acute and chronic dental root canal infections and highlights the role of diverse polymicrobial communities as the unit of pathogenicity in acute infections. The overall diversity of endodontic infections as revealed by the pyrosequencing technique was much higher than previously reported for endodontic infections