Mapping the Opal Score for Clinical Trials to Coordinator Hours: A Single Site Study

Workload assessments help provide validation to increase staff, evaluate and ensure equal distribution of work, and assist with budget justifications. The Ontario Protocol Assessment Level (OPAL) is one of the most widely used protocol assessment tools. This study mapped an adapted OPAL score for clinical trials to actual coordinator hours from a single site to determine if the adapted OPAL score could predict coordinator hours. The purpose was to project a more accurate capacity estimate when considering new studies. The Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) clinical trials management system was queried for actively enrolling interventional studies with corresponding coordinator effort tracking from June 1, 2022, to December 1, 2022. Protocols were graded using an adapted OPAL tool. Linear regression analysis was performed to determine whether a linear association exists between the adapted OPAL score and coordinator effort. Seven studies were included in the analysis. The overall regression was statistically significant (R2 = 0.78, p = 0.008), and the adapted OPAL score significantly predicted tracked coordinator hours (β = 77.22, p = 0.008)

A preliminary attempt to interpret the power spectrum of the solar five minute oscillations in terms of the global oscillation model

The observed power spectrum of the solar five minute oscillations is discussed from the viewpoint that the oscillations are excited by turbulent convection. The observations place significant constraints on the theory and suggest constraints on the solar model structure. It is shown that the steep low frequency side of the peak in the power spectrum is more readily explained if the mixing length is greater than one scale height. The high frequency end of the power spectrum is also discussed

Vivencias de ancianos con el dolor oncológico: abordaje comprensivo existencial

OBJETIVO Compreender a vivência com a dor oncológica por idosos. MÉTODO Pesquisa qualitativa alicerçada na fenomenologia heideggeriana. Foram entrevistados 12 idosos em um município do noroeste do Paraná, no período de novembro de 2013 a fevereiro de 2014. RESULTADOS Da análise realizada por meio da compreensão vaga e mediana e compreensão interpretativa, emergiram duas temáticas ontológicas: A dor oncológica: desvelando o aprisionamento e as imposições vivenciadas pelos idosos e Desvelando a angústia de conviver com a dor oncológica, que revelaram não apenas como os idosos vivenciam a dor em seu cotidiano, mas o quão difícil é conviver com suas peculiaridades. CONCLUSÃO A dor do câncer, para os idosos, tem repercussões biopsicossociais, gerando alterações em seu existir no mundo, exigindo um cuidado holístico e autêntico.OBJECTIVE Understanding the experiences of elderly with cancer pain. METHOD Qualitative research based on Heidegger's phenomenology. 12 elderly cancer patients from a city in northwest Paraná were interviewed from November 2013 to February 2014. RESULTS Analysis performed by vague, median and interpretive understanding which resulted in two ontological themes: Cancer pain: unveiling the imprisonment and impositions experienced by the elderly, and Unveiling the anguish of living with cancer pain; it revealed not only how the elderly experience pain in their daily lives, but also how hard it is to live with its particularities. CONCLUSION Cancer pain has biopsychosocial repercussions for the elderly, generating changes in their existence in the world, requiring holistic and authentic care.OBJETIVO Comprender la vivencia con dolor oncológico por ancianos. MÉTODO Investigación cualitativa cimentada en la fenomenología heideggeriana. Fueron entrevistados 12 ancianos en un municipio del noroeste de Paraná, en el período de noviembre de 2013 a febrero de 2014. RESULTADOS Del análisis llevado a cabo por medio de la comprensión vaga y mediana y comprensión interpretativa, surgieron dos temáticas ontológicas: El dolor oncológico: desvelando el aprisionamiento y las imposiciones vividas por los ancianos y Desvelando la angustia de convivir con el dolor oncológico, que revelaron no solo cómo los añosos viven el dolor en su cuotidiano, sino cuán difícil es convivir con sus peculiaridades. CONCLUSIÓN El dolor del cáncer, para los ancianos, tiene repercusiones biopsicosociales que causan cambios en su existir en el mundo y requieren un cuidado holístico y auténtico

Fulminating herpes simplex hepatitis

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is a rare cause of acute hepatitis in patients with chronic immunosuppression, including Crohn’s disease. HSV hepatitis has the propensity to cause acute liver failure and death. The presenting signs and symptoms can be nonspecific, thereby causing the diagnosis to go overlooked with inadequate management, leading to a high mortality rate. We report a case of a 31-year-old male on chronic prednisone treatment for Crohn’s disease who unexpectedly died. Subsequently, an autopsy showed HSV hepatitis as the cause of death. Thus, although a rare complication, HSV hepatitis should always be kept in mind as a fatal complication in patients with acute hepatitis and chronic immunosuppression

FIM4R Position Paper on the Desired Evolution of EOSC Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructures

Authored by: the FIM4R Community The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) will soon enter the next phase of integration and consolidation with the establishment of a common service portal listing underpinning services that enable distributed resources in the areas of computation, data, open access, and above-the-net collaboration services. The existing e-Infrastructures that are anticipated to be part of the EOSC each provide their own capabilities in terms of trust and identity management, integrity protection and risk management, as well as capabilities to support business continuity and disaster recovery in case of security incidents. There are also specific trust, collaboration management, and security services that are jointly managed by multiple e-Infrastructures for the benefit of (but in many cases not exclusively) the European research and collaboration community as a whole. These include for instance the glue between the EOSC AAI suite of services that each implement the AARC Blueprint Architecture (AARC BPA), i.e. the AAI services such as those from both national and pan-European Infrastructures as well as components such as credential translation bridge services

Monografía:“Conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas de hombres creoles del barrio Beholdeen sobre el cáncer de próstata. Bluefields, RACCS – 2014”

Objetivo: Analizar los conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas que poseen hombres Creoles del Bario Beholdeen en relación al cáncer de próstata. Bluefields, RAAS- 2014. Metodología: Estudio Cuantitativo-cualitativo, descriptivo de corte transversal. Se aplicó una encuesta dirigida a muestra de 251 hombres, los datos obtenidos fueron analizados utilizando el SPSS. Para la muestra cualitativa se realizaron 10 entrevistas, los resultados fueron tratados a través de análisis de contenido y del discurso. Resultados: El nivel de conocimientos que poseen los hombres Creoles sobre el cáncer de próstata es bajo, El 81% de los participantes afirmó que han escuchado acerca de esta enfermedad, siendo sus amistades la principal fuente de información. Consideran que tener más de una pareja sexual es la causa del cáncer de próstata, entre los síntomas que conocen denotan problemas al orinar, sangre en la orina, problemas para lograr la erección y dolor de cadera. Las actitudes que presentan los hombres creoles frente al cáncer de próstata son hasta cierto grado ambiguas. Por un lado muestran actitudes positivas al estar de acuerdo que es sumamente importante poseer los conocimientos adecuados sobre esta enfermedad, también se disponen a recibir atención médica en caso de presentar algún síntoma relacionado, señalan que es importante realizarse periódicamente alguna prueba para la detección del cáncer (Preferiblemente el ultrasonido), sin embargo al momento de preguntar si está dispuesto a realizarse el Examen Digito Rectal, refieren una actitud negativa, ya que emergen ideas desagradables al respecto, causando sentimientos de temor y vergüenza. Las acciones preventivas que practican estos hombres son casi nula

Inclusion biogenesis and reactivation of persistent Chlamydia trachomatis requires host cell sphingolipid biosynthesis

Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular pathogens that must coordinate the acquisition of host cell-derived biosynthetic constituents essential for bacterial survival. Purified chlamydiae contain several lipids that are typically found in eukaryotes, implying the translocation of host cell lipids to the chlamydial vacuole. Acquisition and incorporation of sphingomyelin occurs subsequent to transport from Golgi-derived exocytic vesicles, with possible intermediate transport through endosomal multivesicular bodies. Eukaryotic host cell-derived sphingomyelin is essential for intracellular growth of Chlamydia trachomatis, but the precise role of this lipid in development has not been delineated. The present study identifies specific phenotypic effects on inclusion membrane biogenesis and stability consequent to conditions of sphingomyelin deficiency. Culturing infected cells in the presence of inhibitors of serine palmitoyltransferase, the first enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of host cell sphingomyelin, resulted in loss of inclusion membrane integrity with subsequent disruption in normal chlamydial inclusion development. Surprisingly, this was accompanied by premature redifferentiation to and release of infectious elementary bodies. Homotypic fusion of inclusions was also disrupted under conditions of sphingolipid deficiency. In addition, host cell sphingomyelin synthesis was essential for inclusion membrane stability and expansion that is vital to reactivation of persistent chlamydial infection. The present study implicates both the Golgi apparatus and multivesicular bodies as key sources of host-derived lipids, with multivesicular bodies being essential for normal inclusion development and reactivation of persistent C. trachomatis infection

Clinical and pathological prognostic factors involved in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (gist) of gastric origin

BACKGROUND: This study wants to identify clinical and pathologic prognostic factors of resected gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with c-Kit positive gastric GIST who underwent surgical resection at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA) between 1983 and 2004 were reviewed retrospectively. Prognostic significance of clinical and pathological variables was investigated. The endpoints were overall survival and disease free survival. RESULTS: Median follow-up was 35 months. Five-year estimate survival rate was 53%. Univariate analysis for overall survival identified size 13.5 cm (p=0.01) and recurrence (p=0.03) as prognostic factors. Size 13.5 cm and recurrence were independent factors (p=0.01 and p=0.03 respectively) in multivariate analysis. Univariate analysis for disease free survival identified size 13.5 cm (p=0.04) and grade (p=0.04) as prognostic factors but only size 13.5 cm was an independent factor in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Size 13.5 cm and recurrence were identified as independent prognostic factors for overall survival. Only size 13.5 cm was an independent prognostic factor for disease free survival.OBJETIVO: Identificar os fatores prognósticos clínicos e anatomopatológicos nos portadores de tumor estromal gastrointestinal (GIST) gástrico submetidos à ressecção cirúrgica. MÉTODO: Estudo retrospectivo realizado no Instituto Nacional do Câncer (INCA), incluindo 29 casos de GIST gástrico c-Kit positivo submetidos à ressecção cirúrgica entre 1983 e 2004. Variáveis clínicas e anatomopatológicas foram investigadas quanto ao significado prognóstico, correlacionando-as com sobrevida global e sobrevida livre de doença. RESULTADOS: O acompanhamento mediano foi de 35 meses. A sobrevida global, estimada em cinco anos, foi de 53%. As variáveis tamanho tumoral maior que 13,5 cm e presença de recidiva tiveram implicação prognóstica na sobrevida global conforme análise univariada (p=0,01 e p=0,03, respectivamente). A análise multivariada evidenciou que tamanho tumoral maior que 13,5 cm e presença de recidiva representaram fatores prognósticos independentes relacionados à sobrevida global (p=0,01 e p=0,03, respectivamente). As características tamanho tumoral maior que 13,5 cm e índice mitótico influenciaram significativamente (p=0,04 e p=0,04) a sobrevida livre de doença (análise univariada), porém apenas tamanho tumoral maior que 13,5 cm apresentou-se como fator prognóstico independente (p=0,04) relacionado à sobrevida livre de doença, quando utilizada a análise multivariada. CONCLUSÕES: O tamanho tumoral e a presença de recidiva representaram fatores prognósticos independentes relacionados à sobrevida global. Apenas o tamanho tumoral apresentou impacto adverso independente na sobrevida livre de doença.INCAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de MedicinaINCA Seção de Cirurgia Abdômino-PélvicaUFRJINCA Serviço de Anatomia PatológicaUniversidade Gama FilhoHospital dos Servidores do Estado Serviço de Anatomia PatológicaUNIFESP, EPMSciEL