Lactate and Number of Organ Failures Predict Intensive Care Unit Mortality in Patients with Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure

Background and aims: Patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) have high mortality rates. Most prognostic scores were not developed for the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. We aimed to improve risk stratification for patients with ACLF in the ICU. Methods: A training set with 240 patients with cirrhosis and organ failures (Chronic Liver Failure Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score [CLIF-SOFA]) from Curry Cabral Hospital (Portugal) and University of Alberta Hospital (Canada) in 2010-2016 was used to derive a prognostic model for ICU mortality. A validation set with 237 patients with cirrhosis and organ failures from Vancouver General Hospital (Canada) in 2000-2011 was used to evaluate its performance. Results: Amongst patients in the training set, ICU and hospital mortality rates were 39.2% and 54.6% respectively. Median lactate (4.4 vs 2.5 mmol/L) and number of organ failures (3 vs 2) on admission to ICU were associated with higher likelihood of ICU mortality (P < 0.001 for both). The lactate and organ failures predictive model (LacOF) was derived to predict ICU mortality: -2.420 + 0.072 × lactate + 0.569 × number of organ failures (area under-the-curve [AUC], 0.76). In the validation set, the LacOF model discriminative ability (AUC, 0.85) outperformed the CLIF-SOFA (AUC, 0.79), Chronic Liver Failure Consortium Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure (AUC, 0.73), Model for End-stage Liver Disease score (AUC, 0.78) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores (AUC, 0.74; P < 0.05 for all). The LacOF model calibration was good up to the 25% likelihood of ICU mortality. Conclusions: In patients with ACLF, lactate and number of organ failures on admission to ICU are useful to predict ICU mortality. This early prognostic evaluation may help to better stratify the risk of ICU mortality and thus optimize organ support strategies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

\u27It promoted a positive culture around falls prevention\u27: staff response to a patient education programme—a qualitative evaluation

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to understand how staff responded to individualized patient falls prevention education delivered as part of a cluster randomised trial, including how they perceived the education contributed to falls prevention on their wards. Design: A qualitative explanatory study. Methods: 5 focus groups were conducted at participatory hospital sites. The purposive sample of clinical staff (including nurses, physiotherapists and quality improvement staff ) worked on aged care rehabilitation wards when a cluster randomised trial evaluating a patient education programme was conducted. During the intervention period, an educator, who was a trained health professional and not a member of staff, provided individualised falls prevention education to patients with good levels of cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination \u3e23/30). Clinical staff were provided with training to support the programme and their feedback was sought after the trial concluded, to understand how they perceived the programme impacted on falls prevention. Data were thematically analysed using NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Results: 5 focus groups were conducted at different hospitals (n=30 participants). Staff perceived that the education created a positive culture around falls prevention and further, facilitated teamwork, whereby patients and staff worked together to address falls prevention. The educator was perceived to be a valuable member of the team. Staff reported that they developed increased knowledge and awareness about creating a safe ward environment. Patients being proactive and empowered to engage in falls prevention strategies, such as ringing the bell for assistance, was viewed as supporting staff falls prevention efforts and motivating staff to change practice. Conclusions: Staff responded positively to patient falls prevention education being delivered on their wards. Providing individualised patient education to older patients with good levels of cognition can empower staff and patients to work as a team to address falls prevention on hospital rehabilitation wards

Highly flexible silica/chitosan hybrid scaffolds with oriented pores for tissue regeneration

Inorganic/organic sol–gel hybrids have nanoscale co-networks of organic and inorganic components that give them the unique potential of tailored mechanical properties and controlled biodegradation in tissue engineering applications. Here, silica/chitosan hybrid scaffolds with oriented structures were fabricated through the sol–gel method with a unidirectional freeze casting process. 3-Glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) was used to obtain covalent inorganic/organic coupling. Process variables were investigated such as cooling rate, GPTMS and inorganic content, which can be used to tailor the mechanical properties and hybrid chemical coupling. Structural characterization and dissolution tests confirmed the covalent cross-linking of the chitosan and the silica network in hybrids. The scaffolds had a directional lamellar structure along the freezing direction and a cellular morphology perpendicular to the freezing direction. Compression testing showed that the scaffolds with 60 wt% organic were flexible and elastomeric perpendicular to the freezing direction whilst behaving in an elastic-brittle fashion parallel to the freezing direction. The compressive strengths are about one order of magnitude higher in the latter direction reaching values of the order of 160 kPa. This behaviour provides potential for clinicians to be able to squeeze the materials to fit tissue defect sites while providing some mechanical support from the other direction

It promoted a positive culture around falls prevention': Staff response to a patient education programme-a qualitative evaluation

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to understand how staff responded to individualised patient falls prevention education delivered as part of a cluster randomised trial, including how they perceived the education contributed to falls prevention on their wards. Design: A qualitative explanatory study. Methods: 5 focus groups were conducted at participatory hospital sites. The purposive sample of clinical staff (including nurses, physiotherapists and quality improvement staff) worked on aged care rehabilitation wards when a cluster randomised trial evaluating a patient education programme was conducted. During the intervention period, an educator, who was a trained health professional and not a member of staff, provided individualised falls prevention education to patients with good levels of cognition (Mini-Mental State Examination >23/30). Clinical staff were provided with training to support the programme and their feedback was sought after the trial concluded, to understand how they perceived the programme impacted on falls prevention. Data were thematically analysed using NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Results: 5 focus groups were conducted at different hospitals (n=30 participants). Staff perceived that the education created a positive culture around falls prevention and further, facilitated teamwork, whereby patients and staff worked together to address falls prevention. The educator was perceived to be a valuable member of the team. Staff reported that they developed increased knowledge and awareness about creating a safe ward environment. Patients being proactive and empowered to engage in falls prevention strategies, such as ringing the bell for assistance, was viewed as supporting staff falls prevention efforts and motivating staff to change practice.Conclusions: Staff responded positively to patient falls prevention education being delivered on their wards. Providing individualised patient education to older patients with good levels of cognition can empower staff and patients to work as a team to address falls prevention on hospital rehabilitation wards

Educators’ perspectives about how older hospital patients can engage in a falls prevention education programme: a qualitative process evaluation

Objectives - Falls are the most frequent adverse event reported in hospitals. Patient and staff education delivered by trained educators significantly reduced falls and injurious falls in an older rehabilitation population. The purpose of the study was to explore the educators’ perspectives of delivering the education and to conceptualise how the programme worked to prevent falls among older patients who received the education. Design - A qualitative exploratory study. Methods - Data were gathered from three sources: conducting a focus group and an interview (n=10 educators), written educator notes and reflective researcher field notes based on interactions with the educators during the primary study. The educators delivered the programme on eight rehabilitation wards for periods of between 10 and 40 weeks. They provided older patients with individualised education to engage in falls prevention and provided staff with education to support patient actions. Data were thematically analysed and presented using a conceptual framework. Results - Falls prevention education led to mutual understanding between staff and patients which assisted patients to engage in falls prevention behaviours. Mutual understanding was derived from the following observations: the educators perceived that they could facilitate an effective three-way interaction between staff actions, patient actions and the ward environment which led to behaviour change on the wards. This included engaging with staff and patients, and assisting them to reconcile differing perspectives about falls prevention behaviours. Conclusions - Individualised falls prevention education effectively provides patients who receive it with the capability and motivation to develop and undertake behavioural strategies that reduce their falls, if supported by staff and the ward environment

The SKA Particle Array Prototype: The First Particle Detector at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory

We report on the design, deployment, and first results from a scintillation detector deployed at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO). The detector is a prototype for a larger array -- the Square Kilometre Array Particle Array (SKAPA) -- planned to allow the radio-detection of cosmic rays with the Murchison Widefield Array and the low-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array. The prototype design has been driven by stringent limits on radio emissions at the MRO, and to ensure survivability in a desert environment. Using data taken from Nov.\ 2018 to Feb.\ 2019, we characterize the detector response while accounting for the effects of temperature fluctuations, and calibrate the sensitivity of the prototype detector to through-going muons. This verifies the feasibility of cosmic ray detection at the MRO. We then estimate the required parameters of a planned array of eight such detectors to be used to trigger radio observations by the Murchison Widefield Array.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, 3 table

Diagnosis of cancer as an emergency: a critical review of current evidence

Many patients with cancer are diagnosed through an emergency presentation, which is associated with inferior clinical and patient-reported outcomes compared with those of patients who are diagnosed electively or through screening. Reducing the proportion of patients with cancer who are diagnosed as emergencies is, therefore, desirable; however, the optimal means of achieving this aim are uncertain owing to the involvement of different tumour, patient and health-care factors, often in combination. Most relevant evidence relates to patients with colorectal or lung cancer in a few economically developed countries, and defines emergency presentations contextually (that is, whether patients presented to emergency health-care services and/or received emergency treatment shortly before their diagnosis) as opposed to clinically (whether patients presented with life-threatening manifestations of their cancer). Consistent inequalities in the risk of emergency presentations by patient characteristics and cancer type have been described, but limited evidence is available on whether, and how, such presentations can be prevented. Evidence on patients' symptoms and health-care use before presentation as an emergency is sparse. In this Review, we describe the extent, causes and implications of a diagnosis of cancer following an emergency presentation, and provide recommendations for public health and health-care interventions, and research efforts aimed at addressing this under-researched aspect of cancer diagnosis

Selective priming of rate and duration of the respiratory burst of neutrophils by 1, 2-diacyl and 1-O-alkyl-2-acyl diglycerides. Possible relation to effects on protein kinase C.

Both 1,2-diacyl- and 1-O-alkyl-2-acyl-sn-glycerols are released during stimulation of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL). 1,2-Diacylglycerols have received intense interest as intracellular "second messengers" due to their ability to activate protein kinase C (Ca2+ phospholipid-dependent enzyme). However, little is known about bioactivities of the alkylacylglycerols. This study compared the ability of 1,2-diacyl- and 1-O-alkyl-2-acylglycerols to modulate the respiratory burst of stimulated PMNL, a response which depends on the activation of an NADPH oxidase to generate bactericidal species of reduced oxygen. Direct stimulation by N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe caused an abrupt release of H2O2 which ceased within 2.5 min. Preincubation with diacylglycerols (1-oleoyl-2-acetylglycerol,5-30 microM, and 1,2-dioctanoylglycerol,2-5 microM) caused a decrease in lag time, 3-fold increase in initial rate of H2O2 release, and marked prolongation of the response to N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (features characteristic of a priming effect). Preincubation with alkylacylglycerols (1-O-delta 9-octadecenyl-2-acetylglycerol, 5-30 microM, and 1-O-octyl-2-octanoylglycerol, 20-50 microM) primed initiation (shortened lag time and increased velocity) but, in contrast to diacylglycerols, did not alter duration of H2O2 release. While low concentrations of diacylglycerols (5-30 microM) primed PMNL, higher concentrations (greater than or equal to 70 microM) stimulated the cells directly. In contrast, higher (70-100 microM) concentrations of alkylacylglycerols did not prime the responses but, in fact, inhibited priming (especially of duration) induced by diacylglycerol. The high concentrations of alkylacylglycerol also inhibited direct stimulation induced by high concentrations of diacylglycerol. Direct stimulation by high concentrations of diacylglycerol probably involves activation of protein kinase C, whereas alkylacylglycerol was found to inhibit activation of protein kinase C by diacylglycerol in vitro. Thus, diacylglycerols are complete priming agonists, altering both rate and duration of the response. In contrast, alkylacylglycerols may have biphasic, concentration-related effects in modulation of functions of PMNL. At low concentrations, they may facilitate initiation of functional events; however, as their concentration increases, they may serve to terminate responses. The distinct priming effects of these diglycerides also reveal that priming can involve at least two distinct events: 1) initiation and 2) prolongation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS

Continuum scale modelling and complementary experimentation of solid oxide cells

Solid oxide cells are an exciting technology for energy conversion. Fuel cells, based on solid oxide technology, convert hydrogen or hydrogen-rich fuels into electrical energy, with potential applications in stationary power generation. Conversely, solid oxide electrolysers convert electricity into chemical energy, thereby offering the potential to store energy from transient resources, such as wind turbines and other renewable technologies. For solid oxide cells to displace conventional energy conversion devices in the marketplace, reliability must be improved, product lifecycles extended, and unit costs reduced. Mathematical models can provide qualitative and quantitative insight into physical phenomena and performance, over a range of length and time scales. The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with a summary of the state-of-the art of solid oxide cell models. These range from: simple methods based on lumped parameters with little or no kinetics to detailed, time-dependent, three-dimensional solutions for electric field potentials, complex chemical kinetics and fully-comprehensive equations of motion based on effective transport properties. Many mathematical models have, in the past, been based on inaccurate property values obtained from the literature, as well as over-simplistic schemes to compute effective values. It is important to be aware of the underlying experimental methods available to parameterise mathematical models, as well as validate results. In this article, state-of-the-art techniques for measuring kinetic, electric and transport properties are also described. Methods such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy allow for fundamental physicochemical parameters to be obtained. In addition, effective properties may be obtained using micro-scale computer simulations based on digital reconstruction obtained from X-ray tomography/focussed ion beam scanning electron microscopy, as well as percolation theory. The cornerstone of model validation, namely the polarisation or current-voltage diagram, provides necessary, but insufficient information to substantiate the reliability of detailed model calculations. The results of physical experiments which precisely mimic the details of model conditions are scarce, and it is fair to say there is a gap between the two activities. The purpose of this review is to introduce the reader to the current state-of-the art of solid oxide analysis techniques, in a tutorial fashion, not only numerical and but also experimental, and to emphasise the cross-linkages between techniques