Design and validation of the INCUE questionnaire: Assessment of primary healthcare Nurses’ basic training needs in palliative care

Many instruments have been created to measure knowledge and attitudes in palliative care. However, not only is it important to acquire knowledge, but also that this knowledge should reach patients and their relatives through application in clinical practice. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically test the INCUE questionnaire (Investigación Cuidados Enfermeros/Investigation into Nurses’ Care Understanding of End-of-Life) to assess the basic training needs of primary or home healthcare nurses in palliative care. A questionnaire was developed based on the classical theory of tests and factor analysis models. Initially, 18 experts developed 67 items in two blocks and determined content validity by two rounds of expert panels. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability testing were conducted with a non-probabilistic sample of 370 nurses. Some items were observed to have very low homogeneity indices or presented convergence problems and were eliminated. Questionnaire reliability was 0.700 in the theoretical block (KR20 Index) and 0.941 in the practical block (Cronbach’s alpha). The model converges and shows an adequate fit, specifically CFI = 0.977, TLI = 0.977 and RMSEA = 0.05. The correlation between the two factors in the model is ρ = 0.63. The questionnaire objectively evaluates primary or home healthcare nurses’ knowledge of palliative care and its practical application, thereby facilitating more efficient training plans.This questionnaire is being developed as part of a project to pinpoint the training needs of primary care nurses in the field of palliative care at the Dr Peset Health Department in Valencia (Project EAPCP19-V01)This project has received funding under the first Call for R + D Grants in Nursing 2019 (UGP-19-258), from the Fundació per al Foment de la Investigació Sanitària i Bioèdica de la Comunitat Valenciana (Fisabio).Enfermerí

Testosterone and Cortisol Release among Spanish Soccer Fans Watching the 2010 World Cup Final

This field study investigated the release of testosterone and cortisol of a vicarious winning experience in Spanish fans watching the finals between Spain and the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer. Spanish fans (n = 50) watched the match with friends or family in a public place or at home and also participated in a control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that testosterone and cortisol levels were higher when watching the match than on a control day. However, neither testosterone nor cortisol levels increased after the victory of the Spanish team. Moreover, the increase in testosterone secretion was not related to participants' sex, age or soccer fandom, but the increase in total cortisol secretion during the match was higher among men than among women and among fans that were younger. Also, increases in cortisol secretion were greater to the degree that people were a stronger fan of soccer. Level of fandom further appeared to account for the sex effect, but not for the age effect. Generally, the testosterone data from this study are in line with the challenge hypothesis, as testosterone levels of watchers increased to prepare their organism to defend or enhance their social status. The cortisol data from this study are in line with social self-preservation theory, as higher cortisol secretion among young and greater soccer fans suggests that especially they perceived that a negative outcome of the match would threaten their own social esteem

Canarium ovatum Engl. Burseraceae

Canarium melioides Elmer; Canarium pachyphyllum G.Perkins (POWO 2020

Identifying quantitative operation principles in metabolic pathways: a systematic method for searching feasible enzyme activity patterns leading to cellular adaptive responses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Optimization methods allow designing changes in a system so that specific goals are attained. These techniques are fundamental for metabolic engineering. However, they are not directly applicable for investigating the evolution of metabolic adaptation to environmental changes. Although biological systems have evolved by natural selection and result in well-adapted systems, we can hardly expect that actual metabolic processes are at the theoretical optimum that could result from an optimization analysis. More likely, natural systems are to be found in a feasible region compatible with global physiological requirements.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We first present a new method for globally optimizing nonlinear models of metabolic pathways that are based on the Generalized Mass Action (GMA) representation. The optimization task is posed as a nonconvex nonlinear programming (NLP) problem that is solved by an outer-approximation algorithm. This method relies on solving iteratively reduced NLP slave subproblems and mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) master problems that provide valid upper and lower bounds, respectively, on the global solution to the original NLP. The capabilities of this method are illustrated through its application to the anaerobic fermentation pathway in <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</it>. We next introduce a method to identify the feasibility parametric regions that allow a system to meet a set of physiological constraints that can be represented in mathematical terms through algebraic equations. This technique is based on applying the outer-approximation based algorithm iteratively over a reduced search space in order to identify regions that contain feasible solutions to the problem and discard others in which no feasible solution exists. As an example, we characterize the feasible enzyme activity changes that are compatible with an appropriate adaptive response of yeast <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae </it>to heat shock</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results show the utility of the suggested approach for investigating the evolution of adaptive responses to environmental changes. The proposed method can be used in other important applications such as the evaluation of parameter changes that are compatible with health and disease states.</p

Decrease of virulence for BALB/c mice produced by continuous subculturing of Nocardia brasiliensis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Subculturing has been extensively used to attenuate human pathogens. In this work we studied the effect of continuous subculturing of <it>Nocardia brasiliensis </it>HUJEG-1 on virulence in a murine model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>Nocardia brasiliensis </it>HUJEG-1 was subcultured up to 130 times on brain heart infusion over four years. BALB/c mice were inoculated in the right foot pad with the bacteria subcultured 0, 40, 80, 100 and 130 times (T₀, T₄₀, T₈₀T₁₀₀and T₁₃₀). The induction of resistance was tested by using T₁₃₀to inoculate a group of mice followed by challenge with T0 12 weeks later. Biopsies were taken from the newly infected foot-pad and immunostained with antibodies against CD4, CD8 and CD14 in order to analyze the in situ immunological changes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When using T₄₀, T₈₀T₁₀₀and T₁₃₀as inoculums we observed lesions in 10, 5, 0 and 0 percent of the animals, respectively, at the end of 12 weeks. In contrast, their controls produced mycetoma in 80, 80, 70 and 60% of the inoculated animals. When studying the protection of T₁₃₀, we observed a partial resistance to the infection. Immunostaining revealed an intense CD4+ lymphocytic and macrophage infiltrate in healing lesions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>After 130 in vitro passages of <it>N. brasiliensis </it>HUJEG-1 a severe decrease in its virulence was observed. Immunization of BALB/c mice, with these attenuated cells, produced a state of partial resistance to infection with the non-subcultured isolate.</p

The prevalence of common skin infections in four districts in Timor-Leste: a cross sectional survey

Background\ud Skin infections are a common public health problem in developing countries; however, they are rarely managed using a population based approach. Recent data on the burden of skin infections in Timor-Leste are limited. Our survey appears to be the only widespread survey conducted in more than 30 years and was designed to determine the baseline prevalence of some common skin infections in Timor-Leste.\ud \ud Methods\ud We conducted a cross sectional survey in 14 sites including community health clinics, schools and hospitals within four different geographical regions. Participants were examined for five conditions (scabies, pyoderma, fungal infections, leprosy and yaws) by a multidisciplinary team. Analyses were conducted using EpiInfo version 6.04d.\ud \ud Results\ud We examined the skin of 1535 participants aged between four months and 97 years. The majority of participants were male, aged between 11 and 20 years and had at least one condition of interest (56.0%, 56.0%, and 63.1%, respectively). Fungal infections were the most common presentation (39.0%) and males were more commonly affected than females (42.3% vs 34.0%, respectively, pvalue < 0.0001).\ud \ud Among those people with more than one condition the two most common co-infections were scabies with either pyoderma or a fungal infection (38.0% and 32.0%, respectively). The survey identified 29 previously undiagnosed cases of leprosy and six cases of yaws.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud Our findings indicate the need for a comprehensive programme to address these conditions. There are successful disease control programmes in place within the country and it is hoped a healthy skin programme could be integrated into an established disease control programme in order to maximise health benefits and resources

Additional Haplogroups of Toxoplasma gondii out of Africa: Population Structure and Mouse-Virulence of Strains from Gabon

Prevalence of human toxoplasmosis in tropical African countries usually exceeds 50%. Its role as a major opportunistic infection of AIDS patients is regularly described. Due to the lack of investigation, congenital infection is certainly underestimated in Africa. Incidence of Toxoplasma ocular disease is higher in Africa and South America than in Europe. Severe cases in immunocompetent patients were described after infection acquired in Amazonia, but nothing is known about such cases in Africa. Several studies argued for a role of genotypes in the clinical expression of human toxoplasmosis, and for a geographical structuration of Toxoplasma across continents. Genetic data concerning isolates from Africa are scarce. Here, apart from the worldwide Type III, we described two main haplogroups, Africa 1 and 3. We detected genetic exchanges between urban centers favored by trade exchange and transportation. It shows how important human influence is, even in shaping the genetic structure of a zoonotic disease agent. Finding of identical haplogroups in South America suggested that these African and American strains share a common ancestor. As a higher pathogenicity in human of South American genotypes has been described, this similarity of genotypes should encourage further clinical studies with genotype analysis in Africa

Development of Cheaper Embryo Vitrification Device Using the Minimum Volume Method

[EN] This study was designed to compare the efficiency of the Cryotop and Calibrated plastic inoculation loop (CPIL) devices for vitrification of rabbit embryos on in vitro development and implantation rate, offspring rate at birth and embryonic and fetal losses. CPIL is a simple tool used mainly by microbiologists to retrieve an inoculum from a culture of microorganisms. In experiment 1, embryos were vitrified using a Cryotop device and a CPIL device. There were no significant differences in hatched/hatching blastocyst stage rates after 48 h of culture among the vitrified groups (62±4.7% and 62±4.9%, respectively); however, the rates were significantly lower (P<0.05) than those of the fresh group (95±3.4%). In experiment 2, vitrified embryos were transferred using laparoscopic technique. The number of implanted embryos was estimated by laparoscopy as number of implantation sites at day 14 of gestation. At birth, total offspring were recorded. Embryonic and fetal losses were calculated as the difference between implanted embryos and embryos transferred and total born at birth and implanted embryos, respectively. The rate of implantation and development to term was similar between both vitrification devices (56±7.2% and 50±6.8% for implantation rate and 40±7.1% and 35±6.5% for offspring rate at birth); but significantly lower than in the fresh group (78±6.6% for implantation rate and 70±7.2% for offspring rate at birth, P<0.05). Likewise, embryonic losses were similar between both vitrification devices (44±7.2% and 50±6.8%), but significantly higher than in the fresh group (23±6.6%, P < 0.05). However, fetal losses were similar between groups (10±4.4%, 15±4.8% and 8±4.2%, for vitrified, Cryotop or CPIL and fresh, respectively). These results indicate that the CPIL device is as effective as the Cryotop device for vitrification of rabbit embryos, but at a cost of 0.05 per device.This research was supported by the projects Spanish Research project AGL2014-53405-C2-1-P Comision Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologia (FMJ, JSV) and Generalitat Valenciana research program (Prometeo II 2014/036, JSV, FMJ).Marco Jiménez, F.; Jiménez Trigos, ME.; Almela-Miralles, V.; Vicente Antón, JS. (2016). Development of Cheaper Embryo Vitrification Device Using the Minimum Volume Method. PLoS ONE. 11(2):1-9. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148661S1911