Prostate cancer prehabilitation and the importance of multimodal interventions for person-centred care and recovery.

Background: Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer globally. Cancer prehabilitation is defined as a process on the continuum of care that occurs between the time of a cancer diagnosis and the beginning of acute treatment. This article will discuss the importance of prostate cancer prehabilitation interventions in optimising physical and psychological recovery to enhance person-centred care. Data Sources: Electronic databases including CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Scopus, professional websites, and grey literature were searched using Google Scholar. Conclusion: Prehabilitation in cancer care aims to enhance perioperative care and recovery. An emerging field of research suggests that the preoperative period may be physically and psychologically salient to introduce modifiable self-management behaviours to optimise overall recovery. Implications for Nursing Practice: Prostate cancer specialist nurses provide the hub of person-centred care across the entire cancer care continuum embedded within the multidisciplinary team. Individually tailored interventions such as exercise and pelvic floor muscle training programmes, nutritional advice, anxiety and depression reduction, and sexual well-being interventions should be considered in the prehabilitation phase of the cancer care continuum

A Remote Laser System for Material Characterization at High Temperatures

For many years, new techniques have been developed to overcome the problems involved with the generation and detection of ultrasound in materials at high temperature [1,2]. A non-contacting technique is described using lasers to generate and detect ultrasound and which can be used to study the variation in acoustic velocity as a function of temperature. Results are presented for the change in longitudinal velocity (vℓ) with increasing temperature in five polycrystalline materials, namely Dural, aluminum, AISI-310 stainless steel, iron and graphite

Identifying experiences of supportive care of children and young people affected by kidney failure: a qualitative systematic review.

Children and young people affected by kidney failure experience complexities in their care. Little is known about the unique needs of this young patient population group living with a long-term condition. A meta-aggregation of all qualitative studies was conducted to identify experiences of supportive care among children and young people living with kidney failure. A systematic review of qualitative studies was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute meta-aggregation method. This review has been reported according to the PRISMA statement guidelines. Six electronic databases (CINAHL, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Proquest, PsycINFO, and Scopus) were comprehensively searched by an expert systematic review librarian using keywords and subject headings, from inception to September 2022. All studies were accessed using a predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Methodological quality assessment and data extraction performed. Qualitative findings accompanied by illustrative quotes from included studies were extracted and grouped into categories which created the overall synthesised findings. A total of 34 studies were included in this review representing a total of 613 children and young people affected by kidney failure. There was a total of 190 findings which created 13 categories representing experiences of supportive care. The meta-aggregation developed five synthesised findings namely: 'physical needs', 'information and technology', 'treatment and healthcare', 'social needs' and 'psychological impacts'. This systematic review identified that children and young people affected by kidney failure can experience a range of unmet supportive care needs in routine clinical services. Kidney failure impacted children and young people's self-identify, social and peer networks, introduced daily practical needs because of inherent physical and psychological burden due to the failure and associated treatments. Despite improvements in the medical management of kidney failure in children and young people, further attention is needed to optimise supported self-management in this young patient group

Selective in vitro replication of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) ICP34.5 null mutants in primary human CNS tumours--evaluation of a potentially effective clinical therapy.

Primary tumours of the central nervous system (CNS) are an important cause of cancer-related deaths in adults and children. CNS tumours are mostly glial cell in origin and are predominantly astrocytomas. Conventional therapy of high-grade gliomas includes maximal resection followed by radiation treatment. The addition of adjuvant chemotherapy provides little improvement in survival time and hence assessment of novel therapies is imperative. We have evaluated the potential therapeutic use of the herpes simplex virus (HSV) mutant 1716 in the treatment of primary brain tumours. The mutant is deleted in the RL1 gene and fails to produce the virulence factor ICP34.5. 1716 replication was analysed in both established human glioma cell lines and in primary cell cultures derived from human tumour biopsy material. In the majority of cultures, virus replication occurred and consequential cell death resulted. In the minority of tumour cell lines which are non-permissive for mutant replication, premature shut-off of host cell protein synthesis was induced in response to lack of expression of ICP34.5. Hence RL1-negative mutants have the distinct advantage of providing a double hit phenomenon whereby cell death could occur by either pathway. Moreover, 1716, by virtue of its ability to replicate selectively within a tumour cell, has the potential to deliver a 'suicide' gene product to the required site immediately. It is our opinion that HSV which fails to express ICP34.5 could provide an effective tumour therapy

Diversity patterns of leaf-associated aquatic hyphomycetes along a broad latitudinal gradient

Information about the global distribution of aquatic hyphomycetes is scarce, despite the primary importance of these fungi in stream ecosystem functioning. In particular, the relationship between their diversity and latitude remains unclear, due to a lack of coor- dinated surveys across broad latitudinal ranges. This study is a first report on latitudinal patterns of aquatic hyphomycete diversity associated with native leaf-litter species in five streams located along a gradient extending from the subarctic to the tropics. Exposure of leaf litter in mesh bags of three different mesh sizes facilitated assessing the effects of including or excluding different size-classes of litter-consuming invertebrates. Aquatic hyphomycete evenness was notably constant across all sites, whereas species richness and diversity, expressed as the Hill number, reached a maximum at mid-latitudes (Medi- terranean and temperate streams). These latitudinal patterns were consistent across litter species, despite a notable influence of litter identity on fungal communities at the local scale. As a result, the bell-shaped distribution of species richness and Hill diversity devi- ated markedly from the latitudinal patterns of most other groups of organisms. Differences in the body-size distribution of invertebrate communities colonizing the leaves had no effect on aquatic hyphomycete species richness, Hill diversity or evenness, but inverte- brates could still influence fungal communities by depleting litter, an effect that was not captured by the design of our experiment

Social theory and the politics of big data and method

This article is an intervention in the debate on big data. It seeks to show, firstly, that behind the wager to make sociology more relevant to the digital there lies a coherent if essentially unstated vision and a whole stance which are more a symptom of the current world than a resolute endeavour to think that world through; hence the conclusion that the perspective prevailing in the debate lacks both the theoretical grip and the practical impulse to initiate a much needed renewal of social theory and sociology. Secondly, and more importantly, the article expounds an alternative view and shows by thus doing that other possibilities of engaging the digital can be pursued. The article is thus an invitation to widen the debate on big data and the digital and a call for a more combative social theory

Synthetic biology: Building the language for a new science brick by metaphorical brick

Changes in the biosciences and their relations to society over the last decades provide a unique opportunity to examine whether or not such changes leave traces in the language we use to talk about them. In this article we examine metaphors used in English-speaking press coverage to conceptualize a new type of (interdisciplinary) bioscience: synthetic biology. Findings show that three central metaphors were used between 2008 and May 2010. They exploit social and cultural knowledge about books, computers and engines and are linked to knowledge of three revolutions in science and society (the printing, information and industrial revolutions). These three central metaphors are connected to each other through the concepts of reading/writing, designing and mass production and they focus on science as a revolutionary process rather than on the end results or products of science. Overall, we observed the use of a complex bricolage of mixed metaphors and chains of metaphors that root synthetic biology in historical events and achievements, while at the same time extolling its promises for the future. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC