Comfort with Communication in Palliative and End of Life Care (C-COPE)

The C-COPE instrument is based on literature review, content from the COMFORT model, and iterative input from four content experts. The COMFORT communication model is grounded in patient-centered care and narrative medicine, where patients, families, and the healthcare team value each other’s story and collaboratively identify wishes and goals of care. COMFORT communication skills include bearing witness, understanding health literacy, actively listening, understanding family communication patterns, talking through the tension, embracing patient and family goals of care, and learning to collaborate with members of the team. The C-COPE operationalizes the key components of the COMFORT model: Communication, Orientation and opportunity, Mindful presence, Family, Openings, Relating, and Team. The 28-item instrument includes two ranked items and 26 items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = not difficult, 2 = slightly difficult, 3 = uncertain, 4 = difficult, 5 = very difficult) to assess healthcare professional comfort with palliative and end-of-life communication. The range of possible C-COPE total scores is 26-130 points, with higher scores indicating less comfort with palliative and end-of-life communication. Rated items were categorized according to patient communication, family communication, and team communication. Preliminary psychometric analysis based on this pilot test of the C-COPE instrument supports test-retest reliability with ICC \u3e 0.77, internal reliability for total score with Cronbach’s alpha = 0.91, and four factors with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.81- 0.90

2020 Director\u27s Report of Research in Kansas

The Director’s Report of Research in Kansas includes a list of journal articles, station publications, and other published manuscripts from scientists in our departments, research-extension centers, and associated programs

Director\u27s Report of Research in Kansas, 2015

The 2015 Director’s Report of Research in Kansas includes a list of journal articles, station publications, and other published manuscripts from scientists in our departments, research stations, and associated programs

Director\u27s Report of Research in Kansas 2017

The 2017 Director’s Report of Research in Kansas includes a list of journal articles, station publications, and other published manuscripts from scientists in our departments, research-extension centers, and associated programs

Director\u27s Report of Research in Kansas, 2016

The 2016 Director’s Report of Research in Kansas includes a list of journal articles, station publications, and other published manuscripts from scientists in our departments, research-extension centers, and associated programs

Director\u27s Report of Research in Kansas, 2018 and 2019

The Director’s Report of Research in Kansas includes a list of journal articles, station publications, and other published manuscripts from scientists in our departments, research-extension centers, and associated programs

Clinical and cost-effectiveness, safety and acceptability of community intravenous antibiotic service models: CIVAS systematic review

Objective: Evaluate evidence of the efficacy, safety, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) models. Design: A systematic review. Data sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, National Health Service (NHS) Economic Evaluation Database (EED), Research Papers in Economics (RePEc), Tufts Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) Registry, Health Business Elite, Health Information Management Consortium (HMIC), Web of Science Proceedings, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy website. Searches were undertaken from 1993 to 2015. Study selection: All studies, except case reports, considering adult patients or practitioners involved in the delivery of OPAT were included. Studies combining outcomes for adults and children or non-intravenous (IV) and IV antibiotic groups were excluded, as were those focused on process of delivery or clinical effectiveness of 1 antibiotic over another. Titles/abstracts were screened by 1 reviewer (20% verified). 2 authors independently screened studies for inclusion. Results: 128 studies involving >60 000 OPAT episodes were included. 22 studies (17%) did not indicate the OPAT model used; only 29 involved a comparator (23%). There was little difference in duration of OPAT treatment compared with inpatient therapy, and overall OPAT appeared to produce superior cure/improvement rates. However, when models were considered individually, outpatient delivery appeared to be less effective, and self-administration and specialist nurse delivery more effective. Drug side effects, deaths and hospital readmissions were similar to those for inpatient treatment, but there were more line-related complications. Patient satisfaction was high, with advantages seen in being able to resume daily activities and having greater freedom and control. However, most professionals perceived challenges in providing OPAT. Conclusions: There were no systematic differences related to the impact of OPAT on treatment duration or adverse events. However, evidence of its clinical benefit compared with traditional inpatient treatment is lacking, primarily due to the dearth of good quality comparative studies. There was high patient satisfaction with OPAT use but the few studies considering practitioner acceptability highlighted organisational and logistic barriers to its delivery

Effect of HER2 Expression on NUPL2 Protein in Cervical Cancer Cells

Recurring cervical cancer patients frequently present overexpressed Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2) protein, which promotes the growth of the cancer. Some HER2-expressing cells and cervical cancer patients have enhanced gene expression of Nucleoporin-like 2 (NUPL2). As part of the nuclear pore complex, the NUPL2 protein serves to selectively export substances from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. In this experiment, HER2 was expressed in cervical cancer cells to examine its effect on NUPL2 protein expression and localization. Interestingly, there was no difference in NUPL2 protein levels between HER2-expressing and non-expressing cells. Importantly, consistent instances of NUPL2 protein localization specific to the nucleus occurred in a large sampling of HER2-expressing cells. This is significant because it suggests a mechanism as to how HER2 promotes excessive cell growth, via changes in NUPL2 localization, potentially impacting its function and ability to selectively export substances that modulate cell growth

Project proposal on funding for parks

This study will look at state and county level parks and see what and if there are alternative funding solutions for these parks. We will interview officials and administrators of two parks, while using surveys to gather information about visitors of the parks. The interviews that we will use for the park officials and administrators will be semi-structured. When it comes to analyzing the data we receive from the interviews, we will use three techniques: member checking, qualitative coding, and developing themes. The second method we plan on using is surveys of park visitors. We want to conduct exit surveys with visitors of two different parks, one local and one state. Approximately 200 surveys will be collected from those visiting Table Rock State Park and Nettles Park in Clemson. This will give us a good summary of what people would like and not like. From these results we would be able to make inferences about the population of park visitors, and would we be able to advise parks which funding alternatives would be successful and unsuccessful