Evidence-based management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting: a position statement from a European cancer nursing forum

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is a common, but now often overlooked side effect of cancer treatment, and one that can be largely prevented through the implementation of international evidence-based guidelines. The European CINV Forum, comprising nurses from France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the UK, discussed the use of CINV preventive strategies in routine practice, and the factors that affect optimal delivery of antiemetic therapies. Based on these discussions, they developed a series of recommendations for optimal, evidence-based management of CINV. These state that all patients receiving chemotherapy should undergo full assessment of their risk of CINV and receive appropriate prophylactic treatment based on guidelines from the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), which were both updated in 2011. Other recommendations, aimed at raising awareness of CINV and its management, include timely updates of relevant local practice guidelines and protocols, translation of the MASCC and NCCN guidelines into all European languages and their dissemination through accessible articles in nursing journals and newsletters and via nursing conferences and study days, improved training for nurses on CINV, collaboration between the European Oncology Nursing Society and national nursing organisations to promote consistent practice, the development of a CINV toolkit, information provision for patients, local audits of CINV management, and a survey of CINV management between and within European countries

Autochthonous human and canine strongyloides stercoralis infection in europe: Report of a human case in an italian teen and systematic review of the literature

Autochthonous human and canine strongyloidiasis is reported in Europe but is unclear whether the transmission of infection still occurs. We report a previously unpublished human case in an Italian teen and perform a systematic review of literature on autochthonous human and canine strongyloidiasis in Europe to investigate the current dynamic of transmission. Overall, 109 papers published after 1987 were included and one previously unpublished Italian case was added. Eighty case reports were retrieved and 42 of them (52.5%) had severe strongyloidiasis. Most cases were diagnosed in Spain, Italy and France. The median age was 58, the most represented age group was 61–70 years, 11 patients were under 30, and 7 of them were diagnosed after 2000. Epidemiological studies on human strongyloidiasis showed prevalence ranging from 0.56% to 28%. Overall, agriculture work, mine work and walking barefoot were the most commonly reported risk factors for infection. Canine strongyloidiasis was reported mainly in Italy (68 cases), but a few cases occurred also in Iceland, Finland, England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Russia, Slovakia, Romania and Greece. Autochthonous strongyloidiasis is still reported in Europe and sporadic transmission still occurs. Health care professionals should be aware of this issue to identify infected subjects and avoid adverse outcomes, especially in immunosuppressed patients. Further investigations are needed to clarify the zoonotic transmission of this nematode

Comparison of Two Dosing Regimens of Miltefosine, Both in Combination With Allopurinol, on Clinical and Parasitological Findings of Dogs With Leishmaniosis: A Pilot Study

Miltefosine (MIL)–allopurinol combination therapy administered at standard dosage is effective to treat canine leishmaniosis, nevertheless for some dogs the digestive tolerance of MIL is not acceptable. This study evaluates an alternative therapeutic protocol by using a modified dosage of MIL to increase its effectiveness and improve the digestive tolerance. Thirty-four Leishmania infantum owned naturally infected dogs were included and monitored for 180 days. The dogs were allocated in two randomized groups: Group X−18 dogs treated with MIL registered dose of 2 mg/kg, oral administration, once daily, for 28 days; Group Y−16 dogs treated with 1.2 mg/kg for 5 days followed by 2.5 mg/kg for 25 days. Both groups were also treated with allopurinol. Digestive tolerance was monitored by adverse events observation. Treatments effectiveness was evaluated by monitoring the reduction of clinical score, the improvement of clinicopathological abnormalities, the reduction of parasitological load by PCR and the number of relapses. 16.6% dogs of group X and 12.5% dogs of group Y showed treatment associated adverse events. The reduction of clinical score was 61.7% for group X and 71.6% for group Y. All dogs showed an improvement of laboratory parameters after treatment. Quantitative PCR showed better results in group Y compared to group X; relapses were only registered in four dogs of group X. The modified protocol demonstrates a better trend of results in term of tolerance, clinical effectiveness, parasitological load reduction and relapses control, suggesting it could be considered for new large-scale studie

Cognitive bias and how to improve sustainable decision making

The rapid advances of science and technology have provided a large part of the world with all conceivable needs and comfort. However, this welfare comes with serious threats to the planet and many of its inhabitants. An enormous amount of scientific evidence points at global warming, mass destruction of bio-diversity, scarce resources, health risks, and pollution all over the world. These facts are generally acknowledged nowadays, not only by scientists, but also by the majority of politicians and citizens. Nevertheless, this understanding has caused insufficient changes in our decision making and behavior to preserve our natural resources and to prevent upcoming (natural) disasters. In the present study, we try to explain how systematic tendencies or distortions in human judgment and decision-making, known as “cognitive biases,” contribute to this situation. A large body of literature shows how cognitive biases affect the outcome of our deliberations. In natural and primordial situations, they may lead to quick, practical, and satisfying decisions, but these decisions may be poor and risky in a broad range of modern, complex, and long-term challenges, like climate change or pandemic prevention. We first briefly present the social-psychological characteristics that are inherent to (or typical for) most sustainability issues. These are: experiential vagueness, long-term effects, complexity and uncertainty, threat of the status quo, threat of social status, personal vs. community interest, and group pressure. For each of these characteristics, we describe how this relates to cognitive biases, from a neuro-evolutionary point of view, and how these evolved biases may affect sustainable choices or behaviors of people. Finally, based on this knowledge, we describe influence techniques (interventions, nudges, incentives) to mitigate or capitalize on these biases in order to foster more sustainable choices and behaviors

The DRUID study: racism and self-assessed health status in an indigenous population

BackgroundThere is now considerable evidence from around the world that racism is associated with both mental and physical ill-health. However, little is known about the mediating factors between racism and ill-health. This paper investigates relationships between racism and self-assessed mental and physical health among Indigenous Australians as well as potential mediators of these relationships.MethodsA total of 164 adults in the Darwin Region Urban Indigenous Diabetes (DRUID) study completed a validated instrument assessing interpersonal racism and a separate item on discrimination-related stress. Self-assessed health status was measured using the SF-12. Stress, optimism, lack of control, social connections, cultural identity and reactions/responses to interpersonal racism were considered as mediators and moderators of the relationship between racism/discrimination and self-assessed health status.ResultsAfter adjusting for socio-demographic factors, interpersonal racism was significantly associated with the SF-12 mental (but not the physical) health component. Stress, lack of control and feeling powerless as a reaction to racism emerged as significant mediators of the relationship between racism and general mental health. Similar findings emerged for discrimination-related stress.ConclusionsRacism/discrimination is significantly associated with poor general mental health among this indigenous population. The mediating factors between racism and mental health identified in this study suggest new approaches to ameliorating the detrimental effects of racism on health. In particular, the importance of reducing racism-related stress, enhancing general levels of mastery, and minimising negative social connections in order to ameliorate the negative consequences of racism

Development and validation of the Measure of Indigenous Racism Experiences (MIRE)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In recent decades there has been increasing evidence of a relationship between self-reported racism and health. Although a plethora of instruments to measure racism have been developed, very few have been described conceptually or psychometrically Furthermore, this research field has been limited by a dearth of instruments that examine reactions/responses to racism and by a restricted focus on African American populations.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In response to these limitations, the 31-item Measure of Indigenous Racism Experiences (MIRE) was developed to assess self-reported racism for Indigenous Australians. This paper describes the development of the MIRE together with an opportunistic examination of its content, construct and convergent validity in a population health study involving 312 Indigenous Australians.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Focus group research supported the content validity of the MIRE, and inter-item/scale correlations suggested good construct validity. A good fit with <it>a priori </it>conceptual dimensions was demonstrated in factor analysis, and convergence with a separate item on discrimination was satisfactory.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The MIRE has considerable utility as an instrument that can assess multiple facets of racism together with responses/reactions to racism among indigenous populations and, potentially, among other ethnic/racial groups.</p

Embedding cultural competence in faculty : a mixed-methods evaluation of an applied Indigenous proficiency workshop

One of the most pressing issues in Australian society is the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health and life expectancies (Marmot, 2017). Australia agreed with the World Health Organisation’s 2008 Closing the Gap in a Generation report (WHO, 2008), spending approximately 5.6% of government expenditure towards ameliorating this gap (Gardiner-Garden & Simon-Davies, 2012), yet there have been only minimal positive outcomes (Alford, 2015; Gannon, 2018). In applied terms, this means Indigenous people are still dying younger (Anderson et al., 2016), scoring higher on psychological distress (Markwick, Ansari, Sullivan, & McNeil, 2015) and suffering poorer indices on all chronic diseases (e.g. Walsh & Kangaharan, 2016; Thompson, Talley, & Kong, 2017). The level of complexity involved in addressing these “wicked” or seemingly “impossible to solve” health problems is made worse by the lack of any pan-national strategic planning and/or intervention evaluation (Lokuge et al., 2017), even though there has been a plethora of programs and projects designed to improve Indigenous health (see for example, AGPC, 2016). Leaders in health and educational institutions must consider why there is a lack of progress in closing the gap in Indigenous health and life expectancies. Addressing the inequities in Indigenous health requires a determinant of health approach (Mitrou et al., 2014), as 39% of the gap in health outcomes can be explained by social determinates (AIHW, 2017; Markwick, Ansari, Sullivan, Parsons, & McNeil, 2014). The social determinant considered to most reliably predict Indigenous poor health is racism (Kelaher, Ferdinand, & Paradies, 2014; Paradies, 2006; Paradies & Cunningham, 2009; Paradies et al., 2015; Paradies, Truong, & Priest, 2014)

G-CORE a core for future graph query languages

We report on a community effort between industry and academia to shape the future of graph query languages. We argue that existing graph database management systems should consider supporting a query language with two key characteristics. First, it should be composable, meaning, that graphs are the input and the output of queries. Second, the graph query language should treat paths as first-class citizens. Our result is G-CORE, a powerful graph query language design that fulfills these goals, and strikes a careful balance between path query expressivity and evaluation complexity

G-CORE a core for future graph query languages

We report on a community effort between industry and academia to shape the future of graph query languages. We argue that existing graph database management systems should consider supporting a query language with two key characteristics. First, it should be composable, meaning, that graphs are the input and the output of queries. Second, the graph query language should treat paths as first-class citizens. Our result is G-CORE, a powerful graph query language design that fulfills these goals, and strikes a careful balance between path query expressivity and evaluation complexity