Prevalence and predictors of inadequate patient medication knowledge

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Objectives: To assess medication knowledge in adult patients and to explore its determinants. Method: Cross-sectional study. Medication knowledge was the primary outcome and was assessed using a previously validated questionnaire. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the association between medication knowledge and the factors included in the model. Results: Seven thousand two hundred seventy-eight patients participated in the study. 71.9% (n = 5234) (95% CI: 70.9%–73.0%) of the surveyed patients had an inadequate knowledge of the medication they were taking. The dimensions obtaining the highest level of knowledge were the ‘medication use process’ and ‘therapeutic objective of medication’. The items ‘frequency’ (75.4%), ‘dosage’ (74.5%) and ‘indication’ (70.5%) had the highest percentage of knowledge. Conversely, ‘medication safety’ represented the dimension with the lowest scores, ranging from 12.6% in the item “contraindications” to 15.3% in the item ‘side effects’. The odds ratio (OR) of having an inadequate medication knowledge increased for unskilled workers (OR: 1.33; 85% CI:1.00–1.78; P = 0.050), caregivers (OR:1.46; 95% CI:1.18–1.81; P < 0.001), patients using more than one medication (OR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.00–1.31; P = 0.050) and patients who did not know the name of the medication they were taking (OR: 2.14, 95% CI: 1.71–2.68 P < 0.001). Conclusion: Nearly three quarters of the analysed patients had inadequate knowledge regarding the medicines they were taking. Unskilled workers and caregivers were at a higher risk of lacking of medication knowledge. Other factors that correlated with inadequate medication knowledge were the use of more than one drug and not knowing the name of the medication dispensed

Fricke and polymer gel 2D dosimetry validation using Monte Carlo simulation

Complexity in modern radiotherapy treatments demands advanced dosimetry systems for quality control. These systems must have several characteristics, such as high spatial resolution, tissue equivalence, three-dimensional resolution, and dose-integrating capabilities. In this scenario, gel dosimetry has proved to be a very promising option for quality assurance. In this study, the feasibility of Fricke and polymer gel dosimeters suitably shaped in form of thin layers and optically analyzed by visible light transmission imaging has been investigated for quality assurance in external radiotherapy. Dosimeter irradiation was carried out with a 6-MV photon beam (CLINAC 600C). The analysis of the irradiated dosimeters was done using two-dimensional optical transmission images. These dosimeters were compared with a treatment plan system using Monte Carlo simulations as a reference by means of a gamma test with parameters of 1 mm and 2%. Results show very good agreement between the different dosimetric systems: in the worst-case scenario, 98% of the analyzed points meet the test quality requirements. Therefore, gel dosimetry may be considered as a potential tool for the validation of other dosimetric systems.Fil: Vedelago, José Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Chacón Obando, D.. Universidad Nacional. Physics Department; Costa Rica. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Malano, Francisco Mauricio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Conejeros, R.. Servicio de Radioterapia, Icos. Temuco, Chile;Fil: Figueroa, R.. Universidad de la Frontera; ChileFil: Garcia, D.. Servicio de Imagenes por Resonancia Magnética; ChileFil: González, G.. Servicio de Imagenes por Resonancia Magnética; ChileFil: Romero, Marcelo Ricardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Santibañez, M.. Servicio de Imagenes por Resonancia Magnética; ChileFil: Strumia, Miriam Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Velásquez, J.. Servicio de Radioterapia; ChileFil: Mattea, Facundo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Departamento de Química Orgánica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Valente, M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina. Universidad de La Frontera. Departamento de Ciencias Físicas; Chil

Wave focusing using symmetry matching in axisymmetric acoustic gradient index lenses

Copyright 2013 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Romero García, V.; Cebrecos Ruiz, A.; Picó Vila, R.; Sánchez Morcillo, VJ.; García-Raffi, LM.; Sánchez Pérez, JV. (2013). Wave focusing using symmetry matching in axisymmetric acoustic gradient index lenses. Applied Physics Letters. 103(26):264106-264106. doi:10.1063/1.4860535 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/The symmetry matching between the source and the lens results in fundamental interest for lensing applications. In this work, we have modeled an axisymmetric gradient index (GRIN) lens made of rigid toroidal scatterers embedded in air considering this symmetry matching with radially symmetric sources. The sound amplification obtained in the focal spot of the reported lens (8.24 dB experimentally) shows the efficiency of the axisymmetric lenses with respect to the previous Cartesian acoustic GRIN lenses. The axisymmetric design opens new possibilities in lensing applications in different branches of science and technology.The work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and European Union FEDER through Project Nos. FIS2011-29734-C02-01 and -02 and PAID 2012/253. V. R. G. is grateful for the support of post-doctoral contracts of the UPV CEI-01-11.Romero García, V.; Cebrecos Ruiz, A.; Picó Vila, R.; Sánchez Morcillo, VJ.; García-Raffi, LM.; Sánchez Pérez, JV. (2013). Wave focusing using symmetry matching in axisymmetric acoustic gradient index lenses. Applied Physics Letters. 103(26):264106-264106. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4860535S26410626410610326John, S. (1987). Strong localization of photons in certain disordered dielectric superlattices. 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Refractive Acoustic Devices for Airborne Sound. Physical Review Letters, 88(2). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.88.023902Krokhin, A. A., Arriaga, J., & Gumen, L. N. (2003). Speed of Sound in Periodic Elastic Composites. Physical Review Letters, 91(26). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.91.264302Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., Caballero, D., Mártinez-Sala, R., Rubio, C., Sánchez-Dehesa, J., Meseguer, F., … Gálvez, F. (1998). Sound Attenuation by a Two-Dimensional Array of Rigid Cylinders. Physical Review Letters, 80(24), 5325-5328. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.80.5325Sheng, P. (1995). Wave Scattering and the Effective Medium. Introduction to Wave Scattering, Localization, and Mesoscopic Phenomena, 49-113. doi:10.1016/b978-012639845-8/50003-4Mei, J., Liu, Z., Wen, W., & Sheng, P. (2006). Effective Mass Density of Fluid-Solid Composites. Physical Review Letters, 96(2). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.024301Lin, S.-C. S., Huang, T. J., Sun, J.-H., & Wu, T.-T. (2009). Gradient-index phononic crystals. Physical Review B, 79(9). doi:10.1103/physrevb.79.094302Zigoneanu, L., Popa, B.-I., & Cummer, S. A. (2011). Design and measurements of a broadband two-dimensional acoustic lens. Physical Review B, 84(2). doi:10.1103/physrevb.84.024305Li, Y., Liang, B., Tao, X., Zhu, X., Zou, X., & Cheng, J. (2012). Acoustic focusing by coiling up space. Applied Physics Letters, 101(23), 233508. doi:10.1063/1.4769984Yang, S., Page, J. H., Liu, Z., Cowan, M. L., Chan, C. T., & Sheng, P. (2004). Focusing of Sound in a 3D Phononic Crystal. Physical Review Letters, 93(2). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.024301Luo, C., Johnson, S. G., Joannopoulos, J. D., & Pendry, J. B. (2002). All-angle negative refraction without negative effective index. Physical Review B, 65(20). doi:10.1103/physrevb.65.201104Ke, M., Liu, Z., Qiu, C., Wang, W., Shi, J., Wen, W., & Sheng, P. (2005). Negative-refraction imaging with two-dimensional phononic crystals. Physical Review B, 72(6). doi:10.1103/physrevb.72.064306SAMIMY, M., KIM, J.-H., KEARNEY-FISCHER, M., & SINHA, A. (2010). Acoustic and flow fields of an excited high Reynolds number axisymmetric supersonic jet. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 656, 507-529. doi:10.1017/s0022112010001357Choe, Y., Kim, J. W., Shung, K. K., & Kim, E. S. (2011). Microparticle trapping in an ultrasonic Bessel beam. Applied Physics Letters, 99(23), 233704. doi:10.1063/1.3665615Baac, H. W., Ok, J. G., Maxwell, A., Lee, K.-T., Chen, Y.-C., Hart, A. J., … Guo, L. J. (2012). Carbon-Nanotube Optoacoustic Lens for Focused Ultrasound Generation and High-Precision Targeted Therapy. Scientific Reports, 2(1). doi:10.1038/srep00989Chang, T. M., Dupont, G., Enoch, S., & Guenneau, S. (2012). Enhanced control of light and sound trajectories with three-dimensional gradient index lenses. New Journal of Physics, 14(3), 035011. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/14/3/035011Sanchis, L., Yánez, A., Galindo, P. L., Pizarro, J., & Pastor, J. M. (2010). Three-dimensional acoustic lenses with axial symmetry. Applied Physics Letters, 97(5), 054103. doi:10.1063/1.3474616Gomez-Reino, C., Perez, M. V., & Bao, C. (2002). Gradient-Index Optics. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-04741-5Romero-García, V., Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., Castiñeira-Ibáñez, S., & Garcia-Raffi, L. M. (2010). Evidences of evanescent Bloch waves in phononic crystals. Applied Physics Letters, 96(12), 124102. doi:10.1063/1.3367739Climente, A., Torrent, D., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2010). Sound focusing by gradient index sonic lenses. Applied Physics Letters, 97(10), 104103. doi:10.1063/1.3488349Martin, T. P., Nicholas, M., Orris, G. J., Cai, L.-W., Torrent, D., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2010). Sonic gradient index lens for aqueous applications. Applied Physics Letters, 97(11), 113503. doi:10.1063/1.348937

Conservative and disruptive modes of adolescent change in human brain functional connectivity

Adolescent changes in human brain function are not entirely understood. Here, we used multiecho functional MRI (fMRI) to measure developmental change in functional connectivity (FC) of resting-state oscillations between pairs of 330 cortical regions and 16 subcortical regions in 298 healthy adolescents scanned 520 times. Participants were aged 14 to 26 y and were scanned on 1 to 3 occasions at least 6 mo apart. We found 2 distinct modes of age-related change in FC: “conservative” and “disruptive.” Conservative development was characteristic of primary cortex, which was strongly connected at 14 y and became even more connected in the period from 14 to 26 y. Disruptive development was characteristic of association cortex and subcortical regions, where connectivity was remodeled: connections that were weak at 14 y became stronger during adolescence, and connections that were strong at 14 y became weaker. These modes of development were quantified using the maturational index (MI), estimated as Spearman’s correlation between edgewise baseline FC (at 14 y, FC14) and adolescent change in FC (ΔFC14−26), at each region. Disruptive systems (with negative MI) were activated by social cognition and autobiographical memory tasks in prior fMRI data and significantly colocated with prior maps of aerobic glycolysis (AG), AG-related gene expression, postnatal cortical surface expansion, and adolescent shrinkage of cortical thickness. The presence of these 2 modes of development was robust to numerous sensitivity analyses. We conclude that human brain organization is disrupted during adolescence by remodeling of FC between association cortical and subcortical areas

Formation of collimated sound beams by three-dimensional sonic crystals

A theoretical and experimental study of the propagation of sound beams in- and behind three-dimensional sonic crystals at frequencies close to the band edges is presented. An efficient collimation of the beam behind the crystal is predicted and experimentally demonstrated. This effect could allow the design of sources of high spatial quality sound beams

Certainty relations between local and nonlocal observables

We demonstrate that for an arbitrary number of identical particles, each defined on a Hilbert-space of arbitrary dimension, there exists a whole ladder of relations of complementarity between local, and every conceivable kind of joint (or nonlocal) measurements. E.g., the more accurate we can know (by a measurement) some joint property of three qubits (projecting the state onto a tripartite entangled state), the less accurate some other property, local to the three qubits, become. We also show that the corresponding complementarity relations are particularly tight for particles defined on prime dimensional Hilbert spaces.Comment: 4 pages, no figure

Adición de sustancias antioxidantes en los medios de cultivo empleados en la producción in vitro de embriones en mamíferos

RESUMEN: Dentro de los factores que afectan el desarrollo embrionario in vitro se encuentra el estrés oxidativo, que ha sido atenuado con la adición de sustancias antioxidantes a los medios utilizados en la producción in vitro. Las Vitaminas A y E, adicionadas a los medios de maduración y cultivo in vitro favorecieron el desarrollo embrionario, mientras el ácido ascórbico mostró resultados contradictorios. La adición de cisteína a la maduración y fertilización in vitro, los factores de crecimiento al cultivo in vitro y la combinación insulinatransferrina- selenio a la maduración in vitro, favorecieron el desarrollo embrionario. Los microelementos también se han estudiado como antioxidantes; diferentes niveles de Zn2+ añadidos al medio de maduración in vitro incrementaron los porcentajes de división y de blastocistos. Diferentes concentraciones de Fe2+ y Cu2+añadidas al medio de maduración in vitro no afectaron la tasa de maduración, pero su adición al medio de cultivo in vitro aumentó los porcentajes de embriones a 8 células, mórulas y blastocistos. A pesar de las ventajas de la suplementación de los medios utilizados en la producción in vitro con sustancias antioxidantes, en algunas de estas aún existen aspectos por estudiar que deben constituir la ruta crítica de las investigaciones en este campo, tales como, el tiempo de exposición y las concentraciones óptimas de ácido ascórbico, las necesidades de microelementos de los ovocitos y el embrión en sus diferentes estadíos, sus niveles de inclusión adecuados y el efecto de la suplementación combinada de los mismos y su asociación con otras sustancias antioxidantes

Obtención de vidrio a partir de residuos de la minería del estaño en Bolivia

Manufacturing of glass from tin mining tailings in Bolivia Tailings from mining activities in Bolivia represent an environmental problem. In the vicinity of the tin mines of Llallagua,Potosí department, there are large dumps and tailings. We present a study of the use of these wastes as raw materials for the manufacture of glass. This procedure aims to contribute to environmental remediation of mining areas through the vitrification, a process which offers an alternative for stabilization of hazardous waste. In addition, the marketing of the obtained product would provide an additional income to the mining areas. For this study three samples of mining waste, with grain size between sand and silt, were used. The chemical composition of these raw materials, determined by X-ray fluorescence, is granitic, with high contents of heavy metals. On the basis of its composition, glass were made from silica glass by adding CaCO3 and Na2CO3. The thermal cycle has been determined from TDA. Tg values of glass range from 626º to 709 °C. Leaching tests of the obtained glasses confirm their capacity to retain heavy metals

Examining the relationship between altered brain functional connectome and disinhibition across 33 impulsive and compulsive behaviours

Impulsive and compulsive problem behaviours are associated with a variety of mental disorders. Latent phenotyping indicates the expression of impulsive and compulsive problem behaviours is predominantly governed by a transdiagnostic 'disinhibition' phenotype. In a cohort of 117 individuals, recruited as part of the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network (NSPN), we examined how brain functional connectome and network properties relate to disinhibition. Reduced functional connectivity within a subnetwork of frontal (especially right inferior frontal gyrus), occipital and parietal regions was linked to disinhibition. Findings provide insights into neurobiological pathways underlying the emergence of impulsive and compulsive disorders

Circulating exosomes deliver free fatty acids from the bloodstream to cardiac cells:Possible role of CD36

Regulation of circulating free fatty acid (FFA) levels and delivery is crucial to maintain tissue homeostasis. Exosomes are nanomembranous vesicles that are released from diverse cell types and mediate intercellular communication by delivering bioactive molecules. Here, we sought to investigate the uptake of FFAs by circulating exosomes, the delivery of FFA-loaded exosomes to cardiac cells and the possible role of the FFA transporter CD36 in these processes. Circulating exosomes were purified from the serum of healthy donors after an overnight fast (F) or 20 minutes after a high caloric breakfast (postprandial, PP). Western blotting, Immunogold Electron Microscopy and FACS analysis of circulating exosomes showed that CD36 was expressed under both states, but was higher in postprandial-derived exosomes. Flow cytometry analysis showed that circulating exosomes were able to take-up FFA directly from serum. Importantly, preincubation of exosomes with a blocking CD36 antibody significantly impeded uptake of the FFA analogue BODIPY, pointing to the role of CD36 in FFA exosomal uptake. Finally, we found that circulating exosomes could delivery FFA analogue BODIPY into cardiac cells ex vivo and in vivo in a mice model. Overall, our results suggest a novel mechanism in which circulating exosomes can delivery FFAs from the bloodstream to cardiac tissue. Further studies will be necessary to understand this mechanism and, in particular, its potential involvement in metabolic pathologies such as obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis