Access to Specialist Palliative Care Services and Place of Death in Ireland

The aim of this report is to provide data, analysis and commentary to stimulate discussion on emerging trends in relation to the provision of specialist palliative care in Ireland. The report mines existing data from four key sources -- the Health Service Executive's (HSE) Minimum Data Set for Palliative Care; the National Cancer Registry; the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry, and HSE population records (2011) -- to compare and contrast administrative regions of the health service against national averages on a number of key indicators (number of hospice beds, waiting times for first assessment of patient, place of death, etc), and to examine the impact of varying levels of investment in palliative care on access to services and service activity. In particular, the report seeks to explore possible relationships between access to specialist palliative care services and place of death. It is clear from the data emerging from all four sources that there is a marked correlation between the availability or otherwise of hospice/palliative care services and where people die

A gendered therapeutic learning landscape : responding creatively to a pandemic

Crafting has occupied the hands and minds of women over many centuries providing vital connections with cultural skills and with community. While the COVID-19 pandemic has isolated women in their homes, it has also provided opportunities for women to reconnect to crafting through virtual spaces. This paper draws on a thematic analysis of a focus group interview examining the experiences of regional women participating in a crafting group and identifies the ways in which they used craft to support their wellbeing. Drawing on the concept of therapeutic landscapes, the paper highlights that connection in a virtual craft group supports lifelong learning and wellbeing, brings women together in support through a community of women’s practice and facilitates opportunities for producing meaningful and commemorative quilting projects This finding has implications for a society experiencing unprecedented levels of stress, mental illness and anxiety about the future. © 2022, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved

Gastrointestinal side effects and adequacy of enteral intake in hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients

BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) can experience gastrointestinal (GI) side effects as a complication of the treatment. Limited research exists describing how the duration and severity of GI side effects influence the consumption of adequate calorie intake in this population. The purpose of this study was to assess differences in GI side effects between patients who consumed adequate calories compared with those who did not. METHODS: The MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Gastrointestinal (MDASI-GI) tool was used to record daily GI side effects of 72 HSCT patients. Daily calorie intake was determined via calorie counts. Data were collected from day of transplant until engraftment. RESULTS: Median percentage of caloric needs consumed for all patients was 49.2% (interquartile range, 35.1-66.6). Calorie intake decreased from baseline to transplant day 8 as severity of GI symptoms increased. An inverse relationship between percentage of caloric needs met and MDASI-GI component score, MDASI-GI symptom score, and lack of appetite score was observed. The only significant difference in MDASI-GI symptom scores between those who consumed adequate calories and those who consumed inadequate calories was for diarrhea; subjects who consumed >60% of caloric needs had significantly lower median diarrhea scores. CONCLUSION: Most patients consumed <60% of their caloric needs from time of transplant to time of engraftment. More research is needed to provide insight into strategies to increase intake and to describe the implications of prolonged inadequate intake in HSCT patients

Hispanic law students’ perceptions of discrimination, justice, and career prospects

In this study, ethnic and gender discrimination perceived by minority students was investigated in a sample Organizational behaviorists have studied the effects of perceived ethnic and gender discrimination in the workplace with important results. Ethnic discrimination was found to be positively related to work tension and negatively related to organizational commitment and job satisfactio

Work role stressors and turnover intentions: a study of professional clergy in Hong Kong

Abstract Work and occupational stress have long been concerns for employees and human resource managers as they cause many negative outcomes. Most of the previous studies on work stress were conducted in Western countries, while limited research has addressed this important topic in the Asian context. In this study, we examine the effects of several work role stressors (i.e. role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload and work-family conflict) on emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction and intentions to leave. Additionally, we test the mediating effects of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction between the relationship of role stressors and intentions to leave. Data were collected from a sample of 887 professional clergy in Hong Kong. The results of regression analysis show that role stressors have a significant impact on both emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, which in turn affect respondents&apos; intentions to leave their organization

Work role stressors and turnover intentions: a study of professional clergy in Hong Kong

Abstract Work and occupational stress have long been concerns for employees and human resource managers as they cause many negative outcomes. Most of the previous studies on work stress were conducted in Western countries, while limited research has addressed this important topic in the Asian context. In this study, we examine the effects of several work role stressors (i.e. role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload and work-family conflict) on emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction and intentions to leave. Additionally, we test the mediating effects of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction between the relationship of role stressors and intentions to leave. Data were collected from a sample of 887 professional clergy in Hong Kong. The results of regression analysis show that role stressors have a significant impact on both emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, which in turn affect respondents&apos; intentions to leave their organization

A comparison of the Greek ACE-III, M-ACE, ACE-R, MMSE and ECAS in the assessment and identification of Alzheimer’s Disease

International audienceIntroduction: The present study attempted to adapt into Greek and validate the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-III (ACE-III) and Mini-ACE (M-ACE) against their predecessors Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in an Alzheimer's disease (AD) population. Notably, the present study also aimed to appraise the utility of each screen by conducting a comparison of the psychometric properties of ACE-III, MACE , ACE-R, MMSE, and Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS) in detecting AD. Methods: Forty AD patients were recruited and matched with 38 controls. Bayes correlation analysis was conducted to examine convergent validity. Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis was implemented to appraise the sensitivity and specificity of the tests. Results: The ACE-III, MACE and ECAS and its sub-scores robustly correlated with ACE-R and MMSE. The ACE-III and the ECAS-ALS Non-Specific score were the most sensitive and specific tools in detecting AD, closely followed by ECAS Total score and MACE. Solely ECAS Total score correlated with the duration of disease. Discussion: ACE-III and MACE are validated and showed very good psychometric properties in detecting AD and may be considered in hectic clinical settings. ECAS total score and ECAS-ALS Non-Specific showed comparable psychometric properties and may be considered in poly-pathological clinics for the detection and monitoring of AD in patients with motor impairments common to neurodegenerative diseases

Impairment in Theory of Mind in Parkinson’s Disease Is Explained by Deficits in Inhibition

Objective. Several studies have reported that people with Parkinson's disease (PD) perform poorly on tests of 'Theory of Mind' (ToM), suggesting impairment in the ability to understand and infer other people's thoughts and feelings. However, few studies have sought to separate the processes involved in social reasoning from those involved in managing the inhibitory demands on these tests. In this study, we investigated the contribution of inhibition to ToM performance in PD. Methods. 18 PD patients and 22 age-matched healthy controls performed a ToM test that separates the ability to infer someone else's perspective from the ability to inhibit one's own. Participants also completed a battery of standard measures of social and executive functioning, including measures of inhibition. Results. The PD patients performed worse on the ToM test only when the inhibitory demands were high. When the level of inhibition required was reduced, there were no significant group differences. Furthermore, executive impairments in PD patients were limited to measures of inhibition, with disadvantages associated with poorer ToM performance in this group. Conclusions. This study provides convincing evidence that the apparent impairment observed on ToM tests in PD is explained by deficits in inhibition

752-6 Visualization of Coronary Arteries and Measurement of Coronary Blood Flow with Transthoracic Echocardiography After Intravenous Administration of a New Echocardlographic Contrast Agent

Imagent®US (AF0145, Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp.), a new hemodynamically inert perfluorochemical echocardiographic contrast agent, produces excellent left ventricular and blood pool contrast effect after intravenous administration when imaged with conventional (2-D) ultrasound. We evaluated the potential of Contrast Specific Imaging (Acuson) employing second harmonic principles to further enhance the visualization of structures containing contrast agents. Transthoracic images were obtained during injections of 10–40mg of the agent into the left femoral vein of seven closed chest dogs. Coronary Dopplerflow was simultaneously measured using an intracoronary Doppler wire. No alterations in flow velocities were observed with contrast administration. There was heterogenous opacification of the myocardium following contrast injection: a striking finding was of contrast-enhanced linear, branching structures in the myocardium consistent with coronary vessels. Further exploration of the largest structures (2–3mm diameter) in the region of the basal ventricular septum was technically possible with pulsed wave Doppler in two dogs. A characteristic coronary Doppler flow pattern was observed (Fig 1a). Transthoracic Doppler flow velocities transiently increased after intracoronary adenosine (Fig 1b). The calculated coronary flow reserve ratio was similar to simultaneous intracoronary Doppler measurements.ConclusionsIntramyocardial coronaryvasculature was observed and coronary flow velocites were measured during transthoracic Contrast Specific Imaging with an intravenously administered contrast agent. These findings suggest that noninvasive assessment of coronary blood flow is possible with echocardiographic contrast enhancement

Supernovae in the Subaru Deep Field: An Initial Sample, and Type Ia Rate, out to Redshift 1.6

Large samples of high-redshift supernovae (SNe) are potentially powerful probes of cosmic star formation, metal enrichment, and SN physics. We present initial results from a new deep SN survey, based on re-imaging in the R, i', z' bands, of the 0.25 deg2 Subaru Deep Field (SDF), with the 8.2-m Subaru telescope and Suprime-Cam. In a single new epoch consisting of two nights of observations, we have discovered 33 candidate SNe, down to a z'-band magnitude of 26.3 (AB). We have measured the photometric redshifts of the SN host galaxies, obtained Keck spectroscopic redshifts for 17 of the host galaxies, and classified the SNe using the Bayesian photometric algorithm of Poznanski et al. (2007) that relies on template matching. After correcting for biases in the classification, 55% of our sample consists of Type Ia supernovae and 45% of core-collapse SNe. The redshift distribution of the SNe Ia reaches z ~ 1.6, with a median of z ~ 1.2. The core-collapse SNe reach z ~ 1.0, with a median of z ~ 0.5. Our SN sample is comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope/GOODS sample both in size and redshift range. The redshift distributions of the SNe in the SDF and in GOODS are consistent, but there is a trend (which requires confirmation using a larger sample) for more high-z SNe Ia in the SDF. This trend is also apparent when comparing the SN Ia rates we derive to those based on GOODS data. Our results suggest a fairly constant rate at high redshift that could be tracking the star-formation rate. Additional epochs on this field, already being obtained, will enlarge our SN sample to the hundreds, and determine whether or not there is a decline in the SN Ia rate at z >~ 1.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, MNRAS accepte