Perspectives of healthcare providers on the nutritional management of patients on haemodialysis in Australia: An interview study

Objective To describe the perspectives of healthcare providers on the nutritional management of patients on haemodialysis, which may inform strategies for improving patient-centred nutritional care. Design Face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted until data saturation, and thematic analysis based on principles of grounded theory. Setting 21 haemodialysis centres across Australia. Participants 42 haemodialysis clinicians (nephrologists and nephrology trainees (15), nurses (12) and dietitians (15)) were purposively sampled to obtain a range of demographic characteristics and clinical experiences. Results Six themes were identified: responding to changing clinical status (individualising strategies to patient needs, prioritising acute events, adapting guidelines), integrating patient circumstances (assimilating life priorities, access and affordability), delineating specialty roles in collaborative structures (shared and cohesive care, pivotal role of dietary expertise, facilitating access to nutritional care, perpetuating conflicting advice and patient confusion, devaluing nutritional specialty), empowerment for behaviour change (enabling comprehension of complexities, building autonomy and ownership, developing self-efficacy through engagement, tailoring self-management strategies), initiating and sustaining motivation (encountering motivational hurdles, empathy for confronting life changes, fostering non-judgemental relationships, emphasising symptomatic and tangible benefits, harnessing support networks), and organisational and staffing barriers (staffing shortfalls, readdressing system inefficiencies). Conclusions Organisational support with collaborative multidisciplinary teams and individualised patient care were seen as necessary for developing positive patient-clinician relationships, delivering consistent nutrition advice, and building and sustaining patient motivation to enable change in dietary behaviour. Improving service delivery and developing and delivering targeted, multifaceted self-management interventions may enhance current nutritional management of patients on haemodialysis

Crop yields on soil experiment fields in Iowa.

Crop yields on most Iowa soils are not low, but in many eases they are not as large as they might be if proper methods of soil treatment were employed. There is evidence, too, from decreasing yields that the soils are gradually becoming less and less productive. Apparently the time has come when attention must be directed to improving soil conditions and increasing productivity, if the land in the state is to be utilized most economically and to be kept fertile for succeeding generations. Iowa farmers are alive to the situation and they are interested in learning how their soils should be handled and what fertilizers they should employ in order to secure more profitable crop yields. The experimental work of the Soils Section of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station is designed to supply this information and the results which have been secured in this work now permit of certain general recommendations regarding better methods of soil management

Galactic Archaeology with TESS: Prospects for Testing the Star Formation History in the Solar Neighbourhood

A period of quenching between the formation of the thick and thin disks of the Milky Way has been recently proposed to explain the observed age-[{\alpha}/Fe] distribution of stars in the solar neighbourhood. However, robust constraints on stellar ages are currently available for only a limited number of stars. The all-sky survey TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will observe the brightest stars in the sky and thus can be used to investigate the age distributions of stars in these components of the Galaxy via asteroseismology, where previously this has been difficult using other techniques. The aim of this preliminary study was to determine whether TESS will be able to provide evidence for quenching periods during the star formation history of the Milky Way. Using a population synthesis code, we produced populations based on various stellar formation history models and limited the analysis to red-giant-branch stars. We investigated the mass-Galactic-disk-height distributions, where stellar mass was used as an age proxy, to test for whether periods of quenching can be observed by TESS. We found that even with the addition of 15% noise to the inferred masses, it will be possible for TESS to find evidence for/against quenching periods suggested in the literature (e.g. between 7 and 9 Gyr ago), therefore providing stringent constraints on the formation and evolution of the Milky Way.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of "Seismology of the Sun and the Distant Stars 2016", Mario J. P. F. G. Monteiro, Margarida S. Cunha, Joao Miguel T. Ferreira editor

Estrous synchronization and scheduled artificial insemination for gilts

Gilts were artificially inseminated on the fifth, sixth and seventh days after estrous synchronization with altrenogest (scheduled AI). Contemporary controls also were synchronized but were checked for estrus twice daily. Scheduled AI gilts had farrowing rates and litter sizes similar to controls. Altrenogest is not presently available to pork producers but these results suggest that it could be used in combination with artificial insemination to schedule breeding according to a predetermined schedule.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 10, 198

Fertility with artificial insemination: gilts that lock on the insemination spirette vs. those that don\u27t

KSU breeding records show a higher farrowing rate for gilts that lock on the insemination spirette at both inseminations as opposed to gilts that lock at one insemination or at neither insemination. Continued research is focusing on factors affecting female response to insemination and fertility.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 11, 198

The management of peat and alkali soils in Iowa

How to handle peat soils and how to reclaim so-called, alkali spots are real problems to many farmers in north-central Iowa, large numbers of whom have found thru hitter experience the futility of attempting to grow crops on such land without special methods of treatment. While drainage is generally recognized as the basic treatment necessary if these soils are to be successfully cropped, other treatments in addition have been found to be essential if satisfactory crop yields are to be secured on peat and alkali areas. Even with the very best system of management, several years may be required before peat soils can be utilized on a distinctly profitable basis. This is especially true of newly-drained peat land. So-called alkali areas may be more quickly reclaimed and made productive, but even these soils may not give satisfactory crop yields the first year after drainage

Interventions for improving health literacy in people with chronic kidney disease

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: This review aims to look at the benefits and harms of interventions for improving health literacy in patients with CKD

Sex differences in auditory fear discrimination are associated with altered medial prefrontal cortex function

The increased prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is observed in women may involve sex differences in learned fear inhibition and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) function. PTSD is characterized by fear overgeneralization involving impaired fear regulation by safety signals. We recently found that males show fear discrimination and females show fear generalization involving reduced safety signalling after extended fear discrimination training. Here we determined if these sex differences involve altered mPFC function. Male and female rats underwent three days of auditory fear discrimination training, where one tone (CS+) was paired with footshock and another tone (CS-) was presented alone. Local field potentials were recorded from prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) mPFC during retrieval. We found that males discriminated and females generalized based on cue-induced freezing at retrieval. This was accompanied by sex differences in basal theta and gamma oscillations in PL and IL. Importantly, males also showed PL/IL theta activation during safety signalling by the CS- and IL gamma activation in response to the threat-related CS+, both of which were absent in females. These results add to growing evidence indicating that sex differences in learned fear inhibition are associated with altered mPFC function

Guidelines for “Topics Brief” Submissions

Topics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology Volume 4: Issue 1, Article 6, 2023. The “Topics Brief”, a novel submissions format, is introduced with authors guidelines. Within this submissions format, a category describing a target audience should be identified, such as Topics Brief for: Patients, Clinicians, Practitioners, or Students. Authors may also suggest their own category for a target audience. The title should be descriptive and allow for maximum searchability. Authorship criteria include a substantial contribution, assisting with the manuscript draft, and approval of the final version. The format is open, with a focus of presenting work in a clear and understandable manner that members of a target audience may choose to implement in some manner. The following items should be considered: 1) use of appropriate reading level, 2) visual representation is encouraged, 3) condensed format, ideally no longer than 1-2 pages, and 4) the most important information is shared. Authors publishing a Topics Brief will agree to review a future Topics Brief submission