Relationship Between Spirituality, Meaning in Life, Psychological Distress, Wish for Hastened Death, and Their Influence on Quality of Life in Palliative Care Patients.

Spiritual, existential, and psychological issues represent central components of quality of life (QOL) in palliative care. A better understanding of the dynamic nature underlying these components is essential for the development of interventions tailored to the palliative context. The aims were to explore 1) the relationship between spirituality, meaning in life, wishes for hastened death and psychological distress in palliative patients and 2) the extent to which these nonphysical determinants influence QOL. A cross-sectional study involving face-to-face interviews with Swiss palliative patients was performed, including the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMILE), the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp), the Idler Index of Religiosity (IIR), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Schedule of Attitudes toward Hastened Death (SAHD). QOL was measured with a single-item visual analogue scale (0-10). Two hundred and six patients completed the protocol (51.5% female; mean age = 67.5 years). The results indicated a significant negative relationship between FACIT-Sp/SMILE and HADS total scores (P = 0.000). The best model for QOL explained 32.8% of the variance (P = 0.000) and included the FACIT-Sp, SMILE, and SAHD total scores, the IIR "private religiosity" score, as well as the HADS "depression" score. Both spiritual well-being and meaning in life appear to be potential protective factors against psychological distress at the end of life. Since nonphysical determinants play a major role in shaping QOL at the end of life, there is a need for the development of meaning-oriented and spiritual care interventions tailored to the fragility of palliative patients

A multi-channel trigger and acquisition board for TDC-based readout: Application to the cosmic rays detector of the PolarQuEEEst 2018 project

In the summer of 2018, the PolarQuEEEst experiment accomplished a measurement of cosmic rays flux in the Arctic. The detector, installed on a sailboat, was based on scintillation tiles read by a total of 16 SiPM. A multi-channel board (called TRB) has been designed to process the discriminated SiPM signals providing both self-trigger capability and time-to-digital conversion; it was based on a Cyclone-V Intel FPGA. Time-to-digital conversion has been implemented both into FPGA and with the HPTDC chip (as a backup). In this document the board will be described, enlightening the main features and the achieved performance. Lastly, the PolarQuEEEst measurement campaigns will be briefly described, showing how the TRB board has proved to be effective for experiments which require low power consumption, integration with position and environmental sensors and great portability as well. Final thoughts on future improvements will be also discussed

Localization and Androgen Regulation of Metastasis-Associated Protein 1 in Mouse Epididymis

BACKGROUND: Metastasis-associated protein 1 (MTA1), the founding member of the MTA family of genes, can modulate transcription by influencing the status of chromatin remodeling. Despite its strong correlation with the metastatic potential of cancer cells, MTA1 can also regulate crucial cellular pathways by modifying the acetylation status. We have previously reported the presence of MTA1/MTA1 in human and mouse testes, providing the evidence for its involvement in the regulation of testicular function during murine spermatogenesis. The objective of present study was to further assess the localization of MTA1 in mouse epididymis on both transcriptional and translational level, and then to explore whether MTA1 expression is regulated by androgens and postnatal epididymal development. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Mice were deprived of circulating androgen by bilaterally castration and were then supplemented with exogenous testosterone propionate for one week. MTA1 was immunolocalized in the epithelium of the entire epididymis with the maximal expression in the nuclei of principal cells and of clear cells in proximal region. Its expression decreased gradually after castration, whereas testosterone treatment could restore the expression, indicating that the expression of this gene is dependent on androgen. During postnatal development, the protein expression in the epididymis began to appear from day 7 to day 14, increased dramatically from postnatal day 28, and peaked at adulthood onwards, coinciding with both the well differentiated status of epididymis and the mature levels of circulating androgens. This region- and cell-specific pattern was also conservative in normal human epididymis. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that the expression of MTA1 protein could be regulated by androgen pathway and its expression level is closely associated with the postnatal development of the epididymis, giving rise to the possibility that this gene plays a potential role in sperm maturation and fertility

New high precision measurements of the cosmic charged particle rate beyond the Arctic Circle with the PolarquEEEst experiment

The goal of the PolarquEEEst experiment was to measure the cosmic charged particle rate at latitudes greater than 66° N, where no systematic and accurate measurements at sea level have ever been performed. A latitude range well above the Arctic Circle was explored on board of a sailboat, up to the unprecedented northernmost value of 82° 07' N. In this paper a description of the experimental set-up is reported, then the procedures for calibration and ata analysis are described in detail. The results show that the rate measured in this latitude range stays constant within a novel accuracy of ±1%

Contribution of PEPFAR-Supported HIV and TB Molecular Diagnostic Networks to COVID-19 Testing Preparedness in 16 Countries.

The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) supports molecular HIV and tuberculosis diagnostic networks and information management systems in low- and middle-income countries. We describe how national programs leveraged these PEPFAR-supported laboratory resources for SARS-CoV-2 testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sent a spreadsheet template consisting of 46 indicators for assessing the use of PEPFAR-supported diagnostic networks for COVID-19 pandemic response activities during April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, to 27 PEPFAR-supported countries or regions. A total of 109 PEPFAR-supported centralized HIV viral load and early infant diagnosis laboratories and 138 decentralized HIV and TB sites reported performing SARS-CoV-2 testing in 16 countries. Together, these sites contributed to >3.4 million SARS-CoV-2 tests during the 1-year period. Our findings illustrate that PEPFAR-supported diagnostic networks provided a wide range of resources to respond to emergency COVID-19 diagnostic testing in 16 low- and middle-income countries

A peak efficiency tracking technique to improve the efficiency of switched capacitor DC–DC converters

none4siIn this paper, a peak efficiency tracking technique to improve the efficiency of switched capacitor (SC) DC–DC converters as the load varies is presented. A peak efficiency tracking circuit based on feedback control over the switching frequency is implemented for this scope. The basic idea of the proposed technique is to adjust the switching frequency according to the load. The technique is successfully implemented in a SC DC–DC converter to be embedded in detector pixels for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) of Geneve. It is realized in 65 nm bulk CMOS technology with an occupied area of 1.31 mm2. This converter provides an 800 mV output voltage from a 1.2 V supply. The load of the DC–DC converters is modeled as a resistor, RLOAD, that has 4 Ω nominal value but it can range from 2.67 up to 10 Ω. At 10 Ω RLOAD, a 6% efficiency improvement is reached with respect to the typical approach consisting in keeping constant the switching frequency at the optimum value for RLOAD nominal value.mixedD'Amico S.; Veri C.; Tau G.; Pasca M.D'Amico, S.; Veri, C.; Tau, G.; Pasca, M