Assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and fidelity of a tele-retinopathy-based intervention to encourage greater attendance to diabetic retinopathy screening in immigrants living with diabetes from China and African-Caribbean countries in Ottawa, Canada: a protocol

Background: Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of preventable blindness in Canada. Clinical guidelines recommend annual diabetic retinopathy screening for people living with diabetes to reduce the risk and progression of vision loss. However, many Canadians with diabetes do not attend screening. Screening rates are even lower in immigrants to Canada including people from China, Africa, and the Caribbean, and these groups are also at higher risk of developing diabetes complications. We aim to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and fidelity of a co-developed, linguistically and culturally tailored tele-retinopathy screening intervention for Mandarin-speaking immigrants from China and French-speaking immigrants from African-Caribbean countries living with diabetes in Ottawa, Canada, and identify how many from each population group attend screening during the pilot period. // Methods: We will work with our health system and patient partners to conduct a 6-month feasibility pilot of a tele-retinopathy screening intervention in a Community Health Centre in Ottawa. We anticipate recruiting 50–150 patients and 5–10 health care providers involved in delivering the intervention for the pilot. Acceptability will be assessed via a Theoretical Framework of Acceptability-informed survey with patients and health care providers. To assess feasibility, we will use a Theoretical Domains Framework-informed interview guide and to assess fidelity, and we will use a survey informed by the National Institutes of Health framework from the perspective of health care providers. We will also collect patient demographics (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, health insurance status, and immigration information), screening outcomes (i.e., patients with retinopathy identified, patients requiring specialist care), patient costs, and other intervention-related variables such as preferred language. Survey data will be descriptively analyzed and qualitative data will undergo content analysis. // Discussion: This feasibility pilot study will capture how many people living with diabetes from each group attend the diabetic retinopathy screening, costs, and implementation processes for the tele-retinopathy screening intervention. The study will indicate the practicability and suitability of the intervention in increasing screening attendance in the target population groups. The study results will inform a patient-randomized trial, provide evidence to conduct an economic evaluation of the intervention, and optimize the community-based intervention

From India to Italy: Susruta's influence on Italian rhinoplasty

Ye

Uptake of water by organic films: the dependence on the film oxidation state

We report quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements of the room temperature uptake of water by thin (<1 μm) organic films. The mass of water taken up by films of dodecane, 1-octanol, octanoic acid, 1,5-pentanediol, 1,8-octanediol and malonic acid was measured as a function of the ambient relative humidity (RH). All compounds tested here displayed some sorption of water. Uptake by dodecane is probably due to surface adsorption; in the other films, water dissolves into the film material. Malonic acid and 1,8 octanediol show deliquescence-like behaviour at relative humitidies near 72% and 95%, respectively. In general, the higher the oxidation state of the film compound, the greater is the amount of water sorbed. An absorptive partitioning model, using UNIFAC calculations of activity coefficients, yields semiquantitative agreement with the experimental results at low relative humidities for all compounds except dodecane. Model estimates of water uptake were generally higher than measurements at low RH and lower than measurements at high RH. Model-measurement deviations displayed a similar nonlinear behaviour with changes in RH for all compounds. The differences between the modelled and measured uptakes yield insight into the limitations of currently available model parameters

Uptake of water by organic films: the dependence on the film oxidation state

We report quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements of the room temperature uptake of water by thin (<1 μm) organic films. The mass of water taken up by films of dodecane, 1-octanol, octanoic acid, 1,5-pentanediol, 1,8-octanediol and malonic acid was measured as a function of the ambient relative humidity (RH). All compounds tested here displayed some sorption of water. Uptake by dodecane is probably due to surface adsorption; in the other films, water dissolves into the film material. Malonic acid and 1,8 octanediol show deliquescence-like behaviour at relative humitidies near 72% and 95%, respectively. In general, the higher the oxidation state of the film compound, the greater is the amount of water sorbed. An absorptive partitioning model, using UNIFAC calculations of activity coefficients, yields semiquantitative agreement with the experimental results at low relative humidities for all compounds except dodecane. Model estimates of water uptake were generally higher than measurements at low RH and lower than measurements at high RH. Model-measurement deviations displayed a similar nonlinear behaviour with changes in RH for all compounds. The differences between the modelled and measured uptakes yield insight into the limitations of currently available model parameters

Oocyte cryopreservation in a transgender man on long-term testosterone therapy: a case report

Objective: To report a case of ovarian stimulation for the purposes of oocyte cryopreservation in a transgender man without cessation of long-term testosterone therapy. Design: Report of a unique case of fertility preservation through ovarian stimulation and oocyte cryopreservation in a transgender man who had been on testosterone therapy for 18 months before treatment. The patient elected to continue testosterone therapy throughout ovarian stimulation and oocyte retrieval. To our knowledge, there have not been any published reports of patients undergoing oocyte cryopreservation while continuing long-term testosterone therapy. Setting: Private fertility clinic with university affiliation. Patient(s): A 20-year-old transgender man undergoing oocyte cryopreservation before gonadectomy. Intervention(s): Fertility preservation through oocyte cryopreservation. Main Outcome Measure(s): This patient had a robust response to ovarian gonadotropin stimulation. Leuprolide acetate was used for final oocyte maturation to minimize ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome risk. Result(s): Cryopreservation of 22 mature oocytes. Conclusion(s): Cryopreservation of mature oocytes is possible for patients on continued long-term testosterone therapy. The impact of long-term testosterone therapy on markers of ovarian reserve, reproductive potential, and long-term reproductive outcomes have yet to be elucidated and further studies are needed in this area

Nanopore Unzipping of Individual DNA Hairpin Molecules

We have used the nanometer scale α-Hemolysin pore to study the unzipping kinetics of individual DNA hairpins under constant force or constant loading rate. Using a dynamic voltage control method, the entry rate of polynucleotides into the pore and the voltage pattern applied to induce hairpin unzipping are independently set. Thus, hundreds of unzipping events can be tested in a short period of time (few minutes), independently of the unzipping voltage amplitude. Because our method does not entail the physical coupling of the molecules under test to a force transducer, very high throughput can be achieved. We used our method to study DNA unzipping kinetics at small forces, which have not been accessed before. We find that in this regime the static unzipping times decrease exponentially with voltage with a characteristic slope that is independent of the duplex region sequence, and that the intercept depends strongly on the duplex region energy. We also present the first nanopore dynamic force measurements (time varying force). Our results are in agreement with the ∼log([Formula: see text]) dependence at high [Formula: see text] (where [Formula: see text] is the loading rate) observed by other methods. The extension of these measurements to lower loading rates reveals a much weaker dependence on [Formula: see text

Assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and fidelity of a tele-retinopathy-based intervention to encourage greater attendance to diabetic retinopathy screening in immigrants living with diabetes from China and African-Caribbean countries in Ottawa, Canada: a protocol

Abstract Background Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of preventable blindness in Canada. Clinical guidelines recommend annual diabetic retinopathy screening for people living with diabetes to reduce the risk and progression of vision loss. However, many Canadians with diabetes do not attend screening. Screening rates are even lower in immigrants to Canada including people from China, Africa, and the Caribbean, and these groups are also at higher risk of developing diabetes complications. We aim to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and fidelity of a co-developed, linguistically and culturally tailored tele-retinopathy screening intervention for Mandarin-speaking immigrants from China and French-speaking immigrants from African-Caribbean countries living with diabetes in Ottawa, Canada, and identify how many from each population group attend screening during the pilot period. Methods We will work with our health system and patient partners to conduct a 6-month feasibility pilot of a tele-retinopathy screening intervention in a Community Health Centre in Ottawa. We anticipate recruiting 50–150 patients and 5–10 health care providers involved in delivering the intervention for the pilot. Acceptability will be assessed via a Theoretical Framework of Acceptability-informed survey with patients and health care providers. To assess feasibility, we will use a Theoretical Domains Framework-informed interview guide and to assess fidelity, and we will use a survey informed by the National Institutes of Health framework from the perspective of health care providers. We will also collect patient demographics (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, health insurance status, and immigration information), screening outcomes (i.e., patients with retinopathy identified, patients requiring specialist care), patient costs, and other intervention-related variables such as preferred language. Survey data will be descriptively analyzed and qualitative data will undergo content analysis. Discussion This feasibility pilot study will capture how many people living with diabetes from each group attend the diabetic retinopathy screening, costs, and implementation processes for the tele-retinopathy screening intervention. The study will indicate the practicability and suitability of the intervention in increasing screening attendance in the target population groups. The study results will inform a patient-randomized trial, provide evidence to conduct an economic evaluation of the intervention, and optimize the community-based intervention