Drug Delivery to the Posterior Segment of the Eye: Biopharmaceutic and Pharmacokinetic Considerations

The treatment of the posterior-segment ocular diseases, such as age-related eye diseases (AMD) or diabetic retinopathy (DR), present a challenge for ophthalmologists due to the complex anatomy and physiology of the eye. This specialized organ is composed of various static and dynamic barriers that restrict drug delivery into the target site of action. Despite numerous efforts, effective intraocular drug delivery remains unresolved and, therefore, it is highly desirable to improve the current treatments of diseases affecting the posterior cavity. This review article gives an overview of pharmacokinetic and biopharmaceutics aspects for the most commonly-used ocular administration routes (intravitreal, topical, systemic, and periocular), including information of the absorption, distribution, and elimination, as well as the benefits and limitations of each one. This article also encompasses different conventional and novel drug delivery systems designed and developed to improve drug pharmacokinetics intended for the posterior ocular segment treatment

Protocol d'atenció i acompanyament al naixement a Catalunya

Acompanyament al naixement; Voluntats de la dona; Atenció al nadóBirth support; Women's wills; Newborn careAcompañamiento en el nacimiento; Voluntades de la mujer; Atención al recién nacidoL’Organització Mundial de la Salut, l’any 2018 va proposar una sèrie d’actuacions per a l’atenció al moment del part, que tenen per lema ‘Atenció per a una experiència positiva en el naixement’. En aquest document s’actualitza el ‘Protocol del part, puerperi i atenció al nadó’, document elaborat pel Departament de Salut, publicat l’any 2003 i actualitzat l’any 2019 com a ‘Protocol d’atenció i acompanyament al naixement’, seguint les recomanacions de l’OMS, així com totes aquelles basades en l’evidència científica, amb el màxim respecte a les opinions i voluntats de les dones gestants i amb l’objectiu d’ajudar-les a elles i a les seves famílies a tenir una experiència positiva en el part. Les activitats de promoció de la salut i prevenció de la malaltia són l’eix vertebrador d’aquest protocol i de tots els que es coordinen des del Servei de Salut Maternoinfantil de la Sub-direcció de Promoció de la Salut de l’Agència de Salut Pública de Catalunya del Departament de Salut. En aquest sentit, cal ressaltar la seva relació amb el Protocol del seguiment de l’embaràs a Catalunya (3a. edició) que es va presentar el 2018, amb el qual comparteix principis i enfocament. El protocol s’estructura en tres capítols en relació a les etapes (prepart, part i puerperi), recollint en el tercer, l’atenció la nadó. Cada capítol té diversos apartats en les activitats a realitzar, la informació a donar i el registre, entre d’altres. Es recull, després, la bibliografia i una sèrie de annexos amb eines pràctiques

Scientific Creativity: MeProB

Frederick Leong and James T Austin in their 2006 publication of The psychology research handbook: A guide for graduate students and research assistants discuss the role of scientific creativity in regards to the creation of a research topic and the formulation of a problem. Furthermore, they posit that the scientific creative process is less taxing if the researcher approaches using searching strategies in the following domains: personal interests, environmental, work and life, experiences and the use of electronic sources. We employed the searching strategies highlighted in the literature to build a digitized scientific architectural platform called MeProB. MeProB in an interactive software that through a series of probes, in successive approximations, enables doctoral students to identify a dissertation topic and a research problem. The architectural logic of MeProB prompts students to think about their professional experiences and/or interests and to identify areas of concern that potentially could be research topics. Once the student identifies the most pressing concerns they are prompted to find evidence and/or literature that will document the problem and to use the compiled evidence to justify the merits of a study. The MeProB methodology employs an algorithm that combines the evidence from practice and the scholarly literature to yield a research problem. This paper will present information about scientific creativity, a discussion of the MeProB interactive software and the experiences of doctoral students who have used MeProB

Converging the Infinite Limits of Qualitative and Quantitative Research: Inter and Intra Rater Reliability Metrics as Measures of Evidence Strength in Systematic Reviews of the Literature

Despite the call from highly reputable research organizations for evidence-based educational research, the use of a rater agreement procedure to determine the strength of the literature screening procedures employed in a systematic review of the literature has yet to be considered by educational researchers. The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has led the effort to critically assess the scientific literature for the purpose of reporting to stakeholders the effectiveness of educational interventions. Similar to the work conducted by the Cochrane and Campbell Collaboration, the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), a subdivision of the IES, is responsible for conducting and reporting systematic reviews of the literature through the use of a protocol published in the What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook Version 3.0. (2014). The handbook calls for reporting statistical significance, effect sizes, and an improvement index. However, there is no indication of the level of agreement, the reliability of the literature screening procedures, and the review of the eligible studies against the WWC standards. To measure the consistency of the appraisal steps in a systematic review of the literature, this paper proposes the use of measures of inter-rater reliability and inter-rater agreement. Specifically, we explore the conceptual differences between inter-rater reliability and inter-rater agreement metrics, compare the use of several statistical procedures for calculating these metrics and provide examples on how to use these measures as indicators of the strength of the evidence presented in a systematic review of the literature

Forecasting emergency department arrivals using INGARCH models

Abstract Background Forecasting patient arrivals to hospital emergency departments is critical to dealing with surges and to efficient planning, management and functioning of hospital emerency departments. Objective We explore whether past mean values and past observations are useful to forecast daily patient arrivals in an Emergency Department. Material and methods We examine whether an integer-valued generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (INGARCH) model can yield a better conditional distribution fit and forecast of patient arrivals by using past arrival information and taking into account the dynamics of the volatility of arrivals. Results We document that INGARCH models improve both in-sample and out-of-sample forecasts, particularly in the lower and upper quantiles of the distribution of arrivals. Conclusion Our results suggest that INGARCH modelling is a useful model for short-term and tactical emergency department planning, e.g., to assign rotas or locate staff for unexpected surges in patient arrivals

Where Brain, Body and World Collide

The production cross section of electrons from semileptonic decays of beauty hadrons was measured at mid-rapidity (|y| < 0.8) in the transverse momentum range 1 < pt < 8 Gev/c with the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt{s} = 7 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 2.2 nb^{-1}. Electrons from beauty hadron decays were selected based on the displacement of the decay vertex from the collision vertex. A perturbative QCD calculation agrees with the measurement within uncertainties. The data were extrapolated to the full phase space to determine the total cross section for the production of beauty quark-antiquark pairs