Evaluating educational initiatives to improve palliative care for people with dementia: A narrative review.

Dementia accounts for one in three deaths among people aged 65 and over, but end-of-life care for people with dementia is often sub-optimal. Palliative care for people with dementia poses particular challenges to those providing services, and current policy initiatives recommend education and training in palliative care for those working with patients with dementia. However, there are few evaluations of the effectiveness of dementia education and training. This paper presents a narrative review undertaken in 2011-2012 of evaluations of palliative care education for those working with people with dementia at the end of life. A total of eight papers were identified that described and evaluated such palliative care education; none reported benefits for people with dementia. There is a clear need to develop and evaluate educational interventions designed to improve palliative and end-of-life care for people with dementia. Some suggestions for educationally sound approaches are discussed

The effect of rotation and tidal heating on the thermal lightcurves of Super Mercuries

Short period (<50 days) low-mass (<10Mearth) exoplanets are abundant and the few of them whose radius and mass have been measured already reveal a diversity in composition. Some of these exoplanets are found on eccentric orbits and are subjected to strong tides affecting their rotation and resulting in significant tidal heating. Within this population, some planets are likely to be depleted in volatiles and have no atmosphere. We model the thermal emission of these "Super Mercuries" to study the signatures of rotation and tidal dissipation on their infrared light curve. We compute the time-dependent temperature map at the surface and in the subsurface of the planet and the resulting disk-integrated emission spectrum received by a distant observer for any observation geometry. We calculate the illumination of the planetary surface for any Keplerian orbit and rotation. We include the internal tidal heat flow, vertical heat diffusion in the subsurface and generate synthetic light curves. We show that the different rotation periods predicted by tidal models (spin-orbit resonances, pseudo-synchronization) produce different photometric signatures, which are observable provided that the thermal inertia of the surface is high, like that of solid or melted rocks (but not regolith). Tidal dissipation can also directly affect the light curves and make the inference of the rotation more difficult or easier depending on the existence of hot spots on the surface. Infrared light curve measurement with the James Webb Space Telescope and EChO can be used to infer exoplanets' rotation periods and dissipation rates and thus to test tidal models. This data will also constrain the nature of the (sub)surface by constraining the thermal inertia.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Testing the cooling flow model in the intermediate polar EX Hydrae

We use the best available X-ray data from the intermediate polar EX Hydrae to study the cooling-flow model often applied to interpret the X-ray spectra of these accreting magnetic white dwarf binaries. First, we resolve a long-standing discrepancy between the X-ray and optical determinations of the mass of the white dwarf in EX Hya by applying new models of the inner disk truncation radius. Our fits to the X-ray spectrum now agree with the white dwarf mass of 0.79 M$_{\odot}$sun determined using dynamical methods through spectroscopic observations of the secondary. We use a simple isobaric cooling flow model to derive the emission line fluxes, emission measure distribution, and H-like to He-like line ratios for comparison with the 496 ks Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating observation of EX Hydrae. We find that the H/He ratios are not well reproduced by this simple isobaric cooling flow model and show that while H-like line fluxes can be accurately predicted, fluxes of lower-Z He-like lines are significantly underestimated. This discrepancy suggests that some extra heating mechanism plays an important role at the base of the accretion column, where cooler ions form. We thus explored more complex cooling models including the change of gravitational potential with height in the accretion column and a magnetic dipole geometry. None of these modifications to the standard cooling flow model are able to reproduce the observed line ratios. While a cooling flow model with subsolar (0.1 $\odot$) abundances is able to reproduce the line ratios by reducing the cooling rate at temperatures lower than $\sim 10^{7.3}$ K, the predicted line-to-continuum ratios are much lower than observed. We discuss and discard mechanisms such as photoionization, departures from constant pressure, resonant scattering, different electron-ion temperatures, and Compton cooling. [Abridged]Comment: Accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics, modified version after referee comments and proof correction

Modeling of solvent flow effects in enzyme catalysis under physiological conditions

A stochastic model for the dynamics of enzymatic catalysis in explicit, effective solvents under physiological conditions is presented. Analytically-computed first passage time densities of a diffusing particle in a spherical shell with absorbing boundaries are combined with densities obtained from explicit simulation to obtain the overall probability density for the total reaction cycle time of the enzymatic system. The method is used to investigate the catalytic transfer of a phosphoryl group in a phosphoglycerate kinase-ADP-bis phosphoglycerate system, one of the steps of glycolysis. The direct simulation of the enzyme-substrate binding and reaction is carried out using an elastic network model for the protein, and the solvent motions are described by multiparticle collision dynamics, which incorporates hydrodynamic flow effects. Systems where solvent-enzyme coupling occurs through explicit intermolecular interactions, as well as systems where this coupling is taken into account by including the protein and substrate in the multiparticle collision step, are investigated and compared with simulations where hydrodynamic coupling is absent. It is demonstrated that the flow of solvent particles around the enzyme facilitates the large-scale hinge motion of the enzyme with bound substrates, and has a significant impact on the shape of the probability densities and average time scales of substrate binding for substrates near the enzyme, the closure of the enzyme after binding, and the overall time of completion of the cycle.Comment: 15 pages in double column forma

Model-Independent Determination of the Strong-Phase Difference Between D0 and D0 → K0S,L h+h- (h=π,K) and its Impact on the Measurement of the CKM angle γ/φ3

We report the first determination of the relative strong-phase difference between D^0 -\u3e K^0_S,L K^+ K^- and D^0-bar -\u3e K^0_S,L K^+ K^-. In addition, we present updated measurements of the relative strong-phase difference between D^0 -\u3e K^0_S,L pi^+ pi^- and D^0-bar -\u3e K^0_S,L pi^+ pi^-. Both measurements exploit the quantum coherence between a pair of D^0 and D^0-bar mesons produced from psi(3770) decays. The strong-phase differences measured are important for determining the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa angle gamma/phi_3 in B^- -\u3e K^- D^0-tilde decays, where D^0-tilde is a D^0 or D^0-bar meson decaying to K^0_S h^+ h^- (h=pi,K), in a manner independent of the model assumed to describe the D^0 -\u3e K^0_S h^+ h^- decay. Using our results, the uncertainty in gamma/phi_3 due to the error on the strong-phase difference is expected to be between 1.7 and 3.9 degrees for an analysis using B^- K^- D^0-tilde D^0-tilde -\u3e K^0_S pi^+ pi^- decays, and between 3.2 and 3.9 degrees for an analysis based on B^- -\u3e K^- D^0-tilde, D^0-tilde -\u3e K^0_S K^+ K^- decays. A measurement is also presented of the CP-odd fraction, F_-, of the decay D^0 -\u3e K^0_S K^+ K^- in the region of the phi -\u3e K^+ K^- resonance. We find that in a region within 0.01 GeV^2/c^4 of the nominal phi mass squared F_- \u3e 0.91 at the 90% confidence level

Cephalosporin-3’-diazeniumdiolate NO-donor prodrug PYRRO-C3D enhances azithromycin susceptibility of non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae biofilms

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Objectives: PYRRO-C3D is a cephalosporin-3-diazeniumdiolate nitric oxide (NO)-donor prodrug designed to selectively deliver NO to bacterial infection sites. The objective of this study was to assess the activity of PYRRO-C3D against non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) biofilms and examine the role of NO in reducing biofilm-associated antibiotic tolerance. Methods: The activity of PYRRO-C3D on in vitro NTHi biofilms was assessed through CFU enumeration and confocal microscopy. NO release measurements were performed using an ISO-NO probe. NTHi biofilms grown on primary ciliated respiratory epithelia at an air-liquid interface were used to investigate the effects of PYRRO-C3D in the presence of host tissue. Label-free LC/MS proteomic analyses were performed to identify differentially expressed proteins following NO treatment. Results: PYRRO-C3D specifically released NO in the presence of NTHi, while no evidence of spontaneous NO release was observed when the compound was exposed to primary epithelial cells. NTHi lacking β-lactamase activity failed to trigger NO release. Treatment significantly increased the susceptibility of in vitro NTHi biofilms to azithromycin, causing a log-fold reduction in viability (p<0.05) relative to azithromycin alone. The response was more pronounced for biofilms grown on primary respiratory epithelia, where a 2-log reduction was observed (p<0.01). Label-free proteomics showed that NO increased expression of sixteen proteins involved in metabolic and transcriptional/translational functions. Conclusions: NO release from PYRRO-C3D enhances the efficacy of azithromycin against NTHi biofilms, putatively via modulation of NTHi metabolic activity. Adjunctive therapy with NO mediated through PYRRO-C3D represents a promising approach for reducing biofilm associated antibiotic tolerance

Model-Independent Determination of the Strong-Phase Difference Between D^0 and D^0-bar-\u3e K^0_S,L h^+ h^- (h=pi,K) and its Impact on the Measurement of the CKM angle gamma/phi_3

We report the first determination of the relative strong-phase difference between D^0 -\u3e K^0_S,L K^+ K^- and D^0-bar -\u3e K^0_S,L K^+ K^-. In addition, we present updated measurements of the relative strong-phase difference between D^0 -\u3e K^0_S,L pi^+ pi^- and D^0-bar -\u3e K^0_S,L pi^+ pi^-. Both measurements exploit the quantum coherence between a pair of D^0 and D^0-bar mesons produced from psi(3770) decays. The strong-phase differences measured are important for determining the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa angle gamma/phi_3 in B^- -\u3e K^- D^0-tilde decays, where D^0-tilde is a D^0 or D^0-bar meson decaying to K^0_S h^+ h^- (h=pi,K), in a manner independent of the model assumed to describe the D^0 -\u3e K^0_S h^+ h^- decay. Using our results, the uncertainty in gamma/phi_3 due to the error on the strong-phase difference is expected to be between 1.7 and 3.9 degrees for an analysis using B^- K^- D^0-tilde D^0-tilde -\u3e K^0_S pi^+ pi^- decays, and between 3.2 and 3.9 degrees for an analysis based on B^- -\u3e K^- D^0-tilde, D^0-tilde -\u3e K^0_S K^+ K^- decays. A measurement is also presented of the CP-odd fraction, F_-, of the decay D^0 -\u3e K^0_S K^+ K^- in the region of the phi -\u3e K^+ K^- resonance. We find that in a region within 0.01 GeV^2/c^4 of the nominal phi mass squared F_- \u3e 0.91 at the 90% confidence level

BVPSMS: A Batch Verification Protocol for End-to-End Secure SMS for Mobile Users

Short Message Service (SMS) is a widely used communication medium for mobile applications, such as banking, social networking, and e-commerce. Applications of SMS services also include real-time broadcasting messages, such as notification of natural disasters and terrorist attacks, and sharing the current whereabouts to other users, such as notifying urgent business meeting information, transmitting quick information in the battlefield to multiple users, notifying current location to our friends, and sharing market information. However, traditional SMS is not designed with security in mind (e.g. messages are not securely sent). In this paper, we introduce a batch verification Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) protocol, BVPSMS, which provides end-to-end message security over an insecure communication channel between different Mobile Subscribers (MSs). Specifically, the proposed protocol securely transmits SMS from one MS to multiple MS simultaneously. We then evaluate the performance of the BVPSMS protocol in terms of communication and computation overheads, protocol execution time, and batch and re-batch verification times. The impacts of the user mobility, and the time, space, and cost complexity analysis are also discussed. We present a formal proof of the proposed protocol. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first provably-secure batch verification AKA protocol, which provides end-to-end security to the SMS using symmetric keys