Hasil untuk "Special situations and conditions"

Menampilkan 20 dari ~1526105 hasil · dari CrossRef, DOAJ, arXiv

JSON API
DOAJ Open Access 2026
Significant gap between Point participation and long‑term treatment adherence: An evaluation of ivermectin MDA in the Kwanware‑Ottou persistent onchocerciasis transmission focus, Wenchi, Ghana.

Rogers Nditanchou, Akinola Stephen Oluwole, Judith Saare et al.

<h4>Background</h4>Despite more than 27 years of ivermectin mass drug administration (MDA), onchocerciasis transmission persists in the Kwanware-Ottou focus within the Wenchi Health District of Ghana. This study examined participation in ivermectin MDA over time in this transmission focus.<h4>Methods</h4>In March 2024, two months after MDA using the community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) approach, settlements within Kwanware-Ottou focus were identified through community consultations and satellite imagery. A census was then conducted integrating an ivermectin treatment coverage evaluation survey (CES) to evaluate community participation in CDTI. Data were cleaned using STATA and analysed in R. Descriptive statistics, multiple logistic regression, and ordinal logistic regression were conducted to examine factors associated with point and effective participation in CDTI. Point participation is the percentage of individuals aged 15 + who took ivermectin during the last CDTI, while effective participation refers to those who have taken it at least ten times in past rounds. Pearson correlation was used to assess the relationship between participation and infection prevalence.<h4>Results</h4>Nineteen settlements were identified, with an overall point participation of 80.3% (n = 1461 participants; 95% Confidence Interval, CI:78.6 - 82) for the preceding CDTI. However, 10 settlements had coverage below 80%. Effective participation was only 53.5% (n = 974; CI: 51.2 -55.9), well below the recommended 80%. Participation was influenced by factors such as age, occupation, ethnicity, remoteness, length of stay in the settlement, and mobility (migration). Effective participation was correlated with infection levels, with correlation coefficients of -0.74 for microfilariae prevalence and -0.79 for anti-Ov16 seroprevalence, indicating a strong inverse relationship.<h4>Conclusion</h4>High point participation masks low effective participation and insufficient subdistrict geographical coverage. Conducting exhaustive CES in delineated foci is essential for evaluating CDTI performance, tailoring and strengthening CDTI, and informing alternative strategies to interrupt onchocerciasis transmission. This approach has contributed to effective, context-specific strategies to interrupt transmission in Wenchi and beyond.

Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine, Public aspects of medicine
arXiv Open Access 2026
Special vs Essential

Yukari Ito, Kohei Sato, Yusuke Sato

We show a correspondence between the compact exceptional curves and divisors on $G-{\rm Hilb}(\mathbf{C}^3)$ and some non-trivial irreducible representations of $G \subset GL(n,C)$ which are special (or essential). Moreover, we provide an explicit construction of the small resolution of $G-{\rm Hilb}(\mathbf{C}^3)$ and, using this resolution, we construct a correspondence between special and essential representations. These results are an extension of ``Special McKay correspondence'' and ``Reid's recipe''.

en math.AG
DOAJ Open Access 2025
The effects of muscle fatigue on shoulder proprioception and forehand stroke accuracy in Chinese elite table tennis athletes

Zhenlei Chen, Tianshu Zhao, Youqing Shen et al.

Abstract This study explores the relationship between shoulder proprioception and landing point accuracy in Chinese elite table tennis athletes, particularly under fatigue conditions. A total of 19 male athletes participated, with their shoulder proprioception tested using an ISOMED 2000 isokinetic muscle tester. The tester measured proprioception acuity in both pre-fatigue and post-fatigue conditions, alongside performance in a hitting task assessed with a high-speed serve machine. Results indicated a significant correlation between proprioception and stroke performance, especially in internal and external rotation directions (p < 0.01). After fatigue, proprioception in both the racket-holding and non-racket-holding hands significantly decreased in internal and external rotations (p < 0.01 for both hands), with no significant change in vertical extension (VE). Additionally, the performance of the hitting task after fatigue significantly declined in the racket-holding hand (p < 0.01). These findings suggest that shoulder proprioception plays a crucial role in stroke accuracy and fatigue recovery, providing valuable insights for training, rehabilitation, and performance optimization in table tennis.

Sports medicine
DOAJ Open Access 2025
Nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in healthcare workers at Banadir Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia

Abdullah Dahir H. Aweis, Abdullah Dahir H. Aweis, Abdullah Dahir H. Aweis et al.

BackgroundAntibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to healthcare services and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is common among hospital workers. Currently, there is no research on MRSA and its prevalence in Somalia. This study sought to determine the prevalence of nasal Staphylococcus aureus carriage and the susceptibility pattern of healthcare workers’ MRSA isolates.MethodsThis cross-sectional, descriptive study involved nasal swab collection from healthcare workers at Banadir Teaching Hospital. Cefoxitin discs were used to identify methicillin-resistant strains, and their antimicrobial susceptibility was evaluated using the Kirby–Bauer (disc diffusion) method. Based on specialty, e.g., pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, laboratory, and intensive care unit (ICU), participants were recruited from different wards. Nasal swabs from 215 participants were inoculated on mannitol salt agar, and yellow colonies were aseptically transferred into blood agar, inoculated on DNase agar, and subjected to catalase, coagulase, and gram staining tests. Next, bacterial suspensions were prepared and aseptically inoculated on Mueller–Hinton agar plates, followed by cefoxitin antibiotic (30 μg) disc testing. Staphylococcus aureus was categorized/interpreted based on the zone diameter (nearest whole millimeter) of the cefoxitin discs. Samples with diameters of ≤21 mm were considered to be MRSA) while those with diameters of ≥22 mm were regarded as methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus.ResultsSome locations had higher MRSA isolation rates. Ward 16 (postnatal care and neonatal ICU) had the highest MRSA prevalence (n=9, 26.5%), followed by pediatric isolation (n=6, 33.3%), emergency (n=5, 17.9%), and pediatric malnutrition (n=4, 44.4%) wards. A total of 27 (23.70%) MRSA cases were isolated and were susceptible to vancomycin and linezolid.ConclusionSome hospital locations had higher MRSA prevalence, with the postnatal care, neonatal ICU, and isolation wards having the highest isolation rates.

Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
DOAJ Open Access 2025
The effect of endurance, resistance and concurrent training on respiratory capacity of cystic fibrosis patients

Ashkan Sohrabi, Samaneh Ebrahimi, Ehsan Arabzadeh et al.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a multisystem disease that may affect organ systems, including the respiratory system. Exercise training provides multiple benefits for people with CF. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of three exercise-training programs on respiratory capacity and pulmonary function in patients with CF. Sixty CF patients (age 8–15 years, body mass index or BMI > 16 kg/m2) were randomly allocated to three experimental groups including: Endurance training (ET, n = 15), Resistance training (RT, n = 15), Concurrent Training (CT, n = 14) and control (C, n = 16). Trainings groups completed a 10-week moderate exercise programs (endurance, resistance and concurrent modality). Spirometry was performed both prior to randomization and following the intervention to assess first second of forced expiration (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV1/FVC ratio. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed using the adolescent/adult version of the CF Questionnaire. The results show that 10-weeks of supervised ET, RT and CT improved FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC (%), peak expiratory flow (PEF) (l/s), forced mid-expiratory flow (FEF) 25–75 % (l/s), maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV) dimension, and HRQoL (p < 0.05). In addition, in the three exercise groups, a significant improvement in all variables at post-test was observed when compared to pre-test (p < 0.05). In CF patients, performing controlled endurance, resistance and combined exercises improved functional and respiratory parameters. However, it seems that combined exercises had a greater effect on these variables than resistance and endurance exercises alone.

Sports medicine
arXiv Open Access 2024
Make Interaction Situated: Designing User Acceptable Interaction for Situated Visualization in Public Environments

Qian Zhu, Zhuo Wang, Wei Zeng et al.

Situated visualization blends data into the real world to fulfill individuals' contextual information needs. However, interacting with situated visualization in public environments faces challenges posed by user acceptance and contextual constraints. To explore appropriate interaction design, we first conduct a formative study to identify user needs for data and interaction. Informed by the findings, we summarize appropriate interaction modalities with eye-based, hand-based and spatially-aware object interaction for situated visualization in public environments. Then, through an iterative design process with six users, we explore and implement interactive techniques for activating and analyzing with situated visualization. To assess the effectiveness and acceptance of these interactions, we integrate them into an AR prototype and conduct a within-subjects study in public scenarios using conventional hand-only interactions as the baseline. The results show that participants preferred our prototype over the baseline, attributing their preference to the interactions being more acceptable, flexible, and practical in public.

DOAJ Open Access 2023
Neuropathology of yellow fever autopsy cases

Fernando Pereira Frassetto, Sergio Rosemberg

Abstract Background Yellow fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever caused by yellow fever virus, a mosquito-borne flavivirus. Despite an effective vaccine, major outbreaks continue to occur around the world. Even though it is not a proven neurotropic virus, neurological symptoms in more severe clinical forms are frequent. The understanding of this apparent paradox is still rarely addressed in literature. Methods The brains of thirty-eight patients with yellow fever confirmed by RT-PCR, who underwent autopsy, were analyzed morphologically to identify and characterize neuropathological changes. The data were compared with brains collected from individuals without the disease, as a control group. Both cases and controls were subdivided according to the presence or absence of co-concurrent septic shock, to exclude changes of the sepsis associated encephalopathy. To verify possible morphological differences between the yellow fever cases groups, between the control groups, and between the cases and the controls, we applied the statistical tests Fisher's exact test and chi-square, with p values < 0.05 considered statistically significant. Results All cases and controls presented, at least focally, neuropathological changes, which included edema, meningeal and parenchymal inflammatory infiltrate and hemorrhages, and perivascular inflammatory infiltrate. We did not find an unequivocal aspect of encephalitis. The only parameter that, after statistical analysis, can be attributed to yellow fever was the perivascular inflammatory infiltrate. Conclusions The neuropathological findings are sufficient to justify the multiple clinical neurologic disturbances detected in the YF cases. Since most of the parameters evaluated did not show statistically significant difference between cases and controls, an explanation for most of the neuropathological findings may be the vascular changes, consequent to shock induced endotheliopathy, associated with stimulation of the immune system inherent to systemic infectious processes. The statistical difference obtained in yellow fever cases regarding perivascular infiltrate can be can be explained by the immune activation inherent to the condition.

Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
arXiv Open Access 2023
A Study of Situational Reasoning for Traffic Understanding

Jiarui Zhang, Filip Ilievski, Kaixin Ma et al.

Intelligent Traffic Monitoring (ITMo) technologies hold the potential for improving road safety/security and for enabling smart city infrastructure. Understanding traffic situations requires a complex fusion of perceptual information with domain-specific and causal commonsense knowledge. Whereas prior work has provided benchmarks and methods for traffic monitoring, it remains unclear whether models can effectively align these information sources and reason in novel scenarios. To address this assessment gap, we devise three novel text-based tasks for situational reasoning in the traffic domain: i) BDD-QA, which evaluates the ability of Language Models (LMs) to perform situational decision-making, ii) TV-QA, which assesses LMs' abilities to reason about complex event causality, and iii) HDT-QA, which evaluates the ability of models to solve human driving exams. We adopt four knowledge-enhanced methods that have shown generalization capability across language reasoning tasks in prior work, based on natural language inference, commonsense knowledge-graph self-supervision, multi-QA joint training, and dense retrieval of domain information. We associate each method with a relevant knowledge source, including knowledge graphs, relevant benchmarks, and driving manuals. In extensive experiments, we benchmark various knowledge-aware methods against the three datasets, under zero-shot evaluation; we provide in-depth analyses of model performance on data partitions and examine model predictions categorically, to yield useful insights on traffic understanding, given different background knowledge and reasoning strategies.

en cs.CL, cs.AI
arXiv Open Access 2023
On odd perfect numbers of special forms

Luis H. Gallardo, Olivier. Rahavandrainy

We give necessary conditions for perfection of some families of odd numbers with special multiplicative forms. Extending earlier work of Steuerwald, Kanold, McDaniel et al.

en math.NT
arXiv Open Access 2023
The Hrushovski Property for Compact Special Cube Complexes

Brahim Abdenbi, Daniel T. Wise

We show that any compact nonpositively curved cube complex $Y$ embeds in a compact nonpositively curved cube complex $R$ where each combinatorial injective partial local isometry of $Y$ extends to an automorphism of $R$. When $Y$ is special and the collection of injective partial local isometries satisfies certain conditions, we show that $R$ can be chosen to be special and the embedding $Y\hookrightarrow R$ can be chosen to be a local isometry.

en math.GN
DOAJ Open Access 2022
Impact of COVID-19 on lifestyle and mental wellbeing in a drought-affected rural Australian population

Kevin Chan, Houston Xue, Jack Carlson et al.

Introduction: The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused unprecedented social and economic disruption, accompanied by the enactment of a multitude of public health measures to restrain disease transmission. These public health and social measures have had a considerable impact on lifestyle and mental wellbeing, which has been well studied with metropolitan populations. However, limited literature concerning such effects on a selectively rural population is presently available. Additionally, the use of a standardised scoring system for lifestyle may be valuable for an overall assessment of lifestyle that may be incorporated into clinical practice. Methods: This study examined the associations between psychological distress and changes in SNAPS health behaviours (smoking, nutrition, alcohol, physical activity, sleep) since the onset of COVID-19 in Australia. A cross-sectional anonymous survey was distributed online to adults in the Western New South Wales Primary Health Network in August 2020 and included measures of psychological distress, income, disposition and lifestyle factors during the pandemic as well as changes to lifestyle due to COVID-19. A novel Global Lifestyle Score (GLS) was generated as a holistic assessment of lifestyle across multiple domains. Results: The survey was completed by 304 individuals (modal age group 45-54 years, 86.8% female). High distress on the Kessler-5 scale was present in over one-third of participants (n=95, 33.7%). Detrimental change was reported for sleep (22.7%), nutrition (14.5%), alcohol (16.7%), physical exercise (34.0%) and smoking (24.7%) since the onset of the pandemic. Changes in sleep, nutrition, physical activity and smoking were associated with distress. Participants with a poor lifestyle (GLS) during the pandemic were significantly more distressed. Perceived COVID-19 impact was associated with high distress, drought impact and loss of income. Participants who reported negative impact from both COVID-19 and drought were significantly more distressed than those reporting a negative impact from drought alone or neither event. Conclusion: High rates of distress among rural Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic was linked to low GLS, worsening lifestyles and loss of income. Healthy lifestyle strategies should be considered by health professionals for the management of crisis-related distress. Further research may explore the impact of COVID-19 on a larger study population with a greater proportion of male participants and to examine the effect of modifying lifestyle factors in reducing distress in the context of a stressor such as this pandemic.

Special situations and conditions, Public aspects of medicine
DOAJ Open Access 2022
Persea americana attenuates inflammatory response associated with hyperlipidemia in ovariectomized and irradiated rats by regulating MMP-3/TIMP-1 levels

Dina F Elmaghraby, Fatma A.M. Salem, Esraa S.A. Ahmed

Objective: To explore the effect of Persea americana supplementation on inflammation, oxidative stress, and lipid profiles in ovariectomized rats fed with a high-fat diet and exposed to radiation. Methods: The control group was sham operated, while groups 2-5 were ovariectomized and fed a high-fat diet. Groups 4 and 5 were exposed to γ-radiation (1 Gy/week for 5 weeks) after ovariectomy. Groups 3 and 5 were treated with 1 mL/250 g/day of Persea americana for one month. Serum levels of estrogen, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoproteins were measured. Additionally, hepatic oxidative stress, inflammatory and fibrogenic markers were evaluated. Results: Persea americana treatment reduced the oxidative stress markers as well as the levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which in turn lowered hepatic fat accumulation. Moreover, it suppressed hepatic inflammatory mediators (interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and C-reactive protein) and downregulated pro-fibrogenic markers (transforming growth factor-β and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1). Conclusions: Persea americana provides protection against ovariectomy, and gamma radiation-mediated hepatic inflammation not only through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, lipid-lowering effect but also by modulating the fibrogenic markers.

Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine, Biology (General)
DOAJ Open Access 2022
Measuring person-centred care in German nursing homes – exploring the construct validity of the Dementia Policy Questionnaire: a cross-sectional study of a secondary data set

Anna Louisa Hoffmann, Johannes Michael Bergmann, Anne Fahsold et al.

Abstract Background To ensure the sustainable implementation of dementia-specific person-centred care (PCC) in nursing homes, internal policies are crucial. The preliminary German Dementia Policy Questionnaire, which features 19 dichotomous items, assesses the existence of and evaluates these policies. This article reports the results of an exploration of the construct validity of the preliminary Dementia Policy Questionnaire. Methods This study is a cross-sectional study that references a secondary data set drawn from a national survey study of a randomized, stratified sample of 134 nursing homes in Germany. To explore the construct validity of the preliminary Dementia Policy Questionnaire, we conducted an adjusted multiple correspondence analysis of the pretested 19-item assessment. We included data assessed using the preliminary Dementia Policy Questionnaire from 134 care units associated with 134 nursing homes; these data were collected via telephone interviews with nursing home administrators or their representatives. Results Two items assessing visitor regulations and regulations regarding the inclusion of residents in staff selection were less frequent and were therefore excluded from the adjusted multiple correspondence analysis. In total, nine items were assigned to two dimensions. The items assigned to the first dimension assess existing regulations for PCC as well as existing regulations regarding the involvement of the resident, relatives and the multiprofessional team in the collection of information concerning preferences, case conferences or decision making. The items assigned to the second dimension assess existing regulations regarding the systematic assessment of resident preferences and their requirements. Conclusion The study produces exploratory evidence concerning the preliminary Dementia Policy Questionnaire. Since the dimensions of the items included in this questionnaire cannot be conceptualized clearly, the instrument in its current state requires further development.

DOAJ Open Access 2022
Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on body composition: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and meta-analysis

Damoon Ashtary-Larky, Reza Bagheri, Matin Ghanavati et al.

Purpose Previous studies have suggested that beta-alanine supplementation may benefit exercise performance, but current evidence regarding its effects on body composition remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the effects of beta-alanine supplementation on body composition indices. Methods Online databases, including PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase, were searched up to April 2021 to retrieve randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which examined the effect of beta-alanine supplementation on body composition indices. Meta-analyses were carried out using a random-effects model. The I2 index was used to assess the heterogeneity of RCTs. Results Among the initial 1413 studies that were identified from electronic databases search, 20 studies involving 492 participants were eligible. Pooled effect size from 20 studies indicated that beta-alanine supplementation has no effect on body mass (WMD: −0.15 kg; 95% CI: −0.78 to 0.47; p = 0.631, I2 = 0.0%, p = 0.998), fat mass (FM) (WMD: −0.24 kg; 95% CI: −1.16 to 0.68; p = 0.612, I2 = 0.0%, p = 0.969), body fat percentage (BFP) (WMD: −0.06%; 95% CI: −0.53 to 0.40; p = 0.782, I2 = 0.0%, p = 0.936), and fat-free mass (FFM) (WMD: 0.05 kg; 95% CI: −0.71 to 0.82; p = 0.889, I2 = 0.0%, p = 0.912). Subgroup analyses based on exercise type (resistance training [RT], endurance training [ET], and combined training [CT]), study duration (<8 and ≥8 weeks), and beta-alanine dosage (<6 and ≥6 g/d) demonstrated similar results. Certainty of evidence across outcomes ranged from low to moderate. Conclusions This meta-analysis study suggests that beta-alanine supplementation is unlikely to improve body composition indices regardless of supplementation dosage and its combination with exercise training. No studies have examined the effect of beta-alanine combined with both diet and exercise on body composition changes as the primary variable. Therefore, future studies examining the effect of the combination of beta-alanine supplementation with a hypocaloric diet and exercise programs are warranted.

Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Sports medicine
DOAJ Open Access 2022
Dietary Intakes, Knowledge, and Perceptions of Semi-professional Rugby Athletes in Scotland

Sonam Hitendre, Rebecca Jordan, Christos Theodorakopoulos et al.

Background Adequate nutritional intake plays a pivotal role in optimizing performance, recovery, and body composition goals. This study aimed to investigate the dietary intakes (DIs); nutritional knowledge (NK); and attitudes, perceptions, and challenges (APC) of semiprofessional rugby players in Scotland. Methods Dietary intakes and NK of 24 male semiprofessional rugby players of a Super6 club were evaluated using validated questionnaires. Players were categorized as having good or poor NK according to NK scores. Diet-related APCs were assessed using researcher-developed questionnaires and 1-1 semi-structured interviews. Results Mean ± SD total NK% was poor, 53.7 ± 11.9%. The ‘Good’ NK group scored significantly higher in the Weight Management (p = 0.014), Macronutrients (p < 0.001), Micronutrients (p = 0.001), and Sports Nutrition (p < 0.001) sections. Mean DIs from food sources were 26.3 ± 9.2 kcal/kg/day energy, 1.4 ± 0.4 g/kg/day protein, and 21.7 ± 10.1 g/day fibre. Median (25th,75th) carbohydrate intake was 3.0 (2.0, 3.0) g/kg/day, and 6.3 (2.3, 10.6) units/week alcohol. Mean ± SD fat and saturated fat (SFA) % total energy intake (EI) were 36.2 ± 3.7% and 12.8 ± 1.9%, respectively, and SFA %EI exceeded recommendations (p < 0.001). The ‘Good’ NK group had significantly higher intakes of all macronutrients (p < 0.05). Total NK% positively correlated with intakes of meat (r = 0.556, p = 0.011), cereals (r = 0.458, p = 0.042), dietary fat (r = 0.477, p = 0.034), vegetables (r = 0.487, p = 0.030), and alcoholic beverages (r = 0.541, p = 0.014). Supplement use was 68%. Players felt diet affected performance (94%) but 31% of them were unaware of any specific nutritional strategies. A healthy diet was perceived to be ‘balanced’ with ‘variety from all food groups. Lack of time for preparation was described as the main barrier to healthy eating. Conclusions Overall, players had poor NK, their fibre and carbohydrate intake was suboptimal, whereas saturated fat intake exceeded recommendations. Many lacked awareness of current sports nutrition guidelines. Further nutrition education may be needed to improve diet quality and aid performance goals.

Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Sports medicine
arXiv Open Access 2022
Mirror symmetry for special nilpotent orbit closures

Baohua Fu, Yongbin Ruan, Yaoxiong Wen

Motivated by geometric Langlands, we initiate a program to study the mirror symmetry between nilpotent orbit closures of a semisimple Lie algebra and those of its Langlands dual. The most interesting case is $B_n$ via $C_n$. Classically, there is a famous Springer duality between special orbits. Therefore, it is natural to speculate that the mirror symmetry we seek may coincide with Springer duality in the context of special orbits. Unfortunately, such a naive statement fails. To remedy the situation, we propose a conjecture which asserts the mirror symmetry for certain parabolic/induced covers of special orbits. Then, we prove the conjecture for Richardson orbits and obtain certain partial results in general. In the process, we reveal some very interesting and yet subtle structures of these finite covers, which are related to Lusztig's canonical quotients of special nilpotent orbits. For example, there is a mysterious asymmetry in the footprint or range of degrees of these finite covers. Finally, we provide two examples to show that the mirror symmetry fails outside the footprint.

en math.AG, math.RT
CrossRef Open Access 2021
Management of New Special Devices for Intubation in Difficult Airway Situations

Demetrio Pérez-Civantos, Alicia Muñoz-Cantero, Francisco Fuentes Morillas et al.

Difficult airway management in critically ill patients has serious implications, as failing to secure a stable airway can lead to a brain injury or even death. Early recognition of a difficult airway can allow the clinician to minimize the potential morbid-mortality. In this chapter, we describe all about the common scenarios that we may tackle when we need to secure a patent airway. It is important to know common definitions about the airway, pre-visualize potential problems and knowing how to be aware of the different pathways on managing and solving the different problems that clinicians may face. It is highlighted to know all the different medical equipment and medication used when an airway is suspected not to be easy to manage or when problems arrive without warning and the practitioner needs to rapidly change the plan on the go. We discuss the current most relevant guidelines and literature about this subject trying to give a practical approach.

DOAJ Open Access 2021
Community acceptance of reactive focal mass drug administration and reactive focal vector control using indoor residual spraying, a mixed‐methods study in Zambezi region, Namibia

Kathryn W. Roberts, Cara Smith Gueye, Kimberly Baltzell et al.

Abstract Background In Namibia, as in many malaria elimination settings, reactive case detection (RACD), or malaria testing and treatment around index cases, is a standard intervention. Reactive focal mass drug administration (rfMDA), or treatment without testing, and reactive focal vector control (RAVC) in the form of indoor residual spraying, are alternative or adjunctive interventions, but there are limited data regarding their community acceptability. Methods A parent trial aimed to compare the effectiveness of rfMDA versus RACD, RAVC versus no RAVC, and rfMDA + RAVC versus RACD only. To assess acceptability of these interventions, a mixed-methods study was conducted using key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) in three rounds (pre-trial and in years 1 and 2 of the trial), and an endline survey. Results In total, 17 KIIs, 49 FGDs were conducted with 449 people over three annual rounds of qualitative data collection. Pre-trial, community members more accurately predicted the level of community acceptability than key stakeholders. Throughout the trial, key participant motivators included: malaria risk perception, access to free community-based healthcare and IRS, and community education by respectful study teams. RACD or rfMDA were offered to 1372 and 8948 individuals in years 1 and 2, respectively, and refusal rates were low (< 2%). RAVC was offered to few households (n = 72) in year 1. In year 2, RAVC was offered to more households (n = 944) and refusals were < 1%. In the endline survey, 94.3% of 2147 respondents said they would participate in the same intervention again. Conclusions Communities found both reactive focal interventions and their combination highly acceptable. Engaging communities and centering and incorporating their perspectives and experiences during design, implementation, and evaluation of this community-based intervention was critical for optimizing study engagement.

Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine, Infectious and parasitic diseases
DOAJ Open Access 2021
The prevalence of delirium in belgian nursing homes: a cross-sectional evaluation

Sabbe Kelly, van Der Mast Roos, Dilles Tinne et al.

Abstract Background Delirium is a common geriatric syndrome, but only few studies have been done in nursing home residents. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate (point) prevalence of and risk factors for delirium in nursing homes in Belgium. Methods A multisite, cross-sectional study was conducted in six nursing homes in Belgium. Residents of six nursing homes were screened for delirium. Exclusion criteria were coma,‘end-of-life’ status and residing in a dementia ward. Delirium was assessed using the Delirium Observation Screening Scale. Results 338 of the 448 eligible residents were included in this study. Of the 338 residents who were evaluated, 14.2 % (95 %CI:3.94–4.81) screened positive for delirium with the Delirium Observation Screening Scale. The mean age was 84.7 years and 67.5 % were female. Taking antipsychotics (p = 0.009), having dementia (p = 0.005), pneumonia (p = 0.047) or Parkinson’s disease (p = 0.03) were more present in residents with delirium. The residents were more frequently physically restrained (p = 0.001), participated less in activities (p = 0.04), had had more often a fall incident (p = 0.007), had lower levels of cognition (p < 0.001; MoCA ≥ 26, p = 0.04; MoCA ≥ 25, p = 0.008) and a higher “Activities of Daily Living” score (p = 0.001). In multivariable binary logistic regression analysis, a fall incident (2.76; 95 %CI: 1.24–6.14) and cognitive impairment (OR: 0.69; 95 %CI: 0.63–0.77) were significantly associated with delirium. Conclusions Delirium is an important clinical problem affecting almost 15 % of the nursing home residents at a given moment. Screening of nursing home residents for risk factors and presence of delirium is important to prevent delirium if possible and to treat underlying causes when present.

Halaman 20 dari 76306