A systematic literature review of voluntary behaviour change approaches in single use plastic reduction.

Plastic waste is a leading contributor to climate change due to its build up in landfill and oceans, releasing harmful greenhouse gases and causing harm to ecosystems. The past decade has seen a rise in the number of policies and legislative regulations surrounding the use of single-use plastics (SUP). Such measures are needed and have shown effectiveness in the reduction of SUP's. However, it is becoming apparent that voluntary behaviour change efforts, which preserve autonomous decision making are also needed to further reduce demand for SUP. This mixed-methods systematic review had three aims, 1) synthesise existing voluntary behavioural change interventions and approaches aimed at reducing SUP consumption, 2) assess the level of autonomy preserved in interventions, and 3) assess the extent of theory use in voluntary SUP reduction interventions. A systematic search was executed across six electronic databases. Eligible studies were peer-reviewed literature published in English between 2000 and 2022 reporting on voluntary behaviour change programs aimed at reducing the consumption of SUPs. Quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Overall, 30 articles were included. Due to the heterogenic nature of outcome data in included studies, meta-analytic analysis was not possible. However, data were extracted and narratively synthesised. Communication and informational campaigns were the most common intervention approach with most interventions taking place in community or commercial settings. There was limited theory use among included studies (27% used theory). A framework was created using the criteria outlined by Geiger et al. (2021) to evaluate level of autonomy preserved in included interventions. Overall, level of autonomy preserved in included interventions was low. This review highlights the urgent need for more research into voluntary SUP reduction strategies, increased integration of theory in intervention development, and higher levels of autonomy preservation in SUP reduction interventions.

Factors enabling and preventing farming practice change: An evidence review.

With environmental degradation reaching emergency levels, urgent action for preventable behaviours is needed. There is limited scientific evidence available indicating key success factors that can be implemented to support lasting farming practice change. This study reports the outcomes of an evidence review that was undertaken to identify influential factors for farming practice change. The systematic literature review identified data sources derived from six databases (EBSCO All Databases, Emerald, ProQuest All Databases, Ovid All Databases, Web of Science and Scopus). The search yielded a total of 5044 results. After first and second-tier exclusion criteria, 363 articles were fully reviewed to determine which sources would inform this study. A total of 75 studies reported factors inhibiting or promoting farming practice change. A total of 26 barriers and enablers were identified across seven key dimensions, namely: Financial Support & Market forces; Information dissemination; Farmer & Farm characteristics; Institutional setting & Regulations, Stakeholder interactions; Farming practice; Beliefs, Attitudes and Individual Capabilities. Limitations and future research opportunities were identified.

A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda for Organ Donation Decision Communication.

BACKGROUND: This study systematically located and appraised peer-reviewed evidence for the efficacy of strategies to increase organ donation decision communication among adults including an assessment of study quality to guide future research in this field. There is little room to move in strengthening unanimously positive public attitudes toward organ donation. Consequently, researchers have called for a focus on organ donation decision communication to understand modifiable factors to increase organ donation rates. METHODS: Multiple databases were searched during September 2015, and 44 studies were selected for inclusion. Data concerning participants, design, and outcomes were extracted. Studies were rated for quality and levels of evidence. FINDINGS: Although not amenable to meta-analysis, the literature indicates that approximately 50% of adults who are willing to become an organ donor have discussed this decision with family. The majority of research was conducted in a Western context with an overrepresentation of students. Strategies to increase communication include education, motivation, input from lived experience, efforts to address salient audience beliefs, and scheduled reminders or prompts. Intentions and willingness to discuss organ donation were consistently positively related to discussion behavior; however, formative research and experimental studies testing theoretically driven interventions were scarce. CONCLUSIONS: There is mixed evidence for the role of demographic and attitudinal characteristics in the success of organ donation communication interventions. Additional theoretically based research is recommended to establish boundary conditions and validate strategies to increase organ donation decision communication among adults.

Dynamic regulation of HIV-1 mRNA populations analyzed by single-molecule enrichment and long-read sequencing.

Alternative RNA splicing greatly expands the repertoire of proteins encoded by genomes. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is attractive for studying alternative splicing because of the efficiency and low cost per base, but short reads typical of NGS only report mRNA fragments containing one or few splice junctions. Here, we used single-molecule amplification and long-read sequencing to study the HIV-1 provirus, which is only 9700 bp in length, but encodes nine major proteins via alternative splicing. Our data showed that the clinical isolate HIV-1(89.6) produces at least 109 different spliced RNAs, including a previously unappreciated ∼1 kb class of messages, two of which encode new proteins. HIV-1 message populations differed between cell types, longitudinally during infection, and among T cells from different human donors. These findings open a new window on a little studied aspect of HIV-1 replication, suggest therapeutic opportunities and provide advanced tools for the study of alternative splicing.

Clinical follow-up of 50 patients treated by percutaneous lumbar discectomy.

A series of 50 patients presenting with lumbar discogenic disease, and treated by percutaneous discectomy using the Dekompressor system (Stryker, Kalamazoo, MI, USA), were followed for more than 6 months, by analyzing the evolution of the painful symptomatology with the visual analog scale (VAS) system. All patients had been under treatment with analgesic or anti-inflammatory agents. The intensity of the pain was measured 2, 7, 30, and 180 days after the percutaneous discectomy. An improvement in the painful symptomatology of less than 30%, observed in 11 cases and in 1 case of epidural pathology, was considered an unsuccessful result. A decrease of the pain of more than 70% was observed in 72% of cases, either with the end of the symptoms of pain as noted in 79.5% of patients or with a marked reduction of the medical treatments obtained in 21.5%. The results obtained were already almost definitive at the seventh day of follow-up, and further controls rarely demonstrated an improvement in the pain. The location of the herniated disc is a parameter which appears to be very important in the efficacy of percutaneous discectomy. We noted an improvement of more than 70% in 79% of the posterolateral foraminal or extraforaminal hernias, although these favorable results were observed only in 50% of the posteromedian hernias.

Microdroplet-based PCR enrichment for large-scale targeted sequencing.

Targeted enrichment of specific loci of the human genome is a promising approach to enable sequencing-based studies of genetic variation in large populations. Here we describe an enrichment approach based on microdroplet PCR, which enables 1.5 million amplifications in parallel. We sequenced six samples enriched by microdroplet or traditional singleplex PCR using primers targeting 435 exons of 47 genes. Both methods generated similarly high-quality data: 84% of the uniquely mapping reads fell within the targeted sequences; coverage was uniform across approximately 90% of targeted bases; sequence variants were called with >99% accuracy; and reproducibility between samples was high (r(2) = 0.9). We scaled the microdroplet PCR to 3,976 amplicons totaling 1.49 Mb of sequence, sequenced the resulting sample with both Illumina GAII and Roche 454, and obtained data with equally high specificity and sensitivity. Our results demonstrate that microdroplet technology is well suited for processing DNA for massively parallel enrichment of specific subsets of the human genome for targeted sequencing.

Client satisfaction with abortion care in three Russian cities.

This paper explores client satisfaction with abortion care, looking at overall satisfaction and satisfaction with hygiene, comfort and courtesy. The analysis aimed to determine whether client satisfaction was related to the characteristics of the client, in order to guide quality improvement efforts. The analysis is a secondary analysis of data collected in a survey of 489 abortion clients who attended a limited number of hospitals in three cities in Russia. The data were analysed using logistic regression. Client characteristics, in general, did not affect overall satisfaction though there were significant differences in overall satisfaction for unmarried versus married women (OR=0.29, CI=0.13, 0.63). Similarly, most characteristics of the abortion visit were not related to client satisfaction, although women who were awake for the procedure were less likely to be satisfied (OR=0.37, CI=0.16, 0.89). Information provided to abortion clients about self-care was the most important predictor of overall satisfaction for abortion clients (OR=3.55, CI=1.64, 7.69). This suggests that improving the information provided to clients, through training providers and other staff, is important in these settings.

Werna Naloo -'We Us Together': the birth of a midwifery education consortium.

AIM: The metaphor of a journey will be used to describe the process covering 2 years of development of a Bachelor of Midwifery curriculum shared between a consortium of three universities in Victoria, Australia. BACKGROUND: The landscape or background against which this journey took place is described, providing a context for understanding the political and pragmatic steps necessary to achieve common vision and processes. This journey has necessitated a convergence of our thinking about what constitutes the living theory and philosophy of the new midwifery in the Australian context, and how this fits with international trends. PROCESS: The journey took midwife academics from one paradigm to another, forging partnerships between universities to develop an innovative undergraduate midwifery curriculum that shares academic expertise and resources. Consultation between a multitude of competing interests and voices became one of our biggest challenges, but this process itself has helped to change the very landscape in which we travel. In the end, we had to examine our baggage, and much that was excess had to be abandoned. In particular, our emphasis on language and the politics of the midwifery partnership with women became the subject of much debate and contention, and reflects the competing philosophies developing in the midwifery profession. Despite this, there were many who suggested that we had left behind too much, and others who would have us pack even more. Compromises were inevitable if we were to proceed and set up the next stage of a journey that would open a new and challenging frontier to working with Australian childbearing women.

Avaliação das temperaturas de produtos cárneos, servidos no restaurante de um hotel no município de São Paulo / Evaluation of temperature meat products served in the restaurant of a hotel in São Paulo

No controle de qualidade, o binômio tempo e temperatura é uma das formas mais eficazes para diminuir ou eliminar micro-organismos patogênicos, principalmente em produtos cárneos, cuja composição torna-o excelente meio de cultura. Conhecimentos sobre tal assunto devem ser repassados por meio de treinamentos específicos periódicos, garantindo a qualidade e segurança dos alimentos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar as condições higiênicossanitárias de um restaurante por meio de aplicação de checklist e monitoramento de temperaturas de produtos cárneos, do recebimento à distribuição, antes e após treinamento específico.

Eu, minha mulher e os filhos dela / Me, my wife and her children

A situação gerada pela união conjugal de um homem ou uma mulher que já foi casada/o e tem filhos dessa união conjugal anterior, embora cada vez mais freqüente, sujeita a conflitos e rompimento, tem sido objeto de poucas pesquisas em todo o mundo. Na busca de uma melhor compreensão dessa experiência no Brasil, foi realizado um estudo exploratório usando entrevistas livres, com cinco homens, de idade variando entre 27 e 49 anos, que há pelo menos um ano, viviam conjugalmente com mulheres que tinham filhos menores. Os depoimentos puderam ser organizados segundo os principais temas identificados na literatura, a saber: complexidade da vida familiar, conjugalidade, parentalidade e relacionamento com o ex-parceiro da cônjuge. Trata-se de um relacionamento no qual o homem busca realizar seu projeto amoroso-conjugal, mas do qual os filhos da parceira fazem parte desde o início, sendo em torno deles que tendem a se concentrar a maioria das dificuldades conjugais. Os depoimentos permitem identificar também temas de vulnerabilidade e proteção que merecem melhores estudos.

Actinomicosis hepática / Hepatic actinomycosis

La Actinomycosis es una infección bacteriana que puede afectar cualquier sitio del organismo. Una variedad de organismos gram-positivos, no esporulados, anaerobios o microaerófilos, principalmente del género Actinomyces, son los agentes responsables. A pesar de las lesiones orales y cervicofaciales las más frecuentemente observadas, la Actynomicosis abdominal es probablemente el mayor desafío diagnóstico, debido a lo inespecífico de los síntomas. Caso Clínico: una mujer de 73 años de edad fue admitida en el hospital por presentar fiebre, pérdida de peso, dolor en hipocondrio derecho e ictericia de 7 días de evolución. Una ecografía hepática mostró múltiples abscesos hepáticos; se realizó aspiración con aguja fina guiada ecográficamente obteniendo material purulento del que se aisló Actimonyces sp. La paciente evolucionó favorablemente, tratada con drenaje percutáneo y altas dosis de Penicilina parenteral durante cuatro semanas, seguida de Amoxicilina 1500 mg/d. El conocimiento del amplio espectro de manifestaciones de esta enfermedad permitirá un diagnóstico y tratamiento rápidos, minimizando así la morbilidad y mortalidad que tan frecuentemente ocurren con la Actinomycosis.