Prejudices against people with epilepsy as perceived by affected people and their families.

PROBLEM: Prejudices can impair social participation of people with epilepsy. METHODS: From 2019 to 2020, we invited people with epilepsy and their relatives across Germany to fill in a questionnaire. RESULTS: Two hundred and thirty people with epilepsy (PWE, median age: 40 years; min./max.: 19/83; 66% female) and 103 relatives (REL, median age: 42 years; min./max. 23/70; 83% female) took part in the survey. 44% PWE and 40% REL said prejudices against PWE had not declined in recent years. Of PWE, 64% reported they had experienced prejudices themselves. In an open question with multiple answers possible, 71% of the PWE described concrete prejudices against PWE, 62% of the REL did so. The reported prejudices concerned symptoms of epilepsy (37% PWE; 23% REL), academic or occupational performance (47% PWE; 38% REL), social or family life (27% PWE, 29% REL), and other topics (7% PWE, 4% REL). Of PWE, 88% said all or almost all relatives knew about their condition, 74% stated this applied to all or almost all friends, and 48% told all or almost all colleagues about their epilepsy. Of PWE, 94% would want to know if a relative had epilepsy, 87% would like to know about a friend's epilepsy, 70% about a colleague's epilepsy. Fear of stigmatization was a reason for not always communicating the condition according to 20% PWE and 63% REL. None of PWE and 16% of REL named shame as a reason. CONCLUSION: People with epilepsy still experience prejudices and fear of stigmatization hinders an open communication about the condition.

Common and Best Nail Practices Among Nail Care Providers: A Descriptive Study.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this project was to identify common and best practices for safe nail care among nail care providers. DESIGN: Descriptive study using online survey. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: The study was conducted by 2 credentialed foot and wound care nurses within a large Midwest healthcare system. Participants were nurses and physicians who provide nail care to patients and individuals in the hospital and community setting such as private homes and nursing homes and hospice agencies. METHODS: Email invitations with a link to the survey were sent to eligible individuals and organizations in which wound care specialists were employed. Information about the survey was posted on the Certified Foot Care Specialty homepage, and on the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing (WOCN) Members-only Forum and Facebook page. RESULTS: An estimated 1000 surveys were sent of which 246 surveys were returned. Fifty-three percent (121/229) of respondents were certified through the WOCN Certification Board and 41% (93/229) were certified through the American Foot Care Nurse Association. Most respondents reported using some form of self-protection when filing (225/246, 91.5%), trimming (215/246; 87.4%), or using a rotary tool (204/246, 82.9%) on patients' nails. However, approximately one-fourth of respondents reported offering some type of protection for patients when filing (63/246, 25.6%), trimming (41/246, 16.7%), or using a rotary tool (64/246, 26.0%). Most of the nurses surveyed provided nail care in outpatient and foot care clinics, acute care settings, private homes, and nursing homes/hospice. CONCLUSIONS: When providing nail care, the patient/client protections should closely mirror the personal protective equipment used by the nurse. Future research is needed to contribute to a national consensus guideline for best practices and protections at all levels of nail care in the acute care and community settings.

Detecting and Quantifying Ataxia-Related Motor Impairments in Rodents Using Markerless Motion Tracking With Deep Neural Networks.

In this study we evaluate the application of video-based markerless motion tracking based on deep neural networks for the analysis of ataxia-specific movement abnormalities in rodent models of cerebellar ataxia. Based on a small amount (<100) of manually labeled video frames, markerless motion tracking enabled the extraction of movement trajectories and parameters characterizing ataxia-specific movement abnormalities. In the first experiment, we analyzed videos of 6 shaker and 4 wildtype rats and were able to reproduce thê5 Hz tremor frequency in the shaker rat without the usage of a force plate. In the second experiment, we investigated a spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) mouse model (6 mice aged 3 months and 3 mice aged 9 months) in a beam-balancing task. By establishing a parameter for the assessment of rhythmicity of gait (RoG), we not only found a significantly higher RoG in wildtype mice compared to affected SCA3 mice aged 9 months, but were also able to reveal a significantly lower than typical RoG in SCA3 mice aged 3 months which exhibit no abnormalities in visual inspection. These prototypical results suggest the capability of the presented methods for the application in upcoming therapeutic intervention trials to identify subtle changes in movement behavior.