Strategies for Providing Culturally Sensitive Care to Diverse Populations.

ABSTRACT: Nurses are called to care for patients and families from many backgrounds and cultural groups. This article discusses the key strategies of cultural humility, conscientious practice, and establishing trust that promotes cultural sensitivity as well as congruence with Christian values. When implemented, these strategies can facilitate the provision of quality, culturally sensitive patient care that conforms to a biblical worldview.

Recruitment and Retention Strategies Among Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Web-Based Intervention Trials: Retrospective Qualitative Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Racial and ethnic minority groups are underrepresented in health research, contributing to persistent health disparities in the United States. Identifying effective recruitment and retention strategies among minority groups and their subpopulations is an important research agenda. Web-based intervention approaches are becoming increasingly popular with the ubiquitous use of the internet. However, it is not completely clear which recruitment and retention strategies have been successful in web-based intervention trials targeting racial and ethnic minorities. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe lessons learned in recruiting and retaining one of the understudied ethnic minority women-Korean Americans-enrolled in a web-based intervention trial and to compare our findings with the strategies reported in relevant published web-based intervention trials. METHODS: Multiple sources of data were used to address the objectives of this study, including the study team's meeting minutes, participant tracking and contact logs, survey reports, and postintervention interviews. In addition, an electronic search involving 2 databases (PubMed and CINAHL) was performed to identify published studies using web-based interventions. Qualitative analysis was then performed to identify common themes addressing recruitment and retention strategies across the trials using web-based intervention modalities. RESULTS: A total of 9 categories of recruitment and retention strategies emerged: authentic care; accommodation of time, place, and transportation; financial incentives; diversity among the study team; multiple, yet standardized modes of communication; mobilizing existing community relationships with efforts to build trust; prioritizing features of web-based intervention; combined use of web-based and direct recruitment; and self-directed web-based intervention with human support. Although all the studies included in the analysis combined multiple strategies, prioritizing features of web-based intervention or use of human support were particularly relevant for promoting recruitment and retention of racial and ethnic minorities in web-based intervention trials. CONCLUSIONS: The growing prevalence of internet use among racial and ethnic minority populations represents an excellent opportunity to design and deliver intervention programs via the internet. Future research should explore and compare successful recruitment and retention methods among race and ethnic groups for web-based interventions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03726619; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03726619.

Ammonia Storage in Hydrogen Bond-Rich Microporous Polymers.

The fascinating structural flexibility of porous polymers is highly attractive because it can result in optimized materials with specific host-guest interactions. Nevertheless, the fundamental mechanisms responsible for controlling the weak interactions of these hydrogen bond-rich networks-essential for developing smart task-specific materials used in recognition, capture, and sequestration processes-remain unexplored. Herein, by systematically comparing performance changes between poly(amic acid) (PAA)- and polycyclic imide (PI)-based porous polymers before and after NH3 adsorption, the role of hydrogen bonds in conformational lability and responsiveness toward guest molecules is highlighted. By combining thermal gravimetric analysis with neutron spectroscopy supported by DFT calculations, we demonstrate that PAA's chemical and physical stability is enhanced by the presence of stronger host-guest interactions. This observation also emphasizes the idea that efficient adsorption relies on having a high number of sites, upon which gas molecules can adsorb with greater affinity via strong hydrogen bonding interactions.

Palladium-catalyzed oxidative homocoupling of pyrazole boronic esters to access versatile bipyrazoles and the flexible metal-organic framework Co(4,4'-bipyrazolate).

A facile route to 4,4'-bipyrazole (H2bpz) and other symmetric bipyrazoles is achieved via the palladium-catalyzed homocoupling of a pyrazole boronic ester in the presence of air and water, enabling us to provide the first crystal structures and evidence of structural phase changes in the bipyrazolate-based metal-organic framework Co(bpz).

Roles of the C-terminal residues of calmodulin in structure and function.

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), circular dichroism (CD), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, flow dialysis, and bioactivity measurements were employed to investigate the roles of the C-terminal residues of calmodulin (CaM). In the present study, we prepared a series of truncated mutants of chicken CaM that lack four (CCMΔ4) to eight (CCMΔ8) residues at the C-terminal end. It was found that CCMΔ4, lacking the last four residues (M145 to K148), binds four Ca2+ ions. Further deletion gradually decreased the ability to bind the fourth Ca2+ ion, and CCMΔ8 completely lost the ability. Interestingly, both lobes of Ca2+-sturated CCMΔ5 showed instability in the conformation, although limited part in the C-lobe of Ca2+-saturated CCMΔ4 was instable. Moreover, unlike CCMΔ4, structure of the C-lobe in CCMΔ5 bound to the target displayed dissimilarity to that of CaM, suggesting that deletion of M144 changes the binding manner. Deletion of the last five residues (M144 to K148) and further truncation of the C-terminal region decreased apparent capacity for target activation. Little contribution of the last four residues including M145 was observed for structural stability, Ca2+-binding, and target activation. Although both M144 and M145 have been recognized as key residues for the function, the present data suggest that M144 is a more important residue to attain Ca2+ induced conformational change and to form a proper Ca2+-saturated conformation.