Concentric Ring Method for generating pollen maps. Quercus as case study.

Mapping pollen concentrations is of great interest to study the health impact and ecological implications or for forestry or agronomical purposes. A deep knowledge about factors affecting airborne pollen is essential for predicting and understanding its dynamics. The present work sought to predict annual Quercus pollen over the Castilla and León region (Central and Northern Spain). Also to understand the relationship between airborne pollen and landscape. Records of Quercus and Quercus pyrenaica pollen types were collected at 13 monitoring sites over a period of 8years. They were analyzed together with land use data applying the Concentric Ring Method (CRM), a technique that we developed to study the relationship between airborne particle concentrations and emission sources in the region. The maximum correlation between the Quercus pollen and forms of vegetation was determined by shrubland and "dehesa" areas. For the specific Qi pyrenaica model (Q. pyrenaica pollen and Q. pyrenaica forest distribution), the maximum influence of emission sources on airborne pollen was observed at 14km from the pollen trap location with some positive correlations up to a distance of 43km. Apart from meteorological behavior, the local features of the region can explain pollen dispersion patterns. The method that we develop here proved to be a powerful tool for multi-source pollen mapping based on land use.

Conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas relacionados con el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas en estudiantes de enfermería de una universidad del departamento del Atlántico (Colombia) / Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to use of psychoactive substance among nursing students of an university department of Atlántico (Colombia)

Objetivo: Establecer los conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas relacionados con el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas en estudiantes de enfermería de una universidad del departamento del Atlántico. Materiales y métodos: Estudio descriptivo transversal; población diana: estudiantes de primero a octavo semestre de enfermería de una universidad del departamento del Atlántico (Colombia). Fuente de información primaria, instrumento utilizado: encuesta de 37 preguntas validada. La información se procesó en el software SPSS, se tabuló en tablas de frecuencia y asociación, gráficas de barras y sectores, la información resumida se manejó en frecuencias relativas, medidas de tendencia central y se determinó significancia estadística mediante proporciones. Resultados: El 71,5% tiene conocimiento sobre la composición de las sustancias psicoactivas. El 45% está totalmente en desacuerdo con el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas para relacionarse fácilmente con la gente. El 37,2°% está totalmente en desacuerdo con consumir sustancias psicoactivas para divertirse. El 90,7% está de acuerdo con la inversión de recursos económicos en programas de rehabilitación, seguimiento de la población afectada por el consumo de drogas. El 55,5 % consumé alcohol, el 22,2% consume éxtasis y el 22,2 restante consume marihuana y bazuco. Conclusiones: Se encontró un balance negativo en cuanto al consumo de sustancias psicoactivas en los estudiantes de enfermería, debido a que la gran mayoría ha consumido sustancias psicoactivas. Además de encontrarse deficiencia relacionada al conocimientos de las mismas, y en cuanto a las actitudes, se concluyó que la mayoría de los sujetos estudiados tiene actitudes favorables relacionadas con la legalización de las sustancias psicoactivas.

Objective: To establish the knowledge, attitudes and practices related to psychoactive substance use among nursing students of a university department of the Atlántico. Materials and Methods: cross sectional study whose target population was students from first to eighth semester of a university nursing department of Atlántico (Colombia). Primary information source, instrument used: survey of 37 questions. The information was processed in SPSS and tabulated in tables of frequency and association, bar graphs and sectors, the summary information is handled in relative frequencies, measures of central tendency and statistical significance was determined using proportions. Results: 71.5% have knowledge about the composition of psychoactive substances. 45% are strongly disagree with the consumption of psychoactive substances to interact easily with people. 37.2% strongly disagree with consuming psychoactive substances to have fun. 90.7% agree with the investment of funds in rehabilitation programs, monitoring of the population affected by drug use. 55.5% consumed alcohol, 22.2% and 22.2 consumed ecstasy marijuana and crack cocaine remaining. Conclusions: We found a negative balance in the consumption of psychoactive substances in nursing students, much of these people have used psychoactive substances. In addition to being deficient knowledge related to them, and in terms of attitudes, it was concluded that most of the students surveyed have positive attitudes related to the legalization of psychoactive substances.

The costs of HIV antiretroviral therapy adherence programs and impact on health care utilization.

From a trial comparing interventions to improve adherence to antiretroviral therapy-directly administered antiretroviral therapy (DAART) or an intensive adherence case management (IACM)-to standard of care (SOC), for HIV-infected participants at public HIV clinics in Los Angeles County, California, we examined the cost of adherence programs and associated health care utilization. We assessed differences between DAART, IACM, and SOC in the rate of hospitalizations, hospital days, and outpatient and emergency department visits during an average of 1.7 years from study enrollment, beginning November 2001. We assigned costs to health care utilization and program delivery. We calculated incremental costs of DAART or IACM v SOC, and compared those costs with savings in health care utilization among participants in the adherence programs. IACM participants experienced fewer hospital days compared with SOC (2.3 versus 6.7 days/1000 person-days, incidence rate ratio [IRR]: 0.34, 97.5% confidence interval [CI]: 0.13-0.87). DAART participants had more outpatient visits than SOC (44.2 versus 31.5/1000 person-days, IRR: 1.4; 97.5% CI: 1.01-1.95). Average per-participant health care utilization costs were $13,127, $8,988, and $14,416 for DAART, IACM, and SOC, respectively. Incremental 6-month program costs were $2,120 and $1,653 for DAART and IACM participants, respectively. Subtracting savings in health care utilization from program costs resulted in an average net program cost of $831 per DAART participant; and savings of $3,775 per IACM participant. IACM was associated with a significant decrease in hospital days compared to SOC and was cost saving when program costs were compared to savings in health care utilization.

A randomized trial of directly administered antiretroviral therapy and adherence case management intervention.

BACKGROUND: A randomized, controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the impact of a directly administered antiretroviral therapy program (DAART) and intensive adherence case management (IACM) intervention on virologic and immunologic response to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) among patients at 3 public human immunodeficiency virus clinics in Los Angeles County, California. METHODS: Participants included 250 treatment-naive and treatment-experienced persons for whom no more than 1 prior HAART regimen had failed. Five days per week for 6 months, a community worker delivered 1 HAART dose to DAART participants and observed the participant take it. IACM participants met weekly with a case manager to overcome barriers to HAART adherence. A control group (the standard of care [SOC] group) received the usual care. RESULTS: The majority of patients were Latino (64%) or African American (24%); 57% were monolingual Spanish speakers. Seventy-five percent of the patients were male, and 64% reported an annual income of <10,000 dollars. In an intent-to-treat analysis, no statistical differences were observed in the percentage of patients with an undetectable viral load (i.e., <400 copies/mL) at 6 months between the DAART group (54%), IACM group (60%), and SOC group (54%; P>.05). An on-treatment analysis determined that there were no statistical differences in the percentage of patients with an undetectable viral load at 6 months between the DAART group (71%), IACM group (80%), and SOC group (74%; P>.05). Additionally, there were no statistical differences in 6-month changes in the CD4+ cell count or in self-reported adherence to therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with limited prior HAART experience and adherence barriers that had not been assessed before randomization, no differences were found in virologic or immunologic response for DAART or IACM, compared with SOC, at 6 months. DAART and IACM did not improve short-term outcomes when SOC included other means of adherence support that were not controlled for by the study design.