The experience of diagnosis and treatment for TAFRO syndrome.

Early identification, diagnosis and treatment of TAFRO syndrome are very importants. We retrospectively analysed 6 patients with TAFRO syndrome. Their clinical manifestations, treatment methods, survival and other aspects were summarized. All patients were pathologically diagnosed with Castleman's disease, with fever, an inflammatory storm state and varying degrees of anasarca. All patients received steroid therapy; four of them also received chemotherapy, and 1 received rituximab. Of the 3 patients with severe disease, only 1 patient who received the recommended dose of glucocorticoids survived. Early administration of glucocorticoids can improve the prognosis, especially in patients with severe disease, and adequate glucocorticoids are important.

Plasmonic fiber-optic sensing system for in situ monitoring the capacitance and temperature of supercapacitors.

Compared with ex situ measurement, the in situ measurement is more suitable for inspecting complex electrochemical reactions and improving the intelligent energy storage management. However, most of the in situ investigation instruments are bulky and expensive. Here we demonstrate a miniaturized, portable, and low-cost fiber-optic sensing system for in situ monitoring the capacitance and temperature. It can help evaluate the self-discharge rate in supercapacitors (SCs). The fiber-optic sensing system with two probes are implanted inside the SCs to monitor the capacitance and temperature, respectively. The dual fiber-optic probes can work independently and avoid cross-interference through structure design. The fiber-optic localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) probe near the electrode surface can detect the capacitance in real-time by monitoring ion aggregation on the opposite electrode. The fiber-optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) probe encapsulated in the thermosensitive liquid can independently detect the temperature change. The measurement uncertainties of the two sensing probes are 5.6 mF and 0.08 ℃, respectively. The proposed tiny and flexible fiber-optic sensing system provides a promising method for in situ monitoring the critical parameters. It is also a powerful tool for investigating electrochemical reactions in various energy storage devices.

Suppression of latent transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß)-binding protein 1 (LTBP1) inhibits natural killer/ T cell lymphoma progression by inactivating the TGF-ß/Smad and p38MAPK pathways.

BACKGROUND: Natural killer/T cell lymphoma (NKTCL) is a distinct subtype of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with highly aggressive clinical behavior. We aim to investigate the function of Latent transforming growth factor ß binding protein 1 (LTBP1) and transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-ß1) and complex molecular pathogenesis of this disease. METHODS: NKTCL patients and reactive lymph nodes patients were recruited in this study. The expression of LTBP1 and TGF-ß1 was examined using qRT-PCR, Western blot, IHC and ELISA analyses in biopsied tissues and serum from participants and NKTCL cell lines. Cell proliferation was determined using CFSE. Cell cycle and apoptosis were evaluated using flow cytometric analyses. The expression of Ki-67, CDK4 and cyclinD1 proteins was measured using Western blot analyses. The roles of LTBP-1/TGF-ß1 in EMT program were determined by measuring E-cadherin, N-cadherin and Vimentin using Western blot analyses. The effects of LTBP-1 and TGF-ß1 on tumor progression in vivo were determined by animal experiments. RESULTS: LTBP-1 and TGF-ß1 levels were elevated in NKTCL tissues and serum. The expression of LTBP-1 was positively correlated with the expression of TGF-ß1 in NKTCL tissues. LTBP-1 was overexpressed in NKTCL cells. Knockdown of LTBP-1 suppressed cell proliferation and cell cycle progression, induced cell apoptosis, and suppressed EMT program in NKTCL cells. These effects of LTBP-1 knockdown were attenuated after TGF-ß1 stimulation. Knockdown of LTBP-1 inhibited NKTCL tumor weight and volume in vivo. Also, stimulation of TGF-ß1 attenuated the suppressive effects on tumor growth from sh-LTBP-1. Silencing of LTBP-1 lowered cellular TGF-ß1, phosphorylated-Smad2, phosphorlyatd-Smad3, and phosphorylated-p38 and the suppressive effects were reversed after stimulation of TGF-ß1. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested that inhibition of LTBP-1/TGF-ß1 suppressed the malignant phenotypes of NKTCL cells and tumor growth via inactivating the canonical TGF-ß/Smad signaling and p38MAPK signaling.

Emergency department presentations of patients with alcohol use disorders in an Australian regional health district.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal changes in emergency department (ED) presentations incurred by patients with alcohol use disorders. Methods: A retrospective quantitative analysis was conducted on patients' ED presentations between December 2011 and January 2019 in an Australian regional health district. The health district has five EDs serving rural, regional, and metropolitan areas. Patients with alcohol use disorders were divided into two groups for comparison: those who had interactions with the community-based Drug and Alcohol (D&A) services and those who did not. Results: A total of 2,519 individual patients with alcohol use disorders made 21,715 ED presentations. Among these patients, 75.4% did not have interactions with the community-based D&A services. Compared with those who had, these patients were older, more likely to be diagnosed with abdominal pain (26.9% vs 12.0%, p < 0.001) and chest pain (16.2% vs 8.6%, p < 0.001), and had longer mean length of ED stay (7 hours and 41.7 minutes vs 6 hours and 25.6 minutes, p < 0.001). For the patients who had interactions with the community-based D&A services, their 28-day re-presentation rates decreased from 55.5% (2013-14) to 45.1% (2017-18); however, were higher than that of those who had no interactions (41.1% to 32.8%). Overall, 21.9%-24.5% of the patients were frequent ED presenters (i.e., ≥4 visits per year). Frequent ED presenters were proportionately higher among the patients who had interactions with the community-based D&A services, consistently over the relevant years. Although patients with alcohol use disorders frequently presented to EDs, their alcohol use disorders were only identified in 8.9% of their presentations. Conclusions: Patients with alcohol use disorders were often unidentified in EDs. Those who did not have interactions with the community-based D&A services were less likely to be diagnosed with alcohol use disorders when presenting to EDs.

GPNMB promotes the progression of diffuse large B cell lymphoma via YAP1-mediated activation of the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

Glycoprotein non-metastatic melanoma protein B (GPNMB) has been confirmed to be related to the pathogenesis of tumors. However, the potential impact of GPNMB on the progression of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is unclear. In this study, the expression levels of GPNMB and Yes-associated protein (YAP) were analyzed using qRT-PCT and Western blot assay. Cell counting kit-8, EdU, and flow cytometry assays were used to detect the proliferation and apoptosis of DLBCL cells. A nude mice xenograft model was established for in vivo research. Results showed that GPNMB and YAP1 were upregulated in DLBCL cell lines. Knockdown of GPNMB inhibited cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis in DLBCL cells. Additionally, the expression levels of YAP1 and the downstream effector of Hippo pathway (c-myc) were markedly decreased when GPNMB was knocked down. Moreover, knockdown of GPNMB inhibited the nuclear translocation of ß-catenin protein, which could be abolished by YAP1 overexpression. Simultaneously, the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of GPNMB knockdown could be reversed by YAP1 overexpression or LiCl (the activator of Wnt/ß-catenin pathway). Furthermore, the mice xenograft model confirmed that inhibition of GPNMB restrained the tumorigenesis of DLBCL in vivo. In conclusion, GPNMB could partly activate the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway by targeting YAP1, so as to participate in tumorigenesis of DLBCL.

Multicomponent gas detection technology of FDM and TDM based on photoacoustic spectroscopy.

In this paper, a multicomponent gas detection system based on photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) is proposed with a combination of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) and time division multiplexing (TDM), combining a resonance photoacoustic cell and broadband microphone. A PAS gas cell with a wide frequency response bandwidth was used to achieve the FDM by selecting a specific modulation frequency of each component gas. The sawtooth wave driver current of each laser was output at a constant time interval for achieving the TDM. Compared with the laser channel control using a photoswitch, the driver current control was a simpler and more convenient means to implement TDM. The four gas components of methane (CH4), water (H2O) vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), and acetylene (C2H2) were selected as sample gases for testing the feasibility of the method. The experimental results showed that the gas detection limits of CH4, H2O vapor, CO2, and C2H2 were 75.435, 2.502, 341.960, and 4.284 ppm, respectively. In addition, the linear fittings of gas concentration were 0.99386, 0.99772, 0.98995, and 0.98955, respectively.

Measuring Success of Patients' Continuous Use of Mobile Health Services for Self-management of Chronic Conditions: Model Development and Validation.

BACKGROUND: Mobile health services are gradually being introduced to support patients' self-management of chronic conditions. The success of these services is contingent upon patients' continuous use of them. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop a model to measure the success of patients' continuous use of mobile health services for the self-management of chronic conditions. METHODS: The proposed model was derived from the information systems continuance model and the information systems success model. This model contains 7 theoretical constructs: information quality, system quality, service quality, perceived usefulness, user satisfaction, perceived health status, and continuous use intention. A web-based questionnaire survey instrument was developed to test the model. The survey was conducted to collect data from 129 patients who used a mobile health app for hypertension management from 2017 to 2019. The questionnaire items were derived from validated instruments and were measured using a 5-point Likert scale. The partial least squares modelling method was used to test the theoretical model. RESULTS: The model accounted for 58.5% of the variance in perceived usefulness (R2=0.585), 52.3% of the variance in user satisfaction (R2=0.523), and 41.4% of the variance in patients' intention to make continuous use of mobile health services (R2=0.414). The continuous use intention was significantly influenced by their perceived health status (ß=.195, P=.03), perceived usefulness (ß=.307, P=.004), and user satisfaction (ß=.254, P=.04) with the mobile health service. Information quality (ß=.235, P=.005), system quality (ß=.192, P=.02), and service quality (ß=.494, P<.001) had a significantly positive influence on perceived usefulness but not on user satisfaction. Perceived usefulness had a significantly positive influence on user satisfaction (ß=.664, P<.001). In a result opposite to the original hypothesis, perceived health status did not negatively influence patients' intention to continue using the mobile health service but showed a significantly positive correlation. CONCLUSIONS: This study developed a theoretical model to predict and explain patients' continuous use of mobile health services for self-management of chronic conditions and empirically tested the model. Perceived usefulness, user satisfaction, and health status contributed to patients' intention to make continuous use of mobile health services for self-managing their chronic conditions.

A Comprehensive 6A Framework for Improving Patient Self-Management of Hypertension Using mHealth Services: Qualitative Thematic Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension affects over 15% of the world's population and is a significant global public health and socioeconomic challenge. Mobile health (mHealth) services have been increasingly introduced to support hypertensive patients to improve their self-management behaviors, such as adherence to pharmacotherapy and lifestyle modifications. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore patients' perceptions of mHealth services and the mechanisms by which the services support them to self-manage their hypertension. METHODS: A semistructured, in-depth interview study was conducted with 22 outpatients of the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University from March to May 2019. In 2015, the hospital introduced an mHealth service to support community-dwelling outpatients with self-management of hypertension. Content analysis was conducted by following a grounded theory approach for inductive thematic extraction. Constant comparison and categorization classified the first-level codes with similar meanings into higher-level themes. RESULTS: The patient-perceived mechanisms by which the mHealth service supported their self-management of hypertension were summarized as 6A: access, assessment, assistance, awareness, ability, and activation. With the portability of mobile phones and digitization of information, the mHealth service provided outpatients with easy access to assess their vital signs and self-management behaviors. The assessment results gave the patients real-time awareness of their health conditions and self-management performance, which activated their self-management behaviors. The mHealth service also gave outpatients access to assistance, which included health education and self-management reminders. Both types of assistance could also be activated by abnormal assessment results, that is, uncontrolled or deteriorating blood pressure values, discomfort symptoms, or not using the service for a long period. With its scalable use to handle any possible information and services, the mHealth service provided outpatients with educational materials to learn at their own pace. This led to an improvement in self-management awareness and ability, again activating their self-management behaviors. The patients would like to see further improvements in the service to provide more useful, personalized information and reliable services. CONCLUSIONS: The mHealth service extended the traditional hypertension care model beyond the hospital and clinician's office. It provided outpatients with easy access to otherwise inaccessible hypertension management services. This led to process improvement for outpatients to access health assessment and health care assistance and improved their awareness and self-management ability, which activated their hypertension self-management behaviors. Future studies can apply the 6A framework to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of mHealth services for outpatients to self-manage chronic conditions.

The contribution of electronic health records to risk management through accreditation of residential aged care homes in Australia.

BACKGROUND: The Australian government has implemented a compulsory aged care accreditation system to guide and monitor the risk management approach in registered residential aged care (RAC) homes. This research assessed the contribution of electronic health records (EHR) to risk management in RAC homes in relation to the extent that aged care accreditation fulfils its role. METHODS: A convenience sample of 5560 aged care accreditation reports published from 2011 to 2018 was manually downloaded from the Accreditation Agency web site. A mixed-method approach of text data mining and manual content analysis was used to identify any significant differences in failure to meet accreditation outcomes among the RAC homes. This took account of whether EHR or paper records were used, year of accreditation, and size and location of the homes. RESULTS: It appears that aged care accreditation was focused on structure and process, with limited attention to outcome. There was a big variation between homes in their use of measurement indicators to assess accreditation outcomes. No difference was found in outcomes between RAC homes using EHR and those using paper records. Only 3% of the RAC homes were found to have failed some accreditation outcomes. Failure in monitoring mechanism was the key factor for failing many accreditation outcomes. The top five failed outcomes were Human Resource Management, Clinical Care, Information Systems, Medication Management and Behavioural Management. CONCLUSIONS: Sub-optimal outcomes have limited the effectiveness of accreditation in driving and monitoring risk management for care recipient safety in RAC homes. Although EHR is an important structure and process component for RAC services, it made a limited contribution to risk management for accreditation in Australian RAC homes. Either EHR was not effective, or the accreditation process was not robust enough to recognize its influence. Aged care accreditation in Australia needs to develop further outcome-based measures that are supported by robust data infrastructure and clear guidance.

Work pattern of neurology nurses in a Chinese hospital: A time and motion study.

AIM: To investigate nursing work patterns in a neurology department in a Chinese hospital. BACKGROUND: Knowledge of nursing work patterns is important for nursing management and work design, and for the evaluation of organizational process change associated with the introduction of an innovation. METHODS: A time-and-motion method was used to observe 14 registered nurses' (RNs') work patterns in a neurology department in a Chinese hospital. RESULTS: There were 147 hr of observation. Overall, the most time-consuming activities were verbal communication (28.5%) and documentation (28.3%), followed by indirect care (14.6%) and direct care (14%). Compared to support RNs, charge RNs spent 20% more time on documentation and 11% more time on verbal communication. Two-thirds of the observed activities had a duration of less than 40 s. CONCLUSIONS: Communication, in verbal and written forms, consumed more than half of the nursing time. Conversely, nurses only spent about a quarter of their worktime on preparation for care provision and direct care provision. This reflects the significant role and resource-consuming nature of communication to provide safe and quality care. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Communication methods need to be enhanced to improve nursing productivity. This may be achieved through the introduction of more effective nursing documentation methods.

Medication administration process in a residential aged care home: An observational study.

AIMS: To understand the medication administration process in residential aged care homes. BACKGROUND: Understanding actual processes that nurses follow is critical to guide improvement efforts and to develop robust systems to ensure safety in medication administration. METHODS: Seven nurses were observed for 12 morning medication rounds at two units of a residential aged care home in Australia. Observations were guided by an activity theoretical framework. RESULTS: Nurses followed a common work process to administer medication. This process included actions from preparing medication trolley, locating a resident, preparing and administering medication to this person, documenting the administration, to finally checking medication charts to ensure all residents received medication. We identified 15 process deviations that may hinder safe medication administration. Electronic medication administration records appeared to be able to prevent a deviation associated with the paper-based documentation process. CONCLUSIONS: This study elaborated the medication administration process in a residential aged care home and identified process deviations. It suggests a safety checklist that can be used to evaluate nursing practice and improve medication administration process. IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: To develop robust systems for medication safety, nursing managers need to understand the actual nursing process, identify process deviations, and investigate the context in which these deviations occur.

The effect of nursing participation in the design of a critical care information system: a case study in a Chinese hospital.

BACKGROUND: Intensive care information systems (ICIS) are continuously evolving to meet the ever changing information needs of intensive care units (ICUs), providing the backbone for a safe, intelligent and efficient patient care environment. Although beneficial for the international advancement in building smart environments to transform ICU services, knowledge about the contemporary development of ICIS worldwide, their usage and impacts is limited. This study aimed to fill this knowledge gap by researching the development and implementation of an ICIS in a Chinese hospital, nurses' use of the system, and the impact of system use on critical care nursing processes and outcomes. METHODS: This descriptive case study was conducted in a 14-bed Respiratory ICU in a tertiary hospital in Beijing. Participative design was the method used for ICU nurses, hospital IT department and a software company to collaboratively research and develop the ICIS. Focus group discussions were conducted to understand the subjective perceptions of the nurses toward the ICIS. Nursing documentation time and quality were compared before and after system implementation. ICU nursing performance was extracted from the annual nursing performance data collected by the hospital. RESULTS: A participative design process was followed by the nurses in the ICU, the hospital IT staff and the software engineers in the company to develop and implement a highly useful ICIS. Nursing documentation was fully digitized and was significantly improved in quality and efficiency. The wrong data, missing data items and calculation errors were significantly reduced. Nurses spent more time on direct patient care after the introduction of the ICIS. The accuracy and efficiency of medication administration was also improved. The outcome was improvement in ward nursing performance as measured by ward management, routine nursing practices, disinfection and isolation, infection rate and mortality rate. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses in this ICU unit in China actively participated in the ICIS development and fully used the system to document care. Introduction of the ICIS led to significant improvement in quality and efficiency in nursing documentation, medication order transcription and administration. It allowed nurses to spend more time with patients to improve quality of care. These led to improvement in overall nursing performance. Further study should investigate how the ICIS system contributes to the improvement in decision making of ICU nurses and intensivists.

A Novel Fiber Optic Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensors with Special Boronic Acid Derivative to Detect Glycoprotein.

We proposed and demonstrated a novel tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG)-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) label-free biosensor via a special boronic acid derivative to detect glycoprotein with high sensitivity and selectivity. TFBG, as an effective sensing element for optical sensing in near-infrared wavelengths, possess the unique capability of easily exciting the SPR effect on fiber surface which coated with a nano-scale metal layer. SPR properties can be accurately detected by measuring the variation of transmitted spectra at optical communication wavelengths. In our experiment, a 10° TFBG coated with a 50 nm gold film was manufactured to stimulate SPR on a sensor surface. To detect glycoprotein selectively, the sensor was immobilized using designed phenylboronic acid as the recognition molecule, which can covalently bond with 1,2- or 1,3-diols to form five- or six-membered cyclic complexes for attaching diol-containing biomolecules and proteins. The phenylboronic acid was synthetized with long alkyl groups offering more flexible space, which was able to improve the capability of binding glycoprotein. The proposed TFBG-SPR sensors exhibit good selectivity and repeatability with a protein concentration sensitivity up to 2.867 dB/ (mg/mL) and a limit of detection (LOD) of 15.56 nM.

Factors influencing nursing time spent on administration of medication in an Australian residential aged care home.

AIMS: To examine nursing time spent on administration of medications in a residential aged care (RAC) home, and to determine factors that influence the time to medicate a resident. BACKGROUND: Information on nursing time spent on medication administration is useful for planning and implementation of nursing resources. METHODS: Nurses were observed over 12 morning medication rounds using a time-motion observational method and field notes, at two high-care units in an Australian RAC home. RESULTS: Nurses spent between 2.5 and 4.5 hours in a medication round. Administration of medication averaged 200 seconds per resident. Four factors had significant impact on medication time: number of types of medication, number of tablets taken by a resident, methods used by a nurse to prepare tablets and methods to provide tablets. CONCLUSION: Administration of medication consumed a substantial, though variable amount of time in the RAC home. Nursing managers need to consider the factors that influenced the nursing time required for the administration of medication in their estimation of nursing workload and required resources. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: To ensure safe medication administration for older people, managers should regularly assess the changes in the factors influencing nursing time on the administration of medication when estimating nursing workload and required resources.

Nursing staff work patterns in a residential aged care home: a time-motion study.

Objective Residential aged care services are challenged by an increasing number of residents and a shortage of nursing staff. Developing strategies to overcome this challenge requires an understanding of nursing staff work patterns. The aim of the present study was to investigate the work processes followed by nursing staff and how nursing time is allocated in a residential aged care home. Methods An observational time-motion study was conducted at two aged care units for 12 morning shifts. Seven nurses were observed, one per shift. Results In all, there were 91h of observation. The results showed that there was a common work process followed by all nurse participants. Medication administration, documentation and verbal communication were the most time-consuming activities and were conducted most frequently. No significant difference between the two units was found in any category of activities. The average duration of most activities was less than 1min. There was no difference in time utilisation between the endorsed enrolled nurses and the personal carers in providing nursing care. Conclusion Medication administration, documentation and verbal communication were the major tasks in morning shifts in a residential aged care home. Future research can investigate how verbal communication supports nursing care. What is known about the topic? The aging population will substantially increase the demand for residential aged care services. There is a lack of research on nurses' work patterns in residential aged care homes. What does this paper add? The present study provides a comprehensive understanding of nurses' work patterns in a residential aged care home. There is a common work process followed by nurses in providing nursing care. Medication administration, verbal communication and documentation are the most time-consuming activities and they are frequently conducted in the same period of time. Wound care, physical review and documentation on desktop computers are arranged flexibly by the nurses. What are the implications for practitioners? When developing a task reallocation strategy to improve work efficiency, effort can be put into tasks that can be arranged more flexibly.

Tunable plasmonic resonances based on elliptical annular aperture arrays on conducting substrates for advanced biosensing.

Introducing a conducting metal layer and the structural asymmetry to elliptical annular aperture arrays, multiple plasmonic coupled-resonant modes are generated under normal incidence in the visible light range. The electromagnetic fields can be strongly enhanced at resonant modes in this device, which increases the interaction volume of the detected analyte and optical fields; therefore, multiple plamonic coupled modes exhibit higher refractive index sensitivity than as large as 610 nm/RIU. The distinct Fano-like resonance around a wavelength of 681 nm originates from the interference between bonding dipolar and the quadrupolar modes. Due to the excitation of sharp spectral features as narrow as 7 nm, high figure of merits of 94 at the Fano-like dip is obtained in a wide refractive index range of 1.33-1.40. Furthermore, to generate strong Fano-like resonance, the geometric shape of ellipse is selected, which is a good geometric shape candidate compared to the circle shape. This device is promising for biosensing applications with high sensitivity and low limit of detection.

Time spent on daytime direct care activities by personal carers in two Australian residential aged care facilities: a time-motion study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the time, frequency and duration of each direct care activity conducted by personal carers in Australian residential aged care homes. METHODS: A time-motion study was conducted to observe 46 personal carers at two high-care houses in two facilities (14 days at Site 1 and 16 days at Site 2). Twenty-three direct care activities were classified into eight categories for analysis. RESULTS: Overall, a personal carer spent approximately 45% of their time on direct care, corresponding to 3.5h in an 8-h daytime shift. The two sites had similar ratios of personal carers to residents, and each resident received 30 min of direct care. No significant differences between the two sites were found in the time spent on oral communication, personal hygiene and continence activities. Personal carers at Site 1 spent significantly less time on toileting and mobility activities than those at Site 2, but more time on lunch activity. Although oral communication took the longest time (2h), it occurred concurrently with other activities (e.g. dressing) for 1.5h. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide information that may assist decision makers in managing the operation of high-care residential aged care facilities, such as planning for task allocation and staffing. What is known about the topic? Overall, 30%-45% of the care staff's time is spent on direct care in residential aged care facilities. What does this paper add? This paper adds knowledge about how much time is required to conduct each direct care activity and the frequency and duration of conducting these activities to meet residents' day-to-day care needs in two high-care houses in two aged care facilities. What are the implications for practitioners? On average, a resident with high-care needs requires 30 min direct care. There may exist a basic minimum desirable ratio of personal carers to residents in high-care facilities. Residents' toileting needs are high after meals. Communication with residents represents an essential role in providing care.

Investigating hepatitis C screening among people receiving opioid agonist treatment: A retrospective audit study.

Background: Estimates of the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) amongst people who inject drugs are in the range of 50%. Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) clinics have a large proportion of people who inject drugs. These clinics, therefore, present an excellent opportunity to identify and treat patients with HCV. Despite this, it remains unclear as to how well these clinics screen patients for HCV. Aim: This study aims to quantify the rate of HCV screening of patients that enrolled into treatment at an OAT clinic attached to a large teaching hospital in NSW. Methods: A retrospective audit of the electronic medical record of patients commencing OAT at the clinic was performed to determine the rate of HCV screening. Findings: During the audit period, there were 99 episodes of care that involved the commencement of OAT at the clinic, for patients who had a history of injecting drugs. Successful screening for HCV occurred in 56% (55/99) of these episodes. Of those screened, 26% were ribonucleic acid positive. Analysis of demographics did not reveal a statistically significant difference between those that were screened and those that were not. Discussion: This study revealed a suboptimal rate of HCV screening at the OAT clinic. To improve the screening rate, the clinic could consider providing dried blood spot testing at the initial nurse assessment or having a clinician capable of venepuncture at the clinic.

Exploring terahertz spectral characteristics of L-sorbose and D-melibiose in solid and liquid states.

Saccharides are essential organic compounds that perform critical functions in sustaining life processes. As biomolecules, their vibrational frequencies predominantly fall in the terahertz (THz) range, making them amenable to analysis using THz techniques. In this study, L-sorbose and D-melibiose were measured using a THz time-domain spectroscopy system covering a frequency range of 0.1-2.0 THz, and their crystal structures were simulated using density functional theory. The experimental results demonstrated significant agreement with the simulation findings. In addition, the spectral properties of the two saccharides in solution were determined using microfluidic chip technology, thereby facilitating a comparison between the solid and aqueous states. The results demonstrate that the intramolecular and intermolecular interactions of the saccharides were weakened by the presence of water molecules, and the THz absorption spectrum of the same substance solution was found to be correlated with its concentration and temperature.

The accuracy of screening tools for sarcopenia in older Chinese adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: This review aimed to analyze and compare the accuracy of eight screening tools for sarcopenia in older Chinese adults according to different diagnostic criteria. Methods: This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang databases were searched between the publication of the first expert consensus on sarcopenia in 2010 and April 2023 using relevant MeSH terms. We evaluated the risk bias of the included studies using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool. The pooled result of sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and plot the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) were calculated by using a bivariate random-effects model. The accuracies of sensitivity and specificity of the screening tools were compared using the Z-test. Results: A total of 30 studies (23,193 participants) were included, except for calf circumference (CC), Ishii, and Finger-ring Test; Screening tools for sarcopenia in older Chinese adults have consistently shown low to moderate sensitivity and moderate to high specificity. Regional and sex differences affect the accuracy of the screening tools. In terms of sensitivity and specificity, the CC, Ishii, and Finger-ring Test were superior to the other screening tools. Conclusion: The Asian Working Group on Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2019 criteria are more appropriate for the diagnosis of sarcopenia in older Chinese adults. According to the AWGS 2019, CC and Ishii are recommended for sarcopenia screening in older Chinese adults.