Nevin Manimala

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2023 Oct 17:a041439. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a041439. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The significance of prezygotic isolation for speciation has been recognized at least since the Modern Synthesis. However, fundamental questions remain. For example, how are genetic associations between traits that contribute to prezygotic isolation maintained? What is the source of genetic variation underlying the evolution of these traits? And how do prezygotic barriers affect patterns of gene flow? We address these questions by reviewing genetic features shared across plants and animals that influence prezygotic isolation. Emerging technologies increasingly enable the identification and functional characterization of the genes involved, allowing us to test established theoretical expectations. Embedding these genes in their developmental context will allow further predictions about what constrains the evolution of prezygotic isolation. Ongoing improvements in statistical and computational tools will reveal how pre- and postzygotic isolation may differ in how they influence gene flow across the genome. Finally, we highlight opportunities for progress by combining theory with appropriate data.

PMID:37848246 | DOI:10.1101/cshperspect.a041439

Acta Neurol Taiwan. 2024 Mar 30;33(1):7-13.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the effect of edaravone in preventing cisplatin-induced brain damage.

METHODS: Forty female Wistar albino rats were included in the study. 4 groups were created. In group 1 (control group) (n=10), neither any drugs were given nor anything was performed. Group 2 (cisplatin group) (n=10), single dose 7.5 mg/kg cisplatin was given. In group 3 (edaravone group) (n=10), single dose 1 mg/kg edaravone was administered. Group 4 (cisplatin+ edaravone group) (n=10), single dose 7.5 mg/kg cisplatin and 1 mg/kg edaravone were given. Brain tissue was removed in all rats after 3 days. Blood samples taken from heart tissue were examined for malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO) levels. Brain tissue was evaluated for damage with p53, GFAP and Ki 67.

RESULTS: Edaravone reduced cisplatin-induced brain damage. MDA and NO levels in the cisplatin group were significantly higher than the other groups (p less than 0.05). Likewise, tissue damage in the cisplatin group was significantly higher than in the other groups (p less than 0.05). The immunohistochemical staining which was done by using p53, GFAP and Ki 67 was shown that tissue damage was higher in cisplatin group than cisplatin+ edaravone group and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p less than 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The findings of our study suggest that edaravone therapy may be effective in the prevention and treatment of cisplatin-induced brain injury.

PMID:37848239

J Dr Nurs Pract. 2023 Oct 17:JDNP-2023-0015.R1. doi: 10.1891/JDNP-2023-0015. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Background: Mentorship is a vital part of the nursing profession. The evidence suggests that competent mentors aid in facilitating role transitions, improving job satisfaction, enhancing patient care, and decreasing nursing turnover. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) have the skills and knowledge to provide safe, high-quality, patient-centered care; however, they may be lacking in mentorship abilities. Objective: Currently, there is no formal mentorship training in the organization, which may cause variability in the mentoring of new staff. The focus of this project was to create a staff educational intervention to improve the mentoring competency of surgical APRNs. The knowledge gap, lack of mentoring education given to APRNs acting as mentors to novice practitioners, was noted, and this project identified a staff educational intervention on mentorship training that was developed and implemented. Methods: The project practice-focused question asked if a formal APRN mentorship training program geared toward the six elements of mentoring (as measured by the Mentoring Competency Assessment [MCA]) increased the mentoring competency of APRNs serving in a mentorship role. Benner’s theory guided the planning and development of this project, while the MCA was used for the self-reflection survey. Following a pretest survey, participants experienced an educational intervention geared toward mentoring and mentoring competencies. Formal APRN mentorship training program with an educational intervention that addressed the six domains of mentoring competency geared toward increasing the mentoring competency of APRNs who serve in a mentorship role. Results: A total of 18 surgical APRNs (N = 18) with more than 2 years of experience participated in the staff educational intervention. There was a statistically significant difference in six of the 26 individual items and in the overall pretest mean scores and the posttest mean scores (z = -3.41, p < .01), indicating that the APRN mentorship training increased the mentoring competency of the APRNs. Conclusion: The results of this quality improvement project demonstrated how an educational intervention geared toward mentoring competencies can increase the knowledge among a group of APRNs. Educating APRNs in mentorship competencies may enhance mentorship abilities and result in positive patient and organizational outcomes. Implications for Nursing: Educating APRNs in mentorship competencies may enhance mentorship abilities and result in positive patient and organizational outcomes.

PMID:37848236 | DOI:10.1891/JDNP-2023-0015

J Nurs Meas. 2023 Oct 17:JNM-2022-0048.R1. doi: 10.1891/JNM-2022-0048. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Background and Purpose: Previous research shows significant benefits resulting from improving culturally competent nursing care. Thus, the purpose of this study was to translate, adapt, and validate the Cultural Competence Assessment (CCA) in a sample of Portuguese nurses. Methods: A psychometric study of the CCA, after translation into European Portuguese, was performed with a snowball sample of 284 nurses. Participants were asked to fill in a sociodemographic questionnaire and the CCA. Results: The four-factor model of the CCA (Portuguese version) exhibited satisfactory indices of fitness without item nine. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.85. Correlations between subscales and the total score scale were strong and statistically significant. Conclusions: These data add to the cultural competence knowledge of nurses to promote better practices and culturally competent care.

PMID:37848230 | DOI:10.1891/JNM-2022-0048

Acta Neurol Taiwan. 2024 Jun 30;33(2):55-62.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinico- radiological profile and outcome of isolated paramedian hemipontine infarcts.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a prospective cross- sectional study. 50 consecutive patients admitted between January 2019 and December 2020 with a diagnosis of isolated paramedian hemipontine stroke were included. The locations of the infarcts were classified as follows- caudal; middle; rostral; dorsomedian; caudal and middle; and middle and rostral pons. The clinico- radiological profiles were studied and the outcomes were assessed using NIHSS (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale) and mRS (modified Rankin score). Data was analysed using SPSS 22 version software. Paired t-test was used as a test of significance to identify the mean differences between the two quantitative variables.

RESULTS: Majority of the subjects were 51- 60 years (34 percent). The most common risk factors were hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The most common clinical features were hemiparesis and speech disturbances. Pure motor hemiparesis (PMH) is the common syndrome seen in paramedian hemipontine strokes with infarcts located in caudal; middle; caudal and middle; and middle and rostral pons. In ataxic hemiparesis, infarcts were located in dorsomedian pons. In dysarthria clumsy hand syndrome, infarcts were located at rostral pons. 44 percent of the subjects had left vertebral artery abnormality. There was a statistically significant difference in the mean NIHSS and mRS when compared at admission/ discharge and at 3 months.

CONCLUSION: Isolated paramedian hemipontine stroke syndromes have good topographical correlation with patients usually having a good functional outcome at the end of three months.

PMID:37848229

Stat Med. 2023 Oct 17. doi: 10.1002/sim.9934. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) is a widely used dimension reduction method that factorizes a non-negative data matrix into two lower dimensional non-negative matrices: one is the basis or feature matrix which consists of the variables and the other is the coefficients matrix which is the projections of data points to the new basis. The features can be interpreted as sub-structures of the data. The number of sub-structures in the feature matrix is also called the rank. This parameter controls the model complexity and is the only tuning parameter for the NMF model. An appropriate rank will extract the key latent features while minimizing the noise from the original data. However due to the large amount of optimization error always present in the NMF computation, the rank selection has been a difficult problem. We develop a novel rank selection method based on hypothesis testing, using a deconvolved bootstrap distribution to assess the significance level accurately. Through simulations, we compare our method with a rank selection method based on hypothesis testing using bootstrap distribution without deconvolution and a method based on cross-validation; we demonstrate that our method is not only accurate at estimating the true ranks for NMF, especially when the features are hard to distinguish, but also efficient at computation. When applied to real microbiome data (eg, OTU data and functional metagenomic data), our method also shows the ability to extract interpretable subcommunities in the data.

PMID:37848186 | DOI:10.1002/sim.9934

J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2023 Oct 17:8919887231207641. doi: 10.1177/08919887231207641. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To develop an individualized method for detecting cognitive adverse events (CAEs) in the context of an ongoing trial of electroconvulsive therapy for refractory agitation and aggression for advanced dementia (ECT-AD study).

METHODS: Literature search aimed at identifying (a) cognitive measures appropriate for patients with advanced dementia, (b) functional scales to use as a proxy for cognitive status in patients with floor effects on baseline cognitive testing, and (c) statistical approaches for defining a CAE, to develop CAEs monitoring plan specifically for the ECT-AD study.

RESULTS: Using the Severe Impairment Battery-8 (SIB-8), baseline floor effects are defined as a score of ≤5/16. For patients without floor effects, a decline of ≥6 points is considered a CAE. For patients with floor effects, a decline of ≥30 points from baseline on the Barthel Index is considered a CAE. These values were derived using the standard deviation index (SDI) approach to measuring reliable change.

CONCLUSIONS: The proposed plan accounts for practical and statistical challenges in detecting CAEs in patients with advanced dementia. While this protocol was developed in the context of the ECT-AD study, the general approach can potentially be applied to other interventional neuropsychiatric studies that carry the risk of CAEs in patients with advanced dementia.

PMID:37848185 | DOI:10.1177/08919887231207641

Nurs Health Sci. 2023 Oct 17. doi: 10.1111/nhs.13058. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Spiritual care helps nurses establish a deeper connection with patients and meet their spiritual needs. Spiritual belief is thought to enable nurses to be more effective in their profession and positively affect their quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the effects of nurses’ spirituality and spiritual care on quality of life. This study was designed as a descriptive cross-sectional study using structural equation modeling. A total of 221 nurses were included. Data were collected using the Professional Quality of Life Scale, and Spirituality and Spiritual Care Scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlational statistics, and structural equation modeling. Spirituality and spiritual care were negative predictors of burnout and positive predictors of compassion satisfaction. Spirituality and spiritual care decreased the level of burnout in nurses and significantly increased the level of compassion satisfaction. This study suggests raising nurse awareness of spirituality and spiritual care. Supporting nurses with professional training programs, including spiritual care, may benefit their quality of life.

PMID:37848178 | DOI:10.1111/nhs.13058

Psychother Res. 2023 Oct 17:1-14. doi: 10.1080/10503307.2023.2270139. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACTObjective This study compared metaverse counseling with in-person counseling, using in-person counseling as a comparison group. To achieve this, we assessed whether metaverse counseling, a novel treatment approach, is comparable to traditional in-person counseling. Method: A total of 60 participants voluntarily participated in the study. Among the participants, 28 preferred in-person counseling, whereas 32 selected metaverse counseling as their preferred treatment option. Results and Conclusion: The findings indicated no statistically significant differences in the psychological symptom change patterns between the two counseling modalities. Both metaverse and in-person counseling demonstrated a common pattern of reduced symptom levels from pre-to post-session (Metaverse counseling Cohen’s d = 1.04, In-person counseling Cohen’s d = .62), which remained stable from post-session to follow-up regardless of the chosen counseling modality. Furthermore, the study revealed that the metaverse counseling group exhibited a higher level of working alliances than the in-person counseling group. Additionally, there was a slight tendency toward higher levels of counseling satisfaction in the metaverse counseling group than in the in-person counseling group. The results of this study support the use of synchronous metaverse programs to treat college students. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed. (195 words).

PMID:37848177 | DOI:10.1080/10503307.2023.2270139

Pain Physician. 2023 Oct;26(6):E725-E736.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Chronic back pain is a long-lasting disorder, whose main source of pain is often the intervertebral disc that undergoes a degenerative process associated with low-grade inflammation, leading to a reduced quality of life.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to assess the efficacy of intradiscal and epidural injections of plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) in patients with chronic clinical symptoms due to intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration.

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective observational study.

SETTING: A single spine unit in a private clinic.

METHODS: Thirty-two patients with cervical and lumbar chronic pain due to IVD degeneration were treated with 2 or 3 series of intradiscal and epidural PRGF infiltrations with 2 weeks between each procedure. The procedures were performed under fluoroscopic guidance and grade 3 sedation in an operating theater. Treatment efficacy was evaluated using the Spine Tango Core Outcome Measure Index questionnaire, Numeric Rating Scale for back pain, and the Oswestry Disability Index questionnaire. In addition, the number of patients who successfully achieved the minimal clinically important change was also determined. These assessments were evaluated at pretreatment (baseline) and at one, 3, and 6 months posttreatment.

RESULTS: The Oswestry Disability Index, COMI Spine Tango Core Outcome Measure Index total score, and Numeric Rating Scale showed a statistically significant reduction from the baseline level to the posttreatment first month, third month, and sixth month (P < 0.001). Moreover, 78.1% of the patients reached a pain reduction superior to 30% one month posttreatment, and 87.5% at 6 months posttreatment, which is considered as a clinically significant improvement.

LIMITATIONS: This study was prospective and did not have a control group. Only patient-reported outcomes were evaluated.

CONCLUSIONS: This observational, prospective study of patients with chronic back pain showed that 2-3 intradiscal and epidural injections of PRGF significantly decreased pain and disability at one month posttreatment and this improvement was maintained, and in some patients even improved, at 3, and 6 months posttreatment.

PMID:37847927