Underwoodpetersen8302
Social support and religion positively influenced maternal coping. The infant's medical stability was the main concern for mothers and concerns regarding the infant's development did not arise. Prematurity influenced mothers' decisions to use traditional medicines and hospital care affected some traditional practices.
The study findings highlighted the influence of traditional and religious beliefs, the importance of the cultural education of medical staff members and a support system to improve maternal experiences.
The findings provide insights into maternal experiences with implications for healthcare practitioners' continued education in an ethnically diverse setting.
The findings provide insights into maternal experiences with implications for healthcare practitioners' continued education in an ethnically diverse setting.
Back pain is not uncommon in pregnant women, but it is often under-reported and can be disabling. International studies report a high prevalence of back pain, especially in the last trimester. Little is known about the prevalence of back pain in South African pregnant women.
To determine the prevalence and risk factors of back pain in a cohort of pregnant women.
Public primary healthcare clinics and the eThekwini municipality of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa.
A descriptive cohort design was used to survey pregnant women (
= 303) over the course of their pregnancy. Data were collected at the first antenatal visit and again in the third trimester. Participants gave consent and ethical clearance was obtained from an institutional research ethics committee, from the eThekwini Health District and KZN Provincial Department of Health.
The respondents were young Black African women (mean age of 25.8 (± 6.0), who were mostly unemployed (70.7%), and resided in a resource poor setting. Back pain prevalence at the first antenatal visit and the third trimester was 12.4% (
= 35) and 10.9% (
= 5), respectively. This condition was associated with carrying water and residing in a hostel or an employee's property. Being single was associated with less risk for developing back pain.
The prevalence of back pain was low in this cohort of women, yet it resulted in a negative impact on the women's ability to cope with daily life.
This is one of the first studies to describe back pain in a South African pregnant population.
This is one of the first studies to describe back pain in a South African pregnant population.The design of new functional polymers depends on the successful navigation of their structure-function landscapes. Advances in combinatorial polymer chemistry and machine learning provide exciting opportunities for the engineering of fit-for-purpose polymeric materials.Messenger RNA (mRNA) has emerged as a new category of therapeutic agent to prevent and treat various diseases. To function in vivo, mRNA requires safe, effective and stable delivery systems that protect the nucleic acid from degradation and that allow cellular uptake and mRNA release. Lipid nanoparticles have successfully entered the clinic for the delivery of mRNA; in particular, lipid nanoparticle-mRNA vaccines are now in clinical use against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which marks a milestone for mRNA therapeutics. In this Review, we discuss the design of lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery and examine physiological barriers and possible administration routes for lipid nanoparticle-mRNA systems. We then consider key points for the clinical translation of lipid nanoparticle-mRNA formulations, including good manufacturing practice, stability, storage and safety, and highlight preclinical and clinical studies of lipid nanoparticle-mRNA therapeutics for infectious diseases, cancer and genetic disorders. Finally, we give an outlook to future possibilities and remaining challenges for this promising technology.The experiences of Black scientists and engineers reveal that science is not a meritocracy. Here is a list of recommendations to combat anti-Black racism in academic institutions.
Technological developments have led to an increased usage of external-body radiotherapy (RT) for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) may be required later in patients treated with RT because of the high recurrence rate and multinodular presentation of HCC. However, despite the risk of liver function impairment, the cumulative liver damage correlated with TACE following a hepatic RT has not been adequately assessed.
To evaluate the feasibility of TACE following RT for HCC.
Sixty-seven patients with HCC who underwent TACE after RT were retrospectively evaluated between 2012 and 2018. We assessed increases in Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) by ≥2 points at 1month, the incidence of major complications, survival duration, and short-term mortality within 6months after TACE. Furthermore, we evaluated the predictive factors for liver function impairment and short-term mortality.
Eight patients experienced a CTP increase ≥2 points at 1month. There were no cases of liver abscesses or bilomas. Nine patients died within 6months following TACE. The mean liver dose (MLD) was a significant predictor of liver function impairment at 1month (
= 0.042). Low liver functional reserve, distant metastasis (
= 0.037), MLD (
= 0.046), TACE type (
= 0.025), and TACE within 3 months following RT (
= 0.007) were significant predictors of short-term mortality.
Despite the feasibility of TACE following RT, clinicians should pay attention to impaired pretreatment liver function, following high dose RT, and the short duration between RT and TACE.
Despite the feasibility of TACE following RT, clinicians should pay attention to impaired pretreatment liver function, following high dose RT, and the short duration between RT and TACE.Temporality and the feeling of 'now' is a fundamental property of consciousness. Different conceptualizations of time-consciousness have argued that both the content of our experiences and the representations of those experiences evolve in time, or neither have temporal extension, or only content does. Accounting for these different positions, we propose a nested hierarchical model of multiple timescales that accounts for findings on timing of cognition and phenomenology of temporal experience. This framework hierarchically combines the three major philosophical positions on time-consciousness (i.e. cinematic, extensional and retentional) and presents a common basis for temporal experience. We detail the properties of these hierarchical levels and speculate how they could coexist mechanistically. We also place several findings on timing and temporal experience at different levels in this hierarchy and show how they can be brought together. Finally, the framework is used to derive novel predictions for both timing of our experiences and time perception. The theoretical framework offers a novel dynamic space that can bring together sub-fields of cognitive science like perception, attention, action and consciousness research in understanding and describing our experiences both in and of time.
Nations throughout the world are imposing mandatory quarantine on those entering the country. Although such measures may be effective in reducing the importation of COVID-19, the mental health implications remain unclear.
This study sought to assess mental well-being and factors associated with changes in mental health in individuals subject to mandatory quarantine following travel.
Travellers arriving at a large, urban international airport completed online questionnaires on arrival and days 7 and 14 of mandated quarantine. Questionnaire items, such as travel history, mental health, attitudes toward COVID-19, and protection behaviours, were drawn from the World Health Organization Survey Tool for COVID-19.
There was a clinically significant decline in mental health over the course of quarantine among the 10 965 eligible participants. Poor mental health was reported by 5.1% of participants on arrival and 26% on day 7 of quarantine. Factors associated with a greater decline in mental health were younger age, female gender, negative views toward quarantine measures and engaging in fewer COVID-19 prevention behaviours. For instance, travellers who stated that they rarely wore masks had nearly three times higher odds of developing poor mental health.
Although the widespread use of quarantine may be effective in limiting the spread of COVID-19, the mental health implications are profound and have largely been ignored in policy decisions. Psychiatry has a role to play in contributing to the public policy debate to ensure that all aspects of health and well-being are reflected in decisions to isolate people from others.
Although the widespread use of quarantine may be effective in limiting the spread of COVID-19, the mental health implications are profound and have largely been ignored in policy decisions. Psychiatry has a role to play in contributing to the public policy debate to ensure that all aspects of health and well-being are reflected in decisions to isolate people from others.Critical-sized bone defects caused by traumatic fractures, tumour resection and congenital malformation are unlikely to heal spontaneously. Bone tissue engineering is a promising strategy aimed at developing in vitro replacements for bone transplantation and overcoming the limitations of natural bone grafts. In this study, we developed an innovative bone engineering scaffold based on gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogel, obtained via a two-step procedure first, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) were loaded with resveratrol (Res), a drug that can promote osteogenic differentiation and bone formation; these particles were then encapsulated at different concentrations (0.01%, 0.02%, 0.04% and 0.08%) in GelMA to obtain the final Res-SLNs/GelMA scaffolds. The effects of these scaffolds on osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and bone regeneration in rat cranial defects were evaluated using various characterization assays. Our in vitro and in vivo investigations demonstrated that the different Res-SLNs/GelMA scaffolds improved the osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs, with the ideally slow and steady release of Res; the optimal scaffold was 0.02 Res-SLNs/GelMA. Therefore, the 0.02 Res-SLNs/GelMA hydrogel is an appropriate release system for Res with good biocompatibility, osteoconduction and osteoinduction, thereby showing potential for application in bone tissue engineering.Electrospun membranes are attracting interest as a drug delivery system because of their material composition flexibility and versatile drug loading. In this study, the electrospun membrane was loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) via electrostatic adsorption for long-term drug delivery. DOX loading process was optimized by varying temperature, time, drug concentration, pH and ionic strength of solutions. The loading process did not impair the structural properties of the membrane. Next, we investigated the drug release kinetics using spectroscopic techniques. The composite membranes released 22% of the adsorbed DOX over the first 48 h, followed by a slower and sustained release over 4 weeks. The DOX release was sensitive to acidic solutions that the release rate at pH 6.0 was 1.27 times as that at pH 7.4. The DOX-loaded membranes were found to be cytotoxic to U-87 MG cells in vitro that decreased the cell viability from 82.92% to 25.49% from 24 to 72 h of co-incubation. Selleckchem PD123319 These membranes showed strong efficacy in suppressing tumour growth in vivo in glioblastoma-bearing mice that decreased the tumour volume by 77.
