Search results for: Graham’s score

Authors: Bilgen Ozluk, Ayfer Karaaslan

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Introduction: Adaptation to university life is a difficult process for students. In peer support, students are expected to help other students or sometimes adults using their helping skills. Therefore, it is expected that peer support will have significant effect on students’ adaptation to university life. Aim: This study was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of peer support on adaptation to university life in the first year students of the faculty of health sciences. Methods: The population consists of 340 first year university students receiving education in the departments of nursing, health management, social services, nutrition and dietetics, physiotherapy and rehabilitation at an university located in the province of Konya. The sample of the study consisted of 274 students who voluntarily participated in the study. The data were collected between the dates 23 May 2016 and 3 June 2016. The data were collected using the socio-demographic information, the peer support scale and the university life adaptation scale. Ethical approvals for the study and permission from the university were taken. Numbers, percentages, averages, one-Way ANOVA, pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis have been used in assessing the data. Findings: When the problems most frequently encountered by students just starting the university were ordered, problems regarding their classes took the first place by 41.6%, socio-cultural problems took the second place by 38.7%, and economic problems took the third place by 37.6%. The mean total score of the Adaptation to University Life Scale was found to be 216.78±32.15. Considering that the lowest and highest scores that can be gained from the scale are 132 and 289 respectively, it was found that the adaptation to university life levels of the students were higher than the average. The mean adaptation to university life score of the nursing students was higher than those of the students of other departments. The mean score of ‘the Peer Support Scale’ was found to be 47.24±10.27. Considering that the lowest and highest scores that can be gained from the scale are 17 and 68 respectively, it was found that the peer support levels of the students were higher than the average. As a result of the regression analysis, it was found that 20% of the total variance regarding adaptation to university life was explained by peer support. Conclution: Receiving the support peer groups becomes highly important in the university adaptation process of first-year students. Peer support will create the means for easier completion of this difficult transition process.

Keywords: adaptation to university life, first years, peer support, university student

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Authors: Vineel Inampudi, Arjun Prakash, Joseph Vinod

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Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the interrater reliability in grading ASPECTS score, between emergency medicine physician at first contact and radiologist among patients with acute ischemic stroke. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 86 acute ischemic stroke cases referred to the Department of Radiodiagnosis during November 2014 to January 2016. The imaging (plain CT scan) was performed using GE Bright Speed Elite 16 Slice CT Scanner. ASPECTS score was calculated separately by an emergency medicine physician and radiologist. Interrater reliability for total and dichotomized ASPECTS (≥ 6 and < 6) scores were assessed using statistical analysis (ICC and Cohen ĸ coefficients) on SPSS software (v17.0). Results: Interrater agreement for total and dichotomized ASPECTS was substantial (ICC 0.79 and Cohen ĸ 0.68) between the emergency physician and radiologist. Mean difference in ASPECTS between the two readers was only 0.15 with standard deviation of 1.58. No proportionality bias was detected. Bland Altman plot was constructed to demonstrate the distribution of ASPECT differences between the two readers. Conclusion: Substantial interrater agreement was noted in grading ASPECTS between emergency medicine physician at first contact and radiologist thereby confirming its robustness even in a rural setting.

Keywords: ASPECTS, computed tomography, MCA territory, stroke

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Authors: Wafaa M. El- Kotb, Soheir Mohamed Weheida, Manal E. Fareed

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The aim of this study was to determine the effect of implementing a teaching module about diet and exercises on clinical outcomes of patients with gout. Subjects: A purposive sample of 60 adult gouty patients was selected and randomly and alternatively divided into two equal groups 30 patients in each. Setting: The study was conducted in orthopedic out patient's clinic of Menoufia University. Tools of the study: Three tools were utilized for data collection: Knowledge assessment structured interview questionnaire, Clinical manifestation assessment tools and Nutritional assessment sheet. Results: All patients of both groups (100 %) had poor total knowledge score pre teaching, while 90 % of the study group had good total knowledge score post teaching by three months compared to 3.3 % of the control group. Moreover the recovery outcomes were significantly improved among study group compared to control group post teaching. Conclusion: Teaching study group about diet and exercises significantly improved their clinical outcomes. Recommendation: Patient's education about diet and exercises should be ongoing process for patients with gout.

Keywords: clinical outcomes, diet, exercises, teaching module

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Authors: Kevin Syam, Devendra K. Chauhan, Mandeep Singh Dhillon

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Background: The posterior horn of medial meniscus (PHMM) is a secondary stabilizer against anterior translation of tibia. Cadaveric studies have revealed increased strain on the ACL graft and greater instrumented laxity in Posterior horn deficient knees. Clinical studies have shown higher prevalence of radiological OA after ACL reconstruction combined with menisectomy. However, functional outcomes in ACL reconstructed knee in the absence of Posterior horn is less discussed, and specific role of posterior horn is ill-documented. This study evaluated functional and radiological outcomes in posterior horn preserved and posterior horn sacrificed ACL reconstructed knees. Materials: Of the 457 patients who had ACL reconstruction done over a 6 year period, 77 cases with minimum follow up of 18 months were included in the study after strict exclusion criteria (associated lateral meniscus injury, other ligamentous injuries, significant cartilage degeneration, repeat injury and contralateral knee injuries were excluded). 41 patients with intact menisci were compared with 36 patients with absent posterior horn of medial meniscus. Radiological and clinical tests for instability were conducted, and knees were evaluated using subjective International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) score and the Orthopadische Arbeitsgruppe Knie score (OAK). Results: We found a trend towards significantly better overall outcome (OAK) in cases with intact PHMM at average follow-up of 43.03 months (p value 0.082). Cases with intact PHMM had significantly better objective stability (p value 0.004). No significant differences were noted in the subjective IKDC score (p value 0.526) and the functional OAK outcome (category D) (p value 0.363). More cases with absent posterior horn had evidence of radiological OA (p value 0.022) even at mid-term follow-up. Conclusion: Even though the overall OAK and subjective IKDC scores did not show significant difference between the two subsets, the poorer outcomes in terms of objective stability and radiological OA noted in the absence of PHMM, indicates the importance of preserving this important part of the meniscus.

Keywords: ACL, functional outcome, knee, posterior of medial meniscus

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Authors: Ahlam Ali, Katrina Lappin, Jaine Blayney, Ken Mills

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Leukaemia is the most frequently (30%) occurring type of paediatric cancer. Of these, approximately 80% are acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cases making up the remaining 20% alongside other leukaemias. Unfortunately, children with AML do not have promising prognosis with only 60% surviving 5 years or longer. It has been highlighted recently the need for age-specific therapies for AML patients, with paediatric AML cases having a different mutational landscape compared with AML diagnosed in adult patients. Drug Repurposing is a recognized strategy in drug discovery and development where an already approved drug is used for diseases other than originally indicated. We aim to identify novel combination therapies with the promise of providing alternative more effective and less toxic induction therapy options. Our in-silico analysis highlighted ‘cell death and survival’ as an aberrant, potentially targetable pathway in paediatric AML patients. On this basis, 83 apoptotic inducing compounds were screened. A preliminary single agent screen was also performed to eliminate potentially toxic chemicals, then drugs were constructed into a pooled library with 10 drugs per well over 160 wells, with 45 possible pairs and 120 triples in each well. Seven cell lines were used during this study to represent the clonality of AML in paediatric patients (Kasumi-1, CMK, CMS, MV11-14, PL21, THP1, MOLM-13). Cytotoxicity was assessed up to 72 hours using CellTox™ Green reagent. Fluorescence readings were normalized to a DMSO control. Z-Score was assigned to each well based on the mean and standard deviation of all the data. Combinations with a Z-Score <2 were eliminated and the remaining wells were taken forward for further analysis. A well was considered ‘successful’ if each drug individually demonstrated a Z-Score <2, while the combination exhibited a Z-Score >2. Each of the ten compounds in one well (155) had minimal or no effect as single agents on cell viability however, a combination of two or more of the compounds resulted in a substantial increase in cell death, therefore the ten compounds were de-convoluted to identify a possible synergistic pair/triple combinations. The screen identified two possible ‘novel’ drug pairing, with BCL2 inhibitor ABT-737, combined with either a CDK inhibitor Purvalanol A, or AKT/ PI3K inhibitor LY294002. (ABT-737- 100 nM+ Purvalanol A- 1 µM) (ABT-737- 100 nM+ LY294002- 2 µM). Three possible triple combinations were identified (LY2409881+Akti-1/2+Purvalanol A, SU9516+Akti-1/2+Purvalanol A, and ABT-737+LY2409881+Purvalanol A), which will be taken forward for examining their efficacy at varying concentrations and dosing schedules, across multiple paediatric AML cell lines for optimisation of maximum synergy. We believe that our combination screening approach has potential for future use with a larger cohort of drugs including FDA approved compounds and patient material.

Keywords: AML, drug repurposing, ABT-737, apoptosis

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Authors: Ayşegül Bilge, Merve Uğuryol, Şeyda Dülgerler, Mustafa Yıldız

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The purpose of this research is to prove the Attitude towards Using Complementary Treatments Scale reliability and validity. The research is a methodological type of research that has been planned to determine the validity and reliability of the Attitude towards Using Complementary Treatments Scale. The scale has been developed by the researchers. In the scale, there are 23 questions including complementary and modern therapies individuals apply when they have health problems 4-item Likert-type evaluation has been carried out in preparing the questionnaire. High score obtained from the scale indicates a positive attitude towards complementary therapies. In the course of validity assessment of the scale, expert opinion has been received, and the content validity of the scale has been determined by using Kendall coefficient correlation test (Wa=0.200, p = 0.460). In the course of the reliability assessment of the scale, total score correlations of 23 materials have been examined, and those under 0.20 correlation limit has been removed from the scale correlation. As a result, the scale was left to be 13 items. In the internal consistency tests of the analyses, Cronbach's alpha value has been found to be 0.79. As a result, of the validity analyses of the Attitude towards Using Complementary Treatments Scale, the content and language validity analyses has been found to be at the expected level. It has been determined to be a highly reliable scale as the result of the reliability analyses. In conclusion, Attitude towards Using Complementary Treatments Scale is a valid and reliable scale.

Keywords: alternative health care, complementary treatment, instrument development, nursing practice

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Authors: Wuon-Shik Kim, Hyoung-Min Choi, Jeonggeon Woo, Sun Jung Kwon, SeungHee Lee

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The research on attentional engagement (AE) in movies using physiological signals is rare and controversial. Therefore, whether physiological responses can be applied to evaluate AE in actual movies is unclear. To clarify this, we measured electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram (EEG) of 16 Japanese university students as they watched the American movie Iron Man. After the viewing, we evaluated the subjective AE and affection levels for 11 film content segments in Iron Man. Based on self-reports for AE, we selected two film content segments as stimuli: Film Content 9 describing Tony Stark (the main character) flying through the night sky (with the highest AE score) and Film Content 1, describing Tony Stark and his colleagues telling indecent jokes (with the lowest score). We divided these two content segments into two time intervals, respectively. Results indicated that the Film Content by Interval interaction for HR was significant, at F (1, 11)=35.64, p<.001, η2=.76; while HR in Film Content 1 decreased, that of in Film Content 9 increased. In Film Content 9, the main effects of the Interval for respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) (F (1, 11)=5.91, p<.05, η2=.35) and for the attention index of EEG (F (1, 11)=5.23, p<.05, η2=.37) were significant. The increase in the RSA was significant (p<.05) as well, whereas that of the EEG attention index was nearly significant (p=.069). In conclusion, while RSA increases, HR decreases when people direct their attention toward normal films. However, while paying attention to a film evoking excitement, HR as well as RSA can increase.

Keywords: attentional engagement, electroencephalogram, movie, respiratory sinus arrhythmia

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Authors: Kurotimi M. Fems, Francis D. W. Poazi, Helen Opigo

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The concepts of entrepreneurship education together with graduate entrepreneurship have taken centre stage in many countries as a 21^st century strategy for economic growth and development. Entrepreneurship education has been viewed as a pre-requisite tool for a more effective and successful business operation. This paper seeks to verify if entrepreneurship education is pre-requisite to graduate entrepreneurship, and to ascertain if such other factors as the need for achievement, competence and experience etc. also play a foundational role in the choice of a graduate becoming an entrepreneur. The scope of the research study is entrepreneurs within Yenagoa metropolis in Bayelsa state, Nigeria. The sample target is graduates engaged in entrepreneurship activities (graduates who own and run businesses). Stratified sampling technique was used and 101 responses were obtained from a total of 300 questionnaires issued. Bar chart, tables and percentages were used to analyze the collected data. The findings revealed that personality traits, situational circumstance, need for achievement and experience/competence were the foundational factors stimulating graduate entrepreneurs to engage in entrepreneurial pursuits. Of all, personality trait showed the highest score with 73 (73%) out of 101 entrepreneurs agreeing. Experience/Competence and situational circumstances followed behind with 66 (65%) and 63 (62.4%), respectively. Entrepreneurship education revealed the least score with 33 (32.3%) out of 101 participating entrepreneurs. All hope, however, is not lost, as this shows that something can be done to increase the impact of entrepreneurship education on graduate entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Creative destruction, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship education, graduate entrepreneurship, pre-requisite

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Authors: Asmaa Abazaid, Maram Al-Ostah, Nadeen Abu-Zahra, Ruba Bawab, Refaat Abdel-Razek

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Innovation audit is defined as a tool that can be used to reflect on how the innovation is managed in an organization. The aim of this study is to audit innovation in the second top Engineering Firms in the world, and one of the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) companies that are working in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The obtained results are then compared with four international companies from China and Brazil. The Diamond model has been used for auditing innovation in the two companies in UAE to evaluate their innovation management and to identify each company’s strengths and weaknesses from an innovation perspective. The results of the comparison between the two companies (Jacobs and Hyper General Contracting) revealed that Jacobs has support for innovation, its innovation processes are well managed, the company is committed to the development of its employees worldwide and the innovation system is flexible. Jacobs was doing best in all innovation management dimensions: strategy, process, organization, linkages and learning, while Hyper General Contracting did not score as Jacobs in any of the innovation dimensions. Furthermore, the audit results of both companies were compared with international companies to examine how well the two construction companies in UAE manage innovation relative to SABIC (Saudi company), Poly Easy and Arnious (Brazilian companies), Huagong tools and Guizohou Yibai (Chinese companies). The results revealed that Jacobs is doing best in learning and organization dimensions, while PolyEasy and Jacobs are equal in the linkage dimension. Huagong Tools scored the highest score in process dimension among all the compared companies. However, the highest score of strategy dimension was given to PolyEasy. On the other hand, Hyper General Contracting scored the lowest in all of the innovation management dimensions. It needs to improve its management of all the innovation management dimensions with special attention to be given to strategy, process, and linkage as they got scores below 4 out of 7 comparing with other dimensions. Jacobs scored the highest in three innovation management dimensions related to the six companies. However, the strategy dimension is considered low, and special attention is needed in this dimension.

Keywords: Brazil, China, innovation audit, innovation evaluation, innovation management, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

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Authors: K. Hariohm, V. Prakash, J. Saravana Kumar

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Introduction and Rationale: Increased scope of Physiotherapy (PT) practice also has contributed to research in the field of PT. It is essential to determine the production and quality of the clinical trials from India since, it may reflect the scientific growth of the profession. These trends can be taken as a baseline to measure our performance and also can be used as a guideline for the future trials. Objective: To quantify and analyze qualitatively the RCT’s from India from the period 2000-2013’ May, and classify data for the information process. Methods: Studies were searched in the Medline database using the key terms “India”, “Indian”, “Physiotherapy”. Clinical trials only with PT authors were included. Trials out of scope of PT practice and on animals were excluded. Retrieved valid articles were analyzed for published year, type of participants, area of study, PEDro score, outcome measure domains of impairment, activity, participation; ‘a priori’ sample size calculation, region, and explanation of the intervention. Result: 45 valid articles were retrieved from the year 2000-2013’ May. The majority of articles were done on symptomatic participants (81%). The frequencies of conditions repeated more were low back pain (n-7) and diabetes (n-4). PEDro score with mode 5 and upper limit of 8 and lower limit 4 was found. 97.2% of studies measure the outcome at the impairment level, 34% in activity level, and 27.8% in participation level. 29.7% of studies did ‘a priori’ sample size calculation. Correlation of year trend and PEDro score found to be not significant (p>.05). Individual PEDro item analysis showed, randomization (100%), concealment (33%) baseline (76%), blinding-subject, therapist, assessor (9.1%, 0%, 10%), follow-up (89%) ITT (15%), statistics between groups (100%), measures of variance (88 %). Conclusion: The trend shows an upward slope in terms of RCTs published from India which is a good indicator. The qualitative analysis showed some gaps in the clinical trial design, which can be expected to be, fulfilled by the future researchers.

Keywords: RCT, PEDro, physical therapy, rehabilitation

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Authors: Sukanya Sripho

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This paper aims to examine the level of roles performed in tourism development by local people residing in Chiang Khan Sub-District Municipality, Loei Province in Northeast of Thailand. In addition, this study also tested whether personal factors had a relationship with the level of roles performed in tourism development. These personal factors included gender, age, educational level, career, position and duty in the community, average income per month, length of residence and involvement in the tourism industry. The findings revealed a high level in each role performed. These roles were ranked from the highest mean score to the lowest mean score as follows: (1) improving and rejuvenating tourist attractions; (2) improving tourist facilities; (3) promoting people participation; (4) publicizing tourist attractions; (5) protecting for safety and security; and (6) surveying and managing the information of tourist attractions. Furthermore, it was found that position and duty in the community, length of residence and involvement in tourism industry had a relationship with the level of roles performed in tourism development at a significance level of 0.05.

Keywords: Role, local municipality administration, tourism development, Thailand

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Authors: Mary L. G. S. Senna, Afonso R. Aquino, Veruska C. Dutra, Carlos H. C. Tolentino

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The quality of life index, despite elucidating many discussions, the conceptual subjectivity of the term does not show precision, and consequently, many researchers seek to develop methods aiming to measure this concept, bringing it to a more concrete approach. In this study, the quality of life index method was used to analyze the population of Mateiros, Tocantins, Brazil for quality of life. After data collection, it was compared the quality of life index between the population and the group of beneficiaries of the Brazilian government assistance program Bolsa Família (Family Allowance). Some of the people interviewed receive financial aid from the federal government program Bolsa Família (22%). Comparisons were made among the final score of the quality of life index of the Mateiros population and the following factors: Gender, age, education, those working or not with tourism and those who receive or do not receive the Bolsa Família. It was observed that only the factor, Bolsa Família (p-score 0.0138), shows an association with quality of life improvement, noticing that those who have financial aid had a higher quality of life improvement than the rest of the population. It was concluded that, government assistance has shown a decisive element on the enhancement of Mateiros population quality of life, indicating that similar actions should be maintained.

Keywords: quality of life index, government aid to families, sustainable tourism, Bolsa Familia

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Authors: Kartika Marta Budiana

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Low competence in speaking for the students of Non English native speakers have been crucial so far for the teachers in language teaching in Indonesia. This study attempts to explore the effect of video using in teaching speaking onstudents of non-native English speakers at STIE Perbanas Surabaya. This includes investigate the students` attitudes toward the video used in classroom. This is a quantitative research that is an experimental one based on analyses derived the concepts of from teaching speaking and the use of video. There are two classes observed, the experimental and the control one. The experimental consist of 28 students and the control class consists of 25 students. Before the treatment given, both of the group is given the pre-test to check their ability level. Then, after the treatment is given, the post-test is given to the both groups. Then, the students were given treatment how to conduct a meeting that they learnt from a video of business English. The post test was held after they undergone a treatment. The instruments to get the data are the oral test and questionnaire. The data of this study is students` score and from the tests` score it can be seen there is a positive significant difference in the experimental group. The t-test to test hypothesize also shows that it is accepted which said that there is an improvement on the students` speaking competence achievement. In conclusion, the video effects on the significant difference on the students speaking competence achievement.

Keywords: video, teaching, speaking, Indonesia

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Authors: Manasvi Pinnaka, Brianna Chrisman

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Cystic fibrosis patients often develop lung infections that range anywhere in severity from mild to life-threatening due to the presence of thick and sticky mucus that fills their airways. Since many of these infections are chronic, they not only affect a patient’s ability to breathe but also increase the chances of mortality by respiratory failure. With a publicly available dataset of DNA sequences from bacterial species in the lung microbiome of cystic fibrosis patients, the correlations between different microbial species in the lung and the extent of deterioration of lung function were investigated. 16S sequencing technologies were used to determine the microbiome composition of the samples in the dataset. For the statistical analyses, referencing helped distinguish between taxonomies, and the proportions of certain taxa relative to another were determined. It was found that the Fusobacterium, Actinomyces, and Leptotrichia microbial types all had a positive correlation with the FEV1 score, indicating the potential displacement of these species by pathogens as the disease progresses. However, the dominant pathogens themselves, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, did not have statistically significant negative correlations with the FEV1 score as described by past literature. Examining the lung microbiology of cystic fibrosis patients can help with the prediction of the current condition of lung function, with the potential to guide doctors when designing personalized treatment plans for patients.

Keywords: bacterial infections, cystic fibrosis, lung microbiome, 16S sequencing

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Authors: Gülcan Taşkıran, Ülkü Tatar Baykal

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Aim: To identify nurses’ perceived competencies for disaster preparedness. Background: Recently, the number of disasters has increased worldwide. Since disasters often strike without warning, healthcare providers, especially nurses must be prepared with appropriate competencies for disaster procedures. Nurses’ perceptions of their own competencies for disaster preparedness need to be evaluated to aid in the creation of effective national plans and educational programs. Design: This study was conducted with a descriptive and cross-sectional design. Methods: Nurses’ perceptions were assessed using the 13-item Demographic Profile Questionnaire that is based on previous literature and the 45-item Nurses’ Perception of Core Competencies for Disaster Preparedness Scale (NPCDPS). Data were collected from June to September 2014 from 406 (79.9% return rate) Turkish nurses working in the western region of Turkey. Results: At the end of the study, it was found that out of the nurses whose mean age was 31.27 ± 5.86 and mean of working time was 8.07 ± 6.60 by the time vast majority of the nurses were women (85.7%), married (59.4%), bachelor’s degree holder (88.2%) and service nurses (56.2%). The most potential disaster that nurses think is an earthquake (70.9%) by the time majority of nurses consider having a role as a nurse at every stage of disasters. The mean total point score of nurses’ perception of disaster preparedness was 4.62. The mean total point score of the nurses from the Nurses’ Perception of Core Competencies for Disaster Preparedness Scale was 133.96. When the subscales’ mean scores are examined, the highest average of the mean score is for Technical Skills (44.52), and the lowest is for Critical Thinking Skills (10.47). When the subscales of Nurses’ Perception of Core Competencies for Disaster Preparedness Scale compared with sex, marital status and education level out of independent variable of nurses there is no significant difference (p > 0.05); compared with age group, working years, duty and being with a disaster out of independent variable of nurses there is a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: Nurses generally perceive themselves as sufficient at a ‘medium level’ in terms of meeting the core competencies that are required for disaster preparedness. Nurses are not adequately prepared for disasters, but they are aware of the need for such preparation and disaster education. Disaster management training should be given to all nurses in their basic education.

Keywords: disaster competencies, disaster management, disaster nursing, disaster preparedness, nursing, nursing administration, Turkish nurses

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Authors: Hongmeng Su, Luyu Zhao, Yanyan Qian, Hong Fan

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Aim: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors that endanger human health seriously. RNA methylation, especially N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A) and 5-methylcytosine (m⁵C), a crucial epigenetic transcriptional regulatory mechanism, plays an important role in tumorigenesis, progression and prognosis. This research aims to systematically evaluate the prognostic value of m⁶A and m⁵C modulators in HCC patients. Methods: Twenty-four modulators of m⁶A and m⁵C were candidates to analyze their expression level and their contribution to predict the prognosis of HCC. Consensus clustering analysis was applied to classify HCC patients. Cox and LASSO regression were used to construct the risk model. According to the risk score, HCC patients were divided into high-risk and low/medium-risk groups. The clinical pathology factors of HCC patients were analyzed by univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Results: The HCC patients were classified into 2 clusters with significant differences in overall survival and clinical characteristics. Nine-gene risk model was constructed including METTL3, VIRMA, YTHDF1, YTHDF2, NOP2, NSUN4, NSUN5, DNMT3A and ALYREF. It was indicated that the risk score could serve as an independent prognostic factor for patients with HCC. Conclusion: This study constructed a Nine-gene risk model by modulators of m⁶A and m⁵C and investigated its effect on the clinical prognosis of HCC. This model may provide important consideration for the therapeutic strategy and prognosis evaluation analysis of patients with HCC.

Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, m⁶A, m⁵C, prognosis, RNA methylation

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Authors: Karissa Graham, Andrew Campbell-Lloyd

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The deep inferior epigastric artery perforator flap (DIEP) is used to reconstruct large volumes of tissue. The DIEP flap is based on the deep inferior epigastric artery (DIEA) and vein. Accurate knowledge of the anatomy of these vessels allows for efficient dissection of the flap, minimal damage to surrounding tissue, and a well vascularized flap. A 54 year old lady was assessed for bilateral delayed autologous reconstruction with DIEP free flaps. The right DIEA was consistent with the described anatomy. The left DIEA had a vessel branching shortly after leaving the external iliac artery and before entering the muscle. This independent branch entered the muscle and had a long intramuscular course to the largest perforator. The main DIEA vessel demonstrated a type II branching pattern but had perforators that were too small to have a viable DIEP flap. There were no communicating arterial branches between the independent vessel and DIEA, however, there was one venous communication between them. A muscle sparing transverse rectus abdominis muscle flap was raised using the main periumbilical perforator from the independent vessel. Our case report demonstrated an unreported anatomical variant of the DIEA. A few anatomical variants have been described in the literature, including a unilateral absent DIEA and peritoneal-cutaneous perforators that had no connection to the DIEA. Doing a pre-operative CTA helps to identify these rare anatomical variations, which leads to safer, more efficient, and effective operating.

Keywords: aberrant anatomy, CT angiography, DIEP anatomy, free flap

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Authors: Raif Parlakkaya, Huseyin Cetin, Duygu Irdiren

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By the development of World Wide Web, the usage rate of Internet has rapidly grown globally; and provided a basis for the emergence of electronic business. As well as other sectors, the banking sector has adopted the use of internet with the developments in information and communication technologies. Due to the public disclosure and transparency principle of Corporate Governance, the importance of information disclosure of banks on their web sites has increased significantly. For the purpose of this study, a Bank Disclosure Attribute Index (BDAI) in Turkey has been constructed through classifying the information disclosure on banks’ web sites into general, financial, investors and corporate governance attributes. All 47 banks in Turkish Banking System have been evaluated according to the index with the aim of providing a comparison between banks. By Chi Square Test, Pearson Correlation, T-Test, and ANOVA statistical tools, it has been concluded that the majority of banks in Turkey have shared information on their web sites adequately with respect to their total index score. Although there is a positive correlation between various types of information on banks’ web sites, there is no uniformity among them. Also, no significant difference between various types of information disclosure and bank types has been observed. Compared with the total index score averages of the five largest banks in Turkey, there are some banks that need to improve the content of their web sites.

Keywords: internet banking, websites evaluation, customer adoption, Turkey

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Authors: Şefika Dilek Güven, Gülden Küçükakça

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Objective: Learning the process of interaction with patient occurs within the process of nursing education. For this reason, it is considered to provide an opportunity for questioning and rearrangement of nursing education programs by assessing attitudes of nursing students towards caring nurse-patient interaction. Method: This is a descriptive study conducted in order to assess attitudes of nursing students towards caring nurse-patient interaction. The study was conducted with 318 students who were studying at nursing department of Semra and Vefa Küçük Health High School, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University in 2015-2016 academic year and agreed to participate in the study. “Personal Information Form” prepared by the researchers utilizing the literature and “Caring Nurse-Patient Interaction Scale (CNPIS)”, who Turkish validity and reliability were conducted by Atar and Aştı, were used in the study. The Cronbach α coefficient of CNPIS was found as 0.973 in the study. Permissions of the institution and participants were received before starting to conduct study. Significance test of the difference between two means, analysis of variance, and correlation analysis were used to assess the data. Results: Average age of nursing students participating in the study was 20.72±1.91 and 74.8% were female, and 28.0% were the fourth-year students. 52.5% of the nursing students stated that they chose nursing profession willingly, 80.2% did not have difficulty in their interactions with patients, and 84.6% did not have difficulty in their social relationships. CNPIS total mean score of nursing students was found to be 295.31±40.95. When the correlation between total CNPIS mean score of the nursing students in terms of some variables was examined; it was determined there was a significant positive correlation between ages of the nursing students and total mean score of CNPIS (r=0.184, p=0.001). CNPIS total mean score was found to be higher in female students compared to male students, in 3rd–year students compared to students studying at other years, in those choosing their profession willingly compared to those choosing their profession unwillingly, in those not having difficulty in relations with the patients compared to those having difficulty, and in those not having difficulty in social relationships compared to those having difficulty. It was determined there was a significant difference between CNPIS total mean scores in terms of the year and state of having difficulty in social relationships (p<0,005). Conclusion: Nursing students had positive attitudes towards caring nurse-patient interactions, attitudes of nursing students, who were female, studying at 3rd year, chose nursing profession willingly, did not have difficulty in patient relations, and did not have difficulty in social relationships, towards caring nurse-patient interaction were found to be more positive. In the line with these results; it can be recommended to organize activities for introducing nursing profession to the youth preparing for the university, to use methods that will increase further communication skills to nursing students during their education, to support students in terms of communication skills, and to involve activities that will strengthen their social relationships.

Keywords: nurse-patient interaction, nursing student, patient, communication

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Authors: Mohammad Hadi Mahmoodi, Azam Ghonchepoor, Sheilan Sohrabi

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The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of foreign language classroom anxiety and ambiguity tolerance on EFL Learners’ listening proficiency. In so doing, 442 EFL learners were randomly selected form Azad University and some accredited language institutions in Hamaden, and were given the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (1983), and Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (SLTAS) (1995). Participants’ listening proficiency level was determined through listening scores gained in standardized exams given by university professors or institutes in which they studied English. The results of two-way ANOVA revealed that listening proficiency was significantly affected by the interaction of anxiety and AT level of the participants. Each of the two variables were categorized in three levels of High, Mid, and Low. The highest mean score of listening belonged to the group with low degree of anxiety and high degree of ambiguity tolerance, and the lowest listening mean score was gained by the group with high level of anxiety and low level of tolerance of ambiguity. Also, the findings of multiple regressions confirmed that anxiety was the stronger predictor of listening comprehension in contrast with tolerance of ambiguity. Furthermore, the result of Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there was a significant negative relationship between the participants’ foreign language classroom anxiety and their ambiguity tolerance level.

Keywords: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, Second language tolerance of ambiguity, Listening proficiency

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Authors: Chuanphit Chumkhong

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This research aimed 1) to study the effects of the management of Active Learning among 3rd year students enrolled in teacher’s profession courses and 2) to assess the satisfaction of the students with courses using the Active Learning approach. The population for the study consisted of 442 3rd year undergraduate students enrolled in two teacher education courses in 2015: Curriculum Development and Learning Process Management. They were 442 from 11 education programs. Respondents for evaluation of satisfaction with Active Learning management comprised 432 students. The instruments used in research included a detailed course description and rating scale questionnaire on Active Learning. The data were analyzed using arithmetic mean and standard deviation. The results of the study reveal the following: 1. Overall, students gain a better understanding of the Active Learning due to their actual practice on the activity of course. Students have the opportunity to exchange learning knowledge and skills. The AL teaching activities make students interested in the contents and they seek to search for knowledge on their own. 2. Overall, 3rd year students are satisfied with the Active Learning management at a ‘high’ level with a mean score (μ) of 4.12 and standard deviation (σ) of. 51. By individual items, students are satisfied with the 10 elements in the two courses at a ‘high’ level with the mean score (μ) between 3.79 to 4.41 and a standard deviation (σ) between to 68. 79.

Keywords: active learning teaching model, teacher’s professional courses, professional courses, curriculum and instruction teacher's

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Authors: Ali Ahmadi, Maryam Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi Parsaei

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Background: Stress in the workplace today is one of the most important public health concerns and a serious threat to the health of the workforce worldwide. Occupational stress can cause occupational events and reduce quality of life. As a result, it has a very undesirable impact on the performance of organizations, companies, and their human resources. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between job stress dimensions and occupational accidents in industrial factories in Southwest Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 workers in the summer of 2023 in the Southwest of Iran. To select participants, we used a convenience sampling method. The research tools in this study were the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stress questionnaire with 35 questions and 7 dimensions and demographic information. A high score on this questionnaire indicates that there is low job stress and pressure. All workers completed the informed consent form. Univariate analysis was performed using chi-square and T-test. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association of stress-related factors with job accidents in participants. Stata 14.0 software was used for analysis. Results: The mean age of the participants was 39.81(6.36) years. The prevalence of job accidents was 28.0% (95%CI: 21.0, 34.0). Based on the results of the multiple logistic regression with the adjustment of the effect of the confounding variables, one increase in the score of the demand dimension had a protective impact on the risk of job accidents(aOR=0.91,95%CI:0.85-0.95). Additionally, an increase in one of the scores of the managerial support (aOR=0.89, 95% CI: 0.83-0.95) and peer support (aOR=0.76, 95%CI: 0.67-87) dimensions was associated with a lower number of job accidents. Among dimensions, an increase in the score of relationship (aOR=0.89, 95%CI: 0.80-0.98) and change (aOR=0.86, 95%CI: 0.74-0.96) reduced the odds of the accident's occurrence among the workers by 11% and 16%, respectively. However, there was no significant association between role and control dimensions and the job accident (p>0.05). Conclusions: The results show that the prevalence of job accidents was alarmingly high. Our results suggested that an increase in scores of dimensions HSE questioners is significantly associated with a decrease the accident occurrence in the workplace. Therefore, planning to address stressful factors in the workplace seems necessary to prevent occupational accidents.

Keywords: HSE, Iran, job stress occupational accident, safety, occupational health

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Authors: Emni Omar Daw Hussin, Pathmawathi Subramanian, Wong Li Ping

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Background: To provide quality care at the end of life, nurses should possess knowledge and skills to provide effective end-of-life care, as well as develop the attitudes and interpersonal competence to provide compassionate care. Aim: This study aimed to assess nurses’ knowledge and attitude towards end of life care and caring for terminal ill patients and to examine relationships among demographic variables and nurse’s knowledge and attitudes toward end of life care and caring for terminal ill patients. Method: a cross-sectional study was conducted at 1 tertiary hospital located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Self-administrative questionnaire was used to collect data from 553 nurses from over all departments except emergency department, operation theater and outpatient clinic. Two tools were used in this study, the Frommelt’s Attitude Toward Care of the Dying (FATCOD) Scale to assess the nurses’ attitude and End of Life Knowledge Assessment to assess the nurses’ knowledge. Result: the result of this study yielded that, the majority of participants (54.8%) and (54.4%) have less positive attitude and knowledge towards end of life care and caring for terminal ill patients respectively. As well as there is no significant relationship were found between nurses’ ethnicity, religion, and the total score of FATCOD scale; End of Life Knowledge Assessment score. On other hand there is significant relationship among nurses’ age, working experience, level of education, attending any post basic courses and the total score of both FATCOD scale and End of Life Knowledge Assessment. Conclusion: A lack of education and experience and post basic course about end of life care and palliative care may contribute to the negative attitudes and poor knowledge regarding end of life care. Providing sufficient courses about end of life care could enhance the nurses’ knowledge towards end of life care, as well as providing a reflective narrative environment in which nurses can express their personal feelings about death and dying could be a potentially effective approach. Implication for Practice: This study elaborates the need for further research to develop an effective educational programs to enhance nurses’ knowledge and to promote positive attitude towards death and dying, as well as enhance communication skills, and coping strategies.

Keywords: knowledge, attitude, nurse, end of life care

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Authors: Hong Wu, Naiji Lu

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Improvement of health behavior among people with chronic diseases is vital for increasing longevity and enhancing quality of life. This paper researched the causal effects of informal care on the compliance with doctor’s health advices – smoking control, dietetic regulation, weight control and keep exercising – among older people with chronic diseases in China, which is facing the challenge of aging. We addressed the selection bias by using propensity score matching in the estimation process. We used the 2011-2012 national baseline data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Our results showed informal care can help improve health behavior of older people. First, informal care improved the compliance of smoking controls: whether smoke, frequency of smoking, and the time lag between wake up and the first cigarette was all lower for these older people with informal care; Second, for dietetic regulation, older people with informal care had more meals every day than older people without informal care; Third, three variables: BMI, whether gain weight and whether lose weight were used to measure the outcome of weight control. There were no significant difference between group with informal care and that without for BMI and the possibility of losing weight. Older people with informal care had lower possibility of gain weight than that without; Last, for the advice of keeping exercising, informal care increased the probability of walking exercise, however, the difference between groups for moderate and vigorous exercise were not significant. Our results indicate policy makers who aim to decrease accidents should take informal care to elders into account and provide an appropriate policy to meet the demand of informal care. Our birth policy and postponed retirement policy may decrease the informal caregiving hours, so adjustments of these policies are important and urgent to meet the current situation of aged tendency of population. In addition, government could give more support to develop organizations to provide formal care, such as nursing home. We infer that formal care is also useful for health behavior improvements.

Keywords: chronic diseases, compliance, CHARLS, health advice, informal care, older people, propensity score matching

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Authors: Manpreet Kaur, Amita Rani, Sanjay Kumar

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The Internet of Things (IoT), a cyber-physical paradigm, allows a large number of devices to connect and send the sensory data in the network simultaneously. This tremendous amount of data generated leads to very high network load consequently resulting in network congestion. It further amounts to frequent loss of useful information and depletion of significant amount of nodes’ energy. Therefore, there is a need to control congestion in IoT so as to prolong network lifetime and improve the quality of service (QoS). Hence, we propose a two-level clustering based routing algorithm considering congestion score and packet priority metrics that focus on minimizing the network congestion. In the proposed Priority based Congestion Control (PBCC) protocol the sensor nodes in IoT network form clusters that reduces the amount of traffic and the nodes are prioritized to emphasize important data. Simultaneously, a congestion score determines the occurrence of congestion at a particular node. The proposed protocol outperforms the existing Packet Discard Network Clustering (PDNC) protocol in terms of buffer size, packet transmission range, network region and number of nodes, under various simulation scenarios.

Keywords: internet of things, cyber-physical systems, congestion control, priority, transmission rate

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Authors: Rorlinda Yusof, Siti Aishah Hassan, Afifah Mohamad Radzi, Mohd Hakimie Zainal Abidin, Amran Rasli, Inderbir Sandhu

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The purpose of this study is to examine the self-identities of gifted and talented students and the relationship between self-identity and academic accomplishment. A random sample of 300 students enrolled in a secondary education programme at the Pusat GENIUS@pintar Negara was chosen as respondents of a 151-item holistic-identity component development tool. The validity of the instrument was assessed using Principal Components Analysis and Factor Analysis via an inter-Item Correlation Matrix (Loading values 0.44 to 0.86), which resulted in the formation of eight dimensions. The Cronbach's Alpha was calculated to determine the instrument's reliability (the overall result was 0.98). The results showed that students' holistic-identity profiles were relatively high (mean=4.09, standard deviation=0.449). In addition, spiritual identity received the greatest mean score (4.34) out of the eight components of identity investigated, while leadership identity received the lowest mean score (3.88). A conceptual framework for Islamic school leadership is recommended to implement spiritual values without differentiation to harmonize spiritual and intellectual intelligence among all the students. Some benchmarking studies with other centres for gifted and talented students are recommended for further research.

Keywords: holistic self-identity, academic achievement, self-development programme, counselling services, gifted and talented students

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Authors: Kuixi Du, Thomas J. Lipscomb

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The proficiency in Mathematics skills is fundamental to success in the STEM disciplines. In the US, beginning college students who are placed in remedial/developmental Mathematics courses frequently struggle to achieve academic success. Therefore, Mathematics remediation in college has become an important concern, and providing Mathematics remediation is a prevalent way to help the students who may not be fully prepared for college-level courses. Programs vary, however, and the effectiveness of a particular remedial Mathematics program must be empirically demonstrated. The purpose of this study was to apply the sharp regression discontinuity (RD) technique to determine the effectiveness of the Jack Leaps Summer (JLS) Mathematic remediation program in supporting improved Mathematics learning outcomes among newly admitted Mathematics students in the South Dakota State University. The researchers studied the newly admitted Fall 2019 cohort of Mathematics majors (n=423). The results indicated that students whose pretest score was lower than the cut-off point and who were assigned to the JLS program experienced significantly higher scores on the post-test (Math 101 final score). Based on these results, there is evidence that the JLS program is effective in meeting its primary objective.

Keywords: causal inference, mathematisc remedial program evaluation, quasi-experimental research design, regression discontinuity design, cohort studies

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Authors: C. Caçador, M. J. Reis Lima, J. Oliveira, M. J. Veiga, M. Teixeira Veríssimo, F. Ramos, M. C. Castilho, E. Teixeira-Lemos

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In the present study we evaluated the nutritional status of 214 institutionalized elderly residents of both genders, aged 65 years and older of 11 care homes located in the district of Viseu (center of Portugal). The evaluation was based on anthropometric measurements and the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) score. The mean age of the subjects was 82.3 ± 6.1 years-old. Most of the elderly residents were female (72.0%). The majority had 4 years of formal education (51.9%) and was widowed (74.3%) or married (14.0%). Men presented a mean age of 81.2±8.5 years-old, weight 69.3±14.5 kg and BMI 25.33±6.5 kg/m2. In women, the mean age was 84.5±8.2 years-old, weight 61.2±14.7 kg and BMI 27.43±5.6 kg/m2. The evaluation of the nutritional status using the MNA score showed that 24.0% of the residents show a risk of undernutrition and 76.0% of them were well nourished. There was a high prevalence of obese (24.8%) and overweight residents (33.2%) according to the BMI. 7.5% were considered underweight. We also found that according to their waist circumference measurements 88.3% of the residents were at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 64.0% of them presented very high risk for CVD (WC≥88 cm for women and WC ≥102 cm for men). The present study revealed the coexistence of a dual form of malnutrition (undernourished and overweight) among the institutionalized Portuguese concomitantly with an excess of abdominal adiposity. The high prevalence of residents at high risk for CVD should not be overlooked. Given the vulnerability of the group of institutionalized elderly, our study highlights the importance of the classification of nutritional status based on both instruments: the BMI and the MNA.

Keywords: nutritional satus, MNA, BMI, elderly

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Authors: Mardiana Madjid, Nurpudji Astuti Taslim, Suryani As'ad, Haerani Rasyid, Agussalim Bukhari

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The high level of Urine Urea Nitrogen (UUN) indicates hypercatabolism occurs in hospitalized patients. High levels of Total Lymphocyte Count (TLC) indicates the immune system condition, adequate wound healing, and limit complication. Adequate dietary intake affects to decrease of hypercatabolism status in treated patient’s hospitals. Nitrogen Balance (NB) is simply the difference between nitrogen (N₂) intake and output. If more N₂ intake than output, then positive NB or anabolic will occur. This study aims to evaluate the effect of dietary intake in influencing balance nitrogen and total lymphocyte count. Method: A total of 43 patients admitted to a Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital between 2018 and 2019 for 10 days' treats are included. The inclusion criteria were patients who were treated for 10 days and receives food from the hospital orally. Patients did not experience gastrointestinal disorders such as vomiting and diarrhea and experience impair kidney function and liver function and expressed approval to participate in this study. During hospitalization, food intake, UUN, albumin serum, balance nitrogen, and TLC was assessed twice on day 1 and day 10. There is no Physician Clinical Nutritional intervention to correct food intake. UUN is 24 hours of urine collected on the second day after admission and the tenth day. Statistical analysis uses SPSS 24 with observational cohort methods. Result: The Forty-three participants completed the follow-up (27 men and 18 women). The age of fewer than 4 years is 22 people, 45 to 60 years is 16 people, and over 60 years is 4 people. The result of the study on day 1 obtained SGA score A, SGA score B, SGA score C are 8, 32, 3 until day 10 are 8, 31, 4, respectively. According to 24h dietary recalls, the energy intake during observation was from 522.5 ± 400.4 to 1011.9 ± 545.1 kcal/day P < 0.05, protein intake from 20.07 ± 17.2 to 40.3 ± 27.3 g/day P < 0.05, carbohydrates from 92.5 ± 71.6 to 184.8 ± 87.4 g/day, and fat from 5.5 ± 3.86 to 13.9 ± 13.9 g/day. The UUN during the observation was from 6.6 ± 7.3 to 5.5 ± 3.9 g/day, TLC decreased from 1622.9 ± 897.2 to 1319.9 ± 636.3/mm³ value target 1800/mm³, albumin serum from 3.07 ± 0.76 to 2.9 ± 0.57 g/day, and BN from -7.5 ± 7.2 to -3.1 ± 4.86. Conclusion: The high level of UUN needs to correct adequate dietary intake to improve NB and TLC status on hospitalized patients.

Keywords: adequate dietary intake, balance nitrogen, total lymphocyte count, urine urea nitrogen

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Authors: Lovro Štefan

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The main purpose of the study was to explore if a higher level of Elderly Dietary index score was correlated with lower peak plantar pressures. One-hundred and twenty older adults aged ≥60 years participated in this cross-sectional study. To assess the level of adherence to nutritional recommendations for older adults, we used Elderly Dietary Index score. Plantar pressures beneath the forefoot, midfootandhindfootregions of the foot were determined by pressure platform. Pearson’s coefficient of correlations and partial correlations were used to calculate the relationships. In the unadjusted model, higher Elderly Dietary Index was significantly correlated with lower peak plantar pressure beneath the forefoot (r = -0.45, p<0.001) and hindfoot (r = -0.37, p<0.001) the region, while no significant correlation with peak plantar pressure beneath the (r = -0.15, p=0.113) was observed. When we adjusted for age, body-mass index and gait velocity, higher Elderly Dietary Index remained significantly correlated with lower peak plantar pressure beneath the forefoot (r = -0.41, p<0.001) and hintfoot (r = -0.32, p<0.001) region. This study shows that higher adherence to nutritional recommendations is significantly correlated with lower forefoot and hindfoot peak plantar pressures in older women.

Keywords: elderly, biomechanics, nutrition, associations, force

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