Phenobarbital Versus Benzodiazepines for the Treatment of Severe Alcohol Withdrawal.

Background: Phenobarbital may offer advantages over benzodiazepines for severe alcohol withdrawal syndrome (SAWS), but its impact on clinical outcomes has not been fully elucidated.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical impact of phenobarbital versus benzodiazepines for SAWS.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study compared phenobarbital to benzodiazepines for the management of SAWS for patients admitted to progressive or intensive care units (ICUs) between July 2018 and July 2022.

Mental Practice: Applying Successful Strategies in Sports to the Practice of Emergency Medicine.

Emergency physicians are expected to learn and maintain a large and varied set of competencies for clinical practice. These include high acuity, low occurrence procedures that may not be encountered frequently in the clinical environment and are difficult to practice with high fidelity and frequency in a simulated environment. Mental practice is a form of a cognitive walk-through that has been shown to be an effective method for improving motor and cognitive skills, with literature in sports science and emerging evidence supporting its use in medicine.

The Value of Using a Quality Assurance Follow-Up Team to Address Incidental Findings After Emergency Department or Urgent Care Discharge: A Cost Analysis.

Background: Incidental finding (IF) follow-up is of critical importance for patient safety and is a source of malpractice risk. Laboratory, imaging, or other types of IFs are often uncovered incidentally and are missed, not addressed, or only result after hospital discharge. Despite a growing IF notification literature, a need remains to study cost-effective non-electronic health record (EHR)-specific solutions that can be used across different types of IFs and EHRs.

Predicting Response to Bolus Insulin Therapy in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

Background: The aim of this study was to develop a predictive model to classify people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) into expected levels of success upon bolus insulin initiation.

Methods: Machine learning methods were applied to a large nationally representative insurance claims database from the United States (dNHI database; data from 2007 to 2017). We trained boosted decision tree ensembles (XGBoost) to assign people into Class 0 (never meeting HbA1c goal), Class 1 (meeting but not maintaining HbA1c goal), or Class 2 (meeting and maintaining HbA1c goal) based on the demographic and clinical data available prior to initiating bolus insulin.

The utility of emergency department physical therapy and case management consultation in reducing hospital admissions.

Background: A significant number of patients who present to the emergency department (ED) following a fall or with other injuries require evaluation by a physical therapist. Traditionally, once emergent conditions are excluded in the ED, these patients are admitted to the hospital for evaluation by a physical therapist to determine whether they should be transferred to a sub-acute rehabilitation facility, discharged, require services at home, or require further inpatient care. Case management is typically used in conjunction with a physical therapist to determine eligibility for recommended services and to aid in placement.

Factors That Influence the Reintegration to Normal Living for Older Adults 2 Years Post Hip Fracture.

This study aims to identify factors that influence older adults' reintegration to normal living 2 years following a hip fracture and the association between caregiver burden and reintegration over time. This longitudinal cohort study followed 76 community-dwelling older adults and their caregivers for 2 years post-hip fracture. The primary outcome was Reintegration to Normal Living Index (RNLI), and the secondary outcome was caregiver burden.

Supervisory relationships in long-term care facilities: A comparative case study of two facilities using complexity science.

Aims: This study aims to understand the factors that contribute to supervisory nurse performance in long-term care facilities.

Background: Long-term care facilities have been faced with staffing challenges and increasing resident care needs, resulting in suboptimal quality of care. Nursing leadership has been identified as a key factor in the provision of high-quality care.

Calculation of absorption and secondary scattering of X-rays by spherical amorphous materials in an asymmetric transmission geometry. Corrigendum.

A revised version of Table 2 of Bendert et al. [Acta Cryst. (2013).

Do perceived contraception attitudes influence abortion stigma? Evidence from Luanda, Angola.

Abortion stigma is influenced by a variety of factors. Previous research has documented a range of contributors to stigma, but the influence of perceived social norms about contraception has not been significantly investigated. This study assesses the influence of perceived social norms about contraception on abortion stigma among women in Luanda, Angola.

It helps me live, sends my children to school, and feeds me: a qualitative study of how food and cash incentives may improve adherence to treatment and care among adults living with HIV in Tanzania.

Financial and in-kind incentives have been shown to improve outcomes along the HIV care cascade, however the potential mechanismsthrough which they work remain unclear. To identify the pathways through which incentives improve retention in care and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), we conducted a qualitative study with participants in a trial evaluating conditional food and cash incentives for HIV-positive food insecure adults in Shinyanga, Tanzania. We found that the incentives acted through three pathways to potentially increase retention in care and adherence to ART: (1) addressing competing needs and offsetting opportunity costs associated with clinic attendance, (2) alleviating stress associated with attending clinic and meeting basic needs, and (3) by potentially increasing motivation.

Proposal for universality in the viscosity of metallic liquids.

The range of magnitude of the liquid viscosity, η, as a function of temperature is one of the most impressive of any physical property, changing by approximately 17 orders of magnitude from its extrapolated value at infinite temperature (ηo) to that at the glass transition temperature, Tg. We present experimental measurements of containerlessly processed metallic liquids that suggest that log(η/ηo) as a function of TA/T is a potentially universal scaled curve. In stark contrast to previous approaches, the scaling requires only two fitting parameters, which are on average predictable.

Anomalous thermal contraction of the first coordination shell in metallic alloy liquids.

Except for a few anomalous solids and liquids, materials expand upon heating. For liquids, this should be reflected as a shift in the peak positions in the pair correlation function, g(r), to higher r. Here, we present the results of a detailed study of the volume thermal expansion coefficients and the temperature dependences of g(r) for a large number of binary, ternary, and quaternary liquids in the equilibrium and supercooled (metastable liquid below the liquidus temperature) states.

A structural signature of liquid fragility.

Virtually all liquids can be maintained for some time in a supercooled state, that is, at temperatures below their equilibrium melting temperatures, before eventually crystallizing. If cooled sufficiently quickly, some of these liquids will solidify into an amorphous solid, upon passing their glass transition temperature. Studies of these supercooled liquids reveal a considerable diversity in behaviour in their dynamical properties, particularly the viscosity.

Medical education and family planning: developing future leaders and improving global health.

Well-trained medical professionals are key to improving global reproductive health and reducing rates of unsafe abortion, but medical training often fails to prepare practitioners to provide essential family planning services. The field of medical education is currently undergoing reformation to better meet the needs of a global population, and comprehensive, integrated family planning training will be an important part of those reforms. Family planning training is not only vital to address global reproductive healthcare demand, but integrates effectively with cornerstones of current medical education reform: competency-based education, leadership development, collaboration with practitioners of all levels, and global health context.

Calculation of absorption and secondary scattering of X-rays by spherical amorphous materials in an asymmetric transmission geometry.

Expressions for absorption and the secondary scattering intensity ratio are presented for a small beam impinging off-center of a spherical amorphous sample. Large gradients in the absorption correction are observed from small offsets from the central axis. Additionally, the secondary scattering intensity ratio causes an intensity asymmetry in the detector image.

Scattering of obliquely incident shear waves from a cylindrical cavity.

Prior work has proposed the use of ultrasonic angle-beam shear wave techniques to detect cracks of varying angular location around fastener sites by generating and detecting creeping waves. To better understand the nature of the scattering problem and quantify the role of creeping waves in fastener site inspections, a 3D analytical model was developed for the propagation and scattering of an obliquely incident plane shear wave from a cylindrical cavity with arbitrary shear wave polarization. The generation and decay of the spiral creeping waves was found to be dependent on both the angle of incidence and polarization of the plane shear wave.

Development of eddy current microscopy for high resolution electrical conductivity imaging using atomic force microscopy.

We present a high resolution electrical conductivity imaging technique based on the principles of eddy current and atomic force microscopy (AFM). An electromagnetic coil is used to generate eddy currents in an electrically conducting material. The eddy currents generated in the conducting sample are detected and measured with a magnetic tip attached to a flexible cantilever of an AFM.