Recommendations for Specialty Palliative APRN Graduate Education.

Background: Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are essential to care for the growing number of individuals with advanced illness given the shortage of palliative care clinicians.

Problem: Graduate education for specialty practice palliative APRNs lacks consistency in structure, content, and standardization of specialty palliative APRN education.

Approach: A workgroup of expert palliative APRNs and graduate faculty conducted focused discussions and a literature review to develop consensus recommendations based on national palliative APRN competencies and aligned with the 8 core concepts of the AACN Essentials.

Economic Impact of the Apoyo con Cariño Intervention: Improving Palliative Care for Hispanics with Serious Illness.

Specialty palliative care has been associated with cost savings at the end of life, while patient navigators have been independently associated with cost savings due to screening and treatment early in the course of disease. Evidence is limited regarding patient navigators and cost savings at the end of life. To determine the cost-effectiveness of a lay patient navigator intervention in improving palliative care outcomes for Hispanic persons with serious noncancer illness.

Improving Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation via Polycitric Acid-based Carbon Nanodots.

Bottom-up syntheses of carbon nanodots (CND) using solvothermal treatment of citric acid are known to afford nanometer-sized, amorphous polycitric acid-based materials. The addition of suitable co-reactants in the form of in-situ synthesized N-hetero-π-conjugated chromophores facilitates hereby the overall functionalization. Our incentive was to design a CND model that features phenazine (P-CND) - a well-known N-hetero-π-conjugated chromophore - to investigate the influence of the CND matrix on its redox chemistry as well as photochemistry.

PinkyCaMP a mScarlet-based calcium sensor with exceptional brightness, photostability, and multiplexing capabilities.

Genetically encoded calcium (Ca ) indicators (GECIs) are widely used for imaging neuronal activity, yet current limitations of existing red fluorescent GECIs have constrained their applicability. The inherently dim fluorescence and low signal-to-noise ratio of red-shifted GECIs have posed significant challenges. More critically, several red-fluorescent GECIs exhibit photoswitching when exposed to blue light, thereby limiting their applicability in all-optical experimental approaches.

What is the Exchange Repulsion Energy? Insight by Partitioning into Physically Meaningful Contributions.

It is shown that the exchange repulsion energy, E, can be rationalized by partitioning the respective energy expression for two systems with Hartree-Fock orbitals into physically meaningful contributions. A division of E into a positive kinetic and a negative potential part is possible, but these contributions correlate only poorly with the actual exchange repulsion energy. A more meaningful partitioning is derived, where all kinetic energy contributions are collected in a term that vanishes for exact Hartree-Fock orbitals due to their stationarity conditions.

Experimental and theoretical investigation of the Auger electron spectra of isothiocyanic acid, HNCS.

We investigate isothiocyanic acid, HNCS, by resonant and nonresonant Auger electron spectroscopy at the K-edge of carbon and nitrogen, and the L-edge of sulfur, employing soft X-ray synchrotron radiation. The C1s and N1s ionization energies as well as the S2s and S2p ionization energies are determined and X-ray absorption spectra reveal the transitions from the core to the virtual orbitals. Final states for all normal Auger electron spectra and the resonant ones recorded at the carbon and nitrogen edge are assigned and rationalized with theoretical spectra obtained with a wave-function based protocol.

Nursing Home Palliative Care Referral Process, Barriers, and Proposed Solutions: A Qualitative Study.

Despite evidence that specialized care for seriously ill nursing home (NH) residents is needed, barriers to accessing palliative care (PC) remain. A significant issue is the complexity of the referral process that inhibits timely and equitable access to care. This qualitative descriptive study explored the PC referral process in NHs.

Relative Effectiveness and Immunogenicity of Quadrivalent Recombinant Influenza Vaccine Versus Egg-Based Inactivated Influenza Vaccine Among Adults Aged 18-64 Years: Results and Experience From a Randomized, Double-Blind Trial.

Background: Immunogenicity studies suggest that recombinant influenza vaccine (RIV) may provide better protection against influenza than standard-dose inactivated influenza vaccines (SD IIV). This randomized trial evaluated the relative vaccine effectiveness (VE) and immunogenicity of RIV versus SD IIV in frontline workers and students aged 18-64 years.

Methods: Participants were randomized to receive RIV or SD IIV and followed for reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-confirmed influenza during the 2022-2023 influenza season.

Bacterial Adhesion to Natural and Synthetic Fibre-Forming Polymers: Influence of Material Properties.

Polymer-based textiles have a major impact on human well-being, as they provide the desired functional protection and aesthetic comfort when worn. However, natural and synthetic polymer-based textiles can also pose serious health risks, as they are surfaces that allow the adhesion of various bacteria, including pathogenic bacteria. To minimise these problems, antibacterial chemical treatments are generally applicable in the case of polymer-based textiles.

Quantum Effects Explain the Twist Angle in the Helical Structure of DNA.

Why are DNA bases stacked in a double helix structure? We combined three theoretical approaches to demonstrate how one core concept derived from quantum mechanics (Pauli repulsion) annihilates the contribution of dispersion to the π-π stacking. The helical architecture is governed by a combination of exchange and electrostatic forces, a result that is interpreted from both a computational and a biological perspective.

Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Powder-Treated Fingermarks on Forensic Gelatin Lifters and its Application for Separating Overlapping Fingermarks.

Fingermarks are frequently collected at crime scenes by using gelatin lifters for preservation and transport of the marks to a forensic laboratory for inspection. The gelatin lifters preserve both the imprint of the fingermark pattern necessary for identification purposes and the chemical residue of the mark potentially useful for profiling the person who left the fingermark. The fingermark patterns are traditionally recorded using photography/optical imaging, but methods for chemical analysis of fingermark residues on gelatin lifters are scarce.

Identification of Social Determinants of Education Among Pharmacy Students: Results From a Single-Institution Survey.

Objective: To identify social determinants of education (SDOE) among pharmacy students enrolled in the entry-level Doctor of Pharmacy program at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Methods: An original 28-item survey was developed and disseminated to first through fourth year students enrolled in the entry-level Doctor of Pharmacy program at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences during the spring 2023 semester. The survey evaluated student demographics, educational performance, and SDOE in 6 categories: physical health, psychosocial health, economic stability, self-motivation, social environment/community, and physical environment/community.

MIWI N-terminal arginines orchestrate generation of functional pachytene piRNAs and spermiogenesis.

N-terminal arginine (NTR) methylation is a conserved feature of PIWI proteins, which are central components of the PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway. The significance and precise function of PIWI NTR methylation in mammals remains unknown. In mice, PIWI NTRs bind Tudor domain containing proteins (TDRDs) that have essential roles in piRNA biogenesis and the formation of the chromatoid body.

Patient and Immunological Factors Associated With Delayed Clearance of Mucosal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 RNA and Symptom Persistence.

Serial blood and mucosal samples were characterized for 102 participants enrolled a median of 7.0 days after coronavirus disease 2019 diagnosis. Mucosal RNA was detectable for a median of 31.

A synergistic anti-bacterial and anti-adhesion activity of tea tree () and lemon eucalyptus tree ( Hook) essential oils on .

is a Gram-negative bacterial pathogen that colonizes natural and artificial water systems and has the ability to form a biofilm. The biofilm protects from various environmental factors and makes it more resistant to chlorine-based disinfectants. This study investigated the anti-bacterial properties of tea tree ( (Maiden and Betche) Cheel) oil and lemon eucalyptus tree ( Hook) essential oils (EOs) and their synergistic, additive inhibitory and anti-adhesive effects against biofilm formation on polystyrene.

Patient Navigator Intervention to Improve Palliative Care Outcomes for Hispanic Patients With Serious Noncancer Illness: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Disparities persist across the trajectory of serious illness, including at the end of life. Patient navigation has been shown to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for underserved populations.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of a lay patient navigator intervention, Apoyo con Cariño, in improving palliative care outcomes among Hispanic patients.

MIWI arginines orchestrate generation of functional pachytene piRNAs and spermiogenesis.

N-terminal arginine (NTR) methylation is a conserved feature of PIWI proteins, which are central components of the PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway. The significance and precise function of PIWI NTR methylation in mammals remains unknown. In mice, PIWI NTRs bind Tudor domain containing proteins (TDRDs) that have essential roles in piRNA biogenesis and the formation of the chromatoid body.

To detach or not to detach the umbo in type I tympanoplasty: functional results.

Purpose: To compare the audiological outcomes, tympanic membrane (TM) healing rates and complication rates in patients undergoing endoscopic underlay and over-under tympanoplasty type I (TTI).

Methods: The study includes 95 patients who underwent endoscopic TTI in the period between 2018 and 2023: 56% of the patients had the underlay technique and 41% had the over-under technique. Data regarding pre- and postoperative hearing, perforation characteristics, surgical procedures, graft types and complications were retrospectively analyzed.

Cold atmospheric plasma for surface disinfection: a promising weapon against deleterious meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus biofilms.

Background: Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to classical antimicrobial agents, so new approaches need to be explored.

Aim: To assess the potential of cold atmospheric plasma for the management of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Methods: The 24, 48, and 72 h resistant and susceptible S.

Anxiety and Depression in Metastatic Cancer: A Critical Review of Negative Impacts on Advance Care Planning and End-of-Life Decision Making With Practical Recommendations.

Purpose: Providers treating adults with advanced cancer increasingly seek to engage patients and surrogates in advance care planning (ACP) and end-of-life (EOL) decision making; however, anxiety and depression may interfere with engagement. The intersection of these two key phenomena is examined among patients with metastatic cancer and their surrogates: the need to prepare for and engage in ACP and EOL decision making and the high prevalence of anxiety and depression.

Methods: Using a critical review framework, we examine the specific ways that anxiety and depression are likely to affect both ACP and EOL decision making.

A Web-Based, Mail-Order Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing Program: Qualitative Analysis of User Feedback.

Background: The incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is increasing in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant reductions in access to health care services, including STI testing and treatment, leading to underreporting of STI cases and a need for alternatives to clinic-based testing. Moreover, concerns around confidentiality, accessibility, and stigma continue to limit access to clinic-based STI testing, particularly for high-priority populations.