The Surprise Question and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients on Hemodialysis: A Cross-Sectional Multicenter Study.

Background: The Surprise Question (SQ) is a common method aimed at identifying frail patients who need serious illness conversations to integrate a palliative approach. However, little is known about whether the SQ identifies patients on hemodialysis who perceive that they are declining or have low health-related quality of life (HRQoL)-important aspects when considering the need for serious illness conversations.

Objective: To explore how nurses and physicians' responses to the SQ are associated with patients' self-reported HRQoL.

Discrepancy in responses to the surprise question between hemodialysis nurses and physicians, with focus on patient clinical characteristics: A comparative study.

Introduction: The surprise question (SQ) "Would I be surprised if this patient died within the next xx months" can be used by different professions to foresee the need of serious illness conversations in patients approaching end of life. However, little is known about the different perspectives of nurses and physicians in responses to the SQ and factors influencing their appraisals. The aim was to explore nurses' and physicians' responses to the SQ regarding patients on hemodialysis, and to investigate how these answers were associated with patient clinical characteristics.

A comparative study for the isolation of exogenous trace DNA from fingernails.

Often fingernails from a victim or suspect involved in a physical assault, such as murder or sexual assault, are submitted to crime laboratories for DNA testing of foreign/exogenous biological material; however, very few studies have been conducted comparing the effectiveness of different sampling methods on the removal of foreign/exogenous DNA while minimizing the fingernail endogenous DNA. In this study three different sampling methods (swabbing, PBS soak, and PrepFiler® lysis buffer soak) were compared in order to identify one that minimizes the amount of endogenous DNA removed and maximizes the amount of foreign/exogenous male DNA removed. The samples were processed using the Tecan HIDEVO150 robot in order to reduce analyst time and the DNA mixtures were interpreted using the probabilistic genotyping software STRmix™.

TWGDAM validation of AmpFlSTR PCR amplification kits for forensic DNA casework.

Laboratory procedures used in short tandem repeat (STR) analysis were subjected to various scenarios that assessed reliability and identified potential limitations. These validation studies were designed as recommended by the Technical Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (TWGDAM) and the DNA Advisory Board (DAB) (17,18). Various DNA samples were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using AmpFlSTR PCR Amplification Kits (i.

Constructing universal multiplex PCR systems for comparative genotyping.

Analysis of length polymorphisms at STR loci in the human genome has become a standard approach for comparative genotyping in many areas including disease research and diagnostics, parentage assessment, investigations of human diversity, and forensic science. The simultaneous analysis of multiple STR loci through multiplex PCR and multicolor fluorescence detection offers sample conservation, high throughput, and automated genetic analysis. Careful design and optimization of tetranucleotide STR multiplexes has led to reliable, standardized systems that powerfully differentiate and distinguish individual human DNA profiles.