The perceived impact of being a chaplain-researcher on professional practice.

As research has become part of chaplaincy, many chaplains become involved in research, often in the double-role of chaplain-researcher. Despite the increase of involvement in research, how conducting research benefits chaplains' professional care for clients has not been studied. The present study aimed to describe how chaplains perceive the impact of participation in the Dutch Case Studies Project (CSP) on their professional expertise and positioning in the institution.

Drug Survival, Safety, and Effectiveness of Biologics in Older Patients with Psoriasis: A Comparison with Younger Patients-A BioCAPTURE Registry Study.

Background: Psoriasis is a common inflammatory disease in any age group, but also in older patients (≥ 65 years of age). Since older patients are often excluded from clinical trials, limited data specifically on this growing population are available, e.g.

Addressing spiritual needs in palliative care: proposal for a narrative and interfaith spiritual care intervention for chaplaincy.

Although many recognize the importance of addressing the spiritual domain in palliative care, empirically grounded interventions designed to alleviate spiritual needs for patients in palliative care are remarkably scarce. In this paper we argue that the development of such interventions for chaplains is important in order to improve spiritual care in a (post)secular and religiously plural context. We therefore propose an interfaith chaplain-led spiritual care intervention for home-based palliative care that addresses patients' spiritual needs.

The professionalization of chaplaincy .

Chaplaincy has become increasingly professionalized in response to both the standardization in healthcare and the changing religious landscape. Whereas several studies have paid attention to the professionalization of chaplaincy as a whole, no research has been found that describes the implications for individual chaplains. The present article describes the professionalization of Dutch chaplains in the last two decades.

A spiritual care intervention for chaplains in home-based palliative care: design of a mixed-methods study investigating effects on patients' spiritual wellbeing.

Recently, the call for chaplains to become 'research literate' has been recognized by various scholars as well as by practitioners in the field. However, papers that present and discuss the study design and provide guidance on the methodology of chaplaincy research are scarce. The aim of this study is to present the design of a mixed-methods study that investigates the impact of a spiritual care intervention on patients' spiritual wellbeing in palliative, home-based care.

Interspecific Hybrids Between × and Species From Section Reveal Biparental Plastid Inheritance and Multi-Locus Cyto-Nuclear Incompatibility.

The genetics underlying Cyto-Nuclear Incompatibility (CNI) was studied in interspecific hybrids. We created hybrids of 12 closely related crop wild relatives (CWR) with the ornamental × . Ten of the resulting 12 (F) interspecific hybrids segregate for chlorosis suggesting biparental plastid inheritance.

Benefits Derived from Full Laboratory Automation in Microbiology: a Tale of Four Laboratories.

Automation in clinical microbiology is starting to become more commonplace and reportedly offers several advantages over the manual laboratory. Most studies have reported on the rapid turnaround times for culture results, including times for identification of pathogens and their respective antimicrobial susceptibilities, but few have studied the benefits from a laboratory efficiency point of view. This is the first large, multicenter study in North America to report on the benefits derived from automation measured in full-time equivalents (FTE), FTE reallocation, productivity, cost per specimen, and cost avoidance.

Real-life treatment of cutaneous warts with cantharidin podophyllin salicylic acid solution.

Patients often request treatment of their burdensome cutaneous warts. However, a safe and effective treatment for cutaneous warts is lacking. This study evaluates treatment outcome, side effects, and patient satisfaction after topical application of cantharidin 1% podophyllin 2% salicylic acid 30% (CPS1) solution in a large series of children and adults with cutaneous warts.

Automatic Digital Analysis of Chromogenic Media for Vancomycin-Resistant-Enterococcus Screens Using Copan WASPLab.

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are an important cause of health care-acquired infections (HAIs). Studies have shown that active surveillance of high-risk patients for VRE colonization can aid in reducing HAIs; however, these screens generate a significant cost to the laboratory and health care system. Digital imaging capable of differentiating negative and "nonnegative" chromogenic agar can reduce the labor cost of these screens and potentially improve patient care.

Automated Scoring of Chromogenic Media for Detection of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus by Use of WASPLab Image Analysis Software.

Recently, systems have been developed to create total laboratory automation for clinical microbiology. These systems allow for the automation of specimen processing, specimen incubation, and imaging of bacterial growth. In this study, we used the WASPLab to validate software that discriminates and segregates positive and negative chromogenic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) plates by recognition of pigmented colonies.

Erythroderma in two patients with psoriasis upon discontinuation of efalizumab treatment.

Efalizumab is therapeutically effective in moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Rebound after discontinuing therapy affects approximately 14% of patients, while erythroderma occurs in less than 1% of the treated population. In this case report, we describe two non-responding patients with severe plaque psoriasis who developed erythroderma after treatment was ceased.

Relevance of compartmentalization of T-cell subsets for clinical improvement in psoriasis: effect of immune-targeted antipsoriatic therapies.

Background: Therapies targeting the T cell-mediated pathology of psoriasis have been found to achieve remarkable clinical improvement and have confirmed the crucial role of the immune system either in peripheral blood (PB) or in skin. No analyses of T-cell counts in both compartments have been conducted in order to confirm or refute the hypothesized shifts between them.

Objectives: To gain more insight in the dynamics of compartmentalization of T cells between PB and lesional skin of patients with psoriasis, in response to immune-targeted antipsoriatic therapies.

A double-blind, randomized quantitative comparison of calcitriol ointment and calcipotriol ointment on epidermal cell populations, proliferation and differentiation.

Background: Calcitriol and calcipotriol are widely used in the topical treatment of psoriasis. However, studies comparing both treatment modalities are scarce. Especially, there are almost no studies comparing the effects on epidermal cell populations in a quantitative manner.

Therapeutic effects of a 12-week course of alefacept on nail psoriasis.

Background And Objectives: Nail psoriasis is a common finding in psoriatic patients and it affects the quality of life in a great proportion of patients. Topical or systemic treatments have limited effectiveness or have a serious toxicity potential. Biologicals such as alefacept are the most recent treatment modalities for psoriasis.

Assessment of epidermal subpopulations and proliferation in healthy skin, symptomless and lesional skin of spreading psoriasis.

Background: The margin zone in spreading psoriatic lesions has frequently been used as a model to study the changes in epidermal proliferation, keratinization and inflammation during the transition from symptomless to lesional skin. However, the dynamics of the changes in the epidermal subpopulations-basal cells, transit amplifying cells and differentiated cells-have not been studied in the transition between symptomless and lesional skin.

Objectives: To quantify in a dynamic model of the margin zone in psoriasis the characteristics of these subpopulations with respect to epidermal proliferation and differentiation.

Effect of calcipotriol on epidermal cell populations in alefacept-treated psoriatic lesions.

Background And Objectives: The effect of the established antipsoriatic treatment with topical calcipotriol (with a maximum of 100 g per week) in addition to systemic treatment with alefacept, a new biological agent for psoriasis, on epidermal cell populations in the psoriatic lesion was investigated using a combination of the Zenon labelling technique and microscopic image analysis. Epidermal cell populations were measured quantitatively with this sensitive method.

Patients/methods: Frozen sections of non-treated psoriatic epidermis and psoriatic epidermis treated with either alefacept intramuscular or alefacept intramuscular in combination with topical calcipotriol for 12 weeks were compared immunohistochemically.

Transscleral laser thermotherapy of hamster Greene melanoma: inducing tumour necrosis without scleral damage.

The feasibility of using transscleral thermotherapy (TSTT) to induce necrosis of choroidal melanoma without causing damage to the sclera was investigated. Fifty-two subcutaneously implanted hamster melanomas covered by human donor sclera were irradiated for 1 min with an 810 nm laser using a 3 mm spot diameter, with and without cooling of the scleral surface. Immediately after irradiation the temperature of the scleral surface was measured with an infrared camera.

The use of a multi-test MOT disc for the identification of Escherichia coli as a cost-containment strategy.

A multi-test enteric screen MOT disc was evaluated as an alternate, cost-effective and expedient method to the bioMérieux Vitek GNI card for the identification of Escherichia coli. Of the 321 lactose-fermenting organisms tested in this study, 268 were identified as E. coli by the bioMérieux Vitek GNI card.