A systematic review of change in symptoms, well-being and quality of life with group singing in people with cancer and their caregivers.

Purpose: This systematic review aimed to assess the impact of group singing on physical function, cancer-related symptoms, well-being (emotional, physical, social, spiritual), and health-related quality of life in individuals with cancer and their caregivers.

Methods: A search was performed using Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science from inception to April 2023; key words included cancer, choir, and group singing. Observational cohort, prospective or retrospective studies, randomized controlled studies, and crossover studies were included.

Exceeding 2-h sedentary time per day is not associated with moderate to severe spinal pain in 11- to 13-year-olds: a cross-sectional analysis.

Neck, mid-back and low back pain, collectively known as spinal pain, become more common with increasing age across childhood and adolescence. A common belief among the general community is that sedentary time, including screen time, in adolescents is associated with spinal pain. We aimed to investigate whether exceeding 2-h of sedentary time per day is associated with moderate to severe spinal pain in a sample of Danish adolescents aged 11-13 years.

COVID-19: how has a global pandemic changed manual therapy technique education in chiropractic programs around the world?

Background: Manual therapy is a cornerstone of chiropractic education, whereby students work towards a level of skill and expertise that is regarded as competent to work within the field of chiropractic. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, chiropractic programs in every region around the world had to make rapid changes to the delivery of manual therapy technique education, however what those changes looked like was unknown.

Aims: The aims of this study were to describe the immediate actions made by chiropractic programs to deliver education for manual therapy techniques and to summarise the experience of academics who teach manual therapy techniques during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

Increasing student success through in-class resilience education.

Student performance can be affected by internal and external stressors, so we explored the effects of an experiential psychiatric/mental health nursing class designed to present methods of stress reduction. Mixed methods to assess the effects of experiential learning about self-care in a baccalaureate psychiatric nursing class were used with 113 nursing students. Students were exposed in class each week to one of 6 techniques: deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness & exercise, aromatherapy, guided imagery, and yoga.

Understanding basic vein physiology and venous blood pressure through simple physical assessments.

An understanding of the complexity of the cardiovascular system is incomplete without a knowledge of the venous system. It is important for students to understand that, in a closed system, like the circulatory system, changes to the venous side of the circulation have a knock-on effect on heart function and the arterial system and vice versa. Veins are capacitance vessels feeding blood to the right side of the heart.

Ultrasound imaging in teaching cardiac physiology.

This laboratory session provides hands-on experience for students to visualize the beating human heart with ultrasound imaging. Simple views are obtained from which students can directly measure important cardiac dimensions in systole and diastole. This allows students to derive, from first principles, important measures of cardiac function, such as stroke volume, ejection fraction, and cardiac output.

Autonomic modification of intestinal smooth muscle contractility.

Intestinal smooth muscle contracts rhythmically in the absence of nerve and hormonal stimulation because of the activity of pacemaker cells between and within the muscle layers. This means that the autonomic nervous system modifies rather than initiates intestinal contractions. The practical described here gives students an opportunity to observe this spontaneous activity and its modification by agents associated with parasympathetic and sympathetic nerve activity.

Is There any Gender Difference for Smoking Persistence or Relapse Following Diagnosis or Hospitalization for Coronary Heart Disease? Evidence From a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: Persistent smoking in patients diagnosed with coronary heart disease (CHD) has a significant effect on morbidity and mortality. Although there has been considerable debate around gender differences in smoking cessation, conclusive evidence on how gender impacts rates of smoking cessation and/or relapse following CHD diagnosis is lacking.

Aims And Methods: Our aim was to test the hypothesis that female smokers with CHD were more likely to persist in smoking or relapse post-diagnosis or hospitalization than male smokers.

Modernization of Physical Appearance and Solution Color Tests Using Quantitative Tristimulus Colorimetry: Advantages, Harmonization, and Validation Strategies.

Color measurements, including physical appearance, are important yet often misunderstood and underappreciated aspects of a control strategy for drug substances and drug products. From a patient safety perspective, color can be an important control point for detecting contamination, impurities, and degradation products, with human visual acuity often more sensitive for colored impurities than instrumental techniques such as HPLC. Physical appearance tests and solution color tests can also serve an important role in ensuring that appropriate steps are taken such that clinical trials do not become unblinded when the active material is compared with another product or a placebo.

Integrating tristimulus colorimetry into pharmaceutical development for color selection and physical appearance control: a quality-by-design approach.

The color of pharmaceutical dosage forms can be an important aspect of product branding and patient compliance with a dosing regimen. During the development of drug products, it is important to understand the stability of not only the active pharmaceutical ingredient but also the color and appearance of the tablet or capsule. Currently, the most common method to ensure color stability is to conduct a visual test throughout a stability study.

Newborn and carrier screening for spinal muscular atrophy.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a common autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron (SMN1) gene, affecting approximately 1 in 10,000 live births. The homozygous absence of SMN1 exon 7 has been observed in the majority of patients and is being utilized as a reliable and sensitive SMA diagnostic test. Treatment and prevention of SMA are complementary responses to the challenges presented by SMA.

The characteristics and experiences of mature nursing students.

Aims: To explore the characteristics of mature nursing students, including how they perceive themselves, and to identify the problems they experience, which may influence whether they continue with their course.

Method: A sample of 239 students completed an anonymous questionnaire at the end of their first year of study for a diploma in nursing science. A question concerning age was included to enable identification of mature students, of which there were 90.