Publications by authors named "Veronica Lam"

Benthic dinoflagellates constitute a group of microalgae that inhabit the ocean floor, adhering to substrates such as coral, seagrasses, and sand. Certain species within this group have the potential to produce toxins. Ocean warming could increase the occurrence of harmful benthic dinoflagellate blooms, which pose a significant threat to coastal ecosystems in tropical and subtropical regions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Empathy and self-efficacy for smoking cessation counseling can be enhanced through smoking cessation training. Narrative videos and virtual reality (VR) games have been applied in medical education, but their application in smoking cessation training is limited and understudied.

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of smokers' narrative videos and mini-VR games on nursing students' empathy towards smokers (State Empathy Scale), confidence in practicing empathy, self-efficacy in smoking cessation counseling, and learning satisfaction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To systematically evaluate the effect of smoking cessation training on nursing students' learning outcomes.

Design: This systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines and was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022373280).

Methods: Ten electronic English and Chinese databases were searched to identify articles on nursing students' smoking cessation training from inception to October 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To examine the prevalence, severity, and co-occurrence of SPPADE symptoms as well as their association with cancer type and patient characteristics.

Background: The SPPADE symptoms (sleep disturbance, pain, physical function impairment, anxiety, depression, and low energy /fatigue) are prevalent, co-occurring, and undertreated in oncology and other clinical populations.

Methods: Baseline SPPADE symptom data were analyzed from the E2C2 study, a stepped wedge pragmatic, population-level, cluster randomized clinical trial designed to evaluate a guideline-informed symptom management model targeting the six SPPADE symptoms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Engaging students in interprofessional education for higher order thinking and collaborative problem-solving skills is challenging. This study reports the development of Virtual ER, a serious game played on a virtual platform, and how it can be an innovative way for delivering interprofessional education to medical and nursing undergraduates.

Objective: We report the development of a serious online game, Virtual ER, and evaluate its effect on teamwork enhancement and clinical competence.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To describe national- and county-level trends and variation in a novel measure of hope. Using data from the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index (n = 2 766 728), we summarized the difference between anticipated life satisfaction (ALS) and current life satisfaction (CLS), measured by the Cantril Self-Anchoring Scale, for each year from 2008 to 2020 and by county over two 5-year periods in the United States. Across all years, there was a significant positive trend in the difference between ALS and CLS for the nation ( = .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To evaluate the association between pharmaceutical industry payments to rheumatologists and their prescribing behaviors.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of Medicare Part B Public Use File, Medicare Part D Public Use File, and Open Payments data for 2013 to 2015. Prescription drugs responsible for 80% of the total Medicare pharmaceutical expenditures in rheumatology were analyzed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Communities are seeking to learn if and how they can improve the well-being of their residents. We therefore examined the impact of a community-led, collective-impact initiative, deployed through Blue Zones Project by Sharecare, aimed at improving health and well-being in one set of US communities.

Methods: We used data from cross-sectional surveys of the Well-Being Index (2010-2017) to assess how the Life Evaluation Index (LEI) in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach in California (Beach Cities) changed over time and how this change compares with change for similar cities (Beach Cities-like) and for the USA as a whole.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims And Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a virtual simulation education programme with debriefing in undergraduate nursing students. Perceived clinical competence and learning needs of students in a simulation environment were also measured.

Background: Evidence showed virtual simulation education programmes provided better knowledge acquisition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Well-being is a holistic, positively framed conception of health, integrating physical, emotional, social, financial, community and spiritual aspects of life. High well-being is an intrinsically worthy goal for individuals, communities and nations. Multiple measures of well-being exist, yet we lack information to identify benchmarks, geographical disparities and targets for intervention to improve population life evaluation in the USA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Data was collected through surveys completed by residents in their second and third years, measuring factors like negative interpersonal experiences, unfair treatment, and burnout levels.
  • * Results showed that women reported worse experiences and had higher rates of burnout than men, with negative interpersonal interactions being a significant predictor of burnout for both genders over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coolia tropicalis is a species of benthic and epiphytic toxic algae, which can produce phycotoxins that intoxicate marine fauna. In this study, the potential toxic effects of C. tropicalis on fish were investigated using larval marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) as a model to evaluate fish behavior, physiological performance, and stress-induced molecular responses to exposure to two sublethal concentrations (LC and LC) of hydrophilic algal lysates.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted university teaching globally. The mental health impacts on international university students have been overlooked. This study examined the differences in COVID-19-related stressors and mental health impacts between international university students studying in the UK or USA who returned to their home country or region (returnees) and those who stayed in their institution country (stayers), and identified COVID-19-related stressors and coping strategies that were predictors of mental health.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Effective teamwork is a critical component of maintaining patient safety. However, there is lack of clarity on the best teaching approach to interprofessional teamwork training in medical and nursing curricula. This study aimed to compare the effects of blended classroom plus clinical simulation versus clinical simulation alone on teamwork attitudes, perceptions and performance in medical and nursing students in Hong Kong.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coolia malayensis is one of the commonly found benthic dinoflagellates in Hong Kong which can produce biotoxins and threaten the early life stages of marine invertebrates. Seawater temperature has been recognized as one of the primary environmental factors that affect the formation of harmful algal blooms. The present study evaluated the responses of C.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Benthic dinoflagellates produce a diverse range of phycotoxins, which are responsible for intoxication events in marine fauna. This study assessed the hemolysis associated toxicities of six species of benthic dinoflagellates from the genera Coolia, Fukuyoa, Amphidinium and Prorocentrum. Results demonstrated that Amphidinium carterae, Coolia tropicalis and Fukuyoa ruetzleri were the three most toxic species, while Prorocentrum cf.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Species of Fukuyoa, recently revised from the globular Gambierdiscus, are toxic benthic dinoflagellates associated with ciguatera. In this study, a total of ten strains of Fukuyoa collected from Hong Kong waters were characterized using morphological and phylogenetic analyses. Results from both analyses showed that one of the strains is a putative new species, namely Fukuyoa sp.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Interprofessional learning is gaining momentum in revolutionizing healthcare education. During the academic year 2015/16, seven undergraduate-entry health and social care programs from two universities in Hong Kong took part in an interprofessional education program. Based on considerations such as the large number of students involved and the need to incorporate adult learning principles, team-based learning was adopted as the pedagogy for the program, which was therefore called the interprofessional team-based learning program (IPTBL).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coolia are marine benthic dinoflagellates which are globally distributed and potentially toxic. This study provides the first investigation of species diversity and toxicity assessment of Coolia in Hong Kong waters. Fifty-one strains of four Coolia species, including C.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Human glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, purified after overexpression in E. coli, was shown to contain one molecule/subunit of acid-extractable "structural" NADP+ and no NADPH. This tightly bound NADP+ was reduced by G6P, presumably following migration to the catalytic site.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In an attempt to investigate the molecular mechanism underlying human glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency caused by two mutations, G6PD(Plymouth) (G163D) and G6PD(Mahidol) (G163S), the two variants were constructed by site-directed mutagenesis and expressed in G6PD-deficient E. coli DF 213 cells. A first indication of impaired folding came from problems in expressing these clinical mutants, which were only overcome by lowering the growth temperature or co-expressing with molecular chaperones (GroEL and GroES).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Age-related skewing of X-chromosome inactivation leading to glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency in elderly women in a population with prevalent G6PD gene mutations was investigated.

Methods: G6PD activity was measured biochemically. G6PD mutations were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and allele-specific extension, and analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry and Sequenom MassARRAY.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF