RESULTS: Monosex Nile tilapia fingerlings were sourced from the Bazina farm and hatchery in Ismailia Governorate, Egypt, where the experiment was also conducted. The fish were acclimatized for 15 days before the trial. A total of 240 fingerlings (average weight 46 ± 3.0 g/fish) were divided equally across 12 concrete tanks (1 × 1 × 1.2 m, 1 m³ capacity), with 20 fish per tank. The fish were fed a control diet (T0), which was a basal diet with no supplementation, or one of three experimental diets for 60 days: T1 (1 mg SeNPs/kg), T2 (100 mg VE/kg), and T3 (1 mg SeNPs + 100 mg VE/kg). The experiment followed a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates per treatment. The combination of SeNPs and VE (T3) resulted in the best feed conversion ratio. A slight but significant increase (P
METHOD: This descriptive qualitative study employed purposive and snowball sampling methods to recruit 14 pediatric nurses from six hospitals in Zhejiang province, Southeast China. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face between January and June 2024. Data were analyzed through the qualitative content analysis approach.
RESULTS: We identified 415 unique meaning units in the interview data, 332 of which were related to child-friendly healthcare practice assessment. These units were classified into 58 codes across 4 categories and 17 subcategories. The four categories were identified: services designed for children's interests, tailoring the environment adapted for children, facilitating social interactions, and promoting childhood development.
CONCLUSION: The findings from this study were derived from the perspectives of Chinese nurses on child-friendly healthcare practice assessment, offering a comprehensive and multidimensional view of this field. The results reflect the current state and future direction of child-friendly healthcare in China, which will aid in sustaining the development of a child-friendly healthcare evaluation system.
METHODS: A mixed-method study was conducted with pre-clinical medical students at Newcastle University Medical School, UK, and Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia. A total of 266 students participated in an online survey questionnaire, with 25 students participating in focus group discussions (FGD). Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive analysis and qualitative data was analysed with thematic analysis.
RESULTS: The majority of students (94.7%) recognised that active learning is important for their learning, but had a narrow definition of what active learning constituted, and familiarity with active learning techniques was lacking. Many students' independent learning techniques were centred around methods of 'active recall', with factors affecting the utilisation of active learning techniques mainly focused on time availability, group dynamics in active teaching sessions and teaching styles of educators.
CONCLUSION: Students acknowledged the importance of active learning but are generally unfamiliar with ways to effectively utilise a broad range of active learning strategies. This study demonstrated that it is important for educators to understand firstly how students define active learning as well as how students interact with active learning taught sessions, to ensure that they create an environment where students feel confident to engage in active learning techniques.
SOLUTION: Using mandibular occlusal plane as anatomical reference, vector guidance oral prosthesis is fabricated to guide distractor placement and vector determination, in cases where model surgery is not possible.
WHAT WE DO THAT IS NEW: Vector guidance oral prosthesis is a new prototype produced to guide maxillary DO without the need of model surgery.
METHODS: The study employed a whole group sampling method, utilizing a physical activity level scale, exercise attitude scale, sleep quality scale, and happiness scale. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 1,308 college students from four universities in China.
RESULTS: The analysis yielded three key findings: (1) Physical activity significantly improves college students' happiness, and this improvement can be achieved through direct and indirect effects. (2) Positive exercise attitude plays an important mediating role between physical activity and happiness, and a high level of exercise attitude can enhance happiness. In addition, the effect of physical activity on happiness is most significant through exercise attitude. (3) Although sleep quality did not significantly mediate the relationship between physical activity and happiness alone, it played a positive role in the chain mediation path of "physical activity → exercise attitude → sleep quality → happiness."
DISCUSSION: The discovery of the chain mediation path shows that physical activity not only affects happiness, but also indirectly affects college students' happiness through the combined effects of psychological and physiological factors.
METHODS: Using a narrative qualitative approach, we conducted in-depth one-on-one interviews with six pharmacists, delving into their personal experiences with topics such as medicine classification and the broader systems for medication provision. The collected narratives were analysed through a rigorous thematic analysis, following the framework established by Braun & Clarke.
RESULTS: Five themes emerged from the data: nuances of Brunei Darussalam's medicine dispensing landscape across both public and private sectors; accessibility and regulatory framework of medicines both in Brunei Darussalam and abroad; prospective implementations to enhance the current system; and the evolving role and expectations of pharmacists in the current healthcare environment. Notably, a significant contribution of this study was the illumination of the differential perspectives between pharmacists operating in governmental versus private contexts.
CONCLUSION: This study sheds light on the previously under-explored domain of Brunei Darussalam's medicine control governance and medicine dispensing system. By drawing from the first-hand experiences of practicing pharmacists, it offers actionable insights that could guide future policy developments, optimise medicine dispensation and regulation, and shape the evolving role of pharmacists in Brunei Darussalam.
METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted among eleven asthma patients and twelve community pharmacists using semi-structured individual interviews. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and then analyzed by thematic analysis. The findings were reported using the COREQ checklist.
RESULTS: Thematic analysis yielded eight major themes, (1) perceptions and understanding of good asthma control; (2) perceptions and experience towards asthma follow-up review; (3) perceptions of SABA's reliance; (4) practices towards the proper use of inhalers; (5) over-the-counter availability of SABA inhalers; (6) provision of pharmacists in SABA use assessment; (7) patients-healthcare professionals communication; and (8) recommendations for policymakers.
CONCLUSION: Most asthma patients and community pharmacists agreed that good asthma control was associated with reduced SABA usage and minimum asthma symptoms. The majority of patients claimed that visiting physicians for asthma follow-up reviews was unnecessary. Moreover, community pharmacists have raised concerns regarding patients' reliance on SABA inhalers due to the immediate relief effects, however, the majority of interviewed patients claimed that they did not rely on SABA inhalers. Additionally, community pharmacists were generally concerned about the frequency, dosage, and techniques using SABA inhalers. These concerns need to be addressed to improve the safe use of SABA inhalers. Language barriers, health literacy, long waiting times, and public education were the most important believed determinants of the safe use of SABA inhalers.
OBJECTIVES: This systematic review aimed to assess the impact of pharmacist-led medication reviews among HD patients, identify the most prevalent types of DRPs, and explore the factors associated with these problems.
METHODS: A systematic search was conducted across databases such as Medline via PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and EBSCOHost, for studies published from January 2012 to July 2023. Studies included were those focusing on pharmacist interventions in HD patients. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of selected studies.
RESULTS: After screening 343 articles, 10 studies (involving 1342 HD patients) were included. Nine studies were rated as high quality, and one as fair quality. The studies predominantly used prospective designs. A total of 4511 DRPs were identified, with suboptimal drug treatment, non-adherence to medications, and drug use without indication being the most common issues. Pharmacist interventions led to the resolution or reduction of DRPs, shorter hospital stays, improvement in laboratory outcomes, better quality of life (QoL), and enhanced patient understanding. However, interventions had minimal or no significant impact on reducing unplanned admissions, mortality rates, or improving medication adherence. The reduction in healthcare utilisation costs was inconsistent across studies.
CONCLUSION: Pharmacist-led medication reviews were effective in resolving DRPs and improving clinical outcomes in HD patients, such as quality of life and lab values. However, their impact on healthcare utilisation and mortality remains inconclusive. Further research with longer follow-up is needed to assess the long-term economic outcomes of these interventions.
METHODS: For a subsample of 178 children from the Canadian CHILD Cohort Study, gut microbiota of fecal samples collected at 3-4 months and 12 months was profiled using 16S rRNA sequencing. Gut bacterial metabolites levels and SIgA level were measured by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based metabolomics and SIgA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at 3-4 months, respectively. Bayley-III Scale of Infant Development was assessed at 12 and 24 months. We evaluated direct relationships in multiple linear regression models and putative causal relationships in statistical mediation models.
RESULTS: Propionate and butyrate levels at 3-4 months were associated with decreased Bayley cognitive score at 24 months (p-values: 0.01 and 0.02, respectively) in adjusted multiple linear regression models, but when we investigated an indirect relationship mediated by decreased SIgA level at 3-4 months, it did not reach statistical significance (p-values: 0.18 and 0.20, respectively). Lactate level at 3-4 months was associated with increased Bayley cognitive score at 24 months in adjusted multiple linear regression models (p-value: 0.01), but the statistical model mediated by increased SIgA level at 3-4 months did not reach statistical significance neither (p-value: 0.20).
CONCLUSIONS: Our study contributes to growing evidence that neurodevelopment is influenced by the infant gut microbiota and that it might involve SIgA level, but larger studies are required.