Believing processes during the COVID-19 pandemic in individuals with bipolar disorder:An exploratory study

BACKGROUND Believing or“credition”refers to psychological processes that integrate the cognitions and emotions that influence our behavior.In the credition model by Angel and Seitz,four parameters are postulated:proposition,certainty,emotion and mightiness.It is assumed that believing processes are influenced by both the individual as well as socio-cultural factors and external circumstances.External or environmental circumstances can include threatening situations such as the ongoing pandemic.It has been hypothesized that believing processes related to the pandemic differ between individuals with bipolar disorder(BD)and healthy controls(HC).AIM To investigate credition in individuals with BD during the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic.METHODS Psychiatrically stable individuals with BD(n=52)and age-and sex matched HC(n=52)participated in an online survey during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.The survey took place between April 9^(th) and June 4^(th),2020,in Austria.Participants completed the Brief Symptom Inventory-18,the Beck Depression Inventory-Ⅱ,the Altman Self-Rating Mania Scale,the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and a dedicated Believing Questionnaire assessing four parameters of credition(proposition,certainty,emotion and mightiness).The MAXQDA software was used to analyze the qualitative data.Statistical analyses included analyses of variance,a multivariate analysis of variance and a multivariate analysis of co-variance.RESULTS Individuals with BD reported significantly more negative propositions[F(1,102)=8.89,P=0.004,η2 p=0.08]and negative emotions[Welch´s F(1,82.46)=18.23,P<0.001,η2 p=0.18],while HC showed significantly more positive propositions[F(1,102)=7.78,P=0.006,η2 p=0.07]and emotions[F(1,102)=14.31,P<0.001,η2 p=0.12].In addition,individuals with BD showed a higher incongruence between their propositions and their emotions[F(1,102)=9.42,P=0.003,η2 p=0.08]and showed strong correlations between the parameters of the Believing Questionnaire and their psychiatric symptoms(r=0.51-0.77,all P<0.001).Positive as well as negative emotions and propositions were associated with scores measuring symptoms of depression,anxiety and sleep quality.CONCLUSION Believing parameters were associated with psychiatric symptoms in BD during the pandemic.Findings broaden knowledge about the susceptibility of believing processes for ambient challenges in individuals with BD.

A STUDY ON ECONOMY EVALUATION ON THE PROFIT AND LOSS OF GEOLOGIC ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ABOUT GEOLOGIC ENVIRONMENTAL EXPLOITATION PROJECT

The problems of environmental geology refer to the geologic phenomena, incidents or accidents arising from action of environmental geology. The action is mainly the mutual influence between human activity and geologic environment. When human activity is uncoordinated with objective laws of the geologic environment, the problems of environmental geology or economic loss would occur.Therefore,the level and the changing orientation of geologic environmental quality are relative to the types of human activity,particularly relative to human intentional-activities of geologic environmental exploitation project. The geologic environment fitting to mining may not fit to urban construction,and fitting to water conservancy and hydroelectric projects may not fit to communication,and so on.Economy evaluation on the profit and loss of geologic environmental quality is exactly to depict the level of the profit and loss of geologic environmental quality about geologic environmental exploitation projects and the

A survey and evaluation of population-based screening for gastric cancer

Screening and early diagnosis of gastric cancer play important roles in reducing the mortality of gastric cancer. A vast amount of study data on gastric cancer screening and early diagnosis has been accumulated in and out of China in the past decades. The practice of gastric cancer screening has also been efficiently carried out in different countries and regions. However, no widely accepted principle of population screening for gastric cancer has been developed yet. Screening for gastric cancer requires extensive exploration both theoretically and practically. This article focuses on the method and program of gastric cancer screening based on population. Moreover, the current situation of gastric cancer screening and its evaluation are evaluated.

Management of digestive bleeding related to portal hypertension in cirrhotic patients:A French multicenter cross-sectional practice survey

AIM: To investigate the conformity of management practices of gastrointestinal hemorrhage in cirrhotic patients with relevant guidelines. METHODS: A questionnaire on the management of digestive bleeding was completed for all consecutive cirrhotic patients admitted to 31 French hospitals. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-six bleeding events were recorded. It was the first bleeding episode in 79 patients (63%), of whom 40 (51%) had a prior diagnosis of cirrhosis and 25 (32%) had previously undergone an endoscopy. The bleeding episode was a recurrence in 46 patients (37%). The median time between onset and admission was 4 h, but exceeded 12 h in 42% of cases. There was an agreement between centers forearly vasoactive drug administration (87% of cases), association with ligation (42%) more often than sclerosis (21%) at initial endoscopy, and antibiotic prophylaxis (64%). By contrast, prescription of beta-blockade alone or in combination (0 to 100%, P = 0.003) for secondary prophylaxis and lactulose (26% to 86%, P = 0.04), differed among centers. CONCLUSION: In French hospitals, management of bleeding related to portal hypertension in cirrhotic patients is generally in keeping with the consensus. Broad variability still remains concerning beta-blockade use for secondary prophylaxis. Screening for esophageal varices, the use of antibiotic prophylaxis and patients information need to be improved.

Patient safety culture and handoff evaluation of nurses in small and medium-sized hospitals

Objectives:This study was conducted to investigate the current status of handoffs,perception of patient safety culture,and degrees of handoff evaluation in small and medium-sized hospitals and identified factors that make a difference in handoff evaluation.Methods:This is a descriptive study.425 nurses who work at small and medium-sized hospitals in South Korea were included in our study.They completed a set of self-reporting questionnaires that evaluated demographic data,handoff-related characteristics,perception of patient safety culture,and handoff evaluation.Results:Results showed that the overall score of awareness of a patient safety culture was 3.65±0.45,the level was moderate.The score of handoff evaluation was 5.24±0.85.Most nurses experienced errors in handoff and most nurses had no guidelines and checklist in the ward.Handoff evaluation differed significantly according to the level of education,work patterns,duration of hospital employment,handoff method,degree of satisfaction with the current handoff method,errors occurring at the time of handoff,handoff guidelines,and appropriateness of handoff education time(P<0.05).Conclusion:For handoff improvement,guidelines and standards should be established.It is necessary to develop a structured handoff education system.And formal handoff education should be implemented to spread knowledge uniformly.

An evaluation of compliance and performance following the introduction of the Inter-Facility Transport Triage Guideline

BACKGROUND：In Hong Kong, the reorganization of healthcare frame work for better utilization of resources has led to an increase in the frequency of inter-facility transport in recent years. An Inter-Facility Transport Triage Guideline （IFTTG） was introduced and evaluated on its compliance and performance. This study aimed to evaluate the compliance to the IFTTG and performance of inter-facility transport after the IFTTG was implemented. METHODS： The patients who required emergency IFT with accompanying personnel in two consecutive periods （pre-implementation period： January 1,2006 to April 30, 2006; post-implementation period： May 1,2006 to August 31,2006） were included. The compliance to pre-transport triage and transport team configuration was evaluated by a review panel with eight performance indicators identified. The performance indicators were compared individually and as an overall score. RESULTS：Sixty-eight （26 in the pre-implementation period and 42 in the post-implementation period） IFTs were reviewed. There was demonstrable improvement on compliance to the IFTTG. The appropriateness of pre-transport triage increased from 34.6% to 54.8% whereas appropriateness of transport team configuration rose significantly from 73.1% to 92.9% （P〈0.05）. Staff performance on individual IFT performance indicator was satisfactory in both periods and the means of overall score on performance indicators were 7.12 and 7.29 respectively. The most improved performance indicator was the appropriateness of transport team configuration. CONCLUSIONS： The compliance and performance with the newly implemented IFTTG were satisfactory. However, staff comment and satisfaction with the use of the new guideline should be collected so as to achieve continuous quality improvement.

Assessment tools of nursing work environment in magnet hospitals: A review

In the 1990s,the American Nurses Association established a certification program called the Magnet Recognition Program through the American Nurses Credentialing Centre(ANCC)to complement the quality care provided to patients by hospitals.After the program was recognised,hospitals were identified as magnet hospitals[1].Some studies show that magnet hospitals provide a healthier working environment for nurses,accompanied by higher nurse satisfaction and better patient prognosis than non-magnet hospitals[2e5].The nursing work environment is the sum of various elements that directly or indirectly affect the patient care system[6].Improving the nursing work environment is a focal point and challenge for nursing administrators.Therefore,administrators in magnet hospitals usually apply a variety of assessment tools for effective evaluation of the nursing work environment to maintain and improve the health of the environment.

METHODOLOGICAL EVALUATION ON CLINICAL RESEARCH LITERATURE OF ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENT OF FACIAL PARALYSIS

Objective: To try to give an objective evaluation on the clinical research situation about acupuncture treatment of facial paralysis in the past 50 years and try to provide a possible evidence for clinical practice. Methods: All papers are searched and assessed according to the international standards and clinical epidemiology. Results: There is no systematic review (SR) on acupuncture treatment of facial palsy in a total of 1021 articles enlisted in the present paper. Comparing with the quantity of the descriptive studies and expert opinions (constituting 84.84%), that of the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and clinical controlled trials (CCTs) is smaller (constituting 15.16%), besides, the quality of RCTs and CCTs is unsatisfactory. Conclusion: At present, the quantity and quality of studies with RCTs about acupuncture treatment of facial paralysis can’t meet the need of clinical practice, and in order to improve the therapeutic effect, a higher quality of RCTs and SR is required.

Evaluation of Therapeutic Effect of Maneuver-Dominated Method in 30 Cases of Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

Thirty cases of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) were treated by a maneuver-dominated non-surgical therapy. Eighteen cases were recovered to grade E according to the criteria set by the American Spinal Injury Association. The effect was definite. Indications and contraindications of the maneuver were proposed on the basis of the pathogenesis of CSM and the principles of this manual method.

COMPARISON OF INFRARED LIGHTSCANNING AND MAMMOGRAPHY IN BREAST CANCER DETECTION

Purpose: This study is in an attempt to assess the diagnostic accuracy of infrared lightscanning by comparing with that of mammograpby- Methods: A total of 104 patients had been examined by both mammography and infrared lightscanning before surgery.All Patients were divided into two groups: cancer and non cancer. The diagnostic accuracy of these two modalities were calculated. Results: Of 104 Patients, 43 had breast cancer and 61 had benign lesions, the sensitivity and specificity for mammography were 84% and 83%, 82% and 77% for infrared lightscanning. The predictive values of positivity for mammograpby and lightscanning were 80% and 70%, the negative Predictive value for these two modalities were both 87%. Conclusion: Infrared lightscanning,being of assistance to mammography, could enhance sensitivity and predictive values of positivity in detecting breast cancer, especially, in mammographically dense breast.

A Review of Evaluation Studies on Tourism Suitability

In order to fully understand the development trends and achievements of tourism suitability evaluation at home and abroad, this paper reviews the relevant literature of tourism suitability evaluation from five aspects-tourism climate, tourism environment, tourism resources, tourism destination and evaluation indicator, and gives discussions.

PANCREATO-BILIARY TUMOR: MR DIAGNOSIS AND RESECTABILITY ASSESSMENT

Objective: TO evaluate the clinical value of MR multi-imaging technique in diagnosing and assessing the resectability of pancreato-biliary tumor. Methods The prospective diagnosis and resectability of 17 patients with suspicious pancreato-biliary tumors were evaluated. Surgical findings and pathologic results confirmed pancreatic adenocarcinoma in 11 cases, cholangiocarcinoma in 4, and non-neoplastic lesion in 2. MR multi-imaging protocol, including MR cross-sectional imaging, us cholangiopancreatography (MRCP ), and three-dimensional dynamic contrast-enhanced MR portography (3D DCE MRP), were performed in all patients. Results MR multi-imaging technique allowed-correct diagnosing 15 of 17 (88. 2% ) patients with pancreato-biliary tumors. The accuracy in detecting the range of tumor invasion was 64. 4%. The sensitivity, speificity, accuracy, positive, and negative predictive value of MR multi-imaging technique in assessing the resectability of pancreato-biliary tumors were 83. 3%, 77. 8%, 80. 0%, 71. 4%, and 87. 5%, respectively. Conclusion MR multi-imaging technique can not only improve the diagnostic ability of pancreato-biliary tumor, but also assess the surgical reartability of the tumor. With the fast development of MR techniques, the diagnosing and pre-operative assessment of aoncreato-biliary tumor may be more simplified and efficient by using the non-invasive "all-in-one" method.

Evaluation of Child Health by Basic Indicators of Health:Historical Series 2005-2014

The continuous assessment of child health services generates knowledge about the real needs of health services and actions in order to achieve better results and indicators. Thus, this study proposes to analyze child health indicators, based on the information systems of health services. This is a descriptive, ecological epidemiological study carried out using secondary data from the following information systems: Information System on Live Births and Mortality Information System, in a historical series of ten years (2005-2014) of the state of Rio Grande do Norte and its health micro regions. It was observed a decrease in infant, neonatal, preterm, late neonatal and postnatal mortality coefficients when compared to the first and last year of the observed period, as well as the concentration of these in micro-regions of health. There was also a positive association between the early neonatal component and infant death. In this perspective, it is important to evaluate the quality of prenatal care, childbirth, puerperium, the first week of integral health and follow-up of the child’s growth and development, as well as to relate the socio-demographic conditions that may be associated with infant morbimortality. Therefore, the importance of situational health assessment studies for the effectiveness of care provided is highlighted, identifying weaknesses and monitoring the effectiveness of strategies.

Ecological Evaluation of Urban Development-A Case Study of the Pearl River Delta

Recent rapid industrialization and urbanization in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) is character-ized by broad geographical dispersion, diversities of scales and technological levels, and the proliferation of small-scale township and individual enterprises. Such a pattern of fast development has brought widespread environmental perturbation that is becoming difficult to contain or control. This study surveys the present environmental status in urban areas of PRD, assesses the trends of environmental quality, and evaluates the ecological impacts of development in the region.

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY TO EVALUATE THE SAFETY AND EFFICACY USING REMOVING BLOOD STASIS HERBALS FOR PATIENTS WITH INTRACRANIAL HEMORRHAGE OF HYPERACUTE STAGE AND RELATIVE FACTORS OF HEMATOMA ENLARGEMENT(A MULTICENTER PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED DOUBLE-BLIND PLACEBO

The aim was to investigate whether using a removing blood stasis method in hyperacute intracranial hemorrhage stage can lead to hematoma enlargement and its clinical efficacy.A multicenter retrospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical study.We recruited patients aged 18 years or older and presenting at less than 6 h from symptom onset in 8 research centers.All the patients

A primary study on TRISS in a Chinese hospital

Objective: To investigate a revision of the Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) weight coefficients in order to overcome the inference from foreign coefficients on Chinese trauma scoring. Methods: The data of 1 297 Chinese trauma patients were studied for trauma scoring with the Revised Trauma Score Injury Severity Score TRISS (RTS ISS TRISS) system to get a serial of new weight coefficients through analyzing a multivariation logical regression between the outcome and the injury severity. Results: ISS was higher but the Age Score and probability of survival (Ps) of the death group were lower than those of the survival group. New values of RTS ISS Age coefficients differed from the Major Trauma Outcome Study (MTOS) ones, through which the constant b 0 decreased its negative value, and ISS weight b 2 increased its negative value, but RTS weight b 1 and age weight b 3 changed with the trauma types. MTOSs values and new values of weight coefficients were used on 1 297 patients for prognosis by calculating Ps. The accuracy of new values ( 90.13 %) was a little higher than that of MTOSs (89.5%), with a promotion in specialization but a loss in sensitivity. Conclusions: A revision of TRISSs weight coefficients is either necessary or feasible. To achieve this purpose, a Chinese trauma database with large capacity is recommended.

Current situation and analysis of clinical application of auricular acupoint sticking therapy

Objective： By the bibliometrical analysis and evaluation of acupuncture theses on auricular acupoint sticking from 2005 to 2014, the analysis was processed from multiple aspects including the types and numbers of diseases and effective rates of various diseases, in order to objectively reflect the general situation of clinical application of ear point embedding method in the recent years. Methods： By the bibliometrical analysis, the literature on auricular acupoint sticking in the recent ten years was counted up, analyzed and categorized. Results and Conclusion： Auricular acupoint sticking is used clinically for diseases of 26 systems, including 130 diseases. 74 diseases were singularly treated with auricular acupoint sticking, including the advantageous disease category like insomnia, constipation and obesity, and secondary advantageous disease category like dysmenorrhea, myopia, allergic rhinitis, post-operative pain and acne vulgaris.

Reference intervals for common thyroid function tests, during different stages of pregnancy in Chinese women

Background The importance of diagnosis of thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy has been widely recognized. Our study was designed to compare two different detection reagents between Abbott and Roche and to establish the gestational- related reference intervals for thyroid function tests （TFT） in Chinese women and to assay the reference ranges with the American Thyroid Association recommended standard. Methods Serum samples were collected from 693 normal pregnant Chinese women and divided into five groups according to their gestational age： 9-13, 16-20, 24-28, 32-34 and 37-40 weeks. Thyroid stimulating hormone （TSH） and free thyroxine （FT4） levels were determined by two different detection reagents： Abbott Architect 1 2000 and Roche Cobas Elecsys 600. The reference ranges of the TFT indexes were calculated according to the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry （NACB）. The 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles of each stage were calculated, and the results were analyzed by one-way analysis of variances, t-test, and Spearman correlation analysis. Results Thyroid hormone levels varied greatly among different gestational stages. TSH levels, as assessed via two different TSH ELISA kits showed consistent changing pattern during pregnancy and displayed linear correlation （P 〈0.001）. In 9-13 gestational weeks, TSH levels were significantly lower than that of other groups; and in 37-40 gestational weeks, it was higher than that of other groups （all P 〈0.001）. TSH reference ranges determined by Roche detection reagent in each group were higher than those by Abbott detection reagent （P 〈0.01 respectively）. FT4 levels were higher in 9-13 gestational weeks than that of other groups （P 〈0.001）. FT4 levels determined by Roche reagent were higher than Abbott reagent in 9-13 weeks, （P 〈0.001）, and lower in 24-28 and 37-40 weeks （P 〈0.001 and P=0.016, respectively）. The TSH level was correlated with FT4 levels in 9-13 gestational weeks by detection reagents （for Abbott reagent, r=-0.319 for FT4 P 〈0.001; for Roche reagent, t=-0.352 for FT4, P 〈0.001）. Conclusion Accurate evaluation of TFT in pregnant women should be based on the gestational-related reference intervals in Chinese population, and different detection reagents should also establish their own reference intervals.