SKIN-TO-SKIN CONTACT AND BREASTFEEDING AT CHILDBIRTH: WOMEN’S DESIRES, EXPECTATIONS, AND EXPERIENCES

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze women’s desires, expectations and experiences regarding skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding in the first hour of life of their newborns. Methods: Qualitative research carried out in a teaching hospital in the Northeast Region of Brazil. The patients were followed longitudinally during prenatal care, at birth and during the puerperium. The participants were pregnant women during normal risk prenatal care, aged over 18 years old. Structured and semi-structured interviews were carried out in the prenatal period, participant observation at the time of delivery and new interviews in the puerperium. Content analysis was applied in the thematic modality. Results: 18 women between 21 and 38 years old were enrolled in the research. Women expressed the desire for skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding as immediate practices right after delivery and birth. However, many women did not believe it was possible, and the performance of routine procedures was considered the main obstacle. These expectations that skin-to-skin contact and early breastfeeding would not be carried out were confirmed in the experiences immediately after birth. Conclusions: The expectations and experiences brought by these women suggest a flaw that starts in prenatal care and implies difficulties in implementing the studied practices. Thus, the empowerment and participation of women can become an important tool in the humanization of birth.

Preanalytical phase for transfusion medicine and blood bank laboratory – tasks to complete

Background: This review describes and evaluates the most relevant preanalytical errors and their impact on subsequent laboratory diagnostics. Quality management for laboratory processes remains extremely important, despite current advancements in information technologies and fully automated routine procedures. Methods: This review is focused on specific preanalytical requirements for the blood bank and transfusion laboratory. Conclusions are done based on literature review. Results: Human errors, or lack of procedures, continue to be the cause of many errors within laboratory processes. The medical laboratory needs an impetus and stipulation to improve processes, to help eliminate errors, and meet regulatory guidelines. Conclusions: General preanalytical rules exist for clinical and research laboratories but differences in laboratory specialty and provided services influence compliance

Algorithm for quantifying the particle size distribution of non-metallic inclusions formation in steel production

When the quantitative characterization of non-metallic inclusions in steel is done and the effect of limiting factors is assessed, and based on that the possibility of reconstruction of the total content of non-metallic inclusions in steel is estimated, further considerations can be directed towards predicting the model of size distribution curve. The aim of this work is to establish relations on the basis of which it will be possible to quantify the content of non-metallic inclusions in extra-pure steels, when metallographic control is difficult or even impossible by routine procedures.

The Proliferation of Pre-Pubertal Porcine Spermatogonia in Stirred Suspension Bioreactors Is Partially Mediated by the Wnt/β-Catenin Pathway

Male survivors of childhood cancer are at risk of suffering from infertility in adulthood because of gonadotoxic chemotherapies. For adult men, sperm collection and preservation are routine procedures prior to treatment; however, this is not an option for pre-pubertal children. From young boys, a small biopsy may be taken before chemotherapy, and spermatogonia may be propagated in vitro for future transplantation to restore fertility. A robust system that allows for scalable expansion of spermatogonia within a controlled environment is therefore required. Stirred suspension culture has been applied to different types of stem cells but has so far not been explored for spermatogonia. Here, we report that pre-pubertal porcine spermatogonia proliferate more in bioreactor suspension culture, compared with static culture. Interestingly, oxygen tension provides an avenue to modulate spermatogonia status, with culture under 10% oxygen retaining a more undifferentiated state and reducing proliferation in comparison with the conventional approach of culturing under ambient oxygen levels. Spermatogonia grown in bioreactors upregulate the Wnt/ β-catenin pathway, which, along with enhanced gas and nutrient exchange observed in bioreactor culture, may synergistically account for higher spermatogonia proliferation. Therefore, stirred suspension bioreactors provide novel platforms to culture spermatogonia in a scalable manner and with minimal handling.

Analysis of the probability of connectivity of a telecommunications network based on the reduction of several non-connectivity events to a union of independent events

Introduction: For large and structurally complex telecommunication networks, calculating the connectivity probability turns out to be a very cumbersome and time-consuming process due to the huge number of elements in the resulting expression. The most expedient way out of this situation is a method based on the representation of a network connectivity event in the form of sums of products of incompatible events. However, this method also requires performing additional operations on sets in some cases. Purpose: To eliminate the main disadvantages of the method using multi-variable inversion. Results: It is shown that the connectivity event of a graph should be interpreted as a union of connectivity events of all its subgraphs, which leads to the validity of the expression for the connectivity event of the network in the form of a union of connectivity events of typical subgraphs (path, backbone, and in general, a multi-pole tree) of the original random graph. An iterative procedure is proposed for bringing a given number of connectivity events to the union of independent events by sequentially adding subgraph disjoint events. The possibility of eliminating repetitive routine procedures inherent in methods using multi-variable inversion is proved by considering not the union of connectivity events (incoherence) degenerating into the sum of incompatible products, but the intersection of opposite events, which also leads to a similar sum. However, to obtain this sum, there is no need to perform a multi-variable inversion for each of the terms over all those previously analyzed. Practical relevance: The obtained analytical relations can be applied in the analysis of reliability, survivability or stability of complex telecommunications networks.

Study on Work Safety for Employees in Radiology Department

Background: Working staff in the radiology department are exposed to harmful factors such as Radiation exposure, injuries; needle pricks while performing an investigation, leads to exposure to body fluids, muscle stress due to wearing heavy lead aprons, and while moving portable equipment for examinations. Strategies to prevent and reduce such harmful factors are guaranteed by taking regular inspections by radiation safety officers. Safety supervision in radiology is important in shielding the patients, radiologists and healthcare staff. Observational safety audits and regular inspections in the radiology department for staff safety are the main and important parts of this study. Objective: To assess and evaluate the current safety measures in Radiology Department and Scope of innovations and interventions in current working safety condition awareness. Methods: All employees working in radiology department satisfying the inclusion criteria are evaluated for the study. A survey carried out related to general working and routine procedures carried out in radiology department. Regular audits and inspection studies are covered in the study. The study consists of closed-ended questions regarding the profession and the knowledge of the basic safety measures in diagnostic and special scans in radiology department. Results: Employees in the radiology department are highly aware about work safety measures. There are regular safety audits and inspection studies are carried out by RSO and concerning departments. There is also scope for radiation workers to have introductory seminars on radiation safety before they start working with radiation. Conclusion: Working in the radiology department has several types of safety risks, which can be barred or compact if manage suitably. Informally with these types of risks and their penalty, agreement with policy and strategy on work ecological safety, and expansion of a traditions that supports supervision, treatment, and on time conduct will go far toward civilizing overall employee security for all employees in the radiology department.

The Role of Information Systems in Enhancing the Implementation of Administrative Decisions

Information systems are currently used in all organizations due to their effectiveness in the implementation of administrative decisions. This study attempted to examine availability of information systems infrastructure, the impact of information systems on enhancing the procedures of the implementation of administrative decisions, and the obstacles that hinder the use of information systems to implement administrative decisions at Tabuk University in Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve these goals, the researcher used the descriptive analytical approach and used the questionnaire instrument in order to collect the data from the research sample. Population of the study comprised all the administrative employees at Tabuk University. The researcher distributed (325) questionnaires on the research sample and (252) questionnaires were put for study. The findings of the study showed that Tabuk University have a good infrastructure of information system that fit the work requirements and that help the employees to get accurate and timely reports. Also, the findings showed that the information systems have a robust role in enhancing the procedures of the implementation of the administrative decisions in terms of the availability of accurate, correct, and timely data to implement the administrative decisions properly. On the other hand, it was shown that there are obstacles for the use of information systems to implement administrative decisions such as the inappropriate organizational structures, lack of training, routine procedures, lack of funds to update the systems regularly, and employees’ resistance. Based on these results, the researcher recommended having a proper organizational structure that support information systems, holding regular training courses for the employees, motivating employees to avoid resistance, and ensuring the allocation of resources to get the new modern systems.

Alternatives in Education—Evaluation of Rat Simulators in Laboratory Animal Training Courses from Participants’ Perspective

In laboratory animal science (LAS) education and training, five simulators are available for exercises on handling and routine procedures on the rat, which is—beside mice—the most commonly used species in LAS. Since these simulators may have high potential in protecting laboratory rats, the aim of this study is to investigate the simulators’ impact on the 3R (replace, reduce, refine) principle in LAS education and training. Therefore, the simulators were evaluated by 332 course participants in 27 different LAS courses via a practical simulator training workshop and a paper-based two-part questionnaire—both integrated in the official LAS course schedule. The results showed a high positive resonance for simulator training and it was considered especially useful for the inexperienced. However, the current simulators may not completely replace exercises on live animals and improvements regarding more realistic simulators are demanded. In accordance with literature data on simulator-use also in other fields of education, more research on simulators and new developments are needed, particularly with the aim for a broad implementation in LAS education and training benefiting all 3Rs.

Evaluation of flow cytometry for cell count and detection of bacteria in biological fluids.

The analysis of biological fluids is crucial for the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases causing effusions and helps in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. The gold standard method for cell count in biological fluids is the manual method using counting chambers. The microbiological routine procedures consist of Direct Gram staining and culture on solid or liquid media. We evaluate the analytical performance of SYSMEX UF4000 (Sysmex, Kobe, Japan) and Sysmex XN10 (Sysmex, Kobe, Japan) in comparison with cytological and microbiological routine procedures. A total of 526 biological fluid samples were included in this study (42 ascitic, 31 pleural, 31 peritoneal, 125 cerebrospinal, 281 synovial, and 16 peritoneal dialysis fluids). All samples were analysed by flow cytometry and subsequently processed following cytological and/or microbiological routine procedures. With regards to cell counts, UF4000 (Sysmex, Kobe, Japan) showed a performance which was at least equivalent to those of the reference methods and superior to those of XN10 (Sysmex, Kobe, Japan). Moreover, the bacterial count obtained with UF4000 (Sysmex, Kobe, Japan) was significantly higher among culture or Direct Gram stain positive samples. We established 3 optimal cut-off points to predict Direct Gram stain positive samples for peritoneal (465.0 bacteria/µL), synovial (1200.0 bacteria/µL), and cerebrospinal fluids (17.2 bacteria/µL) with maximum sensitivity and negative predictive values. Cell count and detection of bacteria by flow cytometry could be used upstream cytological and microbiological routine procedures to improve and accelerate the diagnosis of infection of biological fluid samples.

Effects of conditioning on the welfare of jaguars (Panthera onca) in captivity

ABSTRACT The jaguar is the largest feline in the Americas and in the face of the threat of extinction and the reduction of natural areas, keeping the species in captivity may be important for its conservation. This condition can lead to a reduction in well-being, especially due to spatial limitation and lack of environmental stimulus. In recent decades, techniques have been sought to minimize the negative impacts of captivity, with an increase in the use of environmental enrichment and operational conditioning in order to facilitate routine procedures for the animal management. In this scenario, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of conditioning on the welfare of jaguars in captivity, analyzing behavioral and physiological effects through salivary cortisol. Seven jaguars were studied in a Scientific Breeder. There was an increase in behaviors associated with welfare and cortisol during conditioning, possibly related to learning. The increase in behaviors associated with welfare suggests that the technique can contribute to improve the quality of life of these animals in captivity.