Dexamethasone and hiccups: a 2000-patient, telephone-based study

ObjectivesDexamethasone causes hiccups in an undefined percentage of patients, and these hiccups are often ignored (‘My doctors just shook their heads like I was joking …’). This study sought to learn the percentage of dexamethasone-treated patients who develop hiccups and to explore patients’ responses to the availability of educational materials on hiccups.MethodsEnglish-speaking, adult outpatients treated with oral, intravenous or epidural dexamethasone 2 weeks prior were contacted by phone and asked about hiccups. Educational materials were offered, and patients were queried on their opinion of the availability of such materials.ResultsOne hundred and twenty-seven patients or 11% (95% CI 9% to 13%) reported hiccups. This percentage was derived from 1186 reachable patients from 2000 total patients. Fifty-four (43%) of those with hiccups desired to learn about educational materials. Of these, 49 completed a single-item, 5-point scale item: 21 (43%) viewed the availability of educational materials ‘extremely helpful,’ providing a 5 rating; 8 (16%) provided a 4; 4 (8%) provided a 3; and 1 (4%) provided a 2.ConclusionsDexamethasone-induced hiccups occur in a small percentage of patients. The fact that most patients responded favourably to learning about the availability of educational materials suggests some have unmet needs.

Supplemental Material: A new geological map of the Lau Basin (southwestern Pacific Ocean) reveals crustal growth processes in arc-backarc systems

<div>Supplemental Material. Item S1: Geological map of the Lau Basin at 1:1,000,000 scale. Item S2: Geological map of the Mangatolu Triple Junction at 1:200,000 scale. Item S3: Cruise listing and data sources. Item S4: Ground-truthing dataset for the geological map of the Lau Basin.<br></div>

Supplemental Material: A new geological map of the Lau Basin (southwestern Pacific Ocean) reveals crustal growth processes in arc-backarc systems

<div>Supplemental Material. Item S1: Geological map of the Lau Basin at 1:1,000,000 scale. Item S2: Geological map of the Mangatolu Triple Junction at 1:200,000 scale. Item S3: Cruise listing and data sources. Item S4: Ground-truthing dataset for the geological map of the Lau Basin.<br></div>

Developing a new human-autonomy team cohesion Scale

Cohesion is an important construct in understanding human-autonomy team dynamics and effectiveness, yet methods to adequately measure this construct are still being developed. Here we describe the initial steps of the development of a new human-autonomy team cohesion scale: item development, content validation, and preliminary scale item evaluation. The initial item pool was developed resulting in 134 items and underwent content validation with subject matter experts to reduce the item pool to 82. For the content validation, participants watched a set of video clips displaying examples of high and low human-autonomy team cohesion and rated the clips using the new human-autonomy team cohesion scale. Preliminary results revealed that our new human-autonomy team cohesion scale is a reliable and valid measure of cohesion in these contexts. Additionally, ratings for the high cohesion clips were somewhat higher than the low cohesion clips. Further analyses will determine if each of the items are contributing to the overall validity of the scale and will be further evaluated for possible removal.

Female Personality in Hamka’s Merantau Ke Deli

This study demonstrates the female personality in Hamka’s Merantau Ke Deli based on Pearson. Merantau Ke Deli is a novel which describes the conflict between a Javanese woman, Poniem, and a Minangkabaunese woman, Mariatun, who are Leman’s first and second wives. They have very distinctive personalities that can be assumed as their personality in their own society. This is descriptive qualitative research using a sociological literary approach. The theory used in this study is feminism by Pearson with his scale item of feminity. The results show that the women in the novel have variative personalites. Poniem as a Javanese woman is portrayed as appreciative, helpful and considerate. However, she also has an emotional personality due to the provocation and insults from Mariatun. Maritun herself is portrayed as an emotional woman. She always provokes Poniem by insulting her tribe. Keywords: femininity, appreciativeness, emotion, helpfulness, consideration

STUDENT ACCEPTANCE LEVEL TOWARD THE USE OF ONLINE FACILITIES TO SUPPORT FLEXIBLE LEARNING ACTIVITIES BASED ON THE DESIGN ELEMENTS OF THE HEUTAGOGICAL APPROACH

Heutagogical learning approach is a flexible self-directive learning method aimed at forming highly motivated students thus enabling them to design their own learning approach according to their individual interests, whether in formal or informal situations. The main focus of this study is within the scope of the design elements of the heutagogy approach namely exploration, creation, collaboration, connection, sharing, and reflection. A total of 102 respondents involving a group of junior students (semester one) and senior students (semester five) from the Diploma in Information Technology program of three polytechnics; Politeknik Kuching Sarawak, Politeknik Muadzam Shah, and Politeknik Kuala Terengganu have provided feedback on the study conducted through a questionnaire that includes 24 items based on a five-point Likert scale. Item validation used the Cronbach Alpha method where the value obtained exceeds 0.80 for each heutagogy element (each element consists of four items). The findings of the study found students’ level of acceptance toward the use of online facilities to support their learning activities is good (mean score above 3.80) but there are significant differences between junior and senior student’s acceptance level in several elements of heutagogy, namely are collaboration, connection, and reflection elements. In conclusion, the heutagogical approach needs to be further strengthened to support joint efforts in producing holistic graduates.

Assesment of health-related quality of life with patient chronic kidney disease at hasanuddin university hospital

Measuring the quality of life can be used as a reference for the success of an action or therapy as well as initial data in formulating the right action for the patient. This study aims to provide an overview of the quality of life of patients with chronic renal failure who seek treatment at the Hasanuddin University teaching hospital. The research design used was an observational cross-sectional design with data collection carried out by filling out a questionnaire prospectively. The subjects of the study were chronic renal failure patients undergoing hemodialysis who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were selected using a non-random sampling technique by means of total sampling. The patient's quality of life was measured using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form (KDQOL-SFtm) Indonesian version 1.3 questionnaire. A total of 30 patients were willing to participate in this study. The results of the study on 30 patients with chronic renal failure, there were 7 out of 19 scale/item having a not good, namely burden of kidney disease, work status, sleep, physical functioning, role-physical, pain, and general health. The average value of 19 scale/item shows an average score of> 59.37, which is 63.86 which belongs to the good quality of life category.

NCOG-16. THE IMPACT OF THE TIMING OF HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE ASSESSMENTS ON THE ACTUAL RESULTS IN GLIOMA PATIENTS: A RANDOMIZED PROSPECTIVE STUDY

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to explore the impact of the timing of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measurements in clinical care on obtained HRQoL scores in glioma patients, and the association with feelings of anxiety or depression. METHODS Patients completed the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaires (QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BN20), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at two time points. All patients completed the first measurement on the day of the MRI-scan (t=0), but the second measurement (t= 1) depended on randomization; group 1 (n= 49) completed the questionnaires before and group 2 (n= 51) after the consultation with the physician. RESULTS Median HRQoL scale/item scores on t0/t1 and change scores were comparable between the two groups. Between 8-58% of patients changed to a clinically relevant extent (i.e. ≥ 10 points) on the evaluated HRQoL scales/items in about one week time, in both directions, with only 3% of patients remaining stable in all scales. The mean number of the 26 evaluated HRQoL scales/items that changed to a clinically relevant extent per patient was 7 (SD= 4). Patients with stable role functioning had a lower HADS anxiety change score. However, this association was no longer significant in the multivariable regression when corrected for confounding factors. The HADS depression score was not associated with a change in HRQoL. DISCUSSION Measuring HRQoL before or after the consultation did not impact HRQoL scores on group level. However, the large majority of patients reported a clinically relevant difference in at least one HRQoL scale/item between the two time points, which was in general not influenced by feelings of anxiety or depression. Nevertheless, these findings highlight the importance of a standardized timing (e.g. at the day of the scan, consultation or first day of treatment) of patient-reported outcome assessments in clinical trials.