The Relationship between Social Support, Self-Efficacy and Characteristics of Women with Diabetes during Pregnancy

Background: One of the most common metabolic complications of pregnancy are carbohydrate metabolism disorders resulting in hyperglycemia. The aim of the study was the assessment of impact of socio-demographic variables on the levels of social support and self-efficacy and an investigation of whether there is and how the relationship between social support and self-efficacy is shaped in pregnant women with gestational diabetes. In this study 339 pregnant women with diabetes during pregnancy and 337 healthy pregnant women took part. Methods: The Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS), the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and a standardized interview questionnaire were used. Results: The respondents rated Perceived Instrumental Support higher (M = 3.52) than Perceived Emotional Support (M = 3.39). In contrast, Actually Received Support (M = 3.53) was rated higher compared to Support Seeking (M = 2.99) and Need for Support (M = 2.95). The mean generalized self-efficacy score was M = 31.58 in women with diabetes during pregnancy and M = 31.85 in healthy pregnant women. Conclusions: The research results obtained prove the existence of a relationship between GSES and BSSS scores. In pregnant women with diabetes and healthy pregnant women, GSES increases with an increase in perceived support. Additionally, among pregnant women with diabetes, the level of GSES increases with an increase in actually received support. However, in the case of healthy pregnant women, a lower level of need for support is associated with higher level of generalized self-efficacy.

Trust in the Government as a Result of its Social Policy (Based on the Results of Sociological Research in the Republic of Angola)

The article presents the results of an empirical study of the “vertical” form (P. Shtompka) of trust in the authorities on the part of the population of the Republic of Angola, conducted at the end of 2020. The research methodology (classical and modern studies of the phenomenon of trust), methods of collecting primary information (included observation, a survey in the form of a standardized interview) are described. The factors influencing the attitude of citizens to the government and causing distrust of its social policy are analyzed. The attitude to the key institutions of civil society on the scale of “trust-distrust” is shown. Based on the results of the study, a forecast is made about the strengthening of distrust of power structures and the growth of tension in the country.

Applying to residency: survey of neurosurgical residency applicants on virtual recruitment during COVID-19

OBJECTIVE The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant disruption to residency recruitment, including a sudden, comprehensive transition to virtual interviews. The authors sought to characterize applicant experiences and perceptions concerning the change in the application, interview, and match process for neurological surgery residency during the 2020–2021 recruitment cycle. METHODS A national survey of neurosurgical residency applicants from the 2020–2021 application cycle was performed. This survey was developed in cooperation with the Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS) and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Young Neurosurgeons Committee (YNC) and sent to all applicants (n = 280) who included academic video submissions to the SNS repository as part of their application package. These 280 applicants accounted for 69.6% of the total 402 neurosurgical applicants this year. RESULTS Nearly half of the applicants responded to the survey (44.3%, 124 of 280). Applicants favored additional reform of the interview scheduling process, including a centralized scheduling method, a set of standardized release dates for interview invitations, and interview caps for applicants. Less than 8% of students desired a virtual-only platform in the future, though the majority of applicants supported incorporating virtual interviews as part of the process to contain applicant costs and combining them with traditional in-person interview opportunities. Program culture and fit, as well as clinical and research opportunities in subspecialty areas, were the most important factors applicants used to rank programs. However, subjective program "fit" was deemed challenging to assess during virtual-only interviews. CONCLUSIONS Neurosurgery resident applicants identified standardized interview invitation release dates, centralized interview scheduling methods, caps on the number of interviews available to each candidate, and regulated opportunities for both virtual and in-person recruitment as measures that could significantly improve the applicant experience during and effectiveness of future neurosurgery residency application cycles. Applicants prioritized program culture and "fit" during recruitment, and a majority were open to incorporating virtual elements into future cycles to reduce costs while retaining in-person opportunities to gauge programs and their locations.

The Combined Measurement of Pelvic Organ Mobility and Hiatus Area Improves the Sensitivity of Transperineal Ultrasound When Detecting Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Objective: To evaluate whether the combined measurement of pelvic organ mobility and levator hiatus area improves the sensitivity of transperineal ultrasound (the index test) for diagnosing pelvic organ prolapse (POP).Methods: We retrospectively recruited women who had been examined in a tertiary gynecological center for symptoms of lower urinary tract incontinence and/or POP between January 2017 and June 2018. We excluded patients who had undergone hysterectomy previously or those who had received corrective surgery. All subjects underwent a standardized interview, POP quantification (POP-Q) examination (a reference standard for patients and controls), and ultrasound measurements of the levator hiatus area at rest (rHA), on contraction (cHA), and on Valsalva (vHA). We also determined the mobility of the bladder neck (BNM), cervix (CM), and rectum ampulla (RAM). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were performed to determine cut-off values for diagnosis. Diagnostic performance was assessed by sensitivity, specificity, and area under curve (AUC).Results: A total of 343 women were eligible for analysis, including 247 POP patients (stage 2–3 by POP-Q) and 96 controls. Compared with controls, POP cases had significantly higher values for rHA, vHA, cHA, BNM, CM, and RAM. Each parameter was identified as a significant discriminator for POP and controls, as determined by ROC curve analysis, although the cut-off value varied slightly between different parameters. The combination of rHA, vHA, and cHA (with any HA that was ≥ the cut-off) improved the sensitivity from 64–89 to 89–93%. The combination of pelvic organ mobility with rHA, vHA, and cHA, further increased the sensitivity from 89–93 to 95–97%.Conclusion: The combination of levator hiatus area and pelvic organ mobility improved the sensitivity of transperineal ultrasound in the diagnosis of POP, whether used as a frontline test to assist POP-Q grading or to monitor the effect of pelvic floor exercise programs.

Screening for Psychiatric Comorbidities and Psychotherapeutic Assessment in Inpatient Epilepsy Care: Preliminary Results of an Implementation Study

Background: Anxiety and depression remain underdiagnosed in routine clinical practice in up to two thirds of epilepsy patients despite significant impact on medical and psychosocial outcome. Barriers to adequate mental health care for epilepsy and/or psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) include a lack of integrated mental health specialists and standardized procedures. This naturalistic study outlines the procedures and outcome of a recently established psychotherapeutic service.Methods: Routine screening included the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E, cut-off value > 13) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7, cut-off value > 5). Positively (above cut-off in at least one questionnaire) screened patients were seen for a standardized interview for mental health disorders and the development of a personalized treatment plan. PNES patients were seen irrespective of their screening score. Resources were provided to support self-help and access to psychotherapy. Patients were contacted 1 month after discharge to evaluate adherence to therapeutic recommendations.Results: 120 patients were screened. Overall, 56 of 77 positively screened patients (77%) were found to have a psychiatric diagnosis through standardized interview. More epilepsy patients with an anxiety disorder had previously been undiagnosed compared to those with a depressive episode (63% vs. 30%); 24 epilepsy patients (62%) with a psychiatric comorbidity and 10 PNES patients (59%) were not receiving any mental health care. At follow-up, 16/17 (94%) epilepsy patients and 7/7 PNES patients without prior psychiatric treatment were adhering to therapeutic recommendations.Conclusion: Integrating mental health specialists and establishing standardized screening and follow-up procedures improve adherence to mental health care recommendations in epilepsy and PNES patients.

Men’s and Women’s Style of Living and Motivation to Run in Charity Events

Running has been very popular for years, especially in organized mass runs. Various running events take place all over the world, at different distances and locations, including charity running events. However, there has not been any research on the social impact of these events on participants to date. This article/paper is an attempt to remedy this situation. The authors conducted their research by the diagnostic survey method using standardized interview technique during the 6th Santa Claus Run organized in Poznan on the day of Santa Claus. A sample of 136 runners: 49 male respondents and 87 female respondents participated in the event voluntarily and completed a questionnaire. Therefore, the main goal of the study was to recognize the relationship between the lifestyles of men and women in the context of participation in a charity running event, in order to evaluate the differences between them. The specific goal was to discern the motives to take part in such kind of an event, as well as to find out what influence the participation in a charity run has on the respondents, both those leading an active and passive lifestyle. The most important result and the only one statistically significant difference in the conducted study was the indication that women have more empathy and participate more often than men in charity runs.

Does Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest for Aortic Surgery Trigger Near-Death Experience? Incidence of Near-Death Experiences after Aortic Surgeries Performed under Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest

Background Understanding near-death experiences (NDE) could provide a new insight into the analysis of human consciousness and the neurocognitive processes happening upon the approach of death. With a temporary interruption of systemic perfusion, aortic surgery under hypothermic circulatory arrest (HCA) may be the only available model of reversible clinical death. We present, herein, the results of an observational study designed to assess the incidence of NDE after aortic surgery. Methods We performed a prospective study including consecutive patients who underwent thoracic aortic surgery between July 2018 and September 2019 at our institution. Procedures without HCA were included to constitute a control group. The primary outcome was the incidence of NDE assessed with the Greyson NDE scale during the immediate postoperative course, via a standardized interview of the patients in the surgical ward. Results One hundred and one patients were included. Twenty-one patients (20.8%) underwent nonelective interventions for aortic dissection. Ninety-one patients had hemiarch replacement (90.1%). Sixty-seven (66.3%) interventions were performed with HCA, with an average circulatory arrest duration of 26.9 ± 25.5 minutes, and a mean body temperature of 23.7 ± 3.8°C. None of the patients reported any recollection from their period of unconsciousness. There was no NDE experiencer in the study cohort. Conclusion Several confounding factors regarding anesthesia, or NDE evaluation, might have impaired the chance of NDE recollections, and might have contributed to this negative result. Whether HCA may trigger NDE remains unknown.

The degree of commitment of physics teachers in Tabuk region to specialized professional standards: درجة التزام معلمي الفيزياء بمنطقة تبوك بالمعايير المهنية التخصصية

The study aimed to reveal the degree of commitment of physics teachers in Tabuk region to the specialized professional standards, and to achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher used the quantitative and qualitative approach and the tool was represented in the observation card and the semi-standardized interview guide based on a list of specific questions, which were applied to a sample of (17) teachers from the teachers Physics, and (4) teachers were selected to know the obstacles to physics teachers ’adherence to standards by conducting a semi-standardized interview. The results of the study showed: The degree of physics teachers’ commitment to the specialized professional standards of the standards obtained an overall average of (3.55) and a large degree. At the level of standards, the results showed a variation in the degree of commitment of physics teachers to specialized professional standards, as it ranged between very large and few, where (3) standards obtained a very large degree of commitment, while (6) standards obtained a large degree. of commitment and (7) standards came Medium commitment degree, low commitment degree one criterion. - As for the obstacles to physics teachers ’adherence to specialized professional standards, they were represented in: the weakness of the training programs provided to teachers, the lack of equipped laboratories, the weakness of the proportionality of the size of the scientific material with the classes allocated to it, the increase in the academic burden on the teacher. And the problem of rented buildings, and in light of the results of the study, the researcher presented a number of recommendations and proposals to improve the level of physics teachers ’adherence to specialized professional standards in the Tabuk region and the whole Kingdom.

Assessing the Policy Environment for Active Mobility in Cities—Development and Feasibility of the PASTA Cycling and Walking Policy Environment Score

The importance of setting a policy focus on promoting cycling and walking as sustainable and healthy modes of transport is increasingly recognized. However, to date a science-driven scoring system to assess the policy environment for cycling and walking is lacking. In this study, spreadsheet-based scoring systems for cycling and walking were developed, including six dimensions (cycling/walking culture, social acceptance, perception of traffic safety, advocacy, politics and urban planning). Feasibility was tested using qualitative data from pre-specified sections of semi-standardized interview and workshop reports from a European research project in seven cities, assessed independently by two experts. Disagreements were resolved by discussions of no more than 75 minutes per city. On the dimension “perception of traffic safety”, quantitative panel data were used. While the interrater agreement was fair, feasibility was confirmed in general. Validity testing against social norms towards active travel, modal split and network length was encouraging for the policy area of cycling. Rating the policy friendliness for cycling and walking separately was found to be appropriate, as different cities received the highest scores for each. Replicating this approach in a more standardized way would pave the way towards a transparent, evidence-based system for benchmarking policy approaches of cities towards cycling and walking.