Development and psychometric evaluation of the CO-PARTNER tool for collaboration and parent participation in neonatal care

Background Active parent participation in neonatal care and collaboration between parents and professionals during infant hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is beneficial for infants and their parents. A tool is needed to support parents and to study the effects and implementation of parent-partnered models of neonatal care. Methods We developed and psychometrically evaluated a tool measuring active parent participation and collaboration in neonatal care within six domains: Daily Care, Medical Care, Acquiring Information, Parent Advocacy, Time Spent with Infant and Closeness and Comforting the Infant. Items were generated in focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with professionals and parents. The tool was completed at NICU-discharge by 306 parents (174 mothers and 132 fathers) of preterm infants. Subsequently, we studied structural validity with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), construct validity, using the Average Variance Extracted and Heterotrait-Monotrait ratio of correlations, and hypothesis testing with correlations and univariate linear regression. For internal consistency we calculated composite reliability (CR). We performed multiple imputations by chained equations for missing data. Results A 31 item tool for parent participation and collaboration in neonatal care was developed. CFA revealed high factor loadings of items within each domain. Internal consistency was 0.558 to 0.938. Convergent validity and discriminant validity were strong. Higher scores correlated with less parent depressive symptoms (r = -0.141, 95%CI -0.240; -0.029, p = 0.0141), less impaired parent-infant bonding (r = -0.196, 95%CI -0.302; -0.056, p<0.0001), higher parent self-efficacy (r = 0.228, 95%CI 0.117; 0.332, p<0.0001), and higher parent satisfaction (r = 0.197, 95%CI 0.090; 0.308, p = 0.001). Parents in a family integrated care model had higher scores than in standard care (beta 6.020, 95%CI 4.144; 7.895, p<0.0001) and mothers scored higher than fathers (beta 2.103,95%CI 0.084; 4.121, p = 0.041). Conclusion The CO-PARTNER tool explicitly measures parents’ participation and collaboration with professionals in neonatal care incorporating their unique roles in care provision, leadership, and connection to their infant. The tool consists of 31 items within six domains with good face, content, construct and structural validity.

Family-Centered Information Dissemination: A Multidisciplinary Virtual COVID-19 “Town Hall”

Significant misinformation about COVID-19 has been spread on the internet. Parents of children with complex aerodigestive problems have a hard time understanding the information they encounter on the internet and the news media and interpreting how it relates to their child’s complex needs. Our multidisciplinary team, at the suggestion of a parent, hosted 3 virtual “town halls” in which families could ask questions directly of pediatric otolaryngology, pediatric pulmonology and case management in order to efficiently obtain factual evidence-based up-to-date advice. The information discussed at the town halls was then annotated and disseminated via active, parent-run aerodigestive social media forums. The information disseminated via the town halls reached 4787 Facebook participants.

Design, Synthesis, Phloem Mobility, and Bioactivities of a Series of Phenazine-1-Carboxylic Acid-Amino Acid Conjugates

Developing fungicides with phloem mobility that can be applied to leaves to control root or vascular pathogens has long been desirable. To achieve this goal, an efficient and economical strategy involves introducing an amino acid into the existing highly active parent pesticide molecule. Hence, 12 L-phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA)-amino acid conjugates 4a–l were designed and synthesized via a simple synthetic route. In vitro bioassays results showed that all synthesized compounds 4a–l exhibited certain fungicidal activities against six tested fungi. Compound 4c exhibited relatively good fungicidal activity against Rhizoctonia solani, and the EC50 value was 0.084 ± 0.006 mmol/L. The phloem mobility experiments revealed that introducing an amino acid to PCA could effectively endow PCA with phloem mobility in R. communis L. Among them, nine conjugates were found in phloem sap, and L-PCA-Valine 4d exhibited the highest phloem mobility. Analysis results from the prediction of the Kleier model indicated that an active carrier-mediated mechanism may be involved in L-PCA-amino acid conjugates—a result that needs to be confirmed and complemented with further tests. The current research provides useful data for modifying non-phloem-mobile fungicidal molecules to phloem-mobile types.

SYNTHESIS OF DESGLYMIDODRINE FROM MIDODRINE BY CONVENTIONAL AMIDE HYDROLYSIS METHOD

Objective: The term prodrug involves chemically modifying inert compound which upon administration releases the active parent drug to elicit its pharmacological response within the body. Acting as a α-adrenergic agonist, desglymidodrine an active metabolite of amide prodrug midodrine is used for the treatment of essential and orthostatic hypotension. In the present study synthesis of desglymidodrine from midodrine was reported.Methods: The synthesis was done by the conventional amide hydrolysis method.Results: A novel synthesis of desglymidodrine was successfully achieved and spectrally elucidated by infrared spectroscopy (IR), 1H, 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass analysis.Conclusion: The acquired results were found to be accurate, the synthetic route appeared to be simple, cost-effective and time efficient. Hence the synthesized desglymidodrine can be as a reference standard for the estimation of the same.

Impact of Parental Involvement towards School Education between Boys and Girls

Children are the building blocks of the nation and home is the first and most important school for the child, will ever have. Parental involvement has been recognized as the most important factor to influence the childhood and adulthood. Any enrichment programme, for maximizing the potentials of all the children has to have active parent-child interaction. The role of parents in bringing up their children is quite important both in terms of their devotion with respect to time spent with them, money and other consideration. Parents transmit the culture and custom of society to the incoming generation. Parent involvement implies how the parents involve themselves in developing overall personality of the child. It may be described as the allocation of resources to the child‟s school behavior. Parents‟ involvement in education either in school or at home, will create a partnership between school and parents. The resulting partnership between parents and school will develop effective communication from home to school and school to home. The main objective of the present study was to compare the parent knowledge, attitude and involvement towards school education between boys and girls children. Data was collected with the help of standardized tool „Parent Involvement Scale‟ by Dr. Rita Chopra and Surbala Sahoo. Sample size was 100 boys and girls of IVth and Vth Standards, will be selected from Agra city. Analysis of data was done by percentile technique. Findings of the study indicate that involvement of parents towards boy is more than girls. Although they support both of them but in some areas like tours from schools, outdoor group study, financial matter etc, they still ignore girls.