In cases of sexual assault, the interpretation of biological traces on clothing, and particularly undergarments, may be complex. This is especially so when the complainant and defendant interact socially, for instance as (ex-)partners or by co-habitation. Here we present the results from a study where latent male DNA on female worn undergarments is recovered in four groups with different levels of male-female social interaction. The results conform to prior expectation, in that less interaction tend to result in less male DNA on undergarments. We explore the use of these experimental data for evaluative reporting given activity level propositions in a mock case scenario. We show how the selection of different populations to represent the social interaction between complainant and defendant may affect the strength of the evidence. We further show how datasets of limited size can be used for robust activity level evaluative reporting.
MULTIFILE
Intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is considered to be a frequent complication of hemodialysis (HD) and is associated with symptom burden, increased incidence of access failure, cardiovascular events, and higher mortality. This systematic literature review aims to analyse studies that investigated the prevalence of IDH. A complicating factor herein is that many different definitions of IDH are used in literature.Methods: A systematic literature search from databases, Medline, Cinahl, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library to identify studies reporting on the actual prevalence of IDH was conducted. Studies were categorized by the type of definition used for the prevalence of IDH. A meta-analysis of the prevalence of IDH was performed.Results: In a meta-analysis comprising 4 studies including 1,694 patients and 4 studies including 13,189 patients, the prevalence of HD sessions complicated by IDH was 10.1 and 11.6% for the European Best Practice Guideline (EBPG) definition and the Nadir <90 definition, respectively. The proportion of patients with frequent IDH could not reliably be established because of the wide range in cutoff values that were used to identify patients with frequent IDH. There was a large variety in the prevalence of symptoms and interventions. Major risk factors associated with IDH across studies were diabetes, a higher interdialytic weight gain, female gender, and lower body weight.Conclusion: Our meta-analysis suggests that the prevalence of IDH is lower than 12% for both the EBPG and the Nadir <90 definition which is much lower than stated in most reviews.
LINK
STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.OBJECTIVES: This study: (1) investigated the accuracy of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and skinfold thickness relative to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in the assessment of body composition in people with spinal cord injury (SCI), and whether sex and lesion characteristics affect the accuracy, (2) developed new prediction equations to estimate fat free mass (FFM) and percentage fat mass (FM%) in a general SCI population using BIA and skinfolds outcomes.SETTING: University, the Netherlands.METHODS: Fifty participants with SCI (19 females; median time since injury: 15 years) were tested by DXA, single-frequency BIA (SF-BIA), segmental multi-frequency BIA (segmental MF-BIA), and anthropometry (height, body mass, calf circumference, and skinfold thickness) during a visit. Personal and lesion characteristics were registered.RESULTS: Compared to DXA, SF-BIA showed the smallest mean difference in estimating FM%, but with large limits of agreement (mean difference = -2.2%; limits of agreement: -12.8 to 8.3%). BIA and skinfold thickness tended to show a better estimation of FM% in females, participants with tetraplegia, or with motor incomplete injury. New equations for predicting FFM and FM% were developed with good explained variances (FFM: R2 = 0.94; FM%: R2 = 0.66).CONCLUSIONS: None of the measurement techniques accurately estimated FM% because of the wide individual variation and, therefore, should be used with caution. The accuracy of the techniques differed in different subgroups. The newly developed equations for predicting FFM and FM% should be cross-validated in future studies.
To optimize patient care, it is vital to prevent infections in healthcare facilities. In this respect, the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains threatens public healthcare. Current gold standard techniques are based on classical microbiological assays that are time consuming and need complex expensive lab environments. This limits their use for high throughput bacterial screening to perform optimal hygiene control. The infection prevention workers in hospitals and elderly nursing homes underline the urgency of a point-of-care tool that is able to detect bacterial loads on-site in a fast, precise and reliable manner while remaining with the available budgets. The aim of this proposal titled SURFSCAN is to develop a novel point-of-care tool for bacterial load screening on various surfaces throughout the daily routine of professionals in healthcare facilities. Given the expertise of the consortium partners, the point-of-care tool will be based on a biomimetic sensor combining surface imprinted polymers (SIPs), that act as synthetic bacterial receptors, with a thermal read-out strategy for detection. The functionality and performance of this biomimetic sensor has been shown in lab conditions and published in peer reviewed journals. Within this proposal, key elements will be optimized to translate the proof of principle concept into a complete clinical prototype for on-site application. These elements are essential for final implementation of the device as a screening and assessment tool for scanning bacterial loads on surfaces by hospital professionals. The research project offers a unique collaboration among different end-users (hospitals and SMEs), and knowledge institutions (Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Fontys University of Applied Sciences and Maastricht Science Programme, IDEE-Maastricht University), which guarantees transfer of fundamental knowledge to the market and end-user needs.
