Saint Francis University

About: Saint Francis University is a education organization based out in Loretto, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Osteoblast. The organization has 1694 authors who have published 2038 publications receiving 87149 citations.

Multidrug-Resistant Burkholderia cepacia, Candida dubliniensis, and Candida glabrata Infected Pancreatic Pseudocyst.

Abstract: Burkholderia cepacia is a gram-negative bacillus that is most commonly associated with pneumonia in the immunocompromised patients The most common organisms associated with pancreatic infections are Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter spp, and Enterococcus spp We report a case of a 45-year-old gentleman with recent acute pancreatitis who presented with hypoglycemia, altered mental status, worsening epigastric pain, and early satiety He was diagnosed with a large peripancreatic infected cyst which grew multidrug-resistant (MDR) Burkholderia cepacia, Candida glabrata, and Candida dubliniensis This case report focuses on the importance of distinguishing and recognizing risk factors for this MDR organism, in order to provide better patient care

Evaluation of spin in the abstracts of systematic reviews and meta-analyses covering surgical management, or quality of life after surgical management, of osteoarthritis of the knee

Abstract: Objective Our primary objective was to identify the prevalence of spin — misleading reporting practices that overemphasize benefit or underemphasize harm — within the abstracts of systematic reviews and meta-analyses focused on surgical management of osteoarthritis of the knee. Methods A search string was developed to search Ovid MEDLINE and Ovid Embase for articles pertaining to surgical management, or quality of life after surgical management, of osteoarthritis of the knee. Titles and abstracts were screened according to our protocol, developed a priori, followed by full-text evaluation for spin in included articles. Study characteristics were simultaneously extracted with spin data and each included study received an AMSTAR-2 quality appraisal. All procedures were performed by two examiners in a masked, duplicate fashion. Results Of the 1419 articles returned, 96 systematic reviews qualified for inclusion. 35.4% of the included abstracts (34/96) contained at least one type of spin with a total of 36 occurrences (two abstracts contained two types of spin). Selective reporting favoring benefit (type 3; 15/36, 41.7%) was the most prevalent followed by selective reporting of harms (type 6; 7/36, 19.4%). None of the abstracts contained spin types 2, 4, or 8. We found no significant association between spin and either AMSTAR-2 rating or extracted study characteristics. Conclusion Of the included systematic reviews and meta-analyses, 35.4% contained spin in their abstract. To improve the reliability of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, researchers should act to minimize spin in future abstracts.

Occupational exposures and utilisation of HIV postexposure prophylaxis amongst health workers of three hospitals in Tanzania’s Lake Zone

Abstract: Occupational exposures predispose health workers (HWs) to a risk of HIV infection. When properly used, HIV Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) can significantly reduce this risk. Th purpose of this study was to determine the extent and types of occupational exposures, availability of PEP guidelines, and utilisation of PEP amongst HWs. A cross-sectional mixed methods baseline study was conducted between March and May 2014 using a structured questionnaire administered to 236 HWs from Shinyanga, Sengerema and Musoma hospitals in Tanzania. Relationships between variables were determined using the chi-square test. Qualitative data was gathered during interviews with key informants and walkthrough observations in the hospital wards, and analysed using the framework method. Majority of respondents were nurses (53%), over 40 years old (61%) with more than 20 years (40%) of hospital experience. Needle stick and sharp injuries were experienced by 31% of respondents whilst 26% experienced splashes. Only 28% of splashes were reported compared to 80% and 68% of needle sticks and sharp injuries, respectively. Those who experienced needle sticks were more likely to report the incident ( p < 0.001), receive testing ( p < 0.003) or PEP ( p = 0.005). Although 66% reported the availability of PEP guidelines, only 39% of exposed HWs received PEP. Occupational exposures are common in these hospitals. HWs under-report and suboptimally use PEP services. Health worker safety programmes should establish functional systems for reporting and adherence to PEP procedures. Future research should establish factors that determine compliance with PEP procedures.

A Rees Convolution Product for Topological Semihypergroups

Abstract: A semihypergroup is defined by dropping the requirement of an identity or involution from the definition of a hypergroup. Dunkl [Du73] called it a hypergroup (without involution) while Jewett [Je75] referred to it as a semiconvo. In this paper, we generalize some basic algebraic results from semigroups to semihypergroups. Among other things, we define a Rees convolution product for a topological semihypergroup S and prove that if X,Y are non-empty sets and H is a hypergroup, then with the Rees convolution product, X × H × Y is a completely simple semihypergroup which has all its idempotent elements in its center. We also prove that in every locally compact semihypergroup, S ,i fB is a Borel subset of S then for any x ∈ S, the sets Bx − and x − B are also Borel subsets of S.