Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a hormonal disorder that affects 5-20% of women of reproductive age. Interestingly, serum miR-124-3p and ANGPTL2 are differentially expressed in PCOS patients. Accordingly, this study set out to explore the clinical roles of serum miR-124-3p/ANGPTL2 in PCOS. Firstly, miR-124-3p/ANGPTL2 expression patterns were detected in the serum of 102 PCOS patients and 100 healthy subjects. miR-124-3p or/and ANGPTL2 diagnostic efficacy on PCOS was further analyzed, in addition to the measurement of lipid metabolism, glucose metabolism, sex hormone indexes, and inflammation levels. Correlations between serum miR-124-3p/ANGPTL2 expressions and age, BMI, Ferriman-Gallwey score, lipid metabolism, glucose metabolism, sex hormone indexes, TNF-α, and IL-6 in PCOS patients were determined. The expression correlation and binding relationship of ANGPTL2 and miR-124-3p were identified. In addition, miR-124-3p was downregulated and ANGPTL2 was upregulated in the serum of obese and nonobese PCOS patients. miR-124-3p expression was found to be negatively correlated with Ferriman-Gallwey score and serum total testosterone (T), and negatively related to prolactin (PRL). ANGPTL2 expression was positively correlated with FNS and inversely linked with PRL. TNF-α and IL-6 were negatively correlated with miR-124-3p, but positively correlated with ANGPTL2. Furthermore, there was a negative correlation and a targeting relationship between ANGPTL2 and miR-124-3p expression in the serum of obese and nonobese PCOS patients. Collectively, our findings indicated that miR-124-3p might target ANGPTL2 expression in obese and nonobese PCOS patients, and further underscored the diagnostic value of their combination.

People with disabilities are at higher risk of adverse coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes. Additionally, measures to mitigate COVID-19 transmission have impacted health service provision and access, which may particularly disadvantage people with disabilities.

To explore the perspectives and experiences of people with disabilities in accessing health services in Zimbabwe during the pandemic, to identify perceived challenges and facilitators to inclusive health and key actions to improve accessibility.

We used in-depth interviews with 24 people with disabilities (identified through purposive sampling) and with 10 key informants (from expert recommendation) to explore the impact of COVID-19 on access to health care. Interviews were transcribed, coded and thematically analysed. We used the disability-inclusive health ‘Missing Billion’ framework to map and inform barriers to inclusive health care during COVID-19 and disparities in outcomes faced by people with disabilities.

People with disabilitovernment departments should include people with disabilities in all communications and activities related to the pandemic through a twin-track approach, meaning inclusion in mainstream activities and targeting with specific interventions where necessary.

The impact of upper limb absence on people’s lived experiences is understudied, particularly in African countries, with implications for policy and service design.

The objective of this study was to explore the lived experiences of people with upper limb absence (PWULA) living in Uganda.

Informed by preliminary work, we designed a qualitative study employing semi-structured interviews to understand the experience of living with upper limb absence in Uganda. Seventeen adults with upper limb absence were individually interviewed and their interviews were analysed utilising thematic analysis.

Seven themes illustrating the impact on the individual’s life after amputation were identified and categorised into (1) living and adapting to life, (2) productivity and participation and (3) living within the wider environment. This study presents three main findings (1) PWULA need psychological and occupational support services which are not available in Uganda, (2) PWULA want to work, but face multiple barriers to employment and has limited support, combined with the complex parenting and caring responsibilities, (3) the local Ugandan culture and social structures affect the everyday life of PWULA, both in positive and negative ways.

This study provides information on the lived experiences of PWULA in Uganda which are lacking in the literature. selleck chemicals People with upper limb absence face ableism and hardship underpinned by a lack of formal support structures and policies, which may in turn exacerbate the impact of upper limb absence on multiple facets of life.

This study provides information on the lived experiences of PWULA in Uganda which are lacking in the literature. People with upper limb absence face ableism and hardship underpinned by a lack of formal support structures and policies, which may in turn exacerbate the impact of upper limb absence on multiple facets of life.

On average, people with disabilities have greater healthcare needs, yet face a range of barriers in accessing care.

Our objectives were to explore the experiences of people with disabilities in accessing care and identify opportunities for the health system to be designed for inclusion in Zimbabwe.

In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted between May and June 2021 with 24 people with disabilities (identified through purposive sampling) and with 10 key informants from local and national health authorities (identified through expert recommendations). Interviews explored the experience of accessing healthcare prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Interviews were transcribed, coded and thematically analysed. We used the disability-inclusive health ‘Missing Billion’ framework to map and inform barriers to inclusive healthcare and disparities in outcomes faced by people with disabilities.

People with disabilities experienced difficulties accessing health services in Zimbabwe priorfor disability inclusion, collecting and analysing disability-disaggregated data and strengthening a twin-track approach to health service provision.

The progressive realisation of disability inclusion requires political will and commitment, and comprehensive monitoring is necessary to give a clear understanding of what needs to be addressed and to highlight the gaps and barriers to the achievement of social inclusion of people with disabilities.

This article uses an existing dataset to present a baseline assessment of inclusion for men and women with no, mild or moderate disability severity and with no or moderate affect difficulties in South Africa.

An existing dataset, capturing individual-level data for 8499 individuals, collected in 2019 across South Africa was analysed. Variables were utilised to represent aspects of nine domains of disability inclusion, and outcomes were compared using chi-squared tests (with Bonferroni adjustments) for groups categorised by disability severity and gender, and for affect severity and gender.

Overall, inclusion levels declined with increasing disability severity, and there were fewer differences in inclusion levels between those with and without affect difficulties than for those with functioning difficulties (as measured using the Washington Group on Disability Statistics’ Short Set of six questions on functioning).

The article concludes by discussing several approaches to using the data to design policy responses, each of which results in a different range of domains that may initially be prioritised and targeted.

The article concludes by discussing several approaches to using the data to design policy responses, each of which results in a different range of domains that may initially be prioritised and targeted.

The Chaeli Campaign is a Cape Town based non-profit organisation offering programmes largely for children and youth with disabilities in diverse under-resourced communities in South Africa. Their therapy team established a Health Professions Council of South Africa accredited interdisciplinary journal club in January 2012, with the aim to improve the team’s service to the community.

Our first objective was to make our practice more evidence-based through reading systematically and critically in our field. Our second objective was to write up and share some of our practices to contribute to the generation of practice-based evidence.

First-person action research was applied. The core group of participants over time comprised two occupational therapists, one physiotherapist, two speech therapists, two teachers and four community development workers. Nine iterative cycles of planning, action, review and revised planning have been implemented on an annual basis in this non-formal, long-term action research pm practice to evidence.

The Chaeli Campaign journal club has built the capacity of therapists, teachers and community development workers to find, read, evaluate and use research evidence to improve their practice. It has also given participants the opportunity to ethically research, present and write up their grass roots interventions, thus contributing to locally applicable practise-based evidence. It is hoped that the sharing of our experience will assist and encourage other teams to start interdisciplinary journal clubs as a step towards facilitating two-way knowledge translation from evidence to practice and from practice to evidence.

Efforts to place sibling groups together in foster care have long been considered best practice and is required under federal law. Practice and policy guidance are based in part on the belief that sibling placement is in the best interests of children. In this article, we first review literature reviews on this topic to assess the extent to which prior efforts to characterize this body of research are thorough, objective, and based on research specific to the foster care population. We then assess the quality and volume of empirical evidence on the effects of sibling placement for the stability, permanency, and wellbeing of children in foster care to ascertain whether existing reviews accurately reflect the empirical evidence or extend beyond it without adequate empirical support.

We conducted a scoping search of reviews of published research from the year 1990 to 2019 using Google Scholar, PsycInfo, EBSCO, and PubMed (Medline). From the search results, we extracted all review articles, quantitative studia risk to children and when sibling placement is likely to facilitate positive outcomes.

Although there are moral reasons to support sibling placement, the research evidence does not consistently support the practice of placing siblings together. Further research is needed to identify when sibling placement poses a risk to children and when sibling placement is likely to facilitate positive outcomes.Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have been widely used in biomedical applications due to their high biocompatibility and low toxicity to humans. The present work aimed to investigate the antibacterial effects of different concentrations of ZnO NPs on two opportunistic pathogens, Serratia marcescens and Enterococcus faecalis. The surface interaction between nanoparticles and bacterial cell wall, and the subsequent morphological alterations on the bacterial surface, were examined through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope. The energy dispersive X-ray analysis was used to confirm the elemental composition of ZnO NPs and the cellular accumulation of ZnO NPs in bacteria. The growth-inhibitory test demonstrated a dose-dependent growth inhibitory effect of ZnO NPs against both the test bacteria, as the higher concentration of nanoparticles caused the higher bacterial growth inhibition. The results showed that ZnO NPs caused a higher growth inhibition (63.50 ± 2.50%) on the Gram-positive bacterium E.