Search

A reference in the article “Implementation of a Screening Tool in a Clinic Setting to Assess Perceived Barriers to Weight Loss in School-Aged Children” in the Jan–Feb 2014 issue contained some errors. The correct reference should be Jacobson Vann, J., Finkle, J., Amerrman, A., Wegner, S., Skinner, A. C., Benjamin, J. T., et al. (2011). Use of a tool to determine perceived barriers to children's healthy eating and physical activity and relationships to health behaviors. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 26, 404–415.

The International Transdisciplinarity Conference in Zurich was a defining event in the evolution of a new discourse of transdisciplinary problem solving. The new discourse is linked historically with a new climate for participatory research on sustainability problems, changes in the nature of disciplinary research, and the emergence of new knowledge fields. The state-of-the-art represented by the conference is a truly global platform for future research and collaborative problem solving.

The Dialogue Sessions took place at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich the afternoon of February 28th. This traditional format of paper presentations was divided into Fundamentals, Dynamics of Practice, and Illustrative Fields. The summary is based on six themes across one-page reports filed by session Chairs and presenters’ texts in Workbook I: Contexts, Methods and Tools, Strategies of Communication and Conflict Management, Programs and Stakeholders, and Theoretical Perspectives.

Members of the opening panel, the chief editor and the moderator reflect on why transdisciplinarity is needed, obstacles to its realization, and critical factors for success. They represent a variety of sectors, encompassing politics, industry, wildlife and natural resource management, and technological innovation.

Although meconium peritonitis is a rare condition, the mortality rate can be as high as 40%. Meconium peritonitis is a result of intestinal perforation in utero, which leads to dense inflammation in the peritoneal cavity. The fetus has relatively immature peritoneal defense mechanisms, so the cause of this dense inflammation is unclear. The peritoneal macrophage is a key cell in the peritoneal inflammatory response in adults. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if sterile meconium had a direct stimulatory effect on the peritoneal macrophage.Peritoneal macrophages were harvested from adult C3H/HEN mice. The cells were placed in microtiter wells at 10(5) cells per well. Sterile human meconium was diluted in media and placed in the wells at varying concentrations for 8 hours. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (10 microg/mL) served as a positive control. Supernatants were harvested and assayed for tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) using a commercial ELISA kit. Separate cells were assayed for TNF-alpha message using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In another series of experiments, procoagulant activity (PCA) was determined on freeze-thawed cells using a two-stage amidolytic assay. To test for the role of protein kinase C (PKC) in the PCA response H7, a PKC inhibitor, was used as well.Meconium stimulation resulted in a significant increase in TNF-alpha compared with negative controls with a peak at 0.1% meconium (121 pg/mL v 11 pg/mL, P.05). There was a significant increase in PCA, with a 10-fold increase with 1% meconium compared with controls (P.05). This response was limited to less than 5% by PKC inhibition.Sterile meconium results in a marked proinflammatory response in the peritoneal macrophage with elevations of both PCA and TNF-alpha. The TNF response is likely mediated at a pretranscriptional level because there is a marked increase in TNF mRNA. These data suggest that the PCA response is regulated by a PKC mechanism similar to LPS. Stimulation of the peritoneal macrophage by meconium is a possible cause of the marked inflammation seen in meconium peritonitis.

The novel anti-epileptic drugs lamotrigine, felbamate and gabapentin were compared in rat experimental models of acute (tail flick) and chronic pain: the chronic constriction injury and spinal nerve ligation models. Lamotrigine (10-100 mg/kg, s.c.), felbamate (150-600 mg/kg, i.p.) and gabapentin (30-300 mg/kg, i.p.) each reversed cold allodynia (chronic constriction injury model) with ED50 values of 28, 241 and 103 mg/kg, respectively, 1 h post-dose. However, only gabapentin reversed tactile allodynia (spinal nerve ligation model) with an ED50 of 34 mg/kg (i.p.). The established anti-epileptic drugs, carbamazepine (1-30 mg/kg, i.p.) and phenytoin (1-100 mg/kg, s.c.), were ineffective in both models. The anti-allodynic effect of the newer anti-epileptic drugs was observed at doses that were either ineffective or produced only a negligible effect on acute nociceptive function and/or locomotor activity. In conclusion, the data suggest that the newer anti-epileptic drugs appear to have the potential to be effective alternatives to either carbamazepine or phenytoin in the treatment of neuropathic pain. However, only gabapentin ameliorated both cold and touch hyperesthesias.

The sales professional course "Introduction to the Operating Room" offered by the AORN Center for Nursing Practice, Health Policy, and Research is an introductory program in OR etiquette. Its purpose is to provide sales professionals a working knowledge of OR protocol for them to function appropriately in OR settings. Sales professionals who have completed this course establish mutually beneficial perioperative partnerships with OR personnel. Sales professionals' effectiveness is strengthened as a result of their newly acquired knowledge of OR protocol, and patient safety is protected. An AORN Certificate of Recognition is awarded on completion of the course. AORN J 63 (April 1996) 745–749.

Perioperative nurses are participating in a multisite clinical study to identify risk factors for blood and body fluid exposures in OR settings and to create a surveillance database that can be used to assess the benefits of strategies to prevent these exposures. The project is funded by a grant from Becton Dickinson, Franklin Lakes, NJ, to the AORN Foundation and is coordinated by an AORN Headquarters nurse in collaboration with the primary investigator at the University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville. This article reports the study's implementation and current status. AORN J 63 (Feb 1996) 428–434.

The peptidoglycan layer of Staphylococcus aureus contains a (Gly)(5) cross-link which is not found in other bacteria, and which could be used to develop a specific immunoassay for detection of S. aureus in MRSA infections. A semi-synthetic route was used to prepare the S. aureus peptidoglycan precursor UDPMurNAc-L-Ala-γ-D-Glu-L-Lys(Gly)(5)-D-Ala-D-Ala, which was covalently attached to carrier protein bovine serum albumin via the UDP nucleotide. Serum raised using this antigen showed specificity for chemically immobilised peptidoglycan monomer containing (Gly)(5), using an ELISA immunoassay. ELISA assays using 0.1 or 1.0 μg samples of cell walls prepared from two MRSA strains and one penicillin-sensitive S. aureus strain, and from three other bacteria, showed the highest response against cell walls containing (Gly)(5), with a particularly high response against cell walls from one MRSA strain. Competition assays to investigate antibody selectivity demonstrated that the antibody response could be most effectively antagonised using ligands containing (Gly)(5). These data demonstrate that it is possible to generate antibodies with high affinity and selectivity for the (Gly)(5) containing monomer in S. aureus peptidoglycan, that could be used to develop an immunoassay for S. aureus.

A chronic compromise of cerebral hemodynamics has been shown to identify a group of patients at an increased risk for stroke. Because a "steal phenomenon" induced by a vasodilatory challenge has characterized the group at greatest risk, it was hypothesized that these individuals would also have a severe compromise of primary collaterals and an increased dependence on leptomeningeal collaterals. Twenty-three patients with symptomatic cerebrovascular disease underwent angiography and xenon-enhanced computed tomographic cerebral blood flow studies before and after 1 g IV acetazolamide within 6 months of each other. Cerebral blood flow vasoreactivity was classified by whether cerebral blood flow increased (> 5%) or was unchanged (+/- 5%) (group 1) or fell by > 5% (group 2) in any vascular territory. Angiographic collateralization was classified into four types: normal (type 1), willisian (type 2), ophthalmic (type 3), and leptomeningeal (type 4). Twenty percent (2/10) of group 1 patients and 69% (9/13) of group 2 patients (P = .0009) had leptomeningeal collaterals. A negative flow reactivity is significantly associated with a dependence on leptomeningeal collaterals and implies a state of maximal hemodynamic compromise.

AimGlutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the plasma, and has been shown to exert cardioprotective effects. However, the underlying mechanisms remained unclear, but may include an anaplerotic effect via its metabolic conversion to citric acid cycle (CAC) intermediates or activation of the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP).MethodsTo assess the potential roles of these mechanisms, we evaluated the metabolic effects of a physiologically relevant concentration of glutamine (0.5mM) in isolated working rat hearts perfused with 13C-labeled substrates with or without 20 M azaserine (an HBP inhibitor) and under restricted supply of carbohydrates (CHO, i.e. without pyruvate/insulin).ResultsWhen perfused with a mixture of CHOs, a fatty acid oleate and insulin (controls), the addition of glutamine had no effect on functional parameters except for a 17% (p0.05) tissue levels of the CAC intermediates (in nmol/gww): citrate: 260 ± 10 vs. 222 ± 6 and malate 128 ± 5 vs. 103 ± 3. Inhibition of HBP with azaserine restored oleate oxidation and tissue CAC levels, but not triglyceride formation. When perfused under restricted supply of CHOs, hearts displayed significantly decreased cardiac output (65%), a greater percent contribution of glucose to pyruvate formation (60%), and lower tissue citrate and malate levels (45%). Addition of glutamine restored cardiac output and glucose contribution to pyruvate formation but not tissue CAC levels.ConclusionCollectively, these results demonstrate the capacity of glutamine to modulate energy substrate selection and function in the perfused heart. Furthermore, the potential mechanisms underlying these effects appear to be mediated via the HBP rather than anaplerosis.

Decisions about investments in the long-lived assets of transport infrastructure require some assumptions about prospective long-term demand from services using that infrastructure. To improve the basis for such predictions, the authors estimated the long-run determinants of domestic freight transport, using single-equation regressions on a cross-section of data from developed (high-income), developing (low-income) and former socialist economies. They also sought answers to two related questions. First, since statistics on national ton-kilometers of freight transport are much scarcer for developing than for developed countries, what is the scope for generalizing from data on high-income countries? Second, within what limits may one apply results obtained from data on market economies to the prospective evolution of freight transport demand in the socialist transitional economies? They report the following finds, subject to caveats related to the simple methodology used. For the sample of developed countries, and the merged samples of developed plus developing countries, total ton-kilometers of freight transport (excluding transit) are adequately explained by two variables: a country's area and total GDP. Ton-kilometers by road are chiefly explained by GDP; ton-kilometers by rail are explained by country area. Road freight in developed and developing market economies shows very similar response (in additional ton-kilometers) to variations in GDP. But the elasticity of demand for road ton-kilometers with regard to GDP should be about or above 1.25 for developing countries, compared with close to unity for the high-income countries. Demand for rail freight transport appears to be determined in closely similar ways in both groups of countries. Elasticity with GDP appears to be close to unity. Judging from the narrow basis of evidence on socialist economies (China and the former USSR were excluded for technical reasons), transport demand was determined very differently in their systems than in the market economies. The contrasts are almost entirely explained by the differences in the role of, and demand for, rail transport in the different economic systems. The road sector of freight transport, on the other hand, conforms closely to norms in the market economies; the marginal response (additional ton-kilometer for additional GDP) and elasticity with respect to GDP, appear - on the available evidence - to be close to what is found for developed market economies. In short, structural change in the socialist economies is likely to bring about far greater changes in rail freight activity than in road transport.

MECONIUM STIMULATES ALVEOLAR MACROPHAGE PROSTAGLANDIN E 2 PRODUCTION BUT NOT PROCOAGULANT ACTIVITY. 2081