Approaches to managing chronic constipation in older people within the community setting

Constipation is a common presenting problem within the community setting, but its treatment is often unsatisfactory. It is important for nurses to remember that constipation is a symptom and not a disease. For older adults, constipation can have a gradual onset over a number of years, with many people ‘self-medicating’ with over-the-counter laxatives and herbal products, which then result in the need for daily laxatives. This article will consider best practice for the assessment, treatment, and prevention of constipation in adults within the community

RNA Sequencing Reveals Novel Transcripts from Sympathetic Stellate Ganglia During Cardiac Sympathetic Hyperactivity.

Cardiovascular disease is the most prevalent age-related illness worldwide, causing approximately 15 million deaths every year. Hypertension is central in determining cardiovascular risk and is a strong predictive indicator of morbidity and mortality; however, there remains an unmet clinical need for disease-modifying and prophylactic interventions. Enhanced sympathetic activity is a well-established contributor to the pathophysiology of hypertension, however the cellular and molecular changes that increase sympathetic neurotransmission are not known. The aim of this study was to identify key changes in the transcriptome in normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats. We validated 15 of our top-scoring genes using qRT-PCR, and network and enrichment analyses suggest that glutamatergic signalling plays a key role in modulating Ca2+ balance within these ganglia. Additionally, phosphodiesterase activity was found to be altered in stellates obtained from the hypertensive rat, suggesting that impaired cyclic nucleotide signalling may contribute to disturbed Ca2+ homeostasis and sympathetic hyperactivity in hypertension. We have also confirmed the presence of these transcripts in human donor stellate samples, suggesting that key genes coupled to neurotransmission are conserved. The data described here may provide novel targets for future interventions aimed at treating sympathetic hyperactivity associated with cardiovascular disease and other dysautonomias

Fabrication of U233/aluminium fuel plates for a sub-critical assembly - a second report.

Uranium-233 (as 938..66 g uranium dioxide) was fabricated into 176 full-size, 20 'half-size' and 2 'quarter-size' aluminium clad fuel plated. Each full-size plate contained 5 compact and 'half-size' and 'quarter-size' plates contained 2 compacts and 1 compact respectively; a compact consisted of a cold-pressed dispersion of about 1.5 g of uranium dioxide in aluminium. The technique involved mixing uranium dioxide and aluminium powders, pressing the compacts in a steel die, end-loading them into a prefabricated aluminium can and end-welding the can; following this the can underwent radiographic inspection for uniformity, decontamination, leak detection and acceptance tests, and final decontamination. Maximum permissible radiation doses to hands and bodies of the operators were not exceeded

An improved method for extruding and sintering beryllium oxide.

A technique for the extrusion and sintering of beryllium oxide to produce high density, fine-grained, high strength material were modified and improved. This resulted in beryllium oxide (250 p.p.m. Fe) which after extrusion and sintering for 5 hours at 1400oC in nitrogen, had an average grain size 6 pts, a mean modulus of rupture equal to 34.840 p.c.i. when tested in 4-point bentiac and a density range of 2.86 to 2.90 g cm-3. Further modifications reduced the variations in grain size and density of the sintered specimens and increased the mean modulus of rupture. For example, double extruded material, when sintered for 6 hours at 1400oC in nitrogen had an average grain size of 8pm, a density of 2.92 g cm-3 and a mean modulus of rupture of 45,300 p.s.i

Coordination when there are restricted and unrestricted options

One might expect that, in pure coordination games, coordination would become less frequent as the number of options increases. Contrary to this expectation, we report an experiment which found more frequent coordination when the option set was unrestricted than when it was restricted. To try to explain this result, we develop a method for eliciting the general rules that subjects use to identify salient options in restricted and unrestricted sets. We find that each such rule, if used by all subjects, would generate greater coordination in restricted sets. However, subjects tend to apply different rules to restricted and unrestricted sets