Assessment of the direct effects of DDAH I on tumour angiogenesis in vivo

Nitric oxide (NO) has been strongly implicated in glioma progression and angiogenesis. The endogenous inhibitors of NO synthesis, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and N-monomethyl-l-arginine (l-NMMA), are metabolized by dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), and hence, DDAH is an intracellular factor that regulates NO. However, DDAH may also have an NO-independent action. We aimed to investigate whether DDAH I has any direct role in tumour vascular development and growth independent of its NO-mediated effects, in order to establish the future potential of DDAH inhibition as an anti-angiogenic treatment strategy. A clone of rat C6 glioma cells deficient in NO production expressing a pTet Off regulatable element was identified and engineered to overexpress DDAH I in the absence of doxycycline. Xenografts derived from these cells were propagated in the presence or absence of doxycycline and susceptibility magnetic resonance imaging used to assess functional vasculature in vivo. Pathological correlates of tumour vascular density, maturation and function were also sought. In the absence of doxycycline, tumours exhibited high DDAH I expression and activity, which was suppressed in its presence. However, overexpression of DDAH I had no measurable effect on tumour growth, vessel density, function or maturation. These data suggest that in C6 gliomas DDAH has no NO-independent effects on tumour growth and angiogenesis, and that the therapeutic potential of targeting DDAH in gliomas should only be considered in the context of NO regulation

An instrument to measure job satisfaction of nursing home administrators

BACKGROUND: The psychometric properties of the nursing home administrator job satisfaction questionnaire (NHA-JSQ) are presented, and the steps used to develop this instrument. METHODS: The NHA-JSQ subscales were developed from pilot survey activities with 93 administrators, content analysis, and a research panel. The resulting survey was sent to 1,000 nursing home administrators. Factor analyses were used to determine the psychometric properties of the instrument. RESULTS: Of the 1,000 surveys mailed, 721 usable surveys were returned (72 percent response rate). The factor analyses show that the items were representative of six underlying factors (i.e., coworkers, work demands, work content, work load, work skills, and rewards). CONCLUSION: The NHA-JSQ represents a short, psychometrically sound job satisfaction instrument for use in nursing homes

Measuring the effectiveness of biomimetic robots as therapeutic tools : translating the felt security scale from English to Japanese

Biomimetic robots that resemble companion animals, and that replicate aspects of animal social behavior, could play a useful therapeutic role in the treatment of disorders such as anxiety and depression, and could act as an alternative or complement to animal-assisted therapy (AAT). Previous work in AAT has noted the importance of feelings of care, love, self-esteem to the success of a therapeutic animal intervention. These feelings, alongside safety, have been measured in human-human interaction studies using a questionnaire-based measure called the Felt Security Scale (FSS). This paper presents the translation of the FSS into Japanese in order to produce a cross-cultural instrument for evaluating the effectiveness of robot-assisted therapy (RAT). We describe the development of the new Japanese Felt Security Scale (JFSS), its validation with native Japanese speakers, and a comparison of outcomes as measured against the Japanese Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (Japanese ECR). We propose that the FSS provides a useful tool for investigating the effectiveness of biomimetic robots as therapeutic tools in English- and Japanese-speaking cultural settings

The Motivational Assessment Tool (Mat) Development And Validation Study

The purpose of the present research is to validate a measure of motivation collimated from an individual’s motivational, affective, and personality traits. The Motivational Assessment Tool (MAT) is being developed to assess multiple variables for an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to deploy individualized adaptations through various levels of learner profiling. This first study factor analyzed a pool of 303 questions aimed at reducing, refining, and developing scales. Overall, the results of the first factor analysis shows that the MAT is composed of 28 factors. The produced scales are supported by correlations with other factors identified in psychology. The MAT is envisioned to provide inputs into an intelligent tutor’s pedagogical strategy to adapt its learning methods to support the learner’s motivational type