Chemiluminescence of asbestos-activated macrophages

Chemiluminescence, a measure of reactive oxygen release by phagocytes, was compared in peritoneal exudate macrophages elicited with chrysotile asbestos, Corynebacterium parvum and saline. Chrysotile asbestos- and C. parvum-activated macrophages produced significantly more chemiluminescence than saline-elicited macrophages. In a second series of experiments the ability of opsonized chrysotile asbestos to act as a trigger for the release of chemiluminescence was tested. Opsonized chrysotile asbestos produced a dose-related release of chemiluminescence from activated macrophages except at the highest dose where chemiluminescence was reduced due, possibly, to a toxic effect of chrysotile during the assay. Opsonized latex also triggered a dose-related chemiluminescent response from activated macrophages. The potential role of toxic reactive oxygen species, released from macrophages, in the development of asbestos-related pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis are discussed

Can Patient Safety Incident Reports Be Used to Compare Hospital Safety? Results from a Quantitative Analysis of the English National Reporting and Learning System Data.

BACKGROUND: The National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) collects reports about patient safety incidents in England. Government regulators use NRLS data to assess the safety of hospitals. This study aims to examine whether annual hospital incident reporting rates can be used as a surrogate indicator of individual hospital safety. Secondly assesses which hospital characteristics are correlated with high incident reporting rates and whether a high reporting hospital is safer than those lower reporting hospitals. Finally, it assesses which health-care professionals report more incidents of patient harm, which report more near miss incidents and what hospital factors encourage reporting. These findings may suggest methods for increasing the utility of reporting systems. METHODS: This study used a mix methods approach for assessing NRLS data. The data were investigated using Pareto analysis and regression models to establish which patients are most vulnerable to reported harm. Hospital factors were correlated with institutional reporting rates over one year to examine what factors influenced reporting. Staff survey findings regarding hospital safety culture were correlated with reported rates of incidents causing harm; no harm and death to understand what barriers influence error disclosure. FINDINGS: 5,879,954 incident reports were collected from acute hospitals over the decade. 70.3% of incidents produced no harm to the patient and 0.9% were judged by the reporter to have caused severe harm or death. Obstetrics and Gynaecology reported the most no harm events [OR 1.61(95%CI: 1.12 to 2.27), p<0.01] and pharmacy was the hospital location where most near-misses were captured [OR 3.03(95%CI: 2.04 to 4.55), p<0.01]. Clinicians were significantly more likely to report death than other staff [OR 3.04(95%CI: 2.43 to 3.80) p<0.01]. A higher ratio of clinicians to beds correlated with reduced rate of harm reported [RR = -1.78(95%Cl: -3.33 to -0.23), p = 0.03]. Litigation claims per bed were significantly negatively associated with incident reports. Patient satisfaction and mortality outcomes were not significantly associated with reporting rates. Staff survey responses revealed that keeping reports confidential, keeping staff informed about incidents and giving feedback on safety initiatives increased reporting rates [r = 0.26 (p<0.01), r = 0.17 (p = 0.04), r = 0.23 (p = 0.01), r = 0.20 (p = 0.02)]. CONCLUSION: The NRLS is the largest patient safety reporting system in the world. This study did not demonstrate many hospital characteristics to significantly influence overall reporting rate. There were no association between size of hospital, number of staff, mortality outcomes or patient satisfaction outcomes and incident reporting rate. The study did show that hospitals where staff reported more incidents had reduced litigation claims and when clinician staffing is increased fewer incidents reporting patient harm are reported, whilst near misses remain the same. Certain specialties report more near misses than others, and doctors report more harm incidents than near misses. Staff survey results showed that open environments and reduced fear of punitive response increases incident reporting. We suggest that reporting rates should not be used to assess hospital safety. Different healthcare professionals focus on different types of safety incidents and focusing on these areas whilst creating a responsive, confidential learning environment will increase staff engagement with error disclosure

Pastoral groups and cereal storage systems. Report on an exploratory visit to Nigeria (NRI report no. R1999 (S))

Following an extensive literature review (Fowler and Moorehead, 1992) into grain storage and marketing by pastoralists, a first field study was conducted to look at the social and technical aspects of grain storage, marketing and production amongst Fulani pastoralists in Nigeria

Variability of Objectively Measured Sedentary Behavior

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate variability of sedentary behavior (SB) throughout a 7-d measurement period and to determine if G7 d of SB measurement would be comparable with the typical 7-d measurement period. Methods: Retrospective data from Ball State University_s Clinical Exercise Physiology Laboratory on 293 participants (99 men, 55 T 14 yr, body mass index = 29 T 5 kgImj2; 194 women, 51 T 12 yr, body mass index = 27 T 7 kgImj2) with seven consecutive days of data collected with ActiGraph accelerometers were analyzed (ActiGraph, Fort Walton Beach, FL). Time spent in SB (either G100 counts per minute or G150 counts per minute) and breaks in SB were compared between days and by sex using a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. Stepwise regression was performed to determine if G7 d of SB measurement were comparable with the 7-d method, using an adjusted R2 of Q0.9 as a criterion for equivalence. Results: There were no differences in daily time spent in SB between the 7 d for all participants. However, there was a significant interaction between sex and days, with women spending less time in SB on both Saturdays and Sundays than men when using the 100 counts per minute cut-point. Stepwise regression showed using any 4 d would be comparable with a 7-d measurement (R2 9 0.90). Conclusions: When assessed over a 7-d measurement period, SB appears to be very stable from day to day, although there may be some small differences in time spent in SB and breaks in SB between men and women, particularly on weekend days. The stepwise regression analysis suggests that a measurement period as short as 4 d could provide comparable data (91% of variance) with a 1-wk assessment. Shorter assessment periods would reduce both researcher and subject burden in data collection

Crystal and molecular structure of bis(8-phenylmenthyl) 2-(2-methyl-5-oxo-3-cyclohexen-1-yl)propandioate, C\u3csub\u3e42\u3c/sub\u3eH\u3csub\u3e54\u3c/sub\u3eO\u3csub\u3e5\u3c/sub\u3e• CH\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3eCN

The X-ray crystal structure of the title compound, as crystallized from acetonitrile-water was determined. The relative stereochemistry of the cyclohexenone ring with respect to the 8-phenylmenthyl esters was determined. The title compound crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric space group P21, with a=8.9850(10) Å, b=15.575(3) Å, c=14.478(2) Å, β=94.61(2)°, and D calc=1.118 g cm−3 for Z=2

Preparation, Characterization and Reactivity of (3-Methylpentadienyl)iron(1+) Cations

The title cations (9 and 12) were prepared by dehydration of (3-methyl-2,4-pentadien-1-ol)Fe(CO)2L+ complexes. The structure of the (CO)2PPh3-ligated 12 was determined by single-crystal X-ray analysis. Reaction of carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles to (3-methylpentadienyl)Fe(CO)3+ cations 9 and 12 proceeds either via attack at the dienyl terminus to give (3-methyl-1,3Z-diene)iron complexes or via attack at the internal carbon, followed by carbon monoxide insertion and reductive elimination to afford 3-methyl-4-substituted cyclohexenones. Cyclohexenone formation was found to be prevalent for addition of stabilized nucleophiles with strongly dissociated counterions to cation 9 (L = CO). Reaction of cation 9 with sodium bis[(−)-8-phenylmenthyl] malonate gave a single diastereomeric cyclohexenone

Monads and D-instantons

Motivated by twisted N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in 4 dimensions, a natural extension of the monad (ADHM) construction relevant to D-instantons is considered. We show that a family of Yang-Mills instantons can be constructed from D-instantons. We discuss some possible roles of reciprocity in D-brane physics. We conjecture the existence of universal instantons together with a generalized Fourier-Nahm transformation as an unifying framework of D-brane physics.Comment: 37 pages, TeX with harvmac.tex and epsf.tex, 3 figure

Synthesis and reactivity of tricarbonyl(1-methoxycarbonyl-5-phenylpentadienyl)iron(1+) cation

Tricarbonyl(1-methoxycarbonyl-5-phenylpentadienyl)iron(1+) hexafluorophosphate (7) was prepared in two steps from tricarbonyl(methyl 6-oxo-2,4-hexadienoate)iron. While addition of carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles to 7 generally occurs at the phenyl-substituted dienyl carbon to afford (2,4-dienoate)iron products, the addition of phthalimide proceeded at C2 to afford a (pentenediyl)iron product (18). Complex 18 was structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. The reaction of the title cation with carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles was examined. In general, the products arise from nucleophilic attack at C5 to give E,E- or E,Z-dienoate iron complexes. Addition of phthalimide anion proceeds at C2 of the cation to afford a (pentenediyl)iron complex, whose structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis

The Virginia Uniform Trust Code

In its 2005 Session, the Virginia General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 891,1 thus adopting the Uniform Trust Code ( UTC ), with modifications considered appropriate to this state\u27s institutions, traditions, and jurisprudence. The Virginia Uniform Trust Code ( Virginia UTC ), set forth in new Chapter 31 of Title 55 of the Virginia Code, has an effective date of July 1, 2006, but, once in effect, it will be applicable (with some exceptions) to trusts created before, on, or after that date. The new Virginia UTC, which encompasses the great bulk of the principles and rules that comprise the law of trusts in Virginia, has great relevance and importance to lawyers who specialize in estate planning and to lawyers who represent trustees or trust beneficiaries. It also affects lawyers whose clients, as thirdparties, have transactional relationships with trustees. The legislation will also affect institutional fiduciaries, accountants, and other non-lawyer professionals whose activities involve administering trusts or advising settlors, trustees, and trust beneficiaries. This article is directed to all of those audiences, with the goal of informing them about the principal features of the legislation and its implications for their practices. In doing so, the article will identify most of the relatively small number of differences between the Virginia UTC and the official text of the UTC as adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws ( NCCUSL )