Using Our Voice

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A Celebration Like No Other

The year 2020 may be gone and, as the designated Year of the Nurse and Midwife, not celebrated as planned. In answering the call to care in a worldwide pandemic, nurses have much to be proud of. As 2021 rolls around, much remains to be done

The Symptom Experience of Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: An Integrative Review

Background: Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease with limited treatment options. More than 80% of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed in advanced stages and often have debilitating symptoms, making symptom management paramount, yet the symptom experience of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (APC) is not well understood. Objective: The purpose of this integrative review is to synthesize the current evidence regarding the symptom experience of patients with APC. Method: An integrative literature review was conducted to identify the patient symptom experience in studies published from 2005 to 2015. Results: Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria. All studies used a quantitative approach; 44% were quasi-experimental, 31% were descriptive, and 25% were correlational. Physical symptoms, especially pain, were the primary focus in most studies. Fatigue, loss of appetite, and impaired sense of well-being were prevalent and reported by patients to be of high intensity. Few studies examined psychological symptoms in patients with APC, although anxiety and depression were noted. Conclusion: Findings suggest that physical and psychological symptoms are prevalent, some with high intensity. Preselection of symptom inventories limits our ability to fully understand the symptom experience of patients with APC. Future qualitative work is needed to provide a more in-depth understanding of symptoms, especially symptom quality and distress level, from patients' perspectives. More studies are needed to explore psychological symptoms and the interaction of physical and psychological symptoms. Implications for Practice: Findings help healthcare givers to better understand the symptom experience of their APC patients

Characteristics associated with US Walk to School programs

Participation in Walk to School (WTS) programs has grown substantially in the US since its inception; however, no attempt has been made to systematically describe program use or factors associated with implementation of environment/policy changes

Identification and characterisation of endogenous Avian Leukosis Virus subgroup E (ALVE) insertions in chicken whole genome sequencing data

Background: Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are the remnants of retroviral infections which can elicit prolonged genomic and immunological stress on their host organism. In chickens, endogenous Avian Leukosis Virus subgroup E (ALVE) expression has been associated with reductions in muscle growth rate and egg production, as well as providing the potential for novel recombinant viruses. However, ALVEs can remain in commercial stock due to their incomplete identification and association with desirable traits, such as ALVE21 and slow feathering. The availability of whole genome sequencing (WGS) data facilitates high-throughput identification and characterisation of these retroviral remnants. Results: We have developed obsERVer, a new bioinformatic ERV identification pipeline which can identify ALVEs in WGS data without further sequencing. With this pipeline, 20 ALVEs were identified across eight elite layer lines from Hy-Line International, including four novel integrations and characterisation of a fast feathered phenotypic revertant that still contained ALVE21. These bioinformatically detected sites were subsequently validated using new high-throughput KASP assays, which showed that obsERVer was highly precise and exhibited a 0% false discovery rate. A further fifty-seven diverse chicken WGS datasets were analysed for their ALVE content, identifying a total of 322 integration sites, over 80% of which were novel. Like exogenous ALV, ALVEs show site preference for proximity to protein-coding genes, but also exhibit signs of selection against deleterious integrations within genes. Conclusions: obsERVer is a highly precise and broadly applicable pipeline for identifying retroviral integrations in WGS data. ALVE identification in commercial layers has aided development of high-throughput diagnostic assays which will aid ALVE management, with the aim to eventually eradicate ALVEs from high performance lines. Analysis of non-commercial chicken datasets with obsERVer has revealed broad ALVE diversity and facilitates the study of the biological effects of these ERVs in wild and domesticated populations

MHC-B variation in maternal and paternal synthetic lines of the Argentinian Campero INTA chicken

The Campero-INTA chicken of Argentina was developed to provide a robust bird that can survive under Argentinian pasture conditions with no significant additional nutrition, producing a source of animal protein for small producers or low-income families. In previous work we described the AH paternal line of Campero and its Major Histocompatibility Complex B region (MHC-B) variation. In this work we analyzed the three remaining synthetic lines used to produce the Campero-INTA production bird: lines AS, A and E. Because of the association between variation within the MHC of chickens and disease resistance, MHC variation within this breed is of particular interest. MHC variability within the lines used to produce the Campero-INTA chicken was examined using a 90 SNP panel encompassing the chicken MHC-B region plus the VNTR, LEI0258, located within the chicken MHC. Across all four lines 12 haplotypes were found, with 7 of these being previously reported in North America/European breeds, reflecting the original breed sources for these birds. Three Campero unique haplotypes were found, two of which likely originated from MHC recombination events. MHC-B variation for all lines involved with production of the final Campero-INTA bird have now been determined.EEA PergaminoFil: Iglesias, Gabriela M. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Alto Valle y Valle Medio. Escuela de Veterinaria y Producción Agroindustrial. Cátedra de Genética; ArgentinaFil: Beker, María P. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Alto Valle y Valle Medio. Escuela de Veterinaria y Producción Agroindustrial. Cátedra de Genética; ArgentinaFil: Remolins, José S. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Alto Valle y Valle Medio. Escuela de Veterinaria y Producción Agroindustrial. Cátedra de Genética; ArgentinaFil: Canet, Zulma Edith. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino. Sección Avicultura; ArgentinaFil: Canet, Zulma Edith. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria. Cátedra de Genética; ArgentinaFil: Librera, José. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Cátedra de Genética; ArgentinaFil: Cantaro, Horacio Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Alto Valle; ArgentinaFil: Cantaro, Horacio Luis. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Alto Valle y Valle Medio. Escuela de Veterinaria y Producción Agroindustrial. Cátedra de Genética; ArgentinaFil: Maizon, Daniel Omar Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Anguil; ArgentinaFil: Fulton, Janet E. Hy-Line International; Estados Unido

Displaced but not replaced: the impact of e-learning on academic identities in higher education.

Challenges facing universities are leading many to implement institutional strategies to incorporate e-learning rather than leaving its adoption up to enthusiastic individuals. Although there is growing understanding about the impact of e-learning on the student experience, there is less understanding of academics’ perceptions of e-learning and its impact on their identities. This paper explores the changing nature of academic identities revealed through case study research into the implementation of e-learning at one UK university. By providing insight into the lived experiences of academics in a university in which technology is not only transforming access to knowledge but also influencing the balance of power between academic and student in knowledge production and use, it is suggested that academics may experience a jolt to their ‘trajectory of self’ when engaging with e-learning. The potential for e-learning to prompt loss of teacher presence and displacement as knowledge expert may appear to undermine the ontological security of their academic identity

Endogenous Avian Leukosis Virus subgroup E elements of the chicken reference genome

The chicken reference genome contains two endogenous Avian Leukosis Virus subgroup E (ALVE) insertions, but gaps and unresolved repetitive sequences in previous assemblies has hindered their precise characterisation. Detailed analysis of the most recent reference genome (GRCg6a) now shows both ALVEs within contiguous chromosome assemblies for the first time. ALVE6 (ALVE-JFevA) and ALVE-JFevB are both located on chromosome 1, with ALVE6 close to the p arm telomere. ALVE-JFevB is a structurally intact element containing the ALVE gag, pol and env genes, and is capable of forming replication competent viruses. In contrast, ALVE6 (ALVE-JFevA) contains a 3352 bp 5’ truncation and lacks the entire 5’ LTR and gag gene. Despite this, ALVE6 remains able to produce intact envelope protein, likely due to a mutation in the recognition site for a known inhibitory miRNA (miR-155). Whole genome resequencing datasets from layers, broilers and three independent sources of wild-caught red junglefowl were surveyed for the presence of each of these reference genome ALVEs. ALVE-JFevB was found in no other chicken or red junglefowl genomes, whereas ALVE6 was identified in some layers, broilers and native breeds, but not within any other red junglefowl genome. Improved assembly contiguity has facilitated better characterisation of the two ALVEs of the chicken reference genome. However, both the limited ALVE content and unique presence of ALVE-JFevB suggests that the reference individual is unrepresentative of ancestral Gallus gallus ALVE diversity