The Nature and Meaning of Insulin Pump Use in Emerging Adults with Type 1 Diabetes

Emerging adults (ages 18-25) with type 1 diabetes are a vulnerable population as they transition from the family home and their pediatric healthcare providers and deal with multiple competing demands. There is very little literature addressing those in this developmental group who use insulin pump technology for diabetes self-management. Listening to the voices of emerging adults who use insulin pump technology will increase our understanding of their experience and will give health care providers the opportunity to develop evidence based practice based on their lived experiences. The qualitative research, using the hermeneutic phenomenological approach described by Max van Manen, provides a deeper understanding of the day-to-day journey of the emerging adult. Four themes represent the essences that were ultimately viewed as strategies used by emerging adults as they crossed from adolescence to adulthood with type 1 diabetes and an insulin pump. This journey is presented metaphorically as learning to walk a tightrope

Regulation of PPARγ Coactivator-1α Function and Expression in Muscle: Effect of Exercise

PPARγ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) is considered to be a major regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis. Though first discovered in brown adipose tissue, this coactivator has emerged as a coordinator of mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle via enhanced transcription of many nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial proteins. Stimuli such as exercise provoke the activation of signalling cascades that lead to the induction of PGC-1α. Posttranslational modifications also regulate the function of PGC-1α, with a multitude of upstream molecules targeting the protein to modify its activity and/or expression. Previous research has established a positive correlation between resistance to fatigue and skeletal muscle mitochondrial content. Recently, studies have begun to elucidate the specific role of PGC-1α in exercise-related skeletal muscle adaptations, with several studies identifying it as a dominant regulator of organelle synthesis. This paper will highlight the function, regulation, and expression of PGC-1α, as well as the role of the coactivator during exercise adaptations

Louisiana Tech’s Parkinson Resource Center Nursing Student Scholars

The abstract for this presentation can be downloaded by clicking on the blue download button

An evaluation of Bradfordizing effects

The purpose of this paper is to apply and evaluate the bibliometric method Bradfordizing for information retrieval (IR) experiments. Bradfordizing is used for generating core document sets for subject-specific questions and to reorder result sets from distributed searches. The method will be applied and tested in a controlled scenario of scientific literature databases from social and political sciences, economics, psychology and medical science (SOLIS, SoLit, USB Köln Opac, CSA Sociological Abstracts, World Affairs Online, Psyndex and Medline) and 164 standardized topics. An evaluation of the method and its effects is carried out in two laboratory-based information retrieval experiments (CLEF and KoMoHe) using a controlled document corpus and human relevance assessments. The results show that Bradfordizing is a very robust method for re-ranking the main document types (journal articles and monographs) in today’s digital libraries (DL). The IR tests show that relevance distributions after re-ranking improve at a significant level if articles in the core are compared with articles in the succeeding zones. The items in the core are significantly more often assessed as relevant, than items in zone 2 (z2) or zone 3 (z3). The improvements between the zones are statistically significant based on the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the paired T-Test

Consent, including advanced consent, of older adults to research in care homes: a qualitative study of stakeholders' views in South Wales

Background Care home residents, especially those lacking capacity to provide consent for themselves, are frequently excluded from research, thus limiting generalisability of study findings. We set out to explore stakeholders’ views about the ethical and practical challenges associated with recruiting care home residents into research studies. Methods Qualitative individual interviews with care home residents (n = 14), their relatives (n = 14), and general practitioners (GPs) (n = 10), and focus groups (n = 2) with care home staff. Interviews focused on the issues of older adults consenting to research in care homes, including advanced consent, in general and through reference to a particular study on the use of probiotics to prevent Antibiotic Associated Diarrhoea. Data were analysed using a thematic approach incorporating themes that had been identified in advance, and themes derived from the data. Researchers discussed evidence for themes, and reached consensus on the final themes. Results Respondents were generally accepting of low risk observational studies and slightly less accepting of low risk randomised trials of medicinal products. Although respondents identified some practical barriers to informed consent, consenting arrangements were considered workable. Residents and relatives varied in the amount of detail they wanted included in information sheets and consent discussions, but were generally satisfied that an advanced consent model was acceptable and appropriate. Opinions differed about what should happen should residents lose capacity during a research study. Conclusions Research staff should be mindful of research guidance and ensure that they have obtained an appropriate level of informed consent without overwhelming the participant with unnecessary detail. For research involving medicinal products, research staff should also be more explicit when recruiting that consent is still valid should an older person lose capacity during a trial provided the individual did not previously state a wish to be withdrawn if they lose capacity, and provided they do not indicate objection or resistance after loss of capacity

Fungal iron availability during deep seated candidiasis is defined by a complex interplay involving systemic and local events

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

4th Biennial Employment Law Institute

Materials from the 4th Biennial Employment Law Institute held by UK/CLE in June 1994

Comparative Genomics of Gardnerella vaginalis Strains Reveals Substantial Differences in Metabolic and Virulence Potential

Gardnerella vaginalis is described as a common vaginal bacterial species whose presence correlates strongly with bacterial vaginosis (BV). Here we report the genome sequencing and comparative analyses of three strains of G. vaginalis. Strains 317 (ATCC 14019) and 594 (ATCC 14018) were isolated from the vaginal tracts of women with symptomatic BV, while Strain 409-05 was isolated from a healthy, asymptomatic individual with a Nugent score of 9.Substantial genomic rearrangement and heterogeneity were observed that appeared to have resulted from both mobile elements and substantial lateral gene transfer. These genomic differences translated to differences in metabolic potential. All strains are equipped with significant virulence potential, including genes encoding the previously described vaginolysin, pili for cytoadhesion, EPS biosynthetic genes for biofilm formation, and antimicrobial resistance systems, We also observed systems promoting multi-drug and lantibiotic extrusion. All G. vaginalis strains possess a large number of genes that may enhance their ability to compete with and exclude other vaginal colonists. These include up to six toxin-antitoxin systems and up to nine additional antitoxins lacking cognate toxins, several of which are clustered within each genome. All strains encode bacteriocidal toxins, including two lysozyme-like toxins produced uniquely by strain 409-05. Interestingly, the BV isolates encode numerous proteins not found in strain 409-05 that likely increase their pathogenic potential. These include enzymes enabling mucin degradation, a trait previously described to strongly correlate with BV, although commonly attributed to non-G. vaginalis species.Collectively, our results indicate that all three strains are able to thrive in vaginal environments, and therein the BV isolates are capable of occupying a niche that is unique from 409-05. Each strain has significant virulence potential, although genomic and metabolic differences, such as the ability to degrade mucin, indicate that the detection of G. vaginalis in the vaginal tract provides only partial information on the physiological potential of the organism