Gaps in Knowledge and Awareness Related to Equipment Safety Among Nursing Personnel Working in Pediatric and Neonatal Medical- Surgical Icus at Tertiary Care Hospital

Equipments are the essential part of any pediatric or neonatal ICU required for monitoring and care to children and neonates during the ICU stay. The present study was conducted to identify gaps in knowledge and awareness related to equipment safety among nursing personnel working in pediatric and neonatal medical-surgical ICUs in a tertiary care hospital. Sixty one nursing personnel working in pediatric and neonatal ICUs were enrolled using universal sampling technique. A structured pretested and validated tool containing knowledge and awareness questionnaire was used to collect the data ( α = 0.82). More than half of the nursing personnel were between the age group of 26-35 years with the mean age of 30.24 ± 6.56 (22–46). Majority nursing personnel were female (93.4%), working as sister grade II (77%, working as bedside nurses) in PICU ((42.6%), with most having BSc Nursing as their professional qualification, Majority of nursing personnel (83.6%) had not attended in-service education programme and half of them did not have any bedside demonstration of the equipments prior to its installation in the unit. Majority nursing personnel were having medium knowledge (68.9%) and awareness scores (65.6%) related to equipment safety with mean knowledge and awareness scores of 11.5 ± 1.7 (6-16) and 32.9 ± 3.4 (20–40) respectively. No correlation was observed between knowledge and awareness scores of the nursing personnel (p> 0.05)

Validation of simple sequence length polymorphism regions of commonly used mouse strains for marker assisted speed congenics screening.

Marker assisted speed congenics technique is commonly used to facilitate backcrossing of mouse strains in nearly half the time it normally takes otherwise. Traditionally, the technique is performed by analyzing PCR amplified regions of simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) markers between the recipient and donor strains: offspring with the highest number of markers showing the recipient genome across all chromosomes is chosen for the next generation. Although there are well-defined panels of SSLP makers established between certain pairs of mice strains, they are incomplete for most strains. The availability of well-established marker sets for speed congenic screens would enable the scientific community to transfer mutations across strain backgrounds. In this study, we tested the suitability of over 400 SSLP marker sets among 10 mouse strains commonly used for generating genetically engineered models. The panel of markers presented here can readily identify the specified strains and will be quite useful in marker assisted speed congenic screens. Moreover, unlike newer single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array methods which require sophisticated equipment, the SSLP markers panel described here only uses PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis of amplified products; therefore it can be performed in most research laboratories

Human-like NSG Mouse Glycoproteins Sialylation Pattern Changes the Phenotype of Human Lymphocytes and Sensitivity to HIV-1 Infection

BACKGROUND: The use of immunodeficient mice transplanted with human hematopoietic stem cells is an accepted approach to study human-specific infectious diseases such as HIV-1 and to investigate multiple aspects of human immune system development. However, mouse and human are different in sialylation patterns of proteins due to evolutionary mutations of the CMP-N-acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase (CMAH) gene that prevent formation of N-glycolylneuraminic acid from N-acetylneuraminic acid. How changes in the mouse glycoproteins\u27 chemistry affect phenotype and function of transplanted human hematopoietic stem cells and mature human immune cells in the course of HIV-1 infection are not known. RESULTS: We mutated mouse CMAH in the NOD/scid-IL2Rγ CONCLUSION: NSG-cma

Drug Susceptibility in Leishmania Isolates Following Miltefosine Treatment in Cases of Visceral Leishmaniasis and Post Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis

Resistance to antimonials has emerged as a major hurdle to the treatment and control of VL and led to the introduction of Miltefosine as first line treatment in the Indian subcontinent. MIL is an oral drug with a long half-life, and it is feared that resistance may emerge rapidly, threatening control efforts under the VL elimination program. There is an urgent need for monitoring treatment efficacy and emergence of drug resistance in the field. In a set of VL/PKDL cases recruited for MIL treatment, we observed comparable drug susceptibility in pre- and post-treatment isolates from cured VL patients while MIL susceptibility was significantly reduced in isolates from VL relapse and PKDL cases. The PKDL isolates showed higher tolerance to MIL as compared to VL isolates. Both VL and PKDL isolates were uniformly susceptible to PMM. MIL transporter genes LdMT/LdRos3 were previously reported as potential resistance markers in strains in which MIL resistance was experimentally induced. The point mutations and the down-regulated expression of these transporters observed in vitro could, however, not be verified in natural populations of parasites. LdMT/LdRos3 genes therefore, do not appear to be suitable markers so far for monitoring drug susceptibility in clinical leishmanial isolates

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Use of simulation among nursing students in learning the management of common pediatric conditions

Purpose: The purpose of this study is aimed to assess the impact of simulation in addition to conventional training on knowledge and self-efficacy of the nursing students in handling common pediatric conditions covered under integrated management of neonatal and childhood illnesses. Methods: In a pretest–posttest control group design, 61 nursing students were randomly assigned to an experimental and control groups. The intervention for the control group consisted of 30 h conventional teaching on the management of common pediatric conditions, while the experimental group received additional simulation training of 5 h duration along with conventional teaching. Results: Both experimental (n = 30) and control groups (n = 30) were similar in demographic characteristics and baseline academic qualifications. There was a significant increase in knowledge and self-efficacy scores in both the groups (P < 0.001) with postintervention scores being significantly higher for knowledge (17.8 [2.1] vs. 15.5 [1.9], P < 0.001) and self-efficacy (34.4 [2.5] vs. 32.3 [2.9], P = 0.004) in the experimental group. Conclusion: An add-on simulation-based training to conventional teaching led to better knowledge and self-efficacy level in handling common pediatric conditions

Effectiveness of sodium hypochlorite gel and solutions in endodontics: A systematic review

Aim: The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the superiority of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) liquid or NaOCl gel in disinfecting root canals. Methods: Online electronic databases such as PubMed-MEDLINE, Scopus, and Embase were explored for suitable studies. In this evaluation, papers were deemed eligible for the data extraction if they included in vitro experiments using NaOCl liquid or NaOCl gel for canal irrigation and its influence on the smear layer, as well as their elimination of the bacteria from the root canal. The review was registered in International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews with registration number CRD420223441126. Results: One hundred and sixty-one articles were found after initial screening and four articles were included for qualitative synthesis. Overall risk of bias was “high.” Two studies did not show significant variations among 2.5% NaOCl solution and gel. Conclusion: As per rigorous investigation done, NaOCl solution proved more efficient against Enterococcus faecalis than its gel form. More research is needed to determine the best effective NaOCl type, concentration, duration, and treatment regimens

Formulation and Evaluation Study of Polyherbal Formulations towards Antidiabetic, Antilipidemic and Water Intake

Present investigation has to undertake for estimation of Antidiabetic, antilipidemic and water intake study in Polyherbal formulation. Total flavonoid content was64.01 mg/ml which is catechin equivalent, while Total phenolic content was 142.20 mg/ml, it shown strong anti-oxidant properties are indicated by the relatively high gallic acid content. The polyherbal juice's DPPHactivity was found to be 68.45% and for polyherbal formulations A and B to be 55.04% and 58.85%. The RC50 value for the DPPH scavenging assay was reported to be 6.0 g/ml. Quantitative Analysis of Phytoconstituents in Formulation was carried out using preliminary phytochemical assays and HPTLC

Validation of simple sequence length polymorphism regions of commonly used mouse strains for marker assisted speed congenics screening.

Marker assisted speed congenics technique is commonly used to facilitate backcrossing of mouse strains in nearly half the time it normally takes otherwise. Traditionally, the technique is performed by analyzing PCR amplified regions of simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) markers between the recipient and donor strains: offspring with the highest number of markers showing the recipient genome across all chromosomes is chosen for the next generation. Although there are well-defined panels of SSLP makers established between certain pairs of mice strains, they are incomplete for most strains. The availability of well-established marker sets for speed congenic screens would enable the scientific community to transfer mutations across strain backgrounds. In this study, we tested the suitability of over 400 SSLP marker sets among 10 mouse strains commonly used for generating genetically engineered models. The panel of markers presented here can readily identify the specified strains and will be quite useful in marker assisted speed congenic screens. Moreover, unlike newer single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array methods which require sophisticated equipment, the SSLP markers panel described here only uses PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis of amplified products; therefore it can be performed in most research laboratories