Knowledge Of Blood Transfusion Among Nurses In Hospital Pulau Pinang: Nursing Responsibilities And Patient Management Related To Transfusion Reactions

Darah adalah produk yang berharga dan unik yang diperolehi daripada manusia. Darah amat penting untuk menyelamatkan nyawa dan memulihkan kesihatan manusia Blood is precious and unique products, derived from human being. It is essential in saving lives and improve human healt

Molecular Diagnostics in Advanced NSCLC: Trying to Maximize a Non-Ideal Situation

10.1097/JTO.0b013e31811f479dJournal of Thoracic Oncology28782

Knowledge of Blood Transfusion among Nurses at Hospital Pulau Pinang: Nursing Responsibilities and Patient Management Related to Transfusion Reactions

Introduction: Nurses are generally trained on the procedures of blood transfusion during their years of service. However, the level of knowledge varies among individuals and healthcare centres. Thus, this study addresses a knowledge gap regarding nurses’ knowledge and transfusion safety in the local clinical setting. Objectives: This study aimed to determine nurses’ level of knowledge of various phases of blood transfusion and associate this knowledge with their socio-professional details. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, quantitative study. The target population was in-patient ward nurses at Hospital Pulau Pinang. The systematic random sampling method was used to select 185 nurses to participate in this study. Data were collected using a validated research questionnaire that consisted of 31 items (9 items related to socio-professional factors and 22 knowledge items). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential analyses. Results: The overall knowledge score was moderate (mean = 70.44%, SD = 11.35). None of the nurses was able to answer all of the knowledge questions correctly. Of the participants, 72.29%, 71.75%, and 67.14% exhibited knowledge of blood bag collection and patient preparation; pre-transfusion nursing activities; and during and post-transfusion nursing responsibilities and management of transfusion reactions, respectively. Factors such as age, years of service, department, and availability of the transfusion policy in the ward significantly affected the mean knowledge scores. Conclusion: Nurses’ knowledge of blood transfusion at Hospital Pulau Pinang was moderate. More training and courses should be provided to improve their knowledge

Enabling multiplexed testing of pooled donor cells through whole-genome sequencing

We describe a method that enables the multiplex screening of a pool of many different donor cell lines. Our method accurately predicts each donor proportion from the pool without requiring the use of unique DNA barcodes as markers of donor identity. Instead, we take advantage of common single nucleotide polymorphisms, whole-genome sequencing, and an algorithm to calculate the proportions from the sequencing data. By testing using simulated and real data, we showed that our method robustly predicts the individual proportions from a mixed-pool of numerous donors, thus enabling the multiplexed testing of diverse donor cells en masse.National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.) (Grant RM1HG008525)Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant 74178

Investigating the Nonlinear and Conditional Effects of Trust on Effective Customer Retention --The Role of Institutional Contexts

Transacting online, customers may concern about risks regarding the vendors and the general online environment. Trust and institutional contexts are thus in place to address such concerns. The IS literature has long studied trust’s effects on customers’ shopping intention. To make better use of vendors’ limited resources in trust building, recent studies shed light on narrowing down trust’s operational boundary for a more effective range. Integrating the findings on the nonlinear and conditional effects of trust, this study aims at understanding the complex moderating effects of institutional contexts on the relationship between trust and repurchase intention. Drawing on prospect theory, we hypothesize that customers will perceive the effectiveness of institutional contexts in mitigating risks in two distinct conditions (perceived effective and perceived ineffective) and hence exhibit different repurchase patterns. Our findings reveal an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship between trust and repurchase intention in perceived-effective-contexts and a U-shaped nonlinear in perceived-ineffective-context

Investigating the Nonlinear Effects of Trust on Online Repurchase Intention -- The Role of E-Commerce Institutional Contexts

Recent literature has gone beyond assessing simple effects of trust on repurchase intention to understanding the more complex and intriguing impacts of trust on online repurchase intention in regard to the operational boundary of trust. In response to the call for further research on the boundary conditions under which trust operates in the e-commerce context, this study investigates the extent of nonlinearity on the trust-repurchase intention relationship under different perceived institutional contexts. Drawing on prospect theory, we propose that the positive relationship between trust and repurchase intention is concavely nonlinear in perceived effective contexts, and is convexly nonlinear in perceived ineffective contexts. Our hypotheses were empirically examined using survey data collected from online customers in New Zealand and Northern Ireland

Distribution and Medical Impact of Loss-of-Function Variants in the Finnish Founder Population

Exome sequencing studies in complex diseases are challenged by the allelic heterogeneity, large number and modest effect sizes of associated variants on disease risk and the presence of large numbers of neutral variants, even in phenotypically relevant genes. Isolated populations with recent bottlenecks offer advantages for studying rare variants in complex diseases as they have deleterious variants that are present at higher frequencies as well as a substantial reduction in rare neutral variation. To explore the potential of the Finnish founder population for studying low-frequency (0.5-5%) variants in complex diseases, we compared exome sequence data on 3,000 Finns to the same number of non-Finnish Europeans and discovered that, despite having fewer variable sites overall, the average Finn has more low-frequency loss-of-function variants and complete gene knockouts. We then used several well-characterized Finnish population cohorts to study the phenotypic effects of 83 enriched loss-of-function variants across 60 phenotypes in 36,262 Finns. Using a deep set of quantitative traits collected on these cohorts, we show 5 associations (p<5×10⁻⁸) including splice variants in LPA that lowered plasma lipoprotein(a) levels (P = 1.5×10⁻¹¹⁷). Through accessing the national medical records of these participants, we evaluate the LPA finding via Mendelian randomization and confirm that these splice variants confer protection from cardiovascular disease (OR = 0.84, P = 3×10⁻⁴), demonstrating for the first time the correlation between very low levels of LPA in humans with potential therapeutic implications for cardiovascular diseases. More generally, this study articulates substantial advantages for studying the role of rare variation in complex phenotypes in founder populations like the Finns and by combining a unique population genetic history with data from large population cohorts and centralized research access to National Health RegistersPublic Library of Science open acces

Assessment of phytochemical content, polyphenolic composition, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Leguminosae medicinal plants in Peninsular Malaysia

Background: Many medicinal plants from Leguminosae family can be found easily in Malaysia. These plants have been used as traditional medicines by local ethnic groups, where they are prepared as decoction, pastes for wound infections, and some have been eaten as salad. This paper focused on the assessment of antioxidant potential, antibacterial activity and classes of phytochemicals of nine plants from the Leguminosae family. Methods: Acacia auriculiformis, Bauhinia kockiana, Bauhinia purpurea, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Calliandra tergemina, Cassia surattensis, Leucaena leucocephala, Peltophorum pterocarpum, and Samanea saman were extracted with aqueous methanol and dichloromethane:methanol mixture to test for antioxidant and antibacterial activities. The Folin-Ciocalteu assay was conducted to quantify the total phenolic content and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay was used to determine the free radical quenching capacity. Antibacterial activity was assessed using disc diffusion (Kirby-Bauer) assay. Screening for major classes of phytochemical was done using standard chemical tests. Results: B. kockiana flowers and C. pulcherrima leaves contained high total phenolic content (TPC) and strong DPPH radical scavenging ability with TPC of 8280 ± 498 mg GAE/100 g, IC50 of 27.0 ± 5.0 μg/mL and TPC of 5030 ± 602 mg GAE/100 g, IC50 of 50.0 ± 5.0 μg/mL respectively. Positive correlation was observed between TPC and free radical scavenging ability. Most extracts showed antibacterial activity against Gram positive bacteria at 1 mg, while none showed activity against Gram negative bacteria at the same dose. All extracts (except Samanea saman flower) showed antibacterial activity against two strains of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with MID values ranging between 100 μg/disc and 500 μg/disc. Conclusion: The potential source of antioxidant and antibacterial agents, especially for MRSA infection treatments were found in B. kockiana, C. pulcherrima, C. tergemina and P. pterocarpum. These preliminary results would be a guide in the selection of potential candidates for further pharmacological study and in search of new drug candidate in treating MRSA infections