Evaluating Blood Pressure and Hypertension Awareness in Municipal Workers in the Southeast US

The primary purpose of this study was to describe municipal workers’ blood pressure (BP) status and awareness; the secondary purpose was to examine the association between BP misconception and department. Municipal employees in a southeastern rural community (n=75) were asked to participate in a 15-minute survey, including the BASIS Hypertension Awareness survey, and blood pressure measurements to determine hypertension risk. Results show a significant difference in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) between police with a higher DBP of 87.64 ± 10.9 mm Hg and fire departments 78.98 ± 11.1 mm Hg (p=0.005), a significant difference in DBP between city hall/public works with a DBP of 86.47 ± 7.8 mm Hg and the lower DBP of the fire department of 78.98 ± 11.1 mm Hg (p=0.039), and a significant difference in total BASIS score between city hall/public works with a higher score of 4.58 ± 2.4 compared to the police department score of 3.01 ± 1.4 (p=0.017). It is recommended that lifestyle changes are utilized with municipal workers to manage blood pressure and improve blood pressure awareness such as regular BP testing, dietary changes, consistent physical activity, reducing physical inactivity, sleeping 6-8 hours per night, and limiting occupational stress

Creating an Unbroken Line of Becoming in Live Music Performance

The dissertation provides an approach to the pedagogy of musical expression in applied music study. Exercises are provided which support a student’s mastery of the mechanics of grouping, and this mastery is put to work in an adaptation of the work of the great Russian acting teacher, Constantine Stanislavski. Mapping of embodiment schema in the manner of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) is asserted as a useful interface between grouped pitch objects and meaning; mappings are utilized by the instrumental music performer in the same manner as Stanislavski taught his acting students to utilize given circumstances. The discourse situates all of these skills in a gradually-emerging present; the exercises challenge the student to achieve what Stanislavski calls an unbroken line—a spontaneous and unique line of continually-restructuring narrative that evolves in real-time. Throughout the work, the phenomenon of grouping is examined in terms of (1) its relationship to meaning, (2) the physiology which supports it, (3) the Gestalt laws of similarity and trajectory which model it, (4) the parameters of unmarked performance nuance (vibrato, articulation, etc.) which can be used by a performer to project it, and (5) the state of continual evolution which characterizes it in the diachronic context of music

Near-infrared-actuated devices for remotely controlled drug delivery

A reservoir that could be remotely triggered to release a drug would enable the patient or physician to achieve on-demand, reproducible, repeated, and tunable dosing. Such a device would allow precise adjustment of dosage to desired effect, with a consequent minimization of toxicity, and could obviate repeated drug administrations or device implantations, enhancing patient compliance. It should exhibit low off-state leakage to minimize basal effects, and tunable on-state release profiles that could be adjusted from pulsatile to sustained in real time. Despite the clear clinical need for a device that meets these criteria, none has been reported to date to our knowledge. To address this deficiency, we developed an implantable reservoir capped by a nanocomposite membrane whose permeability was modulated by irradiation with a near-infrared laser. Irradiated devices could exhibit sustained on-state drug release for at least 3 h, and could reproducibly deliver short pulses over at least 10 cycles, with an on/off ratio of 30. Devices containing aspart, a fast-acting insulin analog, could achieve glycemic control after s.c. implantation in diabetic rats, with reproducible dosing controlled by the intensity and timing of irradiation over a 2-wk period. These devices can be loaded with a wide range of drug types, and therefore represent a platform technology that might be used to address a wide variety of clinical indications

Plant lectins: the ties that bind in root symbiosis and plant defense

Lectins are a diverse group of carbohydrate-binding proteins that are found within and associated with organisms from all kingdoms of life. Several different classes of plant lectins serve a diverse array of functions. The most prominent of these include participation in plant defense against predators and pathogens and involvement in symbiotic interactions between host plants and symbiotic microbes, including mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia. Extensive biological, biochemical, and molecular studies have shed light on the functions of plant lectins, and a plethora of uncharacterized lectin genes are being revealed at the genomic scale, suggesting unexplored and novel diversity in plant lectin structure and function. Integration of the results from these different types of research is beginning to yield a more detailed understanding of the function of lectins in symbiosis, defense, and plant biology in general

Guidelines for Family-Centered Care in the Neonatal, Pediatric, and Adult ICU.

OBJECTIVE: To provide clinicians with evidence-based strategies to optimize the support of the family of critically ill patients in the ICU. METHODS: We used the Council of Medical Specialty Societies principles for the development of clinical guidelines as the framework for guideline development. We assembled an international multidisciplinary team of 29 members with expertise in guideline development, evidence analysis, and family-centered care to revise the 2007 Clinical Practice Guidelines for support of the family in the patient-centered ICU. We conducted a scoping review of qualitative research that explored family-centered care in the ICU. Thematic analyses were conducted to support Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome question development. Patients and families validated the importance of interventions and outcomes. We then conducted a systematic review using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations methodology to make recommendations for practice. Recommendations were subjected to electronic voting with pre-established voting thresholds. No industry funding was associated with the guideline development. RESULTS: The scoping review yielded 683 qualitative studies; 228 were used for thematic analysis and Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome question development. The systematic review search yielded 4,158 reports after deduplication and 76 additional studies were added from alerts and hand searches; 238 studies met inclusion criteria. We made 23 recommendations from moderate, low, and very low level of evidence on the topics of: communication with family members, family presence, family support, consultations and ICU team members, and operational and environmental issues. We provide recommendations for future research and work-tools to support translation of the recommendations into practice. CONCLUSIONS: These guidelines identify the evidence base for best practices for family-centered care in the ICU. All recommendations were weak, highlighting the relative nascency of this field of research and the importance of future research to identify the most effective interventions to improve this important aspect of ICU care

Liposome bupivacaine in peripheral nerve blocks and epidural injections to manage postoperative pain

IntroductionThe duration of postsurgical pain greatly outlasts the duration of analgesia (typically < 12 h) following single administration of traditional formulations of local anesthetics. Bupivacaine , one of the most widely studied and extensively used local anesthetics, is now available in a liposomal formulation that has shown promise of providing postsurgical analgesia for a duration of up to 72 h when administered as part of a peripheral (e.g., femoral) or neuraxial (e.g., epidural) nerve block. However, it is currently approved for administration in the surgical site.Areas coveredThis publication provides an overview of liposome bupivacaine and its potential utility in peripheral nerve blocks and epidural administration.Expert opinionThe potential to provide postoperative analgesia lasting 3 days with a single administration at the time of surgery holds considerable promise. This modality could have distinct advantages over currently available techniques, such as continuous perineural local anesthetic infusion, as it would preclude the need for a catheter and pump. However, potential risks and benefits of liposome bupivacaine in peripheral and neuraxial nerve blocks must be further elucidated in surgical populations, and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval must be granted for these indications. Until FDA approval is provided, the use of liposome bupivacaine in peripheral and neuraxial nerve blocks must be considered investigational

Transgenic Approaches to Study Nodulation in the Model Legume, Lotus japonicus

The soybean apyrase, GS52, characterized as an early nodulin, was further investigated for its possible role in nodulation. GS52 is expressed in roots and localized to the plasma membrane. In addition, it is rapidly induced upon rhizobial inoculation. Treatment of soybean roots with anti-GS52 antibodies blocked nodulation by Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Transgenic Lotus japonicus plants were generated expressing gs52 and showed enhanced nodulation and infection thread formation upon inoculation with Mesorhizobium loti that correlated with expression of the transgene. Surprisingly, expression of GS52 allowed L. japonicus plants to be infected but not nodulated by B. japonicum, the natural symbiont of soybean. The data presented supports a critical role for the GS52 apyrase in nodulation and control of infection host specificity. Similarly, the role of the plant defense response in nodulation was investigated via generation of transgenic plants. Salicylic acid (SA) is a central molecule in the plant defense response and plants that express salicylate hydroxylase, an enzyme that degrades SA to catechol, are deficient in SA cannot mount the defense response. NahG L. japonicus plants, expressing salicylate hydroxylase, were generated and characterized for their nodulation phenotype. NahG plants demonstrated enhanced nodulation and infection thread formation when inoculated with M. loti. However, other phenotypes were observed, such as increased root growth, that complicated interpretation of the results

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Transgenic Expression of the Soybean Apyrase in Lotus japonicus Enhances Nodulation

The soybean apyrase, GS52, was previously characterized as an early nodulin that is expressed in roots and localized to the plasma membrane. Transgenic Lotus japonicus plants were constructed constitutively expressing the GS52 apyrase. Segregation and Southern-blot analysis identified four single-copy sense lines, several double-copy sense lines, and one double-copy antisense line for further analysis. The single- and double-copy sense gs52 L. japonicus lines had enhanced nodulation that correlated with expression of the transgene. The sense transgenic lines were also found to have increased infection thread formation and enhanced infection zone length when infected by Mesorhizobium loti, the natural symbiont of L. japonicus. The data presented show that expression of the GS52 apyrase can enhance nodulation in L. japonicus and points to an important role for this group of enzymes in nodulation