Clinical research nursing pathways: The development and evaluation of a nursing research internship program using the RE-AIM framework.

In 2018 a Nursing Research Internship program was started within a major referral and tertiary teaching centre in Australia. We aimed to evaluate the first 12 months of the program using an implementation science framework. This was a qualitative study. Following ethical approval n = 20 semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Participants included nurses with clinical, research and management roles who had engaged in or supported a Nursing Research Internship program. The Framework Method was conducted to analyse the findings. Key themes identified included 'What is the impact of a Nursing Research Internship program?'; 'Why do a Nursing Research Internship program?'; 'How do we do a Nursing Research Internship program?'; 'How do we sustain a Nursing Research Internship program?'. Positive impacts were identified for clinical nurses and their teams, for the hospital and health service, and for patients and families. Identified key components included protected research time, specialist support (including library, statistics, health economist, implementation scientist), regulatory support (ethics and governance procedures) and access to a computer and IT resources. The Nursing Research Internship program required support from nurse clinicians, nurse managers and nurse academics. A structured Nursing Research Internship program supports clinical nurses to answer research questions identified directly from clinical practice

How Do Adults And Teens With Self-Declared Autism Spectrum Disorder Experience Eye Contact? A Qualitative Analysis of First-Hand Accounts

A tendency to avoid eye contact is an early indicator of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and difficulties with eye contact often persist throughout the lifespan. Eye contact difficulties may underlie social cognitive deficits in ASD, and can create significant social and occupational barriers. Thus, this topic has received substantial research and clinical attention. In this study, we used qualitative methods to analyze self-reported experiences with eye contact as described by teens and adults with self-declared ASD. Results suggest people with a self- declared ASD diagnosis experience adverse emotional and physiological reactions, feelings of being invaded, and sensory overload while making eye contact, in addition to difficulties understanding social nuances, and difficulties receiving and sending nonverbal information. Some data support existing mindblindness frameworks, and hyperarousal or hypoarousal theories of eye contact, but we also present novel findings unaccounted for by existing frameworks. Additionally, we highlight innovative strategies people with self-declared ASD have devised to overcome or cope with their eye contact difficulties

Lack of growth enhancement by exogenous growth hormone treatment in yellow perch (Perca flavescens) in four separate experiments

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B. V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Aquaculture 250 (2005): 471-479, doi:10.1016/j.aquaculture.2005.03.019.The effect of exogenous growth hormone (GH) treatment on the growth of juvenile yellow perch (Perca flavescens) was investigated in four experiments. In the first two experiments, juvenile yellow perch were reared at either 13°C or 21°C, and injected weekly with bovine GH (bGH) at 0.1, 1.0 or 10.0 μg/g body weight for 84 days. No significant growth enhancement in GH-treated fish was measured in fish in either of the experiments. In the third experiment, juvenile yellow perch were treated with estradiol-17β (E2, 15 μg/g of diet), bGH (1.0 μg/g body weight) injected weekly or both hormones for 70 days at 21°C. E2 alone stimulated growth, but no further growth stimulation occurred in the E2 + bGH-treated fish. In addition, no growth enhancement was found in fish treated with bGH alone. We measured no difference in serum insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) levels between the treatment groups at 12 and 24 h after the final injection of GH; however, a drop in IGF-I levels after 24 h was observed. In a fourth study, the effect of recombinant yellow perch GH (rypGH, 0.2 or 1.0 μg/g body weight) injected weekly was evaluated in yellow perch juveniles. The fish were reared for 42 days at 18°C. Neither GH dosages improved growth compared to control-injected and non-injected fish. Taken together, the lack of effect of mammalian GH or rypGH in our experiments suggests (1) low binding affinity between these hormones and the GH receptor in yellow perch, (2) that the endogenous GH levels were already at biologically maximal levels or (3) that other endocrine factors are needed in order for GH to promote yellow perch growth. The reduction in IGF-I levels 24 h after handling suggests a negative effect of handling stress on the GH-IGF-I axis in yellow perch.This work was supported by the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and School of Natural Resources; the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce; the State of Wisconsin (Federal Grant NA46RG0481, Project No. R/AQ-38); and the USDA NOAA Project R/A-05-99, grant #NA86RG0048 to FG and SR. This study was also funded by the Norwegian Research Council (NFR)

Microbial Community of Saline, Alkaline Lakes in the Nebraska Sandhills Based on 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon Sequence Data

The Nebraska Sandhills region contains over 1,500 geochemically diverse interdunal lakes, some of which are potassium rich, alkaline, and hypersaline. Here, we report 16S rRNA amplicon pyrosequencing data on the water and sediment microbial communities of eight alkaline lakes in the Sandhills of western Nebraska

Foreign Language Teaching and Learning in a Reading Comprehension and Writing Online Module: A Higher Education Analysis

The Spanish section of the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at The University of the West Indies at Saint Augustine decided to begin teaching a two hour module of the courses: SPAN 1001 and 1002 to first year students, in the online mode in the academic year of 2014-2015. This paper’s principal objective is to reflect upon students’ and teachers’ perspectives on benefits and challenges of the blended learning mode of delivery for Spanish programme. It examines the online reading and writing module to assess student writing interaction as well as to determine best practice in the teaching of these skills in the foreign language at the tertiary level in a twenty-first century Caribbean context. In order to carry out this reflection, action research was used therefore its data collection consisted of observations of the course design before and after the innovation, student surveys and teacher interviews. Among the most relevant findings are: students and teachers prefer to have an online delivery of this class rather than the previous face to face class; the variety of activities lead to higher interaction among students; change of roles for teachers and students, fostering more active learning among students; and a rise of digital culture for academic purposes. However, some restructuring is required in terms of teachers’ feedback delivery and students’ and teachers’ required time for activities. As recommendations the paper suggests continued promoting of this online module since it develops both technological literacy and higher written interaction in the first year of the Spanish programme.2015-1

Middle to Late Pleistocene stability of the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet at the head of Law Glacier

Past behavior of outlet glaciers draining the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) remains unresolved prior to Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS2). Study of blue ice moraines provides a relatively untapped approach to understand former EAIS activity. We focus on a blue ice moraine near Mount Achernar in the central Transantarctic Mountains, at the edge of the polar plateau. The well-preserved moraine consists of quasi-continuous or hummocky sediment ridges that form on top of upward-flowing, sublimating ice along the margin of Law Glacier. 10Be, 26Al, and 3He cosmogenic nuclide ages on boulders from the ridges are coherent and in general are progressively older with distance from the relatively clean ice of the Law Glacier margin. Moraines closest to the Law Glacier margin postdate MIS2; farther away, they date to the last glacial cycle, and with more distance they are hundreds of thousands of years old. We conclude that cosmogenic dating of some blue ice moraines can provide age limits for changes at the heads of outlet glaciers that drain the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet, including prior to MIS2. Furthermore, the geomorphological, cosmogenic nuclide, and sedimentological evidence imply that the East Antarctic polar plateau adjacent to the central Transantarctic Mountains has been relatively stable for at least 200 k.y

Melanocortin-1 receptor signaling markedly induces the expression of the NR4A nuclear receptor subgroup in melanocytic cells

The melanocortin-1 receptor (MCIR) is a G-protein-coupled receptor expressed primarily in melanocytes and is known to play a pivotal role in the regulation of pigmentation in mammals. In humans MC1R has been found to be highly polymorphic with several functional variants associated with the phenotype of red hair color and fair skin, cutaneous UV sensitivity, and increased risk of developing melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. Recent evidence suggests that MC1R plays a photo-protective role in melanocytes in response to UV irradiation. Relatively few genetic targets of MC1R signaling have been identified independent of the pigmentation pathway. Here we show that MC1R signaling in B16 mouse melanoma cells and primary human melanocytes rapidly, and transiently, induces the transcription of the NR4A subfamily of orphan nuclear receptors. Furthermore, primary human melanocytes harboring homozygous RHC variant MC1R alleles exhibited an impaired induction of NR4A genes in response to the potent MC1R agonist (Nle4,D-Phe7)-α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Using small interference RNA-mediated attenuation of NR4A1 and NR4A2 expression in melanocytes, the ability to remove cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers following UV irradiation appeared to be impaired in the context of MC1R signaling. These data identify the NR4A receptor family as potential mediators of an MC1R-coordinated DNA damage response to UV exposure in melanocytic cells

Effect of Public Deliberation on Attitudes toward Return of Secondary Results in Genomic Sequencing

The increased use of genomic sequencing in clinical diagnostics and therapeutics makes imperative the development of guidelines and policies about how to handle secondary findings. For reasons both practical and ethical, the creation of these guidelines must take into consideration the informed opinions of the lay public. As part of a larger Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) consortium project, we organized a deliberative democracy (DD) session that engaged 66 participants in dialogue about the benefits and risks associated with the return of secondary findings from clinical genomic sequencing. Participants were educated about the scientific and ethical aspects of the disclosure of secondary findings by experts in medical genetics and bioethics, and then engaged in facilitated discussion of policy options for the disclosure of three types of secondary findings: 1) medically actionable results; 2) adult onset disorders found in children; and 3) carrier status. Participants’ opinions were collected via surveys administered one month before, immediately following, and one month after the DD session. Post DD session, participants were significantly more willing to support policies that do not allow access to secondary findings related to adult onset conditions in children (Χ2 (2, N = 62) = 13.300, p = 0.001) or carrier status (Χ2 (2, N = 60) = 11.375, p = 0.003). After one month, the level of support for the policy denying access to secondary findings regarding adult‐onset conditions remained significantly higher than the pre‐DD level, although less than immediately post‐DD (Χ2 (1, N = 60) = 2.465, p = 0.041). Our findings suggest that education and deliberation enhance public appreciation of the scientific and ethical complexities of genome sequencing.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146892/1/jgc40122-sup-0006.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146892/2/jgc40122.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146892/3/jgc40122-sup-0005.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146892/4/jgc40122-sup-0007.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146892/5/jgc40122-sup-0002.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146892/6/jgc40122-sup-0001.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146892/7/jgc40122-sup-0003.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146892/8/jgc40122-sup-0004.pd

Downregulation of HLA-I by the molluscum contagiosum virus mc080 impacts NK-cell recognition and promotes CD8+ T-cell evasion.

Molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) is a common cause of benign skin lesions in young children and currently the only endemic human poxvirus. Following the infection of primary keratinocytes in the epidermis, MCV induces the proliferation of infected cells and this results in the production of wart-like growths. Full productive infection is observed only after the infected cells differentiate. During this prolonged replication cycle the virus must avoid elimination by the host immune system. We therefore sought to investigate the function of the two major histocompatibility complex class-I-related genes encoded by the MCV genes mc033 and mc080. Following insertion into a replication-deficient adenovirus vector, codon-optimized versions of mc033 and mc080 were expressed as endoglycosidase-sensitive glycoproteins that localized primarily in the endoplasmic reticulum. MC080, but not MC033, downregulated cell-surface expression of endogenous classical human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class I and non-classical HLA-E by a transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP)-independent mechanism. MC080 exhibited a capacity to inhibit or activate NK cells in autologous assays in a donor-specific manner. MC080 consistently inhibited antigen-specific T cells being activated by peptide-pulsed targets. We therefore propose that MC080 acts to promote evasion of HLA-I-restricted cytotoxic T cells