Bridging University Institutional and Accreditation Standards: An Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) Program Exemplar

The complexity of the health care environment requires the nursing profession to effectively anticipate current and future health care needs. Similarly, nursing education must ensure preparedness of future nursing professionals as well as meet the rigor of program accreditation standards. South Dakota State University (SDSU) College of Nursing Master’s and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), one of the two national specialized accrediting bodies for nursing. Both graduate programs must align with an American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials document that corresponds to the respective degree and specialty, e.g. family nurse practitioner (FNP). Required curricular framework, components, and competencies are mapped within The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing and The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice. Both documents inform curricular content needed to meet core competencies specific to all Advanced Practice Registered Nursing (APRN) roles, such as the family nurse practitioner (AACN, 2006)

Polymer Translocation in Crowded Environments

We study the effect of the crowded nature of the cellular cytoplasm on the translocation of a polymer through a pore in a membrane. By systematically treating the entropic penalty due to crowding, we show that the translocation dynamics are significantly altered, leading to novel scaling behaviors of the translocation time in terms of chain length. We also observe new and qualitatively different translocation regimes depending upon the extent of crowding, transmembrane chemical potential asymmetry, and polymer length.Comment: 4 figure

Spores of Clostridium engineered for clinical efficacy and safety cause regression and cure of tumors in vivo.

Spores of some species of the strictly anaerobic bacteria Clostridium naturally target and partially lyse the hypoxic cores of tumors, which tend to be refractory to conventional therapies. The anti-tumor effect can be augmented by engineering strains to convert a non-toxic prodrug into a cytotoxic drug specifically at the tumor site by expressing a prodrug-converting enzyme (PCE). Safe doses of the favored prodrug CB1954 lead to peak concentrations of 6.3 μM in patient sera, but at these concentration(s) known nitroreductase (NTR) PCEs for this prodrug show low activity. Furthermore, efficacious and safe Clostridium strains that stably express a PCE have not been reported. Here we identify a novel nitroreductase from Neisseria meningitidis, NmeNTR, which is able to activate CB1954 at clinically-achievable serum concentrations. An NmeNTR expression cassette, which does not contain an antibiotic resistance marker, was stably localized to the chromosome of Clostridium sporogenes using a new integration method, and the strain was disabled for safety and containment by making it a uracil auxotroph. The efficacy of Clostridium-Directed Enzyme Prodrug Therapy (CDEPT) using this system was demonstrated in a mouse xenograft model of human colon carcinoma. Substantial tumor suppression was achieved, and several animals were cured. These encouraging data suggest that the novel enzyme and strain engineering approach represent a promising platform for the clinical development of CDEPT

Explaining trends in alcohol-related harms in Scotland 1991–2011 (II): policy, social norms, the alcohol market, clinical changes and a synthesis

Objective: To provide a basis for evaluating post-2007 alcohol policy in Scotland, this paper tests the extent to which pre-2007 policy, the alcohol market, culture or clinical changes might explain differences in the magnitude and trends in alcohol-related mortality outcomes in Scotland compared to England & Wales (E&W). Study design: Rapid literature reviews, descriptive analysis of routine data and narrative synthesis. Methods: We assessed the impact of pre-2007 Scottish policy and policy in the comparison areas in relation to the literature on effective alcohol policy. Rapid literature reviews were conducted to assess cultural changes and the potential role of substitution effects between alcohol and illicit drugs. The availability of alcohol was assessed by examining the trends in the number of alcohol outlets over time. The impact of clinical changes was assessed in consultation with key informants. The impact of all the identified factors were then summarised and synthesised narratively. Results: The companion paper showed that part of the rise and fall in alcohol-related mortality in Scotland, and part of the differing trend to E&W, were predicted by a model linking income trends and alcohol-related mortality. Lagged effects from historical deindustrialisation and socio-economic changes exposures also remain plausible from the available data. This paper shows that policy differences or changes prior to 2007 are unlikely to have been important in explaining the trends. There is some evidence that aspects of alcohol culture in Scotland may be different (more concentrated and home drinking) but it seems unlikely that this has been an important driver of the trends or the differences with E&W other than through interaction with changing incomes and lagged socio-economic effects. Substitution effects with illicit drugs and clinical changes are unlikely to have substantially changed alcohol-related harms: however, the increase in alcohol availability across the UK is likely to partly explain the rise in alcohol-related mortality during the 1990s. Conclusions: Future policy should ensure that alcohol affordability and availability, as well as socio-economic inequality, are reduced, in order to maintain downward trends in alcohol-related mortality in Scotland

A 'whole-school/community development' approach to preventing and countering bullying: The Erris Anti-Bullying Initiative (2009-2011)

This paper describes how a 'whole-school/community development' anti-bullying programme was designed, implemented and evaluated in an initiative in Erris, Co. Mayo, Ireland, involving local primary and post-primary schools and community groups. Students from seven participating schools (five primary, two post-primary) completed modified versions of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire both prior to and following programme implementation. Thereafter, there were reductions in students' reports of involvement in bully/victim problems and increases in their reports of feelings about bullying and countering bullying that were consistent with an anti-bullying ethos. The sizes of these effects were modest, in some cases perhaps due to the significantly low incidence of students' involvement in bully/victim problems prior to the programme. This model is in continued use in Erris, and in its further development it is intended to seek out opportunities to implement and evaluate it in other locations. © 2013 Copyright Educational Studies Association of Ireland

Geolocator studies on Ruddy Turnstones Arenaria interpres and Greater Sandplovers Charadrius leschenaultii in the East Asian-Australasia Flyway reveal widely different migration strategies

In 2010, following successful trials with geolocators on Ruddy Turnstones in 2009, a total of 105 units, of four different models, were deployed at five locations on Ruddy Turnstones and Greater Sandplovers. Geolocator retrieval rates were 44% on Ruddy Turnstone and 27% on Greater Sandplover. Complete (59%) and partial (15%) technical failure rates on geolocators were high and were mostly the result of wear and saltwater corrosion. All 30 units from the Swiss Ornithological Institute failed. Only half of the Mk10 and Mk12 units from the British Antarctic Survey produced full migration histories. The northward migration of Ruddy Turnstones was on a narrow path with many birds completing an initial non-stop flight of 7,600 km to Taiwan. Later, most made a stopover in the Yellow Sea. Median migration duration was 39.5 days and average migration speed of the first major leg of the journey (assuming the birds followed the great circle route between stopovers) was 63.4 kph. Southward migration paths showed a much wider spread, ranging from Mongolia to the central Pacific. The latter involved the same bird that had been tracked along this route the previous year. It has now been logged on similar 27,000 km round trips in two successive years. The median duration of southward migration (78 days) was nearly twice that of northward migration and data on average migration speed for just two migration legs indicated that it might be lower, 30 and 40 kph being the values recorded. Greater Sandplovers were only tracked on northward migration but seemed to follow a similar migration strategy with a large initial non-stop flight followed by shorter flights and more regular stopovers. Plans are outlined for further analyses and future deployments of geolocators

Role of NADH Dehydrogenase (Ubiquinone) 1 alpha subcomplex 4-like 2 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

PURPOSE We delineated the functions of the HIF1α target NADH Dehydrogenase (Ubiquinone) 1 alpha subcomplex 4-like 2 (NDUFA4L2) in ccRCC and characterized NDUFA4L2 as a novel molecular target for ccRCC treatment. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We evaluated normal kidney and ccRCC patient microarray and RNAseq data from Oncomine and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) for NDUFA4L2 mRNA levels and the clinical implications of high NDUFA4L2 expression. Additionally, we examined normal kidney and ccRCC patient tissue samples, human ccRCC cell lines, and murine models of ccRCC for NDUFA4L2 mRNA and protein expression. Utilizing shRNA, we performed NDUFA4L2 knockdown experiments and analyzed the proliferation, clonogenicity, metabolite levels, cell structure, and autophagy in ccRCC cell lines in culture. RESULTS We found that NDUFA4L2 mRNA and protein are highly expressed in ccRCC samples but undetectable in normal kidney tissue samples, and that NDUFA4L2 mRNA expression correlates with tumor stage and lower overall survival. Additionally, we demonstrated that NDUFA4L2 is a HIF1α target in ccRCC and that NDUFA4L2 knockdown has a profound anti-proliferative effect, alters metabolic pathways, and causes major stress in cultured RCC cells. CONCLUSIONS Collectively, our data show that NDUFA4L2 is a novel molecular target for ccRCC treatment

PC-based web authoring: How to learn as little unix as possible while getting on the Web

This document is a general guide for creating Web pages, using commonly available word processing and file transfer applications. It is not a full guide to HTML, nor does it provide an introduction to the many WYSIWYG HTML editors available. The viability of the authoring method it describes will not be affected by changes in the HTML specification or the rapid release-and-obsolescence cycles of commercial WYSIWYG HTML editors. This document provides a gentle introduction to HTML for the beginner, and as the user gains confidence and experience, encourages greater familiarity with HTML through continued exposure to and hands-on usage of HTML code

Reduced tillage, but not organic matter input, increased nematode diversity and food web stability in European long‐term field experiments

Soil nematode communities and food web indices can inform about the complexity, nutrient flows and decomposition pathways of soil food webs, reflecting soil quality. Relative abundance of nematode feeding and life‐history groups are used for calculating food web indices, i.e., maturity index (MI), enrichment index (EI), structure index (SI) and channel index (CI). Molecular methods to study nematode communities potentially offer advantages compared to traditional methods in terms of resolution, throughput, cost and time. In spite of such advantages, molecular data have not often been adopted so far to assess the effects of soil management on nematode communities and to calculate these food web indices. Here, we used high‐throughput amplicon sequencing to investigate the effects of tillage (conventional vs. reduced) and organic matter addition (low vs. high) on nematode communities and food web indices in 10 European long‐term field experiments and we assessed the relationship between nematode communities and soil parameters. We found that nematode communities were more strongly affected by tillage than by organic matter addition. Compared to conventional tillage, reduced tillage increased nematode diversity (23% higher Shannon diversity index), nematode community stability (12% higher MI), structure (24% higher SI), and the fungal decomposition channel (59% higher CI), and also the number of herbivorous nematodes (70% higher). Total and labile organic carbon, available K and microbial parameters explained nematode community structure. Our findings show that nematode communities are sensitive indicators of soil quality and that molecular profiling of nematode communities has the potential to reveal the effects of soil management on soil quality

Entropic Tension in Crowded Membranes

Unlike their model membrane counterparts, biological membranes are richly decorated with a heterogeneous assembly of membrane proteins. These proteins are so tightly packed that their excluded area interactions can alter the free energy landscape controlling the conformational transitions suffered by such proteins. For membrane channels, this effect can alter the critical membrane tension at which they undergo a transition from a closed to an open state, and therefore influence protein function \emph{in vivo}. Despite their obvious importance, crowding phenomena in membranes are much less well studied than in the cytoplasm. Using statistical mechanics results for hard disk liquids, we show that crowding induces an entropic tension in the membrane, which influences transitions that alter the projected area and circumference of a membrane protein. As a specific case study in this effect, we consider the impact of crowding on the gating properties of bacterial mechanosensitive membrane channels, which are thought to confer osmoprotection when these cells are subjected to osmotic shock. We find that crowding can alter the gating energies by more than $2\;k_BT$ in physiological conditions, a substantial fraction of the total gating energies in some cases. Given the ubiquity of membrane crowding, the nonspecific nature of excluded volume interactions, and the fact that the function of many membrane proteins involve significant conformational changes, this specific case study highlights a general aspect in the function of membrane proteins.Comment: 20 pages (inclduing supporting information), 4 figures, to appear in PLoS Comp. Bio