Educating Registered Nurses (RNs) to Improve Knowledge, Comfortability & Ability of Communication in Advance Care Planning (ACP)

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to assess the knowledge, comfortability, and ability to communicate with confidence, along with the usage of communication tools, among Med/Surg RNs r/t to ACP before & after participation in an ACP educational webinar. Aims: To evaluate whether the knowledge, comfortability, ability to communicate, including usage of communication tools, and confidence among medical-surgical registered nurses related to ACP improves following participation in an ACP educational webinar. Research Questions/Hypotheses: RQ1: Will there be a significant difference before & after an ACP educational webinar r/t: knowledge, comfortability, ability to communicate with confidence, & the usage of ACP communication tools? RQ2: Is there a significant correlation between the demographics of registered nurses & their knowledge, comfortability, & ability to communicate with confidence, along with utilization of ACP communication tools? Significance: Findings of this project have improved nurse’s knowledge, comfortability, & ability to communicate with confidence and usage of communication tools of ACP. Methods: The online educational webinar was offered to RNs on a Med/Surg unit of an acute care facility. Participants included RNs 18 years of age & over with varying demographic characteristics, educational backgrounds, & years of experience. Participants completed a Pre-Educational Survey, online educational webinar/training, & Post-Educational Survey. Findings: Analyses includes descriptive statistics, correlations, & paired t-test to identify & compare pre & post educational surveys of an ACP educational webinar. Nurses’ ACP knowledge, comfortability, ability to communicate with confidence, along with the use of communication tools improved following their participation in an ACP educational webinar (increase in all variables (p=0.001)). Discussion: Findings from this project have & will improve nurse’s knowledge, comfortability, & ability to communicate with confidence & usage of communication tools of ACP.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2021_healthsciences/1002/thumbnail.jp

Opinion Paragraph Writing Intervention for Students with Significant Disability

Increasingly, technology has been used to provide access to academic curricula for students with moderate to severe intellectual disability. In the current pilot study, we used a multiple probe across participants design to evaluate the effectiveness of a technology-based instructional package on the opinion writing skills of three middle school students with moderate and severe intellectual disability. Findings suggest that the intervention resulted in improved performance across all three participants and that all participants maintained performance at levels greater than baseline. Limitations and implications for practice and future research are discussed

Saccharide Display on Microtiter Plates

AbstractNew insight into the importance of carbohydrates in biological systems underscores the need for rapid synthetic and screening procedures for them. Development of an organic synthesis-compatible linker that would attach saccharides to microtiter plates was therefore undertaken to facilitate research in glycobiology. Galactosyllipids containing small, hydrophobic groups at the anomeric position were screened for noncovalent binding to microtiter plates. When the lipid component was a saturated hydrocarbon between 13 and 15 carbons in length, the monosaccharide showed complete retention after aqueous washing and could be utilized in biological assays. This alkyl chain was also successfully employed with more complex oligosaccharides in biological assays. In light of these findings, this method of attachment of oligosaccharides to microtiter plates should be highly efficacious to high-throughput synthesis and analyses of carbohydrates in biological assays

A Content Analysis of Catholic School Written Discipline Policies

School discipline has traditionally endorsed the use of exclusionary practices (i.e. suspension and expulsion). Such practices can have a negative short- and long-term impact on student lives, and tend to be enforced disproportionately with certain student populations. Although public school discipline policies have received increased scrutiny in recent years, Catholic school policies have received very little attention. This study presents the results of a content analysis of the written discipline policies of 33 Catholic secondary schools from two dioceses within a major metropolitan area. Results suggest that although variability exists in the types of behaviors included in formal written policies, schools in this sample rely heavily on exclusionary practices as possible consequences to many behaviors, even relatively minor ones. Further, they include positive or restorative consequences minimally, if at all. Suggestions for future research related to discipline practices in Catholic schools are made

Unexpected complexity of the dm1 mutation revealed in the structure of three H-2D/L-related antigens

The H-2L dm1 and H-2D dm1 MHC antigens of the B10.D2 ( H-2 dm1 ) mutant mouse strain (formerly known as M504 or H-2 da ) have been compared to the H-2L d and H-2D d antigens of the B10.D2 ( H-2 d ) mouse strain. L dm1 and L d are 45 000 M r antigens and both are reactive with anti-H-2.“28” ( k/r anti- h2 ) serum and unreactive with anti-H-2.4 ( k/b anti- a ) serum which detects private determinants of the D dm1 and D d antigens. However, the tryptic peptide compositions of these two antigens are different and, based on the number of major tryptic peptides which coelute during ion-exchange chromatography, the estimated peptide homology between L dm1 and L d is 80 percent. A newly defined antigen (M r = 39 000), designated gp39 dm1 , was found in glycoprotein extracts of the dm1 strain but not of the d strain. This antigen coprecipitates with L dm1 but does not coprecipitate with D dm1 indicating that it lacks the H-2.4 determinant. In comparison with L dm1 , gp39 dm1 appears to contain far fewer Arg and Lys residues and is most likely not a simple proteolytic fragment of L dm1 . Finally, peptide maps of the D dm1 antigen show that the majority of its Arg peptides are identical to D d Arg peptides, whereas at least five of its Lys peptides and three of its Arg peptides correspond not to D d peptides but to L d and L dm1 peptides. These data raise the possibility that the D dm1 antigen is a hybrid molecule and they have also revealed an unexpected level of complexity in the dm1 mutant phenotype.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46737/1/251_2004_Article_BF00364331.pd

DNA repair targeted therapy: The past or future of cancer treatment?

The repair of DNA damage is a complex process that relies on particular pathways to remedy specific types of damage to DNA. The range of insults to DNA includes small, modest changes in structure including mismatched bases and simple methylation events to oxidized bases, intra- and interstrand DNA crosslinks, DNA double strand breaks and protein-DNA adducts. Pathways required for the repair of these lesions include mismatch repair, base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair, and the homology directed repair/Fanconi anemia pathway. Each of these pathways contributes to genetic stability, and mutations in genes encoding proteins involved in these pathways have been demonstrated to promote genetic instability and cancer. In fact, it has been suggested that all cancers display defects in DNA repair. It has also been demonstrated that the ability of cancer cells to repair therapeutically induced DNA damage impacts therapeutic efficacy. This has led to targeting DNA repair pathways and proteins to develop anti-cancer agents that will increase sensitivity to traditional chemotherapeutics. While initial studies languished and were plagued by a lack of specificity and a defined mechanism of action, more recent approaches to exploit synthetic lethal interaction and develop high affinity chemical inhibitors have proven considerably more effective. In this review we will highlight recent advances and discuss previous failures in targeting DNA repair to pave the way for future DNA repair targeted agents and their use in cancer therapy

Managing the Socially Marginalized: Attitudes Towards Welfare, Punishment and Race

Welfare and incarceration policies have converged to form a system of governance over socially marginalized groups, particularly racial minorities. In both of these policy areas, rehabilitative and social support objectives have been replaced with a more punitive and restrictive system. The authors examine the convergence in individual-level attitudes concerning welfare and criminal punishment, using national survey data. The authors\u27 analysis indicates a statistically significant relationship between punitive attitudes toward welfare and punishment. Furthermore, accounting for the respondents\u27 racial attitudes explains the bivariate relationship between welfare and punishment. Thus, racial attitudes seemingly link support for punitive approaches to opposition to welfare expenditures. The authors discuss the implications of this study for welfare and crime control policies by way of the conclusion

Review of the Application of Modern Cytogenetic Methods (FISH/GISH) to the Study of Reticulation (Polyploidy/Hybridisation).

The convergence of distinct lineages upon interspecific hybridisation, including when accompanied by increases in ploidy (allopolyploidy), is a driving force in the origin of many plant species. In plant breeding too, both interspecific hybridisation and allopolyploidy are important because they facilitate introgression of alien DNA into breeding lines enabling the introduction of novel characters. Here we review how fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and genomic in situ hybridisation (GISH) have been applied to: 1) studies of interspecific hybridisation and polyploidy in nature, 2) analyses of phylogenetic relationships between species, 3) genetic mapping and 4) analysis of plant breeding materials. We also review how FISH is poised to take advantage of nextgeneration sequencing (NGS) technologies, helping the rapid characterisation of the repetitive fractions of a genome in natural populations and agricultural plants.This work was supported by NSF grant DEB-0922003

Discovery and development of novel DNA-PK inhibitors by targeting the unique Ku–DNA interaction

DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) plays a critical role in the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) repair pathway and the DNA damage response (DDR). DNA-PK has therefore been pursued for the development of anti-cancer therapeutics in combination with ionizing radiation (IR). We report the discovery of a new class of DNA-PK inhibitors that act via a novel mechanism of action, inhibition of the Ku-DNA interaction. We have developed a series of highly potent and specific Ku-DNA binding inhibitors (Ku-DBi's) that block the Ku-DNA interaction and inhibit DNA-PK kinase activity. Ku-DBi's directly interact with the Ku and inhibit in vitro NHEJ, cellular NHEJ, and potentiate the cellular activity of radiomimetic agents and IR. Analysis of Ku-null cells demonstrates that Ku-DBi's cellular activity is a direct result of Ku inhibition, as Ku-null cells are insensitive to Ku-DBi's. The utility of Ku-DBi's was also revealed in a CRISPR gene-editing model where we demonstrate that the efficiency of gene insertion events was increased in cells pre-treated with Ku-DBi's, consistent with inhibition of NHEJ and activation of homologous recombination to facilitate gene insertion. These data demonstrate the discovery and application of new series of compounds that modulate DNA repair pathways via a unique mechanism of action

Efficacy of Fidaxomicin Versus Vancomycin as Therapy for Clostridium difficile Infection in Individuals Taking Concomitant Antibiotics for Other Concurrent Infections

Concomitant antibiotic (CA) use compromised initial response to Clostridium difficile infection therapy and durability of that response. Fidaxomicin was significantly more effective than vancomycin in achieving clinical cure in the presence of CAs and preventing recurrence regardless of CA use