Playing Music as a Nursing Intervention to Reduce Distress in Neonatal and Pediatric Acute Care Patients: A Literature Review

Pediatric and neonatal patients are especially vulnerable to suffering from distress. This literature review identifies research which applies passive music listening to distressed neonatal and pediatric acute care patients. Databases searched to find relevant studies include CINAHL plus with full text, MEDLINE, Alt HealthWatch, APA PsycArticles, and APA PsycInfo from EBSCOhost. Six studies were identified to meet search criteria. The studies that supported music listening with the neonatal and pediatric populations had a positive effect in reducing distress levels. Additional research is warranted to further validate these findings. Music listening with neonatal and pediatric patients is a simple, cost-effective intervention that nurses can implement at the bedside

Reversible and size-controlled assembly of reflectin proteins using a charged azobenzene photoswitch

Disordered proteins often undergo a stimuli-responsive, disorder-to-order transition which facilitates dynamic processes that modulate the physiological activities and material properties of cells, such as strength, chemical composition, and reflectance. It remains challenging to gain rapid and spatiotemporal control over such disorder-to-order transitions, which limits the incorporation of these proteins into novel materials. The reflectin protein is a cationic, disordered protein whose assembly is responsible for dynamic color camouflage in cephalopods. Stimuli-responsive control of reflectin's assembly would enable the design of biophotonic materials with tunable color. Herein, a novel, multivalent azobenzene photoswitch is shown to be an effective and non-invasive strategy for co-assembling with reflectin molecules and reversibly controlling assembly size. Photoisomerization between the trans and cis (E and Z) photoisomers promotes or reduces Coulombic interactions, respectively, with reflectin proteins to repeatedly cycle the sizes of the photoswitch-reflectin assemblies between 70 nm and 40 nm. The protein assemblies formed with the trans and cis isomers show differences in interaction stoichiometry and secondary structure, which indicate that photoisomerization modulates the photoswitch-protein interactions to change assembly size. Our results highlight the utility of photoswitchable interactions to control reflectin assembly and provide a tunable synthetic platform that can be adapted to the structure, assembly, and function of other disordered proteins

Data Processing and Image Enhancement of GPR Surveys of Roman Villas in Austria

Introduction The quality of ground penetrating radar data can suffer from many different sources of noise. Some of these sources are varying distances of the antennas to the ground due to rough surfaces, different surface conditions (e.g. compression due to tractor tracks), external electromagnetic fields and instrumental noise and instabilities (Seren, 2007). Analyses of recorded raw data and knowledge of the source of noise lead to specialised processing methods to improve the signal-to-noi..

Salivary cortisol response to ACTH stimulation is a reliable alternative to serum cortisol in evaluating hypoadrenalism

Context The serum total cortisol response to the ACTH stimulation test is widely used to assess adrenocortical function but is affected by changes in cortisol-binding globulin (CBG) concentration. Salivary cortisol reflects free cortisol concentrations and may offer a reliable alternative. Objectives 1: To establish the salivary cortisol response to ACTH stimulation in healthy volunteers and patients with altered CBG concentrations. 2. To evaluate the performance of a lower reference limit (LRL) determined in healthy volunteers in patients with suspected hypoadrenalism (SH-patients). Design A 250 µg-ACTH stimulation test was undertaken in 139 healthy volunteers, 24 women taking an estradiol-containing oral contraceptive pill (OCP-females), 10 patients with low serum protein concentration (LP-patients) and 30 SH-patients. Salivary cortisol was measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Mean and LRL of the 30-minute salivary cortisol response (mean - 1.96 standard deviation) were derived from log-transformed concentrations. The LRL was applied as a diagnostic cut-off in SH-patients, with comparison to the serum response. Results Mean CBG concentrations [range] were 58 [42-81] mg/L, 64 [43-95] mg/L, 41 [28-60] mg/L and 116 [84-159] mg/L in males, females, LP-patients and OCP-females, respectively. The mean 30-minute salivary cortisol concentration was 19.3 [2.5th-97.5th percentile 10.3-36.2] nmol/l in healthy volunteers. Corresponding values were not different in OCP-females (19.7 [9.5-41.2] nmol/l; p = 0.59) or LP-patients (19.0 [7.7-46.9] nmol/l; p = 0.97). Overall diagnostic agreement between salivary and serum responses in SH-patients was 79%. Conclusions Salivary cortisol response to ACTH stimulation offers a reliable alternative to serum and may be especially useful in conditions of altered CBG concentration

Discovery of Samarium, Europium, Gadolinium, and Terbium Isotopes

Currently, thirty-four samarium, thirty-four europium, thirty-one gadolinium, and thirty-one terbium isotopes have been observed and the discovery of these isotopes is discussed here. For each isotope a brief synopsis of the first refereed publication, including the production and identification method, is presented.Comment: To be published in At. Data Nucl. Data Table

Sagittal joint spaces of the temporomandibular joint: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: The joint space measurements of the temporomandibular joint have been used to determine the condyle position variation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis on the coronal joint spaces measurements of the temporomandibular joint. Materials and Methods: An electronic database search was performed with the terms “condylar position”; “joint space”AND”TMJ”. Inclusionary criteria included: tomographic 3D imaging of the TMJ, presentation of at least two joint space measurements on the coronal plane. Exclusionary criteria were: mandibular fractures, animal studies, surgery, presence of genetic or chronic diseases, case reports, opinion or debate articles or unpublished material. The risk of bias of each study was judged as high, moderate or low according to the “Cochrane risk of bias tool”. The values used in the meta-analysis were the medial, superior and lateral joint space measurements and their differences between the right and left joint. Results: From the initial search 2706 articles were retrieved. After excluding the duplicates and all the studies that did not match the eligibility criteria 4 articles classified for final review. All the retrieved articles were judged as low level of evidence. All of the reviewed studies were included in the meta-analysis concluding that the mean coronal joint space values were: medial joint space 2.94 mm, superior 2.55 mm and lateral 2.16 mm. Conclusions: the analysis also showed high levels of heterogeneity. Right and left comparison did not show statistically significant differences

Consequences of cathepsin C inactivation for membrane exposure of proteinase 3, the target antigen in autoimmune vasculitis

Membrane-bound proteinase 3 (PR3(m)) is the main target antigen of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) in granulomatosis with polyangiitis, a systemic small-vessel vasculitis. Binding of ANCA to PR3(m) triggers neutrophil activation with the secretion of enzymatically active PR3 and related neutrophil serine proteases, thereby contributing to vascular damage. PR3 and related proteases are activated from pro-forms by the lysosomal cysteine protease cathepsin C (CatC) during neutrophil maturation. We hypothesized that pharmacological inhibition of CatC provides an effective measure to reduce PR3(m) and therefore has implications as a novel therapeutic approach in granulomatosis with polyangiitis. We first studied neutrophilic PR3 from 24 patients with Papillon-Lefevre syndrome (PLS), a genetic form of CatC deficiency. PLS neutrophil lysates showed a largely reduced but still detectable (0.5-4%) PR3 activity when compared with healthy control cells. Despite extremely low levels of cellular PR3, the amount of constitutive PR3(m) expressed on the surface of quiescent neutrophils and the typical bimodal membrane distribution pattern were similar to what was observed in healthy neutrophils. However, following cell activation, there was no significant increase in the total amount of PR3(m) on PLS neutrophils, whereas the total amount of PR3(m) on healthy neutrophils was significantly increased. We then explored the effect of pharmacological CatC inhibition on PR3 stability in normal neutrophils using a potent cell-permeable CatC inhibitor and a CD34(+) hematopoietic stem cell model. Human CD34(+) hematopoietic stem cells were treated with the inhibitor during neutrophil differentiation over 10 days. We observed strong reductions in PR3(m), cellular PR3 protein, and proteolytic PR3 activity, whereas neutrophil differentiation was not compromised

Repeat Placental Growth Factor-Based Testing in Women With Suspected Preterm Preeclampsia: A Stratified Analysis of the PARROT-2 Trial

BACKGROUND: PlGF (placental growth factor)-based testing reduces severe maternal adverse outcomes. Repeat PlGF-based testing is not associated with improved perinatal or maternal outcomes. This planned secondary analysis aimed to determine whether there is a subgroup of women who benefit from repeat testing. METHODS: Pregnant individuals with suspected preterm preeclampsia were randomized to repeat revealed PlGF-based testing, compared with usual care where testing was concealed. Perinatal and maternal outcomes were stratified by trial group, by initial PlGF-based test result, and by PlGF-based test type (PlGF or sFlt-1 [soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1]/PlGF ratio). RESULTS: A total of 1252 pregnant individuals were included. Abnormal initial PlGF-based test identified a more severe phenotype of preeclampsia, at increased risk of adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. Repeat testing was not significantly associated with clinical benefit in women with abnormal initial results. Of women with a normal initial result, 20% developed preeclampsia, with the majority at least 3 to 4 weeks after initial presentation. Repeat test results were more likely to change from normal to abnormal in symptomatic women (112/415; 27%) compared with asymptomatic women (163/890; 18%). A higher proportion of symptomatic women who changed from normal to abnormal were diagnosed with preeclampsia, compared with asymptomatic women. CONCLUSIONS: Our results do not demonstrate evidence of the clinical benefit of repeating PlGF-based testing if the initial result is abnormal. Judicious use of repeat PlGF-based testing to stratify risk may be considered at least 2 weeks after a normal initial test result, particularly in women who have symptoms or signs of preeclampsia. REGISTRATION: URL: XXX; Unique identifier: ISRCTN85912420