The inter-relation between policy and practice for transitions from hospital to home: An ethnographic case study in England’s National Health Service

© 2014 Shaw et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.No abstract available (poster presentation)

Molecular mechanisms linking wound inflammation and fibrosis: knockdown of osteopontin leads to rapid repair and reduced scarring

Previous studies of tissue repair have revealed osteopontin (OPN) to be up-regulated in association with the wound inflammatory response. We hypothesize that OPN may contribute to inflammation-associated fibrosis. In a series of in vitro and in vivo studies, we analyze the effects of blocking OPN expression at the wound, and determine which inflammatory cells, and which paracrine factors from these cells, may be responsible for triggering OPN expression in wound fibroblasts. Delivery of OPN antisense oligodeoxynucleotides into mouse skin wounds by release from Pluronic gel decreases OPN protein levels at the wound and results in accelerated healing and reduced granulation tissue formation and scarring. To identify which leukocytic lineages may be responsible for OPN expression, we cultured fibroblasts in macrophage-, neutrophil-, or mast cell–conditioned media (CM), and found that macrophage- and mast cell–secreted factors, specifically platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), induced fibroblast OPN expression. Correspondingly, Gleevec, which blocks PDGF receptor signaling, and PDGF-Rβ–neutralizing antibodies, inhibited OPN induction by macrophage-CM. These studies indicate that inflammation-triggered expression of OPN both hinders the rate of repair and contributes to wound fibrosis. Thus, OPN and PDGF are potential targets for therapeutic modulation of skin repair to improve healing rate and quality

Interpretation of electron-proton scattering at low Q^2

Low-Q^2 photons do not resolve partons in the proton, which gives problems when applying the deep inelastic scattering formalism, such as an unphysical, negative gluon density extracted from data. Considering instead hadronic fluctuations of the photon, we show that the generalised vector meson dominance model (GVDM) gives a good description of the measured cross section at low Q^2, i.e. reproduces F_2(x,Q^2), using only few parameters with essentially known values. Combining GVDM and parton density functions makes it possible to obtain a good description of F_2 data over the whole range of x and Q^2.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. Discussion extended, references added, figures updated with additional results. Accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Intraoperative changes in blood coagulation and thrombelastographic monitoring in liver transplantation

The blood coagulation system of 66 consecutive patients undergoing consecutive liver transplantations was monitored by thrombelastograph and analytic coagulation profile. A poor preoperative coagulation state, decrease in levels of coagulation factors, progressive fibrinolysis, and whole blood clot lysis were observed during the preanhepatic and anhepatic stages of surgery. A further general decrease in coagulation factors and platelets, activation of fibrinolysis, and abrupt decrease in levels of factors V and VIII occurred before and with reperfusion of the homograft. Recovery of blood coagulability began 30-60 min after reperfusion of the graft liver, and coagulability had returned toward baseline values 2 hr after reperfusion. A positive correlation was shown between the variables of thrombelastography and those of the coagulation profile. Thrombelastography was shown to be a reliable and rapid monitoring system. Its use was associated with a 33% reduction of blood and fluid infusion volume, whereas blood coagulability was maintained without an increase in the number of blood product donors

Safety of extubating mechanically ventilated patients on vasoactive infusions: a retrospective cohort study

No abstract available

Equipment, measurement and dose—a survey for therapeutic ultrasound

Background Dosimetry for Ultrasound Therapy (DUTy) is a large international project which addresses the development of a metrological infrastructure for the determination of ultrasound exposure and dose to tissue. Methods In order to seek the views of the wider therapy ultrasound community and to review dose and in situ exposure quantities that have been suggested or used previously, a web-based questionnaire containing a range of questions covering the type of ultrasound equipment that is used and the range of applications for which it has been developed was created at www.​surveymonkey.​com. This questionnaire was intended to cover any contemporary therapeutic ultrasound application (including physiotherapy, lithotripsy and drug delivery) and asked specific questions about quantification of in situ exposure and dose, especially as relevant to treatment planning, standardisation and/or regulation. Results This paper summarises the 123 responses submitted between February and September 2014 to the questions on clinical applications, equipment, quality assurance (QA) and measurement and standards, as well as to those relating to an understanding of “dose” in the context of ultrasound. The full set of anonymous responses is available in an additional Excel file. Conclusions The results clearly demonstrate the need not only for further improvements in measuring devices and for measurement guidelines but also for a wider dissemination and higher awareness of existing standards. Whilst it is unlikely that a single definition of dose can be sufficient for all ultrasound treatment modalities, the answers clearly indicate that many aspects would benefit from clear definitions of relevant dose quantities and shed light on the preferred form of such definitions

Simulation of Claylike Colloids

We investigate properties of dense suspensions and sediments of small spherical silt particles by means of a combined Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Stochastic Rotation Dynamics (SRD) simulation. We include van der Waals and effective electrostatic interactions between the colloidal particles, as well as Brownian motion and hydrodynamic interactions which are calculated in the SRD-part. We present the simulation technique and first results. We have measured velocity distributions, diffusion coefficients, sedimentation velocity, spatial correlation functions and we have explored the phase diagram depending on the parameters of the potentials and on the volume fraction.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figure