Keeping vigil over the profession: a grounded theory of the context of nurse anaesthesia practice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Nurse anaesthetists in the US have faced continued, repeated challenges to their profession. Regardless, they have met these challenges and have established themselves as major anaesthesia care providers. In this paper we address the research question: How do certified registered nurse anaesthetists (CRNAs) manage the socio-political context in which they provide care for their patients?</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Grounded theory was used to explore how nurse anaesthetists protect and promote their profession. Purposive, snowball, and theoretical sampling was used and data were collected through participant observation and interviews conducted at a conference of the professional association, an educational program, by telephone, email exchanges, and time spent in operating rooms and an outpatient surgical clinic. Analysis included coding at increasingly abstract levels and constant comparison.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The basic social process identified was Keeping Vigil Over the Profession, which explains how nurse anaesthetists protect and promote their profession. It is comprised of three contextual categories: Establishing Public Credibility through regulatory and educational standards, Political Vigilance and taking action in governmental and policy arenas, and Tending the Flock through a continuous information loop between local and administrative/political levels.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>From our study of the context of nurse anaesthesia practice, it is clear that CRNAs are dedicated to protecting their ability to provide high quality patient care by maintaining constant vigilance over their profession.</p

Dengue Virus Surveillance for Early Warning, Singapore

In Singapore, after a major outbreak of dengue in 2005, another outbreak occurred in 2007. Laboratory-based surveillance detected a switch from dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1) to DENV-2. Phylogenetic analysis showed a clade replacement within DENV-2 cosmopolitan genotype, which accompanied the predominant serotype switch, and cocirculation of multiple genotypes of DENV-3

A massive, quiescent galaxy at redshift of z=3.717

In the early Universe finding massive galaxies that have stopped forming stars present an observational challenge as their rest-frame ultraviolet emission is negligible and they can only be reliably identified by extremely deep near-infrared surveys. These have revealed the presence of massive, quiescent early-type galaxies appearing in the universe as early as z$\sim$2, an epoch 3 Gyr after the Big Bang. Their age and formation processes have now been explained by an improved generation of galaxy formation models where they form rapidly at z$\sim$3-4, consistent with the typical masses and ages derived from their observations. Deeper surveys have now reported evidence for populations of massive, quiescent galaxies at even higher redshifts and earlier times, however the evidence for their existence, and redshift, has relied entirely on coarsely sampled photometry. These early massive, quiescent galaxies are not predicted by the latest generation of theoretical models. Here, we report the spectroscopic confirmation of one of these galaxies at redshift z=3.717 with a stellar mass of 1.7$\times$10$^{11}$ M$_\odot$ whose absorption line spectrum shows no current star-formation and which has a derived age of nearly half the age of the Universe at this redshift. The observations demonstrates that the galaxy must have quickly formed the majority of its stars within the first billion years of cosmic history in an extreme and short starburst. This ancestral event is similar to those starting to be found by sub-mm wavelength surveys pointing to a possible connection between these two populations. Early formation of such massive systems is likely to require significant revisions to our picture of early galaxy assembly.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. This is the final preprint corresponding closely to the published version. Uploaded 6 months after publication in accordance with Nature polic

Cannabidiol enhances anandamide signaling and alleviates psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia

Cannabidiol is a component of marijuana that does not activate cannabinoid receptors, but moderately inhibits the degradation of the endocannabinoid anandamide. We previously reported that an elevation of anandamide levels in cerebrospinal fluid inversely correlated to psychotic symptoms. Furthermore, enhanced anandamide signaling let to a lower transition rate from initial prodromal states into frank psychosis as well as postponed transition. In our translational approach, we performed a double-blind, randomized clinical trial of cannabidiol vs amisulpride, a potent antipsychotic, in acute schizophrenia to evaluate the clinical relevance of our initial findings. Either treatment was safe and led to significant clinical improvement, but cannabidiol displayed a markedly superior side-effect profile. Moreover, cannabidiol treatment was accompanied by a significant increase in serum anandamide levels, which was significantly associated with clinical improvement. The results suggest that inhibition of anandamide deactivation may contribute to the antipsychotic effects of cannabidiol potentially representing a completely new mechanism in the treatment of schizophrenia

Unique and conserved MicroRNAs in wheat chromosome 5D revealed by next-generation sequencing

MicroRNAs are a class of short, non-coding, single-stranded RNAs that act as post-transcriptional regulators in gene expression. miRNA analysis of Triticum aestivum chromosome 5D was performed on 454 GS FLX Titanium sequences of flow sorted chromosome 5D with a total of 3,208,630 good quality reads representing 1.34x and 1.61x coverage of the short (5DS) and long (5DL) arms of the chromosome respectively. In silico and structural analyses revealed a total of 55 miRNAs; 48 and 42 miRNAs were found to be present on 5DL and 5DS respectively, of which 35 were common to both chromosome arms, while 13 miRNAs were specific to 5DL and 7 miRNAs were specific to 5DS. In total, 14 of the predicted miRNAs were identified in wheat for the first time. Representation (the copy number of each miRNA) was also found to be higher in 5DL (1,949) compared to 5DS (1,191). Targets were predicted for each miRNA, while expression analysis gave evidence of expression for 6 out of 55 miRNAs. Occurrences of the same miRNAs were also found in Brachypodium distachyon and Oryza sativa genome sequences to identify syntenic miRNA coding sequences. Based on this analysis, two other miRNAs: miR1133 and miR167 were detected in B. distachyon syntenic region of wheat 5DS. Five of the predicted miRNA coding regions (miR6220, miR5070, miR169, miR5085, miR2118) were experimentally verified to be located to the 5D chromosome and three of them : miR2118, miR169 and miR5085, were shown to be 5D specific. Furthermore miR2118 was shown to be expressed in Chinese Spring adult leaves. miRNA genes identified in this study will expand our understanding of gene regulation in bread wheat

The identification of genes important in pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola plant colonisation using in vitro screening of transposon libraries

The bacterial plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola (Pph) colonises the surface of common bean plants before moving into the interior of plant tissue, via wounds and stomata. In the intercellular spaces the pathogen proliferates in the apoplastic fluid and forms microcolonies (biofilms) around plant cells. If the pathogen can suppress the plant’s natural resistance response, it will cause halo blight disease. The process of resistance suppression is fairly well understood, but the mechanisms used by the pathogen in colonisation are less clear. We hypothesised that we could apply in vitro genetic screens to look for changes in motility, colony formation, and adhesion, which are proxies for infection, microcolony formation and cell adhesion. We made transposon (Tn) mutant libraries of Pph strains 1448A and 1302A and found 106/1920 mutants exhibited alterations in colony morphology, motility and biofilm formation. Identification of the insertion point of the Tn identified within the genome highlighted, as expected, a number of altered motility mutants bearing mutations in genes encoding various parts of the flagellum. Genes involved in nutrient biosynthesis, membrane associated proteins, and a number of conserved hypothetical protein (CHP) genes were also identified. A mutation of one CHP gene caused a positive increase in in planta bacterial growth. This rapid and inexpensive screening method allows the discovery of genes important for in vitro traits that can be correlated to roles in the plant interactio

Role of structural dynamics at the receptor G protein interface for signal transduction

GPCRs catalyze GDP/GTP exchange in the α-subunit of heterotrimeric G proteins (Gαßγ) through displacement of the Gα C-terminal α5 helix, which directly connects the interface of the active receptor (R*) to the nucleotide binding pocket of G. Hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry and kinetic analysis of R* catalysed G protein activation have suggested that displacement of α5 starts from an intermediate GDP bound complex (R*•GGDP). To elucidate the structural basis of receptor-catalysed displacement of α5, we modelled the structure of R*•GGDP. A flexible docking protocol yielded an intermediate R*•GGDP complex, with a similar overall arrangement as in the X-ray structure of the nucleotide free complex (R*•Gempty), however with the α5 C-terminus (GαCT) forming different polar contacts with R*. Starting molecular dynamics simulations of GαCT bound to R* in the intermediate position, we observe a screw-like motion, which restores the specific interactions of α5 with R* in R*•Gempty. The observed rotation of α5 by 60° is in line with experimental data. Reformation of hydrogen bonds, water expulsion and formation of hydrophobic interactions are driving forces of the α5 displacement. We conclude that the identified interactions between R* and G protein define a structural framework in which the α5 displacement promotes direct transmission of the signal from R* to the GDP binding pocket

Screening and identification of seed-specific genes using digital differential display tools combined with microarray data from common wheat

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops for human beings, with seeds being the tissue of highly economic value. Various morphogenetic and metabolic processes are exclusively associated with seed maturation. The goal of this study was to screen and identify genes specifically expressed in the developing seed of wheat with an integrative utilization of digital differential display (DDD) and available online microarray databases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 201 unigenes were identified as the results of DDD screening and microarray database searching. The expressions of 6 of these were shown to be seed-specific by qRT-PCR analysis. Further GO enrichment analysis indicated that seed-specific genes were mainly associated with defense response, response to stress, multi-organism process, pathogenesis, extracellular region, nutrient reservoir activity, enzyme inhibitor activity, antioxidant activity and oxidoreductase activity. A comparison of this set of genes with the rice (<it>Oryza sativa</it>) genome was also performed and approximately three-fifths of them have rice counterparts. Between the counterparts, around 63% showed similar expression patterns according to the microarray data.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In conclusion, the DDD screening combined with microarray data analysis is an effective strategy for the identification of seed-specific expressed genes in wheat. These seed-specific genes screened during this study will provide valuable information for further studies about the functions of these genes in wheat.</p