Evaluation of paliperidone palmitate injection site in an acute behavioral unit

This is a quality improvement study on the administration location of paliperidone palmitate initiation doses given on an acute behavioral health unit at The University of Texas Health North Campus Tyler. Patients that received paliperidone palmitate from January 1, 2018 to June 15, 2020 were gathered from pharmacy records. Study included patients over 18 years of age who received paliperidone palmitate on the unit and received oral paliperidone palmitate prior to the injection dose. Excluded patients were those less than 18 years of age, those hospitalized on another unit, or did not receive oral paliperidone prior to injection. Using the visit number, researchers accessed the patients’ electronic medical record. For all included patients, the location of injection for each paliperidone dose was collected and recorded as either gluteal or deltoid and either left or right side onto a deidentified excel document. A total of 25 patient were included in the study. 24 patients received the 234mg dose of paliperidone palmitate and 18 patients received the 156mg dose of paliperidone palmitate. Eight of the 234mg doses were given in the gluteal muscles (33%) and 12 of the 156mg doses were given in the gluteal muscle (66%). Although initiation doses of paliperidone palmitate should be administered in the deltoid muscle to achieve therapeutic concentrations rapidly, 33% of the 234mg doses and 66% of the 156mg doses were given in the gluteal muscle on this unit. The results of this study will be used to provide nursing education on appropriate administration of paliperidone palmitate initiation doses

Auditors’ Independence and Accountability of Federal Higher Institutions in Ogun State

This research work examined the effect of auditors’ independence on the accountability of Federal Higher Institutions in Ogun State. It determined the implication of audit fees on the accountability of Federal higher Institutions. Since the nature of the auditors’ work requires them to be independent of any party, the study ascertained the influence of tenure of audit firm on the accountability which by extension has provided informative and educative awareness on the understanding of auditors’ independence and the idea of accountability of Federal higher Institutions in Ogun State. The research was carried out based on the survey design. The focused population of the study were the accounting staff of both Federal Higher Institutions in Ogun State and their audit firms which totalled one hundred and ninety-three (193). The sample size selected was one hundred and fifty staff (150) on the basis of systematic sampling technique. The systematic sampling technique was adopted because of the geographical location of the Institutions and their audit firms. The primary method of data collection was employed. The research instrument was the use of questionnaires which were administered to 150 respondents. Data collected from the primary source was analysed through the use of inferential and descriptive statistics. Chi-square was employed as the data analysis technique to analyse the questionnaires and the information was also represented by the use of the pie chart. The results showed that the auditors’ independence significantly impacted on the accountability of Federal Higher Institutions in Ogun State (χ2 = 59.867, sig. < 0.05). The results also revealed that the tenure of audit had significant effect on the accountability (χ2 = 63.173, sig. < 0.05). Furthermore, the results revealed that the size of audit fees significantly influenced the accountability of Federal Higher Institutions in Ogun State (χ2 = 35.262, sig. < 0.05). In view of the aforementioned findings, the study concluded that the accountability of the Federal Higher Institutions in Ogun State is a function of the Independence of Auditors. So, it is recommended that the auditors must not, by any means, compromise their independence.   Keywords: Auditing, Accountability, Auditors, Financial statement, and Performance

Development of an Integrated Microfluidic Perfusion Cell Culture System for Real-Time Microscopic Observation of Biological Cells

This study reports an integrated microfluidic perfusion cell culture system consisting of a microfluidic cell culture chip, and an indium tin oxide (ITO) glass-based microheater chip for micro-scale perfusion cell culture, and its real-time microscopic observation. The system features in maintaining both uniform, and stable chemical or thermal environments, and providing a backflow-free medium pumping, and a precise thermal control functions. In this work, the performance of the medium pumping scheme, and the ITO glass microheater were experimentally evaluated. Results show that the medium delivery mechanism was able to provide pumping rates ranging from 15.4 to 120.0 μL·min−1. In addition, numerical simulation and experimental evaluation were conducted to verify that the ITO glass microheater was capable of providing a spatially uniform thermal environment, and precise temperature control with a mild variation of ±0.3 °C. Furthermore, a perfusion cell culture was successfully demonstrated, showing the cultured cells were kept at high cell viability of 95 ± 2%. In the process, the cultured chondrocytes can be clearly visualized microscopically. As a whole, the proposed cell culture system has paved an alternative route to carry out real-time microscopic observation of biological cells in a simple, user-friendly, and low cost manner

Optimizing human islet assessment and culture before transplantation.

Optimizing human islet assessment and culture before transplantation

Protein arginine deiminase 4 antagonizes methylglyoxal-induced histone glycation

Protein arginine deiminase 4 (PAD4) facilitates the posttranslational citrullination of histones H3 and H4. Here, the authors provide evidence that PAD4 antagonizes histone methylglyoxal-glycation by rewriting the glycated arginine into citrulline and protecting the reactive sites from further glycation

Comparing cooling systems for the COBE 2991 cell separator used in the purification of human pancreatic islets of Langerhans

Two different approaches of controlled cooling of the COBE 2991 cell-separator for islet purification were evaluated. The first method is the new Geneva COBE cooling system (GCCS), which consists of an electronically controlled liquid nitrogen injection system. The second is the University of Illinois at Chicago cooling system (UICCS), which consists of a specially designed "Cold Room" maintained at 1-8 C. For the GCCS, the mean temperatures of the gradient solutions were measured at the beginning and end of centrifugation were found to be 7 +/-0.7 C and 6.8 +/-0.6 C respectively. For the UICCS, the mean temperature of the gradients at the beginning and end of centrifugation were 4.7 +/-0.53 C and 7.03 C+/-0.91 C respectively. The presented COBE cooling systems can easily be adapted to a COBE 2991 cell-separator and are efficient in maintaining gradient solutions at a defined low temperature during centrifugation