Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Attitudes Toward Mental Health Nursing

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe undergraduate nursing students’ attitudes toward mental health nursing and how these attitudes influenced their professional career choices in mental health nursing. Design: A descriptive, online survey was utilized to examine students’ perceptions of mental health nursing. A total of 229 junior and senior nursing students were recruited from eight nursing colleges in Midwestern United States to participate in this survey. Results: Students of different ages, genders, ethnicities, and nursing programs did not report significantly different perceptions of: (a) knowledge of mental illness; (b) negative stereotypes; (c) interest in mental health nursing as a future career; and (d), and beliefs that psychiatric nurses provide a valuable contribution to consumers and the community. Negative stereotypes were significantly different between students who had mental health nursing preparation either in class (p = 0.0147) or in clinical practice (p = 0.0018) and students who had not. There were significant differences in anxiety about mental illness between students who had classes on mental health nursing (p = .0005), clinical experience (p = 0.0035), and work experience in the mental health field (p = 0.0012). Significant differences in an interest in a future career in mental health nursing emerged between students with and without prior mental health experience and between students with and without an interest in an externship program with p-values of 0.0012 and \u3c 0.0001, respectively. Conclusions: The more exposure that students have to mental health nursing through clinical experiences, theory classes, and previous work in the field, the more prepared they feel about caring for persons with mental health issues

Chromosome Abnormalities and Repeated Abortion: A Preliminary Report

In view of the increased frequency of chromosome rearrangements demonstrated in these couples and the importance of counseling for future pregnancies, it would be wise to consider cytogenetic evaluation when all other probable causes for recurrent abortion have been ruled out

Contractile force is enhanced in Aortas from pendrin null mice due to stimulation of angiotensin II-dependent signaling.

Pendrin is a Cl-/HCO3- exchanger expressed in the apical regions of renal intercalated cells. Following pendrin gene ablation, blood pressure falls, in part, from reduced renal NaCl absorption. We asked if pendrin is expressed in vascular tissue and if the lower blood pressure observed in pendrin null mice is accompanied by reduced vascular reactivity. Thus, the contractile responses to KCl and phenylephrine (PE) were examined in isometrically mounted thoracic aortas from wild-type and pendrin null mice. Although pendrin expression was not detected in the aorta, pendrin gene ablation changed contractile protein abundance and increased the maximal contractile response to PE when normalized to cross sectional area (CSA). However, the contractile sensitivity to this agent was unchanged. The increase in contractile force/cross sectional area observed in pendrin null mice was due to reduced cross sectional area of the aorta and not from increased contractile force per vessel. The pendrin-dependent increase in maximal contractile response was endothelium- and nitric oxide-independent and did not occur from changes in Ca2+ sensitivity or chronic changes in catecholamine production. However, application of 100 nM angiotensin II increased force/CSA more in aortas from pendrin null than from wild type mice. Moreover, angiotensin type 1 receptor inhibitor (candesartan) treatment in vivo eliminated the pendrin-dependent changes contractile protein abundance and changes in the contractile force/cross sectional area in response to PE. In conclusion, pendrin gene ablation increases aorta contractile force per cross sectional area in response to angiotensin II and PE due to stimulation of angiotensin type 1 receptor-dependent signaling. The angiotensin type 1 receptor-dependent increase in vascular reactivity may mitigate the fall in blood pressure observed with pendrin gene ablation

Sensitivity to Sunburn Is Associated with Susceptibility to Ultraviolet Radiation–Induced Suppression of Cutaneous Cell–Mediated Immunity

Skin cancer incidence is highest in white-skinned people. Within this group, skin types I/II (sun sensitive/tan poorly) are at greater risk than skin types III/IV (sun tolerant/tan well). Studies in mice demonstrate that ultraviolet radiation (UVR)-induced suppression of cell-mediated immune function plays an important role in the development of skin cancer and induces a susceptibility to infectious disease. A similar role is suspected in humans, but we lack quantitative human data to make risk assessments of ambient solar exposure on human health. This study demonstrates that ambient levels of solar UVR, typically experienced within 1 h of exposure to noonday summer sunlight, can suppress contact hypersensitivity (CHS) responses in healthy white-skinned humans in vivo (n = 93). There was a linear relationship between increase in erythema and suppression of CHS (P < 0.001), and a moderate sunburn (two minimal erythema doses [2 MED]) was sufficient to suppress CHS in all volunteers by 93%. However, a single suberythemal exposure of either 0.25 or 0.5 MED suppressed CHS responses by 50 and 80%, respectively, in skin types I/II, whereas 1 MED only suppressed CHS by 40% in skin types III/IV. The two- to threefold greater sensitivity of skin types I/II for a given level of sunburn may play a role in their greater sensitivity to skin cancer

Reproducible community dynamics of the gastrointestinal microbiota following antibiotic perturbation

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of American Society for Microbiology for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Infection and Immunity 77 (2009): 2367-2375, doi:10.1128/IAI.01520-08.Shifts in microbial communities are implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of gastrointestinal diseases, but we have limited understanding of the mechanisms that lead to altered community structures. One difficulty with studying these mechanisms in human subjects is the inherent baseline variability of the microbiota in different individuals that arise due to varying life histories. To try and overcome this baseline variability we employed a mouse model to control host genotype, diet and other possible influences on the microbiota. This allowed us to determine if the indigenous microbiota in such mice had a stable baseline community structure and whether this community exhibited a consistent response following antibiotic administration. We employed a tag sequencing strategy targeting the V6 hypervariable region of the bacterial small-subunit (16S) ribosomal RNA combined with massively parallel sequencing to determine the community structure of the gut microbiota. Inbred mice in a controlled environment harbored a reproducible baseline community that was significantly impacted by antibiotic administration. The ability of the gut microbial community to recover to baseline following cessation of antibiotic administration varied according to the antibiotic regimen administered. Severe antibiotic pressure resulted in reproducible long-lasting alterations in the gut microbial community including a decrease in overall diversity. The finding of stereotypic responses of the indigenous microbiota to ecologic stress implies that a better understanding of the factors that govern community structure could lead to strategies for the intentional manipulation of this ecosystem to preserve or restore a healthy microbiota.The main projects were funded in whole with federal funds from the NIAID, NIH, Department of Health and Human Services, under contract number N01-AI-30058. Additional funding was supplied via subcontracts from the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation (NIH/NIEHS 1 P50 ES012742-01 and NSF/OCE 0430724-J. Stegeman PI to H.G.M. and M.L.S. and R01 DK070875 to V.B.Y.) and a grants from the W.M. Keck Foundation and the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation (to M.L.S.). D.A.A. was supported by the National Institutes of Health under a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (T32 HL07749)

Seismicity and state of stress in the central and southern Peruvian flat slab

We have determined the Wadati–Benioff Zone seismicity and state of stress of the subducting Nazca slab beneath central and southern Peru using data from three recently deployed local seismic networks. Our relocated hypocenters are consistent with a flat slab geometry that is shallowest near the Nazca Ridge, and changes from steep to normal without tearing to the south. These locations also indicate numerous abrupt along-strike changes in seismicity, most notably an absence of seismicity along the projected location of subducting Nazca Ridge. This stands in stark contrast to the very high seismicity observed along the Juan Fernandez ridge beneath central Chile where, a similar flat slab geometry is observed. We interpret this as indicative of an absence of water in the mantle beneath the overthickened crust of the Nazca Ridge. This may provide important new constraints on the conditions required to produce intermediate depth seismicity. Our focal mechanisms and stress tensor inversions indicate dominantly down-dip extension, consistent with slab pull, with minor variations that are likely due to the variable slab geometry and stress from adjacent regions. We observe significantly greater variability in the P-axis orientations and maximum compressive stress directions. The along strike change in the orientation of maximum compressive stress is likely related to slab bending and unbending south of the Nazca Ridge

Evaluation of Neurocognition in Youth with CKD Using a Novel Computerized Neurocognitive Battery

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Neurocognitive problems in CKD are well documented; time-efficient methods are needed to assess neurocognition in this population. We performed the first study of the efficient 1-hour Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery (CNB) in children and young adults with CKD. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We administered the Penn CNB cross-sectionally to individuals aged 8-25 years with stage 2-5 CKD (n=92, enrolled from three academic nephrology practices from 2011 to 2014) and matched healthy controls (n=69). We analyzed results from 12 tests in four domains: executive control, episodic memory, complex cognition, and social cognition. All tests measure accuracy and speed; we converted raw scores to age-specific z-scores on the basis of Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (n=1790) norms. We analyzed each test in a linear regression with accuracy and speed z-scores as dependent variables and with (1) CKD versus control or (2) eGFR as explanatory variables, adjusted for race, sex, and maternal education. RESULTS: Patients with CKD (mean±SD eGFR, 48±25 ml/min per 1.73 m(2); mean age, 16.3±3.9 years) and controls (mean eGFR, 98±20 ml/min per 1.73 m(2); mean age, 16.0±4.0 years) were similar demographically. CKD participants had lower accuracy than controls in tests of complex cognition, with moderate to large effect sizes: -0.53 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], -0.87 to -0.19) for verbal reasoning, -0.52 (95% CI, -0.83 to -0.22) for nonverbal reasoning, and -0.64 (95% CI, -0.99 to -0.29) for spatial processing. For attention, patients with CKD had lower accuracy (effect size, -0.35 [95% CI, -0.67 to -0.03]) but faster response times (effect size, 0.44 [95% CI, 0.04 to 0.83]) than controls, perhaps reflecting greater impulsivity. Lower eGFR was associated with lower accuracy for complex cognition, facial and visual memory, and emotion identification tests. CONCLUSIONS: CKD is associated with lower accuracy in tests of complex cognition, attention, memory, and emotion identification, which related to eGFR. These findings are consistent with traditional neurocognitive testing in previous studies