An exploratory study into the experience of part-time nurse teachers compared to full-time nurse teachers

The part-time labour force, in nursing as elsewhere, is often unacknowledged, or conveniently assumed to have lesser commitment than the full-time labour force (Davies 1990). This paper reports the findings of an ethnographic study of five part-time nurse teachers and five full-time nurse teachers, which explored whether organisational and other constraints experienced by five part-time nurse teachers at one college of nursing, were the same for full-time nurse teachers. Four major themes emerged from the findings. Three constraints were identified by both part-time and full-time members, and they were related to issues of communication networks, valuing colleagues, and the results of coercive psychological contracts. The full-time teachers experienced these constraints but apparently to a lesser degree. The fourth theme was related to part-time teachers only. They identified that the flexibility of part-time hours enabled them to make compromises between their professional and other roles. The results of this study suggest that there is a need for part-time and full-time nurse teachers to work together in a collaborative manner, so that they are able to negotiate local working arrangements.     

Activation of a cerebellar output nucleus during cognitive processing

Magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine the involvement of the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum in cognitive operations. All seven people examined displayed a large bilateral activation in the dentate during their attempts to solve a pegboard puzzle. The area activated was three to four times greater than that activated during simple movements of the pegs. These results provide support for the concept that the computational power of the cerebellum is applied not only to the control of movement but also to cognitive functions.     

A randomized study of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery versus surgery for localized squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus

BACKGROUND: Despite well-established surgical approaches, the prognosis for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus remains dismal. To assess the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation therapy (CRT), a randomized trial with and without sequential preoperative CRT was undertaken; CRT combined 20 Gy and two courses of 5-FU and cisplatin. METHODS: Patients were included on the basis of the following criteria: squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus, younger than 70 years of age, World Health Organization status below 2, estimated survival time greater than 3 months, and no previous treatment for the cancer. Patients were not included if they had experienced a loss in body weight greater than 15% or had tracheoesophageal fistula, metastases, or uncontrollable infection. RESULTS: Eighty-six patients thus fulfilled the criteria for inclusion (41 CRT, 45 non-CRT). The groups were well-matched for age, sex, tumor location, size, and grade. Operative mortality was 8.5% and 7%, respectively, for each group with a 27-day hospital stay for both groups. Long-term survival was not significantly different, with 47% of both groups alive at 1 year. CONCLUSIONS: The authors concluded that this neoadjuvant treatment did not change operative mortality or survival time for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus.     

Candida-specific Th1-type responsiveness in mice with experimental vaginal candidiasis

The role of systemic cell-mediated immunity (CMI) as a host defense mechanism in the vagina is poorly understood. Using a murine pseudoestrus model of experimental vaginal candidiasis, we previously found that animals given a vaginal inoculum of viable Candida albicans blastoconidia acquired a persistent vaginal infection and developed Candida-specific delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) responses. The present study was designed to characterize the peripheral CMI reactivity generated from the vaginal infection in mice and to determine whether pseudoestrus is a prerequisite for the induction of peripheral CMI reactivity. Mice treated or not treated with estrogen and given a vaginal inoculum of C. albicans blastoconidia were examined for 4 weeks for their vaginal Candida burden and peripheral CMI reactivity, including DTH responsiveness and in vitro Th1 (interleukin-2 [IL-2], gamma interferon [IFN-gamma]/Th2 (IL-4, IL-10)-type lymphokine production in response to Candida antigens. Results showed that although mice not treated with estrogen before being given a vaginal inoculum of C. albicans blastoconidia developed only a short-lived vaginal infection and harbored significantly fewer Candida CFU in the vagina compared with those given estrogen and then infected; DTH reactivity was equivalent in both groups. In vitro measurement of CMI reactivity further showed that lymph node cells from both estrogen- and non-estrogen-treated infected mice produced elevated levels of IL-2 and IFN-gamma in response to Candida antigens during the 4 weeks after vaginal inoculation. In contrast, lymph node cells from the same vaginally infected mice showed no IL-10 production and only small elevations of IL-4 during week 4 of infection. These results suggest that mice with experimental vaginal candidiasis develop predominantly Th1-type Candida-specific peripheral CMI reactivity and that similar patterns of Th1-type reactivity occur in mice regardless of the persistence of infection and the estrogen status of the infected mice.     

Recombinant protein production via fed-batch culture of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Protein production with the recombinant yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in fed-batch culture is investigated in this work using beta-galactosidase as a model protein. Segregational instability was negligible during the observed culture periods. The final volumetric productivity, as determined by both cell concentration and gene expression, was strongly affected by the time course of the glucose levels in the bioreactor. It was found that an average glucose feed rate of 1.31 g glucose h-1 resulted in both the maximum beta-galactosidase production rate of 831-950 units ml-1 h-1 and the maximum cell production rate of 0.520-0.524 mg ml-1 h-1.     

Cardiomyopathy of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to find an association between dilated cardiomyopathy and limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. BACKGROUND: Cardiomyopathy has been seen in various neuromuscular disorders, but it has not been recognized to be associated with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. METHODS: We investigated three sisters with well documented limb-girdle dystrophy and congestive heart failure by the 3rd decade of life. All underwent noninvasive evaluation of left ventricular systolic function by both echocardiography and radionuclide scanning, and one also had cardiac catheterization. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) linkage analysis was performed in these affected subjects and in the unaffected family members, and DNA was extracted from mononuclear cells with primer sequences for three chromosome 13q microsatellite markers. RESULTS: The parents had no evidence of clinical disease, but all three sisters had echocardiographic evidence of dilated cardiomyopathy. The sister with additional evidence of left ventricular dysfunction of cardiac catheterization had no coronary artery disease. The affected subjects had the same paternal allele for three potential markers of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy but different maternal alleles. The very small family size did not permit statistical confirmation or refutation of linkage for chromosome 13q markers. CONCLUSIONS: Demonstrable cardiomyopathy accompanying limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and its probable genetic associations require continued investigation by anticipating the cardiomyopathy in limb-girdle muscular dystrophy.     

Basic fibroblast growth factor-stimulated endothelial cell movement is mediated by a pertussis toxin-sensitive pathway regulating phospholipase A2 activity

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) stimulates migration and proliferation of vascular endothelial cells (EC). Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors have an intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity involved in FGF-mediated proliferation, but the signal transduction pathway(s) responsible for movement is not known. We compared the role of signal-transducing G-proteins in migratory and proliferative responses of bovine aortic EC in vitro. Pertussis toxin, which ADP-ribosylates susceptible G-proteins, reduced bFGF-stimulated EC migration by 80%. The toxin did not block serum-stimulated movement, indicating that structural components required for motility were not impaired. The toxin did not inhibit bFGF-stimulated EC proliferation, showing that distinct intracellular signaling mechanisms are involved in the migratory and proliferative responses to bFGF. Three experimental approaches indicated that promigratory responses were due to release of arachidonic acid: (i) of the second messengers induced by G-protein-coupled effectors, only arachidonic acid over-came the pertussis toxin block, (ii) bFGF stimulated arachidonic acid release from EC in a pertussis toxin-sensitive manner, and (iii) phospholipase A2 inhibitors blocked the EC migration in response to bFGF. These data provide evidence that the migratory response of vascular EC to bFGF may be mediated by a G-protein-coupled phospholipase A2 activity.     

Clinical evaluation of a renal mass diagnostic expert system

In this paper, we describe our clinical evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of the renal mass diagnostic system (RMDS) and of seven physicians. To investigate the value of intravenous urography (IVU) and/or retrograde urography (RU) in diagnosing renal parenchymal tumors and tumors of the renal pelvis, RMDS and the seven physicians were tested with and without the information regarding IVU/RU at two different times. From this study we believe that RMDS can help residents in making more accurate presurgical renal mass diagnosis, and may eliminate the need for IVU/RU in the diagnosing process for a specific group of patients.