Recommendations From the Common Terminology Panel of the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy.

Background: In 2015, the American Council for Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT) developed 3 strategic initiative panels to address integrated clinical education, student readiness, and common terminology for physical therapist clinical education. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of the work from the Common Terminology Panel. Design: This was a descriptive, consensus-based study. Methods: Using a consensus process and data that were collected from a review of literature, a document analysis of core and historical professional documents, focus group discussions, and an online open comment period, panel members developed a glossary for physical therapist clinical education. Results: The final glossary included 34 terms in 4 categories. The categories included clinical education infrastructure, sites, stakeholders, and assessment. The ACAPT Board of Directors approved the glossary in June 2017, and the ACAPT membership approved the glossary in October 2017. Limitations: The focus of the glossary was on physical therapist clinical education. A future, similar project should be undertaken for physical therapist assistant clinical education. Conclusion: This process resulted in a comprehensive glossary for physical therapist clinical education; changes to several current terms, including "internship" and "full-time clinical education experience"; and the addition of new terms, including "preceptor" and "site coordinator for clinical education." New terminology will provide standard language for consistent communication and a common framework for all stakeholders.

The effects of massage therapy to induce sleep in infants born preterm.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine whether massage therapy can be used as an adjunct intervention to induce sleep in infants born preterm. METHODS: Thirty infants born at a minimum of 28 weeks gestational age, who were at the time of the study between 32 and 48 weeks adjusted gestational age, were randomly assigned to receive massage therapy on 1 day and not receive massage on an alternate day. The Motionlogger Micro Sleep Watch Actigraph recorded lower extremity activity on the morning of each day. RESULTS: No significant difference was found between groups for sleep efficiency (P = .13) during the time period evaluated. Groups differed significantly during the time period after the massage ended with more infants sleeping on the nonmassage day (χ = 4.9802, P = .026). CONCLUSIONS: Massage is well tolerated in infants born preterm and infants do not fall asleep faster after massage than without massage.

Expression patterns reveal niche diversification in a marine microbial assemblage.

Resolving the ecological niches of coexisting marine microbial taxa is challenging due to the high species richness of microbial communities and the apparent functional redundancy in bacterial genomes and metagenomes. Here, we generated over 11 million Illumina reads of protein-encoding transcripts collected from well-mixed southeastern US coastal waters to characterize gene expression patterns distinguishing the ecological roles of hundreds of microbial taxa sharing the same environment. The taxa with highest in situ growth rates (based on relative abundance of ribosomal protein transcripts) were typically not the greatest contributors to community transcription, suggesting strong top-down ecological control, and their diverse transcriptomes indicated roles as metabolic generalists. The taxa with low in situ growth rates typically had low diversity transcriptomes dominated by specialized metabolisms. By identifying protein-encoding genes with atypically high expression for their level of conservation, unique functional roles of community members emerged related to substrate use (such as complex carbohydrates, fatty acids, methanesulfonate, taurine, tartrate, ectoine), alternative energy-conservation strategies (proteorhodopsin, AAnP, V-type pyrophosphatases, sulfur oxidation, hydrogen oxidation) and mechanisms for negotiating a heterogeneous environment (flagellar motility, gliding motility, adhesion strategies). On average, the heterotrophic bacterioplankton dedicated 7% of their transcriptomes to obtaining energy by non-heterotrophic means. This deep sequencing of a coastal bacterioplankton transcriptome provides the most highly resolved view of bacterioplankton niche dimensions yet available, uncovering a spectrum of unrecognized ecological strategies.

Preparation and reactivity of O2-sulfonated diazeniumdiolates.

We report the facile preparation of O2-sulfonated diazeniumdiolates and mechanistic investigation of their reactions with representative nucleophiles. This new class of compounds extends the range of O2-substituted diazeniumdiolates available for potential applications in research and medicine.

Serial casting vs combined intervention with botulinum toxin A and serial casting in the treatment of spastic equinus in children.

PURPOSE: Serial casting has been an effective tool used by physical therapists to increase ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and improve functional gait. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine whether injection with botulinum toxin type A (BtA) before serial casting vs serial casting alone was associated with any changes in (1) the number of weeks necessary to reach the desired dorsiflexion range of motion and (2) the number of degrees of dorsiflexion range of motion gained per week of casting. METHOD: Data were obtained through review of records maintained on patients undergoing serial casting. Thirty subjects comprised the two groups of 15 patients each. One group had received BtA before serial casting while the other group had received no BtA before serial casting. Data were analyzed using two t tests to determine whether there were significant differences, and the appropriate statistical adjustment (Bonferroni) was applied. RESULTS: Fewer weeks were required to reach the goal of 15 to 20 degrees of ankle dorsiflexion (or plateau) for the group receiving BtA than for the group that did not receive BtA. Results also indicated that the group receiving BtA had a significantly greater increase in range of motion per week than the group that received no BtA. CONCLUSIONS: Using serial casting in conjunction with BtA may achieve range of motion goals in less time than serial casting alone.

Piperazine as a Linker for Incorporating the Nitric Oxide-Releasing Diazeniumdiolate Group into Other Biomedically Relevant Functional Molecules.

Synthetic procedures have been devised to exploit the bifunctional amine piperazine (pip) as a linker capable of attaching the nitric oxide (NO)-releasing diazeniumdiolate functional group [N(O)NO]- to a diverse selection of biomedically useful molecules. One of the amino groups bears the diazeniumdiolate, which may be substituted on oxygen as necessary to control its dissociation to NO, while the other is used to provide a site suitable for covalent bonding to the molecule requiring NO donor capability. N,N'-Disubstituted piperazines of the structure R-pip-N(O)[Formula: see text]NOE were prepared either by using the nucleophilic character of the amino group or by converting it into an electrophilic moiety for reaction with nucleophilic centers in the molecules to be derivatized. Examples are reported in which E = CH3 and the R groups are bound to the N'-nitrogen: via amide linkages to the carboxyl groups of the drug ibuprofen and the amino acid derivative N-acetylmethionine; through a urea grouping to the ε-amino group of a protected lysine; via a carbamate linkage to poly(ethylene glycol); and by replacing the NH2 nitrogens of nicotinamide and adenosine. Synthesis of analogues in which E = vinyl has been facilitated by introduction of BrCH2CH2OSO2Cl as a novel, efficient bromoethylating agent. Spontaneous NO releasers in the diazeniumdiolated piperazine series include both a fluorescent anion of half-life 5.5 min in which E = Na and R = dansyl and "MOM-PIPERAZI/NO" (E = CH3OCH2, R = H), whose half-life for NO release was estimated as 17 days. The latter agent has made possible the conversion of poly(vinyl chloride) and phosphatidylethanolamine to NO-releasing derivatives. This chemistry should allow introduction of diazeniumdiolate groups into a wide variety of natural products, drugs, polymers, and other molecules whose activities could be beneficially combined with the ability to generate NO for biomedical applications.

recA-dependence of the response of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to UVA and UVB irradiation.

The responses of the autochthonous soil and aquatic organism, Pseudomonas aeruginosa to UV radiation wavelengths (UVA, 320-400 nm, and UVB, 280-320 nm) has been investigated in this study. P. aeruginosa recA mutants were found to be more sensitive to both UVA and UVB radiation than were their isogenic RecA+ parents. Introduction of a low-copy-number plasmid containing the cloned wild-type P. aeruginosa recA gene restored UVA and UVB resistance to recA mutants. The concentration of RecA protein increased twofold 120 min after exposure to either UVA or UVB radiation, suggesting induction of expression of the recA gene by these wavelengths. In this study, we found that a functional RecA protein is required for activation of D3 prophage in lysogenic cells following exposure to UVB radiation. Prophage were not induced by exposure of their hosts to UVA radiation. Induction of damage-inducible (din) genes in response to UVA or UVB irradiation was also shown to be RecA dependent. These data indicate that the recA gene plays a role in the response of P. aeruginosa to exposure to wavelengths of UV radiation found in the solar spectrum.