Paediatric resuscitation for nurses working in Ghana: an educational intervention.

BACKGROUND: Deficiencies in the paediatric emergency systems of developing countries may contribute to avoidable paediatric mortality. Studies suggest that nurses and doctors may not be educationally prepared to provide immediate paediatric resuscitative care to acutely ill children. The purpose of this study was to determine if a 1-day World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Triage and Assessment Treatment (ETAT) Program in paediatric resuscitation would increase Ghanaian nurses' knowledge and self-efficacy of paediatric resuscitation. METHODS: A pre-experimental, one-group, pre-test, post-test design was used to assess differences in the nurses' knowledge of paediatric resuscitation, and their perceived self-efficacy of paediatric resuscitation after completing a 1-day educational intervention in paediatric resuscitation. Forty-one nurses from a public teaching hospital in Ghana were recruited and participated in the study. RESULTS: Using a paired samples t-test, there was a statistically significant increase in the nurses' perceived self-efficacy of paediatric resuscitation in general (P < 0.000), perceived self-efficacy of bag and mask ventilation (P < 0.000), and knowledge of paediatric resuscitation (P < 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study suggest that a 1-day WHO ETAT Program may increase self-efficacy of paediatric resuscitation and knowledge of paediatric resuscitation. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Policy makers in Ghana need to consider implementing education programmes in paediatric resuscitation for nurses as part of a comprehensive strategy to improve emergency systems and address preventable and avoidable infant and child mortality.

Altered expression of beta-catenin, E-cadherin, cycloxygenase-2, and p53 protein by ovine intestinal adenocarcinoma cells.

Around 1.6% of sheep in New Zealand develop small-intestinal adenocarcinomas. These neoplasms typically develop widespread metastases. The common development of these neoplasms and their subsequent behavior suggests that sheep could be a useful animal model of human colonic cancer. However, for an animal model of human disease to be relevant, similar genetic mutations should be present. Genetic mutations within human colonic cancers frequently result in expression of cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2), loss of membranous expression of beta-catenin and E-cadherin, and accumulation of p53 protein within the neoplastic cells. Immunohistochemistry was used to investigate the presence of these 4 proteins within 26 ovine intestinal adenocarcinomas. Loss of membranous beta-catenin reactivity was observed in 14 of 26 ovine intestinal adenocarcinomas (54%). The loss of membranous beta-catenin reactivity was accompanied by cytoplasmic and nuclear reactivity in 2 neoplasms. Loss of E-cadherin was observed within 8 of 26 neoplasms (31%). Neoplastic cell expression of COX-2 was observed in 12 of 26 neoplasms (46%), whereas cells within 3 of 26 neoplasms (11%) contained visible p53 protein. In conclusion, all 4 proteins that commonly have altered expression in human colonic cancers were also altered in a proportion of the ovine intestinal adenocarcinomas. These results provide additional evidence that sheep could be useful for the study of human colonic cancer.

Differential activity and degradation of plant volatile elicitors in regurgitant of tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) larvae.

Plants respond to insect herbivory by emitting volatile compounds that attract natural enemies of the herbivores. Biosynthesis of many of these volatiles in plants is induced by herbivore-produced compounds. Components of tobacco hornworm (THW) regurgitant were investigated for their efficacy as elicitors of corn seedling volatiles. Two components that elicited the strongest release of volatiles were isolated and identified as N-linolenoyl-L-glutamine (18:3-GLN) and N-linolenoyl-L-glutamic acid (18:3-GLU). The approximately 10 times more active 18:3-GLN, which also is found in the regurgitant of several other Lepidopteran larvae, was rapidly degraded when THW regurgitant was left at room temperature, while 18:3-GLU degraded at a much slower rate. Different dietary sources of THW and tobacco bud worm larvae, including both host and nonhost plants, did not affect the amino acid composition of the fatty acid-amino acid conjugates in the regurgitant.

Detection of high-risk subtypes of human papillomavirus in cervical swabs: routine use of the Digene Hybrid Capture assay and polymerase chain reaction analysis.

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are major causative agents in the pathogenesis of cervical cancer, and more than twenty types are associated with its development. With the introduction of liquid-based preparation systems, it is envisaged that large-scale HPV testing will be established in the near future. Preliminary studies demonstrate the accessibility of these samples for DNA testing using both the Digene Hybrid Capture assay (DHCA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. This study aims to assess the validity and sensitivity of the DHCA system to detect high-risk HPV DNA, using two sets of HPV consensus primers (Gp5+/Gp6+ and MY09/MY11) in tandem with routine assessment of cervical smear and biopsy samples. Results indicate that the combination of DHCA and PCR detects more high-grade lesions than does the DHCA alone. DHCA-negative cases were categorised by subsequent PCR amplification into low-grade HPV-negative (12/16) cervical lesions and high-grade HPV-positive (7/9) cervical lesions. Gp5+/Gp6+ primers were less sensitive in detecting HPV-positive samples than was the MY09/MY11 primer set. These results support the use of high-risk HPV testing by DHCA, with subsequent analysis of DHCA-negative samples by PCR using the MY09/MY11 primers.

The use of the lingual arch in the mixed dentition to resolve incisor crowding.

In the mixed dentition, arch length preservation, maintaining the leeway space, can often provide adequate space to resolve lower incisor crowding. Yet the frequency of this occurrence is not known. To obtain this information, lingual arches were placed in the mandibular arches of 107 consecutive mixed dentition patients with incisor crowding to preserve arch length and make the leeway space available to resolve the crowding. Arch length decreased only 0.44 mm whereas the intercanine, interpremolar, and intermolar dimensions increased between 0.72 and 2.27 mm. There was adequate space to resolve the crowding in 65 (60%) of the 107 patients. If perfect arch length preservation had occurred, there would have been adequate space to resolve the crowding in 73 (68%) of the 107 patients. The correlation between leeway space and tooth size-arch size discrepancy was only 0.44.

The use of phonemic cueing with Alzheimer's disease patients.

Variables influencing responsiveness to phonemic cueing, although studied extensively in the aphasia population, have not been identified in the Alzheimer's disease population. In this study, four variables were analyzed in relation to successfulness of phonemic cueing: severity of dementia, confrontational naming ability, auditory comprehension, and speech fluency. All three language measures showed a significant positive correlation with cueing. Severity of dementia showed a significant inverse correlation with responsiveness to cueing and was the best predictor of successful use of cueing. It was concluded that phonemic cueing aided in label retrieval, problematic in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, prior to significant erosion of semantic meaning.

Trans-sexually grafted antennae alter pheromone-directed behaviour in a moth.

When tobacco hornworm moths (Manduca sexta) are tested in a wind tunnel with a source of female pheromones upwind, males but not normal females show pheromone-modulated anemotaxis and a characteristic mate-seeking behavioural sequence. These behaviours are produced by stimulation of sensory neurones found only in male antennae. These neurones project axons only to dendrites of pheromone-specific interneurones in the macroglomerular complex, a region of neuropil in the antennal lobe characteristic of males but not present in normal females. Some interneurones in the antennal lobes of female moths that have received grafts of male antennae (gynandromorphs) respond postsynaptically to stimulation with bombykal, a major component of the pheromone. They branch into a region resembling the macroglomerular complex, like their counterparts in normal males. We show here that gynandromorphic females respond to pheromonal stimulation with anemotaxis. We also find that normal females display a similar sequence in response to the odour of their egg-laying site, the tobacco plant. It is likely that a common motor path is used either by pheromone-specific interneurones in the antennal lobes of males or by tobacco-specific interneurones in females. We assume that the interneurones in gynandromorphic females that branch into the macroglomerular complex induced by a grafted male antenna can activate this pathway.