A six-year teaching life supportive first aid program to eventually generate peer trainer pupils: a prospective case control study.

BACKGROUND: Out of hospital cardiac arrest is a life-threatening condition. To improve the chances of survival, lay-person cardio-pulmonary-resuscitation (CPR) is a crucial factor. Many bystanders fail to react appropriately, even if life supporting first aid (LSFA) programs and campaigns including CPR tried to increase the handling of basic cardiac life support. To achieve an enhanced learning of CPR a pupil's grade after grade teaching program was established in a school with medical students. METHODS: The learning of CPR was investigated in a prospective, case-controlled study at an international school. Pupils (12 ± 3 years old) joining our LSFA courses (n = 538, female: 243, attendance for evaluation: 476) were compared to a control group (n = 129, female: 52, attendance for evaluation: 102). Surveys and quality of CPR (QCPR%) through a computer linked "Resusci Anne" dummy were compared with Chi-squared tests, t-tests pair wisely, and by one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: Knowledge and skills on the "Resusci Anne" were significantly better in trained grade 9 pupils compared to the control group (QCPR, 59 vs. 25%). The number of LSFA courses each grade 9 student had, correlated with improved practical performance (r2 = 0.21, p < 0.001). The willingness to deliver CPR to strangers increased with improved practical performance. Attitudes towards performing CPR were high in all participating grades. CONCLUSION: Repetitive teaching LSFA to grade 5-9 pupil's grade after grade by medical students has been successfully established. Pupils who finish the program will eventually be able to teach LSFA to younger students. This is furthermore a good way of sharing a "learning by teaching" role and it enables to have more pupils as trainers who can provide instruction to a larger number of pupils with the purpose of having a better-trained population in LSFA.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel biarylpyrimidines: a new class of ligand for unusual nucleic acid structures.

Biarylpyrimidines are characterized as selective ligands for higher-order nucleic acid structures. A concise and efficient synthesis has been devised incorporating Suzuki biaryl cross-coupling of dihalopyrimidines. Two ligand series are described based on the parent thioether 4,6-bis[4-[[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]mercapto]phenyl]pyrimidine (1a) and amide 4,6-bis(4[(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl)carboxamido]phenyl)pyrimidine (2a) compounds. In UV thermal denaturation studies with the poly(dA) x [poly(dT)]2 triplex structure, thioethers showed stabilization of the triplex form (Delta Tm < or = 20 degrees C). In contrast, amides showed duplex stabilization (Delta Tm < or = 15 degrees C) and either negligible stabilization or specific destabilization (Delta Tm = -5 degrees C) of the triplex structure. Full spectra of nucleic acid binding preferences were determined by competition dialysis. The strongest interacting thioether bound preferentially to the poly(dA) x [poly(dT)]2 triplex, K(app) = 1.6 x 10(5) M(-1) (40 x K(app) for CT DNA duplex). In contrast, the strongest binding amide selected the (T2G20T2)4 quadruplex structure, K(app) = 0.31 x 10(5) M(-1) (6.5 x K(app) for CT DNA duplex).

Biarylpyrimidines: a new class of ligand for high-order DNA recognition.

Biarylpyrimidines bearing omega-aminoalkyl substituents have been designed as ligands for high-order DNA structures: spectrophotometric, thermal and competition equilibrium dialysis assays showed that changing the functional group for substituent attachment from thioether to amide switches the structural binding preference from triplex to tetraplex DNA; the novel ligands are non-toxic and moderate inhibitors of human telomerase.