Comparison of medication acceptance of intranasal midazolam administered by parents versus doctors in children - A randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: The positive effects of midazolam as a premedication in pediatric patients are well documented. Although there are many studies regarding the route and dosage of administration, literature does not have any evidence on the outcome of medication acceptance based on the person administering the drug. AIM: The aim of this study was to compare the medication acceptance and preoperative anxiolysis of intranasal midazolam administered by parents and anesthesiologists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective randomized study was conducted in sixty children belonging to the American Society of Anesthesiologists Class 1 or 2 belonging to either sex, aged between 1 and 9 years, undergoing elective surgeries. Group P received intranasal midazolam administered by parents, whereas Group D received intranasal midazolam administered by doctors. Various scores were assessed. RESULTS: Children were more sedated in Group P. Clinically, medication acceptance was better in Group P when compared with Group D, but a statistically significant difference in medication acceptance was seen only in patients who are >4 years of age. Parental separation, Ramsay Sedation Score, and mask acceptance were better in Group P than in Group D. CONCLUSION: Intranasal midazolam when given by parents produces better preoperative anxiolysis and easier parental separation as compared with administration by a medical staff.

Impacts of PM2.5 on respiratory system among traffic policemen.

BACKGROUND: Malaysian traffic policemen are constantly exposed to unhealthy air in the outdoor environment, which results in various health problems. This study investigates the relationship of the personal exposure level to PM2.5 and lung functions in traffic policemen in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru. METHODS: A pulmonary function test using a spirometer was carried out to measure the lung function of the traffic policemen. The personal exposure level to PM2.5 was measured using a pump with a PVC filter and 5.0µm pore size. A questionnaire requesting the background data, such as age, height, and weight, was also used for testing lung function abnormalities. RESULTS: The PM2.5 personal exposure level was found to be significantly related to lung function (predicted FEV1 and predicted FVC) at p-value < 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Traffic policemen are mainly exposed to physical hazards from traffic pollutants emitted by vehicles, such as fine particles and particulate matter. The findings of this study indicate that there is a trend of lung function deterioration among traffic policemen. These baseline data can serve as a reference for the top management of traffic police to aid in the development of occupational safety and health guidelines for police officers, as the traffic police are not covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA, Act 514 1994).

High-Powered Police Motorcycle: Muscle Discomfort Among Malaysian Traffic Police Riders

@#Discomfort due to riding a motorcycle is an issue that need to be addressed as it has long-term effects of musculoskeletal disorders on motorcyclists especially among occupational motorcyclist. Thus, this study was conducted to analyse the rating of muscle discomfort and correlation with the risk factors among traffic police riders. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 137 male traffic police riders (high-powered motorcycle) with the age between 20 to 39 years old. The 100-mm visual analogue scale questionnaire included ratings of perceived discomfort scales for 20 specific body regions was used in the study. The results indicate that the lower back (left and right) were the highest mean of discomfort which were 56.6 mm and 55.9 mm respectively. This followed with right (48.5±36.2 mm) and left (48.4±30.3 mm) upper back, and right hand (47.0±33.0 mm). The mean of overall discomfort ratings for all regions were more than 20 mm. Besides, there is a strong positive significant correlation between duration of ridings (hours) and overall discomfort ratings (p<0.01, r=0.785) and moderate positive correlation between year of traffic police motorcycle riding experience and overall discomfort ratings (p<0.01, r=0.410). As a conclusion, cumulative riding hours, riding experience and no support of the back area of the body in motorcycle seat, are the most concern in this study as this are the contributing factors to the muscle discomfort among traffic police riders while riding high-powered motorcycle. Thus, this study suggested an additional feature is needed in current motorcycle design in order to enhance comforts of traffic police riders. Also, it will improve the condition of traffic police riders’ discomfort and indirectly also improve their work and health performance as well as productivity.

Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using dried fruit extract of Ficus carica - Screening for its anticancer activity and toxicity in animal models.

There is an increasing commercial demand for various nanoparticles due to their extensive applicability in various areas such as electronics, catalysis, chemistry, energy and medicine. Metallic nanoparticles are traditionally synthesized by wet chemical techniques, where the chemicals used are quite often toxic and flammable. Fig has been a typical fruit component of the health-promoting Mediterranean diet for a very long time. In the present study, we describe a cost effective and eco-friendly technique for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from 1 mM AgNO3 solution through the extract of dried fig (Ficus carica L.) fruit as reducing as well as capping agent. Nanoparticles were characterized using UV absorption spectroscopy and SEM. The sizes of the spherical silver particles were found to be in the range of 54-89 nm. The biologically synthesized nanoparticles also exhibited a significant cytotoxic effect on MCF7cell lines and further animal acute toxicity results state that the above AgNPs are toxicologically safe by oral administration.

Measuring Force-Induced Dissociation Kinetics of Protein Complexes Using Single-Molecule Atomic Force Microscopy.

Proteins respond to mechanical force by undergoing conformational changes and altering the kinetics of their interactions. However, the biophysical relationship between mechanical force and the lifetime of protein complexes is not completely understood. In this chapter, we provide a step-by-step tutorial on characterizing the force-dependent regulation of protein interactions using in vitro and in vivo single-molecule force clamp measurements with an atomic force microscope (AFM). While we focus on the force-induced dissociation of E-cadherins, a critical cell-cell adhesion protein, the approaches described here can be readily adapted to study other protein complexes. We begin this chapter by providing a brief overview of theoretical models that describe force-dependent kinetics of biomolecular interactions. Next, we present step-by-step methods for measuring the response of single receptor-ligand bonds to tensile force in vitro. Finally, we describe methods for quantifying the mechanical response of single protein complexes on the surface of living cells. We describe general protocols for conducting such measurements, including sample preparation, AFM force clamp measurements, and data analysis. We also highlight critical limitations in current technologies and discuss solutions to these challenges.

Safety system for child pillion riders of underbone motorcycles in Malaysia.

OBJECTIVE: Motorcycles are a common mode of transport for most Malaysians. Underbone motorcycles are one of the most common types of motorcycle used in Malaysia due to their affordable price and ease of use, especially in heavy traffic in the major cities. In Malaysia, it is common to see a young or child pillion rider clinging on to an adult at the front of the motorcycle. One of the main issues facing young pillion riders is that their safety is often not taken into account when they are riding on a motorcycle. This article reviews the legally available systems in child safety for underbone motorcycles in Malaysia while putting forth the need for a safety system for child pillion riders. METHOD: Various databases were searched for underbone motorcycle safety systems, related legislation, motorcycle accident data, and types of injuries and these were reviewed to put forth the need for a new safety system. RESULTS: In motorcycle-related accidents, children usually sustain lower limb injuries, which could temporarily or permanently inhibit the child's movements. Accident statistics in Malaysia, especially those involving motorcycles, reflect a pressing need for a reduction in the number of accidents. In Malaysia, the legislation does not go beyond the mandatory use of safety helmets for young pillion users. There is a pressing need for another safety system or mechanism(s) for young pillion riders of underbone motorcycles. Enforcement of laws to enforce the usage of passive safety systems such as helmets and protective gear is difficult in underdeveloped and developing countries. CONCLUSION: The intervention of new technology is inevitable. Therefore, this article highlights the need for a new safety backrest system for child pillion riders to ensure their safety.

Direct measurements of multiple adhesive alignments and unbinding trajectories between cadherin extracellular domains.

Direct measurements of the interactions between antiparallel, oriented monolayers of the complete extracellular region of C-cadherin demonstrate that, rather than binding in a single unique orientation, the cadherins adhere in three distinct alignments. The strongest adhesion is observed when the opposing extracellular fragments are completely interdigitated. A second adhesive alignment forms when the interdigitated proteins separate by 70 +/- 10 A. A third complex forms at a bilayer separation commensurate with the approximate overlap of cadherin extracellular domains 1 and 2 (CEC1-2). The locations of the energy minima are independent of both the surface density of bound cadherin and the stiffness of the force transducer. Using surface element integration, we show that two flat surfaces that interact through an oscillatory potential will exhibit discrete minima at the same locations in the force profile measured between hemicylinders covered with identical materials. The measured interaction profiles, therefore, reflect the relative separations at which the antiparallel proteins adhere, and are unaffected by the curvature of the underlying substrate. The successive formation and rupture of multiple protein contacts during detachment can explain the observed sluggish unbinding of cadherin monolayers. Velocity-distance profiles, obtained by quantitative video analysis of the unbinding trajectory, exhibit three velocity regimes, the transitions between which coincide with the positions of the adhesive minima. These findings suggest that cadherins undergo multiple stage unbinding, which may function to impede adhesive failure under force.

Pathological evaluation of Polystichum squarrosum (D. Don) fern in laboratory rats.

Polystichum squarrosum fern fed (30% w/w) rats showed moderate mortality, decrease in body weight, less body fat and splenomegaly. On post-mortem examination, significant gross lesions were not seen in sacrificed animals. Histopathologically, Polystichum fed rats showed dilated Virchow Robin's space in brain, mild to moderate vascular changes likeoedema, engorgement of blood vessels and haemorrhages in most of the visceral organs, interstitial pneumonia in lungs, focal necrosis and generalised vacuolative degenerative changes in liver, more haemosiderin deposition and presence of higher number of megakaryocytes in spleen, shrunken glomeruli, more peri-glomerular space and more number of glomeruli per microscopic field in kidneys, focal hyperplasia of urinary bladder and moderate to marked depletion of germinal epithelium and spermatids in seminiferous tubules of testes. Pathologically, progressive changes were observed only in liver, urinary bladder and testes on 180 days post feeding (DPF). One fern fed rat sacrificed on 135 DPF showed hepatic tumour which was diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma. The results showed that P. squarrosum produced almost comparable pathological changes/preneoplastic lesions as reported in bracken fern fed animals. Long term exposure studies (i.e. 2 yrs) are desired.

Mechanism of homophilic cadherin adhesion.

Direct measurements of the distance-dependent forces between membrane-bound cadherins were used to test current models of homophilic cadherin interactions. The results reveal a complex binding mechanism in which the proteins adhere in multiple alignments that involve more than the amino-terminal domains.

Expression of allene oxide synthase determines defense gene activation in tomato.

Allene oxide synthase (AOS; hydroperoxide dehydratase; EC 4.2.1.92) catalyzes the first step in the biosynthesis of jasmonic acid from lipoxygenase-derived hydroperoxides of free fatty acids. Using the AOS cDNA from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), in which the role of jasmonic acid in wound-induced defense gene activation has been best described, we examined the kinetics of AOS induction in response to wounding and elicitors, in parallel with that of the wound-inducible PIN II (proteinase inhibitor II) gene. AOS was induced in leaves by wounding, systemin, 12-oxophytodienoic acid, and methyl jasmonate. The levels of AOS mRNA started declining by 4 h after induction, whereas the levels of PIN II mRNA continued to increase up to 20 h after induction. Salicylic acid inhibited AOS and PIN II expression, and the addition of 12-oxophytodienoic acid or methyl jasmonate did not prevent the inhibition of PIN II expression in the presence of salicylic acid. Ethylene induced the expression of AOS, but the presence of ethylene alone did not produce an optimal induction of PIN II. The addition of silver thiosulfate, an ethylene action inhibitor, prevented the wound-induced expression of both AOS and PIN II. Products of hydroperoxide lyase affected neither AOS nor PIN II, but induced expression of prosystemin. Based on these results, we propose an updated model for defense gene activation in tomato.

Direct molecular force measurements of multiple adhesive interactions between cadherin ectodomains.

Direct-force measurements of the interactions between recombinant C-cadherin from Xenopus demonstrated that the ectodomain of cadherin exhibits multiple adhesive contacts that involve successive domains along the extracellular region of the protein. Contacts between the fully interdigitated antiparallel proteins form the strongest adhesive interaction. A second weaker minimum was measured when the interdigitated proteins were separated by a distance equal to the length of one domain of the extracellular (EC) fragment and corresponding to the antiparallel alignment of domains one through four (EC1 through EC4). The successive rupture of these interactions generates an unbinding force profile that may be optimized to impede the abrupt failure of cadherin-mediated junctions under force.

Direct molecular level measurements of the electrostatic properties of a protein surface.

In this work, we used direct measurements with the surface force apparatus to determine the pH-dependent electrostatic charge density of a single binding face of streptavidin. Mean field calculations have been used with considerable success to model electrostatic potential fields near protein surfaces, but these models and their inherent assumptions have not been tested directly at the molecular level. Using the force apparatus and immobilized, oriented monolayers of streptavidin, we measured a pI of 5-5.5 for the biotin-binding face of the protein. This differs from the pI of 6.3 for the soluble protein and confirms that we probed the local electrostatic features of the macromolecule. With finite difference solutions of the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation, we then calculated the pH-dependent charge densities adjacent to the same face of the protein. These calculated values agreed quantitatively with those obtained by direct force measurements. Although our study focuses on the pH-dependence of surface electrostatics, this direct approach to probing the electrostatic features of proteins is applicable to investigations of any perturbations that alter the charge distribution of the surfaces of immobilized molecules.

Molecular characterization of an Arabidopsis gene encoding hydroperoxide lyase, a cytochrome P-450 that is wound inducible.

Hydroperoxide lyase (HPL) cleaves lipid hydroperoxides to produce volatile flavor molecules and also potential signal molecules. We have characterized a gene from Arabidopsis that is homologous to a recently cloned HPL from green pepper (Capsicum annuum). The deduced protein sequence indicates that this gene encodes a cytochrome P-450 with a structure similar to that of allene oxide synthase. The gene was cloned into an expression vector and expressed in Escherichia coli to demonstrate HPL activity. Significant HPL activity was evident when 13S-hydroperoxy-9(Z),11(E),15(Z)-octadecatrienoic acid was used as the substrate, whereas activity with 13S-hydroperoxy-9(Z),11(E)-octadecadienoic acid was approximately 10-fold lower. Analysis of headspace volatiles by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, after addition of the substrate to E. coli extracts expressing the protein, confirmed enzyme-activity data, since cis-3-hexenal was produced by the enzymatic activity of the encoded protein, whereas hexanal production was limited. Molecular characterization of this gene indicates that it is expressed at high levels in floral tissue and is wound inducible but, unlike allene oxide synthase, it is not induced by treatment with methyl jasmonate.

Footprinting of the spinach nitrite reductase gene promoter reveals the preservation of nitrate regulatory elements between fungi and higher plants.

Nitrite reductase (NiR) is the second enzyme in the nitrate assimilatory pathway reducing nitrite to ammonium. The expression of the NiR gene is induced upon the addition of nitrate. In an earlier study, a 130 bp upstream region of the spinach NiR gene promoter, located between -330 to - 200, was shown to be necessary for nitrate induction of beta-glucuronidase (GUS) expression in tissue-specific manner in transgenic tobacco plant [28]. To further delineate the cis-acting elements involved in nitrate regulation of NiR gene expression, transgenic tobacco plants were generated with 5' deletions in the -330 to -200 region of the spinach NiR gene promoter fused to the GUS gene. Plants with the NiR promoter deleted to -230 showed a considerable increase in GUS activity in the presence of nitrate, indicating that the 30 bp region between -230 to -200 is crucial for nitrate-regulated expression of NiR. In vivo DMS footprinting of the -300 to -130 region of the NiR promoter in leaf tissues from two independent transgenic lines revealed several nitrate-inducible footprints. Footprinting within the -230 to -181 region revealed factor binding to two adjacent GATA elements separated by 24 bp. This arrangement of GATA elements is analogous to cis-regulatory sequences found in the promoters of nitrate-inducible genes of Neurospora crassa, regulated by the NIT2 Zn-finger protein. The -240 to -110 fragment of the NiR promoter, which contains two NIT2 consensus core elements, bound in vitro to a fusion protein comprising the zinc finger domain of the N. crassa NIT2 protein. The data presented here show that nitrate-inducible expression of the NiR gene is mediated by nitrate-specific binding of trans-acting factors to sequences preserved between fungi and higher plants.

Regulation of the Accumulation and Reduction of Nitrate by Nitrogen and Carbon Metabolites in Maize Seedlings.

The accumulation and reduction of nitrate in the presence of the nitrogen metabolites asparagine (Asn) and glutamine (Gln) and the carbon metabolite sucrose (Suc) were examined in maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings in an attempt to separate their effects on the nitrate uptake system and the nitrate reduction system. After 8 h of exposure to nitrate in the presence of 1 mM Asn, tissue nitrate accumulation was reduced at 250 [mu]M external nitrate, but not at 5 mM Asn. The induction of nitrate reductase (NR) activity was reduced at both external nitrate concentrations. In the presence of 1 mM Gln or 1% Suc, tissue nitrate concentration was not significantly altered, but the induction of root NR activity was reduced or enhanced, respectively. The induction of root nitrite reductase (NiR) activity was also reduced in the presence of Asn or Gln and enhanced in the presence of Suc. Transcript levels of NR and NiR in roots were reduced in the presence of the amides and enhanced in the presence of Suc. When Suc was present in combination with either amide, there was complete relief from the inhibition of NiR transcription observed in the presence of amide alone. In the case of NR, however, this relief from inhibition was negligible. The inhibition of the induction of NR and NiR activities in the presence of Gln and Asn is a direct effect and is not the result of altered nitrate uptake in the presence of these metabolites.

Regulation of Nitrate Reductase during Early Seedling Growth (A Role for Asparagine and Glutamine).

Growth systems that either permit (wet system) or prevent (dry system) the hydrolysis of endosperm reserves in maize (Zea mays) seedlings were developed to study the effect of endosperm reserves on the acquisition of external nitrogen. Three-day-old seedlings treated with 5 mM KNO3 for 24 h had higher levels of nitrate reductase (NR) activity and protein in shoot and root tissues in the dry relative to the wet system. This suggests that the induction of NR is sensitive to products of hydrolysis of endosperm reserves. Asparagine (1 mM) or glutamine (1 mM), potential products of that hydrolysis, inhibited the induction of NADH-dependent root NR in the dry system by about 70%. The inhibition of the induction of NR activity in the wet system was only about 35%, suggesting that the enzyme in the wet system was already partially repressed at 3 d. At 5 d, when asparagine and glutamine levels in the plant tissue had decreased, the induction of root NR activity was inhibited to a similar extent in the two growth systems by amide additions. The shoot enzyme was less sensitive to amide additions, and 10 mM concentrations of either amide was required for a 65% inhibition.