Child-health nurses' experiences from using pictorial support with families within child-health services in Sweden.

Aim: To gain insight into child-health nurses' experiences of using pictorial support in health visits within child-health services.

Methods: A qualitative study involving interviews conducted with 17 child-health nurses in Sweden. The interview data were analysed using content analysis.

Persisting speech difficulties at 7-8 years of age - a longitudinal study of speech production in internationally adopted children with cleft lip and palate.

Aim: To longitudinally investigate speech production (consonant proficiency, consonant errors and perceived velopharyngeal competence) in 17 internationally adopted (IA) children with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) at three time points.

Method: Consonant proficiency (percent consonants correct, consonant inventory) and number and type of consonant errors were calculated based on blind phonetic transcriptions of words from the Swedish Test of Articulation and Nasality (SVANTE). Velopharyngeal competence was perceptually rated by three blinded experienced speech-language pathologists at the ages of 3, 5 and 7-8 years.

Facing an unexpected reality - oscillating between health and suffering 4-6 years after bariatric surgery.

Background: Obesity is a significant public health problem that is on the increase worldwide, and treatment with bariatric surgery is becoming more and more common. This type of surgery has proved to be good for weight reduction and for preventing complications, but few studies have investigated patients' long-term experiences of health and suffering.

Aim: To explore people's experiences of health after bariatric surgery.

The physical and mental impact of surviving sepsis - a qualitative study of experiences and perceptions among a Swedish sample.

Background: Sepsis is a critical illness with high morbidity and mortality rates. Each year, sepsis affects about 48.9 million people all over the world.

Internationally adopted children with and without a cleft lip and palate showed no differences in language ability at school-age.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate language ability in internationally adopted children aged 7-8 years with and without a unilateral cleft lip and palate.

Methods: We compared 27 internationally adopted children with a unilateral cleft lip and palate, adopted from China, with a group of 29 children without a cleft lip and palate, adopted from different countries. Participants were recruited from two cleft lip and palate teams in Sweden and through adoption organisations.

Internationally Adopted Children With Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate-Consonant Proficiency and Perceived Velopharyngeal Competence at the Age of 5.

Objective: To compare consonant proficiency, consonant errors, and the perceived velopharyngeal (VP) competence in internationally adopted (IA) children with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) and nonadopted (NA) children with the same cleft-palate type at age 5.

Design: Case-control study based on phonetic transcriptions of standardized speech recordings of 5-year-olds at a tertiary hospital.

Participants: Twenty-five IA children were compared to 20 NA children.

Speech production in 3-year-old internationally adopted children with unilateral cleft lip and palate.

Background: In the last decade, a large number of children with cleft lip and palate have been adopted to Sweden. A majority of the children were born in China and they usually arrive in Sweden with an unoperated palate. There is currently a lack of knowledge regarding speech and articulation development in this group of children, who also have to deal with a late first language switch.

Similar alteration of motor unit recruitment strategies during the anticipation and experience of pain.

A motor unit consists of a motoneurone and the multiple muscle fibres that it innervates, and forms the final neural pathway that influences movement. Discharge of motor units is altered (decreased discharge rate and/or cessation of firing; and increased discharge rate and/or recruitment of new units) during matched-force contractions with pain. This is thought to be mediated by nociceptive (pain) input on motoneurones, as demonstrated in animal studies.

Prostaglandin D₂ induces contractions through activation of TP receptors in peripheral lung tissue from the guinea pig.

Prostaglandin D(2) (PGD(2)), released through mast cell activation, is used as a non-invasive biomarker in patients with asthma. Since PGD(2) can elicit opposing effects on airway tone via activation of the PGD(2) receptors DP(1) and DP(2) as well as the thromboxane receptor TP, the aim of this study was to characterize the receptors that are activated by PGD(2) in the guinea pig lung parenchyma. PGD(2) and the thromboxane analog U46619 induced concentration-dependent contractions.

Duration of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization after diagnosis: a four-year experience from southern Sweden.

Background: The duration of colonization with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is not well known and there is debate as to whether a patient colonized with MRSA ever can be defined as 'MRSA-negative'.

Methods: Since 2003 all notified MRSA cases have been systematically followed in Skåne County, southern Sweden. Cultures are taken from the nares, throat, perineum and possible skin lesions.

Parents' experiences of an abnormal ultrasound examination - vacillating between emotional confusion and sense of reality.

Background: An ultrasound examination is an important confirmation of the pregnancy and is accepted without reflection to any prenatal diagnostic aspects. An abnormal finding often comes unexpectedly and is a shock for the parents. The aim was to generate a theoretical understanding of parents' experiences of the situation when their fetus is found to have an abnormality at a routine ultrasound examination.

Molecular evolution of Theta-class glutathione transferase for enhanced activity with the anticancer drug 1,3-bis-(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea and other alkylating agents.

Glutathione transferase (GST) displaying enhanced activity with the cytostatic drug 1,3-bis-(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) and structurally related alkylating agents was obtained by molecular evolution. Mutant libraries created by recursive recombination of cDNA coding for human and rodent Theta-class GSTs were heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli and screened with the surrogate substrate 4-nitrophenethyl bromide (NPB) for enhanced alkyltransferase activity. A mutant with a 70-fold increased catalytic efficiency with NPB, compared to human GST T1-1, was isolated.

Parents' worried state of mind when fetal ultrasound shows an unexpected finding: a comparative study.

Objective: Most parents yearn for a second-trimester ultrasound examination and feel excitement about it, but some also worry about what the examination will show. According to prior research, using only generic instruments or specific questionnaires, anxiety decreases when the ultrasound findings are normal. The aim of this study was to compare parents' worry (Parents' Expectations, Experiences, and Reactions to Ultrasound [PEER-U] State of Mind Index) and sense of coherence before and after a routine second-trimester ultrasound examination when it showed normal or abnormal findings.

Parental level of anxiety, sense of coherence and state of mind when choroid plexus cysts have been identified at a routine ultrasound examination in the second trimester of pregnancy: a case control study.

The aim of the study was to compare parents' experience of a routine ultrasound examination in the second trimester, when a choroid plexus cyst/cysts (CPC) were found (Study group; n = 22), with matched controls where no fetal deviations were identified (Control group, n = 66). All the parents had participated in a larger cohort study. The instruments used for measuring anxiety were STAI-state/trait, sense of coherence (SOC) and Parents' Expectations, Experiences, Reactions to an Ultrasound examination during pregnancy (PEER-U, State of Mind Index).

Specific mediator inhibition by the NO donors SNP and NCX 2057 in the peripheral lung: implications for allergen-induced bronchoconstriction.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine potential therapeutic effect of the two NO donors NCX 2057 (3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-2-propenoic acid) 4-(nitrooxy)butyl ester) and SNP (sodium nitroprusside) on the early allergic airway response in the peripheral lung.

Methods: The experiments were performed in guinea pig lung parenchyma (GPLP) derived from ovalbumin (OVA) sensitized guinea pigs. The effects of NCX 2057 and SNP were evaluated by contractile responses and mediator release during OVA challenge.

Information for better or for worse: interviews with parents when their foetus was found to have choroid plexus cysts at a routine second trimester ultrasound.

The aim of the study was to gain a theoretical understanding of parents' experiences and handling of the situation, when their foetus was diagnosed as having choroid plexus cysts, at a routine second trimester ultrasound examination. Nine couples and one mother were interviewed using one open question. Analysis method was Grounded Theory.

Lipid metabolites as regulators of airway smooth muscle function.

Compelling evidence identifies airway smooth muscle (ASM) not only as a target but also a cellular source for a diverse range of mediators underlying the processes of airway narrowing and airway hyperresponsiveness in diseases such as asthma. These include the growing family of plasma membrane phospholipid-derived polyunsaturated fatty acids broadly characterised by the prostaglandins, leukotrienes, lipoxins, isoprostanes and lysophospholipids. In this review, we describe the enzymatic and non-enzymatic biosynthetic pathways of these lipid mediators and how these are influenced by drug treatment, oxidative stress and airways disease.

Care during pregnancy and childbirth in Sweden: perspectives of lesbian women.

Objective: to explore the views and experiences of care of lesbian women during pregnancy and childbirth.

Design, Setting And Participants: a qualitative study of 18 lesbian women in southern Sweden.

Findings: valid text units were formed through categorisation into four main categories: recognition of sexual orientation; openness; relationships within the homosexual family; and different encounters and attitudes within the health-care system.

Multivariate-activity mining for molecular quasi-species in a glutathione transferase mutant library.

A library of recombinant glutathione transferases (GSTs) generated by shuffling of DNA encoding human GST M1-1 and GST M2-2 was screened with eight alternative substrates, and the activities were subjected to multivariate analysis. Assays were made in lysates of bacteria in which the GST variants had been expressed. The primary data showed clustering of the activities in eight-dimensional substrate-activity space.

Functionally diverging molecular quasi-species evolve by crossing two enzymes.

Molecular evolution is frequently portrayed by structural relationships, but delineation of separate functional species is more elusive. We have generated enzyme variants by stochastic recombinations of DNA encoding two homologous detoxication enzymes, human glutathione transferases M1-1 and M2-2, and explored their catalytic versatilities. Sampled mutants were screened for activities with eight alternative substrates, and the activity fingerprints were subjected to principal component analysis.

Structural basis of the suppressed catalytic activity of wild-type human glutathione transferase T1-1 compared to its W234R mutant.

The crystal structures of wild-type human theta class glutathione-S-transferase (GST) T1-1 and its W234R mutant, where Trp234 was replaced by Arg, were solved both in the presence and absence of S-hexyl-glutathione. The W234R mutant was of interest due to its previously observed enhanced catalytic activity compared to the wild-type enzyme. GST T1-1 from rat and mouse naturally contain Arg in position 234, with correspondingly high catalytic efficiency.

Inhibition of nitric-oxide synthase enhances antigen-induced contractions and increases release of cysteinyl-leukotrienes in guinea pig lung parenchyma: nitric oxide as a protective factor.

Nitric oxide (NO) in exhaled air is a biomarker of airway inflammation. However, the role of NO in the peripheral lung is not known. The aim of this study was to determine the role of endogenous NO in antigen-induced contractions of ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized guinea pig lung parenchyma (GPLP).

Residue 234 in glutathione transferase T1-1 plays a pivotal role in the catalytic activity and the selectivity against alternative substrates.

GST (glutathione transferase) T1-1 plays an important role in the biotransformation of halogenated alkanes, which are used in large quantities as solvents and occur as environmental pollutants. Many reactions that are catalysed by GST T1-1 qualify as detoxification processes, but some reactions with dihalogenated alkanes lead to reactive products more toxic than the substrates. Murine GST T1-1 is particularly active with dichloromethane, which may explain the high carcinogenicity of dichloromethane in the mouse.

Evaluation of a consecutive group of transsexual individuals referred for vocal intervention in the west of Sweden.

Male-to-female transsexual individuals frequently experience difficulties in increasing the fundamental frequency so that they can pass as members of the preferred gender. Female-to-male individuals may also meet with vocal problems although hormone treatment lowers fundamental frequency. The purpose of this study was to explore the transsexual individuals who, as part of their reassignment process, were referred to the voice clinic at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Göteborg, Sweden, between 1991 and 2002.

Directed enzyme evolution guided by multidimensional analysis of substrate-activity space.

The directed evolution of protein function frequently involves identification of mutants with improved properties from a population of variants obtained by mutagenesis. The selection of clones to parent the subsequent generation is crucial to the continued creation of superior progeny. In the present study, multivariate analysis guided the evolution of human glutathione transferase (GST) T1-1 to 65-fold enhanced alkyltransferase activity.