Multidisciplinary Tool Kit for Febrile Neutropenia: Stewardship Guidelines, Epidemiology, and Antibiotic Use Ratios.

Purpose: Inappropriate vancomycin for febrile neutropenia (FN) is an ideal antimicrobial stewardship target. To improve vancomycin prescribing, we instituted a multifaceted intervention, including an educational guideline with audit for compliance; an antibiotic use audit; and an assessment of local burden of methicillin-resistant (MRSA) colonization and infection.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental pre-post intervention review of vancomycin initiation for FN on a 32-bed hematology/oncology unit.

The science of patient safety: implications for oncology nursing practice.

Patient safety is one of the most frequent terms used in health care today. Patients and their families are, first and foremost, focused on receiving effective and safe care, and oncology nurses strive to incorporate clinical evidence into day-to-day practice. This article provides a road map on how to incorporate emerging patient safety science into daily clinical practice to best serve patients and their families.

The music of your emotions: neural substrates involved in detection of emotional correspondence between auditory and visual music actions.

In humans, emotions from music serve important communicative roles. Despite a growing interest in the neural basis of music perception, action and emotion, the majority of previous studies in this area have focused on the auditory aspects of music performances. Here we investigate how the brain processes the emotions elicited by audiovisual music performances.

Sequence analysis of Jembrana disease virus strains reveals a genetically stable lentivirus.

Jembrana disease virus (JDV) is a lentivirus associated with an acute disease syndrome with a 20% case fatality rate in Bos javanicus (Bali cattle) in Indonesia, occurring after a short incubation period and with no recurrence of the disease after recovery. Partial regions of gag and pol and the entire env were examined for sequence variation in DNA samples from cases of Jembrana disease obtained from Bali, Sumatra and South Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo. A high level of nucleotide conservation (97-100%) was observed in gag sequences from samples taken in Bali and Sumatra, indicating that the source of JDV in Sumatra was most likely to have originated from Bali.

CD44+/CD24- breast cancer cells exhibit enhanced invasive properties: an early step necessary for metastasis.

Introduction: A subpopulation (CD44+/CD24-) of breast cancer cells has been reported to have stem/progenitor cell properties. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this subpopulation of cancer cells has the unique ability to invade, home, and proliferate at sites of metastasis.

Methods: CD44 and CD24 expression was determined by flow cytometry.

Negative regulation of MHC class II gene expression by CXCR4.

Objective: CXCR4 is overexpressed in 23 types of cancers of both hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic origin. Based on the known role of CXCR4 and its ligand CXCL12 in homing of hematopoietic cells, CXCR4 is likely to play a role in metastasis. We have initiated a study aimed at dissecting additional functions of CXCR4 in cancer cells, particularly in relation to the immune system.

Adipose tissue production of hepatocyte growth factor contributes to elevated serum HGF in obesity.

Serum HGF is elevated in obese individuals. This study examined the contribution of excess adipose tissue to increased circulating HGF levels in obesity. Serum HGF was measured by ELISA before and after weight loss due to bariatric surgery or a 24-h fast.

The sesquiterpene lactone parthenolide in combination with docetaxel reduces metastasis and improves survival in a xenograft model of breast cancer.

Parthenolide, a sesquiterpene lactone, shows antitumor activity in vitro, which correlates with its ability to inhibit the DNA binding of the antiapoptotic transcription factor nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) and activation of the c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase. In this study, we investigated the chemosensitizing activity of parthenolide in vitro as well as in MDA-MB-231 cell-derived xenograft metastasis model of breast cancer. HBL-100 and MDA-MB-231 cells were used to measure the antitumor and chemosensitizing activity of parthenolide in vitro.

Recombinant Jembrana disease virus gag proteins identify several different antigenic domains but do not facilitate serological differentiation of JDV and nonpathogenic bovine lentiviruses.

In Indonesia, it is suspected that there are two bovine lentiviruses circulating in the cattle population: a pathogenic Jembrana disease virus (JDV), and a nonpathogenic bovine immunodeficiency-like virus (BIV). Both viruses cross-react antigenically and cannot be differentiated by current serological tests using JDV antigens. To identify possible type-specific epitopes, a series of recombinant protein constructs including the matrix, capsid and nucleocapsid proteins were produced from JDV gag and the expressed proteins were tested by Western blot using JDV and BIV hyperimmune sera.