'Eat, sleep, internet and talk': an exploratory study of play profile for children living with palliative care needs.

Background: Play is central to children's lives. Children living with palliative care needs experience disruption in their play. In this study, we sought to discover the characteristics and patterns of children's play when receiving care in children's hospital wards and hospices in Kuwait and the United Kingdom.

Knowledge of Critical Care Nurses about End-of-Life Care towards Terminal Illnesses: Levels and Correlating Factors.

Introduction: The preparedness of nurses in relation to providing palliative care is not always adequate, indeed, it is sometimes unsatisfactory; this may be caused by lack of knowledge and limited experience in end-of-life care (EOLC). Thus, this study purposed to assess the levels of registered nurses' knowledge about EOLC, examine the relationships between EOLC knowledge and some demographic variables, and explore predictors of EOLC knowledge.

Methods: A cross-sectional design survey was conducted with Jordanian registered nurses in critical care units (N = 175) in different heath sectors in Jordan.

Caregivers' perspectives on the social and physical environmental factors associated with the play of their children with palliative care needs: A Q methodology study.

Children living with palliative care needs are less engaged in play, despite its importance in their lives. The environment may have a crucial role in supporting these children's play. Understanding the importance and impact of environmental factors on children's play is essential to being able to support their participation in play.

The social and physical environmental factors associated with the play of children living with life threatening/limiting conditions: A Q methodology study.

Background: Living with a life threatening/limiting condition changes and challenges children's play. The environment is known to support participation in play, yet there is a lack of evidence highlighting its specific factors contributing to children's play. In this study, we investigated the perspectives of children living with life threatening/limiting conditions with regard to the environmental factors that are related to their engagement in play whilst receiving inpatient healthcare.

Children's palliative care education and training: developing an education standard framework and audit.

Background: The need to align the range of guidance and competencies concerning children's palliative care and develop an education framework have been recommended by a UK All-Party Parliament Group and others. In response to these recommendations the need for a revised children's palliative care competency framework was recognized. A Children's Palliative Care Education and Training Action Group, comprising champions in the field, was formed across UK and Ireland in 2019 to take this work forward.

Insulin-like growth factor-1 regulates the mechanosensitivity of chondrocytes by modulating TRPV4.

Both mechanical and biochemical stimulation are required for maintaining the integrity of articular cartilage. However, chondrocytes respond differently to mechanical stimuli in osteoarthritic cartilage when biochemical signaling pathways, such as Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), are altered. The Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) channel is central to chondrocyte mechanotransduction and regulation of cartilage homeostasis.

Why should nurses care if Heidegger was a Nazi? Pragmatics, politics and philosophy in nursing.

Nursing and nurses have become reliant on qualitative methods to understand the meaning of nursing care, and many nurse researchers use Heideggerian Interpretivist phenomenology approaches. Often these nurses are unaware of Martin Heidegger's role in the German National Socialist Party of the 1930s and his allegiance to fascist ideology. We ask: can a bad person have good ideas? In line with pragmatic thinkers such as Richard Rorty, we argue that instead of value judgements on people and their ideas, nurses should consider ideas as a product of a historical/social and political time and space.

Evaluation of multi-color genetically encoded Ca indicators in filamentous fungi.

Genetically encoded Ca indicators (GECIs) enable long-term monitoring of cellular and subcellular dynamics of this second messenger in response to environmental and developmental cues without relying on exogenous dyes. Continued development and optimization in GECIs, combined with advances in gene manipulation, offer new opportunities for investigating the mechanism of Ca signaling in fungi, ranging from documenting Ca signatures under diverse conditions and genetic backgrounds to evaluating how changes in Ca signature impact calcium-binding proteins and subsequent cellular changes. Here, we attempted to express multi-color (green, yellow, blue, cyan, and red) circularly permuted fluorescent protein (FP)-based Ca indicators driven by multiple fungal promoters in Fusarium oxysporum, F.

Regulation of Stem Cell Function in an Engineered Vocal Fold-Mimetic Environment.

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have been proposed as therapeutic cells for the treatment of vocal fold (VF) scarring. Although functional recovery was observed in animal models after stem cell injection, it is not clear how injected stem cells interact locally with the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the lamina propria (LP) and how such interactions affect stem cell behaviors to improve function. Herein, we developed an cell culture platform where hMSCs were encapsulated in a LP-mimetic matrix, derived from hyaluronic acid (HA), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and collagen, and cultured dynamically in a custom-designed VF bioreactor.

Culture of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in a Hydrogel Model of Vocal Fold Lamina Propria.

Stem cell injection has been proposed as an alternative approach for the restoration of vocal fold (VF) function in patients with VF scarring. To assess the therapeutic efficacy of this treatment strategy, we evaluated the behaviors of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) in hydrogels derived from thiolated hyaluronic acid (HA-SH) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEG-DA) entrapping assembled collagen fibrils (abbreviated as HPC gels). Three hydrogel formulations with varying amounts of collagen (0, 1 and 2 mg/mL) but a fixed HA-SH (5 mg/mL) and PEG-DA (2 mg/mL) concentration, designated as HPC0, HPC1 and HPC2, were investigated.

Palliative and end of life care for a child: Understanding parents' coping strategies.

Aim: Understanding of coping strategies that parents use before the death of their child is crucial and will enable us to best provide support. The current study aimed to explore parents' coping strategies, and map these onto an existing theoretical framework.

Methods: Bereaved parents and parents of a child with a life-limiting/threatening condition were interviewed to investigate coping strategies, recruited through Intensive Care Units (2 Neonatal, 2 Paediatric, 1 Paediatric Cardiac) and a children's hospice.

Play in Children With Life-Threatening and Life-Limiting Conditions: A Scoping Review.

Importance: Play is essential to children and provides opportunities to promote their health and well-being. Children living with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions experience deprivation in play.

Objective: To conduct a scoping review of studies that examined play of children with a life-threatening or life-limiting condition to explore their play characteristics and possible factors influencing their participation in play.

CK2.3, a Mimetic Peptide of the BMP Type I Receptor, Increases Activity in Osteoblasts over BMP2.

Bone is one of the most important organs in the human body. It provides structure, function, and protection for other vital organs; therefore, bone maintenance and homeostasis are critical processes. As humans age, their bone mineral density decreases, which leads to diseases like osteoporosis.

Parents' experiences of requests for organ and tissue donation: the value of asking.

Objective: A proportion of children die, making them potentially eligible to be organ/tissue donors. Not all are approached for donation, and experiences of those parents are not well understood. The objective was to investigate to what extent organ and tissue donation (OTD) is discussed as part of end-of-life care and to explore parents' and healthcare professionals' (HCPs) experiences.

Spontaneous calcium signaling of cartilage cells: from spatiotemporal features to biophysical modeling.

Intracellular calcium ([Ca]) oscillation is a fundamental signaling response of cartilage cells under mechanical loading or osmotic stress. Chondrocytes are usually considered as nonexcitable cells with no spontaneous [Ca] signaling. This study proved that chondrocytes can exhibit robust spontaneous [Ca] signaling without explicit external stimuli.

Synthetic Peptide CK2.3 Enhances Bone Mineral Density in Senile Mice.

Background: Osteoporosis is a silent disease caused by low bone mineral density that results in bone fractures in 1 out of 2 women and 1 in 4 men over the age of 50. Although several treatments for osteopenia and osteoporosis are available, they have severe side effects and new treatments are desperately needed. Current treatments usually target osteoclasts and inhibit their activity or differentiation.

Pragmatics and Parenting.

Theoretical Principles: Pragmatic Children's Nursing Theory draws on the theory principles of North American Pragmatist including the work of William James, Richard Rorty, and John Dewy and incorporates Margaret Urban Walkers' work on expressive collaborative feminism.

Phenomena Addressed: In this discussion paper I explore how the role of parents is framed in Pragmatic Children's Nursing Theory. In setting out Pragmatic Children's Nursing Theory I detailed a rebuttal of Family Centred care.

Mechanisms of Cellular Internalization of Quantum Dot® Conjugated Bone Formation Mimetic Peptide CK2.3.

Osteoporosis is a debilitating skeletal disorder that is characterized by loss of bone densityover time. It affects one in two women and one in four men, age 50 and older. New treatmentsthat specifically drive bone formation are desperately needed.

The Preservation of Bone Cell Viability in a Human Femoral Head through a Perfusion Bioreactor.

Current methods for drug development and discovery involve pre-clinical analyses that are extremely expensive and time consuming. Animal models are not the best precedent to use, when comparing to human models as they are not synonymous with the human response, thus, alternative methods for drug development are needed. One of which could be the use of an ex vivo human organ where drugs could be tested and the effects of those drugs could be observed.

Reporting suspected abuse or neglect in research involving children.

In this article, we explore the ethical issues related to the reporting of suspected abuse or neglect in research involving children. Ethical dilemmas related to reporting child maltreatment are often complex because the rights of children and their adult caregivers may conflict and determinations of abuse or neglect are socially constructed judgments that depend on particular circumstances. We argue that when reporting is legally mandated, investigators must follow the law and report their suspicions to Child Protective Services.

Roles of three Fusarium graminearum membrane Ca channels in the formation of Ca signatures, growth, development, pathogenicity and mycotoxin production.

Similar to animals and plants, external stimuli cause dynamic spatial and temporal changes of cytoplasmic Ca in fungi. Such changes are referred as the Ca signature and control cellular responses by modulating the activity or location of diverse Ca-binding proteins (CBPs) and also indirectly affecting proteins that interact with CBPs. To understand the mechanism underpinning Ca signaling, therefore, characterization of how Ca moves to and from the cytoplasm to create Ca signatures under different conditions is fundamental.

Two Futures: Financial and Practical Realities for Parents of Living With a Life Limited Child.

Today more and more children are living with complex health care needs, many of these children are living with life limiting and/or threatening conditions, some are medically fragile. To live a childhood these children must live in communities and with their families. In most cases this means the child's carers, their parents, most often their mothers, are required to undertake a great deal of the child's care.

Using simulation as a learning experience in clinical teams to learn about palliative and end-of-life care: A literature review.

Simulation has been shown to improve the preparedness of practitioners in acute care. In this review, the authors evaluate using simulation to prepare practitioners to deliver palliative care in multidisciplinary teams. The Joanna Briggs Institute approach was used and seventeen studies selected.