Improving physician hand hygiene compliance using behavioural theories: a study protocol.

Background: Healthcare-associated infections affect 10% of patients in Canadian acute-care hospitals and are significant and preventable causes of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. Hand hygiene is among the simplest and most effective preventive measures to reduce these infections. However, compliance with hand hygiene among healthcare workers, specifically among physicians, is consistently suboptimal.

Cytoplasmic mutant p53 increases Bcl-2 expression in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells.

The Bcl-2 gene is positively regulated by estrogen (E2) primarily through E2-response elements in the coding region and a putative p53 negative regulatory element (NRE) containing a short upstream open reading frame (uORF). The ability of mutant p53 to repress or induce Bcl-2 expression is controversial. In this study E2-receptor positive (ER(+))/wild-type p53 MCF-7cells were transfected with p53Delta291, which lacks a nuclear localization signal or a DNA binding domain mutant, p53(173L).

Telencephalon-specific Rb knockouts reveal enhanced neurogenesis, survival and abnormal cortical development.

Correct cell cycle regulation and terminal mitosis are critical for nervous system development. The retinoblastoma (Rb) protein is a key regulator of these processes, as Rb-/- embryos die by E15.5, exhibiting gross hematopoietic and neurological defects.