Experiential Learning of Childhood Growth and Development Through a Pediatric Play Project.

The adoption of a new undergraduate nursing curriculum granted the opportunity to develop a new method for teaching growth and development. The Pediatric Play Project was designed as part of clinical experience where students explored principles of growth and development by designing a toy or play activity for a hospitalized pediatric patient. Students exhibited immense creativity while meeting learning outcomes, and the project received positive feedback from students and faculty.

Insulin Resistance Is Not Sustained Following Denervation in Glycolytic Skeletal Muscle.

Denervation rapidly induces insulin resistance (i.e., impairments in insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and signaling proteins) in skeletal muscle.

Assessment of pharmacy technician learning preferences and implications for training.

Purpose: To assess pharmacy technician learning preferences using the VARK tool and through self-identification.

Methods: The VARK (visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic) questionnaire was incorporated into a larger survey, which was distributed during live staff meetings and a continuing education session held by the Ohio Pharmacists Association attended by 204 pharmacy technicians across various practice settings.

Results: A 90% response rate was achieved.

Estrogen receptor-α in female skeletal muscle is not required for regulation of muscle insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial regulation.

Objective: Estrogen receptor-α (ERα) is a nuclear receptor family member thought to substantially contribute to the metabolic regulation of skeletal muscle. However, previous mouse models utilized to assess the necessity of ERα signaling in skeletal muscle were confounded by altered developmental programming and/or influenced by secondary effects, making it difficult to assign a causal role for ERα. The objective of this study was to determine the role of skeletal muscle ERα in regulating metabolism in the absence of confounding factors of development.

The Crisis and the Shutoffs: Reimagining Water in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, Through an EcoJustice Analysis.

This chapter outlines the guiding theoretical framework of EcoJustice Education (EJE), research questions, semistructured interviews with nursing scholars that begin to question the perceptions that lead us to the crisis and recommendations of how sustainability efforts can help to address the vital relationality of human beings to water. It highlights the profession of nursing education in order for nurses to understand their roles within the context of the crises. The EJE theoretical framework will help nurse educators reimagine a new understanding and a powerful discovery that includes the awareness of a broad set of historically constructed and politically motivated power knowledge relations in nursing.

Identification, proliferation, and differentiation of adult Leydig stem cells.

Leydig cells, the testosterone-producing cells of the adult testis, rarely turn over. However, their elimination with ethane dimethanesulfonate (EDS) is followed by the appearance of new, fully functional adult Leydig cells. The cells that give rise to the new Leydig cells have not been well characterized, and little is known about the mechanism by which they are regulated.

Quality of life in hypertensive clinic patients following hurricane katrina.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess quality of life among hypertensive patients in the year following Hurricane Katrina.

Methods: Hypertensive patients (n  =  211) in a multispecialty group practice in New Orleans completed validated surveys during the year after Hurricane Katrina. We assessed patients' demographics, quality of life (Medical Outcomes Study 36), hurricane coping self-efficacy, property damage, stress, and changes in distance from and visits with family and friends.

Stem Leydig cell differentiation: gene expression during development of the adult rat population of Leydig cells.

Leydig cells are the testosterone-producing cells in the adult male. Adult Leydig cells (ALCs) develop from stem Leydig cells (SLCs) through at least two intermediate cells, progenitor Leydig cells (PLCs) and immature Leydig cells (ILCs). Microarray gene expression was used to identify the transcriptional changes that occur with the differentiation of SLCs to PLCs and, thus, with the entry of SLCs into the Leydig cell lineage; to comprehensively examine differentiation through the development of ALCs; and to relate the pattern of gene expression in SLCs to that in a well-established stem cell, bone marrow stem cells (BSCs).

Stem Leydig cells: from fetal to aged animals.

Leydig cells are the testosterone-producing cells of the testis. The adult Leydig cell (ALC) population ultimately develops from undifferentiated mesenchymal-like stem cells present in the interstitial compartment of the neonatal testis. Distinct stages of ALC development have been identified and characterized.

Adverse effects of complementary and alternative medicine on antihypertensive medication adherence: findings from the cohort study of medication adherence among older adults.

Objectives: To determine the association between complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use and antihypertensive medication adherence in older black and white adults.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Patients enrolled in a managed care organization.

Swine-origin influenza virus (SOIV) in Louisiana, 2009.

Since the new flu strain--named A(H1N1) or Swine Origin Influenza Virus (SOIV) to differentiate it from the seasonal H1N1--first emerged in Mexico and the United States in April, it has spread to 74 countries around the globe. The objectives of this article are to describe the initial stages of the epidemic in Louisiana and to draw some epidemiologic lessons for the future, which could be particularly useful if the pandemic continues during the winter season 2009-2010. Between April 22, 2009 (date when the first specimen was collected) to May 31, 2009, a six week period, there were 133 cases of SOIV infection detected in Louisiana.

Multiple factors interact to produce responses resembling spectrum of human disease in Campylobacter jejuni infected C57BL/6 IL-10-/- mice.

Background: Campylobacter jejuni infection produces a spectrum of clinical presentations in humans--including asymptomatic carriage, watery diarrhea, and bloody diarrhea--and has been epidemiologically associated with subsequent autoimmune neuropathies. This microorganism is genetically variable and possesses genetic mechanisms that may contribute to variability in nature. However, relationships between genetic variation in the pathogen and variation in disease manifestation in the host are not understood.

Antihypertensive prescriptions for newly treated patients before and after the main antihypertensive and lipid-lowering treatment to prevent heart attack trial results and seventh report of the joint national committee on prevention, detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood pressure guidelines.

Main results of the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial were published in December 2002. The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure, published in May 2003, recommended thiazide-type diuretics as initial pharmacological treatment alone or in combination with another drug in most patients with hypertension. To assess changes from before to after these publications, we compared antihypertensive medication prescriptions filled by patients who initiated pharmacological antihypertensive treatment in a large managed care organization during 3 time periods: (1) July 1, 2001, to June 30, 2002 (before these publications; n=1354); (2) July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004 (to assess short-term changes; n=1542); and (3) July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005 (to assess extended changes; n=1865).

Medication adherence in older clinic patients with hypertension after Hurricane Katrina: implications for clinical practice and disaster management.

Background: In post-disaster situations, additional barriers may reduce antihypertensive medication adherence.

Methods: Between November 2005 and August 2006, 210 hypertensive patients receiving care at a multispecialty group practice in New Orleans completed a structured questionnaire. Antihypertensive medication adherence was measured with the Hill-Bone medication compliance subscale.

Structure nor stability of the transmembrane spanning 6/7 domain of presenilin I correlates with pathogenicity.

Since its cloning in 1995, missense point mutations in presenilin I (PS-I) have been shown to be responsible for greater than 70% of the cases of early onset familial Alzheimer's disease (EOFAD), which can affect individuals as early as age 18. PS-I is known to be a component of gamma-secretase, the enzyme responsible for cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) into 42 amino acid peptides that aggregate to form the plaques surrounding neurons of Alzheimer's patients. It has recently been hypothesized that wild-type (wt) PS-I contains an autoinhibitory module that prevents gamma-secretase cleavage of the APP, while pathogenic PS-I point mutants lack a structure necessary for this inhibition.

Influenza in Louisiana: an analysis of Louisiana Influenza Sentinel Surveillance Data, 1998-2004.

Analysis of the influenza sentinel surveillance data from the Louisiana Office of Public health showed that the influenza season for Louisiana starts between October and December and ends between December and March. There is no consistent trend as to when the peak of the season occurs. The start of Louisiana's seasons ranged from one week (2002-2003 season) to two months (2001-2002) before the national start date.