Trauma Center Transition From Paper to Electronic Quality Improvement: Enhancing Trauma Performance Efficiency.

Background: The American College of Surgeons requires continuous process improvement review to maintain trauma center verification. Paper-based systems to monitor and track performance improvement are commonly used but can be inadequate to monitor concurrent ongoing improvement effectively.

Objective: To describe the implementation of an electronic process to capture and monitor performance improvement in near real time.

Marcfortine and paraherquamide class of anthelmintics: discovery of PNU-141962.

Three distinct chemical classes for the control of gastrointestinal nematodes are available: benzimidazoles, imidazothiazoles, and macrocyclic lactones. The relentless development of drug resistance has severely limited the usefulness of such drugs and the search for a new class of compounds preferably with a different mode of action is an important endeavor. Marcfortine A (1), a metabolite of Penicillium roqueforti, is structurally related to paraherquamide A (2), originally isolated from Penicillium paraherquei.

Biosynthesis of marcfortine A.

This report describes the results of a biosynthesis study of marcfortine A (MA). We report here that MA is derived from methionine, tryptophan, lysine and two isoprene units, the latter two being derived from acetic acid. From the 13C enrichment pattern of the pipecolic acid moeity we further conclude that this unit is derived from lysine via alpha-ketoglutarate.

Development of a mechanism of action-based screen for anthelmintic microbial metabolites with avermectinlike activity and isolation of milbemycin-producing Streptomyces strains.

A high-volume screen for anthelmintic microbial metabolites with an avermectinlike mode of action was developed. The primary screen used the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans in a whole-organism assay. The specificity for avermectinlike compounds resides in the secondary screen, which takes advantage of the chloride channel-opening properties of the avermectins.

Effects of dihydroavermectin B1a and analogs on stretcher muscle of the lined shore crab, Pachygrapsus crassipes.

1. Dihydroavermectin B1a (DHAVM, Ivermectin) at 1 microM reduces excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs and IPSPs, respectively) in stretcher muscle fibres of the lined shore crab, Pachygrapsus crassipes. IPSPs decline faster and more extensively than EPSPs and, unlike EPSPs, do not recover upon replacement of DHAVM with picrotoxinin-containing medium.