Development and testing of a self-report measure of preparing to parent in the context of a fetal anomaly diagnosis.

Objective: To generate a self-report instrument to capture clinically relevant variations in expectant parents' caregiving development, specified by how they are preparing to parent an infant with a major congenital anomaly.

Methods: Recent literature structured domains to guide item generation. Evaluations by experts and expectant parents led to a refined instrument for field testing.

Adaptive Leadership in Parents Caring for their Children Born with Life-Threatening Conditions.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to chronicle the adaptive challenges and adaptive work, including emerging leadership behaviors, recounted over time by the parents of very young children diagnosed before birth with life threatening conditions.

Design And Methods: A descriptive, follow-up study design was used for the current study. Following the original grounded dimensional analysis study completed in 2012, the corpus for this analysis was collected in 2014.

Technical Tips: Surviving a Joint Commission Visit in the Neurodiagnostic Department.

An accreditation site visit from The Joint Commission (TJC) can strike fear in the heart of staff, but knowing what surveyors expect can go a long way toward reducing anxiety. Embedding TJC standards into our everyday routine increases the likelihood of a positive survey. Although TJC accredits many different types of organizations (and specialty services within organizations), the focus of this article will be on hospital-based, neurodiagnostic (ND) departments and includes information specific to infection prevention; medication management; provision of care, treatment, and services; rights and responsibilities of the individual; environment of care; fire safety; hazardous materials; human resources; performance improvement; and record of care, treatment, and services.

Appendectomy versus non-operative treatment for acute uncomplicated appendicitis in children: study protocol for a multicentre, open-label, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial.

Background: Appendectomy is considered the gold standard treatment for acute appendicitis. Recently the need for surgery has been challenged in both adults and children. In children there is growing clinician, patient and parental interest in non-operative treatment of acute appendicitis with antibiotics as opposed to surgery.

Standardized reporting of appendicitis-related findings improves reliability of ultrasound in diagnosing appendicitis in children.

Purpose: Our objective was to increase ultrasound reliability for diagnosing appendicitis in an academic children's hospital emergency department (ED) through a multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative.

Methods: A retrospective review of ultrasound use in patients diagnosed with appendicitis in our ED from 1/1/2011 to 6/30/2014 established a baseline cohort. From 8/1/2014 to 7/31/2015 a diagnostic algorithm that prioritized ultrasound over CT was used in our ED, and a standardized template was implemented for the reporting of appendicitis-related ultrasound findings by our radiologists.

Trichloroethylene (TCE) in tree cores to complement a subsurface investigation on residential property near a former electroplating facility.

Tree cores were collected and analyzed for trichloroethylene (TCE) on a private property between a former electroplating facility in Asheville, North Carolina (USA), and a contaminated wetland/spring complex. TCE was detected in 16 of 31 trees, the locations of which were largely consistent with a "plume core" delineated by a more detailed subsurface investigation nearly 2 years later. Concentrations in tree cores and nearby soil borings were not correlated, perhaps due to heterogeneities in both geologic and tree root structure, spatial and temporal variability in transpiration rates, or interferences caused by other contaminants at the site.

Detection of hemoplasma infection of goats by use of a quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay and risk factor analysis for infection.

OBJECTIVE To develop and validate a real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay for the detection and quantification of Mycoplasma ovis in goats and investigate the prevalence and risk factors for hemoplasma infection of goats located in Indiana. ANIMALS 362 adult female goats on 61 farms. PROCEDURES Primers were designed for amplification of a fragment of the dnaK gene of M ovis by use of a qPCR assay.

Computed Tomography Utilization for the Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis in Children Decreases With a Diagnostic Algorithm.

Objective: The primary objective of this project was to decrease computed tomography (CT) utilization for the diagnosis of appendicitis in an academic children's hospital emergency department (ED) through a multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative.

Background: Appendicitis is the most common abdominal diagnosis leading to the hospitalization of children in the United States. However, the diagnosis of appendicitis in children can be difficult and many centers rely heavily upon CT scans.

A Luciferase Reporter Gene System for High-Throughput Screening of γ-Globin Gene Activators.

Luciferase reporter gene assays have long been used for drug discovery due to their high sensitivity and robust signal. A dual reporter gene system contains a gene of interest and a control gene to monitor non-specific effects on gene expression. In our dual luciferase reporter gene system, a synthetic promoter of γ-globin gene was constructed immediately upstream of the firefly luciferase gene, followed downstream by a synthetic β-globin gene promoter in front of the Renilla luciferase gene.

Proteolytic activation defines distinct lymphangiogenic mechanisms for VEGFC and VEGFD.

Lymphangiogenesis is supported by 2 homologous VEGFR3 ligands, VEGFC and VEGFD. VEGFC is required for lymphatic development, while VEGFD is not. VEGFC and VEGFD are proteolytically cleaved after cell secretion in vitro, and recent studies have implicated the protease a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 3 (ADAMTS3) and the secreted factor collagen and calcium binding EGF domains 1 (CCBE1) in this process.

Race-related disparities in 5-year cognitive level and change in untrained ACTIVE participants.

Objective: The current study examined a 5-year cognitive change in untrained African American and White participants from the Advanced Cognitive Training in Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study.

Method: Five-year trajectories of memory, reasoning, visual processing speed/useful field of view, digit-symbol substitution, and vocabulary were investigated. Education, health, gender, age, and retest/practice effects were controlled for, and a missing data pattern mixture approach was used to adjust for dropout effects.

"Hoping to see the future I prefer": an element of life-world for older women living alone.

We interact with Dorcy's earlier work in Advances in Nursing Science on hope, noting that scholars have emphasized hope in suffering rather than exploring hoping in everyday life. We did a secondary analysis of 4 descriptive phenomenological studies with older women (N = 81, aged 75-98). Findings included a 4-level taxonomy of life-world.

Internet and social network recruitment: two case studies.

The recruitment of study participants is a significant research challenge. The Internet, with its ability to reach large numbers of people in networks connected by email, Facebook and other social networking mechanisms, appears to offer new avenues for recruitment. This paper reports recruitment experiences from two research projects that engaged the Internet and social networks in different ways for study recruitment.

Technology-enhanced practice for patients with chronic cardiac disease: home implementation and evaluation.

Objective: This 3-year field experiment engaged 60 nurses and 282 patients in the design and evaluation of an innovative home-care nursing model, referred to as technology-enhanced practice (TEP).

Methods: Nurses using TEP augmented the usual care with a web-based resource (HeartCareII) that provided patients with self-management information, self-monitoring tools, and messaging services.

Results: Patients exposed to TEP demonstrated better quality of life and self-management of chronic heart disease during the first 4 weeks, and were no more likely than patients in usual care to make unplanned visits to a clinician or hospital.

Race-related cognitive test bias in the active study: a mimic model approach.

The present study investigated evidence for race-related test bias in cognitive measures used in the baseline assessment of the ACTIVE clinical trial. Test bias against African Americans has been documented in both cognitive aging and early life span studies. Despite significant mean performance differences, Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) models suggested most differences were at the construct level.

Innovative strategies for nursing education program evaluation.

Nursing programs are mandated by accreditation bodies to report data significant to program quality and outcomes. The history at one school of nursing in the southern United States revealed the program evaluation committee experienced roadblocks in retrieving such information. Creative approaches were adopted to overcome some of the barriers to program evaluation, including the use of more technological-based approaches to engage alumni who embrace this technology as a way of life.