Nursing Professional Identity: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Becoming a good nurse is a mandatory goal for each nurse and a daily challenge. Nurses have the responsibility to maintain the highest level of professional integrity and quality not only to protect patients and their families but also to positively influence nursing students. In fact, students learn how to become good nurses if they really experience that from all nurses they meet during their training.

Nursing students and sport: health promotion, team building and professional skills education.

Background: Nursing profession requires a complex set of capacities, such as team building, reaching a common goal, understanding of different roles, good communication, and positive conflict resolution. Teaching this kind of competencies during the university course is challenging. Team sports require quite similar abilities to those of a nursing tam.

[Professional policies: a qualitative study of perceptions and opinions of professionals nurses/midwives and students attending the Master of Science in Nursing].

Introduction: Politics, the science and the art of administering public affairs, is a very important field. Dealing with professional policy means to dedicate ourselves to the good of the profession. Professional policies are an integral part of taking care; the professional family needs clear reference points: training, tutoring, promotion and institutional representation.

Regulatory and reimbursement innovation.

Coverage with evidence development and parallel review for molecular diagnostics aid regulation and reimbursement.

Optoelectronic energy transfer at novel biohybrid interfaces using light harvesting complexes from Chloroflexus aurantiacus.

In nature, nanoscale supramolecular light harvesting complexes initiate the photosynthetic energy collection process at high quantum efficiencies. In this study, the distinctive antenna structure from Chloroflexus aurantiacusthe chlorosomeis assessed for potential exploitation in novel biohybrid optoelectronic devices. Electrochemical characterization of bacterial fragments containing intact chlorosomes with the photosynthetic apparatus show an increase in the charge storage density near the working electrode upon light stimulation and suggest that chlorosomes contribute approximately one-third of the overall photocurrent.

Immobilization of functional light antenna structures derived from the filamentous green bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus.

The integration of highly efficient, natural photosynthetic light antenna structures into engineered systems while their biophotonic capabilities are maintained has been an elusive goal in the design of biohybrid photonic devices. In this study, we report a novel technique to covalently immobilize nanoscaled bacterial light antenna structures known as chlorosomes from Chloroflexus aurantiacus on both conductive and nonconductive glass while their energy transducing functionality was maintained. Chlorosomes without their reaction centers (RCs) were covalently immobilized on 3-aminoproyltriethoxysilane (APTES) treated surfaces using a glutaraldehyde linker.

Multiplexed DNA sequencing-by-synthesis.

We report a new DNA sequencing-by-synthesis method in which the sequences of DNA templates, hybridized to a surface-immobilized array of DNA primers, are determined by sensing the number of nucleotides by which the primers in each array spot are extended in sequential DNA polymerase-catalyzed nucleotide incorporation reactions, each with a single fluorescein-labeled deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) species. The fluorescein label is destroyed after each readout by a photostimulated reaction with diphenyliodonium chloride. A DNA polymerase with enhanced ability to incorporate, and to extend beyond, modified nucleotides is used.

Isolation of plasma from whole blood using planar microfilters for lab-on-a-chip applications.

Researchers are actively developing devices for the microanalysis of complex fluids, such as blood. These devices have the potential to revolutionize biological analysis in a manner parallel to the computer chip by providing very high throughput screening of complex samples and massively parallel bioanalytical capabilities. A necessary step performed in clinical chemistry is the isolation of plasma from whole blood, and effective sample preparation techniques are needed for the development of miniaturized clinical diagnostic devices.

Crystallization kinetics of sol-gel derived hydroxyapatite thin films.

The crystallization kinetics of sol-gel derived hydroxyapatite (HA) and tricalcium phosphate (TCP) thin films were studied to determine whether viscous sintering could be used for densification. The films were approximately 900 nm thick, and were synthesized and processed on silicon substrates. The films were fired in air in a rapid thermal annealer (RTA) for various times and the degree of crystallinity was determined by measuring the intensity of characteristic X-ray diffraction lines.

Characterization of Chlorobium tepidum chlorosomes: a calculation of bacteriochlorophyll c per chlorosome and oligomer modeling.

The bacteriochlorophyll (Bchl) c content and organization was determined for Chlorobium (Cb.) tepidum chlorosomes, the light-harvesting complexes from green photosynthetic bacteria, using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. Single-chlorosome fluorescence data was analyzed in terms of the correlation of the fluorescence intensity with time.

A microflow amperometric glucose biosensor.

We investigate a small glucose sensor that uses a flow-through enzyme bed and reaction endpoint approach that seems particularly suited to microdialysis-type subcutaneous or intravascular glucose sensors. The particular configuration has the advantage of relative insensitivity to blood oxygen changes and also to factors which affect enzyme activity compared to conventional polarographic type glucose sensors. We evaluate the placement of a microdialysis fiber into a near-surface blood vessel in the dog model as a means of blood glucose sampling and to determine the effects of protein deposition.

A cell-based immunobiosensor with engineered molecular recognition--Part III: Engineering molecular recognition.

We have been studying the feasibility of exploiting the recognition and amplification abilities of living immune cells for the development of hybrid immunosensors. Our group has previously reported that cell metabolic activation responses, induced by calcium ionophore A23187, can be directly transduced using calorimetric transducers, and that enzyme systems can be integrated to enhance sensing response time and output. In this study our goal was to determine the feasibility of transducing the thermal activation responses of mast cells molecularly engineered to a specific antigen.

A cell-based immunobiosensor with engineered molecular recognition--Part II: Enzyme amplification systems.

Immune cells in vivo routinely perform highly selective immunosensing in blood and tissues as part of their normal immune surveillance functions. We have been investigating the potential of exploiting the immunosensing detection abilities of excitable immune cells (i.e.

A cell-based immunobiosensor with engineered molecular recognition--Part I: Design feasibility.

A novel bioelectronic sensor is described in which living immune cells are transformed into unique biotransducer couples by engineering their molecular recognition for preselected antigens of clinical interest. This 'hybrid' biosensor, constructed with mast cells interfaced to a microfabricated thermoelectric device with the use of biomolecular linkages, is capable of detecting antigens in real time by transducing minute heat changes arising from antigen-induced mast cell activation processes. The thermoelectric approach was selected based upon preliminary bioenergetic calculations which indicated that metabolic changes arising from mast cell antigen recognition result in a significant increase in exothermic heat relative to basal metabolic conditions.

The application of ion beam analysis to calcium phosphate-based biomaterials.

Ion beam technology may be applied in a straightforward fashion to the analysis and modification of biomaterials. For analytical purposes, characterization using megaelectron-volt He2+ ions provides a standardless, nondestructive means for accurately quantifying the composition of material surfaces and the thickness of thin films. In this study, three complementary ion backscattering techniques were utilized to characterize hydroxyapatite (HA) films: Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) can determine composition and amounts of elements heavier than He; forward recoil elastic spectrometry (FRES) can determine hydrogen content; resonance-enhanced RBS can quantify small amounts of light elements, e.

Transplacental transport of N-acetylcysteine in an ovine model.

Study Objective: Acetaminophen freely crosses the placenta, and acetaminophen ingestion is the most frequent intentional overdose in pregnancy. Although most patients do well after maternal treatment with the antidote N-acetylcysteine (NAC), fetal death with massive hepatic necrosis has occurred. It has never been shown whether NAC crosses the placenta to yield fetal plasma levels equal to those associated with hepatoprotective effects in human beings.

An efficient method for removing bilirubin.

Bilirubin is tightly bound to albumin, making hemoperfusion an ineffective treatment for hyperbilirubinemia. By adding a safe unbinding agent to the blood (solutizer), which itself is adsorbed, hemoperfusion can become efficient and practical. Canines were made hyperbilirubinemic with an intravenous infusion of a 5 mg/ml solution (with Na2CO3) for 1 hour.

Augmented hemoperfusion for hyperbilirubinemia.

Exchange transfusions and phototherapy are used to treat hyperbilirubinemia, each method having its own disadvantages. Hemoperfusion with coated activated charcoal (CAC) produces low removal rates due to the strong binding of bilirubin to albumin. Biocompatible chemical agents were investigated to selectively unbind the bilirubin into solution just prior to CAC exposure.

Present status of the hemofiltration/molecular separation artificial kidney.

The hemofiltration/molecular separation (HFMS) artificial kidney concept, first proposed over a decade ago, involves continuous ultrafiltration from the blood stream followed by cleansing of the filtrate, with subsequent return to the body. Thus, the system is completely self-contained and portable. During recent preclinical trials on nephrectomized canines, HFMS was better than hemodialysis (HD) in several important ways.

Comparison of the hemofiltration/molecular separation artificial kidney concept with hemodialysis: acute preclinical trials.

If adequate electrolyte adjustments are made, the only problems with the present HFMS system are the need to replenish divalent cations, add buffer, and remove the evolved CO2. Even with these deficiencies the system is portable, objectively and subjectively better than HD, and capable of being wearable in the foreseeable future.