Educational Interventions to Improve Support for Family Presence During Resuscitation: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

Background: Family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) remains controversial among nurses. Individual studies have shown educational interventions can improve support for FPDR; however, a systematic review of the literature has not been performed to appraise and synthesize the evidence.

Objectives: The aim of this systematic review was to appraise and synthesize studies conducted to test the effect of education on nurses' and providers' support for FPDR.

Contact Isolation Precautions in Trauma Patients: An Analysis of Infectious Complications.

Background: Victims of traumatic injuries represent a population at risk for a wide variety of complications. Contact isolation (CI) is a set of restrictions designed to help prevent the transmission of medically significant organisms in the healthcare setting. A growing body of literature demonstrates that CI can have significant implications for the individual isolated patient.

Longitudinal HIV Care Trajectories in North Carolina.

Background: Long-term HIV care and treatment engagement is required for maximal clinical and prevention benefits, but longitudinal care patterns are poorly understood. We used the last 10 years' worth of HIV surveillance data from North Carolina to describe longitudinal HIV care trajectories from diagnosis.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, population-based cohort study of all persons newly diagnosed with HIV in North Carolina between March 31, 2006 and March 31, 2015 (N = 16,207).

Effects of activation on the elastic properties of intact soleus muscles with a deletion in titin.

Titin has long been known to contribute to muscle passive tension. Recently, it was also demonstrated that titin-based stiffness increases upon Ca activation of wild-type mouse psoas myofibrils stretched beyond overlap of the thick and thin filaments. In addition, this increase in titin-based stiffness was impaired in single psoas myofibrils from mice, characterized by a deletion in the N2A region of the gene.

Deconstructing the Bat Skin Microbiome: Influences of the Host and the Environment.

Bats are geographically widespread and play an important role in many ecosystems, but relatively little is known about the ecology of their associated microbial communities and the role microbial taxa play in bat health, development, and evolution. Moreover, few vertebrate animal skin microbiomes have been comprehensively assessed, and thus characterizing the bat skin microbiome will yield valuable insight into the variability of vertebrate skin microbiomes as a whole. The recent emergence of the skin fungal disease white-nose syndrome highlights the potentially important role bat skin microbial communities could play in bat health.

Nursing Practices and Policies Related to Family Presence During Resuscitation.

Background: Despite its shown benefits, family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) is a controversial topic among critical care nurses and is not routinely implemented.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe FPDR practices among critical care nurses, as well as the prevalence of FPDR policies and education.

Methods: The study used a descriptive survey design.

Assessing national provision of care: variability in bariatric clinical care pathways.

Background: The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) Committee hypothesized that collecting and sharing clinical pathways could provide a valuable resource to new and existing bariatric programs.

Objective: To shed light on the variability in practice patterns across the country by analyzing pathways.

Setting: United States Centers of Excellence METHODS: From June 2014 to April 2015, clinical pathways pertaining to preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative management of bariatric patients were solicited from the ASMBS executive council (EC), QIPS committee members, and state chapter presidents.

Intrauterine growth restriction influences vascular remodeling and stiffening in the weanling rat more than sex or diet.

Unlabelled: Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) increases the incidence of adult cardiovascular disease (CVD). The sex-specific developmental mechanisms for IUGR-induced and Western high-fat diet (HFD) modification of CVD remain poorly understood. We hypothesized a maternal HFD in the Sprague-Dawley rat would augment IUGR-induced CVD in the offspring through decreased cardiac function and increased extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and stiffness in a sex-specific manner.

PMTCT Option B+ Does Not Increase Preterm Birth Risk and May Prevent Extreme Prematurity: A Retrospective Cohort Study in Malawi.

Objective: To estimate preterm birth risk among infants of HIV-infected women in Lilongwe, Malawi, according to maternal antiretroviral therapy (ART) status and initiation time under Option B+.

Design: A retrospective cohort study of HIV-infected women delivering at ≥27 weeks of gestation, April 2012 to November 2015. Among women on ART at delivery, we restricted our analysis to those who initiated ART before 27 weeks of gestation.

Stable nuclear expression of ATP8 and ATP6 genes rescues a mtDNA Complex V null mutant.

We explore the possibility of re-engineering mitochondrial genes and expressing them from the nucleus as an approach to rescue defects arising from mitochondrial DNA mutations. We have used a patient cybrid cell line with a single point mutation in the overlap region of the ATP8 and ATP6 genes of the human mitochondrial genome. These cells are null for the ATP8 protein, have significantly lowered ATP6 protein levels and no Complex V function.

A comparison of sexing methods in fetal mice.

Accurate mouse sexing is vital when conducting research examining sexual dimorphisms. Late fetal and newborn mouse pups are more immature than many previously described sexing methods allow. This study compares the sexing accuracy of a newly described internal gonad sexing method to a recently described peritoneal pigmentation sexing method in embryonic day 20 C57BL/6J mouse pups, using Sry genotyping to confirm the sex.

Statistical Learning in Specific Language Impairment and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Meta-Analysis.

Impairments in statistical learning might be a common deficit among individuals with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Using meta-analysis, we examined statistical learning in SLI (14 studies, 15 comparisons) and ASD (13 studies, 20 comparisons) to evaluate this hypothesis. Effect sizes were examined as a function of diagnosis across multiple statistical learning tasks (Serial Reaction Time, Contextual Cueing, Artificial Grammar Learning, Speech Stream, Observational Learning, and Probabilistic Classification).

Cuffed endotracheal tubes in neonates and infants undergoing cardiac surgery are not associated with airway complications.

Study Objective: To determine the incidence of postoperative airway complications in infants <5kg in weight undergoing cardiac surgery intubated with Microcuff (Kimberley-Clark, Roswell, GA) endotracheal tubes (ETTs).

Design: Retrospective review of infants weighing <5.0 kg with congenital heart disease (CHD) presenting for cardiac surgery.

Outcomes Using a Conservative Versus Liberal Red Blood Cell Transfusion Strategy in Infants Requiring Cardiac Operation.

Background: The optimal hemoglobin for infants after cardiac operation is unknown. Red blood cells (RBCs) are commonly transfused to maintain high hemoglobin concentrations in the absence of a clinical indication. We hypothesized that infants can be managed with a postoperative conservative RBC transfusion strategy, resulting in lower daily hemoglobin concentrations, without evidence of impaired oxygen delivery (ie, lactate, arteriovenous oxygen difference [avOdiff]), or adverse clinical outcomes.

Biomechanical Profiles When Towing a Sled and Wearing a Weighted Vest Once Cleared for Sports Post-ACL Reconstruction.

Background: Though rehabilitation attempts to correct "stiff knee gait" and control for dynamic limb valgus after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), impaired biomechanics often persist when an individual is cleared to return to sport (RTS). Reduced knee extension moments (KEMs) and knee flexion angles (KFAs) often continue. While at the hip, increased hip adduction angles (HADDAs) and hip internal rotation angles (HIRAs) often persist in spite of dynamic hip stabilization exercises.

The association between substance use and sub-optimal HIV treatment engagement among HIV-infected female sex workers in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Female sex workers (FSW) have a high prevalence of substance use and HIV, but the impact of substance use on HIV treatment engagement is not well established. We evaluated the association between alcohol and marijuana use and sub-optimal HIV treatment engagement outcomes among HIV-infected FSW in Lilongwe, Malawi. We enroled FSW using venue-based recruitment into a cross-sectional evaluation assessing substance use and HIV treatment engagement.

Species discovery and diversity in Lobocriconema (Criconematidae: Nematoda) and related plant-parasitic nematodes from North American ecoregions.

There are many nematode species that, following formal description, are seldom mentioned again in the scientific literature. Lobocriconema thornei and L. incrassatum are two such species, described from North American forests, respectively 37 and 49 years ago.

Family Presence During Resuscitation: Impact of Online Learning on Nurses' Perception and Self-confidence.

Background: Family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) is supported by patients and their family members. Nurses, however, including critical care nurses who frequently implement resuscitative care, have mixed views.

Objectives: To determine the impact of online learning on critical care nurses' perception of and self-confidence with FPDR.

Identification of New Mutations at the PCNA Subunit Interface that Block Translesion Synthesis.

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) plays an essential role in DNA replication and repair by interacting with a large number of proteins involved in these processes. Two amino acid substitutions in PCNA, both located at the subunit interface, have previously been shown to block translesion synthesis (TLS), a pathway for bypassing DNA damage during replication. To better understand the role of the subunit interface in TLS, we used random mutagenesis to generate a set of 33 PCNA mutants with substitutions at the subunit interface.

Distance to testing sites and its association with timing of HIV diagnosis.

Early HIV diagnosis enables prompt treatment initiation, thereby contributing to decreased morbidity, mortality, and transmission. We aimed to describe the association between distance from residence to testing sites and HIV disease stage at diagnosis. Using HIV surveillance data, we identified all new HIV diagnoses made at publicly funded testing sites in central North Carolina during 2005-2013.

Striatal Associative Learning Signals Are Tuned to In-groups.

An important feature of adaptive social behavior is the ability to flexibly modify future actions based on the successes or failures of past experiences. The ventral striatum (VS) occupies a central role in shaping behavior by using feedback to evaluate actions and guide learning. The current studies tested whether feedback indicating the need to update social knowledge would engage the VS, thereby facilitating subsequent learning.