An audit of nurses using standing order directives to administer medications to children at risk of contracting rheumatic fever.

Aim: The following article reports an audit, conducted between July 2014 and July 2017, of adherence to best practice in medication administration and documentation by nurses.

Method: A sample of 47 registered nurses' (RNs') documentation relating to the administration of 939 medications using standing order directives were examined and scored by seven senior nurses and a medical practitioner against an audit tool. The scores were divided into four quartiles with the top two quartiles demonstrating best practice in adherence to safety standards for the administration of medication.

Sidney George Shaw, DPhil (1948-2017).

On March 4, 2017 at the age of 68, Sidney George Shaw (Sid) unexpectedly died from complications following surgery, only four years after retiring from the University of Bern. Trained in biochemistry at Oxford University, Sid had quickly moved into molecular pharmacology and became a key investigator in the field of enzyme biochemistry, vasoactive peptide research, and receptor signaling. Sid spent half his life in Switzerland, after moving to the University of Bern in 1984.

Recovery from hypoxia-induced internalization of cardiac Na /H exchanger 1 requires an adequate intracellular store of antioxidants.

The heart is highly active metabolically but relatively underperfused and, therefore, vulnerable to ischemia. In addition to acidosis, a key component of ischemia is hypoxia that can modulate gene expression and protein function as part of an adaptive or even maladaptive response. Here, using cardiac-derived HL-1 cells, we investigate the effect of various hypoxic stimuli on the expression and activity of Na /H exchanger 1 (NHE1), a principal regulator of intracellular pH.

Distinct moieties underlie biphasic H gating of connexin43 channels, producing a pH optimum for intercellular communication.

Most mammalian cells can intercommunicate via connexin-assembled, gap-junctional channels. To regulate signal transmission, connexin (Cx) channel permeability must respond dynamically to physiological and pathophysiological stimuli. One key stimulus is intracellular pH (pH), which is modulated by a tissue's metabolic and perfusion status.

Normoxic cells remotely regulate the acid-base balance of cells at the hypoxic core of connexin-coupled tumor growths.

ATP fuels the removal of metabolic end-products, including H ions that profoundly modulate biological activities. Energetic resources in hypoxic tumor regions are constrained by low-yielding glycolysis, and any means of reducing the cost of acid extrusion, without compromising pH homeostasis, would therefore be advantageous for cancer cells. Some cancers express connexin channels that allow solute exchange between cells, and we propose that, this route, normoxic cells supply hypoxic neighbors with acid-neutralizing HCO ions.