High-Pressure Freeze and Freeze Substitution Electron Microscopy in C. elegans.

While traditional chemical fixation methods for C. elegans electron microscopy (EM) have provided invaluable anatomical and structural information, the development of high-pressure freeze (HPF) and freeze substitution (FS) protocols offers advantages for high-resolution imaging. Specimens prepared using HPF methodology exhibit fewer distortion artifacts due to fixation and dehydration, have improved antigenicity, and result in a more physiologically accurate structural representation of the worm.

AKR1C3 is a biomarker of sensitivity to PR-104 in preclinical models of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

PR-104, a phosphate ester of the nitrogen mustard prodrug PR-104A, has shown evidence of efficacy in adult leukemia clinical trials. Originally designed to target hypoxic cells, PR-104A is independently activated by aldo-keto-reductase 1C3 (AKR1C3). The aim of this study was to test whether AKR1C3 is a predictive biomarker of in vivo PR-104 sensitivity.

Hepatitis B knowledge and associated factors among people with chronic hepatitis B.

Objective: To assess hepatitis B knowledge among people with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in Australia.

Methods: People with CHB in three Australian jurisdictions completed a self-administered questionaire, including 24 hepatitis B knowledge questions across four domains: transmission; natural history; epidemiology and prevention; and clinical management.

Results: Ninety-three people completed the survey.

Effectiveness of public deliberation methods for gathering input on issues in healthcare: Results from a randomized trial.

Unlabelled: Public deliberation elicits informed perspectives on complex issues that are values-laden and lack technical solutions. This Deliberative Methods Demonstration examined the effectiveness of public deliberation for obtaining informed public input regarding the role of medical evidence in U.S.

Infant feeding effects on early neurocognitive development in Asian children.

Background: Breastfeeding has been shown to enhance global measures of intelligence in children. However, few studies have examined associations between breastfeeding and specific cognitive task performance in the first 2 y of life, particularly in an Asian population.

Objective: We assessed associations between early infant feeding and detailed measures of cognitive development in the first 2 y of life in healthy Asian children born at term.

Effective targeting of the P53-MDM2 axis in preclinical models of infant MLL-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Purpose: Although the overall cure rate for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) approaches 90%, infants with ALL harboring translocations in the mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) oncogene (infant MLL-ALL) experience shorter remission duration and lower survival rates (∼50%). Mutations in the p53 tumor-suppressor gene are uncommon in infant MLL-ALL, and drugs that release p53 from inhibitory mechanisms may be beneficial. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of the orally available nutlin, RG7112, against patient-derived MLL-ALL xenografts.

Visually discriminating upper case letters, lower case letters and numbers.

English and number literacy are important for successful learning and testing student literacy and numeracy standards enables early identification and remediation of children who have difficulty. Rasch measures were created with the RUMM2020 computer program for the perceptual constructs of visual discrimination upper case letters, lower case letters and numbers. Thirty items for Visual Discrimination of Upper Case Letters (VDUCL), 36 for Lower Case Letters (VDLCL) and 20 for Visual Discrimination of Numbers (VDN) were presented to 324 Pre-Primary through Year 4 children, aged 4-9 years old.

Simvastatin prevents and reverses depigmentation in a mouse model of vitiligo.

Vitiligo is a common autoimmune disease of the skin that results in disfiguring white spots. There are no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatments, and current treatments are time-consuming, expensive, and of low efficacy. We sought to identify new treatments for vitiligo, and first considered repurposed medications because of the availability of safety data and expedited regulatory approval.

What goes where? Eye tracking reveals spatial relational memory during infancy.

Episodic memory involves binding components of an event (who, what, when, and where) into a relational representation. The ability to encode information about the relative locations of objects (i.e.

Immunology and skin in health and disease.

The skin is a complex organ that, in addition to providing a strong barrier against external insults, serves as an arena for a wide variety of inflammatory processes, including immunity against infections, tumor immunity, autoimmunity, and allergy. A variety of cells collaborate to mount functional immune responses, which are initiated by resident populations and evolve through the recruitment of additional cell populations to the skin. Inflammatory responses are quite diverse, resulting in a wide range of signs and symptoms that depend on the initiating signals, characteristics of the infiltrating cell populations, and cytokines that are produced (cytokines are secreted protein that allows for cell-cell communication; usually refers to communication between immune-immune cells or stromal-immune cells).

Developing the Australasian Hepatology Association's consensus-based guidelines for the nursing care of patients with liver disease.

Unlabelled: Abstract Purpose: Hepatology nursing is an emerging speciality. To define best practice, the Australasian Hepatology Association (AHA) developed consensus-based guidelines for the nursing care of patients with liver disease.

Methods: Using the Delphi technique, six rounds of consultation were conducted with Australian hepatology nurses and non-nursing hepatology professionals.

Preschoolers with Down syndrome do not yet show the learning and memory impairments seen in adults with Down syndrome.

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) exhibit a behavioral phenotype of specific strengths and weaknesses, in addition to a generalized cognitive delay. In particular, adults with DS exhibit specific deficits in learning and memory processes that depend on the hippocampus, and there is some suggestion of impairments on executive function tasks that depend on the prefrontal cortex. While these functions have been investigated in adults with DS, it is largely unclear how these processes develop in young children with DS.

Delivering care to oncology patients in the community: an innovative integrated approach.

A community oncology nursing programme was developed in Ireland between the hospital and community health services for patients receiving systemic cancer therapy, in response to a service need. A robust evaluation of the pilot programme was undertaken, which found that defined clinical procedures traditionally undertaken in hospitals were safely undertaken in the patient's home with no adverse effects. There was a dramatic decrease in hospital attendances for these defined clinical procedures, and hospital capacity was consequently freed up.

C. elegans Punctin specifies cholinergic versus GABAergic identity of postsynaptic domains.

Because most neurons receive thousands of synaptic inputs, the neuronal membrane is a mosaic of specialized microdomains where neurotransmitter receptors cluster in register with the corresponding presynaptic neurotransmitter release sites. In many cases the coordinated differentiation of presynaptic and postsynaptic domains implicates trans-synaptic interactions between membrane-associated proteins such as neurexins and neuroligins. The Caenorhabditis elegans neuromuscular junction (NMJ) provides a genetically tractable system in which to analyse the segregation of neurotransmitter receptors, because muscle cells receive excitatory innervation from cholinergic neurons and inhibitory innervation from GABAergic neurons.

CCR4+T cell recruitment to the skin in mycosis fungoides: potential contributions by thymic stromal lymphopoietin and interleukin-16.

Mycosis fungoides (MF) is characterized by skin accumulation of CCR4+CCR7- effector memory T cells; however the mechanism for their recruitment is not clearly identified. Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin (TSLP) is a keratinocyte-derived cytokine that triggers Th2 immunity and is associated with T cell recruitment to the skin in atopic dermatitis. Interleukin-16 (IL-16) is a chemoattractant and growth factor for CD4+T cells.

Developing the Australasian Hepatology Association's Consensus-based Guidelines for the Nursing Care of Patients with Liver Disease.

Abstract Purpose: Hepatology nursing is an emerging speciality. To define best practice, the Australasian Hepatology Association developed consensus-based guidelines for the nursing care of patients with liver disease. Methods: Using the Delphi technique, six rounds of consultation were conducted with Australian hepatology nurses and non-nursing hepatology professionals.

The complexity of role balance: support for the Model of Juggling Occupations.

Objective: This pilot study aimed to establish the appropriateness of the Model of Juggling Occupations in exploring the complex experience of role balance amongst working women with family responsibilities living in Perth, Australia.

Methods: In meeting this aim, an evaluation was conducted of a case study design, where data were collected through a questionnaire, time diary, and interview.

Results: Overall role balance varied over time and across participants.

A novel CaM kinase II pathway controls the location of neuropeptide release from Caenorhabditis elegans motor neurons.

Neurons release neuropeptides via the regulated exocytosis of dense core vesicles (DCVs) to evoke or modulate behaviors. We found that Caenorhabditis elegans motor neurons send most of their DCVs to axons, leaving very few in the cell somas. How neurons maintain this skewed distribution and the extent to which it can be altered to control DCV numbers in axons or to drive release from somas for different behavioral impacts is unknown.

Age-related differences in memory expression during infancy: using eye-tracking to measure relational memory in 6- and 12-month-olds.

Relational memory, or the ability to bind components of an event into a network of linked representations, is a primary function of the hippocampus. Here we extend eye-tracking research showing that infants are capable of forming memories for the relation between arbitrarily paired scenes and faces, by looking at age-related changes in relational memory over the first year of life. Six- and 12-month-old infants were familiarized with pairs of faces and scenes before being tested with arrays of three familiar faces that were presented on a familiar scene.

CXCL10 is critical for the progression and maintenance of depigmentation in a mouse model of vitiligo.

Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease of the skin that results in disfiguring white spots. There are no U.S.

Liprin-α/SYD-2 determines the size of dense projections in presynaptic active zones in C. elegans.

Synaptic vesicle (SV) release is spatially and temporally regulated by a network of proteins that form the presynaptic active zone (AZ). The hallmark of most AZs is an electron-dense projection (DP) surrounded by SVs. Despite their importance for our understanding of triggered SV release, high-resolution analyses of DP structures are limited.

Innate immune mechanisms in vitiligo: danger from within.

Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease of the skin in which melanocytes are destroyed by antigen-specific T cells, resulting in patchy depigmentation. Although adaptive immunity plays a clear role in disease progression, initiating factors are largely unknown. Many studies report that cellular stress pathways are dysregulated in melanocytes from vitiligo patients, suggesting that melanocyte-intrinsic defects participate in disease pathogenesis.

Gemcitabine-induced thrombotic microangiopathy.

Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is a microvascular occlusive disorder characterised by platelet aggregation, thrombocytopenia and end-organ damage. It is commonly idiopathic, although several drug classes, including cytotoxic chemotherapy, have been implicated. Several of cases of gemcitabine-induced TMA have been documented with incidence likely to increase with the escalating use of gemcitabine.