Implementing Nursing Professional Development.

Sandra Bruce is the Nurse Education Program Manager, Air Force Personnel Center, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas, and is responsible for the Air Force Continuing Nursing Education program and facilitation of selection boards for graduate education and fellowship programs. She served as editor for the third and fourth editions of the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD) Core Curriculums for Nursing Professional Development. Sandy previously served as the Education Consultant to the Air Force Surgeon General for Nursing Education programs for over 3,000 Air Force Nurse Corps members.

Structures of Leishmania major orthologues of macrophage migration inhibitory factor.

Leishmania major, an intracellular parasitic protozoon that infects, differentiates and replicates within macrophages, expresses two closely related MIF-like proteins. To ascertain the roles and potential differences of these two Leishmania proteins, recombinant L. major MIF1 and MIF2 have been produced and the structures resolved by X-ray crystallography.

Cloning, expression and characterisation of FKB-6, the sole large TPR-containing immunophilin from C. elegans.

We have cloned, expressed, purified and characterised ceFKB-6, the only large tetratricopeptide repeat motif-containing immunophilin in Caenorhabditis elegans which is similar to the human orthologues FKBP51 and FKBP52. It shows increased peptidyl prolyl isomerase activity, the measured k(cat)/K(m) of 1.3 x 10(6) M(-1) s(-1)is twofold greater than that of hFKBP12 and hFKBP51.

Preparing to respond: Joint Trauma Training Center and USAF Nursing Warskills Simulation Laboratory.

Injuries related to the events of September 11, 2001, and continuing military actions associated with Operation Enduring Freedom underscore the accurate focus of the Joint Trauma Training Center and the Warskills Simulation Laboratory. These two programs ensure that nurses are prepared to respond to diverse medical situations worldwide. Outcome measures from both initiatives attest to the effectiveness of an integrated program that facilitates critical thinking skills and clinical judgment to increase the nurses' ability to provide trauma care to severely injured military personnel.