Baccalaureate nursing students' engagement with end-of-life curriculum: A grounded theory study.

Background: The art of being prepared to support patients and their families during end of life experiences is not always emphasized in nurse education. Despite the efforts from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC), only 25% of nursing schools across the United States are using their modules.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore how student nurses engage with end of life education.

Simulation-Based Interprofessional Education: A Nursing and Social Work Collaboration.

Background: Contemporary teaching and learning pedagogy commands interprofessional collaboration among allied professions such as nursing and social work, two professions that have a natural inclination to partner in the workforce.

Method: Nursing and social work students participated in a structured simulated learning experience where they demonstrated their respective professional practice skills in a supported learning environment while working collaboratively to assess one of two patient types: high-fidelity or simulated.

Results: Both groups expressed initial worry during prebriefing but articulated their appreciation for and usefulness of working with the other profession.

The relative importance of cancer-related and general health worries and distress among older adult, long-term cancer survivors.

Objective: This research examines the relative importance that cancer-related and non-cancer illness factors play in generating general health worries and/or cancer-related worries. The analysis also examines how these in turn impact anxiety and depression among older adult, long-term cancer survivors.

Methods: Data from a longitudinal study of 245 older-adult (age 60+ years), long-term survivors (5 or more years after diagnosis) of breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer are examined to identify the measurement properties and structure of general health and cancer-related health worries.

Nicotine levels and presence of selected tobacco-derived toxins in tobacco flavoured electronic cigarette refill liquids.

Background: Some electronic cigarette (EC) liquids of tobacco flavour contain extracts of cured tobacco leaves produced by a process of solvent extraction and steeping. These are commonly called Natural Extract of Tobacco (NET) liquids. The purpose of the study was to evaluate nicotine levels and the presence of tobacco-derived toxins in tobacco-flavoured conventional and NET liquids.

Mode of parainfluenza virus transmission determines the dynamics of primary infection and protection from reinfection.

Little is known about how the mode of respiratory virus transmission determines the dynamics of primary infection and protection from reinfection. Using non-invasive imaging of murine parainfluenza virus 1 (Sendai virus) in living mice, we determined the frequency, timing, dynamics, and virulence of primary infection after contact and airborne transmission, as well as the tropism and magnitude of reinfection after subsequent challenge. Contact transmission of Sendai virus was 100% efficient, phenotypically uniform, initiated and grew to robust levels in the upper respiratory tract (URT), later spread to the lungs, grew to a lower level in the lungs than the URT, and protected from reinfection completely in the URT yet only partially in the lungs.

Metabolism and disposition of [14C]n-butyl-p-hydroxybenzoate in male and female Harlan Sprague Dawley rats following oral administration and dermal application.

n-Butyl-p-hydroxybenzoate (n-butylparaben, BPB) is an antioxidant used in foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. This study investigated the disposition of ring-labelled [(14)C]BPB in Harlan Sprague Dawley rats, and in rat and human hepatocytes. BPB was rapidly cleared in hepatocytes from rat (t(1/2) = 3-4 min) and human (t(1/2) = 20-30 min).

Determination of L-ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and caffeine in rat plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

A rapid and simple liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of L-ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and caffeine in male Fisher-344 rat plasma at nanogram-per-milliliter concentrations for use in support of toxicology studies. Only 25 μL of plasma is required, and extraction is performed using a simple, single-step protein precipitation. The method was validated over a range of 2.

Validation of the intact rat weanling uterotrophic assay with notes on the formulation and analysis of the positive control chemical in vehicle.

The intact female weanling version in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) uterotrophic assay Test Guideline (TG) 440 is proposed as an alternative to the adult ovariectomized female version, because it does not involve surgical intervention (vs the ovariectomized version) and detects direct/indirect-acting estrogenic/anti-estrogenic substances (vs the ovariectomized version which detects only direct-acting estrogenic/anti-estrogenic substances binding to the estrogen receptor). This validation study followed OECD TG 440, with six female weanling rats (postnatal day 21) per dose group and six treatment groups. Females were weighed and dosed once daily by oral gavage for three consecutive days, with one of six doses of 17α-ethinyl estradiol in corn oil at 5 ml kg⁻¹ at 0 and 0.

Determination of lovastatin hydroxy acid in female B6C3F1 mouse serum.

A liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometricmethod for the determination of lovastatin hydroxy acid in female B6C3F(1) mouse serum was developed for use in supporting toxicokinetic studies of animals dosed with the cholesterol lowering agent lovastatin. The method does not require an extensive sample cleanup and shows good correlation between serum matrix standards and solvent standards. The method was validated and used to analyze serum samples from a preliminary dose level range-finding study.

A furanocoumarin-free grapefruit juice establishes furanocoumarins as the mediators of the grapefruit juice-felodipine interaction.

Background: Grapefruit juice (GFJ) enhances the systemic exposure of numerous CYP3A4 drug substrates, including felodipine, by inhibiting intestinal (but not hepatic) first-pass metabolism. Furanocoumarins have been identified as major CYP3A4 inhibitors contained in the juice, but their contribution to the GFJ effect in vivo remains unclear.

Objective: To ascertain whether furanocoumarins mediate the GFJ-felodipine interaction, a furanocoumarin-free GFJ was created and tested against orange juice and the original GFJ with respect to the oral pharmacokinetics of felodipine.

Regulation of phase I and phase II steroid metabolism enzymes by PPAR alpha activators.

Peroxisome proliferators (PP) are a large class of structurally diverse chemicals that mediate their effects in the liver mainly through the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha). Exposure to some PP results in alterations of steroid levels that may be mechanistically linked to adverse effects in reproductive organs. We hypothesized that changes in steroid levels after PP exposure are due to alterations in the levels of P450 enzymes that hydroxylate testosterone and estrogen.

PPARalpha activators down-regulate CYP2C7, a retinoic acid and testosterone hydroxylase.

Peroxisome proliferators (PP) are a large class of structurally diverse chemicals that mediate their effects in the liver mainly through the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha). Exposure to PP results in down-regulation of CYP2C family members under control of growth hormone and sex steroids including CYP2C11 and CYP2C12. We hypothesized that PP exposure would also lead to similar changes in CYP2C7, a retinoic acid and testosterone hydroxylase.

The crystal structure, mutagenesis, and activity studies reveal that patatin is a lipid acyl hydrolase with a Ser-Asp catalytic dyad.

Patatin is a nonspecific lipid acyl hydrolase that accounts for approximately 40% of the total soluble protein in mature potato tubers, and it has potent insecticidal activity against the corn rootworm. We determined the X-ray crystal structure of a His-tagged variant of an isozyme of patatin, Pat17, to 2.2 A resolution, employing SeMet multiwavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) phasing methods.