Comparison of Binary Alcohol/Water Solvent Systems to Blood for Extractions of Blood-Contacting Medical Devices.

The analysis of extractables and leachables and subsequent risk assessment is an important aspect of the determination of biocompatibility for many medical devices. Leachable chemicals have the potential to pose a toxicological risk to patients, and therefore it is required that they be adequately characterized and assessed for potential safety concerns. One important consideration in the assessment of leachables is the choice of a suitable simulating solvent intended to replicate the use condition for the device and its biological environment.

Realist Approach to Qualitative Data Analysis.

Background: A realist approach has gained popularity in evaluation research, particularly in understanding causal explanations of how a program works (or not), the circumstances, and the observed outcomes. In qualitative inquiry, the approach has contributed to better theoretically based explanations regarding causal interactions.

Objective: The aim of this study was to discuss how we conducted a realist-informed data analysis to explore the causal interactions within qualitative data.

Ambiguous loss in organ donor families: A constructivist grounded theory.

Aims And Objectives: Explore families' experiences when being approached for organ donation authorisation after brainstem death.

Background: The complexities of potential organ donor families' experiences include challenges related to emotional distress, coping with the loss and the organ donation decision-making process, and support needed. A lack of conceptual clarity was found concerning families' experiences when being approached for organ donation authorisation, which guided the study.

Nurse's, physician's and family member's experiences of withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment process in an intensive care unit.

Aims: To explore nurse's, physician's and family member's experiences of withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in an intensive care unit.

Background: In South Korea, withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment is legalised by the enforcement of the Hospice, Palliative Care and Life-sustaining Treatment Decision-making Act (2018). The Act (2018) is the first legal ground for making decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment in South Korea.

Edgework emotion management: A constructivist grounded theory of organ donation nurses' experiences and practices.

Aims And Objectives: To explore nurses' experiences when approaching families for organ donation authorisation to guide nursing practice.

Background: Organ donation after brainstem death implies that bereaved families are approached to discuss organ donation authorisation, and in many countries, specialist nurses do this approach. The literature describes the social, psychological and emotional challenges of health professionals in this role.

Emergency department nurses' role transition towards emergency nurse practitioner: A realist-informed review.

Background: The integration of emergency nurse practitioner (ENP) services in emergency departments (EDs) has been well established, especially in high-income countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Different types of reviews, including integrative, literature and systematic, have been carried out to examine evidence regarding the impact of ENPs on the quality of ED services. Unfortunately, there is still limited explanation of the influencing factors that may result in a successful transition process from Registered Nurse to Emergency Nurse Practitioner.

Family INvolvement in inTensive care: A qualitative exploration of critically ill patients, their families and critical care nurses (INpuT study).

Aims And Objectives: To understand the different factors that impact on the involvement of adult family members in the care of critically ill patients from the perspective of patients, families and nurses, with the aim to inform the enactment of a patient- and family-centred care intervention to support the patient-family-nurse partnership in care involvement.

Background: Existing evidence lacks theoretical underpinning and clarity to support enactment of patient- and family-centred care and involvement of families in the care of the critically ill patient.

Design: Qualitative exploratory design using thematic analysis.

Delivering direct patient care in the haemodialysis unit: a focused ethnographic study of care delivery.

Background: Direct patient care is a term used within nursing and healthcare to help quantify and qualify care delivery. Direct patient care time is considered as a valuable measure by healthcare providers to indicate efficiency and to quantify nursing work, however little is understood of the patient experience and care delivery in haemodialysis settings.

Aim: The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of patients' and nursing staff perceptions and experiences of 'direct patient care' within one haemodialysis unit.

The role of specialist nurses for organ donation: A solution for maximising organ donation rates?

Aims And Objectives: To explore the role that Donor Transplant Co-ordinators have played and the future potential of Specialist Nurses for Organ Donation (SN-ODs), within organ donation strategies in the UK and other countries.

Background: Organ donation and transplantation rates vary extensively around the world. However, there is a universal shortage of deceased donors, prompting different approaches to increase transplantation rates.

Understanding nurses' decision-making when managing weaning from mechanical ventilation: a study of novice and experienced critical care nurses in Scotland and Greece.

Aim And Objectives: To examine how nurses collect and use cues from respiratory assessment to inform their decisions as they wean patients from ventilatory support.

Background: Prompt and accurate identification of the patient's ability to sustain reduction of ventilatory support has the potential to increase the likelihood of successful weaning. Nurses' information processing during the weaning from mechanical ventilation has not been well-described.

A multi-disciplinary approach to medication safety and the implication for nursing education and practice.

Background: Medication management is a complex multi-stage and multi-disciplinary process, involving doctors, pharmacists, nurses and patients. Errors can occur at any stage from prescribing, dispensing and administering, to recording and reporting. There are a number of safety mechanisms built into the medication management system and it is recognised that nurses are the final stage of defence.

Difficult to wean patients: cultural factors and their impact on weaning decision-making.

Aims And Objectives: To examine the elements of the intensive care environment and consider the impact on nurses' involvement in decision-making when weaning from mechanical ventilation.

Background: Optimal management of difficult to wean patients requires the dynamic collaboration of all clinicians and the contribution of their knowledge and skills. The introduction of weaning protocols has increased nurses' input in decision-making, but there are various elements of the decision environment that impact on their involvement, which have been given little consideration.

Expectations and experiences of open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair patients: a mixed methods study.

Aims And Objectives: To establish what patients' expectations of postoperative pain were when undergoing open surgical repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm. A review of the relevant literature highlighted the fact that there had been no such studies conducted within a similar such homogenous group. Therefore, this study aimed to explore pain expectations prospectively and then compare these with the patients' actual experiences.

A model for the proteolytic regulation of LpxC in the lipopolysaccharide pathway of Escherichia coli.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is an essential structural component found in Gram-negative bacteria. The molecule is comprised of a highly conserved lipid A and a variable outer core consisting of various sugars. LPS plays important roles in membrane stability in the bacterial cell and is also a potent activator of the human immune system.

The experience of interdisciplinary peer-assisted learning (PAL).

Background: The importance and benefits of interdisciplinary practice in health care have been well documented. Despite this, few medical schools have developed formal curriculum opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching. Here, as an example of medical and nursing students teaching and learning together, we describe a novel approach to interdisciplinary peer-assisted learning led by students on fluid and electrolyte balance.

Pain management and satisfaction in postsurgical patients.

Aims And Objectives: To examine the relationship between patient satisfaction and the incidence of severe and enduring pain through a health board wide hospital satisfaction questionnaire.

Background: The incidence and management of acute postoperative pain and its relationship to patient satisfaction have been of great interest to clinicians over the last 20 years. Evidence suggests that despite many moves to address this problem with the advent of acute pain nurse specialists and dedicated pain teams, severe and enduring pain continues to be a problem.

The Department of Health-supported genetic counsellor training post scheme in England: a unique initiative?

Although the professional title 'genetic counsellor' has wide international recognition, formal courses or training programmes in genetic counselling exist in only a small number of countries. In 2002, voluntary registration of genetic counsellors in the UK began under the auspices of the Genetic Counsellor Registration Board. Practitioners are eligible for registration after 2 years of genetic counselling practice and prior attainment of either a nursing or midwifery qualification with relevant Bachelor's degree or a Master's degree in genetic counselling.

Routines and rituals: a grounded theory of the pain management of drug users in acute care settings.

Aim: This study reviewed the perceptions and strategies of drug users and nurses with regard to pain management in acute care settings.

Background: Drug users present unique challenges in acute care settings with pain management noted to be at best suboptimal, at worst non-existent. Little is known about why and specifically how therapeutic effectiveness is compromised.

Lipid and fatty acid composition of parasitic caligid copepods belonging to the genus Lepeophtheirus.

Sea lice are copepod ectoparasites that constitute a major barrier to the sustainability and economic viability of marine finfish aquaculture operations worldwide. In particular, the salmon louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, poses a considerable problem for salmoniculture in the northern hemisphere. The free-swimming nauplii and infective copepodids of L.

Selective interaction of tirapazamine with DNA bases and DNA. A comparison of cyclic voltammetry and electrolysis techniques.

An electrochemical model has been used to study the reductive activation of the hypoxic cell cytotoxin tirapazamine (TPZ, 3-amino-1,2,4-benzotriazine-1,4-dioxide). Cyclic voltammetry and controlled potential electrolysis have been used to generate and study the 1-electron reduction product, the assumed biologically active species. Cyclic voltammetry of tirapazamine in dimethylformamide shows a quasi-reversible 1-electron reduction with the product showing a tendency to participate in a following chemical reaction.

The intensive care of severe head injury: a survey of non-neurosurgical centres in the United Kingdom.

Few data exist regarding the management of severe head injury in non-neurosurgical centres within the UK. We aimed to discover the number of intensive care units admitting head injury patients, the number of patients admitted annually, and the monitoring and treatment methods followed. Questionnaires were sent to the senior nurse and consultant in 263 intensive care units within non-neurosurgical hospitals.

Reductive activation of nitroheterocyclic compounds.

1. Nitroaromatic compounds are important chemotherapy agents. 2.

The interaction of nitroaromatic drugs with aminothiols.

The effect of cysteamine and glutathione addition on the redox behaviour of metronidazole, chloramphenicol, M&B 4998, nitrofurazone, and nifuroxime has been studied by electrochemical techniques. The presence of thiol influences the redox behaviour of the nitro compound in a number of ways. In aqueous media, the single-step nitro/hydroxylamine reduction shows a decrease in current and a shift to more positive potentials, which is assigned to the thiol acting as the reducing agent, but only after the formation of the nitro radical anion.

Electrochemical studies of tirapazamine: generation of the one-electron reduction product.

The electrochemical properties of the benzotriazine di-N-oxide, tirapazamine (SR4233), and the mono- and zero-N-oxides, SR4317 and SR4330 respectively, have been investigated in dimethylformamide and acetonitrile. The voltammetry of tirapazamine is complicated, with up to 6 reduction steps being identified, depending on the solvent. Both SR4317 and SR4330 show two reduction steps.

Evidence for the direct interaction of reduced metronidazole derivatives with DNA bases.

The electrochemical behaviour of the bioreductive redox active nitroimidazole drug metronidazole has been examined in the presence and absence of the DNA bases using three electrochemical techniques, all of which indicate the capacity for interaction between reduced products and DNA bases. The 4-electron metronidazole (RNO2) metronidazole-hydroxylamine (RNHOH) couple in an aqueous medium shows a positive shift in reduction potential upon addition of thymine, adenine and guanine, but a negative shift for cytosine. Interpretation of these results for an irreversible process is, however, inconclusive.