Compliance with the Golden Hour bundle in deliveries attended by a specialized neonatal transport team compared with staff at non-tertiary centres.

Background: Preterm infants born at <32 weeks gestational age (GA) have increased morbidity if they are born outside tertiary centres (outborn). Stabilization and resuscitation after birth consistent with the neonatal Golden Hour practices (NGHP) are required to optimize outcomes.

Objectives: To evaluate physiological outcomes of hypothermia and hypoglycaemia, and compliance with NGHP by neonatal transport team (NTT) compared with referral hospital team (RHT) during the stabilization of infants born at <32 weeks GA.

The effects of educational interventions on pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs towards low back pain.

Background: Practitioner beliefs and attitudes towards low back pain (LBP) influence treatment decisions. Little is known about pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs towards LBP.

Objectives: To investigate the effect of educational interventions on pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs towards LBP.

Knowledge and satisfaction of pharmacists attending an educational workshop on evidence-based management of low back pain.

Pharmacists are well positioned to provide quality care to people with low back pain (LBP). Education and training can equip pharmacists with the knowledge to optimally manage LBP in primary care. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge and satisfaction of pharmacists who attended a 2-h educational workshop on the evidence-based management of LBP.

Lessons learned during implementation of therapeutic hypothermia for neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy in a regional transport program in Ontario.

Background: Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is the first intervention to consistently show improved neurological outcomes in neonates with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Since the recent introduction of TH for HIE in many centres, reviews of practices during the implementation of TH in Canada have not been published.

Objective: To determine if eligible neonates are being offered TH and to identify any barriers to the effective implementation of TH.

The use of a human papillomavirus 18 promoter for tissue-specific expression in cervical carcinoma cells.

The use of tissue-specific promoter elements in the treatment of cervical cancer has been explored in this paper. The P(105) promoter of human papillomavirus 18 (HPV18) was utilised to direct tissue-specific expression in a number of cell types. Expression was examined in three cervical carcinoma cell lines: HeLa (HPV18 positive), SiHa (HPV16 positive), and C33A cells (HPV negative); the epithelial cell line, H1299; and the foetal fibroblast cell line, MRC5, utilising a luciferase expression vector.

Tryptophan metabolism to kynurenine is a potential novel contributor to hypotension in human sepsis.

Objectives: To determine whether tryptophan metabolism to kynurenine contributes to the direct regulation of vascular tone in human septic shock.

Background: Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 is an inducible enzyme that converts tryptophan to kynurenine and shares functional similarities with inducible nitric oxide synthase. Recently, kynurenine has been identified as an endothelium-derived relaxing factor produced during inflammation, raising the possibility that this novel pathway may contribute to hypotension in human sepsis.

A comparison of multiple shRNA expression methods for combinatorial RNAi.

RNAi gene therapies for HIV-1 will likely need to employ multiple shRNAs to counter resistant strains. We evaluated 3 shRNA co-expression methods to determine their suitability for present use; multiple expression vectors, multiple expression cassettes and single transcripts comprised of several dsRNA units (aka domains) with each being designed to a different target. Though the multiple vector strategy was effective with 2 shRNAs, the increasing number of vectors required is a major shortcoming.

Haemodynamic changes after delivery room surfactant administration to very low birth weight infants.

Introduction: Surfactant replacement therapy (SRT) reduces respiratory morbidity and mortality in premature infants. The goal of this study was to characterise the effects of delivery room SRT on the ductus arteriosus and early neonatal haemodynamics.

Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in preterm infants of less than 32 weeks' gestation who received SRT within 30 min of birth.

Biphasic glucocorticoid-dependent regulation of Wnt expression and its inhibitors in mature osteoblastic cells.

Glucocorticoids exert both anabolic and catabolic effects on bone. Previously, we reported that endogenous glucocorticoids control mesenchymal lineage commitment and osteoblastogenesis through regulation of Wnt signaling in osteoblasts. Here, we investigated the effects of glucocorticoids on Wnt expression in mature osteoblasts.

Glucocorticoid-dependent Wnt signaling by mature osteoblasts is a key regulator of cranial skeletal development in mice.

Glucocorticoids are important regulators of bone cell differentiation and mesenchymal lineage commitment. Using a cell-specific approach of osteoblast-targeted transgenic disruption of intracellular glucocorticoid signaling, we discovered a novel molecular pathway by which glucocorticoids, mainly through the mature osteoblast, regulate the cellular mechanisms that govern cranial skeleton development. Embryonic and neonatal transgenic mice revealed a distinct phenotype characterized by hypoplasia and osteopenia of the cranial skeleton; disorganized frontal, parietal and interparietal bones; increased suture patency; ectopic differentiation of cartilage in the sagittal suture; and disturbed postnatal removal of parietal cartilage.

Osteoblasts directly control lineage commitment of mesenchymal progenitor cells through Wnt signaling.

Lineage commitment of mesenchymal progenitor cells is still poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that Wnt signaling by osteoblasts is essential for mesenchymal progenitor cells to differentiate away from a default adipogenic into an osteoblastic lineage. Dominant adipogenesis and reduced osteoblastogenesis were observed in calvarial cell cultures from transgenic mice characterized by osteoblast-targeted disruption of glucocorticoid signaling.