Translation,cultural adaptation and construct validity of the German version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for informal Carers (German ASCOT-Carer)

Quality of Life Research - The Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for Carers (ASCOT-Carer), developed in England, measures the effects of long-term care (LTC) services and carer support on informal...     

Asthma Knowledge, Roles, Functions, and Educational Needs of School Nurses

In October 1997, 790 school nurses in Maryland and the District of Columbia were surveyed to determine their attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs about asthma. Results for 550 (70%) nurses indicated school nurses possess a generally appropriate level of knowledge concerning asthma, and most asthma myths have been replaced with knowledge. However, school nurses also have varied responsibilities that affect their ability to provide health education and support services to children with asthma at school. Little time is available for a proactive role. Concerns about the criteria and follow-up for delegating medication administration within the school setting were reported. A lack of communication existed with parents about the child's asthma. Open communication between school nurses and the family is recommended to establish a partnership and improve asthma management outcomes. In addition, school policies and procedures should be updated to meet the demands of children with asthma.     

Effects of pyrogallol, hydroquinone and duroquinone on responses to nitrergic nerve stimulation and NO in the rat anococcygeus muscle

1. The hypothesis that endogenous superoxide dismutase (SOD) protects the nitrergic transmitter from inactivation by superoxide and that this explains the lack of sensitivity of the transmitter to superoxide generators was tested in the rat isolated anococcygeus muscle. 2. Responses to nitrergic nerve stimulation or to NO were not significantly affected by exogenous SOD or by the Cu/Zn SOD inhibitor diethyldithiocarbamic acid (DETCA). 3. Hydroquinone produced a concentration-dependent reduction of responses to NO with an IC50 of 27 microM, and higher concentrations reduced relaxant responses to nitrergic nerve stimulation with an IC50 of 612 microM. The effects of hydroquinone were only slightly reversed by SOD, so it does not appear to be acting as a superoxide generator. 4. Pyrogallol produced a concentration-dependent reduction in responses to NO with an IC50 value of 39 microM and this effect was reversed by SOD (100-1000 u ml(-1)). Pyrogallol did not affect responses to nitrergic nerve stimulation. Treatment with DETCA did not alter the differentiating action of pyrogallol. 5. Duroquinone produced a concentration-dependent reduction of relaxations to NO with an IC50 value of 240 microM and 100 microM slightly decreased nitrergic relaxations. After treatment with DETCA, duroquinone produced greater reductions of relaxant responses to NO and to nitrergic stimulation, the IC50 values being 8.5 microM for NO and 40 microM for nitrergic nerve stimulation: these reductions were reversed by SOD. 6. The findings do not support the hypothesis that the presence of Cu/Zn SOD explains the greater susceptibility of NO than the nitrergic transmitter to the superoxide generator pyrogallol, but suggest that it may play a role in the effects of duroquinone.     

Using neural networks to diagnose cancer

While artificial brains are in the realm of science fiction, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are scientific facts. An artificial neural network is a computational structure modeled somewhat on the neural structure of the brain; both have many highly interconnected processing elements. These biologically inspired processing elements are taught by feeding examples until the results are acceptable. In the past 5 years, neural networks have become successful in providing meaningful second opinions in clinical diagnosis. In our research, a prototype artificial neural network was trained on numeral ultrasound data of 52 actual cases and then correctly identified renal cell carcinoma from renal cysts and other conditions without diagnostic errors. Our nonlinear artificial neural network was trained on software using the standard backpropagation paradigm on a 80386 microcomputer. Our ANN learned from ultrasound data in 52 cases (17 malignant, 30 cysts, and 5 other) at a Memphis hospital. The trained prototype performed without error on 47 cases which were not in the data used for training. This prototype must be validated by extending this study to more cases.     

Mononucleosis syndrome and coincidental human herpesvirus-7 and Epstein-Barr virus infection

Two girls (a 5 year old and a 21 month old) experiencing mononucleosis syndrome with coincidental human herpesvirus (HHV)-7 and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infections are described. One patient had primary HHV-7 infection and reactivated EBV infection. The other had primary HHV-7 and EBV infections. These cases indicated that HHV-7 is capable of inducing infectious mononucleosis-like illness. Multiple herpesvirus infection in one of the patients also suggests that interaction among herpesviruses can occur in vivo. The consequence of this interaction may have clinical implications.     

The Third World Integrative Medicine Congress Abstracts (Excerption)

The 3rd World Integrative Medicine Congress (3rd WIMCO) was held on September 22-24, 2007 in Guangzhou, China. The Congress has showed the academic achievements of integrative medicine in the recent five years covering a wide range of fields, such as basic and experimental research; clinical research; theory, education and management research; new drug research and development; and application of evidence-based medicine.