Forensic perioperative nursing. Advocates for justice

Facts and evidence have been negated or lost by the inexperience of health care professionals who are not cognizant of the legal requirements concerning potential criminal cases. In the perioperative setting, policy and procedure should provide guidelines for potential criminal cases based on the key concepts and principles of forensic science. Potential forensic cases and traumatic injuries are not limited to major health care centres. All hospitals should have policies and procedures which outline: traumatic injuries/death, staff responsibilities, details of collecting evidence, documentation, chain of custody. The procedure should also include care of victims, suspected perpetrators as well as family/persons accompanying patient.     

Dietary intake and arsenic methylation in a U.S. population

Millions of people worldwide are exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water, and ingestion of inorganic arsenic (InAs) has been associated with increased risks of cancer. The primary metabolic pathway of ingested InAs is methylation to monomethyl arsenic (MMA) and dimethyl arsenic (DMA). However, people vary greatly in the degree to which they methylate InAs, and recent evidence suggests that those who excrete high proportions of ingested arsenic as MMA are more susceptible than others to arsenic-caused cancer. To date, little is known about the factors that determine interindividual differences in arsenic methylation. In this study, we assessed the effect of diet on arsenic metabolism by measuring dietary intakes and urinary arsenic methylation patterns in 87 subjects from two arsenic-exposed regions in the western United States. Subjects in the lower quartile of protein intake excreted a higher proportion of ingested InAs as MMA (14.6 vs. 11.6%; p = 0.01) and a lower proportion as DMA (72.3 vs. 77.0%; p = 0.01) than did subjects in the upper quartile of protein intake. Subjects in the lower quartile of iron, zinc, and niacin intake also had higher urinary percent MMA and lower percent DMA levels than did subjects with higher intakes of these nutrients. These associations were also seen in multivariate regression analyses adjusted for age, sex, smoking, and total urinary arsenic. Given the previously reported links between high percent MMA and increased cancer risks, these findings are consistent with the theory that people with diets deficient in protein and other nutrients are more susceptible than others to arsenic-caused cancer.     

Serine-arginine protein kinase 1 overexpression is associated with tumorigenic imbalance in mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in breast, colonic, and pancreatic carcinomas

Aberrant patterns of pre-mRNA processing are typical of human malignancies, yet the mechanisms responsible for these changes remain undefined. We have recently shown overexpression of a core splice regulatory protein, serine-arginine protein kinase 1 (SRPK1), in dysplastic and neoplastic pancreatic ductular cells. In the present study, we have established that SRPK1 levels are similarly up-regulated in breast and colonic tumors where its expression increases coordinately with tumor grade. Targeting SRPK1 for inhibition using small interfering RNA in breast and colonic tumor cell lines in vitro resulted in both increased apoptotic potential and enhanced cell killing after treatment with gemcitabine and cisplatin. Recent reports have described multifaceted interactions between the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and AKT signaling networks and the splice regulatory machinery. Consequently, we have shown that targeted inhibition of SRPK1 in tumor cells results in reduced phosphorylation of MAPK3, MAPK1, and AKT. Alterations in the splice pattern and resulting expression of MAPK kinase are implicated in mediating the antitumoral effects resulting from SRPK1 down-regulation. The up-regulation of SRPK1 in multiple cancers and its ability to regulate multiple relevant signaling pathways provide support for developing agents to inhibit this kinase for possible broad application to treat epithelial cancers.     

The prevalence of daytime napping and its relationship to nighttime sleep.

Many healthy adults report daytime napping. Surprisingly few studies, however, have examined spontaneous napping behavior, especially very short naps, in healthy adults. The authors examined the prevalence of power naps (lasting less than 20 minutes) and longer naps (20 minutes or more) and their effects on nighttime sleep in a group of healthy young and middle-aged adults. The young and middle-aged adults reported very similar sleep and napping patterns, with approximately 74% of the participants in both groups reporting they had napped during a 7-day sleep-log period. Almost half of the participants reported that the average nap lasted less than 20 minutes. A multivariant analysis of variance (MANOVA) found no significant differences between the no-nap and the power-nap or long-nap groups in sleep quantity or quality for either age group. The current data suggested that power napping occurs frequently in healthy adults and that spontaneous napping does not negatively affect nighttime sleep.