Naresuan University Journal
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Ground Truth for Diffusion MRI in Cancer: A Model-Based Investigation of a Novel Tissue-Mimetic Material
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Examining the attitudes of hospital pharmacists to reporting medication safety incidents using the theory of planned behaviour.
No full textOBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of factors within hospital pharmacists' practice on the likelihood of their reporting a medication safety incident. DESIGN: Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) survey. SETTING: Twenty-one general and teaching hospitals in the North West of England. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred and seventy hospital pharmacists (response rate = 45%). INTERVENTION: Hospital pharmacists were invited to complete a TPB survey, based on a prescribing error scenario that had resulted in serious patient harm. Multiple regression was used to determine the relative influence of different TPB variables, and participant demographics, on the pharmacists' self-reported intention to report the medication safety incident. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The TPB variables predicting intention to report: attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and descriptive norm. RESULTS: Overall, the hospital pharmacists held strong intentions to report the error, with senior pharmacists being more likely to report. Perceived behavioural control (ease or difficulty of reporting), Descriptive Norms (belief that other pharmacists would report) and Attitudes towards Behaviour (expected benefits of reporting) showed good correlation with, and were statistically significant predictors of, intention to report the error [R = 0.568, R(2) = 0.323, adjusted R(2) = 0.293, P <0.001]. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that efforts to improve medication safety incident reporting by hospital pharmacists should focus on their behavioural and control beliefs about the reporting process. This should include instilling greater confidence about the benefits of reporting and not harming professional relationships with doctors, greater clarity about what/not to report and a simpler reporting system
Elastin-derived peptides stimulate trophoblast migration and invasion: a positive feedback loop to enhance spiral artery remodelling.
No full textElastin breakdown in the walls of uterine spiral arteries during early pregnancy facilitates their transformation into dilated, high-flow, low-resistance channels. Elastin-derived peptides (EDP) can influence cell migration, invasion and protease activity, and so we hypothesized that EDP released during elastolysis promote extravillous trophoblast (EVT) invasion and further elastin breakdown. Treatment of the trophoblast cell line SGHPL4 with the elastin-derived matrikine VGVAPG (1 μg/ml) significantly increased total elastase activity, promoted migration in a wound healing assay and increased invasion through Matrigel-coated transwells compared with vehicle control (0.1% DMSO) or the scrambled sequence VVGPGA. Furthermore, treatment of first-trimester placental villous explants with this EDP significantly increased both the area of trophoblast outgrowth and distance of migration away from the villous tips. Primary first-trimester cytotrophoblast exposed to VGVAPG (1 μg/ml) for 30 min showed increased phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and activation of the mitogen activated protein kinase pathway, events also associated with tumour cell migration and invasion. These in vitro observations suggest liberation of bioactive EDP during induction of elastolysis in the uterine spiral arteries may orchestrate a positive feedback loop that promotes EVT invasion and further elastin breakdown, contributing to the process of vascular remodelling
Advanced source apportionment of size-resolved trace elements at multiple sites in London during winter
No full textControlled aggregation of quantum dot dispersions by added amine bilinkers and effects on hybrid polymer film properties
No full textNovel utilisation of a circular multi-reflection cell applied to materials ageing experiments
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Complementing the sugar code: role of GAGs and sialic acid in complement regulation
No full textSugar molecules play a vital role on both microbial and mammalian cells, where they are involved in cellular communication, govern microbial virulence and modulate host immunity and inflammatory responses. The complement cascade, as part of a host’s innate immune system, is a potent weapon against invading bacteria but has to be tightly regulated to prevent inappropriate attack and damage to host tissues. A number of complement regulators, such as factor H and properdin, interact with sugar molecules, such as glycosaminoglycans and sialic acid, on host and pathogen membranes and direct the appropriate complement response by either promoting the binding of complement activators or inhibitors. The binding of these complement regulators to sugar molecules can vary from location to location, due to their different specificities and because distinct structural and functional subpopulations of sugars are found in different human organs, such as the brain, kidney and eye. This review will cover recent studies that have provided important new insights into the role of glycosaminoglycans and sialic acid in complement regulation and how sugar recognition may be compromised in diseas