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Biomedical subjects

S Ahern

Publications and source records attributed to S Ahern.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Anaesthetic specialist registrars in Ireland: current teaching practices and perceptions of their role as undergraduate teachers.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Teaching is an important responsibility of non-consultant hospital doctors. In Ireland, specialist registrars (SpRs) in anaesthesia are contractually obliged to teach medical students, other doctors and nurses. Both medical students and fellow non-consultant hospital doctors attribute between 30 and 40% of their knowledge gain to non-consultant hospital doctors. METHODS: We carried out a confidential telephone survey of anaesthetic SpRs in Ireland regarding their current teaching practices and the perceptions of their role as undergraduate teachers. All the SpRs currently working in clinical practice in Ireland were eligible. RESULTS: Fifty-five of the 79 (70%) SpRs responded to the questionnaire. Only 7 (12.7%) of the respondents said they had been well trained as a teacher. The majority of the respondents stated that they would attend a learning-to-teach course/workshop if one was available, and felt that such a course would improve their ability as a teacher. Only 8 (14.5%) agreed that adequate emphasis is placed on commitment to teaching in the assessment of SpRs, both by individual departments and by the College of Anaesthetists. Anaesthetic SpRs in Ireland spend a considerable amount of time each day teaching undergraduate medical students, the majority (68.9%) stated that they had inadequate time to prepare for teaching. CONCLUSION: The majority of the respondents stated that they enjoy teaching, feel that they play an important role in undergraduate teaching but have inadequate time to prepare for teaching. An adequate emphasis is not placed on their commitment to teaching.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

[Are academic radiologists evaluating the professional ethics of their residents?].

PURPOSE: Ethics is a challenging topic to teach and calls for competencies complex to pin point. Nevertheless, evaluation of ethics is a milestone on the way to autonomous medical practice. Our objectives were 1; To describe the "hidden knowledge" of academic radiologists evaluating the ethics of their residents; 2; To look for common denominators by comparing the evaluative practice of academic radiologists from France and Quebec. METHOD: 8 academic radiologists were interviewed on a critical episode of ethics evaluation of residents. The 8 transcripts were coded then co-coded using a USA reference from the radiology literature. RESULTS: 8/8 radiologists referred to 8 common issues of ethics, 7/8 shared an extra one, related to the teaching setting and 3/8 added the specific issue of consent to radiological procedure. CONCLUSION: The same ethical issues are shared by radiologists working in USA, France and Quebec. There are great similarities in evaluating ethics of residents among academic radiologists from France and Quebec, the diffusion of which being potentially useful to medical ethics training.

Ethics, Medical↗
PubMed1998

H pylori infection is associated with downregulation of E-cadherin, a molecule involved in epithelial cell adhesion and proliferation control.

Extracellular matrix proteins and proteins involved in epithelial adhesion are essential for maintenance of tissue structure. Helicobacter pylori is the major aetiological agent in peptic ulcer disease and has been shown to increase gastric cancer risk up to ninefold. In this study, changes induced by H pylori on the expression of extracellular matrix proteins (collagen IV, fibronectin, and laminin) as well as two essential proteins for cell-basement and cell-cell adhesion (alpha 6-integrin and E-cadherin) were assessed. Immunohistochemistry was performed in antral biopsy sections obtained from infected and non-infected patients, and light microscopy was used to determine the distribution and intensity of specific staining. The results showed that the infection was significantly associated with downregulation of E-cadherin, an essential protein for maintenance of solid tissues and differentiation, but did not induce changes in the expression of alpha 6-integrin or the extracellular matrix proteins.

Cadherins↗
PubMed1996

Changes in the carboxyl-terminal domain of metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 by alternative splicing generate receptors with differing agonist-independent activity.

The metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) share no sequence homology and show different structural features compared with most other G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). In particular, some isoforms of the phospholipase C (PLC)-coupled mGluRs (mGluR1a, mGluR5a, and mGluR5b) have a surprisingly long carboxyl-terminal intracellular domain of more than 350 residues, whereas the splice variants mGluR1b and mGluR1c have a much shorter carboxyl terminus. In the current study, the different splice variants of mGluR1 were expressed in porcine kidney epithelial (LLC-PK1) or the human embryonic kidney (HEK 293) cells, and their levels of expression were examined with the use of Western blot analysis. Expression of the short isoforms mGluR1b and mGluR1c did not modify the basal inositol phosphate production. In contrast, expression to similar levels of mGluR1a resulted in a 2-fold increase in the basal inositol phosphate formation. This increase in basal PLC activity was due to neither the presence of a low concentration of glutamate in the incubation medium nor a modification of the PLC pathway, resulting, for example, from the constant activation of mGluR1a++ by glutamate during the culture. Surprisingly none of the known competitive antagonists of mGluR1 inhibited the basal PLC activity, indicating that none of these molecules act as inverse agonists. Taken together, these results indicate that the long carboxyl-terminal domain confers a small agonist-independent activity to mGluR1. This indicates that, as already observed for other GPCRs, little constitutive activity of wild-type mGluRs can be detected. Our results also add to the splice variants and further suggest that the long carboxyl-terminal domain of mGluR1a confers better coupling efficiency to the G proteins.

Alternative Splicing↗
PubMed1995

Clean intermittent catheterization: safe, cost-effective bladder management for male residents of VA nursing homes.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the safety and cost of clean versus sterile intermittent bladder catheterization in male nursing home residents. To provide evidence to support the hypothesis that intermittent catheterization is a valid, alternative method of bladder management in male residents of long-term care in whom urinary retention is a documented problem. DESIGN: Randomized clinical trial. SETTING: Three long-term care sites having predominantly male populations. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty male veterans, residents of three long-term care facilities, ranging in age from 36 to 96 years with a mean age of 72. INTERVENTIONS: Standardized procedures for clean and sterile intermittent catheterization (IC) were implemented by staff nurses at each site. Patients were randomized into clean and sterile IC groups. Nursing time and catheterization equipment usage were recorded using bar code readers. Clinical data were collected from the medical chart. Treatment of urinary tract infection was prescribed by the medical personnel responsible for each individual resident. MEASUREMENTS: We compared the number of treatment episodes for symptomatic bacteriuria between groups randomized to receive either clean or sterile intermittent catheterization. Laboratory analysis of blood and urine was done on predetermined days. Control variables were research site and patient history of urinary tract infection within the last 6 months. A cost comparison of nursing time and equipment usage for the two catheterization techniques was also performed. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between clean and sterile groups with regard to number of treatment episodes, time to first infection, type of organism cultured, or cost of antibiotic treatment. The cost of sterile technique was considerably higher both in terms of nursing time and supplies. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study demonstrate that clean technique intermittent catheterization is a safe and cost-effective bladder management technique with male, nursing home residents, despite the frailty of this high risk population. An annual savings of approximately $1460 per patient in nursing time and catheterization supplies could be anticipated if a patient were catheterized an average of four times per day substituting clean IC technique for sterile IC technique.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Complex health problems. Clinically assessing self-management abilities.

Assessment of self-care abilities by staff nurses is critical to planning post-hospitalization care. Assessment instruments must be comprehensive and yet usable by busy nurses. Orem's three categories of self-care deficits (universal, developmental, and therapeutic) provided a basis for the development of a Self-Management Inventory.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

Insulin-stimulated translocation of the HepG2/erythrocyte-type glucose transporter expressed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.

Insulin stimulates glucose transport into adipocytes, at least in part, via the translocation of intracellular transporters to the plasma membrane. The human HepG2-type transporter, which is not insulin-responsive in its native cell type, was expressed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by infection with recombinant retrovirus harboring the HepG2 transporter cDNA in order to determine whether glucose transporter translocation in adipocytes is restricted to a distinct insulin-sensitive transporter species. The distributions of the endogenous murine and the HepG2 transporters were estimated by quantitative immunoblot analysis of subcellular fractions probed with either a monoclonal antibody that recognized only the human transporter or a polyclonal antibody that recognized both transporter species. In the basal state, the intracellular membrane fraction comprised approximately 50% of the total of each transporter type. Insulin decreased the content of both transporter species in the intracellular membranes by approximately 50% and increased the plasma membrane content of both species by approximately 1.5-2-fold. The similar insulin-mediated increase in the plasma membrane content of endogenous murine and HepG2 glucose transporters was verified by labeling of cell surface glycoproteins with [3H]NaBH4 followed by immunoprecipitation with glucose transporter antibodies. These data indicate that insulin-mediated translocation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes is not restricted to a tissue-specific insulin-responsive glucose transporter species and suggest that other tissue-specific factors regulate the translocation process.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1988

Identification of a protein from rat liver cytosol that enhances activation of the glucocorticoid receptor.

We have identified a factor from rat liver cytosol that enhances the DNA-cellulose-binding ability of the glucocorticoid receptor and lowers the sedimentation value from 9-10 S to 4-5 S. Cytosol is prepared in the presence of molybdate, and unactivated receptor is isolated by chromatography on DEAE-cellulose in the presence of molybdate. This receptor sediments at 9-10 S and has little affinity for DNA. If the molybdate is removed and the receptor is incubated at 25 degrees C with the low-salt wash of the DEAE-cellulose column, DNA binding is enhanced by 50-600% relative to controls incubated with buffer only. In addition, the factor present in the low-salt wash converts the 9-10 S receptor into a mixture of 5 S and 4 S forms. The factor must be present during the incubation in order to exert its maximal effect. Factor added after the incubation has only marginal effects on the DNA-binding ability of the receptor, indicating that the factor does not increase the DNA-binding ability of activated receptor. Moreover, the factor is significantly less effective on receptor that has been activated before incubation with the factor. These results suggest that the factor acts as an activation enhancer. Preliminary characterization indicates that the activation enhancer is a trypsin-sensitive protein of approx. 70,000 Da, whose activation-enhancing properties are inhibited by ATP. RNAase A, which has effects similar to those described above on the 7-8 S receptor, does not mimic the effects of the activation enhancer on the 9-10 S receptor.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1988

Isolation of ribonucleic acid from the unactivated rat liver glucocorticoid receptor.

We have reported that the 7-8S form of the rat liver glucocorticoid receptor is associated with RNA. Whether the unactivated 9-10S form of the glucorticoid receptor is also associated with RNA is less clear. Here we provide evidence that the unactivated 9-10S receptor is indeed associated with RNA. Unactivated 9-10S receptor was partially purified by diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-cellulose chromatography in the presence of molybdate, an activation inhibitor. This preparation was then bound to BuGR-2, a mouse monoclonal antibody of the immunoglobulin G (IgG)-2 class to the rat liver glucocorticoid receptor, or to nonspecific mouse IgG-2. The antibody-antigen complex was then bound to protein A sepharose and washed to remove extraneous RNA. When the receptor was dissociated from the antibody and the RNA extracted and end-labeled, a distinct band of approximately 170 nucleotide (nt) was found that was specific for the BuGR-2 purified receptor. This band could also be found in DEAE-cellulose receptor that had been isolated from sucrose gradients. The DEAE-cellulose receptor was then cross-linked with formaldehyde before mixing with BuGR-2 in order to permit more vigorous washing of the antigen-antibody complex. In addition to the 170 nt RNA band, another distinct band at approximately 400 nt was seen that was specific to the BuGR-2 derived isolate. These results provide evidence that the 9-10S form of the glucocorticoid receptor from rat liver is associated with RNA.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Pupillary responses during information processing vary with Scholastic Aptitude Test scores.

The magnitude of task-evoked pupillary dilations during mental activity has previously been shown to index the cognitive capacity utilized in the performance of the mental task. To determine the relation between "intelligence" and capacity demands during mental activity, task-evoked pupillary dilations were measured while two groups of university students differing in their scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test solved mental arithmetic problems. Over three levels of problems difficulty, more intelligent subjects showed smaller task-evoked pupillary dilations than did their less intelligent counterparts. Thus, the more intelligent appear to possess more efficient cognitive structures of information processing. These data provide evidence that physiological differences between individuals of differing psychometric intelligence emerge during mental activity.

Adult↗