Nursing management of intracranial hypertension in adults with severe brain injury in a neurosurgery intensive care unit: a best practice implementation project.

INTRODUCTION: The nursing management of intracranial hypertension in adult patients with severe brain injury is crucial for maintaining the stability of intracranial pressure, which ultimately improves patient outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This project aimed to implement evidence-based practices for the nursing management of intracranial hypertension in adult patients with severe brain injury. METHODS: This evidence implementation project was conducted in a neurosurgery intensive care unit in a large tertiary hospital in Guangzhou, China. The project was guided by the JBI Evidence Implementation Framework, which is an audit and feedback model with seven stages. The Ottawa Model of Research Use was used to identify barriers and facilitators to best practices and to develop improvement strategies. RESULTS: Thirty-three nurses and 50 patients with severe brain injury participated in the baseline and follow-up audits. After project implementation, follow-up audits revealed significantly improved compliance with best practices compared with baseline. Nurses' awareness of best practices increased (41% to 96%); nursing assessment, monitoring, and interventions related to intracranial hypertension rose significantly (from 82%, 75%, and 59% to 98%, 84%, and 87%, respectively); and patients' optic nerve sheath diameter was notably lower (6.002±0.677 mm to 5.698±0.730 mm). CONCLUSIONS: The systematic integration of consistent training and education, together with the refinement of care processes and the creation of relevant tools, led to a significant improvement in awareness and adherence to best practices. Further testing of this program in more hospitals is needed. SPANISH ABSTRACT: http://links.lww.com/IJEBH/A243.

Characterization and application of Bacillus velezensis D6 co-producing α-amylase and protease.

BACKGROUND: Research on the co-production of multiple enzymes by Bacillus velezensis as a novel species is still a topic that needs to be studied. This study aimed to investigate the fermentation characteristics of B. velezensis D6 co-producing α-amylase and protease and to explore their enzymatic properties and applications in fermentation. RESULTS: The maximum co-production of α-amylase and protease reached 13.13 ± 0.72 and 2106.63 ± 64.42 U mL-1, respectively, under the optimal fermented conditions (nutrients: 20.0 g L-1 urea, 20.0 g L-1 glucose, 0.7 g L-1 MnCl2; incubation conditions: initial pH 7.0, temperature 41 °C, 8% inoculation size and 30% working volume). Moreover, the genetic co-expression of α-amylase and protease increased from 0 to 24 h and then decreased after 36 h at the transcriptional level, which coincided with the growth trend of B. velezensis D6. The optimal reaction temperature of α-amylase was 55-60 °C, while that of protease was 35-40 °C. The activities of α-amylase and protease were retained by over 80% after thermal treatment (90 °C, 1 h), which indicated that two enzymes co-produced by B. velezensis D6 demonstrated excellent thermal stability. Moreover, the two enzymes were stable over a wide pH range (pH 4.0-8.0 for α-amylase; pH 4.0-9.0 for protease). Finally, the degrees of hydrolysis of corn, rice, sorghum and soybeans by α-amylase from B. velezensis D6 reached 44.95 ± 2.95%, 57.16 ± 2.75%, 52.53 ± 4.01% and 20.53 ± 2.42%, respectively, suggesting an excellent hydrolysis effect on starchy raw materials. The hydrolysis degrees of mackerel heads and soybeans by protease were 43.93 ± 2.19% and 26.38 ± 1.72%, respectively, which suggested that the protease from B. velezensis D6 preferentially hydrolyzed animal-based protein. CONCLUSION: This is a systematic study on the co-production of α-amylase and protease by B. velezensis D6, which is crucial in widening the understanding of this species co-producing multi-enzymes and in exploring its potential application. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Investigation of bioactive compounds and their correlation with the antioxidant capacity in different functional vinegars.

There are complex and diverse substances in traditional vinegars, some of which have been identified as biologically active factors, but the variety of functional compounds is currently restricted. In this study, it was aimed to determine the bioactive compounds in 10 typical functional vinegars. The findings shown that total flavonoids (0.21-7.19 mg rutin equivalent/mL), total phenolics (0.36-3.20 mg gallic acid equivalent/mL), and antioxidant activities (DPPH: 3.17-47.63 mmol trolox equivalent/L, ABTS: 6.85-178.29 mmol trolox equivalent/L) varied among different functional vinegars. In addition, the concentrations of the polysaccharides (1.17-44.87 mg glucose equivalent/mL) and total saponins (0.67-12.46 mg oleanic acid equivalent/mL) were determined, which might play key role for the function of tested vinegars. A total of 8 organic acids, 7 polyphenol compounds and 124 volatile compounds were measured and tentatively identified. The protocatechuic acid (4.81-485.72 mg/L), chlorogenic acid (2.69-7.52 mg/L), and epicatechin (1.18-97.42 mg/L) were important polyphenol compounds in the functional vinegars. Redundancy analysis indicated that tartaric acid, oxalic acid and chlorogenic acid were significantly positively correlated with antioxidant capacity. Various physiologically active ingredients including cyclo (Pro-Leu), cyclo (Phe-Pro), cyclo (Phe-Val), cyclo (Pro-Val), 1-monopalmitin and 1-eicosanol were firstly detected in functional vinegars. Principle component analysis revealed that volatiles profile of bergamot Monascus aromatic vinegar and Hengshun honey vinegar exhibited distinctive differences from other eight vinegar samples. Moreover, the partial least squares regression analysis demonstrated that 11 volatile compounds were positively correlated with the antioxidant activity of vinegars, which suggested these compounds might be important functional substances in tested vinegars. This study explored several new functionally active compounds in different functional vinegars, which could widen the knowledge of bioactive factor in vinegars and provide new ideas for further development of functional vinegar beverages.

Kappa-carrageenan oligosaccharides retard the progression of protein and lipid oxidation in mackerel (Scomber japonicus) fillets during frozen storage.

The antioxidative effects of κ-carrageenan oligosaccharides (CO) on the stability of proteins and lipids in mackerel fillets were determined during frozen storage. Electronic nose analysis indicated that CO treatments maintained the stability of the overall volatile flavor profiles in frozen mackerel. Protein oxidation analysis suggested that the incorporation of CO significantly retarded the rapid decrease of Ca2+-ATPase activity and active sulphydryl (A-SH) contents while also effectively inhibiting the increases in carbonyl content and surface hydrophobicity of myofibrillar proteins (MPs) compared to the control treatments. Lipid stability results showed that the peroxide values (PVs), conjugated diene (CD) content, anisidine values (AVs), and thiobarbituric acid index (TBA-i) values of the extracted lipids were also clearly reduced by CO treatments during frozen storage. Fatty acid composition determinations further confirmed that the permeated CO molecules stabilized the polyunsaturated C22:6n3 (DHA) in the lipids, most likely due to their efficient free radical scavenging activities.

Hyperoside protects human primary melanocytes against H2O2-induced oxidative damage.

Cuscutae semen has been shown to have beneficial effects in the treatment of vitiligo, recorded in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, whereas the effects of its constituent compounds remains to be elucidated. Using a tetrazolium bromide assay, the present study found that hyperoside (0.5­200 µg/ml) significantly increased the viability of human melanocytes in a time­ and dose­dependent manner. The present study used a cell model of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)­induced oxidative damage to examine the effect of hyperoside on human primary melanocytes. The results demonstrated that hyperoside pretreatment for 2 h decreased cell apoptosis from 54.03±9.11 to 17.46±3.10% in the H2O2­injured melanocytes. The levels of oxidative stress in the mitochondrial membrane potential of the melanocytes increased following hyperoside pretreatment. The mRNA and protein levels of B­cell lymphoma­2/Bcl­2­associated X protein and caspase 3 were regulated by hyperoside, and phosphoinositide 3­kinase/AKT and mitogen­activated protein kinase signaling were also mediated by hyperoside. In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that hyperoside protected the human primary melanocytes against oxidative damage.

Progressive symmetric erythrokeratoderma: report of a Chinese family.

A large pedigree of progressive symmetric erythrokeratoderma is reported. The proband was a 22-year-old male with generalized asymptomatic lesions characterized by symmetrical well-demarcated erythematous hyperkeratotic plaques mainly distributed on the extremities. The proband's parents were also affected, and they were first cousins. Thus, a case of familial progressive symmetric erythrokeratoderma is described.

Comparison of the starch synthesis genes between maize and rice: copies, chromosome location and expression divergence.

Gene duplication and divergence are important evolutionary processes. It has been suggested that a whole genome duplication (WGD) event occurred in the Gramineae, predating its divergence, and a second WGD occurred in maize during its evolution. In this study we compared the fate of the genes involved in the core pathway of starch biosynthesis following the ancient and second WGDs in maize and rice. In total, thirty starch synthesis genes were detected in the maize genome, which covered all the starch synthesis gene families encoded by 27 genes in rice. All of these genes, except ZmGBSSIIb and ZmBEIII, are anchored within large-scale synteny blocks of rice and maize chromosomes. Previous findings and our results indicate that two of the current copies of many starch synthesis genes (including AGPL, AGPS, GBSS, SSII, SSIII, and BEII) probably arose from the ancient WGD in the Gramineae and are still present in the maize and rice genome. Furthermore, two copies of at least six genes (AGPS1, SSIIb, SSIIIb, GBSSII, BEI, and ISA3) appear to have been retained in the maize genome after its second WGD, although complete coding regions were only detected among the duplicate sets of AGPS1, SSIIb, and SSIIIb. The expression patterns of the remaining duplicate sets of starch synthesis genes (AGPL1/2, AGPS1/2, SSIIa/b, SSIIIa/b, GBSSI/II, and BEIIa/b) differ in their expression and could be classified into two groups in maize. The first group is mainly expressed in the endosperm, whereas the second is expressed in other organs and the early endosperm development. The four duplicate sets of ZmGBSSII, ZmSSIIb, ZmSSIIIb and AGPS1, which arose from the second WGD diverged in gene structure and/or expression patterns in maize. These results indicated that some duplicated starch synthesis genes were remained, whereas others diverged in gene structure and/or expression pattern in maize. For most of the duplicated genes, one of the copies has disappeared in the maize genome after the WGD and the subsequent "diploidization".