Competence of clinical teachers: A survey on perception of masters of nursing specialist postgraduates, their clinical teachers, and head nurses.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the current admittance situation of clinical teachers for masters of nursing specialist (MNS) postgraduates and to test the competence of clinical teachers in self-evaluation and other evaluations. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, using a random number table, we chose 80 MNS postgraduates under clinical practice, their clinical teachers, and head nurses each from six hospitals in Hunan and Guangdong. The participants were tested on the basis of the Clinical Teachers' Competence Inventory of MNS Postgraduates. The competences of clinical teachers were evaluated by the three groups of participants. RESULTS: The aggregated scores of teacher competence as evaluated by the MNS postgraduates (181.33 ± 24.95) were lower than those assigned by both clinical teachers (190.75 ± 24.30) and their head nurses (198.53 ± 18.90), with significant differences in all dimensions except for clinical managing ability. The five highest rated items from all participants focused on the teachers' clinical nursing ability, and the five lowest rated items were mainly about their clinical research ability. CONCLUSION: The evaluation from MNS postgraduates is obviously lower than the self-evaluation of clinical teachers, and all participants are aware of the deficiency in research ability of the teachers. Thus, the admittance and examination of clinical teachers should be controlled strictly. Training should be carried out immediately to strengthen their comprehensive abilities, especially their research ability.

Histamine up-regulates astrocytic glutamate transporter 1 and protects neurons against ischemic injury.

Astrocytic glutamate transporter 1 (GLT-1) is responsible for the majority of extracellular glutamate clearance and is essential for preventing excitotoxicity in the brain. Up-regulation of GLT-1 shows benefit effect on ischemia-induced neuronal damage. In present study, we examined the effect of histamine, a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator, on GLT-1 expression and function. In acute hippocampal slices, histamine selectively increased GLT-1 expression independent of neuronal activities. Similar up-regulation of GLT-1 was also observed after histamine treatment in pure cultured astrocytes, which was abolished by H1 receptor antagonist or PKC inhibitor. Cell surface biotinylation and whole-cell patch recordings of glutamate transporter current confirmed the up-regulation of functional GLT-1 following histamine exposure. Histamine treatment decreased the extracellular glutamate content and alleviated neuronal cell death induced by exogenous glutamate challenge. Moreover, we found a significant neuroprotective effect of histamine in brain slices after oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD). In addition, histidine, the precursor of histamine, also showed neuroprotection against ischemic injury, which was accompanied by reversion of declined expression of GLT-1 in adult rats subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). These neuroprotective effects of histamine/histidine were blocked by GLT-1 specific inhibitor dihydrokainate or H1 receptor antagonist. In summary, our results suggest that histamine up-regulates GLT-1 expression and function via astrocytic H1 receptors, thus resulting in neuroprotection against excitotoxicity and ischemic injury.

Modulation of astrocytic glutamine synthetase expression and cell viability by histamine in cultured cortical astrocytes exposed to OGD insults.

Histamine, a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator has been demonstrated to be neuroprotective in cerebral ischemia. However, few reports concern its function on astrocytes during cerebral ischemia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of histamine on astrocytic cell damage and glutamate signaling, especially on glutamine synthetase (GS) expression in primary cultured cortical astrocytes exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) insult. OGD for 6h caused a severe damage of astrocytic mitochondrial function, and decreased GS expression and then increased the extracellular glutamate level. Pretreatment with histamine significantly prevented the cell damage and rescued the expression of GS in a concentration-dependent manner. The protective effect of histamine on astrocytic cell damage could be partly reversed either by H1 receptor antagonist pyrilamine or H2 receptor antagonist cimetidine. However, the regulatory effect of histamine on GS expression was antagonized only by pyrilamine. In addition, bisindolylmaleimide II, a broad-spectrum inhibitor of PKC, reversed the regulatory action of histamine on GS expression. These results indicate that histamine can effectively protect against OGD-induced cell damage in astrocytes through H1 and H2 receptors, and its regulatory effect on astrocytic GS expression may be due to the activation of H1 receptor and PKC pathway. Histamine may be an endogenous protective factor and calls for its further study as a regulator of astrocyte function during ischemic stroke.

Transient lack of glucose but not O2 is involved in ischemic postconditioning-induced neuroprotection.

AIM: Cerebral ischemic postconditioning has emerged recently as a kind of endogenous strategy for neuroprotection. We set out to test whether hypoxia or glucose deprivation (GD) would substitute for ischemia in postconditioning. METHODS: Adult male C57BL/6J mice were treated with postconditioning evoked by ischemia (bilateral common carotid arteries occlusion) or hypoxia (8% O(2) ) after 45-min middle cerebral arterial occlusion. Corticostriatal slices from mice were subjected to 1-min oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD), GD, or oxygen deprivation (OD) postconditioning at 5 min after 15-min OGD. RESULTS: Hypoxic postconditioning did not decrease infarct volume or improve neurologic function at 24 h after reperfusion, while ischemic postconditioning did. Similarly, OGD and GD but not OD postconditioning attenuated the OGD/reperfusion-induced injury in corticostriatal slices. The effective duration of low-glucose (1 mmol/L) postconditioning was longer than that of OGD postconditioning. Moreover, OGD and GD but not OD postconditioning reversed the changes of glutamate, GABA, glutamate transporter-1 protein expression, and glutamine synthetase activity induced by OGD/reperfusion. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the transient lack of glucose but not oxygen plays a key role in ischemic postconditioning-induced neuroprotection, at least partly by regulating glutamate metabolism. Low-glucose postconditioning might be a clinically safe and feasible therapeutic approach against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Acidic preconditioning protects against ischemia-induced brain injury.

Ischemic preconditioning protects against cerebral ischemia. Recent investigations indicated that acidic preconditioning (APC) protects against ischemia-induced cardiomyocytes injury. However, it is not clear whether APC can protect against cerebral ischemia. To address this issue, C57BL/6 mice were exposed 3 times at 10-min intervals to a normoxic atmosphere containing 20% CO(2) for 5 min before being further subjected to bilateral common carotid artery occlusion. APC reversed the ischemia-induced brain injury as revealed by improved performance in passive avoidance experiments and decreased neuron loss in the hippocampal CA1 region. Consistently, both APC-treated brain slices and primary cultured neurons were more resistant to oxygen-glucose-deprivation (OGD)-induced injury, in a pH- and time-dependent manner, as revealed by reversed cell/tissue viability. In addition, the APC treatment prevented OGD-induced mitochondrial transmembrane potential loss and apoptosis, which was inhibited by the mitochondrial permeability transport pore opener atractyloside. Taken together, these findings indicated that APC protects against ischemia-induced neuronal injury. The beneficial effects may be attributed, at least in part, to decreased mitochondria-dependent neuronal apoptosis.

[Characteristics and diversity of a microbial community decomposing wheat straw under aerobic conditions].

A microbial community with the stable ability of effectively decomposing wheat stalks was constructed at room temperature under aerobic conditions by the method of restricted cultivation. The degradation ability of the microbial community shows that when performed in 100 mL improved CMC liquid medium, the depth and diamerer of the fluid level were 2 cm and 9 cm, it kept higher degradation efficiency with capability of decomposing straws of 66.1% during the initial six days. By the tenth day of decomposition, the degradation ratio was slowly up to 77.0%. Analysis of the components of wheat stalk (1.86 g) showed that the cellulose lost 0.78 g, hemicellulose lost 0.16 g and lignin lost 0.24 g. The composition diversity of the microbial community shows that 13 genera of microorganisms were identified by the technologies of clone library and isolation of pure strain. The results indicated that the dominate genera were Hydrogenophaga, Pseudomonas, Bacteroides and Clostridium taking up 78% in one hundred of positive clones. Phylogenetic dendrogram indicates that the relations among clones and isolated strains and their closest relatives presented certain distances; both Isolated 7 (FJ439527) and Clone 86 (EU834839) were closely related to Pseudomonas xiamenensis.

[Screening and characteristics of normal temperature lignocellulose-degradation microbial community].

A normal temperature lignocellulose-degrading microflora has been constructed by our laboratory. We researched the degradation activity and compose of the community in 28 degrees C fermentation condition. The results showed that the microbial community could degrade 39.6% of rice stew gross weight within five days.The volatile products were detected using CP-Chirasil-Dex CB capillary column by GC-MS, propionic acid, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, 4-amino-1-butanol, butanoic acid, diethoxydimethyl-silane, lactic acid, ethanol,2,2'-oxybis-, diethyl phthalate and glycerin,more than 10 kinds of volatile products were detected. The state volatile products of changed largely along with the process of decompose, the productions gradually increase, and the content changes much with the process of decompose. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) detected the dynamic change of bacterium compose, the bacterium changes much in different period,the result of Blast from 16S rDNA sequence was found that the closest relative in community belong to Clostridium sp., Brevibacillus sp., Rhizobium sp., Bacterium sp. four genera.

[Composition diversity of the multifunctional bacterium community NSC-7].

The NSC-7 microbial community could decompose cellulose and lindan with high efficiency. In order to determine the bacterial composition of the community, 11 isolate strains were detected by plate isolation, while a community reset by the 11 isolate strains lost the capacity of degrading cellulose. The capacity of degrading of the filter paper in double deck plate and monolayer plate were determined, only the filter paper in double deck plate were degraded, that means the main or key microbe are anaerobic. The denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and construction of 16S rDNA clone library were used to identify the composition diversity of NSC-7 community. 195 clones and 25 strains were detected in clone library, and about 60% closest relative among them was known the detailed information which were belonged to Clostridium, Petrobacter, Bacteria, Paenibacillus, Proteobacterium. Furthermore, there were 40% closest relative belonged to uncultured bacterium clone.

[Carbendazim affects testicular development and spermatogenic function in rats].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of carbendazim on the testicular development and spermatogenic function of male rats and its action mechanism. METHODS: Forty clean-grade impubic male Wistar rats were equally randomized into a low-dose, a medium-dose, a high-dose and a control group, treated respectively with carbendazim at 20, 100 and 200 mg/kg (bw) and Tween-80 solution, all by oral gavage once a day for 80 days. After treatment, the rats were weighed, their testes and epididymides immediately excised, their morphological changes observed and the weights of the right testis and epididymis obtained. Sperm motility and counts in the left cauda epididymis were determined. Histopathological changes, cell apoptosis and the expression of Bcl-2/Bax in the testis were detected by HE staining, TUNEL and immunohistochemical SABC method. RESULTS: The medium- and high-dose groups showed obviously atrophic testes and epididymides, marked histopathological abnormality of the testis, reduced weight of the right testis and epididymis, and decreased sperm motility and counts in the left cauda epididymis (P < 0.01). With the increasing dose of carbendazim, the apoptosis rate and Bax expression were significantly raised, while the expression of Bcl-2 significantly decreased (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Carbendazim affects the testicular development and spermatogenic function of male rats, and the mechanism may involve cell apoptosis induced by down-regulation of Bcl-2 and up-regulation of Bax.

[Degradation of cyanide and maturity in cassava processing wastes composting].

An investigation was carried out to approach the degradation of cyanide and maturity during the cassava processing wastes composting process. Mixtures of cassava hull, cassava residues and pig manure were used in the experiment. Parameters like temperature, pH, cyanide, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and C/N ratio were assessed during the composting process, the effect of composting process on the degradation of cyanide and maturity were evaluated. The results reveal that the content of cyanide decreases sharply and declines to 2.08 mg/kg (30 days of composting), the degradation rate of cyanide is 94.16% and is in accord with food safety standard. After 15 days of the composting process, degradation of composting materials containing carbon (starch, cellulose, hemicellulose) and cyanide are quick and the degradation rates of them are more than 80%, properties tend towards stability basically. During 30 days of the composting process, the composting temperature drops to normal temperature and tends to stability, pH remains stable at 7.2. Parameters like C/N ratio, nitrate-nitrogen (NO3(-)-N) and ammonia nitrogen (NH4(+)-N) as maturity evaluation index were measured, and the results indicate that physical and chemical properties keep stability after 15 days of cassava processing wastes composting process. At the end of fermentation, C/N ratio is 17.55, the content of nitrate-nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen reach 2.5g/kg and 10 mg/kg respectively, NO3(-)-N/NH4(+)-N ratio is 250. The changes of these above mentioned parameters meet with maturity evaluation standard. Proving that cassava processing wastes during 30 days of composting treatment can achieve stability and security state.

Applied digital signal processing systems for vortex flowmeter with digital signal processing.

The spectral analysis is combined with digital filter to process the vortex sensor signal for reducing the effect of disturbance at low frequency from pipe vibrations and increasing the turndown ratio. Using digital signal processing chip, two kinds of digital signal processing systems are developed to implement these algorithms. One is an integrative system, and the other is a separated system. A limiting amplifier is designed in the input analog condition circuit to adapt large amplitude variation of sensor signal. Some technique measures are taken to improve the accuracy of the output pulse, speed up the response time of the meter, and reduce the fluctuation of the output signal. The experimental results demonstrate the validity of the digital signal processing systems.

[Degradation of cassava residue by the cellulose degradation composite microbial system MC1].

The lignocelluloses of cassava residue are good biomass resources. They are mainly used to produce feeds and alcohol. It is a promising approach to utilize them to produce methane. But it is difficult to use cassava residue for producing methane because of its dispersive solid matter and much water. A cellulose degradation composite microbial system MC1 was applied to degrade cassava residue discarded from cassava starch manufactory, and the composition of the lignocelluloses and the soluble ingredients of cassava residue were analyzed. After 18 days' cultivation, the total weight of the cassava residue was reduced by 47.3%, the cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin of the cassava residue were reduced by 22.7%, 90.4% and 11.3%, respectively, and 85% of the whole weight relief was made by MC1 within 6 days. The soluble ingredients of the cassava residue were increased from the incipient 18% to 33% in the third day which was the peak value in the process. The total amount of the volatile products, analyzed by GC-MS, came to a maximum in the sixth day. Twelve kinds of volatile products in the fermentation broth were determined, in which ethanol, acetic acid, 1, 2-ethanediol, butanoic acid and glycerine were the major compounds, and they can be utilized by methanogenic organism directly or be changed into compounds that can be utilized by methanogens organism directly. Accordingly, it is very hopeful to use MC1 to degrade cassava residue as a method of prefermentation in methane fermentation.

Development of an enrichment culture growing at low temperature used for ensiling rice straw.

To speed up the conversion of rice straw into feeds in a low-temperature region, a start culture used for ensiling rice straw at low temperature was selected by continuous enrichment cultivation. During the selection, the microbial source for enrichment was rice straw and soil from two places in Northeast China. Lab-scale rice straw fermentation at 10 degrees C verified, compared with the commercial inocculant, that the selected start culture lowered the pH of the fermented rice straw more rapidly and produced more lactic acid. The results from denatured gradient gel eletrophoresis showed that the selected start culture could colonize into the rice straw fermentation system. To analyze the composition of the culture, a 16S clone library was constructed. Sequencing results showed that the culture mainly consisted of two bacterial species. One (A) belonged to Lactobacillus and another (B) belonged to Leuconostoc. To make clear the roles of composition microbes in the fermented system, quantitative PCR was used. For species A, the DNA mass increased continuously until sixteen days of the fermentation, which occupied 65%. For species B, the DNA mass amounted to 5.5% at six days of the fermentation, which was the maximum relative value during the fermentation. To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first report on ensiling rice straw with a selected starter at low temperature and investigation of the fermented characteristics.

[Productions analyses and pH dynamics during rice straw degradation by the lignocellulose degradation bacteria system WSC-6].

To detect the metabolic characteristic of rice straw degradation by composite microbial system WSC-6, we cultured WSC-6 in the media used rice straw as the limiting carbon source. The rice straw was added in the style of different quantity once or the same quantity at the different time intervals during 90 days culture. The systems were cultivated under static condition at 50 degrees C. The degradation ratio, absolute degradation quantity,products from degradation and dynamics of pH value of fermentation system were all investigated. The results showed: when 1% rice straw was added once, the pH of fermentation system decreased from initial 7.8 to 6.0 within the first three days inoculation, and after six-day cultivation, it increased to 8.0 and was stable. For dissolved oxygen concentration (DO), the value was maintained at range of 0.01 to 0.12 mg x L(-1) of microaerobic condition. During the rice straw degradation, more than ten kinds of products including ethanol, acetic acid, lactic acid and glycerol and so on were detected using GC-MS. Especially, the highest concentration of lactic acid among all products was 7.381 g x L(-1) at 24 h after inoculation. During 90-day cultivation, for the addition treatments of the different quantity once, the more rice straw added, the quicker and lower the pH decreased, and the longer time intervals returned the pHs were. Especially for 5.0% addition, when 5.0% of rice straw was added once, pH did not increase again after it decreased. Among the addition of the same quantity at the different time intervals, the trend of decrease-increase in pH at 12-day and 15-day intervals could be repeated and high degradation activity well maintained. After 90-day of inoculation, the highest degradation ratio occurred in the treatment at 15-day interval, which was 86.7%. The highest absolute quantity occurred in the treatment at 6-day interval, which was 32.4 g. The trend of pH changes can indicate the activity of lignocellulose degradation and degradation process of the WSC-6.

Effects of cultivation conditions on the diversity of microbes involved in the conversion of rice straw to fodder.

To confirm the optimum cultivation conditions for analyzing lactic acid bacterial communities and to provide the cultivation foundation for lactic acid bacterial communities that were used to convert straw into fodder, fermented rice straw was inoculated into 13 different broths. After 48 h of cultivation, pH values, volatile products, and microbial diversity were analyzed. Except for LAB broth, the pH values of the other broths could decrease to approximately 4.5. GC/MS analysis showed that lactic acid in Tomato MRS broth, MRS broth, LAB broth, and Tomato juice broth was higher than that in the other broths. DNA concentration analysis showed that the counts of microbes in Tomato MRS broth were 2.5 times of those in other broths and that tomato juice favored the reproduction of the microbes. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis showed that the number of lactic acid bacterial species in HYA broth, Tomato juice broth, and Tomato MRS broth were higher than those in the other broths.

[Effects of a lactic acid bacteria community SFC-2 treated on rice straw].

Aimed to utilize rice straw and lessen the pressure of environment, the rice straw was used as the fermentation material, and a lactic acid bacteria community SFC-2 from my laboratory was inoculated into the rice straw to investigate the inoculation effects. After 30 days fermentation, the inoculated fermented straw smelt acid-fragrant, and the pH value was 3.8, which was lower than the control of 4.1. Furthermore, lactic acid concentration was more than that in the control. Especially L-lactic acid concentration was two times more than in the control, and the crude protein content was 10.16% higher than that in the control, and the crude fiber content was 3.2% lower than that in the control. From the patterns of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus fermentum and Lactobacillus paracasei rapidly became the advantageous species in the inoculated straws. However, Enterobacter sakazakii, Pantoea agglomerans, Enterobacter endosymbiont, Pantoea ananatis, whichwere predominate in the controls, were not detected in the inoculated straws, and the fermented quality was improved significantly.

[Construction and composition diversity of a lactic acid bacterial community SFC-2].

To obtain the community that could accelerate the fermentation of the air-dried crop straws, a lactic acid bacteria community SFC-2 was constructed from the natural fermented products of the corn straw and rice straw by continuous restricted subcultivation in the MRS-S broth. The SFC-2 could lower the pH of the broth quickly, and produce high amount of lactic acid. The microbial composition of the SFC-2 became stable from the 25th generation according to the results of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The pH value of the SFC-2 dropped to 3.8 and the amount of lactic acid reached 10.64 mg x mL(-1) after 12 h cultivation in the broth, which contained 64% L-(+) lactic acid. Using morphological methods, four strains were isolated from the SFC-2 and they all belonged to Lactobacillus. The closest species were L. fermentum, L. plantarum, L. paracasei and L. paracasei sub sp., respectively. At the same time, the composition of the SFC-2 was also analyzed by constructing 16S rDNA clone library. The results of 16S rDNA sequencing showed that the closest species of seven clones were mainly L. fermentum, L. plantarum and L. paracasei. In clone libraries, 76.3% belonged to L. fermentum, 20.3% belonged to L. plantarum and 3.4% belonged to L. paracasei.

[Microbial dynamics during the composting process].

Microbial dynamics of microbial community during the composting process was investigated with the methods of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and plating. The results showed that the most of microorganism count was bacterium, the second was actinomycete and the least was fungi. At the same time, the count of the thermophilic microorganism was always less than that of the mesophilic during the composting process. The count of mesophilic microorganism at later stage was less than that at the initial stage. However, the count of thermophilic antinomycete and fungi at later stage were more than that at initial stage, and the count of thermophilic bacterium was stable throughout the composting process. The bands pattern of DGGE and 16S rDNA analyses indicated that bacterial succession was presented during the composting process. The genera of Bdellovibrio, Clostridia bacterium and Bacillus were dominant species at initial stage (before the first 15 days), and Beta proteobacterium, Petrobacter succinimandens, Nitrospirae bacterium and Paenibacillus were dominant species at middle and later stage. Moreover, Clostridium was found throughout the process.

[Composition diversity of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) community Al2 used for alfalfa silage].

Alfalfa is the most important forage grass that is difficult to ensile for good quality. Using silage inoculants are the important way for preservation of alfalfa silage. Through continuous restricted subcultivation, a lactic acid bacteria (LAB) community Al2 was selected from well-fermented alfalfa silage. Plate isolation and Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE), construction of 16S rDNA clone library were used to identify the composition diversity of Al2 community, with 7 strains detected, and they were all belonged to Lactobacillus. The composition ratios of the 7 strains were 55.21%, 19.79%, 14.58%, 3.13%, 3.13%, 3.13%, 1.03% according to 16S rDNA clone library. Al2-1i, Al2-2i, Al2-3i, corresponding to L. plantarum (99.9%), L. kimchii (99.4%), L. farciminis (100%) were detected by plate isolation. Among 3 isolates, Al2-1i had the highest ability of dropping pH and producing lactic acid, and the amount of lactic acid was reach to 18g/L at 24h cultivated in MRS media. The ability of dropping pH and producing lactic acid of Al2-3i was the lowest. From DGGE profiles, the dominant strains in Al2 community were L. plantarum and L. kimchii. L. plantarum was detected during the whole process, and L. kimchii was detected in the later phase.

Effects of water-soluble carbohydrate content on silage fermentation of wheat straw.

To determine a suitable initial water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC) content to make wheat straw natural fermentation successful and to study fermentation characteristics, glucose was used to adjust the initial WSC content to 1.4%, 4.0%, 5.0%, 6.0%, 7.0%, 8.0%, 9.0%, and 10.0% dry matter (DM) in the wheat straw. At 30 d of fermentation, there were three pHs: when the initial WSC content was 1.4%, the pH was 5.5; when the initial WSC contents were 4.0%, 5.0% and 6.0%, the pHs were near 5.1; and when the initial WSC contents were 7.0%, 8.0%, 9.0% and 10.0%, the pHs were near 4.0. The pattern of changes in WSC content during the fermentation was similar to that in pH. At 30 d of fermentation, there existed a dividing line in WSC remnants between the initial 6.0% WSC treatment and the initial 7.0% WSC treatment. When the initial WSC content was more than 7.0%, the remaining WSC content was more than 23.7 g/kg DM. When the initial WSC content was less than 6.0%, the remaining WSC content was less than 13.6 g/kg DM. Particularly for the 1.4% WSC treatment, the remaining WSC content was 2.1 g/kg DM. The results of the microbiological enumeration showed that with the increase in initial WSC content, the numbers of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and other bacteria generally decreased. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) results showed that when the initial WSC content was beyond 7.0%, the LAB of the fermentation system were detected.