(C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3427567]“
“Purpose of the research: To describe
the variability in practice regarding the management Selleck EPZ004777 of vascular access ports in adult oncology patients at Spanish outpatient clinics and to evaluate its compliance with the recommended procedural guidelines.
Methods and sample: Three e-mailings or three postal mail-outs were sent to all Spanish outpatient clinics, in accordance with the hospital’s preference. An additional fourth postal mail-out was made to all units. In total 185 units at Spanish outpatient clinics out of a total 256 completed the survey questionnaire.
Key results: A number of variations exist in the techniques used for insertion, withdrawal of needle from vascular access ports, blood sampling and unblocking procedure. There is considerable agreement in relation to the use of a special beveled needle, the use
of gloves in the access and withdrawal procedures and checking of reservoir permeability by aspirating blood. In most cases, sterile gloves are used but there is a lesser occurrence of both scrubbed hands and correct antiseptic use.
Conclusions: There are considerable differences in the management of the vascular access ports in terms of the recommendations published in the main international guidelines, though these are based on low level evidence. The results highlight the need for further quality studies in ports use and manipulation to lessen the variability between published recommendations and clinical practice. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The microscale topography selleck compound of biomaterial surfaces has a great effect on the adhesion and proliferation behavior of cells. In this study, polylactide (PLA) films with regular micropitted surfaces were prepared by a phase-separation technique. The effect of the surface topography on the wettability and cell affinity was investigated with contact angle measurements and osteoblast incubation, respectively. The results showed that the shape
of the pits could be controlled by changes in the film-forming parameters, including the PLA solution concentration, Momelotinib JAK/STAT inhibitor nonsolvent content, temperature, and solvent volatilization speed. These patterned films had significantly enhanced hydrophobicity because of the existence of micropits on the surface, and their hydrophobicity increased with the pit size increasing. Osteoblast spreading was improved on the patterned surface, and so was cell adhesion. However, the proliferation of cells on micropitted surfaces showed no distinction from the proliferation on smooth surfaces, and this indicated that the pit pattern had a great effect on the spreading and adhesion of cells but little on the proliferation of cells. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 116: 3162-3170, 2010″
“In this article, we have highlighted the partial least square regression (PLSR) model to predict the glucose level in human blood by considering only five variants.