Biology in Everyday Life

This Perspective from Penney Gilbert and colleagues from the USA and Sweden focuses on adult stem cells found in skeletal muscle, also known as satellite cells. They address the problem that, once extracted from muscle and placed into culture, satellite cells quickly lose their ability to self-renew, complicating studies into their biology. The development of new bioengineering approaches, such as hydrogel microwell arrays, could solve this problem. These approaches can accurately monitor the behavior of satellite cells and provide robust data sets, thanks to the number of different tests that can be carried out in parallel. To illustrate the usefulness of such tools, the authors show how stem cell division and self-renewal can be tracked in clonal assays using time-lapse microscopy. By increasing the stiffness of the hydrogel microwells in the assays, satellite cells can be maintained in culture for up to one week and successfully engraft back into mouse muscle. Stem cells hold the potential to become part of powerful medical treatments and therapies, but only if we understand how we are changing them by removing them from their niche. This Perspective pushes this issue to the fore and offers some suggestions as to how we can further improve stem cell culture http://the-scientist. com/2012/04/01/are-cancer-stem-cells-ready-for-prime-time/ Biology in Everyday Life This Perspective from Penney Gilbert and colleagues from the USA and Sweden focuses on adult stem cells found in skeletal muscle, also known as satellite cells. They address the problem that, once extracted from muscle and placed into culture, satellite cells quickly lose their ability to self-renew, complicating studies into their biology. The development of new bioengineering approaches, such as hydrogel microwell arrays, could solve this problem. These approaches can accurately monitor the behavior of satellite cells and provide robust data sets, thanks to the number of different tests that can be carried out in parallel. To illustrate the usefulness of such tools, the authors show how stem cell division and self-renewal can be tracked in clonal assays using time-lapse microscopy. By increasing the stiffness of the hydrogel microwells in the assays, satellite cells can be maintained in culture for up to one week and successfully engraft back into mouse muscle. Stem cells hold the potential to become part of powerful medical treatments and therapies, but only if we understand how we are changing them by removing them from their niche. This Perspective pushes this issue to the fore and offers some suggestions as to how we can further improve stem cell culture http://the-scientist. com/2012/04/01/are-cancer-stem-cells-ready-for-prime-time/

Creating a Health Promotion Program for Type II Diabetics Essay

Creating a Health Promotion Program for Type II Diabetics - Essay Example Of course, not all goals will be met for all clients, but it is important to have an optimal objective. The main overall goal of the program is for clients to retain long-term exercise habits. The effective disease management program approaches the problem of diabetes in terms of access, prevention, diagnosis, and prevalence. This is seen as a positive move forward. Goals and methods of the diabetes disease management program include reducing morbidity and mortality. Diabetes often leads the patient to die of a related condition and the patient needs to be educated about risk first and foremost. This group of authors state that, â€Å"The goal is to not only to provide clinical information about new therapy, but also information about the effect of the therapy on aspects of life that are valued by patients, or health related quality of life† (Curtis et al., 13). It is important for evidence based professionals to know their clients and to improve their quality of life, in ways that decrease the incidences of diabetes. The quality of life problems and priorities of people with type II diabetes are various. Patients who cannot control their diabetes or are unable to may develop complications from the disease that are very serious, such as the risk of blindness, renal failure, and even the amputation of lower limbs. â€Å"Adjunctive referral to a diabetes support group may be helpful for some patients when complications arise. Establishing group involvement may be difficult at the stage when serious complications set in, however, because healthier members sometimes have difficulty accepting patients with complications† (Diabetes, 2005). This presents a barrier to the disease management plan for a group format because some patients may see those diabetics with severe complications such as blindness as a reflection their own future with the disease, and react negatively, thus

Individual Power Plan Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Individual Power Plan - Term Paper Example By definition, personal or individual sense of power denotes the capacity of an individual to persuade or manipulate others (Lusssier and Kimball, 2013). My current sense of power within my organisation is patented by the constructive associations or relationships I have formed with other nurses, as well as other individuals involved in the provision of care. This I have achieved through an all-inclusive form of leadership that enhances motivation within the workplace. As a result of these relationships, nurses respect my decisions and approach me for directions and advice in relation to provision of care to patients and the community in general. In doing so, I have been able to influence their behaviours, manipulate their activities, and have also been able to persuade them to support my decisions. There are numerous factors that motivate people to increase or enhance their power base. A good example is the fact that employees prefer to work for powerful leaders. The notion that power is imperative in influencing and persuading others is motivation enough to strive to increase individual power base (Paynton, 2008). Subsequently, there are many ways that a leader in the nursing profession can enhance his or her individual power. According to Lusssier and Kimball (2013), "Power is gained only with time, experience, success, and the increasing respect of your colleagues" (p. 246). To enhance my power base as a nurse and leader therefore, it would be imperative to enhance individual competency through building superior relationships with co-workers, and improve on people skills. One of the important strategies for achieving this plan is networking. Pfeffer (2010) posits that linking and forming connections with other influential individuals in the nursing profession is of significance in order to ensure support is attained when necessary. Secondly, rewarding individual nurses who perform well in their duties and