PURPOSE This study's purpose was to advance the process of culture change within long-term care (LTC) and assisted living settings by using participatory action research (PAR) to promote residents' competence and nourish the culture change process with the active engagement and leadership of residents. DESIGN AND METHODS Seven unit-specific PAR groups, each consisting of 4-7 residents, 1-2 fa...

Low light responses of eight garden pea genotypes were investigated in the present experiment in terms of dry matter accumulation and partitioning in the plant. The light treatments consisted of (i) 100% photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) measured in the open field and (ii) 25%, (iii) 50%, (iv) 75% reduction of natural PAR obtained by using mosquito nets of variable color and mesh number...

The exact mechanism(s) by which kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) function, their levels of activity and their potential endogenous targets in vivo have only recently begun to be revealed. Our group and others have shown that KLKs can have hormonal properties by signaling via proteinase-activated receptors (PARs), a family of G-protein-coupled receptors. Signals by PAR(1), PAR(2), and PAR(4)...

BACKGROUND Overexpression and enhanced release of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have been detected in various types of allergic inflammation, including asthma. AIM To further evaluate the pattern of systemic release of VEGF in atopic allergy, free circulating VEGF was measured in patients with persistent allergic rhinitis (PAR). METHODS The concentrations of VEGF and its soluble...

The narrow bandwidth of computer-mediated communication (CMC) courses reduces status differences, suggesting that men and women will participate equally in course activities. In contrast, gender differences in computing skill, attitude, experience, and family support for students’ CMC activities suggest that females will have lower levels of participation. A study of interactions among 15 RÉSUM...

Role of prostate apoptosis response-4 (PAR-4) has been well described in prostate cancer. However, its significance in other cancers has not been fully elucidated. For the current study, we selected four pancreatic cancer cell lines (BxPC-3, Colo-357, L3.6pl, and HPAC) that showed differential endogenous expression of PAR-4. We found that nonpeptidic small-molecule inhibitors (SMI) of Bcl-2 fam...

To develop potent and metabolically stable agonists for protease-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2), we prepared 2-furoylated (2f) derivatives of native PAR-2-activating peptides, 2f-LIGKV-OH, 2f-LIGRL-OH, 2f-LIGKV-NH(2), and 2f-LIGRL-NH(2), and systematically evaluated their activity in PAR-2-responsive cell lines and tissues. In both HCT-15 cells and NCTC2544 cells overexpressing PAR-2, all furoyla...

Emerging evidence demonstrates that thrombin exerts physiological and pathological functions in the central nervous system. Both prothrombin and its active form thrombin have been detected locally in the brain. The cellular functions of thrombin are mainly regulated by G protein-coupled protease-activated receptors (PARs). Thrombin can signal via PAR-1, PAR-3 and PAR-4. Some neurological diseas...

PURPOSE The National Cancer Institute has completed a first-in-human clinical pharmacodynamic trial of the targeted agent ABT-888, a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, under the auspices of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Exploratory Investigational New Drug Application. Performance of the study design, needle biopsy procedure, and validated pharmacodynamic assay were evalua...