In recent years, priority measures have been established within the health field in Québec for raising parents' self-esteem in regard to their role, and ensuring that their parenting skills improve. The study Perceptions de la relation conjugale, du fonctionnement familial et du sentiment de compétence parentale chez des pères et des mères d'un premier enfant âgé d'un an was conducted in keeping with these measures. Nathalie Léonard conducted the research as part of her studies toward a master's degree in nursing science; her thesis advisor was Denise Paul. One goal of her correlative descriptive study was to describe perceptions of the feeling of parental competence among couples with a first child one year of age. A survey of the literature enabled listing of the factors that influence the feeling of parental competence in three categories, according to whether it is linked to the parents, to the child or to their surroundings. Awareness of these factors enables nurses in hospital and community settings to provide more effective support to parents of a first child in their process of adapting to parenthood.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Offering a hand to new parents: listening or informing?].

Nurses working in the perinatal field have a variety of objectives, one of which is helping new parents feel competent in their new role. Recognizing parents' potential and offering them the support they need to realize it is one of the strategies suggested by the Department of Health and Social Services (MSSS, 1991 and 1992a). In order to identify aspects of nursing interventions at the time of the post-natal visit that promote parental skills, the authors conducted research into the concept of empowerment. Following an in-depth survey of the literature on this concept, they came up with a definition of interventions promoting empowerment, and used this definition as the basis for their analysis of perinatal nurse-client relations. The study, subsidized by the Fondation de recherche en sciences infirmières du Québec (FRESIQ), was carried out between 1993 and 1995 in four CLSCs in the Eastern Townships region. Thirteen nurses agreed to record their conversations with first-time parents during 20 postnatal visits.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Transfection of interleukin-12 cDNAs into tumor cells induces cytotoxic immune responses against native tumor: implications for tumor vaccination.

Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is a heterodimeric cytokine that is central to the development of T helper 1-dependent cellular immunity. Although this cytokine has potential therapeutic application as an antineoplastic agent, the systemic infusion of IL-12 has led to toxic fatalities; hence, restriction of expression of IL-12 to the microenvironment of target tumor cells has obvious appeal. In this study, we examined whether tumor cells that were liposome-transfected with IL-12 could enhance the induction of cytolytic lymphocyte immunity to the native tumor. The plasmid expression vector that we used has several useful features including replication to high copy number as an episome and a polycistronic message enabling the production of both the p35 and p40 subunits of IL-12 without alternative splicing; up to 3 ng/mL/10(6)/48 hours of IL-12 was produced following transfection. Tumor cells transfected with IL-12 were superior to untransfected cells in the induction of lymphocyte-mediated cytolysis. IL-12 transfectants induced a heterogeneous population of natural killer, lymphokine activated killer, and cytolytic T lymphocytes, the latter of which exhibited tumor-specific activity. Our studies suggest that liposome-mediated transfection of tumor cells with an episomal, high copy number plasmid vector expressing both IL-12 subunits is a promising approach to cancer vaccination, a strategy that could be implemented ex vivo in treating malignancies such as metastatic ovarian cancer.

Cancer Vaccines↗