School pupils using technology at heritage sites to improve literacy : bridging divides

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Chased by the dragon : the experience of relapse in cocaine and heroin users

The purpose of this study is to describe the subjective psychological experience of relapse in cocaine/crack and heroin users with the aim of identifying the significant cognitive, emotional and social themes involved in relapse. A better understanding of relapse may aid in providing more effective treatment for substance users. Both the intra- and interpsychic factors involved in relapse that emerge from the study are viewed from within a broad systems theory approach. In this study, not only the whole system is of relevance, but also the subsystems. Various sub systems are also identified to allow for the recognition of patterns, functions and recursive feedback loops that maintain substance-using behaviour. Due to the qualitative nature of the study, the context surrounding substance abuse and the substance users assumes vital importance. The interrelationships between the various intrapsychic structures, the family unit, the social contexts, the drugs themselves and the physiological aspects of substance abuse are identified. A qualitative research design was applied. In-depth semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from the eight participants, who were crack and heroin users who attended the in-patient rehabilitation programme at Phoenix House. Seven of the participants were still in the in-patient rehabilitation programme at the time of the interview, while one participant was in the aftercare programme. All have been through a rehabilitation process before and were at Phoenix House due to a relapse. A thematic analysis was conducted and the process of analysis settled on eight overall themes. Extensive descriptions of these themes are provided. The discussion highlights the role of relapse in the cycle of self-destruction that constitutes substance abuse, in addition to the role relapse plays in the process of recovery. Connection seems to be the key to breaking the cycle of alienation that users experience. Falling into the trap of rejecting users without looking beyond their behaviour allows them to continue functioning in a way that confirms their view of themselves as unlovable, which, in turn, maintains their behaviour. Although systems theory is an independent approach in its own right, the nature of its view allows for the incorporation of other approaches. Where possible and relevant, other theories are incorporated into the discussion of the results, with the aim of gaining an integrated understanding of the findings of the study within the broader field of substance abuse.Dissertation (MA (Clinical Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005.Psychologyunrestricte

Beneath the wings of Aidos (Goddess of Shame) : women finding the courage to live with HIV and the strength to die of AIDS

This study describes the subjective psychological experience of African women positively living with and dying of HIV/AIDS, with a focus on the significant cognitive, emotional and social themes involved in their subjective sense of coping. HIV-positive African women have been identified as being at risk psychologically, due to gender inequality in African culture and society and the stigma that surrounds HIV/AIDS. Their traditional role as caregivers also places them at risk, but highlights the importance of understanding their experience in order to assist these women and their children. Drawing on interpretive methods within a qualitative research approach, ten women who are coping with their HIV-positive status were interviewed in order to gain an understanding of their experiences of coping with HIV/AIDS. The analysis of the interview material suggests that coping is a process of disconnection and reconnection that entails the ability to know one’s own experience. Coping was found to be a process of mourning in which the individual moves from a time of not coping toward acceptance of their status and the changes this necessitates in their relationships. Resolution of mourning seemed to entail greater integration of these women’s sense of themselves and psychological strength was found to originate in coping with adversity. The study draws on three theoretical approaches, namely positive psychology, object relations theory and analytical psychology. Carl Jung’s theory of individuation and Joseph Campbell’s interpretation of it, The Hero’s Journey, was used as a frame for the theoretical discussion. Within this frame, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ stages of mourning were integrated with Donald Winnicott’s description of separation in the move from dependence to independence, Winnicott’s ideas around the capacity to be alone, Melanie Klein’s description of the move from the paranoid-schizoid to the depressive position and Wilfred Bion’s ideas around the desire to know one’s own experience. Throughout the discussion a number of concepts from positive psychology were explored, such as: coping styles, social support, participation in life, positive goals, autonomy and resilience. The core of Jung’s theory, which is the integration of all aspects of the self, allowed space to explore distress and coping, both of which are entailed in the process of coping.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Psychologyunrestricte

Mediterranean diet reduces risk of incident stroke in a population with varying cardiovascular disease risk profiles

Background and Purpose: Although some evidence has found that the Mediterranean Diet (MD)is protective for stroke risk, few studies have investigated whether this relationship differs by sex or cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Methods: We investigated the relationship between adherence to the MD score (MDS),estimated using 7-day dietary diaries (7DD) and risk of incident stroke in an observational prospective population-based cohort study of 23,232 men and women(54.5% women) aged 40-77 years who participated in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer study in Norfolk, UK. Risk of incident stroke was calculated using multivariable Cox-regression, in the whole population, and also stratified by gender and CVD risk profile, using the Framingham Risk Score(FRS). Results: During 17.0 years of follow up (395,048 total person years) 2009 incident strokes occurred. Risk of stroke was significantly reduced with greater adherence to the MDS (Q4 vs Q1 HR 0.83:95% CI 0.74-0.94; P-trend <0.01) in the whole population and in women (Q4 vs Q1 HR 0.78; 95% CI 0.65, 0.93; P-trend<0.01) but not in men (Q4 vs Q1 HR 0.94; 95% CI 0.79, 1.12; P-trend =0.55).There was reduced risk of stroke in those at high risk of CVD and across categories of the MDS (Q4 vs Q1 HR 0.87:95% CI 0.76-0.99; P-trend =0.04).However, this was driven by the associations in women (Q4 vs Q1 HR 0.80:95% CI0.65-0.97; P-trend =0.02). Conclusion: Greater adherence to the MD wasassociated with lower risk of stroke in a UK Caucasian population. For thefirst time in the literature, we also investigated the associations between theMDS in those at both low and high risk of CVD. Although the findings in ourstudy were driven by the associations in women, they have implications for thegeneral public and clinicians for prevention of stroke

CINÉTICA DE DEGRACIÓN COLORANTE TEXTIL ROJO IRIS POR LA ACCIÓN DE LA CEPA PSEUDOMONA FLUORESCENS

Los procesos de producción relacionados a la industria textil actualmente son unos de los generadores de vertimientos con más altas concentraciones de carga orgánica en el mundo, ya que los compuestos con los que tiñen sus productos contienen uno o más grupos azo, asociados a elementos del grupo aromático, lo que incrementa su problemática en los efluentes, puesto que pueden convertirse en fuentes tóxicas para la salud humana. Por lo cual, se plantea para ello la remoción de un tipo de colorante rojo iris a partir de biorremediación, teniendo en cuenta condiciones óptimas para la adaptación del organismo, a partir de diferentes  muestras y ensayos de adaptación a la bacteria Pseudomona fluerence

An Unidentified Filarial Species and its Impact on Fitness in Wild Populations of the Black-Footed Ferret (\u3ci\u3eMustela nigripes\u3c/i\u3e)

Disease can threaten the restoration of endangered species directly by substantially decreasing host survival or indirectly via incremental decreases in survival and reproduction. During a biomedical survey of reintroduced populations of the highly endangered black-footed ferret from 2002 to 2005, microfilariae discovered in the blood were putatively identified as Dirofilaria immitis, and widespread screening was initiated using a commercially available antigen-based ELISA test. A subset of animals (n = 16) was screened for D. immitis using a highly sensitive PCR-based assay. Microfilariae were also molecularly and morphologically characterized. Of 198 animals at six reintroduction sites, 12% had positive results using the ELISA test. No antigen-positive animals which were screened via PCR (n = 11) had positive PCR results, and all antigen-positive animals (n=24) were asymptomatic. No significant differences were found in body mass of antigen-positive (male: 1223±82 g [mean±SD], female: 726±75 g) vs. antigen-negative (male: 1,198±119 g, female: 710±53 g) individuals (P=0.4). Antigen prevalence was lower in juveniles (3%) than adults (12%; P=0.03), and higher in in situ, captive-reared individuals (33%) than wild-born individuals (10%; P=0.005). Morphologic, analysis of microfilariae revealed they were neither D. immitis nor any other previously characterized North American species. PCR amplification of the 5S spacer region of rDNA revealed that the filarial sequence shared only 76% identity with D. immitis. This previously unidentified filarial sequence was present in all antigen positive animals (11 of 11 tested). It appears that black-footed ferrets were infected with a previously undescribed species of filaria whose antigen cross-reacted with the ELISA assay, although further analysis is needed to make a conclusive statement. Nonetheless, this previously undescribed filaria does not appear to threaten recovery for this highly endangered mammal

Association of Supply Type with Fecal Contamination of Source Water and Household Stored Drinking Water in Developing Countries: A Bivariate Meta-analysis

BackgroundAccess to safe drinking water is essential for health. Monitoring access to drinking water focuses on water supply type at the source, but there is limited evidence on whether quality differences at the source persist in water stored in the household.ObjectivesWe assessed the extent of fecal contamination at the source and in household stored water (HSW) and explored the relationship between contamination at each sampling point and water supply type.MethodsWe performed a bivariate random-effects meta-analysis of 45 studies, identified through a systematic review, that reported either the proportion of samples free of fecal indicator bacteria and/or individual sample bacteria counts for source and HSW, disaggregated by supply type.ResultsWater quality deteriorated substantially between source and stored water. The mean percentage of contaminated samples (noncompliance) at the source was 46% (95% CI: 33, 60%), whereas mean noncompliance in HSW was 75% (95% CI: 64, 84%). Water supply type was significantly associated with noncompliance at the source (p < 0.001) and in HSW (p = 0.03). Source water (OR = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1, 0.5) and HSW (OR = 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2, 0.8) from piped supplies had significantly lower odds of contamination compared with non-piped water, potentially due to residual chlorine.ConclusionsPiped water is less likely to be contaminated compared with other water supply types at both the source and in HSW. A focus on upgrading water services to piped supplies may help improve safety, including for those drinking stored water.CitationShields KF, Bain RE, Cronk R, Wright JA, Bartram J. 2015. Association of supply type with fecal contamination of source water and household stored drinking water in developing countries: a bivariate meta-analysis. Environ Health Perspect 123:1222–1231; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.140900

iHMMune-align: hidden Markov model-based alignment and identification of germline genes in rearranged immunoglobulin gene sequences

Motivation: Immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) genes in mature B lymphocytes are the result of recombination of IGHV, IGHD and IGHJ germline genes, followed by somatic mutation. The correct identification of the germline genes that make up a variable VH domain is essential to our understanding of the process of antibody diversity generation as well as to clinical investigations of some leukaemias and lymphomas. Results: We have developed iHMMune-align, an alignment program that uses a hidden Markov model (HMM) to model the processes involved in human IGH gene rearrangement and maturation. The performance of iHMMune-align was compared to that of other immunoglobulin gene alignment utilities using both clonally related and randomly selected IGH sequences. This evaluation suggests that iHMMune-align provides a more accurate identification of component germline genes than other currently available IGH gene characterization programs

Cardiomyocyte-Specific Human Bcl2-Associated Anthanogene 3 P209L Expression Induces Mitochondrial Fragmentation, Bcl2-Associated Anthanogene 3 Haploinsufficiency, and Activates p38 Signaling

Supplemental Data Supplemental Table S1 Download Supplemental Table S2 Download Supplemental Table S3 Download Supplemental Table S4 Download Supplemental Data Supplemental material for this article can be found at . The Bcl2-associated anthanogene (BAG) 3 protein is a member of the BAG family of cochaperones, which supports multiple critical cellular processes, including critical structural roles supporting desmin and interactions with heat shock proteins and ubiquitin ligases intimately involved in protein quality control. The missense mutation P209L in exon 3 results in a primarily cardiac phenotype leading to skeletal muscle and cardiac complications. At least 10 other Bag3 mutations have been reported, nine resulting in a dilated cardiomyopathy for which no specific therapy is available. We generated αMHC-human Bag3 P209L transgenic mice and characterized the progressive cardiac phenotype in vivo to investigate its utility in modeling human disease, understand the underlying molecular mechanisms, and identify potential therapeutic targets. We identified a progressive heart failure by echocardiography and Doppler analysis and the presence of pre-amyloid oligomers at 1 year. Paralleling the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases (eg, Parkinson disease), pre-amyloid oligomers–associated alterations in cardiac mitochondrial dynamics, haploinsufficiency of wild-type BAG3, and activation of p38 signaling were identified. Unexpectedly, increased numbers of activated cardiac fibroblasts were identified in Bag3 P209L Tg+ hearts without increased fibrosis. Together, these findings point to a previously undescribed therapeutic target that may have application to mutation-induced myofibrillar myopathies as well as other common causes of heart failure that commonly harbor misfolded proteins

Glucose-enhanced oxidative stress resistance-A protective anticipatory response that enhances the fitness of Candida albicans during systemic infection

Acknowledgments We thank Carol Munro for her generosity in providing the plasmids for barcoding C. albicans, and Victoria Brown, Gerry Fink, Bill Fonzi, Guanghua Huang, Joachim Morschauser, Suzanne Noble, Jesus Pla, Patrick Van Dijck, Reinhard Würzner and Oscar Zaragoza for providing strains. We thank our colleagues in the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the Aberdeen Fungal Group for insightful discussions. We are grateful to the following Research Facilities for their advice and support: the Centre for Genome Enabled Biology at the University of Aberdeen, and the Sequencing Facility at the University of Exeter for help with the barcode sequencing. Funding: This work was funded by a programme grant to AJPB, NARG, LEP and MGN from the UK Medical Research Council [www.mrc.ac.uk: MR/M026663/1, MR/M026663/2] and by PhD studentships to DEL from the Universities of Aberdeen and Exeter. The work was also supported by the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1, MR/N006364/2). NARG acknowledges Wellcome support of Senior Investigator (101873/Z/13/Z, 224323/Z/21/Z) and Collaborative (200208/A/15/Z, 215599/Z/19/Z) Awards. MGN was supported by an ERC Advanced Grant (833247) and a Spinoza Grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. The barcode sequencing performed by the Exeter Sequencing Facility utilised equipment funded by Wellcome (218247/Z/19/Z). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD