Operation of unified financial assistance system for tertiary education in selected private institutions in Santiago city, Isabela

This study examines the implementation of the tertiary education subsidy as mandated by Republic Act No. 10931. A descriptive-comparative research design was used for the investigation. It polled 347 student-grantees chosen purposefully from Northeastern College and the University of La Salette, Inc., sampled using the proportional stratification technique. The respondents believed that the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) should be implemented in order to encourage student perseverance, academic achievement, and administrative capacity. Regarding financial ability, the respondents overwhelmingly concurred that the subsidy reduced their financial stress while attending school, helped them pay their tuition on time, and helped them purchase supplies for their studies. The respondents also concurred that TES provided advantages such developing responsibility and money management skills, aiding in the understanding of the worth of money, and providing motivation to spend prudently. Regardless of their profiles, all of the respondents generally agreed on how well the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) had been implemented. When categorized according to their profiles, certain specific indications were found to be considerably different. Finally, the respondents felt that the late delivery of essential money and severe deadlines for the criteria were the most frequently encountered issues in the implementation of TES

Mortality and Exacerbation Risk by Body Mass Index in Patients with COPD in TIOSPIR and UPLIFT

RATIONALE: There is an association between body mass index (BMI) and mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with underweight individuals having higher mortality risk. Mortality and exacerbation risks among individuals with higher BMI are unclear. OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between BMI and adverse outcomes in COPD. METHODS: This post hoc analysis included data from TIOSPIR (Tiotropium Safety and Performance in Respimat) (N = 17,116) and tiotropium-treated patients in UPLIFT (Understanding Potential Long-term Impacts on Function with Tiotropium) (N = 2,986). BMI classes (underweight [BMI < 20 kg/m(2)], normal weight [BMI 20 to <25 kg/m(2)], overweight [BMI 25 to <30 kg/m(2)], obesity class I [BMI 30 to <35 kg/m(2)], obesity class II [BMI 35 to <40 kg/m(2)], and obesity class III [BMI ⩾ 40 kg/m(2)]) were examined for adjusted associations with mortality, exacerbation, and nonfatal cardiovascular event risk using over 50,000 patient-years of cumulative follow-up data. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using Cox regression models. RESULTS: In TIOSPIR, obesity prevalence was 22%, overweight 32%, and underweight 12%. The proportion of females was highest in obesity classes II and III. Overweight and obese participants had better baseline lung function versus other BMI classes; underweight participants were more likely to be current smokers. Underweight participants had a significantly higher risk of death (HR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.62–2.20; P < 0.0001) and severe exacerbations (HR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.16–1.47; P < 0.0001) versus normal-weight participants; however, overweight and obese participants were at lower to no additional risk. Results from UPLIFT were similar to TIOSPIR. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that there is a strong association between body weight, COPD events, and risk of death. A holistic management approach taking into account respiratory and cardiovascular risk factors and nutritional status is needed to improve the general well-being of patients with COPD

Characterisation of COPD heterogeneity in the ECLIPSE cohort.

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a complex condition with pulmonary and extra-pulmonary manifestations. This study describes the heterogeneity of COPD in a large and well characterised and controlled COPD cohort (ECLIPSE). METHODS: We studied 2164 clinically stable COPD patients, 337 smokers with normal lung function and 245 never smokers. In these individuals, we measured clinical parameters, nutritional status, spirometry, exercise tolerance, and amount of emphysema by computed tomography. RESULTS: COPD patients were slightly older than controls and had more pack years of smoking than smokers with normal lung function. Co-morbidities were more prevalent in COPD patients than in controls, and occurred to the same extent irrespective of the GOLD stage. The severity of airflow limitation in COPD patients was poorly related to the degree of breathlessness, health status, presence of co-morbidity, exercise capacity and number of exacerbations reported in the year before the study. The distribution of these variables within each GOLD stage was wide. Even in subjects with severe airflow obstruction, a substantial proportion did not report symptoms, exacerbations or exercise limitation. The amount of emphysema increased with GOLD severity. The prevalence of bronchiectasis was low (4%) but also increased with GOLD stage. Some gender differences were also identified. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical manifestations of COPD are highly variable and the degree of airflow limitation does not capture the heterogeneity of the disease.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Epidemiology of foodborne Norovirus outbreaks in Catalonia, Spain

Background: Noroviruses are one of the principal biological agents associated with the consumption of contaminated food. The objective of this study was to analyse the size and epidemiological characteristics of foodborne outbreaks of gastroenteritis in Catalonia, a region in the northeast of Spain. Methods: In all reported outbreaks of gastroenteritis associated with food consumption, faecal samples of persons affected were analysed for bacteria and viruses and selectively for parasites. Study variables included the setting, the number of people exposed, age, sex, clinical signs and hospital admissions. The study was carried out from October 2004 to October 2005. Results: Of the 181 outbreaks reported during the study period, 72 were caused by Salmonella and 30 by norovirus (NoV); the incidence rates were 14.5 and 9.9 per 100,000 person-years, respectively. In 50% of the NoV outbreaks and 27% of the bacterial outbreaks (p = 0.03) the number of persons affected was ¿10; 66.7% of NoV outbreaks occurred in restaurants; no differences in the attack rates were observed according to the etiology. Hospitalizations were more common (p = 0.03) in bacterial outbreaks (8.6%) than in NoV outbreaks (0.15%). Secondary cases accounted for 4% of cases in NoV outbreaks compared with 0.3% of cases in bacterial outbreaks (p < 0.001) Conclusion: Norovirus outbreaks were larger but less frequent than bacterial outbreaks, suggesting that underreporting is greater for NoV outbreaks. Food handlers should receive training on the transmission of infections in diverse situations. Very strict control measures on handwashing and environmental disinfection should be adopted in closed or partially-closed institutions

Epidemiology of foodborne Norovirus outbreaks in Catalonia, Spain

Background: Noroviruses are one of the principal biological agents associated with the consumption of contaminated food. The objective of this study was to analyse the size and epidemiological characteristics of foodborne outbreaks of gastroenteritis in Catalonia, a region in the northeast of Spain. Methods: In all reported outbreaks of gastroenteritis associated with food consumption, faecal samples of persons affected were analysed for bacteria and viruses and selectively for parasites. Study variables included the setting, the number of people exposed, age, sex, clinical signs and hospital admissions. The study was carried out from October 2004 to October 2005. Results: Of the 181 outbreaks reported during the study period, 72 were caused by Salmonella and 30 by norovirus (NoV); the incidence rates were 14.5 and 9.9 per 100,000 person-years, respectively. In 50% of the NoV outbreaks and 27% of the bacterial outbreaks (p = 0.03) the number of persons affected was ¿10; 66.7% of NoV outbreaks occurred in restaurants; no differences in the attack rates were observed according to the etiology. Hospitalizations were more common (p = 0.03) in bacterial outbreaks (8.6%) than in NoV outbreaks (0.15%). Secondary cases accounted for 4% of cases in NoV outbreaks compared with 0.3% of cases in bacterial outbreaks (p < 0.001) Conclusion: Norovirus outbreaks were larger but less frequent than bacterial outbreaks, suggesting that underreporting is greater for NoV outbreaks. Food handlers should receive training on the transmission of infections in diverse situations. Very strict control measures on handwashing and environmental disinfection should be adopted in closed or partially-closed institutions

Mechanistic and evolutionary questions about epigenetic conflicts between transposable elements and their plant hosts

Transposable elements (TEs) constitute the majority of plant genomes, but most are epigenetically inactivated by their host. Research over the last decade has elucidated many of the molecular components that are required for TE silencing. In contrast, the evolutionary dynamics between TEs and silencing pathways are less clear. Here, we discuss current information about these dynamics from both mechanistic and evolutionary perspectives. We highlight new evidence that palindromic sequences within TEs may act as signals for host recognition and that cis-regulatory regions of TEs may be sites of ongoing arms races with host defenses. We also discuss patterns of TE aging after they are silenced; while there is not yet a consensus, it appears that TEs are removed more rapidly near genes, such that older TE insertions tend to be farther from genes. We conclude by discussing the energetic costs for maintaining silencing pathways, which appear to be substantive. The maintenance of silencing pathways across many species suggests that epigenetic emergencies are frequent

Pericentromeric location of the telomeric DNA sequences on the European grayling chromosomes

The chromosomal characteristics, locations and variations of the C-band positive heterochromatin and telomeric DNA sequences were studied in the European grayling karyotype (Thymallus thymallus, Salmonidae) using conventional C-banding, endonucleases digestion banding, silver nitrate (AgNO3), chromomycin A(3) and 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining techniques as well as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and primed in situ labelling. Original data on the chromosomal distribution of segments resistant to AluI restriction endonuclease and identification of the C-banded heterochromatin presented here have been used to characterize the grayling karyotype polymorphism. Structural and length polymorphism of the chromosome 21 showing a conspicuous heterochromatin block adjacent to the centromere seems to be the result of the deletion and inversion. Two pairs of nuclear organizer regions (NOR)-bearing chromosomes were found to be polymorphic in size and displaying several distinct forms. FISH with telomeric peptide nucleic acid probe enabled recognition of the conservative telomeric DNA sequences. The karyotype of the thymallid fish is thought to experienced numerous pericentric inversions and internal telomeric sites (ITSs) observed at the pericentromeric regions of the six European grayling metacentric chromosomes are likely relics of the these rearrangements. None of the ITS sites matched either chromosome 21 or NOR bearing chromosomes.University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland (0804.0809)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sequencing of Pooled DNA Samples (Pool-Seq) Uncovers Complex Dynamics of Transposable Element Insertions in Drosophila melanogaster

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that parasitize genomes by semi-autonomously increasing their own copy number within the host genome. While TEs are important for genome evolution, appropriate methods for performing unbiased genome-wide surveys of TE variation in natural populations have been lacking. Here, we describe a novel and cost-effective approach for estimating population frequencies of TE insertions using paired-end Illumina reads from a pooled population sample. Importantly, the method treats insertions present in and absent from the reference genome identically, allowing unbiased TE population frequency estimates. We apply this method to data from a natural Drosophila melanogaster population from Portugal. Consistent with previous reports, we show that low recombining genomic regions harbor more TE insertions and maintain insertions at higher frequencies than do high recombining regions. We conservatively estimate that there are almost twice as many “novel” TE insertion sites as sites known from the reference sequence in our population sample (6,824 novel versus 3,639 reference sites, with on average a 31-fold coverage per insertion site). Different families of transposable elements show large differences in their insertion densities and population frequencies. Our analyses suggest that the history of TE activity significantly contributes to this pattern, with recently active families segregating at lower frequencies than those active in the more distant past. Finally, using our high-resolution TE abundance measurements, we identified 13 candidate positively selected TE insertions based on their high population frequencies and on low Tajima's D values in their neighborhoods

Next-Generation Sequencing Reveals Recent Horizontal Transfer of a DNA Transposon between Divergent Mosquitoes

Horizontal transfer of genetic material between complex organisms often involves transposable elements (TEs). For example, a DNA transposon mariner has been shown to undergo horizontal transfer between different orders of insects and between different phyla of animals. Here we report the discovery and characterization of an ITmD37D transposon, MJ1, in Anopheles sinensis. We show that some MJ1 elements in Aedes aegypti and An. sinensis contain intact open reading frames and share nearly 99% nucleotide identity over the entire transposon, which is unexpectedly high given that these two genera had diverged 145–200 million years ago. Chromosomal hybridization and TE-display showed that MJ1 copy number is low in An. sinensis. Among 24 mosquito species surveyed, MJ1 is only found in Ae. aegypti and the hyrcanus group of anopheline mosquitoes to which An. sinensis belongs. Phylogenetic analysis is consistent with horizontal transfer and provides the basis for inference of its timing and direction. Although report of horizontal transfer of DNA transposons between higher eukaryotes is accumulating, our analysis is one of a small number of cases in which horizontal transfer of nearly identical TEs among highly divergent species has been thoroughly investigated and strongly supported. Horizontal transfer involving mosquitoes is of particular interest because there are ongoing investigations of the possibility of spreading pathogen-resistant genes into mosquito populations to control malaria and other infectious diseases. The initial indication of horizontal transfer of MJ1 came from comparisons between a 0.4x coverage An. sinensis 454 sequence database and available TEs in mosquito genomes. Therefore we have shown that it is feasible to use low coverage sequencing to systematically uncover horizontal transfer events. Expanding such efforts across a wide range of species will generate novel insights into the relative frequency of horizontal transfer of different TEs and provide the evolutionary context of these lateral transfer events