188 research outputs found
Poems That Han Yu éæ and Zhang Ji ćŒ”ç± Presented to Each Other in Zhengyuan èČć Period
Syftet med denna uppsats Àr att belysa pedagogers uppfattning om lekens betydelse för barns utveckling och lÀrande i grundskolan och trÀningsskolan samt pÄ vilket sÀtt pedagoger tillÀmpar lek i sin undervisning. Synen pÄ lek har varierat under tidens gÄng. Leken har tillmÀtts stor betydelse för barn och dess utveckling. I vÄrt litteraturavsnitt har vi valt att skriva en allmÀn historisk bakgrund kring lek och olika teorier om lek. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med pedagoger i de bÄda verksamheterna har vi fÄtt en bild av vad lek Àr för dem och i vilken utstrÀckning de anvÀnder sig av leken i sin undervisning. Resultatet av vÄr undersökning visar att pedagogerna i de bÄda verksamheterna anser att leken har betydelse för barnets utveckling och lÀrande. Leken anvÀnds i bÄda verksamheterna pÄ olika sÀtt och i varierande utstrÀckning
Health-related quality of life, utility, and productivity outcomes instruments: ease of completion by subjects with COPD
An important outcome of any clinical intervention is the change in the subject's own perceived state of health. This can be categorized as health-related quality of life (HRQL), utility (preference-based health state), and daily life performance. 174 Swedish subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (mean age 64.3 ± 12 years) completed five self-administered questionnaires: Short Form 36 (SF-36), St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D), Health States-COPD (HS-COPD), and Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire for COPD (WPAI-COPD). The subjects scored these outcomes instruments for ease of completion using a 5-point scale. The time taken to complete them was noted and the administrators' opinion of the subjects' comprehension of the questionnaires recorded using a 4-point scale. A score of 1â3 ("very easy" to "acceptable") was recorded by 92% of subjects for the SF-36, 90% for SGRQ, 80% for EQ-5D, 83% for WPAI-COPD, and 53% for HS-COPD. The HS-COPD was graded "very difficult" to complete by 21% of subjects compared with 3â5% of subjects for the other questionnaires. The mean time taken to complete all questionnaires was 39 minutes, and the large majority of subjects scored "good" for understanding by the administrator. Age correlated significantly with the degree of the subject's opinion of the ease of completion of five outcomes instruments, while the influence of gender, socio-economic status and disease severity was not statistically significant
Lifestyle Factors Are Important Contributors to Subjective Memory Complaints among Patients without Objective Memory Impairment or Positive Neurochemical Biomarkers for Alzheimerâs Disease
Background/Aims: Many patients presenting to a memory disorders clinic for subjective memory complaints do not show objective evidence of decline on neuropsychological data, have nonpathological biomarkers for Alzheimerâs disease, and do not develop a neurodegenerative disorder. Lifestyle variables, including subjective sleep problems and stress, are factors known to affect cognition. Little is known about how these factors contribute to patientsâ subjective sense of memory decline. Understanding how lifestyle factors are associated with the subjective sense of failing memory that causes patients to seek a formal evaluation is important both for diagnostic workup purposes and for finding appropriate interventions and treatment for these persons, who are not likely in the early stages of a neurodegenerative disease. The current study investigated specific lifestyle variables, such as sleep and stress, to characterize those patients that are unlikely to deteriorate cognitively. Methods: Two hundred nine patients (mean age 58 years) from a university hospital memory disorders clinic were included. Results: Sleep problems and having much to do distinguished those with subjective, but not objective, memory complaints and non-pathological biomarkers for Alzheimerâs disease. Conclusions: Lifestyle factors including sleep and stress are useful in characterizing subjective memory complaints from objective problems. Inclusion of these variables could potentially improve health care utilization efficiency and guide interventions
Plasmodium falciparum multidrug resistance protein 1 and artemisinin-based combination therapy in Africa
Plasmodium falciparum response mechanisms to the major artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are largely unknown. Multidrug-resistance protein (MRP)-like adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette transporters are known to be related to multidrug resistance in many organisms. Therefore, we hypothesized that sequence variation in pfmrp1 can contribute to decreased parasite sensitivity to ACT. Through sequencing of the pfmrp1 open reading frame for 103 geographically diverse P. falciparum infections, we identified 27 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), of which 21 were nonsynonymous and 6 synonymous. Analyses of clinical efficacy trials with artesunate-amodiaquine and artemether-lumefantrine detected a specific selection of the globally prevalent I876V SNP in recurrent infections after artemether-lumefantrine treatment. Additional in silico studies suggested an influence of variation in amino acid 876 on the ATP hydrolysis cycle of pfMRP1 with potential impact on protein functionality. Our data suggest for the first time, to our knowledge, the involvement of pfMRP1 in P. falciparum in vivo response to ACT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Widespread impact of horizontal gene transfer on plant colonization of land
In complex multicellular eukaryotes such as animals and plants, horizontal gene transfer is commonly considered rare with very limited evolutionary significance. Here we show that horizontal gene transfer is a dynamic process occurring frequently in the early evolution of land plants. Our genome analyses of the moss Physcomitrella patens identified 57 families of nuclear genes that were acquired from prokaryotes, fungi or viruses. Many of these gene families were transferred to the ancestors of green or land plants. Available experimental evidence shows that these anciently acquired genes are involved in some essential or plant-specific activities such as xylem formation, plant defence, nitrogen recycling as well as the biosynthesis of starch, polyamines, hormones and glutathione. These findings suggest that horizontal gene transfer had a critical role in the transition of plants from aquatic to terrestrial environments. On the basis of these findings, we propose a model of horizontal gene transfer mechanism in nonvascular and seedless vascular plants
BARM and BalticMicrobeDB, a reference metagenome and interface to meta-omic data for the Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is one of the worldâs largest brackish water bodies and is characterised by pronounced physicochemical gradients where microbes are the main biogeochemical catalysts. Meta-omic methods provide rich information on the composition of, and activities within, microbial ecosystems, but are computationally heavy to perform. We here present the Baltic Sea Reference Metagenome (BARM), complete with annotated genes to facilitate further studies with much less computational effort. The assembly is constructed using 2.6 billion metagenomic reads from 81 water samples, spanning both spatial and temporal dimensions, and contains 6.8 million genes that have been annotated for function and taxonomy. The assembly is useful as a reference, facilitating taxonomic and functional annotation of additional samples by simply mapping their reads against the assembly. This capability is demonstrated by the successful mapping and annotation of 24 external samples. In addition, we present a public web interface, BalticMicrobeDB, for interactive exploratory analysis of the dataset
Conceptual framework for the definition of preclinical and prodromal frontotemporal dementia
The presymptomatic stages of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are still poorly defined and encompass a long accrual of progressive biological (preclinical) and then clinical (prodromal) changes, antedating the onset of dementia. The heterogeneity of clinical presentations and the different neuropathological phenotypes have prevented a prior clear description of either preclinical or prodromal FTD. Recent advances in therapeutic approaches, at least in monogenic disease, demand a proper definition of these predementia stages. It has become clear that a consensus lexicon is needed to comprehensively describe the stages that anticipate dementia. The goal of the present work is to review existing literature on the preclinical and prodromal phases of FTD, providing recommendations to address the unmet questions, therefore laying out a strategy for operationalizing and better characterizing these presymptomatic disease stages
Anthrax outbreak in a Swedish beef cattle herd - 1st case in 27 years: Case report
After 27 years with no detected cases, an outbreak of anthrax occurred in a beef cattle herd in the south of Sweden. The outbreak was unusual as it occurred in winter, in animals not exposed to meat-and-bone meal, in a non-endemic country
Coevolution of amino acid residues in the key photosynthetic enzyme Rubisco
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of the key forces shaping proteins is coevolution of amino acid residues. Knowing which residues coevolve in a particular protein may facilitate our understanding of protein evolution, structure and function, and help to identify substitutions that may lead to desired changes in enzyme kinetics. Rubisco, the most abundant enzyme in biosphere, plays an essential role in the process of carbon fixation through photosynthesis, thus facilitating life on Earth. This makes Rubisco an important model system for studying the dynamics of protein fitness optimization on the evolutionary landscape. In this study we investigated the selective and coevolutionary forces acting on large subunit of land plants Rubisco using Markov models of codon substitution and clustering approaches applied to amino acid substitution histories.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that both selection and coevolution shape Rubisco, and that positively selected and coevolving residues have their specifically favored amino acid composition and pairing preference. The mapping of these residues on the known Rubisco tertiary structures showed that the coevolving residues tend to be in closer proximity with each other compared to the background, while positively selected residues tend to be further away from each other. This study also reveals that the residues under positive selection or coevolutionary force are located within functionally important regions and that some residues are targets of both positive selection and coevolution at the same time.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results demonstrate that coevolution of residues is common in Rubisco of land plants and that there is an overlap between coevolving and positively selected residues. Knowledge of which Rubisco residues are coevolving and positively selected could be used for further work on structural modeling and identification of substitutions that may be changed in order to improve efficiency of this important enzyme in crops.</p
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