Evaluating the effects of six alcohol-related message frames on emotions and intentions: The neglected role of disgust

A total of 120 18- to 56-year-olds, divided into six groups containing equal numbers of men and women, were shown a textual message and associated photograph featuring alcohol-related behaviour. Subsequently, questions were answered about intentions to reduce consumption, to drink moderately and how positive and negative the messages made participants feel. Loss-framed messages, in particular those featuring health-related disgust, were the most effective for increasing intentions to reduce alcohol intake. In conclusion, studies have over-focused on fear-loss frames, neglecting the utility of disgust-loss frames in health messages. This study suggests that disgust-loss frames deserve equivalent attention

Remote in vivo stress assessment of aquatic animals with microencapsulated biomarkers for environmental monitoring

Remote in vivo scanning of physiological parameters is a major trend in the development of new tools for the fields of medicine and animal physiology. For this purpose, a variety of implantable optical micro- and nanosensors have been designed for potential medical applications. At the same time, the important area of environmental sciences has been neglected in the development of techniques for remote physiological measurements. In the field of environmental monitoring and related research, there is a constant demand for new effective and quick techniques for the stress assessment of aquatic animals, and the development of proper methods for remote physiological measurements in vivo may significantly increase the precision and throughput of analyses in this field. In the present study, we apply pH-sensitive microencapsulated biomarkers to remotely monitor the pH of haemolymph in vivo in endemic amphipods from Lake Baikal, and we compare the suitability of this technique for stress assessment with that of common biochemical methods. For the first time, we demonstrate the possibility of remotely detecting a change in a physiological parameter in an aquatic organism under ecologically relevant stressful conditions and show the applicability of techniques using microencapsulated biomarkers for remote physiological measurements in environmental monitoring

Community perceptions of malaria and vaccines in the South Coast and Busia regions of Kenya

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children younger than 5 years in Kenya. Within the context of planning for a vaccine to be used alongside existing malaria control methods, this study explores sociocultural and health communications issues among individuals who are responsible for or influence decisions on childhood vaccination at the community level.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This qualitative study was conducted in two malaria-endemic regions of Kenya--South Coast and Busia. Participant selection was purposive and criterion based. A total of 20 focus group discussions, 22 in-depth interviews, and 18 exit interviews were conducted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Participants understand that malaria is a serious problem that no single tool can defeat. Communities would welcome a malaria vaccine, although they would have questions and concerns about the intervention. While support for local child immunization programs exists, limited understanding about vaccines and what they do is evident among younger and older people, particularly men. Even as health care providers are frustrated when parents do not have their children vaccinated, some parents have concerns about access to and the quality of vaccination services. Some women, including older mothers and those less economically privileged, see themselves as the focus of health workers' negative comments associated with either their parenting choices or their children's appearance. In general, parents and caregivers weigh several factors--such as personal opportunity costs, resource constraints, and perceived benefits--when deciding whether or not to have their children vaccinated, and the decision often is influenced by a network of people, including community leaders and health workers.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The study raises issues that should inform a communications strategy and guide policy decisions within Kenya on eventual malaria vaccine introduction. Unlike the current practice, where health education on child welfare and immunization focuses on women, the communications strategy should equally target men and women in ways that are appropriate for each gender. It should involve influential community members and provide needed information and reassurances about immunization. Efforts also should be made to address concerns about the quality of immunization services--including health workers' interpersonal communication skills.</p

Tourism resilience in the context of integrated destination and disaster management (DM2)

The disaster management principles should be integrated into the destination management plans to enhance resilience of tourist destinations to natural disasters. The success of such integration depends on the extent of tourism stakeholder collaboration, but this topic remains understudied, especially in the Caribbean. This paper evaluates tourism resilience in Grenada. It finds that local tourism stakeholders are well aware of the potential damage natural disasters can inflict on the destination but fail to develop effective measures to build destination-wide and organizational resilience. The paper proposes an action framework to aid tourism stakeholders in Grenada to more effectively plan for disasters

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Producción científica sobre aplicaciones terapéuticas del ozono en el Web of Science

One of the most remarkable discoveries during the last years in the field of Alternative Medicine is the use of Ozone as therapeutic agent. Nevertheless, in spite of the increasingly extended practice of Ozone therapy in the world, contradictory aspects about their acceptance as a therapeutic technique still exist, and some mass media have asserted that there is no scientific evidence that supports their supposed advantages. The current work is a bibliometric study of the Web of Science, aimed at identifying and analysing the scientific production on therapeutic applications of Ozone. A total of 117 articles were retrieved. The authors' association index; the most productive authors, journals and countries; the most cited articles; the international cooperation networks; the most benefited specialties; and the most ozone-treated illnesses were identified. Despite the scanty scientific production on the ozone therapeutic applications gathered in the Web of Science, an exponential growth of the articles during the last decade was observed, as well as a wide range of pathologies that registered their positive effects, which confirmed the existence of a scientifically valid evidence that supports its use as a therapeutic technique in the clinical practice

Estudio bibliométrico de la producción científica de la Revista CENIC Ciencias Químicas. 1996-2005

A bibliometric study on the scientific production of the Revista CENIC Ciencias Químicas during the period 1996-2005 was made. This serial publication is an official journal of the National Center for Scientific Research (NCSR), and its objective is the diffusion of outstanding and new results developed inside and outside the country in the branch of Chemical Sciences, mainly contributions on Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Physics, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry. The annual behaviour of the papers published in the journal is shown, as well as their typology. The predominance of original scientific papers can be observed. The authors with five or more papers during the studied period are presented, as well as the institutions and branches with a higher presence in the scientific production of the journal. The behaviour of the most productive branches from the NCSR, specifically the Chemical one, the Ozone Research Center, and the Center of Natural Products, is compared with the corresponding ones of important national institutions as the Faculty of Chemistry, the Institute of Materials and Reagents and the Center of Biomaterials, all belonging to the University of Havana, and the Center of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, the Institute of Food Industry Research, and the Higher Polytechnic Institute “José Antonio Echeverría”. The transparency in the publishing policy for the selection of papers was evidenced. The necessity to revise the journal diffusion, promotion, distribution and visibility policies, in order to achieve the indicators of international presence and collaboration, was demonstrated