Quantifying urbanisation as a risk factor for non-communicable disease

Aim of this study was to investigate the poorly understood relationship between the process of urbanization and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Sri Lanka using a multi-component, quantitative measure of urbanicity.NCD prevalence data were taken from the Sri Lankan Diabetes and Cardiovascular Study comprising a representative sample of people from seven of the nine provinces in Sri Lanka (n=4,485/5,000; response rate=89.7%). We constructed a measure of the urban environment for seven areas using a seven-item scale based on data from study clusters to develop an ―urbanicity&rdquo; scale. The items were population size, population density, and access to markets, transportation, communications/media, economic factors, environment/sanitation, health, education, and housing quality. Linear and logistic regression models were constructed to examine the relationship between urbanicity and chronic disease risk factors.Among men, urbanicity was positively associated with physical inactivity (OR: 3.22; 2.27 &ndash; 4.57), high body mass index (OR: 2.45; 95% CI: 1.88 &ndash; 3.20) and diabetes mellitus (OR: 2.44; 95% CI: 1.66 &ndash; 3.57). Among women, too, urbanicity was positively associated with physical inactivity (OR: 2.29; 95% CI: 1.64 &ndash; 3.21), high body mass index (OR: 2.92;95% CI: 2.41 &ndash; 3.55) and diabetes mellitus (OR: 2.10; 95% CI: 1.58 &ndash; 2.80).There is a clear relationship between urbanicity and common modifiable risk factors for chronic disease in a representative sample of Sri Lankan adults.<br /

Factors affecting the offer of pulmonary rehabilitation to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by primary care professionals : a qualitative study

Aim: To explore health professionals&rsquo; experiences of barriers and facilitators to referring patients for pulmonary rehabilitation in a primary care setting. Background: Pulmonary rehabilitation involves a multidisciplinary teamwork approach to improvingthe quality of life for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study aimed to find out about health care professionals&rsquo; experiences when referring patients. Reports suggest that a health care professional&rsquo;s attitude towards a treatment affects the willingness of patients to accept advice. Methods: Five focus group interviews were undertaken with 21 health professionals from North Midlands, UK. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis drawing on the techniques of grounded theory.Findings: Chronic disease management has been delegated to Practice Nurses in many cases leaving some nurses feeling unsupported and some General Practitioners feeling deskilled. Problems with communication, a lack of adequate and timely local service provision, a difficult referral process, time pressures and lack of information were barriers to health care professionals making an offer of pulmonary rehabilitation. An explanatory model is proposed to describe how addressing barriers to referral may improve health care professionals views about pulmonary rehabilitation and therefore may mean that they present it in a more positive manner.<br /

Landau-deGennes Theory of Biaxial Nematics Re-examined

Recent experiments report that the long looked for thermotropic biaxial nematic phase has been finally detected in some thermotropic liquid crystalline systems. Inspired by these experimental observations we concentrate on some elementary theoretical issues concerned with the classical sixth-order Landau-deGennes free energy expansion in terms of the symmetric and traceless tensor order parameter $Q_{\alpha\beta}$. In particular, we fully explore the stability of the biaxial nematic phase giving analytical solutions for all distinct classes of the phase diagrams that theory allows. This includes diagrams with triple- and (tri-)critical points and with multiple (reentrant) biaxial- and uniaxial phase transitions. A brief comparison with predictions of existing molecular theories is also given.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure

Subspecies Variation of Daucus carota Coastal (“Gummifer”) Morphotypes (Apiaceae) Using Genotyping-by-Sequencing

The genus Daucus is widely distributed worldwide, but with a concentration of diversity in the Mediterranean Region. The D. carota complex presents the greatest taxonomic problems in the genus. We focus on a distinctive phenotypic group of coastal morphotypes of D. carota, strictly confined to the margins to within about 0.5 km of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, which we here refer to as coastal morphotypes or D. carota subsp. “gummifer” complex. They are loosely morphologically coherent, sharing a relatively short stature, thick, broad, sometimes highly glossy leaf segments, and usually flat or convex fruiting umbels. We analyzed 288 accessions obtained from genebanks in England, France, and the USA, and an expedition to Spain in 2016, covering the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts and Balearic Islands, where much of the gummifer complex variation occurs. Our study includes 112 accessions not examined before in this context. Genotyping-by-sequencing identified 29,041 filtered SNPs. Based on high bootstrap support from maximum likelihood and Structure analysis we highlight three main clades. The gummifer morphotypes are intercalated with members of Daucus carota subspecies carota and subspecies maximus in two of these main clades, including a clade containing accessions from Tunisia (also including D. carota subsp. capillifolius) and a clade containing accessions from western Europe (including the British Isles), southern Europe (including the Balearic Islands and the Iberian Peninsula) and Morocco. These results support five independent selections of the gummifer morphotypes in these restricted maritime environments in the Mediterranean and nearby Atlantic coasts. Daucus annuus (=Tornabenea annua) and Daucus tenuissimus (=Tornabenea tenuissima) also fall firmly within D. carota, supporting their classification as morphologically well-defined subspecies of D. carota, which are accepted here under the new combinations Daucus carota subsp. annuus and D. carota subsp. tenuissimus , respectively. Types are indicated for most of treated names, including designation of four lectotypes and three epitypes, which fix their further use.This research was partly funded by the research grant UA2004-47056131 (University of Alicante) to FMF and by the USDA

The Genetic and Molecular Basis of O-Antigenic Diversity in Burkholderia pseudomallei Lipopolysaccharide

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is one of the most important virulence and antigenic components of Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis. LPS diversity in B. pseudomallei has been described as typical, atypical or rough, based upon banding patterns on SDS-PAGE. Here, we studied the genetic and molecular basis of these phenotypic differences. Bioinformatics was used to determine the diversity of genes known or predicted to be involved in biosynthesis of the O-antigenic moiety of LPS in B. pseudomallei and its near-relative species. Multiplex-PCR assays were developed to target diversity of the O-antigen biosynthesis gene patterns or LPS genotypes in B. pseudomallei populations. We found that the typical LPS genotype (LPS genotype A) was highly prevalent in strains from Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia, whereas the atypical LPS genotype (LPS genotype B) was most often detected in Australian strains (∼13.8%). In addition, we report a novel LPS ladder pattern, a derivative of the atypical LPS phenotype, associated with an uncommon O-antigen biosynthesis gene cluster that is found in only a small B. pseudomallei sub-population. This new LPS group was designated as genotype B2. We also report natural mutations in the O-antigen biosynthesis genes that potentially cause the rough LPS phenotype. We postulate that the diversity of LPS may correlate with differential immunopathogenicity and virulence among B. pseudomallei strains

Anthrax: Evolutionary approaches for genetic-based investigative tools

A TaqMan-minor groove binding assay designed around a nonsense mutation in the plcR gene was used to genotype Bacillus anthracis, B. cereus, and B. thuringiensis isolates. The assay differentiated B. anthracis from these genetic near-neighbors and determined that the nonsense mutation is ubiquitous across 89 globally and genetically diverse B. anthracis strains