2,060 research outputs found
EPIM Policy Update July 2018
This EPIM policy update covers the June
European Council Summit and the developments
leading up to it. Whilst the Council conclusions
are not ground-breaking, two points deserve
attention. Firstly, they include the concept of
‘regional disembarkation platforms’ as a new
approach to processing those who are saved in
Search and Rescue (SAR) operations outside of
the EU. Secondly, they mention ‘controlled
centres’ within member states to provide for
rapid processing of asylum seekers and other
migrants. As further explored in this update’s
special focus section, serious questions remain
concerning the implications for human rights
protection and the feasibility of these new
approaches
Biosurfactants are useful tools for the bioremediation of contaminated soil: a review
Bioremediation processes are negatively affected by the low aqueous solubility of some contaminants; therefore their bioavailability may be enhanced by the addition of surfactants. These compounds are organic molecules that can be chemically and biologically produced. Surfactants contain both hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups, therefore reducing surface and interfacial tensions of immiscible fluids and increasing the solubility and sorption of hydrophobic organic and inorganic compounds. This article provides an overview of characteristics of natural and synthetic surfactants and the effects of biosurfactants on solubility, sorption and biodegradation of hydrophobic organic contaminants; as well as the effects of biosurfactants on degrader microorganisms as white-rot fungi. Finally, some examples of application of natural surfactants for bioremediation of contaminated soils are shown. In general, this overview indicates the great potential of biosurfactants on the remediation of contaminated sites.124667687FONDECYT [1090678]DIUFRO [DI10-TD01]Convenio de Desempeno Evoluciona-MECESUPFONDECYT [1090678]DIUFRO [DI10-TD01
Neighborhood and weight-related health behaviors in the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) Study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous studies have shown that neighborhood factors are associated with obesity, but few studies have evaluated the association with weight control behaviors. This study aims to conduct a multi-level analysis to examine the relationship between neighborhood SES and weight-related health behaviors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this ancillary study to Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) a trial of long-term weight loss among individuals with type 2 diabetes, individual-level data on 1219 participants from 4 clinic sites at baseline were linked to neighborhood-level data at the tract level from the 2000 US Census and other databases. Neighborhood variables included SES (% living below the federal poverty level) and the availability of food stores, convenience stores, and restaurants. Dependent variables included BMI, eating patterns, weight control behaviors and resource use related to food and physical activity. Multi-level models were used to account for individual-level SES and potential confounders.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The availability of restaurants was related to several eating and weight control behaviors. Compared to their counterparts in neighborhoods with fewer restaurants, participants in neighborhoods with more restaurants were more likely to eat breakfast (prevalence Ratio [PR] 1.29 95% CI: 1.01-1.62) and lunch (PR = 1.19, 1.04-1.36) at non-fast food restaurants. They were less likely to be attempting weight loss (OR = 0.93, 0.89-0.97) but more likely to engage in weight control behaviors for food and physical activity, respectively, than those who lived in neighborhoods with fewer restaurants. In contrast, neighborhood SES had little association with weight control behaviors.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this selected group of weight loss trial participants, restaurant availability was associated with some weight control practices, but neighborhood SES was not. Future studies should give attention to other populations and to evaluating various aspects of the physical and social environment with weight control practices.</p
Step-by-step guide to setting up a kidney replacement therapy registry: the challenge of a national kidney replacement therapy registry
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become one of the most important public health problems worldwide. Analysis, and understanding, of this global/national/regional reality would benefit from renal registry databases. The implementation of a CKD registry (including all categories) is difficult to achieve, given its high cost. On the other hand, patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) are easily accessible and constitute the most severe subgroup in terms of comorbidities and healthcare costs. A kidney replacement therapy registry (KRTR) is defined as the systematic and continuous collection of a population-based data set from ESKD patients treated by dialysis/kidney transplant. The lack of available data, particularly in emerging economies, leaves information gaps on healthcare and outcomes in these patients. The heterogeneity/absence of a KRTR in some countries is consistent with the inequities in access to KRT worldwide. In 2014, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) proposed to determine the prevalence of patients on dialysis for at least 700 patients per million inhabitants by 2019 in every Latin American (LA) country. Since then, PAHO and the Sociedad LatinoAmericana de Nefrología e Hipertensión have provided training courses and certification of KRTR in LA. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide guidance on how to set up a new KRTR in countries or regions that still lack one. Advice is provided on the sequential steps in the process of setting up a KRTR, personnel requirements, data set content and minimum quality indicators required
Mutation analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Iranian high risk breast cancer families
Background: Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that synthesises telomeres after cell
division and maintains chromosomal stability leading to cellular immortalization. Telomerase has
been associated with negative prognostic indicators in some studies. The present study aims to
detect any association between telomerase sub-units: hTERT and hTR and the prognostic
indicators including tumour's size and grade, nodal status and patient's age.
Methods: Tumour samples from 46 patients with primary invasive breast cancer and 3 patients
with benign tumours were collected. RT-PCR analysis was used for the detection of hTR, hTERT,
and PGM1 (as a housekeeping) genes expression.
Results: The expression of hTR and hTERT was found in 31(67.4%) and 38 (82.6%) samples
respectively. We observed a significant association between hTR gene expression and younger age
at diagnosis (p = 0.019) when comparing patients ≤ 40 years with those who are older than 40
years. None of the benign tumours expressed hTR gene. However, the expression of hTERT gene
was revealed in 2 samples.
No significant association between hTR and hTERT expression and tumour's grade, stage and nodal
status was seen.
Conclusion: The expression of hTR and hTERT seems to be independent of tumour's stage. hTR
expression probably plays a greater role in mammary tumourogenesis in younger women (≤ 40
years) and this may have therapeutic implications in the context of hTR targeting strategies
Accurate Real-Time PCR Strategy for Monitoring Bloodstream Parasitic Loads in Chagas Disease Patients
Infection with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), causing American trypanosomiasis or Chagas disease, remains a major public health concern in 21 endemic countries of America, with an estimated prevalence of 8 million infected people. Chagas disease shows a variable clinical course, ranging from asymptomatic to chronic stages with low parasitaemias, whose severest form is heart disease. Diagnosis at the asymptomatic and chronic stages is based on serological detection of anti-T. cruzi antibodies, because conventional parasitological methods lack sensitivity. Current chemotherapies are more effective in recent infections than in the chronic adult population. The criterion of cure relies on serological conversion to negative, which may occur only years after treatment, requiring long-term follow-up. In this context, we aimed to develop a real-time PCR assay targeted to repetitive sequences of T. cruzi for sensitive quantitation of parasitic load in peripheral blood of infected patients. It was applied to monitor treatment response of infected children, allowing rapid evaluation of drug efficacy as well as detection of treatment failure. It was also used for early diagnosis of chagasic reactivation in end-stage heart disease patients who received immunosuppressive drugs after cardiac transplantation. This laboratory strategy may constitute a novel parasitological tool for prompt and sensitive evaluation of anti-parasitic treatment of Chagas disease
The epidemiology of renal replacement therapy in two different parts of the world: the Latin American Dialysis and Transplant Registry versus the European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association Registry
Objective. To compare the epidemiology of renal replacement therapy (RRT) for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in Latin America and Europe, as well as to study differences in macroeconomic indicators, demographic and clinical patient characteristics, mortality rates, and causes of death between these two populations. Methods. We used data from 20 Latin American and 49 European national and subnational renal registries that had provided data to the Latin American Dialysis and Renal Transplant Registry (RLADTR) and the European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA) Registry, respectively. The incidence and prevalence of RRT in 2013 were calculated per million population (pmp), overall and by subcategories of age, sex, primary renal disease, and treatment modality. The correlation between gross domestic product and the prevalence of RRT was analyzed using linear regression. Trends in the prevalence of RRT between 2004 and 2013 were assessed using Joinpoint regression analysis. Results. In 2013, the overall incidence at day 91 after the onset of RRT was 181 pmp for Latin American countries and 130 pmp for European countries. The overall prevalence was 660 pmp for Latin America and 782 pmp for Europe. In the Latin American countries, the annual increase in the prevalence averaged 4.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.5%-5.6%) from 2004 to 2013, while the European countries showed an average annual increase of 2.2% (95% CI: 2.0%-2.4%) for the same time period. The crude mortality rate was higher in Latin America than in Europe (112 versus 100 deaths per 1 000 patient-years), and cardiovascular disease was the main cause of death in both of those regions. Conclusions. There are considerable differences between Latin America and Europe in the epidemiology of RRT for ESRD. Further research is needed to explore the reasons for these differences
Effective Theory Approach to the Spontaneous Breakdown of Lorentz Invariance
We generalize the coset construction of Callan, Coleman, Wess and Zumino to
theories in which the Lorentz group is spontaneously broken down to one of its
subgroups. This allows us to write down the most general low-energy effective
Lagrangian in which Lorentz invariance is non-linearly realized, and to explore
the consequences of broken Lorentz symmetry without having to make any
assumptions about the mechanism that triggers the breaking. We carry out the
construction both in flat space, in which the Lorentz group is a global
spacetime symmetry, and in a generally covariant theory, in which the Lorentz
group can be treated as a local internal symmetry. As an illustration of this
formalism, we construct the most general effective field theory in which the
rotation group remains unbroken, and show that the latter is just the
Einstein-aether theory.Comment: 45 pages, no figures
Genome of the Avirulent Human-Infective Trypanosome—Trypanosoma rangeli
Background: Trypanosoma rangeli is a hemoflagellate protozoan parasite infecting humans and other wild and domestic mammals across Central and South America. It does not cause human disease, but it can be mistaken for the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi. We have sequenced the T. rangeli genome to provide new tools for elucidating the distinct and intriguing biology of this species and the key pathways related to interaction with its arthropod and mammalian hosts. Methodology/Principal Findings: The T. rangeli haploid genome is ,24 Mb in length, and is the smallest and least repetitive trypanosomatid genome sequenced thus far. This parasite genome has shorter subtelomeric sequences compared to those of T. cruzi and T. brucei; displays intraspecific karyotype variability and lacks minichromosomes. Of the predicted 7,613 protein coding sequences, functional annotations could be determined for 2,415, while 5,043 are hypothetical proteins, some with evidence of protein expression. 7,101 genes (93%) are shared with other trypanosomatids that infect humans. An ortholog of the dcl2 gene involved in the T. brucei RNAi pathway was found in T. rangeli, but the RNAi machinery is non-functional since the other genes in this pathway are pseudogenized. T. rangeli is highly susceptible to oxidative stress, a phenotype that may be explained by a smaller number of anti-oxidant defense enzymes and heatshock proteins. Conclusions/Significance: Phylogenetic comparison of nuclear and mitochondrial genes indicates that T. rangeli and T. cruzi are equidistant from T. brucei. In addition to revealing new aspects of trypanosome co-evolution within the vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, comparative genomic analysis with pathogenic trypanosomatids provides valuable new information that can be further explored with the aim of developing better diagnostic tools and/or therapeutic targets
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