209 research outputs found
Roles of the Bloom's syndrome helicase in the maintenance of genome stability
The RecQ family of DNA helicases is highly conserved in evolution from bacteria to humans. Of the five known human RecQ family members, three (BLM, WRN and RECQ4, which cause Bloom's syndrome, Werner's syndrome and Rothmund-Thomson syndrome respectively) are mutated in distinct clinical disorders associated with cancer predisposition and/or premature aging. BLM forms part of a multienzyme complex including topoisomerase IIIalpha, replication protein A and a newly identified factor called BLAP75. Together, these proteins play a role in the resolution of DNA structures that arise during the process of homologous recombination repair. In the absence of BLM, cells show genomic instability and a high incidence of sister-chromatid exchanges. In addition to a DNA structure-specific helicase activity, BLM also catalyses Holliday-junction branch migration and the annealing of complementary single-stranded DNA molecules
Effect of psychiatry liaison with general practitioners on depression severity in recently hospitalised cardiac patients: a randomised controlled trial
The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia (26 April 2007). An external link to the publisherâs copy is included.Objective: To evaluate the effect on depressive symptoms in cardiac patients of patient-specific advice to general practitioners regarding management of comorbid depression. Design and setting: A randomised controlled trial in four general hospitals in Adelaide, South Australia. Participants: Patients (n = 669) admitted to cardiology units for a range of cardiovascular conditions who were screened and assessed as being depressed according to the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Intervention: Inpatient psychiatric review, followed by telephone case conferencing between specialist hospital staff and GPs to provide patient-specific information about the patientâs depression and its management, educational material, and ongoing clinical support. Main outcome measures: Level of depression severity at 12 months posthospitalisation. Results: On the basis of intention to treat, intervention patients had lower rates of moderate to severe depression (CES-D â„ 27) after 12 months (25% v 35%, relative risk, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54â0.96, number needed to treat for benefit, 11). The intervention was most effective in preventing progression from mild depression to moderate to severe depression. The multidisciplinary telephone case conferencing was difficult to implement and, in a post hoc analysis, brief phone advice from a psychiatrist was found to be effective. Conclusions: Screening hospitalised cardiac patients for depression and providing targeted advice to their GPs reduces depression severity 12 months after hospitalisation.Geoff Schrader, Frida Cheok, Ann-Louise Hordacre, Julie Marker and Victoria Wad
Depression after cardiac hospitalisation: the identifying depression as a comorbid condition (IDACC) study
Copyright © 2005 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Copyright to Australian Family Physician. Reproduced with permission. Permission to reproduce must be sought from the publisher, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.Background: The Identifying Depression as a Comorbid Condition (IDACC) study aimed to identify depressive symptoms in hospitalised cardiac patients and support management of depression in general practice. Objective: This post hoc analysis of the IDACC trial examines the effectiveness and practicality of different forms of communication between hospital psychiatric services and general practitioners. Methods: We randomised 669 cardiac inpatients with depressive symptoms, identified with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), to an intervention or usual care control group. Individual depression scores and depression management guidelines were sent to GPs of all intervention patients. Where possible, psychiatric advice was provided to the GP either by multidisciplinary enhanced primary care case conference or one-to-one telephone advice. Results: Multidisciplinary case conferences were implemented for only 24% of intervention patients. General practitioners received individual telephone advice in 40% of cases, and 36% received written information only. The psychiatrist telephone advice resulted in a significant reduction in the proportion of patients with moderate to severe depression 12 months after cardiac hospitalisation (19% vs. 35%). Discussion: Screening, combined with psychiatrist telephone advice to GPs, was simple to organise and effective in reducing depression severity after cardiac admission.Victoria Wade, Frida Cheok, Geoff Schrader, Ann-Louise Hordacre and Julie Marke
Depression after cardiac hospitalisation: the identifying depression as a comorbid condition (IDACC) study
Copyright © 2005 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Copyright to Australian Family Physician. Reproduced with permission. Permission to reproduce must be sought from the publisher, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.Background: The Identifying Depression as a Comorbid Condition (IDACC) study aimed to identify depressive symptoms in hospitalised cardiac patients and support management of depression in general practice. Objective: This post hoc analysis of the IDACC trial examines the effectiveness and practicality of different forms of communication between hospital psychiatric services and general practitioners. Methods: We randomised 669 cardiac inpatients with depressive symptoms, identified with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), to an intervention or usual care control group. Individual depression scores and depression management guidelines were sent to GPs of all intervention patients. Where possible, psychiatric advice was provided to the GP either by multidisciplinary enhanced primary care case conference or one-to-one telephone advice. Results: Multidisciplinary case conferences were implemented for only 24% of intervention patients. General practitioners received individual telephone advice in 40% of cases, and 36% received written information only. The psychiatrist telephone advice resulted in a significant reduction in the proportion of patients with moderate to severe depression 12 months after cardiac hospitalisation (19% vs. 35%). Discussion: Screening, combined with psychiatrist telephone advice to GPs, was simple to organise and effective in reducing depression severity after cardiac admission.Victoria Wade, Frida Cheok, Geoff Schrader, Ann-Louise Hordacre and Julie Marke
Squalus acanthias, spiny dogfish
While there are reported subpopulations of Squalus acanthias (Linnaeus, 1758) elsewhere in the world, the North Pacific subpopulation is now considered a separate species, Squalus suckleyi (Girard, 1854) (see Ebert et al. 2010). Further taxonomic studies on this genus are required, including in relation to Mediterranean and Black Sea subpopulations. In Europe, three subpopulations are inferred to occur.Fil: Finucci, B.. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research; Nueva ZelandaFil: Cheok, J.. University Fraser Simon; CanadĂĄFil: Chiaramonte, Gustavo Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Oficina de CoordinaciĂłn Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia". EstaciĂłn HidrobiolĂłgica de Puerto QuequĂ©n (sede QuequĂ©n); ArgentinaFil: Cotton, C. F.. Florida State University; Estados UnidosFil: Dulvy, N. K.. University Fraser Simon; CanadĂĄFil: Kulka, D. W.. No especifĂca; ArgentinaFil: Neat, F. C.. No especifĂca; ArgentinaFil: Pacoureau, N.. University Fraser Simon; CanadĂĄFil: Rigby, C. L.. James Cook University; AustraliaFil: Tanaka, S.. No especifĂca; ArgentinaFil: Walker, T. I.. University of Melbourne; Australi
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A multi-sensory interactive reading experience for visually impaired children; a user evaluation
© 2018 Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature The childrenâs experience of reading is enhanced by visual displays, and through picture book experiences, young children expose themselves to develop socially, personally, intellectually, and culturally. While a sighted personâs mental imagining is constructed mostly through visual experiences, a visually impaired personâs mental images are a product of haptic, taste, smell, and sounds. In this paper, we are introducing a picture book with multi-sensory interactions for the visually impaired children. The key novelty in our concept is the integration of multi-sensory interactions (touch, sound, and smell) to create a new reading experience for visually impaired. Also, this concept is highlighting the lack of appropriately designed sensory reading experiences for visually impaired children. We have conducted a user study with 10 educators, and 25 children from a special school for visually impaired in Malaysia, and our evaluation revealed that this book is engaging and a novel experience of multi-sensory interactions to both children and educators
Mechanistic mathematical modelling of mercaptopurine effects on cell cycle of human acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells
The antimetabolite mercaptopurine (MP) is widely used to treat childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). To study the dynamics of MP on the cell cycle, we incubated human T-cell leukaemia cell lines (Molt-4 sensitive and resistant subline and P12 resistant) with 10âÎŒM MP and measured total cell count, cell cycle distribution, percent viable, percent apoptotic, and percent dead cells serially over 72âh. We developed a mathematical model of the cell cycle dynamics after treatment with MP and used it to show that the Molt-4 sensitive controls had a significantly higher rate of cells entering apoptosis (2.7-fold, P<0.00001) relative to the resistant cell lines. Additionally, when treated with MP, the sensitive cell line showed a significant increase in the rate at which cells enter apoptosis compared to its controls (2.4-fold, P<0.00001). Of note, the resistant cell lines had a higher rate of antimetabolite incorporation into the DNA of viable cells (>1.4-fold, P<0.01). Lastly, in contrast to the other cell lines, the Molt-4 resistant subline continued to cycle, though at a rate slower relative to its control, rather than proceed to apoptosis. This led to a larger S-phase block in the Molt-4 resistant cell line, but not a higher rate of cell death. Gene expression of apoptosis, cell cycle, and repair genes were consistent with mechanistic dynamics described by the model. In summary, the mathematical model provides a quantitative assessment to compare the cell cycle effects of MP in cells with varying degrees of MP resistance
Direct comparisons of logging and agroforestry influence on tropical mammals in Sarawak, Borneo
Tropical regions are undergoing rapid land use change, with major implications for
global biodiversity. Selective logging and agroforestry are particularly widespread
across tropical forests, often occurring in close proximity. But while a number of
studies have addressed their impacts separately, few have directly compared how
they influence forest vertebrates. Here, we assessed the occurrence of medium- to
large-bodied mammals in logged forest, unlogged forest, and agroforestry areas in
three study areas in interior Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. We detected 34 species
across 99 camera trap locations and used multi-species occupancy models to estimate
species-specific occurrence while accounting for imperfect detectability, spatial autocorrelation, natural habitat heterogeneity, and metrics of site accessibility (distance
to human infrastructure) as proxies for potential hunting pressure. We found that
species occurrences were unaffected by the distance to the nearest road or village
and only responded to elevation and the distance to the nearest river in a single species each. Detection rates tended to vary with micro-habitat characteristics such as
the size of tree stumps and the prevalence of trees and rattan palms, which are often
not considered in camera-based occupancy studies. Occurrence rates of five species
varied across habitat types but were not detectably lower in agroforestry sites than in
unlogged forest for any species. Our results indicate that without unsustainable hunting, agroforestry and logged forest provide usable habitat for some, though not all,
rainforest mammals. We also suggest that camera trap studies may benefit from the
incorporation of fine-scale habitat information into detectability estimation
DNA resection in eukaryotes: deciding how to fix the break
DNA double-strand breaks are repaired by different mechanisms, including homologous
recombination and nonhomologous end-joining. DNA-end resection, the first step in
recombination, is a key step that contributes to the choice of DSB repair. Resection, an
evolutionarily conserved process that generates single-stranded DNA, is linked to checkpoint
activation and is critical for survival. Failure to regulate and execute this process results in
defective recombination and can contribute to human disease. Here, I review recent findings on
the mechanisms of resection in eukaryotes, from yeast to vertebrates, provide insights into the
regulatory strategies that control it, and highlight the consequences of both its impairment and its
deregulation
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