Force measurements with optical tweezers inside living cells

The force exerted by optical tweezers can be measured by tracking the momentum changes of the trapping beam, a method which is more general and powerful than traditional calibration techniques as it is based on first principles, but which has not been brought to its full potential yet, probably due to practical difficulties when combined with high-NA optical traps, such as the necessity to capture a large fraction of the scattered light. We show that it is possible to measure forces on arbitrary biological objects inside cells without an in situ calibration, using this approach. The instrument can be calibrated by measuring three scaling parameters that are exclusively determined by the design of the system, thus obtaining a conversion factor from volts to piconewtons that is theoretically independent of the physical properties of the sample and its environment. We prove that this factor keeps valid inside cells as it shows good agreement with other calibration methods developed in recent years for viscoelastic media. Finally, we apply the method to measuring the stall forces of kinesin and dynein in living A549 cells.Publisher PD

Analysis of the Adherence and Safety of Second Oral Glucose-Lowering Therapy in Routine Practice From the Mediterranean Area : A Retrospective Cohort Study

Altres ajuts: AstraZeneca/ESR-16-12628Altres ajuts: Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands (ARC EM)Altres ajuts: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)Altres ajuts: Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR)The aims of our study was compare adherence measured by the medical possession ratio (MPR), time until discontinuation and describe adverse events after adding a DPP-4i, SGLT-2i, or sulfonylureas (SU) to metformin in a primary care population with insufficient glycemic control. We used routinely-collected health data from the SIDIAP database. The included subjects were matched by propensity score. The follow-up period was up to 24 months or premature discontinuation. The primary outcomes were the percentage of subjects with good adherence, treatment discontinuation and adverse events among treatment groups. The proportion of patients with good adherence (MPR> 0.8) after the addition of DPP-4i, SGLT-2i or SU was 53.6%, 68.7%, and 43.0%, respectively. SGLT-2i users were 1.7 times more likely to achieve good adherence compared with DPP-4i users (odds ratio [OR]:1.72, 98% confidence interval [CI]:1.51, 1.96), and 2.8 times more likely compared with SU users (OR: 0.35, 98% CI: 0.07, 0.29). The discontinuation hazard ratios were 1.43 (98%CI: 1.26; 1.62) and 1.60 (98%CI: 1.42; 1.81) times higher among SGLT-2i and SU users than DPP-4i users during the follow-up period. No differences were observed for adverse events among the treatment groups. In conclusion, in our real-world setting, the combination of SGLT-2i with metformin was associated with better adherence. The mean time until discontinuation was longer in the SGLT-2i group in comparison with the DPP-4i or SU groups

New food composition data on selected ethnic foods consumed in Europe

Background: Reliable data on the composition of foods is needed to better understand individual diets, measure nutrient intakes and provide nutritional guidance for improving the health of the populations. Ethnic foods are becoming increasingly popular among all European consumers, and are the main source of nutrients in the diets of ethnic groups. However, there is limited information on the nutrient composition of ethnic foods in Europe. The objective of this study therefore was to generate new and reliable data on ethnic foods using harmonised methods for chemical analyses. Methods: New data on 128 ethnic foods were generated for inclusion in the national databases within the European Food Information Resource Network of Excellence through participants from France, Israel, Spain, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom. In each selected country, the list of prioritised foods and key nutrients, methods of analyses and quality assurance procedure were harmonised. Results: This paper presents the nutrient composition of 40 ethnic foods consumed in Europe. The nutrient composition of the foods varied widely because of the nature and variety of foods analysed, with energy content (kcal) ranging between 24 (biteku-teku, Blegium) and 495 (nachos, Italy) per 100 g of edible food. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids were generally higher in most ethnic foods consumed in Italy and Spain compared with ethnic foods of other countries. Conclusions: The new data were scrutinised and fully documented for inclusion in the national food composition databases. The data will aid effective diet and disease interventions, and enhance the provision of dietary advice, in all European consumers

Importancia del agua en la hidratación de la población española: documento FESNAD 2010

For any healthy individual, thirst is an appropriate sign to drink water, except for babies, sportsmen, and most of ill and elderly people. In these instances, it is convenient to schedule appropriate times to drink water since great demands and the physiological mechanisms that determine thirst in these situations may condition water unbalances with important consequences for health and the physical and intellectual performance. The human body has a number of mechanisms that allow keeping constant the water content by adjusting intakes and wastes. Water balance is determined by intake (consumed water, beverages, and water contained in foods) and wastes (urine, stools, the skin, and expired air from the lungs). Failure of these mechanisms and subsequent impairments in water balance may produce severe disarrangements that may threaten somebody's life. In the present document, we analyze the evidences regarding the factors conditioning water needs in the different life stages and physiological situations, as well as the consequences of water unbalance under different situations. A proper hydration may be achieved by feeding and the use of water and other liquids. Although water is the beverage by excellence and represents the ideal way of restoring the losses and get hydrated, we should be aware that, from the very beginning, we have sought other liquid sources with hydration properties. In the last decades we have increased the consumption of different beverages, with a proliferation of sugar-containing beverages. Since excessive sugar consumption has been related to obesity and other chronic conditions, it is evident that the use of these caloric beverages should be rationalized, especially in children. In this document all the considerations regarding hydration are presented and different recommendations are expose

A pilot study of medical student attitudes to, and use of, commercial movies that address public health issues

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An innovative approach to learning public health by using feature-length commercial movies was piloted in the fourth year of a medical degree. We aimed to explore how students responded to this approach and the relative effectiveness of two promotional strategies. Firstly we placed DVDs of 15 movies (with public health-related content) in the medical school library. Then alternating groups of students (total n = 82 students) were exposed to either a brief promotional intervention or a more intensive intervention involving a class presentation. The response rates were 99% at baseline and 85% at follow-up.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The level and strength of support for using movies in public health training increased after exposure to the public health module with significantly more students "strongly agreeing". Student behaviour, in terms of movies viewed or accessed from the library, also suggested student interest. While there were no statistically significant differences in median viewing or library access rates between the two intervention groups, the distribution of viewing patterns was shifted favourably. Those exposed to the more intensive intervention (class presentation) were significantly more likely to have reported watching at least one movie (97% vs. 81%; p = 0.033) or to having accessed at least one movie from the library (100% vs. 70%, p = 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This pilot study found that the students had very positive attitudes towards viewing public health-related commercial movies. Movie access rates from the library were also favourable.</p

Gender Differences in Russian Colour Naming

In the present study we explored Russian colour naming in a web-based psycholinguistic experiment (http://www.colournaming.com). Colour singletons representing the Munsell Color Solid (N=600 in total) were presented on a computer monitor and named using an unconstrained colour-naming method. Respondents were Russian speakers (N=713). For gender-split equal-size samples (NF=333, NM=333) we estimated and compared (i) location of centroids of 12 Russian basic colour terms (BCTs); (ii) the number of words in colour descriptors; (iii) occurrences of BCTs most frequent non-BCTs. We found a close correspondence between females’ and males’ BCT centroids. Among individual BCTs, the highest inter-gender agreement was for seryj ‘grey’ and goluboj ‘light blue’, while the lowest was for sinij ‘dark blue’ and krasnyj ‘red’. Females revealed a significantly richer repertory of distinct colour descriptors, with great variety of monolexemic non-BCTs and “fancy” colour names; in comparison, males offered relatively more BCTs or their compounds. Along with these measures, we gauged denotata of most frequent CTs, reflected by linguistic segmentation of colour space, by employing a synthetic observer trained by gender-specific responses. This psycholinguistic representation revealed females’ more refined linguistic segmentation, compared to males, with higher linguistic density predominantly along the redgreen axis of colour space

Impacts of global change on Mediterranean forests and their services

The increase in aridity, mainly by decreases in precipitation but also by higher temperatures, is likely the main threat to the diversity and survival of Mediterranean forests. Changes in land use, including the abandonment of extensive crop activities, mainly in mountains and remote areas, and the increases in human settlements and demand for more resources with the resulting fragmentation of the landscape, hinder the establishment of appropriate management tools to protect Mediterranean forests and their provision of services and biodiversity. Experiments and observations indicate that if changes in climate, land use and other components of global change, such as pollution and overexploitation of resources, continue, the resilience of many forests will likely be exceeded, altering their structure and function and changing, mostly decreasing, their capacity to continue to provide their current services. A consistent assessment of the impacts of the changes, however, remains elusive due to the difficulty of obtaining simultaneous and complete data for all scales of the impacts in the same forests, areas and regions. We review the impacts of climate change and other components of global change and their interactions on the terrestrial forests of Mediterranean regions, with special attention to their impacts on ecosystem services. Management tools for counteracting the negative effects of global change on Mediterranean ecosystem- services are finally discussed