Using interpretative phenomenological analysis to inform physiotherapy practice: An introduction with reference to the lived experience of cerebellar ataxia

The attached file is a pre-published version of the full and final paper which can be found at the link below.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Qualitative research methods that focus on the lived experience of people with health conditions are relatively underutilised in physiotherapy research. This article aims to introduce interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), a research methodology oriented toward exploring and understanding the experience of a particular phenomenon (e.g., living with spinal cord injury or chronic pain, or being the carer of someone with a particular health condition). Researchers using IPA try to find out how people make sense of their experiences and the meanings they attach to them. The findings from IPA research are highly nuanced and offer a fine grained understanding that can be used to contextualise existing quantitative research, to inform understanding of novel or underresearched topics or, in their own right, to provoke a reappraisal of what is considered known about a specified phenomenon. We advocate IPA as a useful and accessible approach to qualitative research that can be used in the clinical setting to inform physiotherapy practice and the development of services from the perspective of individuals with particular health conditions.This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

The orphan germinant receptor protein GerXAO (but not GerX3b) is essential for L-alanine induced germination in Clostridium botulinum Group II

Clostridium botulinum is an anaerobic spore forming bacterium that produces the potent botulinum neurotoxin that causes a severe and fatal neuro-paralytic disease of humans and animals (botulism). C. botulinum Group II is a psychrotrophic saccharolytic bacterium that forms spores of moderate heat resistance and is a particular hazard in minimally heated chilled foods. Spore germination is a fundamental process that allows the spore to transition to a vegetative cell and typically involves a germinant receptor (GR) that responds to environmental signals. Analysis of C. botulinum Group II genomes shows they contain a single GR cluster (gerX3b), and an additional single gerA subunit (gerXAO). Spores of C. botulinum Group II strain Eklund 17B germinated in response to the addition of L-alanine, but did not germinate following the addition of exogenous Ca2+-DPA. Insertional inactivation experiments in this strain unexpectedly revealed that the orphan GR GerXAO is essential for L-alanine stimulated germination. GerX3bA and GerX3bC affected the germination rate but were unable to induce germination in the absence of GerXAO. No role could be identified for GerX3bB. This is the first study to identify the functional germination receptor of C. botulinum Group II

The FGLamide-Allatostatins Influence Foraging Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

Allatostatins (ASTs) are multifunctional neuropeptides that generally act in an inhibitory fashion. ASTs were identified as inhibitors of juvenile hormone biosynthesis. Juvenile hormone regulates insect metamorphosis, reproduction, food intake, growth, and development. Drosophila melanogaster RNAi lines of PheGlyLeu-amide-ASTs (FGLa/ASTs) and their cognate receptor, Dar-1, were used to characterize roles these neuropeptides and their respective receptor may play in behavior and physiology. Dar-1 and FGLa/AST RNAi lines showed a significant reduction in larval foraging in the presence of food. The larval foraging defect is not observed in the absence of food. These RNAi lines have decreased for transcript levels which encodes cGMP- dependent protein kinase. A reduction in the for transcript is known to be associated with a naturally occuring allelic variation that creates a sitter phenotype in contrast to the rover phenotype which is caused by a for allele associated with increased for activity. The sitting phenotype of FGLa/AST and Dar-1 RNAi lines is similar to the phenotype of a deletion mutant of an AST/galanin-like receptor (NPR-9) in Caenorhabditis elegans. Associated with the foraging defect in C. elegans npr-9 mutants is accumulation of intestinal lipid. Lipid accumulation was not a phenotype associated with the FGLa/AST and Dar-1 RNAi lines

Demographic, knowledge, attitudinal, and accessibility factors associated with uptake of cervical cancer screening among women in a rural district of Tanzania: Three public policy implications

Cervical cancer is an important public health problem worldwide, which comprises approximately 12% of all cancers in women. In Tanzania, the estimated incidence rate is 30 to 40 per 100,000 women, indicating a high disease burden. Cervical cancer screening is acknowledged as currently the most effective approach for cervical cancer control, and it is associated with reduced incidence and mortality from the disease. The aim of the study was to identify the most important factors related to the uptake of cervical cancer screening among women in a rural district of Tanzania. A cross sectional study was conducted with a sample of 354 women aged 18 to 69 years residing in Moshi Rural District. A multistage sampling technique was used to randomly select eligible women. A one-hour interview was conducted with each woman in her home. The 17 questions were modified from similar questions used in previous research. Less than one quarter (22.6%) of the participants had obtained cervical cancer screening. The following characteristics, when examined separately in relation to the uptake of cervical cancer screening service, were significant: husband approval of cervical cancer screening, women's level of education, women's knowledge of cervical cancer and its prevention, women's concerns about embarrassment and pain of screening, women's preference for the sex of health provider, and women's awareness of and distance to cervical cancer screening services. When examined simultaneously in a logistic regression, we found that only knowledge of cervical cancer and its prevention (OR = 8.90, 95%CI = 2.14-16.03) and distance to the facility which provides cervical cancer screening (OR = 3.98, 95%CI = 0.18-5.10) were significantly associated with screening uptake. Based on the study findings, three recommendations are made. First, information about cervical cancer must be presented to women. Second, public education of the disease must include specific information on how to prevent it as well as screening services available. Third, it is important to provide cervical cancer screening services within 5 km of where women reside

Prevalence of deleterious variants in MC3R in patients with constitutional delay of growth and puberty.

CONTEXT: The melanocortin 3 receptor (MC3R) has recently emerged as a critical regulator of pubertal timing, linear growth and the acquisition of lean mass in humans and mice. In population-based studies, heterozygous carriers of deleterious variants in MC3R report a later onset of puberty than non-carriers. However, the frequency of such variants in patients who present with clinical disorders of pubertal development is currently unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether deleterious MC3R variants are more frequently found in patients clinically presenting with constitutional delay of growth and puberty (CDGP) or normosmic idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (nIHH). DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We examined the sequence of MC3R in 362 adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of CDGP and 657 patients with nIHH, experimentally characterised the signalling properties of all non-synonymous variants found and compared their frequency to that in 5774 controls from a population-based cohort. Additionally, we established the relative frequency of predicted deleterious variants in individuals with self-reported delayed vs normally timed menarche/voice breaking in the UK Biobank cohort. RESULTS: MC3R loss-of-function variants were infrequent but overrepresented in patients with CDGP (8/362 (2.2%), OR = 4.17, p = 0.001). There was no strong evidence of overrepresentation in patients with nIHH (4/657 (0.6%), OR = 1.15, p = 0.779). In 246,328 women from UK Biobank, predicted deleterious variants were more frequently found in those self-reporting delayed (≥16 years) vs normal age at menarche (OR = 1.66, p = 3.90E-07). CONCLUSIONS: We have found evidence that functionally damaging variants in MC3R are overrepresented in individuals with CDGP but are not a common cause of this phenotype

Fabrication of Worm-Like Nanorods and Ultrafine Nanospheres of Silver Via Solid-State Photochemical Decomposition

Worm-like nanorods and nanospheres of silver have been synthesized by photochemical decomposition of silver oxalate in water by UV irradiation in the presence of CTAB and PVP, respectively. No external seeds have been employed for the synthesis of Ag nanorods. The synthesized Ag colloids have been characterized by UV-visible spectra, powder XRD, HRTEM, and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). Ag nanospheres of average size around 2 nm have been obtained in the presence of PVP. XRD and TEM analyses revealed that top and basal planes of nanorods are bound with {111} facets. Williamson–Hall plot has revealed the presence of defects in the Ag nanospheres and nanorods. Formation of defective Ag nanocrystals is attributed to the heating effect of UV-visible irradiation

Looking to the future of zebrafish as a model to understand the genetic basis of eye disease

In this brief commentary, we provide some of our thoughts and opinions on the current and future use of zebrafish to model human eye disease, dissect pathological progression and advance in our understanding of the genetic bases of microphthalmia, andophthalmia and coloboma (MAC) in humans. We provide some background on eye formation in fish and conservation and divergence across vertebrates in this process, discuss different approaches for manipulating gene function and speculate on future research areas where we think research using fish may prove to be particularly effective

Regulation of Anthrax Toxin-Specific Antibody Titers by Natural Killer T Cell-Derived IL-4 and IFNγ

Activation of Natural Killer-like T cells (NKT) with the CD1d ligand α-GC leads to enhanced production of anthrax toxin protective Ag (PA)-neutralizing Abs, yet the underlying mechanism for this adjuvant effect is not known. In the current study we examined the role of Th1 and Th2 type responses in NKT-mediated enhancement of antibody responses to PA. First, the contribution of IL-4 and IFNγ to the production of PA-specific toxin-neutralizing Abs was examined. By immunizing C57Bl/6 controls IL-4−/− mice and IFNγ−/− mice and performing passive serum transfer experiments, it was observed that sera containing PA-specific IgG1, IgG2b and IgG2c neutralized toxin in vitro and conferred protection in vivo. Sera containing IgG2b and IgG2c neutralized toxin in vitro but were not sufficient for protection in vivo. Sera containing IgG1 and IgG2b neutralized toxin in vitro and conferred protection in vivo. IgG1 therefore emerged as a good correlate of protection. Next, C57Bl/6 mice were immunized with PA alone or PA plus a Th2-skewing α-GC derivative known as OCH. Neutralizing PA-specific IgG1 responses were modestly enhanced by OCH in C57Bl/6 mice. Conversely, IgG2b and IgG2c were considerably enhanced in PA/OCH-immunized IL-4−/− mice but did not confer protection. Finally, bone marrow chimeras were generated such that NKT cells were unable to express IL-4 or IFNγ. NKT-derived IL-4 was required for OCH-enhanced primary IgG1 responses but not recall responses. NKT-derived IL-4 and IFNγ also influenced primary and recall IgG2b and IgG2c titers. These data suggest targeted skewing of the Th2 response by α-GC derivatives can be exploited to optimize anthrax vaccination