Farmers’ perceptions of orange-fleshed sweetpotato: Do common beliefs about sweetpotato production and consumption really matter?

Efforts to combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries have focused on the promotion of growing and consuming orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), among other crops. Past studies have found increased intake and even incomes among households that have been reached with information about nutritional benefits of OFSP. Consequently, efforts to scale up the production and consumption of OFSP are on-going in several African countries where vitamin A deficiency is a major problem. However, to date, few studies have systematically examined farmers’ perceptions and attitudes towards some of the attributes of OFSP. This paper interrogates some of the beliefs about the production and consumption of sweetpotato in general, and OFSP, in particular. It uses data generated using multi-stage sampling technique and involving 732 households in the Lake zone of Tanzania. The households were stratified into project participants (the intervention group) and non-participants (the control group). Within each household, data were collected from a male or female adult member (usually spouses) through personal interviews. Overall, 455 project participants and 277 non-participants were interviewed. This study uses both descriptive and exploratory factor analysis to assess some common beliefs about sweetpotato production and consumption. Contrary to the common beliefs, the study finds that sweetpotato is an important food crop to producing households, and that the common negative beliefs about sweetpotato production and consumption are not widely held. This study, therefore, recommends the need to upscale and out-scale efforts to sensitize farmers about the nutritional benefits of growing and consuming OFSP to counter the common negative beliefs about sweetpotato. In particular, educating farmers on the health effects of inadequate intake of Vitamin A and the importance of OFSP as its source can greatly influence their perceptions about OFSP. Further, there is need to increase efforts at breeding aimed at supplying the multiple desirable table and postharvest attributes of orange-fleshed sweetpotato, in addition to focusing on agronomic traits. For sub-Saharan Africa, such attributes include taste, storability of the tubers, dry matter content, and sugar content.Keywords: Sweetpotato, attributes, nutritional benefits, common beliefs, farmer perceptions, Tanzani

Syntaxin 16 is a master recruitment factor for cytokinesis

Recently it was shown that both recycling endosome and endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) components are required for cytokinesis, in which they are believed to act in a sequential manner to bring about secondary ingression and abscission, respectively. However, it is not clear how either of these complexes is targeted to the midbody and whether their delivery is coordinated. The trafficking of membrane vesicles between different intracellular organelles involves the formation of soluble N-ethylmalei­mide–sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) complexes. Although membrane traffic is known to play an important role in cytokinesis, the contribution and identity of intracellular SNAREs to cytokinesis remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that syntaxin 16 is a key regulator of cytokinesis, as it is required for recruitment of both recycling endosome–associated Exocyst and ESCRT machinery during late telophase, and therefore that these two distinct facets of cytokinesis are inextricably linked

Barriers and opportunities for evidence-based health service planning: the example of developing a Decision Analytic Model to plan services for sexually transmitted infections in the UK

Decision Analytic Models (DAMs) are established means of evidence-synthesis to differentiate between health interventions. They have mainly been used to inform clinical decisions and health technology assessment at the national level, yet could also inform local health service planning. For this, a DAM must take into account the needs of the local population, but also the needs of those planning its services. Drawing on our experiences from stakeholder consultations, where we presented the potential utility of a DAM for planning local health services for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the UK, and the evidence it could use to inform decisions regarding different combinations of service provision, in terms of their costs, cost-effectiveness, and public health outcomes, we discuss the barriers perceived by stakeholders to the use of DAMs to inform service planning for local populations, including (1) a tension between individual and population perspectives; (2) reductionism; and (3) a lack of transparency regarding models, their assumptions, and the motivations of those generating models

Short-term efficacy of physical interventions in osteoarthritic knee pain. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Treatment efficacy of physical agents in osteoarthritis of the knee (OAK) pain has been largely unknown, and this systematic review was aimed at assessing their short-term efficacies for pain relief. METHODS: Systematic review with meta-analysis of efficacy within 1-4 weeks and at follow up at 1-12 weeks after the end of treatment. RESULTS: 36 randomised placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) were identified with 2434 patients where 1391 patients received active treatment. 33 trials satisfied three or more out of five methodological criteria (Jadad scale). The patient sample had a mean age of 65.1 years and mean baseline pain of 62.9 mm on a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS). Within 4 weeks of the commencement of treatment manual acupuncture, static magnets and ultrasound therapies did not offer statistically significant short-term pain relief over placebo. Pulsed electromagnetic fields offered a small reduction in pain of 6.9 mm [95% CI: 2.2 to 11.6] (n = 487). Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS, including interferential currents), electro-acupuncture (EA) and low level laser therapy (LLLT) offered clinically relevant pain relieving effects of 18.8 mm [95% CI: 9.6 to 28.1] (n = 414), 21.9 mm [95% CI: 17.3 to 26.5] (n = 73) and 17.7 mm [95% CI: 8.1 to 27.3] (n = 343) on VAS respectively versus placebo control. In a subgroup analysis of trials with assumed optimal doses, short-term efficacy increased to 22.2 mm [95% CI: 18.1 to 26.3] for TENS, and 24.2 mm [95% CI: 17.3 to 31.3] for LLLT on VAS. Follow-up data up to 12 weeks were sparse, but positive effects seemed to persist for at least 4 weeks after the course of LLLT, EA and TENS treatment was stopped. CONCLUSION: TENS, EA and LLLT administered with optimal doses in an intensive 2-4 week treatment regimen, seem to offer clinically relevant short-term pain relief for OAK

RNA secondary structure prediction from multi-aligned sequences

It has been well accepted that the RNA secondary structures of most functional non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are closely related to their functions and are conserved during evolution. Hence, prediction of conserved secondary structures from evolutionarily related sequences is one important task in RNA bioinformatics; the methods are useful not only to further functional analyses of ncRNAs but also to improve the accuracy of secondary structure predictions and to find novel functional RNAs from the genome. In this review, I focus on common secondary structure prediction from a given aligned RNA sequence, in which one secondary structure whose length is equal to that of the input alignment is predicted. I systematically review and classify existing tools and algorithms for the problem, by utilizing the information employed in the tools and by adopting a unified viewpoint based on maximum expected gain (MEG) estimators. I believe that this classification will allow a deeper understanding of each tool and provide users with useful information for selecting tools for common secondary structure predictions.Comment: A preprint of an invited review manuscript that will be published in a chapter of the book `Methods in Molecular Biology'. Note that this version of the manuscript may differ from the published versio

Early postural blood pressure response and cause-specific mortality among middle-aged adults

Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is associated with increased total mortality but contribution of specific death causes has not been thoroughly explored. In this prospective study, authors followed up 32,068 individuals without baseline history of cancer or cardiovascular disease (69% men; mean age, 46 years; range, 26–61 years) over a period of 24 years. Hazard ratios (HRs) for total and cause-specific mortality associated with presence of OH and by quartiles of postural systolic blood pressure response (∆SBP) were assessed using multivariate adjusted Cox regression model. A total of 7,145 deaths (22.3%, 9.4 deaths/1,000 person-years) occurred during follow-up. Those with OH (n = 1,943) had higher risk of death due to injury (HR, 1.88; 1.37–2.57) and neurological disease (HR, 2.21; 1.39–3.51). Analogically, risk of death caused by injury and neurological disease increased across the quartiles of ∆SBP from hyper- (Q1SBP, +8.5 ± 4.7 mmHg) to hypotensive response (Q4SBP, −13.7 ± 5.7 mmHg; HR, 1.32; 1.00–1.72, and 1.84; 1.20–2.82, respectively) as did also risk of death due to respiratory disease (Q4SBP vs. Q1SBP: HR, 1.53; 1.14–2.04). In contrast, risk curve for cerebrovascular death was U-shaped with nadir in the mildly hypotensive 3rd quartile of ∆SBP (−5.0 ± 0.1 mmHg, Q3SBP vs. Q1SBP: HR, 0.75; 0.54–1.03; P for linear trend = 0.021). Additionally, cardiovascular mortality was increased among 5,805 rescreened participants (mean age, 53 years; 9.8% OH positive: HR, 1.54; 1.24–1.89, and Q4SBP vs. Q1SBP: 1.27; 1.02–1.57, respectively). In summary, increased mortality predicted by blood pressure fall on standing is associated with injuries, neurodegenerative, and respiratory diseases, as well as with cardiovascular disease in older adults. Moreover, both increase and pronounced decrease of SBP during early orthostasis indicate higher risk of cerebrovascular death

A prospective study of differences in duodenum compared to remaining small bowel motion between radiation treatments: Implications for radiation dose escalation in carcinoma of the pancreas

PURPOSE: As a foundation for a dose escalation trial, we sought to characterize duodenal and non-duodenal small bowel organ motion between fractions of pancreatic radiation therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Nine patients (4 women, 5 men) undergoing radiation therapy were enrolled in this prospective study. The patients had up to four weekly CT scans performed during their course of radiation therapy. Pancreas, duodenum and non-duodenal small bowel were then contoured for each CT scan. On the initial scan, a four-field plan was generated to fully cover the pancreas. This plan was registered to each subsequent CT scan. Dose-volume histogram (DVH) analyses were performed for the duodenum, non-duodenal small bowel, large bowel, and pancreas. RESULTS: With significant individual variation, the volume of duodenum receiving at least 80% of the prescribed dose was consistently greater than the remaining small bowel. In the patient with the largest inter-fraction variation, the fractional volume of non-duodenal small bowel irradiated to at least the 80% isodose line ranged from 1% to 20%. In the patient with the largest inter-fraction variation, the fractional volume of duodenum irradiated to at least the 80% isodose line ranged from 30% to 100%. CONCLUSION: The volume of small bowel irradiated during four-field pancreatic radiation therapy changes substantially between fractions. This suggests dose escalation may be possible. However, dose limits to the duodenum should be stricter than for other segments of small bowel

Caveolin-1 protects B6129 mice against Helicobacter pylori gastritis.

Caveolin-1 (Cav1) is a scaffold protein and pathogen receptor in the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract. Chronic infection of gastric epithelial cells by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a major risk factor for human gastric cancer (GC) where Cav1 is frequently down-regulated. However, the function of Cav1 in H. pylori infection and pathogenesis of GC remained unknown. We show here that Cav1-deficient mice, infected for 11 months with the CagA-delivery deficient H. pylori strain SS1, developed more severe gastritis and tissue damage, including loss of parietal cells and foveolar hyperplasia, and displayed lower colonisation of the gastric mucosa than wild-type B6129 littermates. Cav1-null mice showed enhanced infiltration of macrophages and B-cells and secretion of chemokines (RANTES) but had reduced levels of CD25+ regulatory T-cells. Cav1-deficient human GC cells (AGS), infected with the CagA-delivery proficient H. pylori strain G27, were more sensitive to CagA-related cytoskeletal stress morphologies ("humming bird") compared to AGS cells stably transfected with Cav1 (AGS/Cav1). Infection of AGS/Cav1 cells triggered the recruitment of p120 RhoGTPase-activating protein/deleted in liver cancer-1 (p120RhoGAP/DLC1) to Cav1 and counteracted CagA-induced cytoskeletal rearrangements. In human GC cell lines (MKN45, N87) and mouse stomach tissue, H. pylori down-regulated endogenous expression of Cav1 independently of CagA. Mechanistically, H. pylori activated sterol-responsive element-binding protein-1 (SREBP1) to repress transcription of the human Cav1 gene from sterol-responsive elements (SREs) in the proximal Cav1 promoter. These data suggested a protective role of Cav1 against H. pylori-induced inflammation and tissue damage. We propose that H. pylori exploits down-regulation of Cav1 to subvert the host's immune response and to promote signalling of its virulence factors in host cells

Re-emphasizing the concept of adequacy of intraoperative assessment of the axillary sentinel lymph nodes for identifying nodal positivity during breast cancer surgery

BACKGROUND: Although sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is a standard of care for the evaluation of the axillary lymph nodes during breast cancer surgery, a substantial degree of variation exists among individual surgeons as to what represents an adequate assessment. The aim of the current study was to assess when metastatic disease was first identified within consecutively harvested SLN candidates for invasive breast cancers demonstrating a positive SLN. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed a series of 400 breast cancers from a recently published prospective randomized clinical trial. A combined radiocolloid and blue dye technique was used. All potential SLN candidates, containing counts of at least 10% of the hottest SLN and/or containing blue dye, were harvested and were consecutively numbered in the order of the decreasing level of counts (with the hottest SLN representing SLN #1). RESULTS: Among 371 invasive breast cancers, a SLN was identified within 353 cases (95%). Mean number of SLNs identified was 2.5 (range, 1 to 9), with a single SLN identified in 104 (29%) cases, two identified in 110 (31%), three identified in 73 (21%), four identified in 35 (10%), five identified in 16 (5%), and six or more identified in 15 (4%). A positive SLN was found in 104 (29%) cases. SLN #1 was the first positive SLN in 86 (83%). SLN #2 was the first positive SLN in 15 (14%). SLN #3, SLN #4, and SLN #5 were the first positive SLN in one case (1%) each. A positive SLN was found in 18% (19/104) of cases when a single SLN was identified, as compared to in 34% (85/249) when two or more SLNs were identified (P = 0.003). CONCLUSION: The accurate and optimal assessment of the axilla during breast cancer surgery requires persistence and diligence for attempting to identify all potential SLN candidates in order to avoid failing to recognize a positive SLN. The scenario in which only a single negative SLN candidate is intraoperatively identified is one that should raise some concern to the operating surgeon

The stellar halo of the Galaxy

Stellar halos may hold some of the best preserved fossils of the formation history of galaxies. They are a natural product of the merging processes that probably take place during the assembly of a galaxy, and hence may well be the most ubiquitous component of galaxies, independently of their Hubble type. This review focuses on our current understanding of the spatial structure, the kinematics and chemistry of halo stars in the Milky Way. In recent years, we have experienced a change in paradigm thanks to the discovery of large amounts of substructure, especially in the outer halo. I discuss the implications of the currently available observational constraints and fold them into several possible formation scenarios. Unraveling the formation of the Galactic halo will be possible in the near future through a combination of large wide field photometric and spectroscopic surveys, and especially in the era of Gaia.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures. References updated and some minor changes. Full-resolution version available at http://www.astro.rug.nl/~ahelmi/stellar-halo-review.pd