Decoding Gut Microbial Metabolites through G-Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) Activation

The microbiome encodes for a complex web of metabolites of which scientists are just starting to deconvolute. While a lot of focus has been on investigating the implications of the microbial metabolome on health and disease physiologies, we have merely uncovered the tip of the interactome of microbes and host G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs). Early literature has reported a plethora of short chain fatty acids fermented by dietary fibers acting as GPCR agonists. A few other studies have showcased that gut microbes produced N-acyl amides and secondary bile acids mimicking host ligands and therefore interacting with these GPCRs. Chapter 2 and 3 showcases the different strategies to mine GPCR agonists from the commensal microbiota

Burmese Nationalism and Christianity in Myanmar: Christian Identity and Witness in Myanmar Today

The dissertation first considers the historical and cultural settings of a rising Burmese nationalism that embraces Buddhism as an essential component and seeks to enforce a cultural homogenization known as “Burmanization” on all citizens of Myanmar. For the minority Christian church in Myanmar, this ardent and pervasive nationalism presents a serious challenge, for which the church has yet to present an adequate response. After evaluating the few efforts made by Christians to address the problems confronting the church in the context of a culture of aggressive Buddhist nationalism, the study offers a way forward. Drawing on the resources of Reformation theology, especially the biblical teaching of the two kingdoms or realms as articulated by Martin Luther, the dissertation proposes thinking in terms of God’s two distinct spheres as an effective theological framework for Christians in Myanmar who must interact with the world around them. The two realms paradigm which includes the distinction between the two kinds of righteousness is explained, evaluated, and then applied to the practical context of the church in Myanmar. Particular attention is focused on the potential usefulness of the teaching for ordinary Burmese Christians who will be equipped to engage their immediate culture with a winsome Gospel witness, active service through vocations, submission to authority, and patience in the face of persecution

Effect of nilvadipine on memory impairment and hippocampal malondialdehyde in rats with 4-vessel occlusion ischemia

Purpose: Nilvadipine is a dihydropyridine-type calcium channel blocker with emanating neuroprotective properties in various models of neuronal diseases. This study aimed at investigating the prophylactic effect of nilvadipine on memory impairment and hippocampal malodialdehyde (MDA) levels in global brain ischemia model induced by 4-vessel occlusion ischemia (4-VO) in rat. Materials and methods: The 4-VO ischemia was induced in Wistar rats by occluding the vertebral arteries permanently by cauterization. The common carotid arteries were twice occluded bilaterally for 10 minute at 60 minute interval. One week after 4-VO the memory was evaluated measuring the correct and error choices in 8-armed radial maze. The ischemiareperfusion- induced damage was evaluated measuring level of MDA in the hippocampus using thiobarbituric acid method. The study involved three groups: sham, ischemia-control and ischemia nilvadipin. Nilvadipine (3.2 mg/kg/day) was administerd for 7 days prior to 4-VO Results: The 4-VO impaired memory performance by decreasing the correct choices (long termreference memory) and increasing the error choices (short term-working memory) (p<0,001). Nilvadipine improved the performance by increasing the correct choices (p<0.002) and decreasing the error choices (p<0.05). Nilvadipine decreased (p<0.001) the elevated MDA induced by 4-VO. Conclusion: The prophylactic treatment with nilvadipine improved memory impairment and reduced the elevated hippocampal MDA induced by 4-VO. The prophylactic use of nilvadipine could be beneficial for inhibiting the ischemia related memory impairment in risky patients

Dissecting the physiology and pathophysiology of glucagon-like peptide-1

Copyright © 2018 Paternoster and Falasca. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. An aging world population exposed to a sedentary life style is currently plagued by chronic metabolic diseases, such as type-2 diabetes, that are spreading worldwide at an unprecedented rate. One of the most promising pharmacological approaches for the management of type 2 diabetes takes advantage of the peptide hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) under the form of protease resistant mimetics, and DPP-IV inhibitors. Despite the improved quality of life, long-term treatments with these new classes of drugs are riddled with serious and life-threatening side-effects, with no overall cure of the disease. New evidence is shedding more light over the complex physiology of GLP-1 in health and metabolic diseases. Herein, we discuss the most recent advancements in the biology of gut receptors known to induce the secretion of GLP-1, to bridge the multiple gaps into our understanding of its physiology and pathology

Social actor representation on Islamic issues in The New York Times and The Guardian Newspapers

ENGLISH: Social Actor Representation (SAR) proposed by van Leeuwen (2008) is one of the ways to uncover the intended meaning or perspective behind a certain text, for example newspapers. In this research social actor framework is adopted in order to analyze two prominent western newspapers, The New York Times (nytimes.com) and The Guardian (guardian.com). The focus of this research was on the representation of the doer of the certain actions, the Muslim society, western countries society, Islamic countries government, as well as western countries government in the articles about Islamic issues posted by those two western media. The reason why the researcher chose Islamic issues to be investigated was since many people speculated that western media launched large-scale propaganda campaign through newspapers. Therefore the researcher wanted to analyze whether the newspapers articles adopted particular SAR strategies in reporting their news related to that speculation through investigating the use of words, clauses and expressions written in the text. This research adopted descriptive qualitative as well as Critical Discourse Analysis approach as the research design. The data were 8 articles downloaded from both newspapers online version published on January to March 2015. The data were analyzed on some stages. First was reading the whole articles in order to get slightly overview about data. Second was analyzing the data based on the theory proposed by van Leeuwen. The data were categorized into inclusion if the writers shown and performed the existence of certain actor in the text while the data were categorized into exclusion when the writers hid and protected a certain actor in the text. Then the last was making conclusion based on the result of the data analysis. Based on the analysis on the data, the findings revealed that the authors of both newspapers adopted exclusion and inclusion strategies of SAR in reporting their news. The exclusion strategies consisted of suppression and backgrounding, while the inclusion strategies consisted of activation, genericization, specification, assimilation, differentiation, categorization, nomination, as well as overdetermination.Yet, other inclusion strategies, such as indifferentiation and impersonalization could not be found. As the result, the researcher concluded although the titles and the whole articles seemed to report certain news to their readers, in adopting such strategies they were not completely neutral. INDONESIA: Teori mengenai representasi aktor sosial yang dikemukakan oleh van Leeuwen (2008) adalah salah satu cara untuk mengungkapkan maksud tersembunyi atau pandangan di balik sebuah teks, misalnya saja pada koran. Pada penelitian ini, kerangka aktor sosial digunakan untuk menganalisis dua koran asing yang terkenal, yaitu The New York Times (nytimes.com) dan The Guardian (guardian.com) Penelitian ini fokus pada representasi beberapa aktor sosial yaitu pelaku dari tindakan tertentu, masyarakat muslim, masrakat Negara barat, pemerintah Negara Islam dan pemerintah Negara barat pada beberapa artikel yang memberitakan tentang berita yang melibatkan Islam yang dipublikasikan oleh kedua media asing tersebut. Alasan peneliti memilih berita yang melibatkan Islam sebagai subyek penelitian karena dalam kurun waktu beberapa dekade terakhir banyak orang berpikir bahwa media barat melancarkan kampanye propaganda dalam skala besar melalui koran. Sehingga dalam hal ini peneliti ingin meneliti dan mencari tahu apakah artikel-artikel yang terdapat pada kedua koran tersebut menggunakan strategi reprsentasi aktor sosial tertentu dalam melaporkan berita mereka yang berhubungan dengan berita yang melibatkan Islam dengan cara melihat pada penggunaan kata, anak kalimat maupun ekspresi pada teks artikel tersebut. Penelitian ini termasuk pada penelitian deskriptif kualitatif dan juga menggunakan pendekatan Critical Discourse Analysis. Data yang diteliti berupa 8 teks artikel yang diunduh melalui website kedua koran tersebut pada periode Januari hingga Maret 2015. Data yang ada dianalisis melalui beberapa tahapan. Pertama, dengan cara membaca keseluruhan artikel untuk mendapatkan sedikit pandangan tentang data. Kedua, menganalisis data yang ada berdasarkan teori yang dikemukakan oleh van Leeuwen. Data termasuk kategori inclusion jika penulis memunculkan aktor sosial sedangkan data termasuk kategori exclusion jika penulis menyembunyikan aktor sosialnya. Kemudian, mengambil kesimpulan berdasarkan hasil analisis. Berdasarkan hasil analisis data, hasilnya memperlihatkan bahwa penulis dari kedua koran tersebut menggunakan stategi exclusion dan inclusion dalam melaporkan berita mereka. Strategi exclusion yang digunakan terdiri dari suppression dan backgrounding sedangkan strategi inclusion terdiri dari activation, genericization, specification, assimilation, differentiation, categorization, nomination dan overdetermination. Namun, tidak ditemukan beberapa strategi lainnya seperti indifferentiation dan impersonalization. Hasilnya, peneliti menyimpulkan walaupun judul dan keseluruhan artikel terlihat melaporkan berita tertentu kepada pembacanya namun dalam mengadopsi strategi-strategi tersebut para penulis tidak sepenuhnya bisa netral

Introduction to the centennial volume of the UTMJ: Issue on 100 years of innovation

The University of Toronto Medical Journal was founded in 1923 and is Canada’s oldest student-run medical journal. In this special issue marking our centennial volume, we recognize the numerous medical advancements that have taken place in the past 100 years and explore future developments in biomedical and clinical research

Introduction to 100th volume of the UTMJ issue on Intensive Care

Advancements in the field of intensive care have improved the provision of life-saving therapy. In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted challenges for all health systems worldwide, placing a strain on various domains including intensive care unit bed capacity, hospital infrastructure, and healthcare providers. The sudden increase in the volume of patients requiring mechanical ventilation placed a strain on the medical oxygen delivery system that necessitated infrastructural upgrades to meet the otherwise unfulfilled demand (Phua et al., 2020). This also led to the creative use of anesthesia units, transport ventilators, continuous airway ventilation systems, the splitting of ventilators by using T-tubes and pressure-cycled ventilation, as well as the addition of of high-efficiency particulate air filters (Siow, Liew, Shrestha, Muchtar, &amp; See, 2020). Infection Prevention and Control protocols were adapted to our evolving understanding of nosocomial transmission with limited resources (Phua et al., 2020; Stall et al., 2020). Moreover, bolstering surge capacity helped to address the increase in occupancy rates (Gibney et al., 2022). However, the strain placed on intensive care specialists also led to increased rates of burnout (Azoulay et al., 2020). Progress in other domains such as the use of biomarkers in triage, prognostication of patients with novel risk scores, and streamlining of workflows continue to improve the efficiency of diagnosis and management (Esper et al., 2022; Jentzer &amp; Rossello, 2021). These innovative developments under trying circumstances have increased our appreciation of this crucial field of medicine, its health professionals, and leaders in research. For the first issue of our 100th volume, we are pleased to spotlight “Intensive Care”