Shearing Strength and Chemical Composition in the Selection for Quality in \u3ci\u3eBrachiaria Brizantha\u3c/i\u3e

Selection of quality pasture forages for productivity, nutritive value and animal performance require long-term, expensive trials. Simpler and accurate techniques to detect quality differences among genotypes have been proposed (Mackinnon et al., 1988; Hughes et al., 2000). This paper discusses the use of shearing strength in Brachiaria brizantha ecotypes to correlate physical traits with chemical composition: the objective being the identification of cultivars of improved quality forage suitable to the savannas of Brazil

Physical Impediment Towards Digestive Breakdown in Leaf Blades of Brachiaria Brizantha

Consumption of grasses is influenced by the physical properties of forages which confer resistance to digestive breakdown. Such barriers may be the proportion of indigestible tissues, girder structure and epidermal cell arrangements. Anatomical factors, if identified early are invaluable tools in breeding and selection programmes for forages of high quality. The objective of this study was to verify which anatomical attributes might be interfering in the physical resistance to rumen breakdown in Brachiaria brizantha ecotypes

Acúmulo de forragem e características do solo e da planta no estabelecimento de capim-massai com diferentes níveis de saturação por bases, fósforo e nitrogênio.

Foi conduzido um experimento em Latossolo de Cerrado visando testar a combinação de níveis de saturação por bases (20, 40, 60 e 80%), doses de fósforo (0, 80, 160 e 240 kg/ha de P2O5) e nitrogênio (0, 100, 200 e 300 kg/ha) no estabelecimento de capim-massai. Foram avaliados o acúmulo de massa seca verde (MSV) da forrageira, as características químicas do solo, as concentrações foliares de macronutrientes, os teores de proteína bruta (PB) e a digestibilidade in vitro da matéria orgânica (DIVMO). Utilizou-se o delineamento de blocos casualizados no esquema fatorial fracionário (1/2)43, com duas repetições e quatro blocos. Foram realizados dois cortes em aproximadamente 200 dias. O acúmulo de MSV respondeu principalmente ao fósforo (P) e, em segundo lugar, à saturação por bases. Não houve resposta significativa ao nitrogênio (N). A dose de P2O5 para o máximo acúmulo de MSV foi de 237 kg/ha e a dose econômica, de 185 kg/ha, com saturação por bases no solo de 39%. A fertilidade do solo aumentou com o acréscimo de saturação por bases e P. As concentrações foliares de P, Ca e Mg elevaram-se com o aumento dos níveis de saturação por bases e P e a concentração de N aumentou com a adubação nitrogenada e com o incremento da saturação por bases. A fração folha correspondeu a 77,50% da MSV e apresentou valores adequados de DIVMO e PB, que aumentaram significativamente com o aumento da adubação nitrogenada e da saturação por bases

Spatial alanine metabolism determines local growth dynamics of textitEscherichia coli colonies

Bacteria commonly live in spatially structured biofilm assemblages, which are encased by an extracellular matrix. Metabolic activity of the cells inside biofilms causes gradients in local environmental conditions, which leads to the emergence of physiologically differentiated subpopulations. Information about the properties and spatial arrangement of such metabolic subpopulations, as well as their interaction strength and interaction length scales are lacking, even for model systems like textitEscherichia coli colony biofilms grown on agar-solidified media. Here, we use an unbiased approach, based on temporal and spatial transcriptome and metabolome data acquired during textitE. coli colony biofilm growth, to study the spatial organization of metabolism. We discovered that alanine displays a unique pattern among amino acids and that alanine metabolism is spatially and temporally heterogeneous. At the anoxic base of the colony, where carbon and nitrogen sources are abundant, cells secrete alanine textitvia the transporter AlaE. In contrast, cells utilize alanine as a carbon and nitrogen source in the oxic nutrient-deprived region at the colony mid-height, textitvia the enzymes DadA and DadX. This spatially structured alanine cross-feeding influences cellular viability and growth in the cross-feeding-dependent region, which shapes the overall colony morphology. More generally, our results on this precisely controllable biofilm model system demonstrate a remarkable spatiotemporal complexity of metabolism in biofilms. A better characterization of the spatiotemporal metabolic heterogeneities and dependencies is essential for understanding the physiology, architecture, and function of biofilms

Desempenho de cinco cultivares de Brachiaria brizantha na rebrotação, em sistemas de integração no cerrado brasileiro.

Comissão organizadora: Grácia Maria Soares Rosinha, Alexandra Rocha de Oliveir, Rodrigo Carvalho Alva

Bullying of medical students in Pakistan: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

Background: Several studies from other countries have shown that bullying, harassment, abuse or belittlement are a regular phenomenon faced not only by medical students, but also junior doctors, doctors undertaking research and other healthcare professionals. While research has been carried out on bullying experienced by psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees in Pakistan no such research has been conducted on medical students in this country. Methodology/Principal Findings: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey on final year medical students in six medical colleges of Pakistan. The response rate was 63%. Fifty-two percent of respondents reported that they had faced bullying or harassment during their medical education, about 28% of them experiencing it once a month or even more frequently. The overwhelming form of bullying had been verbal abuse (57%), while consultants were the most frequent (46%) perpetrators. Students who were slightly older, males, those who reported that their medical college did not have a policy on bullying or harassment, and those who felt that adequate support was not in place at their medical college for bullied individuals, were significantly more likely to have experienced bullying. Conclusion: Bullying or harassment is faced by quite a large proportion of medical students in Pakistan. The most frequent perpetrators of this bullying are consultants. Adoption of a policy against bullying and harassment by medical colleges, and providing avenues of support for students who have been bullied may help reduce this phenomenon, as the presence of these two was associated with decreased likelihood of students reporting having being bullied

Synthesis of guidance available for assessing methodological quality and grading of evidence from qualitative research to inform clinical recommendations: a systematic literature review

Objective To understand (1) what guidance exists to assess the methodological quality of qualitative research; (2) what methods exist to grade levels of evidence from qualitative research to inform recommendations within European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR). Methods A systematic literature review was performed in multiple databases including PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, COCHRANE and PsycINFO, from inception to 23 October 2020. Eligible studies included primary articles and guideline documents available in English, describing the: (1) development; (2) application of validated tools (eg, checklists); (3) guidance on assessing methodological quality of qualitative research and (4) guidance on grading levels of qualitative evidence. A narrative synthesis was conducted to identify key similarities between included studies. Results Of 9073 records retrieved, 51 went through to full-manuscript review, with 15 selected for inclusion. Six articles described methodological tools to assess the quality of qualitative research. The tools evaluated research design, recruitment, ethical rigour, data collection and analysis. Seven articles described one approach, focusing on four key components to determine how much confidence to place in findings from systematic reviews of qualitative research. Two articles focused on grading levels of clinical recommendations based on qualitative evidence; one described a qualitative evidence hierarchy, and another a research pyramid. Conclusion There is a lack of consensus on the use of tools, checklists and approaches suitable for appraising the methodological quality of qualitative research and the grading of qualitative evidence to inform clinical practice. This work is expected to facilitate the inclusion of qualitative evidence in the process of developing recommendations at EULAR level

Patients' experiences of living with and receiving treatment for fibromyalgia syndrome: a qualitative study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) presents a challenge for patients and health care staff across many medical specialities. The aetiology is multi-dimensional, involving somatic, psychological and social factors. Patients' views were obtained to understand their experience of living with this long-term condition, using qualitative interviews.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>12 patients were recruited and stratified by age, gender and ethnicity from one rheumatology outpatient clinic, and a departmental held database of patients diagnosed with FMS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Patients' accounts of their experience of FMS resonated well with two central concepts: social identity and illness intrusiveness. These suggested three themes for the analytical framework: life before and after diagnosis (e.g. lack of information about FMS, invisibility of FMS); change in health identity (e.g. mental distress, impact on social life) and perceived quality of care (e.g. lack of contact with nurses, attitudes of specialists). The information provided from one male participant did not differ from the female patients, but black and ethnic community patients expressed a degree of suspicion towards the medication prescribed, and the attitudes displayed by some doctors, a finding that has not been previously reported amongst this patient group. Patients expected more consultation time and effective treatment than they received. Subjective experiences and objective physical and emotional changes were non-overlapping. Patients' accounts revealed that their physical, mental and social health was compromised, at times overwhelming and affected their identity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>FMS is a condition that intrudes upon many aspects of patients' lives and is little understood. At the same time, it is a syndrome that evokes uneasiness in health care staff (as current diagnostic criteria are not well supported by objective markers of physiological or biochemical nature, and indeed because of doubt about the existence of the condition) and places great demands on resources in clinical practice. Greater attention needs to be paid to the links between the explanatory models of patients and staff, and most important, to the interrelationship between the complex physical, psychological and social needs of patients with FMS. Taking a less medical but more holistic approach when drawing up new diagnostic criteria for FMS might match better individuals' somatic and psycho-social symptom profile and may result in more effective treatment.</p

Association of Impulsivity and Polymorphic MicroRNA-641 Target Sites in the SNAP-25 Gene.

Impulsivity is a personality trait of high impact and is connected with several types of maladaptive behavior and psychiatric diseases, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, alcohol and drug abuse, as well as pathological gambling and mood disorders. Polymorphic variants of the SNAP-25 gene emerged as putative genetic components of impulsivity, as SNAP-25 protein plays an important role in the central nervous system, and its SNPs are associated with several psychiatric disorders. In this study we aimed to investigate if polymorphisms in the regulatory regions of the SNAP-25 gene are in association with normal variability of impulsivity. Genotypes and haplotypes of two polymorphisms in the promoter (rs6077690 and rs6039769) and two SNPs in the 3' UTR (rs3746544 and rs1051312) of the SNAP-25 gene were determined in a healthy Hungarian population (N = 901) using PCR-RFLP or real-time PCR in combination with sequence specific probes. Significant association was found between the T-T 3' UTR haplotype and impulsivity, whereas no association could be detected with genotypes or haplotypes of the promoter loci. According to sequence alignment, the polymorphisms in the 3' UTR of the gene alter the binding site of microRNA-641, which was analyzed by luciferase reporter system. It was observed that haplotypes altering one or two nucleotides in the binding site of the seed region of microRNA-641 significantly increased the amount of generated protein in vitro. These findings support the role of polymorphic SNAP-25 variants both at psychogenetic and molecular biological levels