Perigraft air is not always pathological: a case report

© 2007 Ball et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Maximal respiratory static pressures in patients with different stages of COPD severity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In this study, we analyzed maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) and maximal expiratory pressure (MEP) values in a stable COPD population compared with normal subjects. We evaluated the possible correlation between functional maximal respiratory static pressures and functional and anthropometric parameters at different stages of COPD. Furthermore, we considered the possible correlation between airway obstruction and MIP and MEP values.</p> <p>Subject and methods</p> <p>110 patients with stable COPD and 21 age-matched healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. Patients were subdivided according to GOLD guidelines: 31 mild, 39 moderate and 28 severe.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both MIP and MEP were lower in patients with severe airway impairment than in normal subjects. Moreover, we found a correlation between respiratory muscle function and some functional and anthropometric parameters: FEV₁(forced expiratory volume in one second), FVC (forced vital capacity), PEF (peak expiratory flow), TLC (total lung capacity) and height. MIP and MEP values were lower in patients with severe impairment than in patients with a slight reduction of FEV₁.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The measurement of MIP and MEP indicates the state of respiratory muscles, thus providing clinicians with a further and helpful tool in monitoring the evolution of COPD.</p

A comparison of course-related stressors in undergraduate problem-based learning (PBL) versus non-PBL medical programmes

Background: Medical students report high levels of stress related to their medical training as well as to other personal and financial factors. The aim of this study is to investigate whether there are differences in course-related stressors reported by medical students on undergraduate problem-based learning (PBL) and non-PBL programmes in the UK. Method: A cross-sectional study of second-year medical students in two UK medical schools (one PBL and one non-PBL programme) was conducted. A 16-question self-report questionnaire, derived from the Perceived Medical Student Stress Scale and the Higher Education Stress Inventory, was used to measure course-related stressors. Following univariate analysis of each stressor between groups, multivariate logistic regression was used to determine which stressors were the best predictors of each course type, while controlling for socio-demographic differences between the groups. Results: A total of 280 students responded. Compared to the non-PBL students (N = 197), the PBL students (N = 83) were significantly more likely to agree that: they did not know what the faculty expected of them (Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.38, p = 0.03); there were too many small group sessions facilitated only by students resulting in an unclear curriculum (OR = 0.04, p < 0.0001); and that there was a lack of opportunity to explore academic subjects of interest (OR = 0.40, p = 0.02). They were significantly more likely to disagree that: there was a lack of encouragement from teachers (OR = 3.11, p = 0.02); and that the medical course fostered a sense of anonymity and feelings of isolation amongst students (OR = 3.42, p = 0.008). Conclusion: There are significant differences in the perceived course-related stressors affecting medical students on PBL and non-PBL programmes. Course designers and student support services should therefore tailor their work to minimise, or help students cope with, the specific stressors on each course type to ensure optimum learning and wellbeing among our future doctors

Conservation must capitalise on climate’s moment

The health of the natural environment has never been a greater concern, but attention to biodiversity loss is being eclipsed by the climate crisis. We argue that conservationists must seize the agenda to put biodiversity at the heart of climate policy

Interplay of Mre11 Nuclease with Dna2 plus Sgs1 in Rad51-Dependent Recombinational Repair

The Mre11/Rad50/Xrs2 complex initiates IR repair by binding to the end of a double-strand break, resulting in 5′ to 3′ exonuclease degradation creating a single-stranded 3′ overhang competent for strand invasion into the unbroken chromosome. The nuclease(s) involved are not well understood. Mre11 encodes a nuclease, but it has 3′ to 5′, rather than 5′ to 3′ activity. Furthermore, mutations that inactivate only the nuclease activity of Mre11 but not its other repair functions, mre11-D56N and mre11-H125N, are resistant to IR. This suggests that another nuclease can catalyze 5′ to 3′ degradation. One candidate nuclease that has not been tested to date because it is encoded by an essential gene is the Dna2 helicase/nuclease. We recently reported the ability to suppress the lethality of a dna2Δ with a pif1Δ. The dna2Δ pif1Δ mutant is IR-resistant. We have determined that dna2Δ pif1Δ mre11-D56N and dna2Δ pif1Δ mre11-H125N strains are equally as sensitive to IR as mre11Δ strains, suggesting that in the absence of Dna2, Mre11 nuclease carries out repair. The dna2Δ pif1Δ mre11-D56N triple mutant is complemented by plasmids expressing Mre11, Dna2 or dna2K1080E, a mutant with defective helicase and functional nuclease, demonstrating that the nuclease of Dna2 compensates for the absence of Mre11 nuclease in IR repair, presumably in 5′ to 3′ degradation at DSB ends. We further show that sgs1Δ mre11-H125N, but not sgs1Δ, is very sensitive to IR, implicating the Sgs1 helicase in the Dna2-mediated pathway

MrsRF: an efficient MapReduce algorithm for analyzing large collections of evolutionary trees

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>MapReduce is a parallel framework that has been used effectively to design large-scale parallel applications for large computing clusters. In this paper, we evaluate the viability of the MapReduce framework for designing phylogenetic applications. The problem of interest is generating the all-to-all Robinson-Foulds distance matrix, which has many applications for visualizing and clustering large collections of evolutionary trees. We introduce MrsRF (<it>MapReduce Speeds up RF</it>), a multi-core algorithm to generate a <it>t </it>× <it>t </it>Robinson-Foulds distance matrix between <it>t </it>trees using the MapReduce paradigm.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We studied the performance of our MrsRF algorithm on two large biological trees sets consisting of 20,000 trees of 150 taxa each and 33,306 trees of 567 taxa each. Our experiments show that MrsRF is a scalable approach reaching a speedup of over 18 on 32 total cores. Our results also show that achieving top speedup on a multi-core cluster requires different cluster configurations. Finally, we show how to use an RF matrix to summarize collections of phylogenetic trees visually.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results show that MapReduce is a promising paradigm for developing multi-core phylogenetic applications. The results also demonstrate that different multi-core configurations must be tested in order to obtain optimum performance. We conclude that RF matrices play a critical role in developing techniques to summarize large collections of trees.</p

The UK DNA banking network: a “fair access” biobank

The UK DNA Banking Network (UDBN) is a secondary biobank: it aggregates and manages resources (samples and data) originated by others. The network comprises, on the one hand, investigator groups led by clinicians each with a distinct disease specialism and, on the other hand, a research infrastructure to manage samples and data. The infrastructure addresses the problem of providing secure quality-assured accrual, storage, replenishment and distribution capacities for samples and of facilitating access to DNA aliquots and data for new peer-reviewed studies in genetic epidemiology. ‘Fair access’ principles and practices have been pragmatically developed that, unlike open access policies in this area, are not cumbersome but, rather, are fit for the purpose of expediting new study designs and their implementation. UDBN has so far distributed >60,000 samples for major genotyping studies yielding >10 billion genotypes. It provides a working model that can inform progress in biobanking nationally, across Europe and internationally

Who does not gain weight? Prevalence and predictors of weight maintenance in young women

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence and predictors of weight maintenance over time in a large sample of young Australian women. DESIGN: This population study examined baseline and 4 y follow-up data from the cohort of young women participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women\u27s Health. SUBJECTS: A total of 8726 young women aged 18-23 y at baseline. MEASURES: Height, weight and body mass index (BMI); physical activity; time spent sitting; selected eating behaviours (eg dieting, disordered eating, takeaway food consumption); cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption; parity; and sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: Only 44% of the women reported their BMI at follow-up to be within 5% of their baseline BMI (maintainers); 41% had gained weight and 15% had lost weight. Weight maintainers were more likely to be in managerial or professional occupations; to have never married; to be currently studying; and not to be mothers. Controlling for sociodemographic factors, weight maintainers were more likely to be in a healthy weight range at baseline, and to report that they spent less time sitting, and consumed less takeaway food, than women who gained weight. CONCLUSIONS: Fewer than half the young women in this community sample maintained their weight over this 4 y period in their early twenties. Findings of widespread weight gain, particularly among those already overweight, suggest that early adulthood, which is a time of significant life changes for many women, may be an important time for implementing strategies to promote maintenance of healthy weight. Strategies which encourage decreased sitting time and less takeaway food consumption may be effective for encouraging weight maintenance at this life stage.<br /

Resurrecting melancholia

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65798/1/j.1600-0447.2007.00958.x.pd