The Romance of a Consecrated Life: A Biography of Alexander Beers

Biography of Alexander Beers, first president of Seattle Pacific, written by Adelaide Beers, his wife.https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/archives_publications_seminary/1007/thumbnail.jp

At Physiological Temperatures the ATPase Rates of Shortening Soleus and Psoas Myofibrils Are Similar

AbstractWe obtained the temperature dependences of the adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activities (calcium-activated and relaxed) of myofibrils from a slow muscle, which we compared with those from a fast muscle. We chose rabbit soleus and psoas because their myosin heavy chains are almost pure: isoforms I and IIX, respectively. The Arrhenius plots of the ATPases are linear (4–35°C) with energies of activation for soleus myofibrils 155kJmol−1 (activated) and 78kJmol−1 (relaxed). With psoas myofibrils, the energies of activation were 71kJmol−1 (activated) and 60kJmol−1 (relaxed). When extrapolated to 42°C the ATPase rates of the two types of myofibril were identical: 50s−1 (activated) and 0.23s−1 (relaxed). Whereas with psoas myofibrils the Km for adenosine triphosphate (activated ATPase) is relatively insensitive to temperature, that for soleus myofibrils increased from 0.3μM at 4°C to 66.5μM at 35°C. Our results illustrate the importance of temperature when comparing the mechanochemical coupling in different types of muscle. We discuss the problem of how to reconcile the similarity of the myofibrillar ATPase rates at physiological temperatures with their different mechanical properties

A literature review to understand health literacy in men with prostate cancer on active surveillance

Background and Objective: Active surveillance (AS) has been established as an important treatment option for patients with localised prostate cancer (PCa). Current evidence suggests that health literacy is an important facilitator or barrier to choosing and adhering to AS. We aim to understand how the level of health literacy has an impact on choosing and adhering to AS for PCa patients. Methods: We performed a narrative literature review in accordance with the Narrative Review guidelines through the MEDLINE online database via PubMed using two different search strategies to identify the relevant literature. We looked at literature until August 2022. A narrative synthesis was performed to identify if there is any evidence on how studies report health literacy as an outcome in the AS population and if there are any interventions targeting health literacy. Key Content and Findings: We identified 18 studies which looked at health literacy in the PCa context. Health literacy was measured in the context of comprehension of information of patients across PCa stages, decision making across PCa stages and quality of life (QoL) across PCa stages. Lower health literacy had a negative impact on the identified themes. Nine of the identified studies used validated health literacy measures. Interventions targeting health literacy have been used to improve health literacy with a positive impact across the patient journey. Conclusions: Health literacy plays an important role in enabling men to take an active part in their treatment journey. In this review, we presented how health literacy is measured and which interventions targeting health literacy are implemented across PCa. These examples of interventions targeting health literacy should be studied further and translated into the AS setting to improve treatment decision making and adherence to AS.</p

The localization of myosin VI at the golgi complex and leading edge of fibroblasts and its phosphorylation and recruitment into membrane ruffles of A431 cells after growth factor stimulation.

Myosin VI is an unconventional myosin that may play a role in vesicular membrane traffic through actin rich regions of the cytoplasm in eukaryotic cells. In this study we have cloned and sequenced a cDNA encoding a chicken intestinal brush border myosin VI. Polyclonal antisera were raised to bacterially expressed fragments of this myosin VI. The affinity purified antibodies were highly specific for myosin VI by immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation and were used to study the localization of the protein by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. It was found that in NRK and A431 cells, myosin VI was associated with both the Golgi complex and the leading, ruffling edge of the cell as well as being present in a cytosolic pool. In A431 cells in which cell surface ruffling was stimulated by EGF, myosin VI was phosphorylated and recruited into the newly formed ruffles along with ezrin and myosin V. In vitro experiments suggested that a p21-activated kinase (PAK) might be the kinase responsible for phosphorylation in the motor domain. These results strongly support a role for myosin VI in membrane traffic on secretory and endocytic pathways

Catch the ruler: concurrent validity and test–retest reliability of the ReacStick measures of reaction time and inhibitory executive function in older people

Background: Reduced cognitive function, particularly executive function (EF), is associated with an increased risk of falling in older people. We evaluated the utility of the ReacStick test, a clinical test of reaction time, and inhibitory EF developed, for young athletes, for fall-risk assessment in older people. Aims: To evaluate the psychometric properties of ReacStick measures of reaction time and executive functioning in healthy community-dwelling older people. Methods: 140 participants (aged 77 ± 5 years) underwent testing. Two test conditions—simple and inhibitory go/no-go—provided measures of reaction time, recognition load (difference in reaction time between conditions), and go/no-go accuracy. Concurrent validity was evaluated against the conventional tests of reaction time and EF (simple hand reaction time, trail-making test, and Stroop colour test). Discriminant ability was determined for fall-risk factors (age, gender, physiological profile assessment, and fall history). Test–retest reliability after 1 week was evaluated in 30 participants. Results: ReacStick reaction time correlated with tests of reaction time and EF, recognition load correlated with inhibitory EF, and go accuracy correlated with reaction time and inhibitory EF. No-go accuracy was not significantly correlated with any of the reaction time and EF tests. Test–retest reliability was good-to-excellent (ICC > 0.6) for all the outcomes. ReacStick reaction time discriminated between groups based on age, recognition load between genders, and no-go accuracy between retrospective fallers and non-fallers. Discussion: An unavoidable time pressure may result in complementary information to the traditional measures. Conclusions: The ReacStick is a reliable test of reaction time and inhibitory EF in older people and could have value for fall-risk assessment