82 research outputs found
Bienestar psicológico como factor protector ante el consumo de alcohol en estudiantes universitarios
Introduction: the psychological wellness is the personal experience that is built through the individual´s mental development and the ability to relate in a positive and integrated way with life experiences, considering the positive and negative aspects, if to the above, alcohol can cause a decompensation among those involved causing health problems such as mental and behavioral disorders. Objective: determine if the psychological wellness influences as a protective as a factor against alcohol consumption in university students. Method: quantitative, descriptive, correlational, prospective and cross sectional, applying the wellness psychological Scale by Ryff and the Test AUDIT applied to 307 students of the Nursing Degree from the Universidad Veracruzana. Results: according to the Kolmogorov and Smirnov test the variables did not show normality the Spearman test was applied, this relationship between psychological well-being and alcohol consumption showed (rs= 1.020, p >0.05), according to age (rs= .221, p <0.01) according to the people with who they live (rs= .159, p <0.01) and witch semester they are studying (rs= .182, p <0.01). Discussion: the results coincide with different investigations where the same variables were studied and identified approving the null hypothesis; the psychological well-being influences in a neutral way in the consumption of alcohol in college students as a protector factor. Conclusion: 52.8% with high psychological well-being, 20.5% do not consume alcohol, while 32.3%, yes, classifying as sensible (18.9%), 7.8% dependent or risk and 5.3% harmful, the above, rejects the belief that psychological well-being influences alcoholic behavior.Introducción: el bienestar psicológico es la experiencia personal que se va construyendo a través del desarrollo mental del individuo y capacidad para relacionarse de manera positiva e integrada con las experiencias de vida, considerando los aspectos positivos y negativos, si a lo anterior, se agrega el consumo de alcohol puede existir una descompensación entre ambos, causando problemas de salud como trastornos mentales y comportamentales. Objetivo: determinar si el bienestar psicológico influye como factor protector ante el consumo de alcohol en estudiantes universitarios. Método: cuantitativo, descriptivo, correlacional, prospectivo y corte trasversal, aplicando la Escala de Bienestar Psicológico de Ryff y el Test AUDIT, a 307 estudiantes de la Licenciatura de Enfermería de la Universidad Veracruzana. Resultados: según la prueba de Kolmogorov y Smirnov, las variables no mostraron normalidad, se aplicó la prueba de Spearman, dicha relación entre bienestar psicológico y consumo de alcohol mostró (rs= 1.020, p >0.05), pero por la Edad (rs= .221, p <0.01), Con quien viven (rs= .159, p <0.01) y Semestre que cursa actualmente (rs= .182, p <0.01). Discusión: Los resultados coinciden con diferentes investigaciones, donde se estudiaron e identificaron las mismas variables, aprobándose la hipótesis nula: el bienestar psicológico influye de manera neutra en el consumo de alcohol en estudiantes universitarios como factor protector. Conclusión: el 52.8% con un bienestar psicológico alto, el 20.5% no consume alcohol, mientras que el 32.3%, sí, clasificándose en sensato (18.9%), 7.8% dependiente o riesgo y el 5.3% perjudicial, lo anterior, rechaza la creencia que el bienestar psicológico influye en la conducta alcohólica
HDAC3 as a Molecular Chaperone for Shuttling Phosphorylated TR2 to PML: A Novel Deacetylase Activity-Independent Function of HDAC3
TR2 is an orphan nuclear receptor specifically expressed in early embryos (Wei and Hsu, 1994), and a transcription factor for transcriptional regulation of important genes in stem cells including the gate keeper Oct4 (Park et al. 2007). TR2 is known to function as an activator (Wei et al. 2000), or a repressor (Chinpaisal et al., 1998, Gupta et al. 2007). Due to the lack of specific ligands, mechanisms triggering its activator or repressor function have remained puzzling for decades. Recently, we found that all-trans retinoic acid (atRA) triggers the activation of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK2), which phosphorylates TR2 and stimulates its partitioning to promyelocytic leukemia (PML) nuclear bodies, thereby converting the activator function of TR2 into repression (Gupta et al. 2008; Park et al. 2007). Recruitment of TR2 to PML is a crucial step in the conversion of TR2 from an activator to a repressor. However, it is unclear how phosphorylated TR2 is recruited to PML, an essential step in converting TR2 from an activator to a repressor. In the present study, we use both in vitro and in vivo systems to address the problem of recruiting TR2 to PML nuclear bodies. First, we identify histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) as an effector molecule. HDAC3 is known to interact with TR2 (Franco et al. 2001) and this interaction is enhanced by the atRA-stimulated phosphorylation of TR2 at Thr-210 (Gupta et al. 2008). Secondly, in this study, we also find that the carrier function of HDAC3 is independent of its deacetylase activity. Thirdly, we find another novel activity of atRA that stimulates nuclear enrichment of HDAC3 to form nuclear complex with PML, which is ERK2 independent. This is the first report identifying a deacetylase-independent function for HDAC3, which serves as a specific carrier molecule that targets a specifically phosphorylated protein to PML NBs. This is also the first study delineating how protein recruitment to PML nuclear bodies occurs, which can be stimulated by atRA in an ERK2-independent manner. These findings could provide new insights into the development of potential therapeutics and in understanding how orphan nuclear receptor activities can be regulated without ligands
Immunophenotypic features of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes from mammary carcinomas in female dogs associated with prognostic factors and survival rates
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The immune system plays an important role in the multifactorial biologic system during the development of neoplasias. However, the involvement of the inflammatory response in the promotion/control of malignant cells is still controversial, and the cell subsets and the mechanisms involved are poorly investigated. The goal of this study was to characterize the clinical-pathological status and the immunophenotyping profile of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and their association with the animal survival rates in canine mammary carcinomas.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty-one animals with mammary carcinomas, classified as carcinomas in mixed tumors-MC-BMT = 31 and carcinomas-MC = 20 were submitted to systematic clinical-pathological analysis (tumor size; presence of lymph node and pulmonary metastasis; clinical stage; histological grade; inflammatory distribution and intensity as well as the lymphocytic infiltrate intensity) and survival rates. Twenty-four animals (MC-BMT = 16 and MC = 8) were elected to the immunophenotypic study performed by flow cytometry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Data analysis demonstrated that clinical stage II-IV and histological grade was I more frequent in MC-BMT as compared to MC. Univariate analysis demonstrated that the intensity of inflammation (moderate/intense) and the proportion of CD4<sup>+ </sup>(≥ 66.7%) or CD8<sup>+ </sup>T-cells (<33.3%) were not associated with worse survival rate. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that only lymphocytic infiltrate intensity ≥ 600 (<it>P </it>= 0.02) remained as independent prognostic factor. Despite the clinical manifestation, the lymphocytes represented the predominant cell type in the tumor infiltrate. The percentage of T-cells was higher in animals with MC-BMT without metastasis, while the percentage of B-lymphocytes was greater in animals with metastasized MC-BMT (<it>P </it>< 0.05). The relative percentage of CD4<sup>+ </sup>T-cells was significantly greater in metastasized tumors (both MC-BMT and MC), (<it>P </it>< 0.05) while the proportion of CD8<sup>+ </sup>T-cells was higher in MC-BMT without metastasis. Consequently, the CD4<sup>+</sup>/CD8<sup>+ </sup>ratio was significantly increased in both groups with metastasis. Regardless of the tumor type, the animals with high proportions of CD4<sup>+ </sup>and low CD8<sup>+ </sup>T-cells had decreased survival rates.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The intensity of lymphocytic infiltrate and probably the relative abundance of the CD4<sup>+ </sup>and CD8<sup>+ </sup>T-lymphocytes may represent important survival prognostic biomarkers for canine mammary carcinomas.</p
Network analysis of the transcriptional pattern of young and old cells of Escherichia coli during lag phase
Background: The aging process of bacteria in stationary phase is halted if cells are subcultured and enter lag phase and it is then followed by cellular division. Network science has been applied to analyse the transcriptional response, during lag phase, of bacterial cells starved previously in stationary phase for 1 day (young cells) and 16 days (old cells).
Results: A genome scale network was constructed for E. coli K-12 by connecting genes with operons, transcription and sigma factors, metabolic pathways and cell functional categories. Most of the transcriptional changes were detected immediately upon entering lag phase and were maintained throughout this period. The lag period was longer for older cells and the analysis of the transcriptome revealed different intracellular activity in young and old cells. The number of genes differentially expressed was smaller in old cells (186) than in young cells (467). Relatively, few genes (62) were up- or down-regulated in both cultures. Transcription of genes related to osmotolerance, acid resistance, oxidative stress and adaptation to other stresses was down-regulated in both young and old cells. Regarding carbohydrate metabolism, genes related to the citrate cycle were up-regulated in young cells while old cells up-regulated the Entner Doudoroff and gluconate pathways and down-regulated the pentose phosphate pathway. In both old and young cells, anaerobic respiration and fermentation pathways were down-regulated, but only young cells up-regulated aerobic respiration while there was no evidence of aerobic respiration in old cells.Numerous genes related to DNA maintenance and replication, translation, ribosomal biosynthesis and RNA processing as well as biosynthesis of the cell envelope and flagellum and several components of the chemotaxis signal transduction complex were up-regulated only in young cells. The genes for several transport proteins for iron compounds were up-regulated in both young and old cells. Numerous genes encoding transporters for carbohydrates and organic alcohols and acids were down-regulated in old cells only.
Conclusion: Network analysis revealed very different transcriptional activities during the lag period in old and young cells. Rejuvenation seems to take place during exponential growth by replicative dilution of old cellular components
Predicting the onset of anxiety syndromes at 12 months in primary care attendees. The PredictA-Spain study
Background:
There are no risk algorithms for the onset of anxiety syndromes at 12 months in primary care. We aimed to develop and validate internally a risk algorithm to predict the onset of anxiety syndromes at 12 months.
Methods:
A prospective cohort study with evaluations at baseline, 6 and 12 months. We measured 39 known risk factors and used multilevel logistic regression and inverse probability weighting to build the risk algorithm. Our main outcome was generalized anxiety, panic and other non-specific anxiety syndromes as measured by the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders, Patient Health Questionnaire (PRIME-MD-PHQ). We recruited 3,564 adult primary care attendees without anxiety syndromes from 174 family physicians and 32 health centers in 6 Spanish provinces.
Results:
The cumulative 12-month incidence of anxiety syndromes was 12.2%. The predictA-Spain risk algorithm included the following predictors of anxiety syndromes: province; sex (female); younger age; taking medicines for anxiety, depression or stress; worse physical and mental quality of life (SF-12); dissatisfaction with paid and unpaid work; perception of financial strain; and the interactions sex*age, sex*perception of financial strain, and age*dissatisfaction with paid work. The C-index was 0.80 (95% confidence interval = 0.78–0.83) and the Hedges' g = 1.17 (95% confidence interval = 1.04–1.29). The Copas shrinkage factor was 0.98 and calibration plots showed an accurate goodness of fit.
Conclusions:
The predictA-Spain risk algorithm is valid to predict anxiety syndromes at 12 months. Although external validation is required, the predictA-Spain is available for use as a predictive tool in the prevention of anxiety syndromes in primary care.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Health (grant FIS references: PI041980, PI041771, PI042450 and PI06/1442) and the Andalusian Council of Health (grant references: 05/403 and 06/278); as well as the Spanish Network of Primary Care Research ‘redIAPP’ (RD06/0018), the ‘Aragón group’ (RD06/0018/0020), the ‘Baleares group’ (RD07/0018/0033), and the ‘SAMSERAP group’ (RD06/0018/0039)
Contemporary management of primary parapharyngeal space tumors
The parapharyngeal space is a complex anatomical area. Primary parapharyngeal tumors are rare tumors and 80% of them are benign. A variety of tumor types can develop in this location; most common are salivary gland neoplasm and neurogenic tumors. The management of these tumors has improved greatly owing to the developments in imaging techniques, surgery, and radiotherapy. Most tumors can be removed with a low rate of complications and recurrence. The transcervical approach is the most frequently used. In some cases, minimally invasive approaches may be used alone or in combination with a limited transcervical route, allowing large tumors to be removed by reducing morbidity of expanded approaches. An adequate knowledge of the anatomy and a careful surgical plan is essential to tailor management according to the patient and the tumor. The purpose of the present review was to update current aspects of knowledge related to this more challenging area of tumor occurrence.Peer reviewe
Pyrosequencing as a tool for better understanding of human microbiomes
Next-generation sequencing technologies have revolutionized the analysis of microbial communities in diverse environments, including the human body. This article reviews several aspects of one of these technologies, the pyrosequencing technique, including its principles, applications, and significant contribution to the study of the human microbiome, with especial emphasis on the oral microbiome. The results brought about by pyrosequencing studies have significantly contributed to refining and augmenting the knowledge of the community membership and structure in and on the human body in healthy and diseased conditions. Because most oral infectious diseases are currently regarded as biofilm-related polymicrobial infections, high-throughput sequencing technologies have the potential to disclose specific patterns related to health or disease. Further advances in technology hold the perspective to have important implications in terms of accurate diagnosis and more effective preventive and therapeutic measures for common oral diseases
The PREDICTS database: A global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts
© 2014 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species' threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project - and avert - future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups - including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems - www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015. The collation of biodiversity datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents is necessary to understand historical declines and to project - and hopefully avert - future declines. We describe a newly collated database of more than 1.6 million biodiversity measurements from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world
Effectiveness of the addition of therapeutic alliance with minimal intervention in the treatment of patients with chronic, nonspecific low back pain and low risk of involvement of psychosocial factors: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial (TalkBack trial)
Predicting the onset and persistence of episodes of depression in primary health care. The predictD-Spain study: Methodology
Background:
The effects of putative risk factors on the onset and/or persistence of depression remain unclear. We aim to develop comprehensive models to predict the onset and persistence of episodes of depression in primary care. Here we explain the general methodology of the predictD-Spain study and evaluate the reliability of the questionnaires used.
Methods:
This is a prospective cohort study. A systematic random sample of general practice attendees aged 18 to 75 has been recruited in seven Spanish provinces. Depression is being measured with the CIDI at baseline, and at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months. A set of individual, environmental, genetic, professional and organizational risk factors are to be assessed at each follow-up point. In a separate reliability study, a proportional random sample of 401 participants completed the test-retest (251 researcher-administered and 150 self-administered) between October 2005 and February 2006. We have also checked 118,398 items for data entry from a random sample of 480 patients stratified by province.
Results:
All items and questionnaires had good test-retest reliability for both methods of administration, except for the use of recreational drugs over the previous six months. Cronbach's alphas were good and their factorial analyses coherent for the three scales evaluated (social support from family and friends, dissatisfaction with paid work, and dissatisfaction with unpaid work). There were 191 (0.16%) data entry errors.
Conclusion:
The items and questionnaires were reliable and data quality control was excellent. When we eventually obtain our risk index for the onset and persistence of depression, we will be able to determine the individual risk of each patient evaluated in primary health care.The research in Spain was funded by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Health (grant FIS references: PI04/1980, PI0/41771, PI04/2450, and PI06/1442), Andalusian Council of Health (grant references: 05/403, 06/278 and 08/0194), and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (grant reference SAF 2006/07192). The Malaga sample, as part of the predictD-International study, was also funded by a grant from The European Commission (reference QL4-CT2002-00683)
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