Innervation of the pineal gland in the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) by nerve fibres immunoreactive to substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide

Background: The study demonstrates, for the first time, the presence of substance P (SP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in the nerve fibres supplying the pineal gland in the Arctic fox. Materials and methods: The expression and distribution pattern of the studied substances were examined by double-labelling immunofluorescence technique. Results: The SP-positive fibres enter into the pineal gland through the capsule as the nervi conarii. The fibres formed thick bundles in the capsule and connective tissue septa, from where they penetrated into the pineal parenchyma. Inside the parenchyma, the nerve fibres created basket-like structures surrounding clusters of pinealocytes. The density of intrapineal SP positive fibres was slightly higher in the distal and middle parts of the gland than in the proximal one. Double immunostaining with antibodies against SP and CGRP revealed that the vast majority of SP positive fibres were also CGRP positive. The fibres showing a positive reaction to SP and negative to CGRP were scattered within the whole gland. The fibres immunopositive to CGRP and immunonegative to SP were not observed. In the habenular and posterior commissural areas adjoining to the pineal gland the immunoreactive nerve fibres were not found. Moreover, no immunopositive cell bodies were observed in both the pineal gland and the commissural areas. Conclusions: These results reveal that SP and CGRP are involved in the innervation of pineal gland in carnivores. In turn we suggest that these peptides can regulate/modulate melatonin secretion

Immunohistochemical evidence of the co-localisation of cocaine and amphetamine regulatory peptide with neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase, vasoactive intestinal peptide and galanin within the circular muscle layer of the human caecum

The enteric nervous system consists of about one hundred million of neurons. In big mammals (including humans) intestinal enteric neuronal cells are grouped into three types of intramural ganglia located within myenteric, as well as outer and inner submucosal plexuses, which are connected by numerous nerve fibres. Both nerve fibres and cell bodies located in the gastrointestinal tract utilise a broad spectrum of active substances. One of them is cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript peptide (CART). The goal of the current study was to determinate the distribution and degree of co-localisation of CART with substances taking part in intestinal motor activity by double labelling immunofluorescence technique. During the study CART-, neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)-, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)- and/or galanin (GAL) — like immunoreactive (LI) nerve fibres in the circular muscle layer of the human caecum were observed in all patients studied. The degree of co-localisation of particular substances with CART depended on their type. The majority of CART-LI fibres contained simultaneously nNOS, slightly lower degree of co-localisation was observed in the case of the VIP, while simultaneously CART- and GAL-positive nerve fibres were observed less often

Healthy diet in primary care: views of general practitioners and nurses from Europe

Background: Most of the national colleges of general practitioners (GPs) do not have their own dietary/nutritional tools, and GPs and nurses do not have the time, knowledge, or skills to advise their patients about desirable dietary practices. Objective: To assess the usefulness of a simple and practical guide on healthy diet to be used by European GPs and nurses. Design: A postal survey was mailed to 171 GPs and nurses from 12 European countries to obtain information about the usefulness of a guide on healthy diet developed by EUROPREV. Results: The perception of health professionals is that the main source of information on healthy diet for the population was the media. In all, 95% of GPs and nurses reported that the guide was useful; 93, 95, and 82% reported that the concepts were concise, easy to understand, and realistic, respectively. Also, 77% reported that the type of counselling recommended was feasible and could be applied, 94% reported that the implementation measures proposed could be effective and 88% reported that the Traditional Mediterranean Diet Pyramid is useful, but some concerns about the content were mentioned. Conclusions: GPs and nurses from Europe think that a practical guide on healthy diet developed by EUROPREV could be used to advise patients in primary care, although the Traditional Mediterranean Diet Pyramid should be modified

Physical activity of Estonian family doctors and their counselling for a healthy lifestyle: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physical activity offers major health benefits and counselling for it should be integrated into the medical consultation. Based on the literature, the personal health behaviour of the physician (including physical activity) is associated with his/her approach to counselling patients. Our hypothesis is that family doctors (FD) in Estonia are physically active and their recommendation to counsel patients with chronic diseases to use physical activity is high. The study was also interested in how FDs value physical activity among other important determinants of a healthy lifestyle, e.g. nutrition, non-consumption of alcohol, and non-smoking.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Physicians on the electronic list were contacted by e-mail and sent a questionnaire. The first part assessed physical activity by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) short form. Self-reported physical activity during one week was calculated as total physical activity in minutes per week (MET min/week). The second part of the questionnaire included questions about the counselling of patients with chronic disease concerning their physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. The study focused on female FDs because 95% of the FDs in Estonia are women and to avoid bias related to gender.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>198 female FDs completed the questionnaire. 92% reported that they exercised over the past 7 days to a moderate or high level of physical activity. Analysis revealed no statistically significant relationship between the level of physical activity and general characteristics (age, living area, body mass index [BMI], time spent sitting). FDs reported that patients with heart problems, diabetes, and obesity seek their advice on physical activity more often than patients with depression. Over 94% of the FDs claimed that they counsel their patients with chronic diseases about exercising. According to the FDs' reports, the most important topic in counselling patients for a healthy lifestyle was physical activity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study showed that female FDs are physically active. The level of physical activity is not related to their age, BMI, living area, or time spent sitting. Also, FDs reported that promotion of physical activity is part of their everyday work.</p

Raziskava o zagotavljanju kakovosti v slovenskem osnovnem zdravstvu = Primary health care quality management project.

Background: The article summarizes the main results of the WHO Primary Care Quality Management project, which has been implemented as a pilot study to identify and support mechanisms for quality management in primary health care. Material and methods: The project was commissioned by WHO Europe and carried out in 2007 by NIVEL in collaboration with the University of Ljubljana, Department of Family Medicine, Medical Faculty of Ljubljana, and National Health Institute of Uzbekistan. In Slovenia it was implemented in the urban region of Ljubljana and in the semi-urban region of Gorenjska. Tree types of questionnaires were used: one for policy/decision makers (experts from the Ministry of Health, representatives of professional associations, National Health Insurance Institute, human rights ombudsman, association of patients and consumers), one for managers of primary health care facilities and one for all practicing family physicians in the two areas. All data were processed and analyzed by the NIVEL Institute. Results: Of the 244 questionnaires sent out,106(43.4%) were completed and returned. At the policy/decisionmaking level, 11 (65%) participants out of 17 returned the questionnaires. At the management level, nine (64%) of the 14 questionnaires completed in Ljubljana and five (39%) of the 13 questionnaires filled in Gorenjska were returned. In Ljubljana, 63 (49%) out of the130 practicing family physicians completed the questionnaire, and in Gorenjska only 18 (26%) out of 70. Conclusions: The study showed that quality assurance is not yet a matter of priority in the Slovene health care system. Stake holders do not pay adequate attention to this issue, and managers lack information and guidelines on the subject. Practicing family physicians would need protected time for systematic quality control and improvement, and above all, assistance by a secondary level professional body for family medicine. (aut. ref.

Jony wapniowe w szyszynce swini - badania ultracytochemiczne

The aim of the study was to analyze the distribution of calcium ions in the pig pineal gland at the level of electron microscopy. The investigations were performed on the pineals obtained immediately after slaughter (performed between 11:30 and 12:00 a.m.) from 4-month-old gilts. The fixation procedures were conducted with the use of pyroantimonate, which reacted with calcium ions and formed electron dense precipitates. The precipitates were found both in the intercellular spaces and in cells - pinealocytes, gial cells, endothelial cells and fibroblasts. The precipitates were much more numerous in the intercellular spaces than in the cells. Amount and distribution of precipitates differed significantly between pinealocytes, therefore two types of cells were distinguished. The first type of pinealocytes included cells containing a small or moderate amount of precipitates. They were usually characterized by light or dark cytoplasm and large variability in number and structure of dense bodies. Pinealocytes classified to the second type possessed large or very large content of precipitates. These cells were characterized by electron dense cytoplasm and showed the presence of numerous dense bodies. In both types of pinealocytes, precipitates were present in the nucleus and in the cytoplasm. In nuclei, precipitates were numerous in nucleoplasma and rather infrequently noted between membranes of the nuclear envelope. In the cytoplasm deposits were found in mitochondria, vesicles and cisterns of smooth endoplasmic reticulum, in the Golgi apparatus and in cytosol. The amount of precipitates in glial cells, endothelial cells and fibrocytes was lower than in pinealocytes.Celem pracy była analiza ultracytochemiczna rozmieszczenia jonów wapniowych w szyszynce świni domowej. Badano szyszynki pobrane bezpośrednio po uboju (wykonanym między godz. 11:30 a 12:00) od loszek w wieku ok. 4 miesięcy. Do utrwalania gruczołów zastosowano pyroantymonian potasu, co umożliwiło związanie jonów wapniowych w postaci elektronowo gęstych precypitatów, których rozmieszczenie określono za pomocą mikroskopu elektronowego. Precypitaty występowały w przestrzeni międzykomórkowej oraz w komórkach: pinealocytach, komórkach glejowych, komórkach śródbłonka naczyń włosowatych i fibrocytach. Zawartość złogów pyroantymonianu wapnia była znacznie większa w przestrzeni zewnątrzkomórkowej niż wewnątrz komórek. Ze względu na ilość i lokalizację precypitatów możliwe było wyróżnienie dwóch typów pinealocytów. Pierwszy z nich stanowiły komórki zawierające małą lub średnią ilość precypitatów. Komórki te charakteryzowały się elektronowo jasną lub elektronowo gęstą cytoplazmą, a skład ciałek gęstych był zróżnicowany pod względem ilościowym i jakościowym. Drugi typ pinealocytów stanowiły komórki z dużą lub bardzo dużą zawartością precypitatów. Najczęściej charakteryzowały się one elektronowo gęstą cytoplazmą oraz obecnością bardzo licznych ciałek gęstych. W obu typach pinealocytów precypitaty występowały zarówno w jądrze komórkowym, jak i w cytoplazmie. W jądrze stosunkowo liczne precypitaty o zróżnicowanych wymiarach stwierdzono w obrębie chromatyny, natomiast jedynie sporadycznie obserwowano je w przestrzeni między błonami otoczki jądrowej. W cytoplazmie precypitaty występowały w mitochondriach, pęcherzykach i cysternach siateczki śródplazmatycznej gładkiej, strukturach aparatu Golgiego oraz w cytoplazmie podstawowej. Zawartość precypitatów w komórkach glejowych, komórkach środbłonka oraz fibrocytach była znacznie mniejsza niż w pinealocytach

Curating the conditions for a thrivable planet: systemic leverage points for emerging a global eco-civilization

Our team worked on the practical design challenge of creating a series of related international events that address issues of livability and thrivability in terms of systemic socioecological innovation. To do this, we focused at two systemic levels of intervention: at one level (which became the meta-level), we focused on curating the conditions for a thrivable planet. This was the larger vision – the idealized design objective that allowed us to contemplate a variety of pathways to address this objective. In this sense, it served as a design attractor for our work. We then chose to focus upon one feasible and realizable pathway that could serve as a functional prototype for addressing the meta-level objective. The 57th Meeting and Conference of the ISSS, set for Viet Nam in July of 2013, was selected to serve as the systemic case for our specific contextual design initiative. This became our system in focus, and our design efforts were then concentrated on setting an actionable agenda for the realization of this event. Given that there are numerous pathways to address the metalevel design objective, we set the system level objective for the ISSS Conference based on the theme of Systemic Leverage Points for Emerging a Global Eco-Civilization. By setting this focus we intended for ISSS 2013 to provide both a platform for other contextual designs framed within the meta-level objective of curating the conditions for a thrivable planet, as well as to catalyze the emergence of a network of such initiatives through the specific system level focus chosen for this event. We considered that the selected conference theme would attract living cases of systemic sustainability – those which demonstrate socio-ecological innovations that span social, technological, economic, agricultural, and infrastructural domains. By focusing ISSS 2013 on the exploration of both real-world cases of systemic sustainability and theoretical models dedicated to their promotion, this event will serve to seed the emergence of a Global Living Laboratory network of such initiatives. The result of this event would therefore be the emergence of an auto-catalytic socio-technical system focused on individual projects of systemic sustainability that collectively contribute to the creation of conditions for a thrivable planet. The design we worked out for ISSS 2013 was based on the four ways of knowing described by Heron and Reason in 19971, moving from experiential knowing to presentational knowing to propositional knowing to practical knowing. Through both local and virtual conversation-based systemic inquiry, our design offers a key example of systemic socio-ecological innovation aided by collective intelligence.Alexander Laszlo, Stefan Blachfellner, Ockie Bosch, Nam Nguyen, Violeta Bulc, Mary Edson, Jennifer Wilby, George Pó

Nature-based units as building blocks for resource recovery systems in cities

Cities are producers of high quantities of secondary liquid and solid streams that are still poorly utilized within urban systems. In order to tackle this issue, there has been an ever-growing push for more efficient resource management and waste prevention in urban areas, following the concept of a circular economy. This review paper provides a characterization of urban solid and liquid resource flows (including water, nutrients, metals, potential energy, and organics), which pass through selected nature-based solutions (NBS) and supporting units (SU), expanding on that characterization through the study of existing cases. In particular, this paper presents the currently implemented NBS units for resource recovery, the applicable solid and liquid urban waste streams and the SU dedicated to increasing the quality and minimizing hazards of specific streams at the source level (e.g., concentrated fertilizers, disinfected recovered products). The recovery efficiency of systems, where NBS and SU are combined, operated at a micro-or meso-scale and applied at technology readiness levels higher than 5, is reviewed. The importance of collection and transport infrastructure, treatment and recovery technology, and (urban) agricultural or urban green reuse on the quantity and quality of input and output materials are discussed, also regarding the current main circularity and application challenges