1,232 research outputs found
UCP2 and ANT differently modulate proton-leak in brain mitochondria of long-term hyperglycemic and recurrent hypoglycemic rats
A growing body of evidence suggests that mitochondrial
proton-leak functions as a regulator of reactive
oxygen species production and its modulation may limit
oxidative injury to tissues. The main purpose of this work
was to characterize the proton-leak of brain cortical mitochondria
from long-term hyperglycemic and insulininduced
recurrent hypoglycemic rats through the modulation
of the uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) and adenine nucleotide
translocator (ANT). Streptozotocin-induced diabetic
rats were treated subcutaneously with twice-daily insulin
injections during 2 weeks to induce the hypoglycemic episodes.
No differences in the basal proton-leak, UCP2 and
ANT protein levels were observed between the experimental
groups. Mitochondria from recurrent hypoglycemic rats
presented a decrease in proton-leak in the presence of
GDP, a specific UCP2 inhibitor, while an increase in
proton-leak was observed in the presence of linoleic acid,
a proton-leak activator, this effect being reverted by the
simultaneous addition of GDP. Mitochondria from longterm
hyperglycemic rats showed an enhanced susceptibility
to ANT modulation as demonstrated by the complete inhibition
of basal and linoleic acid-induced proton-leak caused
by the ANT specific inhibitor carboxyatractyloside. Our
results show that recurrent-hypoglycemia renders mitochondria
more susceptible to UCPs modulation while the protonleak
of long-term hyperglycemic rats is mainly modulated
by ANT, which suggest that brain cortical mitochondria
have distinct adaptation mechanisms in face of different
metabolic insults.The authors’ work is supported by the Fundação
para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (PTDC/SAU-NEU/103325/2008)
co-funded by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER)
via Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade (COMPETE).
Susana Cardoso has a PhD fellowship from the Portuguese Foundation
for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/43968/2008)
Associations Between the Big Five Personality Traits and a Medical School Admission Interview
INTRODUCTION: Personality has became popular in medical student's selection. However, few research exists about the association between the big five personality traits and the existent medical school selection tools. Our aim was to study which personality traits were selected by a medical school admission interview.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred ninety four graduate applicants that had applied to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto through the graduate entry approach, after ranked on previous achievement, were interviewed between the academic years of 2011 and 2013. From these, 181 (93.3%) answered to the NEO Five-Factor Inventory that assesses high order personality traits of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Admission interview corresponded to the second phase of the seriation process. Every applicant was interviewed and scored by three interviewers on seven dimensions asesssed by Lickert scale (1-10). Interview score was the sum of the dimensions. Linear mixed effects model and respective regression coefficients were used to estimate the association between personality traits from each interviewer's score. Final models were adjusted for gender, interviewers and previous achievement.
RESULTS: Openness to experience (Beta = 0.18: CI 95%: 0.05; 0.30) had the strongest association with interview score followed by the interaction effect between the extraversion and conscientiousness traits (Beta = 0.14; CI 95%: 0.02; 0.25). Also, applicants scored higher when their gender was opposite to the interviewers.
DISCUSSION: Previous achievement and interview score had no association.
CONCLUSION: Our admission interview selected different personality traits when compared to other selection tools. Medical schools should be aware of the implications of the adopted selection tools on the admitted medical student's personality because it can help providing beneficial interventions
Beliefs About Psychological Problems Inventory (BAPPI) : development and psychometric properties
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Prof. Paulo Moreira, Instituto de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade Lusíada, Rua de Moçambique 21 e 71, Porto 4100-348, Portugal. Email: [email protected] clients’ belief systems are components of Effective Therapy Relationships. Thus, it is desirable to include clients’ beliefs about their psychological problems on systematic assessment protocols underlying the process of systematic treatment selection and of tailoring the treatment to the person. However, assessment instruments which specifically capture clients’ beliefs about their psychological problems are scarce. The objective of the studies presented was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Beliefs About Psychological Problems Inventory (BAPPI), an assessment instrument of the clients’ beliefs about their psychological problems. Study 1 (Exploratory Factor Analysis) involved 200 participants, and Study 2 (Confirmatory Factor Analysis and other validity studies), involved 545 participants. Results revealed that the BAPPI presents a stable factorial structure of six dimensions (Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Biomedical, Cognitive-Behavioral, Systemic, and Eclectic/Integrative). Altogether, analyses of items, internal consistency, reliability, and external validity revealed that the BAPPI is a valid assessment instrument for use in mental health research and practice, especially in the process of systematic treatment selection and, therefore, of matching/tailoring the treatment to the client’s characteristics
Pinning of spiral fluxons by giant screw dislocations in YBa_2Cu_3O_7 single crystals: Josephson analog of the fishtail effect
By using a highly sensitive homemade AC magnetic susceptibility technique,
the magnetic flux penetration has been measured in YBa_2Cu_3O_7 single crystals
with giant screw dislocations (having the structure of the Archimedean spirals)
exhibiting a=3 spiral turnings, the pitch b=18.7 microns and the step height
c=1.2nm (the last parameter is responsible for creation of extended weak-link
structure around the giant defects). The magnetic field applied parallel to the
surface enters winding around the weak-link regions of the screw in the form of
the so-called spiral Josephson fluxons characterized by the temperature
dependent pitch b_f(T). For a given temperature, a stabilization of the fluxon
structure occurs when b_f(T) matches b (meaning an optimal pinning by the screw
dislocations) and manifests itself as a pronounced low-field peak in the
dependence of the susceptibility on magnetic field (applied normally to the
surface) in the form resembling the high-field (Abrikosov) fishtail effect.Comment: see also http://www.jetpletters.ac.ru/ps/1886/article_28701.shtm
Physical properties of single-crystalline fibers of the colossal-magnetoresistance manganite La0.7Ca0.3MnO3
We have grown high-quality single crystals of the colossal-magnetoresistance
(CMR) material La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 by using the laser heated pedestal growth (LHPG)
method. Samples were grown as fibers of different diameters, and with lengths
of the order of centimeters. Their composition and structure were verified
through X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microcopy with EDX (Energy
Dispersive X-ray Analysis) and by Rietveld analysis. The quality of the
crystalline fibers was confirmed by Laue and EBSD (Electron Backscatter
Diffraction) patterns. Rocking curves performed along the fiber axis revealed a
half-height width of 0.073 degrees. The CMR behavior was confirmed by
electrical resistivity and magnetization measurements as a function of
temperature.Comment: 11 pages (including 3 figures); to appear in Appl. Phys. Let
A Hybrid-Telerehabilitation Versus a Conventional Program for Urinary Incontinence: a Randomized Trial during COVID-19 Pandemic
Introduction and hypothesis
This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a hybrid telerehabilitation program with a traditional face to face model in women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and mixed incontinence (MUI) with a predominance of SUI. The authors hypothesized that home pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) would have a similar benefit to outpatient PFMT.
Methods
Parallel randomized controlled trial including 58 patients consecutively admitted to a tertiary academic hospital for pelvic floor rehabilitation consultation from 1 January to 30 April 2021 for conservative treatment of UI. Participants randomized to the intervention were submitted to a 12-week PFMT program: (1) a hybrid telerehabilitation program of two individual face-to-face sessions followed by 2-weekly sessions of video-telerehabilitation with a follow-up by a specialized physiotherapist, including one individual face-to-face session at 8 weeks; (2) a re-evaluation teleconsultation at 6 and 16 weeks; (3) a face-to-face consultation at 12 weeks. The control group had two initial individual sessions followed by twice-weekly group classes, and consultations were face to face. The primary outcome measure (at baseline and 12 weeks) was UI-related quality of life using the Portuguese Version of the King's Health Questionnaire.
Results
At baseline the intervention (n = 18) and control (n = 17) groups were similar. UI-related quality of life significantly improved in both the intervention and control groups betweenbaseline (T0) and the end of the 12-week PFMT program (T12) (p = 0.002, p < 0.001, respectively), although the magnitude of the improvement was not significantly different between groups (–10.0 vs. –9.5 points, p = 0.918, respectively).
Conclusion
This hybrid telerehabilitation protocol showed effectiveness comparable to the traditional model in improving UI-related quality of life. Trial registration at www.ClinicalTrials.gov, no. NCT05114395
Extensive local adaptation within the chemosensory system following Drosophila melanogaster's global expansion.
How organisms adapt to new environments is of fundamental biological interest, but poorly understood at the genetic level. Chemosensory systems provide attractive models to address this problem, because they lie between external environmental signals and internal physiological responses. To investigate how selection has shaped the well-characterized chemosensory system of Drosophila melanogaster, we have analysed genome-wide data from five diverse populations. By couching population genomic analyses of chemosensory protein families within parallel analyses of other large families, we demonstrate that chemosensory proteins are not outliers for adaptive divergence between species. However, chemosensory families often display the strongest genome-wide signals of recent selection within D. melanogaster. We show that recent adaptation has operated almost exclusively on standing variation, and that patterns of adaptive mutations predict diverse effects on protein function. Finally, we provide evidence that chemosensory proteins have experienced relaxed constraint, and argue that this has been important for their rapid adaptation over short timescales
- …