Changes in cardiac heparan sulfate proteoglycan expression and streptozotocin-induced diastolic dysfunction in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Changes in the proteoglycans glypican and syndecan-4 have been reported in several pathological conditions, but little is known about their expression in the heart during diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate in vivo heart function changes and alterations in mRNA expression and protein levels of glypican-1 and syndecan-4 in cardiac and skeletal muscles during streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Diabetes was induced in male Wistar rats by STZ administration. The rats were assigned to one of the following groups: control (sham injection), after 24 hours, 10 days, or 30 days of STZ administration. Echocardiography was performed in the control and STZ 10-day groups. Western and Northern blots were used to quantify protein and mRNA levels in all groups. Immunohistochemistry was performed in the control and 30-day groups to correlate the observed mRNA changes to the protein expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In vivo cardiac functional analysis performed using echocardiography in the 10-day group showed diastolic dysfunction with alterations in the peak velocity of early (E) diastolic filling and isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT) indices. These functional alterations observed in the STZ 10-day group correlated with the concomitant increase in syndecan-4 and glypican-1 protein expression. Cardiac glypican-1 mRNA and skeletal syndecan-4 mRNA and protein levels increased in the STZ 30-day group. On the other hand, the amount of glypican in skeletal muscle was lower than that in the control group. The same results were obtained from immunohistochemistry analysis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data suggest that membrane proteoglycans participate in the sequence of events triggered by diabetes and inflicted on cardiac and skeletal muscles.</p

Seasonal cycle of precipitation variability in South America on intraseasonal timescales

The seasonal cycle of the intraseasonal (IS) variability of precipitation in South America is described through the analysis of bandpass filtered outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) anomalies. The analysis is discriminated between short (10--30 days) and long (30--90 days) intraseasonal timescales. The seasonal cycle of the 30--90-day IS variability can be well described by the activity of first leading pattern (EOF1) computed separately for the wet season (October--April) and the dry season (May--September). In agreement with previous works, the EOF1 spatial distribution during the wet season is that of a dipole with centers of actions in the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) and southeastern South America (SESA), while during the dry season, only the last center is discernible. In both seasons, the pattern is highly influenced by the activity of the Madden--Julian Oscillation (MJO). Moreover, EOF1 is related with a tropical zonal-wavenumber-1 structure superposed with coherent wave trains extended along the South Pacific during the wet season, while during the dry season the wavenumber-1 structure is not observed. The 10--30-day IS variability of OLR in South America can be well represented by the activity of the EOF1 computed through considering all seasons together, a dipole but with the stronger center located over SESA. While the convection activity at the tropical band does not seem to influence its activity, there are evidences that the atmospheric variability at subtropical-extratropical regions might have a role. Subpolar wavetrains are observed in the Pacific throughout the year and less intense during DJF, while a path of wave energy dispersion along a subtropical wavetrain also characterizes the other seasons. Further work is needed to identify the sources of the 10--30-day-IS variability in South America

Development and psychometric testing of the clinical leadership needs analysis (CLeeNA) instrument for nurses and midwives

Aim: The aim of this study is to report the development and psychometric testing of the clinical leadership needs analysis instrument (CLeeNA). Background: Limited emphasis is placed on the clinical leadership needs of nurses and midwives that are fundamental to supporting the delivery of high quality, safe patient care. Methods: A development and validation study of CLeeNA was undertaken using cross-sectional data. A sample of 324 registered nurses and midwives completed the questionnaire using a 7-point adjectival scale. Principal component analysis was conducted to explore scale grouping of items (n = 103 items). Results: Principal component analysis, item reduction and parallel analysis on the items of the instrument resulted in seven factors consisting of 56 items. These factors were identified as: Staff and Care Delivery; Technology and Care Initiatives; Self and Team Development; Standards of Care; Financial and Service Management; Leadership and Clinical Practice; Patient Safety and Risk Management. Conclusion: The identified factors are reflective of an ever-changing health care environment. Implications for Nursing Management: Potentially, after further testing, this instrument could be used by nursing management and educators to measure clinical leadership needs, inform the design of clinical leadership training programmes and provide valuable information about health care leadership development

Evolution of associative learning in chemical networks

Organisms that can learn about their environment and modify their behaviour appropriately during their lifetime are more likely to survive and reproduce than organisms that do not. While associative learning – the ability to detect correlated features of the environment – has been studied extensively in nervous systems, where the underlying mechanisms are reasonably well understood, mechanisms within single cells that could allow associative learning have received little attention. Here, using in silico evolution of chemical networks, we show that there exists a diversity of remarkably simple and plausible chemical solutions to the associative learning problem, the simplest of which uses only one core chemical reaction. We then asked to what extent a linear combination of chemical concentrations in the network could approximate the ideal Bayesian posterior of an environment given the stimulus history so far? This Bayesian analysis revealed the ’memory traces’ of the chemical network. The implication of this paper is that there is little reason to believe that a lack of suitable phenotypic variation would prevent associative learning from evolving in cell signalling, metabolic, gene regulatory, or a mixture of these networks in cells

Impacto de un programa de ejercicio sobre la Autoeficacia en mujeres con sobrepeso y obesidad

Introducción: En México la prevalencia combinada de sobrepeso y obesidad en muje- res es de 73%, problema de salud pública que se relaciona con las principales causas de muerte. Las principales estrategias se realizan a través de la práctica de ejercicio y alimentación saludable; sin embargo, no se ha tenido el impacto deseado; es necesario obtener indicadores cognitivos para fortalecer las estrategias de salud.Objetivo: Analizar el impacto de un programa de entrenamiento físico aeróbico gradual sobre el nivel de Autoeficacia (AE) para practicar ejercicio y dieta saludable en mujeres con sobrepeso y obesidad.Material y métodos: Se trató de un experimento en el que se incluyeron mujeres de 18 a 24 años con un IMC≥27. La muestra se conformó por 34 mujeres divididas en los grupos control y experimental (17 mujeres respectivamente), seleccionadas y asignadas median- te muestreo aleatorio. Las mediciones se realizaron mediante un inventario valido y con- fiable que mide la AE en dieta y ejercicio. La dosis de ejercicio fue calculada por la fórmula de Karvonen durante diez semanas de manera gradual y controlada. El estadístico utiliza- do fue un MANOVA de mediciones repetidas, se consideró un nivel de significancia &lt;.05. Resultados: Posterior a la intervención se apreciaron cambios estadísticamente signi- ficativos, AE en ejercicio 40.3±4.0 vs. 35.8±5.4; y AE en dieta 85.8±10.5 vs. 78.8±10.7 (p&lt;.05).Conclusiones: El ejercicio a la dosis establecida mejoró la condición de AE que favoreció la práctica de ejercicio y la dieta saludable en mujeres con sobrepeso y obesidad

Impacto de un programa de ejercicio sobre la Autoeficacia en mujeres con sobrepeso y obesidad

Introducción: En México la prevalencia combinada de sobrepeso y obesidad en muje- res es de 73%, problema de salud pública que se relaciona con las principales causas de muerte. Las principales estrategias se realizan a través de la práctica de ejercicio y alimentación saludable; sin embargo, no se ha tenido el impacto deseado; es necesario obtener indicadores cognitivos para fortalecer las estrategias de salud.Objetivo: Analizar el impacto de un programa de entrenamiento físico aeróbico gradual sobre el nivel de Autoeficacia (AE) para practicar ejercicio y dieta saludable en mujeres con sobrepeso y obesidad.Material y métodos: Se trató de un experimento en el que se incluyeron mujeres de 18 a 24 años con un IMC≥27. La muestra se conformó por 34 mujeres divididas en los grupos control y experimental (17 mujeres respectivamente), seleccionadas y asignadas median- te muestreo aleatorio. Las mediciones se realizaron mediante un inventario valido y con- fiable que mide la AE en dieta y ejercicio. La dosis de ejercicio fue calculada por la fórmula de Karvonen durante diez semanas de manera gradual y controlada. El estadístico utiliza- do fue un MANOVA de mediciones repetidas, se consideró un nivel de significancia &lt;.05. Resultados: Posterior a la intervención se apreciaron cambios estadísticamente signi- ficativos, AE en ejercicio 40.3±4.0 vs. 35.8±5.4; y AE en dieta 85.8±10.5 vs. 78.8±10.7 (p&lt;.05).Conclusiones: El ejercicio a la dosis establecida mejoró la condición de AE que favoreció la práctica de ejercicio y la dieta saludable en mujeres con sobrepeso y obesidad

Investigating the potential of novel non-woven fabrics for efficient pollination control in plant breeding

Internal temperature (a) and vapour pressure deficit (hPa, b) response rates to a transition from dark to light (0 to 880 umolm-2s-1) above the pollination control bags. Box plots of the average maximum temperature (c) and VPD (d) are shown for each bag type. Significant differences are denoted by different lower case letters for temperature and VPD and are based on 11 replicates.</p

Bacterial porin disrupts mitochondrial membrane potential and sensitizes host cells to apoptosis

The bacterial PorB porin, an ATP-binding beta-barrel protein of pathogenic Neisseria gonorrhoeae, triggers host cell apoptosis by an unknown mechanism. PorB is targeted to and imported by host cell mitochondria, causing the breakdown of the mitochondrial membrane potential (delta psi m). Here, we show that PorB induces the condensation of the mitochondrial matrix and the loss of cristae structures, sensitizing cells to the induction of apoptosis via signaling pathways activated by BH3-only proteins. PorB is imported into mitochondria through the general translocase TOM but, unexpectedly, is not recognized by the SAM sorting machinery, usually required for the assembly of beta-barrel proteins in the mitochondrial outer membrane. PorB integrates into the mitochondrial inner membrane, leading to the breakdown of delta psi m. The PorB channel is regulated by nucleotides and an isogenic PorB mutant defective in ATP-binding failed to induce delta psi m loss and apoptosis, demonstrating that dissipation of delta psi m is a requirement for cell death caused by neisserial infection