Gender, age, and pharmacists’ job satisfaction

A comprehensive literature review was conducted on the concept of job satisfaction in the pharmacist workforce field and the facets it comprises, as well as its measurement, aiming to (i) review the nature, mechanisms, and importance of job satisfaction in the context of the pharmacist workforce, (ii) survey some of the most salient facets that configure job satisfaction, and (iii) discuss validity and measurement issues pertaining to it. Although female pharmacists generally hold less appealing jobs, earn lower wages and salaries, and are promoted less frequently than their male counterparts, they report higher levels of job satisfaction. Age has a U-shape effect on job satisfaction, with middle-age pharmacists less satisfied than both younger and older practitioners. Workload, stress, advancement opportunities, job security, autonomy, fairness in the workplace, supervisors, coworkers, flexibility, and job atmosphere are facets contributing to pharmacists’ job satisfaction. Finally, discrepancy exists among researchers in measuring job satisfaction as a single global indicator or as a composite measure derived from indices of satisfaction with key aspects of a job. Understanding the mechanisms that affect pharmacists’ job satisfaction is important to employers in their pursuit to respond to practitioners’ needs, decrease turnover, and increase productivity. As pharmacists’ response to work-related conditions and experiences depends on gender and age, a unique set of rewards and incentives may not be universally effective. Additional research into the dynamics of the forces shaping pharmacists’ perceptions, opinions, and attitudes is needed in order to design and implement policies that allocate human resources more efficiently within the various pharmacy settings

A novel approach to simulate gene-environment interactions in complex diseases

Background: Complex diseases are multifactorial traits caused by both genetic and environmental factors. They represent the major part of human diseases and include those with largest prevalence and mortality (cancer, heart disease, obesity, etc.). Despite a large amount of information that has been collected about both genetic and environmental risk factors, there are few examples of studies on their interactions in epidemiological literature. One reason can be the incomplete knowledge of the power of statistical methods designed to search for risk factors and their interactions in these data sets. An improvement in this direction would lead to a better understanding and description of gene-environment interactions. To this aim, a possible strategy is to challenge the different statistical methods against data sets where the underlying phenomenon is completely known and fully controllable, for example simulated ones. Results: We present a mathematical approach that models gene-environment interactions. By this method it is possible to generate simulated populations having gene-environment interactions of any form, involving any number of genetic and environmental factors and also allowing non-linear interactions as epistasis. In particular, we implemented a simple version of this model in a Gene-Environment iNteraction Simulator (GENS), a tool designed to simulate case-control data sets where a one gene-one environment interaction influences the disease risk. The main aim has been to allow the input of population characteristics by using standard epidemiological measures and to implement constraints to make the simulator behaviour biologically meaningful. Conclusions: By the multi-logistic model implemented in GENS it is possible to simulate case-control samples of complex disease where gene-environment interactions influence the disease risk. The user has full control of the main characteristics of the simulated population and a Monte Carlo process allows random variability. A knowledge-based approach reduces the complexity of the mathematical model by using reasonable biological constraints and makes the simulation more understandable in biological terms. Simulated data sets can be used for the assessment of novel statistical methods or for the evaluation of the statistical power when designing a study

Estudio preliminar de la ingesta de nutrientes de niños deportistas de Sierra Nevada

A study was conducted of the diet of a child Alpine ski competition team (Monachil Club, Sierra Nevada). The children,aged between 7-12 years old, were divided into two groups. One of which were residents at a ski resort and the other,residents from different cities, who practised skiing at the same resort at weekends only.A 24-hour recall questionnaire was carried out, from which the following data was collected: The mean energy valuefrom diet intake was determined at 3,218 ± 819 Kcal/day (ski resort group) and 2,485 ± 600 Kcal/day (city group). Nosignificant differences between the groups was observed (p≥0.3). The distribution of energy from energetic nutrients wascorrect for the ski resort group, both at the weekend and during the week; the city group had an excessive intake oflipids (43%) and proteins (17%), and the energy from carbohydrates did not reach 55%. A modification in the diet andintake of energy and nutrients was observed when the children moved from their family home to the ski resortSe ha realizado un estudio de la dieta del equipo de competición infantil en esquí alpino (Club Monachil, SierraNevada). Son niños con edades entre 7-12 años. Se consideran dos grupos, los residentes en la estación de esquí ylos de ciudad que esquían en fin de semana.Se han realizado encuestas de recuerdo 24 horas. El valor medio de energía, es 3218 Kcal/dia ± 819 (grupo de lasierra) y 2485 Kcal/dia ± 600 (grupo de ciudad), no existen diferencias significativas entre grupos (p≥0,3). Ladistribución de energía a partir de los nutrientes energéticos es correcta para los niños deportistas de la sierra, tantoen el fin de semana como entre semana; los niños deportistas de ciudad tienen un consumo excesivo de lípidos (43%)y prótidos (17%), el aporte de energía de carbohidratos no llega al 55%. Se observa una modificación de la dietay del consumo de energía y nutrientes cuando los niños pasan del hogar familiar a la practica del deporte

A Risk Assessment Framework for Seed Degeneration: Informing an Integrated Seed Health Strategy for Vegetatively Propagated Crops

Pathogen buildup in vegetative planting material, termed seed degeneration, is a major problem in many low-income countries. When smallholder farmers use seed produced on-farm or acquired outside certified programs, it is often infected. We introduce a risk assessment framework for seed degeneration, evaluating the relative performance of individual and combined components of an integrated seed health strategy. The frequency distribution of management performance outcomes was evaluated for models incorporating biological and environmental heterogeneity, with the following results. (1) On-farm seed selection can perform as well as certified seed, if the rate of success in selecting healthy plants for seed production is high; (2) when choosing among within-season management strategies, external inoculum can determine the relative usefulness of ‘incidence-altering management’ (affecting the proportion of diseased plants/seeds) and ‘rate-altering management’ (affecting the rate of disease transmission in the field); (3) under severe disease scenarios, where it is difficult to implement management components at high levels of effectiveness, combining management components can be synergistic and keep seed degeneration below a threshold; (4) combining management components can also close the yield gap between average and worst-case scenarios. We also illustrate the potential for expert elicitation to provide parameter estimates when empirical data are unavailable

Diet and food strategies in a southern al-Andalusian urban environment during Caliphal period, ecija, Sevilla

The Iberian medieval period is unique in European history due to the widespread socio-cultural changes that took place after the arrival of Arabs, Berbers and Islam in 711 AD. Recently, isotopic research has been insightful on dietary shifts, status, resource availability and the impact of environment. However, there is no published isotopic research exploring these factors in southern Iberian populations, and as the history of this area differs to the northern regions, this leaves a significant lacuna in our knowledge. This research fills this gap via isotopic analysis of human (n = 66) and faunal (n = 13) samples from the 9th to the 13th century Écija, a town renowned for high temperatures and salinity. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes were assessed from rib collagen, while carbon (δ13C) values were derived from enamel apatite. Human diet is consistent with C3 plant consumption with a very minor contribution of C4 plants, an interesting feature considering the suitability of Écija to C4 cereal production. δ15N values vary among adults, which may suggest variable animal protein consumption or isotopic variation within animal species due to differences in foddering. Consideration of δ13C collagen and apatite values together may indicate sugarcane consumption, while moderate δ15N values do not suggest a strong aridity or salinity effect. Comparison with other Iberian groups shows similarities relating to time and location rather than by religion, although more multi-isotopic studies combined with zooarchaeology and botany may reveal subtle differences unobservable in carbon and nitrogen collagen studies alone.OLC is funded by Plan Galego I2C mod.B (ED481D 2017/014). The research was partially funded by the projects “Galician Paleodiet” and by Consiliencia network (ED 431D2017/08) Xunta de GaliciaS

Frustration wave order in iron(II) oxide spinels

Frustrated magnetic materials provide a great laboratory to study the interplay between classical order and quantum fluctuations. The authors study the frustrated magnetic ground states of two Fe spinel oxides showing that the frustration is a fluctuating characteristic that manifests itself as a “frustration wave

EPHB2 germline variants in patients with colorectal cancer or hyperplastic polyposis

BACKGROUND: Ephrin receptor B2 (EPHB2) has recently been proposed as a novel tumor suppressor gene in colorectal cancer (CRC). Inactivation of the gene has been shown to correlate with progression of colorectal tumorigenesis, and somatic mutations have been reported in both colorectal and prostate tumors. METHODS: Here we have analyzed the EPHB2 gene for germline alterations in 101 individuals either with 1) CRC and a personal or family history of prostate cancer (PC), or 2) intestinal hyperplastic polyposis (HPP), a condition associated with malignant degeneration such as serrated adenoma and CRC. RESULTS: Four previously unknown missense alterations were observed, which may be associated with the disease phenotype. Two of the changes, I361V and R568W, were identified in Finnish CRC patients, but not in over 300 Finnish familial CRC or PC patients or more than 200 population-matched healthy controls. The third change, D861N, was observed in a UK HPP patient, but not in additional 40 UK HPP patients or in 200 UK healthy controls. The fourth change R80H, originally identified in a Finnish CRC patient, was also found in 1/106 familial CRC patients and in 9/281 healthy controls and is likely to be a neutral polymorphism. CONCLUSION: We detected novel germline EPHB2 alterations in patients with colorectal tumors. The results suggest a limited role for these EPHB2 variants in colon tumor predisposition. Further studies including functional analyses are needed to confirm this

Fish as Reservoirs and Vectors of Vibrio cholerae

Vibrio cholerae, the etiologic agent of cholera, is autochthonous to various aquatic environments, but despite intensive efforts its ecology remains an enigma. Recently, it was suggested that copepods and chironomids, both considered as natural reservoirs of V. cholerae, are dispersed by migratory waterbirds, thus possibly distributing the bacteria between water bodies within and between continents. Although fish have been implicated in the scientific literature with cholera cases, as far as we know, no study actually surveyed the presence of the bacteria in the fish. Here we show for the first time that fish of various species and habitats contain V. cholerae in their digestive tract. Fish (n = 110) were randomly sampled from freshwater and marine habitats in Israel. Ten different fish species sampled from freshwater habitats (lake, rivers and fish ponds), and one marine species, were found to carry V. cholerae. The fish intestine of Sarotherodon galilaeus harboured ca. 5×103 V. cholerae cfu per 1 gr intestine content—high rates compared with known V. cholerae cfu numbers in the bacteria's natural reservoirs. Our results, combined with evidence from the literature, suggest that fish are reservoirs of V. cholerae. As fish carrying the bacteria swim from one location to another (some fish species move from rivers to lakes or sea and vice versa), they serve as vectors on a small scale. Nevertheless, fish are consumed by waterbirds, which disseminate the bacteria on a global scale. Moreover, V. cholerae isolates had the ability to degrade chitin, indicating a commensal relationship between V. cholerae and fish. Better understanding of V. cholerae ecology can help reduce the times that human beings come into contact with this pathogen and thus minimize the health risk this poses