Treadmill walking differently affects body composition and metabolic parameters of female rats from normal or small litters

This work assessed whether walking affects bodily development and metabolic parameters of female rats raised in small litters (three pups, group S) or control litters (nine pups, group C). After weaning, some of the rats had five sessions per week of a 30-min treadmill walking (CE and SE), while the others remained sedentary (CS and SS) until the age of 120 days. Exercise caused a reduction of body weight (CS/CE = 1.18), Lee index (CS/CE = 1.04), fasting blood glucose (CS/CE = 1.35), mesenteric (CS/CE = 1.23), and ovarian fat (CS/CE = 1.33) in CE, but only glucose was decreased in SE (SS/SE = 1.16). The diameter of adipocytes decreased to a half in the small-litter groups. Exercise increased subcutaneous (CS/CE = 0.88 and SS/SE = 0.71), but decreased retroperitoneal adipocytes (CS/CE = 1.2 and SS/SE = 1.3). Litter size reduction had little impact on females at the age of 120 days, but the light physical activity seemed insufficient to counteract all the effects of lactational overfeeding. On the other hand, pups from exercised mothers had a decrease in their biometric and glycemic indexes, demonstrating the transgenerational action of regular, although light, exercise

Chromosome identification in the Andean common bean accession G19833 (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Fabaceae)

Characterization of all chromosomes of the Andean G19833 bean genotype was carried out by fluorescent in situ hybridization. Eleven single-copy genomic sequences, one for each chromosome, two BACs containing subtelomeric and pericentromeric repeats and the 5S and 45S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) were used as probes. Comparison to the Mesoamerican accession BAT93 showed little divergence, except for additional 45S rDNA sites in four chromosome pairs. Altogether, the results indicated a relative karyotypic stability during the evolution of the Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools of P. vulgaris

Bullying girls - Changes after brief strategic family therapy: A randomized, prospective, controlled trial with one-year follow-up

Background: Many girls bully others. They are conspicuous because of their risk-taking behavior, increased anger, problematic interpersonal relationships and poor quality of life. Our aim was to determine the efficacy of brief strategic family therapy (BSFT) for bullying-related behavior, anger reduction, improvement of interpersonal relationships, and improvement of health-related quality of life in girls who bully, and to find out whether their expressive aggression correlates with their distinctive psychological features. Methods: 40 bullying girls were recruited from the general population: 20 were randomly selected for 3 months of BSFT. Follow-up took place 12 months after the therapy had ended. The results of treatment were examined using the Adolescents' Risk-taking Behavior Scale (ARBS), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-D), and the SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36). Results: In comparison with the control group (CG) (according to the intent-to-treat principle), bullying behavior in the BSFT group was reduced (BSFT-G from n = 20 to n = 6; CG from n = 20 to n = 18, p = 0.05) and statistically significant changes in all risk-taking behaviors (ARBS), on most STAXI, IIP-D, and SF-36 scales were observed after BSFT. The reduction in expressive aggression (Anger-Out scale of the STAXI) correlated with the reduction on several scales of the ARBS, IIP-D, and SF-36. Follow-up a year later showed relatively stable events. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that bullying girls suffer from psychological and social problems which may be reduced by the use of BSFT. Expressive aggression in girls appears to correlate with several types of risk-taking behavior and interpersonal problems, as well as with health-related quality of life. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Potent and Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Activity of Analogs from the Scorpion Peptide Stigmurin

Scorpion venom constitutes a rich source of biologically active compounds with high potential for therapeutic and biotechnological applications that can be used as prototypes for the design of new drugs. The aim of this study was to characterize the structural conformation, evaluate the antimicrobial activity, and gain insight into the possible action mechanism underlying it, for two new analog peptides of the scorpion peptide Stigmurin, named StigA25 and StigA31. The amino acid substitutions in the native sequence for lysine residues resulted in peptides with higher positive net charge and hydrophobicity, with an increase in the theoretical helical content. StigA25 and StigA31 showed the capacity to modify their structural conformation according to the environment, and were stable to pH and temperature variation-results similar to the native peptide. Both analog peptides demonstrated broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity in vitro, showing an effect superior to that of the native peptide, being non-hemolytic at the biologically active concentrations. Therefore, this study demonstrates the therapeutic potential of the analog peptides from Stigmurin and the promising approach of rational drug design based on scorpion venom peptide to obtain new anti-infective agents.publishersversionpublishe

Concurrent validity of self-rating scale of self-directed learning and self-directed learning instrument among Italian nursing students

BACKGROUND: Self-Directed Learning develops when students take the initiative for their learning, recognising needs, formulating goals, identifying resources, implementing appropriate strategies and evaluating learning outcomes. This should be seen as a collaborative process between the nurse educator and the learner. At the international level, various instruments have been used to measure Self-Directed Learning abilities (SDL), both in original and in culturally-adapted versions. However, few instruments have been subjected to full validation, and no gold standard reference has been established to date. In addition, few researchers have adopted the established tools to assess the concurrent validity of the emerging new tools. Therefore, the aim of this study was to measure the concurrent validity between the Self-Rating Scale of Self-Directed Learning (SRSSDL_Ita) - Italian version and the Self-Directed Learning Instruments (SDLI) in undergraduate nursing students. METHODS: A concurrent validity study design was conducted in a Bachelor level nursing degree programme located in Italy. All nursing students attending the first, second or third year (n=428) were the target sample. The SRSSDL_Ita, and the SDLI were used. The Pearson correlation was used to determine the concurrent validity between the instruments; the confidence of intervals (CI 95%) bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap (BCa), were also calculated. RESULTS: The majority of participants were students attending their first year (47.9%), and were predominately female (78.5%). Their average age was 22.5\ub14.1. The SDL abilities scores, as measured with the SRSSDL_Ita (min 40, max 200), were, on average, 160.79 (95% CI 159.10-162.57; median 160); while with the SDLI (min 20, max 100), they were on average 82.57 (95% CI 81.79-83.38; median 83). The Pearson correlation between the SRSSDL_Ita and SDLI instruments was 0.815 (CI BCa 95% 0.774-0.848), (p=0.000). CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm the concurrent validity of the SRSSDL_Ita with the SDLI. The SRSSDL_Ita instrument can be useful in the process of identifying Self-Directed Learning abilities, which are essential for students to achieve the expected learning goals and become lifelong learners

Chromatin differentiation between Theobroma cacao L. and T. grandiflorum Schum

A comparative analysis of mitotic chromosomes of Theobroma cacao (cacao) and T. grandiflorum (cupuaçu) was performed aiming to identify cytological differences between the two most important species of this genus. Both species have symmetric karyotypes, with 2n = 20 metacentric chromosomes ranging in size from 2.00 to 1.19 μm (cacao) and from 2.21 to 1.15 μm (cupuaçu). The interphase nuclei of both species were of the arreticulate type, displaying up to 20 chromocentres, which were more regularly shaped in cacao than in cupuaçu. Prophase chromosomes of both species were more condensed in the proximal region, sometimes including the whole short arm. Both species exhibited only one pair of terminal heterochromatic bands, positively stained with chromomycin A 3 , which co-localized with the single 45S rDNA site. Each karyotype displayed a single 5S rDNA site in the proximal region of another chromosome pair. Heterochromatic bands were also observed on the centromeric/pericentromeric regions of all 20 chromosomes of cacao after C-banding followed by Giemsa or DAPI staining, whereas in cupuaçu they were never detected. These data suggest that the chromosomes of both species have been largely conserved and their pericentromeric chromatin is the only citologically differentiated region

Structural assessment, toxicity, and increased antimicrobial activity

Scorpion venom is a rich source of biologically active components and various peptides with high-potential therapeutic use that have been characterized for their antimicrobial and antiproliferative activities. Stigmurin is a peptide identified from the Tityus stigmurus venom gland with high antibacterial and antiproliferative activities and low toxicity. Amino acid substitutions in peptides without a disulfide bridge sequence have been made with the aim of reducing their toxicity and increasing their biological activities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the structural conformation and structural stability, as well as antimicrobial, antiproliferative, and hemolytic activities of two peptide analogs to Stigmurin, denominated StigA6 and StigA16. In silico analysis revealed the α-helix structure for both analog peptides, which was confirmed by circular dichroism. Data showed that the net charge and hydrophobic moment of the analog peptides were higher than those for Stigmurin, which can explain the increase in antimicrobial activity presented by them. Both analog peptides exhibited activity on cancerous cells similar to the native peptide; however, they were less toxic when tested on the normal cell line. These results reveal a potential biotechnological application of the analog peptides StigA6 and StigA16 as prototypes to new therapeutic agents.publishersversionpublishe

Endoscopic Ultrasound in the Diagnosis and Staging of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the digestive cancers with the poorest prognosis, so an early and correct diagnosis is of utmost importance. With the development of new therapeutic options an accurate staging is essential. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) has a major role in all stages of the management of these patients. EUS has a high accuracy in the diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma and the possibility to perform fine-needle aspiration/biopsy (FNA/FNB) increases the diagnostic yield of EUS. There is still no consensus on the several technical aspects of FNA, namely on the rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE), the diameter and type of needle, the number of passes and the use of stylet and suction. Contrast-enhanced EUS (CE-EUS) and EUS elastography (EUS-E) have been used in recent years as an adjunct to EUS-FNA. Given the higher sensitivity of these techniques a negative cytology by EUS-FNA should not exclude malignancy when CE-EUS and/or EUS-E are suggestive of pancreatic neoplasia. EUS remains one of the main methods in the staging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, namely to further evaluate patients with non-metastatic disease that appears resectable on initial imaging. EUS is crucial for an accurate preoperative evaluation of pancreatic cancer which is essential to choose the correct management strategy. The possibility to obtain samples from suspicious lesions or lymph nodes, by means of EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration as well as the use of contrast-enhanced and elastography, makes EUS an ideal modality for the diagnosis and staging of pancreatic cancer.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio