AMP-activated protein kinase inhibits NF-κB signaling and inflammation: impact on healthspan and lifespan

Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a crucial regulator of energy metabolic homeostasis and thus a major survival factor in a variety of metabolic stresses and also in the aging process. Metabolic syndrome is associated with a low-grade, chronic inflammation, primarily in adipose tissue. A low-level of inflammation is also present in the aging process. There are emerging results indicating that AMPK signaling can inhibit the inflammatory responses induced by the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) system. The NF-κB subunits are not direct phosphorylation targets of AMPK, but the inhibition of NF-κB signaling is mediated by several downstream targets of AMPK, e.g., SIRT1, PGC-1α, p53, and Forkhead box O (FoxO) factors. AMPK signaling seems to enhance energy metabolism while it can repress inflammatory responses linked to chronic stress, e.g., in nutritional overload and during the aging process. AMPK can inhibit endoplasmic reticulum and oxidative stresses which are involved in metabolic disorders and the aging process. Interestingly, many target proteins of AMPK are so-called longevity factors, e.g., SIRT1, p53, and FoxOs, which not only can increase the stress resistance and extend the lifespan of many organisms but also inhibit the inflammatory responses. The activation capacity of AMPK declines in metabolic stress and with aging which could augment the metabolic diseases and accelerate the aging process. We will review the AMPK pathways involved in the inhibition of NF-κB signaling and suppression of inflammation. We also emphasize that the capacity of AMPK to repress inflammatory responses can have a significant impact on both healthspan and lifespan

Variation in job titles within the nursing workforce.

Aims and Objectives/Background The work of specialist nursing has been under scrutiny for many years in the UK due to a perception that it is not cost effective. A common issue is the lack of consistency of job titles which causes confusion to the public, employing organisations, colleagues and commissioners of services. Lack of consistency has implications for the wider perception of advanced specialist practice in the worldwide community and the workforce more generally. This study aims to understand the variation in job titles in the UK population. Methods A pre-existing data set of accrued studies into the work of nurses working in specialisms was mined for insight (N=17,960). This study used knowledge discovery through data and descriptive statistics to perform secondary analysis. Results Mining these data revealed 595 job titles in use in 17,960 specialist posts once the specialism had been removed. The most commonly used titles were Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nurse specialist/specialist nurse, Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Practitioner. There were three other primary groupings. These were variants with a specialist or technical prefix of suffix for example nurse endoscopist, variants of seniority such as trainee, senior nurse for [specialism] or variants of function such as Nurse prescriber. The clustering was driven primarily by pay band. 323 posts were recorded as holding titles such as Advanced Nurse Practitioner or specialist nurse who were not registered with the Nursing & Midwifery Council. Relevance to Clinical practice In this dataset there is a large array of titles which appear to have little relationship with other factors like education. This is confusing to the public, employers and those commissioning services. It also demonstrates that the previous assumptions by Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence that advanced practice labels are associated with career progression are unsound and should be addressed by the regulator

Nursing pay by gender distribution in the UK- does the Glass Escalator still exist?

Aims and objectives/background: Nursing is a predominantly female profession. This is reflected in the demographic of nursing around the world. Some authors have noted that despite being a gendered profession men are still advantaged in terms of pay and opportunity. The aim of this study was to examine if the so called glass escalator in which men are advantaged in female professionals still exists. Design and method: Descriptive statistics of the routinely collected national workforce datasets from across the UK central repositories and mining of a bespoke data set that has been curated which focuses on the activity of specialist advanced practice clinical nurses. Results: Even in a gendered occupation such as nursing the advantage of men in terms of pay is apparent with men being over-represented at senior Bands compared to their overall proportion in the UK nursing population. From the bespoke dataset there also seem to be an advantage in term of faster attainment of higher grades from the point of registration. Conclusion and relevance to clinical practice: Reward and remuneration are essential to the workforce. This work reveals a gender differential towards men in higher paid nursing work. The drivers for this are complex and further work is required to determine the factors associated with career progression with men in nursing, and the rate limiting factors with the female workforce. KEYWORDS Nursing, Workforce, Gender Imbalance, Equality, Glass Escalator, Gendered Work, Female Discrimination What is already known about the topic? • Gendered power is highly influential in nursing. • Gender pay disparity in nursing has been reported over a long period in a number of countries. • The ‘Glass Escalator’ is a theory to explain this gender pay disparity put forward by Williams in 1992. What does the paper add? • There is still a gender pay disparity/disparity of opportunity for advancement between male and female nurses in the National Health Service across some pay bands in the UK. • For specialist and advanced practice nurses it appears that males are able to achieve a higher paid role faster than females. If this disparity in pay and opportunity is not addressed inequality will continue to be present. • Further study is needed to determine the root causes of this inequality and how to overcome it. Higher quality routine data collection on the demographic and population characteristics of this group is required

Phylogenetic analysis of museum specimens of houting Coregonus oxyrinchus shows the need for a revision of its extinct status

Abstract According to the IUCN Red List the anadromous houting Coregonus oxyrinchus is categorized as ‘extinct’. However, this extinct status might be incorrect because taxonomic difference between C. oxyrinchus and the closely related C. lavaretus is based on a disputable morphological comparison. Also, phylogenetic studies on mtDNA only focused on recent obtained coregonids. We are the first to perform a mtDNA analysis on both historic and recent specimens, including the syntype specimen which was used for species description by Linnaeus originally. Two primer pairs for mitochondrial CytB and ND3 were used to extract sequences for phylogenetic analysis. Sequences from 14 out of 21 C. oxyrinchus museum specimens were successfully obtained and compared with sequences from recent obtained C. lavaretus. The sequences were combined with GenBank data from a previous phylogenetic study on houting to create a phylogenetic tree and two minimum spanning haplotype networks. Results show that C. oxyrinchus and C. lavaretus form a clade with limited genetic variation. Low bootstrap values also show weak support for geographical patterns in distribution of mitochondrial haplotypes. Statistical analysis of the haplotype networks also shows that historic and recent specimens are similar species. Our results suggest that C. oxyrinchus is a junior synonym of C. lavaretus. A definitive taxonomic revision could not be made because only CytB sequencing was successful for the syntype specimen. We discuss taxonomic consequences and the species-specific focus in nature conservation. We propose a shift in nature conservation to a more functional approach based on traits rather than species