Impact of caregiver burden on health-related quality of life and family functioning of carers of children with epilepsy at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, South Africa

Background. The impact of caring for a child with a chronic disease on caregivers and their family functioning contributes to the child’s adaptation to the disease. Objectives. To determine the impact of caregiver burden on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and family functioning of carers of children with epilepsy (CWE), and to determine factors associated with a high impact of caregiver burden. Method. A cross-sectional study was conducted among primary caregivers of CWE attending the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, South Africa. Participants had been involved in childcare for at least 6 months before study enrolment and all gave informed consent. Data regarding sociodemographic and epilepsy-related variables were obtained from questionnaires, including the 36-item family impact module of the Pediatric Quality of Life assessment tool. Scores in the lower quartile were considered indicative of a negative impact on HRQOL and poor family functioning. Results. Participants identified as experiencing a high impact of paediatric epilepsy care reported raw scores ≤31.3 for both caregiver burden and family functioning. The family functioning score correlated strongly with the caregivers’ HRQOL score (p=0.78; p<0.001). Multivariate analysis identified a low level of education among caregivers and a high seizure frequency in patients as independent predictors of caregiver burden associated with a negative impact. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that the burden of caregiving in paediatric epilepsy among our study population impacts negatively on family functioning. The burden of care was associated with a low level of caregiver education and a high seizure frequency in their children

Effects of Smoking vs. Nicotine Replacement Therapy During Pregnancy on Childhood Health Outcomes: An Integrative Literature Review

PICOT: In pregnant women does the use of nicotine replacement therapy compared to smoking during pregnancy reduce the risk of future childhood health concerns? Methods: A search was conducted on healthcare literature databases (Alt HealthWatch, AMED, CINAHL, and Medline).The initial search yielded 940 results related to the topic. Initial review narrowed the search to 25 articles. Articles were excluded if published before 2008. After reviewing the full articles and evaluating effectiveness of the studies, 12 studies met the criteria. These 12 articles focused on the effects of smoking and childhood outcomes, NRT, and success of NRT. Findings: The articles concluded that NRT may aid in positive health outcomes since it excludes the risk factors associated with carbon monoxide and other carcinogens found in cigarettes. The NRT still delivers significant levels of nicotine exposure to the fetus and leads to pregnancy complications ending in low birth weight and preterm birth. Recommendations: Further studies should be conducted on the effects of nicotine and NRT especially on birth outcomes and future childhood health concerns

Order Ten Implicit One-Step Hybrid Block Method for The Solution of Stiff Second-order Ordinary Differential Equations

A one-step hybrid block method for initial value problems of general second order Ordinary Differential Equations has been studied in this paper. The method is developed using interpolation and collocation techniques. The use of the power series approximate solution as an interpolation polynomial and its second derivative as a collocation equation is considered in deriving the method. Numerical analysis shows that the developed new method is consistent, convergent,nbspnbsp and order ten. The new method is then applied to solve the system of second-order ordinary differential equations and the accuracy is better when compared with the existing methods in terms of error

Bacteriocin production by Lactobacillus plantarum ST16Pa in supplemented whey powder formulations

Whey, the main by-product of the dairy industry, is frequently disposed of in the environment without any treatment due to the high cost of this process. Alternatively, whey can be used as a medium to culture lactic acid bacteria and produce value-added products such as bacteriocins. In this work, we attempted to improve bacteriocin production by Lactobacillus plantarum ST16Pa in a whey powder formulation supplemented with additional sources of carbon, nitrogen, and vitamin B12 at different levels and varying the agitation intensity according to a Plackett-Burman experimental design. Only the addition of tryptone positively influenced the production of this bacteriocin. The results allowed us to identify a supplemented whey formulation, comprising 150 g/L of whey total solids plus 10 g/L of tryptone and soybean extract, whose fermentation by Lb. plantarum ST16Pa in shake flasks under agitation at 150 rpm led to a cell-free supernatant with an antimicrobial activity against Listeria innocua 6a CLIST 2865 (inhibition zone of 13.23 mm) close to that previously obtained in de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe medium by other authors. These results are significant considering that the same strain cultured in cheese whey did not previously display any antimicrobial activity

1.19 Questionable suitability of OECD 237 protocol in risk assessment scheme?

Persistent xenobiotics are potentially hazardous for the bee larvae despite that they are not directly exposed in contrary to adult foraging bees. The crucial phase of larval development is the first six days after hatching when young larva grows exponentially and during this phase larvae are potentially exposed to xenobiotics via diet. That is why the life cycle of honeybee is still a great challenge for scientists. OECD reflected “this need” and adopted the OECD 237 protocol (Honey bee (Apis mellifera) larval toxicity test, single exposure) on 26th July 2013. The protocol addresses the requirements formulated by the United States, Canada, and Europe to test the toxicity of chemicals compounds on larvae fed with spiked food under laboratory conditions in a tier1 strategy.Persistent xenobiotics are potentially hazardous for the bee larvae despite that they are not directly exposed in contrary to adult foraging bees. The crucial phase of larval development is the first six days after hatching when young larva grows exponentially and during this phase larvae are potentially exposed to xenobiotics via diet. That is why the life cycle of honeybee is still a great challenge for scientists. OECD reflected “this need” and adopted the OECD 237 protocol (Honey bee (Apis mellifera) larval toxicity test, single exposure) on 26th July 2013. The protocol addresses the requirements formulated by the United States, Canada, and Europe to test the toxicity of chemicals compounds on larvae fed with spiked food under laboratory conditions in a tier1 strategy

Constitutive alzheimer\u27s-type tau epitopes in a neuritogenic rat CNS cell line

Paired helical filaments (PHFs) of Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) largely comprise hyperphosphorylated forms of the cytoskeletal protein tau. AD-type tau phosphoepitopes, detected by various monoclonal antibodies, are absent from normal adult neurons, but recent studies have shown that their expression may contribute to neuritogenesis and axon differentiation in the developing nervous system. Therefore, we have examined a brain nerve cell line that is spontaneously neuritogenic for possible expression of AD-type tau epitopes. The neuritogenic rat brain cell line B103 was found to constitutively produce two AD-related epitopes of tau, detected by cellular immunofluorescence studies with the PHF-1 and Alz-50 monoclonal antibodies. Biochemical studies showed that the antibodies bound to proteins within the molecular weight range expected for phosphorylated tau isoforms. Further verification was established by use of tau antisense oligomers, which eliminated cellular immunofluorescence due to the AD-related monoclonals and polyclonal anti-tau but did not eliminate fluorescence due to anti-tubulin. Cells treated with tau antisense were not neurite-free. Neurites that remained, however, were abnormal, generally short and wavy in appearance. Cellular distribution of the tau epitopes was found to be particularly interesting. Alz-50 recognized only cytoplasmic tau whereas PHF-1 recognized nuclear tau as well as cytoplasmic. Thus, the two epitopes are morphologically segregated within the cell. Because subcellular segregation of tau is compromised in Alzheimer\u27s disease, mechanisms that segregate AD-type phosphotau epitopes in B103 cells may have relevance to this neurodegenerative disorder

The effects of land use changes on streams and rivers in mediterranean climates

We reviewed the literature on the effects of land use changes on mediterranean river ecosystems (med-rivers) to provide a foundation and directions for future research on catchment management during times of rapid human population growth and climate change. Seasonal human demand for water in mediterranean climate regions (med-regions) is high, leading to intense competition for water with riverine communities often containing many endemic species. The responses of river communities to human alterations of land use, vegetation, hydrological, and hydrochemical conditions are similar in mediterranean and other climatic regions. High variation in hydrological regimes in med-regions, however, tends to exacerbate the magnitude of these responses. For example, land use changes promote longer dry season flows, concentrating contaminants, allowing the accumulation of detritus, algae, and plants, and fostering higher temperatures and lower dissolved oxygen levels, all of which may extirpate sensitive native species. Exotic species often thrive in med-rivers altered by human activity, further homogenizing river communities worldwide. We recommend that future research rigorously evaluate the effects of management and restoration practices on river ecosystems, delineate the cause-effect pathways leading from human perturbations to stream biological communities, and incorporate analyses of the effects of scale, land use heterogeneity, and high temporal hydrological variability on stream communities. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Germ plasm in Eleutherodactylus coqui, a direct developing frog with large eggs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>RNAs for embryo patterning and for germ cell specification are localized to the vegetal cortex of the oocyte of <it>Xenopus laevis</it>. In oocytes of the direct developing frog <it>Eleutherodactylus coqui</it>, orthologous RNAs for patterning are not localized, raising the question as to whether RNAs and other components of germ plasm are localized in this species.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To identify germ plasm, <it>E. coqui </it>embryos were stained with DiOC₆(3) or examined by <it>in situ </it>hybridization for <it>dazl </it>and <it>DEADSouth </it>RNAs. The cDNAs for the <it>E. coqui </it>orthologues were cloned by RT-PCR using degenerate primers. To examine activity of the <it>E. coqui </it>orthologues, RNAs, made from constructs of their 3'UTRs with <it>mCherry</it>, were injected into <it>X. laevis </it>embryos.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both DiOC₆(3) and <it>dazl </it>and <it>DEADSouth in situs </it>identified many small islands at the vegetal surface of cleaving <it>E. coqui </it>embryos, indicative of germ plasm. <it>Dazl </it>was also expressed in primordial germ cells in the genital ridge. The 3'UTRs of <it>E. coqui dazl </it>and <it>DEADSouth </it>directed primordial germ cell specific protein synthesis in <it>X. laevis</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p><it>E. coqui </it>utilizes germ plasm with RNAs localized to the vegetal cortex to specify primordial germ cells. The large number of germ plasm islands suggests that an increase in the amount of germ plasm was important in the evolution of the large <it>E. coqui </it>egg.</p

Untangling the Links Among Athletic Involvement, Gender, Race, and Adolescent Academic Outcomes

Although previous research has established that high school sports participation may be associated with positive academic outcomes, the parameters of the relationship remain unclear. Using a longitudinal sample of nearly 600 Western New York adolescents, this study examined gender- and race-specific differences in the impact of two dimensions of adolescent athletic involvement (“jock” identity and athlete status) on changes in school grades and school misconduct over a two-year interval. Female and black adolescents who identified themselves as “jocks” reported lower grades than those who did not, whereas female athletes reported higher grades than female nonathletes. Jocks also reported significantly more misconduct (including skipping school, cutting classes, having someone from home called to the school for disciplinary purposes, and being sent to the principal’s office) than nonjocks. Gender moderated the relationship between athlete status and school misconduct; athletic participation had a less salutary effect on misconduct for girls than for boys