A Process Model of Risk Communication: The Case of Global Climate Change

The authors describe a survey of public media use as it relates to different stages of awareness and concern regarding risk issues

Alignment of helical membrane protein sequences using AlignMe

Few sequence alignment methods have been designed specifically for integral membrane proteins, even though these important proteins have distinct evolutionary and structural properties that might affect their alignments. Existing approaches typically consider membrane-related information either by using membrane-specific substitution matrices or by assigning distinct penalties for gap creation in transmembrane and non-transmembrane regions. Here, we ask whether favoring matching of predicted transmembrane segments within a standard dynamic programming algorithm can improve the accuracy of pairwise membrane protein sequence alignments. We tested various strategies using a specifically designed program called AlignMe. An updated set of homologous membrane protein structures, called HOMEP2, was used as a reference for optimizing the gap penalties. The best of the membrane-protein optimized approaches were then tested on an independent reference set of membrane protein sequence alignments from the BAliBASE collection. When secondary structure (S) matching was combined with evolutionary information (using a position-specific substitution matrix (P)), in an approach we called AlignMePS, the resultant pairwise alignments were typically among the most accurate over a broad range of sequence similarities when compared to available methods. Matching transmembrane predictions (T), in addition to evolutionary information, and secondary-structure predictions, in an approach called AlignMePST, generally reduces the accuracy of the alignments of closely-related proteins in the BAliBASE set relative to AlignMePS, but may be useful in cases of extremely distantly related proteins for which sequence information is less informative. The open source AlignMe code is available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/alignme​/, and at http://www.forrestlab.org, along with an online server and the HOMEP2 data set

Kinetic equations for Stark line shapes

The BBGKY formalism is revisited in the framework of plasma spectroscopy. We address the issue of Stark line shape modeling by using kinetic transport equations. In the most simplified treatment of these equations, triple correlations between an emitter and the perturbing charged particles are neglected and a collisional description of Stark effect is obtained. Here we relax this assumption and retain triple correlations using a generalization of the Kirkwood truncature hypothesis to quantum operator. An application to hydrogen lines is done in the context of plasma diagnostic, and indicates that the neglect of triple correlations can lead to a significant overestimate of the line width.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur

OR14-3OPIOID SUBSTITUTION TREATMENT: FROM LAW TO CLINICAL PRACTICE AND VICE VERSA

Background. On the edge of the >, the Neuchatel Institute of Health Law compared regulations for opioid substitution treatment (OST) in Switzerland, France, Canada, Belgium and Tunisia. Most standards described appear to be linked to a historic repressive framework. Reference to the right to health as defined by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (general comment 14), appear to be absent or unclear. We present the rational for creating an interdisciplinary panel from the concerned countries, in order to prepare recommendations about how a regulative system of OST should be based on scientific evidence and right to health. Method. Following a literature review identifying barriers to best practice from an addiction medicine point of view, a DELFI technique will identify the domains requiring removal or implementation of regulations, as a priority. Results and Conclusion. Based on the report of comparative law cited above, following areas need to be considered: access to care and free choice to treatment; the articulation of different laws; conditions for authorisation; concerned substances and products; personal conditions posed to patients and professionals; requirements and limitations surrounding substitution treatment itself; the terms of ending or interruption; the protection of personal dat

A Look at Public Health

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Möglichkeiten zur Attraktivitätssteigerung der Hausarztmedizin aus der Sicht junger Ärztinnen und Ärzte

Hintergrund: Ziel der Studie ist es zu untersuchen, welche berufliche Laufbahn junge Ärztinnen und Ärzte gegen Ende ihrer fachärztlichen Weiterbildung anstreben und welche Faktoren aus ihrer Sicht eine Tätigkeit in der ärztlichen Grundversorgung attraktiver machen könnten. Methodik: Im Rahmen einer seit 2001 laufenden Schweizer prospektiven Studie zu Determinanten der Karriereentwicklung nahmen 534 junge Ärztinnen und Ärzte im Jahr 2007 an der vierten Befragung teil. Sie machten Angaben zur angestrebten beruflichen Laufbahn, zum geplanten Praxismodell und Praxisstandort, ferner benannten sie Faktoren, die für bzw. gegen die Hausarztmedizin sprechen und welche die Attraktivität der Hausarztmedizin steigern würden. Ergebnisse: 84 Personen (42% Männer, 58% Frauen) streben eine Tätigkeit als Hausarzt/-ärztin an (60% spezialisieren sich in Allgemeinmedizin, 40% in Allgemeiner Innerer Medizin), 450 spezialisieren sich in einem anderen Fachgebiet. Von den 534 Studienteilnehmenden möchten 208 später in einer Praxis arbeiten, mehrheitlich in einer Gruppenpraxis (88%). 49% der zukünftigen Hausärzte planen eine Praxis in einer Stadt, von den Spezialisten sind es 77%. Als wesentliche Gründe gegen die Hausarztmedizin werden die unsichere Entwicklung der Hausarztmedizin und das niedrige Einkommen genannt, als positive Faktoren die Vielseitigkeit, das breite Patientenspektrum sowie die Kontinuität der Arzt-Patient-Beziehung. Um die Attraktivität der Hausarztmedizin zu steigern, müssten interdisziplinäre Gruppenpraxen gefördert und die finanziellen Rahmenbedingungen verbessert werden. Schlussfolgerung: Die Hausarztmedizin wird als interessantes Berufsfeld eingeschätzt, die gegenwärtigen Rahmenbedingungen für die Ausübung der hausärztlichen Tätigkeit wirken jedoch abschreckend

C/D-Box SnoRNAs Form Methylating and Non-Methylating Ribonucleoprotein Complexes: Old Dogs Show New Tricks

C/D box snoRNAs (SNORDs) are an abundantly expressed class of short, non‐coding RNAs that have been long known to perform 2′‐O‐methylation of rRNAs. However, approximately half of human SNORDs have no predictable rRNA targets, and numerous SNORDs have been associated with diseases that show no defects in rRNAs, among them Prader‐Willi syndrome, Duplication 15q syndrome and cancer. This apparent discrepancy has been addressed by recent studies showing that SNORDs can act to regulate pre‐mRNA alternative splicing, mRNA abundance, activate enzymes, and be processed into shorter ncRNAs resembling miRNAs and piRNAs. Furthermore, recent biochemical studies have shown that a given SNORD can form both methylating and non‐methylating ribonucleoprotein complexes, providing an indication of the likely physical basis for such diverse new functions. Thus, SNORDs are more structurally and functionally diverse than previously thought, and their role in gene expression is under‐appreciated. The action of SNORDs in non‐methylating complexes can be substituted with oligonucleotides, allowing devising therapies for diseases like Prader‐Willi syndrome