The informal social support for autonomy and dependence in pain inventory Spanish version

Social support plays a crucial role in the quality of life of people with chronic pain. The Informal Social Support for Autonomy and Dependence in Pain Inventory assesses two functions of received social support: the promotion of autonomy and the promotion of dependence. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to adapt this instrument for its use in the Spanish population. The sample comprised 256 individuals with chronic pain. Participants were recruited through two local associations of people with fibromyalgia, a physiotherapy unit and a hospital pain unit. The data were collected in Spain between October 2018 and January 2020. The structure of the questionnaire was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis, average variance extracted, composite reliability and internal consistency indexes, and inter-correlations between the scales. The criterion-related validity of the instrument was analysed by investigating its relationship with pain intensity, positive and negative affect, daily functioning, activity impairment, wellbeing and satisfaction with life. The structure with the best fit had four related factors: emotional social support for the promotion of autonomy; instrumental social support for the promotion of autonomy; emotional social support for the promotion of dependence and instrumental social support for the promotion of dependence. The scales showed adequate internal consistency. An association was found between higher levels of instrumental social support for the promotion of dependence and higher levels of pain-related disability and decreased daily functioning. An association was also found between the promotion of autonomy and increased satisfaction with life. The Spanish version of the inventory shows appropriate psychometric properties. In the setting of disability prevention, this instrument is useful in assessing the support relationships between people with chronic pain and their relatives.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enhancing digital soil mapping in southeastern Brazil: incorporating stream density and soil reflectance from multiple depths.

This study proposes a novel and simple method to incorporate laboratory soil spectral data in the production of digital soil maps

A search for late-type supergiants in the inner regions of the Milky Way

We present the results of a narrow-band infrared imaging survey of a narrow strip (12' wide) around the galactic equator between 6 deg and 21 deg of galactic longitude aimed at detecting field stars with strong CO absorption, mainly late-type giants and supergiants. Our observations include follow-up low resolution spectroscopy (R = 980) of 191 selected candidates in the H and K bands. Most of these objects have photometric and spectroscopic characteristics consistent with them being red giants, and some display broad, strong absorption wings due to water vapor absorption between the H and K bands. We also identify in our sample 18 good supergiant candidates characterized by their lack of noticeable water absorption, strong CO bands in the H and K windows, and HK_S photometry suggestive of high intrinsic luminosity and extinctions reaching up to A_V ~40 mag. Another 9 additional candidates share the same features except for weak H2O absorption, which is also observed among some M supergiants in the solar neighbourhood. Interesting differences are noticed when comparing our stars to a local sample of late-type giants and supergiants, as well as to a sample of red giants in globular clusters of moderately subsolar metallicity and to a sample of bulge stars. (...) We propose that the systematic spectroscopic differences of our inner Galaxy stars are due to their higher metallicities that cause deeper mixing in their mantles, resulting in lower surface abundances of C and O and higher abundances of CN, which contribute to the strength of the CaI and NaI features at low resolution. Our results stress the limitations of using local stars as templates for the study of composite cool stellar populations such as central starbursts in galaxies (Abridged).Comment: 21 pages (including figures), A&A accepte

Microalgae Cultivation for Secondary Metabolite Production

Microalgae including cyanobacteria have been recognized as an excellent source of fine chemicals, renewable fuels, vitamins, and proteins and usually are found in health food stores around the world. However, the accumulation of these compounds generally occurs at end of the exponential growth phase; furthermore, biomass density in cultivation commonly is low. Open cultures have been used for pigment, biofuels, and biomass production, but these types of culture system are not a good choice for the production of fine chemicals, due to contamination problems and the expensive production costs. Closed photobioreactors can be operated in a continuous cultivation providing an increase on biomass density and contamination-free condition and generally working at a maximum growth rate under specific conditions; besides, these systems can recycle the consumed culture medium at least three times before a new enriched medium is supplied, generating a more cost-effective production system. In addition, microalgae metabolism can be manipulated to provoke a specific secondary metabolite accumulation by the addition of organic carbon source or changing light intensity or both. In other words, photobioreactors can operate in continuous mode, with efficient light supply and the supplementation of organic carbon source to produce fine biochemicals such as anticancer, antibacterial, antioxidant, lectins, antiviral compounds, and biofuels

Structural study of the type II 3-dehydroquinate dehydratase from Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae

9 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables.The structure of the type II dehydroquinate dehydratase (DHQase) from Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, the third enzyme of the shikimate pathway, has been determined. Crystals diffracting to 1.7 Å were obtained in space and on earth using the counter-diffusion technique. The structure was solved using molecular replacement and refined to high resolution. The overall structure of the dodecameric enzyme is described and compared with structures of DHQases from other bacteria. DHQases contain a flexible loop that presumably closes over the active site upon substrate binding. The enzyme can exist in an open or closed conformation. The present structure displays the open conformation, with a sulfate anion bound in the active site. The availability of this structure opens a route to structure-based antibiotics targetting this pathogenic bacterium.We thank Professor Kabsch for providing XDS free of charge. We acknowledge the support of the European Space Agency and the European Community Action to Research Infrastructure Action of the Improving Human Potential Programme to the EMBL Hamburg Outstation, contract No. HPRI-CT-1999-00017. We thank Olivier Minster (ESA) for his support of space science. The authors acknowledge the excellent work of Dr Eva ManÄ as in managing the logistics concerning the space mission. We thank Viscount Dirk Frimout for his support for space crystallization experiments.Peer reviewe

Exploring the interactions between Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection and other risk factors of gastric cancer: A pooled analysis in the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) Project

Helicobacter pylori (Hp) is crucial in gastric carcinogenesis, but infection alone is not a sufficient cause, and the interaction between Hp infection and other risk factors has not been adequately studied. We conducted a pooled analysis of seven case-control studies from the Stomach cancer Pooling (StoP) Project, comprising 1377 cases and 2470 controls, to explore the interaction among Hp infection and tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking, socioeconomic status (SES) and dietary salt intake on the risk of gastric cancer. We estimated summary odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) by multivariate unconditional logistic regression. The analysis showed no consistent interaction between Hp infection and cigarette smoking, while interaction was more than multiplicative for alcohol drinking (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.07-1.77, P-interaction 0.02) and high intake of salt (OR = 2.62, 95% CI: 1.88-3.65, P-interaction = 0.04). The interaction with SES followed the multiplicative model (P = 0.49), resulting in a weakening among infected individuals of the protective effect of high SES among observed Hp-negative individuals. The interactions found were more pronounced in subjects with history of peptic ulcer. The interactions with Hp infection were stronger for cigarette smoking and dietary salt in the case of noncardia cancer, and for alcohol and SES in the case of cardia cancer. No differences were found when stratifying for histologic type. This large-scale study aimed to quantify the interaction between Hp infection and other modifiable risk factors of gastric cancer revealed that the benefit of combined Hp eradication and lifestyle modification on gastric cancer prevention may be larger than commonly appreciated.This study was supported by the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC), Project no. 21378 (Investigator Grant), and by the Italian League for the Fight Against Cancer (LILT). The authors thank the European Cancer Prevention (ECP) Organization for providing support for the StoP meetings

KIR+ CD8+ T Lymphocytes in Cancer Immunosurveillance and Patient Survival: Gene Expression Profiling

Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are molecules expressed by the most important cells of the immune system for cancer immune vigilance, natural killer (NK) and effector T cells. In this manuscript we study the role that cytotoxic CD8+ T cells expressing KIR receptors could play in cancer immune surveillance. With this objective, frequencies of different KIR+ CD8+ T cell subsets are correlated with the overall survival of patients with melanoma, ovarian and bladder carcinomas. In addition, the gene expression profile of KIR+ CD8+ T cell subsets related to the survival of patients is studied with the aim of discovering new therapeutic targets, so that the outcome of patients with cancer can be improved. Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are expressed by natural killer (NK) and effector T cells. Although KIR+ T cells accumulate in oncologic patients, their role in cancer immune response remains elusive. This study explored the role of KIR+CD8+ T cells in cancer immunosurveillance by analyzing their frequency at diagnosis in the blood of 249 patients (80 melanomas, 80 bladder cancers, and 89 ovarian cancers), their relationship with overall survival (OS) of patients, and their gene expression profiles. KIR2DL1+ CD8+ T cells expanded in the presence of HLA-C2-ligands in patients who survived, but it did not in patients who died. In contrast, presence of HLA-C1-ligands was associated with dose-dependent expansions of KIR2DL2/S2+ CD8+ T cells and with shorter OS. KIR interactions with their specific ligands profoundly impacted CD8+ T cell expression profiles, involving multiple signaling pathways, effector functions, the secretome, and consequently, the cellular microenvironment, which could impact their cancer immunosurveillance capacities. KIR2DL1/S1+ CD8+ T cells showed a gene expression signature related to efficient tumor immunosurveillance, whereas KIR2DL2/L3/S2+CD8+ T cells showed transcriptomic profiles related to suppressive anti-tumor responses. These results could be the basis for the discovery of new therapeutic targets so that the outcome of patients with cancer can be improved

Incidencia en el sistema penitenciario, línea B

El presente documento analiza el impacto individual y social resultante de la aplicación profesional del seminario Inside-Out, un proyecto de aprendizaje transformativo con un grupo de hombres privados de su libertad en el Reclusorio Metropolitano, un centro de alta seguridad perteneciente al complejo penitenciario de Puente Grande, en el estado de Jalisco. Con base en la contextualización del sistema penitenciario mexicano hoy en día y la importancia de la educación para la reintegración social de las personas privadas de su libertad (PPL), este texto establece los objetivos, antecedentes, y justificación con respecto a la importancia de Inside-Out como complemento innovador al modelo de reinserción social actual. El proyecto se basa en el diálogo reflexivo, escritura y lectura crítica con las PPL, quienes comparten sus vivencias en relación a la violencia, el crimen organizado y el encierro. Además, el proyecto contempla una investigación de acción participativa (IAP), bajo la cual se caracteriza el planteamiento de seminario permanente con las PPL participantes del reclusorio en interacción con estudiantes del ITESO. Se enfoca en la elaboración de una revista penitenciaria llamada Rompemuros, donde se recopilan las narrativas personales del grupo, con base en el tema seleccionado para tratar durante el semestre. Los textos elaborados dentro del seminario junto con lecturas académicas, son el medio a través del cual se propicia el debate crítico sobre la violencia, el crimen organizado, la exclusión social, el sistema penitenciario y el aprendizaje transformativo, entre otros; con la intención de generar una re-significación y cambio de perspectiva en relación con los estigmas que las personas privadas de su libertad experimentan durante su encierro, al igual que en su proceso de reintegración social. Así mismo, se describen los resultados de los objetivos alcanzados durante el trabajo de campo en el reclusorio, y la posterior adaptación del trabajo académico a raíz de la pandemia de COVID-19. Se concluye con el reforzamiento de la importancia de uso de programas alternativos de educación en el sistema penitenciario, en paralelo con los aprendizajes profesionales que los alumnos participantes del ITESO implementan con base a la experiencia dentro del contexto penitenciario.ITESO, A.C