Natural product diversity of actinobacteria in the Atacama Desert

Natural Product diversityPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Perceived social support, family relationships, and health-related quality of life among women with breast cancer in Jordan.

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Jordanian women. Perceived social support (PSS) and family relationships are strongly associated with positive psychosocial outcomes and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This area was widely explored in Western countries, but little attention was devoted to investigate this area in Middle East region. Purpose: to investigate the interrelationships among PSS, family relationships, and HRQoL of women with breast cancer in Jordan using an exploratory cross-sectional design. Method: The contextual model of HRQoL designed by Ashing-Giwa (2005) provided the foundation for this study. A total of 140 women were recruited from one large governmental hospital in Jordan using convenience sampling. Survey data were collected in the breast cancer clinic using the Medical Outcomes Study--Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS), Family Relationship Index (FRI), and the Quality of Life-Breast Cancer Version (QOL-BC). Statistical analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics; data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: A majority of the participants were 41 to 60 years (70%), married (63.6%), had stage II of breast cancer (41%), and were housewives (80.7%). Women with breast cancer had moderate levels of overall HRQoL, and moderate to high levels of perceived social support. In addition, women scored the highest in spiritual well-being and the lowest in the psychological well-being. Despite the presence of COVID-19, women scored the highest in the affectionate and positive social interaction social support. Women with breast cancer who were supported by their social network members had higher levels of HRQoL and psychological well-being. In addition, women who reported that the pandemic of COVID-19 affected the level of social support they received had lower levels of total HRQoL, physical well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being. Conclusion: There is an urgent need for psychological counseling services to improve psychological well-being for cancer patients in Jordan. Psychosocial care for cancer patients is still underdeveloped, fragmented, and neglected area. More efforts are needed to focus on other elements of the cancer experience (e.g., social and psychological), besides the physical aspect. The results of this study are beneficial for nursing science and address the gaps in psychosocial cancer care and areas for improvement

2-furyl(phenyl)methanol isolated from Atractilis gummifera rhizome exhibits anti-leishmanial activity

The file attached to this record is the Publisher's final version. Crown copyright.We report for the first time the isolation of 2-furyl(phenyl)methanol (5) from the chloroform extracts of the Atractylis gummifera roots. A. gummifera is a thistle belonging to the Asteraceae family that produces the ent-kaurane diterpenoid glycoside atractyloside (ATR). ATR (1) was isolated and chemically modified to obtain its aglycone atractyligenin (2) and the methylated derivatives ATR-OMe (3) and genine-OMe (4). The compounds 1-5 were structurally characterised and evaluated against the intracellular amastigote, cultured within macrophages, and the extracellular promastigote of Leishmania donovani, the protozoan parasite responsible for the highly infective disease visceral leishmaniasis, which is fatal if untreated. The 2-furyl(phenyl)methanol 5 exhibited notable activity against the promastigote

Violence against women in Egypt: Public policies and services

Violence against women is one of the main forms of gender based discrimination that is prevalent in several countries. On the global level, Egypt is committed to international conventions and declarations to combat different forms of violence against women such as the Convention of the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Beijing declaration. Nationally, the Egyptian constitution mentions that the state is committed to address violence against women and a national strategy was developed two years ago to support the issue. However, the issue is still prevalent in Egypt and several news articles have been reporting on different cases of violence against women happening across a number of governorates. Based on a recent study published by the National Council for Women, CAPMAS and with the support of UNFPA, “Around 30 percent of women age 18-64 have been exposed during the past 12 months to at least one act of violence perpetrated by any of the three categories of perpetrators: spouse/fiancé, other close individuals or strangers in private and public spaces” (UNFPA, 2015, p.120). This research paper focuses on the policies and services offered by the Egyptian state to females survivors of violence and to what extent these policies are responsive and effective. Various studies have examined the state’s response to violence against women in different countries. Nonetheless, the studies conducted on violence against women in Egypt did not discuss the national efforts to solve the issue and create a better environment for Egyptian women. Through applying a qualitative approach, this research concluded that there are a number of policies and services either formulated or implemented to address the issue in Egypt. However, the findings highlighted that there are remarkable gaps in the responsiveness and effectiveness of these policies and services. In other words, the objectives of these policies and services are not successfully met. In addition, their responsiveness in terms of addressing the needs of the female survivors of violence in Egypt is being questioned. Accordingly, a number of policy recommendations are highlighted at the end of the study based on the findings reached

Spongionella secondary metabolites protect mitochondrial function in cortical neurons against oxidative stress

Accepted: 8 January 2014 This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Acknowledgments The research leading to these results has received funding from the following FEDER cofunded-grants: From Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spain: AGL2009-13581-CO2-01, AGL2012-40485-CO2-01. From Xunta de Galicia, Spain: 10PXIB261254 PR. From the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme managed by REA—Research Executive Agency (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement Nos. 265896 BAMMBO, 265409 µAQUA, and 262649 BEADS, 315285 CIGUATOOLS and 312184 PHARMASEA. From the Atlantic Area Programme (Interreg IVB Trans-national): 2009-1/117 Pharmatlantic. MER thanks the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for a PhD Scholarship. MJ thanks the Scottish University Life Science Alliance which provided funding to set up the compound library.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Dual Induction of New Microbial Secondary Metabolites by Fungal Bacterial Co-cultivation

We thank the College of Physical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, for provision of infrastructure and facilities in the Marine Biodiscovery Centre. We acknowledge the receipt of funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration under Grant Agreement No. 312184 (PharmaSea). MR thanks School of Science and Sport, University of the West of Scotland for providing the open-access fees required for the publication.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Experimental Sciences and Endosymbiosis Hypothesis: Solving a Paradox

Endosymbiosis Hypothesis is being included by most scientific books to elucidate the origin of the respiration organelle, mitochondria and the photosynthetic chloroplasts. In spite of some similarities between prokaryotes and cell organelles it still contradicts with major scientific subjects in Genetics, Molecular genetics and Experimental Biology. In this article, major criticism is directed toward gene transfer scenario and its relation with gene expression regulation, however, different aspects and subjects have been tackled and elucidated like; impact of differences in genetic code, prey- predator relationship, the reality of mitochondria and chloroplasts - double membrane envelope, the resemblance between organelles (mitochondria and chloroplasts) and bacteria in replication (binary fission) and chromosome structure, how Endosymbiosis scenario differs from natural gene transfer phenomena and the importance of signal peptide sequences in directing proteins toward organelles. Key words: Endosymbiosis, evolution of mitochondria and chloroplasts, origin of cell organelles