Factorial Invariance of Self-efficacy in Physical Health Care Scale for Men and Women University Students

The present study analyses the psychometric properties of the Selfefficacy in Physical Health Care Scale. The overall sample consisted of 2006 subjects: 902 women and 1104 men, with a mean age of 18.53 years (SD= 1.52) and 18.84 years (SD= 1.55) respectively. The Factorial Psychometric analysis showed that a three-factorial structure (nutrition, physical health and hydration) was viable and adequate for both populations (men and woman) according to the established psychometric requirements when the informers are the students themselves. The results showed that factor structure, factor loadings and intercepts of the instrument could be considered invariant across groups; however, there are differences between groups in favor of men for the means of the nutrition and physical health factors

Apoptosis and Redistribution of the Ro Autoantigen in Balb/c Mouse Like in Subacute Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus

In subacute cutaneous lupus eryhematosus (SCLE) the cutaneous antigens constitute the main source of Ro and La autoantigens. The aim of this investigation was to demonstrate if UV light increases the availability of Ro autoantigen in the skin, also the blocking effect of Ac-DEVD-CMK a caspase inhibitor was assessed. For this purpose newborn Balb/c mice were UVB irradiated (5–30 mJ/cm2) equivalent to a moderate to severe sunburn. Animals were injected with monoclonal anti-Ro antibodies from SCLE patients. Apoptosis was also induced by anti-Fas antibody injection. Skin samples were examined by direct immunofluoresence, by TUNEL, and the expression of caspase 3 by RT-PCR. Major findings of present studies were: 1. UVB irradiation and anti-Fas induced apoptosis of keratinocytes. 2. Apoptosis redistribute the Ro antigen on cell surface and is better triggered by Ro antibody. 3. The caspase 3 inhibitor Ac-DEVD-CMK decreases the availability of Ro autoantigen in epidermis and prevents deposition of anti-Ro. In conclusion, the caspase pathway would be blocked to avoid anti-Ro deposition along skin; this finding would be a prospect in the treatment of SCLE patients

Clinical profiles of patients colonized or infected with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae isolates: a 20 month retrospective study at a Belgian University Hospital

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Description of the clinical pictures of patients colonized or infected by ESBL-producing <it>Enterobacteriaceae </it>isolates and admitted to hospital are rather scarce in Europe. However, a better delineation of the clinical patterns associated with the carriage of ESBL-producing isolates may allow healthcare providers to identify more rapidly at risk patients. This matter is of particular concern because of the growing proportion of ESBL-producing <it>Enterobacteriaceae </it>species isolates worldwide.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We undertook a descriptive analysis of 114 consecutive patients in whom ESBL-producing <it>Enterobacteriaceae </it>isolates were collected from clinical specimens over a 20-month period. Clinical data were obtained through retrospective analysis of medical record charts. Microbiological cultures were carried out by standard laboratory methods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The proportion of ESBL-producing <it>Enterobacteriaceae </it>strains after exclusion of duplicate isolates was 4.5% and the incidence rate was 4.3 cases/1000 patients admitted. Healthcare-associated acquisition was important (n = 104) while community-acquisition was less frequently found (n = 10). Among the former group, two-thirds of the patients were aged over 65 years and 24% of these were living in nursing homes. Sixty-eight (65%) of the patients with healthcare-associated ESBL, were considered clinically infected. In this group, the number and severity of co-morbidities was high, particularly including diabetes mellitus and chronic renal insufficiency. Other known risk factors for ESBL colonization or infection such as prior antibiotic exposure, urinary catheter or previous hospitalisation were also often found. The four main diagnostic categories were: urinary tract infections, lower respiratory tract infections, septicaemia and intra-abdominal infections. For hospitalized patients, the median hospital length of stay was 23 days and the average mortality rate during hospitalization was 13% (Confidence Interval 95%: 7-19). <it>Escherichia coli</it>, by far, accounted as the most common ESBL-producing <it>Enterobacteriaceae </it>species (77/114; [68%]) while CTX-M-1 group was by far the most prevalent ESBL enzyme (n = 56).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this retrospective study, the clinical profiles of patients carrying healthcare-associated ESBL-producing <it>Enterobacteriacae </it>is characterized by a high prevalence rate of several major co-morbidities and potential known risk factors. Both, the length of hospital stay and overall hospital mortality rates were particularly high. A prospective case-control matched study should be designed and performed in order to control for possible inclusion bias.</p

SUMO chain-induced dimerization activates RNF4

Dimeric RING E3 ligases interact with protein substrates and conformationally restrain the ubiquitin-E2-conjugating enzyme thioester complex such that it is primed for catalysis. RNF4 is an E3 ligase containing an N-terminal domain that binds its polySUMO substrates and a C-terminal RING domain responsible for dimerization. To investigate how RNF4 activity is controlled, we increased polySUMO substrate concentration by ablating expression of SUMO protease SENP6. Accumulation of SUMO chains in vivo leads to ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis of RNF4. In vitro we demonstrate that at concentrations equivalent to those found in vivo RNF4 is predominantly monomeric and inactive as an ubiquitin E3 ligase. However, in the presence of SUMO chains, RNF4 is activated by dimerization, leading to both substrate ubiquitylation and autoubiquitylation, responsible for degradation of RNF4. Thus the ubiquitin E3 ligase activity of RNF4 is directly linked to the availability of its polySUMO substrates

Mechanisms of intrinsic resistance and acquired susceptibility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from cystic fibrosis patients to temocillin, a revived antibiotic

The β-lactam antibiotic temocillin (6-α-methoxy-ticarcillin) shows stability to most extended spectrum β-lactamases, but is considered inactive against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Mutations in the MexAB-OprM efflux system, naturally occurring in cystic fibrosis (CF) isolates, have been previously shown to reverse this intrinsic resistance. In the present study, we measured temocillin activity in a large collection (n = 333) of P. aeruginosa CF isolates. 29% of the isolates had MICs ≤ 16 mg/L (proposed clinical breakpoint for temocillin). Mutations were observed in mexA or mexB in isolates for which temocillin MIC was ≤512 mg/L (nucleotide insertions or deletions, premature termination, tandem repeat, nonstop, and missense mutations). A correlation was observed between temocillin MICs and efflux rate of N-phenyl-1-naphthylamine (MexAB-OprM fluorescent substrate) and extracellular exopolysaccharide abundance (contributing to a mucoid phenotype). OpdK or OpdF anion-specific porins expression decreased temocillin MIC by ~1 two-fold dilution only. Contrarily to the common assumption that temocillin is inactive on P. aeruginosa, we show here clinically-exploitable MICs on a non-negligible proportion of CF isolates, explained by a wide diversity of mutations in mexA and/or mexB. In a broader context, this work contributes to increase our understanding of MexAB-OprM functionality and help delineating how antibiotics interact with MexA and MexB

Mindfulness in primary care healthcare and teaching professionals and its relationship with stress at work: a multicentric cross-sectional study

Background: Work stress is a common problem among the health personnel of the Spanish National Health System. The objective of this paper is to assess the state of mindfulness among Spanish primary care providers and to evaluate its potential relationship with work stress and basic labor and sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: Cross-sectional, multi-centric study. Primary care nurses, teachers, teaching collaborators and residents assigned to six Spanish Family Medicine/Family and Community Care Departments were invited to participate (n = 475). A template was designed in Google Forms, including sociodemographic and work-related variables. The state of mindfulness was measured with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), while work-related stress was measured using an ordinal scale ranging from 0 to 10 points. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were carried out, as well as bivariate and multivariate statistics. Results: The mean age of participants was 40, 14 ± 13.12 (range:23–65 years); 66.9% were women, 42.5% internal medicine residents, 29.3% family physicians, and 20.2% nurses. More than half (54.5%) knew about mindfulness, with 24.0% have received training on it, and 22.5% were usual practitioners. The average level of mindfulness was 127.18 ± 15.45 (range: 89–177). The average score of stress at work was 6.00 ± 2.44; 49.9% (range: 0–10). 49.9% of participants scored 7 or more on the stress at work scale. There was an inverse correlation between the levels of mindfulness (FFMQ total score) and work-related stress (Spearman’s r = - 0.155, p = 0.003). Significant relationships between the mindfulness practice and the level of mindfulness (F = 29.80, p < 0.001), as well as between the mindfulness practice and the level of work-related stress (F = 9.68, p = 0.042), were also found. Conclusions: Levels of mindfulness in primary care health providers were in line with those levels observed in other groups of health professionals. Half of all of the primary care providers suffered from a high degree of stress. Although weak, inverse relationships were observed between levels of mindfulness and stress at work, with lower values of stress at work among those who practiced mindfulness. Trial registration: NCT03629457

Charge separation relative to the reaction plane in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}= 2.76 TeV

Measurements of charge dependent azimuthal correlations with the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported for Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV. Two- and three-particle charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta| < 0.8$ are presented as a function of the collision centrality, particle separation in pseudo-rapidity, and transverse momentum. A clear signal compatible with a charge-dependent separation relative to the reaction plane is observed, which shows little or no collision energy dependence when compared to measurements at RHIC energies. This provides a new insight for understanding the nature of the charge dependent azimuthal correlations observed at RHIC and LHC energies.Comment: 12 pages, 3 captioned figures, authors from page 2 to 6, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/286

A note on comonotonicity and positivity of the control components of decoupled quadratic FBSDE

In this small note we are concerned with the solution of Forward-Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (FBSDE) with drivers that grow quadratically in the control component (quadratic growth FBSDE or qgFBSDE). The main theorem is a comparison result that allows comparing componentwise the signs of the control processes of two different qgFBSDE. As a byproduct one obtains conditions that allow establishing the positivity of the control process.Comment: accepted for publicatio

Transverse sphericity of primary charged particles in minimum bias proton-proton collisions at s=0.9\sqrt{s}=0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV

Measurements of the sphericity of primary charged particles in minimum bias proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76 and 7 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. The observable is linearized to be collinear safe and is measured in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction using primary charged tracks with $p_{\rm T}\geq0.5$ GeV/c in $|\eta|\leq0.8$. The mean sphericity as a function of the charged particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity ($N_{\rm ch}$) is reported for events with different $p_{\rm T}$ scales ("soft" and "hard") defined by the transverse momentum of the leading particle. In addition, the mean charged particle transverse momentum versus multiplicity is presented for the different event classes, and the sphericity distributions in bins of multiplicity are presented. The data are compared with calculations of standard Monte Carlo event generators. The transverse sphericity is found to grow with multiplicity at all collision energies, with a steeper rise at low $N_{\rm ch}$, whereas the event generators show the opposite tendency. The combined study of the sphericity and the mean $p_{\rm T}$ with multiplicity indicates that most of the tested event generators produce events with higher multiplicity by generating more back-to-back jets resulting in decreased sphericity (and isotropy). The PYTHIA6 generator with tune PERUGIA-2011 exhibits a noticeable improvement in describing the data, compared to the other tested generators.Comment: 21 pages, 9 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 16, published version, figures from http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/308

Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum range 0.7 $< p_{\rm{T}, assoc} < p_{\rm{T}, trig} <$ 5.0 GeV/$c$ is examined, to include correlations induced by jets originating from low momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.9$. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161