Postnatal debriefing: Have we thrown the baby out with the bathwater?

Postnatal debriefing is offered by 78% of maternity services in the UK despite little evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that it is effective. RCTs in this area have applied debriefing as a prophylactic to all or high risk women, rather than as a treatment for women who request it. This pragmatic trial therefore evaluated existing postnatal debriefing services that provide debriefing as a treatment for women who request it. Forty-six women who met criterion A for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and requested debriefing 1.3 to 72.2 months (median 16 weeks) postpartum completed measures of depression, PTSD, support and negative appraisals of the birth before and one month after debriefing. Women were compared with others who gave birth in the same hospitals during the same time period (n=34), who met criterion A for PTSD but had not requested debriefing. Results showed PTSD symptoms reduced over time in both groups but greater decreases were observed in women who attended debriefing. Debriefing also led to reduction in negative appraisals but did not affect symptoms of depression. Therefore, results suggest providing debriefing as a treatment to women who request or are referred to it may help to reduce symptoms of PTSD

Coriolis force in Geophysics: an elementary introduction and examples

We show how Geophysics may illustrate and thus improve classical Mechanics lectures concerning the study of Coriolis force effects. We are then interested in atmospheric as well as oceanic phenomena we are familiar with, and are for that reason of pedagogical and practical interest. Our aim is to model them in a very simple way to bring out the physical phenomena that are involved.Comment: Accepted for publication in European Journal of Physic

Experimental measurement of stress at a four-domain junction in lead zirconate titanate

A junction between two lamellar bands of ferroelectric domains in a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic is analysed using Kikuchi diffraction patterns in the transmission electron microscope. Indexing of the diffraction patterns allowed the determination of the 3D relative orientation of the 4 different domains at the junction and thus the characterisation of the domain boundaries. The local c/a ratio could also be determined from the misorientations at the domain boundaries. Analysis of the data showed that large stresses were concentrated at the junction, and that this is inevitable at such band junctions. Such stress concentrations could act as nuclei for cracking of the ceramic under additional loading in service, perhaps particularly as a consequence of extended electromechanical cycling. Moreover, the stresses would increase with increasing c/a making the issues all the more serious for Ti-rich compositions having larger c/a ratios

Causes and Consequences of Broad-Scale Changes in the Distribution of Migratory Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) of Southern Hudson Bay

Understanding the factors driving changes in species distributions is fundamental to conservation, but for wide-ranging species this is often complicated by the need for broad-scale observations across space and time. In the last three decades, the location of summer concentrations of migratory caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in southern Hudson Bay (SHB), Canada, has shifted south and east as much as 500 km. We used long-term data (1987 – 2011) to test two hypotheses that could explain the distribution shift: forage depletion and anthropogenic disturbance. Over time and space, we compared the body size of live-captured adult female caribou, dietary quality from fecal nitrogen in July, the location of VHF- and GPS-collared female caribou in July, distribution of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) tracks and caribou tracks in August, and the proximity of collared caribou to sections of the coast with higher ATV activity in spring and summer. The forage depletion hypothesis was supported by greater body size and dietary quality in caribou of the eastern portion of SHB than in western SHB animals in 2009 – 11. The anthropogenic disturbance hypothesis was supported by the negative correlation of the distributions of ATV tracks and caribou tracks on the coast in 2010 and the fact that caribou avoided areas with ATV activity by 10 – 14 km. In 1987, collared caribou were observed largely along the coast in western SHB in mid-July, while in 2009 – 11, they were inland in western SHB and along the coast in eastern SHB. While these locations demonstrate a substantial change in summer distri­bution over three decades, we were unable to differentiate between forage depletion and anthropogenic disturbance as a single causal factor of the distribution shift.La compréhension des facteurs qui influencent les changements caractérisant les distributions des espèces est fondamentale aux efforts de conservation, mais pour les espèces dont l’aire de distribution est étendue, ce principe est souvent compliqué par la nécessité de faire des observations à grande échelle, dans le temps et dans l’espace. Au cours des trois dernières décennies, l’emplacement des concentrations estivales du caribou migrateur (Rangifer tarandus) dans le sud de la baie d’Hudson (SBH), au Canada, s’est déplacé vers le sud et vers l’est dans une mesure de 500 km. Nous nous sommes appuyés sur des données de longue haleine (1987–2011) pour mettre à l’épreuve deux hypothèses susceptibles d’expliquer ce changement en matière de distribution, soit l’appauvrissement du fourrage et la perturbation anthropique. Au fil du temps et de l’espace, nous avons comparé la taille du corps des caribous femelles adultes capturées vivantes, la qualité de leur alimentation à partir de l’azote fécal en juillet, l’emplacement des femelles portant un collier de type VHF ou GPS en juillet, la répartition des traces de véhicules tout terrain (VTT) et des pistes de caribou en août de même que la proximité des caribous portant un collier aux tronçons de la côte où la présence de VTT est plus grande au printemps et à l’été. L’hypothèse de l’appauvrissement du fourrage a été étayée par la plus grande taille du corps et la qualité de l’alimentation du caribou de la zone est du SBH comparativement à celles du caribou de l’ouest du SBH entre 2009 et 2011. Pour sa part, l’hypothèse perturbation anthropique a été appuyée par la corrélation négative caractérisant la répartition des pistes de VTT et des traces de caribou sur la côte en 2010 et par le fait que les caribous sont restés à l’écart des zones fréquentées par les VTT dans une mesure de 10 à 14 km. En 1987, des caribous portant un collier ont été observés en grand nombre le long de la côte ouest du SBH à la mi-juillet, tandis que de 2009 à 2011, ils ont été repérés à l’intérieur des terres dans l’ouest du SBH et le long de la côte est du SBH. Bien que ces emplacements indiquent un important changement en matière de distribution estivale au cours de trois décennies, nous n’avons pas été en mesure de faire une distinction entre l’appauvrissement du fourrage et la perturbation anthropique en tant que facteur causal unique du changement de distribution

Adaptive Evolution of the Myo6 Gene in Old World Fruit Bats (Family: Pteropodidae)

PMCID: PMC3631194This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Etiological Profile and Treatment Outcome of Epistaxis at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Northwestern Tanzania: A Prospective Review of 104 Cases.

Epistaxis is the commonest otolaryngological emergency affecting up to 60% of the population in their lifetime, with 6% requiring medical attention. There is paucity of published data regarding the management of epistaxis in Tanzania, especially the study area. This study was conducted to describe the etiological profile and treatment outcome of epistaxis at Bugando Medical Centre, a tertiary care hospital in Northwestern Tanzania. This was a prospective descriptive study of the cases of epistaxis managed at Bugando Medical Centre from January 2008 to December 2010. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS computer software version 15. A total of 104 patients with epistaxis were studied. Males were affected twice more than the females (2.7:1). Their mean age was 32.24 ± 12.54 years (range 4 to 82 years). The modal age group was 31-40 years. The commonest cause of epistaxis was trauma (30.8%) followed by idiopathic (26.9%) and hypertension (17.3%). Anterior nasal bleeding was noted in majority of the patients (88.7%). Non surgical measures such as observation alone (40.4%) and anterior nasal packing (38.5%) were the main intervention methods in 98.1% of cases. Surgical measures mainly intranasal tumor resection was carried out in 1.9% of cases. Arterial ligation and endovascular embolization were not performed. Complication rate was 3.8%. The overall mean of hospital stay was 7.2 ± 1.6 days (range 1 to 24 days). Five patients died giving a mortality rate of 4.8%. Trauma resulting from road traffic crush (RTC) remains the most common etiological factor for epistaxis in our setting. Most cases were successfully managed with conservative (non-surgical) treatment alone and surgical intervention with its potential complications may not be necessary in most cases and should be the last resort. Reducing the incidence of trauma from RTC will reduce the incidence of emergency epistaxis in our centre

Evolution of Parallel Spindles Like genes in plants and highlight of unique domain architecture#

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Polyploidy has long been recognized as playing an important role in plant evolution. In flowering plants, the major route of polyploidization is suggested to be sexual through gametes with somatic chromosome number (2<it>n</it>). <it>Parallel Spindle1 </it>gene in <it>Arabidopsis thaliana </it>(<it>AtPS1</it>) was recently demonstrated to control spindle orientation in the 2nd division of meiosis and, when mutated, to induce 2<it>n </it>pollen. Interestingly, <it>AtPS1 </it>encodes a protein with a FHA domain and PINc domain putatively involved in RNA decay (i.e. Nonsense Mediated mRNA Decay). In potato, 2<it>n </it>pollen depending on parallel spindles was described long time ago but the responsible gene has never been isolated. The knowledge derived from <it>AtPS1 </it>as well as the availability of genome sequences makes it possible to isolate potato <it>PSLike </it>(<it>PSL</it>) and to highlight the evolution of <it>PSL </it>family in plants.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our work leading to the first characterization of <it>PSLs </it>in potato showed a greater <it>PSL </it>complexity in this species respect to <it>Arabidopsis thaliana</it>. Indeed, a genomic <it>PSL </it>locus and seven cDNAs affected by alternative splicing have been cloned. In addition, the occurrence of at least two other <it>PSL </it>loci in potato was suggested by the sequence comparison of alternatively spliced transcripts.</p> <p>Phylogenetic analysis on 20 <it>Viridaeplantae </it>showed the wide distribution of <it>PSLs </it>throughout the species and the occurrence of multiple copies only in potato and soybean.</p> <p>The analysis of PSL^FHAand PSL^PINcdomains evidenced that, in terms of secondary structure, a major degree of variability occurred in PINc domain respect to FHA. In terms of specific active sites, both domains showed diversification among plant species that could be related to a functional diversification among <it>PSL </it>genes. In addition, some specific active sites were strongly conserved among plants as supported by sequence alignment and by evidence of negative selection evaluated as difference between non-synonymous and synonymous mutations.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this study, we highlight the existence of PSLs throughout <it>Viridaeplantae</it>, from mosses to higher plants. We provide evidence that <it>PSLs </it>occur mostly as singleton in the analyzed genomes except in soybean and potato both characterized by a recent whole genome duplication event. In potato, we suggest the candidate <it>PSL </it>gene having a role in 2<it>n </it>pollen that should be deeply investigated.</p> <p>We provide useful insight into evolutionary conservation of FHA and PINc domains throughout plant PSLs which suggest a fundamental role of these domains for PSL function.</p

Probing a Complex of Cytochromecand Cardiolipin by Magnetic Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy: Implications for the Initial Events in Apoptosis

Oxidation of cardiolipin (CL) by its complex with cytochrome c (cyt c) plays a crucial role in triggering apoptosis. Through a combination of magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy and potentiometric titrations, we show that both the ferric and ferrous forms of the heme group of a CL:cyt c complex exist as multiple conformers at a physiologically relevant pH of 7.4. For the ferric state, these conformers are His/Lys- and His/OH–-ligated. The ferrous state is predominantly high-spin and, most likely, His/–. Interconversion of the ferric and ferrous conformers is described by a single midpoint potential of -80 ± 9 mV vs SHE. These results suggest that CL oxidation in mitochondria could occur by the reaction of molecular oxygen with the ferrous CL:cyt c complex in addition to the well-described reaction of peroxides with the ferric form

Despite lost contractility, a sub-population of rat muscle fibers maintains an assessable excitation-contraction coupling mechanism after long-standing denervation

J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2009 Dec;68(12):1256-68. A subpopulation of rat muscle fibers maintains an assessable excitation-contraction coupling mechanism after long-standing denervation despite lost contractility. Squecco R, Carraro U, Kern H, Pond A, Adami N, Biral D, Vindigni V, Boncompagni S, Pietrangelo T, Bosco G, Fanò G, Marini M, Abruzzo PM, Germinario E, Danieli-Betto D, Protasi F, Francini F, Zampieri S. Source Interuniversitary Institute of Myology, Chieti, Italy. Abstract To define the time course and potential effects of electrical stimulation on permanently denervated muscle, we evaluated excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) of rat leg muscles during progression to long-term denervation by ultrastructural analysis, specific binding to dihydropyridine receptors, ryanodine receptor 1 (RYR-1), Ca channels and extrusion Ca pumps, gene transcription and translation of Ca-handling proteins, and in vitro mechanical properties and electrophysiological analyses of sarcolemmal passive properties and L-type Ca current (ICa) parameters. We found that in response to long-term denervation: 1) isolated muscle that is unable to twitch in vitro by electrical stimulation has very small myofibers but may show a slow caffeine contracture; 2) only roughly half of the muscle fibers with "voltage-dependent Ca channel activity" are able to contract; 3) the ECC mechanisms are still present and, in part, functional; 4)ECC-related gene expression is upregulated; and 5) at any time point, there are muscle fibers that are more resistant than others to denervation atrophy and disorganization of the ECC apparatus. These results support the hypothesis that prolonged "resting" [Ca] may drive progression of muscle atrophy to degeneration and that electrical stimulation-induced [Ca] modulation may mimic the lost nerve influence, playing a key role in modifying the gene expression of denervated muscle. Hence, these data provide a potential molecular explanation for the muscle recovery that occurs in response to rehabilitation strategies developed based on empirical clinical observations. PMID: 19915489 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

Biological traits of European pond macroinvertebrates

Whilst biological traits of river macroinvertebrates show unimodal responses to geographic changes in habitat conditions in Europe, we still do not know whether spatial turnover of species result in distinct combinations of biological traits for pond macroinvertebrates. Here, we used data on the occurrence of 204 macroinvertebrate taxa in 120 ponds from four biogeographic regions of Europe, to compare their biological traits. The Mediterranean, Atlantic, Alpine, and Continental regions have specific climate, vegetation and geology. Only two taxa were exclusively found in the Alpine and Continental regions, while 28 and 34 taxa were exclusively recorded in the Atlantic and Mediterranean regions, respectively. Invertebrates in the Mediterranean region allocated much energy to reproduction and resistance forms. Most Mediterranean invertebrate species had narrow thermal ranges. In Continental areas, invertebrates allocated lesser energy to reproduction and dispersal, and organisms were short lived with high diversity of feeding groups. These characteristics suggest higher resilience. The main difference between ponds in the Alpine and Atlantic regions was their elevation. Alpine conditions necessitate specific adaptations related to rapid temperature fluctuations, and low nutrient concentrations. Even if our samples did not cover the full range of pond conditions across Europe, our analyses suggest that changes in community composition have important impacts on pond ecosystem functions. Consistent information on a larger set of ponds across Europe would be much needed, but their low accessibility (unpublished data and/or not disclosed by authors) remains problematic. There is still, therefore, a pressing need for the incorporation of high quality data sets into a standardized database so that they can be further analyzed in an integrated European-wide manner