Predicting participation in group parenting education in an Australian sample: The role of attitudes, norms, and control factors

We examined the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in predicting intentions to participate in group parenting education. One hundred and seventy-six parents (138 mothers and 38 fathers) with a child under 12 years completed TPB items assessing attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and two additional social influence variables (self-identity and group norm). Regression analyses supported the TPB predictors of participation intentions with self-identity and group norm also significantly predicting intentions. These findings offer preliminary support for the TPB, along with additional sources of social influence, as a useful predictive model of participation in parenting education

The genome sequence of <i>Trypanosoma brucei gambiense</i>, causative agent of chronic Human African Trypanosomiasis

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Background:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;Trypanosoma brucei gambiense&lt;/i&gt; is the causative agent of chronic Human African Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness, a disease endemic across often poor and rural areas of Western and Central Africa. We have previously published the genome sequence of a &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; isolate, and have now employed a comparative genomics approach to understand the scale of genomic variation between &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; and the reference genome. We sought to identify features that were uniquely associated with &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; and its ability to infect humans.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Methods and findings:&lt;/b&gt; An improved high-quality draft genome sequence for the group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; DAL 972 isolate was produced using a whole-genome shotgun strategy. Comparison with &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; showed that sequence identity averages 99.2% in coding regions, and gene order is largely collinear. However, variation associated with segmental duplications and tandem gene arrays suggests some reduction of functional repertoire in &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; DAL 972. A comparison of the variant surface glycoproteins (VSG) in &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; with all &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; sequence reads showed that the essential structural repertoire of VSG domains is conserved across &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; This study provides the first estimate of intraspecific genomic variation within &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt;, and so has important consequences for future population genomics studies. We have shown that the &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; genome corresponds closely with the reference, which should therefore be an effective scaffold for any &lt;i&gt;T. brucei&lt;/i&gt; genome sequence data. As VSG repertoire is also well conserved, it may be feasible to describe the total diversity of variant antigens. While we describe several as yet uncharacterized gene families with predicted cell surface roles that were expanded in number in &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt;, no &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt;-specific gene was identified outside of the subtelomeres that could explain the ability to infect humans.&lt;/p&gt

A novel malaria vaccine candidate antigen expressed in Tetrahymena thermophila

Development of effective malaria vaccines is hampered by the problem of producing correctly folded Plasmodium proteins for use as vaccine components. We have investigated the use of a novel ciliate expression system, Tetrahymena thermophila, as a P. falciparum vaccine antigen platform. A synthetic vaccine antigen composed of N-terminal and C-terminal regions of merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1) was expressed in Tetrahymena thermophila. The recombinant antigen was secreted into the culture medium and purified by monoclonal antibody (mAb) affinity chromatography. The vaccine was immunogenic in MF1 mice, eliciting high antibody titers against both N- and C-terminal components. Sera from immunized animals reacted strongly with P. falciparum parasites from three antigenically different strains by immunofluorescence assays, confirming that the antibodies produced are able to recognize parasite antigens in their native form. Epitope mapping of serum reactivity with a peptide library derived from all three MSP-1 Block 2 serotypes confirmed that the MSP-1 Block 2 hybrid component of the vaccine had effectively targeted all three serotypes of this polymorphic region of MSP-1. This study has successfully demonstrated the use of Tetrahymena thermophila as a recombinant protein expression platform for the production of malaria vaccine antigens

Proactive and politically skilled professionals: What is the relationship with affective occupational commitment?

The aim of this study is to extend research on employee affective commitment in three ways: (1) instead of organizational commitment the focus is on occupational commitment; (2) the role of proactive personality on affective occupational commitment is examined; and (3) occupational satisfaction is examined as a mediator and political skills as moderator in the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. Two connected studies, one in a hospital located in the private sector and one in a university located in the public sector, are carried out in Pakistan, drawing on a total sample of over 400 employees. The results show that proactive personality is positively related to affective occupational commitment, and that occupational satisfaction partly mediates the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. No effect is found for a moderator effect of political skills in the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. Political skills however moderate the relationship between proactive personality and affective organizational commitment

Part-time and full-time medical specialists, are there differences in allocation of time?

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of medical specialists prefer to work part-time. This development can be found worldwide. Problems to be faced in the realization of part-time work in medicine include the division of night and weekend shifts, as well as communication between physicians and continuity of care. People tend to think that physicians working part-time are less devoted to their work, implying that full-time physicians complete a greater number of tasks. The central question in this article is whether part-time medical specialists allocate their time differently to their tasks than full-time medical specialists. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent by mail to all internists (N = 817), surgeons (N = 693) and radiologists (N = 621) working in general hospitals in the Netherlands. Questions were asked about the actual situation, such as hours worked and night and weekend shifts. The response was 53% (n = 411) for internists, 52% (n = 359) for surgeons, and 36% (n = 213) for radiologists. Due to non-response on specific questions there were 367 internists, 316 surgeons, and 71 radiologists included in the analyses. Multilevel analyses were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Part-time medical specialists do not spend proportionally more time on direct patient care. With respect to night and weekend shifts, part-time medical specialists account for proportionally more or an equal share of these shifts. The number of hours worked per FTE is higher for part-time than for full-time medical specialists, although this difference is only significant for surgeons. CONCLUSION: In general, part-time medical specialists do their share of the job. However, we focussed on input only. Besides input, output like the numbers of services provided deserves attention as well. The trend in medicine towards more part-time work has an important consequence: more medical specialists are needed to get the work done. Therefore, a greater number of medical specialists have to be trained. Part-time work is not only a female concern; there are also (international) trends for male medical specialists that show a decline in the number of hours worked. This indicates an overall change in attitudes towards the number of hours medical specialists should work

Constructing osteoarthritis through discourse – a qualitative analysis of six patient information leaflets on osteoarthritis

BACKGROUND: Health service policy in the United Kingdom emphasises the importance of self-care by patients with chronic conditions. Written information for patients about their condition is seen as an important aid to help patients look after themselves. From a discourse analysis perspective written texts such as patient information leaflets do not simply describe the reality of a medical condition and its management but by drawing on some sorts of knowledge and evidence rather than others help construct the reality of that condition. This study explored patient information leaflets on osteoarthritis (OA) to see how OA was constructed and to consider the implications for self-care. METHODS: Systematic and repeated readings of six patient information leaflets on osteoarthritis to look for similarities and differences across leaflets, contradictions within leaflets and the resources called on to make claims about the nature of OA and its management. RESULTS: Biomedical discourse of OA as a joint disease dominated. Only one leaflet included an illness discourse albeit limited, and was also the only one to feature patient experiences of living with OA. The leaflets had different views on the causes of OA including the role of lifestyle and ageing. Most emphasised patient responsibility for preventing the progression of OA. Advice about changing behaviour such as diet and exercise was not grounded in lived experience. There were inconsistent messages about using painkillers, exercise and the need to involve professionals when making changes to lifestyle. CONCLUSION: The nature of the discourse impacted on how OA and the respective roles of patients and professionals were depicted. Limited discourse on illness meant that the complexity of living with OA and its consequences was underestimated. Written information needs to shift from joint biology to helping patients live with osteoarthritis. Written information should incorporate patient experience and value it alongside biomedical knowledge

Telomeric expression sites are highly conserved in trypanosoma brucei

Subtelomeric regions are often under-represented in genome sequences of eukaryotes. One of the best known examples of the use of telomere proximity for adaptive purposes are the bloodstream expression sites (BESs) of the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei. To enhance our understanding of BES structure and function in host adaptation and immune evasion, the BES repertoire from the Lister 427 strain of T. brucei were independently tagged and sequenced. BESs are polymorphic in size and structure but reveal a surprisingly conserved architecture in the context of extensive recombination. Very small BESs do exist and many functioning BESs do not contain the full complement of expression site associated genes (ESAGs). The consequences of duplicated or missing ESAGs, including ESAG9, a newly named ESAG12, and additional variant surface glycoprotein genes (VSGs) were evaluated by functional assays after BESs were tagged with a drug-resistance gene. Phylogenetic analysis of constituent ESAG families suggests that BESs are sequence mosaics and that extensive recombination has shaped the evolution of the BES repertoire. This work opens important perspectives in understanding the molecular mechanisms of antigenic variation, a widely used strategy for immune evasion in pathogens, and telomere biology

Intravesicle Isothermal DNA Replication

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bacterial and viral DNA replication was previously reconstituted <it>in vitro </it>from component parts <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B1">1</abbr><abbr bid="B2">2</abbr><abbr bid="B3">3</abbr><abbr bid="B4">4</abbr></abbrgrp>. Significant advances in building minimal cell-like structures also have been made recently <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B5">5</abbr><abbr bid="B6">6</abbr><abbr bid="B7">7</abbr></abbrgrp>. Combining the two approaches would further attempts to build a minimal cell-like structure capable of undergoing evolution by combining membrane encapsulation and genome replication. Towards this end, we attempted to use purified genomic replication protein components from thermophilic bacterial sources to copy strands of DNA isothermally within lipid vesicles.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Bacterial replication components (such as helicases and DNA polymerases) are compatible with methods for the generation of lipid vesicles. Encapsulation inside phospholipid vesicles does not inhibit the activity of bacterial DNA genome replication machinery. Further the described system is efficient at isothermally amplifying short segments of DNA within phospholipid vesicles.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Herein we show that bacterial isothermal DNA replication machinery is functional inside of phospholipid vesicles, suggesting that replicating cellular mimics can be built from purified bacterial components.</p

SuperCLASS - I. The super cluster assisted shear survey: Project overview and data release 1

The SuperCLuster Assisted Shear Survey (SuperCLASS) is a legacy programme using the e-MERLIN interferometric array. The aim is to observe the sky at L-band (1.4 GHz) to a r.m.s. of 7μJybeam−1 over an area of ∼1deg2 centred on the Abell 981 supercluster. The main scientific objectives of the project are: (i) to detect the effects of weak lensing in the radio in preparation for similar measurements with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA); (ii) an extinction free census of star formation and AGN activity out to z ∼ 1. In this paper we give an overview of the project including the science goals and multiwavelength coverage before presenting the first data release. We have analysed around 400 h of e-MERLIN data allowing us to create a Data Release 1 (DR1) mosaic of ∼0.26deg2 to the full depth. These observations have been supplemented with complementary radio observations from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and optical/near infrared observations taken with the Subaru, Canada-France-Hawaii, and Spitzer Telescopes. The main data product is a catalogue of 887 sources detected by the VLA, of which 395 are detected by e-MERLIN and 197 of these are resolved. We have investigated the size, flux, and spectral index properties of these sources finding them compatible with previous studies. Preliminary photometric redshifts, and an assessment of galaxy shapes measured in the radio data, combined with a radio-optical cross-correlation technique probing cosmic shear in a supercluster environment, are presented in companion papers

Novel Information on the Epitope of an Inverse Agonist Monoclonal Antibody Provides Insight into the Structure of the TSH Receptor

The TSH receptor (TSHR) comprises an extracellular leucine-rich domain (LRD) linked by a hinge region to the transmembrane domain (TMD). Insight into the orientation of these components to each other is required for understanding how ligands activate the receptor. We previously identified residue E251 at the LRD-hinge junction as contributing to coupling TSH binding with receptor activation. However, a single residue cannot stabilize the LRD-hinge unit. Therefore, based on the LRD crystal structure we selected for study four other potential LRD-hinge interface charged residues. Alanine substitutions of individual residues K244, E247, K250 and R255 (as well as previously known E251A) did not affect TSH binding or function. However, the cumulative mutation of these residues in varying permutations, primarily K250A and R255A when associated with E251A, partially uncoupled TSH binding and function. These data suggest that these three residues, spatially very close to each other at the LRD base, interact with the hinge region. Unexpectedly and most important, monoclonal antibody CS-17, a TSHR inverse agonist whose epitope straddles the LRD-hinge, was found to interact with residues K244 and E247 at the base of the convex LRD surface. These observations, together with the functional data, exclude residues K244 and E247 from the TSHR LRD-hinge interface. Further, for CS-17 accessibility to K244 and E247, the concave surface of the TSHR LRD must be tilted forwards towards the hinge region and plasma membrane. Overall, these data provide insight into the mechanism by which ligands either activate the TSHR or suppress its constitutive activity