Psychological changes in Africans with kidney disease in Ghana: a comparison of haemodialysis patients and patients with chronic kidney disease not on dialysis

Background: The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is high in sub-Saharan Africa and affects the productive workforce. CKD has been associated with psychological problems such as anxiety and depression; however, there is little published information on the burden of psychological problems among the CKD population in African countries. Our study assessed psychological changes in two groups of patients, one group with end-stage renal disease receiving chronic haemodialysis, and a second with CKD not on dialysis.Methods: A cross-sectional study involving patients on chronic haemodialysis and patients with CKD stages 3–5 (the “CKD” patients) was conducted at the Renal Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana. One hundred and sixty-eight participants (82 CKD and 86 haemodialysis patients) were recruited. Demographic, clinical and laboratory information was captured, the Revised Quick Cognitive Screening Test (RQCST) was used to assess cognitive function and the Brief Symptoms Inventory-18 (BSI-18) was used to screen for anxiety, somatization and depression.Results: CKD patients were older than those on haemodialysis, with mean ages of 53.3 and 46.6 years, respectively. Two-thirds (113/167) were male. The median glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of the CKD patients was 21 mL/min/1.73 m2 (interquartile range 9–34). Most of the haemodialysis patients (78.6%) were receiving two sessions of haemodialysis per week and their mean kT/V was 1.16 ± 0.23. The RQCST global scores in the two groups of patients were similar, with almost 90% of haemodialysis patients and 85% of CKD patients obtaining scores above 50. Haemodialysis patients had better scores for immediate recall memory. The haemodialysis patients also had higher BSI-18 global scores than the CKD patients (mean of 0.83 vs 0.70, p = 0.033). Mean anxiety and somatization scores were also higher in the haemodialysis patients.Conclusions: Haemodialysis patients demonstrated higher anxiety and somatization scores than the CKD patients. Clinical psychological support should therefore be included in the treatment of our patients, and especially for those on chronic haemodialysis

Trajectories and predictors of women's health-related quality of life during pregnancy

The objective of this study was to identify distinct trajectories and their predictors of healthrelated quali

Radio Interferometric Planet Search II: Constraints on sub-Jupiter-Mass Companions to GJ 896A

We present results from the Radio Interferometric Planet (RIPL) search for compan- ions to the nearby star GJ 896A. We present 11 observations over 4.9 years. Fitting astrometric parameters to the data reveals a residual with peak-to-peak amplitude of ~ 3 mas in right ascension. This residual is well-fit by an acceleration term of 0.458 \pm 0.032 mas/y^2. The parallax is fit to an accuracy of 0.2 mas and the proper motion terms are fit to accuracies of 0.01 mas/y. After fitting astrometric and acceleration terms residuals are 0.26 mas in each coordinate, demonstrating that stellar jitter does not limit the ability to carry out radio astrometric planet detection and characterization. The acceleration term originates in part from the companion GJ 896B but the amplitude of the acceleration in declination is not accurately predicted by the orbital model. The acceleration sets a mass upper limit of 0.15 MJ at a semi-major axis of 2 AU for a planetary companion to GJ 896A. For semi-major axes between 0.3 and 2 AU upper limits are determined by the maximum angular separation; the upper limits scale from the minimum value in proportion to the inverse of the radius. Upper limits at larger radii are set by the acceleration and scale as the radius squared. An improved solution for the stellar binary system could improve the exoplanet mass sensitivity by an order of magnitude.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Signal-specific amplitude adjustment to noise in common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

Fieldwork in Sarasota was funded by the Grossman Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Health assessments were funded by Dolphin Quest, Inc. I.M.K. received support from the Danish Acoustical Society (Dansk Akustisk Selskab). P.L.T. received funding from the University of St Andrews, the Office of Naval Research (N00014-19-1-2560) and the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). F.H.J. was supported by the Office of Naval Research (N00014-1410410) and an AIAS-COFUND fellowship from Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies under the FP7-PEOPLE programme of the EU (agreement no. 609033). All support is gratefully acknowledged.Anthropogenic underwater noise has increased over the past century, raising concern about the impact on cetaceans that rely on sound for communication, navigation and locating prey and predators. Many terrestrial animals increase the amplitude of their acoustic signals to partially compensate for the masking effect of noise (the Lombard response), but it has been suggested that cetaceans almost fully compensate with amplitude adjustments for increasing noise levels. Here, we used sound-recording DTAGs on pairs of free-ranging common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) to test (i) whether dolphins increase signal amplitude to compensate for increasing ambient noise and (ii) whether adjustments are identical for different signal types. We present evidence of a Lombard response in the range 0.1–0.3 dB per 1 dB increase in ambient noise, which is similar to that of terrestrial animals, but much lower than the response reported for other cetaceans. We found that signature whistles tended to be louder and with a lower degree of amplitude adjustment to noise compared with non-signature whistles, suggesting that signature whistles may be selected for higher output levels and may have a smaller scope for amplitude adjustment to noise. The consequence of the limited degree of vocal amplitude compensation is a loss of active space during periods of increased noise, with potential consequences for group cohesion, conspecific encounter rates and mate attraction.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Role of pathogen-derived cell wall carbohydrates and prostaglandin E2 in immune response and suppression of fish immunity by the oomycete Saprolegnia parasitica

Se adjunta el PDF de errata del artículo publicado en 2015. Belmonte, R., Wang, T., Duncan, G. J., Skaar, I., Mélida, H., Bulone, V., van West, & Secombes, C. J. (2015). Erratum to Role of pathogen-derived cell wall carbohydrates and prostaglandin E2 in immune response and suppression of fish immunity by the oomycete Saprolegnia parasitica [Infection and Immunity 82, 11, (2014) 4518-4529]. En Infection and Immunity (Vol. 83, Número 1, p. 454). American Society for Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1128/IAI.02821-14[EN] Saprolegnia parasitica is a freshwater oomycete that is capable of infecting several species of fin fish. Saprolegniosis, the disease caused by this microbe, has a substantial impact on Atlantic salmon aquaculture. No sustainable treatment against saprolegniosis is available, and little is known regarding the host response. In this study, we examined the immune response of Atlantic salmon to S. parasitica infection and to its cell wall carbohydrates. Saprolegnia triggers a strong inflammatory response in its host (i.e., induction of interleukin-1β1 [IL-1β1], IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor alpha), while severely suppressing the expression of genes associated with adaptive immunity in fish, through downregulation of T-helper cell cytokines, antigen presentation machinery, and immunoglobulins. Oomycete cell wall carbohydrates were recognized by fish leukocytes, triggering upregulation of genes involved in the inflammatory response, similar to what is observed during infection. Our data suggest that S. parasitica is capable of producing prostaglanding E2 (PGE2) in vitro, a metabolite not previously shown to be produced by oomycetes, and two proteins with homology to vertebrate enzymes known to play a role in prostaglandin biosynthesis have been identified in the oomycete genome. Exogenous PGE2 was shown to increase the inflammatory response in fish leukocytes incubated with cell wall carbohydrates while suppressing genes involved in cellular immunity (gamma interferon [IFN-γ] and the IFN-γ-inducible protein[γ-IP]). Inhibition of S. parasitica zoospore germination and mycelial growth by two cyclooxygenase inhibitors (aspirin and indomethacin) also suggests that prostaglandins may be involved in oomycete development.S

Remnant gas in evolved circumstellar disks: Herschel PACS observations of 10-100 Myr old disk systems

We present Herschel PACS spectroscopy of the [OI] 63 micron gas-line for three circumstellar disk systems showing signs of significant disk evolution and/or planet formation: HR 8799, HD 377 and RX J1852.3-3700. [OI] is undetected toward HR 8799 and HD 377 with 3 sigma upper limits of 6.8 x 10^-18 W m^-2 and 9.9 x 10^-18 W m^-2 respectively. We find an [OI] detection for RX J1852.3-3700 at 12.3 +- 1.8 x 10^-18 W m^-2. We use thermo-chemical disk models to model the gas emission, using constraints on the [OI] 63 micron, and ancillary data to derive gas mass upper limits and constrain gas-to-dust ratios. For HD 377 and HR 8799, we find 3 sigma upper limits on the gas mass of 0.1-20 Mearth. For RX J1852.3-3700, we find two distinct disk scenarios that could explain the detection of [OI] 63 micron and CO(2-1) upper limits reported from the literature: (i) a large disk with gas co-located with the dust (16-500 AU), resulting in a large tenuous disk with ~16 Mearth of gas, or (ii) an optically thick gas disk, truncated at ~70 AU, with a gas mass of 150 Mearth. We discuss the implications of these results for the formation and evolution of planets in these three systems.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 8 pages ApJ style (incl. references), 2 figures, 4 table

Developing Historical Empathy among Political Science Students through Reflections on Human Rights and Martial Law

Martial Law of the Philippine president and Dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos is one of the controversial and important events in Philippine History. Implications on human rights continuously reverberates up to the present day. This paper examines the different reflective pedagogical strategies utilized in teaching the Marcos’ Martial Law and how it affects students’ cognitive and affective dimensions of historical empathy. A series of reflective interventions were implemented among third year political science students over the course of several weeks. Student responses in various forms yielded by the interventions were evaluated using rubrics measuring the aforementioned two dimensions of historical empathy. The results showed that reflective interventions allowed students to manifest greater levels of historical empathy in the two studied dimensions. In particular, the culminating activity, which built on previous reflective interventions, demonstrated the students’ ability to use the principles of historical empathy in addressing contemporary human rights issues. The researchers conclude that interventions designed according to reflective models facilitate the development of historical empathy in the students, albeit only with the cognitive and affective dimensions in mind. This paper recommends educators to integrate meaningful and consistent reflective activities into their history-related lessons to further develop student’s historical empathy

Tailoring Hydrothermal Vent Biodiversity Toward Improved Biodiscovery Using a Novel in situ Enrichment Strategy

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are amongst the most extreme environments on Earth and represent interesting targets for marine bioprospecting and biodiscovery. The microbial communities in hydrothermal vents are often dominated by chemolithoautotrophs utilizing simple chemical compounds, though the full extent of their heterotrophic abilities is still being explored. In the bioprocessing industry, where degradation of complex organic materials often is a major challenge, new microbial solutions are heavily needed. To meet these needs, we have developed novel in situ incubators and tested if deployment of recalcitrant materials from fish farming and wood-pulping industries introduced changes in the microbial community structure in hot marine hydrothermal sediments. The incubation chambers were deployed in sediments at the Bruse vent site located within the Jan Mayen vent field for 1 year, after which the microbial populations in the chambers were profiled by 16S rRNA Ion Torrent amplicon sequencing. A total of 921 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were assigned into 74 different phyla where differences in community structure were observed depending on the incubated material, chamber depth below the sea floor and/or temperature. A high fraction of putative heterotrophic microbial lineages related to cultivated members within the Thermotogales were observed. However, considerable fractions of previously uncultivated and novel Thermotogales and Bacteroidetes were also identified. Moreover, several novel lineages (e.g., members within the DPANN superphylum, unidentified archaeal lineages, unclassified Thermoplasmatales and Candidatus division BRC-1 bacterium) of as-yet uncultivated thermophilic archaea and bacteria were identified. Overall, our data illustrate that amendment of hydrothermal vent communities by in situ incubation of biomass induces shifts in community structure toward increased fractions of heterotrophic microorganisms. The technologies utilized here could aid in subsequent metagenomics-based enzyme discovery for diverse industries.publishedVersio

Discovery, characterization and engineering of bacterial thermostable cellulose- degrading enzymes

Lignocellulose is the most abundant biomass on Earth, and thus our largest organic carbon reservoir. Enzymatic depolymerization of recalcitrant polysaccharides, notably cellulose, is a major cost driver in accessing the renewable energy stored within lignocellulosic biomass. Natural biodiversities may be explored to discover microbial enzymes that have evolved to conquer this task in various environments. We are studying novel enzymes from various biodiversities for the conversion of lignocellulosic materials, using (meta)genome mining and functional screening of fosmid libraries. Targeted biodiversities include deep-sea hot vents of the Arctic mid-ocean ridge (AMOR), the microbiome of the wood-eating Arctic shipworm, thermophilic enrichment cultures from biogas reactors, the Svalbard reindeer gut microbiome, and publicly available metagenomic data from various hot environments. Bioprospecting of the different biodiversities has so far resulted in the discovery of approximately 20 novel enzymes active on lignocellulosic substrates. The significant differences in the origin of the enzymes is reflected in their properties, both beneficial and challenging, and provide us with interesting engineering targets for improved performance in industrial settings. We will present case studies, including work on a novel thermostable cellulase named mgCel6A, with good activity on sulfite-pulped Norway spruce. This enzyme consists of a glycoside hydrolase family 6 catalytic domain (GH6) connected to a family 2 carbohydrate binding module (CBM2) and both the activity profile and predicted structural similarities to known cellulases suggest that mgCel6A is an endo-acting cellulase. Comparison of the full-length enzyme with the catalytic domain showed that the CBM strongly increases substrate binding, while not affecting thermal stability. However, importantly, in reactions with higher substrate concentrations the full-length enzyme was outperformed by the catalytic domain alone, underpinning previous suggestions that CBMs may be less useful in high-consistency bioprocessing. This enzyme is currently being targeted for rational engineering in an effort to decrease the pH optimum and improve the pH stability. Other case studies include GH48 cellulases and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs). One important aspect of this work concerns the possible assembly of novel enzyme cocktails for lignocellulose processing that can compete with exiting commercial cocktails, which are primarily composed of fungal enzymes. Thus, comparative studies of our most promising bacterial enzymes with their well-known fungal counterparts are also being conducted