Intraspecific Combinations of Flower and Leaf Volatiles Act Together in Attracting Hawkmoth Pollinators

Insects pinpoint mates, food and oviposition sites by olfactory cues. Recognizing and localizing a suitable target by olfaction is demanding. Odor sources emit characteristic blends of compounds that have to be identified against an environmentally derived olfactory background. This background, however, does not necessarily disturb the localization of a source. Rather, the contrary. Sex pheromones become more attractive to male moths when being presented against a relevant plant background. Here we asked whether such olfactory coaction also characterizes foraging cues. The tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta feeds on nectar from wild tobacco Nicotiana attenuata and sacred datura Datura wrightii flowers. We tested how leaf-derived volatile blends as a background affect the moths' approach to flower blends. We found coaction when a flower blend was presented against a conspecific leaf volatile background but not when the blend was presented against volatiles emitted by the other host plant or by a non-host plant. Hence, our results reveal a species-specific coaction between flower blend and leaf volatile background. The ability to integrate information from different odor sources on one plant might provide the moth with a fine-grained analysis of food site quality

Predictors and outcomes of patient safety culture in hospitals

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Developing a patient safety culture was one of the recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine to assist hospitals in improving patient safety. In recent years, a multitude of evidence, mostly originating from developed countries, has been published on patient safety culture. One of the first efforts to assess the culture of safety in the Eastern Mediterranean Region was by El-Jardali et al. (2010) in Lebanon. The study entitled "The Current State of Patient Safety Culture: a study at baseline" assessed the culture of safety in Lebanese hospitals. Based on study findings, the objective of this paper is to explore the association between patient safety culture predictors and outcomes, taking into consideration respondent and hospital characteristics. In addition, it will examine the correlation between patient safety culture composites.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sixty-eight hospitals and 6,807 respondents participated in the study. The study which adopted a cross sectional research design utilized an Arabic-translated version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC). The HSOPSC measures 12 patient safety composites. Two of the composites, in addition to a patient safety grade and the number of events reported, represented the four outcome variables. Bivariate and mixed model regression analyses were used to examine the association between the patient safety culture predictors and outcomes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant correlations were observed among all patient safety culture composites but with differences in the strength of the correlation. Generalized Estimating Equations for the patient safety composite scores and respondent and hospital characteristics against the patient safety grade and the number of events reported revealed significant correlations. Significant correlations were also observed by linear mixed models of the same variables against the frequency of events reported and the overall perception of safety.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Event reporting, communication, patient safety leadership and management, staffing, and accreditation were identified as major patient safety culture predictors. Investing in practices that tackle these issues and prioritizing patient safety is essential in Lebanese hospitals in order to improve patient safety. In addition, further research is needed to understand the association between patient safety culture and clinical outcomes.</p

Myogenin Regulates Exercise Capacity and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism in the Adult Mouse

Although skeletal muscle metabolism is a well-studied physiological process, little is known about how it is regulated at the transcriptional level. The myogenic transcription factor myogenin is required for skeletal muscle development during embryonic and fetal life, but myogenin's role in adult skeletal muscle is unclear. We sought to determine myogenin's function in adult muscle metabolism. A Myog conditional allele and Cre-ER transgene were used to delete Myog in adult mice. Mice were analyzed for exercise capacity by involuntary treadmill running. To assess oxidative and glycolytic metabolism, we performed indirect calorimetry, monitored blood glucose and lactate levels, and performed histochemical analyses on muscle fibers. Surprisingly, we found that Myog-deleted mice performed significantly better than controls in high- and low-intensity treadmill running. This enhanced exercise capacity was due to more efficient oxidative metabolism during low- and high-intensity exercise and more efficient glycolytic metabolism during high-intensity exercise. Furthermore, Myog-deleted mice had an enhanced response to long-term voluntary exercise training on running wheels. We identified several candidate genes whose expression was altered in exercise-stressed muscle of mice lacking myogenin. The results suggest that myogenin plays a critical role as a high-level transcriptional regulator to control the energy balance between aerobic and anaerobic metabolism in adult skeletal muscle

Rapamycin induces glucose intolerance in mice by reducing islet mass, insulin content, and insulin sensitivity

Rapamycin, a specific inhibitor for mTOR complex 1, is an FDA-approved immunosuppressant for organ transplant. Recent developments have raised the prospect of using rapamycin to treat cancer or diabetes and to delay aging. It is therefore important to assess how rapamycin treatment affects glucose homeostasis. Here, we show that the same rapamycin treatment reported to extend mouse life span significantly impaired glucose homeostasis of aged mice. Moreover, rapamycin treatment of lean C57B/L6 mice reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in vivo and ex vivo as well as the insulin content and beta cell mass of pancreatic islets. Confounding the diminished capacity for insulin release, rapamycin decreased insulin sensitivity. The multitude of rapamycin effects thus all lead to glucose intolerance. As our findings reveal that chronic rapamycin treatment could be diabetogenic, monitoring glucose homeostasis is crucial when using rapamycin as a therapeutic as well as experimental reagent

Computer-aided DSM-IV-diagnostics – acceptance, use and perceived usefulness in relation to users' learning styles

BACKGROUND: CDSS (computerized decision support system) for medical diagnostics have been studied for long. This study was undertaken to investigate how different preferences of Learning Styles (LS) of psychiatrists might affect acceptance, use and perceived usefulness of a CDSS for diagnostics in psychiatry. METHODS: 49 psychiatrists (specialists and non-specialists) from 3 different clinics volunteered to participate in this study and to use the CDSS to diagnose a paper-based case (based on a real patient). LS, attitudes to CDSS and complementary data were obtained via questionnaires and interviews. To facilitate the study, a special version of the CDSS was created, which automatically could log interaction details. RESULTS: The LS preferences (according to Kolb) of the 49 physicians turned out as follows: 37% were Assimilating, 31% Converging, 27% Accommodating and 6% Diverging. The CDSS under study seemed to favor psychiatrists with abstract conceptualization information perceiving mode (Assimilating and Converging learning styles). A correlation between learning styles preferences and computer skill was found. Positive attitude to computer-aided diagnostics and learning styles preferences was also found to correlate. Using the CDSS, the specialists produced only 1 correct diagnosis and the non-specialists 2 correct diagnoses (median values) as compared to the three predetermined correct diagnoses of the actual case. Only 10% had all three diagnoses correct, 41 % two correct, 47 % one correct and 2 % had no correct diagnose at all. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the use of CDSS does not guarantee correct diagnosis and that LS might influence the results. Future research should focus on the possibility to create systems open to individuals with different LS preferences and possibility to create CDSS adapted to the level of expertise of the user

“I was a full time proper smoker”: A qualitative exploration of smoking in the home after childbirth among women who relapse postpartum

Background: Many women stop smoking during pregnancy but relapse shortly afterwards, potentially putting their infants at risk of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure. Women who were able to stop during pregnancy may be a motivated group, receptive to making behaviour changes postpartum to protect their infant from SHS exposure. Understanding more about their experiences of relapse, and if this influences home smoking behaviours and children’s exposure to SHS in the home may help to inform intervention development to prevent infant SHS exposure. Methods: Guided by interpretative phenomenological methodology we conducted and analysed nine semi-structured interviews with women who quit smoking during pregnancy, but relapsed ≤3 months postpartum. Findings: Central to mothers’ accounts of their smoking behaviours during pregnancy and postpartum was their desire to be a ‘responsible mother’. Mothers described using strategies to protect their infant from SHS exposure, and held strong negative attitudes towards other smoking parents. After relapsing, mothers appeared to reposition themselves as ‘social’ or ‘occasional’ smokers rather than ‘regular’ smokers Conclusions: Findings suggest that interventions to prevent/reduce infants' home SHS exposure should build on mothers' intentions to be responsible parents. As mothers who relapse principally view themselves as ‘social’ or ‘occasional’ smokers, interventions that are highlighted as relevant for women with these types of smoking patterns may be more likely to be responded to, and, ultimately, be effective

Spontaneous Quaternary and Tertiary T-R Transitions of Human Hemoglobin in Molecular Dynamics Simulation

We present molecular dynamics simulations of unliganded human hemoglobin (Hb) A under physiological conditions, starting from the R, R2, and T state. The simulations were carried out with protonated and deprotonated HC3 histidines His(β)146, and they sum up to a total length of 5.6µs. We observe spontaneous and reproducible T→R quaternary transitions of the Hb tetramer and tertiary transitions of the α and β subunits, as detected from principal component projections, from an RMSD measure, and from rigid body rotation analysis. The simulations reveal a marked asymmetry between the α and β subunits. Using the mutual information as correlation measure, we find that the β subunits are substantially more strongly linked to the quaternary transition than the α subunits. In addition, the tertiary populations of the α and β subunits differ substantially, with the β subunits showing a tendency towards R, and the α subunits showing a tendency towards T. Based on the simulation results, we present a transition pathway for coupled quaternary and tertiary transitions between the R and T conformations of Hb

Recruitment of rare 3-grams at functional sites: Is this a mechanism for increasing enzyme specificity?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A wealth of unannotated and functionally unknown protein sequences has accumulated in recent years with rapid progresses in sequence genomics, giving rise to ever increasing demands for developing methods to efficiently assess functional sites. Sequence and structure conservations have traditionally been the major criteria adopted in various algorithms to identify functional sites. Here, we focus on the distributions of the 20³different types of <it>3</it>-grams (or triplets of sequentially contiguous amino acid) in the entire space of sequences accumulated to date in the UniProt database, and focus in particular on the rare <it>3</it>-grams distinguished by their high entropy-based information content.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Comparison of the UniProt distributions with those observed near/at the active sites on a non-redundant dataset of 59 enzyme/ligand complexes shows that the active sites preferentially recruit <it>3</it>-grams distinguished by their low frequency in the UniProt. Three cases, Src kinase, hemoglobin, and tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase, are discussed in details to illustrate the biological significance of the results.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results suggest that recruitment of rare <it>3</it>-grams may be an efficient mechanism for increasing specificity at functional sites. Rareness/scarcity emerges as a feature that may assist in identifying key sites for proteins function, providing information complementary to that derived from sequence alignments. In addition it provides us (for the first time) with a means of identifying potentially functional sites from sequence information alone, when sequence conservation properties are not available.</p

Asymmetrical Gene Flow in a Hybrid Zone of Hawaiian Schiedea (Caryophyllaceae) Species with Contrasting Mating Systems

Asymmetrical gene flow, which has frequently been documented in naturally occurring hybrid zones, can result from various genetic and demographic factors. Understanding these factors is important for determining the ecological conditions that permitted hybridization and the evolutionary potential inherent in hybrids. Here, we characterized morphological, nuclear, and chloroplast variation in a putative hybrid zone between Schiedea menziesii and S. salicaria, endemic Hawaiian species with contrasting breeding systems. Schiedea menziesii is hermaphroditic with moderate selfing; S. salicaria is gynodioecious and wind-pollinated, with partially selfing hermaphrodites and largely outcrossed females. We tested three hypotheses: 1) putative hybrids were derived from natural crosses between S. menziesii and S. salicaria, 2) gene flow via pollen is unidirectional from S. salicaria to S. menziesii and 3) in the hybrid zone, traits associated with wind pollination would be favored as a result of pollen-swamping by S. salicaria. Schiedea menziesii and S. salicaria have distinct morphologies and chloroplast genomes but are less differentiated at the nuclear loci. Hybrids are most similar to S. menziesii at chloroplast loci, exhibit nuclear allele frequencies in common with both parental species, and resemble S. salicaria in pollen production and pollen size, traits important to wind pollination. Additionally, unlike S. menziesii, the hybrid zone contains many females, suggesting that the nuclear gene responsible for male sterility in S. salicaria has been transferred to hybrid plants. Continued selection of nuclear genes in the hybrid zone may result in a population that resembles S. salicaria, but retains chloroplast lineage(s) of S. menziesii