Eye Tracking Impact on Quality-of-Life of ALS Patients

Chronic neurological disorders in their advanced phase are characterized by a progressive loss of mobility (use of upper and lower limbs), speech and social life. Some of these pathologies, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis, are paradigmatic of these deficits. High technology communication instruments, such as eye tracking, can be an extremely important possibility to reintroduce these patients in their family and social life, in particular when they suffer severe disability. This paper reports and describes the results of an ongoing experimentation about Eye Tracking impact on the quality of life of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. The aim of the experimentation is to evaluate if and when eye tracking technologies have a positive impact on patients' live

Bacterial lysate in the prevention of acute exacerbation of COPD and in respiratory recurrent infections

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) represent a serious problem because they are one of the most common cause of human death by infection. The search for the treatment of those diseases has therefore a great importance. In this study we provide an overview of the currently available treatments for RTIs with particular attention to chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases exacerbations and recurrent respiratory infections therapy and a description of bacterial lysate action, in particular making reference to the medical literature dealing with its clinical efficacy. Those studies are based on a very large number of clinical trials aimed to evaluate the effects of this drug in maintaining the immune system in a state of alert, and in increasing the defences against microbial infections. From this analysis it comes out that bacterial lysates have a protective effect, which induce a significant reduction of the symptoms related to respiratory infections. Those results could be very interesting also from an economic point of view, because they envisage a reduction in the number of acute exacerbations and a shorter duration of hospitalization. The use of bacterial lysate could therefore represent an important means to achieve an extension of life duration in patients affected by respiratory diseases

The influence of culture on parental styles in social vulnerability contexts: A influência da cultura nos estilos parentais em contextos de vulnerabilidade social

Los objetivos del presente trabajo son: 1) analizar si las relaciones entre las dimensiones de la parentalidad y el ajuste de los niños en lo que se refiere a estrategias de afrontamiento, se mantienen constantes en una muestra argentina y otra española en contextos de pobreza, 2) comparar las dimensiones de la parentalidad en los dos grupos en estudio; 3) determinar la eficiencia de la parentalidad través del estudio de su influencia en la forma de afrontar la amenaza de los niños. Se administró la escala Graffar ? Méndez Castellano (Méndez-Castellano & Méndez, 1994), que permite una caracterización socio económica de la población; la Escala Argentina de Percepción de la Relación con los Padres para Niños de 8 a 12 años (Richaud 2007a) y el Cuestionario Argentino de afrontamiento para niños (Richaud, 2006), a una muestra de 458 niños argentinos y españoles de 10 a 12 años. Se utilizaron correlaciones para analizar las relaciones entre las dimensiones parentales y las estrategias de afrontamiento de los niños y análisis múltiples de variancia (MANOVA) para estudiar si existían diferentes estilos de relaciones de los padres con los hijos en los dos grupos: Argentina y España y para analizar si existían diferencias en las estrategias de afrontamiento en los niños de los dos grupos estudiados. Los resultados indican la aceptación de ambos padres se relacionó positivamente, en ambos grupos, con las estrategias más funcionales del afrontamiento y que las dimensiones parentales negativas, tanto el control patológico paterno como la negligencia de ambos padres, se relacionaron positivamente, en ambos grupos, con el descontrol emocional de los niños, mientras que se observa un tipo de relación parental de mayor autonomía extrema-negligencia, para el grupo argentino y de mayor control extremo para el grupo español. Al mismo tiempo se encontró que los niños del grupo argentino adoptan estrategias de afrontamiento menos eficientes y que implican un mayor conflicto emocional, que los niños del grupo español.The objectives of this study are: (a) to analyze if the relationship between parenting dimensions and children adjustment regarding coping strategies are similar in Argentinian and Spanish samples within poverty contexts; (b) to compare parental dimensions in the two groups studied, and (c) to determine the efficiency of parenting through the study of their influence in children coping strategies. The Graffar-Méndez Castellano Scale (Méndez-Castellano & Méndez, 1994), that brings a socioeconomic description of the population; an Argentinian Scale of Children Perception of Parental Relationships for 8 to 12 years of age (Richaud, 2007a), and the Argentine Questionnaire of Coping for children (Richaud, 2006) were administered to a sample of458 Spanish and Argentinian children from 8 to 12 years old. Correlations were carried out to analyze the relationships between parenting dimensions and children coping strategies in both groups, and MANOVA, to study if there were different parental dimensions in the two groups &mash;Argentina and Spain&mash;, and to analyze if there were differences in children coping strategies. The results indicate that correlational pattern is similar in both groups, but parental dimensions are different for each culture, being the Argentinian parents more neglectful than Spanish parents. At the same time, Argentinian children adopt coping strategies less efficient that the Spanish children ones, involving in that way a greater emotional conflict.Fil: Richaud, Maria Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones En Psicología Matemática y Experimental Dr. Horacio J.a Rimoldi; ArgentinaFil: Mestre, Maria V.. Universidad de Valencia; EspañaFil: Lemos, Viviana Noemí. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones En Psicología Matemática y Experimental Dr. Horacio J.a Rimoldi; ArgentinaFil: Tur, Ana. Universidad de Valencia; EspañaFil: Ghiglione, María. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Samper, Paula. Universidad de Valencia; Españ

Beliefs and traditions related to a child´s first year of life : a study of the Northwest of Portugal

In this paper we propose an approach to investigate, in the North-west of Portugal, the parents’ behaviour at birth and during the first year of life of their children. We compare the heritage, specifically the beliefs and traditions, with the changes that resulted from the recent and deep cultural transformations that have taken place in Portugal in the last few decades. In parallel, we tried to determine if the parents’ behaviours, based on beliefs and traditions, can affect the children’s health. We based our investigation on standardized interviews with 76 mothers of one-year-old children (born between January and December 2001) who lived in two parishes of Vizela city. This is a territory where a more traditional way of life prevails than in other territories of the centre and south of the country, where there is a strong attachment for religious and social values and where the influence of the ancestral traditions is still alive. The paper concludes that cultural heritage can have important impact on individual health. Health professionals, who work in primary care and in hospitals, must be aware of the responsibility they have to change this scenario.(undefined

Lateral Gene Expression in Drosophila Early Embryos Is Supported by Grainyhead-Mediated Activation and Tiers of Dorsally-Localized Repression

The general consensus in the field is that limiting amounts of the transcription factor Dorsal establish dorsal boundaries of genes expressed along the dorsal-ventral (DV) axis of early Drosophila embryos, while repressors establish ventral boundaries. Yet recent studies have provided evidence that repressors act to specify the dorsal boundary of intermediate neuroblasts defective (ind), a gene expressed in a stripe along the DV axis in lateral regions of the embryo. Here we show that a short 12 base pair sequence (“the A-box”) present twice within the ind CRM is both necessary and sufficient to support transcriptional repression in dorsal regions of embryos. To identify binding factors, we conducted affinity chromatography using the A-box element and found a number of DNA-binding proteins and chromatin-associated factors using mass spectroscopy. Only Grainyhead (Grh), a CP2 transcription factor with a unique DNA-binding domain, was found to bind the A-box sequence. Our results suggest that Grh acts as an activator to support expression of ind, which was surprising as we identified this factor using an element that mediates dorsally-localized repression. Grh and Dorsal both contribute to ind transcriptional activation. However, another recent study found that the repressor Capicua (Cic) also binds to the A-box sequence. While Cic was not identified through our A-box affinity chromatography, utilization of the same site, the A-box, by both factors Grh (activator) and Cic (repressor) may also support a “switch-like” response that helps to sharpen the ind dorsal boundary. Furthermore, our results also demonstrate that TGF-β signaling acts to refine ind CRM expression in an A-box independent manner in dorsal-most regions, suggesting that tiers of repression act in dorsal regions of the embryo

Role of Scrib and Dlg in anterior-posterior patterning of the follicular epithelium during Drosophila oogenesis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Proper patterning of the follicle cell epithelium over the egg chamber is essential for the <it>Drosophila </it>egg development. Differentiation of the epithelium into several distinct cell types along the anterior-posterior axis requires coordinated activities of multiple signaling pathways. Previously, we reported that <it>lethal(2)giant larvae </it>(<it>lgl</it>), a <it>Drosophila </it>tumor suppressor gene, is required in the follicle cells for the posterior follicle cell (PFC) fate induction at mid-oogenesis. Here we explore the role of another two tumor suppressor genes, <it>scribble </it>(<it>scrib</it>) and <it>discs large </it>(<it>dlg</it>), in the epithelial patterning.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that removal of <it>scrib </it>or <it>dlg </it>function from the follicle cells at posterior terminal of the egg chamber causes a complete loss of the PFC fate. Aberrant specification and differentiation of the PFCs in the mosaic clones can be ascribed to defects in coordinated activation of the EGFR, JAK and Notch signaling pathways in the multilayered cells. Meanwhile, the clonal analysis revealed that loss-of-function mutations in <it>scrib/dlg </it>at the anterior domains result in a partially penetrant phenotype of defective induction of the stretched and centripetal cell fate, whereas specification of the border cell fate can still occur in the most anterior region of the mutant clones. Further, we showed that <it>scrib </it>genetically interacts with <it>dlg </it>in regulating posterior patterning of the epithelium.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study we provide evidence that <it>scrib </it>and <it>dlg </it>function differentially in anterior and posterior patterning of the follicular epithelium at oogenesis. Further genetic analysis indicates that <it>scrib </it>and <it>dlg </it>act in a common pathway to regulate PFC fate induction. This study may open another window for elucidating role of <it>scrib/dlg </it>in controlling epithelial polarity and cell proliferation during development.</p

Quantifying the relative roles of selective and neutral processes in defining eukaryotic microbial communities

We have a limited understanding of the relative contributions of different processes that regulate microbial communities, which are crucial components of both natural and agricultural ecosystems. The contributions of selective and neutral processes in defining community composition are often confounded in field studies because as one moves through space, environments also change. Managed ecosystems provide an excellent opportunity to control for this and evaluate the relative strength of these processes by minimising differences between comparable niches separated at different geographic scales. We use next-generation sequencing to characterize the variance in fungal communities inhabiting adjacent fruit, soil and bark in comparable vineyards across 1000 kms in New Zealand. By compartmentalizing community variation, we reveal that niche explains at least four times more community variance than geographic location. We go beyond merely demonstrating that different communities are found in both different niches and locations by quantifying the forces that define these patterns. Overall, selection unsurprisingly predominantly shapes these microbial communities, but we show the balance of neutral processes also have a significant role in defining community assemblage in eukaryotic microbes

Genetic Interactions between the Drosophila Tumor Suppressor Gene ept and the stat92E Transcription Factor

Tumor Susceptibility Gene-101 (TSG101) promotes the endocytic degradation of transmembrane proteins and is implicated as a mutational target in cancer, yet the effect of TSG101 loss on cell proliferation in vertebrates is uncertain. By contrast, Drosophila epithelial tissues lacking the TSG101 ortholog erupted (ept) develop as enlarged undifferentiated tumors, indicating that the gene can have anti-growth properties in a simple metazoan. A full understanding of pathways deregulated by loss of Drosophila ept will aid in understanding potential links between mammalian TSG101 and growth control.We have taken a genetic approach to the identification of pathways required for excess growth of Drosophila eye-antennal imaginal discs lacking ept. We find that this phenotype is very sensitive to the genetic dose of stat92E, the transcriptional effector of the Jak-Stat signaling pathway, and that this pathway undergoes strong activation in ept mutant cells. Genetic evidence indicates that stat92E contributes to cell cycle deregulation and excess cell size phenotypes that are observed among ept mutant cells. In addition, autonomous Stat92E hyper-activation is associated with altered tissue architecture in ept tumors and an effect on expression of the apical polarity determinant crumbs.These findings identify ept as a cell-autonomous inhibitor of the Jak-Stat pathway and suggest that excess Jak-Stat signaling makes a significant contribution to proliferative and tissue architectural phenotypes that occur in ept mutant tissues