In order to achieve conservation and development, direct strategies, such as Payments for Environmental Services (PES), have been claimed to be potentially more effective than indirect strategies, ...like Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs). However, PES have raised some concerns on the commodification of nature and the potential replacement of non-chrematistic forms of valuing ecosystems. This article evaluates PES and ICDPs in La Sepultura Biosphere Reserve, Mexico, by analyzing the programs' fund allocation, examining conservation perceptions based on 731 structured interviews and presenting a detailed assessment of ICDP/PES preferences in a community with the longest participation in both schemes. People receiving PES tend to make the future of conservation contingent on monetary and utilitarian reasons, this preference increasing with the number of years receiving PES. These are preferred for their directness and short-term results, although raising concerns about the little social capital they generate. ICDPs are appreciated for arising environmental awareness, being linked with long term conservation, productive capacity and social capital building. Negative perceptions of ICDPs are related to past economic failures. Our results suggest that the real issue is not PES vs. ICDPs but how to combine them to find the proper sequence while reinforcing intrinsic value-based attitudes.
► PES and ICDPs in a Mexican Biosphere Reserve are assessed. ► PES are preferred for directness and short term results. ► ICDPs are appreciated for arising environmental awareness and capacity building. ► PES recipients tend to link the future of conservation with monetary reasons. ► Time receiving PES seems to erode intrinsic motivations for conservation.
Background
A systematic review was conducted to investigate the prevalence of onychomycosis in patients with diabetes. The association of onychomycosis with risk factors in patients with diabetic ...foot syndrome was also examined.
Methods
The recommendations in the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta‐analysis (PRISMA) checklist were applied, and the included studies were assessed using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) method. Searches were conducted in October 2022 using PubMed (Medline) and Scopus for clinical studies, clinical trials, comparative studies, observational studies, and randomised clinical trials or controlled clinical trials addressing the prevalence and consequences of onychomycosis in patients with diabetes, diagnoses or treatments. Two authors performed the study selection and data extraction, and any discrepancies between the two reviewers were resolved through discussion with a third reviewer.
Results
The systematic review included ten studies that met the inclusion criteria, and these studies enrolled 5664 patients with diabetes. Among these patients, 29.18% had onychomycosis that was mainly caused by Trichophyton rubrum. A significant association was found between the occurrence of onychomycosis and the presence of diabetic neuropathy (p = .012) and elevated glycosylated haemoglobin values (p = .039). There was no significant association between onychomycosis and ulceration (p = .185). Eight studies had a grade 4 level of evidence and a grade C recommendation, and one study had a grade 1b level of evidence and a grade A recommendation.
Conclusion
The information described in the literature is insufficient and heterogeneous regarding the association of risk factors and ulceration in patients with diabetic foot compared with developing onychomycosis. There is also a need to implement onychomycosis diagnostic testing instead of relying only on a clinical diagnosis. Additional prospective, randomised, comparative studies are needed to increase the quality of studies in the literature.
Cryotherapy is commonly regarded as the primary treatment method for plantar warts. A new medical device called nitric–zinc complex solution (NZCS) has also emerged as a potential alternative for ...wart treatment. The main aim of this study was to analyze and compare the effectiveness of cryotherapy using liquid nitrogen and NZCS in treating plantar warts. We conducted a randomized and controlled clinical trial involving patients with plantar warts. A total of 62 patients were enrolled in the study and monitored for 12 weeks or until their warts were completely resolved. The patients received either cryotherapy or NZCS, with a maximum of six treatment applications. The cure rate was 65.5% in the group treated with cryotherapy and 56.6% in the group treated with NZCS. The average number of treatment applications required for curing warts was significantly lower in the cured group (3.28 ± 1.63) than in the group with unresolved warts (5.5 ± 1.27) (p < 0.01). Moreover, the average number of applications was lower in the cryotherapy group (3.6 ± 1.8) than in the NZCS group (4.8 ± 1.8) (p < 0.01). Based on the findings, NZCS could be considered a favorable first‐line treatment option for plantar warts.
The methods that are used for the diagnostic confirmation of human papillomavirus (HPV) include excisional biopsy and histopathological studies or polymerase chain reaction (PCR). They are invasive, ...laborious, and subject to ethical restrictions due to the benign nature of these warts. This study aims to analyse the accuracy of noninvasive swab samples to diagnose plantar warts. Fifty plantar warts were included in the study. Skin swabs and hyperkeratosis skin scales were collected from each wart. Multiplex PCR was performed to detect and type the HPVs. The prevalence of HPV in this study was 90% when the sample was obtained using the wart scraping method and 94% when it was obtained using swabs and the new method. In 45 of the 45 positive samples (sensitivity: 100%), the result between the wart scab and wart swab were almost identical. The genotyping result was identical in all 46 patients who had a positive result using both methods. The swab method appears to be a simple and accurate technique to diagnose plantar warts due to HPV. It is a noninvasive technique that could be performed even by inexperienced professionals and in patients with pain or a fear of needles.
DNA replication forks that collapse during the process of genomic duplication lead to double-strand breaks and constitute a threat to genomic stability. The risk of fork collapse is higher in the ...presence of replication inhibitors or after UV irradiation, which introduces specific modifications in the structure of DNA. In these cases, fork progression may be facilitated by error-prone translesion synthesis (TLS) DNA polymerases. Alternatively, the replisome may skip the damaged DNA, leaving an unreplicated gap to be repaired after replication. This mechanism strictly requires a priming event downstream of the lesion. Here we show that PrimPol, a new human primase and TLS polymerase, uses its primase activity to mediate uninterrupted fork progression after UV irradiation and to reinitiate DNA synthesis after dNTP depletion. As an enzyme involved in tolerance to DNA damage, PrimPol might become a target for cancer therapy.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Onychomycosis is the most common nail pathology, involving various pathogens such as dermatophytes, moulds and yeasts.
The objective of this study was to observe the prevalence of onychomycosis, ...analyse the most appropriate diagnostic test, and assess the distribution of pathogens based on age, sex, quarter of the year, duration of symptoms and previous treatment.
Retrospectively, mycological culture and PCR data and results were collected from 121 patients.
Of the 121 samples, 57% (69/121) tested positive when both microbiological study techniques were combined. The prevalence of onychomycosis was higher when PCR was performed (52.1%) compared to microbiological culture (33.1%). Among the 81 samples negative by microbiological culture, 31 were positive by PCR. Similarly, of the 58 samples negative by PCR, eight were positive by microbiological culture. Diagnostic accuracy data (with 95% confidence intervals) for PCR, using microbiological culture as the gold standard, were as follows: sensitivity of 0.8, specificity of 0.62, positive predictive value of 0.51 and negative predictive value of 0.86. The most frequently identified pathogen was Trichophyton rubrum, and the hallux nail plate was the most commonly affected location. However, no statistically significant associations were found between sex, age, quarter of the year and affected area with culture and PCR results.
Combining microbiological culture and PCR can increase the detection rate of onychomycosis and help avoid false-negative results.
We describe a second primase in human cells, PrimPol, which has the ability to start DNA chains with deoxynucleotides unlike regular primases, which use exclusively ribonucleotides. Moreover, PrimPol ...is also a DNA polymerase tailored to bypass the most common oxidative lesions in DNA, such as abasic sites and 8-oxoguanine. Subcellular fractionation and immunodetection studies indicated that PrimPol is present in both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA compartments. PrimPol activity is detectable in mitochondrial lysates from human and mouse cells but is absent from mitochondria derived from PRIMPOL knockout mice. PRIMPOL gene silencing or ablation in human and mouse cells impaired mitochondrial DNA replication. On the basis of the synergy observed with replicative DNA polymerases Polγ and Polε, PrimPol is proposed to facilitate replication fork progression by acting as a translesion DNA polymerase or as a specific DNA primase reinitiating downstream of lesions that block synthesis during both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA replication.
Background
Onychomycosis (ONM) is the most prevalent nail unit pathology, and its severity and monitoring are often based on the visual judgement of clinicians.
Objective
The objective of this study ...is to assess the reliability of the Onychomycosis Severity Index (OSI) classification when utilized by three clinicians with varying levels of clinical experience: an experienced podiatrist (with 5 years of experience), a moderately experienced podiatrist (with 2 years of experience) and an inexperienced podiatrist (a recent graduate familiar with the OSI classification but lacking clinical experience). Additionally, we compared the severity assessments made through visual inspection with those determined using the OSI by different clinicians.
Methods
We evaluated reliability using the intraclass correlation index (ICC), analysing 50 images of ONM.
Results
The OSI demonstrated a very high level of reliability (ICC: 0.889) across clinicians, irrespective of their experience levels. Conversely, a statistically significant increase in severity was observed when comparing visual assessments with the OSI (p < .001) for ONM severity evaluation.
Conclusion
The OSI proves to be a reproducible classification system, regardless of the clinical experience of the practitioner employing it.
Payments for Environmental Services (PES) have been claimed as a more efficient way of accomplishing conservation and development goals than other indirect strategies, reaching their optimum when the ...buyer pays the opportunity costs of the foregone benefits. Different inefficient situations have been described, like lack of additionality, where payments are given for practices that would have been adopted anyway. Trade-offs between efficiency and equity of PES have usually emerged as well. In this paper we assess the equity, additionality and stakeholders' perceptions of a PES scheme in a Mexican community inside a Biosphere Reserve. We applied structured interviews to all adults, a total of 66 people from 31 households. Our results show a dual response in equity and additionality, depending on land tenure. PES have an egalitarian effect within landowners and landless groups, but it broadens the gap between them. Additionality is low for landowners and high for the landless people in the community, even though the former are the ones with full decision over the land. Although the scheme does not seem efficient under the classical PES paradigm, it is perceived as a reward, reinforcing conservation attitudes even though most of the interviewees claim it to be insufficient.
► We assess equity and additionality of a community-based PES. ► PES broaden the gap between landowners and landless people in the community. ► PES have an egalitarian effect within landowners and landless community groups. ► Additionality is low for landowners and high for landless people. ► PES is mostly perceived as a reward for good conservations practices in the past.
Exposure to air particulate matter has been linked with hypertension and blood pressure levels. The metabolic risks of air pollution could vary according to the specific characteristics of each area, ...and has not been sufficiently evaluated in Spain. We analyzed 1103 individuals, participants in a Spanish nationwide population based cohort study (di@bet.es), who were free of hypertension at baseline (2008-2010) and completed a follow-up exam of the cohort (2016-2017). Cohort participants were assigned air pollution concentrations for particulate matter < 10 μm (PM
) and < 2.5 μm (PM
) during follow-up (2008-2016) obtained through modeling combined with measurements taken at air quality stations (CHIMERE chemistry-transport model). Mean and SD concentrations of PM
and PM
were 20.17 ± 3.91 μg/m
and 10.83 ± 2.08 μg/m
respectively. During follow-up 282 cases of incident hypertension were recorded. In the fully adjusted model, compared with the lowest quartile of PM
the multivariate weighted ORs (95% CIs) for developing hypertension with increasing PM
exposures were 0.82 (0.59-1.14), 1.28 (0.93-1.78) and 1.45 (1.05-2.01) in quartile 2, 3 and 4 respectively (p for a trend of 0.003). The corresponding weighted ORs according to PM
exposures were 0.80 (0.57-1.13), 1.11 (0.80-1.53) and 1.48 (1.09-2.00) (p for trend 0.004). For each 5-μg/m
increment in PM
and PM
concentrations, the odds for incident hypertension increased 1.22 (1.06-1.41) p = 0.007 and 1.39 (1.07-1.81) p = 0.02 respectively. In conclusion, our study contributes to assessing the impact of particulate pollution on the incidence of hypertension in Spain, reinforcing the need for improving air quality as much as possible in order to decrease the risk of cardiometabolic disease in the population.
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