There is a growing need to control, prevent or minimise the devastating effects of disease in crustacean culture, without recourse to toxic chemicals or antibiotics. In keeping with approaches to ...disease control in fish and higher mammals, interest is developing in compounds that confer protection and/or enhance immune reactivity to likely pathogens in shellfish (sometimes, erroneously, referred to as ‘shellfish vaccines’). The agents currently under scrutiny for crustaceans include glucans, lipopolysaccharides and killed bacterial cells. They are thought to act as ‘immunostimulants’ because of their known effects on the crustacean immune system in vitro. A number papers are now appearing in the literature claiming to demonstrate their positive impact on immunity and disease resistance. This review article considers the problem of disease and its control in crustacean farming, describing the types of immunostimulatory compounds claimed to have positive effects and evaluating their merit in enhancing immune capability in cultured species. Analysis of the validity of the results of many of the published studies raises questions about the value of these compounds for cost-effective control of infection in aquaculture, especially for long lasting protection in both adults and juveniles. This review further discusses the potential risks to the wellbeing of the stock animals from repeated use of these agents and makes the case for rigorous testing of putative stimulants, at the gene, protein and functional levels, as well as for the need to consider alternative strategies and approaches to disease control.
The purpose of this study was to measure the risk of reoperation for surgically treated pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence in a community-based population.
A 5-year prospective, ...observational study was conducted of women who had undergone pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence surgery in 1995. The cohort of 376 women was identified by International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, and current procedural terminology codes in 149,554 reproductive-aged women within the Kaiser Permanente Northwest membership.
Thirty-six women underwent 40 cases of reoperation. By survival analysis, 13% of women underwent reoperation by 71 months. Having undergone previous pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence surgery increased the risk of reoperation to 17% compared with 12% for women who underwent a first procedure (log rank,
P
=
.04). No association was observed with age, body mass index, parity, previoushysterectomy not for prolapse, vaginal versus abdominal approach, severity of prolapse, ethnicity, chronic lung disease, smoking, previous corticosteroid use, and estrogen status.
Future reoperation is a significant risk of morbidity for women who undergo pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence surgery.
Degenerate PCR was used to isolate a 221-base pair nucleotide sequence of a new crustin-like antibacterial peptide from the haemocytes of the European lobster,
Homarus gammarus. Rapid amplification ...of cDNA ends was used to extend the sequence to determine the complete open reading frame and un-translated regions. The inferred amino acid sequence of this peptide was found to be similar to crustin-like peptides isolated for several species of shrimp as well as the shore crab,
Carcinus maenas. The sequence also contains a single-whey-acidic protein (WAP) domain, similar to novel antibacterial single-whey-acidic domain (SWD) peptides that have been recently described in the tiger shrimp,
Penaeus monodon, and the Pacific white shrimp,
Litopenaeus vannamei. Real-time PCR was used to analyse the expression of the gene coding for this peptide. The gene is up regulated after inoculation with the Gram-positive lobster pathogen
Aerococcus viridans var.
homari but down regulated after inoculation with the Gram-negative bacteria
Listonella anguillarum. Phylogenetic analysis of this new peptide shows that it is most related to other antimicrobial crustin peptides and that the crustins are only distantly related to the antibacterial SWD peptides recently described.
To determine the incidence of surgically managed pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence in a population-based cohort, and to describe their clinical characteristics.
Our retrospective cohort ...study included all patients undergoing surgical treatment for prolapse and incontinence during 1995; all were members of Kaiser Permanente Northwest, which included 149,554 women age 20 or older. A standardized data-collection form was used to review all inpatient and outpatient charts of the 395 women identified. Variables examined included age, ethnicity, height, weight, vaginal parity, smoking history, medical history, and surgical history, including the preoperative evaluation, procedure performed, and details of all prior procedures. Analysis included calculation of age-specific and cumulative incidences and determination of the number of primary operations compared with repeat operations performed for prolapse or incontinence.
The age-specific incidence increased with advancing age. The lifetime risk of undergoing a single operation for prolapse or incontinence by age 80 was 11.1%. Most patients were older, postmenopausal, parous, and overweight. Nearly half were current or former smokers and one-fifth had chronic lung disease. Reoperation was common (29.2% of cases), and the time intervals between repeat procedures decreased with each successive repair.
Pelvic floor dysfunction is a major health issue for older women, as shown by the 11.1% lifetime risk of undergoing a single operation for pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence, as well as the large proportion of reoperations. Our results warrant further epidemiologic research in order to determine the etiology, natural history, and long-term treatment outcomes of these conditions.
The next release problem Bagnall, A.J.; Rayward-Smith, V.J.; Whittley, I.M.
Information and software technology,
12/2001, Letnik:
43, Številka:
14
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Companies developing and maintaining complex software systems need to determine the features that should be added to their system as part of the next release. They will wish to select these features ...to ensure the demands of their client base are satisfied as much as possible while at the same time ensuring that they themselves have the resources to undertake the necessary development. This situation is modelled in this paper and the problem of selecting an optimal next release is shown to be NP-hard. The use of various modern heuristics to find a high quality but possibly suboptimal solution is described. Comparative studies of these heuristics are given for various test cases.
Aims: To obtain preliminary data on the impact of motivational interviewing, a counselling approach to behaviour change, on glycaemic control, wellbeing, and self-care of adolescents with diabetes. ...Methods: Twenty two patients aged 14–18 years participated in motivational interviewing sessions during a six month intervention. The effects of the intervention on HbA1c and a range of psychological factors were assessed. Results: Mean HbA1c decreased from 10.8% to 9.7% during the study and remained significantly lower after the end of the study. Fear of hypoglycaemia was reduced and diabetes was perceived as easier to live with. There were no other significant changes in the psychological measures. By contrast no reduction in HbA1c values was observed in a comparison group who did not receive the motivational interviewing intervention. Conclusion: The findings of this pilot study indicate that motivational interviewing may be a useful intervention in helping adolescents improve their glycaemic control. A larger, longer term randomised controlled study is indicated to clarify the mechanisms and extent of these benefits.
Skin exudates of rainbow trout contain a potent 13.6 kDa anti-microbial protein which, from partial internal amino acid sequencing, peptide mass fingerprinting, matrix-associated laser ...desorption/ionization MS and amino acid analysis, seems to be histone H2A, acetylated at the N-terminus. The protein, purified to homogeneity by ion-exchange and reversed-phase chromatography, exhibits powerful anti-bacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria, with minimal inhibitory concentrations in the submicromolar range. Kinetic analysis revealed that at a concentration of 0.3 microM all test bacteria lose viability after 30 min incubation. Weaker activity is also displayed against the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The protein is salt-sensitive and has no haemolytic activity towards trout erythrocytes at concentrations below 0.3 microM. Reconstitution of the protein in a planar lipid bilayer strongly disturbs the membrane but does not form stable ion channels, indicating that its anti-bacterial activity is probably not due to pore-forming properties. This is the first report to show that, in addition to its classical function in the cell, histone H2A has extremely strong anti-microbial properties and could therefore help contribute to protection against bacterial invasion.
A potent antimicrobial peptide, tentatively named oncorhyncin II, was isolated from an acid extract of rainbow trout skin secretions. Amino acid sequencing showed that the first 17 residues of ...oncorhyncin II are identical to residues 138–154 of histone H1 from rainbow trout. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry revealed that the purified peptide has a molecular mass of 7195.3
Da. Taken together, these data indicate that oncorhyncin II is a 69-residue C-terminal fragment of histone H1, probably phosphorylated at two residues. Oncorhyncin II has minimal inhibitory concentrations in the submicromolar range against Gram-(+) as well as Gram-(−) bacteria and it does not display significant haemolytic activity towards trout erythrocytes. The purified peptide was found to induce a marked destabilisation of planar lipid bilayers without the formation of stable ion channels. Oncorhyncin II is possibly a cleavage product of histone H1 with a potentially important role in mucosal defence of rainbow trout.
Patients with chronic heart failure (HF) suffer from numerous symptoms and quality-of-life (QOL) concerns, and thus, palliative care, a multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and focuses ...on the improvement of patients' and their families' QOL through the relief of physical, psychosocial, and spiritual suffering, is needed. The transition to hospice care is made when HF is refractory to medical therapy or when the potential harm of treatment outweighs the potential benefits. Nurses are key persons for patients with HF as they may initiate and support palliative and hospice care, focus on delivering patients' goal-directed, well-coordinated care, champion patients' and caregivers' needs, and facilitate optimal QOL. Despite the inclusion of palliative and hospice care for HF patients in published guidelines, health care providers are frequently unfamiliar with palliative and hospice care and the needs of HF patients and their families. Therefore, this paper addresses the nurses' role in determining for whom, and when palliative and hospice care is appropriate; where and how palliative and hospice care should be provided; and the communication needs of patients and their families regarding referral to hospice, emergencies, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy, ventricular assist devices, and continuous intravenous inotropic or vasoactive support at the end-of-life. Keywords: palliative care, hospice care, end of life care, palliative care nursing, hospice care nursing, heart failure, heart failure therapy
The partial N-terminal amino acid sequence of the antimicrobial peptide reported in the present paper has been submitted to the TrEMBL database under the accession number P83338. A 6.7 kDa ...antimicrobial peptide was isolated from trout skin secretions using acid extraction followed by cation-exchange chromatography, (t)C(18) solid-phase extraction, and C(18) reversed-phase HPLC. The molecular mass of this peptide, which is tentatively named oncorhyncin III, is 6671 Da, as determined by matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization MS. N-terminal amino acid sequencing revealed that the first 13 residues of oncorhyncin III are identical with those of the non-histone chromosomal protein H6 from rainbow trout. Hence these data combined with the MS results indicate that oncorhyncin III is likely to be a cleavage product of the non-histone chromosomal protein H6 (residues 1-66) and that it probably contains two methylated residues or one double methylation. The purified peptide exhibits potent antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, with minimal inhibitory concentrations in the submicromolar range. The peptide is sensitive to NaCl, and displays no haemolytic activity towards trout erythrocytes at concentrations below 1 microM. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that oncorhyncin III does not cause direct disruption of bacterial cells. Reconstitution of the peptide in planar lipid bilayers strongly disturbs the membranes, but does not induce the formation of stable ion channels. Taken together, these results support the hypothesis that oncorhyncin III plays a role in mucosal innate host defence.
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