DNA fingerprinting is a technique for comparing DNA patterns that has applications in a wide variety of contexts. Several commercial and freely-available tools can be used to analyze DNA fingerprint ...gel images; however, commercial tools are expensive and usually difficult to use; and, free tools support the basic functionality for DNA fingerprint analysis, but lack some instrumental features to obtain accurate results.
In this paper, we present GelJ, a feather-weight, user-friendly, platform-independent, open-source and free tool for analyzing DNA fingerprint gel images. Some of the outstanding features of GelJ are mechanisms for accurate lane- and band-detection, several options for computing migration models, a number of band- and curve-based similarity methods, different techniques for generating dendrograms, comparison of banding patterns from different experiments, and database support.
GelJ is an easy to use tool for analyzing DNA fingerprint gel images. It combines the best characteristics of both free and commercial tools: GelJ is light and simple to use (as free programs), but it also includes the necessary features to obtain precise results (as commercial programs). In addition, GelJ incorporates new functionality that is not supported by any other tool.
Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection is the most prevalent congenital infection acquired worldwide, with higher incidence in developing countries and among HIV-exposed children. Less is known ...regarding vertical transmission of parvovirus B19 (B19V) and enterovirus (EV). We aimed to assess the prevalence of CMV, B19V and EV vertical transmission and compare results of screening of congenital CMV obtained from two different specimens in a semirural Mozambican maternity.
A cross sectional study was conducted among pregnant mothers attending Manhiça District Hospital upon delivery. Information on maternal risk factors was ascertained. Dried umbilical cord (DUC) samples were collected in filter paper for CMV, B19V and EV detection by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA) to test for CMV by RT-PCR. Maternal blood samples and placental biopsy samples were also obtained to investigate CMV maternal serology, HIV status and immunopathology.
From September 2014 to January 2015, 118 mothers/newborn pairs were recruited. Prevalence of maternal HIV infection was 31.4% (37/118). CMV RT-PCR was positive in 3/115 (2.6%) of DUC samples and in 3/96 (6.3%) of NPA samples obtained from neonates. The concordance of the RT-PCR assay through DUC with their correspondent NPA sample was moderate (Kappa = 0.42 and p<0.001. No differences on cCMV prevalence were found among HIV-exposed and unexposed. All (100%) mothers were seropositive for CMV IgG. RT-PCR of EV and B19V in DUC were both negative in all screened cases. No histological specific findings were found in placental tissues. No risk factors associated to vertical transmission of these viral infections were found.
This study indicates the significant occurrence of vertical transmission of CMV in southern Mozambique. Larger studies are needed to evaluate the true burden, clinical relevance and consequences of congenital infections with such pathogens in resource-constrained settings.
Athletes use nutritional supplementation to enhance the effects of training and achieve improvements in their athletic performance. Beetroot juice increases levels of nitric oxide (NO), which serves ...multiple functions related to increased blood flow, gas exchange, mitochondrial biogenesis and efficiency, and strengthening of muscle contraction. These biomarker improvements indicate that supplementation with beetroot juice could have ergogenic effects on cardiorespiratory endurance that would benefit athletic performance. The aim of this literature review was to determine the effects of beetroot juice supplementation and the combination of beetroot juice with other supplements on cardiorespiratory endurance in athletes. A keyword search of DialNet, MedLine, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases covered publications from 2010 to 2016. After excluding reviews/meta-analyses, animal studies, inaccessible full-text, and studies that did not supplement with beetroot juice and adequately assess cardiorespiratory endurance, 23 articles were selected for analysis. The available results suggest that supplementation with beetroot juice can improve cardiorespiratory endurance in athletes by increasing efficiency, which improves performance at various distances, increases time to exhaustion at submaximal intensities, and may improve the cardiorespiratory performance at anaerobic threshold intensities and maximum oxygen uptake (VO
). Although the literature shows contradictory data, the findings of other studies lead us to hypothesize that supplementing with beetroot juice could mitigate the ergolytic effects of hypoxia on cardiorespiratory endurance in athletes. It cannot be stated that the combination of beetroot juice with other supplements has a positive or negative effect on cardiorespiratory endurance, but it is possible that the effects of supplementation with beetroot juice can be undermined by interaction with other supplements such as caffeine.
The aim of the current cross-sectional study was to examine the role of social-cognitive processing in the relation between violence exposure at home and child-to-parent violence.
The study included ...1,624 adolescents (54.9% girls) aged between 12 and 18 years (Mage = 14.7, SD = 1.7 years) from Jaén and Oviedo (Spain) who completed a set of questionnaires about violence exposure, child-to-parent violence and social-cognitive processing.
The data revealed that exposure to violence at home is related to dysfunctional components of social-cognitive processing, and that whereas some of these components (anger and aggressive response access) are positively related to child-to-parent violence motivated by reactive reasons, other components (anticipation of positive consequences and justification of violence) are positively related to the instrumental use of the aggression against parents.
More prevention work is needed with children exposed to violence at home to reduce the risk of intergenerational transmission of violence. Moreover, treatment programs should include intervention on the way in which adolescents process the information in their interactions with parents. These interventions must be focused on different components of social-cognitive processing, depending on whether these aggressive behaviors are motivated by reactive or instrumental reasons.
To evaluate ocular surface histopathologic changes and ocular sequelae in the follow-up of patients with toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN).
Prospective, consecutive, comparative, interventional case ...series.
Eleven patients (22 eyes) with TEN that developed after drug treatment and 33 normal subjects as the control group.
Toxic epidermal necrolysis diagnosis was based on data obtained from medical records. Only patients with ocular involvement in the acute stage were included. Patients and controls underwent a complete ophthalmic assessment, including tear film evaluation and corneal and conjunctival impression cytology. These were performed at the beginning of the study (∼1 month after TEN) and 6 and 12 months later. Tear film production and stability were evaluated by break-up time, Schirmer's test with anesthesia, rose bengal, and fluorescein staining pattern. Conjunctival retraction was determined by studying the vanishing point in eye abduction of the lacunar folds.
Break-up time, Schirmer's test, fluorescein and rose bengal stain, corneal and conjunctival epithelial squamous metaplasia, conjunctival retraction, and ocular sequelae.
Mild or moderate ocular involvement was present in 73% of patients in the acute stage. Ocular involvement was not related to TEN severity, area of skin involvement, or drug etiology. One-year follow-up, ocular manifestations, slit-lamp findings, and epithelial cell squamous metaplasia were related to ocular involvement severity in the acute phase. We found pathologic conjunctival retraction in 86.4% of patients. Decreased levels of break-up time and Schirmer's test were found in patients with TEN. Conjunctival cytology showed a marked decrease in goblet cell density. No patients died, and there were no recurrences of TEN during the study.
Ocular involvement in the acute stage was not related to TEN severity or etiology. Ocular sequelae were related to ocular involvement severity in the acute phase. Early ophthalmic assessment and frequent follow-up are helpful because ocular involvement represents the first long-term complication in patients with TEN. Impression cytology and measurement of conjunctival retraction can be useful tools in the assessment of dynamic ocular changes in patients with TEN.
Beetroot juice contains high levels of inorganic nitrate (NO
) and its intake has proved effective at increasing blood nitric oxide (NO) concentrations. Given the effects of NO in promoting ...vasodilation and blood flow with beneficial impacts on muscle contraction, several studies have detected an ergogenic effect of beetroot juice supplementation on exercise efforts with high oxidative energy metabolism demands. However, only a scarce yet growing number of investigations have sought to assess the effects of this supplement on performance at high-intensity exercise. Here we review the few studies that have addressed this issue. The databases Dialnet, Elsevier, Medline, Pubmed and Web of Science were searched for articles in English, Portuguese and Spanish published from 2010 to March 31 to 2017 using the keywords: beet or beetroot or nitrate or nitrite and supplement or supplementation or nutrition or "sport nutrition" and exercise or sport or "physical activity" or effort or athlete. Nine articles fulfilling the inclusion criteria were identified. Results indicate that beetroot juice given as a single dose or over a few days may improve performance at intermittent, high-intensity efforts with short rest periods. The improvements observed were attributed to faster phosphocreatine resynthesis which could delay its depletion during repetitive exercise efforts. In addition, beetroot juice supplementation could improve muscle power output via a mechanism involving a faster muscle shortening velocity. The findings of some studies also suggested improved indicators of muscular fatigue, though the mechanism involved in this effect remains unclear.
Objective
The structure, reliability, and validity of the Child‐to‐Parent Violence Questionnaire (CPV‐Q) for youth is analyzed. Additionally, the frequency of child‐to‐parent violence and the reasons ...for carrying it out are analyzed.
Background
Child violence toward parents is a type of violence that has recently garnered great social and scientific interest. The frequency rates found vary considerably (psychological violence between 8.5% and 27% and physical violence between 1.8% and 6.1%), in part due to the type of assessment instruments used.
Method
A total of 1,543 young Spanish people between 18 and 25 years of age (50.2% male; Mage = 19.2 years; SD = 1.9) participated in this study and reported on the frequency of violent behavior toward parents when they were 12 and 17 years old.
Results
The results confirm a factorial structure of the CPV‐Q, with four factors: psychological, physical, financial, and control/domain. The reasons for child‐to‐parent violence were grouped into instrumental and reactive.
Conclusions
The CPV‐Q for young people presents adequate psychometric properties. The high frequency rates of child‐to‐parent violence justify the need to continue advancing the study of this phenomenon.
Implications
The CPV‐Q is a useful instrument for assessing child‐to‐parent violence for both research and professional practice. It allows evaluating the frequency of a wide range of violent behaviors and the underlying reasons motivating this type of violence, which is of great help for interventions.
Recent research on aggressor profiles in child-to-parent violence (CPV) seems to provide promising results. However, this phenomenon has been poorly addressed in the adverse childhood experiences ...(ACEs) framework. This study aimed to explore the frequency of different types of ACEs and cumulative ACEs in adolescents who exert CPV, to analyze the differences between aggressors with different levels of cumulative ACEs in parental attachment, resilience, and emotional intelligence, and to evaluate the associations between these variables, as well as a possible mediational model.
A total of 3,142 Spanish adolescents (50.7% girls) aged between 12 and 18 years from educational centers participated.
Adolescents who exerted CPV presented higher rates of ACEs both independently and cumulatively than those without CPV. Aggressors with cumulative ACEs (88%) in general presented more insecure parental attachment, lower resilience, and lower emotional intelligence than those without cumulative ACEs, and, in turn, aggressors with high levels of cumulative ACEs than those with low levels of cumulative ACEs. Significant associations were identified between CPV, ACEs, insecure parental attachment, resilience, and emotional intelligence. The mediation model suggested that ACEs are related to CPV through preoccupied and traumatized parental attachment and also through low levels of emotional intelligence.
The findings provide a better understanding of CPV from the perspective of ACEs, especially of those cases that involve an accumulation of adverse experiences during childhood, and suggest greater professional attention to these cases with the design of specialized CPV intervention programs.
This study analyzes child-to-parent violence during strict confinement due to COVID-19 as well as its association with other forms of family violence (parent-to-child violence and exposure to ...violence between parents) and with different psychosocial stressors: Academics/work, family coexistence, finances, COVID-19 and physical and psychological health. The study included 2245 young people (52.8% females) aged between 18 and 25 years (M = 21.52 years, SD = 2.07 years). The results show that more than half of the young people reported having performed at least one violent behavior toward their parents. Child-to-parent violence is significantly related to violence from parents to their young adult children, to exposure to violence between parents and to different psychosocial stressors: Academics/work, family coexistence and psychological health. The individual and additive predictive value of other forms of family violence and psychosocial stressors in child-to-parent violence is confirmed. Prevention and intervention programs for child-to-parent violence must take into account the role of other forms of family violence present as well as the influence of psychosocial stressors.
is characterized by its great capacity to colonize different ecological niches, but also by its antimicrobial resistance and pathogenicity, causing human, animal, or plant diseases. Raw and ...undercooked food is a potential carrier of foodborne disease. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of
spp. among raw vegetables, analysing their antimicrobial resistance, virulence, and molecular typing. A total of 163
spp. isolates (12 different species) were recovered from 77 of the 145 analysed samples (53.1%) and were classified into 139 different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns. Low antimicrobial resistance levels, but one multidrug-resistant isolate, were found. Among the 37 recovered
strains, 28 sequence-types and nine serotypes were detected. Eleven OprD patterns and an insertion sequence (IS
) truncating the
gene of one imipenem-resistant strain were found. Ten virulotypes were observed, including four
-positive and thirty-one
-positive strains. The
gene was absent in three ST155 strains and was truncated by different insertion sequences (IS
, IS
, and IS
) in other three strains. High biofilm, motility, pigment, elastase, and rhamnolipid production were detected. Our study demonstrated a low occurrence of
(18%) and low antimicrobial resistance, but a high number of virulence-related traits in these
strains, highlighting their pathological importance.
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