γ-conglutin (γ-C) is a hexameric glycoprotein accumulated in lupin seeds and has long been considered as a storage protein. Recently, it has been investigated for its possible postprandial glycaemic ...regulating action in human nutrition and for its physiological role in plant defence. The quaternary structure of γ-C results from the assembly of six monomers in reversible pH-dependent association/dissociation equilibrium. Our working hypothesis was that the γ-C hexamer is made up of glycosylated subunits in association with not-glycosylated isoforms, that seem to have ‘escaped’ the correct glycosylation process in the Golgi. Here we describe the isolation of not-glycosylated γ-C monomers in native condition by two in tandem lectin-based affinity chromatography and the characterization of their oligomerization capacity. We report, for the first time, the observation that a plant multimeric protein may be formed by identical polypeptide chains that have undergone different post-translational modifications. All obtained considered, the results strongly suggest that the not-glycosylated isoform can also take part in the oligomerization equilibrium of the protein.
•A not-glycosylated γ-C monomers from the native protein has been isolated for the first time.•Native γ-C is a hexamer made up by both glycosylated and not-glycosylated monomers.•The seed glycoprotein is formed by identical polypeptide chains that have undergone different PTMs.•The not-glycosylated polypeptide is able to take part in the oligomerization equilibrium of γ-C.
After the financial crisis, evaluating the financial health of banks under stressed scenarios has become common practice among supervisors. According to supervisory guidelines, the adverse scenarios ...prepared for stress tests need to be severe but plausible. The first contribution of this paper is to propose a model-based approach to assess the severity of the scenarios. To do so, we use a Large Bayesian VAR model estimated on the Italian economy where potential spillovers between the macroeconomy and the aggregate banking sector are explicitly considered. We show that the 2018 exercise has been the most severe so far, in particular, due to the path of GDP, the stock market index and the 3-month Euribor rate. Our second contribution is an evaluation of whether the resilience of the Italian banking sector to adverse scenarios has increased over time (for example, thanks to improved risk management practices induced by greater awareness of risks that come with performing stress test exercises). To this scope, we construct counterfactual exercises by recalibrating the scenarios of the 2016 and 2018 exercises so that they have the same severity as the 2014 exercise. We find that in 2018, the economy would have experienced a smaller decline in loans compared to the previous exercises. This implies that banks could afford to deleverage less, i.e. maintain a higher exposure to risk in their balance sheets. We interpret this as evidence of increased resilience.
To describe how workplace violence (WPV) is experienced by nurses in hospitals and community services and identify protective and risk factors.
An online cross-sectional national study was conducted ...from January to April 2021 in Italy. Hospitals and community services were involved in the study. The survey combined the adapted and validated Italian version of the Violence in Emergency Nursing and Triage (VENT) questionnaire, which explores the episodes of WPV experienced during the previous 12 months, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) and some additional questions about staffing levels extracted from a previous RN4CAST study. Nurses working in all clinical settings and community services were invited to participate in the survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. We adhered to the STROBE reporting guidelines.
A total of 6079 nurses completed the survey, 32.4% (n = 1969) had experienced WPV in the previous 12 months, and 46% (n = 920) reported WPV only in the previous week. The most significant protective factors were nurses' age, patients' use of illegal substances, attitude of individual nurses and considering effective the organization's procedures for preventing and managing episodes of violence. The most significant risk factors included workload, recognizing violence as an inevitable part of the job, patients' cultural aspects and patients' agitated behaviour. The frequency of WPV was significantly higher in certain areas, such as the emergency department and in mental health wards.
Workplace violence (WPV) against nurses is a very frequent and concerning issue, especially in hospitals and community services. Based on our findings, integrated and multimodal programmes for prevention and management of WPV are recommended. More attention and resources need to be allocated to reduce WPV by improving the quality of nurses' workplace environment and implementing violence-free policies for hospitals.
Impact Workplace verbal and physical violence is a widespread phenomenon, both in hospital and community settings, and even during COVID-19 pandemic. This problem is exacerbated by the lack of effective reporting systems, fear of retaliation and the tendency to consider violence as an inevitable part of the job. The characteristics of professionals, patients, work environment and organizational factors are involved in the spread of workplace violence, determining its multifactorial nature. Integrated and multimodal programmes to prevent and manage of workplace violence are probably the only way to effectively counteract workplace violence against nurses. Healthcare policymakers, managers of hospital and community services need to proactively prevent and effectively manage and monitor episodes of violence. Nurses need to feel protected and safeguarded against any form of verbal or physical violence, to provide high-quality care in a totally safe environment.
No patient or public contribution.
