We present a new approach for macromolecular structure determination from multiple particles in electron cryo-tomography (cryo-ET) data sets. Whereas existing subtomogram averaging approaches are ...based on 3D data models, we propose to optimise a regularised likelihood target that approximates a function of the 2D experimental images. In addition, analogous to Bayesian polishing and contrast transfer function (CTF) refinement in single-particle analysis, we describe the approaches that exploit the increased signal-to-noise ratio in the averaged structure to optimise tilt-series alignments, beam-induced motions of the particles throughout the tilt-series acquisition, defoci of the individual particles, as well as higher-order optical aberrations of the microscope. Implementation of our approaches in the open-source software package RELION aims to facilitate their general use, particularly for those researchers who are already familiar with its single-particle analysis tools. We illustrate for three applications that our approaches allow structure determination from cryo-ET data to resolutions sufficient for de novo atomic modelling.
Antibiotics that suppress
are the standard treatment for acne but are becoming less effective, due to the appearance of antibiotic-resistant strains. Many plants are known to have innate ...antimicrobial action and can be used as alternatives to antibiotics; thus, it is necessary to prove their effectiveness in vivo. This study aimed to evaluate the anti-acne efficacy of a new cream based on three natural extracts, comparing it to erythromycin cream and placebo.
Sixty patients with mild to moderate acne vulgaris were randomly divided into three groups: treated with cream containing 20% propolis, 3% "tea tree oil", and 10% "
" (PTAC) (n=20); or with 3 % erythromycin cream (ERC) (n=20); or with placebo (n=20). At baseline, after 15 and 30 days, investigators evaluated response to treatment by counting acne lesions through noninvasive measurements and macrophotography.
All the clinical and instrumental values studied were statistically different from placebo except for sebometry, pHmetry, and erythema index values, measured on healthy skin. Unlike in the placebo group, papular and scar lesions showed high erythema reduction after 15 and 30 days of PTAC and ERC application.
The PTAC formulation was better than ERC in reducing erythema scars, acne severity index, and total lesion count.
Sewage sludge is a byproduct of sewage treatment, rich in N and P, which can be used as soil fertilizer in forest plantations and in degraded areas recovery. Platycyamus regnellii is a tree used in ...environmental recovery and its hardwood is used in home construction. Tree development and growth are essential to assess the recovery of an environment, because the structure, biomass, and diversity of vegetation are related to ecosystem functions and fauna colonization. The arthropod biodiversity is susceptible to environmental conditions and the presence of some functional groups is an indicator of the success of environmental recovery. Here, Sousa and Serrão evaluate the ecological indices of arthropods on P. regnellii saplings (young trees) in a degraded area using or not dehydrated sewage as a fertilizer.
The enrichment of meat with selenium is important to improve the intake of selenium by humans. The effects of supranutritional doses of sodium selenite or selenium-enriched yeast on performance, ...carcass characteristics and meat quality were evaluated using 63 Nellore cattle in a completely randomized design with two sources (sodium selenite and selenium-enriched yeast), three levels (0.3, 0.9 and 2.7 mg Se/kg DM) and control treatment (without addition of selenium). Final body weight (BW), average daily gain, dry matter intake and gain to feed ratio (G : F) at the end of 84 days of supplementation were not influenced by treatments (P>0.05). Values of pH, ribeye area, back fat thickness and marbling score were also not influenced by treatments ( P>0.05). Dressing percentage was greater (P=0.02) in Nellore cattle supplemented with organic Se (58.70%) compared to animals supplemented with inorganic Se (57.94%). Hot carcass weight increased ( P=0.05) with the increasing of Se levels in the diet. Colour, shear force (SF), cooking and drip loss remained unchanged ( P>0.05); however thiobarbituric acid reactive substances was 15.51% higher with inorganic Se compared with organic Se. The selenium concentration in the meat of animals receiving organic selenium was higher ( P<0.001) than that of animals receiving sodium selenite, at all levels (0.3; 0.9 and 2.7 mg/kg DM). The meat of animals receiving 2.7 mg of organic Se/kg of DM presented concentration of 372.7 μg Se/kg in the L.dorsi muscle, and the intake of 150 g of this meat by humans provides approximately 100% of the recommended Se intake (55 μg Se/day for adults). Therefore, the use of supranutritional doses of 2.7 mg Se/kg of DM, regardless of source, is a way of naturally producing selenium-enriched meat without compromising performance, carcass characteristics and quality of Nellore bovine meat.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the bigger problem of public health: the rise of multi-drug resistant organisms causes a challenge in the treatment of infective diseases. Anti-Candida resistance to ...conventional antifungal agents has increased in the last period. Our research was intended to evaluate antimicrobial activity of oil macerate (OM) of Helichrysum microphyllum Cambess. subsp. tyrrhenicum Bacch., Brullo & Giusso and OM of Hypericum perforatum subsp. angustifolium against several clinical strains. The study included 30 patients with candidiasis who had not received any antifungal treatment before they were enrolled. A collection of 30 clinical isolates belonging to 5 different species of Candida spp. was selected for this study. The data obtained showed an interesting activity of both Oil Macerate especially against C. krusei and C. parapsilosis. On the contrary, H. microphyllum Oil Macerate has had a better activity than the H.perforatum especially in relation to C. glabrata and C. krusei.
Purpose
The Quality of Life Alzheimer’s Disease Scale (QoL-AD) is commonly used to assess disease specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as rated by patients and their carers. For ...cost-effectiveness analyses, utilities based on the EQ-5D are often required. We report a new mapping algorithm to obtain EQ-5D indices when only QoL-AD data are available.
Methods
Different statistical models to estimate utility directly, or responses to individual EQ-5D questions (response mapping) from QoL-AD, were trialled for patient-rated and proxy-rated questionnaires. Model performance was assessed by root mean square error and mean absolute error.
Results
The response model using multinomial regression including age and sex, performed best in both the estimation dataset and an independent dataset.
Conclusions
The recommended mapping algorithm allows researchers for the first time to estimate EQ-5D values from QoL-AD data, enabling cost-utility analyses using datasets where the QoL-AD but no utility measures were collected.
Accessible summary
What is known on the subject?
Self‐confident health professionals with positive and understanding attitudes can take better care of people with suicidal behaviour, but the factors ...associated with these attitudes are not known.
What this paper adds to existing knowledge?
The majority of nursing professionals had no experience or training in mental health or suicide. They were less self‐confident and had more negative attitudes.
Nurses and nursing assistants who worked before in mental health services were more understanding with people with suicidal behaviour.
Nurses and nursing assistants who were working in prehospital services were less self‐confident to taking care of people with suicidal behaviour.
Some members of the nursing team had already seriously considered committing suicide.
What are the implications for practice?
The practicing, support and training in mental health may improve the nurses’ attitudes and emotional competencies.
It is important to know why few nurses had suicide‐related training, despite the relevance of this issue.
Training in mental health or suicide need to include attitudinal and emotional competencies.
It is important to offer emotional support to emergency nursing professionals.
Background
The attitudes towards suicide of emergency nurses may affect the care provided. However, the factors associated with these attitudes remain unclear.
Objective
To investigate attitudes towards suicidal behaviour and associated factors among nursing professionals working in emergency settings.
Methods
A cross‐sectional observational study including 28 nurses and 118 who were nursing assistants employed at two emergency services in Brazil was conducted. Data were collected in 2015 using a self‐administered sociodemographic questionnaire and the Suicide Behavior Attitude Questionnaire (SBAQ).
Results
The majority of participants reported having no experience or training in mental health or suicide. They reported more negative feelings towards the patient and a lower self‐perception of professional competence regarding suicidal behaviours, and these attitudes seemed to reinforce each other. Nurses who worked in mental health services reported less moralistic/judgemental attitudes. Working in prehospital services was associated with having a lower self‐perception of professional competence. There were professionals who reported thinking seriously about committing suicide.
Conclusion
When combined with support and training, practicing mental health nursing may serve as an opportunity to develop favourable attitudes and emotional competences, and these issues need to be addressed in suicide education strategies.
Abstract Introduction Various psychosocial variables may affect the strength of the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and women's eating disorder symptomatology. Objective Informed by ...Tylka (2004) and Brannan and Petrie (2011) research, the current study examined body surveillance and self-esteem as well as three additional theoretically relevant variables (social interaction anxiety, internalization of media ideals and attachment anxiety) as potential moderators of this relationship. Method A cross-sectional design was used. A sample of 538 young Italian women completed self-report questionnaires. Results Hierarchical moderated regression indicated that self-esteem buffered the deleterious effects of body dissatisfaction, whereas social interaction anxiety, body surveillance, internalization of media ideals and attachment anxiety intensified the primary body dissatisfaction-eating disorder symptomatology relationship. Conclusion Several risk and protective factors were found to interact with body dissatisfaction to influence its relation to women's eating disorder symptomatology. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.
The acrosome reaction is a unique event in the lifespan of sperm characterized by the exocytosis of the acrosomal content and the release of hybrid vesicles formed by patches of the outer acrosomal ...membrane and the plasma membrane. This unique regulated exocytosis is mediated by essentially the same membrane fusion machinery present in neuroendocrine cells. However, whereas secretion in neuroendocrine cells occurs in less than a second, the acrosome reaction is normally assessed after several minutes of incubation with inducers. In this report, we measured the kinetics of human sperm exocytosis triggered by two stimuli (calcium ionophore and progesterone) by using electron microscopy and three different approaches based on the incorporation of fluorescent Pisum sativum agglutinin into the acrosome upon opening of fusion pores connecting the extracellular medium with the acrosomal lumen. The results with the different methods are consistent with a slow kinetics (t½ = 14 min). We also manipulated the system to measure different steps of the process. We observed that cytosolic calcium increased with a relatively fast kinetics (t½ = 0.1 min). In contrast, the swelling of the acrosomal granule that precedes exocytosis was a slow process (t½ = 13 min). When swelling was completed, the fusion pore opening was fast (t½ = 0.2 min). The results indicate that acrosomal swelling is the slowest step and it determines the kinetics of the acrosome reaction. After the swelling is completed, the efflux of calcium from intracellular stores triggers fusion pores opening and the release of hybrid vesicles in seconds.
Dendritic regression of striatal spiny projection neurons (SPNs) is a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we investigate how chronic dopamine denervation and dopamine replacement ...with L-DOPA affect the morphology and physiology of direct pathway SPNs (dSPNS) in the rat striatum. We used a lentiviral vector optimized for retrograde labeling (FuG-B-GFP) to identify dSPNs in rats with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions. Changes in morphology and physiology of dSPNs were assessed through a combination of patch-clamp recordings and two photon microscopy. The 6-OHDA lesion caused a significant reduction in dSPN dendritic complexity. Following chronic L-DOPA treatment, dSPNs segregated into two equal-sized clusters. One group (here called "cluster-1"), showed sustained dendritic atrophy and a partially normalized electrophysiological phenotype. The other one ("cluster-2") exhibited dendritic regrowth and a strong reduction of intrinsic excitability. Interestingly, FosB/∆FosB induction by L-DOPA treatment occurred preferentially in cluster-2 dSPNs. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of retrograde FuG-B-GFP labeling to study dSPNs in the rat and reveals, for the first time, that a subgroup of dSPNs shows dendritic sprouting in response to chronic L-DOPA treatment. Investigating the mechanisms and significance of this response will greatly improve our understanding of the adaptations induced by dopamine replacement therapy in PD.
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