ShopSmart 4 Health - protocol of a skills-based randomised controlled trial promoting fruit and vegetable consumption among socioeconomically disadvantaged women

BackgroundThere is a need for evidence on the most effective and cost-effective approaches for promoting healthy eating among groups that do not meet dietary recommendations for good health, such as those with low incomes or experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. This paper describes the ShopSmart 4 Health study, a randomised controlled trial conducted by Deakin University, Coles Supermarkets and the Heart Foundation, to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a skill-building intervention for promoting increased purchasing and consumption of fruits and vegetables amongst women of low socioeconomic position (SEP).Methods/designShopSmart 4 Health employed a randomised controlled trial design. Women aged 18&ndash;60 years, holding a Coles store loyalty card, who shopped at Coles stores within socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods and met low-income eligibility criteria were invited to participate. Consenting women completed a baseline survey assessing food shopping and eating habits and food-related behaviours and attitudes. On receipt of their completed survey, women were randomised to either a skill-building intervention or a wait-list control condition. Intervention effects will be evaluated via self-completion surveys and using supermarket transaction sales data, collected at pre- and post-intervention and 6-month follow-up. An economic evaluation from a societal perspective using a cost-consequences approach will compare the costs and outcomes between intervention and control groups. Process evaluation will be undertaken to identify perceived value and effects of intervention components.DiscussionThis study will provide data to address the currently limited evidence base regarding the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of skill-building intervention strategies aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among socioeconomically disadvantaged women, a target group at high risk of poor diets.<br /

Cloning and analysis of the positively acting regulatory gene amdR from Aspergillus nidulans.

The positively acting regulatory gene amdR of Aspergillus nidulans coordinately regulates the expression of four unlinked structural genes involved in acetamide (amdS), omega amino acid (gatA and gabA), and lactam (lamA) catabolism. By the use of DNA-mediated transformation of A. nidulans, the amdR regulatory gene was cloned from a genomic cosmid library. Southern blot analysis of DNA from various loss-of-function amdR mutants revealed the presence of four detectable DNA rearrangements, including a deletion, an insertion, and a translocation. No detectable DNA rearrangements were found in several constitutive amdRc mutants. Analysis of the fate of amdR-bearing plasmids in transformants showed that 10 to 20% of the transformation events were homologous integrations or gene conversions, and this phenomenon was exploited in developing a strategy by which amdRc and amdR- alleles can be readily cloned and analyzed. Examination of the transcription of amdR by Northern blot (RNA blot) analysis revealed the presence of two mRNAs (2.7 and 1.8 kilobases) which were constitutively synthesized at a very low level. In addition, amdR transcription did not appear to depend on the presence of a functional amdR product nor was it altered in amdRc mutants. The dosage effects of multiple copies of amdR in transformants were examined, and it was shown that such transformants exhibited stronger growth than did the wild type on acetamide and pyrrolidinone media, indicating increased expression of the amdS and lamA genes, respectively. These results were used to formulate a model for amdR-mediated regulation of gene expression in which the low constitutive level of amdR product sets the upper limits of basal and induced transcription of the structural genes. Multiple copies of 5' sequences from the amdS gene can result in reduced growth on substrates whose utilization is dependent on amdR-controlled genes. This has been attributed to titration of limiting amdR gene product. Strong support for this proposal was obtained by showing that multiple copies of the amdR gene can reverse this phenomenon (antititration).</jats:p

Rockfall hazard and risk assessment of road slopes.

Οι καταπτώσεις βράχων σε οδικές αρτηρίες, οδηγούν σε σημαντικές επιπτώσεις και συνεπώς είναι ιδιαίτερα σημαντική η εκτίμηση του επιπέδου της επικινδυνότητας σε πρανή οδοποιίας και η λήψη μέτρων προστασίας. Στην παρούσα εργασία συγκρίνονται οι σημαντικότερες μέθοδοι εκτίμησης της επικινδυνότητας και της διακινδύνευσης καταπτώσεων βράχων. Όσον αφορά την επικινδυνότητα, λαμβάνονται υπόψη παράμετροι όπως η γεωμετρία του πρανούς, οι κυκλοφοριακές συνθήκες, η γεωλογία και τα χαρακτηριστικά της βραχόμαζας, οι καιρικές συνθήκες, τα ιστορικά δεδομένα, κ.α. Εκτίμηση της επικινδυνότητας μπορεί επίσης να προκύψει μέσω δισδιάστατων ή τρισδιάστατων μοντέλων προσομοίωσης τροχιάς, όπου συνδυάζονται τα δεδομένα της συχνότητας βραχοπτώσεων με την κινητική ενέργεια του καταπίπτοντος τεμάχους βράχου. Όσον αφορά την εκτίμηση της διακινδύνευσης, έχουν αναπτυχθεί διάφορες μέθοδοι, που ποικίλουν από απλοϊκές προσεγγίσεις, έως ολοκληρωμένες πιθανολογικές ή ποσοτικές μέθοδοι. Τέλος, ως παράδειγμα, χρησιμοποιήθηκαν οι καταλληλότερες μέθοδοι εξ αυτών για την εκτίμηση της επικινδυνότητας και διακινδύνευσης από καταπτώσεις βράχων, σε δύο τυπικές διατομές της Εθνικής Οδού Αθηνών – Θεσσαλονίκης, στο τμήμα των Τεμπών, όπου έχουν καταγραφεί αρκετά συμβάντα καταπτώσεων βράχων τα τελευταία χρόνια.This paper presents and compares the main methods of hazard and risk assessment for road slopes. Hazard assessment is achieved by rating several parameters such as the slope’s geometry, traffic conditions, the geology and the rockmass properties, weather conditions, historical rockfall data etc. A hazard assessment can also be executed using 2D or 3D trajectory models, by combining the frequency of a rockfall and the kinetic energy of a falling rock. Several methodologies have been developed for risk assessment, varying from simplistic approaches to comprehensive probabilistic or quantitative risk assessment methods. Finally, the most suitable methods were used in order to assess the level of hazard and risk as an example (the data from two sections of the national road at Tempi Gorge, Greece) where many rockfall events occurred in the past few years

β-glucan-dependent shuttling of conidia from neutrophils to macrophages occurs during fungal infection establishment

The initial host response to fungal pathogen invasion is critical to infection establishment and outcome. However, the diversity of leukocyte-pathogen interactions is only recently being appreciated. We describe a new form of interleukocyte conidial exchange called "shuttling." In Talaromyces marneffei and Aspergillus fumigatus zebrafish in vivo infections, live imaging demonstrated conidia initially phagocytosed by neutrophils were transferred to macrophages. Shuttling is unidirectional, not a chance event, and involves alterations of phagocyte mobility, intercellular tethering, and phagosome transfer. Shuttling kinetics were fungal-species-specific, implicating a fungal determinant. β-glucan serves as a fungal-derived signal sufficient for shuttling. Murine phagocytes also shuttled in vitro. The impact of shuttling for microbiological outcomes of in vivo infections is difficult to specifically assess experimentally, but for these two pathogens, shuttling augments initial conidial redistribution away from fungicidal neutrophils into the favorable macrophage intracellular niche. Shuttling is a frequent host-pathogen interaction contributing to fungal infection establishment patterns

Rockfall hazard and risk assessment of road slopes.

Οι καταπτώσεις βράχων σε οδικές αρτηρίες, οδηγούν σε σημαντικές επιπτώσεις και συνεπώς είναι ιδιαίτερα σημαντική η εκτίμηση του επιπέδου της επικινδυνότητας σε πρανή οδοποιίας και η λήψη μέτρων προστασίας. Στην παρούσα εργασία συγκρίνονται οι σημαντικότερες μέθοδοι εκτίμησης της επικινδυνότητας και της διακινδύνευσης καταπτώσεων βράχων. Όσον αφορά την επικινδυνότητα, λαμβάνονται υπόψη παράμετροι όπως η γεωμετρία του πρανούς, οι κυκλοφοριακές συνθήκες, η γεωλογία και τα χαρακτηριστικά της βραχόμαζας, οι καιρικές συνθήκες, τα ιστορικά δεδομένα, κ.α. Εκτίμηση της επικινδυνότητας μπορεί επίσης να προκύψει μέσω δισδιάστατων ή τρισδιάστατων μοντέλων προσομοίωσης τροχιάς, όπου συνδυάζονται τα δεδομένα της συχνότητας βραχοπτώσεων με την κινητική ενέργεια του καταπίπτοντος τεμάχους βράχου. Όσον αφορά την εκτίμηση της διακινδύνευσης, έχουν αναπτυχθεί διάφορες μέθοδοι, που ποικίλουν από απλοϊκές προσεγγίσεις, έως ολοκληρωμένες πιθανολογικές ή ποσοτικές μέθοδοι. Τέλος, ως παράδειγμα, χρησιμοποιήθηκαν οι καταλληλότερες μέθοδοι εξ αυτών για την εκτίμηση της επικινδυνότητας και διακινδύνευσης από καταπτώσεις βράχων, σε δύο τυπικές διατομές της Εθνικής Οδού Αθηνών – Θεσσαλονίκης, στο τμήμα των Τεμπών, όπου έχουν καταγραφεί αρκετά συμβάντα καταπτώσεων βράχων τα τελευταία χρόνια.This paper presents and compares the main methods of hazard and risk assessment for road slopes. Hazard assessment is achieved by rating several parameters such as the slope’s geometry, traffic conditions, the geology and the rockmass properties, weather conditions, historical rockfall data etc. A hazard assessment can also be executed using 2D or 3D trajectory models, by combining the frequency of a rockfall and the kinetic energy of a falling rock. Several methodologies have been developed for risk assessment, varying from simplistic approaches to comprehensive probabilistic or quantitative risk assessment methods. Finally, the most suitable methods were used in order to assess the level of hazard and risk as an example (the data from two sections of the national road at Tempi Gorge, Greece) where many rockfall events occurred in the past few years

Hsp90 orchestrates transcriptional regulation by Hsf1 and cell wall remodelling by MAPK signalling during thermal adaptation in a pathogenic yeast

Acknowledgments We thank Rebecca Shapiro for creating CaLC1819, CaLC1855 and CaLC1875, Gillian Milne for help with EM, Aaron Mitchell for generously providing the transposon insertion mutant library, Jesus Pla for generously providing the hog1 hst7 mutant, and Cathy Collins for technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Constraint-Induced Language Therapy: Treatment Effects on Two Individuals with Moderate to Severe Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech

Constraint-induced language therapy (CILT) has proven to be an effective treatment for improving naming in some individuals with chronic aphasia.  Whether constraint to the speech modality or treatment intensity is responsible for such gains is still under investigation.  Two individuals with moderate-to-severe chronic aphasia and apraxia of speech (AOS) were treated simultaneously, first in an unconstrained, intensive treatment program (PACE) and later using CILT. Both participants made more and faster gains in naming following CILT. The participant with less severe AOS made greater and more enduring gains, possibly due to more errorless practice