A Novel Survey Tool to Quantify the Degree and Duration of STEMI Regionalization Across California.

IntroductionCalifornia has been a global leader in regionalization efforts for time-critical medical conditions. A total of 33 local emergency medical service agencies (LEMSAs) exist, providing an organized EMS framework across the state for almost 40 years. We sought to develop a survey tool to quantify the degree and duration of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) regionalization over the last decade in California.MethodsThe project started with the development of an 8-question survey tool via a multi-disciplinary expert consensus process. Next, the survey tool was distributed at the annual meeting of administrators and medical directors of California LEMSAs to get responses valid through December, 2014. The first scoring approach was the Total Regionalization Score (TRS) and used answers from all 8 questions. The second approach was called the Core Score, and it focused on only 4 survey questions by assuming that the designation of STEMI Receiving Centers must have occurred at the beginning of any LEMSA's regionalization effort. Scores were ranked and grouped into tertiles.ResultsAll 33 LEMSAs in California participated in this survey. The TRS ranged from 15 to 162. The Core Score range was much narrower, from 2 to 30. In comparing TRS and Core Score rankings, the top-tertiles were quite similar. More rank variation occurred between mid- and low-tertiles.ConclusionThis study evaluated the degree and duration of STEMI network regionalization from 2004 to 2014 in California, and ranked 33 LEMSAs into tertiles based upon their TRS and their Core Score. Successful application of the 8-item survey and ranking strategies across California suggests that this approach can be used to assess regionalization in other states or countries around the world

Glyphosate resistance by engineering the flavoenzyme glycine oxidase.

Glycine oxidase from Bacillus subtilis is a homotetrameric flavoprotein of great potential biotechnological use because it catalyzes the oxidative deamination of various amines and D-isomer of amino acids to yield the corresponding \u3b1-keto acids, ammonia/amine, and hydrogen peroxide. Glyphosate (N-phosphonomethylglycine), a broad spectrum herbicide, is an interesting synthetic amino acid: this compound inhibits 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase in the shikimate pathway, which is essential for the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids in plants and certain bacteria. In recent years, transgenic crops resistant to glyphosate were mainly generated by overproducing the plant enzyme or by introducing a 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase insensitive to this herbicide. In this work, we propose that the enzymatic oxidation of glyphosate could be an effective alternative to this important biotechnological process. To reach this goal, we used a rational design approach (together with site saturation mutagenesis) to generate a glycine oxidase variant more active on glyphosate than on the physiological substrate glycine. The glycine oxidase containing three point mutations (G51S/A54R/H244A) reaches an up to a 210-fold increase in catalytic efficiency and a 15,000-fold increase in the specificity constant (the kcat/Km ratio between glyphosate and glycine) as compared with wild-type glycine oxidase. The inspection of its three-dimensional structure shows that the \u3b12-\u3b13 loop (comprising residues 50-60 and containing two of the mutated residues) assumes a novel conformation and that the newly introduced residue Arg54 could be the key residue in stabilizing glyphosate binding and destabilizing glycine positioning in the binding site, thus increasing efficiency on the herbicide

Multiple populations along the asymptotic giant branch of the globular cluster M 4

Nearly all Galactic globular clusters host stars that display characteristic abundance anti-correlations, like the O-rich/Na-poor pattern typical of field halo stars, together with O-poor/Na-rich additional components. A recent spectroscopic investigation questioned the presence of O-poor/Na-rich stars amongst a sample of asymptotic giant branch stars in the cluster M 4, at variance with the spectroscopic detection of a O-poor/Na-rich component along both the cluster red giant branch and horizontal branch. This is contrary to what is expected from the cluster horizontal branch morphology and horizontal branch stellar evolution models. Here we have investigated this issue by employing the CUBI= (U-B)-(B-I) index, that previous studies have demonstrated to be very effective in separating multiple populations along both the red giant and asymptotic giant branch sequences. We confirm previous results that the RGB is intrinsically broad in the V-CUBI diagram, with the presence of two components which nicely correspond to the two populations identified by high-resolution spectroscopy. We find that AGB stars are distributed over a wide range of CUBI values, in close analogy with what is observed for the RGB, demonstrating that the AGB of M4 also hosts multiple stellar populations

Trans-sialidase from Trypanosoma cruzi enhances the adhesion properties and fibronectin-driven migration of thymocytes

In experimental Trypanosoma cruzi infections, severe thymic atrophy leads to release of activated CD4+CD8+ double-positive (DP) T cells to the periphery. In humans, activated DP T cells are found in the blood in association with severe cardiac forms of human chronic Chagas disease. The mechanisms underlying the premature thymocyte release during the chagasic thymic atrophy remain elusive. We tested whether the migratory properties of intrathymic thymocytes are modulated by the parasite trans-sialidase (TS). We found that TS affected the dynamics of thymocytes undergoing intrathymic maturation, and these changes were accompanied by an increase in the number of recent DP thymic emigrants in the peripheral lymphoid organs. We demonstrated that increased percentages of blood DP T cell subsets were associated with augmented antibody titers against TS in chagasic patients with chronic cardiomyopathy. In vitro studies showed that TS was able to activate the MAPK pathway and actin filament mobilization in thymocytes. These effects were correlated with its ability to modulate the adhesion of thymocytes to thymic epithelial cells and their migration toward extracellular matrix. These findings point to effects of TS that could influence the escape of immature thymocytes in Chagas disease.Fil: Nardy, Ana Flávia F.R.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Silva Filho, Joao Luiz da. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Perez, Ana Rosa. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Inmunología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Meis, Juliana de. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; BrasilFil: Farias de Oliveira, Désio Aurélio. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; BrasilFil: Penha, Luciana. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Oliveira, Isadora de Araújo. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Dias, Wagner B.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Todeschini, Adriane. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Freire de Lima, Célio Geraldo. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Bellio, Maria. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Caruso Neves, Celso. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Pinheiro, Ana Acácia. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Takiya, Christina Maeda. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Bottasso, Oscar Adelmo. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Inmunología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Savino, Wilson. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz; BrasilFil: Morrot, Alexandre. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasi

Increased Adiposity, Dysregulated Glucose Metabolism and Systemic Inflammation in Galectin-3 KO Mice

PMCID: PMC3579848This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

The Receptor Slamf1 on the Surface of Myeloid Lineage Cells Controls Susceptibility to Infection by Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan parasite responsible for Chagas' disease, causes severe myocarditis often resulting in death. Here, we report that Slamf1−/− mice, which lack the hematopoietic cell surface receptor Slamf1, are completely protected from an acute lethal parasite challenge. Cardiac damage was reduced in Slamf1−/− mice compared to wild type mice, infected with the same doses of parasites, as a result of a decrease of the number of parasites in the heart even the parasitemia was only marginally less. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments reveal that Slamf1-defIcient myeloid cells are impaired in their ability to replicate the parasite and show altered production of cytokines. Importantly, IFN-γ production in the heart of Slamf1 deficient mice was much lower than in the heart of wt mice even though the number of infiltrating dendritic cells, macrophages, CD4 and CD8 T lymphocytes were comparable. Administration of an anti-Slamf1 monoclonal antibody also reduced the number of parasites and IFN-γ in the heart. These observations not only explain the reduced susceptibility to in vivo infection by the parasite, but they also suggest human Slamf1 as a potential target for therapeutic target against T. cruzi infection

Starledger: A Business Activity Model Using SAP R/3 As A Classroom Tool To Measure Learning Outcomes

Integrating enterprise system applications within the accounting curriculum has been a major challenge for over eight years.  Enterprise systems education is surprisingly well documented within the literature of enterprise system education.  Not surprisingly, most of these papers provide a descriptive study of individual experiences of an institution of an academic unit.  This paper focuses on the use of a practice case set within the accounting curriculum of a four year liberal arts based accounting program.  The results of the integration of this practice case show the ability of enterprise software to bring textbook concepts to life and a high satisfaction level among the students using this package.&nbsp

Mealybug transmission of grapevine virus A

A closterovirus morphologially and serologically very close or identical to grapevine virus A (GVA) was experimentally transmitted by adults and instars of the Pseudococcidae mealybug Pseudococcus longispinus TARGIONI TOZZETTI from grapevine of cv. Inzolia affected by leafroll and stem pitting to Nicotiana clevelandii GRAY. GVA could not be recovered from infected vines by inoculation of sap but it was mechanically transmitted from N. clevelandii to N. benthamiana DOMIN. With immunosorbent electron microscopy (ISEM) tests, the presence of GVA was ascertained in: both the above herbaceous hosts;Inzolia vines used as donor plants for mealybug transmission tests;formerly virus-free Cabernet Franc and Procupac vines that had shown leafroll symptoms following natural mealybug infestation in a greenhouse where they were grown next to diseased grapes;squashed mealybugs which had fed on infected Inzolia vines.ISEM findings were confirmed by thin sectioning. In all cases filamentous virus particles were found in phloem tissues of infected herbaceous hosts and vines. In addition, donor (Inzolia) and recipient (Cabernet Franc, Procupac and LN-33) grapevines, but not herbaceous hosts, contained isometric virus-like particles and associated cytopathic structures (vesiculated bodies). The occurrence of a mixed infection in donor vines and the apparent transmission of both types of particles to grapevine does not allow to draw conclusions on the etiological significance of GVA in relation to leafroll disease. Further trials with source plants infected with GVA alone are now under way.Übertragung des Rebenvirus A durch SchildläuseEin Closterovirus, das morphologisch und serologisch dem Rebenvirus A (GVA) sehr nahesteht oder mit diesem identisch ist, wurde durch Adulte und Larven der Schildlaus Pseudococcus longispinus TARGIONI TOZZEITI (Pseudococcidae) von an Blattrollkrankheit und Holzrunzeligkeit erkrankten Reben der Sorte Inzolia auf Nicotiana clevelandii GRAY übertragen. Durch Saftübertragung aus infizierten Reben konnte GVA nicht nachgewiesen werden; es wurde jedoch von N. clevelandii auf N. bentamiana DOMIN. mechanisch übertragen. Mittels ISEM konnte GVA nachgewiesen werden: In den beiden oben genannten krautigen Wirtsarten;in Reben der Sorte Inzolia, die als Spenderpflanzen für die Schildlaus-Übertragungsversuche verwendet worden waren;in ursprünglich virusfreien Reben der Sorten Cabernet Franc und Procupac, die Blattrollsymptome gezeigt hatten, nachdem sie in einem Gewächshaus in unmittelbarer Nähe erkrankter Reben spontan von Schildläusen befallen worden waren;in zerquetschten Schildläusen, die an infizierten lnzolia-Reben gesogen hatten.Die ISEM-Befunde wurden an Dünnschnitten bestätigt. In allen Fällen wurden im Phloemgewebe der infizierten krautigen Wirtspflanzen und Reben filamentöse Viruspartikeln gefunden. Zusätzlich enthielten die Spender( Inzolia) und Empfängerreben (Cabernet Franc, Procupac und LN-33), nicht jedoch die krautigen Wirtspflanzen, isometrische virusartige Partikeln zusammen mit cytopathologischen Strukturen (vesiculäre Körper). Wegen des Vorliegens einer Mischinfektion in den Spenderreben und der offensichtlichen Übertragung beider Partikeltypen auf die Rebe ist es nicht möglich, Rückschlüsse auf die ätiologische Bedeutung von GVA im Verhältnis zur Blattrollkrankheit zu ziehen. Weitere Versuche unter Verwendung von Virusquellen, die nur mit GVA infiziert sind, wurden aufgenommen