Prevalence of asthma and asthma action plans in South Australia: population surveys from 1990 to 2001

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.OBJECTIVES: To assess trends in the prevalence of self-reported doctor-diagnosed asthma, associated asthma related morbidity, and the uptake of written asthma action plans in South Australia, 1990–2001. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Surveys by telephone interview of the South Australian population between 1990 and 2001, and interview of participants in their own homes by trained health interviewers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Asthma prevalence, percentage of patients with written action plans, and asthma associated morbidity. RESULTS: The reported prevalence of doctor-diagnosed asthma has increased from 8% (95% CI, 6.4%–9.6%) in 1990 to 12.8% (95% CI, 11.4%–14.2%) in 2001. Morbidity, as measured by wakening at night (daily or weekly) and days lost from normal activities because of asthma, has remained constant over the decade. The percentage of patients with written asthma action plans increased to a peak of 42.3% (95% CI, 40.3%–44.3%) in 1995, but then declined to 22.2% (95% CI, 20.7%–23.7%) in 2001. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of asthma has increased while morbidity has remained constant, indicating that the burden of asthma has increased. The associated decline in the percentage of patients with asthma action plans in recent years is cause for concern.David H Wilson, Robert J Adams, Sarah L Appleton, Graeme Hugo, David Wilkinson, Janet Hiller, Philip Ryan, Julianne Cheek and Richard E Ruffi

A viscoelastic deadly fluid in carnivorous pitcher plants

Background : The carnivorous plants of the genus Nepenthes, widely distributed in the Asian tropics, rely mostly on nutrients derived from arthropods trapped in their pitcher-shaped leaves and digested by their enzymatic fluid. The genus exhibits a great diversity of prey and pitcher forms and its mechanism of trapping has long intrigued scientists. The slippery inner surfaces of the pitchers, which can be waxy or highly wettable, have so far been considered as the key trapping devices. However, the occurrence of species lacking such epidermal specializations but still effective at trapping insects suggests the possible implication of other mechanisms. Methodology/Principal Findings : Using a combination of insect bioassays, high-speed video and rheological measurements, we show that the digestive fluid of Nepenthes rafflesiana is highly viscoelastic and that this physical property is crucial for the retention of insects in its traps. Trapping efficiency is shown to remain strong even when the fluid is highly diluted by water, as long as the elastic relaxation time of the fluid is higher than the typical time scale of insect movements. Conclusions/Significance : This finding challenges the common classification of Nepenthes pitchers as simple passive traps and is of great adaptive significance for these tropical plants, which are often submitted to high rainfalls and variations in fluid concentration. The viscoelastic trap constitutes a cryptic but potentially widespread adaptation of Nepenthes species and could be a homologous trait shared through common ancestry with the sundew (Drosera) flypaper plants. Such large production of a highly viscoelastic biopolymer fluid in permanent pools is nevertheless unique in the plant kingdom and suggests novel applications for pest control

How people with chronic illnesses view their care in general practice: a qualitative study

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Objectives: To explore the perceptions of patients with chronic conditions about the nature and quality of their care in general practice. Design: Qualitative study using focus group methods conducted 1 June to 30 November 2002. Participants and setting: 76 consumers in 12 focus groups in New South Wales and South Australia. Main outcome measures: Recurring issues and themes on care received in general practice. Results: Three groups of priorities emerged. One centred on the quality of doctors, including technical competence, interpersonal skills, time for the patient in the consultation and continuity of care. A second concerned the role of patients and consumer organisations, with patients wanting (i) recognition of their knowledge about their condition and self-management, and (ii) for GPs to develop closer links with consumer organisations and inform patients about them. The third focused on the practice team and the importance of practice nurses and receptionists. Conclusion: GPs should consider the amount of time they spend with chronically ill patients, and their interpersonal skills and understanding of patients’ needs. They need to be better informed about the benefits of patient self-management and consumer organisations, and to incorporate them into their care. They also need to review how their practice nurses and receptionists can maximise the care of patients.Fernando A Infante, Judith G Proudfoot, Gawaine Powell Davies, Tanya K Bubner, Chris H Holton, Justin J Beilby and Mark F Harri

Impact Factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?

A review of Garfield's journal impact factor and its specific implementation as the Thomson Reuters Impact Factor reveals several weaknesses in this commonly-used indicator of journal standing. Key limitations include the mismatch between citing and cited documents, the deceptive display of three decimals that belies the real precision, and the absence of confidence intervals. These are minor issues that are easily amended and should be corrected, but more substantive improvements are needed. There are indications that the scientific community seeks and needs better certification of journal procedures to improve the quality of published science. Comprehensive certification of editorial and review procedures could help ensure adequate procedures to detect duplicate and fraudulent submissions.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, 6 table

TAKE ME BACK TO MOVE ME FORWARD: RE-ENACTMENT OF THE FAMILY SYSTEM AS A PATHWAY TO BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALEXITHYMIC PATIENTS IN GROUP THERAPY

Background: Despite much attention in the clinical literature, research on alexithymia in the treatment setting has only recently gained traction. While several reports indicate limited benefit from therapy amongst patients with high alexithymia, this seems to be less so in the context of group therapy. This study considers a specific aspect of the group therapy process - family re-enactment - in facilitating improvement in overall quality of life for patients with high levels of alexithymia. Subjects and methods: Family re-enactment was examined as a potential mediator of the relationship between alexithymia and change in quality of life among 50 patients who completed treatment in an intensive, integrative group therapy programme. Patients completed three self-report measures: Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (baseline), Quality of Life Inventory (baseline, post-therapy), and Therapeutic Factors Inventory-Short Form (week 8). Regression with mediation analysis was employed using the change score for the QOLI as the dependent variable, alexithymia scores as the independent variable, and the family re-enactment score as the mediator; baseline quality of life was included in the model as a control variable. Results: Family re-enactment emerged as a significant mediator of the relationship between alexithymia and treatment outcome, implicating it as a contributing mechanism of change for alexithymic patients who participate in group therapy. Conclusion: Patients with higher levels of alexithymia (in particular, difficulty identifying and describing feelings) were more likely to positively endorse aspects of family re-enactment during group therapy, which in turn were significantly associated with greater improvement in patients’ overall quality of life

<i>Gaia</i> Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties

Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7. Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release. Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue. Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues – a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) – and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of ∼3000 Cepheid and RR-Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr−1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of ∼0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of ∼94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr−1. For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is ∼10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to ∼0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7. Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data

Robust Limits from Upcoming Neutrino Telescopes and Implications on Minimal Dark Matter Models

Experimental developments in neutrino telescopes are drastically improving their ability to constrain the annihilation cross-section of dark matter. In this paper, we employ an angular power spectrum analysis method to probe the galactic and extra-galactic dark matter signals with neutrino telescopes. We first derive projections for a next generation of neutrino telescope that is inspired by KM3NeT. We emphasise that such analysis is much less sensitive to the choice of dark matter density profile. Remarkably, the projected sensitivity is improved by more than an order of magnitude with respect to the existing limits obtained by assuming the Burkert dark matter density profile describing the galactic halo. Second, we analyse minimal extensions to the Standard Model that will be maximally probed by the next generation of neutrino telescopes. As benchmark scenarios, we consider Dirac dark matter in $s$- and $t$-channel models with vector and scalar mediators. We follow a global approach by examining all relevant complementary experimental constraints. We find that neutrino telescopes will be able to competitively probe significant portions of parameter space. Interestingly, the anomaly-free $L_{\mu}-L_{\tau}$ model can potentially be explored in regions where the relic abundance is achieved through freeze-out mechanism

Phosphatidylinositol(4,5)bisphosphate coordinates actin-mediated mobilization and translocation of secretory vesicles to the plasma membrane of chromaffin cells

ORP5 and ORP8, members of the oxysterol-binding protein (OSBP)-related proteins (ORP) family, are endoplasmic reticulum membrane proteins implicated in lipid trafficking. ORP5 and ORP8 are reported to localize to endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane junctions via binding to phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PtdIns(4)P), and act as a PtdIns(4)P/phosphatidylserine counter exchanger between the endoplasmic reticulum and plasma membrane. Here we provide evidence that the pleckstrin homology domain of ORP5/8 via PtdIns(4,5)P 2, and not PtdIns(4)P binding mediates the recruitment of ORP5/8 to endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane contact sites. The OSBP-related domain of ORP8 can extract and transport multiple phosphoinositides in vitro, and knocking down both ORP5 and ORP8 in cells increases the plasma membrane level of PtdIns(4,5)P 2 with little effect on PtdIns(4)P. Overall, our data show, for the first time, that phosphoinositides other than PtdIns(4)P can also serve as co-exchangers for the transport of cargo lipids by ORPs.ORP5/8 are endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane proteins implicated in lipid trafficking that localize to ER-plasma membrane (PM) contacts and maintain membrane homeostasis. Here the authors show that PtdIns(4,5)P 2 plays a critical role in the targeting and function of ORP5/8 at the PM

In Defense of a K-12 Reading Perspective

Teaching students to read is a very important goal in the public schools. This objective has been established because professionals believe that being able to read facilitates students\u27 chances for future success and happiness. Yet, when definitions of literacy are reviewed and the reading ability of the adult population in the United States is considered, data indicate taht millions of Americans are illiterate. In order to revers this downward spiral, the skill of reading must be viewed as a continuing process. Such a supposition would be adopting and implementing a K-12 perspective