Indications of Public Health in the English Regions 4: Ethnicity and Health: Executive Summary

This is a summary of the main report that provides a comprehensive regional analysis of inequalities in health and health care between ethnic groups in England, and also examines workforce data by ethnic group.

Emergence of dhfrXVb and blaCARB-4 gene cassettes in class 1 integrons from clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated in Amazon region

Integrons play a role in horizontal acquisition and expression of genes, as well as gene reservoir, contributing for the resistance phenotype, particularly relevant to bacteria of clinical importance. We aimed to determine the composition and the organization of the class 1 integron variable region present in Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates from Brazil. Strains carrying class 1 integrons were resistant to the majority of antibiotics tested, except to imipenem and ceftazidime. Sequence analysis of the integron variable region revealed the presence of the blaCARB-4 gene into two distinct cassette arrays: aacA4-dhfrXVb-blaCARB-4 and aadB-aacA4-blaCARB-4 . dhfrXVb gene cassette, which is rare in Brazil and in P. aeruginosa species, was found in one isolate. PFGE analysis showed the spread of blaCARB-4 among P. aeruginosa clones. The occurrence of blaCARB-4 and dhfrXVb in Brazil may contribute for developing resistance to clinically important antibiotics, and shows a diversified scenarium of these elements occurring in Amazon clinical settings, where no study about integron dinamycs was performed to date.

Anti Bullying Procedures for Primary and Post Primary Schools - Appendix 4 Checklist for annual review of the anti-bullying policy and its implementation

The Board of Management (the Board) must undertake an annual review of the school’s anti-bullying policy and its implementation. The following checklist must be used for this purpose. The checklist is an aid to conducting this review and is not intended as an exhaustive list. In order to complete the checklist, an examination and review involving both quantitative and qualitative analysis, as appropriate across the various elements of the implementation of the school’s anti-bullying policy will be required.

OECD Thematic Review on Migrant Education - Newsletter No. 4 January 2010

The report Closing the Gap for Immigrant Students: Policies, Practice and Performance will be placed on the Electronic Discussion Group (EDG) on 12 February for countries to review the extent to which their comments on the first draft have been integrated.

Susceptibility of Colombian Plasmodium falciparum isolates to 4-aminoquinolines and the definition of amodiaquine resistance in vitro

There are wide variations in the threshold used to define in vitro resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to amodiaquine (AQ), probably due to differences in methodology and interpretation. In vitro susceptibility data of Colombian P. falciparum strains to AQ and N-desethylamodiaquine is used to illustrate the need to standardized methodologies and compare inhibitory concentrations, instead of resistant/susceptible phenotypes, when studying the mechanisms of resistance to AQ and monitoring drug susceptibility trends in the field.

Healthy child, healthy future - Information on the child health programme (0-4 years)

This booklet provides parents with information on the first four years of the child health programme for all families in Northern Ireland.

Healthy child, healthy future - Speech and language therapy: Factsheet for parents 6. Tips for talking: children aged 4 to 5 years

This factsheet highlights simple ideas to encourage speech in children around 4 to 5 years old.

Healthy child, healthy future - Speech and language therapy: Factsheet for parents 4. Dummies and talking

This factsheet gives advice to parents on the use of dummies and their effect on a child's speech.

Preliminary results on interleukin-4 and interleukin-10 cytokine production in malnourished, inducible nitric oxide synthase-deficient mice with schistosomiasis mansoni infection

Schistosoma mansoni infected C57Bl/6 inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS)-deficient and non-deficient malnourished mice, both fed a balanced controlled diet were studied. Interleukins, IL-4 and IL-10 responses to soluble egg antigens (SEA) 90 days after infection, were determined. Our results suggest that in iNOS deficient, malnourished mice, 90 days after of infection, nitric oxide has a downregulating effect on IL-4 and IL-10 production. We are currently investigating the biological significance of these findings.

Prospective assessment of CYP2D6 by genotyping, phenotyping and measurement of tamoxifen, PD 05-09 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen and endoxifen in breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen.

Tamoxifen (tam) is a widely used endocrine therapy in the treatment of early and advanced stage breast cancer in women and men. It is a pro-drug having weak affinity with the estrogen receptor and needs to be converted to its main metabolite, endoxifen (endox), to have full anticancer activity. Cytochrome 2D6 (CYP2D6) plays a major role in the metabolism of tamoxifen to endoxifen. It is genetically highly polymorphic and its activity influences profoundly the synthesis of endoxifen and potentially the efficacy of tamoxifen treatment. Genotyping is currently the most widely used approach in studies and also in clinical practice to categorize patients as poor- (PM), intermediate- (IM), extensive- (EM) and ultra rapid-metabolizers (UM). Some clinicians already use genotyping in order to tailor the endocrine therapy of their patients. Owing to the large inter-individual variations in concentrations of the active moitey due to genetic and non-genetic influences renders the predictive value of the test uncertain for an individual patient. A significant number of patients classified as EM or IM by genotyping have indeed relatively low endoxifen levels similar to PMs1. This suggests that genotyping is probably not the opti ma l meth o d f or predi cti ng end oxif en l evels.

IL-4 rapidly produced by V beta 4 V alpha 8 CD4+ T cells instructs Th2 development and susceptibility to Leishmania major in BALB/c mice.

BALB/c mice develop aberrant T helper 2 (Th2) responses and suffer progressive disease after infection with Leishmania major. These outcomes depend on the production of interleukin-4 (IL-4) early after infection. Here we demonstrate that the burst of IL-4 mRNA, peaking in draining lymph nodes of BALB/c mice 16 hr after infection, occurs within CD4+ T cells that express V beta 4 V alpha 8 T cell receptors. In contrast to control and V beta 6-deficient BALB/c mice, V beta 4-deficient BALB/c mice were resistant to infection, demonstrating the role of these cells in Th2 development. The early IL-4 response was absent in these mice, and T helper 1 responses occurred following infection. Recombinant LACK antigen from L. major induced comparable IL-4 production in V beta 4 V alpha 8 CD4+ cells. Thus, the IL-4 required for Th2 development and susceptibility to L. major is produced by a restricted population of V beta 4 V alpha 8 CD4+ T cells after cognate interaction with a single antigen from this complex organism.

Transgenic Arabidopsis plants can accumulate polyhydroxybutyrate to up to 4% of their fresh weight.

Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. plants expressing the three enzymes encoding the biosynthetic route to polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) are described. These plants accumulated more than 4% of their fresh weight (approximately 40% of their dry weight) in the form of PHB in leaf chloroplasts. These very high producers were obtained and identified following a novel strategy consisting of a rapid GC-MS analysis of a large number of transgenic Arabidopsis plants generated using a triple construct, thus allowing the parallel transfer of all three genes necessary for PHB synthesis in a single transformation event. The level of PHB produced was 4-fold greater than previously published values, thus demonstrating the large potential of plants to produce this renewable resource. However, the high levels of the polymer produced had severe effects on both plant development and metabolism. Stunted growth and a loss of fertility were observed in the high-producing lines. Analysis of the metabolite composition of these lines using a GC-MS method that we have newly developed showed that the accumulation of high levels of PHB was not accompanied by an appreciable change in either the composition or the amount of fatty acids. Substantial changes were, however, observed in the levels of various organic acids, amino acids, sugars and sugar alcohols.

Implantación de Software Libre en el Centro de Desarrollo Infantil (CENDI) No. 4

El presente proyecto consiste en la implantación de Software Libre en el Centro de Desarrollo Infantil (CENDI) No. 4, que es un centro de educación infantil de niños de 0 a 6 años con equipos antiguos de recursos limitados, de forma que se incorporen programas que sean adecuados a la edad de los niños, y además el profesorado pueda aprovechar los ordenadores, todo ello con el menor coste posible, debido a que el presupuesto del centro es muy limitado.