Bacterial community structure of a pesticide-contaminated site and assessment of changes induced in community structure during bioremediation.

The introduction of culture-independent molecular screening techniques, especially based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, has allowed microbiologists to examine a facet of microbial diversity not necessarily reflected by the results of culturing studies. The bacterial community structure was studied for a pesticide-contaminated site that was subsequently remediated using an efficient degradative strain Arthrobacter protophormiae RKJ100. The efficiency of the bioremediation process was assessed by monitoring the depletion of the pollutant, and the effect of addition of an exogenous strain on the existing soil community structure was determined using molecular techniques. The 16S rRNA gene pool amplified from the soil metagenome was cloned and restriction fragment length polymorphism studies revealed 46 different phylotypes on the basis of similar banding patterns. Sequencing of representative clones of each phylotype showed that the community structure of the pesticide-contaminated soil was mainly constituted by Proteobacteria and Actinomycetes. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis showed only nonsignificant changes in community structure during the process of bioremediation. Immobilized cells of strain RKJ100 enhanced pollutant degradation but seemed to have no detectable effects on the existing bacterial community structure.

Implicit attitudes and self-concepts towards transgression and aggression: Differences between male community and offender adolescents, and associations with psychopathic traits.

Research suggests that implicit attitudes play a key role in the occurrence of antisocial behaviours. This study assessed implicit attitudes and self-concepts related to aggression and transgression in community and offender adolescents, using a new set of Implicit Association Tests (IATs), and examined their association with of psychopathic traits. Thirty-six offenders and 66 community adolescents performed 4 IATs assessing 1) implicit attitudes about a) aggression and b) transgression as good, and 2) implicit self-concepts about a) aggression and b) transgression as self-descriptive. They filled in self-report questionnaires: the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory, the Child Behaviour Checklist, and explicit measures of their attitudes and self-concepts towards transgression and aggression. Results showed few differences between community and offender adolescents on implicit attitudes and self-concepts, and unexpected negative associations between some implicit attitudes and psychopathic traits, while the association was positive for the corresponding explicit attitudes. Possible explanations of these findings are discussed.

Personal indebtedness, community characteristics and theft crimes

Becker (1968) and Stigler (1970) provide the germinal works for an economic analysis of crime, and their approach has been utilised to consider the response of crime rates to a range of economic, criminal and socioeconomic factors. Until recently however this did not extend to a consideration of the role of personal indebtedness in explaining the observed pattern of crime. This paper uses the Becker (1968) and Stigler (1970) framework, and extends to a fuller consideration of the relationship between economic hardship and theft crimes in an urban setting. The increase in personal debt in the past decade has been significant, which combined with the recent global recession, has led to a spike in personal insolvencies. In the context of the recent recession it is important to understand how increases in personal indebtedness may spillover into increases in social problems like crime. This paper uses data available at the neighbourhood level for London, UK on county court judgments (CCJ's) granted against residents in that neighbourhood, this is our measure of personal indebtedness, and examines the relationship between a range of community characteristics (economic, socio-economic, etc), including the number of CCJ's granted against residents, and the observed pattern of theft crimes for three successive years using spatial econometric methods. Our results confirm that theft crimes in London follow a spatial process, that personal indebtedness is positively associated with theft crimes in London, and that the covariates we have chosen are important in explaining the spatial variation in theft crimes. We identify a number of interesting results, for instance that there is variation in the impact of covariates across crime types, and that the covariates which are important in explaining the pattern of each crime type are largely stable across the three periods considered in this analysis.

New roles for community pharmacists in modern health care systems: a challenge for pharmacy education and research.

The academic activities led by the Unit of Community Pharmacy can be classified as translational. Our group is interested in person-centered pharmaceutical services aimed at a more responsible use of drugs (effectiveness, safety, efficiency) in collaboration with physicians and other health care professionals in a primary care setting. The following domains of education and research are high priorities for our group: medication therapy management, medication adherence, integrated care, individualization of therapies, care management for the elderly and e-health.

Female residents experiencing medical errors in general internal medicine: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Doctors, especially doctors-in-training such as residents, make errors. They have to face the consequences even though today's approach to errors emphasizes systemic factors. Doctors' individual characteristics play a role in how medical errors are experienced and dealt with. The role of gender has previously been examined in a few quantitative studies that have yielded conflicting results. In the present study, we sought to qualitatively explore the experience of female residents with respect to medical errors. In particular, we explored the coping mechanisms displayed after an error. This study took place in the internal medicine department of a Swiss university hospital. METHODS: Within a phenomenological framework, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight female residents in general internal medicine. All interviews were audiotaped, fully transcribed, and thereafter analyzed. RESULTS: Seven main themes emerged from the interviews: (1) A perception that there is an insufficient culture of safety and error; (2) The perceived main causes of errors, which included fatigue, work overload, inadequate level of competences in relation to assigned tasks, and dysfunctional communication; (3) Negative feelings in response to errors, which included different forms of psychological distress; (4) Variable attitudes of the hierarchy toward residents involved in an error; (5) Talking about the error, as the core coping mechanism; (6) Defensive and constructive attitudes toward one's own errors; and (7) Gender-specific experiences in relation to errors. Such experiences consisted in (a) perceptions that male residents were more confident and therefore less affected by errors than their female counterparts and (b) perceptions that sexist attitudes among male supervisors can occur and worsen an already painful experience. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers an in-depth account of how female residents specifically experience and cope with medical errors. Our interviews with female residents convey the sense that gender possibly influences the experience with errors, including the kind of coping mechanisms displayed. However, we acknowledge that the lack of a direct comparison between female and male participants represents a limitation while aiming to explore the role of gender.

Plants used in traditional medicine of China and Brazil

Eventhough the rationale behind the use of medicinal plantes in Brazil and Chine is different, twenty four species are used in both countries. Scientific name, vulgar name and uses in both countries along with their chemical constituents are listed.

Toxicological and toxicogenetic effects of plants used in popular medicine and in cattle food

Toxicological and toxicogenetic effects of aqueous (tea) and hexanica fruit extract of Indigofera suffruticosa Mill, and hydroalcoholic root extract od Solanum agrarium Stendt. Were evaluated in Balb C male mice intraperitoneally exposed. A hepatotoxic effect was observed just for animals treated with aqueous fruit extract of I. suffruticosa. In relation to the toxicogenetic effect, just the group trreated with 12.5% of toxic dose of aqueous fruit extract of I. suffruticosa showed a statistically significant increase in the frequency of cells with chromosome aberrations (cytogenetic effect), although a slight increase was also observed for the highest dose (25% of LF50_ of hydroalcoholic root extract of S. agrarium. The results obtanied show that before S. agrarium is used as medicine and before the wide use of I. suffruticosa in cattle food, careful evaluation must be done.

Pharmacological screening of plants recommended by folk medicine as anti-snake venom: I. Analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities

We have observed that several plants used popularly as anti-snake venom show anti-inflammatory activity. From the list prepared by Rizzini, Mors and Pereira some species have been selected and tested for analgesic activity (number of contortions) and anti-inflammatory activity (Evans blue dye diffusion - 1% solution) according to Whittle's technique (intraperitoneal administration of 0.1 N-acetic acid 0.1 ml/10 g) in mice. Previous oral administration of a 10% infusion (dry plant) or 20% (fresh plant) corresponding to 1 or 2 g/Kg of Apuleia leiocarpa, Casearia sylvestris, Brunfelsia uniflora, Chiococca brachiata, Cynara scolymus, Dorstenia brasiliensis, Elephantopus scaber, Marsypianthes chamaedrys, Mikania glomerata and Trianosperma tayuya demonstrated analgesic and/or anti-inflammatory activities of varied intensity

Combining food web and species distribution models for improved community projections

The ability to model biodiversity patterns is of prime importance in this era of severe environmental crisis. Species assemblage along environmental gradient is subject to the interplay of biotic interactions in complement to abiotic environmental filtering. Accounting for complex biotic interactions for a wide array of species remains so far challenging. Here, we propose to use food web models that can infer the potential interaction links between species as a constraint in species distribution models. Using a plant-herbivore (butterfly) interaction dataset, we demonstrate that this combined approach is able to improve both species distribution and community forecasts. Most importantly, this combined approach is very useful in rendering models of more generalist species that have multiple potential interaction links, where gap in the literature may be recurrent. Our combined approach points a promising direction forward to model the spatial variation of entire species interaction networks. Our work has implications for studies of range shifting species and invasive species biology where it may be unknown how a given biota might interact with a potential invader or in future climate.

Pluralité des corps. 1. Les corps de La medicine [Multifaceted body. I. The bodies of medicine].

Le corps humain est l'objet privilégié d'action de la médecine, mais aussi réalité vécue, image, symbole, représentation et l'objet d'interprétation et de théorisation. Tous ces éléments constitutifs du corps influencent la façon dont la médecine le traite. Dans cette série de trois articles, nous abordons le corps sous différentes perspectives : médicale (1), phénoménologique (2), psychosomatique et socio-anthropologique (3). Ce premier article traite des représentations du corps en médecine, dont nous décrivons quatre types distincts, qui renvoient à autant de démarches scientifiques spécifiques et de formes de légitimité clinique : le corps-objet de l'anatomie, le corps-machine de la physiologie, le corps cybernétique de la biologie et le corps statistique de l'épidémiologie. The human body is the object upon which medicine is acting, but also lived reality, image, symbol, representation and the object of elaboration and theory. All these elements which constitute the body influence the way medicine is treating it. In this series of three articles, we address the human body from various perspectives: medical (1), phenomenological (2), psychosomatic and socio-anthropological (3). This first article discusses four distinct types of representation of the body within medicine, each related to a specific epistemology and shaping a distinct kind of clinical legitimacy: the body-object of anatomy, the body-machine of physiology, the cybernetic body of biology, the statistical body of epidemiology.