Oral care and stroke units

Objective: To investigate oral care provision reported by senior nurses in stroke care settings in Scotland. Background: Stroke can have adverse effects on oral care and health. Little is known about current oral care practices in stroke care settings. Materials and methods: We designed a postal survey to be completed by ward managers or senior nurses. After piloting, the survey was distributed to all 71 units in Scotland, identified as providing specialist care for patients in the acute or rehabilitation stages following stroke. Pre‐notification and reminder letters were circulated. Responses were anonymous. Results: All but one survey was completed and returned. Help from dental professionals was available to most units (64/70) mostly on request. Only a third of units received oral care training in the last year (23/70). The majority of this training was ward based (20/23). The use of oral care assessment tools and protocols was limited (16/70 and 15/70 units respectively). Not all units had access to toothbrushes, toothpaste or chlorhexidine. For patients unable to perform oral care independently, senior nurses expected the patients’ teeth or dentures to be cleaned at least twice a day in 59 of 70 and 49 of 70 units respectively. Conclusion: The response rate was excellent and has provided a national overview of oral care provision for patients in stroke care settings. Access to staff training, assessments, protocols and oral hygiene material varied considerably. This information provides a valuable baseline from which to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of ward‐based oral care interventions for stroke patients.     

Deconstructing membrane traffic

Intracellular movement of proteins and lipids between organelles is usually described in terms of cargo, carriers, traffic and docking, familiar terms that imply parallels to human activities. Over the past century, scientists have been criticized for constructing hypotheses that reflect too much of their current political and cultural values. In this article, concepts of membrane traffic are re-examined to see whether they reflect the cell’s view of the world or our own.     

工作倦怠与交通警察生活质量的关系

目的：探讨交通警察工作倦怠与生活质量的关系。方法：采用MBI-GS和生活质量问卷调查了某市185名交通警察,运用相关分析和回归分析处理数据。结果：交通警察的情绪衰竭与其生活质量显著负相关（P〈0.01）;玩世不恭也与生活质量显著负相关（P〈0.01）;职业效能与生活质量显著正相关（P〈0.05）。结论：降低工作倦怠,可以有效提高交通警察的生活质量。     

绿化带降噪机理及模型研究进展

介绍了目前绿化带降噪机理及不同配置模式的绿化带降噪效果的研究进展。从单变量和多变量两方面总结了已有的绿化带降噪模型,普适性较差,精确性较低是目前已有模型存在的主要问题。同时,对绿化带降噪模型的研究前景进行了展望,认为可以使用非线性生态模型找出影响绿化带降噪量的主要参数,并分析主要参数与降噪量的关系,最终拟合出不同绿化带降噪量的非线性预测模型,从而指导道路绿化带的设计与建设。     

Genotypic differences in root penetration ability of wheat through thin wax layers in contrasting water regimes and in the field

A significant proportion of arable land in south-western Australia is highly susceptible to subsoil compaction, which limits access of roots of wheat to water and nutrients at depth. Genotypic variation in the ability of roots to penetrate a hardpan has been reported for other cereals, using a pot technique, where a thin wax-layer of paraffin wax and petroleum jelly is placed in a soil column to simulate a hardpan. Previously we have modified and validated this technique for measuring root penetration ability of wheat seedlings under contrasting water regimes. Here we report on a series of five experiments (runs), two in well-watered and three in drought stress conditions, which evaluated seminal and nodal root penetration ability through thin wax layers among 24 Australian wheat cultivars and breeding lines (entries). These results were compared with observations on their rooting depths in two contrasting soil types in field trials, including a sandy duplex that contained a hardpan and a red clay that increased in soil strength with depth. Nodal roots ceased growth early under soil water deficit, and water uptake was instead dependant on seminal roots under conditions imposed in the pots. Plants were then reliant on the ability of seminal roots to penetrate the wax layer. Eight entries had superior root penetration ability in both well-watered and drought stressed conditions. Roots of three other entries, which failed to penetrate the wax layers, died under drought stress conditions. In field trials, there was a significant interaction between site and entry for maximum root depth. Our results from the pot studies and field trials indicate that there exists genotypic variation in root traits that are required to penetrate uniformly hard soil, dry soil or soil containing a hardpan. As four of the eight superior entries also showed superior root penetration ability at both sites in the field, there was an overall consistency, but there were exceptions at individual field sites. Factors likely to result in such exceptions were discussed, and topics for further research identified.     

Radiocaesium concentrations in the muscle and eggs of salmonids from Lake Chuzenji,Japan, after the Fukushima fallout

Approximately 18 months (September to December 2012) after the Fukushima Dai‐ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, elevated radiocaesium concentrations were measured in samples of muscle and eggs from masu salmon Oncorhynchus masou, kokanee Oncorhynchus nerka, brown trout Salmo trutta and lake trout Salvelinus namaycush from the Lake Chuzenji system, central Honshu Island, Japan (160 km from the station). Mean muscle concentrations were 142·9–249·2 Bq kg^?1 wet mass and mean concentrations in eggs were 38·7–79·0 Bq kg^?1 wet mass. There was no relationship between fork length and muscle radiocaesium concentration in any of the species, but there were significant relationships between individual muscle and egg radiocaesium concentrations from O. masou, S. trutta and S. namaycush.     

Losses of mammals (Mammalia) and birds (Aves) on roads in the Slovak part of the Danube Basin

Mortality of mammals and birds due to traffic accidents was monitored in the Slovak part of the Danube Basin from September 2000 to December 2002. Monitored road length was 32 km. The route was inspected by vehicle or on foot 709 times (total of 22,677 km inspected). A total of 3,009 animal carcasses were found. Of these, 45.5% were mammals and 54.5% were birds. Mammals included hamsters (35.7% of killed mammals), mice (14%), brown hares (13.2%), hedgehogs (8.7%), voles (8.5%), Norway rats (6.1%), domestic cats (4.4%) red foxes (3%), polecats (1.9%), weasels (1.2%), and less than 1% other species. Of the bird carcasses, 42.4% were sparrows, 7.6% pheasants, 5.6% swallows, 5.4% long-eared owls, 4.6% martins, 4.4% collared turtle doves, 4.1% domestic pigeons, and 3.2% fieldfares. On average, 3.6 animal carcasses were found per 1 km of monitored route per month. Seasonal mortality differed both in absolute numbers and with respect to the number of species involved. Losses were highest in summer and lowest in winter. Losses in brown hares reached on average 15.5% (maximum 75%), in roe deer 18.8% (maximum 80%) and in pheasants 3.5% (maximum 22%) of the annual bag. Annual financial losses in the study area with regard to game species were 1.9 million Slovakian crowns. In the district of Galanta, to which the study area belongs, on average 21.4 traffic accidents with game occurred annually; most of these were caused by roe deer. Damage to property amounted to 880,000 Slovakian crowns per year.     

Assessment of Hydrocarbons (C10-C50), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), and Trace Metals (TMs) Contamination in the Riverbanks of the Chaudière River Three Years after the Lac-Mégantic Railway Disaster (Southern Québec,Canada)

On July 6, 2013, in downtown Lac-Mégantic (southern Québec, Canada), several tank cars carrying crude oil derailed. This resulted in a series of explosions and a huge fire that led to the terrible Lac-Mégantic disaster. This study deals with the characterization of the Chaudière River banks and bed in order to determine the current state of contamination by hydrocarbons (C₁₀-C₅₀), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and trace metals (TMs). The highest concentrations of hydrocarbons found in the Chaudière River are respectively 960 mg kg^?1 dry weight in soil and 760 mg kg^?1 dry weight in river sediment. Over half of the all samples were under the detection threshold (i.e. > 300 mg kg^?1 in soil and > 832 mg kg^?1 in sediment). The concentration in river sediment PAH concentrations were low, with values below the detection threshold. TM concentrations in the soil and sediment are also very low, rarely exceeding class A and B thresholds and chronic effect reference values (164 mg kg^?1) which constitute the criteria for soil quality and the protection of aquatic life established by the Québec Environment Ministry. These low levels are largely due to the efforts deployed by government authorities to limit the infiltration and dispersal of contaminants along the river, and to the hydrological conditions that also favoured the dispersal and dilution of pollutants.     

The ABC gene family in arthropods: Comparative genomics and role in insecticide transport and resistance

About a 100 years ago, the Drosophila white mutant marked the birth of Drosophila genetics. The white gene turned out to encode the first well studied ABC transporter in arthropods. The ABC gene family is now recognized as one of the largest transporter families in all kingdoms of life. The majority of ABC proteins function as primary-active transporters that bind and hydrolyze ATP while transporting a large diversity of substrates across lipid membranes. Although extremely well studied in vertebrates for their role in drug resistance, less is known about the role of this family in the transport of endogenous and exogenous substances in arthropods. The ABC families of five insect species, a crustacean and a chelicerate have been annotated in some detail. We conducted a thorough phylogenetic analysis of the seven arthropod and human ABC protein subfamilies, to infer orthologous relationships that might suggest conserved function. Most orthologous relationships were found in the ABCB half transporter, ABCD, ABCE and ABCF subfamilies, but specific expansions within species and lineages are frequently observed and discussed. We next surveyed the role of ABC transporters in the transport of xenobiotics/plant allelochemicals and their involvement in insecticide resistance. The involvement of ABC transporters in xenobiotic resistance in arthropods is historically not well documented, but an increasing number of studies using unbiased differential gene expression analysis now points to their importance. We give an overview of methods that can be used to link ABC transporters to resistance. ABC proteins have also recently been implicated in the mode of action and resistance to Bt toxins in Lepidoptera. Given the enormous interest in Bt toxicology in transgenic crops, such findings will provide an impetus to further reveal the role of ABC transporters in arthropods.     

The arbitrariness of the genetic code

The genetic code has been regarded as arbitrary in the sense that the codon-amino acid assignments could be different than they actually are. This general idea has been spelled out differently by previous, often rather implicit accounts of arbitrariness. They have drawn on the frozen accident theory, on evolutionary contingency, on alternative causal pathways, and on the absence of direct stereochemical interactions between codons and amino acids. It has also been suggested that the arbitrariness of the genetic code justifies attributing semantic information to macromolecules, notably to DNA. I argue that these accounts of arbitrariness are unsatisfactory. I propose that the code is arbitrary in the sense of Jacques Monod's concept of chemical arbitrariness: the genetic code is arbitrary in that any codon requires certain chemical and structural properties to specify a particular amino acid, but these properties are not required in virtue of a principle of chemistry. This notion of arbitrariness is compatible with several recent hypotheses about code evolution. I maintain that the code's chemical arbitrariness is neither sufficient nor necessary for attributing semantic information to nucleic acids.