Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Directing Nanoparticle Biodistribution through Evasion and Exploitation of Stab2-Dependent Nanoparticle Uptake

Up to 99% of systemically administered nanoparticles are cleared through the liver. Within the liver, most nanoparticles are thought to be sequestered by macrophages (Kupffer cells), although significant nanoparticle interactions with other hepatic cells have also been observed. To achieve effective cell-specific targeting of drugs through nanoparticle encapsulation, improved mechanistic understanding of nanoparticle–liver interactions is required. Here, we show the caudal vein of the embryonic zebrafish (Danio rerio) can be used as a model for assessing nanoparticle interactions with mammalian liver sinusoidal (or scavenger) endothelial cells (SECs) and macrophages. We observe that anionic nanoparticles are primarily taken up by SECs and identify an essential requirement for the scavenger receptor, stabilin-2 (stab2) in this process. Importantly, nanoparticle–SEC interactions can be blocked by dextran sulfate, a competitive inhibitor of stab2 and other scavenger receptors. Finally, we exploit nanoparticle–SEC interactions to demonstrate targeted intracellular drug delivery resulting in the selective deletion of a single blood vessel in the zebrafish embryo. Together, we propose stab2 inhibition or targeting as a general approach for modifying nanoparticle–liver interactions of a wide range of nanomedicines.
Effect of Rainfall-Induced Soil Geochemistry Dynamics on Grassland Soil Microbial Communities

ABSTRACT In Mediterranean-type grassland ecosystems, the timing of rainfall events controls biogeochemical cycles, as well as the phenology and productivity of plants and animals. Here, we investigate the effect of short-term (days) soil environmental conditions on microbial community structure and composition during a natural wetting and drying cycle. Soil samples were collected from a meadow in Northern California at four time points after the first two rainfall events of the rainy season. We used 16S rRNA microarrays (PhyloChip) to track changes in bacterial and archaeal community composition. Microbial communities at time points 1 and 3 were significantly different than communities at time points 2 and 4. Based on ordination analysis, the available carbon, soil moisture, and temperature explained most of the variation in community structure. For the first time, a complementary and more comprehensive approach using linear regression and generalized logical networks were used to identify linear and nonlinear associations among environmental variables and with the relative abundance of subfamilies. Changes in soil moisture and available carbon were correlated with the relative abundance of many phyla. Only the phylum Actinobacteria showed a lineage-specific relationship to soil moisture but not to carbon or nitrogen. The results indicate that the use of a high taxonomic rank in correlations with nutritional indicators might obscure divergent subfamily-level responses to environmental parameters. An important implication of this research is that there is short-term variation in microbial community composition driven in part by rainfall fluctuation that may not be evident in long-term studies with coarser time resolution.
Cultural brokerage: Creating linkages between voices of lifeworld and medicine in cross-cultural clinical settings

Culturally competent healthcare has emerged as a policy solution to racial and ethnic health disparities in the United States. Current research indicates that patient-centered care is a central component of culturally competent healthcare, and a rich literature exists on how to elicit patients’ lifeworld voices through open-ended questions, sensitive communication skills, and power-sharing interaction styles. But it remains largely unclear how doctors create linkages between cultures of medicine and lifeworld as two sets of incongruent meaning systems. Without such linkages, a doctor lacks the cultural tool to incorporate her patient’s assumptions or frameworks into the voice of medicine, rendering it difficult to (at least partially) expand and transform the latter from within. This study explores how doctors perform this bridging work, conceptualized as cultural brokerage, on the job. Cultural brokerage entails mutual inclusion of different sets of schemas or frameworks with which people organize their meanings and information. Based on 24 in-depth interviews with primary care physicians in Northern California, this study inductively documents four empirical mechanisms of cultural brokerage: ‘translating between health systems’, ‘bridging divergent images of medicine’, ‘establishing long-term relationships’, and ‘working with patients’ relational networks’. Furthermore, the study argues that cultural brokerage must be understood as concrete ‘cultural labor’, which involves specific tasks and requires time and resources. I argue that the performance of cultural brokerage work is embedded in the institutional contexts of the clinic and therefore faces two macro-level constraints: the cultural ideology and the political economy of the American healthcare system.
Efficiency of a Care Coordination Model: A Randomized Study With Stroke Patients

Objectives: This study investigated the efficiency of a social work care coordination model for stroke patients. Care coordination addresses patient care and treatment resources across the health care system to reduce risk, improve clinical outcomes, and maximize efficiency. Method: A randomly assigned, pre-post experimental design measured medical utilization of 28 patients postrehabilitation hospitalization. The experimental group received individual assessment, problem solving around barriers to services, advocacy, crisis counseling, educational reinforcement to patients and caregivers, brief psychological counseling, and referral. Hospitalization, emergency room, and physician utilization measures were collected 3 months prior to inpatient rehabilitation and compared to utilization during the study. Results: Repeated measures ANOVA showed significant changes for the intervention group in medical utilization. Recipients'care-seeking behavior appeared to change toward more appropriate use of outpatient physicians rather than the emergency room. Conclusions: Care coordination provided by social workers significantly improved stroke patients' medical utilization with significant cost savings.
Beyond the caveman: Rethinking masculinity in relation to men’s help-seeking

Statistically, men make less use of health-care services than women. This has been interpreted as the result of the ‘hegemonic’ masculine code in which ‘real’ men are understood to be physically fit, uninterested in their health and self-reliant. However, less attention has been paid to understanding how hegemonic masculinity intersects with the wider western socio-cultural contexts of men’s help-seeking, particularly the valorization of health as a form of social achievement. This article presents the results of interviews with 14 higher socio-economic status (SES) men to uncover their ‘interpretive repertoires’ in relation to health and illness, help-seeking and masculinity. Although many interviewees drew on the stereotype of the ‘Neanderthal Man’ who avoids the doctors to explain help-seeking by men ‘in general’, they constructed their own experiences of help-seeking in terms of being responsible, problem-solving and in control. It is argued that the framing of help-seeking in terms of ‘taking action’ chimes with an increasingly pro-active ‘expert patient’ approach within western health-care. This conceptual reconstruction of the dominant masculine code in relation to help-seeking, from ‘Neanderthal Man’ to ‘Action Man’, may lead to greater gender equality in terms of accessing health-care. However, it has the potential to exacerbate social inequalities between men from different SES groups.
The rise of cancer in urban India: Cultural understandings, structural inequalities and the emergence of the clinic

Cancer services in India have evolved and expanded significantly in recent years, with a surge in the availability of biomedical oncological treatment facilities for certain cohorts of the Indian population in urban areas. Despite significant and sustained economic development in many areas of India, major issues persist in the delivery of cancer care, even in the context of relatively prosperous urban populations. This article explores the dilemmas evident in Indian cancer care as perceived by a group of Indian oncology clinicians. Specifically, the interviews focused on their perspectives on the key challenges facing cancer patients, particularly in relation to help-seeking and access to care. The main concerns that emerged in the interviews were: (a) practical constraint (i.e. access and treatment); (b) cultural values (i.e. communication, stigma and the clinic); and (c) structural conditions (i.e. inequalities related to place, gender and class). We unpack these as important elements of cancer care in contemporary India, and present Farmer’s notion of structural violence, among other concepts, as potentially useful for understanding some facets of this social problem. We conclude that without a greater understanding of social and cultural issues shaping cancer care in India, little progress will be made in coping with a disease that is set to become a major burden within an increasingly prosperous and ageing population.
Theoretical directions for an emancipatory concept of patient and public involvement

Patient and public involvement (PPI) is now firmly embedded in the policies of the Department of Health in England. This article commences with a review of the changing structures of PPI in English health and social care, largely in terms of their own explicit rationales, using that as a spring board for the development of a general theoretical framework. Arguing that all democratic states face major dilemmas in seeking to meet conflicting demands and expectations for involvement, we identify the diverse and sometimes conflicting cultural and political features embedded in current models of involvement in England, in a context of rapid delegitimation of the wider political system. We identify some of the major inherent weaknesses of a monolithic, single-track model of patient and public involvement in the management and running of health and social care systems. Although the mechanisms and methods for delivering this may vary we suggest the model remains fundamentally the same. We also suggest why the current structures are unlikely to provide an effective response either to the pluralism of values, ideologies and social groups engaged in the sector or to the valuing of lay knowledge which could potentially sustain the social networks essential for effective participation and service improvement. The article proposes a four dimensional framework for analysing the nature of PPI. These dimensions, it is argued, provide the co-ordinates along which new ‘knowledge spaces’ for PPI could be constructed. These knowledge spaces could facilitate and support the emergence of social networks of knowledgeable actors capable of engaging with professionals on equal terms and influencing service provision.
Large solitary luteinized follicle cyst of pregnancy and puerperium: A clinicopathological analysis of eight cases.

: Eight cases of a rare type of ovarian cyst with distinctive clinical and pathologic features are reported. The patients presented with a palpable adnexal mass during pregnancy or the puerperium, or with a unilateral ovarian cyst during cesarean section at term. There were no associated endocrine disturbances. The cysts were large, solitary and unilocular and had a median diameter of 25 cm. On microscopical examination they were lined by luteinized cells that exhibited focal marked nuclear atypicality. All six patients who were followed postoperatively were alive and well at intervals of 5--68 months, suggesting that the cysts were luteinized follicle cysts related to the high gonadotropin levels of pregnancy rather than cystic neoplasms.
Transcriptional Profile during Deoxycholate-Induced Sporulation in a Clostridium perfringens Isolate Causing Foodborne Illness

ABSTRACT Clostridium perfringens type A is a common source of foodborne illness (FBI) in humans. Vegetative cells sporulate in the small intestinal tract and produce the major pathogenic factor C. perfringens enterotoxin. Although sporulation plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of FBI, the mechanisms inducing sporulation remain unclear. Bile salts were shown previously to induce sporulation, and we confirmed deoxycholate (DCA)-induced sporulation in C. perfringens strain NCTC8239 cocultured with human intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells. In the present study, we performed transcriptome analyses of strain NCTC8239 in order to elucidate the mechanism underlying DCA-induced sporulation. Of the 2,761 genes analyzed, 333 were up- or downregulated during DCA-induced sporulation and included genes for cell division, nutrient metabolism, signal transduction, and defense mechanisms. In contrast, the virulence-associated transcriptional regulators (the VirR/VirS system, the agr system, codY, and abrB) were not activated by DCA. DCA markedly increased the expression of signaling molecules controlled by Spo0A, the master regulator of the sporulation process, whereas the expression of spo0A itself was not altered in the presence or absence of DCA. The phosphorylation of Spo0A was enhanced in the presence of DCA. Collectively, these results demonstrated that DCA induced sporulation, at least partially, by facilitating the phosphorylation of Spo0A and activating Spo0A-regulated genes in strain NCTC8239 while altering the expression of various genes. IMPORTANCE Disease caused by Clostridium perfringens type A consistently ranks among the most common bacterial foodborne illnesses in humans in developed countries. The sporulation of C. perfringens in the small intestinal tract is a key event for its pathogenesis, but the factors and underlying mechanisms by which C. perfringens sporulates in vivo currently remain unclear. Bile salts, major components of bile, which is secreted from the liver for the emulsification of lipids, were shown to induce sporulation. However, the mechanisms underlying bile salt-induced sporulation have not yet been clarified. In the present study, we demonstrate that deoxycholate (one of the bile salts) induces sporulation by facilitating the phosphorylation of Spo0A and activating Spo0A-regulated genes using a transcriptome analysis. Thus, this study enhances our understanding of the mechanisms underlying sporulation, particularly that of bile salt-induced sporulation, in C. perfringens.
Nursing students’ attitudes towards HIV/AIDS: Ağrı, Istanbul and Mersin samples from Turkey

Objective: This study investigates nursing students’attitudes towards HIV/AIDS in three different provinces of Turkey. The chosen provinces are Istanbul, the largest and most crowded city of Turkey; Agri, which is located in the further east of Turkey with socio-economic disadvantages and finally Mersin, one of the most important port cities of Turkey. Methods: A total of 230 nursing students formed the population of this research. The research data was compiled through personal information forms and HIV/AIDS attitude inventory. HIV/AIDS Attitude Inventory (henceforth HAAI) is a 19-item 4 point Likert-type scale.Percentages and mean scores were executed and computed during data analysis. Students’ sociodemographic data were also analyzed. The following steps were followed for the analysis of attitude levels about HIV/AIDS through HAAI. Results: The results of the research reveal that nursing students in general have a positive attitude towards HIV/AIDS. No considerable difference was found between the academic background, marital status, having previous sexual experience or not, having a patient with HIV/AIDS, and caring for a person with HIV/AIDS or not in the different grade levels of the nursing school and their attitudes about HIV/AIDS. It was identified that nursing students with high anxiety level about caring for someone with HIV/AIDS have higher level of attitudes towards HIV/AIDS than those with lower levels of anxiety about this issue. Conclusion: This research was conducted in three different cities of Turkey and its results cannot be generalized to the country. In spite of its limitations, the results of this research can help reach some important and functional clues regarding nursing education. The nurses should be educated about this subject at universities to gain positive attitudes towards HIV/AIDS patients.
The significance of socially-assigned ethnicity for self-identified Māori accessing and engaging with primary healthcare in New Zealand

Despite increased focus in New Zealand on reducing health inequities between Māori and New Zealand European ethnic groups, research on barriers and facilitators to primary healthcare access for Māori remains limited. In particular, there has been little interrogation of the significance of social-assignment of ethnicity for Māori in relation to engagement with predominantly non-Māori primary healthcare services and providers. A qualitative study was undertaken with a subsample (n = 40) of the broader Hauora Manawa Study to examine experiences of accessing and engaging with primary healthcare among adult urban Māori. Thematic analysis of in-depth interviews identified that participants perceived social-assignment as New Zealand European as an efficacious form of capital when interacting with predominantly non-Māori health professionals. Skin colour that was ‘white’ or was perceived to identify Māori as belonging to the ‘dominant’ New Zealand European ethnic group was reported as broadly advantageous and protective. In contrast, social-assignment as Māori was seen to be associated with risk of exposure to differential and discriminatory healthcare. Reducing the negative impacts of racialisation in a (neo)colonial society where ‘White’ cultural capital dominates requires increased recognition of the health-protective advantages of ‘White’ privilege and concomitant risks associated with socially-assigned categorisation of ethnicity as non-‘White’.
Using liminality to understand mothers’ experiences of long-term breastfeeding: ‘Betwixt and between’, and ‘matter out of place’

Breastmilk is widely considered as the optimum nutrition source for babies and an important factor in both improving public health and reducing health inequalities. Current international/national policy supports long-term breastfeeding. UK breastfeeding initiation rates are high but rapidly decline, and the numbers breastfeeding in the second year and beyond are unknown. This study used the concept of liminality to explore the experiences of a group of women breastfeeding long-term in the United Kingdom, building on Mahon-Daly and Andrews. Over 80 breastfeeding women were included within the study, which used micro-ethnographic methods (participant observation in breastfeeding support groups, face-to-face interviews and online asynchronous interviews via email). Findings about women’s experiences are congruent with the existing literature, although it is mostly dated and from outside the United Kingdom. Liminality was found to be useful in providing insight into women’s experiences of long-term breastfeeding in relation to both time and place. Understanding women’s experience of breastfeeding beyond current usual norms can be used to inform work with breastfeeding mothers and to encourage more women to breastfeed for longer.
Should long-term prophylactic use of probiotics for infants and young children give cause for concern?

In the past decade, several probiotic strains have been investigated for health benefit effects and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) has been one of the most studied probiotic strains. Short-term beneficial effects on viral infectious diarrhoea have been reported in a number of studies, but a prophylactic effect on diarrhoea has not been documented. Furthermore, while some studies have reported a prophylactic, or even a curative, effect of LGG on atopic eczema in young children, more recent studies have not confirmed these findings. Quite the contrary, an increased incidence of allergic sensitization has been reported among children receiving LGG-supplemented infant formula feed at an early age. To date, there is thus no certain documented prophylactic effect of LGG on any medical condition in children. When used as a supplement in infant formula and baby foods, LGG is intended for long-term daily use in children as opposed to a short-term, specific, treatment. Furthermore, the targeted consumer group includes children below the age of 12 months. These two aspects demand particular consideration with regard to the lack of knowledge of the effects of long-term treatment with large doses of live bacteria both on the ecology of the microbiota of the gastrointestinal tract and on its immunomodulating properties. Neither of these systems is fully matured in infants and small children, and may therefore be particularly vulnerable. Probiotics may also alter intestinal metabolism due to their enzymatic activities, transfer genes coding for resistance to antimicrobials and have other adjuvant effects of which we yet know very little. In conclusion, we consider that there is insufficient scientific knowledge to support manipulation of the immune system in a predictable manner by administration of probiotics to young children. Manipulation at an early age is of particular concern, as the effects may be non-reversible.
Effect of Naloxone After Spinal Cord Injury in the Rat: Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Expression, Superoxide Dismutase Activity, and Ultrastructural Changes

Endorphins have been implicated in the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury (SCI). Although some possible mechanisms for the therapeutic actions of naloxone have been postulated, the exact mechanism of these favorable actions is not yet known with certainty. The benefit of naloxone in the recovery of neurologic function has generally been attributed to its action at the opiate receptors. The effect of naloxone on the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) immunoreactivity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) level, and ultrastructural findings were studied in rats at the early and late stages of SCI, produced with an aneurysm clip on the T2 to T7 segments. Seventy rats were randomly allocated to 4 groups. The animals in group 1 (10 rats) were killed to provide normal spinal cord tissue for testing. Group 2 (20 rats) underwent 6-segment laminectomy so that the effects of total laminectomy could be determined. Group 3 (20 rats) underwent 6-segment T2 to T7 laminectomy, and SCI was produced by extradural compression of the exposed cord. The same procedures were performed in the 20 rats in group 4, but these rats also received 1 (2 mg/kg) intraperitoneal injection of naloxone immediately after the injury, a second dose 24 hours after trauma, and a third dose 48 hours after trauma. Half of the animals from groups 3 and 4 were killed 2 hours after trauma, and the other half were killed 48 hours after trauma. The exposed cord segments were immediately removed and processed for analysis. The results showed that naloxone treatment reduces secondary structural changes in damaged rat spinal cord tissue by affecting iNOS and SOD activity.