bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A cryptic lysis gene near the start of the Qβ replicase gene in the +1 frame
Authors: Nishihara Tohru , Morisawa Hirokazu , Ohta Norihito , Atkins John F. , Nishimura Yukinobu 
Published: October 2004

The maturation/lysis (A2) protein encoded by the group B single‐stranded RNA bacteriophage Qβ mediates lysis of host Escherichia coli cells. We found a frameshift mutation in the replicase (β‐subunit) gene of Qβ cDNA causes cell lysis. The mutant has a single base deletion 73 nucleotides (nt) 3′ from the start of the replicase gene with consequent translation termination at a stop codon 129–131 nt further 3′. The 43‐amino acid C‐terminal part of the 67‐amino acid product encoded by what in WT (wild‐type) is the +1 frame, is rich in basic amino acids This 67‐aa protein can mediate cell lysis whose characteristics indicate that the protein may cause lysis by a different mechanism and via a different target, than that caused by the A2 maturation/lysis protein. Synthesis of a counterpart of the newly discovered lysis product in wild‐type phage infection would require a hypothetical ribosomal frameshifting event. The lysis gene of group A RNA phages is also short, 75 codons in MS2, and partially overlaps the first part of their equivalently located replicase gene, raising significant evolutionary implications for the present finding.
Testosterone replacement therapy – perceptions of recipients and partners
Authors: Dunning Trisha L. , Ward Glenn M. 
Published: October 2004

Background.  The androgenic hormones are important determinants of sexual behaviour in men. Testosterone replacement is important treatment for pituitary disease to maintain normal functioning. Although the physical effects of testosterone replacement have been well documented, little is known about the effects on relationships, particularly from the point of view of the sexual partners of men receiving testosterone replacement.Aims.  This paper reports a study exploring the perceptions of testosterone replacement on well‐being and sexual functioning.Methods.  Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with five men receiving testosterone implants (recipients), their permanent partners, and five recipients without partners. Recipient serum testosterone concentration was measured at 0, 1 and 4 months after testosterone implantation.Results.  The three groups reported similar effects of testosterone on well‐being and sexual functioning. Recipient and partner ratings were also similar. Strength was less affected by decreasing testosterone concentration than energy in men with partners, but both strength and energy declined in men without partners. Decreased testosterone levels had a statistically significantly different effect on libido at time zero between men with and without partners (P < 0·015) and on ability to sustain an erection, but the ability to achieve an erection persisted over the 6 months in both male groups. Intercourse frequency increased from once per week at time 0 to ≥3 per week between 1 and 4 months after implant in men with partners. There were important effects of testosterone deficiency on general and sexual relationships, and these differed between men with partners and those without.Conclusions.  Testosterone has important physical and psychological benefits that may be related to the age at which testosterone replacement commences and the indications for its use. The small sample size may limit the ability to generalize the findings outside the study.
Breast health information needs of women from minority ethnic groups
Authors: Watts Tessa , Merrell Joy , Murphy Fiona , Williams Angela 
Published: October 2004

Background.  For women from minority ethnic groups to make informed decisions about their health, and particularly about whether to participate in breast cancer screening programmes, access to a range of appropriately designed high quality, culturally‐specific and sensitive health information is needed.Aims.  Through a critical review of the literature, this paper aims to determine the breast health and breast cancer screening information needs of women from minority ethnic groups and to discuss the implications of cultural difference for nurses in relation to the development and dissemination of health information.Methods.  A critical review of the research literature published in English between 1996 and 2002 was conducted. Electronic and the relevant Cochrane Collaboration databases were searched using a range of search terms to retrieve literature specifically relevant to the aims of the review. The use of personal contacts and posting a request for information on the mailing list at minority-ethnic-health@jiscmail.ac.uk facilitated the retrieval of grey literature. All references retrieved were entered on a bibliographic database. The title and abstract of each was examined to assess it for inclusion in the review.Findings.  There was little published information about specific breast cancer screening information needs from the perspective of women from minority ethnic groups. In comparison with the indigenous population, the information needs of people from minority ethnic groups differ in relation to their cultural beliefs and values and the effects of these on health care practices. Inadequate knowledge about breast health and breast cancer screening may be a consequence of the provision of insufficient or culturally inappropriate information.Conclusions.  There is a dearth of research highlighting breast health and breast cancer screening information needs of women from minority ethnic groups. In providing information, their needs appear to have been an ‘add on’. Health care professionals’ lack of understanding about cultural beliefs, values and knowledge, together with racial stereotyping and misconceptions about cancer in minority ethnic groups, pose challenges to information dissemination. Health care professionals need to work collaboratively with women from minority ethnic groups, identifying culturally‐specific beliefs and values about breast cancer, breast cancer risk and screening, in order to develop appropriate and acceptable information and dissemination strategies.
Postoperative quality of life among patients with thyroid cancer
Authors: Huang Sheng‐Miauh , Lee Chen‐Hsen , Chien Li‐Yin , Liu Hsueh‐Erh , Tai Chen‐Jeng 
Published: October 2004

Background.  Thyroid cancer patients have a survival rate of over 90% after thyroidectomy. However, quality of life with a generic focus has rarely been studied in thyroid cancer survivors.Aim.  This paper reports a study to examine and describe factors associated with quality of life among patients with thyroid cancer after operation.Methods.  Adult patients who had a thyroidectomy for cancer between January 1999 and June 2001 in a Taiwan city participated in the study. Telephone interviews was completed with 146 (67%) of those 218 eligible, asking about sociodemographic variables, disease/treatment characteristics and social support. Quality of life was measured by the Chinese version of the Quality of Life Index. Multivariate analyses were performed using multiple linear regressions.Result.  The regression model showed that patients at 19–36 months after operation had lower quality of life compared with those within 18 months of operation. Current symptoms of fatigue and chills were negatively associated with quality of life. Those who rated the impact of operational scar on activities as ‘high’ had lower quality of life scores. Social support from families and friends had positive effects on quality of life. The model r2 was 48·1%.Conclusions.  Nurses could improve quality of life among patients with thyroid cancer by strengthening their social support and educating them in self‐management of uncomfortable symptoms. Surgeons should consider types of operation in which the scar would be less likely to influence the patients’ activities.
Practice nurses’ intentions to use clinical guidelines
Authors: Puffer Suezann , Rashidian Arash 
Published: October 2004

Background.  Evidence indicates that, although nurses are increasingly using clinical guidelines to ensure higher quality of care, there is a wide variance in their adherence to them. The utility of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has not been previously investigated in explaining this variance in community nursing.Aim.  This paper reports a study whose primary aim was to examine the utility of the TPB in explaining variations in practice nurses’ intentions to offer smoking cessation advice in accordance with coronary heart disease guidelines.Methods.  A cross‐sectional survey using a postal questionnaire was carried out. A 52‐item questionnaire was administered to 48 practice nurses in England. The questionnaire was designed to assess the components of the TPB, and included measures of intentions to offer smoking cessation advice, self‐reported past behaviour, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural controls (PBCs), behavioural beliefs and evaluations, normative beliefs and motivation to comply, and control beliefs and evaluations.Results.  The TPB explained up to 40% of variance in intentions to offer smoking cessation advice. Attitudes and PBCs were the most important predictors of intention. Among other elements of the TPB, indirect attitudes and indirect PBCs made significant positive contributions to explaining variance in intention.Discussion.  Future trials of interventions to increase practice nurses’ adherence to clinical guidelines could attempt to address the elements identified in this study as important factors. Further studies are required to examine the utility of the TPB in predicting practice nurses’ behaviour.
The ethics of conducting a co‐operative inquiry with vulnerable people
Authors: Tee Stephen R. , Lathlean Judith A. 
Published: October 2004

Background. Mental health services users have been calling for greater participation in clinical research. Participation in this context means research ‘with’ rather than ‘on’ groups of people. Conducting a co‐operative inquiry involving the participation of vulnerable individuals as co‐researchers, in particular those with a history of mental health problems, places an obligation on researchers to articulate and justify sound ethical procedures.Aims. The aim of this paper is to consider how the ethical issues encountered when conducting participative research with vulnerable people can be addressed in the implementation of a co‐operative inquiry with users of mental health services.Method. The study was based on personal reflection and a critical review of associated literature obtained from a database search using Boolean logic.Findings. The findings, presented under the headings of the four prima facie moral principles, suggest the need for researchers using participative approaches to demonstrate the humanistic attributes required for engaging and working with people over a period of time. These include building and maintaining trusting relationships, assessing competence to participate, managing interpersonal and group dynamics and making complex collaborative decisions about participants’ continued participation in a study.Conclusions. When using a co‐operative inquiry approach involving vulnerable individuals, researchers need to demonstrate clearly how a balance between autonomy and paternalism will be achieved, how risks will be anticipated and managed and how fairness will be maintained throughout all procedures. Researchers using participative approaches need to have developed a level of personal insight and self‐awareness through access to supervision which focuses on sources of unintended manipulation and interpersonal dynamics that may arise at the inception of a study and throughout its course. Researchers and ethics committees have a shared responsibility to ensure that vulnerable people are appropriately engaged to maintain the advancement of user knowledge which informs nursing practice.
From SARS to strategic actions reframing systems
Authors: Macdonald Marilyn T. 
Published: October 2004

Background.  The developed world responds to new and re‐emerging diseases through the discovery of medications. Disease can be transmitted around the world in a day, but the development of medications does not occur at this rate. The world has one environment and the focus in health care must be on identifying factors in this environment that coalesce to produce disease.Aim.  The aim of this paper is to introduce the integrative model of environmental health and explore its potential to illuminate the Toronto SARS experience.Discussion.  SARS affected people on three continents in a matter of days. Response to this new disease varied from one area to another and was dependent upon the level of integration of health services and communication across services. The present focus of the health care system is on treating the results of disease rather than the causative factors. Reacting to a new disease had grave social and economic consequences. The time for a new global environmental approach to health is now. The Toronto SARS experience was examined using the integrative model of environmental health and the upstream perspective as exemplars to interrupt the traditional approach to disease. All health care providers share the responsibility to learn about and to understand how our environment creates disease. This knowledge comes through research on topics such as; chemicals, pesticides, soil erosion, killing of forests, contamination of water, destabilization of climate, and social disruption from wars.Conclusions.  Health care systems in the developed world continue to focus on the treatment of disease. A global ecological initiative for an integrated disease prevention system must be negotiated among nations.
Quality monitoring of nurse telephone triage: pilot study
Authors: Richards David A. , Meakins Joan , Tawfik Jane , Godfrey Lesley , Dutton Evelyn , Heywood Phil 
Published: October 2004

Background.  Nurse telephone triage is a popular way of managing workload in primary care and has been shown to be as safe as general practitioner (GP)‐delivered alternatives. No studies have tested a routine method of assessing the quality of decision‐making by triage nurses in primary care.Aims.  The aim of this paper is to describe a study to evaluate accuracy and utility of audiotaping telephone consultations to assess the quality of decisions made by practice nurses triaging same day appointment requests in routine practice.Method.  An observational study was carried out using external assessment by GPs and nurse practitioners of triage quality in 218 audiotaped nurse telephone triage consultations.Results.  There were high levels of agreement between triage nurses and assessors on identifying the presenting problem. However, there were only moderate levels of agreement between GPs and nurse assessors both on level of information sought (kappa = 0·434) and appropriateness of outcome (kappa = 0·614). Assessors rated information‐gathering as poor in 19·3% of calls (95% confidence interval 14·6 to 25·0), and seven (3·2%) consultations were rated as potentially dangerous (95% confidence interval 1·6 to 6·5). A 1% sample of all consultations would have a probability of 0·48 of identifying unsafe consultations and 0·99 probability of identifying consultations with poor information‐gathering.Conclusions.  External assessment of triage quality may be of only moderate accuracy and reliability. Nonetheless, considerable information can be gleaned from assessing audiotapes to assess consultation quality. Even where nurses are generally highly skilled and competent, a 1% review of triage consultations would be sufficient to identify their information‐gathering learning needs in relation to patients’ presenting problems. Audio‐taped consultations could be an important part of clinical governance strategies.
Distinctive genetic features exhibited by the Y‐family DNA polymerases in Bacillus subtilis
Authors: Duigou Stéphane , Ehrlich S. Dusko , Noirot Philippe , Noirot‐Gros Marie‐Françoise 
Published: October 2004

SummaryTranslesional DNA polymerases form a large family of structurally related proteins, known as the Y‐polymerases. Bacillus subtilis encodes two Y‐polymerases, referred herewith as Pol Y1 and Pol Y2. Pol Y1 was expressed constitutively and did not mediate UV mutagenesis. Pol Y1 overexpression increased spontaneous mutagenesis. This effect depended on Pol Y1 polymerase activity, Pol Y1 interaction with the β‐clamp, and did not require the presence of the RecA protein. In addition, Pol Y1 overexpression delayed cell growth at low temperature. The growth delay was mediated by Pol Y1 interaction with the β‐clamp but not by its polymerase activity, suggesting that an excess of Pol Y1 in the cell could sequester the β‐clamp. In contrast, Pol Y2 was expressed during the SOS response, and, in its absence, UV‐induced mutagenesis was abolished. Upon Pol Y2 overproduction, both UV‐induced and spontaneous mutagenesis were stimulated, and both depended on the Pol Y2 polymerase activity. However, UV mutagenesis did not appear to require the interaction of Pol Y2 with the β‐clamp whereas spontaneous mutagenesis did. In addition, Pol Y2‐mediated spontaneous mutagenesis required the presence of RecA. Together, these results show that the regulation and the genetic requirements of the two B. subtilis Y‐polymerases are different, indicating that they fulfil distinct biological roles. Remarkably, Pol Y1 appears to exhibit a mutator activity similar to that of Escherichia coli Pol IV, as well as an E. coli UmuD‐related function in growth delay. Pol Y2 exhibits an E. coli Pol V‐like mutator activity, but probably acts as a single polypeptide to bypass UV lesions. Thus, B. subtilis Pol Y1 and Pol Y2 exhibit distinctive features from the E. coli Y‐polymerases, indicating that different bacteria have adapted different solutions to deal with the lesions in their genetic materiel.
The midcell replication factory in Bacillus subtilis is highly mobile: implications for coordinating chromosome replication with other cell cycle events
Authors: Migocki Margaret D. , Lewis Peter J. , Wake R. Gerry , Harry Elizabeth J. 
Published: October 2004

SummaryDuring vegetative growth, rod‐shaped bacterial cells such as Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis divide precisely at midcell. It is the Z ring that defines the position of the division site. We previously demonstrated that the early stages of chromosome replication are linked to midcell Z ring assembly in B. subtilis and proposed a direct role for the centrally located replication factory in masking and subsequently unmasking the midcell site for Z ring assembly. We now show that the replication factory is significantly more scattered about the cell centre than the Z ring in both vegetative cells and outgrown spores of B. subtilis. This finding is inconsistent with the midcell replication factory acting as a direct physical block to Z ring assembly. Time‐lapse experiments demonstrated that the lower precision of replication factory positioning results from its high mobility around the cell centre. Various aspects of this mobility are presented and the results are discussed in the light of current views on the determinants of positional information required for accurate chromosome segregation and cell division.
Characterization of a lipoprotein, NilC, required by Xenorhabdus nematophila for mutualism with its nematode host
Authors: Cowles Charles E. , Goodrich‐Blair Heidi 
Published: October 2004

Summary Xenorhabdus nematophila is a γ‐proteobacterial mutualist of an insect‐pathogenic nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae. X. nematophila requires nilC, a gene predicted to encode an outer membrane lipoprotein of unknown function, for colonization of its nematode host. Characterization of NilC, described here, demonstrated it is a 28 kDa lipoprotein directed to the periplasm by an N‐terminal signal sequence. Lipidation and processing of NilC occurs by a mechanism that is conserved in proteobacteria. This work also showed NilC is membrane associated and oriented towards the periplasm of X. nematophila and is produced as an outer membrane‐associated protein when expressed in Escherichia coli. Expression analyses revealed that nilC transcription is directly or indirectly repressed by Lrp, and this regulatory link may explain the nematode mutualism defect of a previously identified lrp::Tn5 mutant. An lrp::Tn5 mutant produces an additional nilC transcript, not observed in wild‐type cells growing in vitro, and produces ≈ 75‐fold more nilC than wild‐type cells in late stationary phase. These fundamental characterizations of nilC expression and nilC localization and processing events have provided firm bases for understanding the role of this colonization factor in the X. nematophila/S. carpocapsae microbe–host interaction.
Ss‐LrpB, a novel Lrp‐like regulator of Sulfolobus solfataricus P2, binds cooperatively to three conserved targets in its own control region
Authors: Peeters Eveline , Thia‐Toong Thia‐Lin , Gigot Daniel , Maes Dominique , Charlier Daniel 
Published: October 2004

SummarySs‐LrpB, a novel Lrp‐like DNA‐binding protein from the hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus, was shown to bind cooperatively to three regularly spaced targets in its own control region, with as consensus the 15 bp palindrome 5′‐TTGYAW WWWWTRCAA‐3′. Binding to the border sites occurred with high affinity; the target in the middle proved to be a low affinity site which is stably bound only when both flanking sites are occupied. Ss‐LrpB contacts two major groove segments and the intervening minor groove of each site, all aligned on one face of the helix. The operator shows intrinsic bending and is increasingly deformed upon binding of Ss‐LrpB to one, two and three targets. Complex formation relies therefore on DNA conformability, protein–DNA and protein–protein contacts. Mobility‐shift assays and in gel footprinting indicate that Ss‐LrpB and the transcription factors TATA‐box binding protein (TBP) and transcription factor B (TFB) can bind simultaneously to the control region. Based on these findings we present a model for the construction of the higher order nucleoprotein complexes and a hypothesis for the autoregulatory process. The latter is based on the concentration‐dependent formation of distinct complexes exhibiting different stoichiometries and conformations, which could positively and negatively affect promoter activity.
The elusive malaria sporozoite in the mammalian host
Authors: Baldacci Patricia , Ménard Robert 
Published: October 2004

SummaryMalaria infection is initiated when Plasmodium sporozoites are injected into a host during the bite of an infected mosquito. In the mammal, the sporozoite must rapidly reach an intravacuolar niche within a hepatocyte, where it will generate the parasite stage that invades red blood cells and causes the symptoms of the disease. Herein, we describe our understanding of the way in which sporozoites travel from the site of the mosquito bite to the liver, arrest in the liver, cross the sinusoidal barrier and eventually gain access to hepatocytes. We also highlight some of the recent advances in our understanding of these processes at the molecular level.