Activity

Indigenous communities in Latin America and elsewhere have complex bodies of knowledge, but Western health services generally approach them as vulnerable people in need of external solutions. Intercultural dialogue recognises the validity and value of Indigenous standpoints, and participatory research promotes reciprocal respect for stakeholder input in knowledge creation.As part of their decades-long community-based work in Mexico’s Guerrero State, researchers at the Centro de Investigación de Enfermedades Tropicales responded to the request from Indigenous communities to help them address poor maternal health. We present the experience from this participatory research in which both parties contributed to finding solutions for a shared concern. The aim was to open an intercultural dialogue by respecting Indigenous skills and customs, recognising the needs of health service stakeholders for scientific evidence.Three steps summarise the opening of intercultural dialogue. Trust building and partnership based onerent cultures.

To investigate the incidence of type 1 diabetes by age group (0-19, 20-39, 40-59, ≥60 years) in Japan and whether there is seasonality in this incidence.

The incidence of type 1 diabetes from September 2014 to August 2017 was estimated using 2013-2018 data from the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Check-ups of Japan. The incidence rate was analyzed using Tango’s Index and the self-controlled case series method.

Overall, 10 400 of the 79 175 553 included individuals were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The incidence of type 1 diabetes from September 2014 to August 2017 was 4.42/100 000 person-years. The incidence rates for men aged 0-19, 20-39, 40-59, and ≥60 years were 3.94, 5.57, 5.70, and 3.48, respectively. Among women, the incidence rates for the same age ranges were 5.22, 4.83, 4.99, and 3.31, respectively. Tango’s index showed that the incidence rate of type 1 diabetes was significantly associated with seasons among those aged 0-19 years. Further, the self-controlled case series method showed a significant interaction between age and season, with the incidence of type 1 diabetes being higher in spring for patients younger than 20 years of age.

In Japan, men aged 40-59 years and women aged 0-19 years are the groups with the highest incidence of type 1 diabetes. Further, the incidence of younger-onset diabetes in Japan was higher in spring (from March to May).

In Japan, men aged 40-59 years and women aged 0-19 years are the groups with the highest incidence of type 1 diabetes. Further, the incidence of younger-onset diabetes in Japan was higher in spring (from March to May).

Long-term changes of fasting blood glucose (FBG) in relation to lower-extremity peripheral artery disease (lower-extremity PAD) in people without diabetes has barely been reported. Our study aimed to investigate the association between FBG variability and the incidence of lower-extremity PAD in people without diabetes.

We included 7699 participants without prior lower-extremity PAD and diabetes from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study in the final analysis. At least two measurements of FBG were required during follow-up. Variability of FBG was identified using SD, coefficient of variation (CV), variability independent of the mean (VIM) and average real variability. Lower-extremity PAD was defined as an ankle brachial index <0.9, or hospitalization with a lower-extremity PAD diagnosis. Cox regression model was used to calculate HR for incidence of lower-extremity PAD and FBG variability.

During a median follow-up of 19.5 years, 504 (6.5 %) lower-extremity PAD events were observed, 54.4% (n=274) were male, and 17.5% (n=88) were African-American. FBG variability was positively associated with incident lower-extremity PAD, with a linear relationship. HRs for CV and VIM were 1.015 (95% CI 1.001 to 1.03; p

0.023), and 1.032 (95% CI 1.004 to 1.06; p

0.022) for lower-extremity PAD, respectively. Participants in the lowest quartile of CV were at lower lower-extremity PAD risk compared with the highest ones (HR 1.499, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.938; p

0.002).

Higher FBG variability was independently associated with increased prevalence of lower-extremity PAD in people without diabetes.

NCT00005131.

NCT00005131.Regulatory elements (REs) consist of enhancers and promoters that occupy a significant portion of the noncoding genome and control gene expression programs either in cis or in trans Putative REs have been identified largely based on their regulatory features (co-occupancy of ESC-specific transcription factors, enhancer histone marks, and DNase hypersensitivity) in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). However, less has been established regarding their regulatory functions in their native context. We deployed cis- and trans-regulatory elements scanning through saturating mutagenesis and sequencing (ctSCAN-SMS) to target elements within the ∼12-kb cis-region (cis-REs; CREs) of the Oct4 gene locus, as well as genome-wide 2,613 high-confidence trans-REs (TREs), in mESCs. click here ctSCAN-SMS identified 10 CREs and 12 TREs as novel candidate REs of the Oct4 gene in mESCs. Furthermore, deletions of these candidate REs confirmed that the majority of the REs are functionally active, and CREs are more active than TREs in controlling Oct4 gene expression. A subset of active CREs and TREs physically interact with the Oct4 promoter to varying degrees; specifically, a greater number of active CREs, compared with active TREs, physically interact with the Oct4 promoter. Moreover, comparative genomics analysis reveals that a greater number of active CREs than active TREs are evolutionarily conserved between mice and primates, including humans. Taken together, our study demonstrates the reliability and robustness of ctSCAN-SMS screening to identify critical REs and investigate their roles in the regulation of transcriptional output of a target gene (in this case Oct4) in their native context.RNase J enzymes are metallohydrolases that are involved in RNA maturation and RNA recycling, govern gene expression in bacteria, and catalyze both exonuclease and endonuclease activity. The catalytic activity of RNase J is regulated by multiple mechanisms which include oligomerization, conformational changes to aid substrate recognition, and the metal cofactor at the active site. However, little is known of how RNase J paralogs differ in expression and activity. Here we describe structural and biochemical features of two Staphylococcus epidermidis RNase J paralogs, RNase J1 and RNase J2. RNase J1 is a homodimer with exonuclease activity aided by two metal cofactors at the active site. RNase J2, on the other hand, has endonuclease activity and one metal ion at the active site and is predominantly a monomer. We note that the expression levels of these enzymes vary across Staphylococcal strains. Together, these observations suggest that multiple interacting RNase J paralogs could provide a strategy for functional improvisation utilizing differences in intracellular concentration, quaternary structure, and distinct active site architecture despite overall structural similarity.