Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
737
result(s) for
"Williams, Rachel J"
Sort by:
Positive Psychology Interventions in Practice
\"This book presents recent advancements in positive psychology, specifically its application across broad areas of current interest. Chapters include submissions from various international authors in the field and cover discussion and presentation of relevant research, theories, and applications. The volume covers topics such as CBT, Psychotherapy, Coaching, Workplaces, Aging, Education, Leadership, Emotion, Interventions, Measurement, Technology, Design, Health, Relationships, Experiences, Communities. With the growing interest in the applications of positive psychology across diverse fields within psychology and beyond, this book will make a worthwhile contribution to the field. It will also fill the current need for a volume that highlights specifically the various recent advancements in positive psychology into diverse fields and as such will be of benefit to a wide range of professionals, including psychologists, educators, clinicians, therapists, and many others.\" -- Publisher's website.
Book
More than just gastritis: An unusual presentation of strangulated transmesenteric hernia in a pediatric patient
Internal hernias are a rare occurrence, reported in only 0.2–0.9% of the general population, and predominantly occur in adult patients as postsurgical complications. However, internal hernias can occur in pediatric patients, typically due to herniation of bowel through congenital mesenteric defects, and are associated with high rates of strangulation or volvulus (up to 30–40%) in this population. These can be especially difficult to detect due to nonspecific symptoms and rarity, but carry a steep mortality rate of 45% if treated and virtually 100% if missed.
We present a case report that describes a 3 year old patient who presented to the emergency department with less than 12 h of nonbloody, nonbilious emesis and associated abdominal pain with preserved ability to tolerate oral intake. She ultimately went on to have ultrasound and then CT imaging that revealed a high grade bowel obstruction due to an internal hernia from a mesenteric defect for which she required emergent resection of 119 cm of necrotic bowel.
Ultimately this case illustrates a fairly benign presentation of a rare etiology of pediatric vomiting and abdominal pain that if left undetected could prove fatal, and is therefore essential for the emergency clinician to consider on the differential for vomiting and nonspecific abdominal pain in the pediatric patient.
Journal Article
Low Prevalence of Conjunctival Infection with Chlamydia trachomatis in a Treatment-Naïve Trachoma-Endemic Region of the Solomon Islands
Trachoma is endemic in several Pacific Island states. Recent surveys across the Solomon Islands indicated that whilst trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) was present at levels warranting intervention, the prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis (TT) was low. We set out to determine the relationship between chlamydial infection and trachoma in this population.
We conducted a population-based trachoma prevalence survey of 3674 individuals from two Solomon Islands provinces. Participants were examined for clinical signs of trachoma. Conjunctival swabs were collected from all children aged 1-9 years. We tested swabs for Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) DNA using droplet digital PCR. Chlamydial DNA from positive swabs was enriched and sequenced for use in phylogenetic analysis.
We observed a moderate prevalence of TF in children aged 1-9 years (n = 296/1135, 26.1%) but low prevalence of trachomatous inflammation-intense (TI) (n = 2/1135, 0.2%) and current Ct infection (n = 13/1002, 1.3%) in children aged 1-9 years, and TT in those aged 15+ years (n = 2/2061, 0.1%). Ten of 13 (76.9%) cases of infection were in persons with TF or TI (p = 0.0005). Sequence analysis of the Ct-positive samples yielded 5/13 (38%) complete (>95% coverage of reference) genome sequences, and 8/13 complete plasmid sequences. Complete sequences all aligned most closely to ocular serovar reference strains.
The low prevalence of TT, TI and Ct infection that we observed are incongruent with the high proportion of children exhibiting signs of TF. TF is present at levels that apparently warrant intervention, but the scarcity of other signs of trachoma indicates the phenotype is mild and may not pose a significant public health threat. Our data suggest that, whilst conjunctival Ct infection appears to be present in the region, it is present at levels that are unlikely to be the dominant driving force for TF in the population. This could be one reason for the low prevalence of TT observed during the study.
Journal Article
Horizontal gene transfer converts non-toxigenic Clostridium difficile strains into toxin producers
Clostridium difficile
is a major nosocomial pathogen and the main causative agent of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. The organism produces two potent toxins, A and B, which are its major virulence factors. These are chromosomally encoded on a region termed the pathogenicity locus (PaLoc), which also contains regulatory genes, and is absent in non-toxigenic strains. Here we show that the PaLoc can be transferred from the toxin-producing strain, 630Δ
erm
, to three non-toxigenic strains of different ribotypes. One of the transconjugants is shown by cytotoxicity assay to produce toxin B at a similar level to the donor strain, demonstrating that a toxigenic
C. difficile
strain is capable of converting a non-toxigenic strain to a toxin producer by horizontal gene transfer. This has implications for the treatment of
C. difficile
infections, as non-toxigenic strains are being tested as treatments in clinical trials.
Clostridium difficile
produces potent toxins that are encoded by its pathogenicity locus. Here, Brouwer
et al.
demonstrate surprising bacterial genome plasticity whereby the pathogenicity locus is transferred from toxigenic to non-toxigenic strains of
C. difficile
by conjugational transfer.
Journal Article
Correction: Low Prevalence of Conjunctival Infection with Chlamydia trachomatis in a Treatment-Naïve Trachoma-Endemic Region of the Solomon Islands
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004863.].
Journal Article
Whole genome sequencing of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 directly from human cerebrospinal fluid reveals selective constraints in neurotropic viruses
Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1) chronically infects over 70 per cent of the global population. Clinical manifestations are largely restricted to recurrent epidermal vesicles. However, HSV-1 also leads to encephalitis, the infection of the brain parenchyma, with high associated rates of mortality and morbidity. In this study, we performed target enrichment followed by direct sequencing of HSV-1 genomes, using target enrichment methods on the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of clinical encephalitis patients and from skin swabs of epidermal vesicles on non-encephalopathic patients. Phylogenetic analysis revealed high inter-host diversity and little population structure. In contrast, samples from different lesions in the same patient clustered with similar patterns of allelic variants. Comparison of consensus genome sequences shows HSV-1 has been freely recombining, except for distinct islands of linkage disequilibrium (LD). This suggests functional constraints prevent recombination between certain genes, notably those encoding pairs of interacting proteins. Distinct LD patterns characterised subsets of viruses recovered from CSF and skin lesions, which may reflect different evolutionary constraints in different body compartments. Functions of genes under differential constraint related to immunity or tropism and provide new hypotheses on tissue-specific mechanisms of viral infection and latency.
Journal Article
Islands of linkage in an ocean of pervasive recombination reveals two-speed evolution of human cytomegalovirus genomes
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects most of the population worldwide, persisting throughout the host's life in a latent state with periodic episodes of reactivation. While typically asymptomatic, HCMV can cause fatal disease among congenitally infected infants and immunocompromised patients. These clinical issues are compounded by the emergence of antiviral resistance and the absence of an effective vaccine, the development of which is likely complicated by the numerous immune evasins encoded by HCMV to counter the host's adaptive immune responses, a feature that facilitates frequent super-infections. Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of HCMV is essential for the development of effective new drugs and vaccines. By comparing viral genomes from uncultivated or low-passaged clinical samples of diverse origins, we observe evidence of frequent homologous recombination events, both recent and ancient, and no structure of HCMV genetic diversity at the whole-genome scale. Analysis of individual gene-scale loci reveals a striking dichotomy: while most of the genome is highly conserved, recombines essentially freely and has evolved under purifying selection, 21 genes display extreme diversity, structured into distinct genotypes that do not recombine with each other. Most of these hyper-variable genes encode glycoproteins involved in cell entry or escape of host immunity. Evidence that half of them have diverged through episodes of intense positive selection suggests that rapid evolution of hyper-variable loci is likely driven by interactions with host immunity. It appears that this process is enabled by recombination unlinking hyper-variable loci from strongly constrained neighboring sites. It is conceivable that viral mechanisms facilitating super-infection have evolved to promote recombination between diverged genotypes, allowing the virus to continuously diversify at key loci to escape immune detection, while maintaining a genome optimally adapted to its asymptomatic infectious lifecycle.
Journal Article
Heart rates of horses during competitive dressage
Abstract
An understanding of the physiological and metabolic demands of competition is essential for the development of training regimens that elicit adaptations appropriate for the sport being participated in. Despite the fact that dressage is a major sport and one of only three equestrian Olympic disciplines, to date there appear to be no studies that have described the heart rate of horses performing competitive dressage in any detail. The present study was therefore undertaken to describe the physiological demands of dressage competition. Thirty-five horses competing in a total of 50 dressage tests, 36 of which were at British dressage (BD) elementary level and 14 at BD medium level, were studied. The horses studied were predominantly Warmblood or Thoroughbred cross geldings with an age range from 6 to 17 (mean ± SD age of 10.0 ± 2.5 years). The average durations of warm-up for all horses competing were 31.3 ± 15.4 min at elementary level (n = 36) and 31.4 ± 10.0 min at medium level (n = 14; P > 0.05). The mean and mean peak heart rates for horses warming up for elementary level were 91 ± 13 and 146 ± 35 bpm (beats min−1), respectively, and were not different to that for horses warming up for medium level (mean 91 ± 10 bpm; peak: 144 ± 32 bpm; P > 0.05). The mean and mean peak heart rates for all horses while competing at elementary level (n = 36) were 102 ± 13 and 132 ± 20 bpm, respectively, and 107 ± 8 and 132 ± 10 bpm, respectively, for medium level (n = 14), and were not significantly different (P > 0.05). Mean heart rates during competition were significantly higher compared with that during warm-up for both elementary and medium levels (P < 0.001). Mean heart rate during competition (elementary and medium data combined) was significantly correlated with mean heart rate during warm-up (r2 = 0.503; n = 50; P < 0.001). There was no association between heart rate, warm-up duration and score or placing. These observations suggest that competitive dressage at BD elementary and medium levels is only moderately aerobically demanding.
Journal Article