Interventions to improve latent and active tuberculosis treatment completion rates in underserved groups in low incidence countries: a scoping review.

Background: People in underserved groups have higher rates of tuberculosis (TB) and poorer treatment outcomes compared with people with no social risk factors.

Objectives: This scoping review aimed to identify interventions that improve TB treatment adherence or completion rates.

Eligibility Criteria: Studies of any design focusing on interventions to improve adherence or completion of TB treatment in underserved populations in low incidence countries.

Implementation of novel and conventional outbreak control measures in managing COVID-19 outbreaks in a large UK prison.

Background: Outbreak control measures during COVID-19 outbreaks in a large UK prison consisted of standard (e.g., self-isolation) and novel measures, including establishment of: (i) reverse cohorting units for accommodating new prison admissions; (ii) protective isolation unit for isolating symptomatic prisoners, and (iii) a shielding unit to protect medically vulnerable prisoners.

Scoping review of mental health in prisons through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: To examine the extent, nature and quality of literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of imprisoned people and prison staff.

Design: Scoping review.

Data Sources: PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Global Health, Cochrane, PsycINFO, PsychExtra, Web of Science and Scopus were searched for any paper from 2019 onwards that focused on the mental health impact of COVID-19 on imprisoned people and prison staff.

Extending the 30-minute rule for red cell units - investigation of the bacterial risk of 60-minute exposures to ambient temperature.

Background And Objectives: In the UK, a significant proportion of red cell units is discarded due to the 30-min rule governing out of temperature control. Studies have shown that repeated warming to ambient temperature has little impact on red cell quality or bacterial growth. We aimed to validate extension of the rule to 60 minutes by investigation of repeated same, and different, day exposures on bacterial growth.

Bacterial screening of platelet components by National Health Service Blood and Transplant, an effective risk reduction measure.

Background: Bacterial contamination of blood components remains a major cause of sepsis in transfusion medicine. Between 2006 and 2010 in the 5 years before the introduction of bacterial screening of platelet (PLT) components by National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), seven cases of PLT component-associated transmission of bacterial infection were recorded for 10 patients, three of which were fatal.

Study Design And Methods: Sampling of individual PLT components was undertaken at 36 to 48 hours after donation and tested in the BacT/ALERT system with 8 mL inoculated into each of aerobic and anaerobic culture bottles.

Respiratory symptoms in people living with HIV and the effect of antiretroviral therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has significantly altered the pattern of acute and chronic HIV-related disease. However, it is not clear what this means in terms of respiratory symptoms. We sought to investigate the association between HIV status and respiratory symptoms and how these have changed with the availability of ART.

Logistic, ethical, and political dimensions of stepped wedge trials: critical review and case studies.

Background: Three arguments are usually invoked in favour of stepped wedge cluster randomised controlled trials: the logistic convenience of implementing an intervention in phases, the ethical benefit of providing the intervention to all clusters, and the potential to enhance the social acceptability of cluster randomised controlled trials. Are these alleged benefits real? We explored the logistic, ethical, and political dimensions of stepped wedge trials using case studies of six recent evaluations.

Methods: We identified completed or ongoing stepped wedge evaluations using two systematic reviews.

Short-term nutrition education reduces low birthweight and improves pregnancy outcomes among urban poor women in Bangladesh.

Background: Maternal malnutrition and poor gestational weight gain are the most important causes of low birthweight and infant mortality in Bangladesh.

Objective: To assess the effect of short-term nutrition education on weight gain in the third trimester of pregnancy, birth outcomes, and breastfeeding.

Methods: Three hundred pregnant women participated in this randomized, controlled trial during a 3-month intervention period.

Universal HIV testing in London tuberculosis clinics: a cluster randomised controlled trial.

We assessed whether implementation of a combination of interventions in London tuberculosis clinics raised the levels of HIV test offers, acceptance and coverage. A stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted across 24 clinics. Interventions were training of clinical staff and provision of tailor-made information resources with or without a change in clinic policy from selective to universal HIV testing.

A controlled trial of the knowledge impact of tuberculosis information leaflets among staff supporting substance misusers: pilot study.

Background: Information leaflets are widely used to increase awareness and knowledge of disease. Limited research has, to date, been undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of these information resources. This pilot study sought to determine whether information leaflets developed specifically for staff working with substance mis-users improved knowledge of tuberculosis (TB).

Non-enzymatic glycation induces structural modifications of myoglobin.

Increased glucose concentration in diabetes mellitus causes glycation of several proteins, leading to changes in their properties. Although glycation-induced functional modification of myoglobin is known, structural modification of the protein has not yet been reported. Here, we have studied glucose-modified structural changes of the heme protein.

A novel rapid and effective donor arm disinfection method.

Background: The aim of the study was to derive a donor arm disinfection technique that was rapid, but with a disinfection efficacy equivalent to a previous "best-practice" technique. This method consisted of a two-stage procedure with an initial application of 70% isopropyl alcohol and then 2% tincture of iodine (IATI). The total time for the IATI method was 2 minutes in duration.

Evaluating knowledge gain from TB leaflets for prison and homeless sector staff: the National Knowledge Service TB pilot.

Background: The National Knowledge Service (NKS) is a National Health Service initiative to make patient and public information available to patients and healthcare professionals. The current study was carried out with a view to determine whether the resources developed by the NKS Tuberculosis Pilot have improved knowledge about tuberculosis among the target group in the short term.

Methods: Information resources specifically targeted and developed for homeless sector staff, managers and prison officials were used for this study.

Effect of non-enzymatic glycation on esterase activities of hemoglobin and myoglobin.

Heme proteins--hemoglobin and myoglobin possess esterase activities. Studies with purified hemoglobin from normal individuals and diabetic patients revealed that the esterase activity as measured from hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl acetate (p-NPA) was higher in diabetic condition and increased progressively with extent of the disease. HbA(1c), the major glycated hemoglobin, which increases proportionately with blood glucose level in diabetes mellitus, exhibited more esterase activity than the non-glycated hemoglobin fraction, HbA(0), as demonstrated spectrophotometrically as well as by activity staining.

Web-based provision of information on infectious diseases: a systems study.

The National electronic Library for Health (NeLH) is an Internet medical information resources portal, principally for healthcare professionals, within which the National electronic Library of Infection (NeLI) is one of NeLH Specialist Libraries providing evidence on infectious diseases. In this article, we describe a systems-based evaluation of NeLI based on a soft systems methodology. User feedback and other data for the analysis were obtained using online questionnaires.

Lessons learned from evaluation of the use of the National electronic Library of Infection.

The National electronic Library of Infection (NeLI: http://www.neli.org.

Effect of glycation of hemoglobin on its interaction with trifluoperazine.

Trifluoperazine (TFZ), a phenothiazine drug, penetrates into human erythrocytes and releases oxygen by interaction with hemoglobin. TFZ-induced oxygen release from hyperglycemic erythrocytes isolated from diabetic patients is considerably less compared to that from the cells of normoglycemic individuals. In diabetes mellitus, hemoglobin is significantly glycated by glucose.

Cultured interstitial cells from human heart valves express both specific skeletal muscle and non-muscle markers.

Cardiac valve interstitial cells are a phenotypically diverse and dynamic population, comprising myofibroblasts, fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. To understand how these contribute to valve function and to optimize the choice of cells for seeding tissue-engineered valves, we are fingerprinting interstitial cells from all four human heart valves for useful phenotypic markers. We have begun by selecting markers indicated as of interest from previous work on myofibroblast-like cell lines.

Effect of nonenzymatic glycation on functional and structural properties of hemoglobin.

HbA(1c), the major glycated hemoglobin increases proportionately with blood glucose concentration in diabetes mellitus. H(2)O(2) promotes more iron release from HbA(1c) than that from nonglycated hemoglobin, HbA(0). This free iron, acting as a Fenton reagent, might produce free radicals and degrade cell constituents.

Multiple pools of phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate detected using the pleckstrin homology domain of Osh2p.

Phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) phosphate (PtdInsP) lipids are used as intracellular signposts for the recruitment and activation of peripheral membrane proteins. Whereas the distribution of most PtdInsPs is restricted to a single organelle, PtdIns(4)P is unique in that it exists in several discrete pools, and so proteins that bind PtdIns(4)P must use extra receptors to achieve a restricted localization. Here we compare the two highly related pleckstrin homology (PH) domains from Osh1p and Osh2p, yeast homologues of oxysterol-binding protein (OSBP), that target membranes using PtdIns(4)P, and in vitro bind both PtdIns(4)P and PtdIns(4,5)P2.

In vitro nonenzymatic glycation enhances the role of myoglobin as a source of oxidative stress.

Metmyoglobin (Mb) was glycated by glucose in a non-enzymatic in vitro reaction. Amount of iron release from the heme pocket of myoglobin was found to be directly related with the extent of glycation. After in vitro glycation, the unchanged Mb and glycated myoglobin (GMb) were separated by ion exchange (BioRex 70) chromatography, which eliminated free iron from the protein fractions.

A conserved ER targeting motif in three families of lipid binding proteins and in Opi1p binds VAP.

Intracellular lipid traffic is mediated both by membrane vesicles and by a number of non-vesicular pathways facilitated by cytoplasmic lipid binding proteins. For these proteins to act effectively they must be targeted accurately to specific membranes. Here we identify a novel short conserved determinant called the FFAT motif that is shared by several seemingly unrelated lipid binding proteins and is also found in Opi1p, a transcriptional regulator of phospholipid synthesis in yeast.