Caregiver-implemented intervention to increase use of positive airway pressure for adults with Down syndrome and sleep apnea.

Many individuals with Down syndrome are diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a medical condition that substantially affects health and quality of life. The most common treatment for OSA is positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy. Few studies have examined interventions to improve PAP therapy adherence for adults with developmental disabilities or have recruited the assistance of caregivers to improve adherence with this therapy in the home.

Cooperative Conformational Transitions Underpin the Activation Heat Capacity in the Temperature Dependence of Enzyme Catalysis.

Many enzymes display non-Arrhenius behavior with curved Arrhenius plots in the absence of denaturation. There has been significant debate about the origin of this behavior and recently the role of the activation heat capacity (Δ) has been widely discussed. If enzyme-catalyzed reactions occur with appreciable negative values of Δ (arising from narrowing of the conformational space along the reaction coordinate), then curved Arrhenius plots are a consequence.

Evidence for a short-lived resonance state in enzyme catalysis via rate-equation convolution.

At the cellular level, all biological function relies on enzymes to provide catalytic acceleration of essential biochemical processes driving cellular metabolism. The enzyme is presumed to lower the activation energy barrier separating reactants from products, but the precise mechanism remains unresolved. Here we examine the temperature dependence of the enzyme-catalyzed dissociation of p-nitrophenyl-α-D-glucopyranoside (pNPG), a chromogenic analog for maltose, isomaltose, and sucrose disaccharide sugars, into p-nitrophenol (pNP) and glucose (monosaccharide).

Extinction dynamics: The interplay of species traits and the spatial scales of metapopulation declines.

Global changes can lead to species declines and extinctions through their impacts on species habitats at two distinct spatial scales: habitat destruction, in which individual habitat patches are destroyed by land-use change or natural disasters, and habitat degradation, in which larger scale changes, such as nitrogen deposition or climate change, lower mean population abundances across landscapes. We developed a theory showing that, even when these two forms of global change have an identical impact on a species' total amount of habitat, they have qualitatively different consequences for species dynamics and extinction. Using metapopulation theory and simulations, we found distinct impacts of these global changes characterized through several responses: the rate at which populations are lost from the remaining patches, extinction thresholds, and the duration of extinction debts.

Combatting antimicrobial resistance via the cysteine biosynthesis pathway in bacterial pathogens.

Antibiotics are the cornerstone of modern medicine and agriculture, and rising antibiotic resistance is one the biggest threats to global health and food security. Identifying new and different druggable targets for the development of new antibiotics is absolutely crucial to overcome resistance. Adjuvant strategies that either enhance the activity of existing antibiotics or improve clearance by the host immune system provide another mechanism to combat antibiotic resistance.

Completeness and timeliness of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, measles-mumps-rubella, and polio vaccines in young children with chronic health conditions: A systematic review.

Objective: To systematically review literature on uptake and timeliness of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, measles-mumps-rubella, and/or polio-containing vaccines ininfants who were born preterm, with a low birth weight, and/or with chronic health conditions that were diagnosed within the first 6 months of life.

Methods: Using a standardized search strategy developed by a medical librarian, records were extracted from MEDLINE, Embase, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, and CINAHL up to May 8, 2018.

Results: Out of the 1997 records that were screened, we identified 21 studies that met inclusion criteria.

Work-Life and Well-Being in U.K. Therapeutic Prison Officers: A Thematic Analysis.

Previous research has clearly demonstrated the positive impact of therapeutic interventions on offenders' well-being. Much less is known about the impact on prison staff facilitating and delivering such interventions. We employed qualitative methodology to capture a deeper understanding of the work of therapeutic prison officers.

Exposure of colonic epithelial cells to oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum stress causes rapid potassium efflux and calcium influx.

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and oxidative stress have recently been linked to the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases. Under physiological conditions, intestinal epithelial cells are exposed to ER and oxidative stress affecting the cellular ionic homeostasis. However, these altered ion flux 'signatures' during these stress conditions are poorly characterized.