Dietary Adherence and Associated Factors among Hypertensive Patients in Bahir Dar City Administration, Ethiopia, 2020

Introduction: Hypertension is considered one of the most challenging public health problems worldwide. Adherence to the recommended diet has a key role to reduce uncontrolled hypertension and hypertension-related complications. A study on dietary adherence among hypertensive patients and associated factors are limited in Ethiopia. So,this study aimed to assess dietary adherence and associated factors among hypertensive patients in Bahir Dar city governmental hospitals, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Bahir Dar city governmental hospitals from February- March 2020. Proportional allocation and systematic random sampling techniques were used to select 386 individuals with hypertension. The logistic regression model was used to assess the association between predictors and dietary adherence. The association was interpreted using the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval. Result: In this the proportion of dietary adherence was 32.8% (CI: 28.0, 37.6). Educational level college and above (AOR=3.0, CI=1.26, 7.08), received nutritional education (AOR=1.9, CI=1.05, 3.62), knowledgeable about hypertension (AOR=2.5, CI=1.36, 4.58), who had no co-morbidities (AOR=2.8, CI=1.49, 5.20), who lived two to four years with hypertension (AOR=2.4, CI=1.17, 5.07), and who had strong social support (AOR=7.1, CI=2.85, 17.46) had significantly association with dietary adherence. Conclusion and recommendations: This study demonstrated that low proportion of hypertensive individuals were adhered to recommended diet. Therefore, availed a social network of family and friends; providing dietary education to address the participants’ knowledge of hypertension, promote survival skill to new diagnosed and considered co-morbidities are an integral part of overall health in people with hypertension.

Transcriptional Shift and Metabolic Adaptations during Leishmania Quiescence Using Stationary Phase and Drug Pressure as Models

Microorganisms can adopt a quiescent physiological condition which acts as a survival strategy under unfavorable conditions. Quiescent cells are characterized by slow or non-proliferation and a deep downregulation of processes related to biosynthesis. Although quiescence has been described mostly in bacteria, this survival skill is widespread, including in eukaryotic microorganisms. In Leishmania, a digenetic parasitic protozoan that causes a major infectious disease, quiescence has been demonstrated, but the molecular and metabolic features enabling its maintenance are unknown. Here, we quantified the transcriptome and metabolome of Leishmania promastigotes and amastigotes where quiescence was induced in vitro either, through drug pressure or by stationary phase. Quiescent cells have a global and coordinated reduction in overall transcription, with levels dropping to as low as 0.4% of those in proliferating cells. However, a subset of transcripts did not follow this trend and were relatively upregulated in quiescent populations, including those encoding membrane components, such as amastins and GP63, or processes like autophagy. The metabolome followed a similar trend of overall downregulation albeit to a lesser magnitude than the transcriptome. It is noteworthy that among the commonly upregulated metabolites were those involved in carbon sources as an alternative to glucose. This first integrated two omics layers afford novel insight into cell regulation and show commonly modulated features across stimuli and stages.

Positive supercoiling buildup is a trigger of E. coli's short-term response to cold shock

Adaptation to cold shock (CS) is a key survival skill of gut bacteria of warm-blooded animals. In E. coli, this skill emerges from a complex transcriptional program of multiple, timely-ordered shifts in gene expression. We identified short-term, cold shock repressed (CSR) genes by RNA-seq and provide evidence that their variability in evolutionary fitness is low and that their responsiveness to cold emanates from intrinsic features. Given that their single-cell variability in protein numbers increases after CS, we hypothesized that the responsiveness of a large portion of CSR genes is triggered by the high propensity for transcription locking due to positive supercoiling buildup (PSB). We then proposed a model of this phenomenon and, in support, show that nearly half of CSR genes are highly responsive to Gyrase inhibition. Also, their response strengths to CS and Gyrase inhibition correlate and most CSR genes increase their single-cell variability in protein numbers. Further, during CS, the cells' nucleoid density increases (in agreement with increased numbers of positive supercoils), their energy levels become depleted (while the resolving of positive supercoils is ATP dependent), and the colocalization of Gyrases and the nucleoid increases (in agreement with increased time length for resolving supercoils). We conclude that high sensitivity to PSB is at the core of the short-term, cold shock responsive transcriptional program of E. coli and propose that this gene feature may be useful for providing temperature sensitivity to chromosome-integrated synthetic circuits.

Transcriptional shift and metabolic adaptations during Leishmania quiescence using stationary-phase and drug pressure as models

Microorganisms can adopt a quiescent physiological condition which acts as a survival strategy under unfavourable conditions. Quiescent cells are characterized by slow or non-proliferation and deep down-regulation of processes related to biosynthesis. Although quiescence has been described mostly in bacteria, this survival skill is widespread, including in eukaryotic microorganisms. In Leishmania, a digenetic parasitic protozoan that causes a major infectious disease, quiescence has been demonstrated, but molecular and metabolic features enabling its maintenance are unknown. Here we quantified the transcriptome and metabolome of Leishmania promastigotes and amastigotes where quiescence was induced in vitro either through drug pressure or by stationary phase. Quiescent cells have a global and coordinated reduction in overall transcription, with levels dropping to as low as 0.4% of those in proliferating cells. However, a subset of transcripts did not follow this trend and were relatively upregulated in quiescent populations, including those encoding membrane components such as amastins and GP63 or processes like autophagy. The metabolome followed a similar trend of overall downregulation albeit to a lesser magnitude than the transcriptome. Noteworthy, among the commonly upregulated metabolites were those involved in carbon sources as an alternative to glucose. This first integrated two omics layers affords novel insights into cell regulation and shows commonly modulated features across stimuli and stages.

How brands care: rhetorics of self-care in contemporary consumer culture

Rooted in feminist activism, self-care has become a commodified survival skill, practiced by individuals seeking temporary relief from everyday stress and exhaustion and to prevent or mitigate burnout. Under today’s challenging political and economic circumstances, the term ‘self-care’ has permeated popular culture and has shaped the discursive strategies of pro-care / lifestyle brands such as lululemon, the popular fitness apparel company. Through a review of the feminist and mainstream rhetorics of self-care as well as a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of lululemon’s brand communication, this Masters Research Paper (MRP) analyzes how lululemon communicates self-care as a means of restorative pleasure and optimization to their predominantly female demographic. Keywords: self-care, collective care, corporate care, neoliberalism, lululemon, exhaustion, optimization, retail resilience

How brands care: rhetorics of self-care in contemporary consumer culture

Rooted in feminist activism, self-care has become a commodified survival skill, practiced by individuals seeking temporary relief from everyday stress and exhaustion and to prevent or mitigate burnout. Under today’s challenging political and economic circumstances, the term ‘self-care’ has permeated popular culture and has shaped the discursive strategies of pro-care / lifestyle brands such as lululemon, the popular fitness apparel company. Through a review of the feminist and mainstream rhetorics of self-care as well as a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of lululemon’s brand communication, this Masters Research Paper (MRP) analyzes how lululemon communicates self-care as a means of restorative pleasure and optimization to their predominantly female demographic. Keywords: self-care, collective care, corporate care, neoliberalism, lululemon, exhaustion, optimization, retail resilience

Cooperative Planning and Teaching (CPT) between Teachers and the Teacher Librarian in a Hong Kong Primary School to Equip Students with Information Literacy Skills

In this information explosion era, information literacy skill becomes a survival skill. Creativity leads the way the world changes. Knowledge continues to be renewed and constructed. The role of education is to equip students with life long independent learning skill -- information literacy skill, which has to be obtained in curriculum context. Subject teachers alone or the teacher librarian alone cannot provide the necessary learning context. Cooperative Planning and Teaching (CPT) between them to integrate information literacy skill into the curriculum provides the necessary context. It has to be facilitated by flexible library scheduling. This paper presents the process of initiating CPT in a primary school in Hong Kong.

A novel satiety sensor detects circulating glucose and suppresses food consumption via insulin-producing cells in Drosophila

Sensing satiety is a crucial survival skill for all animal species including human. Despite the discovery of numerous neuromodulators that regulate food intake in Drosophila, the mechanism of satiety sensing remains largely elusive. Here, we investigated how neuropeptidergic circuitry conveyed satiety state to influence flies’ food consumption. Drosophila tackykinin (DTK) and its receptor TAKR99D were identified in an RNAi screening as feeding suppressors. Two pairs of DTK+ neurons in the fly brain could be activated by elevated D-glucose in the hemolymph and imposed a suppressive effect on feeding. These DTK+ neurons formed a two-synapse circuitry targeting insulin-producing cells, a well-known feeding suppressor, via TAKR99D+ neurons, and this circuitry could be rapidly activated during food ingestion and cease feeding. Taken together, we identified a novel satiety sensor in the fly brain that could detect specific circulating nutrients and in turn modulate feeding, shedding light on the neural regulation of energy homeostasis.

The knowledge of basic survival skills among preschool children

This study aims to understand the knowledge of basic survival skill activities among 6 years old children. This study employs qualitative method with case study design in which interview, observation and document analysis are part of the data collection for this study. The samples of the study are 10 children of 6 years old participated in the outdoor survival activities and a teacher is interviewed to support the data of the study. The findings of the study report that there are differences in pre-post-test conducted and the outdoor survival activities are created and adapted in line with the ability and development of 6 years old children. This study implies that children have lack of knowledge about basic survival skills activities and need to be exposed among children. Thus, this study has provided valuable insights into basic survival activities among children in order to help them improve their knowledge skills