Recruiting Research Participants via Traditional Snowball vs Facebook Advertisements and a Website.

This article describes the use of Facebook, a website targeting nurses, and snowball sampling for recruitment of registered nurse participants in a qualitative study exploring measurement-driven clinical behavior and metric-driven harm. Previous studies suggest that social media can be a successful and cost-effective sampling strategy, increasing the numbers of participants, their diversity, and their representativeness of the population of interest. This study, however, found traditional snowball sampling to be far more effective than advertisements via Facebook and a professional website. Lessons learned are detailed, including cost and technical issues encountered. Suggestions for nurse researchers considering using Facebook for participant recruitment are described. Methodological research that could enhance the empirical-base supporting effective social media recruitment of research participants is offered for consideration by nurse researchers.

Phosphorylation of tropomodulin1 contributes to the regulation of actin filament architecture in cardiac muscle.

Tropomodulin1 (Tmod1) is an actin-capping protein that plays an important role in actin filament pointed-end dynamics and length in striated muscle. No mechanisms have been identified to explain how Tmod1's functional properties are regulated. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the functional significance of the phosphorylation of Tmod1 at previously identified Thr54. Rat cardiomyocytes were assessed for phosphorylation of Tmod1 using Pro-Q Diamond staining and (32)P labeling. Green fluorescent protein-tagged phosphorylation-mimic (T54E) and phosphorylation-deficient (T54A) versions of Tmod1 were expressed in cultured cardiomyocytes, and the ability of these mutants to assemble and restrict actin lengths was observed. We report for the first time that Tmod1 is phosphorylated endogenously in cardiomyocytes, and phosphorylation at Thr54 causes a significant reduction in the ability of Tmod1 to assemble to the pointed end compared with that of the wild type (WT; 48 vs. 78%, respectively). In addition, overexpression of Tmod1-T54E restricts actin filament lengths by only ∼3%, whereas Tmod1-WT restricts the lengths significantly by ∼8%. Finally, Tmod1-T54E altered the actin filament-capping activity in polymerization assays. Taken together, our data suggest that pointed-end assembly and Tmod1's thin filament length regulatory function are regulated by its phosphorylation state.

Water, sanitation and hygiene in Haiti: past, present, and future.

Haiti has the lowest rates of access to improved water and sanitation infrastructure in the western hemisphere. This situation was likely exacerbated by the earthquake in 2010 and also contributed to the rapid spread of the cholera epidemic that started later that same year. This report examines the history of the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector in Haiti, considering some factors that have influenced WASH conditions in the country. We then discuss the situation sine the earthquake and subsequent cholera epidemic, and the responses to those events. Finally, drawing on Haiti's National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Cholera in Haiti 2013-2022, we suggest some actions that could help bring about long-term WASH improvements for the future. Because the current WASH situation has evolved over decades of limited attention and resources, it will take a long-term, sustained effort to improve the situation.

Investigating lasp-2 in cell adhesion: new binding partners and roles in motility.

Focal adhesions are intricate protein complexes that facilitate cell attachment, migration, and cellular communication. Lasp-2 (LIM-nebulette), a member of the nebulin family of actin-binding proteins, is a newly identified component of these complexes. To gain further insights into the functional role of lasp-2, we identified two additional binding partners of lasp-2: the integral focal adhesion proteins vinculin and paxillin. Of interest, the interaction of lasp-2 with its binding partners vinculin and paxillin is significantly reduced in the presence of lasp-1, another nebulin family member. The presence of lasp-2 appears to enhance the interaction of vinculin and paxillin with each other; however, as with the interaction of lasp-2 with vinculin or paxillin, this effect is greatly diminished in the presence of excess lasp-1. This suggests that the interplay between lasp-2 and lasp-1 could be an adhesion regulatory mechanism. Lasp-2's potential role in metastasis is revealed, as overexpression of lasp-2 in either SW620 or PC-3B1 cells-metastatic cancer cell lines-increases cell migration but impedes cell invasion, suggesting that the enhanced interaction of vinculin and paxillin may functionally destabilize focal adhesion composition. Taken together, these data suggest that lasp-2 has an important role in coordinating and regulating the composition and dynamics of focal adhesions.

The Nebulin family: an actin support group.

Nebulin, a giant, actin-binding protein, is the largest member of a family of proteins (including N-RAP, nebulette, lasp-1 and lasp-2) that are assembled in a variety of cytoskeletal structures, and expressed in different tissues. For decades, nebulin has been thought to act as a molecular ruler, specifying the precise length of actin filaments in skeletal muscle. However, emerging evidence suggests that nebulin should not be viewed as a ruler but as an actin filament stabilizer required for length maintenance. Nebulin has also been implicated recently in an array of regulatory functions independent of its role in actin filament length regulation. In this review, we discuss the current evolutionary, biochemical, and functional data for the nebulin family of proteins - a family whose members, both large and small, function as cytoskeletal scaffolds and stabilizers.

Fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus thuringiensis isolates.

DNA from over 300 Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus anthracis isolates was analyzed by fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). B. thuringiensis and B. cereus isolates were from diverse sources and locations, including soil, clinical isolates and food products causing diarrheal and emetic outbreaks, and type strains from the American Type Culture Collection, and over 200 B. thuringiensis isolates representing 36 serovars or subspecies were from the U.S. Department of Agriculture collection. Twenty-four diverse B. anthracis isolates were also included. Phylogenetic analysis of AFLP data revealed extensive diversity within B. thuringiensis and B. cereus compared to the monomorphic nature of B. anthracis. All of the B. anthracis strains were more closely related to each other than to any other Bacillus isolate, while B. cereus and B. thuringiensis strains populated the entire tree. Ten distinct branches were defined, with many branches containing both B. cereus and B. thuringiensis isolates. A single branch contained all the B. anthracis isolates plus an unusual B. thuringiensis isolate that is pathogenic in mice. In contrast, B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki (ATCC 33679) and other isolates used to prepare insecticides mapped distal to the B. anthracis isolates. The interspersion of B. cereus and B. thuringiensis isolates within the phylogenetic tree suggests that phenotypic traits used to distinguish between these two species do not reflect the genomic content of the different isolates and that horizontal gene transfer plays an important role in establishing the phenotype of each of these microbes. B. thuringiensis isolates of a particular subspecies tended to cluster together.

Between risk and confession: state and popular perspectives of syphilis infection in revolutionary Mexico

It examines how people in revolutionary Mexico made decisions about their risk of contracting syphilis in the context of a popular campaign aimed at preventing the spread of the disease and advancing the medicalization of society.(AU)