Exploring Women Healthcare Leaders' Perceptions on Barriers to Leadership in Greek Context.

Background: Gender inequalities have been identified as important derailment factors for health workforce and health system sustainability. Literature holds responsible a list of gendered barriers faced by female health workforce. However, there is a gap in the evidence based research on women leaders' own perceptions of barriers to leading positions advancement. This study aims to explore leadership barriers perceived by women healthcare leaders within country's context; research focused on Greece due to country's poor performance on gender equality index and current economic turbulence. Study supplements survey data and provides orientation for further gender sensitive research in health workforce development through country's specificity lens to better inform education and policy makers. Methods: The best-worst object case survey method was used, applying an online questionnaire designed in Qualtrics. The online questionnaire was sent to 30 purposively invited participants. Respondents were asked to tick the most and the least important barriers to women's leadership in provided choice scenarios. Descriptive data analysis was used to understand and interpret the results. Results: Women leaders perceived stereotypes, work/life balance, lack of equal career advancement, lack of confidence, gender gap and gender bias to be the barriers with the greatest relative importance in constraining opportunities for pursuing leading positions in Greek healthcare setting. Twenty more barriers were identified and ranked lower in relative importance. The results are considered exploratory and not to obtain population based outcomes. Conclusion: This exploratory study reports the perceived barriers of women leaders in pursuing leading positions within Greek healthcare context. The findings point mainly to organizational and socio-cultural related barriers potentially aggravated by country's unfortunate current economic turbulence. Further extensive research is required to establish grounded conclusions and better inform education and policy makers in developing gender sensitive strategies to sustainable health workforce development.

Heat shock protein accumulation is upregulated in a long-lived mutant of Caenorhabditis elegans.

We present evidence for elevated levels of heat shock protein 16 (HSP16) in an intrinsically thermotolerant, long-lived strain of Caenorhabditis elegans during and after heat stress. Mutation of the age-1 gene, encoding a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase catalytic subunit, results in both extended life span (Age) and increased intrinsic thermotolerance (Itt) in adult hermaphrodites. We subjected age-synchronous cohorts of worms to lethal and nonlethal thermal stress and observed the accumulation of a small (16-18 kd) heat-shock-specific polypeptide detected by an antibody raised against C. elegans HSP16. Strains carrying the mutation hx546 consistently accumulated HSP16 to higher levels than a wild-type strain. Significantly, overaccumulation of HSP16 in the age-1(hx546) strain following heat was observed throughout the adult life span. A chimeric transgene containing the Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase gene fused to a C. elegans HSP16-41 transcriptional promoter was introduced into wild-type and age-1(hx546) backgrounds. Heat-inducible expression of the transgene was elevated in the age-1(hx546) strain compared with the wild-type strain under a wide variety of heat shock and recovery conditions. These observations are consistent with a model in which Age mutations exhibit thermotolerance and extended life span as a result of elevated levels of molecular chaperones.

The proteasome inhibitor MG132 promotes accumulation of the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and steroidogenesis.

StAR, a protein synthesized in the cytoplasm and subsequently imported into mitochondria, regulates the rate-determining step in steroidogenesis, the transport of cholesterol from the outer to the inner mitochondrial membrane. The active form of StAR is the 37 kDa pre-protein, which has a short half-life. To determine whether proteasomes participate in the turnover of StAR, we incubated primary cultures of preovulatory rat granulosa cells and immortalized human granulosa cells in the presence of MG132, a specific inhibitor to proteasome catalysis. This treatment caused accumulation of StAR in unstimulated cells. Moreover, incubation of the cells with MG132 in the presence of forskolin (FK), luteinizing hormone/chorionic gonadotropin or follicular stimulating hormone augmented the accumulation of both the 37 kDa cytoplasmic protein and the 30 kDa mature mitochondrial protein, compared to cells incubated with FK or the gonadotropic hormones alone. Concomitantly, progesterone production was enhanced. In contrast no elevation in the 37 kDa StAR intracellular levels or progesterone production was observed following incubation of the cells with the cysteine protease inhibitor E-64. The increase of the 37 kDa StAR protein was evident after 15 min and 30 min of incubation with MG132 (143% and 187% of control values, respectively) with no significant elevation of the 30 kDa protein. Accumulation of the intermediate mitochondrial 32 kDa protein was evident after 1-2 h and the accumulation of the 30 kDa protein was evident only after 4 h of incubation with MG132. In contrast, no elevation in adrenodoxin, a component of the cytochrome P450scc enzyme system, was found. These data suggest that StAR protein is either directly or indirectly degraded by the proteasome which may explain, in part, its short half-life. Moreover, it seems that the cytosolic 37 kDa protein, which is responsible for the steroidogenic activity of StAR, is the primary proteasomal substrate and that the inhibition of its degradation by MG132 causes the up-regulation of progesterone production.

Occupational hazards of dentistry. A review of literature from 1990.

A brief survey of the scientific and clinical literature (1990-present) on occupational hazards in dentistry is presented. The hazards identified are associated with chemical and biological agents. Yet, dentistry is a relatively safe profession. Other adverse health risks arise as new technologies and materials are developed. However, once identified and recognized as a risk, new guidelines, precautions and protocols are rapidly instituted to greatly reduce or even eliminate the occupational hazard.

Gingival hyperplasia: interaction between cyclosporin A and nifedipine? A case report.

Treatment with either cyclosporin A or nifedipine may induce gingival hyperplasia. A case report is presented which describes a patient medicated simultaneously with both drugs and who subsequently developed extreme hyperplasia. Could such a severe gingival pathology have resulted from an additive interaction between the two drugs?

Cytotoxicity of sanguinarine chloride to cultured human cells from oral tissue.

The in vitro cytotoxicity of sanguinarine chloride, a dental product used in the treatment of gingivitis and plaque, was compared using cell lines and primary cells from oral human tissues. For the established cell lines, sanguinarine chloride exhibited similar potencies to S-G gingival epithelial cells and to KB carcinoma cells, whereas HGF-1 gingival fibroblasts were more tolerant. However, a gingival primary cell culture was more sensitive to sanguinarine chloride than were the established cell lines. Detailed studies were performed with the S-G cells. The 24-hr midpoint (NR50) cytotoxicity value towards the S-G cells was 7.6 microM, based on the neutral red cytotoxicity assay; vacuolization and multinucleation were noted. When exposed to sanguinarine chloride for 3 days, a lag in growth kinetics was first observed at 1.7 microM. Damage to the integrity of the plasma membrane was evident, as leakage of lactic acid dehydrogenase occurred during a 3 hr exposure to sanguinarine chloride at 0.1275 mM and greater. The cytotoxicity of sanguinarine chloride to the S-G cells was lessened in the presence of an S9 hepatic microsomal fraction from Aroclor-induced rats or by including fetal bovine serum (15%) in the exposure medium. Progressively increasing the pH from 6.0 to 7.8 enhanced the potency of sanguinarine chloride, presumably due to the enhanced uptake of the lipophilic alkanolamine form, as compared to that of the cationic iminium form.

Transgenic strains of the nematode C. elegans in biomonitoring and toxicology: effects of captan and related compounds on the stress response.

The fungicide, captan, induces a cellular stress response in the soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Transgenic C, elegans, which produce beta-galactosidase as a surrogate stress protein, reveal that captan-induced stress is localized mainly to muscle cells of the pharynx. The stress response is elicited by captan concentrations above 5 ppm and occurs within five hours of the initial exposure to the fungicide. Higher concentrations of captan, up to the solubility limit, increase the intensity of the response. Adult nematodes are significantly more sensitive to captan than are larvae. Captan also inhibits feeding in C. elegans, and nematodes exposed to captan rapidly cease muscular contractions in the pharynx. Stress induction and feeding inhibition are also caused by the related fungicides, captafol and folpet, but not by the parent compounds, phthalimide and tetrahydrophthalimide. The inhibition of feeding caused by compounds which elicit the cellular stress response may be an important survival mechanism for C, elegans.

[Construction of vectors for eukaryotes on the basis of fragments of mitochondrial DNA of animals]. / Konstruirovanie vektorov dlia éukariot na osnove fragmentov mitokhondrial'noi DNK zhivotnykh.

The Bam HI fragment of rat liver mtDNA was used for construction and analysis of the cloning vehicles for prokaryota and eukaryota. Transformation of mutant bacterial cells deficient in DNA polymerase I polA with recombinant pBR-mtBA DNA was shown previously. Now the transformation of bacterial cells with recombinant pmt Tn9 DNA was observed. The Bam HI-A fragment of animal mtDNA may be used as vehicle replicon not only in bacterial cells but also in yeasts. The recombinant molecule was constructed from plasmide DNA YJpI which contained yeast chromosomal LEU2 gene and Bam HI-A mtDNA fragment.

[Autonomous replication of plasmid pBR322 containing a mitochondrial DNA fragment of animal origin in the cells of bacteria mutant for DNA-polymerase I]. / Avtonomnaia replikatsiia plazmidy pBTR322, soderzhashchei fragment mitokhondrial'noi DNK zhivotnogo proiskhozhdeniia, v kletkakh bakterii, mutantnykh po DNK-polimeraze I.

Escherichia coli K-12 p108(polA6), p3478(polA1) and KS55(polA12 ts) strains were transformed by recombinant DNA consisting of pBR322 plasmid and BamHI fragment A of rat liver mtDNA containing the origin. For all the strains tested, it was shown that the cells containing hybrid molecules were able to grow on the selective medium under the conditions when pBR322 replicon is not functional. The existence of mtDNA insertion in hybrid molecules was confirmed by electrophoresis and colony hybridization with the 125I-mtDNA. Thus, the ability of a vector containing plasmid replicon and the mitochondrial origin to replicate under the conditions nonpermissive for stable replication of plasmid DNA alone, was demonstrated for the first time.

Satiation effects with reversible figures.

Three experiments were performed to examine the rate at which reversible perspective figures (Necker cubes) undergo apparent reversal, as a function of selected stimulus variables. 100 subjects were instructed not to inhibit or to promote reversals of perspective, but to remain neutral. The data indicated: (1) an incomplete cube reverses less frequently than does a corresponding complete figure, (2) two adjacent cubes reverse in synchrony when of equal luminance but often out of phase when differing in luminance, (3) a shift of the cube's retinal position causes its reversal rate to drop to baseline level. These results suggest that the reversal effect increases over time due to a localized rather than general process, and are thus compatible with a sensory satiation model of perceptual alternation.

Physical and functional mapping of rat-liver mitochondrial DNA.

Rat-liver mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) contains 2 cleavage sites of the restriction endonuclease Xbal. The molecular sizes of restriction fragments are 6.6 X 10(6) and 3.7 X 10(6) D. The results of partial cleavage of mtDNA with EcoRI allow the fragment F (0.32 X 10(6) D) to be localized in the sequence ABCEGFHDA. The functional map of mtDNA is constructed for two genes of the ATP-ase mRNAs from rat-liver mitochondria. Molecular hybridization shows that the ATPase genes are located in fragment B and in the GEHD area of mtDNA EcoRI cleavage.

[Physico-chemical and functional properties fo intramitochondrial polyribosomes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae]. / Fiziko-khimicheskaia i funktsinol'naia kharakteristika mitokhondrial'nykh poliribosom drozhzhei Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Different methods of separation of mitochondrial polyribosomes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae from the admixtures of cytoplasmic polyribosomes firmly bound to the outer mitochondrial membrane has been carried out. It has been shown that treatment of mitochondria with 0.5 M KCl -- 1 mM puromycin alone allows to obtain a highly purified fraction of mitochondrial polyribosomes (Sw, 20 = 100--200S), consisting of 2--3 monomers. Gel-filtration under denaturing conditions of nascent polypeptides bound to mitochondrial polyribosomes has revealed a predominance of polypeptides with molecular weights of 10000--11000. Isoelectrofocusing of labelled polypeptides in the presence of ampholines (pH 3--10) has demonstrated that they are predominantly focussed in the pH region around 9.0 and, consequently, possess basic properties.