Physical activity prescription among Mexican physicians: a structural equation analysis of the theory of planned behaviour.

AIM: To describe the physical activity (PA) prescribing behaviour of Mexican primary care physicians and determine if the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) explains this behaviour. METHODS: 633 physicians (56% male, mean age 38 years) from 305 primary care clinics in Jalisco, Mexico self-reported PA prescription behaviour, PA involvement, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control (PBC) and intention related to PA prescription behaviour. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed. RESULTS: 48% of physicians reported they always ask patients about their PA, 33% provide verbal prescriptions, 6% provide written prescriptions, 8% refer patients to PA resources and 4% assess patient fitness. SEM analysis showed that the fit of the TPB model was satisfactory (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.98, SRMR = 0.05). The model explained 79% of the variance on intention (r(2) = 0.79, p < 0.05), and 14% of the variance on prescription behaviour (r(2) = 0.14, p < 0.05). Subjective norm (ß = 0.73, p < 0.05) and attitude (ß = 0.16, p < 0.05) explained behavioural intention, while PBC (ß = 0.38, p < 0.05) and physician PA (ß = 0.15, p < 0.05) explained prescription behaviour. DISCUSSION: The TPB provided useful insight into physician prescription behaviour, although not all the theory tenets were supported. More research testing the TPB and other theories is needed to better understand psychosocial predictors of this behaviour. CONCLUSION: Strategies aimed at improving physicians' perceived ability to prescribe PA and their own PA involvement seem worthwhile.

The sae locus of Staphylococcus aureus controls exoprotein synthesis at the transcriptional level.

Agr and sar are known regulatory loci of Staphylococcus aureus that control the production of several extracellular and cell-wall-associated proteins. A pleiotropic insertional mutation in S. aureus, designated sae, that leads to the production of drastically diminished levels of alpha- and beta-hemolysins and coagulase and slightly reduced levels of protein A has been described. The study of the expression of the genes coding for these exoproteins in the sae::Tn551 mutant (carried out in this work by Northern blot analyses) revealed that the genes for alpha- and beta-hemolysins (hla and hlb) and coagulase (coa) are not transcribed and that the gene for protein A (spa) is transcribed at a somewhat reduced level. These results indicate that the sae locus regulates these exoprotein genes at the transcriptional level. Northern blot analyses also show that the sae mutation does not affect the expression of agr or sar regulatory loci. An sae::Tn551 agr::tetM double mutant has been phenotypically characterized as producing reduced or null levels of alpha-, beta-, and delta-hemolysins, coagulase, and high levels of protein A. Northern blot analyses carried out in this work with the double mutant revealed that hla, hlb, hld, and coa genes are not transcribed, while spa is transcribed at high levels. The fact that coa is not expressed in the sae agr mutant, as in the sae parental strain, while spa is expressed at the high levels characteristic of the agr parental strain, suggests that sae and agr interact in a complex way in the control of the expression of the genes of several exoproteins.

Regulation of biosynthesis of aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetases and of transfer-RNA in Escherichia coli.

We have isolated temperature resistant revertants from temperature sensitive E. coli strains containing either a thermolabile glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase or leucyl-tRNA synthetase. Among the revertants which still contained the thermolabile leucyl-tRNA synthetase we found two classes of regulatory mutants (leuX and leu Y) which have elevated levels of this enzyme. The leuX mutation specifies an operator-promoter region adjacent to the structural gene (leuS) for the enzyme. The leuY gene maps away from the leuS gene and codes for a protein. Using these mutants we demonstrated that the levels of leucyl-tRNA are related to the derepression of the leucine and isoleucine-valine operons. Among the revertants which still contained the thermolabile glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase were characterized three classes of mutants, glnT, glnU, and glnR. The glnT and glnU mutants contain elevated levels of tRNAgln, while the glnR mutant possesses elevated levels of glutaminyl-tRNA synthetase. The level of glutamine synthetase, the enzyme responsible for the formation of glutamine, is also derepressed in the glnT and glnR mutants.