Facilitation of Forgiveness: Impact on Health and Well-being.

Although the practice of forgiveness is encouraged, the healing properties of this virtue by health care professionals are often overlooked. Forgiveness is the voluntary, conscious decision to abandon negative feelings toward another who has caused hurt and replacing those feelings with unconditional love and compassion. It is not about forgetting the hurt or ignoring the pain; it is an actual transformation of the heart. The Enright Forgiveness Process Model and the Pyramid Model of Forgiveness are 2 models that facilitate the forgiveness process. By utilizing either of these pathways, the forgiver ultimately experiences peace of mind and a "release from emotional prison" that leads to holistic healing. As a result, the forgiver experiences lower levels of depression, anxiety, and aggression, which improves quality of life. In addition, physiological benefits such as decreased stress levels, lower blood pressure, and a lower heart rate have also been reported. Throughout the course of their careers, nurses encounter patients and families in acute or end-of-life care situations who want to forgive or be forgiven. As holistic health care providers, nurses should be able to facilitate and close this gap in patient care. This article attempts to raise awareness to the importance of forgiveness in health and well-being among nurses and other health care professionals.

The Efficacy of a Forgiveness Bibliotherapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Nursing Students.

Purpose of study: The need for forgiveness education for nursing self-care and forgiveness facilitation has risen. Therefore, the present pilot study tested the efficacy of an 8-week forgiveness bibliotherapy with a small number of undergraduate nursing students. Design of study: Matched pairs of nursing students were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or no-contact control group. The experimental group, using 8 keys to forgiveness by R. Enright (2015) as the treatment manual, read one chapter a week for 8 weeks and provided weekly reflections. Forgiveness and forgiveness-related outcome measures were administered at pretest, posttest, and one-month follow-up. Findings: At the posttest, the experimental group had significantly greater improvement in forgiveness compared to the control group with a large effect size, which was maintained at one month follow-up. There was no other significant difference between the two groups. Within-group comparisons of the experimental group showed improvement in forgiveness, anxiety, depression, and fatigue from pre to post testing periods and forgiveness, anger, anxiety, depression, and fatigue from pre to follow-up testing periods. Conclusion: Use of bibliotherapy may be a cost-effective way to promote the virtue of forgiveness for students in nursing programs.

Scale Structure and Reflectance Activity of Metapocyrtus apoensis with Notes on Its Distribution in Mindanao, the Philippines.

Scale structure and reflectance activity of a Mindanao endemic weevil from the genus Metapocyrtus has been studied for the first time. Specimens of Metapocyrtus apoensis Schultze, 1925 were collected through opportunistic sampling in Mount Calayo, Musuan, Mindanao, Philippines last February 2020. A total of three individuals of the species were collected all in lower dipterocarp forest with elevation of 500 masl-600 masl. Three specimens were then examined under Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-Ray (SEM_EDX) to analyse its scale structures and reflectance activity. The study provides new locality record of the Mindanao endemic species first in Bukidnon region and an updated distribution in Mindanao based on recent published articles and museum collections. The species inhabits wide ranges of habitat types that greatly differ in elevation and vegetation. Examination of scale's structure through SEM revealed that M. apoensis scales are 50 µm-70 µm in diameter which are almost circular in shape, slightly convex with rough like surface which is termed as non-ordered nipple-like structure. The scales' shape and surface structure clearly differ from other genera of curculionids based on published articles. Analysis of the particles on the weevil's elytra done by EDX reveals several elements that contribute to its iridescence. Major elements such as carbon (42.3%), oxygen (27.7%) and nitrogen (15.1%) come in relatively high atomic concentrations. Microspectrometer revealed a peak reflectance wavelength of about 569.7 nm. This explains the yellow-green iridescence observed on the dorsal side of the weevil. The concentration of the scale in pits serves for protection, intraspecific recognition and camouflage. Despite of widespread distribution and high abundance of this species in Mindanao, anthropogenic disturbances such as agricultural activities are on-going which extend towards their microhabitat. Monitoring to its population is recommended as the species is restricted only in Mindanao.

A hybrid fault diagnosis methodology with support vector machine and improved particle swarm optimization for nuclear power plants.

The safety and public health during nuclear power plant operation can be enhanced by accurately recognizing and diagnosing potential problems when a malfunction occurs. However, there are still obvious technological gaps in fault diagnosis applications, mainly because adopting a single fault diagnosis method may reduce fault diagnosis accuracy. In addition, some of the proposed solutions rely heavily on fault examples, which cannot fully cover future possible fault modes in nuclear plant operation. This paper presents the results of a research in hybrid fault diagnosis techniques that utilizes support vector machine (SVM) and improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) to perform further diagnosis on the basis of qualitative reasoning by knowledge-based preliminary diagnosis and sample data provided by an on-line simulation model. Further, SVM has relatively good classification ability with small samples compared to other machine learning methodologies. However, there are some challenges in the selection of hyper-parameters in SVM that warrants the adoption of intelligent optimization algorithms. Hence, the major contribution of this paper is to propose a hybrid fault diagnosis method with a comprehensive and reasonable design. Also, improved PSO combined with a variety of search strategies are achieved and compared with other current optimization algorithms. Simulation tests are used to verify the accuracy and interpretability of research findings presented in this paper, which would be beneficial for intelligent execution of nuclear power plant operation.

Prevalence of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in wild shrimp Penaeus monodon in the Philippines.

Prevalence of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) was determined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methodology on DNA extracted from the gills of wild black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon collected from 7 sampling sites in the Philippines. These 7 sampling sites are the primary sources of spawners and broodstock for hatchery use. During the dry season, WSSV was detected in shrimp from all sites except Bohol, but during the wet season it was not detected in any site except Palawan. None of the WSSV-PCR positive shrimp showed signs of white spots in the cuticle. Prevalence of WSSV showed seasonal variations, i.e. prevalence in dry season (April to May) was higher than in the wet season (August to October). These results suggest that WSSV has already become established in the local marine environment and in wild populations of P. monodon. Thus, broodstock collected during the dry season could serve as the main source of WSSV contamination in shrimp farms due to vertical transmission of the virus in hatcheries.

Evidence for regulation of protein synthesis at the elongation step by CDK1/cyclin B phosphorylation.

Eukaryotic elongation factor 1 (eEF-1) contains the guanine nucleotide exchange factor eEF-1B that loads the G protein eEF-1A with GTP after each cycle of elongation during protein synthesis. Two features of eEF-1B have not yet been elucidated: (i) the presence of the unique valyl-tRNA synthetase; (ii) the significance of target sites for the cell cycle protein kinase CDK1/cyclin B. The roles of these two features were addressed by elongation measurements in vitro using cell-free extracts. A poly(GUA) template RNA was generated to support both poly(valine) and poly(serine) synthesis and poly(phenylalanine) synthesis was driven by a poly(uridylic acid) template. Elongation rates were in the order phenylalanine > valine > serine. Addition of CDK1/cyclin B decreased the elongation rate for valine whereas the rate for serine and phenylalanine elongation was increased. This effect was correlated with phosphorylation of the eEF-1delta and eEF-1gamma subunits of eEF-1B. Our results demonstrate specific regulation of elongation by CDK1/cyclin B phosphorylation.

Targeting hedgehog signaling reduces self-renewal in embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma.

Current treatment regimens for rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the most common pediatric soft tissue cancer, rely on conventional chemotherapy, and although they show clinical benefit, there is a significant risk of adverse side effects and secondary tumors later in life. Therefore, identifying and targeting sub-populations with higher tumorigenic potential and self-renewing capacity would offer improved patient management strategies. Hedgehog signaling has been linked to the development of embryonal RMS (ERMS) through mouse genetics and rare human syndromes. However, activating mutations in this pathway in sporadic RMS are rare and therefore the contribution of hedgehog signaling to oncogenesis remains unclear. Here, we show by genetic loss- and gain-of-function experiments and the use of clinically relevant small molecule modulators that hedgehog signaling is important for controlling self-renewal of a subpopulation of RMS cells in vitro and tumor initiation in vivo. In addition, hedgehog activity altered chemoresistance, motility and differentiation status. The core stem cell gene NANOG was determined to be important for ERMS self-renewal, possibly acting downstream of hedgehog signaling. Crucially, evaluating the presence of a subpopulation of tumor-propagating cells in patient biopsies identified by GLI1 and NANOG expression had prognostic significance. Hence, this work identifies novel functional aspects of hedgehog signaling in ERMS, redefines the rationale for its targeting as means to control ERMS self-renewal and underscores the importance of studying functional tumor heterogeneity in pediatric cancers.

Nature of progesterone action on amino acid uptake by isolated full-grown oocyte of Xenopus laevis.

L-leucine uptake into full-grown oocytes of Xenopus laevis is a saturable process which is Na+ dependent and presumably coupled to Na+ gradient. Our results indicate that progesterone (10(-6) M) Blocks abruptly, around the germinal vesicle breakdown, the saturable transport of L-leucine. p-Chloromercuribenzoate (10(-4) M) induces maturation and after a short lag of time strongly inhibits L-leucine uptake. Cycloheximide prevents progesterone-induced maturation and permeability changes.

The leucine-zipper in elongation factor EF-1 delta, a guanine-nucleotide exchange protein, is conserved in Artemia and Xenopus.

Elongation factor 1, a complex involved in protein biosynthesis, contains two guanine-nucleotide-exchange proteins EF-1 beta and EF-1 delta. The sequence of EF-1 delta of Artemia was determined with the purified protein. When compared to EF-1 delta from Xenopus, a high degree of identify (80%) was found in the C-terminal domains of the proteins, which contain the guanine-nucleotide-exchange activity. The N-terminal domains share only 23% of the amino acids at identical positions, and therefore they were further analysed for less obvious types of homology. To this end, a published approach for sequence analysis, which can detect peculiar amino acid patterns in proteins was applied. In this way, a weak albeit unmistakable similarity between the two EF-1 delta proteins was demonstrated in the region of the leucine-zippers, apart from the leucine repeat itself. Apparently, they display a common structural pattern in their N-terminal domains, which so far has been observed mainly in transcription factors.

An appraisal of the developmental importance of polyamine changes in early Xenopus embryos.

The biological importance of the various changes in polyamine metabolism that occur during early Xenopus development have been investigated. Incubation of embryos in high salt medium was observed to cause a precocious fall in ornithine decarboxylase activity without affecting development. Similarly, inhibiting ornithine decarboxylase activity with specific inhibitors did not affect development. Injecting spermidine, within physiologically relevant limits, caused a dose-dependent inhibition of mitotic divisions in the injected blastomere. Increasing the intracellular putrescine did not affect cell division or development. Co-injection of both spermidine and putrescine, so that the original molar ratio of these two polyamines was conserved, abrogated the inhibition of cell division observed when spermidine was injected alone. Therefore, in Xenopus embryos the intracellular spermidine concentration must be retained within certain limits relative to that of putrescine to allow normal development.

Protein phosphorylation during meiotic maturation of Xenopus oocytes: cdc2 protein kinase targets.

M-Phase specific protein kinase or cdc2 protein kinase is a component of MPF (M-Phase promoting factor). During meiotic maturation of Xenopus oocytes, cdc2 protein kinase is activated in correlation with MPF activity. A protein phosphorylation cascade takes place involving several protein kinases, among which casein kinase II, and different changes associated with meiosis occur such as germinal vesicle breakdown, chromosome condensation, cytoskeletal reorganization and increase in protein synthesis. Our results provide a biochemical link between cdc2 protein kinase and protein synthesis since they show that the kinase phosphorylates in vitro a p47 protein identified as elongation factor EF1 (gamma subunit) and that the in vitro site of p47 corresponds to the site phosphorylated in vivo. Immunofluorescence showed that the elongation factor (EF1-beta gamma) is localized in the oocyte cortex. Furthermore, they show that cdc2 kinase phosphorylates and activates casein kinase II in vitro, strongly supporting the view that casein kinase II is involved in the phosphorylation cascade originated by cdc2 kinase.

The elongation factor-1delta (EF-1delta) originates from gene duplication of an EF-1beta ancestor and fusion with a protein-binding domain.

The molecular evolution of two components of elongation factor-1 (EF-1), EF-1beta and EF-1delta was analysed using the distance matrix, the maximum parsimony and the maximum likelihood methods, after careful alignment of protein and cDNA sequences. The topology of the phylogenetic trees obtained supports monophyly of plant EF-1beta and EF-1beta' sequences, and monophyly of higher eukaryotic animal EF-1beta and EF-1delta sequences. EF-1beta and EF-1delta are homologous in their C-terminal domain. EF-1delta, which emerged before arthropods, originates from a beta-type ancestor gene and fusion with a leucine zipper N-terminal motif. Plant EF-1beta and EF-1beta' correspond to paralogous genes whose ancestor was most likely duplicated before the emergence of monocotyledons and dicotyledons.

Purification of a p47 phosphoprotein from Xenopus laevis oocytes and identification as an in vivo and in vitro p34cdc2 substrate.

This paper describes the purification of a 47 kDa protein from Xenopus laevis oocytes that becomes phosphorylated when the oocytes undergo meiotic maturation. This protein (p47) is part of a high molecular mass complex containing at least two other proteins of molecular mass 30 and 36 kDa. This complex can be isolated from stage VI oocytes before maturation. We obtained a pattern for phosphopeptides in p47 phosphorylated in vivo very similar to that of the purified protein phosphorylated in vitro by p34cdc2 (a H1 kinase which is a component of the M-phase promoting factor) and [gamma-32P]ATP. Therefore, the purified p47, already described as a marker of MPF activity, is the first reported in vivo substrate for the cell division control kinase.

Protein phosphatase 2A from Xenopus oocytes. Characterization during meiotic cell division.

A polyclonal antibody was raised against bacterially produced catalytic alpha subunit of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2AC) cloned from Xenopus ovarian library. The amount of PP2AC in Xenopus oocytes determined by Western blot analysis was 1 ng/microgram of cytosolic protein. The antibody depleted PP2AC from oocyte extracts in association with 6 components (40, 62, 65, 80, 85 and 90 kDa). Prophase- and metaphase-arrested oocytes contained identical amounts of PP2AC. Metaphase oocytes showed one specific change in the 62 kDa protein associated with PP2AC.

A purified complex from Xenopus oocytes contains a p47 protein, an in vivo substrate of MPF, and a p30 protein respectively homologous to elongation factors EF-1 gamma and EF-1 beta.

A high molecular mass complex isolated from Xenopus laevis oocytes contains three main proteins, respectively p30, p36 and p47. The p47 protein has been reported to be an in vivo substrate of the cell division control protein kinase p34cdc2. From polypeptide sequencing, we now show that the p30 and the p47 correspond to elongation factor EF-1 beta and EF-1 gamma. Furthermore, the p30 and p36 proteins were phosphorylated in vitro by casein kinase II.

Purification and characterization of a germ cell-specific form of elongation factor 1 alpha (EF-1 alpha) from Xenopus laevis.

Elongation factor 1 alpha (EF-1 alpha) was purified to homogeneity from full-grown oocytes of Xenopus laevis. This protein is encoded by a gene previously shown to be expressed in male and female germ cells, and repressed in somatic cells. The purified protein was identified with EF-1 alpha on criteria of molecular mass, cross-reaction with antibodies raised against Artemia salina EF-1 alpha, affinity for guanine nucleotides, and ability to promote the mRNA-dependent binding of aminoacyl tRNA to 80S ribosomes.

Early increase of a 105,000-dalton phosphoprotein during meiotic maturation of Xenopus laevis oocyte.

In ovo [32P] phosphoproteins were analyzed during meiotic maturation of Xenopus laevis oocytes. A phosphoprotein of 105,000-dalton was found to increase early (one hour) after progesterone induction of meiosis. The pure heat-stable inhibitor (PKI) of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, which induces maturation, was microinjected into oocytes. Again the early increase in the 105,000-dalton [32P] phosphoprotein occurred. The burst in protein phosphorylation, which takes place at the period of germinal vesicle breakdown, was quantitatively and qualitatively comparable in progesterone and PKI-stimulated oocytes. In order to confirm the inverse relationship between the 105,000 dalton [32P] phosphoprotein increase and cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity, purified C-subunit of the kinase has been microinjected into oocytes. C-subunit which inhibits maturation did not increase significantly the 105,000-dalton [32P] phosphoprotein whereas it increased the total level of in ovo phosphorylation. Enucleation experiments favour the localization of the 105,000-dalton protein in both the oocyte cytoplasm and nucleus. Furthermore the progesterone-induced increase in the phosphorylation of the 105,000-dalton protein was found in the cytoplasmic compartment after oocyte enucleation.

cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulates in ovo cAMP level of the Xenopus oocyte: evidence for an intracellular feedback mechanism.

Microinjection of cAMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor (1.8 microM) increases the cAMP level of Xenopus oocyte. Its effect was observed in full-grown (stage VI) as well as in vitellogenic (stage IV) oocytes. In contrast the inhibitor I1 of protein phosphatase-1 blocks cAMP accumulation. Progesterone (1 microM) decreases the cAMP level in control and in PKI-treated oocytes of both stages. These results show that cAMP concentration is regulated by a cAMP-dependent phosphorylation indicating the presence of a feedback mechanism. The feedback control is disrupted when oocyte is induced to mature by progesterone.

Free calcium in full grown Xenopus laevis oocyte following treatment with ionophore A 23187 or progesterone.

Free intracellular Ca2+ was monitored in isolated Xenopus laevis oocyte during induced maturation using the Ca2+ -sensitive luminescent protein, aequorin. Internal free Ca2+ was not precisely measured but data suggest it was quite low (in the micromolar range). No change in internal free Ca2+ was detected during maturation induced either by progesterone or by p-chloromercuribenzoate. By contrast, the ionophore A 23187 gave an increase in the free Ca2+ level when there was a raised external Ca2+ (10 mM), conditions which also induce oocyte maturation. About 3 h after progesterone or p-chloromercuribenzoate stimulation, the oocyte membrane potential decreased by about 50 mV while the membrane resistance increased transitorily.