RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Fatigue is pervasive, under-reported, and potentially deadly where flight operations are concerned. The aviation industry appears to lack a standardized, practical, and easily replicable protocol for fatigue risk assessment which can be consistently applied across operators. AIM: Our paper sought to present a framework, supported by real-world data with subjective and objective parameters, to monitor aircrew fatigue and performance, and to determine the safe crew configuration for commercial airline operations. METHODS: Our protocol identified risk factors for fatigue-induced performance degradation as triggers for fatigue risk and performance assessment. Using both subjective and objective measurements of sleep, fatigue, and performance in the form of instruments such as the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, Samn-Perelli Crew Status Check, Psychomotor Vigilance Task, sleep logs, and a wearable actigraph for sleep log correlation and sleep duration and quality charting, a workflow flagging fatigue-prone flight operations for risk mitigation was developed and trialed. RESULTS: In an operational study aimed at occupational assessment of fatigue and performance in airline pilots on a three-men crew versus a four-men crew for a long-haul flight, we affirmed the technical feasibility of our proposed framework and approach, the validity of the battery of assessment instruments, and the meaningful interpretation of fatigue and work performance indicators to enable the formulation of safe work recommendations. CONCLUSION: A standardized occupational assessment protocol like ours is useful to achieve consistency and objectivity in the occupational assessment of fatigue and work performance.
RESUMEN
Snowdrop is an iconic early spring flowering plant of the genus Galanthus (Amaryllidaceae). Galanthus species (Galanthus spp.) are economically important plants as ornaments. Galanthus spp has gained significance scientific and commercial interest due to the discovery of Galanthamine as symptomatic treatment drug for Alzhiermer disease. This review aims to discuss the bioactivities of Galanthus spp including anticholinesterase, antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer potential of the extracts and chemical constituents of Galanthus spp. This review highlights that Galanthus spp. as the exciting sources for drug discovery and nutraceutical development.
RESUMEN
Chemotaxis or directed cell migration is mediated by signalling events initiated by binding of chemokines to their cognate receptors and the activation of a complex signalling cascade. The molecular signalling pathways involved in cell migration are important to understand cancer cell metastasis. Therefore, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of CXCL12 induced cell migration and the importance of different signalling cascades that become activated by CXCR4 in leukemic cells versus breast cancer cells. We identified Src kinase as being essential for cell migration in both cancer types, with strong involvement of the Raf/MEK/ERK1/2 pathway. We did not detect any involvement of Ras or JAK2/STAT3 in CXCL12 induced migration in Jurkat cells. Preventing PKC activation with inhibitors does not affect migration in Jurkat cells at all, unlike in the adherent breast cancer cell line MCF-7 cells. However, in both cell lines, knock down of PKCα prevents migration towards CXCL12, whereas the expression of PKCζ is less crucial for migration. PI3K activation is essential in both cell types, however LY294002 usage in MCF-7 cells does not block migration significantly. These results highlight the importance of verifying specific signalling pathways in different cell settings and with different approaches.
