Motivationally Significant Stimuli Show Visual Prior Entry: Evidence for Attentional Capture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

West, Greg L.; Anderson, Adam A. K.; Pratt, Jay

2009-01-01

Previous studies that have found attentional capture effects for stimuli of motivational significance do not directly measure initial attentional deployment, leaving it unclear to what extent these items produce attentional capture. Visual prior entry, as measured by temporal order judgments (TOJs), rests on the premise that allocated attention…

Can Reporting Heterogeneity Explain Differences in Depressive Symptoms across Europe?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kok, Renske; Avendano, Mauricio; d'Uva, Teresa Bago; Mackenbach, Johan

2012-01-01

Depression is one of the leading causes of disability in the developed world. Previous studies have shown varying depression prevalence rates between European countries, and also within countries, between socioeconomic groups. However, it is unclear whether these differences reflect true variations in prevalence or whether they are attributable to…

Effects of Belongingness and Synchronicity on Face-to-Face and Computer-Mediated Online Cooperative Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saltarelli, Andrew John

2012-01-01

Previous research suggests asynchronous online computer-mediated communication (CMC) has deleterious effects on certain cooperative learning pedagogies (e.g., constructive controversy), but the processes underlying this effect and how it may be ameliorated remain unclear. This study tests whether asynchronous CMC thwarts belongingness needs…

Too Calloused to Care: An Experimental Examination of Factors Influencing Youths' Displaced Aggression against Their Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reijntjes, Albert; Kamphuis, Jan H.; Thomaes, Sander; Bushman, Brad J.; Telch, Michael J.

2013-01-01

People often displace their aggression against innocent targets. Notwithstanding the merits of previous research on displaced aggression, critical gaps remain. First, it is unclear whether and how situational and dispositional factors interact to influence displaced aggression. Moreover, it is unclear whether engaging in direct aggression…

Conjoint Processing of Time-Compressed Narration in Multimedia Instruction: The Effects on Recall, but Not Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritzhaupt, Albert D.; Barron, Ann E.; Kealy, William A.

2011-01-01

Although previous research shows verbal recall of time-compressed narration is significantly enhanced when it is accompanied by a representational adjunct picture (Ritzhaupt & Barron, 2008), the reason for this increased performance remains unclear. One explanation, explored in the current study, is based on the Conjoint Retention Hypothesis…

Malaysian University Students' Attitudes towards Six Varieties of Accented Speech in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmed, Zainab Thamer; Abdullah, Ain Nadzimah; Heng, Chan Swee

2014-01-01

Previous language attitude studies indicated that in many countries all over the world, English language learners perceived native accents, either American or British, more positively than the non-native accents such as the Japanese, Korean, and Austrian accents. However, in Malaysia it is still unclear which accent Malaysian learners of English…

The Impact of the Feedback Source on Developing Oral Presentation Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Ginkel, Stan; Gulikers, Judith; Biemans, Harm; Mulder, Martin

2017-01-01

While previous research in higher education emphasized the essence of feedback by the teacher, the peer or the self, it remains unclear whether the acquisition of students' oral presentation competence differs depending on the feedback source. This quasi-experimental study examines the effectiveness of the feedback source on 144 first-year…

Pulmonary responses of healthy young adults exposed to 0.06 and 0.08 ppm ozone

EPA Science Inventory

Background. Previous studies have shown small but significant decreases in spirometric lung function in healthy young adults exposed to 0.08 ppm ozone. It is unclear, however, if such effects may are seen at concentrations below 0.08 ppm. Methods. A group of 30 healthy young adul...

Neural Correlates of Audiovisual Integration of Semantic Category Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Zhonghua; Zhang, Ruiling; Zhang, Qinglin; Liu, Qiang; Li, Hong

2012-01-01

Previous studies have found a late frontal-central audiovisual interaction during the time period about 150-220 ms post-stimulus. However, it is unclear to which process is this audiovisual interaction related: to processing of acoustical features or to classification of stimuli? To investigate this question, event-related potentials were recorded…

Parent Alcoholism Impacts the Severity and Timing of Children's Externalizing Symptoms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hussong, Andrea M.; Huang, Wenjing; Curran, Patrick J.; Chassin, Laurie; Zucker, Robert A.

2010-01-01

Although previous studies show that children of alcoholic parents have higher rates of externalizing symptoms compared to their peers, it remains unclear whether the timing of children's externalizing symptoms is linked to that of their parent's alcohol-related symptoms. Using a multilevel modeling approach, we tested whether children aged 2…

Training Medical Students in Empathic Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayne, Hannah Barnhill

2011-01-01

Empathy is an important component of the doctor-patient relationship, yet previous studies point to its steady decline in medical students as they progress through medical school and residency programs. Empathy training has thus been identified as a goal of instruction, yet it is unclear how this training can best be implemented within the medical…

Effects of thinning on development of southern pine beetle infestations in old growth stands

Treesearch

Peter Turchin; James Davidson; Jane Leslie. Hayes

1999-01-01

A study was conducted to quantify the relationship between southern pine beetle infestation growth and the intertree spacing in old growth pine stands. The problem with extrapolating the results of previous studies to old growths tands is that it is unclear whether the same mechanism will operate in stands of older trees characterized by double the diameter (20-25 cm...

The Effect of Conceptual and Contextual Familiarity on Transfer Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulasegaram, Kulamakan; Min, Cynthia; Ames, Kimberly; Howey, Elizabeth; Neville, Alan; Norman, Geoffrey

2012-01-01

Applying a previously learned concept to a novel problem is an important but difficult process called transfer. It is suggested that a commonsense analogy aids in transfer by linking novel concepts to familiar ones. How the context of practice affects transfer when learning using analogies is still unclear. This study investigated the effect of a…

Serotonin Transporter (5-HTTLPR) Genotype, Childhood Abuse, and Suicide Attempts in Adult Psychiatric Inpatients

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibb, Brandon E.; McGeary, John E.; Beevers, Christopher G.; Miller, Ivan W.

2006-01-01

There is growing evidence that a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) moderates the impact of negative life events (e.g., childhood abuse) on the development of depression. However, it is unclear whether the gene x environment interaction predicts suicide attempts specifically. In addition, previous studies have not…

Physical Activity and Sports Team Participation: Associations with Academic Outcomes in Middle School and High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Claudia K.; Barr-Anderson, Daheia; Neumark-Sztainer, Dianne; Wall, Melanie

2010-01-01

Background: Previous studies have found that higher physical activity levels are associated with greater academic achievement among students. However, it remains unclear whether associations are due to the physical activity itself or sports team participation, which may involve requirements for maintaining certain grades, for example. The purpose…

A Study of the Information Search Behaviour of the Millennial Generation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Arthur

2012-01-01

Introduction: Members of the millennial generation (born after 1982) have come of age in a society infused with technology and information. It is unclear how they determine the validity of information gathered, or whether or not validity is even a concern. Previous information search models based on mediated searches with different age groups may…

The Interaction of Attitudes toward Racial Membership and Learning Ability in School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nowicki, Elizabeth A.

2008-01-01

Although prejudice exists during childhood, it is unclear how attitudes toward peers of lower or higher academic ability and from one's own or a different racial group interact. This study qualifies previous research by showing that prejudice varies according to whether children are asked to evaluate peers based on academic ability, racial…

Identifying Underlying Causes of Situational Interest in a Science Course for Preservice Elementary Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, David H.; Dixon, Jeanette; Archer, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Situational interest is short-term interest that is linked to environmental factors in a particular situation. Previous studies have found that some science teaching techniques can be very effective in generating situational interest among students, but the reasons why these are effective remain unclear: Hands-on activities, for example, are known…

The Stigma of Public Programs: Does a Separate S-CHIP Program Reduce It?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ketsche, Patricia; Adams, E. Kathleen; Minyard, Karen; Kellenberg, Rebecca

2007-01-01

Previous studies suggest access to and satisfaction with care may be different for enrollees in S-CHIP and Medicaid, but it is unclear whether those differences are fully explained by socioeconomic characteristics of the enrollees. We analyze access and satisfaction of three groups of children: Medicaid enrolled, S-CHIP enrolled, and children who…

Textbook Characteristics That Support or Thwart Comprehension: The Current State of Social Studies Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berkeley, Sheri; King-Sears, Margaret E.; Vilbas, Jessica; Conklin, Sarah

2016-01-01

Textbooks are heavily used in secondary-level content area classes, but previous research has identified numerous challenges for students associated with reading and understanding these texts. While students can learn reading strategies that help them better understand text, it is unclear the extent to which textbooks are written to promote or…

Tune Yourself In: Valence and Arousal Preferences in Music-Listening Choices from Adolescence to Old Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohrdes, Caroline; Wrzus, Cornelia; Frisch, Simon; Riediger, Michaela

2017-01-01

In previous studies, older as compared with younger individuals were more strongly motivated to regulate their momentary affect toward pleasant and calm states. Whether these motivational differences are also reflected in regulatory behavior and whether this behavior is efficient in terms of affect change, however, is unclear. To address these…

Direct and Distal Effects of Noncontingent Juice on Rumination Exhibited by a Child with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kliebert, Megan L.; Tiger, Jeffrey H.

2011-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of the noncontingent delivery of foods and liquids at suppressing rumination, the repeated regurgitation and rechewing of partially digested food. However, it is unclear how long this reduction is maintained after caregivers terminate this procedure. The current study examined the direct and distal…

The effect of quercetin on genetic expression of the commensal gut microbes bifidobacterium catenulatum, enterococcus caccae and ruminococcus gauvreauii

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Quercetin is one of the most abundant polyphenols found in fruits and vegetables. The ability of the gut microbiota to metabolize quercetin has been previously documented; however, the effect that quercetin may have on commensal gut microbes remains unclear. In the present study, the effects of que...

Functional Specialization within the Striatum along Both the Dorsal/Ventral and Anterior/Posterior Axes during Associative Learning via Reward and Punishment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mattfeld, Aaron T.; Gluck, Mark A.; Stark, Craig E. L.

2011-01-01

The goal of the present study was to elucidate the role of the human striatum in learning via reward and punishment during an associative learning task. Previous studies have identified the striatum as a critical component in the neural circuitry of reward-related learning. It remains unclear, however, under what task conditions, and to what…

Source of funding in experimental studies of mobile phone use on health: Update of systematic review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Nierop, Lotte E.; Röösli, Martin; Egger, Matthias; Huss, Anke

2010-11-01

A previous review showed that among 59 studies published in 1995-2005, industry-funded studies were least likely to report effects of controlled exposure to mobile phone radiation on health-related outcomes. We updated literature searches in 2005-2009 and extracted data on funding, conflicts of interest and results. Of 75 additional studies 12% were industry-funded, 44% had public and 19% mixed funding; funding was unclear in 25%. Previous findings were confirmed: industry-sponsored studies were least likely to report results suggesting effects. Interestingly, the proportion of studies indicating effects declined in 1995-2009, regardless of funding source. Source of funding and conflicts of interest are important in this field of research.

Associations of Health Risk Behaviors with School Absenteeism. Does Having Permission for the Absence Make a Difference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eaton, Danice K.; Brener, Nancy; Kann, Laura K.

2008-01-01

Background: Nearly 10% of students enrolled in US public schools are absent daily. Although previous research has shown associations of school absenteeism with participation in risk behaviors, it is unclear if these associations vary by whether the absence was excused. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations of health risk…

Whites Aren't Bad, Asian Americans Are Just Better: Asymmetrical Attributions for the White-Asian American Achievement Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sperling, Rick; Zwahr-Castro, Jennifer; Cruz, Felicia; Montalvo, Jason

2017-01-01

Previous research has shown that people often engage in cultural-deficit thinking when reasoning about racial/ethnic achievement gaps. However, it is unclear whether culture-blaming explanations are best thought of as group-level internal attributions, expressions of prejudice against a lower status group, or self-serving bias. In this study,…

Rapid diversification of the cotton genus (Gossypium: Malvaceae) revealed by analysis of sixteen nuclear and chloroplast genes.

Treesearch

Richard C. Cronn; Randall L. Small; Tamara Hanselkorn; Jonathan F. Wendel

2002-01-01

Previous molecular phylogenetic studies have failed to resolve the branching order among the major cotton (Gossypium) lineages, and it has been unclear whether this reflects actual history (rapid radiation) or sampling properties of the genes evaluated. In this paper, we reconsider the phylogenetic relationships of diploid cotton genome groups using DNA sequences from...

Fourteen-Month-Old Infants Infer the Continuous Identity of Objects on the Basis of Nonvisible Causal Properties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cacchione, Trix; Schaub, Simone; Rakoczy, Hannes

2013-01-01

Research on object cognition in infancy suggests that children from (at latest) 1 year of age are capable of individuating objects according to property/kind information. It remains unclear from previous work, however, whether infants in such studies truly apply sortal (kind) concepts or whether they merely track objects on the basis of…

The Reliability and Construct Validity of American College Students' Responses to the WHOQOL-BREF

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Abundo, Michelle; Orsini, M. M.; Milroy, J. J.; Sidman, C. L.

2011-01-01

The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-100) instrument was developed to assess quality of life from a multi-dimensional perspective. A shorter 26-item version of the instrument was created called the WHOQOL-BREF, which is the focus of this study. Based on previous research, it is unclear if the WHOQOL-BREF instrument is appropriate…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Tic Disorder, and Allergy: Is There a Link? A Nationwide Population-Based Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Mu-Hong; Su, Tung-Ping; Chen, Ying-Sheue; Hsu, Ju-Wei; Huang, Kai-Lin; Chang, Wen-Han; Bai, Ya-Mei

2013-01-01

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and tic disorder usually co-occur in the same individuals, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Previous evidence has shown that a frequent coexistence of allergic diseases was noted in patients with ADHD or tic disorder. We attempted to investigate the possible link among ADHD,…

Influence of winter-spring livestock grazing on survival and growth of Quercus lobata and Q. agrifolia seedlings

Treesearch

Claudia M. Tyler; Bruce E. Mahall; Frank W. Davis

2008-01-01

The relative importance of livestock grazing in limiting or enhancing oak recruitment remains unclear because results from previous studies have been contradictory. In Santa Barbara County, we have replicated large-scale planting experiments from 1997 to 2001 to determine the effects of cattle and other factors on seedling establishment of valley oak (Quercus...

The Use of Segmental and Suprasegmental Information in Lexical Access: A First- and Second-Language Chinese Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connell, Katrina

2017-01-01

The present study investigated first language (L1) and second language (L2) Chinese categorization of tones and segments and use of tones and segments in lexical access. Previous research has shown that English listeners rely more on pitch height than pitch direction when perceiving lexical tones; however, it remains unclear if this superior use…

Cyclic AMP imaging sheds light on PDF signaling in circadian clock neurons.

PubMed

Tomchik, Seth M; Davis, Ronald L

2008-04-24

In Drosophila, the neuropeptide PDF is required for circadian rhythmicity, but it is unclear where PDF acts. In this issue of Neuron, Shafer et al. use a novel bioimaging methodology to demonstrate that PDF elevates cAMP in nearly all clock neurons. Thus, PDF apparently exerts more widespread effects on the circadian clock network than suggested by previous studies of PDF receptor expression.

The Importance of the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex for Strategic Decision Making in the Prisoner's Dilemma.

PubMed

Soutschek, Alexander; Sauter, Marian; Schubert, Torsten

2015-12-01

Previous functional imaging studies investigating the neural basis of strategic decision making in the prisoner's dilemma reported a correlation between cooperative behavior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity; however, the precise function of the DLPFC in establishing cooperation remains unclear so far. The present study investigated the causal role of the DLPFC in an iterative prisoner's dilemma game with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We discovered that disrupting the DLPFC with TMS decreased cooperation rates in comparison to control conditions, with this effect being most pronounced when the partner had defected previously. Thus, the current results suggest that the DLPFC contributes to strategic decision making in the prisoner's dilemma game.

The distribution of nitrogen and phosphorus in forest floor layers of oak-hickory forests of varying productivity

Treesearch

Karyn S. Rodkey; Donald J. Kaczmarek; Phillip E. Pope

1995-01-01

The forest floor plays a major role in the storage and recycling of nutrients which, in turn, are important in maintaining the growth and productivity of forest ecosystems. The development of forest floor organic layers as influenced by litter quality and site quality is unclear. Previous studies in this lab have shown that the size and distribution of available...

Persistent seropositivity for yellow fever in a previously vaccinated autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipient.

PubMed

Hayakawa, Kayoko; Takasaki, Tomohiko; Tsunemine, Hiroko; Kanagawa, Shuzo; Kutsuna, Satoshi; Takeshita, Nozomi; Mawatari, Momoko; Fujiya, Yoshihiro; Yamamoto, Kei; Ohmagari, Norio; Kato, Yasuyuki

2015-08-01

The duration of a protective level of yellow fever antibodies after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in a previously vaccinated person is unclear. The case of a patient who had previously been vaccinated for yellow fever and who remained seropositive for 22 months after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for malignant lymphoma is described herein. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Re-examining overlap between tactile and visual motion responses within hMT+ and STS

PubMed Central

Jiang, Fang; Beauchamp, Michael S.; Fine, Ione

2015-01-01

Here we examine overlap between tactile and visual motion BOLD responses within the human MT+ complex. Although several studies have reported tactile responses overlapping with hMT+, many used group average analyses, leaving it unclear whether these responses were restricted to sub-regions of hMT+. Moreover, previous studies either employed a tactile task or passive stimulation, leaving it unclear whether or not tactile responses in hMT+ are simply the consequence of visual imagery. Here we carried out a replication of one of the classic papers finding tactile responses in hMT+ (Hagen et al. 2002). We mapped MT and MST in individual subjects using visual field localizers. We then examined responses to tactile motion on the arm, either presented passively or in the presence of a visual task performed at fixation designed to minimize visualization of the concurrent tactile stimulation. To our surprise, without a visual task, we found only weak tactile motion responses in MT (6% of voxels showing tactile responses) and MST (2% of voxels). With an unrelated visual task designed to withdraw attention from the tactile modality, responses in MST reduced to almost nothing (<1% regions). Consistent with previous results, we did observe tactile responses in STS regions superior and anterior to hMT+. Despite the lack of individual overlap, group averaged responses produced strong spurious overlap between tactile and visual motion responses within hMT+ that resembled those observed in previous studies. The weak nature of tactile responses in hMT+ (and their abolition by withdrawal of attention) suggests that hMT+ may not serve as a supramodal motion processing module. PMID:26123373

Unpacking the Gender Gap in Postsecondary Participation among African Americans and Caucasians Using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tekleselassie, Abebayehu; Mallery, Coretta; Choi, Jaehwa

2013-01-01

National reports recognize a growing gender gap in postsecondary enrollment as a major challenge impacting the lives of young men, particularly African Americans. Previous gender and race specific research is largely inconclusive. It is, for example, unclear from previous research how persistent the gender gap is across various school contexts,…

Selective removal of carious human dentin using a nanosecond pulsed laser operating at a wavelength of 5.85 μ m

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishii, Katsunori; Kita, Tetsuya; Yoshikawa, Kazushi; Yasuo, Kenzo; Yamamoto, Kazuyo; Awazu, Kunio

2015-05-01

Less invasive methods for treating dental caries are strongly desired. However, conventional dental lasers do not always selectively remove caries or ensure good bonding to the composite resin. According to our previous study, demineralized dentin might be removed by a nanosecond pulsed laser operating at wavelengths of around 5.8 μm. The present study investigated the irradiation effect of the light on carious human dentin classified into "remove," "not remove," and "unclear" categories. Under 5.85-μm laser pulses, at average power densities of 30 W/cm2 and irradiation time of 2 s, the ablation depth of "remove" and "not remove," and also the ablation depth of "unclear" and "not remove," were significantly different (p<0.01). The ablation depth was correlated with both Vickers hardness and Ca content. Thus, a nanosecond pulsed laser operating at 5.85 μm proved an effective less-invasive caries treatment.

Inflammatory Regulation of Valvular Remodeling: The Good(?), the Bad, and the Ugly

PubMed Central

Mahler, Gretchen J.; Butcher, Jonathan T.

2011-01-01

Heart valve disease is unique in that it affects both the very young and very old, and does not discriminate by financial affluence, social stratus, or global location. Research over the past decade has transformed our understanding of heart valve cell biology, yet still more remains unclear regarding how these cells respond and adapt to their local microenvironment. Recent studies have identified inflammatory signaling at nearly every point in the life cycle of heart valves, yet its role at each stage is unclear. While the vast majority of evidence points to inflammation as mediating pathological valve remodeling and eventual destruction, some studies suggest inflammation may provide key signals guiding transient adaptive remodeling. Though the mechanisms are far from clear, inflammatory signaling may be a previously unrecognized ally in the quest for controlled rapid tissue remodeling, a key requirement for regenerative medicine approaches for heart valve disease. This paper summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding inflammatory mediation of heart valve remodeling and suggests key questions moving forward. PMID:21792386

Revisiting the Association Between Television Viewing in Adolescence and Contact With the Criminal Justice System in Adulthood.

PubMed

Schwartz, Joseph A; Beaver, Kevin M

2016-09-01

A substantial number of previous studies have reported significant associations between television viewing habits and a host of detrimental outcomes including increased contact with the criminal justice system. However, it remains unclear whether the results flowing from this literature are generalizable to other samples and whether previously observed associations are confounded due to uncontrolled genetic influences. The current study addresses these limitations using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The results of the preliminary models, which do not include controls for genetic influences, produced a pattern of results similar to those previously reported in the extant literature. The results of the genetically informed models revealed that the associations between television viewing and antisocial outcomes are not causal, but rather are driven by uncontrolled genetic influences. Further replication is required, but these findings suggest that results drawn from the extant literature may not be trustworthy. © The Author(s) 2015.

Effects of emotional arousal on memory binding in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Nashiro, Kaoru; Mather, Mara

2011-01-01

Previous research suggests that associative memory declines in normal aging and is severely affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, it is unclear whether and how this deficit can be minimized. The present study investigated whether emotional arousal improves associative memory in healthy younger and older adults and patients with probable AD. We examined the effect of arousal on memory for item-location associations. Arousal improved memory for item location similarly across the three groups, whereas valence had no effect in any groups. Overall, our results suggest that arousal has beneficial effects on associative memory in healthy older adults and patients with AD, as previously observed in younger adults.

The Effect of Emotional Arousal on Memory Binding in Normal Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

PubMed Central

Nashiro, Kaoru; Mather, Mara

2012-01-01

Previous research suggests that associative memory declines in normal aging and is severely affected by Alzheimer’s disease (AD); however, it is unclear whether and how this deficit can be minimized. The present study investigated whether emotional arousal enhances associative memory in healthy younger and older adults and patients with probable AD. We examined the effect of arousal on memory for item-location associations. Arousal enhanced memory for item location similarly across the three groups, while valence had no effect in any groups. Overall, our results suggest that arousal has beneficial effects on associative memory in healthy older adults and AD patients, as previously observed in younger adults. PMID:21977692

Matters of accuracy and conventionality: prior accuracy guides children's evaluations of others' actions.

PubMed

Scofield, Jason; Gilpin, Ansley Tullos; Pierucci, Jillian; Morgan, Reed

2013-03-01

Studies show that children trust previously reliable sources over previously unreliable ones (e.g., Koenig, Clément, & Harris, 2004). However, it is unclear from these studies whether children rely on accuracy or conventionality to determine the reliability and, ultimately, the trustworthiness of a particular source. In the current study, 3- and 4-year-olds were asked to endorse and imitate one of two actors performing an unfamiliar action, one actor who was unconventional but successful and one who was conventional but unsuccessful. These data demonstrated that children preferred endorsing and imitating the unconventional but successful actor. Results suggest that when the accuracy and conventionality of a source are put into conflict, children may give priority to accuracy over conventionality when estimating the source's reliability and, ultimately, when deciding who to trust.

Microphthalmia and anophthalmia in Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia.

PubMed

Yomai, A A; Pavlin, B I

2010-04-01

Microphthalmia ('small eye') and anophthalmia ('no eye') are rare congenital defects of eye development. Previous studies utilizing a variety of methodologies have estimated their combined incidence at anywhere from 4 to 30 cases per 100,000 live births. In Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia, there have been 42 cases detected since 1988, yielding an estimated incidence of 140 cases per 100,000. A number of putative genetic and environmental causes have previously been associated with microphthalmia and anophthalmia, including vitamin A deficiency. To date, it is unclear which of these factors may play a role in the alarmingly high rates observed in Chuuk. The Chuuk Division of Public Health has proposed a study to explore these potential causes, which will hopefully shed light on the prevention of these rare but debilitating conditions.

The WNT2 Gene Polymorphism Associated with Speech Delay Inherent to Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Ping-I; Chien, Yi-Ling; Wu, Yu-Yu; Chen, Chia-Hsiang; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen; Huang, Yu-Shu; Liu, Shih-Kai; Tsai, Wen-Che; Chiu, Yen-Nan

2012-01-01

Previous evidence suggests that language function is modulated by genetic variants on chromosome 7q31-36. However, it is unclear whether this region harbors loci that contribute to speech delay in autism. We previously reported that the WNT2 gene located on 7q31 was associated with the risk of autism. Additionally, two other genes on 7q31-36,…

X-ray microanalysis of porous materials using Monte Carlo simulations.

PubMed

Poirier, Dominique; Gauvin, Raynald

2011-01-01

Quantitative X-ray microanalysis models, such as ZAF or φ(ρz) methods, are normally based on solid, flat-polished specimens. This limits their use in various domains where porous materials are studied, such as powder metallurgy, catalysts, foams, etc. Previous experimental studies have shown that an increase in porosity leads to a deficit in X-ray emission for various materials, such as graphite, Cr(2) O(3) , CuO, ZnS (Ichinokawa et al., '69), Al(2) O(3) , and Ag (Lakis et al., '92). However, the mechanisms responsible for this decrease are unclear. The porosity by itself does not explain the loss in intensity, other mechanisms have therefore been proposed, such as extra energy loss by the diffusion of electrons by surface plasmons generated at the pores-solid interfaces, surface roughness, extra charging at the pores-solid interface, or carbon diffusion in the pores. However, the exact mechanism is still unclear. In order to better understand the effects of porosity on quantitative microanalysis, a new approach using Monte Carlo simulations was developed by Gauvin (2005) using a constant pore size. In this new study, the X-ray emissions model was modified to include a random log normal distribution of pores size in the simulated materials. This article presents, after a literature review of the previous works performed about X-ray microanalysis of porous materials, some of the results obtained with Gauvin's modified model. They are then compared with experimental results. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Development of the first-mention bias*

PubMed Central

HARTSHORNE, JOSHUA K.; NAPPA, REBECCA; SNEDEKER, JESSE

2015-01-01

In many contexts, pronouns are interpreted as referring to the character mentioned first in the previous sentence, an effect called the ‘first-mention bias’. While adults can rapidly use the first-mention bias to guide pronoun interpretation, it is unclear when this bias emerges during development. Curiously, experiments with children between two and three years old show successful use of order of mention, while experiments with older children (four to five years old) do not. While this could suggest U-shaped development, it could also reflect differences in the methodologies employed. We show that children can indeed use first-mention information, but do so too slowly to have been detected in previous work reporting null results. Comparison across the present and previously published studies suggests that the speed at which children deploy first-mention information increases greatly during the preschool years. PMID:24735525

Rates and risk factors of injury in CrossFitTM: a prospective cohort study.

PubMed

Moran, Sebastian; Booker, Harry; Staines, Jacob; Williams, Sean

2017-09-01

CrossFitTM is a strength and conditioning program that has gained widespread popularity since its inception approximately 15 years ago. However, at present little is known about the level of injury risk associated with this form of training. Movement competency, assessed using the Functional Movement ScreenTM (FMS), has been identified as a risk factor for injury in numerous athletic populations, but its role in CrossFit participants is currently unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of injury risk associated with CrossFit training, and examine the influence of a number of potential risk factors (including movement competency). A cohort of 117 CrossFit participants were followed prospectively for 12 weeks. Participants' characteristics, previous injury history and training experience were recorded at baseline, and an FMS assessment was conducted. The overall injury incidence rate was 2.10 per 1000 training hours (90% confidence limits: 1.32-3.33). A multivariate Poisson regression model identified males (rate ratio [RR]: 4.44 ×/÷ 3.30, very likely harmful) and those with previous injuries (RR: 2.35 ×/÷ 2.37, likely harmful) as having a higher injury risk. Inferences relating to FMS variables were unclear in the multivariate model, although number of asymmetries was a clear risk factor in a univariate model (RR per two additional asymmetries: 2.62 ×/÷ 1.53, likely harmful). The injury incidence rate associated with CrossFit training was low, and comparable to other forms of recreational fitness activities. Previous injury and gender were identified as risk factors for injury, whilst the role of movement competency in this setting warrants further investigation.

Endothelial Inflammatory Transcriptional Responses to an Altered Plasma Exposome Following Inhalation of Diesel Emissions

EPA Science Inventory

BACKGROUND:Air pollution, especially emissions derived from traffic sources, is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. However, it remains unclear how inhaled factors drive extrapulmonary pathology.OBJECTIVES:Previously, we found that canonical inflammatory response tra...

Experimental Investigation into the Radar Anomalies on the Surface of Venus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kohler, E.; Gavin, P.; Chevrier, V.; Johnson, Natasha M.

2012-01-01

Radar mapping of thc surface of Venus shows areas of high reflectivity (low emissivity) in the Venusian highlands at altitudes between 2.5-4.75 kilometers. The origin of the radar anomalies found in the Venusian highlands remains unclear. Most explanations of the potential causes for these radar anomalies come from theoretical work. Previous studies suggest increased surface roughness or materials with higher dielectric constants as well as surface atmospheric interactions. Several possible candidates of high-dielectric materials are tellurium) ferroelectric materials, and lead or bismuth sulfides. While previous studies have been influential in determining possible sources for the Venus anomalies, only a very few hypotheses have been verified via experimentation. This work intends to experimentally constrain the source of the radar anomalies on Venus. This study proposes to investigate four possible materials that could potentially cause the high reflectivities on the surface of Venus and tests their behavior under simulated Venusian conditions.

Microarray study of single nucleotide polymorphisms and expression of ATP-binding cassette genes in breast tumors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsyganov, M. M.; Ibragimova, M. K.; Karabut, I. V.; Freydin, M. B.; Choinzonov, E. L.; Litvyakov, N. V.

2015-11-01

Our previous research establishes that changes of expression of the ATP-binding cassette genes family is connected with the neoadjuvant chemotherapy effect. However, the mechanism of regulation of resistance gene expression remains unclear. As many researchers believe, single nucleotide polymorphisms can be involved in this process. Thereupon, microarray analysis is used to study polymorphisms in ATP-binding cassette genes. It is thus found that MDR gene expression is connected with 5 polymorphisms, i.e. rs241432, rs241429, rs241430, rs3784867, rs59409230, which participate in the regulation of expression of own genes.

Developmental Thyroid Hormone Insufficiency Impairs Visual Contrast Sensitivity in Adult Male Offspring.

EPA Science Inventory

Severe thyroid hormone (TH) insufficiency during early development results in alterations in brain structure and function. Many environmental agents produce subtle alterations in TH status, but the dose-response relationships for such effects are unclear. We have previously demon...

Suppression of NADPH oxidases prevents chronic ethanol-induced bone loss

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Since the molecular mechanisms through which chronic excessive alcohol consumption induces osteopenia and osteoporosis are largely unknown, potential treatments for prevention of alcohol-induced bone loss remain unclear. We have previously demonstrated that, chronic ethanol (EtOH) treatment leads to...

A persisting median artery in a patient with symbrachydactyly and carpal tunnel syndrome.

PubMed

Tollan, C J; Sivarajan, V

2008-07-01

A persisting median artery associated with carpal tunnel syndrome in a patient with symbrachydactyly has not been previously described in the literature. It is unclear whether there may be a developmental association between persistence of a median artery and Symbrachydactyly.

Serologic survey for Leptospira spp. in captive neotropical felids in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil.

PubMed

Ullmann, Leila Sabrina; Hoffmann, Juliano L; de Moraes, Wanderlei; Cubas, Zalmir S; dos Santos, Leonilda Correia; da Silva, Rodrigo Costa; Moreira, Nei; Guimaraes, Ana Marcia Sa; Camossi, Lucilene Granuzzio; Langoni, Helio; Biondo, Alexander W

2012-06-01

Leptospirosis is a bacterial zoonosis of worldwide distribution and is endemic in tropical countries, where rodents and other wild mammals are abundant and may act as reservoirs. Leptospirosis has become a concern in captive wild animals, due mostly to their exposure to contaminated urine or environment. Although domestic cats (Felis catus) have been reported refractory to leptospirosis, serology and disease in captive wild felids is still unclear. In this study 57 adult, clinically healthy felids, including 1 Geoffroy's cat (Leopardus geoffroyi), 3 jaguarundis (Puma yagouaroundi), 17 margays (Leopardus wiedii), 22 little spotted cats (Leopardus tigrinus), and 14 ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) kept in captivity at the Sanctuary at the Itaipu Binacional hydroelectric power plant (Bela Vista Biological Sanctuary), Foz do Iguacu City, Paraná State, Brazil, were serologically surveyed for the presence of antibodies against 28 serovars of Leptospira spp. by microagglutination test (MAT). Two animals (3.5%) were seropositive: one male ocelot to the serovar Cynopteri (titer 100) and one female margay to Autumnalis (100) and Butembo (200). The captive-born, 5-yr-old ocelot had been solitary housed in an individual cage. The approximately 21-yr-old wild-caught margay was also kept individually. None of the tested animals showed signs ofleptospirosis. During a study conducted 4 yr previously in the same facility, this particular margay also tested positive for the same two serovars, among others. The present study indicates that the felids tested for Leptospira spp. by MAT were exposed to serovars, but did not demonstrate clinical signs of disease. Comparison with a previous study suggests that serovar titers may vary over time and that leptospirosis dynamics remains unclear in wild felids.

Amplitude variations in the sdBV star PG 1605+072: Another beating time scale?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pereira, T. M. D.; Lopes, I. P.

2004-10-01

PG 1605+072 has an unique and complex oscillation spectrum amongst the pulsating members of the EC 14026 stars. It has the longest periods and the richest, most puzzling frequency spectrum. We present a quantitative analysis of the photometric time-series obtained at 1-m telescope of the South African Astronomical Observatory. Thirteen oscillation parameters, frequencies, amplitudes and initial phases were determined from a 45 h time-series. Our work confirm previous observational results. The observed frequencies are within a difference smaller than 2.7% of the theoretical values, and less than 0.1% of other previous studies. We also infer the existence of variation of a periodicity of 4-5 days on the amplitude of the observed modes, similar to the yearly time-scale variation found by previous studies. Furthermore, we found a new frequency of 2133 μ Hz which has not been previously reported, its origin being yet unclear. Based on observations obtained at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). This research was supported by a grant from Fundação da Ciência e Tecnologia, grant No. PESO/P/PRO/40142/2000.

Inter-rater reliability of a modified version of Delitto et al.’s classification-based system for low back pain: a pilot study

PubMed Central

Apeldoorn, Adri T.; van Helvoirt, Hans; Ostelo, Raymond W.; Meihuizen, Hanneke; Kamper, Steven J.; van Tulder, Maurits W.; de Vet, Henrica C. W.

2016-01-01

Study design Observational inter-rater reliability study. Objectives To examine: (1) the inter-rater reliability of a modified version of Delitto et al.’s classification-based algorithm for patients with low back pain; (2) the influence of different levels of familiarity with the system; and (3) the inter-rater reliability of algorithm decisions in patients who clearly fit into a subgroup (clear classifications) and those who do not (unclear classifications). Methods Patients were examined twice on the same day by two of three participating physical therapists with different levels of familiarity with the system. Patients were classified into one of four classification groups. Raters were blind to the others’ classification decision. In order to quantify the inter-rater reliability, percentages of agreement and Cohen’s Kappa were calculated. Results A total of 36 patients were included (clear classification n = 23; unclear classification n = 13). The overall rate of agreement was 53% and the Kappa value was 0·34 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0·11–0·57], which indicated only fair inter-rater reliability. Inter-rater reliability for patients with a clear classification (agreement 52%, Kappa value 0·29) was not higher than for patients with an unclear classification (agreement 54%, Kappa value 0·33). Familiarity with the system (i.e. trained with written instructions and previous research experience with the algorithm) did not improve the inter-rater reliability. Conclusion Our pilot study challenges the inter-rater reliability of the classification procedure in clinical practice. Therefore, more knowledge is needed about factors that affect the inter-rater reliability, in order to improve the clinical applicability of the classification scheme. PMID:27559279

Ovarian function in mice results in abrogated skeletal muscle PPARdelta and FoxO1-mediated gene expression

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Menopause, the age-related loss of ovarian hormone production, promotes increased adiposity and associated metabolic pathology, but molecular mechanisms remain unclear. We previously reported that estrogen increases skeletal muscle PPARDelta expression in vivo, and transgenic mice overexpressing mus...

Children Discard a Resource to Avoid Inequity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaw, Alex; Olson, Kristina R.

2012-01-01

Elucidating how inequity aversion (a tendency to dislike and correct unequal outcomes) functions as one develops is important to understanding more complex fairness considerations in adulthood. Although previous research has demonstrated that adults and children reduce inequity, it is unclear if people are actually responding negatively to…

A Common Neural Substrate for Perceiving and Knowing about Color

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmons, W. Kyle; Ramjee, Vimal; Beauchamp, Michael S.; McRae, Ken; Martin, Alex; Barsalou, Lawrence W.

2007-01-01

Functional neuroimaging research has demonstrated that retrieving information about object-associated colors activates the left fusiform gyrus in posterior temporal cortex. Although regions near the fusiform have previously been implicated in color perception, it remains unclear whether color knowledge retrieval actually activates the color…

The incidence of Crohn's disease in Cardiff over the last 75 years: an update for 1996-2005.

PubMed

Gunesh, S; Thomas, G A O; Williams, G T; Roberts, A; Hawthorne, A B

2008-02-01

The incidence of Crohn's disease rose rapidly in industralized countries over the past 50 years, but it is unclear whether the incidence is still rising or has reached a plateau. To update the long-term incidence study of Crohn's disease in Cardiff for 1996-2005, to investigate whether incidence is still rising and to study changes in disease characteristics over time. Crohn's cases identified by retrospective analysis of hospital records as in previous studies in Cardiff. Two hundred and twelve cases were identified. Corrected incidence for this decade was 66 x 10(6) per year (95% confidence interval: 58-76), showing a continuing rise compared to previous decades. The proportion with colonic disease at presentation continues to rise (43%) with a corresponding fall in those with terminal ileal disease. There remains a strong female preponderance (F:M 1.6:1) as in previous studies. The incidence in children under age 16 continues to rise, and the median age at diagnosis has fallen slightly. Crohn's disease incidence continues to rise slowly in Cardiff with a continuing increase in those presenting with colonic disease, which is now the commonest disease pattern.

Filling Knowledge Gaps for Mimivirus Entry, Uncoating, and Morphogenesis

PubMed Central

Andrade, Ana Cláudia dos Santos Pereira; Rodrigues, Rodrigo Araújo Lima; Oliveira, Graziele Pereira; Andrade, Kétyllen Reis; Bonjardim, Cláudio Antônio; La Scola, Bernard; Kroon, Erna Geessien

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Since the discovery of mimivirus, its unusual structural and genomic features have raised great interest in the study of its biology; however, many aspects concerning its replication cycle remain uncertain. In this study, extensive analyses of electron microscope images, as well as biological assay results, shed light on unclear points concerning the mimivirus replication cycle. We found that treatment with cytochalasin, a phagocytosis inhibitor, negatively impacted the incorporation of mimivirus particles by Acanthamoeba castellanii, causing a negative effect on viral growth in amoeba monolayers. Treatment of amoebas with bafilomicin significantly impacted mimivirus uncoating and replication. In conjunction with microscopic analyses, these data suggest that mimiviruses indeed depend on phagocytosis for entry into amoebas, and particle uncoating (and stargate opening) appears to be dependent on phagosome acidification. In-depth analyses of particle morphogenesis suggest that the mimivirus capsids are assembled from growing lamellar structures. Despite proposals from previous studies that genome acquisition occurs before the acquisition of fibrils, our results clearly demonstrate that the genome and fibrils can be acquired simultaneously. Our data suggest the existence of a specific area surrounding the core of the viral factory where particles acquire the surface fibrils. Furthermore, we reinforce the concept that defective particles can be formed even in the absence of virophages. Our work provides new information about unexplored steps in the life cycle of mimivirus. IMPORTANCE Investigating the viral life cycle is essential to a better understanding of virus biology. The combination of biological assays and microscopic images allows a clear view of the biological features of viruses. Since the discovery of mimivirus, many studies have been conducted to characterize its replication cycle, but many knowledge gaps remain to be filled. In this study, we conducted a new examination of the replication cycle of mimivirus and provide new evidence concerning some stages of the cycle which were previously unclear, mainly entry, uncoating, and morphogenesis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that atypical virion morphologies can occur even in the absence of virophages. Our results, along with previous data, allow us to present an ultimate model for the mimivirus replication cycle. PMID:28878069

Filling Knowledge Gaps for Mimivirus Entry, Uncoating, and Morphogenesis.

PubMed

Andrade, Ana Cláudia Dos Santos Pereira; Rodrigues, Rodrigo Araújo Lima; Oliveira, Graziele Pereira; Andrade, Kétyllen Reis; Bonjardim, Cláudio Antônio; La Scola, Bernard; Kroon, Erna Geessien; Abrahão, Jônatas Santos

2017-11-15

Since the discovery of mimivirus, its unusual structural and genomic features have raised great interest in the study of its biology; however, many aspects concerning its replication cycle remain uncertain. In this study, extensive analyses of electron microscope images, as well as biological assay results, shed light on unclear points concerning the mimivirus replication cycle. We found that treatment with cytochalasin, a phagocytosis inhibitor, negatively impacted the incorporation of mimivirus particles by Acanthamoeba castellanii , causing a negative effect on viral growth in amoeba monolayers. Treatment of amoebas with bafilomicin significantly impacted mimivirus uncoating and replication. In conjunction with microscopic analyses, these data suggest that mimiviruses indeed depend on phagocytosis for entry into amoebas, and particle uncoating (and stargate opening) appears to be dependent on phagosome acidification. In-depth analyses of particle morphogenesis suggest that the mimivirus capsids are assembled from growing lamellar structures. Despite proposals from previous studies that genome acquisition occurs before the acquisition of fibrils, our results clearly demonstrate that the genome and fibrils can be acquired simultaneously. Our data suggest the existence of a specific area surrounding the core of the viral factory where particles acquire the surface fibrils. Furthermore, we reinforce the concept that defective particles can be formed even in the absence of virophages. Our work provides new information about unexplored steps in the life cycle of mimivirus. IMPORTANCE Investigating the viral life cycle is essential to a better understanding of virus biology. The combination of biological assays and microscopic images allows a clear view of the biological features of viruses. Since the discovery of mimivirus, many studies have been conducted to characterize its replication cycle, but many knowledge gaps remain to be filled. In this study, we conducted a new examination of the replication cycle of mimivirus and provide new evidence concerning some stages of the cycle which were previously unclear, mainly entry, uncoating, and morphogenesis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that atypical virion morphologies can occur even in the absence of virophages. Our results, along with previous data, allow us to present an ultimate model for the mimivirus replication cycle. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

Clinical Psychopathology, Untoward Incidents and the Use of Restrictive Procedures in Adults with Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chaplin, Eddie; Tsakanikos, Elias; Wright, Steve; Bouras, Nick

2009-01-01

Background: Previous evidence has suggested that clinical characteristics may predict use of restraint in adults with intellectual disability. However, the relationship between specific types of untoward incidents, corresponding interventions (restrictive procedures) and clinical psychopathology remains unclear. Method: We examined all untoward…

SIX1 oncoprotein is necessary for abnormal uterine basal cell development in mice exposed neonatally to DES.

EPA Science Inventory

Exposing female mice on neonatal days 1-5 to the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) results in high incidence of uterine carcinoma. However, the biological mechanisms driving DES-induced carcinogenesis remain unclear. We previously showed that the sine oculis homeobox ho...

Electronic and School-Based Victimization: Unique Contexts for Adjustment Difficulties during Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fredstrom, Bridget K.; Adams, Ryan E.; Gilman, Rich

2011-01-01

Previous research suggests that school-based and electronic victimization have similar negative consequences, yet it is unclear whether these two contexts offer overlapping or unique associations with adolescents' adjustment. 802 ninth-graders (43% male, mean age = 15.84 years), majority being Caucasian (82%), completed measures assessing the…

Processing Polarity: How the Ungrammatical Intrudes on the Grammatical

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vasishth, Shravan; Brussow, Sven; Lewis, Richard L.; Drenhaus, Heiner

2008-01-01

A central question in online human sentence comprehension is, "How are linguistic relations established between different parts of a sentence?" Previous work has shown that this dependency resolution process can be computationally expensive, but the underlying reasons for this are still unclear. This article argues that dependency…

The First Multiple Layer Doppler Imaging of an Active Binary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dempsey, Robert C.

1997-01-01

Preliminary results were presented at the Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun in Cambridge, MA in July 1997. A copy of the two published papers (in press) is attached. The project has met or exceeded our expectations. The rapid readout data have given us an excellent data set to model in detail the flare behavior. The large number of spectral features observed between the EUVE and HST data have allowed us to compute a mean model atmosphere and compare the results to another well studied system (HR 1099 - Cycle 3 HST observation previously published). I developed a model (anisotropic macroturbulence) that fits the CIV and MgII better than previously achieved. These results have been constrained by the EUVE data. In early studies, 2 gaussians were applied to the profile. The interpretation of these features was unclear. The anisotropic macroturbulence model fits the data better than previously possible and gives a physically reasonable interpretation: there appears to be an asymmetrical distribution between the radial and tangential velocity fields. This is similar to case of the Sun.

Patients' appraisals of public and private healthcare: a qualitative study of physiotherapy and osteopathy.

PubMed

Bradbury, Katherine J; Bishop, Felicity L; Yardley, Lucy; Lewith, George

2013-10-01

Patients have previously reported differences in their experiences of treatments received in the public and private sectors; it remains unclear whether such perceived differences are particular to or shared across different interventions. This study explored whether patients' appraisals of public and private treatments are similar when appraising a complementary therapy (osteopathy) compared to a mainstream therapy (physiotherapy). Thirty-five qualitative interviews were analysed thematically. Patients' appraisals varied by health-care sector and therapy type: physiotherapy was appraised more negatively in the National Health Service than the private sector but osteopathy was appraised similarly within both health-care sectors. Potential reasons for this are discussed.

Attitudes toward clinical autopsy in unexpected patient deaths in Japan: a nation-wide survey of the general public and physicians.

PubMed

Kamishiraki, Etsuko; Maeda, Shoichi; Starkey, Jay; Ikeda, Noriaki

2012-12-01

Autopsy is a useful tool for understanding the cause and manner of unexpected patient death. However, the attitudes of the general public and physicians in Japan about clinical autopsy are limited. To describe the beliefs of the general public about whether autopsy should be performed and ascertain if they would actually request one given specific clinical situations where patient death occurred with the additional variable of medical error. To compare these attitudes with previously obtained attitudes of physicians practising at Japanese teaching hospitals. We conducted a cross-sectional study of the general public. We sent standardised questionnaires in 2010 to a randomly selected non-physician adult population using a survey company for participant selection. Respondents gave their opinions about the necessity of autopsy and how they might act given various clinical scenarios of patient death. We compared these results with those of a previous survey of Japanese physicians conducted in 2009. Of the 2300 eligible general adult population, 1575 (68.5%) responded. The majority of the general public indicated they believed an autopsy was necessary. However, in cases of unclear medical error or unclear cause and effect relationship of medical care and patient death, the general public were much less likely to indicate they would actually request an autopsy than were physicians (p<0.0001). Currently in Japan the debate about the role autopsy should play in the case of error related to death is underway. The results from this study will be important in informing related decisions.

On the predictability of land surface fluxes from meteorological variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haughton, Ned; Abramowitz, Gab; Pitman, Andy J.

2018-01-01

Previous research has shown that land surface models (LSMs) are performing poorly when compared with relatively simple empirical models over a wide range of metrics and environments. Atmospheric driving data appear to provide information about land surface fluxes that LSMs are not fully utilising. Here, we further quantify the information available in the meteorological forcing data that are used by LSMs for predicting land surface fluxes, by interrogating FLUXNET data, and extending the benchmarking methodology used in previous experiments. We show that substantial performance improvement is possible for empirical models using meteorological data alone, with no explicit vegetation or soil properties, thus setting lower bounds on a priori expectations on LSM performance. The process also identifies key meteorological variables that provide predictive power. We provide an ensemble of empirical benchmarks that are simple to reproduce and provide a range of behaviours and predictive performance, acting as a baseline benchmark set for future studies. We reanalyse previously published LSM simulations and show that there is more diversity between LSMs than previously indicated, although it remains unclear why LSMs are broadly performing so much worse than simple empirical models.

Recall of false memories in individuals scoring high in schizotypy: memory distortions are scale specific.

PubMed

Saunders, Jo; Randell, Jordan; Reed, Phil

2012-06-01

Previous research has indicated abnormal semantic activation in individuals scoring higher in schizotypy. In the current experiment, semantic activation was examined by using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm of false memories. Participants were assessed for schizotypy using the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings (OLIFE). Participants studied lists of semantically related words in which a critical and highly associated word was absent. Participants then recalled the list. Participants high in Unusual Experiences and Cognitive Disorganization recalled more critical non-presented words, weakly related studied words, and fewer studied words than participants who scored low on these measures. Previous research using the cognitive-perceptual factor of the Schizotypy Personality Questionnaire found reduced false memories, while the Unusual Experiences subscale of the OLIFE was associated with more false memories. Both scales cover similar unusual perceptual experiences and it is unclear why they led to divergent results. The findings suggest that subtypes of schizotypy are associated with abnormal semantic activation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Acute myeloid and chronic lymphoid leukaemias and exposure to low-level benzene among petroleum workers

PubMed Central

Rushton, L; Schnatter, A R; Tang, G; Glass, D C

2014-01-01

Background: High benzene exposure causes acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Three petroleum case–control studies identified 60 cases (241 matched controls) for AML and 80 cases (345 matched controls) for chronic lymphoid leukaemia (CLL). Methods: Cases were classified and scored regarding uncertainty by two haematologists using available diagnostic information. Blinded quantitative benzene exposure assessment used work histories and exposure measurements adjusted for era-specific circumstances. Statistical analyses included conditional logistic regression and penalised smoothing splines. Results: Benzene exposures were much lower than previous studies. Categorical analyses showed increased ORs for AML with several exposure metrics, although patterns were unclear; neither continuous exposure metrics nor spline analyses gave increased risks. ORs were highest in terminal workers, particularly for Tanker Drivers. No relationship was found between benzene exposure and risk of CLL, although the Australian study showed increased risks in refinery workers. Conclusion: Overall, this study does not persuasively demonstrate a risk between benzene and AML. A previously reported strong relationship between myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) (potentially previously reported as AML) at our study's low benzene levels suggests that MDS may be the more relevant health risk for lower exposure. Higher CLL risks in refinery workers may be due to more diverse exposures than benzene alone. PMID:24357793

Measuring Anxiety in Children: The Importance of Separate Mother and Father Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jansen, Mélou; Bodden, Denise H. M.; Muris, Peter; van Doorn, Marleen; Granic, Isabela

2017-01-01

Background: Previous research suggests that it is important to use parental reports when assessing children's anxiety, but it remains unclear to what extent there are differences between mothers' and fathers' scores and whether these potential differences have any repercussions for the psychometric properties of the scale being used. Objective:…

Active and Passive Spatial Learning in Human Navigation: Acquisition of Survey Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chrastil, Elizabeth R.; Warren, William H.

2013-01-01

It seems intuitively obvious that active exploration of a new environment would lead to better spatial learning than would passive visual exposure. It is unclear, however, which components of active learning contribute to spatial knowledge, and previous literature is decidedly mixed. This experiment tests the contributions of 4 components to…

Identity Change in Newly Married Couples: Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cast, Alicia D.; Cantwell, Allison M.

2007-01-01

Previous research has examined individuals' relative preference for consistent and enhancing feedback by examining reactions to negative and positive feedback. Recent research shows that, in general, individuals prefer feedback that is consistent with self-views, even if feedback is negative. It is unclear, however, whether negative and positive…

Disentangling the Effects of Student Attitudes and Behaviors on Academic Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Janssen, Susan; O'Brien, Maureen

2014-01-01

The interplay among motivation, ability, attitudes, behaviors, homework, and learning is unclear from previous research. We analyze data collected from 687 students enrolled in seven economics courses. A model explaining homework and exam scores is estimated, and separate analyses of ability and motivation groups are conducted. We find that…

Is Education Associated with Improvements in General Cognitive Ability, or in Specific Skills?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritchie, Stuart J.; Bates, Timothy C.; Deary, Ian J.

2015-01-01

Previous research has indicated that education influences cognitive development, but it is unclear what, precisely, is being improved. Here, we tested whether education is associated with cognitive test score improvements via domain-general effects on general cognitive ability ("g"), or via domain-specific effects on particular cognitive…

The Mediated and Moderated Effects of Family Support on Child Maltreatment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Anne; Gardner, Margo; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne

2012-01-01

Previous research has linked parents' social support to decreased child maltreatment, but questions remain surrounding the mechanisms explaining this association. Furthermore, it is unclear whether this association applies to support provided by family alone (and not friends), and whether it is moderated by the presence of neighborhood violence.…

The Role of Intonation in Language Discrimination by Infants and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vicenik, Chad Joseph

2011-01-01

It has been widely shown that infants and adults are capable of using only prosodic information to discriminate between languages. However, it remains unclear which aspects of prosody, either rhythm or intonation, listeners attend to for language discrimination. Previous researchers have suggested that rhythm, the duration and timing of speech…

Diffusion Tensor Imaging Correlates of Reading Ability in Dysfluent and Non-Impaired Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lebel, Catherine; Shaywitz, Bennett; Holahan, John; Shaywitz, Sally; Marchione, Karen; Beaulieu, Christian

2013-01-01

Many children and adults have specific reading disabilities; insight into the brain structure underlying these difficulties is evolving from imaging. Previous research highlights the left temporal-parietal white matter as important in reading, yet the degree of involvement of other areas remains unclear. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and…

Face Recognition Is Shaped by the Use of Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoll, Chloé; Palluel-Germain, Richard; Caldara, Roberto; Lao, Junpeng; Dye, Matthew W. G.; Aptel, Florent; Pascalis, Olivier

2018-01-01

Previous research has suggested that early deaf signers differ in face processing. Which aspects of face processing are changed and the role that sign language may have played in that change are however unclear. Here, we compared face categorization (human/non-human) and human face recognition performance in early profoundly deaf signers, hearing…

Math Is Like a Lion Hunting a Sleeping Gazelle: Preservice Elementary Teachers' Metaphors of Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Latterell, Carmen M.; Wilson, Janelle L.

2016-01-01

Preservice elementary teachers hold a variety of beliefs about mathematics and mathematics learning, which influence their teaching. Previous research has shown that preservice elementary teachers believe that mathematics is doing arithmetic. However, it is unclear if preservice elementary teachers truly believe that mathematics is only…

Retention of Statistical Concepts in a Preliminary Randomization-Based Introductory Statistics Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tintle, Nathan; Topliff, Kylie; VanderStoep, Jill; Holmes, Vicki-Lynn; Swanson, Todd

2012-01-01

Previous research suggests that a randomization-based introductory statistics course may improve student learning compared to the consensus curriculum. However, it is unclear whether these gains are retained by students post-course. We compared the conceptual understanding of a cohort of students who took a randomization-based curriculum (n = 76)…

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hwang, Jai-chan; Noh, Hyerim

Special relativistic hydrodynamics with weak gravity has hitherto been unknown in the literature. Whether such an asymmetric combination is possible has been unclear. Here, the hydrodynamic equations with Poisson-type gravity, considering fully relativistic velocity and pressure under the weak gravity and the action-at-a-distance limit, are consistently derived from Einstein’s theory of general relativity. An analysis is made in the maximal slicing, where the Poisson’s equation becomes much simpler than our previous study in the zero-shear gauge. Also presented is the hydrodynamic equations in the first post-Newtonian approximation, now under the general hypersurface condition. Our formulation includes the anisotropic stress.

Does a balance deficit persist in Australian Football players with previous lower limb ligament injury?

PubMed

Hrysomallis, C; McLaughlin, P; Goodman, C

2005-03-01

A history of lower limb ligament injury is a commonly-cited risk factor for another similar injury. During the acute phase of injury, there is a balancing skill deficit in the injured limb. It has been unclear as to whether this deficit persists in the medium-to-long term for previously injured Australian footballers, contributing to the risk of re-injury. This study compared the balance ability of footballers with and without previous lower limb ligament injury and, for previously injured players, the balance ability of the previously injured limb to the opposite uninjured limb. A total of 216 players from 6 teams from the Australian Football League were tested. The balance task comprised stepping on to a foam mat on top of a force plate and maintaining one-legged balance. The subjects were divided into 4 groups based on their injury history: all ankle injuries to only one limb, recent ankle injuries to only one limb (within the last 12 months), knee ligament injury only to one limb, and no previous ankle or knee ligament injury. Statistical analysis revealed that there was no significant difference between the balance scores of any of the previously injured players and those with no previous lower limb ligament injury. There was no significant difference between the balance score of the previously injured limb with the opposite uninjured limb. It appears that a balance deficit does not persist in Australian Football players with previous lower limb ligament injury.

The geometry of pull-apart basins in the southern part of Sumatran strike-slip fault zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aribowo, Sonny

2018-02-01

Models of pull-apart basin geometry have been described by many previous studies in a variety tectonic setting. 2D geometry of Ranau Lake represents a pull-apart basin in the Sumatran Fault Zone. However, there are unclear geomorphic traces of two sub-parallel overlapping strike-slip faults in the boundary of the lake. Nonetheless, clear geomorphic traces that parallel to Kumering Segment of the Sumatran Fault are considered as inactive faults in the southern side of the lake. I demonstrate the angular characteristics of the Ranau Lake and Suoh complex pull-apart basins and compare with pull-apart basin examples from published studies. I use digital elevation model (DEM) image to sketch the shape of the depression of Ranau Lake and Suoh Valley and measure 2D geometry of pull-apart basins. This study shows that Ranau Lake is not a pull-apart basin, and the pull-apart basin is actually located in the eastern side of the lake. Since there is a clear connection between pull-apart basin and volcanic activity in Sumatra, I also predict that the unclear trace of the pull-apart basin near Ranau Lake may be covered by Ranau Caldera and Seminung volcanic products.

Do humans (Homo sapiens) and fish (Pterophyllum scalare) make similar numerosity judgments?

PubMed

Miletto Petrazzini, Maria Elena; Agrillo, Christian; Izard, Véronique; Bisazza, Angelo

2016-11-01

Numerous studies have shown that many animal species can be trained to discriminate between stimuli differing in numerosity. However, in the absence of generalization tests with untrained numerosities, what decision criterion was used by subjects remains unclear: the subjects may succeed by selecting a specific number of items (a criterion over absolute numerosities), or by applying a more general relative numerosity rule, for example, selecting the larger/smaller quantity of items. The latter case may require more powerful representations, supporting judgments of order ("more/less") beyond simple "same/different" judgments, but a relative numerosity rule may also be more adaptive. In previous research, we showed that guppies (Poecilia reticulata) spontaneously prefer relative numerosity rules. To date it is unclear whether this preference is shared by other fish and, more broadly, other species. Here we compared the performance of angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) with that of human adults (Homo sapiens) in a task in which subjects were initially trained to select arrays containing 10 dots (either in 5 vs. 10 or 10 vs. 20 comparisons). Subsequently they were tested with the previously trained numerosity and a novel numerosity (respectively, 20 or 5). In the absence of explicit instructions, both species spontaneously favored a relative rule, selecting the novel numerosity. These similarities demonstrate that, beyond shared representations for numerical quantities, vertebrate species may also share a system for taking decisions about quantities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of songs with prosocial lyrics on prosocial behavior: further evidence and a mediating mechanism.

PubMed

Greitemeyer, Tobias

2009-11-01

Previous research has shown that exposure to prosocial songs increased the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, led to more interpersonal empathy, and fostered helping behavior. However, inasmuch as cognition, affect, and behavior were measured in different studies, it remained unclear what variable constituted the mediating path from media exposure to action. This was tested in the present research. In four studies, listening to songs with prosocial, relative to neutral, lyrics increased helping behavior. This effect was mediated by interpersonal empathy. The results are consistent with the general learning model and point to the importance of the affective route in explaining how media exposure influences social behavior.

No Relationship Between Hamstring Flexibility and Hamstring Injuries in Male Amateur Soccer Players: A Prospective Study.

PubMed

van Doormaal, Mitchell C M; van der Horst, Nick; Backx, Frank J G; Smits, Dirk-Wouter; Huisstede, Bionka M A

2017-01-01

In soccer, although hamstring flexibility is thought to play a major role in preventing hamstring injuries, the relationship between hamstring flexibility and hamstring injuries remains unclear. To investigate the relationship between hamstring flexibility and hamstring injuries in male amateur soccer players. Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3. This study included 450 male first-class amateur soccer players (mean age, 24.5 years). Hamstring flexibility was measured by performing the sit-and-reach test (SRT). The relationship between hamstring flexibility and the occurrence of hamstring injuries in the following year, while adjusting for the possible confounding effects of age and previous hamstring injuries, was determined with a multivariate logistic regression analysis. Of the 450 soccer players, 21.8% reported a hamstring injury in the previous year. The mean (±SD) baseline score for the SRT was 21.2 ± 9.2 cm. During the 1-year follow-up period, 23 participants (5.1%) suffered a hamstring injury. In the multivariate analysis, while adjusting for age and previous injuries, no significant relationship was found between hamstring flexibility and hamstring injuries ( P = .493). In this group of soccer players, hamstring flexibility (measured with the SRT) was not related to hamstring injuries. Age and previous hamstring injuries as possible confounders did not appear to influence this relationship. Other etiological factors need to be examined to further elucidate the mechanism of hamstring injuries.

Dissociations within human hippocampal subregions during encoding and retrieval of spatial information.

PubMed

Suthana, Nanthia; Ekstrom, Arne; Moshirvaziri, Saba; Knowlton, Barbara; Bookheimer, Susan

2011-07-01

Although the hippocampus is critical for the formation and retrieval of spatial memories, it is unclear how subregions are differentially involved in these processes. Previous high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that CA2, CA3, and dentate gyrus (CA23DG) regions support the encoding of novel associations, whereas the subicular cortices support the retrieval of these learned associations. Whether these subregions are used in humans during encoding and retrieval of spatial information has yet to be explored. Using high-resolution fMRI (1.6 mm × 1.6-mm in-plane), we found that activity within the right CA23DG increased during encoding compared to retrieval. Conversely, right subicular activity increased during retrieval compared to encoding of spatial associations. These results are consistent with the previous studies illustrating dissociations within human hippocampal subregions and further suggest that these regions are similarly involved during the encoding and retrieval of spatial information. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The C2'- and C3'-endo equilibrium for AMP molecules bound in the cystathionine-beta-synthase domain.

PubMed

Feng, Na; Qi, Chao; Hou, Yan-Jie; Zhang, Ying; Wang, Da-Cheng; Li, De-Feng

2018-03-04

The equilibrium between C2'- and C3'-endo conformations of nucleotides in solution, as well as their polymers DNA and RNA, has been well studied in previous work. However, this equilibrium of nucleotides in their binding state remains unclear. We observed two AMP molecules, in C3'- and C2'-endo conformations respectively, simultaneously bound to a cystathionine-beta-synthase (CBS) domain dimer of the magnesium and cobalt efflux protein CorC in the crystallographic study. The C2'-endo AMP molecule assumes the higher sugar pucker energy and one more hydrogen bond with the protein than the C3'-endo molecule does. The balance between the high sugar pucker energy and the low binding energy suggests an equilibrium or switch between C2'- and C3'-endo conformations of the bound nucleotides. Our work challenge the previous hypothesis that the ribose of the bound nucleotides would be locked in a fixed conformation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Importance of Aspergillus spp. isolation in Acute exacerbations of severe COPD: prevalence, factors and follow-up: the FUNGI-COPD study

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) are often associated with infectious agents, some of which may be non-usual, including Aspergillus spp. However, the importance of Aspergillus spp. in the clinical management of AECOPD still remains unclear. Objectives The aims of the study were to analyze the prevalence and risk factors associated with Aspergillus spp. isolation in AECOPD, and to investigate the associated clinical outcomes during a 1-year follow-up period. Methods Patients presenting with an AECOPD requiring hospitalization were prospectively included from four hospitals across Spain. Clinical, radiological and microbiological data were collected at admission and during the follow-up period (1, 6 and 12 months after discharge), and re-admissions and mortality data collected during the follow-up. Results A total of 240 patients with severe AECOPD were included. Valid sputum samples were obtained in 144 (58%) patients, and in this group, the prevalence of Aspergillus spp. isolation was 16.6% on admission and 14.1% at one-year follow-up. Multivariate logistic-regression showed that AECOPD in the previous year (OR 12.35; 95% CI, 1.9-29.1; p < 0.001), concurrent isolation of pathogenic bacteria (OR 3.64; 95% CI 1.65-9.45, p = 0.001) and concomitant isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (OR 2.80; 95% IC, 1.81-11.42; p = 0.001) were the main risk factors for Aspergillus spp. isolation. Conclusions The main risk factors for Aspergillus spp. isolation were AECOPD in the previous year and concomitant isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, although Aspergillus spp. is often isolated in sputum samples from patients with AECOPD, the pathogenic and clinical significance remains unclear. PMID:24517318

Mother and Child Reports of Hurricane Related Stressors: Data from a Sample of Families Exposed to Hurricane Katrina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Betty S.; Beaulieu, Brooke; Ogokeh, Constance E.; Self-Brown, Shannon; Kelley, Mary Lou

2015-01-01

Background: Families exposed to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina are at risk for numerous adverse outcomes. While previous literature suggests that the degree of disaster exposure corresponds with experiencing negative outcomes, it is unclear if parents and children report similar levels of disaster exposure. Objective: The purpose of this…

Participation in Asynchronous Online Discussion Forums Does Improve Student Learning of Gross Anatomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Rodney A.; Farchione, Davide; Hughes, Diane L.; Chan, Siew-Pang

2014-01-01

Asynchronous online discussion forums are common in blended learning models and are popular with students. A previous report has suggested that participation in these forums may assist student learning in a gross anatomy subject but it was unclear as to whether more academically able students post more often or whether participation led to…

Neuro-Cognitive Performance of Very Preterm or Very Low Birth Weight Adults at 26 Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eryigit Madzwamuse, Suna; Baumann, Nicole; Jaekel, Julia; Bartmann, Peter; Wolke, Dieter

2015-01-01

Background: Children born very preterm (VP <32 weeks gestation) and/or with very low birth weight (VBLW <1500 g; subsequently VP/VLBW) have been previously reported to have more cognitive impairment and specific executive functioning problems than term children; however, it remains unclear whether these problems persist into adulthood. This…

Matching- and Nonmatching-to-Sample Concept Learning in Rats Using Olfactory Stimuli

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

April, L. Brooke; Bruce, Katherine; Galizio, Mark

2011-01-01

Previous research has shown that rats can learn matching-to-sample relations with olfactory stimuli; however, the specific characteristics of this relational control are unclear. In Experiment 1, 6 rats were trained to either match or nonmatch to sample in a modified operant chamber using common household spices as olfactory stimuli. After…

A Comparative Analysis of Students' Satisfaction with Teaching on STEM vs. Non-STEM Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pawson, Chris

2012-01-01

Recent Higher Education Funding Council research echoes previous findings that student satisfaction scores differ between subject areas (HEFCE, 2011). However, there remains a paucity of research attempting to account for this, and these differences have only been reported for final-year student satisfaction. It is unclear at what stage during a…

Siblings, Language, and False Belief in Low-Income Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tompkins, Virginia; Farrar, M. Jeffrey; Guo, Ying

2013-01-01

The authors examined the relationship between number of siblings and false belief understanding (FBU) in 94 low-income 4-5-year-olds. Previous research with middle-income children has shown a positive association between number of siblings and FBU. However, it is unclear whether having multiple siblings in low-income families is related to better…

Does a House Divided Stand? Kinship and the Continuity of Shared Living Arrangements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glick, Jennifer E.; Van Hook, Jennifer

2011-01-01

Shared living arrangements can provide housing, economies of scale, and other instrumental support and may become an important resource in times of economic constraint. But the extent to which such living arrangements experience continuity or rapid change in composition is unclear. Previous research on extended-family households tended to focus on…

Development of preference for conspecific faces in human infants.

PubMed

Sanefuji, Wakako; Wada, Kazuko; Yamamoto, Tomoka; Mohri, Ikuko; Taniike, Masako

2014-04-01

Previous studies have proposed that humans may be born with mechanisms that attend to conspecifics. However, as previous studies have relied on stimuli featuring human adults, it remains unclear whether infants attend only to adult humans or to the entire human species. We found that 1-month-old infants (n = 23) were able to differentiate between human and monkey infants' faces; however, they exhibited no preference for human infants' faces over monkey infants' faces (n = 24) and discriminated individual differences only within the category of human infants' faces (n = 30). We successfully replicated previous findings that 1-month-old infants (n = 42) preferred adult humans, even adults of other races, to adult monkeys. Further, by 3 months of age, infants (n = 55) preferred human faces to monkey faces with both infant and adult stimuli. Human infants' spontaneous preference for conspecific faces appears to be initially limited to conspecific adults and afterward extended to conspecific infants. Future research should attempt to determine whether preference for human adults results from some innate tendency to attend to conspecific adults or from the impact of early experiences with adults. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

The influence of smoking on radiation-induced bystander signal production in esophageal cancer patients.

PubMed

Hanu, C; Timotin, E; Wong, R; Sur, R K; Hayward, J E; Seymour, C B; Mothersill, C E

2016-05-01

The relevance of radiation-induced bystander effects in humans is unclear. Much of the existing data relate to cell lines but the effect of bystander signals in complex human tissues is unclear. A phase II clinical study was untaken, where blood sera from 60 patients along with 15 cancer-free volunteers were used to detect whether measurable bystander factor(s) could be found in the blood following high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy. Overall, there was no significant change in bystander signal production (measured in a human keratinocyte reporter system) before and after one treatment fraction of HDR brachytherapy (p>0.05). Further assessment of patient characteristics and environmental modifiable factors including smoking were also analyzed. Similar to previously published data, samples taken from smokers produced weaker signals compared to non-smokers (p<0.05). Although the number of non-smoking subjects was low, there was a clear decrease in cloning efficiency observed in keratinocyte cultures for these patients that requires further study. This study found that samples taken from smokers do not produce bystander signals, whereas samples taken from non-smokers can produce such signals following HDR brachytherapy. These findings highlight the importance of studying the interactions of multiple stressors including environmental modifiers with radiation, since some factors such as smoking may elicit protection in tumor cells which could counteract the effectiveness of radiation therapy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wrighton, Kelly C.; Thomas, Brian C.; Sharon, I.

BD1-5, OP11, and OD1 bacteria have been widely detected in anaerobic environments, but their metabolisms remain unclear owing to lack of cultivated representatives and minimal genomic sampling. We uncovered metabolic characteristics for members of these phyla, and a new lineage, PER, via cultivation-independent recovery of 49 partial to near-complete genomes from an acetate-amended aquifer. All organisms were nonrespiring anaerobes predicted to ferment. Three augment fermentation with archaeal-like type II and III ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase (RuBisCO) that couples adenosine monophosphate salvage with CO2 fixation, a pathway previously not described in Bacteria. Members of OD1 reduce sulfur and may pump protons using archaeal-typemore » hydrogenases. For six organisms, the UGA stop codon is translated as tryptophan. All bacteria studied here may play previously unrecognized roles in hydrogen production, sulfur cycling, and fermentation of refractory sedimentary carbon.« less

Dietary fats and cardiovascular health: a summary of the scientific evidence and current debate.

PubMed

Fattore, Elena; Massa, Elena

2018-04-04

This narrative review summarises the main studies of the role of the different fatty acids in coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and the current scientific debate on dietary recommendations. Reduction and substitution of the saturated fatty acids (SFAs) with the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are still the main dietary recommendation to prevent CHD and CVD. In the last few years, however, the strength of the scientific evidence underlying this dietary advice has been questioned. Recent investigations reappraise the previously declared deleterious role of the SFAs and reduce the positive role of PUFAs, mainly the omega-6, whereas the role of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) remains unclear. In contrast, the negative effects of trans fatty acids (TFAs) seem stronger than previously thought. Finally, criticisms have emerged from a dietary recommendation approach focussed on individual components rather than on wide food items and eating habits.

Thalamic amplification of cortical connectivity sustains attentional control

PubMed Central

Schmitt, L. Ian; Wimmer, Ralf D.; Nakajima, Miho; Happ, Michael; Mofakham, Sima; Halassa, Michael M.

2017-01-01

While interactions between the thalamus and cortex are critical for cognitive function1–3, the exact contribution of the thalamus to these interactions is often unclear. Recent studies have shown diverse connectivity patterns across the thalamus 4,5, but whether this diversity translates to thalamic functions beyond relaying information to or between cortical regions6 is unknown. Here, by investigating prefrontal cortical (PFC) representation of two rules used to guide attention, we find that the mediodorsal thalamus (MD) sustains these representations without relaying categorical information. Specifically, MD input amplifies local PFC connectivity, enabling rule-specific neural sequences to emerge and thereby maintain rule representations. Consistent with this notion, broadly enhancing PFC excitability diminishes rule specificity and behavioral performance, while enhancing MD excitability improves both. Overall, our results define a previously unknown principle in neuroscience; thalamic control of functional cortical connectivity. This function indicates that the thalamus plays much more central roles in cognition than previously thought. PMID:28467827

Inference for Environmental Intervention Studies using Principal Stratification

PubMed Central

Hackstadt, A. J.; Butz, Arlene M.; Williams, D’Ann L.; Diette, Gregory B.; Breysse, Patrick N.; Matsui, Elizabeth C.; Peng, Roger D.

2014-01-01

Previous research has found evidence of an association between indoor air pollution and asthma morbidity in children. Environmental intervention studies have been performed to examine the role of household environmental interventions in altering indoor air pollution concentrations and improving health. Previous environmental intervention studies have found only modest effects on health outcomes and it is unclear if the health benefits provided by environmental modification are comparable to those provided by medication. Traditionally, the statistical analysis of environmental intervention studies has involved performing two intention-to-treat analyses that separately estimate the effect of the environmental intervention on health and the effect of the environmental intervention on indoor air pollution concentrations. We propose a principal stratification (PS) approach to examine the extent to which an environmental intervention’s effect on health outcomes coincides with its effect on indoor air pollution. We apply this approach to data from a randomized air cleaner intervention trial conducted in a population of asthmatic children living in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. We find that amongst children for whom the air cleaner reduced indoor particulate matter concentrations, the intervention resulted in a meaningful improvement of asthma symptoms with an effect generally larger than previous studies have shown. A key benefit of using principal stratification in environmental intervention studies is that it allows investigators to estimate causal effects of the intervention for sub-groups defined by changes in the indoor air pollution concentration. PMID:25164949

Inference for environmental intervention studies using principal stratification.

PubMed

Hackstadt, Amber J; Matsui, Elizabeth C; Williams, D'Ann L; Diette, Gregory B; Breysse, Patrick N; Butz, Arlene M; Peng, Roger D

2014-12-10

Previous research has found evidence of an association between indoor air pollution and asthma morbidity in children. Environmental intervention studies have been performed to examine the role of household environmental interventions in altering indoor air pollution concentrations and improving health. Previous environmental intervention studies have found only modest effects on health outcomes and it is unclear if the health benefits provided by environmental modification are comparable with those provided by medication. Traditionally, the statistical analysis of environmental intervention studies has involved performing two intention-to-treat analyses that separately estimate the effect of the environmental intervention on health and the effect of the environmental intervention on indoor air pollution concentrations. We propose a principal stratification approach to examine the extent to which an environmental intervention's effect on health outcomes coincides with its effect on indoor air pollution. We apply this approach to data from a randomized air cleaner intervention trial conducted in a population of asthmatic children living in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. We find that among children for whom the air cleaner reduced indoor particulate matter concentrations, the intervention resulted in a meaningful improvement of asthma symptoms with an effect generally larger than previous studies have shown. A key benefit of using principal stratification in environmental intervention studies is that it allows investigators to estimate causal effects of the intervention for sub-groups defined by changes in the indoor air pollution concentration. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fatty acids and small organic compounds bind to mineralo-organic nanoparticles derived from human body fluids as revealed by metabolomic analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martel, Jan; Wu, Cheng-Yeu; Hung, Cheng-Yu; Wong, Tsui-Yin; Cheng, Ann-Joy; Cheng, Mei-Ling; Shiao, Ming-Shi; Young, John D.

2016-03-01

Nanoparticles entering the human body instantly become coated with a ``protein corona'' that influences the effects and distribution of the particles in vivo. Yet, whether nanoparticles may bind to other organic compounds remains unclear. Here we use an untargeted metabolomic approach based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography and quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry to identify the organic compounds that bind to mineral nanoparticles formed in human body fluids (serum, plasma, saliva, and urine). A wide range of organic compounds is identified, including fatty acids, glycerophospholipids, amino acids, sugars, and amides. Our results reveal that, in addition to the proteins identified previously, nanoparticles harbor an ``organic corona'' containing several fatty acids which may affect particle-cell interactions in vivo. This study provides a platform to study the organic corona of biological and synthetic nanoparticles found in the human body.Nanoparticles entering the human body instantly become coated with a ``protein corona'' that influences the effects and distribution of the particles in vivo. Yet, whether nanoparticles may bind to other organic compounds remains unclear. Here we use an untargeted metabolomic approach based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography and quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry to identify the organic compounds that bind to mineral nanoparticles formed in human body fluids (serum, plasma, saliva, and urine). A wide range of organic compounds is identified, including fatty acids, glycerophospholipids, amino acids, sugars, and amides. Our results reveal that, in addition to the proteins identified previously, nanoparticles harbor an ``organic corona'' containing several fatty acids which may affect particle-cell interactions in vivo. This study provides a platform to study the organic corona of biological and synthetic nanoparticles found in the human body. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5nr08116e

Suicide rates and information seeking via search engines: A cross-national correlational approach.

PubMed

Arendt, Florian

2018-09-01

The volume of Google searches for suicide-related terms is positively associated with suicide rates, but previous studies used data from specific, restricted geographical contexts, thus, limiting the generalizability of this finding. We investigated the correlation between suicide-related search volume and suicide rates of 50 nations from five continents. We found a positive correlation between suicide rates and search volume, even after controlling for the level of industrialization. Results give credence to the global existence of a correlation. However, the reason why suicide-related search volume is higher in countries with higher suicide rates is still unclear and up to future research.

HIV proviral DNA associated with decreased neuropsychological function.

PubMed

Shiramizu, Bruce; Paul, Robert; Williams, Andrew; Shikuma, Cecilia; Watters, Michael; Grove, John; Valcour, Victor

2007-01-01

The authors previously found a strong association between elevated HIV proviral DNA (HIV DNA) and a diagnosis of HIV-1-associated dementia (HAD) vs. normal cognition. It is unclear whether HIV DNA globally affects the diagnosis of HAD or whether the effect is limited to individual neuropsychological deficits. This exploratory study examined baseline HIV DNA and its association with individual neuropsychological deficits. HIV DNA was significantly associated with baseline neuropsychological deficits independent of age, ethnicity, IQ, and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels. However, HIV DNA did not predict future changes in neuropsychological deficits. The data suggest that HIV DNA and neuropsychological deficits may co-vary over time.

Analysis of Arterial Mechanics During Head-Down-Tilt Bed Rest

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elliott, Morgan B.; Martin, David S.; Westby, Christian M.; Stenger, Michael B.; Platts, Steven H.

2014-01-01

Carotid, brachial, and tibial arteries reacted differently to HDTBR. Previous studies have not analyzed the mechanical properties of the human brachial or anterior tibial arteries. After slight variations during bed-rest, arterial mechanical properties and IMT returned to pre-bed rest values, with the exception of tibial stiffness and PSE, which continued to be reduced post-bed rest while the DC remained elevated. The tibial artery remodeling was probably due to decreased pressure and volume. Resulting implications for longer duration spaceflight are unclear. Arterial health may be affected by microgravity, as shown by increased thoracic aorta stiffness in other ground based simulations (Aubert).

Sentinel lymph node navigation surgery for gastric cancer: Does it really benefit the patient?

PubMed

Tani, Tohru; Sonoda, Hiromichi; Tani, Masaji

2016-03-14

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) navigation surgery is accepted as a standard treatment procedure for malignant melanoma and breast cancer. However, the benefit of reduced lymphadenectomy based on SLN examination remains unclear in cases of gastric cancer. Here, we review previous studies to determine whether SLN navigation surgery is beneficial for gastric cancer patients. Recently, a large-scale prospective study from the Japanese Society of Sentinel Node Navigation Surgery reported that the endoscopic dual tracer method, using a dye and radioisotope for SLN biopsy, was safe and effective when applied to cases of superficial and relatively small gastric cancers. SLN mapping with SLN basin dissection was preferred for early gastric cancer since it is minimally invasive. However, previous studies reported that limited gastrectomy and lymphadenectomy may not improve the patient's postoperative quality of life (QOL). As a result, the benefit of SLN navigation surgery for gastric cancer patients, in terms of their QOL, is limited. Thus, endoscopic and laparoscopic limited gastrectomy combined with SLN navigation surgery has the potential to become the standard minimally invasive surgery in early gastric cancer.

American cutaneous leishmaniasis triggered by electrocoagulation.

PubMed

Martins, Sofia Sales; Santos, Adriana de Oliveira; Lima, Beatriz Dolabela; Gomes, Ciro Martins; Sampaio, Raimunda Nonata Ribeiro

2018-01-01

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is usually transmitted by infected phlebotomine sand fly bites that initiate local cutaneous lesions. Few reports in the literature describe other modes of transmission. We report a case of a previously healthy 59-year-old woman who underwent electrocoagulation to remove seborrheic keratosis confirmed by dermatoscopy. Three months later, a skin fragment tested positive for Leishmania culture; the parasite was identified as L. (V.) braziliensis. Trauma may generate inflammatory cascades that favor Leishmania growth and lesion formation in previously infected patients. American cutaneous leishmaniasis is a dynamic disease with unclear pathophysiology because of continually changing environments, demographics, and human behaviors.

Race, Urban Context, and Russian Roulette: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System, 2003-2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wasserman, Ira; Stack, Steven

2011-01-01

Previous work on Russian roulette has focused on data from large cities. It is unclear if the epidemiological patterns based on large cities will replicate for the nation as a whole, and if the influence of minority status will be moderated by urban context. The present investigation fills these gaps by providing descriptive epidemiological data…

What Does Children's Spatial Language Reveal about Spatial Concepts? Evidence from the Use of Containment Expressions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johanson, Megan; Papafragou, Anna

2014-01-01

Children's overextensions of spatial language are often taken to reveal spatial biases. However, it is unclear whether extension patterns should be attributed to children's overly general spatial concepts or to a narrower notion of conceptual similarity allowing metaphor-like extensions. We describe a previously unnoticed extension of…

The Duality of Individualism: Attitudes toward Women, Generation Me, and the Method of Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Twenge, Jean M.

2011-01-01

This author became intrigued by the idea that her generation, who had grown up reaping the benefits of second-wave feminism, might differ from previous generations in their attitudes toward women. What was unclear was how this period of progress might have combined with feminist backlash in affecting subsequent generations' responses to typical…

Cellular Interactions and Biological Responses to Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles in HepG2 and BEAS-2B Cells: Role of Cell Culture Media

EPA Science Inventory

ABSTRACT We have shown previously that the composition of the biological medium used in vitro can affect the cellular interaction and biological response of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano-TiO2) in human lung epithelial cells. However, it is unclear if these effects are co...

Canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling control the regeneration of amputated rodent vibrissae follicles.

PubMed

Yuan, Yan-Ping; Huang, Keng; Xu, Yan-Min; Chen, Xian-Cai; Li, Hai-Hong; Cai, Bo-Zhi; Liu, Yang; Zhang, Huan; Li, Yu; Lin, Chang-Min

2016-02-01

Although mammals are notoriously poor at regeneration compared with many lower-order species, the hair follicle, particular to mammals, is capable of regeneration following partial amputation. The detailed internal mechanism of this phenomenon is still unclear. Development and regrowth of the hair follicle depends on dermal-epidermal interaction within the hair follicle. Previous studies have shown that Wnt/β-catenin, Shh, Bmp, PDGF, TGF and Notch signals all take part in the development and growth of the hair follicle, and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling additionally plays an indispensable role in hair follicle morphogenesis and regrowth. In this study, we investigated the localization, as well as, protein levels of Wnt/β-catenin signaling molecules during amputated whisker follicle regeneration.

Effects of Parental Stress, Optimism, and Health-Promoting Behaviors on the Quality of Life of Primiparous and Multiparous Mothers.

PubMed

Loh, Jennifer; Harms, Craig; Harman, Bronwyn

Parental stress, optimism, and health-promoting behaviors (HPBs) are important predictors of the quality of life (QoL) of mothers. However, it is unclear how strongly these predictors affect the QoL of mothers. It is also unclear if the impact of these predictors on QoL differs between primiparous and multiparous mothers. In this study, we defined primiparous as "bearing young for the first time" and multiparous as "having experienced one or more previous childbirths." The first objective of this study was to examine the relative effect of parental stress, optimism, and HPBs on the QoL of mothers. The second objective was to investigate if the effect of these predictors differed between primiparous and multiparous mothers. One hundred ninety-four Australian mothers (n = 87, 44.8% primiparous mothers) participated in an online survey that included the Parental Stress Scale, the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II, the Revised Life Orientation Test, and the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire. All predictors (parental stress, optimism, and HPBs) significantly affected the QoL of mothers; higher levels of optimism, greater use of HPBs, and lower parental stress were associated with higher levels of QoL for all mothers. Parity did not affect the relationships. This study sheds light on the nature and unique effect of parental stress, optimism, and HPBs on the QoL of mothers.

External cephalic version among women with a previous cesarean delivery: report on 36 cases and review of the literature.

PubMed

Abenhaim, Haim A; Varin, Jocelyne; Boucher, Marc

2009-01-01

Whether or not women with a previous cesarean section should be considered for an external cephalic version remains unclear. In our study, we sought to examine the relationship between a history of previous cesarean section and outcomes of external cephalic version for pregnancies at 36 completed weeks of gestation or more. Data on obstetrical history and on external cephalic version outcomes was obtained from the C.H.U. Sainte-Justine External Cephalic Version Database. Baseline clinical characteristics were compared among women with and without a history of previous cesarean section. We used logistic regression analysis to evaluate the effect of previous cesarean section on success of external cephalic version while adjusting for parity, maternal body mass index, gestational age, estimated fetal weight, and amniotic fluid index. Over a 15-year period, 1425 external cephalic versions were attempted of which 36 (2.5%) were performed on women with a previous cesarean section. Although women with a history of previous cesarean section were more likely to be older and para >2 (38.93% vs. 15.0%), there were no difference in gestational age, estimated fetal weight, and amniotic fluid index. Women with a prior cesarean section had a success rate similar to women without [50.0% vs. 51.6%, adjusted OR: 1.31 (0.48-3.59)]. Women with a previous cesarean section who undergo an external cephalic version have similar success rates than do women without. Concern about procedural success in women with a previous cesarean section is unwarranted and should not deter attempting an external cephalic version.

Mere exposure effect can be elicited in transient global amnesia.

PubMed

Marin-Garcia, Eugenia; Ruiz-Vargas, Jose M; Kapur, Narinder

2013-01-01

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is one of the most severe forms of anterograde amnesia seen in clinical practice, yet patients may show evidence of spared learning during the amnesic episode. The scope of spared learning in such a severe form of amnesia remains uncertain, and it is also unclear whether findings from single-case studies hold up in group studies of TGA patients. In this group study, we found evidence that extended the domain of spared learning in TGA to include the mere exposure effect, whereby enhanced preference is primed by prior exposure to stimuli. We demonstrate this effect during an acute episode in a group of TGA patients, where they showed enhanced preference for previously exposed faces, despite markedly impaired performance on standard anterograde memory tests.

SNX27 Deletion Causes Hydrocephalus by Impairing Ependymal Cell Differentiation and Ciliogenesis

PubMed Central

Zhou, Ying; Wang, Jian; Tseng, I-Chu; Huang, Timothy; Zhao, Yingjun; Zheng, Qiuyang; Gao, Yue; Luo, Hong; Zhang, Xian; Bu, Guojun; Hong, Wanjin

2016-01-01

Hydrocephalus is a brain disorder derived from CSF accumulation due to defects in CSF clearance. Although dysfunctional apical cilia in the ependymal cell layer are causal to the onset of hydrocephalus, mechanisms underlying proper ependymal cell differentiation are largely unclear. SNX27 is a trafficking component required for normal brain function and was shown previously to suppress γ-secretase-dependent amyloid precursor protein and Notch cleavage. However, it was unclear how SNX27-dependent γ-secretase inhibition could contribute to brain development and pathophysiology. Here, we describe and characterize an Snx27-deleted mouse model for the ependymal layer defects of deciliation and hydrocephalus. SNX27 deficiency results in reductions in ependymal cells and cilia density, as well as severe postnatal hydrocephalus. Inhibition of Notch intracellular domain signaling with γ-secretase inhibitors reversed ependymal cells/cilia loss and dilation of lateral ventricles in Snx27-deficient mice, giving strong indication that Snx27 deletion triggers defects in ependymal layer formation and ciliogenesis through Notch hyperactivation. Together, these results suggest that SNX27 is essential for ependymal cell differentiation and ciliogenesis, and its deletion can promote hydrocephalus pathogenesis. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Down's syndrome (DS) in humans and mouse models has been shown previously to confer a high risk for the development of pathological hydrocephalus. Because we have previously described SNX27 as a component that is consistently downregulated in DS, we present here a robust Snx27-deleted mouse model that produces hydrocephalus and associated ciliary defects with complete penetrance. In addition, we find that γ-secretase/Notch modulation may be a candidate drug target in SNX27-associated hydrocephalus such as that observed in DS. Based on these findings, we anticipate that future study will determine whether modulation of a SNX27/Notch/γ-secretase pathway can also be of therapeutic interest to congenital hydrocephalus. PMID:27974614

SNX27 Deletion Causes Hydrocephalus by Impairing Ependymal Cell Differentiation and Ciliogenesis.

PubMed

Wang, Xin; Zhou, Ying; Wang, Jian; Tseng, I-Chu; Huang, Timothy; Zhao, Yingjun; Zheng, Qiuyang; Gao, Yue; Luo, Hong; Zhang, Xian; Bu, Guojun; Hong, Wanjin; Xu, Huaxi

2016-12-14

Hydrocephalus is a brain disorder derived from CSF accumulation due to defects in CSF clearance. Although dysfunctional apical cilia in the ependymal cell layer are causal to the onset of hydrocephalus, mechanisms underlying proper ependymal cell differentiation are largely unclear. SNX27 is a trafficking component required for normal brain function and was shown previously to suppress γ-secretase-dependent amyloid precursor protein and Notch cleavage. However, it was unclear how SNX27-dependent γ-secretase inhibition could contribute to brain development and pathophysiology. Here, we describe and characterize an Snx27-deleted mouse model for the ependymal layer defects of deciliation and hydrocephalus. SNX27 deficiency results in reductions in ependymal cells and cilia density, as well as severe postnatal hydrocephalus. Inhibition of Notch intracellular domain signaling with γ-secretase inhibitors reversed ependymal cells/cilia loss and dilation of lateral ventricles in Snx27-deficient mice, giving strong indication that Snx27 deletion triggers defects in ependymal layer formation and ciliogenesis through Notch hyperactivation. Together, these results suggest that SNX27 is essential for ependymal cell differentiation and ciliogenesis, and its deletion can promote hydrocephalus pathogenesis. Down's syndrome (DS) in humans and mouse models has been shown previously to confer a high risk for the development of pathological hydrocephalus. Because we have previously described SNX27 as a component that is consistently downregulated in DS, we present here a robust Snx27-deleted mouse model that produces hydrocephalus and associated ciliary defects with complete penetrance. In addition, we find that γ-secretase/Notch modulation may be a candidate drug target in SNX27-associated hydrocephalus such as that observed in DS. Based on these findings, we anticipate that future study will determine whether modulation of a SNX27/Notch/γ-secretase pathway can also be of therapeutic interest to congenital hydrocephalus. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/3612586-12$15.00/0.

Missing binary data extraction challenges from Cochrane reviews in mental health and Campbell reviews with implications for empirical research.

PubMed

Spineli, Loukia M

2017-12-01

Tο report challenges encountered during the extraction process from Cochrane reviews in mental health and Campbell reviews and to indicate their implications on the empirical performance of different methods to handle missingness. We used a collection of meta-analyses on binary outcomes collated from a previous work on missing outcome data. To evaluate the accuracy of their extraction, we developed specific criteria pertaining to the reporting of missing outcome data in systematic reviews. Using the most popular methods to handle missing binary outcome data, we investigated the implications of the accuracy of the extracted meta-analysis on the random-effects meta-analysis results. Of 113 meta-analyses from Cochrane reviews, 60 (53%) were judged as "unclearly" extracted (ie, no information on the outcome of completers but available information on how missing participants were handled) and 42 (37%) as "unacceptably" extracted (ie, no information on the outcome of completers as well as no information on how missing participants were handled). For the remaining meta-analyses, it was judged that data were "acceptably" extracted (ie, information on the completers' outcome was provided for all trials). Overall, "unclear" extraction overestimated the magnitude of the summary odds ratio and the between-study variance and additionally inflated the uncertainty of both meta-analytical parameters. The only eligible Campbell review was judged as "unclear." Depending on the extent of missingness, the reporting quality of the systematic reviews can greatly affect the accuracy of the extracted meta-analyses and by extent, the empirical performance of different methods to handle missingness. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Do relationships exist between the scope and intensity of quality improvement activities and hospital operation performance? A 10-year observation in Taiwan.

PubMed

Chung, Kuo-Piao; Yu, Tsung-Hsien

2015-08-14

The relationship between the scope and intensity of quality improvement (QI) activities and hospital performance remains unclear. This study investigated the relationship between performance, external environment, and the scope and intensity of QI activities in hospitals. The study used a longitudinal observation. Data regarding the scope and intensity of QI activities were collected using a questionnaire survey among the administrative deputy superintendents / directors of quality management center in 139 hospitals. Hospital performance indicators were abstracted from the 2000-2009 national hospitals profiles. We adopted year 2000 as the baseline, and divided the study period into three 3-year periods. The Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) model was used for the statistical analysis. Seventy-two hospitals responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 52%. The results showed a significant increase in the scope and intensity of QI activities between 2000 and 2009. The results also showed that the scope and intensity of a hospital's QI activities were associated with the scope and intensity of its competitors' QI activities in the previous period and its own prior performance. The scope of QI activities in the previous period was not significantly related to the selected hospital performance measures. However, the intensity of QI activities in the previous period showed a significant and positive relationship with the number of inpatients and the turnover of beds. The study demonstrates that the intensity of QI activities is associated with the external environment and the hospital's own performance in the previous period. Furthermore, some performance measures are associated with the intensity of the QI activities in the previous period.

Cadmium exposure and atherosclerotic carotid plaques –Results from the Malmö diet and Cancer study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fagerberg, Björn, E-mail: bjorn.fagerberg@wlab.gu.se; Barregard, Lars, E-mail: lars.barregard@amm.gu.se; Sallsten, Gerd, E-mail: gerd.sallsten@amm.gu.se

Background: Epidemiological studies indicate that cadmium exposure through diet and smoking is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. There are few data on the relationship between cadmium and plaques, the hallmark of underlying atherosclerotic disease. Objectives: To examine the association between exposure to cadmium and the prevalence and size of atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid artery. Methods: A population sample of 4639 Swedish middle-aged women and men was examined in 1991–1994. Carotid plaque was determined by B-mode ultrasound. Cadmium in blood was analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Results: Comparing quartile 4 with quartile 1 of blood cadmium,more » the odds ratio (OR) for prevalence of any plaque was 1.9 (95% confidence interval 1.6–2.2) after adjustment for sex and, age; 1.4 (1.1–1.8) after additional adjustment for smoking status; 1.4 (1.1–1.7) after the addition of education level and life style factors; 1.3 (1.03–1.8) after additional adjustment for risk factors and predictors of cardiovascular disease. No effect modification by sex was found in the cadmium-related prevalence of plaques. Similarly, ORs for the prevalence of small and large plaques were after full adjustment 1.4 (1.0–2.1) and 1.4 (0.9–2.0), respectively. The subgroup of never smokers showed no association between cadmium and atherosclerotic plaques. Conclusions: These results extend previous studies on cadmium exposure and clinical cardiovascular events by adding data on the association between cadmium and underlying atherosclerosis in humans. The role of smoking remains unclear. It may both cause residual confounding and be a source of pro-atherogenic cadmium exposure. - Highlights: • Blood cadmium level is associated with atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid artery. • The results extend previous knowledge of cadmium exposure and clinical events. • The role of smoking remains unclear.« less

Behavioral modulation by mutilation pictures in women.

PubMed

Pereira, M G; Volchan, E; Oliveira, L; Machado-Pinheiro, W; Rodrigues, J A; Nepomuceno, F V P; Pessoa, L

2004-03-01

Previous studies have shown that women are more emotionally expressive than men. It is unclear, however, if women are also more susceptible to the emotional modulation of behavior imposed by an affective stimulus. To investigate this issue, we devised a task in which female subjects performed six sequential trials of visual target detection following the presentation of emotional (mutilation and erotic) or neutral pictures (domestic utensils and objects) and compared the data obtained in the present study with those described in a previous study with male subjects. The experiment consisted of three blocks of 24 pictures and each block had an approximate duration of 4 min. Our sample consisted of 36 subjects (age range: 18 to 26 years) and each subject performed all blocks. Trials following the presentation of mutilation pictures (283 ms) had significantly slower reaction times than those following neutral (270 ms) pictures. None of the trials in the "pleasant block" (271 ms) was significantly different from those in the "neutral block". The increase in reaction time observed in the unpleasant block may be related in part to the activation of motivational systems leading to an avoidance behavior. The interference effect observed in this study was similar to the pattern previously described for men. Thus, although women may be more emotionally expressive, they were not more reactive to aversive stimuli than men, as measured by emotional interference in a simple reaction time task.

More Frequent Weak Stratospheric Polar Vortex States Linked to Cold Extremes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kretschmer, M.; Coumou, D.; Agel, L. A.; Barlow, M. A.; Tziperman, E.; Cohen, J. L.

2016-12-01

The extra-tropical stratosphere in boreal winter is characterized by a strong circumpolar westerly jet, referred to as the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) which confines cold temperatures at high latitudes. Previous studies showed that a weak SPV can lead to cold-air outbreaks in the mid-latitudes but the exact relationships and mechanisms are still unclear. Particularly, it is unclear whether stratospheric variability has contributed to the observed anomalous cooling trends in Central and eastern Asia. Using hierarchical clustering, we show that over the last 37 years, the frequency of weak vortex states in mid to late winter (January and February) has increased significantly accompanied by subsequent cold surface temperatures in the mid-latitudes. Furthermore, we show that stratospheric and El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability can explain most of the observed spatially heterogenic winter temperature trends in the era of Arctic amplification but the contribution of ENSO is less important. We show that the weakening of the SPV was related to a strengthening Siberian high and poleward heat flux. These findings support the hypothesis that a warming Arctic has weakened the SPV and thereby increased the frequency of cold-air outbreaks.

Internal and external relationships of the Cnidaria: implications of primary and predicted secondary structure of the 5'-end of the 23S-like rDNA.

PubMed Central

Odorico, D M; Miller, D J

1997-01-01

Since both internal (class-level) and external relationships of the Cnidaria remain unclear on the basis of analyses of 18S and (partial) 16S rDNA sequence data, we examined the informativeness of the 5'-end of the 23S-like rDNA. Here we describe analyses of both primary and predicted secondary structure data for this region from the ctenophore Bolinopsis sp., the placozoan Trichoplax adhaerens, the sponge Hymeniacidon heliophila, and representatives of all four cnidarian classes. Primary sequence analyses clearly resolved the Cnidaria from other lower Metazoa, supported sister group relationships between the Scyphozoa and Cubozoa and between the Ctenophora and the Placozoa, and confirmed the basal status of the Anthozoa within the Cnidaria. Additionally, in the ctenophore, placozoan and sponge, non-canonical base pairing is required to maintain the secondary structure of the B12 region, whereas amongst the Cnidaria this is not the case. Although the phylogenetic significance of this molecular character is unclear, our analyses do not support the close relationship between Cnidaria and Placozoa suggested by previous studies. PMID:9061962

Normal hematology and serum chemistry of northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) in captivity.

PubMed

Kohyama, Kaoru; Inoshima, Yasuo

2017-09-01

Northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) are endemic to the North Pacific Ocean. They were hunted for their fur and became endangered in the late 1800s, but their populations recovered following the introduction of protection laws. Recently, populations have been decreasing again, although the reasons are unclear. For individuals that are bred and reared in captivity as part of ex situ conservation projects, details of blood characteristics are essential to ensure good health. However, the normal ranges of hematology and serum chemistry of captive northern fur seals have not been defined. This study determined the normal ranges of hematology and serum chemistry of captive fur seals. Blood samples were collected every month for 2 years from four captive northern fur seals in Japan (three born in an aquarium and one kept in the same aquarium following rescue). Fifteen blood characteristics and 29 serum chemistry properties were compared with those previously reported for wild northern fur seals in the USA. Several parameters were not within the normal ranges reported previously in wild northern fur seals. In particular, levels of alkaline phosphatase was outside of the normal ranges previously reported. The hematological and serum chemistry ranges in this study can help provide a guideline for understanding the health of northern fur seals in captivity. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cumulative Effects of Concussion History on Baseline Computerized Neurocognitive Test Scores: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

PubMed

Alsalaheen, Bara; Stockdale, Kayla; Pechumer, Dana; Giessing, Alexander; He, Xuming; Broglio, Steven P

It is unclear whether individuals with a history of single or multiple clinically recovered concussions exhibit worse cognitive performance on baseline testing compared with individuals with no concussion history. To analyze the effects of concussion history on baseline neurocognitive performance using a computerized neurocognitive test. PubMed, CINAHL, and psycINFO were searched in November 2015. The search was supplemented by a hand search of references. Studies were included if participants completed the Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT) at baseline (ie, preseason) and if performance was stratified by previous history of single or multiple concussions. Systematic review and meta-analysis. Level 2. Sample size, demographic characteristics of participants, as well as performance of participants on verbal memory, visual memory, visual-motor processing speed, and reaction time were extracted from each study. A random-effects pooled meta-analysis revealed that, with the exception of worsened visual memory for those with 1 previous concussion (Hedges g = 0.10), no differences were observed between participants with 1 or multiple concussions compared with participants without previous concussions. With the exception of decreased visual memory based on history of 1 concussion, history of 1 or multiple concussions was not associated with worse baseline cognitive performance.

Intelligence and obesity: which way does the causal direction go?

PubMed

Kanazawa, Satoshi

2014-10-01

The negative association between intelligence and obesity has been well established, but the direction of causality is unclear. The present review surveys the recent studies on the topic with both cross-sectional and longitudinal data in an attempt to establish causality. Most studies in the area employ cross-sectional data and conclude (without empirical justification) that obesity causes intellectual impairment. The few studies that employ prospectively longitudinal data, however, uniformly conclude that lower intelligence leads to BMI gains and obesity. A close examination of three such studies, from three different nations (Sweden, New Zealand, and the UK), leaves little doubt that the causality runs from low intelligence to obesity. The conclusion in previous studies that obesity impairs cognitive function stems from improper interpretation of a negative association between intelligence and obesity from cross-sectional studies. Results from the analyses of high-quality, population-based, prospectively longitudinal data firmly establish that low intelligence increases the chances of obesity.

Neural correlates of apathy in patients with neurodegenerative disorders, acquired brain injury, and psychiatric disorders.

PubMed

Kos, Claire; van Tol, Marie-José; Marsman, Jan-Bernard C; Knegtering, Henderikus; Aleman, André

2016-10-01

Apathy can be described as a loss of goal-directed purposeful behavior and is common in a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Although previous studies investigated associations between abnormal brain functioning and apathy, it is unclear whether the neural basis of apathy is similar across different pathological conditions. The purpose of this systematic review was to provide an extensive overview of the neuroimaging literature on apathy including studies of various patient populations, and evaluate whether the current state of affairs suggest disorder specific or shared neural correlates of apathy. Results suggest that abnormalities within fronto-striatal circuits are most consistently associated with apathy across the different pathological conditions. Of note, abnormalities within the inferior parietal cortex were also linked to apathy, a region previously not included in neuroanatomical models of apathy. The variance in brain regions implicated in apathy may suggest that different routes towards apathy are possible. Future research should investigate possible alterations in different processes underlying goal-directed behavior, ranging from intention and goal-selection to action planning and execution. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Medication information leaflets for patients: the further validation of an analytic linguistic framework.

PubMed

Clerehan, Rosemary; Hirsh, Di; Buchbinder, Rachelle

2009-01-01

While clinicians may routinely use patient information leaflets about drug therapy, a poorly conceived leaflet has the potential to do harm. We previously developed a novel approach to analysing leaflets about a rheumatoid arthritis drug, using an analytic approach based on systemic functional linguistics. The aim of the present study was to verify the validity of the linguistic framework by applying it to two further arthritis drug leaflets. The findings confirmed the applicability of the framework and were used to refine it. A new stage or 'move' in the genre was identified. While the function of many of the moves appeared to be 'to instruct' the patient, the instruction was often unclear. The role relationships expressed in the text were critical to the meaning. As with our previous study, judged on their lexical density, the leaflets resembled academic text. The framework can provide specific tools to assess and produce medication information leaflets to support readers in taking medication. Future work could utilize the framework to evaluate information on other treatments and procedures or on healthcare information more widely.

Remember Hard But Think Softly: Metaphorical Effects of Hardness/Softness on Cognitive Functions.

PubMed

Xie, Jiushu; Lu, Zhi; Wang, Ruiming; Cai, Zhenguang G

2016-01-01

Previous studies have found that bodily stimulation, such as hardness biases social judgment and evaluation via metaphorical association; however, it remains unclear whether bodily stimulation also affects cognitive functions, such as memory and creativity. The current study used metaphorical associations between "hard" and "rigid" and between "soft" and "flexible" in Chinese, to investigate whether the experience of hardness affects cognitive functions whose performance depends prospectively on rigidity (memory) and flexibility (creativity). In Experiment 1, we found that Chinese-speaking participants performed better at recalling previously memorized words while sitting on a hard-surface stool (the hard condition) than a cushioned one (the soft condition). In Experiment 2, participants sitting on a cushioned stool outperformed those sitting on a hard-surface stool on a Chinese riddle task, which required creative/flexible thinking, but not on an analogical reasoning task, which required both rigid and flexible thinking. The results suggest the hardness experience affects cognitive functions that are metaphorically associated with rigidity or flexibility. They support the embodiment proposition that cognitive functions and representations can be grounded in bodily states via metaphorical associations.

Constituents of Propolis: Chrysin, Caffeic Acid, p-Coumaric Acid, and Ferulic Acid Induce PRODH/POX-Dependent Apoptosis in Human Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell (CAL-27).

PubMed

Celińska-Janowicz, Katarzyna; Zaręba, Ilona; Lazarek, Urszula; Teul, Joanna; Tomczyk, Michał; Pałka, Jerzy; Miltyk, Wojciech

2018-01-01

Propolis evokes several therapeutic properties, including anticancer activity. These activities are attributed to the action of polyphenols. Previously it has been demonstrated, that one of the most abundant polyphenolic compounds in ethanolic extracts of propolis are chrysin, caffeic acid, p -coumaric acid, and ferulic acid. Although their pro-apoptotic activity on human tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells (CAL-27) was established previously, the detailed mechanism of this process remains unclear. Considering the crucial role of proline metabolism and proline dehydrogenase/proline oxidase (PRODH/POX) in the regulation of cancer cell survival/apoptosis, we studied these processes in polyphenol-treated CAL-27 cells. All studied polyphenols evoked anti-proliferative activity, accompanied by increased PRODH/POX, P53, active caspases-3 and -9 expressions and decreased collagen biosynthesis, prolidase activity and proline concentration in CAL-27 cells. These data suggest that polyphenols of propolis induce PRODH/POX-dependent apoptosis through up-regulation of mitochondrial proline degradation and down-regulation of proline utilization for collagen biosynthesis.

Constituents of Propolis: Chrysin, Caffeic Acid, p-Coumaric Acid, and Ferulic Acid Induce PRODH/POX-Dependent Apoptosis in Human Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell (CAL-27)

PubMed Central

Celińska-Janowicz, Katarzyna; Zaręba, Ilona; Lazarek, Urszula; Teul, Joanna; Tomczyk, Michał; Pałka, Jerzy; Miltyk, Wojciech

2018-01-01

Propolis evokes several therapeutic properties, including anticancer activity. These activities are attributed to the action of polyphenols. Previously it has been demonstrated, that one of the most abundant polyphenolic compounds in ethanolic extracts of propolis are chrysin, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, and ferulic acid. Although their pro-apoptotic activity on human tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells (CAL-27) was established previously, the detailed mechanism of this process remains unclear. Considering the crucial role of proline metabolism and proline dehydrogenase/proline oxidase (PRODH/POX) in the regulation of cancer cell survival/apoptosis, we studied these processes in polyphenol-treated CAL-27 cells. All studied polyphenols evoked anti-proliferative activity, accompanied by increased PRODH/POX, P53, active caspases-3 and -9 expressions and decreased collagen biosynthesis, prolidase activity and proline concentration in CAL-27 cells. These data suggest that polyphenols of propolis induce PRODH/POX-dependent apoptosis through up-regulation of mitochondrial proline degradation and down-regulation of proline utilization for collagen biosynthesis. PMID:29681859

Automation technology and sense of control: a window on human agency.

PubMed

Berberian, Bruno; Sarrazin, Jean-Christophe; Le Blaye, Patrick; Haggard, Patrick

2012-01-01

Previous studies have shown that the perceived times of voluntary actions and their effects are perceived as shifted towards each other, so that the interval between action and outcome seems shortened. This has been referred to as 'intentional binding' (IB). However, the generality of this effect remains unclear. Here we demonstrate that Intentional Binding also occurs in complex control situations. Using an aircraft supervision task with different autopilot settings, our results first indicated a strong relation between measures of IB and different levels of system automation. Second, measures of IB were related to explicit agency judgement in this applied setting. We discuss the implications for the underlying mechanisms, and for sense of agency in automated environments.

Long-Term Cultivation and Metagenomics Reveal Ecophysiology of Previously Uncultivated Thermophiles Involved in Biogeochemical Nitrogen Cycle

PubMed Central

Kato, Shingo; Sakai, Sanae; Hirai, Miho; Tasumi, Eiji; Nishizawa, Manabu; Suzuki, Katsuhiko; Takai, Ken

2018-01-01

Many thermophiles thriving in a natural high-temperature environment remain uncultivated, and their ecophysiological functions in the biogeochemical cycle remain unclear. In the present study, we performed long-term continuous cultivation at 65°C and 70°C using a microbial mat sample, collected from a subsurface geothermal stream, as the inoculum, and reconstructed the whole genome of the maintained populations using metagenomics. Some metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), affiliated into phylum-level bacterial and archaeal clades without cultivated representatives, contained genes involved in nitrogen metabolism including nitrification and denitrification. Our results show genetic components and their potential interactions for the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle in a subsurface geothermal environment. PMID:29459499

Evidence from mixed hydrate nucleation for a funnel model of crystallization.

PubMed

Hall, Kyle Wm; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Kusalik, Peter G

2016-10-25

The molecular-level details of crystallization remain unclear for many systems. Previous work has speculated on the phenomenological similarities between molecular crystallization and protein folding. Here we demonstrate that molecular crystallization can involve funnel-shaped potential energy landscapes through a detailed analysis of mixed gas hydrate nucleation, a prototypical multicomponent crystallization process. Through this, we contribute both: (i) a powerful conceptual framework for exploring and rationalizing molecular crystallization, and (ii) an explanation of phenomenological similarities between protein folding and crystallization. Such funnel-shaped potential energy landscapes may be typical of broad classes of molecular ordering processes, and can provide a new perspective for both studying and understanding these processes.

Evidence from mixed hydrate nucleation for a funnel model of crystallization

PubMed Central

Hall, Kyle Wm.; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Kusalik, Peter G.

2016-01-01

The molecular-level details of crystallization remain unclear for many systems. Previous work has speculated on the phenomenological similarities between molecular crystallization and protein folding. Here we demonstrate that molecular crystallization can involve funnel-shaped potential energy landscapes through a detailed analysis of mixed gas hydrate nucleation, a prototypical multicomponent crystallization process. Through this, we contribute both: (i) a powerful conceptual framework for exploring and rationalizing molecular crystallization, and (ii) an explanation of phenomenological similarities between protein folding and crystallization. Such funnel-shaped potential energy landscapes may be typical of broad classes of molecular ordering processes, and can provide a new perspective for both studying and understanding these processes. PMID:27790987

Aortic valve replacement for stenosis with or without coronary artery bypass grafting after 2 previous isolated coronary artery bypass grafting operations

PubMed Central

Lee Henry, Christopher; Ko, Jong Mi; Henry, Albert Carl; Matter, Gregory John

2011-01-01

Aortic valve replacement following an earlier coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedure is fairly common. When this situation occurs, the type of valve dysfunction is usually stenosis (with or without regurgitation), and whether it was missed at the time of the earlier CABG or developed subsequently is usually unclear. We attempted to determine the survival in patients who had had aortic valve replacement after 2 previous CABG procedures. We describe 12 patients who had aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis; rather than one previous CABG operation, all had had 2 previous CABG procedures. Only one patient died in the early postoperative period after aortic valve replacement, and the remaining 11 were improved substantially: all have lived at least 11 months, and one is still alive at over 101 months after aortic valve replacement. Aortic valve replacement remains beneficial for most patients even after 2 previous CABG procedures. PMID:21307968

Risk Factors for Groin Injury and Symptoms in Elite Level Soccer Players: A Cohort Study in the Dutch Professional Leagues.

PubMed

Langhout, Rob; Tak, Igor; van Beijsterveldt, Anne-Marie; Ricken, Martijn; Weir, Adam; Barendrecht, Maarten; Kerkhoffs, Gino; Stubbe, Janine

2018-05-23

Study Design Cohort study with prospective and retrospective elements. Background Groin injury and symptoms are common in soccer players. Their relationship with reduced hip range of motion (ROM) and previous injury is unclear. Objectives To conduct a retrospective assessment of associations between previous injury and pre-season hip ROM and pre-season prevalence of severe groin symptoms; and prospective identification of risk factors for within-season groin injury. Methods During 2015-2016, 190 players from 9 Dutch professional soccer clubs participated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to predict pre-season severe groin symptoms, identified using the Copenhagen Hip And Groin Outcome Score, from a history of previous groin injury, general injury (minimum 1 week duration) in previous season, and hip ROM. Cox regression was used to predict within-season groin injury. Results Point-prevalence of severe groin symptoms was 24% and within-season incidence of groin injury 11%. Total/training/match groin injury incidence was 0.5/0.2/2.6 injuries/1000 playing hours. A history of more than 1 previous groin injury was associated with current severe groin symptoms (Odds Ratio=3.0; 95% CI=1.0, 8.3; P=.038). General injury sustained in the previous season (ankle, knee, thigh, shoulder; median 9 weeks time-loss) was a risk factor for groin injury (Hazard Ratio=5.1; 95% CI=1.1, 14.6; P=.003). Conclusion Severe injuries in the previous season to locations other than the groin increase the risk of groin injury the next season. A history of groin injury is associated with current severe groin symptoms. Pre-season hip ROM does not identify players at risk for groin injury. Level of Evidence Prevention, level 2b. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, Epub 23 May 2018. doi:10.2519/jospt.2018.7990.

Intermittent hypoxia in patients with unexplained polycythaemia.

PubMed Central

Moore-Gillon, J C; Treacher, D F; Gaminara, E J; Pearson, T C; Cameron, I R

1986-01-01

The aetiology of polycythaemia is unclear in up to 30% of patients. Twenty patients with unexplained polycythaemia were investigated to see whether they had an intermittent hypoxic stimulus to erythropoiesis that was undetected by conventional investigations for hypoxic secondary polycythaemia. Overnight polygraphic sleep studies showed that five patients had prolonged nocturnal hypoxaemia. Their arterial oxygen saturation was below 92%, the level at which appreciable hypoxic stimulation of erythropoiesis occurs, for 26-68% of the time for which they were studied. Considerable evidence is accumulating that intermittent hypoxia is a potent stimulus to erythropoiesis, and clinicians should consider the possibility of nocturnal hypoxia in patients with unexplained polycythaemia. Appropriate investigation will lead to the correct diagnosis of polycythaemia secondary to hypoxia in some cases previously regarded as idiopathic, and treatment may then be planned accordingly. PMID:3092936

Motives for using Facebook, patterns of Facebook activities, and late adolescents' social adjustment to college.

PubMed

Yang, Chia-chen; Brown, B Bradford

2013-03-01

Previous studies have confirmed that Facebook, the leading social networking site among young people, facilitates social connections among college students, but the specific activities and motives that foster social adjustment remain unclear. This study examined associations between patterns of Facebook activity, motives for using Facebook, and late adolescents' social adjustment to the college environment. Anonymous self-report survey data from 193 mostly European American students (M age = 20.32; 54 % female) attending a major Midwestern university indicated that motives and activity patterns were associated directly with social adjustment, but the association between one activity, status updating, and social adjustment also was moderated by the motive of relationship maintenance. Findings provide a more comprehensive portrait of how Facebook use may foster or inhibit social adjustment in college.

Fluid shear stress and tumor metastasis

PubMed Central

Huang, Qiong; Hu, Xingbin; He, Wanming; Zhao, Yang; Hao, Shihui; Wu, Qijing; Li, Shaowei; Zhang, Shuyi; Shi, Min

2018-01-01

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a key factor regulating tumor cell invasion and metastasis. The effects of biochemical factors such as stromal cells, immune cells, and cytokines have been previously investigated. Owing to restrictions by the natural barrier between physical and biochemical disciplines, the role of physical factors in tumorigenesis is unclear. However, with the emergence of interdisciplinary mechanobiology and continuous advancements therein in the past 30 years, studies on the effect of physical properties such as hardness or shear stress on tumorigenesis and tumor progression are constantly renewing our understanding of mechanotransduction mechanisms. Shear stress, induced by liquid flow, is known to actively participate in proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and metastasis of tumor cells. The present review discusses the progress and achievements in studies on tumor fluid microenvironment in recent years, especially fluid shear stress, on tumor metastasis, and presents directions for future study.

Effective Treatment of Folliculitis Decalvans Using Selected Antimicrobial Agents

PubMed Central

Sillani, Caulloo; Bin, Zhang; Ying, Zhao; Zeming, Cai; Jian, Yang; Xingqi, Zhang

2010-01-01

Folliculitis Decalvans (FD) is a rare neutrophilic infammation of the scalp characterized by painful, recurrent purulent follicular exudation resulting in primary cicatricial alopecia. However, unclear etiology makes FD treatment a difficult task. A wide variety of topical and systemic agents have been tried previously, with varied results. We present here a case series report of a set of 13 patients with FD on antimicrobial therapy. PMID:21188019

Cortisol acutely reduces selective attention for erotic words in healthy young men.

PubMed

Putman, Peter; Berling, Sylvia

2011-10-01

Psychological stress prompts activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis resulting in increased release of cortisol. Long-term HPA aberrations have been observed for stress-related affective disorders but research into acute effects of cortisol on affect-regulation has only recently begun. Previous studies reported that exogenous cortisol acutely attenuated automatic attentional processing of task-irrelevant threatening information. This has been taken to suggest that cortisol may have acute anxiolytic properties, possibly through facilitating inhibition of threatening information. However, the role of cortisol in attentional inhibition of non-threatening arousing stimuli remained unclear. Therefore acute effects of 40 mg cortisol on performance of a masked and unmasked emotional Stroop task (EST) were assessed. Results for only the unmasked task demonstrated EST interference (interpreted as increased automatic attention) for erotic stimuli which was abolished by cortisol administration. This implies that effects of cortisol may not be restricted to attenuation of specifically anxiogenic information processing, as previously suggested. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Molecular phylogeny of Babesia poelea from brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) from Johnston Atoll, Central Pacific

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yabsley, Michael J.; Work, Thierry M.; Rameyer, Robert A.

2006-01-01

The phylogenetic relationship of avian Babesia with other piroplasms remains unclear, mainly because of a lack of objective criteria such as molecular phylogenetics. In this study, our objective was to sequence the entire 18S, ITS-1, 5.8S, and ITS-2 regions of the rRNA gene and partial ß-tubulin gene of B. poelea, first described from brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) from the central Pacific, and compare them to those of other piroplasms. Phylogenetic analyses of the entire 18S rRNA gene sequence revealed that B. poelea belonged to the clade of piroplasms previously detected in humans, domestic dogs, and wild ungulates in the western United States. The entire ITS-1, 5.8S, ITS-2, and partial ß-tubulin gene sequence shared conserved regions with previously described Babesia and Theileria species. The intron of the ß-tubulin gene was 45 bp. This is the first molecular characterization of an avian piroplasm.

Molecular phylogeny of Babesia poelea from brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) from Johnston Atoll, central Pacific.

PubMed

Yabsley, Michael J; Work, Thierry M; Rameyer, Robert A

2006-04-01

The phylogenetic relationship of avian Babesia with other piroplasms remains unclear, mainly because of a lack of objective criteria such as molecular phylogenetics. In this study, our objective was to sequence the entire 18S, ITS-1, 5.8S, and ITS-2 regions of the rRNA gene and partial beta-tubulin gene of B. poelea, first described from brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) from the central Pacific, and compare them to those of other piroplasms. Phylogenetic analyses of the entire 18S rRNA gene sequence revealed that B. poelea belonged to the clade of piroplasms previously detected in humans, domestic dogs, and wild ungulates in the western United States. The entire ITS-1, 5.8S, ITS-2, and partial beta-tubulin gene sequence shared conserved regions with previously described Babesia and Theileria species. The intron of the beta-tubulin gene was 45 bp. This is the first molecular characterization of an avian piroplasm.

Serum levels of folate and cobalamin in women with recurrent spontaneous abortion.

PubMed

Sütterlin, M; Bussen, S; Ruppert, D; Steck, T

1997-10-01

We evaluated the folate and cobalamin status in 29 non-pregnant women with a history of recurrent spontaneous abortion (three or more consecutive) of unknown aetiology in comparison to 29 healthy nulligravidae of similar reproductive age (controls). Serum concentrations of folate and cobalamin showed no significant differences between the two groups. No correlation between age and vitamin concentrations was found. In the study group there was a significant negative correlation of the number of previous abortions and the concentration of serum folate. Patients with at least four previous miscarriages had significantly lower serum values of folic acid than women with three abortions, but not than controls. The underlying cause of this finding remains unclear. In conclusion, the serum concentrations of folic acid and vitamin B12 are not significantly altered in women with unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortions, and an association between a deficiency of these vitamins and an increased risk of pregnancy loss appears to be questionable in the majority of gestations.

Single-molecule fluorimetry and gating currents inspire an improved optical voltage indicator

PubMed Central

Treger, Jeremy S; Priest, Michael F; Bezanilla, Francisco

2015-01-01

Voltage-sensing domains (VSDs) underlie the movement of voltage-gated ion channels, as well as the voltage-sensitive fluorescent responses observed from a common class of genetically encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs). Despite the widespread use and potential utility of these GEVIs, the biophysical underpinnings of the relationship between VSD movement and fluorophore response remain unclear. We investigated the recently developed GEVI ArcLight, and its close variant Arclight', at both the single-molecule and macroscopic levels to better understand their characteristics and mechanisms of activity. These studies revealed a number of previously unobserved features of ArcLight's behavior, including millisecond-scale fluorescence fluctuations in single molecules as well as a previously unreported delay prior to macroscopic fluorescence onset. Finally, these mechanistic insights allowed us to improve the optical response of ArcLight to fast or repetitive pulses with the development of ArcLightning, a novel GEVI with improved kinetics. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10482.001 PMID:26599732

Repeated restraint stress enhances cue-elicited conditioned freezing and impairs acquisition of extinction in an age-dependent manner

PubMed Central

Zhang, Wei; Rosenkranz, J. Amiel

2013-01-01

Affective disorders are believed to involve dysfunction within the amygdala, a key structure for processing emotional information. Chronic stress may contribute to affective disorders such as depression and anxiety via its effects on the amygdala. Previous research has shown that chronic stress increases amygdala neuronal activity in an age-dependent manner. However, whether these distinct changes in amgydala neuronal activity are accompanied by age-dependent changes in amygdala-dependent affective behavior is unclear. In this study, we investigated how chronic stress impacts amgydala-dependent auditory fear conditioning in adolescent and adult rats in a repeated restraint model. We found that repeated restraint enhanced conditioned freezing in both adolescent and adult rats. But repeated restraint led to impaired acquisition of fear extinction only in adolescent rats. Along with previous findings, these results suggest that chronic stress may precipitate affective disorders via differential mechanisms, with different outcomes at different ages. PMID:23538069

Occupational Asthma in Antibiotic Manufacturing Workers: Case Reports and Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Díaz Angulo, Sara; Szram, Joanna; Welch, Jenny; Cannon, Julie; Cullinan, Paul

2011-01-01

Background. The risks of occupational asthma (OA) from antibiotics are uncertain. We report 4 new cases and a systematic review of the literature. Methods. Cases were identified through a specialist clinic, each underwent specific provocation testing (SPT). We subsequently reviewed the published literature. Results. The patients were employed in the manufacture of antibiotics; penicillins were implicated in three cases, in the fourth erythromycin, not previously reported to cause OA. In two, there was evidence of specific IgE sensitisation. At SPT each developed a late asthmatic reaction and increased bronchial hyperresponsiveness. 36 case reports have been previously published, 26 (citing penicillins or cephalosporins). Seven cross-sectional workplace-based surveys found prevalences of 5–8%. Conclusions. OA in antibiotic manufacturers may be more common than is generally recognised. Its pathogenesis remains unclear; immunological tests are of uncertain value and potential cases require confirmation with SPT. Further study of its frequency, mechanisms, and diagnosis is required. PMID:21603168

Resolving early mesoderm diversification through single-cell expression profiling.

PubMed

Scialdone, Antonio; Tanaka, Yosuke; Jawaid, Wajid; Moignard, Victoria; Wilson, Nicola K; Macaulay, Iain C; Marioni, John C; Göttgens, Berthold

2016-07-14

In mammals, specification of the three major germ layers occurs during gastrulation, when cells ingressing through the primitive streak differentiate into the precursor cells of major organ systems. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear, as numbers of gastrulating cells are very limited. In the mouse embryo at embryonic day 6.5, cells located at the junction between the extra-embryonic region and the epiblast on the posterior side of the embryo undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and ingress through the primitive streak. Subsequently, cells migrate, either surrounding the prospective ectoderm contributing to the embryo proper, or into the extra-embryonic region to form the yolk sac, umbilical cord and placenta. Fate mapping has shown that mature tissues such as blood and heart originate from specific regions of the pre-gastrula epiblast, but the plasticity of cells within the embryo and the function of key cell-type-specific transcription factors remain unclear. Here we analyse 1,205 cells from the epiblast and nascent Flk1(+) mesoderm of gastrulating mouse embryos using single-cell RNA sequencing, representing the first transcriptome-wide in vivo view of early mesoderm formation during mammalian gastrulation. Additionally, using knockout mice, we study the function of Tal1, a key haematopoietic transcription factor, and demonstrate, contrary to previous studies performed using retrospective assays, that Tal1 knockout does not immediately bias precursor cells towards a cardiac fate.

Looking at the world with your ears: how do we get the size of an object from its sound?

PubMed

Grassi, Massimo; Pastore, Massimiliano; Lemaitre, Guillaume

2013-05-01

Identifying the properties of on-going events by the sound they produce is crucial for our interaction with the environment when visual information is not available. Here, we investigated the ability of listeners to estimate the size of an object (a ball) dropped on a plate with ecological listening conditions (balls were dropped in real time) and response methods (listeners estimate ball-size by drawing a disk). Previous studies had shown that listeners can veridically estimate the size of objects by the sound they produce, but it is yet unclear which acoustical index listeners use to produce their estimates. In particular, it is unclear whether listeners listen to amplitude (related to loudness) or frequency (related to the sound's brightness) domain cue to produce their estimates. In the current study, in order to understand which cue is used by the listener to recover the size of the object, we manipulated the sound source event in such a way that frequency and amplitude cues provided contrasting size-information (balls were dropped from various heights). Results showed that listeners' estimations were accurate regardless of the experimental manipulations performed in the experiments. In addition, results suggest that listeners were likely integrating frequency and amplitude acoustical cues in order to produce their estimate and although these cues were often providing contrasting size-information. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Updating schematic emotional facial expressions in working memory: Response bias and sensitivity.

PubMed

Tamm, Gerly; Kreegipuu, Kairi; Harro, Jaanus; Cowan, Nelson

2017-01-01

It is unclear if positive, negative, or neutral emotional expressions have an advantage in short-term recognition. Moreover, it is unclear from previous studies of working memory for emotional faces whether effects of emotions comprise response bias or sensitivity. The aim of this study was to compare how schematic emotional expressions (sad, angry, scheming, happy, and neutral) are discriminated and recognized in an updating task (2-back recognition) in a representative sample of birth cohort of young adults. Schematic facial expressions allow control of identity processing, which is separate from expression processing, and have been used extensively in attention research but not much, until now, in working memory research. We found that expressions with a U-curved mouth (i.e., upwardly curved), namely happy and scheming expressions, favoured a bias towards recognition (i.e., towards indicating that the probe and the stimulus in working memory are the same). Other effects of emotional expression were considerably smaller (1-2% of the variance explained)) compared to a large proportion of variance that was explained by the physical similarity of items being compared. We suggest that the nature of the stimuli plays a role in this. The present application of signal detection methodology with emotional, schematic faces in a working memory procedure requiring fast comparisons helps to resolve important contradictions that have emerged in the emotional perception literature. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fat Content Modulates Rapid Detection of Food: A Visual Search Study Using Fast Food and Japanese Diet

PubMed Central

Sawada, Reiko; Sato, Wataru; Toichi, Motomi; Fushiki, Tohru

2017-01-01

Rapid detection of food is crucial for the survival of organisms. However, previous visual search studies have reported discrepant results regarding the detection speeds for food vs. non-food items; some experiments showed faster detection of food than non-food, whereas others reported null findings concerning any speed advantage for the detection of food vs. non-food. Moreover, although some previous studies showed that fat content can affect visual attention for food, the effect of fat content on the detection of food remains unclear. To investigate these issues, we measured reaction times (RTs) during a visual search task in which participants with normal weight detected high-fat food (i.e., fast food), low-fat food (i.e., Japanese diet), and non-food (i.e., kitchen utensils) targets within crowds of non-food distractors (i.e., cars). Results showed that RTs for food targets were shorter than those for non-food targets. Moreover, the RTs for high-fat food were shorter than those for low-fat food. These results suggest that food is more rapidly detected than non-food within the environment and that a higher fat content in food facilitates rapid detection. PMID:28690568

Fat Content Modulates Rapid Detection of Food: A Visual Search Study Using Fast Food and Japanese Diet.

PubMed

Sawada, Reiko; Sato, Wataru; Toichi, Motomi; Fushiki, Tohru

2017-01-01

Rapid detection of food is crucial for the survival of organisms. However, previous visual search studies have reported discrepant results regarding the detection speeds for food vs. non-food items; some experiments showed faster detection of food than non-food, whereas others reported null findings concerning any speed advantage for the detection of food vs. non-food. Moreover, although some previous studies showed that fat content can affect visual attention for food, the effect of fat content on the detection of food remains unclear. To investigate these issues, we measured reaction times (RTs) during a visual search task in which participants with normal weight detected high-fat food (i.e., fast food), low-fat food (i.e., Japanese diet), and non-food (i.e., kitchen utensils) targets within crowds of non-food distractors (i.e., cars). Results showed that RTs for food targets were shorter than those for non-food targets. Moreover, the RTs for high-fat food were shorter than those for low-fat food. These results suggest that food is more rapidly detected than non-food within the environment and that a higher fat content in food facilitates rapid detection.

Characterizing Lysine Acetylation of Isocitrate Dehydrogenase in Escherichia coli.

PubMed

Venkat, Sumana; Chen, Hao; Stahman, Alleigh; Hudson, Denver; McGuire, Paige; Gan, Qinglei; Fan, Chenguang

2018-06-22

The Escherichia coli isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) is one of the tricarboxylic acid cycle enzymes, playing key roles in energy production and carbon flux regulation. E. coli ICDH was the first bacterial enzyme shown to be regulated by reversible phosphorylation. However, the effect of lysine acetylation on E. coli ICDH, which has no sequence similarity with its counterparts in eukaryotes, is still unclear. Based on previous studies of E. coli acetylome and ICDH crystal structures, eight lysine residues were selected for mutational and kinetic analyses. They were replaced with acetyllysine by the genetic code expansion strategy or substituted with glutamine as a classic approach. Although acetylation decreased the overall ICDH activity, its effects were different site by site. Deacetylation tests demonstrated that the CobB deacetylase could deacetylate ICDH both in vivo and in vitro, but CobB was only specific for lysine residues at the protein surface. On the other hand, ICDH could be acetylated by acetyl-phosphate chemically in vitro. And in vivo acetylation tests indicated that the acetylation level of ICDH was correlated with the amounts of intracellular acetyl-phosphate. This study nicely complements previous proteomic studies to provide direct biochemical evidence for ICDH acetylation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hunter-McAlpine craniosynostosis phenotype associated with skeletal anomalies and interstitial deletion of chromosome 17q

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Thomas, J.; Prescott, K.; Milner, R.

1994-09-01

Syndromic craniosynostosis is frequently associated with skeletal abnormalities, but the biological basis for this association is unclear. Molecular genetic studies have the biological basis for this association is unclear. Molecular genetic studies have identified a number of loci and at least one candidate gene, the MSX2 gene. We recently encountered a 9 y.o. boy with moderate mental retardation, congenital craniosynostosis, and multiple skeletal anomalies. Physical features strongly suggested Hunter-McAlpine syndrome (HMS). Specifically, he had triangular facies with a small mouth prominent chin, bulbous nose, thin vermillion border, malaligned and malformed teeth, and low set, rudimentary ears. Skeletal features included: bilambdoidal,more » bicoronal, and sagittal craniosynostosis; right preaxial polydactyly; bilateral talipes; coxa valga; genu valgum; bilateral fusion of the hamate and capitate; scoliosis; and small, irregular middle phalangeal epiphyses. High resolution chromosome analysis revealed an interstitial deletion of G negative material of subbands q23.1{r_arrow}23.3 or q23.3{r_arrow}q24.2 of a No. 17 homologue. HMS, a presumed autosomal dominant disorder associated with characteristic facies, variable degrees of mental retardation, craniosynostosis, and minor acral-skeletal anomalies, proved to be the most likely explanation for this patient`s findings. We propose that our patient has a new mutation for HMS with more severe skeletal involvement than previously reported. Linkage studies are in progress to test the hypothesis that familial HMS may be localized to chromosome 17.« less

Nerve and muscle involvement in mitochondrial disorders: an electrophysiological study.

PubMed

Mancuso, Michelangelo; Piazza, Selina; Volpi, Leda; Orsucci, Daniele; Calsolaro, Valeria; Caldarazzo Ienco, Elena; Carlesi, Cecilia; Rocchi, Anna; Petrozzi, Lucia; Calabrese, Rosanna; Siciliano, Gabriele

2012-04-01

Involvement of the peripheral nervous system in mitochondrial disorders (MD) has been previously reported. However, the exact prevalence of peripheral neuropathy and/or myopathy in MD is still unclear. In order to evaluate the prevalence of neuropathy and myopathy in MD, we performed sensory and motor nerve conduction studies (NCS) and concentric needle electromyography (EMG) in 44 unselected MD patients. NCS were abnormal in 36.4% of cases, and were consistent with a sensori-motor axonal multineuropathy (multifocal neuropathy), mainly affecting the lower limbs. EMG evidence of myopathy was present in 54.5% of patients, again mainly affecting the lower limbs. Nerve and muscle involvement was frequently subclinical. Peripheral nerve and muscle involvement is common in MD patients. Our study supports the variability of the clinical expression of MD. Further studies are needed to better understand the molecular basis underlying the phenotypic variability among MD patients.

Increased Testosterone Decreases Medial Cortical Volume and Neurogenesis in Territorial Side-Blotched Lizards (Uta stansburiana)

PubMed Central

LaDage, Lara D.; Roth, Timothy C.; Downs, Cynthia J.; Sinervo, Barry; Pravosudov, Vladimir V.

2017-01-01

Variation in an animal's spatial environment can induce variation in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in spatial cognitive processing. Specifically, increased spatial area use is correlated with increased hippocampal attributes, such as volume and neurogenesis. In the side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana), males demonstrate alternative reproductive tactics and are either territorial—defending large, clearly defined spatial boundaries—or non-territorial—traversing home ranges that are smaller than the territorial males' territories. Our previous work demonstrated cortical volume (reptilian hippocampal homolog) correlates with these spatial niches. We found that territorial holders have larger medial cortices than non-territory holders, yet these differences in the neural architecture demonstrated some degree of plasticity as well. Although we have demonstrated a link among territoriality, spatial use, and brain plasticity, the mechanisms that underlie this relationship are unclear. Previous studies found that higher testosterone levels can induce increased use of the spatial area and can cause an upregulation in hippocampal attributes. Thus, testosterone may be the mechanistic link between spatial area use and the brain. What remains unclear, however, is if testosterone can affect the cortices independent of spatial experiences and whether testosterone differentially interacts with territorial status to produce the resultant cortical phenotype. In this study, we compared neurogenesis as measured by the total number of doublecortin-positive cells and cortical volume between territorial and non-territorial males supplemented with testosterone. We found no significant differences in the number of doublecortin-positive cells or cortical volume among control territorial, control non-territorial, and testosterone-supplemented non-territorial males, while testosterone-supplemented territorial males had smaller medial cortices containing fewer doublecortin-positive cells. These results demonstrate that testosterone can modulate medial cortical attributes outside of differential spatial processing experiences but that territorial males appear to be more sensitive to alterations in testosterone levels compared with non-territorial males. PMID:28298883

Comparative efficacy and safety of antipsychotics in the treatment of schizophrenia: a network meta-analysis in a Japanese population.

PubMed

Kishi, Taro; Ikuta, Toshikazu; Matsunaga, Shinji; Matsuda, Yuki; Oya, Kazuto; Iwata, Nakao

2017-01-01

The relative efficacy and tolerability of antipsychotics for schizophrenia are considerably well studied. This study aimed to examine whether previous findings could be replicated in a genetically distinct and homogenous group (ie, Japanese patients with schizophrenia) and whether previous findings could be extended to a broader range of antipsychotics with previously unclear relative efficacy and tolerability. Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed in which randomized trials comparing any of the following interventions were included: second-generation antipsychotics, haloperidol, or placebo. The primary outcomes for efficacy and acceptability were the response rate and all-cause discontinuation. The secondary outcomes included the improvement of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores, discontinuation because of adverse events, and individual adverse events. Eighteen relevant studies were identified (total n=3,446; aripiprazole =267, blonanserin =285, clozapine =47, clocapramine =295, haloperidol =857, mosapramine =493, olanzapine =179, paliperidone =136, perospirone =146, placebo =138, quetiapine =212, and risperidone =338; mean study duration =8.33±1.41 weeks). In primary outcomes, olanzapine and paliperidone showed efficacy than placebo, and olanzapine and paliperidone showed superior acceptability compared with placebo. There were differences in the incidences of individual adverse events (the best antipsychotic: extrapyramidal symptoms = olanzapine, hyperprolactinemia- related symptoms = quetiapine, sedation = paliperidone, and weight change = blonanserin) among antipsychotics. Although the current analysis exclusively included Japanese patients with schizophrenia, no remarkable differences were observed in efficacy and safety compared with previous meta-analyses. Diverse hierarchies in safety outcomes also support the implication that individual risk expectations for adverse events can guide clinical decisions. However, the sample size was relatively limited. Additional efficacy and safety data are required to fully obtain a conclusive understanding.

Comparative efficacy and safety of antipsychotics in the treatment of schizophrenia: a network meta-analysis in a Japanese population

PubMed Central

Kishi, Taro; Ikuta, Toshikazu; Matsunaga, Shinji; Matsuda, Yuki; Oya, Kazuto; Iwata, Nakao

2017-01-01

Background The relative efficacy and tolerability of antipsychotics for schizophrenia are considerably well studied. This study aimed to examine whether previous findings could be replicated in a genetically distinct and homogenous group (ie, Japanese patients with schizophrenia) and whether previous findings could be extended to a broader range of antipsychotics with previously unclear relative efficacy and tolerability. Methods Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed in which randomized trials comparing any of the following interventions were included: second-generation antipsychotics, haloperidol, or placebo. The primary outcomes for efficacy and acceptability were the response rate and all-cause discontinuation. The secondary outcomes included the improvement of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores, discontinuation because of adverse events, and individual adverse events. Results Eighteen relevant studies were identified (total n=3,446; aripiprazole =267, blonanserin =285, clozapine =47, clocapramine =295, haloperidol =857, mosapramine =493, olanzapine =179, paliperidone =136, perospirone =146, placebo =138, quetiapine =212, and risperidone =338; mean study duration =8.33±1.41 weeks). In primary outcomes, olanzapine and paliperidone showed efficacy than placebo, and olanzapine and paliperidone showed superior acceptability compared with placebo. There were differences in the incidences of individual adverse events (the best antipsychotic: extrapyramidal symptoms = olanzapine, hyperprolactinemia- related symptoms = quetiapine, sedation = paliperidone, and weight change = blonanserin) among antipsychotics. Conclusion Although the current analysis exclusively included Japanese patients with schizophrenia, no remarkable differences were observed in efficacy and safety compared with previous meta-analyses. Diverse hierarchies in safety outcomes also support the implication that individual risk expectations for adverse events can guide clinical decisions. However, the sample size was relatively limited. Additional efficacy and safety data are required to fully obtain a conclusive understanding. PMID:28553116

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Temporoparietal Junction and Inferior Frontal Cortex Improves Imitation-Inhibition and Perspective-Taking with no Effect on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient Score.

PubMed

Nobusako, Satoshi; Nishi, Yuki; Nishi, Yuki; Shuto, Takashi; Asano, Daiki; Osumi, Michihiro; Morioka, Shu

2017-01-01

Lesions to brain regions such as the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and inferior frontal cortex (IFC) are thought to cause autism-spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies indicated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the right TPJ improves social cognitive functions such as imitation-inhibition and perspective-taking. Although previous work shows that tDCS of the right IFC improves imitation-inhibition, its effects on perspective-taking have yet to be determined. In addition, the role of the TPJ and IFC in determining the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), which is a measure of autism spectrum traits, is still unclear. Thus, the current study performed tDCS on the right TPJ and the right IFC of healthy adults, and examined its effects on imitation-inhibition, perspective-taking and AQ scores. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that anodal tDCS of the right IFC and right TPJ would improve imitation-inhibition, perspective-taking and the AQ score. Anodal tDCS of the right TPJ or IFC significantly decreased the interference effect in an imitation-inhibition task and the cost of perspective-taking in a perspective-taking task, in comparison to the sham stimulation control. These findings indicated that both the TPJ and the IFC play a role in imitation-inhibition and perspective-taking, i.e., control of self and other representations. However, anodal stimulation of the right TPJ and the right IFC did not alter participants' AQ. This finding conflicts with results from previous brain imaging studies, which could be attributed to methodological differences such as variation in sex, age and ASD. Therefore, further research is necessary to determine the relationship between the TPJ and IFC, and the AQ.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Temporoparietal Junction and Inferior Frontal Cortex Improves Imitation-Inhibition and Perspective-Taking with no Effect on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient Score

PubMed Central

Nobusako, Satoshi; Nishi, Yuki; Nishi, Yuki; Shuto, Takashi; Asano, Daiki; Osumi, Michihiro; Morioka, Shu

2017-01-01

Lesions to brain regions such as the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and inferior frontal cortex (IFC) are thought to cause autism-spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies indicated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the right TPJ improves social cognitive functions such as imitation-inhibition and perspective-taking. Although previous work shows that tDCS of the right IFC improves imitation-inhibition, its effects on perspective-taking have yet to be determined. In addition, the role of the TPJ and IFC in determining the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), which is a measure of autism spectrum traits, is still unclear. Thus, the current study performed tDCS on the right TPJ and the right IFC of healthy adults, and examined its effects on imitation-inhibition, perspective-taking and AQ scores. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that anodal tDCS of the right IFC and right TPJ would improve imitation-inhibition, perspective-taking and the AQ score. Anodal tDCS of the right TPJ or IFC significantly decreased the interference effect in an imitation-inhibition task and the cost of perspective-taking in a perspective-taking task, in comparison to the sham stimulation control. These findings indicated that both the TPJ and the IFC play a role in imitation-inhibition and perspective-taking, i.e., control of self and other representations. However, anodal stimulation of the right TPJ and the right IFC did not alter participants’ AQ. This finding conflicts with results from previous brain imaging studies, which could be attributed to methodological differences such as variation in sex, age and ASD. Therefore, further research is necessary to determine the relationship between the TPJ and IFC, and the AQ. PMID:28536512

A case-control study of the association between ulcerative colitis and hyperthyroidism in an Asian population.

PubMed

Tsai, Ming-Chieh; Lin, Herng-Ching; Lee, Cha-Ze

2017-06-01

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic relapsing inflammatory disease with significant clinical diversity. However, the aetiology, pathogenesis and optimal treatment of UC remain unclear. The purpose of this case-control study was to investigate the association between previously diagnosed hyperthyroidism and UC using a large population-based data set in Taiwan. The data for this population-based case-control study were retrieved from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005. We included 2709 patients with UC as cases and 8127 sex- and age-matched patients without UC as controls. A conditional logistic regression analysis was conducted to compute the odds ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association between UC and prior hyperthyroidism. We found that, in total, 327 of the 10 836 sampled patients (3.02%) had previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. There was a higher proportion of prior hyperthyroidism among cases than controls (4.10% vs 2.66%, P<.001). A conditional logistic regression showed that the OR of prior hyperthyroidism was 1.57 (95% CI=1.24-1.98) compared to controls. Similarly, after adjusting for monthly income, geographic location and urbanization level, cases were still more likely to have previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism than controls (OR=1.61, 95% CI=1.27-2.05). Furthermore, we analysed the ORs of prior hyperthyroidism between cases and controls according to age group. We found that of the youngest group of sampled patients (18-39 years), cases had the greatest adjusted OR for having previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism than controls (OR=1.98, 95% CI=1.04-3.79). This study demonstrated an association between UC and hyperthyroidism. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Increase of cases of legionellosis in Latvia, 2011.

PubMed

Rozentale, B; Bormane, A; Perevosčikovs, J; Lucenko, I; Brila, A

2011-11-10

An increased number of legionellosis cases in 2011 has been reported in Latvia, compared to the ten previous years. A total of 30 legionellosis cases (1.35 per 100,000 inhabitants), including 19 females, have been confirmed until the end of September 2011. The majority of cases (n=23) were inhabitants of the capital city Riga. The reason for the increase in legionellosis is unclear. Twenty-six of the 30 cases are not travel-related.

Radicals Are Required for Thiol Etching of Gold Particles.

PubMed

Dreier, Timothy A; Ackerson, Christopher J

2015-08-03

Etching of gold with an excess of thiol ligand is used in both synthesis and analysis of gold particles. Mechanistically, the process of etching gold with excess thiol is unclear. Previous studies have obliquely considered the role of oxygen in thiolate etching of gold. Herein, we show that oxygen or a radical initiator is a necessary component for efficient etching of gold by thiolates. Attenuation of the etching process by radical scavengers in the presence of oxygen, and the restoration of activity by radical initiators under inert atmosphere, strongly implicate the oxygen radical. These data led us to propose an atomistic mechanism in which the oxygen radical initiates the etching process. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The ROCK isoforms differentially regulate the morphological characteristics of carcinoma cells.

PubMed

Jerrell, Rachel J; Leih, Mitchell J; Parekh, Aron

2017-06-26

Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) activity drives cell migration via actomyosin contractility. During invasion, individual cancer cells can transition between 2 modes of migration, mesenchymal and amoeboid. Changes in ROCK activity can cause a switch between these migration phenotypes which are defined by distinct morphologies. However, recent studies have shown that the ROCK isoforms are not functionally redundant as previously thought. Therefore, it is unclear whether the ROCK isoforms play different roles in regulating migration phenotypes. Here, we found that ROCK1 and ROCK2 differentially regulate carcinoma cell morphology resulting in intermediate phenotypes that share some mesenchymal and amoeboid characteristics. These findings suggest that the ROCK isoforms play unique roles in the phenotypic plasticity of mesenchymal carcinoma cells which may have therapeutic implications.

Automation Technology and Sense of Control: A Window on Human Agency

PubMed Central

Berberian, Bruno; Sarrazin, Jean-Christophe; Le Blaye, Patrick; Haggard, Patrick

2012-01-01

Previous studies have shown that the perceived times of voluntary actions and their effects are perceived as shifted towards each other, so that the interval between action and outcome seems shortened. This has been referred to as ‘intentional binding’ (IB). However, the generality of this effect remains unclear. Here we demonstrate that Intentional Binding also occurs in complex control situations. Using an aircraft supervision task with different autopilot settings, our results first indicated a strong relation between measures of IB and different levels of system automation. Second, measures of IB were related to explicit agency judgement in this applied setting. We discuss the implications for the underlying mechanisms, and for sense of agency in automated environments. PMID:22479528

Cytoplasmic vacuolization in cell death and survival

PubMed Central

Komissarov, Alexey A.; Rafieva, Lola M.; Kostrov, Sergey V.

2016-01-01

Cytoplasmic vacuolization (also called cytoplasmic vacuolation) is a well-known morphological phenomenon observed in mammalian cells after exposure to bacterial or viral pathogens as well as to various natural and artificial low-molecular-weight compounds. Vacuolization often accompanies cell death; however, its role in cell death processes remains unclear. This can be attributed to studying vacuolization at the level of morphology for many years. At the same time, new data on the molecular mechanisms of the vacuole formation and structure have become available. In addition, numerous examples of the association between vacuolization and previously unknown cell death types have been reported. Here, we review these data to make a deeper insight into the role of cytoplasmic vacuolization in cell death and survival. PMID:27331412

When More is Less: The Case of Disconnected Information Systems in Indonesian Public Health Facilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wahid, Fathul; Teduh Dirgahayu, Raden; Hamzah, Almed; Setiaji, Hari

2018-03-01

The clear majority of previous studies have found that the absence of information systems to properly manage data is one of the main challenges in improving public health management. The present study offers an alternate perspective, revealing other emerging problems in cases where there are many information systems in place but without sufficient orchestration. The national government of Indonesia has been coercive in its implementation of various information systems without involving users at public health facilities, which has created many problems on the ground. The problems identified relate to the quality of the disconnected information systems currently in use, the lack of human resource development, unclear procedures, uncoordinated reports and the absence of an incentive scheme. The present study also highlights some practical implications, including the use of a more holistic perspective in designing and developing an integrated public health information infrastructure.

Modulation of empathy in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex facilitates altruistic behavior: An fNIRS study.

PubMed

Himichi, Toshiyuki; Nomura, Michio

2015-06-01

Previous studies suggest that the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) is involved in modulating empathy. However, it is unclear whether VLPFC activation while an individual empathizes with others is related to subsequent altruistic behavior. In the present study, participants observed two people playing a card game while empathizing with one of them (target person); PFC activation during the task was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). After this task, participants distributed money to the target person. Results showed that activation in the left VLPFC during empathizing with the target person, who lost a small amount of money, was positively correlated with the amount of money distributed; this activation mediated a relationship between norm of restitution toward helping and the amount of distributed money. These results suggest that activation in the left VLPFC during empathizing with others experiencing negative circumstances is associated with altruistic behavior.

Sexuality and the drive for muscularity: evidence of associations among British men.

PubMed

Swami, Viren; Diwell, Rachel; McCreary, Donald R

2014-09-01

Previous studies have documented associations between sexuality and body image, but the directionality of this association is unclear among men. This study examined whether men's drive for muscularity can be considered a correlate of their sexuality. A community-based sample of 292 heterosexual men from London, UK, completed a survey consisting of measures of drive for muscularity, sociosexuality, sexual assertiveness, sexual esteem, and sexual sensation seeking. A multiple regression analysis showed that greater drive for muscularity was predicted by more unrestricted sociosexuality (i.e., a greater proclivity for short-term, transient relationships), greater sexual sensation seeking, and greater sexual assertiveness, once the effects of participant age and body mass index had been accounted for. Possible avenues for intervention based on a sex-positive approach are discussed in conclusion. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Boys will be boys: are there gender differences in the effect of sexual abstinence on schooling?

PubMed

Sabia, Joseph J; Rees, Daniel I

2011-03-01

A recent study by Sabia and Rees (2009) found that delaying first intercourse leads to a substantial increase in the probability that female students graduate high school. However, it is unclear whether the effect of abstinence extends to male students. Here we identify exogenous variation in the timing of first intercourse using a physical development index available for both females and males. Two-stage least squares estimates suggest that abstaining from sexual intercourse increases the probability that females graduate from high school, but has little effect on the educational attainment of males. This pattern of results is consistent with evidence from previous studies that males are less likely than females to suffer adverse psychological consequences from engaging in sexual intercourse at an early age. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Does sports participation (including level of performance and previous injury) increase risk of osteoarthritis? A systematic review and meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Tran, Gui; Smith, Toby O; Grice, Adam; Kingsbury, Sarah R; McCrory, Paul; Conaghan, Philip G

2016-01-01

Background To assess the relationship between sport and osteoarthritis (OA), and specifically to determine whether previous participation, in terms of level (elite or non-elite), type of sport, intensity or previous injury, was associated with OA. Methods This systematic review was developed using PRISMA guidelines. Databases were searched (to May 2016). Narrative review and meta-analysis (with risk ratio (RR) and 95% CIs) approaches were undertaken where appropriate. Study quality was assessed using GRADE. Results 46 studies were included. Narratively, 31 studies reported an increased risk of OA, with 19 demonstrating an increased risk in elite athletes. There was an increased risk after sports exposure (irrespective of type; RR 1.37; 95% CI 1.14 to 1.64; 21 studies). It remained uncertain whether there was a difference in risk of OA between elite and non-elite athletes (RR 1.37; 95% CI 0.84 to 2.22; 17 studies). The risk was higher in soccer (RR 1.42; 95% CI 1.14 to 1.77; 15 studies) but lower in runners (RR 0.86; 95% CI 0.53 to 1.41; 12 studies). 9 studies showed an association with the intensity of sport undertaken and OA. 5 studies demonstrated a higher prevalence of OA following meniscectomies and anterior cruciate ligament tears. Overall, the evidence was of GRADE ‘very low’ quality. Conclusions There was very low-quality evidence to support an increased relationship between sports participation and OA in elite participants. It is unclear whether there is a difference in risk between elite and non-elite participants with further prospective studies needed to evaluate this. Pooled findings suggested that significant injuries were associated with OA in soccer players. PMID:27683348

GC×GC-TOF-MS of Metabolites of Lake Vida Brine (Antarctica): Evidence for Past and Current Biogeochemical Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chou, L.; Kenig, F. P. H.; Murray, A. E.; Fritsen, C. H.; Doran, P. T.

2016-12-01

Lake Vida, located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, permanently encapsulates an interstitial anoxic, aphotic, cold (-13°C), brine ecosystem within 27 m of ice, and has been isolated from the environment for millennia (Murray et al. 2012; PNAS). Active, but slow-growing bacteria ( 120 yr generation time) were observed in this brine. The processes involved in the survivability of these microbes remain unclear. Thus, we attempt to elucidate the biogeochemistry of Lake Vida brine (LVBr) using metabolomics. LVBr contains high abundance of DOC (48.2±9.7 mmol•L-1). The slow metabolism of LVBr microbes allows for the accumulation of organic carbon that is inherited from a previous ecosystem, a glacial lake that occupied Lake Vida basin prior to LVBr isolation. Consequently, the presence of this legacy carbon, including dissolved metabolites, convolutes the interpretation of metabolic signals deriving from the current ecosystem. The aim of this study is to designate metabolites of LVBr as legacy, modern metabolic products, or both. A total lipid extract of LVBr was analyzed using a multi-dimensional comprehensive gas chromatography-time of flight-mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOF-MS). Metabolites in LVBr are dominated by an altered legacy component: compounds synthesized in a previous ecosystem that was exposed to sunlight and the atmosphere. C8-C14 norisoprenoids observed in LVBr are derived from the oxidation of C40 and diatom pigments, whereas maleimides are degradation products of chlorophylls and bacteriochlorophylls. Additionally, we observe a diversity of sulfones and sulfoxides that may have resulted from microbial oxidation or abiotic oxidation of sulfur-bearing organic compounds. It is unclear if the alteration of legacy components in LVBr is enzymatically driven or is a pure abiotic diagenetic process. The production of some of the observed legacy compounds require molecular oxygen, which suggests that they were produced in an oxic environment, not within the current anoxic brine. The presence of legacy biomarkers in the metabolome of LVBr suggests that fossil biological signals from a previous environment may be convoluting in situ interpretation of modern biological studies of slow-growing microbial ecosystems such as other dry valley lakes as well as the deep subsurface biosphere.

Spinal subdural hematoma following cranial subdural hematoma : a case report with a literature review.

PubMed

Ji, Gyu Yeul; Oh, Chang Hyun; Chung, Daeyeong; Shin, Dong Ah

2013-12-01

Coexistence of cranial and spinal subdural hematomas is rare and only a few cases have been reported in the literature. Herein, we report a case of cranial and spinal subdural hematomas after previous head trauma. As the pathogenesis of simultaneous intracranial and spinal subdural hematoma yet remains unclear, we developed an alternative theory to those proposed in the literature for their coexistence, the migration of blood through the subdural space.

Spinal Subdural Hematoma Following Cranial Subdural Hematoma : A Case Report with a Literature Review

PubMed Central

Ji, Gyu Yeul; Oh, Chang Hyun; Chung, Daeyeong

2013-01-01

Coexistence of cranial and spinal subdural hematomas is rare and only a few cases have been reported in the literature. Herein, we report a case of cranial and spinal subdural hematomas after previous head trauma. As the pathogenesis of simultaneous intracranial and spinal subdural hematoma yet remains unclear, we developed an alternative theory to those proposed in the literature for their coexistence, the migration of blood through the subdural space. PMID:24527196

Installation Restoration Program. Phase 2. Confirmation/Quantification Stage 2, Moody Air Force Base, Georgia

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-11-01

revri if necenary and iIenitif by block number) FIELO GROUP SUS-GROUP Installation Restoration Program , Groundwater ,P& Soils. Surface water ...qoulkhave been affected by the Site 3 flight line storm drainage outfall. Groundwater quali y samples were collected from the Site 4 water supply well No...monitoring. o Groundwater from the Site 4 water well No. 10 contains no VOCs. Because it remains unclear whether levels of THMs previously measured

Effect of circadian phase on memory acquisition and recall: operant conditioning vs. classical conditioning.

PubMed

Garren, Madeleine V; Sexauer, Stephen B; Page, Terry L

2013-01-01

There have been several studies on the role of circadian clocks in the regulation of associative learning and memory processes in both vertebrate and invertebrate species. The results have been quite variable and at present it is unclear to what extent the variability observed reflects species differences or differences in methodology. Previous results have shown that following differential classical conditioning in the cockroach, Rhyparobia maderae, in an olfactory discrimination task, formation of the short-term and long-term memory is under strict circadian control. In contrast, there appeared to be no circadian regulation of the ability to recall established memories. In the present study, we show that following operant conditioning of the same species in a very similar olfactory discrimination task, there is no impact of the circadian system on either short-term or long-term memory formation. On the other hand, ability to recall established memories is strongly tied to the circadian phase of training. On the basis of these data and those previously reported for phylogenetically diverse species, it is suggested that there may be fundamental differences in the way the circadian system regulates learning and memory in classical and operant conditioning.

Effect of Circadian Phase on Memory Acquisition and Recall: Operant Conditioning vs. Classical Conditioning

PubMed Central

Garren, Madeleine V.; Sexauer, Stephen B.; Page, Terry L.

2013-01-01

There have been several studies on the role of circadian clocks in the regulation of associative learning and memory processes in both vertebrate and invertebrate species. The results have been quite variable and at present it is unclear to what extent the variability observed reflects species differences or differences in methodology. Previous results have shown that following differential classical conditioning in the cockroach, Rhyparobia maderae, in an olfactory discrimination task, formation of the short-term and long-term memory is under strict circadian control. In contrast, there appeared to be no circadian regulation of the ability to recall established memories. In the present study, we show that following operant conditioning of the same species in a very similar olfactory discrimination task, there is no impact of the circadian system on either short-term or long-term memory formation. On the other hand, ability to recall established memories is strongly tied to the circadian phase of training. On the basis of these data and those previously reported for phylogenetically diverse species, it is suggested that there may be fundamental differences in the way the circadian system regulates learning and memory in classical and operant conditioning. PMID:23533587

Impacts of Groundwater on the Atmospheric Convection in Amazon using Multi-GCM Simulations from I-GEM project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lo, M. H.; Chien, R. Y.; Ducharne, A.; Decharme, B.; Lan, C. W.; Wang, F.; Cheruy, F.; Colin, J.

2017-12-01

Previous research indicated that groundwater plays an important role in hydrological cycle and is a major source of water vapor in climate models, which may result in modifications of atmospheric convection. For instance, our previous study showed that when considering the groundwater dynamics in a GCM, the wet soil induced surface cooling effect can further reduce the Amazon dry season convection and precipitation. However, the main mechanisms of the interaction among groundwater, soil moisture, and precipitation are still unclear, and they need to be examined in several climate models. In this study, we further examine the influence of the surface cooling effects due to the groundwater on the convection over the Amazon. To this end, we use idealized simulations of the IGEM (Impact of Groundwater in Earth system Models) project, with 3 GCMs (CESM, CNRM, and IPSL): in each of them, we prescribed a water table at a constant depth throughout all land areas, to create globally wet conditions. Preliminary analysis shows a contradict result of the tendency of precipitation in the three models with wet condition which indicates a great uncertainty of the groundwater's impacts in coupled GCMs.

Perception of Western Musical Modes: A Chinese Study.

PubMed

Fang, Lele; Shang, Junchen; Chen, Nan

2017-01-01

The major mode conveys positive emotion, whereas the minor mode conveys negative emotion. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the emotions induced by Western music in Western participants. The influence of the musical mode (major or minor) on Chinese individuals' perception of Western music is unclear. In the present experiments, we investigated the effects of musical mode and harmonic complexity on psychological perception among Chinese participants. In Experiment 1, the participants ( N = 30) evaluated 24 musical excerpts in five dimensions (pleasure, arousal, dominance, emotional tension, and liking). In Experiment 2, the participants ( N = 40) evaluated 48 musical excerpts. Perceptions of the musical excerpts differed significantly according to mode, even if the stimuli were Western musical excerpts. The major-mode music induced greater pleasure and arousal and produced higher liking ratings than the minor-mode music, whereas the minor-mode music induced greater tension than the major-mode music. Mode did not influence the dominance rating. Perception of Western music was not influenced by harmonic complexity. Moreover, preference for musical mode was influenced by previous exposure to Western music. These results confirm the cross-cultural emotion induction effects of musical modes in Western music.

Olfactory Performance in a Large Sample of Early-Blind and Late-Blind Individuals.

PubMed

Sorokowska, Agnieszka

2016-10-01

Previous examinations of olfactory sensitivity in blind people have produced contradictory findings. Thus, whether visual impairment is associated with increased olfactory abilities is unclear. In the present investigation, I aimed to resolve the existing questions via a relatively large-scale study comprising early-blind (N = 43), and late-blind (N = 41) and sighted (N = 84) individuals matched in terms of gender and age. To compare the results with those of previous studies, I combined data from a free odor identification test, extensive psychophysical testing (Sniffin' Sticks test), and self-assessed olfactory performance. The analyses revealed no significant effects of sight on olfactory threshold, odor discrimination, cued identification, or free identification scores; neither was the performance of the early-blind and late-blind participants significantly different. Additionally, the self-assessed olfactory abilities of the blind people were no different than those of the sighted people. These results suggest that sensory compensation in visually impaired is not pronounced with regards to olfactory abilities as measured by standardized smell tests. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Theory of mind in Alzheimer disease: Evidence of authentic impairment during social interaction.

PubMed

Moreau, Noémie; Rauzy, Stéphane; Viallet, François; Champagne-Lavau, Maud

2016-03-01

The present study aimed to investigate theory of mind (the ability to infer others' mental states) deficit in 20 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease and 20 healthy controls, with 2 theory of mind tasks, 1 of them being a real interactive task. Previous results concerning preserved or altered theory of mind abilities in Alzheimer's disease have been inconsistent and relationships with other cognitive dysfunctions (notably episodic memory and executive functions) are still unclear. The first task we used was a false belief paradigm as frequently used in literature whereas the second task, a referential communication task, assessed theory of mind in a real situation of interaction. Participants also underwent neuropsychological evaluation to investigate potential relationships between theory of mind and memory deficits. The results showed that Alzheimer patients presented a genuine and significant theory of mind deficit compared to control participants characterized notably by difficulties to attribute knowledge to an interlocutor in a real social interaction. These results further confirm that theory of mind is altered in early stages of Alzheimer dementia which is consistent with previous works. More specifically, this study is the first to objectivize this impairment in social interaction. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence, Photosynthesis, and Light Use Efficiency of a Soybean Field from Seasonally Continuous Measurements

DOE PAGES

Miao, Guofang; Guan, Kaiyu; Yang, Xi; ...

2018-01-29

Recent development of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) technology is stimulating studies to remotely approximate canopy photosynthesis (measured as gross primary production, GPP). While multiple applications have advanced the empirical relationship between GPP and SIF, mechanistic understanding of this relationship is still limited. GPP:SIF relationship, using the standard light use efficiency framework, is determined by absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and the relationship between photosynthetic light use efficiency (LUE) and fluorescence yield (SIF y). While previous studies have found that APAR is the dominant factor of the GPP:SIF relationship, the LUE:SIF y relationship remains unclear. For a better understanding of themore » LUE:SIF y relationship, in this paper we deployed a ground-based system (FluoSpec2), with an eddy-covariance flux tower at a soybean field in the Midwestern U.S. during the 2016 growing season to collect SIF and GPP data simultaneously. With the measurements categorized by plant growth stages, light conditions, and time scales, we confirmed that a strong positive GPP:SIF relationship was dominated by an even stronger linear SIF:APAR relationship. By normalizing both GPP and SIF by APAR, we found that under sunny conditions our soybean field exhibited a clear positive SIF y:APAR relationship and a weak negative LUE:SIF y relationship, opposite to the positive LUE:SIF y relationship reported previously in other ecosystems. Our study provides a first continuous SIF record over multiple growth stages for agricultural systems and reveals a distinctive pattern related to the LUE:SIF y relationship compared with previous work. Finally, the observed positive relationship of SIF y:APAR at the soybean site provides new insights of the previous understanding on the SIF's physiological implications.« less

Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence, Photosynthesis, and Light Use Efficiency of a Soybean Field from Seasonally Continuous Measurements

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miao, Guofang; Guan, Kaiyu; Yang, Xi

Recent development of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) technology is stimulating studies to remotely approximate canopy photosynthesis (measured as gross primary production, GPP). While multiple applications have advanced the empirical relationship between GPP and SIF, mechanistic understanding of this relationship is still limited. GPP:SIF relationship, using the standard light use efficiency framework, is determined by absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and the relationship between photosynthetic light use efficiency (LUE) and fluorescence yield (SIF y). While previous studies have found that APAR is the dominant factor of the GPP:SIF relationship, the LUE:SIF y relationship remains unclear. For a better understanding of themore » LUE:SIF y relationship, in this paper we deployed a ground-based system (FluoSpec2), with an eddy-covariance flux tower at a soybean field in the Midwestern U.S. during the 2016 growing season to collect SIF and GPP data simultaneously. With the measurements categorized by plant growth stages, light conditions, and time scales, we confirmed that a strong positive GPP:SIF relationship was dominated by an even stronger linear SIF:APAR relationship. By normalizing both GPP and SIF by APAR, we found that under sunny conditions our soybean field exhibited a clear positive SIF y:APAR relationship and a weak negative LUE:SIF y relationship, opposite to the positive LUE:SIF y relationship reported previously in other ecosystems. Our study provides a first continuous SIF record over multiple growth stages for agricultural systems and reveals a distinctive pattern related to the LUE:SIF y relationship compared with previous work. Finally, the observed positive relationship of SIF y:APAR at the soybean site provides new insights of the previous understanding on the SIF's physiological implications.« less

Resolving Early Mesoderm Diversification through Single Cell Expression Profiling

PubMed Central

Wilson, Nicola K.; Macaulay, Iain C.; Marioni, John C.; Göttgens, Berthold

2016-01-01

Summary In mammals, specification of the three major germ layers occurs during gastrulation, when cells ingressing through the primitive streak differentiate into the precursor cells of major organ systems. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear, as numbers of gastrulating cells are very limited. In the E6.5 mouse embryo, cells located at the junction between the extra-embryonic region and the epiblast on the posterior side of the embryo undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and ingress through the primitive streak (PS). Subsequently, cells migrate, either surrounding the prospective ectoderm contributing to the embryo proper, or into the extra-embryonic region to form the yolk sac (YS), umbilical cord and placenta. Fate mapping has shown that mature tissues such as blood and heart originate from specific regions of the pre-gastrula epiblast1 but the plasticity of cells within the embryo and the function of key cell type-specific transcription factors remain unclear. Here we analyse 1,205 cells from the epiblast and nascent Flk1+ mesoderm of gastrulating mouse embryos using single cell RNA-sequencing, representing the first transcriptome-wide in vivo view of early mesoderm formation during mammalian gastrulation. Additionally, using knock-out mice, we study the function of Tal1, a key hematopoietic transcription factor (TF), and demonstrate, contrary to previous studies performed using retrospective assays2,3, that Tal1 knock out does not immediately bias precursor cells towards a cardiac fate. PMID:27383781

Regulation of positive and negative emotion: effects of sociocultural context

PubMed Central

Snyder, Sara A.; Heller, S. Megan; Lumian, Daniel S.; McRae, Kateri

2013-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated that the use of emotion regulation strategies can vary by sociocultural context. In a previous study, we reported changes in the use of two different emotion regulation strategies at an annual alternative cultural event, Burning Man (McRae et al., 2011). In this sociocultural context, as compared to typically at home, participants reported less use of expressive suppression (a strategy generally associated with maladaptive outcomes), and greater use of cognitive reappraisal (a strategy generally associated with adaptive outcomes). What remained unclear was whether these changes in self-reported emotion regulation strategy use were characterized by changes in the regulation of positive emotion, negative emotion, or both. We addressed this issue in the current study by asking Burning Man participants separate questions about positive and negative emotion. Using multiple datasets, we replicated our previous findings, and found that the decreased use of suppression is primarily driven by reports of decreased suppression of positive emotion at Burning Man. By contrast, the increased use of reappraisal is not characterized by differential reappraisal of positive and negative emotion at Burning Man. Moreover, we observed novel individual differences in the magnitude of these effects. The contextual changes in self-reported suppression that we observe are strongest for men and younger participants. For those who had previously attended Burning Man, we observed lower levels of self-reported suppression in both sociocultural contexts: Burning Man and typically at home. These findings have implications for understanding the ways in which certain sociocultural contexts may decrease suppression, and possibly minimize its associated maladaptive effects. PMID:23840191

Potential protective effect of lactation against incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Tanase-Nakao, Kanako; Arata, Naoko; Kawasaki, Maki; Yasuhi, Ichiro; Sone, Hirohito; Mori, Rintaro; Ota, Erika

2017-05-01

Lactation may protect women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) from developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, but the results of existing studies are inconsistent, ranging from null to beneficial. We aimed to conduct a systematic review to gather available evidence. Databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, PubMed, and EMBASE were searched on December 15, 2015, without restriction of language or publication year. A manual search was also conducted. We included observational studies (cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort study) with information on lactation and type 2 diabetes mellitus incidence among women with previous GDM. We excluded case studies without control data. Data synthesis was conducted by random-effect meta-analysis. Fourteen reports of 9 studies were included. Overall risk of bias using RoBANS ranged from low to unclear. Longer lactation for more than 4 to 12 weeks postpartum had risk reduction of type 2 diabetes mellitus compared with shorter lactation (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.01-55.86; OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.35-0.89; OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.13-0.36; type 2 diabetes mellitus evaluation time < 2 y, 2-5 y, and >5 y, respectively). Exclusive lactation for more than 6 to 9 weeks postpartum also had lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus compared with exclusive formula (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.22-0.81). The findings support the evidence that longer and exclusive lactation may be beneficial for type 2 diabetes mellitus prevention in women with previous GDM. However, the evidence relies only on observational studies. Therefore, further studies are required to address the true causal effect. © 2017 The Authors. Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Genetic causes of maturity onset diabetes of the young may be less prevalent in American pregnant women recently diagnosed with diabetes mellitus than in previously studied European populations.

PubMed

Sewell, M F; Presley, L H; Holland, S H; Catalano, P M

2015-07-01

There are many causes of impaired glucose tolerance in pregnant women. It is unclear whether genetic etiologies are a source of impaired glucose tolerance in pregnant women. To prospectively determine the prevalence of maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) due to glucokinase (GCK) mutations in an American population of women with recent onset diabetes mellitus and gestational diabetes. We hypothesized that based on America's higher prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and Type 2 diabetes, there may be an increased prevalence of GK mutations in our population than in previously reported studies from European studies. Over a three-year period, 72 pregnant women with recently diagnosed diabetes mellitus were prospectively assessed for presence of the most common pathogenic GCK mutations. This study was performed in a gestational diabetes clinic in Urban America and a high-risk pregnancy clinic that served the military and their families on an American military base in Germany. Seventy-two women; 65 with diagnosis of diabetes mellitus in this pregnancy (GDM/overt diabetes) and 7 with diagnosis in the last nine years prior to pregnancy were recruited during pregnancy and blood samples were obtained. None. Each study participant's blood sample was analyzed with restriction fragment length polymorphism to assess for mutations in the GCK gene. There were 38 female and 34 male neonates born at 38 weeks gestation ± 1.2 weeks. Mean birth weight was 3351 g ± 450 g. There were no patients with GCK mutations found in our population 0/72. This prevalence is not greater than that seen in previous a similar study in European women with gestational diabetes, but in fact significantly less (p = 0.03). American women with recently diagnosed diabetes mellitus likely have no higher prevalence of MODY than in previously studied European women with diabetes mellitus and may have a lower prevalence.

The different time courses of reading different levels of Chinese characters: an ERP study.

PubMed

Lu, Qilin; Tang, Yi-Yuan; Zhou, Li; Yu, Qingbao

2011-07-12

The dual route processing was generally accepted in the reading of alphabetic languages, which suggests alphabetic words can be read by either addressed pathway or assembled pathway. However, it was still unclear whether there was a particular 'dual route mechanism' during reading Chinese characters. In our previous fMRI study, the result showed that there might be a particular 'dual route mechanism', and its addressed pathway was similar between Chinese and English, whereas for the need of spatial analysis, the assembled pathway of Chinese was different from that of English which involved grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences. The present study, using event-related potential, which provide more temporal information, aimed to further support our previous view, and peered inside the different time courses of reading different types of Chinese characters. It was found that reading high frequency Chinese characters increased the N170 component which was believed to enhance attention to the addressed pathway in the left occipital-temporal area. Pseudo Chinese characters could be read by a particular assembled pathway, which caused the largest amplitude of P320 component in the right occipital-temporal area, which considered as a key brain area for radical analysis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

GSDM family genes meet autophagy.

PubMed

Tamura, Masaru; Shiroishi, Toshihiko

2015-07-15

In the previous issue of Biochemical Journal, Shi et al. [(2015) 468, 325-336] report that Gasdermin (Gsdm) family proteins regulate autophagy activity, which is counter-balanced by the opposite functions of well-conserved N- and C-terminal domains of the proteins. The Gsdm family was originally identified as the causative gene of dominant skin mutations exhibiting alopecia. Each member of the Gsdm gene family shows characteristic expression patterns in the epithelium, which is tissue and differentiation stage-specific. Previous phenotype analyses of mutant mice, biochemical analyses of proteins and genome-wide association studies showed that the Gsdm gene family might be involved in epithelial cell development, apoptosis, inflammation, carcinogenesis and immune-related diseases. To date, however, their molecular function(s) remain unclear. Shi et al. found that mutations in the C-terminal domain of Gsdma3, a member of the Gsdm family, induce autophagy. Further studies revealed that the wild-type N-terminal domain has pro-autophagic activity and that the C-terminal domain conversely inhibits this N-terminal function. These opposite functions of the two domains were also observed in other Gsdm family members. Thus, their study provides a new insight into the function of Gsdm genes in epithelial cell lineage, causality of cancers and immune-related diseases including childhood-onset asthma. © 2015 Authors; published by Portland Press Limited.

Autophagy regulation revealed by SapM-induced block of autophagosome-lysosome fusion via binding RAB7

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hu, Dong, E-mail: austhudong@126.com; Wu, Jing, E-mail: wujing8008@126.com; Wang, Wan

The mechanism underlying autophagy alteration by mycobacterium tuberculosis remains unclear. Our previous study shows LpqH, a lipoprotein of mycobacterium tuberculosis, can cause autophagosomes accumulation in murine macrophages. It is well known that SapM, another virulence factor, plays an important role in blocking phagosome-endosome fusion. However, the mechanism that SapM interferes with autophagy remains poorly defined. In this study, we report that SapM suppresses the autophagy flux by blocking autophagosome fusion with lysosome. Exposure to SapM results in accumulations of autophagosomes and decreased co-localization of autophagosome with lysosome. Molecularly, Rab7, a small GTPase, is blocked by SapM through its CT domainmore » and is prevented from involvement of autophagosome-lysosome fusion. In conclusion, our study reveals that SapM takes Rab7 as a previously unknown target to govern a distinct molecular mechanism underlying autophagosome-lysosome fusion, which may bring light to a new thought about developing potential drugs or vaccines against tuberculosis. - Highlights: • A mechanism for disrupting autophagosome-lysosome fusion induced by SapM. • Rab7 is involved in SapM-inhibited autophagy. • SapM interacts with Rab7 by CT-domain. • CT-domain is indispensable to SapM-inhibited autophagy.« less

The association between resting functional connectivity and dispositional optimism.

PubMed

Ran, Qian; Yang, Junyi; Yang, Wenjing; Wei, Dongtao; Qiu, Jiang; Zhang, Dong

2017-01-01

Dispositional optimism is an individual characteristic that plays an important role in human experience. Optimists are people who tend to hold positive expectations for their future. Previous studies have focused on the neural basis of optimism, such as task response neural activity and brain structure volume. However, the functional connectivity between brain regions of the dispositional optimists are poorly understood. Previous study suggested that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are associated with individual differences in dispositional optimism, but it is unclear whether there are other brain regions that combine with the vmPFC to contribute to dispositional optimism. Thus, the present study used the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) approach and set the vmPFC as the seed region to examine if differences in functional brain connectivity between the vmPFC and other brain regions would be associated with individual differences in dispositional optimism. The results found that dispositional optimism was significantly positively correlated with the strength of the RSFC between vmPFC and middle temporal gyrus (mTG) and negativly correlated with RSFC between vmPFC and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). These findings may be suggested that mTG and IFG which associated with emotion processes and emotion regulation also play an important role in the dispositional optimism.

The association between resting functional connectivity and dispositional optimism

PubMed Central

Yang, Wenjing; Wei, Dongtao; Qiu, Jiang; Zhang, Dong

2017-01-01

Dispositional optimism is an individual characteristic that plays an important role in human experience. Optimists are people who tend to hold positive expectations for their future. Previous studies have focused on the neural basis of optimism, such as task response neural activity and brain structure volume. However, the functional connectivity between brain regions of the dispositional optimists are poorly understood. Previous study suggested that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are associated with individual differences in dispositional optimism, but it is unclear whether there are other brain regions that combine with the vmPFC to contribute to dispositional optimism. Thus, the present study used the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) approach and set the vmPFC as the seed region to examine if differences in functional brain connectivity between the vmPFC and other brain regions would be associated with individual differences in dispositional optimism. The results found that dispositional optimism was significantly positively correlated with the strength of the RSFC between vmPFC and middle temporal gyrus (mTG) and negativly correlated with RSFC between vmPFC and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). These findings may be suggested that mTG and IFG which associated with emotion processes and emotion regulation also play an important role in the dispositional optimism. PMID:28700613

Minimal effects of visual memory training on the auditory performance of adult cochlear implant users

PubMed Central

Oba, Sandra I.; Galvin, John J.; Fu, Qian-Jie

2014-01-01

Auditory training has been shown to significantly improve cochlear implant (CI) users’ speech and music perception. However, it is unclear whether post-training gains in performance were due to improved auditory perception or to generally improved attention, memory and/or cognitive processing. In this study, speech and music perception, as well as auditory and visual memory were assessed in ten CI users before, during, and after training with a non-auditory task. A visual digit span (VDS) task was used for training, in which subjects recalled sequences of digits presented visually. After the VDS training, VDS performance significantly improved. However, there were no significant improvements for most auditory outcome measures (auditory digit span, phoneme recognition, sentence recognition in noise, digit recognition in noise), except for small (but significant) improvements in vocal emotion recognition and melodic contour identification. Post-training gains were much smaller with the non-auditory VDS training than observed in previous auditory training studies with CI users. The results suggest that post-training gains observed in previous studies were not solely attributable to improved attention or memory, and were more likely due to improved auditory perception. The results also suggest that CI users may require targeted auditory training to improve speech and music perception. PMID:23516087

Genome-Wide Association Study of Multiple Sclerosis Confirms a Novel Locus at 5p13.1

PubMed Central

Sanna, Serena; Gayán, Javier; Urcelay, Elena; Zara, Ilenia; Pitzalis, Maristella; Cavanillas, María L.; Arroyo, Rafael; Zoledziewska, Magdalena; Marrosu, Marisa; Fernández, Oscar; Leyva, Laura; Alcina, Antonio; Fedetz, Maria; Moreno-Rey, Concha; Velasco, Juan; Real, Luis M.; Ruiz-Peña, Juan Luis; Cucca, Francesco

2012-01-01

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common progressive and disabling neurological condition affecting young adults in the world today. From a genetic point of view, MS is a complex disorder resulting from the combination of genetic and non-genetic factors. We aimed to identify previously unidentified loci conducting a new GWAS of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in a sample of 296 MS cases and 801 controls from the Spanish population. Meta-analysis of our data in combination with previous GWAS was done. A total of 17 GWAS-significant SNPs, corresponding to three different loci were identified:HLA, IL2RA, and 5p13.1. All three have been previously reported as GWAS-significant. We confirmed our observation in 5p13.1 for rs9292777 using two additional independent Spanish samples to make a total of 4912 MS cases and 7498 controls (ORpooled = 0.84; 95%CI: 0.80–0.89; p = 1.36×10-9). This SNP differs from the one reported within this locus in a recent GWAS. Although it is unclear whether both signals are tapping the same genetic association, it seems clear that this locus plays an important role in the pathogenesis of MS. PMID:22570697

A pilot comparative study of topical latanoprost and tacrolimus in combination with narrow-band ultraviolet B phototherapy and microneedling for the treatment of nonsegmental vitiligo.

PubMed

Korobko, Igor V; Lomonosov, Konstantin M

2016-11-01

Prostaglandins and their analogues are beneficial as topical agents in vitiligo treatment, yet neither of the previous study addressed their comparative efficiency with conventional topical agents used in vitiligo treatment. In this pilot (24 patients) left-right comparative study we addressed efficiency of prostaglandin F2α analogue latanoprost versus tacrolimus when combined with narrow-band ultraviolet B and microneedling in repigmentation of nonsegmental vitiligo lesions. Our results confirm potency of prostaglandins, in particular, that of latanoprost, in inducing repigmentation, with the efficiency being at least comparable to that of tacrolimus, while contribution of microneedling remains unclear. In summary, results of our study provide further evidences for justified use of prostaglandins, in particular, latanoprost, in vitiligo treatment. In turn, this warrants future studies on the topic aiming to conclusively introduce prostaglandin-based formulations as conventional agents for vitiligo management. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Expansion of inverted repeat does not decrease substitution rates in Pelargonium plastid genomes.

PubMed

Weng, Mao-Lun; Ruhlman, Tracey A; Jansen, Robert K

2017-04-01

For species with minor inverted repeat (IR) boundary changes in the plastid genome (plastome), nucleotide substitution rates were previously shown to be lower in the IR than the single copy regions (SC). However, the impact of large-scale IR expansion/contraction on plastid nucleotide substitution rates among closely related species remains unclear. We included plastomes from 22 Pelargonium species, including eight newly sequenced genomes, and used both pairwise and model-based comparisons to investigate the impact of the IR on sequence evolution in plastids. Ten types of plastome organization with different inversions or IR boundary changes were identified in Pelargonium. Inclusion in the IR was not sufficient to explain the variation of nucleotide substitution rates. Instead, the rate heterogeneity in Pelargonium plastomes was a mixture of locus-specific, lineage-specific and IR-dependent effects. Our study of Pelargonium plastomes that vary in IR length and gene content demonstrates that the evolutionary consequences of retaining these repeats are more complicated than previously suggested. © 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust.

Can color changes alter the neural correlates of recognition memory? Manipulation of processing affects an electrophysiological indicator of conceptual implicit memory.

PubMed

Cui, Xiaoyu; Gao, Chuanji; Zhou, Jianshe; Guo, Chunyan

2016-09-28

It has been widely shown that recognition memory includes two distinct retrieval processes: familiarity and recollection. Many studies have shown that recognition memory can be facilitated when there is a perceptual match between the studied and the tested items. Most event-related potential studies have explored the perceptual match effect on familiarity on the basis of the hypothesis that the specific event-related potential component associated with familiarity is the FN400 (300-500 ms mid-frontal effect). However, it is currently unclear whether the FN400 indexes familiarity or conceptual implicit memory. In addition, on the basis of the findings of a previous study, the so-called perceptual manipulations in previous studies may also involve some conceptual alterations. Therefore, we sought to determine the influence of perceptual manipulation by color changes on recognition memory when the perceptual or the conceptual processes were emphasized. Specifically, different instructions (perceptually or conceptually oriented) were provided to the participants. The results showed that color changes may significantly affect overall recognition memory behaviorally and that congruent items were recognized with a higher accuracy rate than incongruent items in both tasks, but no corresponding neural changes were found. Despite the evident familiarity shown in the two tasks (the behavioral performance of recognition memory was much higher than at the chance level), the FN400 effect was found in conceptually oriented tasks, but not perceptually oriented tasks. It is thus highly interesting that the FN400 effect was not induced, although color manipulation of recognition memory was behaviorally shown, as seen in previous studies. Our findings of the FN400 effect for the conceptual but not perceptual condition support the explanation that the FN400 effect indexes conceptual implicit memory.

Venous thromboembolism in malignant gliomas

PubMed Central

JENKINS, E. O.; SCHIFF, D.; MACKMAN, N.; KEY, N. S.

2010-01-01

Summary Malignant gliomas are associated with a very high risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). While many clinical risk factors have previously been described in brain tumor patients, the risk of VTE associated with newer anti-angiogenic therapies such as bevacizumab in these patients remains unclear. When VTE occurs in this patient population, concern regarding the potential for intracranial hemorrhage complicates management decisions regarding anticoagulation, and these patients have a worse prognosis than their VTE-free counterparts. Risk stratification models identifying patients at high risk of developing VTE along with predictive plasma biomarkers may guide the selection of eligible patients for primary prevention with pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis. Recent studies exploring disordered coagulation, such as increased expression of tissue factor (TF), and tumorigenic molecular signaling may help to explain the increased risk of VTE in patients with malignant gliomas. PMID:19912518

Activity of Amoxicillin-Clavulanate against Penicillin-Resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in an Experimental Respiratory Infection Model in Rats†

PubMed Central

Smith, Gillian M.; Slocombe, Brian; Abbott, Karen H.; Mizen, Linda W.

1998-01-01

High doses of amoxicillin, equivalent to those produced by 500- and 750-mg oral doses in humans (area under the plasma concentration-time curve), were effective against a penicillin-resistant strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae in an experimental respiratory tract infection in immunocompromised rats; this superior activity confirms the results of previous studies. An unexpected enhancement of amoxicillin’s antibacterial activity in vivo against penicillin-resistant and -susceptible S. pneumoniae strains was observed when subtherapeutic doses of amoxicillin were coadministered with the β-lactamase inhibitor potassium clavulanate. The reason for this enhancement was unclear since these organisms do not produce β-lactamase. The differential binding of clavulanic acid and amoxicillin to penicillin-binding proteins may have contributed to the observed effects. PMID:9559788

Cerebral Processing of Voice Gender Studied Using a Continuous Carryover fMRI Design

PubMed Central

Pernet, Cyril; Latinus, Marianne; Crabbe, Frances; Belin, Pascal

2013-01-01

Normal listeners effortlessly determine a person's gender by voice, but the cerebral mechanisms underlying this ability remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate 2 stages of cerebral processing during voice gender categorization. Using voice morphing along with an adaptation-optimized functional magnetic resonance imaging design, we found that secondary auditory cortex including the anterior part of the temporal voice areas in the right hemisphere responded primarily to acoustical distance with the previously heard stimulus. In contrast, a network of bilateral regions involving inferior prefrontal and anterior and posterior cingulate cortex reflected perceived stimulus ambiguity. These findings suggest that voice gender recognition involves neuronal populations along the auditory ventral stream responsible for auditory feature extraction, functioning in pair with the prefrontal cortex in voice gender perception. PMID:22490550

Perception of intentions and actions: gender stereotype susceptibility.

PubMed

Pavlova, Marina A; Wecker, Matthias; Krombholz, Kerstin; Sokolov, Arseny A

2010-01-22

Gender differences are evident in the comprehension of social signals, but the underlying basis for these differences is unclear. There is some indication that gender effects have neurobiological sources. Here we manipulated stereotype messages about gender differences in a social cognition task, on which no gender gap has previously been documented. The outcome indicates that manipulation of stereotype messages elicits gender effects. A positive message enhances performance, whereas a negative message diminishes it. Furthermore, this effect is more pronounced in females, with a greater force of a negative stereotype message. The study provides novel insights into the possible sources of gender related fluctuations in social cognition. The findings are discussed in terms of behavioral components and brain mechanisms underpinning gender effects in social cognition. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chronic Sucralose or L-Glucose Ingestion Does Not Suppress Food Intake.

PubMed

Wang, Qiao-Ping; Simpson, Stephen J; Herzog, Herbert; Neely, G Gregory

2017-08-01

Despite widespread consumption of non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs), the impact of manipulating the perceived sweetness of food is unclear. Previously we reported that chronic consumption of the NNSs sucralose or L-glucose led to increased calories consumed post-exposure; however, a recent study suggested this effect occurs because NNSs acutely suppress food intake, leading to a caloric debt. Here we show that acute ingestion of sucralose in the context of a low-carbohydrate diet causes a pronounced increase in calories consumed. Moreover, neither sucralose nor L-glucose had a lasting effect on food intake during chronic exposure; however, both NNSs enhance food intake post-exposure. Together these data confirm that sucralose and L-glucose promote food intake under a variety of experimental conditions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fibroblasts derived from long-lived insulin receptor substrate 1 null mice are not resistant to multiple forms of stress

PubMed Central

Page, Melissa M; Sinclair, Amy; Robb, Ellen L; Stuart, Jeffrey A; Withers, Dominic J; Selman, Colin

2014-01-01

Reduced signalling through the insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signalling (IIS) pathway is a highly conserved lifespan determinant in model organisms. The precise mechanism underlying the effects of the IIS on lifespan and health is currently unclear, although cellular stress resistance may be important. We have previously demonstrated that mice globally lacking insulin receptor substrate 1 (Irs1−/−) are long-lived and enjoy a greater period of their life free from age-related pathology compared with wild-type (WT) controls. In this study, we show that primary dermal fibroblasts and primary myoblasts derived from Irs1−/− mice are no more resistant to a range of oxidant and nonoxidant chemical stressors than cells derived from WT mice. PMID:25059507

Gelsolin Restores Aβ-Induced Alterations in Choroid Plexus Epithelium

PubMed Central

Vargas, Teo; Antequera, Desiree; Ugalde, Cristina; Spuch, Carlos; Carro, Eva

2010-01-01

Histologically, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by senile plaques and cerebrovascular amyloid deposits. In previous studies we demonstrated that in AD patients, amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide also accumulates in choroid plexus, and that this process is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and epithelial cell death. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying Aβ accumulation at the choroid plexus epithelium remain unclear. Aβ clearance, from the brain to the blood, involves Aβ carrier proteins that bind to megalin, including gelsolin, a protein produced specifically by the choroid plexus epithelial cells. In this study, we show that treatment with gelsolin reduces Aβ-induced cytoskeletal disruption of blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) barrier at the choroid plexus. Additionally, our results demonstrate that gelsolin plays an important role in decreasing Aβ-induced cytotoxicity by inhibiting nitric oxide production and apoptotic mitochondrial changes. Taken together, these findings make gelsolin an appealing tool for the prophylactic treatment of AD. PMID:20369065

Synchrony and motor mimicking in chimpanzee observational learning

PubMed Central

Fuhrmann, Delia; Ravignani, Andrea; Marshall-Pescini, Sarah; Whiten, Andrew

2014-01-01

Cumulative tool-based culture underwrote our species' evolutionary success, and tool-based nut-cracking is one of the strongest candidates for cultural transmission in our closest relatives, chimpanzees. However the social learning processes that may explain both the similarities and differences between the species remain unclear. A previous study of nut-cracking by initially naïve chimpanzees suggested that a learning chimpanzee holding no hammer nevertheless replicated hammering actions it witnessed. This observation has potentially important implications for the nature of the social learning processes and underlying motor coding involved. In the present study, model and observer actions were quantified frame-by-frame and analysed with stringent statistical methods, demonstrating synchrony between the observer's and model's movements, cross-correlation of these movements above chance level and a unidirectional transmission process from model to observer. These results provide the first quantitative evidence for motor mimicking underlain by motor coding in apes, with implications for mirror neuron function. PMID:24923651

Future orientation: a construct with implications for adolescent health and wellbeing.

PubMed

Johnson, Sarah R Lindstrom; Blum, Robert W; Cheng, Tina L

2014-01-01

Multidisciplinary research has supported a relationship between adolescent future orientation (the ability to set future goals and plans) and positive adolescent health and development outcomes. Many preventive strategies - for example, contracepting, exercising - are based on taking actions in the present to avoid unwanted or negative future consequences. However, research has been hampered by unclear and often divergent conceptualizations of the future orientation construct. The present paper aims to integrate previous conceptual and operational definitions into a conceptual framework that can inform programs and services for youth and efforts to evaluate future orientation as a target for intervention. Recommendations focus on furthering the study of the construct through measurement synthesis as well as studies of the normative development of future orientation. Also suggested is the need to pair environmental intervention strategies with individual level efforts to improve future orientation in order to maximize benefits.

Future Orientation: A Construct with Implications for Adolescent Health and Wellbeing

PubMed Central

Lindstrom Johnson, Sarah; Blum, Robert W; Cheng, Tina L.

2016-01-01

Multi-disciplinary research has supported a relationship between adolescent future orientation (the ability to set future goals and plans) and positive adolescent health and development outcomes. Many preventive strategies—for example contracepting, exercising—are based on taking actions in the present to avoid unwanted or negative future consequences. However, research has been hampered by unclear and often divergent conceptualizations of the future orientation construct. The present paper aims to integrate previous conceptual and operational definitions into a conceptual framework that can inform programs and services for youth and efforts to evaluate future orientation as a target for intervention. Recommendations focus on furthering the study of the construct through measurement synthesis as well as studies of the normative development of future orientation. Also suggested is the need to pair environmental intervention strategies with individual level efforts to improve future orientation in order to maximize benefits. PMID:24523304

Lidocaine effect on flotillin-2 distribution in detergent-resistant membranes of equine jejunal smooth muscle in vitro.

PubMed

Tappenbeck, Karen; Schmidt, Sonja; Feige, Karsten; Naim, Hassan Y; Huber, Korinna

2014-05-01

Lidocaine is the most commonly chosen prokinetic for treating postoperative ileus in horses, a motility disorder associated with ischaemia-reperfusion injury of intestinal tissues. Despite the frequent use of lidocaine, the mechanism underlying its prokinetic effects is still unclear. Previous studies suggested that lidocaine altered cell membrane characteristics of smooth muscle cells. Therefore, the present study aimed to elucidate effects of lidocaine administration on characteristics of detergent-resistant membranes in equine jejunal smooth muscle. Lidocaine administration caused significant redistribution of flotillin-2, a protein marker of detergent-resistant membranes, in fractions of sucrose-density-gradients obtained from ischaemia-reperfusion injured smooth muscle solubilised with Triton X-100. It was concluded that lidocaine induced disruption of detergent-resistant membranes which might affect ion channel activity and therefore enhance smooth muscle contractility. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rethinking spontaneous giving: Extreme time pressure and ego-depletion favor self-regarding reactions.

PubMed

Capraro, Valerio; Cococcioni, Giorgia

2016-06-02

Previous experimental studies suggest that cooperation in one-shot anonymous interactions is, on average, spontaneous, rather than calculative. To explain this finding, it has been proposed that people internalize cooperative heuristics in their everyday life and bring them as intuitive strategies in new and atypical situations. Yet, these studies have important limitations, as they promote intuitive responses using weak time pressure or conceptual priming of intuition. Since these manipulations do not deplete participants' ability to reason completely, it remains unclear whether cooperative heuristics are really automatic or they emerge after a small, but positive, amount of deliberation. Consistent with the latter hypothesis, we report two experiments demonstrating that spontaneous reactions in one-shot anonymous interactions tend to be egoistic. In doing so, our findings shed further light on the cognitive underpinnings of cooperation, as they suggest that cooperation in one-shot interactions is not automatic, but appears only at later stages of reasoning.

Role of Proangiogenic Factors in Immunopathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis.

PubMed

Hamid, Kabir Magaji; Mirshafiey, Abbas

2016-02-01

Angiogenesis is a complex and balanced process in which new blood vessels form from preexisting ones by sprouting, splitting, growth and remodeling. This phenomenon plays a vital role in many physiological and pathological processes. However, the disturbance in physiological process can play a role in pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) in human and its animal model. Although the relation between abnormal blood vessels and MS lesions was established in previous studies, but the role of pathological angiogenesis remains unclear. In this study, the link between proangiogenic factors and multiple sclerosis pathogenesis was examined by conducting a systemic review. Thus we searched the English medical literature via PubMed, ISI web of knowledge, Medline and virtual health library (VHL) databases. In this review, we describe direct and indirect roles of some proangiogenic factors in MS pathogenesis and report the association of these factors with pathological and inflammatory angiogenesis.

Fatty acids and small organic compounds bind to mineralo-organic nanoparticles derived from human body fluids as revealed by metabolomic analysis.

PubMed

Martel, Jan; Wu, Cheng-Yeu; Hung, Cheng-Yu; Wong, Tsui-Yin; Cheng, Ann-Joy; Cheng, Mei-Ling; Shiao, Ming-Shi; Young, John D

2016-03-14

Nanoparticles entering the human body instantly become coated with a "protein corona" that influences the effects and distribution of the particles in vivo. Yet, whether nanoparticles may bind to other organic compounds remains unclear. Here we use an untargeted metabolomic approach based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography and quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry to identify the organic compounds that bind to mineral nanoparticles formed in human body fluids (serum, plasma, saliva, and urine). A wide range of organic compounds is identified, including fatty acids, glycerophospholipids, amino acids, sugars, and amides. Our results reveal that, in addition to the proteins identified previously, nanoparticles harbor an "organic corona" containing several fatty acids which may affect particle-cell interactions in vivo. This study provides a platform to study the organic corona of biological and synthetic nanoparticles found in the human body.

Dendritic spine dynamics leading to spine elimination after repeated inductions of LTD

PubMed Central

Hasegawa, Sho; Sakuragi, Shigeo; Tominaga-Yoshino, Keiko; Ogura, Akihiko

2015-01-01

Memory is fixed solidly by repetition. However, the cellular mechanism underlying this repetition-dependent memory consolidation/reconsolidation remains unclear. In our previous study using stable slice cultures of the rodent hippocampus, we found long-lasting synaptic enhancement/suppression coupled with synapse formation/elimination after repeated inductions of chemical LTP/LTD, respectively. We proposed these phenomena as useful model systems for analyzing repetition-dependent memory consolidation. Recently, we analyzed the dynamics of dendritic spines during development of the enhancement, and found that the spines increased in number following characteristic stochastic processes. The current study investigates spine dynamics during the development of the suppression. We found that the rate of spine retraction increased immediately leaving that of spine generation unaltered. Spine elimination occurred independent of the pre-existing spine density on the dendritic segment. In terms of elimination, mushroom-type spines were not necessarily more stable than stubby-type and thin-type spines. PMID:25573377

Musculoskeletal simulation can help explain selective muscle degeneration in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

PubMed

Hu, Xiao; Blemker, Silvia S

2015-08-01

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disease that occurs due to the deficiency of the dystrophin protein. Although dystrophin is deficient in all muscles, it is unclear why degeneration progresses differently across muscles in DMD. We hypothesized that each muscle undergoes a different degree of eccentric contraction during gait, which could contribute to the selective degeneration in lower limb muscle, as indicated by various amounts of fatty infiltration. By comparing eccentric contractions quantified from a previous multibody dynamic musculoskeletal gait simulation and fat fractions quantified in a recent imaging study, our preliminary analyses show a strong correlation between eccentric contractions during gait and lower limb muscle fat fractions, supporting our hypothesis. This knowledge is critical for developing safe exercise regimens for the DMD population. This study also provides supportive evidence for using multiscale modeling and simulation of the musculoskeletal system in future DMD research. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Synchrony and motor mimicking in chimpanzee observational learning.

PubMed

Fuhrmann, Delia; Ravignani, Andrea; Marshall-Pescini, Sarah; Whiten, Andrew

2014-06-13

Cumulative tool-based culture underwrote our species' evolutionary success, and tool-based nut-cracking is one of the strongest candidates for cultural transmission in our closest relatives, chimpanzees. However the social learning processes that may explain both the similarities and differences between the species remain unclear. A previous study of nut-cracking by initially naïve chimpanzees suggested that a learning chimpanzee holding no hammer nevertheless replicated hammering actions it witnessed. This observation has potentially important implications for the nature of the social learning processes and underlying motor coding involved. In the present study, model and observer actions were quantified frame-by-frame and analysed with stringent statistical methods, demonstrating synchrony between the observer's and model's movements, cross-correlation of these movements above chance level and a unidirectional transmission process from model to observer. These results provide the first quantitative evidence for motor mimicking underlain by motor coding in apes, with implications for mirror neuron function.

Lévy Walks Suboptimal under Predation Risk

PubMed Central

Abe, Masato S.; Shimada, Masakazu

2015-01-01

A key challenge in movement ecology is to understand how animals move in nature. Previous studies have predicted that animals should perform a special class of random walks, called Lévy walk, to obtain more targets. However, some empirical studies did not support this hypothesis, and the relationship between search strategy and ecological factors is still unclear. We focused on ecological factors, such as predation risk, and analyzed whether Lévy walk may not be favored. It was remarkable that the ecological factors often altered an optimal search strategy from Lévy walk to Brownian walk, depending on the speed of the predator’s movement, density of predators, etc. This occurred because higher target encounter rates simultaneously led searchers to higher predation risks. Our findings indicate that animals may not perform Lévy walks often, and we suggest that it is crucial to consider the ecological context for evaluating the search strategy performed by animals in the field. PMID:26544687

Reduced interdecadal variability of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation under global warming.

PubMed

Cheng, Jun; Liu, Zhengyu; Zhang, Shaoqing; Liu, Wei; Dong, Lina; Liu, Peng; Li, Hongli

2016-03-22

Interdecadal variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC-IV) plays an important role in climate variation and has significant societal impacts. Past climate reconstruction indicates that AMOC-IV has likely undergone significant changes. Despite some previous studies, responses of AMOC-IV to global warming remain unclear, in particular regarding its amplitude and time scale. In this study, we analyze the responses of AMOC-IV under various scenarios of future global warming in multiple models and find that AMOC-IV becomes weaker and shorter with enhanced global warming. From the present climate condition to the strongest future warming scenario, on average, the major period of AMOC-IV is shortened from ∼50 y to ∼20 y, and the amplitude is reduced by ∼60%. These reductions in period and amplitude of AMOC-IV are suggested to be associated with increased oceanic stratification under global warming and, in turn, the speedup of oceanic baroclinic Rossby waves.

The Act of Answering Questions Elicited Differentiated Responses in a Concealed Information Test.

PubMed

Otsuka, Takuro; Mizutani, Mitsuyoshi; Yagi, Akihiro; Katayama, Jun'ichi

2018-04-17

The concealed information test (CIT), a psychophysiological detection of deception test, compares physiological responses between crime-related and crime-unrelated items. In previous studies, whether the act of answering questions affected physiological responses was unclear. This study examined effects of both question-related and answer-related processes on physiological responses. Twenty participants received a modified CIT, in which the interval between presentation of questions and answering them was 27 s. Differentiated respiratory movements and cardiovascular responses between items were observed for both questions (items) and answers, while differentiated skin conductance response was observed only for questions. These results suggest that physiological responses to questions reflected orientation to a crime-related item, while physiological responses during answering reflected inhibition of psychological arousal caused by orienting. Regarding the CIT's accuracy, participants' perception of the questions themselves more strongly influenced physiological responses than answering them. © 2018 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Reveals That Anti-Cancer Effects of Selenium-Binding Protein 1 In Vivo Are Associated with Metabolic Pathways

PubMed Central

Ying, Qi; Ansong, Emmanuel; Diamond, Alan M.; Lu, Zhaoxin; Yang, Wancai; Bie, Xiaomei

2015-01-01

Previous studies have shown the tumor-suppressive role of selenium-binding protein 1 (SBP1), but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. In this study, we found that induction of SBP1 showed significant inhibition of colorectal cancer cell growth and metastasis in mice. We further employed isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) to identify proteins that were involved in SBP1-mediated anti-cancer effects in tumor tissues. We identified 132 differentially expressed proteins, among them, 53 proteins were upregulated and 79 proteins were downregulated. Importantly, many of the differentially altered proteins were associated with lipid/glucose metabolism, which were also linked to Glycolysis, MAPK, Wnt, NF-kB, NOTCH and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling pathways. These results have revealed a novel mechanism that SBP1-mediated cancer inhibition is through altering lipid/glucose metabolic signaling pathways. PMID:25974208

Rumination mediates the prospective effect of low self-esteem on depression: a five-wave longitudinal study.

PubMed

Kuster, Farah; Orth, Ulrich; Meier, Laurenz L

2012-06-01

Previous research supports the vulnerability model of low self-esteem and depression, which states that low self-esteem operates as a prospective risk factor for depression. However, it is unclear which processes mediate the effect of low self-esteem. To test for the mediating effect of rumination, the authors used longitudinal mediation models, which included exclusively prospective effects and controlled for autoregressive effects of the constructs. Data came from 663 individuals (aged 16 to 62 years), who were assessed 5 times over an 8-month period. The results indicated that low self-esteem predicted subsequent rumination, which in turn predicted subsequent depression, and that rumination partially mediated the prospective effect of low self-esteem on depression. These findings held for both men and women, and for both affective-cognitive and somatic symptoms of depression. Future studies should test for the mediating effects of additional intrapersonal and interpersonal processes.

Hospitalization Risk Before and After Employment Among Adults With Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, or Major Depression.

PubMed

Luciano, Alison; Metcalfe, Justin D; Bond, Gary R; Xie, Haiyi; Miller, Alexander L; Riley, Jarnee; O'Malley, A James; Drake, Robert E

2016-10-01

The influence of employment on subsequent psychiatric hospitalization for people with serious mental illness is unclear. This study examined whether unemployed people with serious mental illness were more or less likely to experience psychiatric hospitalization after gaining employment. A secondary analysis was conducted of data from the Mental Health Treatment Study. Two years of prospective employment and psychiatric hospital outcomes were examined for 2,055 adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. The analyses examined associations between employment and psychiatric hospitalization via multilevel regression by using time-lagged modeling. Employment was associated with a lower subsequent three-month risk of psychiatric hospitalization (odds ratio=.65, 95% confidence interval=.50-.84) after the analysis adjusted for baseline characteristics, including previous psychiatric hospitalizations and self-reported physical health. Unemployed outpatients with serious mental illness were less likely to experience psychiatric hospitalization after gaining employment.

Effect of cannabis smoking on lung function and respiratory symptoms: a structured literature review

PubMed Central

Ribeiro, Luis IG; Ind, Philip W

2016-01-01

As cannabis use increases, physicians need to be familiar with the effects of both cannabis and tobacco on the lungs. However, there have been very few long-term studies of cannabis smoking, mostly due to legality issues and the confounding effects of tobacco. It was previously thought that cannabis and tobacco had similar long-term effects as both cause chronic bronchitis. However, recent large studies have shown that, instead of reducing forced expiratory volume in 1 s and forced vital capacity (FVC), marijuana smoking is associated with increased FVC. The cause of this is unclear, but acute bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory effects of cannabis may be relevant. Bullous lung disease, barotrauma and cannabis smoking have been recognised in case reports and small series. More work is needed to address the effects of cannabis on lung function, imaging and histological changes. PMID:27763599

Ice-cored moraine degradation mapped and quantified using an unmanned aerial vehicle: A case study from a polythermal glacier in Svalbard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tonkin, T. N.; Midgley, N. G.; Cook, S. J.; Graham, D. J.

2016-04-01

Ice-cored lateral-frontal moraines are common at the margins of receding high-Arctic valley glaciers, but the preservation potential of these features within the landform record is unclear. Recent climatic amelioration provides an opportunity to study the morphological evolution of these landforms as they de-ice. This is important because high-Arctic glacial landsystems have been used as analogues for formerly glaciated areas in the mid-latitudes. This study uses SfM (Structure-from-Motion) photogrammetry and a combination of archive aerial and UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) derived imagery to investigate the degradation of an ice-cored lateral-frontal moraine at Austre Lovénbreen, Svalbard. Across the study area as a whole, over an 11-year period, the average depth of surface lowering was - 1.75 ± 0.89 m. The frontal sections of the moraine showed low or undetectable rates of change. Spatially variable rates of surface lowering are associated with differences in the quantity of buried ice within the structure of the moraine. Morphological change was dominated by surface lowering, with limited field evidence of degradation via back-wastage. This permits the moraine a greater degree of stability than previously observed at other sites in Svalbard. It is unclear whether the end point will be a fully stabilised ice-cored moraine, in equilibrium with its environment, or an ice-free lateral-frontal moraine complex. Controls on geomorphological change (e.g. topography and climate) and the preservation potential of the lateral-frontal moraine are discussed. The methods used by this research also demonstrate the potential value of SfM photogrammetry and unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring environmental change and are likely to have wider applications in other geoscientific sub-disciplines.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Orientation to Pain, and Pain Perception in Ex-Prisoners of War Who Underwent Torture.

PubMed

Tsur, Noga; Defrin, Ruth; Ginzburg, Karni

Studies suggest that torture survivors often experience long-term chronic pain and increased pain perception. However, it is unclear whether the actual experience of torture or rather the subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) explains these pain problems. Furthermore, although catastrophic and fearful orientations to pain have been suggested to play a significant role in the association between trauma and pain, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study examined whether chronic pain and pain perception among torture survivors are associated with torture experience or PTSD and whether catastrophic and fearful orientations mediate or moderate these associations. Fifty-nine ex-prisoners of war who underwent torture and 44 matched veterans participated in this study. Pain perception was evaluated by assessing pain threshold and reactivity to experimental suprathreshold noxious stimuli. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires assessing PTSD, chronic pain, pain catastrophizing, and fear of pain. Although chronic pain was associated with PTSD (0.44 < β < 0.49, p < .002), increased pain perception was correlated with torture (0.33 < β < 0.65, p < .05). Pain catastrophizing was found to mediate the association between PTSD and chronic pain (β = 0.18 and 0.19, respectively; p < .05). Fear of pain moderated the association between torture and pain perception (β = 0.41 and 0.42, respectively; p < .017). The findings suggest that chronic pain is contingent upon the psychological toll of torture, that is, PTSD. This study also indicates that PTSD exacerbates catastrophic orientation, which in turn may amplify chronic pain. Reactivity to experimental noxious stimuli was related to previous experiences of torture, which enhances perceived pain intensity when interacting with a fearful pain orientation. These findings highlight the significance of orientation to bodily experiences after trauma.

Disentangling neural processes of egocentric and allocentric mental spatial transformations using whole-body photos of self and other.

PubMed

Ganesh, Shanti; van Schie, Hein T; Cross, Emily S; de Lange, Floris P; Wigboldus, Daniël H J

2015-08-01

Mental imagery of one's body moving through space is important for imagining changing visuospatial perspectives, as well as for determining how we might appear to other people. Previous neuroimaging research has implicated the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) in this process. It is unclear, however, how neural activity in the TPJ relates to the rotation perspectives from which mental spatial transformation (MST) of one's own body can take place, i.e. from an egocentric or an allocentric perspective. It is also unclear whether TPJ involvement in MST is self-specific or whether the TPJ may also be involved in MST of other human bodies. The aim of the current study was to disentangle neural processes involved in egocentric versus allocentric MSTs of human bodies representing self and other. We measured functional brain activity of healthy participants while they performed egocentric and allocentric MSTs in relation to whole-body photographs of themselves and a same-sex stranger. Findings indicated higher blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response in bilateral TPJ during egocentric versus allocentric MST. Moreover, BOLD response in the TPJ during egocentric MST correlated positively with self-report scores indicating how awkward participants felt while viewing whole-body photos of themselves. These findings considerably advance our understanding of TPJ involvement in MST and its interplay with self-awareness. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Role of Complement in a Rat Model of Paclitaxel-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy.

PubMed

Xu, Jijun; Zhang, Lingjun; Xie, Mian; Li, Yan; Huang, Ping; Saunders, Thomas L; Fox, David A; Rosenquist, Richard; Lin, Feng

2018-06-15

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a painful and debilitating side effect of cancer chemotherapy with an unclear pathogenesis. Consequently, the available therapies for this neuropathic pain syndrome are inadequate, leading to a significantly reduced quality of life in many patients. Complement, a key component of the innate immune system, has been associated with neuroinflammation, a potentially important trigger of some types of neuropathic pain. However, the role of complement in CIPN remains unclear. To address this issue, we developed a C3 knockout (KO) rat model and induced CIPN in these KO rats and wild-type littermates via the i.p. administration of paclitaxel, a chemotherapeutic agent associated with CIPN. We then compared the severity of mechanical allodynia, complement activation, and intradermal nerve fiber loss between the groups. We found that 1) i.p. paclitaxel administration activated complement in wild-type rats, 2) paclitaxel-induced mechanical allodynia was significantly reduced in C3 KO rats, and 3) the paclitaxel-induced loss of intradermal nerve fibers was markedly attenuated in C3 KO rats. In in vitro studies, we found that paclitaxel-treated rat neuronal cells activated complement, leading to cellular injury. Our findings demonstrate a previously unknown but pivotal role of complement in CIPN and suggest that complement may be a new target for the development of novel therapeutics to manage this painful disease. Copyright © 2018 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.

Regional Homogeneity Predicts Creative Insight: A Resting-State fMRI Study.

PubMed

Lin, Jiabao; Cui, Xuan; Dai, Xiaoying; Mo, Lei

2018-01-01

Creative insight plays an important role in our daily life. Previous studies have investigated the neural correlates of creative insight by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), however, the intrinsic resting-state brain activity associated with creative insight is still unclear. In the present study, we used regional homogeneity (ReHo) as an index in resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) to identify brain regions involved in individual differences in creative insight, which was compued by the response time (RT) of creative Chinese character chunk decomposition. The findings indicated that ReHo in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)/caudate nucleus (CN) and angular gyrus (AG)/superior temporal gyrus (STG)/inferior parietal lobe (IPL) negatively predicted creative insight. Furthermore, these findings suggested that spontaneous brain activity in multiple regions related to breaking and establishing mental sets, goal-directed solutions exploring, shifting attention, forming new associations and emotion experience contributes to creative insight. In conclusion, the present study provides new evidence to further understand the cognitive processing and neural correlates of creative insight.

Eyes on the bodies: an eye tracking study on deployment of visual attention among females with body dissatisfaction.

PubMed

Gao, Xiao; Deng, Xiao; Yang, Jia; Liang, Shuang; Liu, Jie; Chen, Hong

2014-12-01

Visual attentional bias has important functions during the appearance social comparisons. However, for the limitations of experimental paradigms or analysis methods in previous studies, the time course of attentional bias to thin and fat body images among women with body dissatisfaction (BD) has still been unclear. In using free reviewing task combined with eye movement tracking, and based on event-related analyses of the critical first eye movement events, as well as epoch-related analyses of gaze durations, the current study investigated different attentional bias components to body shape/part images during 15s presentation time among 34 high BD and 34 non-BD young women. In comparison to the controls, women with BD showed sustained maintenance biases on thin and fat body images during both early automatic and late strategic processing stages. This study highlights a clear need for research on the dynamics of attentional biases related to body image and eating disturbances. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Mitogenomic Phylogeny of Living Primates

PubMed Central

Finstermeier, Knut; Zinner, Dietmar; Brameier, Markus; Meyer, Matthias; Kreuz, Eva; Hofreiter, Michael; Roos, Christian

2013-01-01

Primates, the mammalian order including our own species, comprise 480 species in 78 genera. Thus, they represent the third largest of the 18 orders of eutherian mammals. Although recent phylogenetic studies on primates are increasingly built on molecular datasets, most of these studies have focused on taxonomic subgroups within the order. Complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes have proven to be extremely useful in deciphering within-order relationships even up to deep nodes. Using 454 sequencing, we sequenced 32 new complete mt genomes adding 20 previously not represented genera to the phylogenetic reconstruction of the primate tree. With 13 new sequences, the number of complete mt genomes within the parvorder Platyrrhini was widely extended, resulting in a largely resolved branching pattern among New World monkey families. We added 10 new Strepsirrhini mt genomes to the 15 previously available ones, thus almost doubling the number of mt genomes within this clade. Our data allow precise date estimates of all nodes and offer new insights into primate evolution. One major result is a relatively young date for the most recent common ancestor of all living primates which was estimated to 66-69 million years ago, suggesting that the divergence of extant primates started close to the K/T-boundary. Although some relationships remain unclear, the large number of mt genomes used allowed us to reconstruct a robust primate phylogeny which is largely in agreement with previous publications. Finally, we show that mt genomes are a useful tool for resolving primate phylogenetic relationships on various taxonomic levels. PMID:23874967

Marijuana withdrawal and aggression among a representative sample of U.S. marijuana users

PubMed Central

Smith, Philip H.; Homish, Gregory G.; Leonard, Kenneth E.; Collins, R. Lorraine

2013-01-01

Background Previous laboratory-based research suggests that withdrawal from marijuana may cause increased aggression. It is unclear whether this finding extends beyond the laboratory setting to the general population of marijuana users. The purpose of this study was to test a cross-sectional association between marijuana withdrawal symptoms and aggression among a representative sample of U.S. adult marijuana users, and to test whether this association was moderated by previous history of aggression. Methods Data were analyzed from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Wave Two data (2004–2005) were used for all variables except for history of aggression, which was assessed during the Wave One interview (2001–2002). Two outcomes were examined: self-report general aggression and relationship aggression. Odds ratios for aggression based on withdrawal symptoms and the interaction between withdrawal symptoms and history of aggression were calculated using logistic regression, adjusting for covariates and accounting for the complex survey design. Results Among marijuana users with a history of aggression, marijuana withdrawal was associated with approximately 60% higher odds of past year relationship aggression (p < 0.05). There was no association between withdrawal symptoms and relationship aggression among those without a history of aggression, and no association with general aggression regardless of history of aggression. Conclusions The findings from this study support the notion that laboratory-based increases in aggression due to marijuana withdrawal extend to the general population of marijuana users who have a previous history of aggression. PMID:23380439

Mineral, Virginia earthquake illustrates seismicity of a passive-aggressive margin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stein, S. A.; Pazzaglia, F. J.; Meltzer, A.; Berti, C.; Wolin, E.; Kafka, A. L.

2011-12-01

The August 2011 M5.8 Virginia earthquake illustrated again that "passive" continental margins, at which the continent and neighboring seafloor are part of the same plate, are often seismically active. This phenomenon occurs worldwide, with the east coast of North America a prime example. Examples from North to South include the 1933 M 7.3 Baffin Bay, 1929 M 7.2 Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 1755 M 6 Cape Ann, Massachusetts, and 1886 M 7 Charleston earthquakes. The mechanics of these earthquakes remains unclear. Their overall alignment along the margin suggests that they reflect reactivation of generally margin-parallel faults remaining from continental convergence and later rifting by the modern stress field. This view accords with the occurrence of the Virginia earthquake by reverse faulting on a margin-parallel NE-SW striking fault. However, it occurred on the northern edge of the central Virginia seismic zone, a seismic trend normal to the fault plane, margin, and associated structures, that has no clear geologic expression. Hence it is unclear why this and similar seismic zones have the geometry they do. Although it is tempting to correlate these zones with extensions of Atlantic fracture zones, this correlation has little explanatory power given the large number of such zones. It is similarly unclear whether these zones and the intervening seismic gaps reflect areas that are relatively more active over time, or are instead the present loci of activity that migrates. It is also possible that the presently-active zones reflect long-lived aftershocks of large prehistoric earthquakes. The forces driving the seismicity are also unclear. In general, seismic moment release decreases southward along the margin, consistent with the variation in vertical motion rates observed by GPS, suggesting that glacial-isostatic adjustment (GIA) provides some of the stresses involved. However, in the mid-Atlantic region - south of the area of significant GIA - deformed stratigraphic and geomorphic markers, localized high-relief topography, and rapid river incision show uplift of the Piedmont and Appalachians relative to the Coastal Plain for the past 10 Ma, suggesting that the seismicity reflects active and long-term deformation. These challenging questions are natural candidates for further study using new seismological and GPS data from the EarthScope program, together with geological and modeling studies. The dense deployment of seismometers in the wake of the Mineral VA earthquake and the arrival of EarthScope on the eastern seaboard in 2012 and 2013 can provide the required observations at multiple scales to better understand the mechanics of and forces driving east coast seismicity. Here we begin this study by comparing the aftershock sequence of the Mineral VA earthquake to previously recorded events in the Reading Lancaster Seismic Zone and the Central Virginia Seismic Zone.

Mice completely lacking immunoproteasomes display major alterations in antigen presentation

PubMed Central

Kincaid, Eleanor Z; Che, Jenny W; York, Ian; Escobar, Hernando; Reyes-Vargas, Eduardo; Delgado, Julio C.; Welsh, Raymond M; Karow, Margaret L.; Murphy, Andrew J.; Valenzuela, David M.; Yancopoulos, George D.; Rock, Kenneth L

2011-01-01

The importance of immunoproteasomes to antigen presentation has been unclear because animals totally lacking immunoproteasomes have not been previously developed. Here we show that dendritic cells from mice lacking the three immunoproteasome catalytic subunits display defects in presenting multiple major histocompatability (MHC) class I epitopes. During viral infection in vivo, the presentation of a majority of MHC class I epitopes is markedly reduced in immunoproteasome-deficient animals, while presentation of MHC class II peptides is unaffected. By mass spectrometry the repertoire of MHC class I-presented peptides is ~50% different and these differences are sufficient to stimulate robust transplant rejection of wild type cells in mutant mice. These results indicate that immunoproteasomes play a much more important role in antigen presentation than previously thought. PMID:22197977

The effect of hyperthyroidism on procoagulant, anticoagulant and fibrinolytic factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Stuijver, Danka J F; van Zaane, Bregje; Romualdi, Erica; Brandjes, Dees P M; Gerdes, Victor E A; Squizzato, Alessandro

2012-12-01

Several coagulation and fibrinolytic parameters appear to be affected by thyroid hormone excess; however, the net effect on the haemostatic system remains unclear. We aimed to update our previous review and systematically summarise and meta-analyse the data by assessing the effects of thyrotoxicosis on the coagulation and fibrinolytic system in vivo . Data sources included MEDLINE (2006-2012), EMBASE (2006-2012), and reference lists. The sources were combined with our previous search containing studies from 1980-2006. Eligible studies were all observational or experimental studies. Two investigators independently extracted data and rated study quality. Weighted mean proportion and 95% confidence intervals were calculated and pooled using a fixed and a random-effects model. A total of 29 articles consisting of 51 studies were included, as in several articles more than one study was described. We included four intervention (before and after treatment in hyperthyroid patients), five cross-sectional (hyperthyroid subjects and euthyroid controls), and four experimental (before and after use of thyroid hormone in euthyroid subjects) medium/high quality studies for meta-analysis. We found that thyrotoxicosis shifts the haemostatic balance towards a hypercoagulable and hypofibrinolytic state with a rise in factors VIII and IX, fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1. This was observed in endogenous and exogenous thyrotoxicosis, and in subclinical as well as overt hyperthyroidism. We conclude that both subclinical and overt hyperthyroidism induce a prothrombotic state, which is therefore likely to be a risk factor for venous thrombosis.

Marital status as a predictor of diurnal salivary cortisol levels and slopes in a community sample of healthy adults

PubMed Central

Chin, Brian; Murphy, Michael L. M.; Janicki-Deverts, Denise; Cohen, Sheldon

2017-01-01

Married people tend to be healthier than both the previously (bereaved, divorced, and separated) and never married, but the mechanisms through which this occurs remain unclear. To this end, research has increasingly focused on how psychological stress experienced by unmarried versus married individuals may differentially impact physiological systems related to health. One key system that is modulated by stress is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, of which cortisol is a key hormonal product. Increased cortisol production and disruption of cortisol’s daily rhythm have been linked to poorer health outcomes. This study examined the association between current marital status and these two indices of cortisol in a community sample of 572 healthy men and women aged 21–55. It also tested whether marriage buffers against the effect of stress (perceived stress by marital status interaction) on cortisol production. Participants provided salivary cortisol samples during waking hours on three nonconsecutive separate days to calculate diurnal cortisol levels and slopes. Married individuals had lower cortisol levels than either their never married or previously married counterparts. Differences in cortisol levels were due at least in part to currently married individuals having a more rapid decline in cortisol through the afternoon hours compared to individuals who were never married (but not those who were previously married). Furthermore, there was an interaction between perceived stress and marital status in predicting cortisol levels. Specifically, higher stress was associated with higher cortisol levels for previously married individuals but not for the married or never married. The results of this study support cortisol as one candidate mechanism accounting for the association of marital status and health. PMID:28171850

The single-leg Roman chair hold is more effective than the Nordic hamstring curl in improving hamstring strength-endurance in Gaelic footballers with previous hamstring injury.

PubMed

Macdonald, Ben; O'Neill, John; Pollock, Noel; Van Hooren, Bas

2018-03-06

Poor hamstring strength-endurance is a risk factor for hamstring injuries. This study investigated the effectiveness of the single-leg Roman hold and Nordic hamstring curl in improving hamstring strength-endurance. Twelve Gaelic footballers (mean ± standard deviation age, height and mass were 25.17 ± 3.46 years, 179.25 ± 5.88 cm, 85.75 ± 4.75 kilo) with a history of hamstring injury were randomized into 2 groups that performed 6 weeks of either Nordic hamstring curl, or single-leg Roman chair hold training. The single-leg hamstring bridge (SLHB) was measured pre- and post- intervention. The Roman chair group showed a very likely moderate magnitude improvement on SLHB performance for both legs (23.7% for the previously injured leg [90% confidence interval 9.6% to 39.6%] and 16.9% for the non-injured leg [6.2% to 28.8%]). The Nordic curl group showed a likely trivial change in SLHB performance for the non-injured leg (-2.1% [-6.7% to 2.6%]) and an unclear, but possibly trivial change for the previously injured leg (0.3% [-5.6% to 6.6%]). The Roman chair group improved very likely more with a moderate magnitude in both the non-injured (19.5% [8.0% to 32.2%]) and the previously injured leg (23.3% [8.5% to 40.0%]) compared to the Nordic curl group. This study demonstrated that 6-weeks single-leg Roman chair training substantially improved SLHB performance, suggesting that it may be an efficacious strategy to mitigate hamstring (re-) injury risk. Conversely, 6-weeks Nordic curl training did not substantially improve SLHB performance, suggesting this may not be the intervention of choice for modifying this risk factor.

Avian Influenza Virus Infection of Immortalized Human Respiratory Epithelial Cells Depends upon a Delicate Balance between Hemagglutinin Acid Stability and Endosomal pH*

PubMed Central

Daidoji, Tomo; Watanabe, Yohei; Ibrahim, Madiha S.; Yasugi, Mayo; Maruyama, Hisataka; Masuda, Taisuke; Arai, Fumihito; Ohba, Tomoyuki; Honda, Ayae; Ikuta, Kazuyoshi; Nakaya, Takaaki

2015-01-01

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) virus, H5N1, is a serious threat to public health worldwide. Both the currently circulating H5N1 and previously circulating AI viruses recognize avian-type receptors; however, only the H5N1 is highly infectious and virulent in humans. The mechanism(s) underlying this difference in infectivity remains unclear. The aim of this study was to clarify the mechanisms responsible for the difference in infectivity between the current and previously circulating strains. Primary human small airway epithelial cells (SAECs) were transformed with the SV40 large T-antigen to establish a series of clones (SAEC-Ts). These clones were then used to test the infectivity of AI strains. Human SAEC-Ts could be broadly categorized into two different types based on their susceptibility (high or low) to the viruses. SAEC-T clones were poorly susceptible to previously circulating AI but were completely susceptible to the currently circulating H5N1. The hemagglutinin (HA) of the current H5N1 virus showed greater membrane fusion activity at higher pH levels than that of previous AI viruses, resulting in broader cell tropism. Moreover, the endosomal pH was lower in high susceptibility SAEC-T clones than that in low susceptibility SAEC-T clones. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that the infectivity of AI viruses, including H5N1, depends upon a delicate balance between the acid sensitivity of the viral HA and the pH within the endosomes of the target cell. Thus, one of the mechanisms underlying H5N1 pathogenesis in humans relies on its ability to fuse efficiently with the endosomes in human airway epithelial cells. PMID:25673693

Patellofemoral Joint Loads During Running at the Time of Return to Sport in Elite Athletes With ACL Reconstruction.

PubMed

Herrington, Lee; Alarifi, Saud; Jones, Richard

2017-10-01

Patellofemoral joint pain and degeneration are common in patients who undergo anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). The presence of patellofemoral joint pain significantly affects the patient's ability to continue sport participation and may even affect participation in activities of daily living. The mechanisms behind patellofemoral joint pain and degeneration are unclear, but previous research has identified altered patellofemoral joint loading in individuals with patellofemoral joint pain when running. It is unclear whether this process occurs after ACLR. To assess the patellofemoral joint stresses during running in ACLR knees and compare the findings to the noninjured knee and matched control knees. Controlled laboratory study. Thirty-four elite sports practitioners who had undergone ACLR and 34 age- and sex-matched controls participated in the study. The participants' running gait was assessed via 3D motion capture, and knee loads and forces were calculated by use of inverse dynamics. A significance difference was found in knee extensor moment, knee flexion angles, patellofemoral contact force (about 23% greater), and patellofemoral contact pressure (about 27% greater) between the ACLR and the noninjured limb ( P ≤ .04) and between the ACLR and the control limb ( P ≤ .04); no significant differences were found between the noninjured and control limbs ( P ≥ .44). Significantly greater levels of patellofemoral joint stress and load were found in the ACLR knee compared with the noninjured and control knees. Altered levels of patellofemoral stress in the ACLR knee during running may predispose individuals to patellofemoral joint pain.

A magnetic pulse does not affect homing pigeon navigation: a GPS tracking experiment.

PubMed

Holland, Richard; Filannino, Caterina; Gagliardo, Anna

2013-06-15

The cues by which homing pigeons are able to return to a home loft after displacement to unfamiliar release sites remain debated. A number of experiments in which migratory birds have been treated with a magnetic pulse have produced a disruption in their orientation, which argues that a ferrimagnetic sense is used for navigation in birds. One previous experiment has also indicated an effect of magnetic pulses on homing pigeon navigation, although with inconsistent results. Previous studies have shown that some magnetic-related information is transmitted by the trigeminal nerve to the brain in some bird species, including the homing pigeon. The function of this information is still unclear. It has been suggested that this information is important for navigation. Previous studies with trigeminal nerve lesioned homing pigeons have clearly shown that the lack of trigeminally mediated information, even if magnetic, is not crucial for homing performance. However, this result does not completely exclude the possibility that other ferrimagnetic receptors in the homing pigeon play a role in navigation. Additionally, recent studies on homing pigeons suggested the existence of a ferrimagnetic sense in a novel location presumably located in the inner ear (lagena). In the present study, we tested whether any ferrimagnetic magnetoreceptors, irrespective of their location in the bird's head, are involved in pigeons' homing. To do this, we treated homing pigeons with a strong magnetic pulse before release, tracked birds with GPS loggers and analyzed whether this treatment affected homing performance. In the single previous magnetic pulse experiment on homing pigeons, only initial orientation at a release site was considered and the results were inconsistent. We observed no effect of the magnetic pulse at any of the sites used on initial orientation, homing performance, tortuosity or track efficiency, which does not support a role for the ferrimagnetic sense in homing pigeon navigation, at least not in this geographic area, where magnetic field variations are in the region of 200 nT intensity and 0.8 deg inclination.

Effects of Cortisone Administration on the Metabolism and Localization of 25-Hydroxycholecalciferol in the Rat

PubMed Central

Favus, Murray J.; Kimberg, Daniel V.; Millar, Gail N.; Gershon, Elaine

1973-01-01

Glucocorticoid administration is known to decrease calcium absorption in vivo and the vitamin D-dependent active transport of calcium by rat duodenum in vitro. The basis for this antivitamin D-like effect of glucocorticoids is unclear. Previous studies in the rat failed to demonstrate an effect of glucocorticoid treatment on the hepatic conversion of the parent vitamin to 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25-HCC). Moreover, pharmacologic doses of 25-HCC did not restore intestinal calcium transport to normal. The results of these experiments suggested that if indeed glucocorticoids interfere with the metabolism of vitamin D, the step involved must be subsequent to 25-hydroxylation. The present studies demonstrate that the administration of cortisone to vitamin D-deficient rats does not affect the rate of conversion of a physiologic dose of [3H]25-HCC to the biologically important metabolite, 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol (1,25-DHCC). Furthermore, pretreatment with glucocorticoids affects neither the tissue distribution nor the subcellular localization on or in intestinal mucosal cell nuclei of 1,25-DHCC. Of note is the fact that 1,25-DHCC is currently considered to be the “tissue-active” form of the vitamin in the intestine. Whereas tissues from cortisone-treated animals had increased concentrations of the biologically less active 24,25-DHCC, the physiologic significance of this observation remains unclear. The results of the present studies strongly support the concept that the antivitamin D-like effects of glucocorticoids in the intestine are due to hormonal influences on the biochemical reactions responsible for calcium transport. While the effects of these hormones are opposite in direction to those of vitamin D, they occur by a mechanism that is independent of a direct interaction with either the vitamin or its biologically active metabolites. PMID:4703222

Violent Video Games Don't Increase Hostility in Teens, but They Do Stress Girls Out.

PubMed

Ferguson, Christopher J; Trigani, Benjamin; Pilato, Steven; Miller, Stephanie; Foley, Kimberly; Barr, Hayley

2016-03-01

The impact of violent video games (VVGs) on youth remains unclear given inconsistent results in past literature. Most previous experimental studies have been done with college students, not youth. The current study examined the impact of VVGs in an experimental study of teens (12-18). Participants were randomized to play either a violent or non-violent video game. Teens also reported their levels of stress and hostility both before and after video game play. Hostility levels neither decreased nor increased following violent game play, and Bayesian analyzes confirmed that results are supportive of the null hypothesis. By contrast, VVG exposure increased stress, but only for girls. The impact of VVGs on teen hostility is minimal. However, players unfamiliar with such games may find them unpleasant. These results are put into the context of Uses and Gratifications Theory with suggestions for how medical professionals should address the issue of VVG play with concerned parents.

A Genetic Instrumental Variables Analysis of the Effects of Prenatal Smoking on Birth Weight: Evidence from Two Samples

PubMed Central

Lehrer, Steven F.; Moreno, Lina M.; Murray, Jeffrey C.; Wilcox, Allen; Lie, Rolv T.

2011-01-01

There is a large literature showing the detrimental effects of prenatal smoking on birth and childhood health outcomes. It is somewhat unclear, though, whether these effects are causal or reflect other characteristics and choices by mothers who choose to smoke that may also affect child health outcomes or biased reporting of smoking. In this paper, we use genetic markers that predict smoking behaviors as instruments in order to address the endogeneity of smoking choices in the production of birth and childhood health outcomes. Our results indicate that prenatal smoking produces more dramatic declines in birth weight than estimates that ignore the endogeneity of prenatal smoking, which is consistent with previous studies with non-genetic instruments. We use data from two distinct samples from Norway and the US with different measured instruments and find nearly identical results. The study provides a novel application that can be extended to study several behavioral impacts on health, social and economic outcomes. PMID:21845925

Liaison psychiatry for older adults in the general hospital: service activity, development and outcomes.

PubMed

Mujic, Fedza; Cairns, Ruth; Mak, Vivienne; Squire, Clare; Wells, Andrew; Al-Harrasi, Ahmed; Prince, Martin

2018-02-01

Aims and method This study used data collected to describe the activity, case-load characteristics and outcome measures for all patients seen during a 6-year period. The service reviewed 2153 patients over 6 years with referral rates and case-load characteristics comparable to those described in a previous study period. The team saw 82% of patients on the day they were referred. Data and outcome measures collected showed significant complexity in the cases seen and statistically significant improvement in Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) scores following service input. Clinical implications The outcome measures used were limited, but the study supports the need for specialist liaison psychiatry for older adults (LPOA) services in the general hospital. The Framework of Outcome Measures - Liaison Psychiatry has now been introduced, but it remains unclear how valid this is in LPOA. It is of note that cost-effectiveness secondary to service input and training activities are not adequately monitored. Declaration of interest None.

Expectancy bias in anxious samples

PubMed Central

Cabeleira, Cindy M.; Steinman, Shari A.; Burgess, Melissa M.; Bucks, Romola S.; MacLeod, Colin; Melo, Wilson; Teachman, Bethany A.

2014-01-01

While it is well documented that anxious individuals have negative expectations about the future, it is unclear what cognitive processes give rise to this expectancy bias. Two studies are reported that use the Expectancy Task, which is designed to assess expectancy bias and illuminate its basis. This task presents individuals with valenced scenarios (Positive Valence, Negative Valence, or Conflicting Valence), and then evaluates their tendency to expect subsequent future positive relative to negative events. The Expectancy Task was used with low and high trait anxious (Study 1: N = 32) and anxiety sensitive (Study 2: N = 138) individuals. Results suggest that in the context of physical concerns, both high anxious samples display a less positive expectancy bias. In the context of social concerns, high trait anxious individuals display a negative expectancy bias only when negatively valenced information was previously presented. Overall, this suggests that anxious individuals display a less positive expectancy bias, and that the processes that give rise to this bias may vary by type of situation (e.g., social or physical) or anxiety difficulty. PMID:24798678

Neural pathway in the right hemisphere underlies verbal insight problem solving.

PubMed

Zhao, Q; Zhou, Z; Xu, H; Fan, W; Han, L

2014-01-03

Verbal insight problem solving means to break mental sets, to select the novel semantic information and to form novel, task-related associations. Although previous studies have identified the brain regions associated with these key processes, the interaction among these regions during insight is still unclear. In the present study, we explored the functional connectivity between the key regions during solving Chinese 'chengyu' riddles by using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results showed that both insight and noninsight solutions activated the bilateral inferior frontal gyri, middle temporal gyri and hippocampi, and these regions constituted a frontal to temporal to hippocampal neural pathway. Compared with noninsight solution, insight solution had a stronger functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus in the right hemisphere. Our study reveals the neural pathway of information processing during verbal insight problem solving, and supports the right-hemisphere advantage theory of insight. Copyright © 2013 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Characterization studies and indicated remediation methods for plutonium contaminated soils at the Nevada Test Site

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Murarik, T.M.; Wenstrand, T.K.; Rogers, L.A.

An initial soil characterization study was conducted to help identify possible remediation methods to remove plutonium from the Nevada Test Site and Tonapah Test Range surface soils. Results from soil samples collected across various isopleths at five sites indicate that the size-fraction distribution patterns of plutonium remain similar to findings from the Nevada Applied Ecology Group (NAEG) (1970's). The plutonium remains in the upper 10--15 cm of soils, as indicated in previous studies. Distribution of fine particles downwind'' of ground zero at each site is suggested. Whether this pattern was established immediately after each explosion or this resulted from post-shotmore » wind movement of deposited material is unclear. Several possible soil treatment scenarios are presented. Removal of plutonium from certain size fractions of the soils would alleviate the sites of much of the plutonium burden. However, the nature of association of plutonium with soil components will determine which remediation methods will most likely succeed.« less

Characterization studies and indicated remediation methods for plutonium contaminated soils at the Nevada Test Site

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Murarik, T.M.; Wenstrand, T.K.; Rogers, L.A.

An initial soil characterization study was conducted to help identify possible remediation methods to remove plutonium from the Nevada Test Site and Tonapah Test Range surface soils. Results from soil samples collected across various isopleths at five sites indicate that the size-fraction distribution patterns of plutonium remain similar to findings from the Nevada Applied Ecology Group (NAEG) (1970`s). The plutonium remains in the upper 10--15 cm of soils, as indicated in previous studies. Distribution of fine particles ``downwind`` of ground zero at each site is suggested. Whether this pattern was established immediately after each explosion or this resulted from post-shotmore » wind movement of deposited material is unclear. Several possible soil treatment scenarios are presented. Removal of plutonium from certain size fractions of the soils would alleviate the sites of much of the plutonium burden. However, the nature of association of plutonium with soil components will determine which remediation methods will most likely succeed.« less

Hydra effects in discrete-time models of stable communities.

PubMed

Cortez, Michael H

2016-12-21

A species exhibits a hydra effect when, counter-intuitively, increased mortality of the species causes an increase in its abundance. Hydra effects have been studied in many continuous time (differential equation) multispecies models, but only rarely have hydra effects been observed in or studied with discrete time (difference equation) multispecies models. In addition most discrete time theory focuses on single-species models. Thus, it is unclear what unifying characteristics determine when hydra effects arise in discrete time models. Here, using discrete time multispecies models (where total abundance is the single variable describing each population), I show that a species exhibits a hydra effect in a stable system only when fixing that species' density at its equilibrium density destabilizes the system. This general characteristic is referred to as subsystem instability. I apply this result to two-species models and identify specific mechanisms that cause hydra effects in stable communities, e.g., in host--parasitoid models, host Allee effects and saturating parasitoid functional responses can cause parasitoid hydra effects. I discuss how the general characteristic can be used to identify mechanisms causing hydra effects in communities with three or more species. I also show that the condition for hydra effects at stable equilibria implies the system is reactive (i.e., density perturbations can grow before ultimately declining). This study extends previous work on conditions for hydra effects in single-species models by identifying necessary conditions for stable systems and sufficient conditions for cyclic systems. In total, these results show that hydra effects can arise in many more communities than previously appreciated and that hydra effects were present, but unrecognized, in previously studied discrete time models. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unclear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage: Clinical characteristics, hematoma features, and outcomes.

PubMed

Inoue, Yasuteru; Miyashita, Fumio; Koga, Masatoshi; Minematsu, Kazuo; Toyoda, Kazunori

2017-12-01

Background and purpose Although unclear-onset ischemic stroke, including wake-up ischemic stroke, is drawing attention as a potential target for reperfusion therapy, acute unclear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage has been understudied. Clinical characteristics, hematoma features, and outcomes of patients who developed intracerebral hemorrhage during sleep or those with intracerebral hemorrhage who were unconscious when witnessed were determined. Methods Consecutive intracerebral hemorrhage patients admitted within 24 hours after onset or last-known normal time were classified into clear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage and unclear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage groups. Outcomes included initial hematoma volume, initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, hematoma growth on 24-hour follow-up computed tomography, and vital and functional prognoses at 30 days. Results Of 377 studied patients (122 women, 69 ± 11 years old), 147 (39.0%) had unclear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage. Patients with unclear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage had larger hematoma volumes (p = 0.044) and higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores (p < 0.001) than those with clear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage after multivariable adjustment for risk factors and comorbidities. Hematoma growth was similarly common between the two groups (p = 0.176). There were fewer patients with modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores of 0-2 (p = 0.033) and more patients with mRS scores of 5-6 (p = 0.009) and with fatal outcomes (p = 0.049) in unclear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage group compared with clear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage as crude values, but not after adjustment. Conclusions Patients with unclear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage presented with larger hematomas and higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores at emergent visits than those with clear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage, independent of underlying characteristics. Unclear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage patients showed poorer 30-day vital and functional outcomes than clear-onset intracerebral hemorrhage patients; these differences seem to be mainly due to initial hematoma volumes and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores.

A Step Forward in the Conceptualization and Measurement of Parental Burnout: The Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA)

PubMed Central

Roskam, Isabelle; Brianda, Maria-Elena; Mikolajczak, Moïra

2018-01-01

So far, the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout have been deduced from those of job burnout. As a result, it is unclear whether current measures of parental burnout constitute the best representation of the parental burnout construct/syndrome: the possibility cannot be excluded that some dimensions ought to be added, which would change the structure and definition of parental burnout. In this study, the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout were approached using an inductive method, in which the parental burnout phenomenon was (re)constructed based solely on the testimonies of burned-out parents. Items extracted from their testimonies were presented to a sample of French-speaking and English-speaking parents (N = 901) and submitted to factor analyses. An identifiable parental burnout syndrome including four dimensions was found (exhaustion in one's parental role, contrast with previous parental self, feelings of being fed up with one's parental role and emotional distancing from one's children). The resulting instrument, the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) presents good validity. Factorial invariance across gender and languages was also found. Finally, the results of this study replicate previous findings that psychological traits of the parents, parenting factors, and family functioning account for more variance in parental burnout than sociodemographic factors. PMID:29928239

A Step Forward in the Conceptualization and Measurement of Parental Burnout: The Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA).

PubMed

Roskam, Isabelle; Brianda, Maria-Elena; Mikolajczak, Moïra

2018-01-01

So far, the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout have been deduced from those of job burnout. As a result, it is unclear whether current measures of parental burnout constitute the best representation of the parental burnout construct/syndrome: the possibility cannot be excluded that some dimensions ought to be added, which would change the structure and definition of parental burnout. In this study, the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout were approached using an inductive method, in which the parental burnout phenomenon was (re)constructed based solely on the testimonies of burned-out parents. Items extracted from their testimonies were presented to a sample of French-speaking and English-speaking parents ( N = 901) and submitted to factor analyses. An identifiable parental burnout syndrome including four dimensions was found (exhaustion in one's parental role, contrast with previous parental self, feelings of being fed up with one's parental role and emotional distancing from one's children). The resulting instrument, the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) presents good validity. Factorial invariance across gender and languages was also found. Finally, the results of this study replicate previous findings that psychological traits of the parents, parenting factors, and family functioning account for more variance in parental burnout than sociodemographic factors.

Spatial and temporal episodic memory retrieval recruit dissociable functional networks in the human brain.

PubMed

Ekstrom, Arne D; Bookheimer, Susan Y

2007-10-01

Imaging, electrophysiological studies, and lesion work have shown that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is important for episodic memory; however, it is unclear whether different MTL regions support the spatial, temporal, and item elements of episodic memory. In this study we used fMRI to examine retrieval performance emphasizing different aspects of episodic memory in the context of a spatial navigation paradigm. Subjects played a taxi-driver game ("yellowcab"), in which they freely searched for passengers and delivered them to specific landmark stores. Subjects then underwent fMRI scanning as they retrieved landmarks, spatial, and temporal associations from their navigational experience in three separate runs. Consistent with previous findings on item memory, perirhinal cortex activated most strongly during landmark retrieval compared with spatial or temporal source information retrieval. Both hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex activated significantly during retrieval of landmarks, spatial associations, and temporal order. We found, however, a significant dissociation between hippocampal and parahippocampal cortex activations, with spatial retrieval leading to greater parahippocampal activation compared with hippocampus and temporal order retrieval leading to greater hippocampal activation compared with parahippocampal cortex. Our results, coupled with previous findings, demonstrate that the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex are preferentially recruited during temporal order and spatial association retrieval--key components of episodic "source" memory.

Combining systems pharmacology, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics to dissect the therapeutic mechanism of Chinese herbal Bufei Jianpi formula for application to COPD

PubMed Central

Zhao, Peng; Yang, Liping; Li, Jiansheng; Li, Ya; Tian, Yange; Li, Suyun

2016-01-01

Bufei Jianpi formula (BJF) has long been used as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of COPD. Systems pharmacology identified 145 active compounds and 175 potential targets of BJF in a previous study. Additionally, BJF was previously shown to effectively prevent COPD and its comorbidities, such as ventricular hypertrophy, by inhibition of inflammatory cytokine production, matrix metalloproteinases expression, and other cytokine production, in vivo. However, the system-level mechanism of BJF for the treatment of COPD is still unclear. The aim of this study was to gain insight into its system-level mechanisms by integrating transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics together with systems pharmacology datasets. Using molecular function, pathway, and network analyses, the genes and proteins regulated in COPD rats and BJF-treated rats could be mainly attributed to oxidoreductase activity, antioxidant activity, focal adhesion, tight junction, or adherens junction. Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis of systems pharmacology, transcript, protein, and metabolite datasets is performed. The results showed that a number of genes, proteins, metabolites regulated in BJF-treated rats and potential target proteins of BJF were involved in lipid metabolism, cell junction, oxidative stress, and inflammatory response, which might be the system-level therapeutic mechanism of BJF treatment. PMID:27042044

Psychological and neural mechanisms associated with effort-related cardiovascular reactivity and cognitive control: An integrative approach.

PubMed

Silvestrini, Nicolas

2017-09-01

Numerous studies have assessed cardiovascular (CV) reactivity as a measure of effort mobilization during cognitive tasks. However, psychological and neural processes underlying effort-related CV reactivity are still relatively unclear. Previous research reliably found that CV reactivity during cognitive tasks is mainly determined by one region of the brain, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and that this region is systematically engaged during cognitively demanding tasks. The present integrative approach builds on the research on cognitive control and its brain correlates that shows that dACC function can be related to conflict monitoring and integration of information related to task difficulty and success importance-two key variables in determining effort mobilization. In contrast, evidence also indicates that executive cognitive functioning is processed in more lateral regions of the prefrontal cortex. The resulting model suggests that, when automatic cognitive processes are insufficient to sustain behavior, the dACC determines the amount of required and justified effort according to task difficulty and success importance, which leads to proportional adjustments in CV reactivity and executive cognitive functioning. These propositions are discussed in relation to previous findings on effort-related CV reactivity and cognitive performance, new predictions for future studies, and relevance for other self-regulatory processes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The meaning of PIWI proteins in cancer development.

PubMed

Litwin, Monika; Szczepańska-Buda, Anna; Piotrowska, Aleksandra; Dzięgiel, Piotr; Witkiewicz, Wojciech

2017-05-01

Cancer is a histologically and genetically heterogeneous population of tumor cells that exhibits distinct molecular profiles determined by epigenetic alterations. P-element-induced wimpy testis (PIWI) proteins in complex with PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) have been previously demonstrated to be involved in epigenetic regulation in germline cells. Recently, reactivation of PIWI expression, primarily PIWI-like protein 1 and 2, through aberrant DNA methylation resulting in genomic silencing has been identified in various types of tumors. It has been suggested that the PIWI-piRNA complex contributes to cancer development and progression by promoting a stem-like state of cancer cells, or cancer stem cells (CSCs). It has been identified that CSCs represent the cells that have undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and acquired metastatic capacities. However, the molecular association between the EMT process and the stem-cell state remains unclear. Further extensive characterization of CSCs in individual types of tumors is required to identify specific markers for the heterogeneous population of CSCs and therefore selectively target CSCs. Previous studies indicate a reciprocal regulation between PIWI proteins and a complex signaling network linking markers characterized for CSCs and transcription factors involved in EMT. In the present review, studies of PIWI function are summarized, and the potential involvement of PIWI proteins in cancer development and progression is discussed.

The meaning of PIWI proteins in cancer development

PubMed Central

Litwin, Monika; Szczepańska-Buda, Anna; Piotrowska, Aleksandra; Dzięgiel, Piotr; Witkiewicz, Wojciech

2017-01-01

Cancer is a histologically and genetically heterogeneous population of tumor cells that exhibits distinct molecular profiles determined by epigenetic alterations. P-element-induced wimpy testis (PIWI) proteins in complex with PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) have been previously demonstrated to be involved in epigenetic regulation in germline cells. Recently, reactivation of PIWI expression, primarily PIWI-like protein 1 and 2, through aberrant DNA methylation resulting in genomic silencing has been identified in various types of tumors. It has been suggested that the PIWI-piRNA complex contributes to cancer development and progression by promoting a stem-like state of cancer cells, or cancer stem cells (CSCs). It has been identified that CSCs represent the cells that have undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and acquired metastatic capacities. However, the molecular association between the EMT process and the stem-cell state remains unclear. Further extensive characterization of CSCs in individual types of tumors is required to identify specific markers for the heterogeneous population of CSCs and therefore selectively target CSCs. Previous studies indicate a reciprocal regulation between PIWI proteins and a complex signaling network linking markers characterized for CSCs and transcription factors involved in EMT. In the present review, studies of PIWI function are summarized, and the potential involvement of PIWI proteins in cancer development and progression is discussed. PMID:28529570

Association of activity changes in the primary sensory cortex with successful motor rehabilitation of the hand following stroke.

PubMed

Laible, Mona; Grieshammer, Steven; Seidel, Gundula; Rijntjes, Michel; Weiller, Cornelius; Hamzei, Farsin

2012-09-01

Previous studies demonstrated a posterior shift of activation toward the primary sensory cortex (S1) following stroke; however, any relationship between this posterior shift and clinical outcome measures for the affected hand function were unclear. The authors investigated the possible role of S1 in motor recovery. Assuming that previous studies examined inhomogeneous groups of patients, the authors selected participants with chronic stroke who had moderate hand paresis, normal sensory examination and somatosensory-evoked potentials, and no lesion within the S1, thalamus, or brain stem. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) was used to train the impaired hand. To relate fMRI (functional MRI) activation changes from baseline to post-CIMT, a correlation analysis was performed with changes of the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) as a test for the hand function. A close relationship was found between increases in hand function and peak changes in activation within the ipsilesional S1. With a better outcome, greater increases in activation within the S1 were evident (P < .03; r = 0.73). In selected patients, the sensory network influences training-induced motor gains. This predictive knowledge of plasticity when applying CIMT may suggest strategies to enhance the effect of therapy, such as the addition of electrical stimulation to enhance S1 excitability.

Multi-institutional study of self-reported attitudes and behaviors of general surgery residents about ethical academic practices in test taking.

PubMed

Grignol, Valerie P; Grannan, Kevin; Sabra, John; Cromer, Robert M; Jarman, Benjamin; Dent, Daniel; Sticca, Robert P; Nelson, Timothy M; Kukora, John S; Daley, Brian J; Treat, Robert W; Termuhlen, Paula M

2013-01-01

Correlation exists between people who engage in academic dishonesty as students and unethical behavior once in practice. Previously, we assessed the attitudes of general surgery residents and ethical practices in test taking at a single institution. Most residents had not participated in activities they felt were unethical, yet what constituted unethical behavior was unclear. We sought to verify these results in a multi-institutional study. A scenario-based survey describing potentially unethical activities related to the American Board of Surgery In-training Examination (ABSITE) was administered. Participants were asked about their knowledge of or participation in the activities and whether the activity was unethical. Program directors were surveyed about the use of ABSITE results for resident evaluation and promotion. Ten programs participated in the study. The resident response rate was 67% (186/277). Of the respondents, 43% felt that memorizing questions to study for future examinations was unethical and 50% felt that using questions another resident memorized was unethical. Most felt that buying (86%) or selling (79%) questions was unethical. Significantly more senior than junior residents have memorized (30% vs 16%; p = 0.04) or used questions others memorized (33% vs 12%; p = 0.002) to study for future ABSITE examinations and know of other residents who have done so (42% vs 20%; p = 0.004). Most programs used results of the ABSITE in promotion (80%) and set minimum score expectations and consequences (70%). Similar to our single-institution study, residents had not participated in activities they felt to be unethical; however the definition of what constitutes cheating remains unclear. Differences were identified between senior and junior residents with regard to memorizing questions for study. Cheating and unethical behavior is not always clear to the learner and represents an area for further education. © 2013 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Subliminal gaze cues increase preference levels for items in the gaze direction.

PubMed

Mitsuda, Takashi; Masaki, Syuta

2017-08-29

Another individual's gaze automatically shifts an observer's attention to a location. This reflexive response occurs even when the gaze is presented subliminally over a short period. Another's gaze also increases the preference level for items in the gaze direction; however, it was previously unclear if this effect occurs when the gaze is presented subliminally. This study showed that the preference levels for nonsense figures looked at by a subliminal gaze were significantly greater than those for items that were subliminally looked away from (Task 1). Targets that were looked at by a subliminal gaze were detected faster (Task 2); however, the participants were unable to detect the gaze direction (Task 3). These results indicate that another individual's gaze automatically increases the preference levels for items in the gaze direction without conscious awareness.

Cortical contributions to the auditory frequency-following response revealed by MEG

PubMed Central

Coffey, Emily B. J.; Herholz, Sibylle C.; Chepesiuk, Alexander M. P.; Baillet, Sylvain; Zatorre, Robert J.

2016-01-01

The auditory frequency-following response (FFR) to complex periodic sounds is used to study the subcortical auditory system, and has been proposed as a biomarker for disorders that feature abnormal sound processing. Despite its value in fundamental and clinical research, the neural origins of the FFR are unclear. Using magnetoencephalography, we observe a strong, right-asymmetric contribution to the FFR from the human auditory cortex at the fundamental frequency of the stimulus, in addition to signal from cochlear nucleus, inferior colliculus and medial geniculate. This finding is highly relevant for our understanding of plasticity and pathology in the auditory system, as well as higher-level cognition such as speech and music processing. It suggests that previous interpretations of the FFR may need re-examination using methods that allow for source separation. PMID:27009409

Resolving the Framework Position of Organic Structure-Directing Agents in Hierarchical Zeolites via Polarized Stimulated Raman Scattering.

PubMed

Fleury, Guillaume; Steele, Julian A; Gerber, Iann C; Jolibois, F; Puech, P; Muraoka, Koki; Keoh, Sye Hoe; Chaikittisilp, Watcharop; Okubo, Tatsuya; Roeffaers, Maarten B J

2018-04-05

The direct synthesis of hierarchically intergrown silicalite-1 can be achieved using a specific diquaternary ammonium agent. However, the location of these molecules in the zeolite framework, which is critical to understand the formation of the material, remains unclear. Where traditional characterization tools have previously failed, herein we use polarized stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy to resolve molecular organization inside few-micron-sized crystals. Through a combination of experiment and first-principles calculations, our investigation reveals the preferential location of the templating agent inside the linear pores of the MFI framework. Besides illustrating the attractiveness of SRS microscopy in the field of material science to study and spatially resolve local molecular distribution as well as orientation, these results can be exploited in the design of new templating agents for the preparation of hierarchical zeolites.

Influence of nanophase titania topography on bacterial attachment and metabolism

PubMed Central

Park, Margaret R; Banks, Michelle K; Applegate, Bruce; Webster, Thomas J

2008-01-01

Surfaces with nanophase compared to conventional (or nanometer smooth) topographies are known to have different properties of area, charge, and reactivity. Previously published research indicates that the attachment of certain bacteria (such as Pseudomonas fluorescens 5RL) is higher on surfaces with nanophase compared to conventional topographies, however, their effect on bacterial metabolism is unclear. Results presented here show that the adhesion of Pseudomonas fluorescens 5RL and Pseudomonas putida TVA8 was higher on nanophase than conventional titania. Importantly, in terms of metabolism, bacteria attached to the nanophase surfaces had higher bioluminescence rates than on the conventional surfaces under all nutrient conditions. Thus, the results from this study show greater select bacterial metabolism on nanometer than conventional topographies, critical results with strong consequences for the design of improved biosensors for bacteria detection. PMID:19337418

Peer victimization predicts psychological symptoms beyond the effects of child maltreatment.

PubMed

Sansen, Lisa Margareta; Iffland, Benjamin; Neuner, Frank

2014-12-30

Experiences of peer victimization have been repeatedly associated with psychological symptoms and disorders. However, as peer victimization is correlated with child maltreatment occurring within the family, it remains unclear whether the pathological effect of peer victimization is an artifact that can be attributed to previous aversive events. To separate the effects of peer victimization from child maltreatment, we studied both event types as well as psychological symptoms in a mixed clinical sample of ambulant and psychiatric patients (N=168), a self-selected community sample recruited through the internet (N=995), and a student sample (N=272). Hierarchical regression analyses showed that, after controlling for child maltreatment, peer victimization accounted for an incremental proportion of the variance of different symptom dimensions in each sample. These results indicate that peer victimization is an independent predictor of psychopathology.

Genetic link between family socioeconomic status and children's educational achievement estimated from genome-wide SNPs.

PubMed

Krapohl, E; Plomin, R

2016-03-01

One of the best predictors of children's educational achievement is their family's socioeconomic status (SES), but the degree to which this association is genetically mediated remains unclear. For 3000 UK-representative unrelated children we found that genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms could explain a third of the variance of scores on an age-16 UK national examination of educational achievement and half of the correlation between their scores and family SES. Moreover, genome-wide polygenic scores based on a previously published genome-wide association meta-analysis of total number of years in education accounted for ~3.0% variance in educational achievement and ~2.5% in family SES. This study provides the first molecular evidence for substantial genetic influence on differences in children's educational achievement and its association with family SES.

Eye surface temperature detects stress response in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus).

PubMed

Ikkatai, Yuko; Watanabe, Shigeru

2015-08-05

Previous studies have suggested that stressors not only increase body core temperature but also body surface temperature in many animals. However, it remains unclear whether surface temperature could be used as an alternative to directly measure body core temperature, particularly in birds. We investigated whether surface temperature is perceived as a stress response in budgerigars. Budgerigars have been used as popular animal models to investigate various neural mechanisms such as visual perception, vocal learning, and imitation. Developing a new technique to understand the basic physiological mechanism would help neuroscience researchers. First, we found that cloacal temperature correlated with eye surface temperature. Second, eye surface temperature increased after handling stress. Our findings suggest that eye surface temperature is closely related to cloacal temperature and that the stress response can be measured by eye surface temperature in budgerigars.

Autosomal-dominant non-autoimmune hyperthyroidism presenting with neuromuscular symptoms.

PubMed

Elgadi, Aziz; Arvidsson, C-G; Janson, Annika; Marcus, Claude; Costagliola, Sabine; Norgren, Svante

2005-08-01

Neuromuscular presentations are common in thyroid disease, although the mechanism is unclear. In the present study, we investigated the pathogenesis in a boy with autosomal-dominant hyperthyroidism presenting with neuromuscular symptoms. The TSHr gene was investigated by direct sequencing. Functional properties of the mutant TSHr were investigated during transient expression in COS-7 cells. Family members were investigated by clinical and biochemical examinations. Sequence analysis revealed a previously reported heterozygous missense mutation Glycine 431 for Serine in the first transmembrane segment, leading to an increased specific constitutive activity. Three additional affected family members carried the same mutation. There was no indication of autoimmune disorder. All symptoms disappeared upon treatment with thacapzol and L-thyroxine and subsequent subtotal thyroidectomy. The data imply that neuromuscular symptoms can be caused by excessive thyroid hormone levels rather than by autoimmunity.

Genetic link between family socioeconomic status and children's educational achievement estimated from genome-wide SNPs

PubMed Central

Krapohl, E; Plomin, R

2016-01-01

One of the best predictors of children's educational achievement is their family's socioeconomic status (SES), but the degree to which this association is genetically mediated remains unclear. For 3000 UK-representative unrelated children we found that genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms could explain a third of the variance of scores on an age-16 UK national examination of educational achievement and half of the correlation between their scores and family SES. Moreover, genome-wide polygenic scores based on a previously published genome-wide association meta-analysis of total number of years in education accounted for ~3.0% variance in educational achievement and ~2.5% in family SES. This study provides the first molecular evidence for substantial genetic influence on differences in children's educational achievement and its association with family SES. PMID:25754083

Light sleep versus slow wave sleep in memory consolidation: a question of global versus local processes?

PubMed

Genzel, Lisa; Kroes, Marijn C W; Dresler, Martin; Battaglia, Francesco P

2014-01-01

Sleep is strongly involved in memory consolidation, but its role remains unclear. 'Sleep replay', the active potentiation of relevant synaptic connections via reactivation of patterns of network activity that occurred during previous experience, has received considerable attention. Alternatively, sleep has been suggested to regulate synaptic weights homeostatically and nonspecifically, thereby improving the signal:noise ratio of memory traces. Here, we reconcile these theories by highlighting the distinction between light and deep nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Specifically, we draw on recent studies to suggest a link between light NREM and active potentiation, and between deep NREM and homeostatic regulation. This framework could serve as a key for interpreting the physiology of sleep stages and reconciling inconsistencies in terminology in this field. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ebola Virus VP35 Interaction with Dynein LC8 Regulates Viral RNA Synthesis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Luthra, Priya; Jordan, David S.; Leung, Daisy W.

2015-03-04

Ebola virus VP35 inhibits alpha/beta interferon production and functions as a viral polymerase cofactor. Previously, the 8-kDa cytoplasmic dynein light chain (LC8) was demonstrated to interact with VP35, but the functional consequences were unclear. Here we demonstrate that the interaction is direct and of high affinity and that binding stabilizes the VP35 N-terminal oligomerization domain and enhances viral RNA synthesis. Mutational analysis demonstrates that VP35 interaction is required for the functional effects of LC8.

Anesthetic considerations in Leigh disease: Case report and literature review.

PubMed

Terkawi, Abdullah Sulieman; Wani, Tariq M; Al-Shuaibi, Khalid M; Tobias, Joseph D

2012-04-01

Leigh disease is an extremely rare disorder, characterized by a progressive neurodegenerative course, with subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy. It usually presents in infancy with developmental delay, seizures, dysarthria, and ataxia. These patients may also develop episodes of lactic acidosis that usually lead to respiratory failure and death. Due to the rarity of the condition, the most appropriate anesthetic plan remains unclear. We present a patient with Leigh disease, who required general anesthesia. The pathogenesis of the disease is discussed and previous reports of perioperative care from the literature are reviewed.

Common effect of the mucus transferred during mating in two dart-shooting snail species from different families.

PubMed

Kimura, Kazuki; Chiba, Satoshi; Koene, Joris M

2014-04-01

Several taxa of pulmonate land snails exhibit a conspicuous mating behaviour, the shooting of so-called love darts. During mating, such land snail species stab a mating partner with a mucus-coated dart. It has previously been shown that the sperm donor physiologically influences the sperm recipient via the mucus covering the dart and thereby decreases the number of sperm digested by the recipient. However, the generality of this effect of the dart's mucus is unclear, because almost all the previous studies on the effect of the mucus used the brown garden snail Cornu aspersum from the family Helicidae. Therefore, the relationship between the acquisition of the mucus effect on the recipient and the evolution of the dart itself, and its mucus, is still open to debate. To test the commonality of the physiological effect of the dart mucus, we examined this in Euhadra peliomphala, a species from the Bradybaenidae family, and compared our findings with the results of previous work using C. aspersum. Our experiments showed that in E. peliomphala, the dart mucus had a physiological effect and lowered the accessibility of the gametolytic organ, as found in C. aspersum. This indicates that in various dart-bearing species the mucus from the dart glands targets the same organ and that the inhibition of sperm digestion has played a crucial role in the evolution of the dart and its mucus.

Heterologous pathway assembly reveals molecular steps of fungal terreic acid biosynthesis.

PubMed

Kong, Chuixing; Huang, Hezhou; Xue, Ying; Liu, Yiqi; Peng, Qiangqiang; Liu, Qi; Xu, Qin; Zhu, Qiaoyun; Yin, Ying; Zhou, Xiangshan; Zhang, Yuanxing; Cai, Menghao

2018-02-01

Terreic acid is a potential anticancer drug as it inhibits Bruton's tyrosine kinase; however, its biosynthetic molecular steps remain unclear. In this work, the individual reactions of terreic acid biosynthesis were determined by stepwise pathway assembly in a heterologous host, Pichia pastoris, on the basis of previous knockout studies in a native host, Aspergillus terreus. Polyketide synthase AtX was found to catalyze the formation of partially reduced polyketide 6-methylsalicylic acid, followed by 3-methylcatechol synthesis by salicylate 1-monooxygenase AtA-mediated decarboxylative hydroxylation of 6-methylsalicylic acid. Our results show that cytochrome P450 monooxygenase AtE hydroxylates 3-methylcatechol, thus producing the next product, 3-methyl-1,2,4-benzenetriol. A smaller putative cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, AtG, assists with this step. Then, AtD causes epoxidation and hydroxyl oxidation of 3-methyl-1,2,4-benzenetriol and produces a compound terremutin, via which the previously unknown function of AtD was identified as cyclooxygenation. The final step involves an oxidation reaction of a hydroxyl group by a glucose-methanol-choline oxidoreductase, AtC, which leads to the final product: terreic acid. Functions of AtD and AtG were determined for the first time. All the genes were reanalyzed and all intermediates and final products were isolated and identified. Our model fully defines the molecular steps and corrects previous results from the literature.

The NLstart2run study: Incidence and risk factors of running-related injuries in novice runners.

PubMed

Kluitenberg, B; van Middelkoop, M; Smits, D W; Verhagen, E; Hartgens, F; Diercks, R; van der Worp, H

2015-10-01

Running is a popular form of physical activity, despite of the high incidence of running-related injuries (RRIs). Because of methodological issues, the etiology of RRIs remains unclear. Therefore, the purposes of the study were to assess the incidence of RRIs and to identify risk factors for RRIs in a large group of novice runners. In total, 1696 runners of a 6-week supervised "Start to Run" program were included in the NLstart2run study. All participants were aged between 18 and 65, completed a baseline questionnaire that covered potential risk factors, and completed at least one running diary. RRIs were registered during the program with a weekly running log. An RRI was defined as a musculo-skeletal complaint of the lower extremity or back attributed to running and hampering running ability for three consecutive training sessions. During the running program, 10.9% of the runners sustained an RRI. The multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that a higher age, higher BMI, previous musculo-skeletal complaints not attributed to sports and no previous running experience were related to RRI. These findings indicate that many novice runners participating in a short-term running program suffer from RRIs. Therefore, the identified risk factors should be considered for screening and prevention purposes. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Economic evaluation of the DiAMOND randomized trial: cost and outcomes of 2 decision aids for mode of delivery among women with a previous cesarean section.

PubMed

Hollinghurst, Sandra; Emmett, Clare; Peters, Tim J; Watson, Helen; Fahey, Tom; Murphy, Deirdre J; Montgomery, Alan

2010-01-01

Maternal preferences should be considered in decisions about mode of delivery following a previous cesarean, but risks and benefits are unclear. Decision aids can help decision making, although few studies have assessed costs in conjunction with effectiveness. Economic evaluation of 2 decision aids for women with 1 previous cesarean. Cost-consequences analysis. Data sources were self-reported resource use and outcome and published national unit costs. The target population was women with 1 previous cesarean. The time horizon was 37 weeks' gestation and 6 weeks postnatal. The perspective was health care delivery system. The interventions were usual care, usual care plus an information program, and usual care plus a decision analysis program. The outcome measures were costs to the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK), score on the Decisional Conflict Scale, and mode of delivery. RESULTS OF MAIN ANALYSIS: Cost of delivery represented 84% of the total cost; mode of delivery was the most important determinant of cost differences across the groups. Mean (SD) total cost per mother and baby: 2033 (677) for usual care, 2069 (738) for information program, and 2019 (741) for decision analysis program. Decision aids reduced decisional conflict. Women using the decision analysis program had fewest cesarean deliveries. Applying a cost premium to emergency cesareans over electives had little effect on group comparisons. Conclusions were unaffected. Disparity in timing of outcomes and costs, data completeness, and quality. Decision aids can reduce decisional conflict in women with a previous cesarean section when deciding on mode of delivery. The information program could be implemented at no extra cost to the NHS. The decision analysis program might reduce the rate of cesarean sections without any increase in costs.

Further dissociating the processes involved in recognition memory: an FMRI study.

PubMed

Henson, Richard N A; Hornberger, Michael; Rugg, Michael D

2005-07-01

Based on an event-related potential study by Rugg et al. [Dissociation of the neural correlates of implicit and explicit memory. Nature, 392, 595-598, 1998], we attempted to isolate the hemodynamic correlates of recollection, familiarity, and implicit memory within a single verbal recognition memory task using event-related fMRI. Words were randomly cued for either deep or shallow processing, and then intermixed with new words for yes/no recognition. The number of studied words was such that, whereas most were recognized ("hits"), an appreciable number of shallow-studied words were not ("misses"). Comparison of deep hits versus shallow hits at test revealed activations in regions including the left inferior parietal gyrus. Comparison of shallow hits versus shallow misses revealed activations in regions including the bilateral intraparietal sulci, the left posterior middle frontal gyrus, and the left frontopolar cortex. Comparison of hits versus correct rejections revealed a relative deactivation in an anterior left medial-temporal region (most likely the perirhinal cortex). Comparison of shallow misses versus correct rejections did not reveal response decreases in any regions expected on the basis of previous imaging studies of priming. Given these and previous data, we associate the left inferior parietal activation with recollection, the left anterior medial-temporal deactivation with familiarity, and the intraparietal and prefrontal responses with target detection. The absence of differences between shallow misses and correct rejections means that the hemodynamic correlates of implicit memory remain unclear.

γδ T cells recognize a microbial encoded B cell antigen to initiate a rapid antigen specific Interleukin 17 response

PubMed Central

Zeng, Xun; Wei, Yu-ling; Huang, Jun; Newell, Evan W.; Yu, Hongxiang; Kidd, Brian A.; Kuhns, Michael S.; Waters, Ray W.; Davis, Mark M.; Weaver, Casey T.; Chien, Yueh-hsiu

2012-01-01

Summary γδ T cells contribute uniquely to host immune defense. However, how they function remains an enigma. Although it is unclear what most γδ T cells recognize, common dogma asserts that they recognize self-antigens. While they are the major initial Interleukin-17 (IL-17) producers in infections, it is unclear what is required to trigger these cells to act. Here, we report that a noted B cell antigen, the algae protein-phycoerythrin (PE) is an antigen for murine and human γδ T cells. PE also stained specific bovine γδ T cells. Employing this specificity, we demonstrated that antigen recognition, but not extensive clonal expansion, was required to activate naïve γδ T cells to make IL-17. In this activated state, γδ T cells gained the ability to respond to cytokine signals that perpetuated the IL-17 production. These results underscore the adaptability of lymphocyte antigen receptors and suggest a previously unrecognized antigen-driven rapid response in protective immunity prior to the maturation of classical adaptive immunity. PMID:22960222

Global analysis of gene expression reveals mRNA superinduction is required for the inducible immune response to a bacterial pathogen

PubMed Central

Barry, Kevin C; Ingolia, Nicholas T; Vance, Russell E

2017-01-01

The inducible innate immune response to infection requires a concerted process of gene expression that is regulated at multiple levels. Most global analyses of the innate immune response have focused on transcription induced by defined immunostimulatory ligands, such as lipopolysaccharide. However, the response to pathogens involves additional complexity, as pathogens interfere with virtually every step of gene expression. How cells respond to pathogen-mediated disruption of gene expression to nevertheless initiate protective responses remains unclear. We previously discovered that a pathogen-mediated blockade of host protein synthesis provokes the production of specific pro-inflammatory cytokines. It remains unclear how these cytokines are produced despite the global pathogen-induced block of translation. We addressed this question by using parallel RNAseq and ribosome profiling to characterize the response of macrophages to infection with the intracellular bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila. Our results reveal that mRNA superinduction is required for the inducible immune response to a bacterial pathogen. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22707.001 PMID:28383283

Mice lacking a functional NMDA receptor exhibit social subordination in a group-housed environment.

PubMed

Ujita, Waka; Kohyama-Koganeya, Ayako; Endo, Nozomi; Saito, Toki; Oyama, Hiroshi

2018-01-01

Social dominance, in which an individual asserts control over others or benefits most after social conflict, has an influence on social behaviour. However, the mechanisms mediating social dominance remain unclear. Social dominance within social groups determines the distribution of rewards such as food and access to mating partners, which can act as reinforcers. In this study, we used the water competition test to determine whether mice were dominant or subordinate. It has been previously reported that mice heterozygous for a missense mutation in Grin1 (Grin1 Rgsc174 ) showed altered social behaviour, with increased locomotor activity, novelty seeking and anxiety. However, social dominance in these mice has not been previously investigated. We subjected Grin1 Rgsc174/+ mice to the water competition test using IntelliCage and observed that Grin1 influences competitive dominance. We found that Grin1 Rgsc174/+ mice exhibited social subordination characterised by decreased corner visit frequency and occupancy time at the beginning of the task. However, Grin1 Rgsc174/+ mice retained increased basal activity and exploring behaviour under a group-housed environment. Our findings suggested that Grin1 plays an important role in determining social dominance. © 2017 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Retrospective forecasting of the 2010-2014 Melbourne influenza seasons using multiple surveillance systems.

PubMed

Moss, R; Zarebski, A; Dawson, P; McCAW, J M

2017-01-01

Accurate forecasting of seasonal influenza epidemics is of great concern to healthcare providers in temperate climates, since these epidemics vary substantially in their size, timing and duration from year to year, making it a challenge to deliver timely and proportionate responses. Previous studies have shown that Bayesian estimation techniques can accurately predict when an influenza epidemic will peak many weeks in advance, and we have previously tailored these methods for metropolitan Melbourne (Australia) and Google Flu Trends data. Here we extend these methods to clinical observation and laboratory-confirmation data for Melbourne, on the grounds that these data sources provide more accurate characterizations of influenza activity. We show that from each of these data sources we can accurately predict the timing of the epidemic peak 4-6 weeks in advance. We also show that making simultaneous use of multiple surveillance systems to improve forecast skill remains a fundamental challenge. Disparate systems provide complementary characterizations of disease activity, which may or may not be comparable, and it is unclear how a 'ground truth' for evaluating forecasts against these multiple characterizations might be defined. These findings are a significant step towards making optimal use of routine surveillance data for outbreak forecasting.

Descriptive review: hormonal influences on risk for eating disorder symptoms during puberty and adolescence.

PubMed

Harden, K Paige; Kretsch, Natalie; Moore, Sarah R; Mendle, Jane

2014-11-01

Puberty is an important period of risk for the onset of eating pathology in adolescent females. This review focuses on changes in reproductive hormones during puberty as one specific psychopathogenic mechanism. Studies of puberty and eating disorder-related phenotypes were identified using search databases and the reference sections of previous literature. Correlational studies of adult women and experimental studies of animals provide evidence for the effects of reproductive hormones on eating disorder symptoms. Very few studies of puberty, however, have directly measured or tested the effects of hormonal change in samples of human adolescents. Commonly used measures of pubertal development, such as menarche or self-reported pubertal status, are relatively poor indicators of individual differences in hormones. The extent to which puberty-related hormonal change accounts for elevated risk for disordered eating remains unclear. Future research is necessary to elucidate the specific relations between hormonal change during puberty and risk for disordered eating. In particular, there is a need for longitudinal studies with multivariate measurement of pubertal development, including direct measures of change in reproductive hormones. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Image of God, religion, spirituality, and life changes in breast cancer survivors: a qualitative approach.

PubMed

Schreiber, Judith A; Edward, Jean

2015-04-01

Religion and spirituality are much studied coping mechanisms; however, their relationship to changes in behaviors, relationships, and goals is unclear. This study explored the impact of a breast cancer diagnosis on religion/faith and changes in behaviors, relationship, or goals. In this qualitative study, women, who participated in a larger, quantitative study, completed written responses to questions regarding the role of religion/faith in their lives, the impact of their diagnosis on their image of God and on faith/religious beliefs, and any changes in behaviors, relationships, or life goals were examined. Based on previous findings noting differences in psychological outcomes based on a higher (HE) or lesser (LE) engaged view of God, 28 (14 HE; 14 LE) women were included in the analysis. Awareness of life and its fleeting nature was common to all. Ensuing behaviors varied from a need to focus on self-improvement-egocentrism (LE)-to a need to focus on using their experiences to help others-altruism (HE). Study results suggest that seemingly small, but highly meaningful, differences based on one's worldview result in considerably different attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.

Antibody-enhanced dengue disease generates a marked CNS inflammatory response in the black-tufted marmoset Callithrix penicillata.

PubMed

Vasconcelos, Barbara Cristina Baldez; Vieira, Juliana Almeida; Silva, Geane Oliveira; Fernandes, Taiany Nogueira; Rocha, Luciano Chaves; Viana, André Pereira; Serique, Cássio Diego Sá; Filho, Carlos Santos; Bringel, Raissa Aires Ribeiro; Teixeira, Francisco Fernando Dacier Lobato; Ferreira, Milene Silveira; Casseb, Samir Mansour Moraes; Carvalho, Valéria Lima; de Melo, Karla Fabiane Lopes; de Castro, Paulo Henrique Gomes; Araújo, Sanderson Corrêa; Diniz, José Antonio Picanço; Demachki, Samia; Anaissi, Ana Karyssa Mendes; Sosthenes, Marcia Consentino Kronka; Vasconcelos, Pedro Fernando da Costa; Anthony, Daniel Clive; Diniz, Cristovam Wanderley Picanço; Diniz, Daniel Guerreiro

2016-02-01

Severe dengue disease is often associated with long-term neurological impairments, but it is unclear what mechanisms are associated with neurological sequelae. Previously, we demonstrated antibody-enhanced dengue disease (ADE) dengue in an immunocompetent mouse model with a dengue virus 2 (DENV2) antibody injection followed by DENV3 virus infection. Here we migrated this ADE model to Callithrix penicillata. To mimic human multiple infections of endemic zones where abundant vectors and multiple serotypes co-exist, three animals received weekly subcutaneous injections of DENV3 (genotype III)-infected supernatant of C6/36 cell cultures, followed 24 h later by anti-DENV2 antibody for 12 weeks. There were six control animals, two of which received weekly anti-DENV2 antibodies, and four further animals received no injections. After multiple infections, brain, liver, and spleen samples were collected and tissue was immunolabeled for DENV3 antigens, ionized calcium binding adapter molecule 1, Ki-67, TNFα. There were marked morphological changes in the microglial population of ADE monkeys characterized by more highly ramified microglial processes, higher numbers of trees and larger surface areas. These changes were associated with intense TNFα-positive immunolabeling. It is unclear why ADE should generate such microglial activation given that IgG does not cross the blood-brain barrier, but this study reveals that in ADE dengue therapy targeting the CNS host response is likely to be important. © 2015 Japanese Society of Neuropathology.

High Demand for Psychotherapy in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

PubMed

Klag, Thomas; Mazurak, Nazar; Fantasia, Laura; Schwille-Kiuntke, Juliane; Kirschniak, Andreas; Falch, Claudius; Goetz, Martin; Malek, Nisar P; Enck, Paul; Wehkamp, Jan

2017-10-01

The relative contribution of psychological factors to the onset and course of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is a matter of constant debate since its beginning, as is the clinical need and the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions. However, the perspective of patients with IBD has largely been ignored in this debate. Psychometric tests including the Short-Form IBD Questionnaire (SIBDQ), the ADAP test measuring demand for psychotherapy, and the Fear-of-Progression Questionnaire Short Form as well as disease-related questions were positioned on the internet between December 2014 and January 2016. The study was advertised through DCCV (German branch of the European Federation of Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis Associations). n = 631 patients responded, and complete data from n = 578 (356 Crohn's disease, 219 ulcerative colitis, 3 unclear) were available for analysis. n = 296 had previous experiences with psychotherapy, whereas n = 282 had not. This distribution clearly determined the factor "demand for psychotherapy" (chi-square = 23.7, P < 0.001). When all available data were entered into a (stepwise-forward) regression model, psychotherapy demand was dependent on previous experience (P < 0.001), fear of progression (P < 0.001), quality of life (P = 0.001), smoking (P = 0.003), and previous surgery (P = 0.005) with the total model explaining 29.7% of the variance. The total explained variance of this model was higher in ulcerative colitis (37.6%) than in Crohn's disease alone (25.4%). The demand for psychotherapy as additional therapy in IBD depends on previous experience with psychotherapy, fear for disease progression but also other disease or social characteristics and quality of life.

Body-wide anatomy recognition in PET/CT images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Huiqian; Udupa, Jayaram K.; Odhner, Dewey; Tong, Yubing; Zhao, Liming; Torigian, Drew A.

2015-03-01

With the rapid growth of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT)-based medical applications, body-wide anatomy recognition on whole-body PET/CT images becomes crucial for quantifying body-wide disease burden. This, however, is a challenging problem and seldom studied due to unclear anatomy reference frame and low spatial resolution of PET images as well as low contrast and spatial resolution of the associated low-dose CT images. We previously developed an automatic anatomy recognition (AAR) system [15] whose applicability was demonstrated on diagnostic computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) images in different body regions on 35 objects. The aim of the present work is to investigate strategies for adapting the previous AAR system to low-dose CT and PET images toward automated body-wide disease quantification. Our adaptation of the previous AAR methodology to PET/CT images in this paper focuses on 16 objects in three body regions - thorax, abdomen, and pelvis - and consists of the following steps: collecting whole-body PET/CT images from existing patient image databases, delineating all objects in these images, modifying the previous hierarchical models built from diagnostic CT images to account for differences in appearance in low-dose CT and PET images, automatically locating objects in these images following object hierarchy, and evaluating performance. Our preliminary evaluations indicate that the performance of the AAR approach on low-dose CT images achieves object localization accuracy within about 2 voxels, which is comparable to the accuracies achieved on diagnostic contrast-enhanced CT images. Object recognition on low-dose CT images from PET/CT examinations without requiring diagnostic contrast-enhanced CT seems feasible.

Neoplastic diseases in the domestic ferret (Mustela putorius furo) in Italy: classification and tissue distribution of 856 cases (2000-2010).

PubMed

Avallone, Giancarlo; Forlani, Annalisa; Tecilla, Marco; Riccardi, Elena; Belluco, Sara; Santagostino, Sara Francesca; Grilli, Guido; Khadivi, Kiumars; Roccabianca, Paola

2016-12-05

The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence and tissue distribution of neoplasms in Italian ferrets, compared to the epidemiological data previously reported in USA and Japan. Signalment and diagnoses of pathological submissions received between 2000 and 2010 were searched; cases with the diagnosis of neoplasm were selected and original sections reviewed to confirm the diagnosis. Nine-hundred and ten samples were retrieved, 690 of which included at least one tumour for a total of 856 tumours. Ferrets with multiple neoplasms were 134 (19.4%). Median age was 5 years, and F/M ratio was 0.99. Endocrine neoplasms were the most common. Other frequent tumours were cutaneous mast cell tumours, sebaceous tumours, and lymphomas. Cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) were consistently associated with sebaceous tumours. Twenty-four abdominal spindle cell tumours with an undefined origin were observed. Lymphomas and islet cell tumours had a lower incidence compared with previous extra-European studies. Epidemiological information on ferret tumours derives from extra-European countries, mostly USA and Japan. In these countries similar distributions with minor discrepancies have been reported. Compared to previous reports, adrenal tumours were more frequent than pancreatic islet cell neoplasms, and a higher number of mesenchymal neoplasms arising from the adrenal capsule was noted. An unusual association between SCC and sebaceous gland neoplasms and a high number of intrabdominal spindle cell neoplasms with unclear primary origin were noted and grants further investigation. The tissue distribution of tumours recorded in this study paralleled previous findings in ferrets from USA and Japan. Some differences have been noted in the frequency of lymphoma, adrenal mesenchymal tumours and cutaneous tumours. Some tumours that are among the most common in other species seem to be uncommon in ferrets and are characterized by distinctive predilection sites.

Continuing discrepancy between patient perception of asthma control and real-world symptoms: a quantitative online survey of 1,083 adults with asthma from the UK.

PubMed

Fletcher, Monica; Hiles, David

2013-12-01

Previous studies have identified a discrepancy between patient perception of asthma control and real-world symptoms; despite several hypotheses, the reasons remain unclear. To explore patients' experiences of asthma symptoms and disease management and their educational needs in the UK; to assess recent progress in asthma control and management. A quantitative questionnaire-based online survey of UK patients aged >18 years with self-reported asthma. Of the 1,083 individuals (55% female, 49% aged >55 years) who completed the survey, 79% described their asthma control as 'good' or 'very good'. Despite this, in the previous 2 years, 65% had experienced 'frequent' day-time symptoms, 37% had 'frequent' night-time symptoms, and 25% had used oral steroids for asthma; 41% of those prescribed a reliever inhaler used it >1 a day. Overall, 76% had a 'good' or 'very good' relationship with their healthcare professional (HCP); 32% had not attended regular asthma reviews and only 12% were using a personal asthma action plan. Moreover, 70% of respondents felt that they had the 'main responsibility' for managing their asthma; 29% believed this responsibility to be shared with their HCP. This survey indicates a continuing discrepancy between patient perception of asthma control and real-world symptoms, with little change from previous studies. Many patients accept symptoms as the norm. The diversity among respondents' attitudes demonstrates a need to help patients change some of their beliefs and understanding about asthma, and to improve asthma management with better education about the understanding of control for patients and HCPs.

Unfiltered Talk--A Challenge to Categories.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCormick, Kay

A study investigated how and why code switching and mixing occurs between English and Afrikaans in a region of South Africa. In District Six, non-standard Afrikaans seems to be a mixed code, and it is unclear whether non-standard English is a mixed code. Consequently, it is unclear when codes are being switched or mixed. The analysis looks at…

Spatial and temporal dynamics of root exudation: how important is heterogeneity in allelopathic interactions?

PubMed

Weidenhamer, Jeffrey D; Mohney, Brian K; Shihada, Nader; Rupasinghe, Maduka

2014-08-01

Understanding allelopathy has been hindered by the lack of methods available to monitor the dynamics of allelochemicals in the soil. Previous work has demonstrated the feasibility of using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microtubing (silicone tubing microextraction, or STME) to construct sampling devices to monitor the release of lipophilic allelochemicals from plant roots. The objective of this study was to use such sampling devices to intensively monitor thiophene fluxes beneath marigolds over several weeks to gain insight into the magnitude of temporal and spatial heterogeneity in these fluxes. Marigolds were grown in rhizoboxes (20.5 x 20.5 x 3.0 cm) with 16 individual STME samplers per box. Thiophene sampling and HPLC analysis began 45 days after planting. At the end of the study, roots around each sampler were analyzed by HPLC. Results confirmed the tremendous spatial and temporal heterogeneity in thiophene production seen in our previous studies. STME probes show that thiophene concentrations generally increase over time; however, these effects were sampling-port specific. When sampling ports were monitored at 12 h intervals, fluxes at each port ranged from 0 to 2,510 ng day(-1). Fluxes measured over daylight hr averaged 29 % higher than those measured overnight. Fluxes were less than 1 % on average of the total thiophene content of surrounding roots. While the importance of such heterogeneity, or "patchiness", in the root zone has been recognized for soil nutrients, the potential importance in allelopathic interactions has seldom been considered. The reasons for this variability are unclear, but are being investigated. Our results demonstrate that STME can be used as a tool to provide a more finely-resolved picture of allelochemical dynamics in the root zone than has previously been available.

Out of sight, but not out of mind? Greater reported pain in patients who spontaneously look away during venepuncture.

PubMed

Vijayan, R; Scott, G; Brownlie, W

2015-01-01

Various external factors can influence patients' experiences of noxious stimuli, but little is known of how patients' natural behaviour may be relevant. We ascertained how often patients spontaneously look or look away during venepuncture and associated reports of pain during a previously reported experimental randomized study. The study was conducted in the outpatient department of a U.K. district general hospital. Patients were randomized to hearing 'sharp scratch' or the verbal cue 'ready?' immediately before venepuncture. Whether patients looked or looked away during needle insertion was recorded. Patients were asked to rate their pain using a verbal numerical rating score (VNRS) and verbal response scale (VRS). One hundred ninety-two patients were included; mean age 51.7 years, 55% male. During needle insertion, 73% spontaneously looked away, whereas 27% looked. There was no significant difference in the proportion of these patients assigned to the 'sharp scratch' or 'ready?' groups, nor was there any difference in mean age or gender. For the group that looked, mean VNRS was 0.48 and VRS was 1.27, significantly less than the group that looked away (mean VNRS 0.94, p = 0.014; VRS 1.61, p = 0.002). As previously reported, pain ratings between 'sharp scratch' and 'ready?' groups were not significantly different. Almost three quarters of patients spontaneously look away during venepuncture, but their pain ratings are almost twice that of the quarter of patients who look. It is unclear why this may be, but previous experimental studies indicate that observing the body when a noxious stimulus is applied can have an analgesic effect. © 2014 European Pain Federation - EFIC®

Reporting and dealing with missing quality of life data in RCTs: has the picture changed in the last decade?

PubMed

Fielding, S; Ogbuagu, A; Sivasubramaniam, S; MacLennan, G; Ramsay, C R

2016-12-01

Missing data are a major problem in the analysis of data from randomised trials affecting power and potentially producing biased treatment effects. Specifically focussing on quality of life outcomes, we aimed to report the amount of missing data, whether imputation was used and what methods and was the missing mechanism discussed from four leading medical journals and compare the picture to our previous review nearly a decade ago. A random selection (50 %) of all RCTS published during 2013-2014 in BMJ, JAMA, Lancet and NEJM was obtained. RCTs reported in research letters, cluster RCTs, non-randomised designs, review articles and meta-analysis were excluded. We included 87 RCTs in the review of which 35 % the amount of missing primary QoL data was unclear, 31 (36 %) used imputation. Only 23 % discussed the missing data mechanism. Nearly half used complete case analysis. Reporting was more unclear for secondary QoL outcomes. Compared to the previous review, multiple imputation was used more prominently but mainly in sensitivity analysis. Inadequate reporting and handling of missing QoL data in RCTs are still an issue. There is a large gap between statistical methods research relating to missing data and the use of the methods in applications. A sensitivity analysis should be undertaken to explore the sensitivity of the main results to different missing data assumptions. Medical journals can help to improve the situation by requiring higher standards of reporting and analytical methods to deal with missing data, and by issuing guidance to authors on expected standard.

The oscillatory boundary conditions of different frequency bands in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Hu, Bing; Shi, Qianqian; Guo, Yu; Diao, Xiyezi; Guo, Heng; Zhang, Jinsong; Yu, Liang; Dai, Hao; Chen, Luonan

2018-08-14

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is common in the elderly population. The most important pathological change in PD is the degeneration and death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the midbrain, which results in a decrease in the dopamine (DA) content of the striatum. The exact cause of this pathological change is still unknown. Numerous studies have shown that the evolution of PD is associated with abnormal oscillatory activities in the basal ganglia, with different oscillation frequency ranges, such as the typical beta band (13-30 Hz), the alpha band (8-12 Hz), the theta band (4-7 Hz) and the delta band (1-3 Hz). Although some studies have implied that abnormal interactions between the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and globus pallidus (GP) neurons may be a key factor required to induce these oscillations, the relative mechanism is still unclear. The effects of other nerve nuclei in the basal ganglia, such as the striatum, on these oscillations are still unknown. The thalamus and cortex both have close input and output relationships with the basal ganglia, and many previous studies have indicated that they may also exert effects on Parkinson's disease oscillation, but the mechanisms involved are unclear. In this paper, we built a corticothalamic-basal ganglia (CTBG) mean firing-rate model to explore the onset mechanisms of these different oscillation phenomena. We found that, in addition to the STN-GP network, Parkinson's disease oscillations may also be induced by changing the coupling strength and delays in other pathways. Different frequency bands appear in the oscillating region, and various boundary conditions are depicted in parameter diagrams. The onset mechanism is well explained both by the model and by the numerical simulation results. Therefore, this model provides a unifying framework for studying the mechanism of Parkinson's disease oscillations, and we hope that the results obtained in this work can inspire future experimental studies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Barriers to postpartum screening for type 2 diabetes: a qualitative study of women with previous gestational diabetes.

PubMed

Rafii, Forough; Rahimparvar, Seyedeh Fatemeh Vasegh; Mehrdad, Neda; Keramat, Afsaneh

2017-01-01

Risk of developing type 2 diabetes is increased in women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Postpartum glycemic screening is recommended in women with recent GDM. But this screening rate is low and the reasons are unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of Iranian women with recent GDM on barriers of postpartum screening for diabetes. This qualitative study was conducted in Tehran, Iran in 2016. Semi-structured interview was used for data collection. 22 women with recent GDM were interviewed. These women gave birth in Tehran hospitals at a minimum of 6 months before interview. The missed screening defined as not attending to laboratory for Fasting Blood Sugar and/or Oral Glucose Tolerance Test, 6 week to 6 month after their child birthing. The data was analyzed by content analysis method. Themes and sub-themes that illustrated the barriers to postpartum diabetes screening were: inadequate education (about developing diabetes in the future, implementation of the screening, and glucometer validity in diagnosis of diabetes), perceiving the screening as difficult (feeling comfortable with the glucometer, poor laboratory conditions, issues related to the baby/babies, and financial problems), improper attitudes toward the screening (unwilling to get diagnosed, not giving priority to oneself, having false beliefs) and procrastination (gap to intention and action, self-deception and self-regulation failure). Women with recent GDM reported several barriers for postpartum diabetes screening. This study help to develop the evidence-based interventions for improving this screening rate.

Spatial organization of the budding yeast genome in the cell nucleus and identification of specific chromatin interactions from multi-chromosome constrained chromatin model.

PubMed

Gürsoy, Gamze; Xu, Yun; Liang, Jie

2017-07-01

Nuclear landmarks and biochemical factors play important roles in the organization of the yeast genome. The interaction pattern of budding yeast as measured from genome-wide 3C studies are largely recapitulated by model polymer genomes subject to landmark constraints. However, the origin of inter-chromosomal interactions, specific roles of individual landmarks, and the roles of biochemical factors in yeast genome organization remain unclear. Here we describe a multi-chromosome constrained self-avoiding chromatin model (mC-SAC) to gain understanding of the budding yeast genome organization. With significantly improved sampling of genome structures, both intra- and inter-chromosomal interaction patterns from genome-wide 3C studies are accurately captured in our model at higher resolution than previous studies. We show that nuclear confinement is a key determinant of the intra-chromosomal interactions, and centromere tethering is responsible for the inter-chromosomal interactions. In addition, important genomic elements such as fragile sites and tRNA genes are found to be clustered spatially, largely due to centromere tethering. We uncovered previously unknown interactions that were not captured by genome-wide 3C studies, which are found to be enriched with tRNA genes, RNAPIII and TFIIS binding. Moreover, we identified specific high-frequency genome-wide 3C interactions that are unaccounted for by polymer effects under landmark constraints. These interactions are enriched with important genes and likely play biological roles.

Lack of evidence for meteorological effects on infradian dynamics of testosterone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Celec, Peter; Smreková, Lucia; Ostatníková, Daniela; Čabajová, Zlata; Hodosy, Július; Kúdela, Matúš

2009-09-01

Climatic factors are known to influence the endocrine system. Previous studies have shown that circannual seasonal variations of testosterone might be partly explained by changes in air temperature. Whether infradian variations are affected by meteorological factors is unknown. To analyze possible effects of meteorological parameters on infradian variations of salivary testosterone levels in both sexes, daily salivary testosterone levels were measured during 1 month in 14 men and 17 women. A correlation analysis between hormonal levels and selected meteorological parameters was performed. The results indicate that high testosterone levels are loosely associated with cold, sunny and dry weather in both sexes. However, only the correlations between testosterone and air temperature (men) and actual cloudiness (women) were statistically significant ( p < 0,05). Although some correlations reached the level of statistical significance, the effects of selected meteorological parameters on salivary testosterone levels remain unclear. Further longer-term studies concentrating on air temperature, cloudiness and average relative humidity in relation to the sex hormone axis are needed.

Imagining the truth and the moon: an electrophysiological study of abstract and concrete word processing.

PubMed

Gullick, Margaret M; Mitra, Priya; Coch, Donna

2013-05-01

Previous event-related potential studies have indicated that both a widespread N400 and an anterior N700 index differential processing of concrete and abstract words, but the nature of these components in relation to concreteness and imagery has been unclear. Here, we separated the effects of word concreteness and task demands on the N400 and N700 in a single word processing paradigm with a within-subjects, between-tasks design and carefully controlled word stimuli. The N400 was larger to concrete words than to abstract words, and larger in the visualization task condition than in the surface task condition, with no interaction. A marked anterior N700 was elicited only by concrete words in the visualization task condition, suggesting that this component indexes imagery. These findings are consistent with a revised or extended dual coding theory according to which concrete words benefit from greater activation in both verbal and imagistic systems. Copyright © 2013 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Rolling Circle Translation of Circular RNA in Living Human Cells.

PubMed

Abe, Naoko; Matsumoto, Ken; Nishihara, Mizuki; Nakano, Yukiko; Shibata, Aya; Maruyama, Hideto; Shuto, Satoshi; Matsuda, Akira; Yoshida, Minoru; Ito, Yoshihiro; Abe, Hiroshi

2015-11-10

We recently reported that circular RNA is efficiently translated by a rolling circle amplification (RCA) mechanism in a cell-free Escherichia coli translation system. Recent studies have shown that circular RNAs composed of exonic sequences are abundant in human cells. However, whether these circular RNAs can be translated into proteins within cells remains unclear. In this study, we prepared circular RNAs with an infinite open reading frame and tested their translation in eukaryotic systems. Circular RNAs were translated into long proteins in rabbit reticulocyte lysate in the absence of any particular element for internal ribosome entry, a poly-A tail, or a cap structure. The translation systems in eukaryote can accept much simpler RNA as a template for protein synthesis by cyclisation. Here, we demonstrated that the circular RNA is efficiently translated in living human cells to produce abundant protein product by RCA mechanism. These findings suggest that translation of exonic circular RNAs present in human cells is more probable than previously thought.

Rolling Circle Translation of Circular RNA in Living Human Cells

PubMed Central

Abe, Naoko; Matsumoto, Ken; Nishihara, Mizuki; Nakano, Yukiko; Shibata, Aya; Maruyama, Hideto; Shuto, Satoshi; Matsuda, Akira; Yoshida, Minoru; Ito, Yoshihiro; Abe, Hiroshi

2015-01-01

We recently reported that circular RNA is efficiently translated by a rolling circle amplification (RCA) mechanism in a cell-free Escherichia coli translation system. Recent studies have shown that circular RNAs composed of exonic sequences are abundant in human cells. However, whether these circular RNAs can be translated into proteins within cells remains unclear. In this study, we prepared circular RNAs with an infinite open reading frame and tested their translation in eukaryotic systems. Circular RNAs were translated into long proteins in rabbit reticulocyte lysate in the absence of any particular element for internal ribosome entry, a poly-A tail, or a cap structure. The translation systems in eukaryote can accept much simpler RNA as a template for protein synthesis by cyclisation. Here, we demonstrated that the circular RNA is efficiently translated in living human cells to produce abundant protein product by RCA mechanism. These findings suggest that translation of exonic circular RNAs present in human cells is more probable than previously thought. PMID:26553571

Reactive oxygen species acts as executor in radiation enhancement and autophagy inducing by AgNPs.

PubMed

Wu, Hao; Lin, Jun; Liu, Peidang; Huang, Zhihai; Zhao, Peng; Jin, Haizhen; Ma, Jun; Wen, Longping; Gu, Ning

2016-09-01

Malignant glioma is one of the most common intracranial tumor with a dismal prognosis. The radiosensitizing effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on glioma both in vitro and in vivo were demonstrated in the previous studies of our group. However, the underlying mechanism is still unclear. In this present study, the use of antioxidants is employed for the regulating of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in U251 cells treated with various agents, and the results shows that ROS played an essential role in the autophagy inducing and radiosensitization effect of AgNPs. Moreover, the inhibition of protective autophagy with 3-MA is another way to increase ROS, resulting in the increasing of cell death and apoptosis. Taken together, understanding the relationship between the elevated ROS and autophagy and the effect of ROS should be useful to the clinical applications of AgNPs. These findings could potentially be exploited for new therapeutic strategies in glioma radiotherapy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rethinking spontaneous giving: Extreme time pressure and ego-depletion favor self-regarding reactions

PubMed Central

Capraro, Valerio; Cococcioni, Giorgia

2016-01-01

Previous experimental studies suggest that cooperation in one-shot anonymous interactions is, on average, spontaneous, rather than calculative. To explain this finding, it has been proposed that people internalize cooperative heuristics in their everyday life and bring them as intuitive strategies in new and atypical situations. Yet, these studies have important limitations, as they promote intuitive responses using weak time pressure or conceptual priming of intuition. Since these manipulations do not deplete participants’ ability to reason completely, it remains unclear whether cooperative heuristics are really automatic or they emerge after a small, but positive, amount of deliberation. Consistent with the latter hypothesis, we report two experiments demonstrating that spontaneous reactions in one-shot anonymous interactions tend to be egoistic. In doing so, our findings shed further light on the cognitive underpinnings of cooperation, as they suggest that cooperation in one-shot interactions is not automatic, but appears only at later stages of reasoning. PMID:27251762

The relationship between gastrointestinal motility and gastric dilatation-volvulus in dogs.

PubMed

Gazzola, Krista M; Nelson, Laura L

2014-09-01

Gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) is a devastating disease that most commonly affects large and giant-breed dogs. Though a number of risk factors have been associated with the development of GDV, the etiology of GDV remains unclear. Abnormal gastric motility patterns and delayed gastric emptying have been previously described in dogs following GDV. Work evaluating the effects of gastropexy procedures and changes to gastric motility after experimental GDV has not found the same changes as those found in dogs with naturally occurring GDV. Although the role of abnormal gastric motility in dogs with GDV will need to be clarified with additional research, such study is likely to be facilitated by improved access to and development of noninvasive measurement techniques for the evaluation of gastric emptying and other motility parameters. In particular, the availability of Food and Drug Administration-approved wireless motility devices for the evaluation of gastrointestinal motility is particularly promising in the study of GDV and other functional gastrointestinal diseases of large and giant-breed dogs. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Retrieval Search and Strength Evoke Dissociable Brain Activity during Episodic Memory Recall

PubMed Central

Reas, Emilie T.; Brewer, James B.

2014-01-01

Neuroimaging studies of episodic memory retrieval have revealed activations in the human frontal, parietal, and medial-temporal lobes that are associated with memory strength. However, it remains unclear whether these brain responses are veritable signals of memory strength or are instead regulated by concomitant subcomponents of retrieval such as retrieval effort or mental search. This study used event-related fMRI during cued recall of previously memorized word-pair associates to dissociate brain responses modulated by memory search from those modulated by the strength of a recalled memory. Search-related deactivations, dissociated from activity due to memory strength, were observed in regions of the default network, whereas distinctly strength-dependent activations were present in superior and inferior parietal and dorsolateral PFC. Both search and strength regulated activity in dorsal anterior cingulate and anterior insula. These findings suggest that, although highly correlated and partially subserved by overlapping cognitive control mechanisms, search and memory strength engage dissociable regions of frontoparietal attention and default networks. PMID:23190328

Safety of Laparoscopic Surgery for Colorectal Cancer in Patients with Severe Comorbidities.

PubMed

Sawazaki, Sho; Numata, Masakatsu; Morita, Junya; Maezawa, Yukio; Amano, Shinya; Aoyama, Toru; Tamagawa, Hiroshi; Sato, Tsutomu; Oshima, Takashi; Mushiake, Hiroyuki; Yukawa, Norio; Shiozawa, Manabu; Rino, Yasushi; Masuda, Munetaka

2018-06-01

Previous studies have shown that laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery is highly safe and effective compared to laparotomy. However, whether laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery can be safely performed in patients with severe comorbidities remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety of laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery in patients with severe comorbidities. A total of 82 consecutive patients with colorectal cancer who underwent laparoscopic surgery were retrospectively divided into two groups according to whether they had severe comorbidity (50 patients) or non-severe comorbidity (32 patients). An age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index of ≥6 was defined as severe comorbidity. Operative time, blood loss, and rate of conversion to laparotomy did not differ between the groups. Postoperative complications and the length of the postoperative hospital stay also did not differ significantly between the groups. Laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery is feasible and safe, even in patients with severe comorbidities. Copyright© 2018, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

Osteopathy for Endometriosis and Chronic Pelvic Pain - a Pilot Study.

PubMed

Sillem, M; Juhasz-Böss, I; Klausmeier, I; Mechsner, S; Siedentopf, F; Solomayer, E

2016-09-01

Introduction: Pelvic pain is a common problem in gynaecological practice. It is often unclear whether definite causality exists between reported symptoms and objective clinical findings of the female genital tract, and medical or operative treatments do not always achieve long-term resolution of symptoms. Methods: This pilot study investigated 28 patients (age 20-65, median 36.5 years) from a gynaecology practice whose only clinical finding was painful pelvic floor muscle tightness. Following standardised gynaecological and physiotherapist examination, all patients received osteopathic treatment. Pain had been present for a median of 3 years (range 1 month to 20 years). 14 patients had previously confirmed endometriosis. Treatment success was evaluated on consultation with patients in person or in writing. Results: 22 of the 28 participants completed the treatment according to plan. Overall, 17 reported symptom improvement, while 10 of the 14 patients with endometriosis did. Conclusion: Osteopathy is well received by women with painful pelvic floor muscle tightness and appears to be an effective treatment option.

A Multiwavelength Exploration of the Grand Design Spiral M83: Diffuse X-ray Emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuntz, K. D.; Long, K. S.; Blair, W. P.; Plucinsky, P. P.; Soria, R.; Winkler, P. F.

2013-01-01

We have obtained a series of deep X-ray images of the nearby galaxy M83, with a total exposure 729 ksec with the Chandra ACIS-S array. Since the bulk of the X-ray emitting disk falls within the BI chip, these observations allow a detailed study of the soft diffuse emission in the disk. Most of the diffuse emission is related to star-formation regions and must be powered by supernovae and stellar winds, though the amount of emission due to identifiable SNR is only a few percent. The relation between the spectral shape and surface brightness that was seen in M101 suggests that the properties of the X-ray emission in spiral disks are shaped by the local hot gas production rate (traced by the local star-formation rate) or the disk mid-plane pressure, but it is unclear which physical mechanism dominates. To illuminate this problem, we will compare M83 with the previous Chandra studies of M101 and M33.

Periodic Fluctuation of Perceived Duration

PubMed Central

Shima, Shuhei; Murai, Yuki; Yuasa, Kenichi; Hashimoto, Yuki

2018-01-01

In recent years, several studies have reported that the allocation of spatial attention fluctuates periodically. This periodic attention was revealed by measuring behavioral performance as a function of cue-to-target interval in the Posner cueing paradigm. Previous studies reported behavioral oscillations using target detection tasks. Whether the influence of periodic attention extends to cognitively demanding tasks remains unclear. To assess this, we examined the effects of periodic attention on the perception of duration. In the experiment, participants performed a temporal bisection task while a cue was presented with various cue-to-target intervals. Perceived duration fluctuated rhythmically as a function of cue-to-target interval at a group level but not at an individual level when the target was presented on the same side as the attentional cue. The results indicate that the perception of duration is influenced by periodic attention. In other words, periodic attention can influence the performance of cognitively demanding tasks such as the perception of duration. PMID:29755719

Numerical simulation of colloidal self-assembly of super-hydrophobic arachnid cerotegument structures.

PubMed

Filippov, Alexander É; Wolff, Jonas O; Seiter, Michael; Gorb, Stanislav N

2017-10-07

Certain arachnids exhibit complex coatings of their exoskeleton, consisting of globular structures with complex surface features. This, so-called, cerotegument is formed by a multi-component colloidal secretion that self-assembles and cures on the body surface, and leads to high water repellency. Previous ultrastructural studies revealed the involvement of different glandular cells that contribute different components to the secretion mixture, but the overall process of self-assembly into the complex regular structures observed remained highly unclear. Here we study this process from a theoretical point of view, starting from the so-called Tammes-problem. We show that slight changes of simple parameters lead to a variety of morphologies that are highly similar to the ones observed in the species specific cerotegument structures of whip-spiders. These results are not only important for our understanding of the formation of globular hierarchical structures in nature, but also for the fabrication of novel surface coatings by colloidal lithography. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The trend of retinopathy of prematurity in Malaysia from 1992 to 2001 based on a nationwide blind schools study.

PubMed

Chang, Khai Meng; Patel, Dinesh Kumar; Tajunisah, Iqbal; Subrayan, Visvaraja

2015-03-01

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is one of the most important causes of childhood blindness worldwide. The trend of ROP in Malaysia was unclear because there was no national registry before 2002. The purpose of this study is to analyze ROP students of different ages in the schools for the blind in Malaysia in order to evaluate the trend of ROP from 1992 to 2001. Data were obtained from a previous survey of 24 blind schools. It was found that 78 students or 17.4% were blind/severely visual impaired as a result of ROP. There was a significant surge in the number of ROP students who were born in 1994 when the use of synthetic surfactants was first introduced in Malaysia; otherwise there was no increasing trend in the number of students with ROP. However, the percentage of ROP in total was increasing, which indicates that ROP is becoming a more important cause of childhood blindness in this country. © 2012 APJPH.

Software engineering risk factors in the implementation of a small electronic medical record system: the problem of scalability.

PubMed

Chiang, Michael F; Starren, Justin B

2002-01-01

The successful implementation of clinical information systems is difficult. In examining the reasons and potential solutions for this problem, the medical informatics community may benefit from the lessons of a rich body of software engineering and management literature about the failure of software projects. Based on previous studies, we present a conceptual framework for understanding the risk factors associated with large-scale projects. However, the vast majority of existing literature is based on large, enterprise-wide systems, and it unclear whether those results may be scaled down and applied to smaller projects such as departmental medical information systems. To examine this issue, we discuss the case study of a delayed electronic medical record implementation project in a small specialty practice at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. While the factors contributing to the delay of this small project share some attributes with those found in larger organizations, there are important differences. The significance of these differences for groups implementing small medical information systems is discussed.

Perceived Social Support Trajectories and the All-Cause Mortality Risk of Older Mexican American Women and Men

PubMed Central

Hill, Terrence D.; Uchino, Bert N.; Eckhardt, Jessica L.; Angel, Jacqueline L.

2016-01-01

Although numerous studies of non-Hispanic whites and blacks show that social integration and social support tend to favor longevity, it is unclear whether this general pattern extends to the Mexican American population. Building on previous research, we employed seven waves of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to examine the association between perceived social support trajectories and the all-cause mortality risk of older Mexican Americans. Growth mixture estimates revealed three latent classes of support trajectories: high, moderate, and low. Cox regression estimates indicated that older Mexican American men in the low support trajectory tend to exhibit a higher mortality risk than their counterparts in the high support trajectory. Social support trajectories were unrelated to the mortality risk of older Mexican American women. A statistically significant interaction term confirmed that social support was more strongly associated with the mortality risk of men. PMID:26966256

Neural mechanisms of proactive interference-resolution.

PubMed

Nee, Derek Evan; Jonides, John; Berman, Marc G

2007-12-01

The ability to mitigate interference from information that was previously relevant, but is no longer relevant, is central to successful cognition. Several studies have implicated left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) as a region tied to this ability, but it is unclear whether this result generalizes across different tasks. In addition, it has been suggested that left anterior prefrontal cortex (APFC) also plays a role in proactive interference-resolution although support for this claim has been limited. The present study used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the role of these regions in resolving proactive-interference across two different tasks performed on the same subjects. Results indicate that both left VLPFC and left APFC are involved in the resolution of proactive interference across tasks. However, different functional networks related to each region suggest dissociable roles for the two regions. Additionally, regions of the posterior cingulate gyrus demonstrated unique involvement in facilitation when short- and long-term memory converged. This pattern of results serves to further specify models of proactive interference-resolution.

Associations among Negative Parenting, Attention Bias to Anger, and Social Anxiety among Youth

PubMed Central

Gulley, Lauren; Oppenheimer, Caroline; Hankin, Benjamin

2014-01-01

Theories of affective learning suggest that early experiences contribute to emotional disorders by influencing the development of processing biases for negative emotional stimuli. Although studies show that physically abused children preferentially attend to angry faces, it is unclear whether youth exposed to more typical aspects of negative parenting would exhibit the same type of bias. The current studies extend previous research by linking observed negative parenting styles (e.g. authoritarian) and behaviors (e.g. criticism and negative affect) to attention bias for angry faces in both a psychiatrically enriched (ages 11–17 years; N = 60) and a general community (ages 9–15 years; N = 75) sample of youth. In addition, the association between observed negative parenting (e.g. authoritarian style and negative affect) and youth social anxiety was mediated by attention bias for angry faces in the general community sample. Overall, findings provide preliminary support for theories of affective learning and risk for psychopathology among youth. PMID:23815705

Perceived Social Support Trajectories and the All-Cause Mortality Risk of Older Mexican American Women and Men.

PubMed

Hill, Terrence D; Uchino, Bert N; Eckhardt, Jessica L; Angel, Jacqueline L

2016-04-01

Although numerous studies of non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks show that social integration and social support tend to favor longevity, it is unclear whether this general pattern extends to the Mexican American population. Building on previous research, we employed seven waves of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to examine the association between perceived social support trajectories and the all-cause mortality risk of older Mexican Americans. Growth mixture estimates revealed three latent classes of support trajectories: high, moderate, and low. Cox regression estimates indicated that older Mexican American men in the low support trajectory tend to exhibit a higher mortality risk than their counterparts in the high support trajectory. Social support trajectories were unrelated to the mortality risk of older Mexican American women. A statistically significant interaction term confirmed that social support was more strongly associated with the mortality risk of men. © The Author(s) 2015.

Associations among negative parenting, attention bias to anger, and social anxiety among youth.

PubMed

Gulley, Lauren D; Oppenheimer, Caroline W; Hankin, Benjamin L

2014-02-01

Theories of affective learning suggest that early experiences contribute to emotional disorders by influencing the development of processing biases for negative emotional stimuli. Although studies have shown that physically abused children preferentially attend to angry faces, it is unclear whether youth exposed to more typical aspects of negative parenting exhibit the same type of bias. The current studies extend previous research by linking observed negative parenting styles (e.g., authoritarian) and behaviors (e.g., criticism and negative affect) to attention bias for angry faces in both a psychiatrically enriched (ages 11-17 years; N = 60) and a general community (ages 9-15 years; N = 75) sample of youth. In addition, the association between observed negative parenting (e.g., authoritarian style and negative affect) and youth social anxiety was mediated by attention bias for angry faces in the general community sample. Overall, findings provide preliminary support for theories of affective learning and risk for psychopathology among youth.

Reduced interdecadal variability of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation under global warming

PubMed Central

Cheng, Jun; Liu, Zhengyu; Zhang, Shaoqing; Liu, Wei; Dong, Lina; Liu, Peng; Li, Hongli

2016-01-01

Interdecadal variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC-IV) plays an important role in climate variation and has significant societal impacts. Past climate reconstruction indicates that AMOC-IV has likely undergone significant changes. Despite some previous studies, responses of AMOC-IV to global warming remain unclear, in particular regarding its amplitude and time scale. In this study, we analyze the responses of AMOC-IV under various scenarios of future global warming in multiple models and find that AMOC-IV becomes weaker and shorter with enhanced global warming. From the present climate condition to the strongest future warming scenario, on average, the major period of AMOC-IV is shortened from ∼50 y to ∼20 y, and the amplitude is reduced by ∼60%. These reductions in period and amplitude of AMOC-IV are suggested to be associated with increased oceanic stratification under global warming and, in turn, the speedup of oceanic baroclinic Rossby waves. PMID:26951654

Ions in Wine and Their Relation to Electrical Conductivity Under Ultrasound Irradiation.

PubMed

Yan, Yan-Ying; Zhang, Qing-An; Li, Er-Chun; Zhang, Ya-Feng

2017-09-01

Change in electrical conductivity is considered a potential indicator for the on-line monitoring of wine aging accelerated by ultrasound, as determined in our previous study; however, the exact mechanism of change is currently unclear. In this study, the ion content and the total ionic strength were analyzed by ion-exchange chromatography to investigate the change mechanism of the electrical conductivity of wine under ultrasound irradiation. The results indicate that the changes in wine electrical conductivity during ultrasound treatment correlate with the changes in the cations (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and NH4+) and in the anions from the organic acids (malic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, oxalic acid, and formic acid) and inorganic acids (Cl-, SO42-, and PO43-), especially for the ionic strength of the wine. Overall, electrical conductivity may be used to reflect the chemical reactions related to wine aging to a certain extent because the reactions can be initiated by the conversion of cations and by the degradation or auxiliary function of organic acids.

Cell permeability and nuclear DNA staining by propidium iodide in basidiomycetous yeasts.

PubMed

Zhang, Ning; Fan, Yuxuan; Li, Chen; Wang, Qiming; Leksawasdi, Noppol; Li, Fuli; Wang, Shi'an

2018-05-01

Non-model yeasts within basidiomycetes have considerable importance in agriculture, industry, and environment, but they are not as well studied as ascomycetous yeasts. Serving as a basic technique, nuclear DNA staining is widely used in physiology, ecology, cell biology, and genetics. However, it is unclear whether the classical nuclear DNA staining method for ascomycetous yeasts is applicable to basidiomycetous yeasts. In this study, 5 yeasts ineffectively stained by the classical propidium iodide (PI) staining method were identified from 23 representative basidiomycetous yeasts. Pretreatment of cells using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or snailase markedly improved cell penetration to PI and thus enabled DNA content determination by flow cytometry on the recalcitrant yeasts. The pretreatments are efficient, simple, and fast, avoiding tedious mutagenesis or genetic engineering used in previous reports. The heterogeneity of cell penetration to PI among basidiomycetous yeasts was attributed to the discrepancy in cell wall polysaccharides instead of capsule or plasma membrane. This study also indicated that care must be taken in attributing PI-negative staining as viable cells when studying non-model microorganisms.

Inhibition of Autophagy by Estradiol Promotes Locomotor Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury in Rats.

PubMed

Lin, Chao-Wei; Chen, Bi; Huang, Ke-Lun; Dai, Yu-Sen; Teng, Hong-Lin

2016-04-01

17β-estradiol (E2) has been shown to have neuroprotective effects in different central nervous system diseases. The mechanisms underlying estrogen neuroprotection in spinal cord injury (SCI) remain unclear. Previous studies have shown that autophagy plays a crucial role in the course of nerve injury. In this study, we showed that E2 treatment improved the restoration of locomotor function and decreased the loss of motor neurons in SCI rats. Real-time PCR and western blot analysis revealed that the protective function of E2 was related to the suppression of LC3II and beclin-1 expression. Immunohistochemical study further confirmed that the immunoreactivity of LC3 in the motor neurons was down-regulated when treated with E2. In vitro studies demonstrated similar results that E2 pretreatment decreased the autophagic activity induced by rapamycin (autophagy sensitizer) and increased viability in a PC12 cell model. These results indicated that the neuroprotective effects of E2 in SCI are partly related to the suppression of excessive autophagy.

Conditional dissociation as a punishment mechanism in the evolution of cooperation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qu, Xinglong; Zhou, Changli; Cao, Zhigang; Yang, Xiaoguang

2016-05-01

Recent studies show that conditional dissociation, a.k.a. post-interaction partner-refusal, can promote the emergence and stability of cooperation. However, in most of these studies, players' strategies are restricted to pure ones, which is obviously inconsistent with many biological and economic situations. Another concern with line of these studies is that conditional dissociation is often combined with other mechanisms. These mechanisms may favor cooperation per se, leaving it unclear whether conditional dissociation is indeed a key factor. In this paper, we study a clean model, pruning all the factors other than conditional dissociation that may favor cooperation. We find that conditional dissociation, which could be viewed as a variant of peer punishment, does promote cooperation, no matter whether mixed strategies are allowed or not. This confirms the previous findings in the literature. In addition, compared with the pure strategy scenario, cooperators are less competitive when mixed strategies are allowed. Our main finding is supported by both the numerical simulations and the theoretical analysis of Neutrally Stable Strategy. We also find that cooperative behavior is favored when waiting time and/or the population's lifespan are longer.

Prediction of cardioembolic, arterial and lacunar causes of cryptogenic stroke by gene expression and infarct location

PubMed Central

Jickling, Glen C; Stamova, Boryana; Ander, Bradley P; Zhan, Xinhua; Liu, Dazhi; Sison, Shara-Mae; Verro, Piero; Sharp, Frank R

2012-01-01

Background and Purpose The cause of ischemic stroke remains unclear, or cryptogenic, in as many as 35% of stroke patients. Not knowing the cause of stroke restricts optimal implementation of prevention therapy and limits stroke research. We demonstrate how gene expression profiles in blood can be used in conjunction with a measure of infarct location on neuroimaging to predict a probable cause in cryptogenic stroke. Methods The cause of cryptogenic stroke was predicted using previously described profiles of differentially expressed genes characteristic of patients with cardioembolic, arterial and lacunar stroke. RNA was isolated from peripheral blood of 131 cryptogenic strokes and compared to profiles derived from 149 strokes of known cause. Each sample was run on Affymetrix U133 Plus2.0 microarrays. Cause of cryptogenic stroke was predicted using gene expression in blood and infarct location. Results Cryptogenic strokes were predicted to be 58% cardioembolic, 18% arterial, 12% lacunar and 12% unclear etiology. Cryptogenic stroke of predicted cardioembolic etiology had more prior myocardial infarction and higher CHA2DS2-VASc scores compared to stroke of predicted arterial etiology. Predicted lacunar strokes had higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures and lower NIHSS compared to predicted arterial and cardioembolic strokes. Cryptogenic strokes of unclear predicted etiology were less likely to have a prior TIA or ischemic stroke. Conclusions Gene expression in conjunction with a measure of infarct location can predict a probable cause in cryptogenic strokes. Predicted groups require further evaluation to determine whether relevant clinical, imaging, or therapeutic differences exist for each group. PMID:22627989

Oral administration of Pantoea agglomerans-derived lipopolysaccharide prevents metabolic dysfunction and Alzheimer's disease-related memory loss in senescence-accelerated prone 8 (SAMP8) mice fed a high-fat diet.

PubMed

Kobayashi, Yutaro; Inagawa, Hiroyuki; Kohchi, Chie; Kazumura, Kimiko; Tsuchiya, Hiroshi; Miwa, Toshiyuki; Okazaki, Katsuichiro; Soma, Gen-Ichiro

2018-01-01

The pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains unclear, but an imbalance between the production and clearance of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides is known to play a critical role in AD progression. A promising preventative approach is to enhance the normal Aβ clearance activity of brain phagocytes such as microglia. In mice, the intraperitoneal injection of Toll-like receptor 4 agonist was shown to enhance Aβ clearance and exhibit a preventative effect on AD-related pathology. Our previous clinical study demonstrated that orally administered Pantoea agglomerans-derived lipopolysaccharide (LPSp) exhibited an LDL (low-density lipoprotein)-lowering effect in human volunteers with hyperlipidemia, a known risk factor for AD. In vitro studies have shown that LPSp treatment increases Aβ phagocytosis by microglial cells; however it is still unclear whether orally administered LPSp exhibits a preventive effect on AD progression. We show here that in senescence-accelerated prone 8 (SAMP8) mice fed a high-fat diet, oral administration of LPSp at 0.3 or 1 mg/kg body weight·day for 18 weeks significantly improved glucose metabolism and lipid profiles. The LPSp treatment also reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine expression and oxidative-burst activity in the peripheral blood. Moreover, LPSp significantly reduced brain Aβ burden and memory impairment as seen in the water maze test, although we could not confirm a significant enhancement of Aβ phagocytosis in microglia isolated from the brains after treatment. Taken together, our results show that LPSp holds promise as a preventative therapy for AD or AD-related diseases induced by impairment of metabolic functions.

Effects of aripiprazole and haloperidol on neural activation during a simple motor task in healthy individuals: A functional MRI study.

PubMed

Goozee, Rhianna; O'Daly, Owen; Handley, Rowena; Reis Marques, Tiago; Taylor, Heather; McQueen, Grant; Hubbard, Kathryn; Pariante, Carmine; Mondelli, Valeria; Reinders, Antje A T S; Dazzan, Paola

2017-04-01

The dopaminergic system plays a key role in motor function and motor abnormalities have been shown to be a specific feature of psychosis. Due to their dopaminergic action, antipsychotic drugs may be expected to modulate motor function, but the precise effects of these drugs on motor function remain unclear. We carried out a within-subject, double-blind, randomized study of the effects of aripiprazole, haloperidol and placebo on motor function in 20 healthy men. For each condition, motor performance on an auditory-paced task was investigated. We entered maps of neural activation into a random effects general linear regression model to investigate motor function main effects. Whole-brain imaging revealed a significant treatment effect in a distributed network encompassing posterior orbitofrontal/anterior insula cortices, and the inferior temporal and postcentral gyri. Post-hoc comparison of treatments showed neural activation after aripiprazole did not differ significantly from placebo in either voxel-wise or region of interest analyses, with the results above driven primarily by haloperidol. We also observed a simple main effect of haloperidol compared with placebo, with increased task-related recruitment of posterior cingulate and precentral gyri. Furthermore, region of interest analyses revealed greater activation following haloperidol compared with placebo in the precentral and post-central gyri, and the putamen. These diverse modifications in cortical motor activation may relate to the different pharmacological profiles of haloperidol and aripiprazole, although the specific mechanisms underlying these differences remain unclear. Evaluating healthy individuals can allow investigation of the effects of different antipsychotics on cortical activation, independently of either disease-related pathology or previous treatment. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1833-1845, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Contrasting Levels of Molecular Evolution on the Mouse X Chromosome

PubMed Central

Larson, Erica L.; Vanderpool, Dan; Keeble, Sara; Zhou, Meng; Sarver, Brice A. J.; Smith, Andrew D.; Dean, Matthew D.; Good, Jeffrey M.

2016-01-01

The mammalian X chromosome has unusual evolutionary dynamics compared to autosomes. Faster-X evolution of spermatogenic protein-coding genes is known to be most pronounced for genes expressed late in spermatogenesis, but it is unclear if these patterns extend to other forms of molecular divergence. We tested for faster-X evolution in mice spanning three different forms of molecular evolution—divergence in protein sequence, gene expression, and DNA methylation—across different developmental stages of spermatogenesis. We used FACS to isolate individual cell populations and then generated cell-specific transcriptome profiles across different stages of spermatogenesis in two subspecies of house mice (Mus musculus), thereby overcoming a fundamental limitation of previous studies on whole tissues. We found faster-X protein evolution at all stages of spermatogenesis and faster-late protein evolution for both X-linked and autosomal genes. In contrast, there was less expression divergence late in spermatogenesis (slower late) on the X chromosome and for autosomal genes expressed primarily in testis (testis-biased). We argue that slower-late expression divergence reflects strong regulatory constraints imposed during this critical stage of sperm development and that these constraints are particularly acute on the tightly regulated sex chromosomes. We also found slower-X DNA methylation divergence based on genome-wide bisulfite sequencing of sperm from two species of mice (M. musculus and M. spretus), although it is unclear whether slower-X DNA methylation reflects development constraints in sperm or other X-linked phenomena. Our study clarifies key differences in patterns of regulatory and protein evolution across spermatogenesis that are likely to have important consequences for mammalian sex chromosome evolution, male fertility, and speciation. PMID:27317678

Pitch and Time Processing in Speech and Tones: The Effects of Musical Training and Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sares, Anastasia G.; Foster, Nicholas E. V.; Allen, Kachina; Hyde, Krista L.

2018-01-01

Purpose: Musical training is often linked to enhanced auditory discrimination, but the relative roles of pitch and time in music and speech are unclear. Moreover, it is unclear whether pitch and time processing are correlated across individuals and how they may be affected by attention. This study aimed to examine pitch and time processing in…

Native State Volume Fluctuations in Proteins as a Mechanism for Dynamic Allostery.

PubMed

Law, Anthony B; Sapienza, Paul J; Zhang, Jun; Zuo, Xiaobing; Petit, Chad M

2017-03-15

Allostery enables tight regulation of protein function in the cellular environment. Although existing models of allostery are firmly rooted in the current structure-function paradigm, the mechanistic basis for allostery in the absence of structural change remains unclear. In this study, we show that a typical globular protein is able to undergo significant changes in volume under native conditions while exhibiting no additional changes in protein structure. These native state volume fluctuations were found to correlate with changes in internal motions that were previously recognized as a source of allosteric entropy. This finding offers a novel mechanistic basis for allostery in the absence of canonical structural change. The unexpected observation that function can be derived from expanded, low density protein states has broad implications for our understanding of allostery and suggests that the general concept of the native state be expanded to allow for more variable physical dimensions with looser packing.

Exploration of Spinal Cord Aging-Related Proteins Using a Proteomics Approach.

PubMed

Kamiya, Koshiro; Furuya, Takeo; Hashimoto, Masayuki; Mannoji, Chikato; Inada, Taigo; Ota, Mitsutoshi; Maki, Satoshi; Ijima, Yasushi; Saito, Junya; Kitamura, Mitsuhiro; Ohtori, Seiji; Orita, Sumihisa; Inage, Kazuhide; Yamazaki, Masashi; Koda, Masao

2017-01-01

How aging affects the spinal cord at a molecular level is unclear. The aim of this study was to explore spinal cord aging-related proteins that may be involved in pathological mechanisms of age-related changes in the spinal cord. Spinal cords of 2-year-old and 8-week-old female Sprague-Dawley rats were dissected from the animals. Protein samples were subjected to 2-dimentional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry. Screened proteins were further investigated with immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Among the screened proteins, we selected α-crystallin B-subunit (αB-crystallin) and peripherin for further investigation because these proteins were previously reported to be related to central nervous system pathologies. Immunohistochemistry and Western blotting revealed significant upregulation of αB-crystallin and peripherin expression in aged rat spinal cord. Further exploration is needed to elucidate the precise mechanism and potential role of these upregulated proteins in spinal cord aging processes.

Category-dependent and category-independent goal-value codes in human ventromedial prefrontal cortex

PubMed Central

McNamee, Daniel; Rangel, Antonio; O’Doherty, John P

2013-01-01

To choose between manifestly distinct options, it is suggested that the brain assigns values to goals using a common currency. Although previous studies have reported activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) correlating with the value of different goal stimuli, it remains unclear whether such goal-value representations are independent of the associated stimulus categorization, as required by a common currency. Using multivoxel pattern analyses on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, we found a region of medial prefrontal cortex to contain a distributed goal-value code that is independent of stimulus category. More ventrally in the vmPFC, we found spatially distinct areas of the medial orbitofrontal cortex to contain unique category-dependent distributed value codes for food and consumer items. These results implicate the medial prefrontal cortex in the implementation of a common currency and suggest a ventral versus dorsal topographical organization of value signals in the vmPFC. PMID:23416449

The role of line junctions in object recognition: The case of reading musical notation.

PubMed

Wong, Yetta Kwailing; Wong, Alan C-N

2018-04-30

Previous work has shown that line junctions are informative features for visual perception of objects, letters, and words. However, the sources of such sensitivity and their generalizability to other object categories are largely unclear. We addressed these questions by studying perceptual expertise in reading musical notation, a domain in which individuals with different levels of expertise are readily available. We observed that removing line junctions created by the contact between musical notes and staff lines selectively impaired recognition performance in experts and intermediate readers, but not in novices. The degree of performance impairment was predicted by individual fluency in reading musical notation. Our findings suggest that line junctions provide diagnostic information about object identity across various categories, including musical notation. However, human sensitivity to line junctions does not readily transfer from familiar to unfamiliar object categories, and has to be acquired through perceptual experience with the specific objects.

Luminal Progenitors Restrict Their Lineage Potential during Mammary Gland Development

PubMed Central

Rodilla, Veronica; Dasti, Alessandro; Huyghe, Mathilde; Lafkas, Daniel; Laurent, Cécile; Reyal, Fabien; Fre, Silvia

2015-01-01

The hierarchical relationships between stem cells and progenitors that guide mammary gland morphogenesis are still poorly defined. While multipotent basal stem cells have been found within the myoepithelial compartment, the in vivo lineage potential of luminal progenitors is unclear. Here we used the expression of the Notch1 receptor, previously implicated in mammary gland development and tumorigenesis, to elucidate the hierarchical organization of mammary stem/progenitor cells by lineage tracing. We found that Notch1 expression identifies multipotent stem cells in the embryonic mammary bud, which progressively restrict their lineage potential during mammary ductal morphogenesis to exclusively generate an ERαneg luminal lineage postnatally. Importantly, our results show that Notch1-labelled cells represent the alveolar progenitors that expand during pregnancy and survive multiple successive involutions. This study reveals that postnatal luminal epithelial cells derive from distinct self-sustained lineages that may represent the cells of origin of different breast cancer subtypes. PMID:25688859

Luminal progenitors restrict their lineage potential during mammary gland development.

PubMed

Rodilla, Veronica; Dasti, Alessandro; Huyghe, Mathilde; Lafkas, Daniel; Laurent, Cécile; Reyal, Fabien; Fre, Silvia

2015-02-01

The hierarchical relationships between stem cells and progenitors that guide mammary gland morphogenesis are still poorly defined. While multipotent basal stem cells have been found within the myoepithelial compartment, the in vivo lineage potential of luminal progenitors is unclear. Here we used the expression of the Notch1 receptor, previously implicated in mammary gland development and tumorigenesis, to elucidate the hierarchical organization of mammary stem/progenitor cells by lineage tracing. We found that Notch1 expression identifies multipotent stem cells in the embryonic mammary bud, which progressively restrict their lineage potential during mammary ductal morphogenesis to exclusively generate an ERαneg luminal lineage postnatally. Importantly, our results show that Notch1-labelled cells represent the alveolar progenitors that expand during pregnancy and survive multiple successive involutions. This study reveals that postnatal luminal epithelial cells derive from distinct self-sustained lineages that may represent the cells of origin of different breast cancer subtypes.

Emergence of fractal geometry on the surface of human cervical epithelial cells during progression towards cancer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dokukin, M. E.; Guz, N. V.; Woodworth, C. D.; Sokolov, I.

2015-03-01

Despite considerable advances in understanding the molecular nature of cancer, many biophysical aspects of malignant development are still unclear. Here we study physical alterations of the surface of human cervical epithelial cells during stepwise in vitro development of cancer (from normal to immortal (premalignant), to malignant). We use atomic force microscopy to demonstrate that development of cancer is associated with emergence of simple fractal geometry on the cell surface. Contrary to the previously expected correlation between cancer and fractals, we find that fractal geometry occurs only at a limited period of development when immortal cells become cancerous; further cancer progression demonstrates deviation from fractal. Because of the connection between fractal behaviour and chaos (or far from equilibrium behaviour), these results suggest that chaotic behaviour coincides with the cancer transformation of the immortalization stage of cancer development, whereas further cancer progression recovers determinism of processes responsible for cell surface formation.

Resistivity scaling and electron relaxation times in metallic nanowires

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moors, Kristof, E-mail: kristof@itf.fys.kuleuven.be; Imec, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven; Sorée, Bart

2014-08-14

We study the resistivity scaling in nanometer-sized metallic wires due to surface roughness and grain-boundaries, currently the main cause of electron scattering in nanoscaled interconnects. The resistivity has been obtained with the Boltzmann transport equation, adopting the relaxation time approximation of the distribution function and the effective mass approximation for the conducting electrons. The relaxation times are calculated exactly, using Fermi's golden rule, resulting in a correct relaxation time for every sub-band state contributing to the transport. In general, the relaxation time strongly depends on the sub-band state, something that remained unclear with the methods of previous work. The resistivitymore » scaling is obtained for different roughness and grain-boundary properties, showing large differences in scaling behavior and relaxation times. Our model clearly indicates that the resistivity is dominated by grain-boundary scattering, easily surpassing the surface roughness contribution by a factor of 10.« less

PKM2 Thr454 phosphorylation increases its nuclear translocation and promotes xenograft tumor growth in A549 human lung cancer cells

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yu, Zhenhai, E-mail: tomsyu@163.com; Huang, Liangqian; Qiao, Pengyun

Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) is a key enzyme of glycolysis which is highly expressed in many tumor cells, and plays an important role in the Warburg effect. In previous study, we found PIM2 phosphorylates PKM2 at Thr454 residue (Yu, etl 2013). However, the functions of PKM2 Thr454 modification in cancer cells still remain unclear. Here we find PKM2 translocates into the nucleus after Thr454 phosphorylation. Replacement of wild type PKM2 with a mutant (T454A) enhances mitochondrial respiration, decreases pentose phosphate pathway, and enhances chemosensitivity in A549 cells. In addition, the mutant (T454A) PKM2 reduces xenograft tumor growth in nude mice. Thesemore » findings demonstrate that PKM2 T454 phosphorylation is a potential therapeutic target in lung cancer.« less

Action history influences subsequent movement via two distinct processes

PubMed Central

Poh, Eugene; de Rugy, Aymar

2017-01-01

The characteristics of goal-directed actions tend to resemble those of previously executed actions, but it is unclear whether such effects depend strictly on action history, or also reflect context-dependent processes related to predictive motor planning. Here we manipulated the time available to initiate movements after a target was specified, and studied the effects of predictable movement sequences, to systematically dissociate effects of the most recently executed movement from the movement required next. We found that directional biases due to recent movement history strongly depend upon movement preparation time, suggesting an important contribution from predictive planning. However predictive biases co-exist with an independent source of bias that depends only on recent movement history. The results indicate that past experience influences movement execution through a combination of temporally-stable processes that are strictly use-dependent, and dynamically-evolving and context-dependent processes that reflect prediction of future actions. PMID:29058670

PKM2 Thr454 phosphorylation increases its nuclear translocation and promotes xenograft tumor growth in A549 human lung cancer cells.

PubMed

Yu, Zhenhai; Huang, Liangqian; Qiao, Pengyun; Jiang, Aifang; Wang, Li; Yang, Tingting; Tang, Shengjian; Zhang, Wei; Ren, Chune

2016-05-13

Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) is a key enzyme of glycolysis which is highly expressed in many tumor cells, and plays an important role in the Warburg effect. In previous study, we found PIM2 phosphorylates PKM2 at Thr454 residue (Yu, etl 2013). However, the functions of PKM2 Thr454 modification in cancer cells still remain unclear. Here we find PKM2 translocates into the nucleus after Thr454 phosphorylation. Replacement of wild type PKM2 with a mutant (T454A) enhances mitochondrial respiration, decreases pentose phosphate pathway, and enhances chemosensitivity in A549 cells. In addition, the mutant (T454A) PKM2 reduces xenograft tumor growth in nude mice. These findings demonstrate that PKM2 T454 phosphorylation is a potential therapeutic target in lung cancer. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Identification of syncytial mutations in a clinical isolate of herpes simplex virus 2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Muggeridge, Martin I.; Grantham, Michael L.; Center for Molecular and Tumor Virology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA 71130

2004-10-25

Small polykaryocytes resulting from cell fusion are found in herpes simplex virus (HSV) lesions in patients, but their significance for viral spread and pathogenesis is unclear. Although syncytial variants causing extensive fusion in tissue culture can be readily isolated from laboratory strains, they are rarely found in clinical isolates, suggesting that extensive cell fusion may be deleterious in vivo. Syncytial mutations have previously been identified for several laboratory strains, but not for clinical isolates of HSV type 2. To address this deficiency, we studied a recent syncytial clinical isolate, finding it to be a mixture of two syncytial and onemore » nonsyncytial strain. The two syncytial strains have novel mutations in glycoprotein B, and in vitro cell fusion assays confirmed that they are responsible for syncytium formation. This panel of clinical strains may be ideal for examining the effect of increased cell fusion on pathogenesis.« less

New constraints on Lyman-α opacity using 92 quasar lines of sight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bosman, Sarah E. I.; Fan, Xiaohui; Jiang, Linhua; Reed, Sophie; Matsuoka, Yoshiki; Becker, George; Rorai, Albert

2018-05-01

The large scatter in Lyman-α opacity at z > 5.3 has been an ongoing mystery, prompting a flurry of numerical models. A uniform ultra-violet background has been ruled out at those redshifts, but it is unclear whether any proposed models produce sufficient inhomogeneities. In this paper we provide an update on the measurement which first highlighted the issue: Lyman-α effective optical depth along high-z quasar lines of sight. We nearly triple on the previous sample size in such a study thanks to the cooperation of the DES-VHS, SHELLQs, and SDSS collaborations as well as new reductions and spectra. We find that a uniform UVB model is ruled out at 5.1 < z < 5.3, as well as higher redshifts, which is perplexing. We provide the first such measurements at z ~ 6. None of the numerical models we confronted to this data could reproduce the observed scatter.

Spatial Working Memory Performance and fMRI Activation Interactions in Abstinent Adolescent Marijuana Users

PubMed Central

Padula, Claudia B.; Schweinsburg, Alecia D.; Tapert, Susan F.

2008-01-01

Previous studies have suggested neural disruption and reorganization in adult marijuana users. However, it remains unclear whether these effects persist in adolescents after 28 days of abstinence and, if they do, what Performance × Brain Response interactions occur. Adolescent marijuana users (n = 17) and controls (n = 17) aged 16–18 years were recruited from local schools. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected after 28 days’ monitored abstinence as participants performed a spatial working memory task. Marijuana users show Performance × Brain Response interactions in the bilateral temporal lobes, left anterior cingulate, left parahippocampal gyrus, and right thalamus (clusters ≥ 1358 μl; p <.05), although groups do not differ on behavioral measures of task performance. Marijuana users show differences in brain response to a spatial working memory task despite adequate performance, suggesting a different approach to the task via altered neural pathways. PMID:18072830

Culture-specific familiarity equally mediates action representations across cultures.

PubMed

Umla-Runge, Katja; Fu, Xiaolan; Wang, Lamei; Zimmer, Hubert D

2014-01-01

Previous studies have shown that we need to distinguish between means and end information about actions. It is unclear how these two subtypes of action information relate to each other with theoretical accounts postulating the superiority of end over means information and others linking separate means and end routes of processing to actions of differential meaningfulness. Action meaningfulness or familiarity differs between cultures. In a cross-cultural setting, we investigated how action familiarity influences recognition memory for means and end information. Object directed actions of differential familiarity were presented to Chinese and German participants. Action familiarity modulated the representation of means and end information in both cultures in the same way, although the effects were based on different stimulus sets. Our results suggest that, in the representation of actions in memory, end information is superordinate to means information. This effect is independent of culture whereas action familiarity is not.

Speech Cues Contribute to Audiovisual Spatial Integration

PubMed Central

Bishop, Christopher W.; Miller, Lee M.

2011-01-01

Speech is the most important form of human communication but ambient sounds and competing talkers often degrade its acoustics. Fortunately the brain can use visual information, especially its highly precise spatial information, to improve speech comprehension in noisy environments. Previous studies have demonstrated that audiovisual integration depends strongly on spatiotemporal factors. However, some integrative phenomena such as McGurk interference persist even with gross spatial disparities, suggesting that spatial alignment is not necessary for robust integration of audiovisual place-of-articulation cues. It is therefore unclear how speech-cues interact with audiovisual spatial integration mechanisms. Here, we combine two well established psychophysical phenomena, the McGurk effect and the ventriloquist's illusion, to explore this dependency. Our results demonstrate that conflicting spatial cues may not interfere with audiovisual integration of speech, but conflicting speech-cues can impede integration in space. This suggests a direct but asymmetrical influence between ventral ‘what’ and dorsal ‘where’ pathways. PMID:21909378

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Law, Anthony B.; Sapienza, Paul J.; Zhang, Jun

Allostery enables tight regulation of protein function in the cellular environment. While existing models of allostery are firmly rooted in the current structure-function paradigm, the mechanistic basis for allostery in the absence of structural change remains unclear. In this study, we show that a typical globular protein is able to undergo significant changes in volume under native conditions while exhibiting no additional changes in protein structure. These native state volume fluctuations were found to correlate with changes in internal motions that were previously recognized as a source of allosteric entropy. This finding offers a novel mechanistic basis for allostery inmore » the absence of canonical structural change. As a result, the unexpected observation that function can be derived from expanded, low density protein states has broad implications for our understanding of allostery and suggests that the general concept of the native state be expanded to allow for more variable physical dimensions with looser packing.« less

Divided attention reduces resistance to distraction at encoding but not retrieval.

PubMed

Weeks, Jennifer C; Hasher, Lynn

2017-08-01

Older adults show implicit memory for previously seen distraction, an effect attributed to poor attentional control. It is unclear whether this effect results from lack of control over encoding during the distraction task, lack of retrieval constraint during the test task, or both. In the present study, we simulated poor distraction control in young adults using divided attention at encoding, at retrieval, at both times, or not at all. The encoding task was a 1-back task on pictures with distracting superimposed letter strings, some of which were words. The retrieval task was a word fragment completion task testing implicit memory for the distracting words. Attention was divided using an auditory odd digit detection task. Dividing attention at encoding, but not at retrieval, resulted in significant priming for distraction, which suggests that control over encoding processes is a primary determinant of distraction transfer in populations with low inhibitory control (e.g. older adults).

Searching for Electrical Properties, Phenomena and Mechanisms in the Construction and Function of Chromosomes

PubMed Central

Kanev, Ivan; Mei, Wai-Ning; Mizuno, Akira; DeHaai, Kristi; Sanmann, Jennifer; Hess, Michelle; Starr, Lois; Grove, Jennifer; Dave, Bhavana; Sanger, Warren

2013-01-01

Our studies reveal previously unidentified electrical properties of chromosomes: (1) chromosomes are amazingly similar in construction and function to electrical transformers; (2) chromosomes possess in their construction and function, components similar to those of electric generators, conductors, condensers, switches, and other components of electrical circuits; (3) chromosomes demonstrate in nano-scale level electromagnetic interactions, resonance, fusion and other phenomena similar to those described by equations in classical physics. These electrical properties and phenomena provide a possible explanation for unclear and poorly understood mechanisms in clinical genetics including: (a) electrically based mechanisms responsible for breaks, translocations, fusions, and other chromosomal abnormalities associated with cancer, intellectual disability, infertility, pregnancy loss, Down syndrome, and other genetic disorders; (b) electrically based mechanisms involved in crossing over, non-disjunction and other events during meiosis and mitosis; (c) mechanisms demonstrating heterochromatin to be electrically active and genetically important. PMID:24688715

Emerging of fractal geometry on surface of human cervical epithelial cells during progression towards cancer

PubMed Central

Dokukin, M. E.; Guz, N. V.; Woodworth, C.D.; Sokolov, I.

2015-01-01

Despite considerable advances in understanding the molecular nature of cancer, many biophysical aspects of malignant development are still unclear. Here we study physical alterations of the surface of human cervical epithelial cells during stepwise in vitro development of cancer (from normal to immortal (premalignant), to malignant). We use atomic force microscopy to demonstrate that development of cancer is associated with emergence of simple fractal geometry on the cell surface. Contrary to the previously expected correlation between cancer and fractals, we find that fractal geometry occurs only at a limited period of development when immortal cells become cancerous; further cancer progression demonstrates deviation from fractal. Because of the connection between fractal behaviour and chaos (or far from equilibrium behaviour), these results suggest that chaotic behaviour coincides with the cancer transformation of the immortalization stage of cancer development, whereas further cancer progression recovers determinism of processes responsible for cell surface formation. PMID:25844044

Impacts of surface gold mining on land use systems in Western Ghana.

PubMed

Schueler, Vivian; Kuemmerle, Tobias; Schröder, Hilmar

2011-07-01

Land use conflicts are becoming increasingly apparent from local to global scales. Surface gold mining is an extreme source of such a conflict, but mining impacts on local livelihoods often remain unclear. Our goal here was to assess land cover change due to gold surface mining in Western Ghana, one of the world's leading gold mining regions, and to study how these changes affected land use systems. We used Landsat satellite images from 1986-2002 to map land cover change and field interviews with farmers to understand the livelihood implications of mining-related land cover change. Our results showed that surface mining resulted in deforestation (58%), a substantial loss of farmland (45%) within mining concessions, and widespread spill-over effects as relocated farmers expand farmland into forests. This points to rapidly eroding livelihood foundations, suggesting that the environmental and social costs of Ghana's gold boom may be much higher than previously thought.

Towards a controlled vocabulary on software engineering education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pizard, Sebastián; Vallespir, Diego

2017-11-01

Software engineering is the discipline that develops all the aspects of the production of software. Although there are guidelines about what topics to include in a software engineering curricula, it is usually unclear which are the best methods to teach them. In any science discipline the construction of a classification schema is a common approach to understand a thematic area. This study examines previous publications in software engineering education to obtain a first controlled vocabulary (a more formal definition of a classification schema) in the field. Publications from 1988 to 2014 were collected and processed using automatic clustering techniques and the outcomes were analysed manually. The result is an initial controlled vocabulary with a taxonomy form with 43 concepts that were identified as the most used in the research publications. We present the classification of the concepts in three facets: 'what to teach', 'how to teach' and 'where to teach' and the evolution of concepts over time.

Direct imaging of macrophage activation during PDT treatment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Sheng; Zhou, Feifan; Chen, Wei R.; Xing, Da

2012-03-01

Mounting evidence describes a more complex progress of macrophage activation during photodynamic therapy (PDT), which performing distinct immunological functions and different physiologies on surrounding cells and tissues. Macrophage-targeted PDT has been applied in the selective killing of cells involved in inflammation and tumor. We have previously shown that PDT-mediated tumor cells apoptosis can induce a higher level immune response than necrosis, and enhance the macrophage activation. However, the molecular mechanism of macrophage activation during PDT-induced apoptotic cells (AC) still unclear. Here, we use confocal microscopy to image the phagocytosis of tumor cells by macrophages. We also observed that PDT-treated AC can activate Toll-like receptors (TLRs) which are present on macrophages surface. Besides, the increase in nitric oxide (NO) formation in macrophages was detected in real time by a laser scanning microscopy. This study provided more details for understanding the molecular mechanism of the immune response induced by PDT-treated AC.

Chocolate: food for moods.

PubMed

Wong, S Y; Lua, P L

2011-08-01

Chocolate is a popular food and its consumption has long been associated with enjoyment and pleasure. The effect of chocolate on mood too has long been recognised. Chocolate is thought to have interactions with neurotransmitters which contribute to mood modulation and appetite regulation. However, the evidence in chocolate and mood studies remains highly controversial. As more is known about the influence of chocolate on mood, the reasons for these effects appear increasingly complex and inter-related. We reviewed chocolate's properties and the principal hypotheses addressing its mood altering propensities. The relationship between chocolate and mood are highly complex, combining psychopharmacological components, nutritional and sensory characteristics of the food. Individual and situational differences on chocolate consumption may also exert influence on mood and the mixed results in previous research indicate that the direction of the association remains unclear. The association between chocolate consumption and emotions warrants further multi-prong investigations to substantiate chocolate's mood alterating propensity.

Untangling the Links among Athletic Involvement, Gender, Race, and Adolescent Academic Outcomes.

PubMed

Miller, Kathleen E; Melnick, Merrill J; Barnes, Grace M; Farrell, Michael P; Sabo, Don

2005-06-01

Although previous research has established that high school sports participation may be associated with positive academic outcomes, the parameters of the relationship remain unclear. Using a longitudinal sample of nearly 600 Western New York adolescents, this study examined gender- and race-specific differences in the impact of two dimensions of adolescent athletic involvement ("jock" identity and athlete status) on changes in school grades and school misconduct over a two-year interval. Female and black adolescents who identified themselves as "jocks" reported lower grades than those who did not, whereas female athletes reported higher grades than female nonathletes. Jocks also reported significantly more misconduct (including skipping school, cutting classes, having someone from home called to the school for disciplinary purposes, and being sent to the principal's office) than nonjocks. Gender moderated the relationship between athlete status and school misconduct; athletic participation had a less salutary effect on misconduct for girls than for boys.

Acute kidney injury in the fetus and neonate

PubMed Central

Nada, Arwa; Bonachea, Elizabeth M.; Askenazi, David

2017-01-01

SUMMARY Acute kidney injury (AKI) is an under-recognized morbidity of neonates; the incidence remains unclear due to the absence of a unified definition of AKI in this population and because previous studies have varied greatly in screening for AKI with serum creatinine and urine output assessments. Premature infants may be born with less than half of the nephrons compared with term neonates, predisposing them to chronic kidney disease (CKD) early on in life and as they age. AKI can also lead to CKD, and premature infants with AKI may be at very high risk for long-term kidney problems. AKI in neonates is often multifactorial and may result from prenatal, perinatal, or postnatal insults as well as any combination thereof. This review focuses on the causes of AKI, the importance of early detection, the management of AKI in neonates, and long-term sequela of AKI in neonates. PMID:28034548

Designing symbiosis.

PubMed

Hosoda, Kazufumi; Yomo, Tetsuya

2011-01-01

Organisms rarely live as isolated species and usually show symbiosis in nature. As natural selection is not simple in symbiosis, the establishment and development of symbiosis is still unclear. Insight can be gained by not only retracing the history of well-developed natural symbiotic relationships, but also by observing the development of nascent symbiosis. By using synthetic symbiosis composed of two previously noninteracting populations, we can observe the establishment and its development. We have recently simulated the establishment of nascent symbiosis using two genetically engineered auxotrophic strains of Escherichia coli. One strain, 10 h after mixing with the partner strain, began to oversupply metabolites essential for the partner's growth, eventually leading to continual growth of both strains. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the oversupply was accompanied by global metabolic changes. This study demonstrated that an organism has the potential to adapt to the first encounter with another organism to establish symbiosis.

Separate and combined effects of temperature and precipitation change on maize yields in sub-Saharan Africa for mid- to late-21st century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waha, K.; Müller, C.; Rolinski, S.

2013-07-01

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important food crops and very common in all parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010 53 million tons of maize were produced in sub-Saharan Africa on about one third of the total harvested cropland area (~ 33 million ha). Our aim is to identify the limiting agroclimatic variable for maize growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa by analyzing the separated and combined effects of temperature and precipitation. Under changing climate, both climate variables are projected to change severely, and their impacts on crop yields are frequently assessed using process-based crop models. However it is often unclear which agroclimatic variable will have the strongest influence on crop growth and development under climate change and previous studies disagree over this question.

Brain correlates of subjective freedom of choice.

PubMed

Filevich, Elisa; Vanneste, Patricia; Brass, Marcel; Fias, Wim; Haggard, Patrick; Kühn, Simone

2013-12-01

The subjective feeling of free choice is an important feature of human experience. Experimental tasks have typically studied free choice by contrasting free and instructed selection of response alternatives. These tasks have been criticised, and it remains unclear how they relate to the subjective feeling of freely choosing. We replicated previous findings of the fMRI correlates of free choice, defined objectively. We introduced a novel task in which participants could experience and report a graded sense of free choice. BOLD responses for conditions subjectively experienced as free identified a postcentral area distinct from the areas typically considered to be involved in free action. Thus, the brain correlates of subjective feeling of free action were not directly related to any established brain correlates of objectively-defined free action. Our results call into question traditional assumptions about the relation between subjective experience of choosing and activity in the brain's so-called voluntary motor areas. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Brain correlates of subjective freedom of choice

PubMed Central

Filevich, Elisa; Vanneste, Patricia; Brass, Marcel; Fias, Wim; Haggard, Patrick; Kühn, Simone

2013-01-01

The subjective feeling of free choice is an important feature of human experience. Experimental tasks have typically studied free choice by contrasting free and instructed selection of response alternatives. These tasks have been criticised, and it remains unclear how they relate to the subjective feeling of freely choosing. We replicated previous findings of the fMRI correlates of free choice, defined objectively. We introduced a novel task in which participants could experience and report a graded sense of free choice. BOLD responses for conditions subjectively experienced as free identified a postcentral area distinct from the areas typically considered to be involved in free action. Thus, the brain correlates of subjective feeling of free action were not directly related to any established brain correlates of objectively-defined free action. Our results call into question traditional assumptions about the relation between subjective experience of choosing and activity in the brain’s so-called voluntary motor areas. PMID:24021855

Effects of Prosocial, Neutral, and Violent Video Games on Children's Helpful and Hurtful Behaviors.

PubMed

Saleem, Muniba; Anderson, Craig A; Gentile, Douglas A

2012-01-01

Recent research reveals that playing prosocial video games increases prosocial cognitions, positive affect, and helpful behaviors [Gentile et al., 2009; Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2009, 2010, 2011]. These results are consistent with the social-cognitive models of social behavior such as the general learning model [Buckley and Anderson, 2006]. However, no experimental studies have examined such effects on children. Previous research on violent video games suggests that short-term effects of video games are largely based on priming of existing behavioral scripts. Thus, it is unclear whether younger children will show similar effects. This research had 9-14 years olds play a prosocial, neutral, or violent video game, and assessed helpful and hurtful behaviors simultaneously through a new tangram measure. Prosocial games increased helpful and decreased hurtful behavior, whereas violent games had the opposite effects. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Association between depression in carers and malnutrition in children aged 6 months to 5 years

PubMed Central

Ganiyu, Adewale B.; Firth, Jacqueline A.

2017-01-01

Background Childhood malnutrition is an important risk factor for child mortality and underlies close to 50% of child deaths worldwide. Previous studies have found an association between maternal depression and child malnutrition, but it is not known whether this association exists in Botswana. In addition, previous studies excluded non-maternal primary caregivers (PCGs). It is unclear whether the association between primary caregiver depression and child malnutrition remains when non-maternal PCGs are included. Aim The aim of this study was to determine if there is an association between PCG depression and malnutrition in children aged between 6 months and 5 years in Mahalapye, Botswana. Setting The study was conducted in the child welfare clinics of Xhosa and Airstrip clinics, two primary health care facilities in Mahalapye, Botswana. Methods This was a case control study. Cases were malnourished children aged between 6 months and 5 years, and controls were non-malnourished children matched for age and gender. The outcome of interest was depression in the PCGs of the cases and controls, which was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ 9), a depression screening tool. Results From a sample of 171 children, 84 of whom were malnourished, we found that the malnourished children were significantly more likely to have depressed PCGs (odds ratio = 4.33; 95% CI: 1.89, 9.89) than non-malnourished children in the 6-month to 5-year age group; the PCGs of malnourished children also had lower educational status. Conclusion This study found a significant association between PCG depression and child malnutrition. PMID:28155288

Dopamine D3 receptors regulate reconsolidation of cocaine memory.

PubMed

Yan, Y; Kong, H; Wu, E J; Newman, A H; Xu, M

2013-06-25

Memories of learned associations between the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse and environmental cues contribute to craving and relapse in humans. Disruption of reconsolidation dampens or even erases previous memories. Dopamine (DA) mediates the acquisition of reward memory and drugs of abuse can pathologically change related neuronal circuits in the mesolimbic DA system. Previous studies showed that DA D3 receptors are involved in cocaine-conditioned place preference (CPP) and reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behavior. However, the role of D3 receptors in reconsolidation of cocaine-induced reward memory remains unclear. In the present study, we combined genetic and pharmacological approaches to investigate the role of D3 receptors in reconsolidation of cocaine-induced CPP. We found that the mutation of the D3 receptor gene weakened reconsolidation of cocaine-induced CPP in mice triggered by a 3-min (min) retrieval. Furthermore, treatment of a selective D3 receptor antagonist PG01037 immediately following the 3-min retrieval disrupted reconsolidation of cocaine-induced CPP in wild-type mice and such disruption remained at least 1 week after the 3-min retrieval. These results suggest that D3 receptors play a key role in reconsolidation of cocaine-induced CPP in mice, and that pharmacological blockade of these receptors may be therapeutic for the treatment of cocaine craving and relapse in clinical settings. Copyright © 2013 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does Observation of Postural Imbalance Induce a Postural Reaction?

PubMed Central

Tia, Banty; Saimpont, Arnaud; Paizis, Christos; Mourey, France; Fadiga, Luciano; Pozzo, Thierry

2011-01-01

Background Several studies bring evidence that action observation elicits contagious responses during social interactions. However automatic imitative tendencies are generally inhibited and it remains unclear in which conditions mere action observation triggers motor behaviours. In this study, we addressed the question of contagious postural responses when observing human imbalance. Methodology/Principal Findings We recorded participants' body sway while they observed a fixation cross (control condition), an upright point-light display of a gymnast balancing on a rope, and the same point-light display presented upside down. Our results showed that, when the upright stimulus was displayed prior to the inverted one, centre of pressure area and antero-posterior path length were significantly greater in the upright condition compared to the control and upside down conditions. Conclusions/Significance These results demonstrate a contagious postural reaction suggesting a partial inefficiency of inhibitory processes. Further, kinematic information was sufficient to trigger this reaction. The difference recorded between the upright and upside down conditions indicates that the contagion effect was dependent on the integration of gravity constraints by body kinematics. Interestingly, the postural response was sensitive to habituation, and seemed to disappear when the observer was previously shown an inverted display. The motor contagion recorded here is consistent with previous work showing vegetative output during observation of an effortful movement and could indicate that lower level control facilitates contagion effects. PMID:21423622

The Root Cause of the Overheating Problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liou, Meng-Sing

2017-01-01

Previously we identified the receding flow, where two fluid streams recede from each other, as an open numerical problem, because all well-known numerical fluxes give an anomalous temperature rise, thus called the overheating problem. This phenomenon, although presented in several textbooks, and many previous publications, has scarcely been satisfactorily addressed and the root cause of the overheating problem not well understood. We found that this temperature rise was solely connected to entropy rise and proposed to use the method of characteristics to eradicate the problem. However, the root cause of the entropy production was still unclear. In the present study, we identify the cause of this problem: the entropy rise is rooted in the pressure flux in a finite volume formulation and is implanted at the first time step. It is found theoretically inevitable for all existing numerical flux schemes used in the finite volume setting, as confirmed by numerical tests. This difficulty cannot be eliminated by manipulating time step, grid size, spatial accuracy, etc, although the rate of overheating depends on the flux scheme used. Finally, we incorporate the entropy transport equation, in place of the energy equation, to ensure preservation of entropy, thus correcting this temperature anomaly. Its applicability is demonstrated for some relevant 1D and 2D problems. Thus, the present study validates that the entropy generated ab initio is the genesis of the overheating problem.

Plastome phylogeny and early diversification of Brassicaceae.

PubMed

Guo, Xinyi; Liu, Jianquan; Hao, Guoqian; Zhang, Lei; Mao, Kangshan; Wang, Xiaojuan; Zhang, Dan; Ma, Tao; Hu, Quanjun; Al-Shehbaz, Ihsan A; Koch, Marcus A

2017-02-16

The family Brassicaceae encompasses diverse species, many of which have high scientific and economic importance. Early diversifications and phylogenetic relationships between major lineages or clades remain unclear. Here we re-investigate Brassicaceae phylogeny with complete plastomes from 51 species representing all four lineages or 5 of 6 major clades (A, B, C, E and F) as identified in earlier studies. Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses using a partitioned supermatrix of 77 protein coding genes resulted in nearly identical tree topologies exemplified by highly supported relationships between clades. All four lineages were well identified and interrelationships between them were resolved. The previously defined Clade C was found to be paraphyletic (the genus Megadenia formed a separate lineage), while the remaining clades were monophyletic. Clade E (lineage III) was sister to clades B + C rather than to all core Brassicaceae (clades A + B + C or lineages I + II), as suggested by a previous transcriptome study. Molecular dating based on plastome phylogeny supported the origin of major lineages or clades between late Oligocene and early Miocene, and the following radiative diversification across the family took place within a short timescale. In addition, gene losses in the plastomes occurred multiple times during the evolutionary diversification of the family. Plastome phylogeny illustrates the early diversification of cruciferous species. This phylogeny will facilitate our further understanding of evolution and adaptation of numerous species in the model family Brassicaceae.

Splenic infarction associated with sickle cell trait at low altitude.

PubMed

Seegars, Mary Beth; Brett, Allan S

2015-12-01

Sickle cell trait is widely known to be associated with splenic infarction at high altitudes. Although textbooks and reviews imply that this complication does not occur at low altitudes, we encountered such a case and identified several previous cases in the literature. An 18-year-old woman with sickle cell trait who resided near sea level presented with left upper quadrant abdominal pain and was found to have multiple splenic infarcts. She was otherwise well, with no comorbidities that would predispose to hypoxemia or vascular injury. A review of the literature revealed 12 previously published cases of low-altitude splenic infarction in patients with sickle trait; 7 of those patients had comorbidities that likely predisposed to splenic infarction. None. Spontaneous splenic infarction can occur in patients with sickle trait who live at low altitudes. It is unclear whether this complication is rare, or whether it is relatively common but under-recognized.

Mortality estimate of Chinese mystery snail, Bellamya chinensis (Reeve, 1863) in a Nebraska reservoir

USGS Publications Warehouse

Haak, Danielle M.; Chaine, Noelle M.; Stephen, Bruce J.; Wong, Alec; Allen, Craig R.

2013-01-01

The Chinese mystery snail (Bellamya chinensis) is an aquatic invasive species found throughout the USA. Little is known about this species’ life history or ecology, and only one population estimate has been published, for Wild Plum Lake in southeast Nebraska. A recent die-off event occurred at this same reservoir and we present a mortality estimate for this B. chinensis population using a quadrat approach. Assuming uniform distribution throughout the newly-exposed lake bed (20,900 m2), we estimate 42,845 individuals died during this event, amounting to approximately 17% of the previously-estimated population size of 253,570. Assuming uniform distribution throughout all previously-reported available habitat (48,525 m2), we estimate 99,476 individuals died, comprising 39% of the previously-reported adult population. The die-off occurred during an extreme drought event, which was coincident with abnormally hot weather. However, the exact reason of the die-off is still unclear. More monitoring of the population dynamics of B. chinensis is necessary to further our understanding of this species’ ecology.

The Effect and Value of a WebQuest Activity on Weather in a 5th Grade Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oliver, Deborah

2010-01-01

WebQuests are increasing in popularity across the country, yet it remains unclear whether WebQuests confer a significant benefit in student content learning. In addition, the perceptions of teachers regarding the classroom value and efficacy of WebQuests in teaching higher level thinking skills are still unclear. The goals of the study were (a) to…

Reward and punishment act as distinct factors in guiding behavior

PubMed Central

Kubanek, Jan; Snyder, Lawrence H; Abrams, Richard A

2015-01-01

Behavior rests on the experience of reinforcement and punishment. It has been unclear whether reinforcement and punishment act as oppositely valenced components of a single behavioral factor, or whether these two kinds of outcomes play fundamentally distinct behavioral roles. To this end, we varied the magnitude of a reward or a penalty experienced following a choice using monetary tokens. The outcome of each trial was independent of the outcome of the previous trial, which enabled us to isolate and study the effect on behavior of each outcome magnitude in single trials. As expected, we found that a reward led to a repetition of the previous choice, whereas a penalty led to an avoidance of the previous choice. However, the effects of the reward magnitude and the penalty magnitude revealed a striking asymmetry. The choice repetition effect of a reward strongly scaled with the magnitude of the reward. In a marked contrast, the avoidance effect of a penalty was flat, not influenced by the magnitude of the penalty. These effects were mechanistically described using the Reinforcement Learning model after the model was updated to account for the penalty-based asymmetry. The asymmetry in the effects of the reward magnitude and the punishment magnitude was so striking that it is diffcult to conceive that one factor is just a weighted or transformed form of the other factor. Instead, the data suggest that rewards and penalties are fundamentally distinct factors in governing behavior. PMID:25824862

New High Pressure Phase of CaCO3: Implication for the Deep Diamond Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mao, Z.; Li, X.; Zhang, Z.; Lin, J. F.; Ni, H.; Prakapenka, V.

2017-12-01

Surface carbon can be transported to the Earth's deep interior through sinking subduction slabs. Carbonates, including CaCO3, MgCO3 and MgCa(CO3)2, are important carbon carriers for the deep carbon cycle. Experimental studies on the phase stability of carbonates with coexisting mantle minerals at relevant pressure and temperature conditions are thus important for understanding the deep carbon cycle. In particular, recent petrological studies have revealed the evidence for the transportation of CaCO3 to the depth at least of the top lower mantle by analyzing the diamond inclusions. Yet the phase stability of CaCO3 at relevant pressure and temperature conditions of the top lower mantle is still unclear. Previous single-crystal study has shown that CaCO3 transforms from the CaCO3-III structure to CaCO3-VI at 15 GPa and 300 K. The CaCO3-VI is stable at least up to 40 GPa at 300 K. At high temperatures, CaCO3 in the aragonite structure will directly transform into the post-aragonite structure at 40 GPa. However, a recent theoretical study predicted a new phase of CaCO3 with a space group of P21/c between 32 and 48 GPa which is different from previous experimental results. In this study, we have investigated the phase stability of CaCO3 at high pressure-temperature conditions using synchrotron X-ray diffraction in laser-heated diamond anvil cells. We report the discovery of a new phase of CaCO3 at relevant pressure-temperature conditions of the top lower mantle which is consistent with previous theoretical predictions. This new phase is an important carrier for the transportation of carbon to the Earth's lower mantle and crucial for growing deep diamonds in the region.

Usher syndrome associated with Fuchs' heterochromic uveitis.

PubMed

Lichtinger, Alejandro; Chowers, Itay; Amer, Radgonde

2010-10-01

The purpose of this study is to report two new cases of Usher syndrome associated with Fuchs' heterochromic uveitis (FHU), to confirm our previous observation of the association between FHU and retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and to evaluate if FHU is particularly associated with Usher syndrome. Retrospective medical record review of all new RP cases at Hadassah Medical Center between the years 2000 and 2007, review of our previously published data, and a meta-analysis of published relevant articles in peer reviewed journals. During the time frame of the study we diagnosed 58 new cases of RP, of whom one male and one female had the typical findings of FHU, and both had Usher syndrome type II. The difference in the occurrence of FHU between the 616 controls and the patients with RP was significant (p = 0.0073, Fisher's exact test). In our combined data, FHU occurred only in two types of RP; RP simplex with an incidence of 0.57%, and Usher syndrome with an incidence of 13.5%. This difference between the incidence of FHU in patients with Usher syndrome and other types of RP was significant (p < 0.0001, Fisher's exact test). Adding up these two cases with what is already published in the literature makes up a total of 17 RP patients with coexisting FHU. This study confirms the association between FHU and RP; and a particularly stronger association with Usher syndrome type II. Although infectious agents seem to play a role, the cause for this significant correlation is still unclear.

Abnormal rsFC and GMV changes in parahippocampal and DLPFC for high Déjà vu experienced subjects.

PubMed

Qiu, Jiang; Xia, Yunman; He, Li; Chen, Qunlin; Sang, Na; Liu, Wei; Li, Hong

2018-03-01

How déjà vu works has long been a mystery, partially because of its characteristics of unpredictable occurrences and quick disappearances, which make it difficult to be explored. Previous studies have described the anatomical structures underlying déjà vu in healthy subjects; however, the functional mechanism of déjà vu remains unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the brain structural and functional components underlying déjà vu by combining voxel-based morphometry analysis (VBM) with resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC). The VBM analysis revealed that the anterior parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) had significantly less grey matter volume (GMV) in high déjà vu group than low group, confirming previous studies. Further functional connectivity analysis revealed that the frequency of déjà vu experiences was negatively correlated with the strength of the rsFC between anterior dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior PHG but positively correlated with the strength of the rsFC between posterior DLPFC and posterior PHG. Moreover, the frequency of déjà vu experiences was negatively correlated with the strength of the rsFC between the anterior and posterior regions of the PHG. These findings indicated that familiarity without recollection (PHG) and superior context monitoring (DLPFC) are critical for real-life déjà vu experiences. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Health locus of control and attributions of cause and blame in adjustment to spinal cord injury.

PubMed

Waldron, B; Benson, C; O'Connell, A; Byrne, P; Dooley, B; Burke, T

2010-08-01

The Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R) was used to assign participants to either a good adjustment group or a poor adjustment group. Group differences were analyzed with chi (2), t-tests and correlations on factors shown in previous research to be related to coping with spinal cord injury (SCI). This study examines health locus of control (HLC) and attributions of cause and blame in relation to SCI. The replication of study findings in multiple settings is a cornerstone of the evidence base for developing interventions. Previous studies do not show a consensus on the role of attributions of cause and blame in persons with SCI. Similarly, their relationship to adjustment after SCI is unclear. Another attribution, HLC, is similarly analyzed in relation to adjustment. Republic of Ireland. Thirty people with SCI participated. They rated scales measuring psychological adjustment, locus of control (LOC) for health and attributions of cause and blame for the injury. The well-adjusted group had a less external HLC. In addition, participants who were well adjusted endorsed the notion they could have avoided their accident significantly more than the poorly adjusted group. Similarly, they rated the belief that they could have caused the accident at a somewhat greater level. They did not, however, blame themselves any more or any less. Results are consistent with general LOC theory, and suggest an adaptive or protective internal LOC for accepting responsibility for the injury.

Further evidence of alerted default network connectivity and association with theory of mind ability in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Mothersill, Omar; Tangney, Noreen; Morris, Derek W; McCarthy, Hazel; Frodl, Thomas; Gill, Michael; Corvin, Aiden; Donohoe, Gary

2017-06-01

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) has repeatedly shown evidence of altered functional connectivity of large-scale networks in schizophrenia. The relationship between these connectivity changes and behaviour (e.g. symptoms, neuropsychological performance) remains unclear. Functional connectivity in 27 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and 25 age and gender matched healthy controls was examined using rs-fMRI. Based on seed regions from previous studies, we examined functional connectivity of the default, cognitive control, affective and attention networks. Effects of symptom severity and theory of mind performance on functional connectivity were also examined. Patients showed increased connectivity between key nodes of the default network including the precuneus and medial prefrontal cortex compared to controls (p<0.01, FWE-corrected). Increasing positive symptoms and increasing theory of mind performance were both associated with altered connectivity of default regions within the patient group (p<0.01, FWE-corrected). This study confirms previous findings of default hyper-connectivity in schizophrenia spectrum patients and reveals an association between altered default connectivity and positive symptom severity. As a novel find, this study also shows that default connectivity is correlated to and predictive of theory of mind performance. Extending these findings by examining the effects of emerging social cognition treatments on both default connectivity and theory of mind performance is now an important goal for research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A cross comparison of spatiotemporally enhanced springtime phenological measurements from satellites and ground in a northern U.S. mixed forest

USGS Publications Warehouse

Liang, Liang; Schwartz, Mark D.; Zhuosen Wang,; Gao, Feng; Schaaf, Crystal B.; Bin Tan,; Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Zhang, Xiaoyang

2014-01-01

Cross comparison of satellite-derived land surface phenology (LSP) and ground measurements is useful to ensure the relevance of detected seasonal vegetation change to the underlying biophysical processes. While standard 16-day and 250-m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index (VI)-based springtime LSP has been evaluated in previous studies, it remains unclear whether LSP with enhanced temporal and spatial resolutions can capture additional details of ground phenology. In this paper, we compared LSP derived from 500-m daily MODIS and 30-m MODIS-Landsat fused VI data with landscape phenology (LP) in a northern U.S. mixed forest. LP was previously developed from intensively observed deciduous and coniferous tree phenology using an upscaling approach. Results showed that daily MODIS-based LSP consistently estimated greenup onset dates at the study area (625 m × 625 m) level with 4.48 days of mean absolute error (MAE), slightly better than that of using 16-day standard VI (4.63 days MAE). For the observed study areas, the time series with increased number of observations confirmed that post-bud burst deciduous tree phenology contributes the most to vegetation reflectance change. Moreover, fused VI time series demonstrated closer correspondences with LP at the community level (0.1-20 ha) than using MODIS alone at the study area level (390 ha). The fused LSP captured greenup onset dates for respective forest communities of varied sizes and compositions with four days of the overall MAE. This study supports further use of spatiotemporally enhanced LSP for more precise phenological monitoring.

Bladder Pain Syndrome/Interstitial Cystitis Is Associated with Hyperthyroidism

PubMed Central

Liu, Shih-Ping; Lin, Ching-Chun; Lin, Herng-Ching

2013-01-01

Background Although the etiology of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is still unclear, a common theme with BPS/IC patients is comorbid disorders which are related to the autonomic nervous system that connects the nervous system to end-organs. Nevertheless, no study to date has reported the association between hyperthyroidism and BPS/IC. In this study, we examined the association of IC/BPS with having previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in Taiwan. Design Data in this study were retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database. Our study consisted of 736 female cases with BPS/IC and 2208 randomly selected female controls. We performed a conditional logistic regression to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for having previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism between cases and controls. Results Of the 2944 sampled subjects, there was a significant difference in the prevalence of prior hyperthyroidism between cases and controls (3.3% vs. 1.5%, p<0.001). The conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that compared to controls, the OR for prior hyperthyroidism among cases was 2.16 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.27∼3.66). Furthermore, the OR for prior hyperthyroidism among cases was 2.01 (95% CI: 1.15∼3.53) compared to controls after adjusting for diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, hyperlipidemia, chronic pelvic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, panic disorder, migraines, sicca syndrome, allergies, endometriosis, and asthma. Conclusions Our study results indicated an association between hyperthyroidism and BPS/IC. We suggest that clinicians treating female subjects with hyperthyroidism be alert to urinary complaints in this population. PMID:23991081

Bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis is associated with hyperthyroidism.

PubMed

Chung, Shiu-Dong; Liu, Shih-Ping; Lin, Ching-Chun; Li, Hsien-Chang; Lin, Herng-Ching

2013-01-01

Although the etiology of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is still unclear, a common theme with BPS/IC patients is comorbid disorders which are related to the autonomic nervous system that connects the nervous system to end-organs. Nevertheless, no study to date has reported the association between hyperthyroidism and BPS/IC. In this study, we examined the association of IC/BPS with having previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in Taiwan. Data in this study were retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database. Our study consisted of 736 female cases with BPS/IC and 2208 randomly selected female controls. We performed a conditional logistic regression to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for having previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism between cases and controls. Of the 2944 sampled subjects, there was a significant difference in the prevalence of prior hyperthyroidism between cases and controls (3.3% vs. 1.5%, p<0.001). The conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that compared to controls, the OR for prior hyperthyroidism among cases was 2.16 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.27∼3.66). Furthermore, the OR for prior hyperthyroidism among cases was 2.01 (95% CI: 1.15∼3.53) compared to controls after adjusting for diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, hyperlipidemia, chronic pelvic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, panic disorder, migraines, sicca syndrome, allergies, endometriosis, and asthma. Our study results indicated an association between hyperthyroidism and BPS/IC. We suggest that clinicians treating female subjects with hyperthyroidism be alert to urinary complaints in this population.

Neurocognitive Changes among Elderly Exposed to PCBs/PCDFs in Taiwan

PubMed Central

Lin, Kao-Chang; Guo, Nai-Wen; Tsai, Pei-Chien; Yang, Chiu-Yueh; Guo, YueLiang Leon

2008-01-01

Background In 1979 approximately 2,000 people were exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) due to ingestion of contaminated cooking oil in Taiwan. Although a previous study has shown delayed developmental milestones and poorer neurocognitive functioning in children born to exposed mothers, it is unclear whether neurocognitive functioning was impaired in people who were directly exposed to the PCBs and PDCFs. Objective The objective of this study was to compare neurocognitive functioning in people exposed to PCBs and PCDFs with that of unexposed sex- and age-matched neighbors. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study among exposed and unexposed subjects ≥60 years of age using prospective outcome measurements. We evaluated neurocognitive tests including cognition, memory modalities, learning, motor and sensory function, mood, and daily activity. Results In total, 162 (59%) exposed and 151 (55%) reference subjects completed this study. In exposed men, all test results were similar to the reference group; however, exposed women had reduced functioning in attention and digit span (ADS), visual memory span (VMS), and verbal memory recalls (VMR), especially learning ability. We also found a borderline reduction in the Mini-Mental State Examination. The digit symbol, motor, sensory, depression (determined by the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form), and activity of daily life were not different between the exposed and reference groups. A significant dose–response relationship was found for VMR, ADS, and VMS. Conclusion Our study showed dose-dependent neurocognitive deficits in certain aspects of attention, visual memory, and learning ability in women previously exposed to PCBs and PCDFs, but not in exposed men. PMID:18288316

In vivo 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy study of the attentional networks in autism

PubMed Central

Bernardi, Silvia; Anagnostou, Evdokia; Shen, Jun; Kolevzon, Alexander; Buxbaum, Joseph D.; Hollander, Eric; Hof, Patrick R.; Fan, Jin

2010-01-01

Attentional dysfunction is one of the most consistent findings in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, the significance of such findings for the pathophysiology of autism is unclear. In this study, we investigated cellular neurochemistry with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging (1H-MRS) in brain regions associated with networks subserving alerting, orienting, and executive control of attention in patients with ASD. Concentrations of cerebral N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), creatinine + phosphocreatinine, choline-containing compounds, myo-inositol (Ins) and glutamate + glutamine (Glx) were determined by 3 T 1H-MRS examinations in 14 high-functioning medication-free adults with a diagnosis of ASD and 14 age- and IQ-matched healthy controls (HC) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), thalamus, temporoparietal junction (TPJ), and areas near or along the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Compared to HC group, the ASD group showed significantly lower Glx concentrations in right ACC and reduced Ins in left TPJ. This study provides evidence of abnormalities in neurotransmission related to networks subserving executive control and alerting of attention, functions which have been previously implicated in ASD pathogenesis. PMID:21185269

Environmental Factors Can Influence Mitochondrial Inheritance in the Saccharomyces Yeast Hybrids.

PubMed

Hsu, Yu-Yi; Chou, Jui-Yu

2017-01-01

Mitochondria play a critical role in the generation of metabolic energy and are crucial for eukaryotic cell survival and proliferation. In most sexual eukaryotes, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited from only one parent in non-Mendelian inheritance in contrast to the inheritance of nuclear DNA. The model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae is commonly used to study mitochondrial biology. It has two mating types: MATa and MATα. Previous studies have suggested that the mtDNA inheritance patterns in hybrid diploid cells depend on the genetic background of parental strains. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. To elucidate the mechanisms, we examined the effects of environmental factors on the mtDNA inheritance patterns in hybrids obtained by crossing S. cerevisiae with its close relative S. paradoxus. The results demonstrated that environmental factors can influence mtDNA transmission in hybrid diploids, and that the inheritance patterns are strain dependent. The fitness competition assay results showed that the fitness differences can explain the mtDNA inheritance patterns under specific conditions. However, in this study, we found that fitness differences cannot fully be explained by mitochondrial activity in hybrids under stress conditions.

Molecular Analysis of Chinese Celastrus and Tripterygium and Implications in Medicinal and Pharmacological Studies

PubMed Central

Zhao, Liang-Cheng; Zhang, Zhi-Xiang

2017-01-01

Celastrus and Tripterygium species, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine, have attracted much attention due to their anti-tumor promoting and neuroprotective activities, in addition to their applications in autoimmune disorders. However, systematic relationships between them and among species are unclear, and it may disturb their further medicinal utilization. In the present study, the molecular analysis of combined chloroplast and nuclear markers of all Chinese Celastrus and Tripterygium was performed, and clear inter- and intra-genus relationships were presented. The result suggests that Tripterygium constitute a natural monophyletic clade within Celastrus with strong support value. Fruit and seed type are better than inflorescence in subgeneric classification. Chinese Celastrus are classified for three sections: Sect. Sempervirentes (Maxim.) CY Cheng & TC Kao, Sect. Lunatus XY Mu & ZX Zhang, sect. nov., and Sect. Ellipticus XY Mu & ZX Zhang, sect. nov. The phylogenetic data was consistent with their chemical components reported previously. Owing to the close relationship, several evergreen Celastrus species are recommended for chemical and pharmacological studies. Our results also provide reference for molecular identification of Chinese Celastrus and Tripterygium. PMID:28081198

Effects of Astaxanthin and Docosahexaenoic-Acid-Acylated Astaxanthin on Alzheimer's Disease in APP/PS1 Double-Transgenic Mice.

PubMed

Che, Hongxia; Li, Qian; Zhang, Tiantian; Wang, Dandan; Yang, Lu; Xu, Jie; Yanagita, Teruyoshi; Xue, Changhu; Chang, Yaoguang; Wang, Yuming

2018-05-16

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with the characteristics of senile plaques, neuroinflammation, neurofibrillary tangles, and destruction of synapse structure stability. Previous studies have verified the protective effects of astaxanthin (AST). However, whether synthesized docosahexaenoic-acid-acylated AST diesters (AST-DHA) could delay AD pathogenesis remains unclear. In the present study, APP/PSEN1 (APP/PS1) double-transgenic mice were administrated with AST and AST-DHA for 2 months. The results of radial 8-arm maze and Morris water maze tests showed that AST-DHA exerted more significant effects than AST in enhancing learning and memory levels of APP/PS1 mice. Further mechanical studies suggested that AST-DHA was superior to AST in regulating the parameters of oxidative stress, reducing tau hyperphosphorylation, suppressing neuroinflammation, and regulating inflammasome expression and activation in APP/PS1 mice. The findings suggested that AST-DHA attenuated cognitive disorders by reducing pathological features in APP/PS1 mice, suggesting that AST-DHA might be a potential therapeutic agent for AD.

Narp regulates long-term aversive effects of morphine withdrawal

PubMed Central

Reti, Irving M.; Crombag, Hans S.; Takamiya, Kogo; Sutton, Jeffrey M.; Guo, Ning; Dinenna, Megan L.; Huganir, Richard L.; Holland, Peter C.; Baraban, Jay M.

2008-01-01

Although long-lasting effects of drug withdrawal are thought to play a key role in motivating continued drug use, the mechanisms mediating this type of drug-induced plasticity are unclear. As Narp is an immediate early gene product that is secreted at synaptic sites and binds to AMPA receptors, it has been implicated in mediating enduring forms of synaptic plasticity. In previous studies, we found that Narp is selectively induced by morphine withdrawal in the extended amygdala, a group of limbic nuclei that mediate aversive behavioral responses. Accordingly, in this study, we evaluated whether long-term aversive effects of morphine withdrawal are altered in Narp KO mice. We found that acute physical signs of morphine withdrawal are unaffected by Narp deletion. However, Narp KO mice acquire and sustain more aversive responses to the environment conditioned with morphine withdrawal than WT controls. Paradoxically, Narp KO mice undergo accelerated extinction of this heightened aversive response. Taken together, these studies suggest that Narp modulates both acquisition and extinction of aversive responses to morphine withdrawal and, therefore, may regulate plasticity processes underlying drug addiction. PMID:18729628

The role of impulsivity in the association between childhood trauma and dissociative psychopathology: mediation versus moderation.

PubMed

Somer, Eli; Ginzburg, Karni; Kramer, Lilach

2012-03-30

Previous studies on survivors of childhood trauma documented associations between psychological dysregulation, impulsivity, and both behavioral and emotional manifestations of distress. Yet, the mechanism that links these variables remains unclear. The current study aims to examine the pattern of relations between a history of child abuse, impulsivity and dissociation. More specifically, it examines whether impulsivity serves as a moderator or mediator in the association between childhood trauma and dissociation. Eighty-one inpatients from the acute wards of two psychiatric hospitals participated in this study. Data were collected by clinician-administered questionnaires. A highly significant linear hierarchical regression analysis revealed that both psychiatric comorbidity and childhood trauma made unique contributions to the variance of dissociation. Yet, the significant association between childhood trauma and dissociation decreased when impulsivity was entered into the regression model. Our findings suggest that impulsivity mediates the association between childhood trauma and dissociative psychopathology and imply that the identification and treatment of impulsivity could be a potentially valuable clinical target in individuals with dissociative disorders. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The neural basis of responsibility attribution in decision-making.

PubMed

Li, Peng; Shen, Yue; Sui, Xue; Chen, Changming; Feng, Tingyong; Li, Hong; Holroyd, Clay

2013-01-01

Social responsibility links personal behavior with societal expectations and plays a key role in affecting an agent's emotional state following a decision. However, the neural basis of responsibility attribution remains unclear. In two previous event-related brain potential (ERP) studies we found that personal responsibility modulated outcome evaluation in gambling tasks. Here we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to identify particular brain regions that mediate responsibility attribution. In a context involving team cooperation, participants completed a task with their teammates and on each trial received feedback about team success and individual success sequentially. We found that brain activity differed between conditions involving team success vs. team failure. Further, different brain regions were associated with reinforcement of behavior by social praise vs. monetary reward. Specifically, right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) was associated with social pride whereas dorsal striatum and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were related to reinforcement of behaviors leading to personal gain. The present study provides evidence that the RTPJ is an important region for determining whether self-generated behaviors are deserving of praise in a social context.

The Neural Basis of Responsibility Attribution in Decision-Making

PubMed Central

Li, Peng; Shen, Yue; Sui, Xue; Chen, Changming; Feng, Tingyong; Li, Hong; Holroyd, Clay

2013-01-01

Social responsibility links personal behavior with societal expectations and plays a key role in affecting an agent’s emotional state following a decision. However, the neural basis of responsibility attribution remains unclear. In two previous event-related brain potential (ERP) studies we found that personal responsibility modulated outcome evaluation in gambling tasks. Here we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to identify particular brain regions that mediate responsibility attribution. In a context involving team cooperation, participants completed a task with their teammates and on each trial received feedback about team success and individual success sequentially. We found that brain activity differed between conditions involving team success vs. team failure. Further, different brain regions were associated with reinforcement of behavior by social praise vs. monetary reward. Specifically, right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) was associated with social pride whereas dorsal striatum and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were related to reinforcement of behaviors leading to personal gain. The present study provides evidence that the RTPJ is an important region for determining whether self-generated behaviors are deserving of praise in a social context. PMID:24224053

No evidence for mosaic pathogenic copy number variations in cardiac tissue from patients with congenital heart malformations.

PubMed

Winberg, Johanna; Berggren, Håkan; Malm, Torsten; Johansson, Sune; Johansson Ramgren, Jens; Nilsson, Boris; Liedén, Agne; Nordenskjöld, Agneta; Gustavsson, Peter; Nordgren, Ann

2015-03-01

The aim of this study was to investigate if pathogenic copy number variations (CNVs) are present in mosaic form in patients with congenital heart malformations. We have collected cardiac tissue and blood samples from 23 patients with congenital heart malformations that underwent cardiac surgery and screened for mosaic gene dose alterations restricted to cardiac tissue using array comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH). We did not find evidence of CNVs in mosaic form after array CGH analysis. Pathogenic CNVs that were present in both cardiac tissue and blood were detected in 2/23 patients (9%), and in addition we found several constitutional CNVs of unclear clinical significance. This is the first study investigating mosaicism for CNVs in heart tissue compared to peripheral blood and the results do not indicate that pathogenic mosaic copy number changes are common in patients with heart malformations. Importantly, in line with previous studies, our results show that constitutional pathogenic CNVs are important factors contributing to congenital heart malformations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

[Effects of punctuation on the processing of syntactically ambiguous Japanese sentences with a semantic bias].

PubMed

Niikuni, Keiyu; Muramoto, Toshiaki

2014-06-01

This study explored the effects of a comma on the processing of structurally ambiguous Japanese sentences with a semantic bias. A previous study has shown that a comma which is incompatible with an ambiguous sentence's semantic bias affects the processing of the sentence, but the effects of a comma that is compatible with the bias are unclear. In the present study, we examined the role of a comma compatible with the sentence's semantic bias using the self-paced reading method, which enabled us to determine the reading times for the region of the sentence where readers would be expected to solve the ambiguity using semantic information (the "target region"). The results show that a comma significantly increases the reading time of the punctuated word but decreases the reading time in the target region. We concluded that even if the semantic information provided might be sufficient for disambiguation, the insertion of a comma would affect the processing cost of the ambiguity, indicating that readers use both the comma and semantic information in parallel for sentence processing.

Human physiological responses to wooden indoor environment.

PubMed

Zhang, Xi; Lian, Zhiwei; Wu, Yong

2017-05-15

Previous studies are mainly focused on non-wooden environments, whereas few are concerned with wooden ones. How wooden indoor environments impact the physiology of the occupants is still unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore the distinct physiological responses to wooden and non-wooden indoor environments, assessed by physiological parameters tests including blood pressure, electrocardiogram measurements, electro-dermal activity, oxyhemoglobin saturation, skin temperature, and near distance vision. Twenty healthy adults participated in this experiment, and their physiological responses were evaluated in a 90minute investigation. The results illustrated that; less tension and fatigue were generated in the wooden rooms than in the non-wooden rooms when the participants did their work. In addition, the study also found that the wooden environments benefit the autonomic nervous system, respiratory system, and visual system. Moreover, wooden rooms play a valuable role in physiological regulation and ease function especially after a consecutive period of work. These results provide an experimental basis to support that wooden environment is beneficial to indoor occupants than the non-wooden indoor environment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Differences in the Gambling Behavior of Online and Non-Online Student Gamblers in a Controlled Laboratory Environment

PubMed Central

Montes, Kevin S.; Weatherly, Jeffrey N.

2016-01-01

Although research suggests that approximately 1 in 4 college students report having gambled online, few laboratory-based studies have been conducted enlisting online student gamblers. Moreover, it is unclear the extent to which differences in gambling behavior exist between online and non-online student gamblers. The current study examined if online gamblers would play more hands, commit more errors, and wager more credits than non-online student gamblers in a controlled, laboratory environment. Online (n = 19) and non-online (n = 26) student gamblers played video poker in three separate sessions and the number of hands played, errors committed, and credits wagered were recorded. Results showed that online student gamblers played more hands and committed more errors playing video poker than non-online student gamblers. The results from the current study extend previous research by suggesting that online gamblers engage in potentially more deleterious gambling behavior (e.g., playing more hands and committing more errors) than non-online gamblers. Additional research is needed to examine differences in the gambling behavior of online and non-online gamblers in a controlled, laboratory environment. PMID:27106027

Standardized observation of neighbourhood disorder: does it work in Canada?

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background There is a growing body of evidence that where you live is important to your health. Despite numerous previous studies investigating the relationship between neighbourhood deprivation (and structure) and residents' health, the precise nature of this relationship remains unclear. Relatively few investigations have relied on direct observation of neighbourhoods, while those that have were developed primarily in US settings. Evaluation of the transferability of such tools to other contexts is an important first step before applying such instruments to the investigation of health and well-being. This study evaluated the performance of a systematic social observational (SSO) tool (adapted from previous studies of American and British neighbourhoods) in a Canadian urban context. Methods This was a mixed-methods study. Quantitative SSO ratings and qualitative descriptions of 176 block faces were obtained in six Toronto neighbourhoods (4 low-income, and 2 middle/high-income) by trained raters. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted with the quantitative SSO ratings. Content analysis consisted of independent coding of qualitative data by three members of the research team to yield common themes and categories. Results Factor analysis identified three factors (physical decay/disorder, social accessibility, recreational opportunities), but only 'physical decay/disorder' reflected previous findings in the literature. Qualitative results (based on raters' fieldwork experiences) revealed the tool's shortcomings in capturing important features of the neighbourhoods under study, and informed interpretation of the quantitative findings. Conclusions This study tested the performance of an SSO tool in a Canadian context, which is an important initial step before applying it to the study of health and disease. The tool demonstrated important shortcomings when applied to six diverse Toronto neighbourhoods. The study's analyses challenge previously held assumptions (e.g. social 'disorder') regarding neighbourhood social and built environments. For example, neighbourhood 'order' has traditionally been assumed to be synonymous with a certain degree of homogeneity, however the neighbourhoods under study were characterized by high degrees of heterogeneity and low levels of disorder. Heterogeneity was seen as an appealing feature of a block face. Employing qualitative techniques with SSO represents a unique contribution, enhancing both our understanding of the quantitative ratings obtained and of neighbourhood characteristics that are not currently captured by such instruments. PMID:20146821

The Human Microbiome in the Fight Against Tuberculosis

PubMed Central

Wood, Madeleine R.; Yu, Elaine A.; Mehta, Saurabh

2017-01-01

The human microbiome is an intriguing potentially modifiable risk factor in our arsenal against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the leading infectious disease killer globally. Previous studies have shown associations between the human microbiome and pulmonary disease states; however, etiological links between the microbiome and tuberculosis (TB) infection or disease remain unclear. Immunomodulatory roles of the microbiome may prove to be a critical asset in the host response against TB, including in preventing TB infection, reducing progression from latency, mitigating disease severity, and lowering the incidence of drug resistance and coinfections. This review examined the associations between TB and the gut and lung microbiome. Eight studies were identified through a PubMed database search, including one animal study (N = 1), case report (N = 1), and case–control studies (N = 6). TB infection and disease were associated with reduced gastrointestinal microbial diversity in a murine model and human case report. Sputum microbial diversity differed by TB status in case–control studies, although some reported heterogeneous findings. Current evidence suggests that the gut and lung microbiome are associated with TB infection and disease. However, as studies are limited, etiological and longitudinal research is needed to determine clinical relevance. PMID:28719264

A service development study of the assessment and management of fracture risk in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Shribman, Samuel; Torsney, Kelli M; Noyce, Alastair J; Giovannoni, Gavin; Fearnley, Julian; Dobson, Ruth

2014-06-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with an increased risk of fragility fracture. FRAX and Qfracture are risk calculators that estimate the 10-year risk of hip and major fractures and guide definitive investigation for osteoporosis using dual X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) imaging. It is unclear which PD patients should be considered for fracture risk assessment and whether FRAX or Qfracture should be used. Seventy-seven patients with PD were recruited in the movement disorders clinic. Data were collected on PD-related characteristics and fracture risk scores were calculated. Patients with previous osteoporotic fractures had a higher incidence of falls (p = 0.0026) and use of bilateral walking aids (p = 0.0187) in addition to longer disease duration (p = 0.0037). Selecting patients with falls in combination with either disease duration >5 years, bilateral walking aids, or previous osteoporotic fracture distinguished patients with and without previous osteoporotic fracture with specificity 67.7 % (95 % CI 55.0-78.8) and sensitivity 100.0 % (95 % CI 73.5-100.0). Qfracture calculated significantly higher fracture risk scores than FRAX for hip (p < 0.0001) and major (p = 0.0008) fracture in PD patients. Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated that FRAX outperformed Qfracture with an area under the curve of 0.84 (95 % CI 0.70-0.97, p = 0.0004) for FRAX and 0.68 (95 % CI 52-86, p = 0.0476) for Qfracture major fracture risk calculators. We suggest that falls in combination with either a disease duration longer than 5 years or bilateral walking aids or previous osteoporotic fracture should be used as red flags in PD patients to prompt clinicians to perform a FRAX fracture risk assessment in the neurology clinic.

Older-sibling and younger-sibling sex ratios in Frisch and Hviid's (2006) national cohort study of two million Danes.

PubMed

Blanchard, Ray

2007-12-01

Frisch and Hviid (2006) recently reported a study of variables that predicted heterosexual and homosexual marriage in a national cohort of Danish men and women. They found no evidence that older brothers increase the probability that a man will legally marry another man. They concluded that their data raise questions about the universality of the widely confirmed finding that older brothers increase the probability that a man will be sexually oriented towards other men (the fraternal birth order effect). In the present article, Frisch and Hviid's data were reanalyzed using one of the procedures that have been used in prior studies of fraternal birth order. The results showed that the sex ratio of older brothers to older sisters was significantly higher than the expected value of 106 in all four of their study groups (heterosexually married men, homosexually married men, heterosexually married women, and homosexually married women). In contrast, the sex ratio of younger brothers to younger sisters approximated 106 in all four groups. According to this analysis, the only group whose data resembled data from previous studies was the homosexually married males. The writer concluded that one cannot interpret findings about the correlates of heterosexual and homosexual marriage as if they were findings about the correlates of heterosexual and homosexual orientation, and that this is underscored by comparing the markedly different older-sibling sex ratios obtained from heterosexually married persons (in the Danish study) and those obtained from heterosexually oriented persons (in previous studies). It is unclear what implications, if any, Frisch and Hviid's findings have for the study of sexual orientation in general.

Tune yourself in: Valence and arousal preferences in music-listening choices from adolescence to old age.

PubMed

Cohrdes, Caroline; Wrzus, Cornelia; Frisch, Simon; Riediger, Michaela

2017-09-01

In previous studies, older as compared with younger individuals were more strongly motivated to regulate their momentary affect toward pleasant and calm states. Whether these motivational differences are also reflected in regulatory behavior and whether this behavior is efficient in terms of affect change, however, is unclear. To address these issues, we conducted 3 studies with samples ranging in age from adolescence to old adulthood. In Study 1, we developed a novel and age-fair music browsing paradigm for music of diverse musical styles, dates of origin, and affective characteristics. The time spent listening to self-selected music with varying levels of valence and arousal served as an indicator of affect-regulatory preferences in 2 different affectively relevant situations, namely after mood induction in Study 2 and before an upcoming discussion with a stranger in Study 3. As predicted, we found a higher preference for music with positive valence and low arousal in older as compared with younger individuals in both studies. Additionally, the efficacy of music listening as an affect-regulatory strategy was supported because individuals' current affect significantly changed from before to after music listening (Studies 2 and 3), whereas that was not the case in an active control group listening to neutral nonmusical sounds (Study 3). These results extend previous research on affect regulation by demonstrating the utility of the music browsing paradigm as a behavioral indicator of affect-regulatory preferences in individuals from various age groups. They also provide evidence for age differences in, and affect-regulatory effects of, music-choice behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Breastfeeding and maternal and infant health outcomes in developed countries.

PubMed

Ip, Stanley; Chung, Mei; Raman, Gowri; Chew, Priscilla; Magula, Nombulelo; DeVine, Deirdre; Trikalinos, Thomas; Lau, Joseph

2007-04-01

We reviewed the evidence on the effects of breastfeeding on short- and long-term infant and maternal health outcomes in developed countries. We searched MEDLINE(R), CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library in November of 2005. Supplemental searches on selected outcomes were searched through May of 2006. We also identified additional studies in bibliographies of selected reviews and by suggestions from technical experts. We included systematic reviews/meta-analyses, randomized and non-randomized comparative trials, prospective cohort, and case-control studies on the effects of breastfeeding and relevant outcomes published in the English language. Included studies must have a comparative arm of formula feeding or different durations of breastfeeding. Only studies conducted in developed countries were included in the updates of previous systematic reviews. The studies were graded for methodological quality. We screened over 9,000 abstracts. Forty-three primary studies on infant health outcomes, 43 primary studies on maternal health outcomes, and 29 systematic reviews or meta-analyses that covered approximately 400 individual studies were included in this review. We found that a history of breastfeeding was associated with a reduction in the risk of acute otitis media, non-specific gastroenteritis, severe lower respiratory tract infections, atopic dermatitis, asthma (young children), obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes, childhood leukemia, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and necrotizing enterocolitis. There was no relationship between breastfeeding in term infants and cognitive performance. The relationship between breastfeeding and cardiovascular diseases was unclear. Similarly, it was also unclear concerning the relationship between breastfeeding and infant mortality in developed countries. For maternal outcomes, a history of lactation was associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, breast, and ovarian cancer. Early cessation of breastfeeding or not breastfeeding was associated with an increased risk of maternal postpartum depression. There was no relationship between a history of lactation and the risk of osteoporosis. The effect of breastfeeding in mothers on return-to-pre-pregnancy weight was negligible, and the effect of breastfeeding on postpartum weight loss was unclear. A history of breastfeeding is associated with a reduced risk of many diseases in infants and mothers from developed countries. Because almost all the data in this review were gathered from observational studies, one should not infer causality based on these findings. Also, there is a wide range of quality of the body of evidence across different health outcomes. For future studies, clear subject selection criteria and definition of "exclusive breastfeeding," reliable collection of feeding data, controlling for important confounders including child-specific factors, and blinded assessment of the outcome measures will help. Sibling analysis provides a method to control for hereditary and household factors that are important in certain outcomes. In addition, cluster randomized controlled studies on the effectiveness of various breastfeeding promotion interventions will provide further opportunity to investigate any disparity in health outcomes as a result of the intervention.

Avian Influenza Virus Infection of Immortalized Human Respiratory Epithelial Cells Depends upon a Delicate Balance between Hemagglutinin Acid Stability and Endosomal pH.

PubMed

Daidoji, Tomo; Watanabe, Yohei; Ibrahim, Madiha S; Yasugi, Mayo; Maruyama, Hisataka; Masuda, Taisuke; Arai, Fumihito; Ohba, Tomoyuki; Honda, Ayae; Ikuta, Kazuyoshi; Nakaya, Takaaki

2015-04-24

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) virus, H5N1, is a serious threat to public health worldwide. Both the currently circulating H5N1 and previously circulating AI viruses recognize avian-type receptors; however, only the H5N1 is highly infectious and virulent in humans. The mechanism(s) underlying this difference in infectivity remains unclear. The aim of this study was to clarify the mechanisms responsible for the difference in infectivity between the current and previously circulating strains. Primary human small airway epithelial cells (SAECs) were transformed with the SV40 large T-antigen to establish a series of clones (SAEC-Ts). These clones were then used to test the infectivity of AI strains. Human SAEC-Ts could be broadly categorized into two different types based on their susceptibility (high or low) to the viruses. SAEC-T clones were poorly susceptible to previously circulating AI but were completely susceptible to the currently circulating H5N1. The hemagglutinin (HA) of the current H5N1 virus showed greater membrane fusion activity at higher pH levels than that of previous AI viruses, resulting in broader cell tropism. Moreover, the endosomal pH was lower in high susceptibility SAEC-T clones than that in low susceptibility SAEC-T clones. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that the infectivity of AI viruses, including H5N1, depends upon a delicate balance between the acid sensitivity of the viral HA and the pH within the endosomes of the target cell. Thus, one of the mechanisms underlying H5N1 pathogenesis in humans relies on its ability to fuse efficiently with the endosomes in human airway epithelial cells. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Diabetes mellitus, admission glucose, and outcomes after stroke thrombolysis: a registry and systematic review.

PubMed

Desilles, Jean-Philippe; Meseguer, Elena; Labreuche, Julien; Lapergue, Bertrand; Sirimarco, Gaia; Gonzalez-Valcarcel, Jaime; Lavallée, Philippa; Cabrejo, Lucie; Guidoux, Celine; Klein, Isabelle; Amarenco, Pierre; Mazighi, Mikael

2013-07-01

The potential detrimental effect of diabetes mellitus and admission glucose level (AGL) on outcomes after stroke thrombolysis is unclear. We evaluated outcomes of patients treated by intravenous and/or intra-arterial therapy, according to diabetes mellitus and AGL. We analyzed data from a patient registry (n=704) and conducted a systematic review of previous observational studies. The primary study outcome was the percentage of patients who achieved a favorable outcome (modified Rankin score ≤2 at 3 months). We identified 54 previous reports that evaluated the effect of diabetes mellitus or AGL on outcomes after thrombolysis. In an unadjusted meta-analysis that included our registry data and previous available observational data, diabetes mellitus was associated with less favorable outcome (odds ratio [OR], 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-0.79) and more symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (OR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.21-1.56). However, in multivariable analysis, diabetes mellitus remained associated with less favorable outcome (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.69-0.87) but not with symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 0.83-1.48). In unadjusted and in adjusted meta-analysis, higher AGL was associated with less favorable outcome and more symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage; the adjusted OR (95% CI) per 1 mmol/L increase in AGL was 0.92 (0.90-0.94) for favorable outcome, and 1.09 (1.04-1.14) for symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. These results confirm that AGL and history of diabetes mellitus are associated with poor clinical outcome after thrombolysis. AGL may be a surrogate marker of brain infarction severity rather than a causal factor. However, randomized controlled evidences are needed to address the significance of a tight glucose control during thrombolysis on clinical outcome.

Association of type D personality with unhealthy lifestyle, and estimated risk of coronary events in the general Icelandic population.

PubMed

Svansdottir, Erla; Denollet, Johan; Thorsson, Bolli; Gudnason, Thorarinn; Halldorsdottir, Sigrun; Gudnason, Vilmundur; van den Broek, Krista C; Karlsson, Hrobjartur D

2013-04-01

Type D personality is associated with an increased morbidity and mortality risk in cardiovascular disease patients, but the mechanisms explaining this risk are unclear. We examined whether Type D was associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors, estimated risk of developing CAD, and previous cardiac events. Cross-sectional study in the general Icelandic population. A random sample of 4753 individuals (mean age 49.1 ± 12.0 years; 49% men) from the REFINE-Reykjavik study completed assessments for Type D personality and conventional CAD risk factors. Ten-year risk of developing CAD was estimated with the Icelandic risk calculator. Type D personality (22% of sample) was associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension (35 vs. 31%, p = 0.009), but less use of hypertension medication (58 vs. 65%, p = 0.013) in hypertensives, more diabetes (6 vs. 4%, p = 0.023), wider waist circumference (p = 0.007), and elevated body mass index (p = 0.025) and blood lipids (p < 0.05). Type D individuals reported less physical exercise (p = 0.000) and more current (26 vs. 21%, p = 0.003) and former smoking (48 vs. 44%, p = 0.036). Estimates of 10-year risk of CAD were higher in Type D individuals (12.4%, 95% CI 1.9 to 23.8%), and Type Ds reported more previous cardiac events than non-Type Ds (5 vs. 3%, p < 0.01; OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.21 to 2.42). In the general Icelandic population, Type D personality was associated with differences in lifestyle-related CAD risk factors, a higher estimated risk of developing CAD, and higher incidence of previous cardiac events. Unhealthy lifestyles may partly explain the adverse cardiovascular effect of Type D personality.

N-Acetylaspartate Reduction in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Following 8 weeks of Risperidone Treatment in First-Episode Drug-Naïve Schizophrenia Patients

PubMed Central

Zong, Xiaofen; Hu, Maolin; Li, Zongchang; Cao, Hongbao; He, Ying; Liao, Yanhui; Zhou, Jun; Sang, Deen; Zhao, Hongzeng; Tang, Jinsong; Lv, Luxian; Chen, Xiaogang

2015-01-01

It is unclear whether N-acetylaspartate (NAA) depletions documented in schizophrenia patients might be due to the disease progression or medications. Here we investigated longitudinal NAA changes in drug-naïve first-episode patients (FEP) who are relatively free from chronicity. Forty-two drug-naïve FEP and 38 controls were enrolled in this study to explore the effect of 8-week risperidone monotherapy on NAA. All spectra were obtained from the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) on a 3.0 T MRI and analyzed with LCModel. At baseline, patients presented no significant differences in NAA (P = 0.084) or NAA/Cr + Pcr (P = 0.500) compared to controls; NAA levels were negatively correlated with PANSS total scores (P = 0.001) and WCST-PE (P = 0.041). After treatment, patients demonstrated significant reductions of NAA (P < 0.001) and NAA/Cr + Pcr (P < 0.001), and significant improvement in PANSS-P (P < 0.001) and PANSS-G (P < 0.001) symptoms. We detected no significant correlations between NAA alterations and PANSS-P (P = 0.679) or PANSS-G (P = 0.668) symptom changes; nor did NAA/Cr + Pcr changes with alterations in PANSS-P (P = 0.677) and PANSS-G (P = 0.616). This is the first evidence that short-term risperidone treatment induces an acute reduction of MPFC NAA during the early phase of schizophrenia, which may be a previously unavailable biomarker to indicate risperidone with a similar pharmacological mechanism, although the functional significance is still unclear. PMID:25778460

Electrophysiological evidence for attenuated auditory recovery cycles in children with specific language impairment

PubMed Central

Stevens, Courtney; Paulsen, David; Yasen, Alia; Mitsunaga, Leila; Neville, Helen

2012-01-01

Previous research indicates that at least some children with specific language impairment (SLI) show a reduced neural response when non-linguistic tones were presented at rapid rates. However, this past research has examined older children, and it is unclear whether such deficits emerge earlier in development. It is also unclear whether atypical refractory effects differ for linguistic versus non-linguistic stimuli or can be explained by deficits in selective auditory attention reported among children with SLI. In the present study, auditory refractory periods were compared in a group of 24 young children with SLI (age 3–8 years) and 24 matched control children. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded and compared to 100 ms linguistic and non-linguistic probe stimuli presented at inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) of 200, 500, or 1000 ms. These probes were superimposed on story narratives when attended and ignored, permitting an experimental manipulation of selective attention within the same paradigm. Across participants, clear refractory effects were observed with this paradigm, evidenced as a reduced amplitude response from 100 to 200 ms at shorter ISIs. Children with SLI showed reduced amplitude ERPs relative to the typically-developing group at only the shortest, 200 ms, ISI and this difference was over the left-hemisphere for linguistic probes and over the right-hemisphere for non-linguistic probes. None of these effects was influenced by the direction of selective attention. Taken together, these findings suggest that deficits in the neural representation of rapidly presented auditory stimuli may be one risk factor for atypical language development. PMID:22265331

Inhibition of return shortens perceived duration of a brief visual event.

PubMed

Osugi, Takayuki; Takeda, Yuji; Murakami, Ikuya

2016-11-01

We investigated the influence of attentional inhibition on the perceived duration of a brief visual event. Although attentional capture by an exogenous cue is known to prolong the perceived duration of an attended visual event, it remains unclear whether time perception is also affected by subsequent attentional inhibition at the location previously cued by an exogenous cue, an attentional phenomenon known as inhibition of return. In this study, we combined spatial cuing and duration judgment. After one second from the appearance of an uninformative peripheral cue either to the left or to the right, a target appeared at a cued side in one-third of the trials, which indeed yielded inhibition of return, and at the opposite side in another one-third of the trials. In the remaining trials, a cue appeared at a central box and one second later, a target appeared at either the left or right side. The target at the previously cued location was perceived to last shorter than the target presented at the opposite location, and shorter than the target presented after the central cue presentation. Therefore, attentional inhibition produced by a classical paradigm of inhibition of return decreased the perceived duration of a brief visual event. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Congenital capillary proliferation of the kidney: a distinctive renal vascular lesion of childhood.

PubMed

Cajaiba, Mariana M; North, Paula E; Gong, Shunyou; Dickman, Paul S; Mroczek-Musulman, Elizabeth; Sauer, David A; Perlman, Elizabeth J

2017-08-01

Renal vascular lesions (RVL) are rare, and their morphological spectrum remains largely unknown, particularly in children. In this study, we characterize the clinicopathological features of RVL in a cohort of 12 children. Seven lesions were classified as previously recognized entities: vascular malformations (4), papillary endothelial hyperplasia (2), and pyogenic granuloma (lobular capillary hemangioma; 1). An eighth lesion showed nonspecific findings, which were interpreted as reactive during our review. The remaining 4 cases presented either prenatally, at birth, or shortly after birth and were morphologically similar. These were characterized by a peculiar pattern of capillary proliferation with entrapment of native renal structures, variable amounts of extramedullary hematopoiesis and reactive lymphocytes, foci of infarction and hemorrhage, and the presence of feeding and draining vessels at their periphery. To our knowledge, this represents a previously undescribed congenital vascular lesion involving the kidney, which we have descriptively and provisionally termed congenital capillary proliferation of the kidney (CCPK). While it is unclear whether CCPK represents a malformation or neoplastic proliferation, it shows overlapping features with congenital hemangioma of the liver (solitary congenital hepatic hemangioma) and congenital nonprogressive hemangioma (CNH) of the skin and soft tissue, suggesting a possible common pathogenesis among these 3 entities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The influences and neural correlates of past and present during gambling in humans.

PubMed

Sacré, Pierre; Subramanian, Sandya; Kerr, Matthew S D; Kahn, Kevin; Johnson, Matthew A; Bulacio, Juan; González-Martínez, Jorge A; Sarma, Sridevi V; Gale, John T

2017-12-07

During financial decision-making tasks, humans often make "rational" decisions, where they maximize expected reward. However, this rationality may compete with a bias that reflects past outcomes. That is, if one just lost money or won money, this may impact future decisions. It is unclear how past outcomes influence future decisions in humans, and how neural circuits encode present and past information. In this study, six human subjects performed a financial decision-making task while we recorded local field potentials from multiple brain structures. We constructed a model for each subject characterizing bets on each trial as a function of present and past information. The models suggest that some patients are more influenced by previous trial outcomes (i.e., previous return and risk) than others who stick to more fixed decision strategies. In addition, past return and present risk modulated with the activity in the cuneus; while present return and past risk modulated with the activity in the superior temporal gyrus and the angular gyrus, respectively. Our findings suggest that these structures play a role in decision-making beyond their classical functions by incorporating predictions and risks in humans' decision strategy, and provide new insight into how humans link their internal biases to decisions.

Early and Selective Impairments in Axonal Transport Kinetics of Synaptic Cargoes Induced by Soluble Amyloid β-Protein Oligomers

PubMed Central

Tang, Yong; Scott, David A.; Das, Utpal; Edland, Steven D.; Radomski, Kryslaine; Koo, Edward H.; Roy, Subhojit

2013-01-01

The downstream targets of amyloid β (Aβ)-oligomers remain elusive. One hypothesis is that Aβ-oligomers interrupt axonal transport. Although previous studies have demonstrated Aβ-induced transport blockade, early effects of low-n soluble Aβ-oligomers on axonal transport remain unclear. Furthermore, the cargo selectivity for such deficits (if any) or the specific effects of Aβ on the motility kinetics of transported cargoes are also unknown. Toward this, we visualized axonal transport of vesicles in cultured hippocampal neurons treated with picomolar (pm) levels of cell-derived soluble Aβ-oligomers. We examined select cargoes thought to move as distinct organelles and established imaging parameters that allow organelle tracking with consistency and high fidelity – analyzing all data in a blinded fashion. Aβ-oligomers induced early and selective diminutions in velocities of synaptic cargoes but had no effect on mitochondrial motility, contrary to previous reports. These changes were N-methyl d-aspartate receptor/glycogen synthase kinase-3β dependent and reversible upon washout of the oligomers. Cluster-mode analyses reveal selective attenuations in faster-moving synaptic vesicles, suggesting possible decreases in cargo/motor associations, and biochemical experiments implicate tau phosphorylation in the process. Collectively, the data provide a biological basis for Aβ-induced axonal transport deficits. PMID:22309053

Optimizing the temporal dynamics of light to human perception.

PubMed

Rieiro, Hector; Martinez-Conde, Susana; Danielson, Andrew P; Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L; Srivastava, Nishit; Macknik, Stephen L

2012-11-27

No previous research has tuned the temporal characteristics of light-emitting devices to enhance brightness perception in human vision, despite the potential for significant power savings. The role of stimulus duration on perceived contrast is unclear, due to contradiction between the models proposed by Bloch and by Broca and Sulzer over 100 years ago. We propose that the discrepancy is accounted for by the observer's "inherent expertise bias," a type of experimental bias in which the observer's life-long experience with interpreting the sensory world overcomes perceptual ambiguities and biases experimental outcomes. By controlling for this and all other known biases, we show that perceived contrast peaks at durations of 50-100 ms, and we conclude that the Broca-Sulzer effect best describes human temporal vision. We also show that the plateau in perceived brightness with stimulus duration, described by Bloch's law, is a previously uncharacterized type of temporal brightness constancy that, like classical constancy effects, serves to enhance object recognition across varied lighting conditions in natural vision-although this is a constancy effect that normalizes perception across temporal modulation conditions. A practical outcome of this study is that tuning light-emitting devices to match the temporal dynamics of the human visual system's temporal response function will result in significant power savings.

Value-Based Standards Guide Sexism Inferences for Self and Others.

PubMed

Mitamura, Chelsea; Erickson, Lynnsey; Devine, Patricia G

2017-09-01

People often disagree about what constitutes sexism, and these disagreements can be both socially and legally consequential. It is unclear, however, why or how people come to different conclusions about whether something or someone is sexist. Previous research on judgments about sexism has focused on the perceiver's gender and attitudes, but neither of these variables identifies comparative standards that people use to determine whether any given behavior (or person) is sexist. Extending Devine and colleagues' values framework (Devine, Monteith, Zuwerink, & Elliot, 1991; Plant & Devine, 1998), we argue that, when evaluating others' behavior, perceivers rely on the morally-prescriptive values that guide their own behavior toward women. In a series of 3 studies we demonstrate that (1) people's personal standards for sexism in their own and others' behavior are each related to their values regarding sexism, (2) these values predict how much behavioral evidence people need to infer sexism, and (3) people with stringent, but not lenient, value-based standards get angry and try to regulate a sexist perpetrator's behavior to reduce sexism. Furthermore, these personal values are related to all outcomes in the present work above and beyond other person characteristics previously used to predict sexism inferences. We discuss the implications of differing value-based standards for explaining and reconciling disputes over what constitutes sexist behavior.

Habit strength is predicted by activity dynamics in goal-directed brain systems during training.

PubMed

Zwosta, Katharina; Ruge, Hannes; Goschke, Thomas; Wolfensteller, Uta

2018-01-15

Previous neuroscientific research revealed insights into the brain networks supporting goal-directed and habitual behavior, respectively. However, it remains unclear how these contribute to inter-individual differences in habit strength which is relevant for understanding not only normal behavior but also more severe dysregulations between these types of action control, such as in addiction. In the present fMRI study, we trained subjects on approach and avoidance behavior for an extended period of time before testing the habit strength of the acquired stimulus-response associations. We found that stronger habits were associated with a stronger decrease in inferior parietal lobule activity for approach and avoidance behavior and weaker vmPFC activity at the end of training for avoidance behavior, areas associated with the anticipation of outcome identity and value. VmPFC in particular showed markedly different activity dynamics during the training of approach and avoidance behavior. Furthermore, while ongoing training was accompanied by increasing functional connectivity between posterior putamen and premotor cortex, consistent with previous assumptions about the neural basis of increasing habitualization, this was not predictive of later habit strength. Together, our findings suggest that inter-individual differences in habitual behavior are driven by differences in the persistent involvement of brain areas supporting goal-directed behavior during training. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Treatment of phantom limb pain with botulinum toxin type A.

PubMed

Jin, Lingjing; Kollewe, Katja; Krampfl, Klaus; Dengler, Reinhard; Mohammadi, Bahram

2009-03-01

Phantom limb pain and sensations are common in amputees. The pathophysiology remains unclear and the treatment difficult and often unsuccessful. Opioids are frequently used when non-narcotics have failed, but are not effective in many cases. We report on three phantom and stump pain patients, refractive to previous treatments, who were successfully treated with botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A). Three patients who had previously undergone amputation of their leg due to accident (N = 2) or injury by a landmine (N = 1) were treated with BoNT-A (Dysport). We injected a total dose of up to 500 units (U) BoNT-A under EMG-control. Global clinical improvement was based on a 0-3 scale (0 = no effect; 3 = marked improvement) and on a questionnaire rating pain intensity (based on the visual analog scale), intake of pain medication and phantom limb sensations. All three patients evaluated the clinical global improvement with 3 (marked improvement). The pain intensity and pain medication was reduced significantly in all three cases. No side effects were reported. The duration of response lasted up to 11 weeks. These three successfully treated phantom and stump pain patients show that therapy with BoNT-A may be worth studying as an effective and safe treatment option for this kind of pain.

Barriers to postpartum screening for type 2 diabetes: a qualitative study of women with previous gestational diabetes

PubMed Central

Rafii, Forough; Rahimparvar, Seyedeh Fatemeh Vasegh; Mehrdad, Neda; Keramat, Afsaneh

2017-01-01

Introduction Risk of developing type 2 diabetes is increased in women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Postpartum glycemic screening is recommended in women with recent GDM. But this screening rate is low and the reasons are unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of Iranian women with recent GDM on barriers of postpartum screening for diabetes. Methods This qualitative study was conducted in Tehran, Iran in 2016. Semi-structured interview was used for data collection. 22 women with recent GDM were interviewed. These women gave birth in Tehran hospitals at a minimum of 6 months before interview. The missed screening defined as not attending to laboratory for Fasting Blood Sugar and/or Oral Glucose Tolerance Test, 6 week to 6 month after their child birthing. The data was analyzed by content analysis method. Results Themes and sub-themes that illustrated the barriers to postpartum diabetes screening were: inadequate education (about developing diabetes in the future, implementation of the screening, and glucometer validity in diagnosis of diabetes), perceiving the screening as difficult (feeling comfortable with the glucometer, poor laboratory conditions, issues related to the baby/babies, and financial problems), improper attitudes toward the screening (unwilling to get diagnosed, not giving priority to oneself, having false beliefs) and procrastination (gap to intention and action, self-deception and self-regulation failure). Conclusion Women with recent GDM reported several barriers for postpartum diabetes screening. This study help to develop the evidence-based interventions for improving this screening rate. PMID:28451031

Homogamy and imprinting-like effect on mate choice preference for body height in the current Japanese population.

PubMed

Seki, Motohide; Ihara, Yasuo; Aoki, Kenichi

2012-01-01

Homogamy for body height has been repeatedly documented in Western societies. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanism is unclear and the reasons for its apparent absence in non-Western societies remain unexplained. This study investigates spousal correlation and mate preference for height in the Japanese population. This study analyses self-reported data on the height of individuals, their parents and their ideal marriage partners, collected by a series of questionnaires on university students. In contrast to a previous study, this study found a significant positive correlation between the heights of Japanese spouses, after controlling for age. It also found a positive correlation between the heights of subjects and of their ideal partners, suggesting that an individual's self-referent preference may contribute to the observed homogamy for height. However, a subject's preference is also influenced by the height of his/her opposite-sex--but not same-sex--parent, where this effect is more prominent in male subjects. This study shows that homogamy for body height is present in the current Japanese population and that it may in part result from an individual's preference. It also indicates a possible role of a sexual imprinting-like mechanism in human mate choice.

Association between depression in carers and malnutrition in children aged 6 months to 5 years.

PubMed

Motlhatlhedi, Keneilwe; Setlhare, Vincent; Ganiyu, Adewale; Firth, Jacqueline

2017-01-30

 Childhood malnutrition is an important risk factor for child mortality and underlies close to 50% of child deaths worldwide. Previous studies have found an association between maternal depression and child malnutrition, but it is not known whether this association exists in Botswana. In addition, previous studies excluded non-maternal primary caregivers (PCGs). It is unclear whether the association between primary caregiver depression and child malnutrition remains when non-maternal PCGs are included. The aim of this study was to determine if there is an association between PCG depression and malnutrition in children aged between 6 months and 5 years in Mahalapye, Botswana. The study was conducted in the child welfare clinics of Xhosa and Airstrip clinics, two primary health care facilities in Mahalapye, Botswana. This was a case control study. Cases were malnourished children aged between 6 months and 5 years, and controls were non-malnourished children matched for age and gender. The outcome of interest was depression in the PCGs of the cases and controls, which was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ 9), a depression screening tool. From a sample of 171 children, 84 of whom were malnourished, we found that the malnourished children were significantly more likely to have depressed PCGs (odds ratio = 4.33; 95% CI: 1.89, 9.89) than non-malnourished children in the 6-month to 5-year age group; the PCGs of malnourished children also had lower educational status. This study found a significant association between PCG depression and child malnutrition.

New Results from Fermi-LAT and Their Implications for the Nature of Dark Matter and the Origin of Cosmic Rays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moiseev, Alexander

2009-01-01

The measured spectrum is compatible with a power law within our current systematic errors. The spectral index (-3.04) is harder than expected from previous experiments and simple theoretical considerations. "Pre-Fermi" diffusive model requires a harder electron injection spectrum (by 0.12) to fit the Fermi data, but inconsistent with positron excess reported by Pamela if it extends to higher energy. Additional component of electron flux from local source(s) may solve the problem; its origin, astrophysical or exotic, is still unclear. Valuable contribution to the calculation of IC component of diffuse gamma radiation.

Saturation of the anisoplanatic error in horizontal imaging scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beck, Jeffrey; Bos, Jeremy P.

2017-09-01

We evaluate the piston-removed anisoplanatic error for smaller apertures imaging over long horizontal paths. Previous works have shown that the piston and tilt compensated anisoplanatic error saturates to values less than one squared radian. Under these conditions the definition of the isoplanatic angle is unclear. These works focused on nadir pointing telescope systems with aperture sizes between five meters and one half meter. We directly extend this work to horizontal imaging scenarios with aperture sizes smaller than one half meter. We assume turbulence is constant along the imaging path and that the ratio of the aperture size to the atmospheric coherence length is on the order of unity.

Foam bezoar: resection of perforated terminal ileum in a 17-year-old with sickle β+ thalassemia and pica.

PubMed

Altepeter, Tara; Annes, John; Meller, Janet

2011-07-01

Children and adolescents with sickle cell disease demonstrate an increased incidence of pica. Pica involving polyurethane foam has been previously reported, but effective management of such cases remains unclear. We present the case of a 17-year-old African American adolescent girl with sickle β+ thalassemia who presented with a long history of foam rubber pica resulting in intestinal obstruction. Conservative management was unsuccessful, and the patient ultimately required operative intervention. We advocate for a low threshold for early operation in cases of foam rubber bezoar. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of Model Formulation on Estimates of Health in Individual Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis).

PubMed

Schick, Robert S; Kraus, Scott D; Rolland, Rosalind M; Knowlton, Amy R; Hamilton, Philip K; Pettis, Heather M; Thomas, Len; Harwood, John; Clark, James S

2016-01-01

Right whales are vulnerable to many sources of anthropogenic disturbance including ship strikes, entanglement with fishing gear, and anthropogenic noise. The effect of these factors on individual health is unclear. A statistical model using photographic evidence of health was recently built to infer the true or hidden health of individual right whales. However, two important prior assumptions about the role of missing data and unexplained variance on the estimates were not previously assessed. Here we tested these factors by varying prior assumptions and model formulation. We found sensitivity to each assumption and used the output to make guidelines on future model formulation.

Laboratory Measurements of Celestial Solids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sievers, A. J.; Beckwith, S. V. W.

1997-01-01

Our experimental study has focused on laboratory measurements of the low temperature optical properties of a variety of astronomically significant materials in the infrared and mm-wave region of the spectrum. Our far infrared measurements of silicate grains with an open structure have produced a variety of unusual results: (1) the low temperature mass opacity coefficient of small amorphous 2MgO(central dot)SiO2 and MgO(central dot)2SiO2 grains are many times larger than the values previously used for interstellar grain material; (2) all of the amorphous silicate grains studied possess the characteristic temperature dependent signature associated with two level systems in bulk glass; and (3) a smaller but nonzero two level temperature dependence signature is also observed for crystalline particles, its physical origin is unclear. These laboratory measurements yield surprisingly large and variable values for the mm-wave absorption coefficients of small silicate particles similar to interstellar grains, and suggest that the bulk absorptivity of interstellar dust at these long wavelengths will not be well known without such studies. Furthermore, our studies have been useful to better understand the physics of the two level absorption process in amorphous and crystalline grains to gain confidence in the wide applicability of these results.

Mechanisms of post-supply contamination of drinking water in Bagamoyo, Tanzania.

PubMed

Harris, Angela R; Davis, Jennifer; Boehm, Alexandria B

2013-09-01

Access to household water connections remains low in sub-Saharan Africa, representing a public health concern. Previous studies have shown water stored in the home to be more contaminated than water at the source; however, the mechanisms of post-supply contamination remain unclear. Using water quality measurements and structured observations of households in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, this study elucidates the causal mechanisms of the microbial contamination of drinking water after collection from a communal water source. The study identifies statistically significant loadings of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) occurring immediately after filling the storage container at the source and after extraction of the water from the container in the home. Statistically significant loadings of FIB also occur with various water extraction methods, including decanting from the container and use of a cup or ladle. Additionally, pathogenic genes of Escherichia coli were detected in stored drinking water but not in the source from which it was collected, highlighting the potential health risks of post-supply contamination. The results of the study confirm that storage containers and extraction utensils introduce microbial contamination into stored drinking water, and suggest that further research is needed to identify methods of water extraction that prevent microbial contamination of drinking water.

Serious fighting-related injuries produce a significant reduction in intelligence.

PubMed

Schwartz, Joseph A; Beaver, Kevin M

2013-10-01

Fighting-related injuries are common among adolescents within the United States, but how such injuries relate to subsequent cognitive functioning remains unclear. In particular, the long-term effect of fighting-related injuries suffered during important developmental periods, such as adolescence, on subsequent cognitive functioning has been overlooked by previous studies. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between sustaining serious fighting-related injuries and changes in verbal intelligence (IQ) over a 5- to 6-year time period. Longitudinal multivariate statistical models were used to analyze data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health collected between 1994 and 2002 and analyzed in 2013. Even a single fighting-related injury resulted in a significant reduction in IQ over time even after controlling for age, race, sex, and changes in socioeconomic status (SES) over the study period. Additionally, females experienced a significantly greater reduction in IQ from each fighting-related injury than males. Fighting-related injuries have a significant impact on subsequent cognitive functioning and intelligence. The implications for future policies and research are discussed in more detail. Copyright © 2013 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Antecedents and characteristics of lean thinking implementation in a Swedish hospital: a case study.

PubMed

Ulhassan, Waqar; Sandahl, Christer; Westerlund, Hugo; Henriksson, Peter; Bennermo, Marie; von Thiele Schwarz, Ulrica; Thor, Johan

2013-01-01

Despite the reported success of Lean in health care settings, it is unclear why and how organizations adopt Lean and how Lean transforms work design and, in turn, affects employees' work. This study investigated a cardiology department's journey to adopt and adapt Lean. The investigation was focused on the rationale and evolution of the Lean adoption to illuminate how a department with a long quality improvement history arrived at the decision to introduce Lean, and how Lean influenced employees' daily work. This is an explanatory single case study based on semistructured interviews, nonparticipant observations, and document studies. Guided by a Lean model, we undertook manifest content analysis of the data. We found that previous improvement efforts may facilitate the introduction of Lean but may be less important when forecasting whether Lean will be sustained over time. Contextual factors seemed to influence both what Lean tools were implemented and how well the changes were sustained. For example, adoption of Lean varied with the degree to which staff saw a need for change. Work redesign and teamwork were found helpful to improve patient care whereas problem solving was found helpful in keeping the staff engaged and sustaining the results over time.

Effects of proactive interference on non-verbal working memory.

PubMed

Cyr, Marilyn; Nee, Derek E; Nelson, Eric; Senger, Thea; Jonides, John; Malapani, Chara

2017-02-01

Working memory (WM) is a cognitive system responsible for actively maintaining and processing relevant information and is central to successful cognition. A process critical to WM is the resolution of proactive interference (PI), which involves suppressing memory intrusions from prior memories that are no longer relevant. Most studies that have examined resistance to PI in a process-pure fashion used verbal material. By contrast, studies using non-verbal material are scarce, and it remains unclear whether the effect of PI is domain-general or whether it applies solely to the verbal domain. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of PI in visual WM using both objects with high and low nameability. Using a Directed-Forgetting paradigm, we varied discriminability between WM items on two dimensions, one verbal (high-nameability vs. low-nameability objects) and one perceptual (colored vs. gray objects). As in previous studies using verbal material, effects of PI were found with object stimuli, even after controlling for verbal labels being used (i.e., low-nameability condition). We also found that the addition of distinctive features (color, verbal label) increased performance in rejecting intrusion probes, most likely through an increase in discriminability between content-context bindings in WM.

The Interaction Between Thyroid and Kidney Disease: An Overview of the Evidence

PubMed Central

Rhee, Connie M.

2016-01-01

Purpose of Review Hypothyroidism is highly prevalent in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, including those receiving dialysis. This review examines potential mechanistic links between thyroid and kidney disease; current evidence for hypothyroidism as a risk factor for de novo CKD and CKD progression; and studies of thyroid functional disorders, cardiovascular disease, and death in the CKD population. Recent Findings Epidemiologic data have demonstrated an incrementally higher prevalence of hypothyroidism with increasing severity of kidney dysfunction. Various thyroid functional test abnormalities are also commonly observed in CKD, due to alterations in thyroid hormone synthesis, metabolism, and regulation. While the mechanistic link between thyroid and kidney disease remains unclear, observational studies suggest hypothyroidism is associated with abnormal kidney structure and function. Previously thought to be a physiologic adaptation, recent studies show that hypothyroidism is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death in CKD. Summary A growing body of evidence suggests that hypothyroidism is a risk factor for incident CKD, CKD progression, and higher death risk in kidney disease patients. Rigorous studies are needed to determine impact of thyroid hormone replacement upon kidney disease progression, cardiovascular disease, and mortality, which may shed light into the causal implications of hypothyroidism in CKD. PMID:27428519

Feeding motivation as a personality trait in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus): role of serotonergic neurotransmission.

PubMed

Silva, Patricia I M; Martins, Catarina I M; Höglund, Erik; Gjøen, Hans Magnus; Øverli, Øyvind

2014-10-01

Consistent individual variation in behaviour and physiology (i.e. animal personality or coping style) has emerged as a central topic in many biological disciplines. Yet, underlying mechanisms of crucial personality traits like feeding behaviour in novel environments remain unclear. Comparative studies, however, reveal a strong degree of evolutionary conservation of neural mechanisms controlling such behaviours throughout the vertebrate lineage. Previous studies have indicated duration of stress-induced anorexia as a consistent individual characteristic in teleost fishes. This study aims to determine to what degree brain 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin) activity pertains to this aspect of animal personality, as a correlate to feed anticipatory behaviour and recovery of feed intake after transfer to a novel environment. Crucial to the definition of animal personality, a strong degree of individual consistency in different measures of feeding behaviour (feeding latency and feeding score), was demonstrated. Furthermore, low serotonergic activity in the hypothalamus was highly correlated with a personality characterized by high feeding motivation, with feeding motivation represented as an overall measure incorporating several behavioural parameters in a Principle Component Analyses (PCA). This study thus confirms individual variation in brain 5-HT neurotransmission as a correlate to complex behavioural syndromes related to feeding motivation.

The effects of clinical supervision on supervisees and patients in cognitive behavioral therapy: a systematic review.

PubMed

Alfonsson, Sven; Parling, Thomas; Spännargård, Åsa; Andersson, Gerhard; Lundgren, Tobias

2018-05-01

Clinical supervision is a central part of psychotherapist training but the empirical support for specific supervision theories or features is unclear. The aims of this study were to systematically review the empirical research literature regarding the effects of clinical supervision on therapists' competences and clinical outcomes within Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). A comprehensive database search resulted in 4103 identified publications. Of these, 133 were scrutinized and in the end 5 studies were included in the review for data synthesis. The five studies were heterogeneous in scope and quality and only one provided firm empirical support for the positive effects of clinical supervision on therapists' competence. The remaining four studies suffered from methodological weaknesses, but provided some preliminary support that clinical supervision may be beneficiary for novice therapists. No study could show benefits from supervision for patients. The research literature suggests that clinical supervision may have some potential effects on novice therapists' competence compared to no supervision but the effects on clinical outcomes are still unclear. While bug-in-the-eye live supervision may be more effective than standard delayed supervision, the effects of specific supervision models or features are also unclear. There is a continued need for high-quality empirical studies on the effects of clinical supervision in psychotherapy.

Outdoor air pollution and human infertility: a systematic review.

PubMed

Checa Vizcaíno, Miguel A; González-Comadran, Mireia; Jacquemin, Benedicte

2016-09-15

Air pollution is a current research priority because of its adverse effects on human health, including on fertility. However, the mechanisms through which air pollution impairs fertility remain unclear. In this article, we perform a systematic review to evaluate currently available evidence on the impact of air pollution on fertility in humans. Several studies have assessed the impact of air pollutants on the general population, and have found reduced fertility rates and increased risk of miscarriage. In subfertile patients, women exposed to higher concentrations of air pollutants while undergoing IVF showed lower live birth rates and higher rates of miscarriage. After exposure to similar levels of air pollutants, comparable results have been found regardless of the mode of conception (IVF versus spontaneous conception), suggesting that infertile women are not more susceptible to the effects of pollutants than the general population. In addition, previous studies have not observed impaired embryo quality after exposure to air pollution, although evidence for this question is sparse. Copyright © 2016 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adaptive memory: Is the animacy effect on memory due to emotional arousal?

PubMed

Meinhardt, Martin J; Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel; Röer, Jan P

2018-05-07

Animate entities are often better remembered than inanimate ones. The proximal mechanisms underlying this animacy effect on recall are unclear. In two experiments, we tested whether the animacy effect is due to emotional arousal. Experiment 1 revealed that translations of the animate words used in the pioneering study of Nairne et al. (Psychological science, 24, 2099-2105, 2013) were perceived as being more arousing than translations of the inanimate words, suggesting that animacy might have been confounded with arousal in previous studies. In Experiment 2, new word lists were created in which the animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal (amongst several other dimensions), and participants were required to reproduce the animate and inanimate words in a free recall task. There was a tendency towards better memory for arousing items, but robust animacy effects were obtained even though animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal. Thus, while arousal may contribute to the animacy effect when it is not carefully controlled for, it cannot explain the memory advantage of animate items.

Active sites of ligand-protected Au{sub 25} nanoparticle catalysts for CO{sub 2} electroreduction to CO

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alfonso, Dominic R., E-mail: alfonso@netl.doe.gov; Kauffman, Douglas; Matranga, Christopher

2016-05-14

Recent experimental studies have reported the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) into CO at atomically precise negatively charged Au{sub 25}{sup −} nanoclusters. The studies showed CO{sub 2} conversion at remarkably low overpotentials, but the exact mechanisms and nature of the active sites remain unclear. We used first-principles density functional theory and continuum solvation models to examine the role of the cluster during electrochemical CO{sub 2} reduction and analyze the free energies of proposed intermediate species. Contrary to previous assumptions, our results show that the fully ligand protected cluster is not an active CO{sub 2} reduction catalyst because formationmore » of the crucial carboxyl intermediate required very high electrochemical potentials. Instead, our calculations suggest that the reduction process likely occurs on a dethiolated gold site, and adsorbed carboxyl intermediate formation was significantly stabilized at dethiolated gold sites. These findings point to the crucial role of exposed metal sites during electrochemical CO{sub 2} reduction at gold nanocluster catalysts.« less

Local Arginase 1 Activity Is Required for Cutaneous Wound Healing

PubMed Central

Campbell, Laura; Saville, Charis R; Murray, Peter J; Cruickshank, Sheena M; Hardman, Matthew J

2013-01-01

Chronic nonhealing wounds in the elderly population are associated with a prolonged and excessive inflammatory response, which is widely hypothesized to impede healing. Previous studies have linked alterations in local L-arginine metabolism, principally mediated by the enzymes arginase (Arg) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), to pathological wound healing. Over subsequent years, interest in Arg/iNOS has focused on the classical versus alternatively activated (M1/M2) macrophage paradigm. Although the role of iNOS during healing has been studied, Arg contribution to healing remains unclear. Here, we report that Arg is dynamically regulated during acute wound healing. Pharmacological inhibition of local Arg activity directly perturbed healing, as did Tie2-cre-mediated deletion of Arg1, revealing the importance of Arg1 during healing. Inhibition or depletion of Arg did not alter alternatively activated macrophage numbers but instead was associated with increased inflammation, including increased influx of iNOS+ cells and defects in matrix deposition. Finally, we reveal that in preclinical murine models reduced Arg expression directly correlates with delayed healing, and as such may represent an important future therapeutic target. PMID:23552798

Local arginase 1 activity is required for cutaneous wound healing.

PubMed

Campbell, Laura; Saville, Charis R; Murray, Peter J; Cruickshank, Sheena M; Hardman, Matthew J

2013-10-01

Chronic nonhealing wounds in the elderly population are associated with a prolonged and excessive inflammatory response, which is widely hypothesized to impede healing. Previous studies have linked alterations in local L-arginine metabolism, principally mediated by the enzymes arginase (Arg) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), to pathological wound healing. Over subsequent years, interest in Arg/iNOS has focused on the classical versus alternatively activated (M1/M2) macrophage paradigm. Although the role of iNOS during healing has been studied, Arg contribution to healing remains unclear. Here, we report that Arg is dynamically regulated during acute wound healing. Pharmacological inhibition of local Arg activity directly perturbed healing, as did Tie2-cre-mediated deletion of Arg1, revealing the importance of Arg1 during healing. Inhibition or depletion of Arg did not alter alternatively activated macrophage numbers but instead was associated with increased inflammation, including increased influx of iNOS(+) cells and defects in matrix deposition. Finally, we reveal that in preclinical murine models reduced Arg expression directly correlates with delayed healing, and as such may represent an important future therapeutic target.

Adaptive Myogenesis under Hypoxia

PubMed Central

Yun, Zhong; Lin, Qun; Giaccia, Amato J.

2005-01-01

Previous studies have indicated that myoblasts can differentiate and repair muscle injury after an ischemic insult. However, it is unclear how hypoxia or glucose deprivation in the ischemic microenvironment affects myoblast differentiation. We have found that myogenesis can adapt to hypoxic conditions. This adaptive mechanism is accompanied by initial inhibition of the myoD, E2A, and myogenin genes followed by resumption of their expression in an oxygen-dependent manner. The regulation of myoD transcription by hypoxia is correlated with transient deacetylation of histones associated with the myoD promoter. It is noteworthy that, unlike the differentiation of other cell types such as preadipocytes or chondroblasts, the effect of hypoxia on myogenesis is independent of HIF-1, a ubiquitous regulator of transcription under hypoxia. While myogenesis can also adapt to glucose deprivation, the combination of severe hypoxia and glucose deprivation found in an ischemic environment results in pronounced loss of myoblasts. Our studies indicate that the ischemic muscle can be repaired via the adaptive differentiation of myogenic precursors, which depends on the levels of oxygen and glucose in the ischemic microenvironment. PMID:15798192

Impacts of Bisphenol A and Ethinyl Estradiol on Male and Female CD-1 Mouse Spleen.

PubMed

Gear, Robin B; Belcher, Scott M

2017-04-12

The endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA) and the pharmaceutical 17α-ethinyl estradiol (EE) are synthetic chemicals with estrogen-like activities. Despite ubiquitous human exposure to BPA, and the wide-spread clinical use of EE as oral contraceptive adjuvant, the impact of these estrogenic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on the immune system is unclear. Here we report results of in vivo dose response studies that analyzed the histology and microstructural changes in the spleen of adult male and female CD-1 mice exposed to 4 to 40,000 μg/kg/day BPA or 0.02 to 2 μg/kg/day EE from conception until 12-14 weeks of age. Results of that analysis indicate that both BPA and EE have dose- and sex-specific impacts on the cellular and microanatomical structures of the spleens that reveal minor alterations in immunomodulatory and hematopoietic functions. These findings support previous studies demonstrating the murine immune system as a sensitive target for estrogens, and that oral exposures to BPA and EE can have estrogen-like immunomodulatory affects in both sexes.

1 Ubiquitination as a mechanism to transport soluble mycobacterial and eukaryotic proteins to exosomes

PubMed Central

Smith, Victoria L.; Jackson, Liam; Schorey, Jeffrey S.

2015-01-01

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles of endocytic origin, which function in intercellular communication. Our previous studies indicate that exosomes released from M. tuberculosis infected macrophages contain soluble mycobacterial proteins. However, it was unclear how these secreted proteins were targeted to exosomes. In this study we determined that exosome production by the murine macrophage cell line RAW264.7 requires the endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) and that trafficking of mycobacterial proteins from phagocytosed bacilli to exosomes was dependent on protein ubiquitination. Moreover, soluble mycobacterial proteins when added exogenously to RAW264.7 or human HEK 293 cells were endocytosed, ubiquitinated and released via exosomes. This suggested that endocytosed proteins could be recycled from cells through exosomes. This hypothesis was supported using the tumor–associated protein He4 which when endocytosed by RAW264.7 or HEK 293 cells was transported to exosomes in an ubiquitin-dependent manner. Our data suggest that ubiquitination is a modification sufficient for trafficking soluble proteins within the phagocytic/endocytic network to exosomes. PMID:26246139

Audiovisual speech integration in the superior temporal region is dysfunctional in dyslexia.

PubMed

Ye, Zheng; Rüsseler, Jascha; Gerth, Ivonne; Münte, Thomas F

2017-07-25

Dyslexia is an impairment of reading and spelling that affects both children and adults even after many years of schooling. Dyslexic readers have deficits in the integration of auditory and visual inputs but the neural mechanisms of the deficits are still unclear. This fMRI study examined the neural processing of auditorily presented German numbers 0-9 and videos of lip movements of a German native speaker voicing numbers 0-9 in unimodal (auditory or visual) and bimodal (always congruent) conditions in dyslexic readers and their matched fluent readers. We confirmed results of previous studies that the superior temporal gyrus/sulcus plays a critical role in audiovisual speech integration: fluent readers showed greater superior temporal activations for combined audiovisual stimuli than auditory-/visual-only stimuli. Importantly, such an enhancement effect was absent in dyslexic readers. Moreover, the auditory network (bilateral superior temporal regions plus medial PFC) was dynamically modulated during audiovisual integration in fluent, but not in dyslexic readers. These results suggest that superior temporal dysfunction may underly poor audiovisual speech integration in readers with dyslexia. Copyright © 2017 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interaction of factor H-binding protein of Streptococcus suis with globotriaosylceramide promotes the development of meningitis

PubMed Central

Kong, Decong; Chen, Zhe; Wang, Junping; Lv, Qingyu; Jiang, Hua; Zheng, Yuling; Xu, Maokai; Zhou, Xuyu; Hao, Huaijie; Jiang, Yongqiang

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Streptococcus suis is an important emerging zoonotic agent that causes acute bacterial meningitis in humans with high mortality and morbidity. Our previous work showed that factor H-binding protein (Fhb) contributed to virulence of S. suis, but the role of Fhb in the development of S. suis meningitis remained unclear. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that Fhb contributed to the traversal of S. suis across the human blood–brain barrier by allelic-exchange mutagenesis, complementation and specific antibody blocking studies. We also showed that globotriaosylceramide (Gb3), the receptor of Fhb, was involved in this process and affected S. suis infection-induced activation of myosin light chain 2 through Rho/ROCK signaling in hCMEC/D3 cells. Using a murine model of S. suis meningitis, we further demonstrated that Gb3-deficiency prevented the mice from developing severe brain inflammation or injury. Our results demonstrate that the Fhb-Gb3 interaction plays an important role in the development of S. suis meningitis and might be a potential therapeutic target against S. suis infection. PMID:28402705

BMP-2 and titanium particles synergistically activate osteoclast formation

PubMed Central

Sun, S.X.; Guo, H.H.; Zhang, J.; Yu, B.; Sun, K.N.; Jin, Q.H.

2014-01-01

A previous study showed that BMP-2 (bone morphogenetic protein-2) and wear debris can separately support osteoclast formation induced by the receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL). However, the effect of BMP-2 on wear debris-induced osteoclast formation is unclear. In this study, we show that neither titanium particles nor BMP-2 can induce osteoclast formation in RAW 264.7 mouse leukemic monocyte macrophage cells but that BMP-2 synergizes with titanium particles to enhance osteoclast formation in the presence of RANKL, and that at a low concentration, BMP-2 has an optimal effect to stimulate the size and number of multinuclear osteoclasts, expression of osteoclast genes, and resorption area. Our data also clarify that the effects caused by the increase in BMP-2 on phosphorylated SMAD levels such as c-Fos expression increased throughout the early stages of osteoclastogenesis. BMP-2 and titanium particles stimulate the expression of p-JNK, p-P38, p-IkB, and P50 compared with the titanium group. These data suggested that BMP-2 may be a crucial factor in titanium particle-mediated osteoclast formation. PMID:24820069

Pregnancy complication and outcome in women with history of allergy to medicinal agents.

PubMed

Ohel, Iris; Levy, Amalia; Zweig, Aya; Holcberg, Gershon; Sheiner, Eyal

2010-08-01

Pregnancy outcome in women with a previous history of drug allergy and the role of drug allergies in adverse pregnancy outcomes is unclear. A retrospective cohort study comparing pregnancies of women with and without history of drug allergy was conducted. Data were collected from the computerized perinatal database. A multiple logistic regression model, with background elimination, was constructed to control for confounders. Of 186,443 deliveries, 4.6% (n = 8647) occurred in patients with a history of drug allergy. The following conditions were significantly associated with a history of drug allergy: advanced maternal age, recurrent abortions, fertility treatments, hypertensive disorders, and diabetes mellitus. Using multivariate analysis, with background elimination, history of drug allergy was significantly associated with intrauterine growth restriction (OR = 1.52, CI = 1.3-0.8, P < 0.001) and with preterm delivery (OR = 1.26, CI = 1.14-1.38, P < 0.001). A history of drug allergy is an independent risk factor for intrauterine growth restriction and preterm delivery. Further prospective studies are needed to investigate the nature of this association.

Marine debris ingestion by Magellanic penguins, Spheniscus magellanicus (Aves: Sphenisciformes), from the Brazilian coastal zone.

PubMed

Brandão, Martha L; Braga, Karina M; Luque, José L

2011-10-01

Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) are non-breeding winter visitors to the Brazilian coast. In 2008 and 2010, plastic items and other marine debris were found in the stomachs and intestines of 15% of 175 dead penguins collected in the Lagos Region of the state of Rio de Janeiro. One bird had its stomach perforated by a plastic straw, which may have caused its death. There are few records of penguins ingesting plastic litter, but previous studies have found similar levels of debris ingestion among Magellanic penguins stranded on the Brazilian coast (35.8% of 397 birds). The high incidence of marine debris in this species in Brazil may result at least in part from the predominance of juveniles reaching these waters, as juvenile penguins may have a broader diet than adults. It is unclear to what extent plastic ingestion affects the mortality rate in this species and whether the incidence in stranded birds reflects that in the entire population. The present study addresses the increasing impact of plastic debris on marine life. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Heart rate variability predicts alcohol craving in alcohol dependent outpatients: further evidence for HRV as a psychophysiological marker of self-regulation.

PubMed

Quintana, Daniel S; Guastella, Adam J; McGregor, Iain S; Hickie, Ian B; Kemp, Andrew H

2013-09-01

Past research has highlighted an important role of the autonomic nervous system in alcohol dependence and capacity for self-regulation. While previous studies have examined alcohol dependent inpatients, it remains unclear whether resting-state HRV, a potential psychophysiological marker of ones capacity for self-regulation, is related to craving in patients who currently consume alcohol. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine whether HRV predicts alcohol craving in dependent individuals in the community. Resting-state HRV and alcohol craving, as indexed by the obsessive compulsive drinking scale, were assessed in 26 alcohol dependent outpatients. Results supported hypotheses indicating that HRV accounts for an additional 12.1% of the variance in craving after controlling for age, anxiety and levels of alcohol consumption. Here we show for the first time that resting-state HRV predicts craving in alcohol dependent outpatients. Results provide important new evidence for a role of the autonomic nervous system in the maintenance of dependence disorders. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The quality of fetal arm movements as indicators of fetal stress.

PubMed

Reissland, Nadja; Francis, Brian

2010-12-01

Although a number of studies have found that maternal stress affects the fetus, it is unclear whether jerky fetal movements observed on ultrasound scans are indicative of fetal stress, or whether they are part of normal development. The present study was designed to examine the relationship between jerky fetal arm movements in relation to fetal age and stress. Video recordings were made of routine ultrasound scans of 57 fetuses (age range 8 to 33 weeks) classified into three age groups: 1st trimester (8-12 weeks, N=9), 2nd trimester (13-24 weeks, N=38), and 3rd trimester (26-33 weeks, N=10). Following previous research on stress behaviour in neonates, a fetal index of stress was derived from frequency of hiccup, back arch and rhythmical mouthing. Results indicated that while stress level was unrelated to fetal age, jerkiness of arm movements was significantly associated with the fetal stress index but not age. Our findings suggest that jerky arm movements in fetuses are suggestive of fetal stress. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using Crowdsourcing to Examine Relations Between Delay and Probability Discounting

PubMed Central

Jarmolowicz, David P.; Bickel, Warren K.; Carter, Anne E.; Franck, Christopher T.; Mueller, E. Terry

2016-01-01

Although the extensive lines of research on delay and/or probability discounting have greatly expanded our understanding of human decision-making processes, the relation between these two phenomena remains unclear. For example, some studies have reported robust associations between delay and probability discounting, whereas others have failed to demonstrate a consistent relation between the two. The current study sought to clarify this relation by examining the relation between delay and probability discounting in a large sample of internet users (n= 904) using the Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) crowdsourcing service. Because AMT is a novel data collection platform, the findings were validated through the replication of a number of previously established relations (e.g., relations between delay discounting and cigarette smoking status). A small but highly significant positive correlation between delay and probability discounting rates was obtained, and principal component analysis suggested that two (rather than one) components were preferable to account for the variance in both delay and probability discounting. Taken together, these findings suggest that delay and probability discounting may be related, but are not manifestations of a single component (e.g., impulsivity). PMID:22982370

Influence of auditory spatial attention on cross-modal semantic priming effect: evidence from N400 effect.

PubMed

Wang, Hongyan; Zhang, Gaoyan; Liu, Baolin

2017-01-01

Semantic priming is an important research topic in the field of cognitive neuroscience. Previous studies have shown that the uni-modal semantic priming effect can be modulated by attention. However, the influence of attention on cross-modal semantic priming is unclear. To investigate this issue, the present study combined a cross-modal semantic priming paradigm with an auditory spatial attention paradigm, presenting the visual pictures as the prime stimuli and the semantically related or unrelated sounds as the target stimuli. Event-related potentials results showed that when the target sound was attended to, the N400 effect was evoked. The N400 effect was also observed when the target sound was not attended to, demonstrating that the cross-modal semantic priming effect persists even though the target stimulus is not focused on. Further analyses revealed that the N400 effect evoked by the unattended sound was significantly lower than the effect evoked by the attended sound. This contrast provides new evidence that the cross-modal semantic priming effect can be modulated by attention.

Periodic Eclipse Variations in Asynchronous Polar V1432 Aql: Evidence of a Shifting Threading Region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Littlefield, Colin; Mukai, Koji; Mumme, Raymond; Cain, Ryan; Magno, Katrina C.; Corpuz, Taylor; Sandefur, Davis; Boyd, David; Cook, Michael; Ulowetz, Joseph;

[A cold/heat property classification strategy based on bio-effects of herbal medicines].

PubMed

Jiang, Miao; Lv, Ai-Ping

2014-06-01

The property theory of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is regarded as the core and basic of Chinese medical theory, however, the underlying mechanism of the properties in CHMs remains unclear, which impedes a barrier for the modernization of Chinese herbal medicine. The properties of CHM are often categorized into cold and heat according to the theory of Chinese medicine, which are essential to guide the clinical application of CHMs. There is an urgent demand to build a cold/heat property classification model to facilitate the property theory of Chinese herbal medicine, as well as to clarify the controversial properties of some herbs. Based on previous studies on the cold/heat properties of CHM, in this paper, we described a novel strategy on building a cold/heat property classification model based on herbal bio-effect. The interdisciplinary cooperation of systems biology, pharmacological network, and pattern recognition technique might lighten the study on cold/heat property theory, provide a scientific model for determination the cold/heat property of herbal medicines, and a new strategy for expanding the Chinese herbal medicine resources as well.

General perceptual contributions to lexical tone normalization.

PubMed

Huang, Jingyuan; Holt, Lori L

2009-06-01

Within tone languages that use pitch variations to contrast meaning, large variability exists in the pitches produced by different speakers. Context-dependent perception may help to resolve this perceptual challenge. However, whether speakers rely on context in contour tone perception is unclear; previous studies have produced inconsistent results. The present study aimed to provide an unambiguous test of the effect of context on contour lexical tone perception and to explore its underlying mechanisms. In three experiments, Mandarin listeners' perception of Mandarin first and second (high-level and mid-rising) tones was investigated with preceding speech and non-speech contexts. Results indicate that the mean fundamental frequency (f0) of a preceding sentence affects perception of contour lexical tones and the effect is contrastive. Following a sentence with a higher-frequency mean f0, the following syllable is more likely to be perceived as a lower frequency lexical tone and vice versa. Moreover, non-speech precursors modeling the mean spectrum of f0 also elicit this effect, suggesting general perceptual processing rather than articulatory-based or speaker-identity-driven mechanisms.

Mequindox-Induced Kidney Toxicity Is Associated With Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis in the Mouse.

PubMed

Liu, Qianying; Lei, Zhixin; Guo, Jingchao; Liu, Aimei; Lu, Qirong; Fatima, Zainab; Khaliq, Haseeb; Shabbir, Muhammad A B; Maan, Muhammad Kashif; Wu, Qinghua; Dai, Menghong; Wang, Xu; Pan, Yuanhu; Yuan, Zonghui

2018-01-01

Mequindox (MEQ), belonging to quinoxaline-di- N -oxides (QdNOs), is a synthetic antimicrobial agent widely used in China. Previous studies found that the kidney was one of the main toxic target organs of the QdNOs. However, the mechanisms underlying the kidney toxicity caused by QdNOs in vivo still remains unclear. The present study aimed to explore the molecular mechanism of kidney toxicity in mice after chronic exposure to MEQ. MEQ led to the oxidative stress, apoptosis, and mitochondrial damage in the kidney of mice. Meanwhile, MEQ upregulated Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, disrupted mitochondrial permeability transition pores, caused cytochrome c release, and a cascade activation of caspase, eventually induced apoptosis. The oxidative stress mediated by MEQ might led to mitochondria damage and apoptosis in a mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic pathway. Furthermore, upregulation of the Nrf2-Keap1 signaling pathway was also observed. Our findings revealed that the oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the Nrf2-Keap1 signaling pathway were associated with the kidney apoptosis induced by MEQ in vivo .

Mequindox-Induced Kidney Toxicity Is Associated With Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis in the Mouse

PubMed Central

Liu, Qianying; Lei, Zhixin; Guo, Jingchao; Liu, Aimei; Lu, Qirong; Fatima, Zainab; Khaliq, Haseeb; Shabbir, Muhammad A. B.; Maan, Muhammad Kashif; Wu, Qinghua; Dai, Menghong; Wang, Xu; Pan, Yuanhu; Yuan, Zonghui

2018-01-01

Mequindox (MEQ), belonging to quinoxaline-di-N-oxides (QdNOs), is a synthetic antimicrobial agent widely used in China. Previous studies found that the kidney was one of the main toxic target organs of the QdNOs. However, the mechanisms underlying the kidney toxicity caused by QdNOs in vivo still remains unclear. The present study aimed to explore the molecular mechanism of kidney toxicity in mice after chronic exposure to MEQ. MEQ led to the oxidative stress, apoptosis, and mitochondrial damage in the kidney of mice. Meanwhile, MEQ upregulated Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, disrupted mitochondrial permeability transition pores, caused cytochrome c release, and a cascade activation of caspase, eventually induced apoptosis. The oxidative stress mediated by MEQ might led to mitochondria damage and apoptosis in a mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic pathway. Furthermore, upregulation of the Nrf2-Keap1 signaling pathway was also observed. Our findings revealed that the oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the Nrf2-Keap1 signaling pathway were associated with the kidney apoptosis induced by MEQ in vivo. PMID:29765325

HiTAD: detecting the structural and functional hierarchies of topologically associating domains from chromatin interactions

PubMed Central

Wang, Xiao-Tao; Cui, Wang

2017-01-01

Abstract A current question in the high-order organization of chromatin is whether topologically associating domains (TADs) are distinct from other hierarchical chromatin domains. However, due to the unclear TAD definition in tradition, the structural and functional uniqueness of TAD is not well studied. In this work, we refined TAD definition by further constraining TADs to the optimal separation on global intra-chromosomal interactions. Inspired by this constraint, we developed a novel method, called HiTAD, to detect hierarchical TADs from Hi-C chromatin interactions. HiTAD performs well in domain sensitivity, replicate reproducibility and inter cell-type conservation. With a novel domain-based alignment proposed by us, we defined several types of hierarchical TAD changes which were not systematically studied previously, and subsequently used them to reveal that TADs and sub-TADs differed statistically in correlating chromosomal compartment, replication timing and gene transcription. Finally, our work also has the implication that the refinement of TAD definition could be achieved by only utilizing chromatin interactions, at least in part. HiTAD is freely available online. PMID:28977529

Memorial familiarity remains intact for pictures but not for words in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Embree, Lindsay M; Budson, Andrew E; Ally, Brandon A

2012-07-01

Understanding how memory breaks down in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) process has significant implications, both clinically and with respect to intervention development. Previous work has highlighted a robust picture superiority effect in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). However, it remains unclear as to how pictures improve memory compared to words in this patient population. In the current study, we utilized receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to obtain estimates of familiarity and recollection for pictures and words in patients with aMCI and healthy older controls. Analysis of accuracy shows that even when performance is matched between pictures and words in the healthy control group, patients with aMCI continue to show a significant picture superiority effect. The results of the ROC analysis showed that patients demonstrated significantly impaired recollection and familiarity for words compared controls. In contrast, patients with aMCI demonstrated impaired recollection, but intact familiarity for pictures, compared to controls. Based on previous work from our lab, we speculate that patients can utilize the rich conceptual information provided by pictures to enhance familiarity, and perceptual information may allow for post-retrieval monitoring or verification of the enhanced sense of familiarity. Alternatively, the combination of enhanced conceptual and perceptual fluency of the test item might drive a stronger or more robust sense of familiarity that can be accurately attributed to a studied item. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Office blood pressure, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and echocardiographic abnormalities in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: role of obesity and androgen excess.

PubMed

Luque-Ramírez, Manuel; Martí, David; Fernández-Durán, Elena; Alpañés, Macarena; Álvarez-Blasco, Francisco; Escobar-Morreale, Héctor F

2014-03-01

Whether or not blood pressure (BP) and heart function of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are altered remains unclear, albeit subtle abnormalities in the regulation of BP observed in these women might suggest a mild masculinization of their cardiovascular system. To study the influence of obesity and androgen excess on BP and echocardiographic profiles of women with the syndrome, we conducted a cross-sectional case-control study comparing office and ambulatory BP monitoring, as well as echocardiographic assessments, in 63 premenopausal women with the classic phenotype, 33 nonhyperandrogenic women with regular menses, and 25 young men. Forty-nine subjects were lean and 72 had weight excess (body mass index ≥25 kg/m(2)). Participants had no previous history of hypertension and were nonsmokers. Men showed the highest BP readings, and the lowest readings were observed in control women, whereas women with PCOS had intermediate values. Undiagnosed hypertension was more common in subjects with weight excess irrespective of sex and hyperandrogenism. Women with PCOS and weight excess showed frequencies of previously undiagnosed hypertension that were similar to those of men with weight excess and higher than those observed in nonhyperandrogenic women. Lastly, male sex, weight excess and hypertension, the latter in men as well as in women with PCOS, increased left ventricular wall thickness. In summary, our results show that patients with classic PCOS and weight excess frequently have undiagnosed BP abnormalities, leading to target organ damage.

Suicidal ideation and self-harm following K2 use.

PubMed

Thomas, Shannon; Bliss, Sarah; Malik, Mohammed

2012-11-01

There is emerging evidence of adverse effects associated with K2 and similar synthetic cannabinoid compounds marketed as herbal alternatives to marijuana. Few studies were identified regarding the psychiatric effects of K2, including suicidal ideation, and to our knowledge none have been written related to self-harm following use of K2. A healthy 20-year-old single Caucasian male with no previous psychiatric diagnoses or treatment was brought by police to the ED with acute agitation, confusion, suicidal ideation, and self-inflicted trauma after smoking K2. Evaluation in the ED was notable for agitation, significant abrasions, respiratory rate of 30, negative UDS, and sinus tachycardia on EKG. Once medically stabilized, he was transferred to the inpatient psychiatric unit for continued monitoring. Upon evaluation on the psychiatric unit the following day, his symptoms had completely resolved, he continued to deny any previous psychiatric history, and was discharged home. K2 and other synthetic cannabinoids have been shown to have significant medical and psychiatric adverse effects and they are still readily available for purchase. Evidence is limited regarding the psychiatric effects; however, synthetic cannabinoid products may potentially lead to suicidal ideation and self-harm behaviors amongst many other psychiatric symptoms.The long-term risks are still unclear, but some studies suggest the possibility of inducing chronic psychotic symptoms and worsening underlying psychiatric illness. Continued research is needed regarding the effects of these substances as well as an increase in public awareness of the risks.

Memorial familiarity remains intact for pictures but not for words in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

PubMed Central

Embree, Lindsay M.; Budson, Andrew E.; Ally, Brandon A.

2012-01-01

Understanding how memory breaks down in the earliest stages of the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) process has significant implications, both clinically and with respect to intervention development. Previous work has highlighted a robust picture superiority effect in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). However, it remains unclear as to how pictures improve memory compared to words in this patient population. In the current study, we utilized receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to obtain estimates of familiarity and recollection for pictures and words in patients with aMCI and healthy older controls. Analysis of accuracy shows that even when performance is matched between pictures and words in the healthy control group, patients with aMCI continue to show a significant picture superiority effect. The results of the ROC analysis showed that patients demonstrated significantly impaired recollection and familiarity for words compared controls. In contrast, patients with aMCI demonstrated impaired recollection, but intact familiarity for pictures, compared to controls. Based on previous work from our lab, we speculate that patients can utilize the rich conceptual information provided by pictures to enhance familiarity, and perceptual information may allow for post-retrieval monitoring or verification of the enhanced sense of familiarity. Alternatively, the combination of enhanced conceptual and perceptual fluency of the test item might drive a stronger or more robust sense of familiarity that can be accurately attributed to a studied item. PMID:22705441

Effects of home, outside leisure, social, and peer activity on psychological health among Japanese family caregivers

PubMed Central

Wakui, Tomoko; Saito, Tami; Agree, Emily M.; Kai, Ichiro

2014-01-01

Objective Previous research has indicated that informal caregivers’ personal activities are disrupted by their caregiving role, leading to psychological stress and lower life satisfaction. However, the extent to which engagement in personal activities affects caregivers’ psychological health remains unclear. This study examines the relationship between different types and frequencies of activities and both positive and negative parameters of the psychological health of caregivers. Methods A mail survey was conducted with 727 family caregivers of older persons using adult day care services in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Perceived caregiver burden, care satisfaction, life satisfaction, and depression were used as psychological health outcomes. Engagement in home, outside leisure, social, and peer activities, as well as caregiver and care-recipient characteristics and caregiving situations, were assessed using a multivariate regression analysis. Results Engagement in home activities was related to lower scores on burden and depression and greater care satisfaction after controlling for care needs and caregiver characteristics, and social and peer activities were associated with greater life satisfaction. More frequent engagement was also associated with better psychological health, but a moderate involvement in home activities was most strongly associated with better care satisfaction. The amount of outside leisure activity was not significantly related with any of the outcomes. Conclusion This study shows that activity type and frequency are associated with caregivers’ psychological health, extending previous findings and providing practical implications for the support of family caregivers through programs to improve their participation in specific types of activities. PMID:22360698

PRENATAL INFECTION AND EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION IN ADULT SCHIZOPHRENIA

PubMed Central

Brown, Alan S.; Vinogradov, Sophia; Kremen, William S.; Poole, John H.; Deicken, Raymond F.; Penner, Justin D.; McKeague, Ian W.; Kochetkova, Anna; Kern, David; Schaefer, Catherine A.

2010-01-01

Objective Executive dysfunction is one of the most prominent and functionally important cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Although strong associations have been identified between executive impairments and structural and functional prefrontal cortical deficits, the etiological factors that contribute to disruption of this important cognitive domain remain unclear. Increasing evidence suggests that schizophrenia has a neurodevelopmental etiology, and several prenatal infections have been associated with risk of this disorder. To date, however, no previous study has examined whether in utero infection is associated with executive dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia. Method In the present study, we assessed the relationship between serologically documented prenatal exposure to influenza and toxoplasmosis and performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Trail Making Test, part B (Trails B), as well as other measures of executive function, in 26 patients with schizophrenia from a large and well-characterized birth cohort. Results Cases who were exposed in utero to infection committed significantly more total errors on the WCST and took significantly more time to complete the Trails B than unexposed cases. Exposed cases also exhibited deficits on figural fluency, letter-number sequencing, and backward digit span. Conclusion Prenatal infections previously associated with schizophrenia are related to impaired performance on the WCST and Trails B. The pattern of results suggests that cognitive set-shifting ability may be particularly vulnerable to this gestational exposure. Further work is necessary to elucidate the specificity of prenatal infection to these executive function measures and examine correlates with neuroanatomic and neurophysiologic anomalies. PMID:19369317

Neural representation of cost-benefit selections in rat anterior cingulate cortex in self-paced decision making.

PubMed

Wang, Shuai; Shi, Yi; Li, Bao-Ming

2017-03-01

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is crucial for decision making which involves the processing of cost-benefit information. Our previous study has shown that ACC is essential for self-paced decision making. However, it is unclear how ACC neurons represent cost-benefit selections during the decision-making process. In the present study, we trained rats on the same "Do More Get More" (DMGM) task as in our previous work. In each trial, the animals stand upright and perform a sustained nosepoke of their own will to earn a water reward, with the amount of reward positively correlated to the duration of the nosepoke (i.e., longer nosepokes earn larger rewards). We then recorded ACC neuronal activity on well-trained rats while they were performing the DMGM task. Our results show that (1) approximately 3/5 ACC neurons (296/496, 59.7%) exhibited changes in firing frequency that were temporally locked with the main events of the DMGM task; (2) about 1/5 ACC neurons (101/496, 20.4%) or 1/3 of the event-modulated neurons (101/296, 34.1%) showed differential firing rate changes for different cost-benefit selections; and (3) many ACC neurons exhibited linear encoding of the cost-benefit selections in the DMGM task events. These results suggest that ACC neurons are engaged in encoding cost-benefit information, thus represent the selections in self-paced decision making. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Horizontal Acquisition and Transcriptional Integration of Novel Genes in Mosquito-Associated Spiroplasma.

PubMed

Lo, Wen-Sui; Kuo, Chih-Horng

2017-12-01

Genetic differentiation among symbiotic bacteria is important in shaping biodiversity. The genus Spiroplasma contains species occupying diverse niches and is a model system for symbiont evolution. Previous studies have established that two mosquito-associated species have diverged extensively in their carbohydrate metabolism genes despite having a close phylogenetic relationship. Notably, although the commensal Spiroplasma diminutum lacks identifiable pathogenicity factors, the pathogenic Spiroplasma taiwanense was found to have acquired a virulence factor glpO and its associated genes through horizontal transfer. However, it is unclear if these acquired genes have been integrated into the regulatory network. In this study, we inferred the gene content evolution in these bacteria, as well as examined their transcriptomes in response to glucose availability. The results indicated that both species have many more gene acquisitions from the Mycoides-Entomoplasmataceae clade, which contains several important pathogens of ruminants, than previously thought. Moreover, several acquired genes have higher expression levels than the vertically inherited homologs, indicating possible functional replacement. Finally, the virulence factor and its functionally linked genes in S. taiwanense were up-regulated in response to glucose starvation, suggesting that these acquired genes are under expression regulation and the pathogenicity may be a stress response. In summary, although differential gene losses are a major process for symbiont divergence, gene gains are critical in counteracting genome degradation and driving diversification among facultative symbionts. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Competitive release and outbreaks of non-target pests associated with transgenic Bt cotton.

PubMed

Zeilinger, Adam R; Olson, Dawn M; Andow, David A

2016-06-01

The adoption of transgenic Bt cotton has, in some cases, led to environmental and economic benefits through reduced insecticide use. However, the distribution of these benefits and associated risks among cotton growers and cotton-growing regions has been uneven due in part to outbreaks of non-target or secondary pests, thereby requiring the continued use of synthetic insecticides. In the southeastern USA, Bt cotton adoption has resulted in increased abundance of and damage from stink bug pests, Euschistus servus and Nezara viridula (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae). While the impact of increased stink bug abundance has been well-documented, the causes have remained unclear. We hypothesize that release from competition with Bt-susceptible target pests may drive stink bug outbreaks in Bt cotton. We first examined the evidence for competitive release of stink bugs through meta-analysis of previous studies. We then experimentally tested if herbivory by Bt-susceptible Helicoverpa zea increases stink bug leaving rates and deters oviposition on non-Bt cotton. Consistent with previous studies, we found differences in leaving rates only for E servus, but we found that both species strongly avoided ovipositing on H. zea-damaged plants. Considering all available evidence, competitive release of stink bug populations in Bt cotton likely contributes to outbreaks, though the relative importance of competitive release remains an open question. Ecological risk assessments of Bt crops and other transgenic insecticidal crops would benefit from greater understanding of the ecological mechanisms underlying non-target pest outbreaks and greater attention to indirect ecological effects more broadly.

An Expanded Conceptual Framework of Medical Students' Primary Care Career Choice.

PubMed

Pfarrwaller, Eva; Audétat, Marie-Claude; Sommer, Johanna; Maisonneuve, Hubert; Bischoff, Thomas; Nendaz, Mathieu; Baroffio, Anne; Junod Perron, Noëlle; Haller, Dagmar M

2017-11-01

In many countries, the number of graduating medical students pursuing a primary care career does not meet demand. These countries face primary care physician shortages. Students' career choices have been widely studied, yet many aspects of this process remain unclear. Conceptual models are useful to plan research and educational interventions in such complex systems.The authors developed a framework of primary care career choice in undergraduate medical education, which expands on previously published models. They used a group-based, iterative approach to find the best way to represent the vast array of influences identified in previous studies, including in a recent systematic review of the literature on interventions to increase the proportion of students choosing a primary care career. In their framework, students enter medical school with their personal characteristics and initial interest in primary care. They complete a process of career decision making, which is subject to multiple interacting influences, both within and outside medical school, throughout their medical education. These influences are stratified into four systems-microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem-which represent different levels of interaction with students' career choices.This expanded framework provides an updated model to help understand the multiple factors that influence medical students' career choices. It offers a guide for the development of new interventions to increase the proportion of students choosing primary care careers and for further research to better understand the variety of processes involved in this decision.

Cadaveric study of movement in the unstable upper cervical spine during emergency management: tracheal intubation and cervical spine immobilisation—a study protocol for a prospective randomised crossover trial

PubMed Central

Popp, Erik; Hüttlin, Petra; Weilbacher, Frank; Münzberg, Matthias; Schneider, Niko; Kreinest, Michael

2017-01-01

Introduction Emergency management of upper cervical spine injuries often requires cervical spine immobilisation and some critical patients also require airway management. The movement of cervical spine created by tracheal intubation and cervical spine immobilisation can potentially exacerbate cervical spinal cord injury. However, the evidence that previous studies have provided remains unclear, due to lack of a direct measurement technique for dural sac's space during dynamic processes. Our study will use myelography method and a wireless human motion tracker to characterise and compare the change of dural sac's space during tracheal intubations and cervical spine immobilisation in the presence of unstable upper cervical spine injury such as atlanto-occipital dislocation or type II odontoid fracture. Methods and analysis Perform laryngoscopy and intubation, video laryngoscope intubation, laryngeal tube insertion, fiberoptic intubation and cervical collar application on cadaveric models of unstable upper cervical spine injury such as atlanto-occipital dislocation or type II odontoid fracture. The change of dural sac's space and the motion of unstable cervical segment are recorded by video fluoroscopy with previously performing myelography, which enables us to directly measure dural sac's space. Simultaneously, the whole cervical spine motion is recorded at a wireless human motion tracker. The maximum dural sac compression and the maximum angulation and distraction of the injured segment are measured by reviewing fluoroscopic and myelography images. Ethics and dissemination This study protocol has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the State Medical Association Rhineland-Palatinate, Mainz, Germany. The results will be published in relevant emergency journals and presented at relevant conferences. Trial registration number DRKS00010499. PMID:28864483

Central autonomic nervous system response to autonomic challenges is altered in patients with a previous episode of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

PubMed

Pereira, Vitor H; Marques, Paulo; Magalhães, Ricardo; Português, João; Calvo, Lucy; Cerqueira, João J; Sousa, Nuno

2016-04-01

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is an intriguing disease characterized by acute transient left ventricular dysfunction usually triggered by an episode of severe stress. The excessive levels of catecholamines and the overactivation of the sympathetic system are believed to be the main pathophysiologic mechanisms of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, but it is unclear whether there is a structural or functional signature of the disease. In this sense, our aim was to characterize the central autonomic system response to autonomic challenges in patients with a previous episode of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy when compared with a control group of healthy volunteers. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed in four patients with a previous episode of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (average age of 67 ± 12 years) and in eight healthy volunteers (average age of 66 ± 5 years) while being submitted to different autonomic challenges (cold exposure and Valsalva manoeuvre). The fMRI analysis revealed a significant variation of the blood oxygen level dependent signal triggered by the Valsalva manoeuvre in specific areas of the brain involved in the cortical control of the autonomic system and significant differences in the pattern of activation of the insular cortex, amygdala and the right hippocampus between patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy and controls, even though these regions did not present significant volumetric changes. The central autonomic response to autonomic challenges is altered in patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, thus suggesting a dysregulation of the central autonomic nervous system network. Subsequent studies are needed to unveil whether these alterations are causal or predisposing factors to Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. © The European Society of Cardiology 2015.

Cellular registration without behavioral recall of olfactory sensory input under general anesthesia.

PubMed

Samuelsson, Andrew R; Brandon, Nicole R; Tang, Pei; Xu, Yan

2014-04-01

Previous studies suggest that sensory information is "received" but not "perceived" under general anesthesia. Whether and to what extent the brain continues to process sensory inputs in a drug-induced unconscious state remain unclear. One hundred seven rats were randomly assigned to 12 different anesthesia and odor exposure paradigms. The immunoreactivities of the immediate early gene products c-Fos and Egr1 as neural activity markers were combined with behavioral tests to assess the integrity and relationship of cellular and behavioral responsiveness to olfactory stimuli under a surgical plane of ketamine-xylazine general anesthesia. The olfactory sensory processing centers could distinguish the presence or absence of experimental odorants even when animals were fully anesthetized. In the anesthetized state, the c-Fos immunoreactivity in the higher olfactory cortices revealed a difference between novel and familiar odorants similar to that seen in the awake state, suggesting that the anesthetized brain functions beyond simply receiving external stimulation. Reexposing animals to odorants previously experienced only under anesthesia resulted in c-Fos immunoreactivity, which was similar to that elicited by familiar odorants, indicating that previous registration had occurred in the anesthetized brain. Despite the "cellular memory," however, odor discrimination and forced-choice odor-recognition tests showed absence of behavioral recall of the registered sensations, except for a longer latency in odor recognition tests. Histologically distinguishable registration of sensory processing continues to occur at the cellular level under ketamine-xylazine general anesthesia despite the absence of behavioral recognition, consistent with the notion that general anesthesia causes disintegration of information processing without completely blocking cellular communications.

Timing of Surgical Repair After Bile Duct Injury Impacts Postoperative Complications but Not Anastomotic Patency.

PubMed

Dominguez-Rosado, Ismael; Sanford, Dominic E; Liu, Jingxia; Hawkins, William G; Mercado, Miguel A

2016-09-01

Our goal was to determine the optimal timing for repair of bile duct injuries sustained during cholecystectomy. Bile duct injury during cholecystectomy is a serious complication that often requires surgical repair. There is heterogeneity in the literature regarding the optimal timing of surgical repair, and it remains unclear to what extent timing determines postoperative morbidity and long-term anastomotic function. A single institution prospective database was queried for all E1 to E4 injuries from 1989 to 2014 using a standardized tabular reporting format. Timing was stratified into 3 groups [early (<7 days), intermediate (8 days until 6 weeks), and late (>6 weeks) after injury]. Analysis was stratified between those who had a previous bile duct repair or not, including postoperative complications and anastomotic failure as outcome variables in 2 separate multivariate logistic regression models. There were 614 patients included in the study. The mean age was 41 years (range, 15-85 yrs), and the majority were female (80%). The mean follow-up time was 40.5 months. Side-to-side hepaticojejunostomy was performed in 94% of repairs. Intermediate repair was associated with a higher risk of postoperative complications [odd ratio = 3.7, 95% confidence interval (1.3-10.2), P = 0.01] when compared with early and late in those with a previous repair attempt. Sepsis control and avoidance of biliary stents were protective factors against anastomotic failure. Adequate sepsis control and delayed repair of biliary injuries should be considered for patients presenting between 8 days and 6 weeks after injury to prevent complications, if a previous bile duct repair was attempted.

Cellular Registration Without Behavioral Recall Of Olfactory Sensory Input Under General Anesthesia

PubMed Central

Samuelsson, Andrew R.; Brandon, Nicole R.; Tang, Pei; Xu, Yan

2014-01-01

Background Previous studies suggest that sensory information is “received” but not “perceived” under general anesthesia. Whether and to what extent the brain continues to process sensory inputs in a drug-induced unconscious state remain unclear. Methods 107 rats were randomly assigned to 12 different anesthesia and odor exposure paradigms. The immunoreactivities of the immediate early gene products c-Fos and Egr1 as neural activity markers were combined with behavioral tests to assess the integrity and relationship of cellular and behavioral responsiveness to olfactory stimuli under a surgical plane of ketamine-xylazine general anesthesia. Results The olfactory sensory processing centers can distinguish the presence or absence of experimental odorants even when animals were fully anesthetized. In the anesthetized state, the c-Fos immunoreactivity in the higher olfactory cortices revealed a difference between novel and familiar odorants similar to that seen in the awake state, suggesting that the anesthetized brain functions beyond simply receiving external stimulation. Re-exposing animals to odorants previously experienced only under anesthesia resulted in c-Fos immunoreactivity similar to that elicited by familiar odorants, indicating that previous registration had occurred in the anesthetized brain. Despite the “cellular memory,” however, odor discrimination and forced-choice odor-recognition tests showed absence of behavioral recall of the registered sensations, except for a longer latency in odor recognition tests. Conclusions Histologically distinguishable registration of sensory process continues to occur at cellular level under ketamine-xylazine general anesthesia despite the absence of behavioral recognition, consistent with the notion that general anesthesia causes disintegration of information processing without completely blocking cellular communications. PMID:24694846

Systemic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials Comparing Primary vs Delayed Primary Skin Closure in Contaminated and Dirty Abdominal Incisions

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-26

Chatwiriyacharoen14 Betadine gauze Unclear 5 Unclear Until suitable for suture Purulent dis- charge or mate- rial or surround- ing cellulitis Unclear Reopened and...Opened McGreal et al20 Povidone-io- dine (1%)- soaked wick Subcuticu- lar suture 4 Unclear Steri-Strips on day 4 Cellulitis , cul- ture-positive

Chimpanzees return favors at a personal cost.

PubMed

Schmelz, Martin; Grueneisen, Sebastian; Kabalak, Alihan; Jost, Jürgen; Tomasello, Michael

2017-07-11

Humans regularly provide others with resources at a personal cost to themselves. Chimpanzees engage in some cooperative behaviors in the wild as well, but their motivational underpinnings are unclear. In three experiments, chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) always chose between an option delivering food both to themselves and a partner and one delivering food only to themselves. In one condition, a conspecific partner had just previously taken a personal risk to make this choice available. In another condition, no assistance from the partner preceded the subject's decision. Chimpanzees made significantly more prosocial choices after receiving their partner's assistance than when no assistance was given (experiment 1) and, crucially, this was the case even when choosing the prosocial option was materially costly for the subject (experiment 2). Moreover, subjects appeared sensitive to the risk of their partner's assistance and chose prosocially more often when their partner risked losing food by helping (experiment 3). These findings demonstrate experimentally that chimpanzees are willing to incur a material cost to deliver rewards to a conspecific, but only if that conspecific previously assisted them, and particularly when this assistance was risky. Some key motivations involved in human cooperation thus may have deeper phylogenetic roots than previously suspected.

A rare autopsy case of traumatic rhabdomyolysis associated with intermittent assault.

PubMed

Chiba, Fumiko; Makino, Yohsuke; Motomura, Ayumi; Inokuchi, Go; Ishii, Namiko; Torimitsu, Suguru; Hoshioka, Yumi; Abe, Hiroko; Yamaguchi, Rutsuko; Hashimoto, Mari; Sakuma, Ayaka; Nagasawa, Sayaka; Saito, Hisako; Yajima, Daisuke; Iwase, Hirotaro

2016-05-01

Traumatic rhabdomyolysis generally occurs after severe blunt trauma and is acute in onset, associated with severe disease, and potentially lethal. Accordingly, diagnosis of traumatic rhabdomyolysis in patients without massive subcutaneous or intramuscular hemorrhage is difficult, especially in the postmortem period, which is limited in terms of the availability of biochemical examination tools and accurate history of illness. To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous reports of death from traumatic rhabdomyolysis among individuals who did not pursue medical consultation. A previously healthy man in his early sixties had been punched and kicked several times in the previous 2months, but he had not gone to a hospital. He suddenly lost consciousness at his workplace approximately 5days after the most recent assault, and cardiopulmonary arrest occurred when the emergency service arrived. He died the same day, and a medicolegal autopsy was performed. Although several sites of minor subcutaneous and muscle hemorrhage were observed, the cause of death was unclear upon macroscopic assessment. Immunohistochemical staining revealed acute renal failure caused by rhabdomyolysis. We herein report a rare case of fatal traumatic rhabdomyolysis, seemingly associated with minor and apparently nonlethal muscle injury. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Do patients have a say? A narrative review of the development of patient-reported outcome measures used in elective procedures for coronary revascularisation.

PubMed

Peeters, Geeske; Barker, Anna L; Talevski, Jason; Ackerman, Ilana; Ayton, Darshini R; Reid, Christopher; Evans, Sue M; Stoelwinder, Johannes U; McNeil, John J

2018-05-01

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) capture health information from the patient's perspective that can be used when weighing up benefits, risks and costs of treatment. This is important for elective procedures such as those for coronary revascularisation. Patients should be involved in the development of PROMs to accurately capture outcomes that are important for the patient. The aims of this review are to identify if patients were involved in the development of cardiovascular-specific PROMs used for assessing outcomes from elective coronary revascularisation, and to explore what methods were used to capture patient perspectives. PROMs for evaluating outcomes from elective coronary revascularisation were identified from a previous review and an updated systematic search. The studies describing the development of the PROMs were reviewed for information on patient input in their conceptual and/or item development. 24 PROMs were identified from a previous review and three additional PROMs were identified from the updated search. Full texts were obtained for 26 of the 27 PROMs. The 26 studies (11 multidimensional, 15 unidimensional) were reviewed. Only nine studies reported developing PROMs using patient input. For eight PROMs, the inclusion of patient input could not be judged due to insufficient information in the full text. Only nine of the 26 reviewed PROMs used in elective coronary revascularisation reported involving patients in their conceptual and/or item development, while patient input was unclear for eight PROMs. These findings suggest that the patient's perspective is often overlooked or poorly described in the development of PROMs.

Relations between isoprene and nitric oxide in exhaled breath and the potential influence of outdoor ozone: a pilot study

PubMed Central

Khan, Alya; Staimer, Norbert; Tjoa, Thomas; Galassetti, Pietro; Blake, Donald R.; Delfino, Ralph J.

2013-01-01

The role of endogenous isoprene in the human body, if any, is unclear because previous research is inconsistent and mechanistic evidence for the biologic function of isoprene is lacking. Given previous evidence that exhaled isoprene is elevated in systemic inflammatory states, we hypothesized that exhaled isoprene would be positively associated with a breath biomarker of airway inflammation, the fractional concentration of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO). We examined relationships of exhaled breath isoprene with FENO and with outdoor ozone given that ozone chemically reacts with isoprene and has been positively associated with FENO in past studies. Sixteen elderly subjects were followed with ≤12 weekly exhaled hydrocarbon and FENO collections at the subjects’ retirement community. Outdoor ozone concentrations were measured continuously on site. Mixed-effects regression analyses tested relations of FENO with isoprene, and FENO and isoprene with ozone, adjusted for temperature. We found FENO was inversely associated with isoprene, and this was not confounded by ozone. Isoprene was inversely related to ozone. FENO was positively related to ozone and this relation was not confounded by isoprene. In contrast to hypothesized relations, we conclude that exhaled isoprene is inversely associated with FENO as well as outdoor ozone, which suggests possible protective ozone-scavenging functions of endogenous isoprene. Findings may indicate chemical reactions of isoprene oxidation by ozone and by hydroxyl radicals in the presence of O2 that is dependent on NO concentration. These preliminary results need to be confirmed in additional studies of human subjects, particularly as they apply to FENO monitoring in asthma. PMID:23999846

The validity of different measures of automatic alcohol action tendencies.

PubMed

Kersbergen, Inge; Woud, Marcella L; Field, Matt

2015-03-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that automatic alcohol action tendencies are related to alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking. These action tendencies are measured with reaction time tasks in which the latency to make an approach response to alcohol pictures is compared with the latency to make an avoidance response. In the literature, 4 different tasks have been used, and these tasks differ on whether alcohol is a relevant (R) or irrelevant (IR) feature for categorization and on whether participants must make a symbolic approach response (stimulus-response compatibility [SRC] tasks) or an overt behavioral response (approach avoidance tasks [AAT]) to the pictures. Previous studies have shown positive correlations between measures of action tendencies and hazardous drinking and weekly alcohol consumption. However, results have been inconsistent and the different measures have not been directly compared with each other. Therefore, it is unclear which task is the best predictor of hazardous drinking and alcohol consumption. In the present study, 80 participants completed all 4 measures of action tendencies (i.e., R-SRC, IR-SRC, R-AAT, and IR-AAT) and measures of alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking. Stepwise regressions showed that the R-SRC and R-AAT were the only significant predictors of hazardous drinking, whereas the R-AAT was the only reliable predictor of alcohol consumption. Our results confirm that drinking behavior is positively correlated with automatic alcohol approach tendencies, but only if alcohol-relatedness is the relevant feature for categorization. Theoretical implications and methodological issues are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Paternal and maternal alcohol abuse and offspring mental distress in the general population: the Nord-Trøndelag health study

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The degree to which parental alcohol abuse is a risk factor for offspring mental distress is unclear, due to conflicting results of previous research. The inconsistencies in previous findings may be related to sample characteristics and lack of control of confounding or moderating factors. One such factor may be the gender of the abusing parent. Also, other factors, such as parental mental health, divorce, adolescent social network, school functioning or self-esteem, may impact the outcome. This study examines the impact of maternal and paternal alcohol abuse on adolescent mental distress, including potentially confounding, mediating or moderating effects of various variables. Methods Data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT), a Norwegian population based health survey, from 4012 offspring and their parents were analyzed. Parental alcohol abuse was measured by numerical consumption indicators and CAGE, whereas offspring mental distress was measured by SCL-5, an abbreviated instrument tapping symptoms of anxiety and depression. Statistical method was analysis of variance. Results Maternal alcohol abuse was related to offspring mental distress, whereas no effect could be shown of paternal alcohol abuse. Effects of maternal alcohol abuse was partly mediated by parental mental distress, offspring social network and school functioning. However, all effects were relatively small. Conclusions The results indicate graver consequences for offspring of alcohol abusing mothers compared to offspring of alcohol abusing fathers. However, small effect sizes suggest that adolescent offspring of alcohol abusing parents in general manage quite well. PMID:22708789

The morphological interaction between the nasal cavity and maxillary sinuses in living humans.

PubMed

Holton, Nathan; Yokley, Todd; Butaric, Lauren

2013-03-01

To understand how variation in nasal architecture accommodates the need for effective conditioning of respired air, it is necessary to assess the morphological interaction between the nasal cavity and other aspects of the nasofacial skeleton. Previous studies indicate that the maxillary sinuses may play a key role in accommodating climatically induced nasal variation such that a decrease in nasal cavity volume is associated with a concomitant increase in maxillary sinus volume. However, due to conflicting results in previous studies, the precise interaction of the nasal cavity and maxillary sinuses, in humans, is unclear. This is likely due to the prior emphasis on nasal cavity size, whereas arguably, nasal cavity shape is more important with regard to the interaction with the maxillary sinuses. Using computed tomography scans of living human subjects (N=40), the goal of this study is to assess the interaction between nasal cavity form and maxillary sinus volume in European- and African-derived individuals with differences in nasal cavity morphology. First, we assessed whether there is an inverse relationship between nasal cavity and maxillary sinus volumes. Next, we examined the relationship between maxillary sinus volume and nasal cavity shape using multivariate regression. Our results show that there is a positive relationship between nasal cavity and maxillary sinus volume, indicating that the maxillary sinuses do not accommodate variation in nasal cavity size. However, maxillary sinus volume is significantly correlated with variation in relative internal nasal breadth. Thus, the maxillary sinuses appear to be important for accommodating nasal cavity shape rather than size. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Expression of insulin-like growth factor-1 and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptors in EL4 lymphoma cells overexpressing growth hormone.

PubMed

Weigent, Douglas A; Arnold, Robyn E

2005-03-01

Almost all of the previous studies with growth hormone (GH) have been done with exogenously supplied GH and, therefore, involve actions of the hormone through its receptor. However, the actions of endogenous or lymphocyte GH are still unclear. In a previous study, we showed that overexpression of GH (GHo) in a lymphoid cell line resulted in protection of the cells to apoptosis mediated by nitric oxide (NO). In the present study, we show that the protection from apoptosis could be transferred to control cells with culture fluids obtained from GHo cells and blocked by antibodies to the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) or antibodies to the IGF-1-receptor (IGF-1R). Northern and Western blot analysis detected significantly higher levels of IGF-1 in cells overexpressing GH. An increase in the expression of the IGF-1R in GHo cells was also detected by Western blot analysis, (125)I-IGF-1 binding and analysis of IGF-1R promoter luciferase constructs. Transfection of GHo cells with a dominant negative IGF-1R mutant construct blocked the generation of NO and activation of Akt seen in GHo cells compared to vector alone control EL4 cells. The results suggest that one of the consequences of the overexpression of GH, in cells lacking the GH receptor, is an increase in the expression of IGF-1 and the IGF-1R which mediate the protection of EL4 lymphoma cells from apoptosis.

Relations between isoprene and nitric oxide in exhaled breath and the potential influence of outdoor ozone: a pilot study.

PubMed

Khan, Alya; Staimer, Norbert; Tjoa, Thomas; Galassetti, Pietro; Blake, Donald R; Delfino, Ralph J

2013-09-01

The role of endogenous isoprene in the human body, if any, is unclear because previous research is inconsistent and mechanistic evidence for the biologic function of isoprene is lacking. Given previous evidence that exhaled isoprene is elevated in systemic inflammatory states, we hypothesized that exhaled isoprene would be positively associated with a breath biomarker of airway inflammation, the fractional concentration of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO). We examined relationships of exhaled breath isoprene with FENO and with outdoor ozone given that ozone chemically reacts with isoprene and has been positively associated with FENO in past studies. Sixteen elderly subjects were followed with ≤12 weekly exhaled hydrocarbon and FENO collections at the subjects' retirement community. Outdoor ozone concentrations were measured continuously on site. Mixed-effects regression analyses tested relations of FENO with isoprene, and FENO and isoprene with ozone, adjusted for temperature. We found FENO was inversely associated with isoprene, and this was not confounded by ozone. Isoprene was inversely related to ozone. FENO was positively related to ozone and this relation was not confounded by isoprene. In contrast to hypothesized relations, we conclude that exhaled isoprene is inversely associated with FENO as well as outdoor ozone, which suggests possible protective ozone-scavenging functions of endogenous isoprene. Findings may indicate chemical reactions of isoprene oxidation by ozone and by hydroxyl radicals in the presence of O2 that is dependent on NO concentration. These preliminary results need to be confirmed in additional studies of human subjects, particularly as they apply to FENO monitoring in asthma.

Factors affecting and affected by user acceptance of computer-based nursing documentation: results of a two-year study.

PubMed

Ammenwerth, Elske; Mansmann, Ulrich; Iller, Carola; Eichstädter, Ronald

2003-01-01

The documentation of the nursing process is an important but often neglected part of clinical documentation. Paper-based systems have been introduced to support nursing process documentation. Frequently, however, problems such as low quality of documentation are reported. It is unclear whether computer-based documentation systems can reduce these problems and which factors influence their acceptance by users. We introduced a computer-based nursing documentation system on four wards of the University Hospitals of Heidelberg and systematically evaluated its preconditions and its effects in a pretest-posttest intervention study. For the analysis of user acceptance, we concentrated on subjective data drawn from questionnaires and interviews. A questionnaire was developed using items from published questionnaires and items that had to be developed for the special purpose of this study. The quantitative results point to two factors influencing the acceptance of a new computer-based documentation system: the previous acceptance of the nursing process and the previous amount of self-confidence when using computers. On one ward, the diverse acceptance scores heavily declined after the introduction of the nursing documentation system. Explorative qualitative analysis on this ward points to further success factors of computer-based nursing documentation systems. Our results can be used to assist the planning and introduction of computer-based nursing documentation systems. They demonstrate the importance of computer experience and acceptance of the nursing process on a ward but also point to other factors such as the fit between nursing workflow and the functionality of a nursing documentation system.

Risk Assessment of Neonatal Exposure to Low Frequency Noise Based on Balance in Mice

PubMed Central

Ohgami, Nobutaka; Oshino, Reina; Ninomiya, Hiromasa; Li, Xiang; Kato, Masashi; Yajima, Ichiro; Kato, Masashi

2017-01-01

General electric devices and ventilation systems are known to generate low frequency noise (LFN) with frequencies of <100 Hz. Previous studies showed that exposure to LFN caused impairments of balance in humans and mice during adulthood. On the other hand, a previous study showed that noise levels in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were greater than those in general home or office environments. Therefore, it is possible that neonates have a potential risk to be exposed to LFN in the NICU. However, the risk of neonatal exposure to LFN remains unclear in humans and mice. In this study, male ICR mice were exposed to LFN at 100 Hz for 4 weeks after birth and then subjected to rotarod and beam crossing tests in order to assess LFN-mediated risk of imbalance during the neonatal period. Exposure to LFN at 70 dB, but not exposure to LFN up to 60 dB, during the neonatal period significantly decreased performance scores for rotarod and beam crossing tests compared to the scores of the control group. The number of calbindin-positive hair cells in the saccule and utricle was decreased in mice exposed to LFN at 70 dB for 4 weeks in the neonatal phase. Cessation of exposure for 10 weeks did not result in recovery of the decreased performance in rotarod and beam crossing tests. Thus, our results suggest that 70 dB is a possible threshold for exposure to LFN for 4 weeks during the neonatal period causing unrecoverable imbalance in mice. PMID:28275341

Isolated primary blast alters neuronal function with minimal cell death in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures.

PubMed

Effgen, Gwen B; Vogel, Edward W; Lynch, Kimberly A; Lobel, Ayelet; Hue, Christopher D; Meaney, David F; Bass, Cameron R Dale; Morrison, Barclay

2014-07-01

An increasing number of U.S. soldiers are diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) subsequent to exposure to blast. In the field, blast injury biomechanics are highly complex and multi-phasic. The pathobiology caused by exposure to some of these phases in isolation, such as penetrating or inertially driven injuries, has been investigated extensively. However, it is unclear whether the primary component of blast, a shock wave, is capable of causing pathology on its own. Previous in vivo studies in the rodent and pig have demonstrated that it is difficult to deliver a primary blast (i.e., shock wave only) without rapid head accelerations and potentially confounding effects of inertially driven TBI. We have previously developed a well-characterized shock tube and custom in vitro receiver for exposing organotypic hippocampal slice cultures to pure primary blast. In this study, isolated primary blast induced minimal hippocampal cell death (on average, below 14% in any region of interest), even for the most severe blasts tested (424 kPa peak pressure, 2.3 ms overpressure duration, and 248 kPa*ms impulse). In contrast, measures of neuronal function were significantly altered at much lower exposures (336 kPa, 0.84 ms, and 86.5 kPa*ms), indicating that functional changes occur at exposures below the threshold for cell death. This is the first study to investigate a tolerance for primary blast-induced brain cell death in response to a range of blast parameters and demonstrate functional deficits at subthreshold exposures for cell death.

Identification of a New Epitope in uPAR as a Target for the Cancer Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibody ATN-658, a Structural Homolog of the uPAR Binding Integrin CD11b (αM)

PubMed Central

Wei, Ying; Donate, Fernando; Juarez, Jose; Parry, Graham; Chen, Liqing; Meehan, Edward J.; Ahn, Richard W.; Ugolkov, Andrey; Dubrovskyi, Oleksii; O'Halloran, Thomas V.; Huang, Mingdong; Mazar, Andrew P.

2014-01-01

The urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) plays a role in tumor progression and has been proposed as a target for the treatment of cancer. We recently described the development of a novel humanized monoclonal antibody that targets uPAR and has anti-tumor activity in multiple xenograft animal tumor models. This antibody, ATN-658, does not inhibit ligand binding (i.e. uPA and vitronectin) to uPAR and its mechanism of action remains unclear. As a first step in understanding the anti-tumor activity of ATN-658, we set out to identify the epitope on uPAR to which ATN-658 binds. Guided by comparisons between primate and human uPAR, epitope mapping studies were performed using several orthogonal techniques. Systematic site directed and alanine scanning mutagenesis identified the region of aa 268–275 of uPAR as the epitope for ATN-658. No known function has previously been attributed to this epitope Structural insights into epitope recognition were obtained from structural studies of the Fab fragment of ATN-658 bound to uPAR. The structure shows that the ATN-658 binds to the DIII domain of uPAR, close to the C-terminus of the receptor, corroborating the epitope mapping results. Intriguingly, when bound to uPAR, the complementarity determining region (CDR) regions of ATN-658 closely mimic the binding regions of the integrin CD11b (αM), a previously identified uPAR ligand thought to be involved in leukocyte rolling, migration and complement fixation with no known role in tumor progression of solid tumors. These studies reveal a new functional epitope on uPAR involved in tumor progression and demonstrate a previously unrecognized strategy for the therapeutic targeting of uPAR. PMID:24465541

Relation Between Estimated Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Atrial Fibrillation (from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study).

PubMed

Bose, Abhishek; O'Neal, Wesley T; Bennett, Aleena; Judd, Suzanne E; Qureshi, Waqas T; Sui, Xuemei; Howard, Virginia J; Howard, George; Soliman, Elsayed Z

2017-06-01

Estimated cardiorespiratory fitness (e-CRF) based on readily available clinical and self-reported data is a promising alternative to the costly traditional assessment of CRF using exercise equipment, but its role as a predictor for incident atrial fibrillation (AF) is unclear. This study included 10,126 participants (54.5% women, 35% African-American, mean age 63.2 years) from the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study who were free of AF at baseline. Baseline (2003 to 2007) e-CRF was determined using a previously validated nonexercise algorithm. Incident AF cases were identified at a follow-up examination by electrocardiogram and self-reported medical history of previous physician diagnosis. After a median follow-up of 9.4 years, 906 participants (8.9%) developed AF. In a multivariable logistic regression model adjusted for sociodemographics and baseline cardiovascular disease risk factors as well as incident coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke, each 1-metabolic equivalent of task increase in e-CRF was associated with a 5% lower risk of AF development (odds ratio [95% CI] 0.95 [0.92 to 0.99]; p = 0.0129). This association was stronger in women (OR [95% CI] 0.85 (0.79, 0.92) than in men (OR (95% CI) 0.88 (0.84, 0.93), interaction p value = 0.05. No significant interactions by age, race, history of cardiovascular disease, or physical limitations were observed. In conclusion, e-CRF using a nonexercise algorithm is a useful predictor of incident AF, which is consistent with previous reports using traditional CRF. This suggests that e-CRF using nonexercise algorithms may serve as a useful alternative to CRF measured by costly and time-consuming exercise testing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Latinos with obsessive-compulsive disorder: Mental healthcare utilization and inclusion in clinical trials.

PubMed

Wetterneck, Chad T; Little, Tannah E; Rinehart, Kimberly L; Cervantes, Maritza E; Hyde, Emma; Williams, Monnica

2012-04-01

Previous research has documented that ethnic minorities, particularly Latinos, obtain fewer mental health services than Caucasians (Kearney, Draper, & Baron 2005; Sue, Fujino, Hu, Takeuchi, & Zane, 1991). Conceivably, this may be due to a wide array of cultural issues (e.g., negative stigma attached to mental health, and language, socio-economic, and acculturation barriers), symptom disparities across Caucasian and Latino groups, or lack of effective outreach methods by clinicians and researchers. However, research is limited. As a result, Latinos may be insufficiently represented in clinical studies for OCD, making it unclear whether evidence-based treatments demonstrate the same efficacy and effectiveness for Latinos as has been demonstrated for Caucasians. The current study takes an in-depth analysis of 98 efficacy and effectiveness studies for OCD from across the Western hemisphere and reports the rates of Latino inclusion from each sample. Ninety clinical studies in the US and Canada, as well as eight clinical studies in Mexico and Central America were reviewed. Findings showed that only 11 (24%) US and Canadian studies included Latino participants, illustrating an overwhelming underrepresentation of Latinos in clinical studies for OCD. Further explanation of the results and their implications are discussed, along with suggestions for effectively improving access to mental health research and appropriate treatments.

Latinos with obsessive-compulsive disorder: Mental healthcare utilization and inclusion in clinical trials

PubMed Central

Wetterneck, Chad T.; Little, Tannah E.; Rinehart, Kimberly L.; Cervantes, Maritza E.; Hyde, Emma; Williams, Monnica

2014-01-01

Previous research has documented that ethnic minorities, particularly Latinos, obtain fewer mental health services than Caucasians (Kearney, Draper, & Baron 2005; Sue, Fujino, Hu, Takeuchi, & Zane, 1991). Conceivably, this may be due to a wide array of cultural issues (e.g., negative stigma attached to mental health, and language, socio-economic, and acculturation barriers), symptom disparities across Caucasian and Latino groups, or lack of effective outreach methods by clinicians and researchers. However, research is limited. As a result, Latinos may be insufficiently represented in clinical studies for OCD, making it unclear whether evidence-based treatments demonstrate the same efficacy and effectiveness for Latinos as has been demonstrated for Caucasians. The current study takes an in-depth analysis of 98 efficacy and effectiveness studies for OCD from across the Western hemisphere and reports the rates of Latino inclusion from each sample. Ninety clinical studies in the US and Canada, as well as eight clinical studies in Mexico and Central America were reviewed. Findings showed that only 11 (24%) US and Canadian studies included Latino participants, illustrating an overwhelming underrepresentation of Latinos in clinical studies for OCD. Further explanation of the results and their implications are discussed, along with suggestions for effectively improving access to mental health research and appropriate treatments. PMID:29057210