bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Identifying Distinct Subgroups of ICU Patients: A Machine Learning Approach*
Authors: Vranas Kelly C. , Jopling Jeffrey K. , Sweeney Timothy E. , Ramsey Meghan C. , Milstein Arnold S. , Slatore Christopher G. , Escobar Gabriel J. , Liu Vincent X.
Published: June 2017

Objectives:

Identifying subgroups of ICU patients with similar clinical needs and trajectories may provide a framework for more efficient ICU care through the design of care platforms tailored around patients’ shared needs. However, objective methods for identifying these ICU patient subgroups are lacking. We used a machine learning approach to empirically identify ICU patient subgroups through clustering analysis and evaluate whether these groups might represent appropriate targets for care redesign efforts.

Design:

We performed clustering analysis using data from patients’ hospital stays to retrospectively identify patient subgroups from a large, heterogeneous ICU population.

Setting:

Kaiser Permanente Northern California, a healthcare delivery system serving 3.9 million members.

Patients:

ICU patients 18 years old or older with an ICU admission between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2012, at one of 21 Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals.

Interventions:

None.

Measurements and Main Results:

We used clustering analysis to identify putative clusters among 5,000 patients randomly selected from 24,884 ICU patients. To assess cluster validity, we evaluated the distribution and frequency of patient characteristics and the need for invasive therapies. We then applied a classifier built from the sample cohort to the remaining 19,884 patients to compare the derivation and validation clusters. Clustering analysis successfully identified six clinically recognizable subgroups that differed significantly in all baseline characteristics and clinical trajectories, despite sharing common diagnoses. In the validation cohort, the proportion of patients assigned to each cluster was similar and demonstrated significant differences across clusters for all variables.

Conclusions:

A machine learning approach revealed important differences between empirically derived subgroups of ICU patients that are not typically revealed by admitting diagnosis or severity of illness alone. Similar data-driven approaches may provide a framework for future organizational innovations in ICU care tailored around patients’ shared needs.
Long-Term Health-Related Quality of Life after Breast Reconstruction: Comparing 4 Different Methods of Reconstruction
Authors: Thorarinsson Andri , Fröjd Victoria , Kölby Lars , Ljungdal Johan , Taft Charles , Mark Hans
Published: June 2017

Background:

Studies have confirmed that breast reconstruction is beneficial to improve health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in breast cancer patients. Our aim was to compare 4 different methods of breast reconstruction on patient satisfaction and HR-QoL using both general and specific patient-reported outcome instruments.

Methods:

Retrospectively, 459 patients who underwent breast reconstruction with a deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) flap, latissimus dorsi flap, lateral thoracodorsal flap, or expander with secondary implant and who had responded to the questionnaires were enrolled. Questionnaire answers, together with demographic and follow-up data, were statistically analyzed and compared between groups. Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) results were also compared with those from a sample of 930 age-matched women from the Swedish population.

Results:

There were slight differences in the SF-36 results but no significant differences in Psychological General Well-Being Index and EuroQoL-5 Dimension Questionnaire results between groups. Analysis of Breast-Q showed that the DIEP group had significantly higher score on the scale satisfaction with breast, significantly higher score in satisfaction with outcome than the lateral thoracodorsal flap (P = 0.014) and EXP groups (P = 0.024). There were no significant differences in most of the domains of the HR-QoL instruments. The higher satisfaction with breasts and outcome in the DIEP group is interesting, considering the higher complication rates associated with this reconstruction method.

Conclusions:

Patients who underwent breast reconstruction with a DIEP flap were more satisfied with their reconstructed breast and outcome than the other 3 groups. Breast reconstruction centers should make DIEP reconstruction widely available to patients after mastectomy.
Case of Presumed Transient Light-Sensitivity Syndrome After Small-Incision Lenticule Extraction
Authors: Desautels Jordan D. , Moshirfar Majid , Quist Tyler S. , Skanchy David F. , Hoopes Phillip C.
Published: June 2017

Purpose:

To report the first presumed case of transient light-sensitivity syndrome (TLSS) after small-incision lenticule extraction (SMILE).

Methods:

A 27-year-old male patient was treated for severe photophobic symptoms occurring 7 weeks after undergoing a bilateral SMILE procedure. His comprehensive ocular examination was unremarkable and his visual acuity was unaffected. Treatment was a month-long tapering dose of topical steroids.

Results:

Photophobic symptoms fully resolved after steroid treatment. TLSS related to SMILE mirrors TLSS after laser in situ keratomileusis in both onset and steroid responsiveness.

Conclusions:

TLSS is a rare and minor complication of SMILE. Photophobic symptoms associated with post-SMILE TLSS are fully responsive to topical corticosteroids.
Long-Term Ocular Surface Stability in Conjunctival Limbal Autograft Donor Eyes
Authors: Cheung Albert Y. , Sarnicola Enrica , Holland Edward J.
Published: June 2017

Purpose:

To investigate the incidence of limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) in donor eyes after conjunctival limbal autograft (CLAU).

Methods:

An observational retrospective review was performed on all patients who underwent CLAU alone, combined keratolimbal allograft with CLAU (“Modified Cincinnati Procedure”), or combined living-related conjunctival limbal allograft (lr-CLAL) with CLAU having ≥6 months of follow-up after surgery. The outcome measures were best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and ocular surface status.

Results:

The inclusion criteria were fulfilled by 45 patients. Of these, 26 patients underwent CLAU, 18 underwent combined keratolimbal allograft/CLAU, and 1 underwent combined lr-CLAL/CLAU. Mean age at the time of surgery was 39.6 years. Mean logMAR preoperative BCVA was −0.08. There were no operative complications. The mean follow-up duration after surgery was 48.3 months (range 8.3–181.5 mo). At last follow-up, all eyes maintained a stable ocular surface, and mean logMAR BCVA was −0.05.

Conclusions:

With the advent of newer ocular surface transplantation methods, there has been concern that CLAU carries the theoretical risk of inducing LSCD. Our long-term clinical results following donor eyes after CLAU demonstrate no signs of LSCD.
Efficacy of Sodium Hyaluronate in Murine Diabetic Ocular Surface Diseases
Authors: Di Guohu , Qi Xia , Zhao Xiaowen , Zhang Songmei , Zhou Qingjun
Published: June 2017

Purpose:

To evaluate the efficacy of sodium hyaluronate (HA) eye drops for the treatment of diabetic ocular surface diseases in mice.

Methods:

Male 6- to 8-week-old C57BL/6 mice underwent induction of type 1 diabetes with intraperitoneal injections of streptozotocin, with normal mice as the control. Topical 0.3% HA, 0.1% HA, 0.4% polyethylene glycol eye drops, and normal saline were administered to diabetic mice with an intact or debrided corneal epithelium. Normal saline was applied in the controls. Corneal epithelial wound healing rate, corneal sensation, nerve fiber density, conjunctival goblet cell number, and MUC-5AC content were measured and compared.

Results:

Compared with the controls, topical 0.3% HA use in diabetic mice showed significant improvements in the corneal epithelial wound healing rate (48 hours: 91.5% ± 4.8% vs. 79.8% ± 6.1%; P < 0.05), corneal sensitivity (4.1 ± 0.3 cm vs. 3.5 ± 0.3 cm; P < 0.05), nerve fiber density (12.9% ± 2.3% vs. 6.6% ± 2.4%; P < 0.05), conjunctival goblet cell number (31.0 ± 8.4/100 μm vs. 19.6 ± 7.1/100 μm; P < 0.05), and MUC-5AC content (12.5 ± 1.4 ng/mg vs. 7.8 ± 1.5 ng/mg protein; P < 0.05). The beneficial effects of 0.3% HA were better than those of 0.1% HA and 0.4% polyethylene glycol.

Conclusions:

Topical 0.3% HA treatment promoted corneal epithelial regeneration, improved corneal sensation, and increased density of corneal nerve fibers and conjunctival goblet cells in mice with diabetic ocular surface diseases.
Investigation of the Rosenbaum Concussion Knowledge and Attitudes Survey in Collegiate Athletes
Authors: Chapman Erin B. , Nasypany Alan , May Jim , Henry Timothy , Hummel Chris , Jun Hyung-pil
Published: June 2017

Objective:

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the Rosenbaum Concussion Knowledge and Attitudes Survey (RoCKAS) is an appropriate outcome measure to assess knowledge and attitudes toward concussion in collegiate student-athletes as determined through validity and reliability testing.

Study Design:

Convenience study.

Setting:

The researcher recruited all athletic teams at a Division III National Collegiate Athletic Association institution.

Participants:

Four hundred thirty-three collegiate student-athletes, 18 years of age or older, from a variety of sports took part in this study. As the validity of RoCKAS has never been established for the target population, this study randomly split respondents into 2 studies.

Interventions:

Participants in this study completed the RoCKAS during preseason meetings before concussion education. The primary researcher was not present during the completion of the survey to allow participants to answer honestly without concern of coercion.

Main Outcome Measures:

A paper-based Rosenbaum Concussion Knowledge and Attitudes Survey.

Results:

The Concussion Knowledge Index (CKI) was distributed in 2 cluster constructs and identified variables of low and high difficulty. Multivariate statistical analysis of the Concussion Attitude Index (CAI) explains 68.79% of the total variance. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis did not confirm the hypothesis that similar constructs can be found between data sets (

JOURNAL/cjspm/04.03/00042752-201803000-00005/inline-formula1/v/2023-09-24T061108Z/r/image-tiff

= 207.902; consistent akaike information criterion = 391.550; root mean square error of approximation = 0.125, and goodness of fit index = 0.868).

Conclusions:

The CKI is a valid and reliable measure in collegiate student-athletes. However, the results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicated a poor model fit and improper correlations between attitude items. Therefore, the CAI may not be a sound outcome measure of collegiate student-athlete's attitudes toward concussions.
Hemobilia
Authors: Cathcart Scott , Birk John W. , Tadros Michael , Schuster Micheal
Published: June 2017

Goal and Background:

A literature review to improve practitioners’ knowledge and performance concerning the epidemiology, diagnosis, and management of hemobilia.

Study:

A search of Pubmed, Google Scholar, and Medline was conducted using the keyword hemobilia and relevant articles were reviewed and analyzed. The findings pertaining to hemobilia etiology, investigation, and management techniques were considered and organized by clinicians practiced in hemobilia.

Results:

The majority of current hemobilia cases have an iatrogenic cause from either bile duct or liver manipulation. Blunt trauma is also a significant cause of hemobilia. The classic triad presentation of right upper quadrant pain, jaundice, and upper gastrointestinal bleeding is rarely seen. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are the preferred diagnostic modalities, and the preferred therapeutic management includes interventional radiology and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Surgery is rarely a therapeutic option.

Conclusions:

With advances in computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging technology, diagnosis with these less invasive investigations are the favored option. However, traditional catheter angiography is still the gold standard. The management of significant hemobilia is still centered on arterial embolization, but arterial and biliary stents have become accepted alternative therapies.
Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease With Unilateral Symptoms in the Setting of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
Authors: Rossi Kyle C. , Stahl Christine M. , Zhang Pengfei , Liang John W. , Marcuse Lara V. , Lublin Fred
Published: June 2017

Introduction:

Although it is not rare for magnetic resonance imaging findings in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to be asymmetric, unilateral clinical syndromes are uncommonly reported and may confound diagnosis. In addition, neurological paraneoplastic syndromes are not common in renal cell carcinoma, though there are cases reported, often without an offending antibody isolated.

Case Report:

A 66-year-old man was admitted with 1 month of left-sided numbness and “loss of control” of the left arm. Examination revealed action-induced irregular jerking movements of the left arm. Mental status testing was normal. Magnetic resonance imaging brain revealed patchy areas of restricted diffusion along the cerebral cortices. Screening computed tomographic scans revealed innumerable lung nodules compatible with metastases, as well as a renal mass consistent with renal cell carcinoma. Lumbar puncture was performed and cerebrospinal fluid was sent for paraneoplastic autoantibody evaluation and protein 14-3-3. Over the next week the patient developed dystonic posturing of the left arm, left leg jerking movements, a right arm action tremor, and cognitive impairment. Paraneoplastic autoantibodies were negative. Protein 14-3-3 was elevated and brain biopsy revealed spongiform encephalopathy with positive immunoblotting. The patient died about 2 months from symptom onset.

Conclusions:

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease can present with entirely unilateral myoclonus and numbness, without specific complaints of cognitive impairment. Not every difficult or unclear neurological syndrome in a patient with metastatic cancer is a paraneoplastic syndrome.
Holmes’ Tremor Secondary to Cerebellopontine Angle Epidermoid Cyst
Authors: Pandey Sanjay
Published: June 2017

Holmes’ tremor is characterized by a combination of rest, postural, and intention tremor. Tremor is predominantly proximal and more severe during posture; however, the tremor frequency is usually <4 Hz on surface electromyography. We report Holmes’ tremor in a patient secondary to cerebellopontine angle epidermoid cyst.
Antiphospholipid Syndrome With a Distinctive Constellation of Neurological Manifestations
Authors: Nokes Brandon T. , Dumitrascu Oana M. , Shamoun Fadi E. , O'Carroll Cumara B.
Published: June 2017

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) encompasses a hypercoagulable state with a markedly increased risk for cerebrovascular complications. In addition to the classic stroke features of APS, however, there are numerous recently described “non-criteria” neurological conditions such as headaches, seizures, and cognitive impairment. We present a case of APS with uncommon neurological manifestations.
Antineuroinflammation of Minocycline in Stroke
Authors: Chen Yi , Cai Zhiyou , Ke Zunyu
Published: June 2017

Accumulating research substantiates the statement that inflammation plays an important role in the development of stroke. Both proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators are involved in the pathogenesis of stroke, an imbalance of which leads to inflammation. Anti-inflammation is a kind of hopeful strategy for the prevention and treatment of stroke. Substantial studies have demonstrated that minocycline, a second-generation semisynthetic antibiotic belonging to the tetracycline family, can inhibit neuroinflammation, inflammatory mediators and microglia activation, and improve neurological outcome. Experimental and clinical data have found the preclinical and clinical potential of minocycline in the treatment of stroke due to its anti-inflammation properties and anti-inflammation-induced pathogeneses, including antioxidative stress, antiapoptosis, inhibiting leukocyte migration and microglial activation, and decreasing matrix metalloproteinases activity. Hence, it suggests a great future for minocycline in the therapeutics of stroke that diminish the inflammatory progress of stroke.
Deep Residual Network Reveals a Nested Hierarchy of Distributed Cortical Representation for Visual Categorization
Authors: Wen Haiguang , Shi Junxing , Chen Wei , Liu Zhongming
Published: June 2017

The brain represents visual objects with topographic cortical patterns. To address how distributed visual representations enable object categorization, we established predictive encoding models based on a deep residual neural network, and trained them to predict cortical responses to natural movies. Using this predictive model, we mapped human cortical representations to 64,000 visual objects from 80 categories with high throughput and accuracy. Such representations covered both the ventral and dorsal pathways, reflected multiple levels of object features, and preserved semantic relationships between categories. In the entire visual cortex, object representations were modularly organized into three categories: biological objects, non-biological objects, and background scenes. In a finer scale specific to each module, object representations revealed sub-modules for further categorization. These findings suggest that increasingly more specific category is represented by cortical patterns in progressively finer spatial scales. Such a nested hierarchy may be a fundamental principle for the brain to categorize visual objects with various levels of specificity, and can be explained and differentiated by object features at different levels.
Epigenome-Based Drug Repositioning in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Authors: Brown Adam S , Patel Chirag J
Published: June 2017

Background

Repositioning approved drugs for the treatment of new indications is a promising avenue to reduce the burden of drug development. Most currently available computational methods based on molecular evidence can only utilize gene expression for repositioning despite a growing interest in the epigenome in human disease. We recently described a novel repositioning method, ksRepo, that enables investigators to move beyond microarray-based gene expression and utilize a variety of other sources of molecular evidence, such as DNA methylation differences.

Methods

We downloaded differential DNA methylation data from two publicly available acute myeloid leukemia (AML) datasets, a cancer with known, extensive epigenomic perturbations. We consolidated CpGs-level to non-directional gene-level differential methylation using Brown’s correction to Fisher’s method. We then used ksRepo, which ignores directionality in disease- and gene-drug associations, to mine the resulting prioritized gene lists and and the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) for predicted repositioning candidates.

Results

We successfully recovered four compounds that were significant (FDR < 0.05) in two AML datasets: cytarabine, alitretinoin, panobinostat, and progesterone. Cytarabine is the most commonly used frontline therapy for AML and alitretinoin, panobinostat, and progesterone have all been investigated for the treatment of AML.

Conclusions.Combining a method for consolidating CpG methylation to the gene level with ksRepo provides a pipeline for deriving drug repositioning hypotheses from differential DNA methylation. We claim that our platform can be extended to other diseases with epigenetic perturbations and to other epigenomic modalities, such as ChIP-seq.
De novodraft assembly of theBotrylloides leachiigenome provides further insight into tunicate evolution
Authors: Blanchoud Simon , Rutherford Kim , Zondag Lisa , Gemmell Neil J. , Wilson Megan J.
Published: June 2017

Tunicates are marine invertebrates that compose the closest phylogenetic group to the vertebrates. This chordate subphylum contains a particularly diverse range of reproductive methods, regenerative abilities and life-history strategies. Consequently, tunicates provide an extraordinary perspective into the emergence and diversity of chordate traits. To gain further insights into the evolution of the tunicate phylum, we have sequenced the genome of the colonial StolidobranchianBotrylloides leachii.

We have produced a high-quality (90 % BUSCO genes) 159 Mb assembly, containing 82 % of the predicted total 194 Mb genomic content. TheB. leachiigenome is much smaller than that ofBotryllus schlosseri(725 Mb), but comparable to those ofCiona robustaandMolgula oculata(both 160 Mb). We performed an orthologous clustering between five tunicate genomes that highlights sets of genes specific to some species, including a large group unique to colonial ascidians with gene ontology terms including cell communication and immune response.

By analysing the structure and composition of the conserved gene clusters, we identified many examples of multiple cluster breaks and gene dispersion, suggesting that several lineage-specific genome rearrangements occurred during tunicate evolution. In addition, we investigate lineage-specific gene gain and loss within the Wnt, Notch and retinoic acid pathways. Such examples of genetic change within these highly evolutionary conserved pathways commonly associated with regeneration and development may underlie some of the diverse regenerative abilities observed in the tunicate subphylum. These results supports the widely held view that tunicate genomes are evolving particularly rapidly.
A Bayesian approach to multivariate and multilevel modelling with non-random missingness for hierarchical clinical proteomics data
Authors: Zeng Irene SL , Lumley Thomas , Ruggierol Katya , Middleditch Martin
Published: June 2017

High throughput mass-spectrometry-based proteomics data from clinical studies brings challenges to statistical analysis. The challenges originate from the hierarchical levels of protein abundance data and interactions between clinical study design and experimental design. The non-random missingness of the measurements from a vast amount of information also adds complexity in data analysis. We propose multivariate multilevel models to analyse protein abundances and to handle abundance-dependent missingness within a Bayesian framework. The proposed model enables the variance decomposition at different levels of the data hierarchy and provides shrinkage of protein-level estimates for a group of proteins. A logistic missingness and censored model with informative prior is used to handle incomplete data. Hamiltonian MC/No-U-Turn Sampling and Gibb MCMC algorithms are created to derive the posterior distribution of study parameters; Hamiltonian MC is demonstrated to gain more efficiency for these high-dimensional correlated data. Improvements of the proposed missing data model is compared to the univariate mixed effect model and the multivariate-multilevel model using complete data in a simulated study and a clinical proteomics study. The proposed model framework can be used in other types of data with similar structure and Non Random Missingness mechanism (MNAR).
Targeting neuronal activity-regulated neuroligin-3 dependency for high-grade glioma therapy
Authors: Venkatesh Humsa S. , Tam Lydia T. , Woo Pamelyn J. , Nagaraja Surya , Gillespe Shawn M. , Lennon James , Ni Jing , Duveau Damien Y. , Morris Patrick J. , Zhao Jean J. , Thomas Craig J. , Monje Michelle
Published: June 2017

Neuronal activity promotes high-grade glioma (HGG) growth. An important mechanism mediating this neural regulation of brain cancer is activity-dependent cleavage and secretion of the synaptic molecule and glioma mitogen neuroligin-3 (Nlgn3), but the therapeutic potential of targeting Nlgn3 in glioma remains to be defined. We demonstrate a striking dependence of HGG growth on microenvironmental Nlgn3 and determine a targetable mechanism of secretion. Patient-derived orthotopic xenografts of pediatric glioblastoma, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma and adult glioblastoma fail to grow in Nlgn3 knockout mice. Glioma exposure to Nlgn3 results in numerous signaling consequences, including early focal adhesion kinase activation upstream of PI3K-mTOR. Nlgn3 is cleaved from both neurons and oligodendrocyte precursor cells via the ADAM10 sheddase. Administration of ADAM10 inhibitors robustly blocks HGG xenograft growth. This work defines the therapeutic potential of and a promising strategy for targeting Nlgn3 secretion in the glioma microenvironment, which could prove transformative for treatment of HGG.
The Decision Decoding ToolBOX (DDTBOX) – A multivariate pattern analysis toolbox for event-related potentials
Authors: Bode Stefan , Feuerriegel Daniel , Bennett Daniel , Alday Phillip M.
Published: June 2017

In recent years, neuroimaging research in cognitive neuroscience has increasingly used multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to investigate higher cognitive functions. Here we present DDTBOX, an open-source MVPA toolbox for electroencephalography (EEG) data. DDTBOX runs under MATLAB and is well integrated with the EEGLAB/ERPLAB and Fieldtrip toolboxes (Delorme and Makeig, 2004; Lopez-Calderon and Luck, 2014; Oostenveld et al. 2011). It trains support vector machines (SVMs) on patterns of event-related potential (ERP) amplitude data, following or preceding an event of interest, for classification or regression of experimental variables. These amplitude patterns can be extracted across space/electrodes (spatial decoding), time (temporal decoding), or both (spatiotemporal decoding). DDTBOX can also extract SVM feature weights, generate empirical chance distributions based on shuffled-labels decoding for group-level statistical testing, provide estimates of the prevalence of decodable information in the population, and perform a variety of corrections for multiple comparisons. It also includes plotting functions for single subject and group results. DDTBOX complements conventional analyses of ERP components, as subtle multivariate patterns can be detected that would be overlooked in standard analyses. It further allows for a more explorative search for information when no ERP component is known to be specifically linked to a cognitive process of interest. In summary, DDTBOX is an easy-to-use and open-source toolbox that allows for characterising the time-course of information related to various perceptual and cognitive processes. It can be applied to data from a large number of experimental paradigms and could therefore be a valuable tool for the neuroimaging community.
Cyclic electron flow inChlamydomonas reinhardtii
Authors: Nawrocki W. J. , Bailleul B. , Cardol P. , Rappaport F. , Wollman F.-A. , Joliot P.
Published: June 2017

Cyclic electron flow (CEF), one of the major alternative electron transport pathways to the primary linear electron flow (LEF) in chloroplasts has been discovered in the middle of the last century. It is defined as a return of the reductants from the acceptor side of the Photosystem I (PSI) to the pool of its donors via the cytochromeb6f, and has proven essential for photosynthesis. However, despite many efforts aimed at its characterisation, the pathway and regulation of CEF remain equivocal, and its physiological significance remains to be properly defined. Here we use novel spectroscopic approaches to measure CEF in transitory conditions in the green algaChlamydomonas reinhardtii.We show that CEF operates at the same maximal rate regardless of the oxygen concentration, and that the latter influences LEF, rather than CEF in vivo, which questions the recent hypotheses about the CEF supercomplex formation. We further reveal that the pathways proposed for CEF in the literature are inconsistent with the kinetic information provided by our measurements. We finally provide cues on the regulation of CEF by light.
Natural variation in stochastic photoreceptor specification and color preference inDrosophila
Authors: Anderson Caitlin , Reiss India , Zhou Cyrus , Cho Annie , Siddiqi Haziq , Mormann Ben , Avelis Cameron M. , Bergland Alan , Roberts Elijah , Taylor James , Vasiliauskas Daniel , Johnston Robert J.
Published: June 2017

Each individual perceives the world in a unique way, but little is known about the genetic basis of variation in sensory perception. Here we investigated natural variation in the development and function of the color vision system ofDrosophila. In the fly eye, the random mosaic of color-detecting R7 photoreceptor subtypes is determined by stochastic expression of the transcription factor Spineless (Ss). Individual R7s randomly choose between SsONor SsOFFfates at a ratio of 65:35, resulting in unique patterns but consistent proportions of cell types across genetically identical retinas. In a genome wide association study, we identified a naturally occurring insertion in a regulatory DNA element in thessgene that lowers the ratio of SsONto SsOFFcells. This change in photoreceptor fates shifts the innate color preference of flies from green to blue. The genetic variant increases the binding affinity for Klumpfuss (Klu), a zinc finger transcriptional repressor that regulatesssexpression. Klu is expressed at intermediate levels to determine the normal ratio of SsONto SsOFFcells. Thus, binding site affinity and transcription factor levels are finely tuned to regulate stochastic on/off gene expression, setting the ratio of alternative cell fates and ultimately determining color preference.
Mappingin vivogenetic interactomics through Cpf1 crRNA array screening
Authors: Chow Ryan D. , Wang Guangchuan , Codina Adan , Ye Lupeng , Chen Sidi
Published: June 2017

Genetic interactions lay the foundation of biological networks in virtually all organisms. Due to the complexity of mammalian genomes and cellular architectures, unbiased mapping of genetic interactionsin vivois challenging. Cpf1 is a single effector RNA-guided nuclease that enables multiplexed genome editing using crRNA arrays. Here we designed a Cpf1 crRNA array library targeting all pairwise permutations of the most significantly mutated nononcogenes, and performed double knockout screens in mice using a model of malignant transformation as well as a model of metastasis. CrRNA array sequencing revealed a quantitative landscape of all single and double knockouts. Enrichment, synergy and clonal analyses identified many unpredicted drivers and co-drivers of transformation and metastasis, with epigenetic factors as hubs of these highly connected networks. Our study demonstrates a powerful yet simple approach forin vivomapping of unbiased genetic interactomes in mammalian species at a phenotypic level.
Faster than the brain’s speed of light: Retinocortical interactions differ in high frequency activity when processing darks and lights
Authors: Westner Britta U. , Dalal Sarang S.
Published: June 2017

Visual processing of dark visual stimuli has been hypothesized to occur faster relative to bright stimuli. We investigated the timing, processing, and propagation of neural activity in response to darks and lights, operationalized as light offset and onset, in the human visual system by recording electroretinography (ERG) simultaneously with magnetoencephalography (MEG) in humans. We discovered that dark onset resulted in 75–95 Hz retinal activity that we call thedark retinal oscillatory potential, occurring with the same latency as the analogous but more broadband (55–195 Hz) oscillatory potential at light onset. Both retinal oscillations coupled with subsequent cortical activity of corresponding bandwidths, but cortical responses for darks indeed occurred earlier than for lights. Darks therefore propagate from retina to cortex more quickly than lights, potentially resulting from a thalamic advantage. Furthermore, we found that this propagation is effectuated by high frequency retinocortical coupling of narrow bandwidth for darks but wide bandwidth for lights.
FUCCI tracking shows that Neurog3 levels vary with cell-cycle phase in endocrine-biased pancreatic progenitors
Authors: Bechard Matthew E. , Bankaitis Eric D. , Ustione Alessandro , Piston David W. , Magnuson Mark A. , Wright Christopher V.E.
Published: June 2017

Neurog3HIendocrine-committing cells are generated from a population of Sox9+mitotic progenitors with only a low level ofNeurog3transcriptional activity (Neurog3TA.LO). Low-level Neurog3 protein, inNeurog3TA.LOcells, is required to maintain their mitotic endocrine-lineage-primed status. Herein, we describe aNeurog3-driven FUCCI cell-cycle reporter (Neurog3P2A.FUCCI) derived from aNeurog3BAC transgenic reporter that functions as a loxed cassette acceptor (LCA). In cycling Sox9+Neurog3TA.LOprogenitors, the majority of cells in S-G2-M phases have undetectable levels of Neurog3 with increased expression of endocrine progenitor markers, while those in G1have low Neurog3 levels with increased expression of endocrine differentiation markers. These findings support a model in which variations in Neurog3 protein levels are coordinated with cell-cycle phase progression inNeurog3TA.LOprogenitors with entrance into G1triggering a concerted effort, beyond increasing Neurog3 levels, to maintain an endocrine-lineage-primed state by initiating expression of the downstream endocrine differentiation program prior to endocrine-commitment.
Working against “pedagogic work”
Authors: Fane Jennifer , Schulz Samantha
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Equipping pre-service teachers with the skills and knowledge needed to teach health in socially critical ways requires pre-service teachers to examine and critique individualistic understandings of health. The purpose of this paper is to use Bourdieu’s concepts of the bodily hexis (the body as both separate from society (autonomous individuals) and the body as socially mediated (the influence of social forces upon individuals)) and pedagogic work to investigate the challenges of redressing the reproduction of individualistic conceptualizations of health in teacher education.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper focusses on an analysis of 31 pre-service teachers’ reflective writing in a foundational health education course, which sought to engage students in thinking about health in socially critical ways. A systematic and procedural form of document analysis was employed to examine and interpret data to investigate the ways in which students were engaging with the socially critical health discourses and course content.

Findings

The findings evidence that while students attempted to engage with and demonstrate their knowledge of a socially critical view of health, contradictions, or places where students unknowingly slipped into individualistic ways of thinking appeared frequently across the data. Findings are presented to elucidate challenges facing pre-service teachers in teaching the AC:HPE curriculum.

Practical implications

Findings suggest the need for teacher educators to employ pedagogic practices that can disrupt previous pedagogic work, serving to challenge and interrogate current constructions of health, and delve deeply into critical discourses through interchange and reflection.

Originality/value

This paper extends the current scholarship of Bourdieusian theoretical concepts in relation to critical health discourses and pedagogies.
Democratic school health education in a post-communist country
Authors: Boberova Zuzana , Paakkari Leena , Ropovik Ivan , Liba Jozef
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the findings of an intervention program built on the concept of children’s health literacy, particularly on its citizenship component. This intervention program employed the Investigation-Vision-Action-Change model for action-oriented teaching, where children were supported to investigate different health issues that affect them, create visions about desirable changes, and act toward desirable change. The intervention was implemented in the conditions of a post-communist country (Slovakia) where the majority of health education programs are behaviorally oriented, without giving space to children’s own perceptions and decisions. The study seeks to explore whether fostering children’s participation in forming the school environment improves the three selected factors of school well-being, namely, children’s perception of school, their subjective well-being, and violent behavior in school.

Design/methodology/approach

A cluster-randomized controlled trial design was used where ten classes of children aged nine to ten years were randomly assigned to either experimental (n=89) or control group (n=96). The dependent variables were pre- and post-tested using measures drawn from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study for Slovakia.

Findings

The intervention program was shown to yield empirically robust effects, given the significant improvement in children’s perceptions about school, violent behavior, and their well-being, with medium-to-large effect sizes (Hedges’s g ranging from 0.74 to 0.96).

Originality/value

The present study offers an effective approach to enhance the respect for the children’s views on issues that affect them, particularly within post-communist conditions.
LGBTQ youth activism and school: challenging sexuality and gender norms
Authors: McGlashan Hayley , Fitzpatrick Katie
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Previous research examining the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) youth in schools suggests that schools are not inclusive places for non-heterosexual students. Some scholars, however, suggest that a continued focus on how these young people are marginalised is itself a problem, and that research should also focus on strengths and what is working. The purpose of this paper is to examine the activities of a group of LGBTQ students in one school in Auckland, New Zealand.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed a critical ethnographic approach in a diverse co-educational, public high school in Auckland, New Zealand. The researcher spent 3-5 days per week at the school throughout three terms (32 weeks) of the 2016 school year and participated, observed and interviewed students and teachers. Post-structural theory was used to analyse the ethnographic materials.

Findings

The study found that LGBTQ students actively challenged the heteronorms of their school. They met regularly to discuss issues, support each other and to plan activist initiatives. These initiatives, in turn, impacted the environment of the school and made LGBTQ students more visible. This visibility, however, also created tensions as students grappled with their identities and the public space of school.

Originality/value

Despite a wealth of research in education on the exclusion of young people at the intersection of gender, sexuality and other identity positions, there is very little research that reports on school-wide health promotion initiatives that both engage young people as leaders and participants in their schools, and work towards creating safe and empowering spaces for LGBTQ youth.
Faculty use of Twitter in higher education teaching
Authors: Hull Kevin , Dodd Julie E.
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine how higher education teachers are using Twitter in their classroom to engage, educate, and inform students. The results were measured against Chickering and Gamson (1987) “Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education.”

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was sent to college and university educators throughout the country who were identified as teachers who use Twitter in their classroom. These educators were asked about their Twitter use, their opinions of Twitter, the impact the social network has had on student learning, the students’ reactions to using Twitter, and how Twitter supported pedagogical best practices, including the “Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education”.

Findings

The educators reported that student response to using Twitter in the classroom was overwhelmingly positive and that Twitter has positively impacted student learning. The results also indicate that college educators consider that Twitter use in classes does support the seven principles.

Research limitations/implications

While college instructors from a wide range of institutions, locations, subject types, and experience levels were surveyed, a limitation is that only their opinions are being examined. Future research may wish to examine the Twitter accounts of these professors to determine if they are using Twitter in the manner that they think they are. Results from the survey could then be compared with the tweet content.

Originality/value

While previous research has examined how students use and appreciate Twitter in the classroom, this is one of the first studies to examine how the social network is implemented from an instructor viewpoint. The results demonstrate value to instructors. For instructors, the value lies in the knowledge that Twitter has had a positive impact on classroom success for students and that using the social network promotes best practices in pedagogy, supporting constructivism, experiential learning, and the “Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education”. For administrators, the value lies in the fact that many instructors have had success using Twitter and that more should be encouraged to do the same in their classrooms.
Using mobile learning and social media to enhance learner feedback
Authors: Bikanga Ada Mireilla , Stansfield Mark , Baxter Gavin
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an area of growing importance that is widely recognised in the literature relating to the issue of how to improve ways that assessments and feedback are provided to students within higher education. This paper reports on a study that aimed to explore the views of both educators (n=70) and students (n=540) on feedback and feed-forward at a UK university. The study also investigated their experience and attitudes to social media applications as a means of enhancing access to feedback within the context of mobile learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The research approach adopted in this study predominately conforms to a quantitative research design though embeds elements of qualitative research via a “mixed methods” approach. The overall methodology of the paper adheres to an exploratory case study in a higher education environment to identify various issues and approaches that could be addressed or enhanced to aid ways that assessments and feedback are disseminated to students within higher education.

Findings

Participants’ views were sought in relation to students receiving learning materials, as well as feedback from tutors directly to their smartphones and mobile devices. In addition, the study explored possible reasons for students not wanting to use social media and mobile devices for their learning and feedback. Overall, the results indicated a positive attitude on the part of educators and students to using mobile devices and social media applications for teaching and learning purposes.

Research limitations/implications

The case study presented in this paper draws on findings from one higher educational institution. Further research is required to determine the generalisability of the findings to allow comparison of the findings to be undertaken within other higher education institutions.

Originality/value

The originality of the paper is that it provides detailed empirical evidence and findings that provide several important implications in relation to enhancing the student learning experience and providing considerable improvements to the way that feedback is provided that make it more likely that students will take more notice to feedback and act upon it. This in turn enables educators to better plan and manage their teaching and student experience online and through students’ mobile devices. The value of this study is that it explores views of both educators and students, whereas many other previous studies tend to focus on the views of either educators or students.
Principal support for student psychological needs
Authors: Adams Curt , Olsen Jentre
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Although leadership evidence highlights the importance of cooperative principal-teacher relationships, research has not looked thoroughly at the content behind principal-teacher interactions. The purpose of this paper is to use self-determination theory and organizational conversation to develop principal support for student psychological needs (PSSPN), a concept that represents principal-teacher interactions based on social and psychological factors contributing to student learning. The empirical part of the study tests the relationship between PSSPN and faculty trust in students and student self-regulated learning.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses were tested with a non-experimental, correlational research design usingex post factodata. Data were collected from 3,339 students and 633 teachers in 71 schools located in a metropolitan area of a southwestern city in the USA. Hypotheses were tested with a 2-2-1 multi-level mediation model in HLM 7.0 with restricted maximum likelihood estimation.

Findings

Principal support for student psychological needs had a positive and statistically significant relationship with faculty trust in students and self-regulated learning. Additionally faculty trust mediated the relationship between principal support for student psychological needs and self-regulated learning.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to examine school leadership by the content that is exchanged during principal-teacher interactions. Principal support for student psychological needs establishes a theoretically-based framework to study leadership conversations and to guide administrative practices. Empirical results offer encouraging evidence that the simple act of framing interactions around the science of wellbeing can be an effective resource for school principals.
Teacher peer excellence groups (TPEGs)
Authors: Cravens Xiu , Drake Timothy A. , Goldring Ellen , Schuermann Patrick
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the viability of implementing a protocol-guided model designed to provide structure and focus for teacher collaboration from Shanghai in today’s US public schools. The authors examine whether the new model, Teacher Peer Excellence Group (TPEG), fosters the desired key features of productive communities of practice where teachers can jointly construct, transform, preserve, and continuously deepen the meaning of effective teaching. The authors also explore the extent to which existing school conditions – principal instructional leadership, trust, teacher efficacy, and teachers’ sense of school-wide professional community – enable or moderate the desired outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for this paper are drawn from a series of surveys administered to teachers from 24 pilot schools in six school districts over two school years. Descriptive and multilevel modeling analyses are conducted.

Findings

The findings provide encouraging evidence that, given sufficient support and guidance, teachers report higher levels of engagement in deprivatized practice and instructional collaboration. These findings also hold after controlling for key enabling conditions and school characteristics.

Social implications

The TPEG approach challenges school leaders to take on the responsibilities of helping teachers make their practice public, sharable, and better – three critical objectives in the shift to develop the profession of teaching.

Originality/value

The indication of TPEG model’s positive impact on strengthening the features of communities of practice in selected public schools provides the impetus for further efforts in understanding the transformational changes needed and challenges ahead at the classroom, school, and district levels.