bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The cost-effectiveness of an HCV outreach intervention for at-risk populations in London, UK
Authors: Ward Zoe , Campbell Linda , Surey Julian , Platts Steven , Glass Rachel , Hickman Matthew , Story Alistair , Vickerman Peter
Published: October 2019

Background

HCV disproportionately affects marginalized communities such as homeless populations and people who inject drugs (PWID), posing a challenge to traditional health services. The HepFriend initiative in London is a model of care utilizing HCV outreach screening and peer support to link vulnerable individuals to HCV treatment in secondary care.

Objectives

To assess the cost-effectiveness of the HepFriend initiative from a healthcare provider perspective, compared with standard-of-care pathways (consisting of testing in primary care and other static locations, including drug treatment centres, and linkage to secondary care).

Methods

Cost-effectiveness analysis using a dynamic HCV transmission and disease progression model among PWID and those who have ceased injecting, including housing status and drug treatment service contact. The model was parameterized using London-specific surveillance and survey data, and primary intervention cost and effectiveness data (September 2015 to June 2018). Out of 461 individuals screened, 197 were identified as HCV RNA positive, 180 attended secondary care and 89 have commenced treatment to date. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was determined using a 50 year time horizon.

Results

For a willingness-to-pay threshold of £20000 per QALY gained, the HepFriend initiative is cost-effective, with a mean ICER of £9408/QALY, and would become cost saving at 27% (£10525 per treatment) of the current drug list price. Results are robust to variations in intervention costs and model assumptions, and if treatment rates are doubled the intervention becomes more cost-effective (£8853/QALY).

Conclusions

New models of care that undertake active case-finding with enhanced peer support to improve testing and treatment uptake amongst marginalized and vulnerable groups could be highly cost-effective and possibly cost saving.
MIFAL: fully automated Multiple-Image Finder ALgorithm for strong-lens modelling – proof of concept
Authors: Carrasco Mauricio , Zitrin Adi , Seidel Gregor
Published: October 2019

We outline a simple procedure designed for automatically finding sets of multiple images in strong lensing (SL) clusters. We show that by combining (a) an arc-finding (or source extracting) program, (b) photometric redshift measurements, and (c) a preliminary light-traces-mass lens model, multiple-image systems can be identified in a fully automated (‘blind’) manner. The presented procedure yields an assessment of the likelihood of each arc to belong to one of the multiple-image systems, as well as the preferred redshift for the different systems. These could be then used to automatically constrain and refine the initial lens model for an accurate mass distribution. We apply this procedure to Cluster Lensing And Supernova with Hubble observations of three galaxy clusters, MACS J0329.6-0211, MACS J1720.2 + 3536, and MACS J1931.8-2635, comparing the results to published SL analyses where multiple images were verified by eye on a particular basis. In the first cluster all originally identified systems are recovered by the automated procedure, and in the second and third clusters about half are recovered. Other known systems are not picked up, in part due to a crude choice of parameters, ambiguous photometric redshifts, or inaccuracy of the initial lens model. On top of real systems recovered, some false images are also mistakenly identified by the procedure, depending on the thresholds used. While further improvements to the procedure and a more thorough scrutinization of its performance are warranted, the work constitutes another important step toward fully automatizing SL analyses for studying mass distributions of large cluster samples.
Conditions for jet breakout in neutron stars’ mergers
Authors: Lyutikov Maxim
Published: October 2019

We consider conditions for jet breakout through ejecta following mergers of neutron stars and provide simple relations for the breakout conditions. We demonstrate that: (i) break-out requires that the isotropic-equivalent jet energy Ej exceeds the ejecta energy Eej by Ej ≥ Eej/βej, where βej = Vej/c, Vej is the maximum velocity of the ejecta. If the central engine terminates before the breakout, the shock approaches the edge of the ejecta slowly ∝ 1/t; late breakout occurs only if at the termination moment the head of the jet was relatively close to the edge. (ii) If there is a substantial delay between the ejecta’s and the jet’s launching, the requirement on the jet power increases. (iii) The forward shock driven by the jet is mildly strong, with Mach number M ≈ 5/4 (increasing with time delay td); (iii) the delay time td between the ejecta and the jet’s launching is important for $t_\mathrm{ d} \gt t_0= ({3 }/{16}) {c M_{\mathrm{ ej}} V_{\mathrm{ ej}}}/{L_\mathrm{ j}} = 1.01 {\rm \mathrm{ s}} M_{\mathrm{ ej}, -2} L_{\mathrm{ j}, 51} ^{-1} \left({\beta _{\mathrm{ ej}}} /{0.3} \right)$, where Mej is ejecta mass, Lj is the jet luminosity (isotropic equivalent). For small delays, t0 is also an estimate of the break-out time.
Weak lensing analysis of codex clusters using dark energy camera legacy survey: mass–richness relation
Authors: Phriksee Anirut , Jullo Eric , Limousin Marceau , Shan HuanYuan , Finoguenov Alexis , Komonjinda Siramas , Wannawichian Suwicha , Sawangwit Utane
Published: October 2019

We present the weak-lensing analysis of 279 CODEX clusters using imaging data from 4200 deg2 of the DECam Legacy Survey (DECaLS) Data Release 3. The cluster sample results from a joint selection in X-ray, optical richness in the range 20 ≤ λ < 110, and redshift in the range 0.1 ≤ z ≤ 0.2. We model the cluster mass (M200c) and the richness relation with the expression $\left\langle M_{\rm 200c} | \lambda \right\rangle \propto M_{0} \, (\lambda / 40)^{F_{\lambda }}$. By measuring the CODEX cluster sample as an individual cluster, we obtain the best-fitting values, $M_{0} = 3.24^{+0.29}_{-0.27} \times 10^{14} \text{M}_{\odot }$, and $F_{\lambda } = 1.00 ^{+0.22}_{-0.22}$ for the richness scaling index, consistent with a power-law relation. Moreover, we separate the cluster sample into three richness groups; λ = 20–30, 30–50, and 50–110, and measure the stacked excess surface mass density profile in each group. The results show that both methods are consistent. In addition, we find an excellent agreement between our weak lensing based scaling relation and the relation obtained with dynamical masses estimated from cluster member velocity dispersions measured by the SDSS-IV/SPIDERS team. This suggests that the cluster dynamical equilibrium assumption involved in the dynamical mass estimates is statistically robust for a large sample of clusters.
A general strategy exploiting m5C duplex-remodelling effect for selective detection of RNA and DNA m5C methyltransferase activity in cells
Authors: Yang Tianming , Low Joanne J A , Woon Esther C Y
Published: October 2019

RNA:5-methylcytosine (m5C) methyltransferases are currently the focus of intense research following a series of high-profile reports documenting their physiological links to several diseases. However, no methods exist which permit the specific analysis of RNA:m5C methyltransferases in cells. Herein, we described how a combination of biophysical studies led us to identify distinct duplex-remodelling effects of m5C on RNA and DNA duplexes. Specifically, m5C induces a C3′-endo to C2′-endo sugar-pucker switch in CpG RNA duplex but triggers a B-to-Z transformation in CpG DNA duplex. Inspired by these different ‘structural signatures’, we developed a m5C-sensitive probe which fluoresces spontaneously in response to m5C-induced sugar-pucker switch, hence useful for sensing RNA:m5C methyltransferase activity. Through the use of this probe, we achieved real-time imaging and flow cytometry analysis of NOP2/Sun RNA methyltransferase 2 (NSUN2) activity in HeLa cells. We further applied the probe to the cell-based screening of NSUN2 inhibitors. The developed strategy could also be adapted for the detection of DNA:m5C methyltransferases. This was demonstrated by the development of DNA m5C-probe which permits the screening of DNA methyltransferase 3A inhibitors. To our knowledge, this study represents not only the first examples of m5C-responsive probes, but also a new strategy for discriminating RNA and DNA m5C methyltransferase activity in cells.
Identification of a novel structure-specific endonuclease AziN that contributes to the repair of azinomycin B-mediated DNA interstrand crosslinks
Authors: Chen Xiaorong , Sun Yuedi , Wang Shan , Ying Kun , Xiao Le , Liu Kai , Zuo Xiuli , He Jing
Published: October 2019

DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) induced by the highly genotoxic agent azinomycin B (AZB) can cause severe perturbation of DNA structure and even cell death. However, Streptomyces sahachiroi, the strain that produces AZB, seems almost impervious to this danger because of its diverse and distinctive self-protection machineries. Here, we report the identification of a novel endonuclease-like gene aziN that contributes to drug self-protection in S. sahachiroi. AziN expression conferred AZB resistance on native and heterologous host strains. The specific binding reaction between AziN and AZB was also verified in accordance with its homology to drug binding proteins, but no drug sequestering and deactivating effects could be detected. Intriguingly, due to the high affinity with the drug, AziN was discovered to exhibit specific recognition and binding capacity with AZB-mediated ICL structures, further inducing DNA strand breakage. Subsequent in vitro assays demonstrated the structure-specific endonuclease activity of AziN, which cuts both damaged strands at specific sites around AZB-ICLs. Unravelling the nuclease activity of AziN provides a good entrance point to illuminate the complex mechanisms of AZB-ICL repair.
Smoking and Long-Term Sick Leave in a Japanese Working Population: Findings of the Japan Epidemiology Collaboration on Occupational Health Study
Authors: Hori Ai , Inoue Yosuke , Kuwahara Keisuke , Kunugita Naoki , Akter Shamima , Nishiura Chihiro , Kinugawa Chihiro , Endo Motoki , Ogasawara Takayuki , Nagahama Satsue , Miyamoto Toshiaki , Tomita Kentaro , Yamamoto Makoto , Nakagawa Tohru , Honda Toru , Yamamoto Shuichiro , Okazaki Hiroko , Imai Teppei , Nishihara Akiko , Sasaki Naoko , Uehara Akihiko , Murakami Taizo , Shimizu Makiko , Eguchi Masafumi , Kochi Takeshi , Konishi Maki , Kashino Ikuko , Yamaguchi Miwa , Nanri Akiko , Kabe Isamu , Mizoue Tetsuya , Dohi Seitaro
Published: October 2019

Background

Few studies have investigated the association between tobacco smoking and sick leave (SL) in Japan.

Methods

We followed 70 896 workers aged 20–59 years (60 133 males, 10 763 females) between April 2012 and March 2017. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to investigate the associations between smoking (smoking status and intensity) and long-term SL (ie, SL lasting ≥30 consecutive days). Cause-specific analyses were also conducted.

Results

A total of 1777 people took long-term SL during a follow-up of 307 749 person years. Compared with never-smokers, current smokers were at a higher risk of long-term SL (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.32; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.19 to 1.48). Cause-specific analyses revealed that current smoking was associated with a higher risk of SL due to all physical disorders (HR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.22 to 1.69), cancer (HR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.10 to 2.01), cardiovascular disease (CVD; HR = 2.16, 95% CI = 1.31 to 3.55), and injuries/external causes (HR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.31 to 2.58). Former smokers were at a higher risk of SL due to cancer at a borderline significance level (HR = 1.38, 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.92). Low-intensity smoking (ie, 1–10 cigarettes smoked per day) was associated with all-cause SL, SL due to CVD, and SL due to injuries/external causes compared with never-smokers.

Conclusion

In a large cohort of working-age Japanese, smoking was associated with a greater risk of long-term SL. Greater effort is needed to mitigate disease burden associated with smoking at workplace in Japan.

Implications

Our study contributes to the literature on the association between smoking and SL in several ways. First, the study was conducted among a Japanese working population. While the association has been extensively studied in Western setting, few attempts have been made elsewhere. Second, cause-specific analyses were undertaken in our study. Third, we paid attention to the effect of low-intensity smoking on SL given that there is growing evidence of an elevated health risk associated with low-intensity smoking.
Dance and Hinduism
Authors: Zubko Katherine
Published: October 2019

Dance is a central practice in Hinduism across a variety of contexts, mythological narratives, and time periods. Gods such as Śiva and Kṛṣṇa are dancers, and humans also dance, often embodying these gods as part of bhakti, or devotion. Dance is a rich area for exploring the ways categories are created and negotiated: classical and folk, local and global, male and female, East and West, text and practice, colonial and postcolonial, and India and its diaspora. Coursing through these dynamic categories are questions of identity: gender, nationality, politics, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and immigrant experience—all experienced through the embodiment of devotional dance forms that continue to undergo many iterations as new populations, venues, and intentions emerge. This bibliography provides resources for the history and practices of dances that range from folk/ritual to classical. Folk dance forms are devotional and cultural, such as popular garba and raas dancing. Other ritual dances invite a god to be embodied in the devotee through possession or depicted theatrically in solos and dance-dramas. The emphasis of the majority of the scholarship is weighted toward the formation and practice of eight classical dance forms. These have been constructed out of a hybridization of preexisting regional temple, court, and folk styles in collaboration with the ancient textual authority of the Nāṭyaśāstra, “Science of Dance-Drama,” during the early twentieth century. This Sanskrit compendium infused technical vocabulary, movement grammars, a sacred origin story, and rasa, an audience-receptivity theory of aesthetic mood experienced by audience members as created by dancers through their physical expressions, or bhāvas. In the early 1900s, social welfare movements converged on an opportunity to respond to the ills of society and build an awareness of arts that could support an emerging nationalism. “Reformers” and “revivalists” claimed to undo systems of oppression of women, such as preventing dedication of devadāsīs who danced in Hindu temples, and “rescue” dances with ties to ancient and religious origins from the hands of these hereditary dancers, whose loss of patronage and misunderstood social systems led to them being labeled prostitutes under the British Raj. One of the first ongoing waves of critical scholarship reveals the erased histories and consequences of these changes. A second strand seeks to situate dance within transnational Hindu contexts. A third trajectory validates contemporary experiments that reframe the interpretive possibilities of religious and gendered themes across hybridized movement grammars within the bodies of dancers and across diasporic geographies.
Nationalism
Authors: Özkırımlı Umut
Published: October 2019

Nationalism is the belief that the interests and values of a particular nation are prior to, and often superior to, those of others. Etymologically, the origins of the term can be traced back to the Latin word natio, or “something born,” which was used by Romans to refer to a community of foreigners. It is commonly believed that in its modern sense of “love for a particular nation,” the term was first used in 1798. Nationalism refers to both an ideology and a political movement. In the context of the French Revolution, nationalism has come to be associated with the more inclusive idea of popular sovereignty based on shared and equal citizenship. Later, under the impact of German Romantic thought, it has also been connected to exclusivist notions of ethnic and cultural distinctiveness. As a political movement, nationalism has often entailed the fusion of these two ideals, presupposing a world composed of “nation-states” in which, at least in theory, each nation has a right to a state of its own, later called the principle of national self-determination. Nationalism has outlived the expectations of a great many thinkers, both on the right and the left, who predicted its imminent demise, and reasserted itself as a powerful tool for mobilization in the wake of the end of the Cold War, inspiring or energizing a vast array of political projects, from independentism and isolationism to authoritarianism and populism. Despite attempts to pool sovereignty in supranational or transnational bodies, mostly to counter the corrosive and uneven impact of globalization, nationalism remains the fundamental organizing principle of interstate order and the ultimate source of political legitimacy. For many, it is also the taken-for-granted context of everyday life and a readily available cognitive and discursive frame to make sense of the world that surrounds them.
Neoliberalism in US Politics
Authors: Hindman Matthew Dean , Noland Andrew
Published: October 2019

In the waning decades of the 20th century, inequalities of wealth and political influence intensified amid what many scholars recognize as a “New Gilded Age.” Scholars point to manifold reasons for these inequalities, including globalization, the declining strength of organized labor, corporate political activity, a shrinking public sector, and tax reforms favoring the wealthy, to cite only a few. These various drivers of inequality, though, did not arise in isolation; an intelligible governing ethos underlies these various phenomena. This ethos is marked by its promotion of private-sector solutions to collective problems vis-à-vis government-led ones, its deference to markets vis-à-vis coordinated collective action, and its focus on entrepreneurialism and consumerism in nearly all facets of life. These features of contemporary political life all cohere into a concept recognized as “neoliberalism.” Depending on whom you ask, this term either helpfully assigns a logic to the amalgam of political problems confronting governance in the 21st century or, alternatively, serves as yet another hackneyed buzzword du jour. This article takes the former perspective, casting neoliberalism as a useful concept uniting a ranging of phenomena of which scholars of US politics ought to be familiar. This article describes and categorizes scholarship on neoliberalism according to three interrelated definitions of the term. Neoliberalism is: (1) a historical and intellectual trajectory that emerged in response to postwar Keynesianism; (2) a political project designed to foster a business-friendly social and political climate; and (3) an endeavor to transform citizenship itself. This article builds on these three characterizations, outlining the major works that explore and explain how neoliberal principles have impacted US politics, policy, and civic life. Scholarship on neoliberalism is vast and wide-ranging. Most of the works cited throughout this article explicitly note the influence of neoliberalism on one aspect or another of American life. Some works, however, uncover a critical aspect of neoliberalism without explicitly accepting or even mentioning the term itself. Collectively, however, these works will give readers a stronger grasp on what neoliberalism is and how the trends and principles associated with it have taken root within US politics and society.
Intercultural Capital
Authors: Pöllmann Andreas
Published: October 2019

Since about 2006, a growing number of academic publications have employed or referred to the concept of intercultural capital. In analogy to Pierre Bourdieu’s forms of embodied, objectified, and institutionalized cultural capital, it is analytically meaningful to conceive distinct forms of intercultural capital. Foreign language skills, experience of living abroad, and intercultural friendships constitute examples of empirical indicators of embodied intercultural capital. Products of art, writing, science, architecture, and design that carry intercultural meanings, associations, or connotations in durable and tangible ways exemplify manifestations of objectified intercultural capital. Examples of institutionalized intercultural capital include officially issued and recognized laws, guidelines, commemorative days, exchange programs, curricula, school books, and academic titles with a more or less explicit intercultural outlook. Existing empirical research spans a considerable range of different areas, including pre-tertiary and tertiary education, migration, intercultural dialogue, collective identity formation, tourism, electoral studies, social work, neighborhood politics, and transmigrant families. Thus far, questions pertaining to students and teachers at different levels of formal education have attracted particularly pronounced scholarly interest. Much still remains to be learned about the quantity and quality of concrete empirical manifestation of embodied, objectified, and institutionalized forms of intercultural capital in different geopolitical and sociocultural contexts, at different points in time. There is also a need for more theoretically informed empirical investigations of processes of intercultural capital realization in terms of awareness, acquisition, and application, which combine an emphasis on individual-level factors with a focus on pertinent contextual forces and fields of (symbolic) power. Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of culture lies at the heart of current conceptual developments and is likely to sustain or frame future theoretical advances. However, it is important to emphasize that while the notion of intercultural capital is situated within a Bourdieusian conceptual framework, the famous French sociologist himself did not focus on the intercultural dimensions of cultural capital. Moreover, the centrality of Bourdieu’s body of work does not preclude explorations of the idea of intercultural capital in productive dialogue with other pertinent concepts, such as “intercultural analphabetism,” “funds of knowledge,” and “community cultural wealth.” The structure of this Oxford Bibliographies entry proceeds by topic rather than citation type—from important conceptual considerations to different pertinent areas of research. Yet, information on the particular citation type (e.g., book, book chapter, or journal article) forms an integral part of the respective annotations.
Fritz Heider
Authors: Schmidt Marion
Published: October 2019

Fritz Heider (b. 1896–d. 1988) was an Austrian-American Gestalt and social psychologist. He is considered one of the founding fathers of interpersonal social psychology, contributing in particular his theories of attribution, balance, and motivation. (For attribution theory see the Oxford Bibliographies in Psychology article “Attribution Theory” by Bertram F. Malle and Joanna Korman) Studying in Graz and Berlin, he was influenced both by the Berlin school of Gestalt psychology under Wertheimer, Köhler, and Koffka and the Graz school under Alexius Meinong, as well as by his lifelong friendship with Kurt Lewin. He emigrated to the United States in 1930 to take a joint position at Smith College and the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1947, he took a position as professor of psychology at the University of Kansas department of psychology, where he remained for the rest of his career. He was married to Gestalt and child psychologist Grace Moore Heider, with whom he also collaborated professionally during their time at the Clarke School. Heider’s approach was not laboratory-based, but philosophical and observational. He was a close observer of how people interact with each other and their surroundings, and also analyzed stories, aphorisms, fables, and fairy tales for generalizable narratives of human behavior. Heider believed that individuals use a kind of naïve or common-sense psychology to explain the behavior of others; this common-sense psychology thus shapes their perception of and interaction with their social world. For decades, he collected and systematized his observations in his notebooks, which were later published. While he was a meticulous and nuanced observer, he was not a prolific writer. Open to different influences, he long grappled with how to systematize human behavior into a generalizable theoretical system of social interaction. Influenced by Kurt Lewin, he sometimes tried to capture interpersonal behavior in a kind of mathematical shorthand, though he never lost sight of the essentially human dimension of his material. Apart from his autobiography, he only published four monographs: in 1927, his revised thesis, Ding und Medium; in 1940 and 1941, together with his wife, two monographs on the psychology of deafness; and in 1958 The psychology of interpersonal relations, which is considered his main work and a seminal contribution to social psychology. Beyond these works, Heider published about a dozen articles on various aspects of phenomenology, Gestalt and social psychology, and the history of psychology. He had few graduate students but nevertheless influenced younger generations through his seminars and his traveling and teaching abroad.
Balancing multiple mandates: A case study of public research institutes in South Africa
Authors: Kruss Glenda
Published: October 2019

The role of public research institutes (PRIs) in innovation and development is typically researched as a linked couplet with universities, but there is little empirical research on PRIs specifically. The article investigates how PRIs in late-developing countries balance multiple mandates, shaped by disciplinary fields and historical trajectories, drawing on comparative case studies of five PRIs in South Africa. PRIs succeeded in articulating new and ambitious strategic policies but most struggled to give effect to expanded mandates. The article compares their ‘interactive capabilities’ by examining the internal and external interface structures and incentive mechanisms created to support and promote interaction with other knowledge producers and users and highlights misalignments at the macro level. National policy will need to promote the development of stronger interactive capabilities if PRIs are to balance their mandate to link to global knowledge flows, grow economic competitiveness, and address complex problems arising from high levels of poverty and inequality.
Logics of Gender Justice and Their Meaning for the Study of Sexuality and Gender Identity: A Dialogue
Authors: Ayoub Phillip M
Published: October 2019

This piece dialogues with Htun and Weldon's exceptional new book, The Logics of Gender Justice, as it relates to LGBTI rights. Beyond engaging the authors' questions of when and why governments promote women's rights, I also engage their argument that equality is not one issue but many linked issues, including issues of sexuality and gender identity. My own reflections on their work thus address the contributions the book makes to the study of political science, as well as open questions about how their logic of gender justice might apply across other issue areas less explored in the book. Htun and Weldon's own definition of gender justice also rightly includes space for LGBTQI people, which I see as an invitation to think through the typology in relation to these communities. The piece begins by reflecting on the book's theoretical and methodical innovations around the complexities of gender politics, before moving on to the multi-faceted role of religion in gender justice, and then theoretical assumptions around visibility of the marginalized.
Pediatric Tracheostomy Wound Healing: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Authors: Odom Brian H. , Yates Charlotte , Lowe Leah , VanHoose Lisa
Published: October 2019

OBJECTIVE

To compare wound products by measuring time to granulation tissue and time to complete wound healing for tracheostomy wounds in the pediatric population.

METHODS

Investigators identified 134 charts of patients treated January 2013 and June 2017; 93 charts met the inclusion criteria. This study compared the use of a foam dressing (n = 34) to the foam dressing plus a wound filler (n = 59) in patients who developed or were admitted with a wound caused by a tracheostomy device.

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES

Time in days to granulation tissue and to wound closure.

RESULTS

The average time to complete wound closure for participants in this study was 14 days. There was no statistically significant difference in time to granulation tissue or wound closure formation between the wound care products (F2,34= 1.11,P= .34). Cluster analysis (10 splits) revealed that pressure injury stage was the best predictor, accounting for 41% of the variance in the high treatment response group (those healing in <14 days). Patients who were African American with a stage 2 pressure injury, had a PUSH score of 5 or more, and were using a foam plus a wound filler dressing were 86% more likely to be in the high-response group.

CONCLUSIONS

All wounds reviewed healed with current wound care practices without surgical intervention. Best practice for healing tracheostomy wounds in pediatric patients should include the wound filler in the first 14 days based on variable interaction.
A Simple, Objective, and Mathematical Grading Scale for the Assessment of Facial Nerve Palsy
Authors: Bansal Mohan , Shah Alaap , Gosai Bhavik , Joshi Krupal , Shah Pankaj
Published: October 2019

Objectives:

It is imperative to acquire a simple, objective, and mathematical method for the assessment of facial nerve palsy which can be universally accepted and implemented. A grading scale which is convenient, continuous and economical was attempted for the first time for global and region-specific assessment of facial nerve palsy.

Study Design:

Hospital-based observational study.

Setting:

Medical college hospital.

Patients:

Ten normal subjects and 51 patients with facial paralysis.

Interventions:

Patients with facial nerve palsy were graded according to the revised version of House–Brackmann grading system (HBGS-2) and a newly proposed grading system.

Main Outcome Measures:

The results of the present study were compared with the HBGS-2. Data were analyzed using SPSS-17 (IBM Corporation, New York) for descriptive statistics, normality test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and Mann–Whitney U test.

Results:

The mean time spent on recording measurements was 288 seconds. For the new method and HBGS-2, the modes were graded 3 and 4, corresponding to incomplete facial paralysis. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov normality and Wilcoxon signed rank tests were found significant. In Mann–Whitney U test, probability value indicated that grades of new scale were similar to grades of HBGS-2.

Conclusion:

The proposed simple, objective and mathematical (SOM) method of grading facial nerve palsy is convenient and provides global and regional continuous percentage that can monitor the progress and classify the patients with facial paralysis into six-point grades based on severity. This system was having substantial compatibility with HBGS-2 grading. For further validity, multi-center study with a larger sample of patients would be required.
Genome-based reclassification of Weissella jogaejeotgali as a later heterotypic synonym of Weissella thailandensis
Authors: Kwak Min-Jung , Choi Seon-Bin , Kim Byung-Yong , Chun Jongsik
Published: October 2019

Members of the genus

Weissella

are mostly found in fermented plant material. Among the Weissella species, two species,

Weissella thailandensis

and

Weissella jogaejeotgali

, were isolated from foods fermented from marine animals. The two species showed a high level of 16S rRNA gene similarity (99.39 %), whereas they exhibited a moderate level of DNA–DNA hybridization relatedness (63.9 %) in an earlier study. In this study, we determined the whole genome sequence of

W. thailandensis

KCTC 3751T and compared it to those of

W. jogaejeotgali

FOL01T and other related species. The average nucleotide identity value between the type strains of

W. thailandensis

and

W. jogaejeotgali

was 96.4 %, which is clearly higher than the cut-off proposed for bacterial species. We, therefore, propose to reclassify

W. jogaejeotgali

as a later heterotypic synonym of

W. thailandensis

.
Ageing Transcriptome Meta-Analysis Reveals Similarities Between Key Mammalian Tissues
Authors: Palmer Daniel , Fabris Fabio , Doherty Aoife , Freitas Alex A. , de Magalhães João Pedro
Published: October 2019

1

Understanding the expression changes that come with age is an important step in understanding the ageing process as a whole. By combining such transcriptomic data with other sources of information, for instance protein-protein interaction (PPI) data, it is possible to make inferences about the functional changes that occur with age. To address this, we conducted a meta-analysis on 127 publicly available microarray and RNA-Seq datasets from mice, rats and humans, to identify genes that are commonly differentially expressed with age in mammals. We also conducted analyses on subsets of these datasets, to produce transcriptomic signatures for brain, heart and muscle tissues, all of which are important tissues in the pathophysiology of ageing. This approach identified the transcriptomic signatures of the ageing system, as well as brain, heart and muscle tissues. We then applied enrichment analysis and machine learning to functionally describe those signatures. This revealed a typical ageing signature including the overexpression of immune and stress response genes and the underexpression of metabolic and developmental genes. Further analysis of the ageing expression signatures revealed that genes differentially expressed with age tend to be broadly expressed across tissues, rather than be tissue-specific, and that the ageing expression signatures (particularly the overexpressed signatures) of the whole system, brain and muscle tend to include genes that are central in PPI networks. We also show that genes underexpressed in the brain are highly central in a co-expression map, suggesting that underexpression of these genes may play a part in cognitive ageing. In sum, we show numerous functional similarities between the ageing transcriptomes of these important tissues, a broad non-specific expression pattern in genes differentially expressed with age, along with altered network properties of these genes in both a PPI and co-expression network.
Insights from two decades of the Student Conference on Conservation Science
Authors: Geldmann Jonas , Alves-Pinto Helena , Amano Tatsuya , Bartlett Harriet , Christie Alec P. , Collas Lydia , Cooke Sophia C. , Correa Roberto , Cripps Imogen , Doherty Anya , Finch Tom , Garnett Emma E. , Hua Fangyuan , Gordon Jones Julia Patricia , Kasoar Tim , MacFarlane Douglas , Martin Philip A , Mukherjee Nibu , Mumby Hannah S. , Payne Charlotte , Petrovan Silviu O. , Rocha Ricardo , Russell Kirsten , Simmons Benno I. , Wauchope Hannah , Worthington Thomas A. , Trevelyan Rosie , Green Rhys , Balmford Andrew
Published: October 2019

Conservation science is a crisis-oriented discipline focused on delivering robust answers to reducing human impacts on nature. To explore how the field might have changed during the past two decades, we analyzed 3,245 applications for oral presentations submitted to the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) in Cambridge, UK. SCCS has been running every year since 2000, aims for global representation by providing bursaries to early-career conservationists from lower-income countries, and has never had a thematic focus, beyond conservation in the broadest sense. We found that the majority of submissions to SCCS were based on primary biological data collection from local scale field studies in the tropics, contrary to established literature which highlights gaps in tropical research. Our results showed a small increase over time in submissions framed around how nature benefits people as well as a small increase in submissions integrating social science. Our findings also suggest that students and early-career conservationists could provide pathways to increased availability of data from the tropics and for addressing well-known biases in the published literature towards wealthier countries. We hope this research will motivate efforts to support student projects, ensuring data and results are published and made publicly available.
Light stimulation into dorsal raphe nucleus contributes to antidepressant effect for a stressed rat model
Authors: Li Xiaotao
Published: October 2019

Background

Light therapy is frequently demonstrated by clinical trials to be effective to seasonal or non-seasonal major depression. However, the pathway underlying the light effect on mood remains unclear. Since a retino-raphe pathway was previously indicated to modulate 5-HT production, we hypothesize that the retinal projection into dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) may play an important role in the light therapy for depression.

Methods

A rat model of 14-day corticosterone administration (40 mg/kg/day subcutaneous injection) was mainly used to test the effect of light therapy on non-seasonal depressant-like behavior, and the involved neural circuitry and neurochemistry as well.

Results

Behavior results revealed that the bright light therapy especially with the blue light of 470 nm and 400 lux, effectively reversed the depression-like responses in those stressed rats. After elimination of retino-raphe projection using immunotoxin (Saporin) the effect of light therapy was significantly attenuated. Whereas activation of retino-raphe projection using HM3q chemogenetics was shown an effect similar to fluoxetine treatment. Furthermore, 5-HT3A positive GABA cells in the DRN were activated with high c-Fos expression that involved in an inhibition of 5-HT synthesis and a subsequent depressive behavior. While light therapy through retino-raphe projection deactivated the hyperaction of those GABA cells in the DRN; that eventually contributed to the antidepressant effect from light therapy.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that the retino-raphe circuitry engaged antidepressant effect in DRN that contributed to the light therapy to the non-seasonal depression. 5-HT3A positive GABA cells in DRN was indicated to mediate this function of retino-raphe projection.
A novel MRI-based finite element modeling method for calculation of myocardial ischemia effect in patients with functional mitral regurgitation
Authors: Zhang Yue , Wang Vicky Y , Morgan Ashley E , Kim Jiwon , Ge Liang , Guccione Julius M , Weinsaft Jonathan W , Ratcliffe Mark B
Published: October 2019

Background

Functional Mitral Regurgitation (FMR) affects nearly 3 million patients in the United States. Conventional indices are limited for predicting FMR response to coronary revascularization (REVASC). Uncertainty as to which patients will respond to REVASC alone impedes rational decision-making regarding FMR management. Determination of myocardial material parameters associated with ischemic myocardium will address knowledge gaps regarding the impact of ischemia on regional cardiac muscle.

Method

We proposed a novel MRI-based finite element (FE) modeling method to determine the effect of ischemia on myocardial contractility. The method was applied to two patients with multi-vessel coronary disease and FMR and one healthy volunteer. Cardiac MRI (CMR) included cine-MRI, gadolinium-enhanced stress perfusion, late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), and non-invasive tagged MRI (CSPAMM). The left ventricular (LV) FE model was divided into 17 sectors. Sector-specific circumferential and longitudinal end-systolic strain and LV volume from CSPAMM were used in a formal optimization to determine the sector based myocardial contractility, Tmax.

Results

The FE optimization successfully converged with good agreement between calculated and experimental end-systolic strain and LV volumes. Specifically, the optimized TmaxH for Patient 1, Patient 2, and the volunteer was 336.8 kPa, 401.4 kPa, and 259.4 kPa and α for Patient 1 and Patient 2 was 0.44 and 0.

Conclusion

We developed a novel computational method able to predict the effect of myocardial ischemia in patients with FMR. This method can be used to predict the effect of ischemia on the regional myocardium and promises to facilitate better understanding of FMR response to REVASC.
Recurrent interactions in local cortical circuits
Authors: Peron Simon , Pancholi Ravi , Voelcker Bettina , Wittenbach Jason D. , Ólafsdóttir H. Freyja , Freeman Jeremy , Svoboda Karel
Published: October 2019

The majority of cortical synapses are local and excitatory. Local recurrent circuits could implement amplification, allowing for pattern completion and other computations1. Cortical circuits contain subnetworks, consisting of neurons with similar receptive fields and elevated connectivity relative to the network average2,3. Understanding the computations performed by these subnetworks during behavior has been hampered by the fact that cortical neurons encoding different types of information are spatially intermingled and distributed over large brain volumes 4,5. We used computational modeling, optical recordings and manipulations to probe the function of recurrent coupling in layer (L) 2/3 of the somatosensory cortex during tactile discrimination. A model of L2/3 dynamics revealed that recurrent excitation enhances sensory signals via amplification, but only for subnetwork with elevated connectivity. Networks with high amplification were sensitive to damage: loss of a few subnetwork members degraded stimulus encoding. We tested this prediction experimentally by mapping neuronal selectivity5 and photoablating6,7 neurons with specific selectivity. In L2/3 of the somatosensory cortex, ablating a small proportion (10-20, < 5 % of the total) of neurons representing touch dramatically reduced responses in the spared touch representation, but not other representations. Network models further predicted that degradation following ablation should be greatest among spared neurons with stimulus responses that were most similar to the ablated population. Consistent with this prediction, ablations most strongly impacted neurons with selectivity similar to the ablated population. Our data shows that recurrence among cortical neurons with similar selectivity can drive input-specific amplification during behavior.
Differential expression of five prosomatostatin genes in the central nervous system of the catsharkScyliorhinus canicula
Authors: Sobrido-Cameán Daniel , Tostivint Herve , Mazan Sylvie , Rodicio María Celina , Rodríguez-Moldes Isabel , Candal Eva , Anadón Ramón , Barreiro-Iglesias Antón
Published: October 2019

Five prosomatostatin genes (PSST1,PSST2,PSST3,PSST5andPSST6) have been recently identified in elasmobranchs (Tostivint, Gaillard, Mazan, & Pézeron, 2019). In order to gain insight into the contribution of each somatostatin to specific nervous systems circuits and behaviors in this important jawed vertebrate group, we studied the distribution of neurons expressingPSSTmRNAs in the catsharkScyliorhinus caniculausingin situhybridization with specific probes for the fivePSSTstranscripts. Additionally, we combinedin situhybridization with tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunochemistry for better localization of somePSSTs-positive populations. The fivePSSTgenes showed expression in the brain, although with important differences in distribution.PSST1andPSST6were widely expressed in different brain regions. Instead,PSST2andPSST3were expressed only in the ventral hypothalamus and in some hindbrain lateral reticular neurons, whereasPSST5was only expressed in the region of the entopeduncular nucleus.PSST1andPSST6were expressed by numerous pallial neurons, although in different populations judging from the colocalization of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity andPSST6expression in pallial neurons and the absence of colocalization between TH andPSST1expression. Differential expression ofPSST1andPSST6was also observed in the subpallium, hypothalamus, diencephalon, optic tectum, midbrain tegmentum and rhombencephalon. Expression ofPSST1was observed in numerous cerebrospinal fluid-contacting (CSF-c) neurons of the paraventricular organ of the hypothalamus and the central canal of the spinal cord. These wide differences in expression ofPSSTgenes together with the numerous brain nuclei expressingPSSTs, indicate that catshark somatostatinergic neurons are implicated differentially in a number of neural circuits.
Emergence and germination response of Sonchus oleraceus and Rapistrum rugosum to different temperatures and moisture stress regimes
Authors: Ali Hafiz Haider , Kebaso Lynder , Manalil Sudheesh , Chauhan Bhagirath Singh
Published: October 2019

Sonchus oleraceus and Rapistrum rugosum are two rapidly emerging weeds of the northern grain region of Australia. To understand the ability of these weeds regarding their germination response to temperature and different soil moisture regimes, experiments were undertaken on the germination of these weeds at varying osmotic potential and temperature regimes. The experiment was conducted as a split‐plot design with alternating day/night temperature regimes (15/5, 20/10, 25/15 and 30/20°C) as a main plot and osmotic potential regimes (0.0, −0.1, −0.2, −0.4, −0.6, −0.8 and −1 MPa) as a subplot. At different temperature regimes, there was 65–91% germination of S. oleraceus in water (0 MPa). There was 0–4% germination at −0.8 MPa and no germination at −1.0 MPa. Osmotic potential values that can cause 50% reduction in germination of S. oleraceus based on a sigmoid regression model ranged from −0.38 to −0.48 MPa. There was 33–81% germination of R. rugosum in distilled water (0 MPa), 1–3% germination at −0.8 MPa and no germination at −1.0 MPa. Osmotic potential values that can cause 50% reduction in germination of R. rugosum based on a sigmoid model ranged from −0.26 to −0.54 MPa. Results of the study were related to the emergence pattern of weeds during field survey and soil moisture profiles estimated by the Australian Landscape Water Balance Model and explain the emergence of these weeds outside the normal seasonal window of prevalence as a response to changes in weather.
Optimizing dissection, sample collection and cell isolation protocols for frugivorous bats
Authors: Irving Aaron T. , Ng Justin H. J. , Boyd Victoria , Dutertre Charles‐Antoine , Ginhoux Florent , Dekkers Milou H. , Meers Joanne , Field Hume E. , Crameri Gary , Wang Lin‐Fa
Published: October 2019

Bats are becoming increasingly important as an experimental model due to their unique biological features. These include the ability of powered flight, minimal consequences from a heightened metabolic state, extended longevity in most species and minimal inflammation in response to most otherwise pathogenic viruses. To date there has been limited work done on the optimal procedures for necropsy, extraction of tissues or preparation of cell suspensions for downstream experimental work.

Here we use Pteropus alecto black flying fox as an example model of the fruit bat to develop optimal procedures for anaesthetizing, necropsy methods, safety, sequence and protocols for cell/tissue extraction and isolation protocols.

These methods were successfully used to yield high‐quality RNA, DNA and protein samples from tissues along with viable cells for various molecular and immunological studies. Procedures utilized are suitable for comparative biology studies with most protocols being directly modified from those used in mice and humans. While mainly optimized for the larger fruit bats (flying foxes) in this study, the majority of protocols can readily be adapted to all species of bats.

This study provides the framework for greater consistency with in vivo bat experiments, application for comparative biology studies and greater engagement of the bat community for suitable protocols to be harmoniously adopted.