bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Developmental factors associated with decline in grip strength from midlife to old age: a British birth cohort study
Authors: Kuh D , Hardy R , Blodgett JM , Copper R
Published: May 2018

Maintenance of muscle strength is important for healthy ageing, protecting against chronic disease and enabling independent living. We tested whether developmental factors were associated with grip strength trajectories between 53 and 69 years, and operated independently or on the same pathway/s as adult factors, in 3058 participants from a British birth cohort. Grip strength (kg) at ages 53, 60-64 and 69, was analysed using multilevel models, testing for age and sex interactions, to estimate associations with developmental factors (birthweight, growth parameters, motor and cognitive development) and childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and investigate potential adult mediators. Heavier birthweight, beginning to walk on time, later puberty and greater weight 0-26 years in men, and earlier age at first standing in women, were associated with stronger grip but not with its decline; these associations were independent of adult factors. The slower decline in grip strength (by 0.068kg/year, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.024,0.11 per 1SD, p=.003) in men with higher childhood cognition was attenuated by adult verbal memory which became increasingly positively associated with grip strength at older ages. Thus grip strength may increasingly reflect neural ageing processes. Targeting developmental factors to promote muscle development should increase the chance of independence in old age.
Model-driven design and evolution of non-trivial synthetic syntrophic pairs
Authors: Lloyd Colton J. , King Zachary A. , Sandberg Troy E. , Hefner Ying , Olson Connor A. , Phaneuf Patrick V. , O’brien Edward J. , Feist Adam M.
Published: May 2018

Synthetic microbial communities are attractive for applied biotechnology and healthcare applications through their ability to efficiently partition complex metabolic functions. By pairing auxotrophic mutants in co-culture, nascentE. colicommunities can be established where strain pairs are metabolically coupled. Intuitive synthetic communities have been demonstrated, but the full space of cross-feeding metabolites has yet to be explored. A novel algorithm, OptAux, was constructed to design 66 multi-knockoutE. coliauxotrophic strains that require significant metabolite cross-feeding when paired in co-culture. Three OptAux predicted auxotrophic strains were co-cultured with an L-histidine auxotroph and validated via adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE). Time-course sequencing revealed the genetic changes employed by each strain to achieve higher community fitness and provided insights on mechanisms for sharing and adapting to the syntrophic niche. A community model of metabolism and gene expression was utilized to predict the relative community composition and fundamental characteristics of the evolved communities. This work presents a novel computational method to elucidate metabolic changes that empower community formation and thus guide the optimization of co-cultures for a desired application.
DISSEQT - DIStribution based modeling of SEQuence space Time dynamics
Authors: Henningsson R. , Moratorio G. , Bordería A.V. , Vignuzzi M. , Fontes M.
Published: May 2018

Rapidly evolving microbes are a challenge to model because of the volatile, complex and dynamic nature of their populations. We developed the DISSEQT pipeline (DIStribution-based SEQuence space Time dynamics) for analyzing, visualizing and predicting the evolution of heterogeneous biological populations in multidimensional genetic space, suited for population-based modeling of deep sequencing and high-throughput data. DISSEQT is openly available on GitHub (https://github.com/rasmushenningsson/DISSEQT.jl) and Synapse (https://www.synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn11425758), covering the entire workflow from read alignment to visualization of results. DISSEQT is centered around robust dimension and model reduction algorithms for analysis of genotypic data with additional capabilities for including phenotypic features to explore dynamic genotype-phenotype maps. We illustrate its utility and capacity with examples from evolving RNA virus populations, which present on of the highest degrees of population heterogeneity found in nature. Using DISSEQT, we empirically reconstruct the evolutionary trajectories of evolving populations in sequence space and genotype-phenotype fitness landscapes. We show that while sequence space is vastly multidimensional, the relevant genetic space of evolving microbial populations is of intrinsically low dimension. In addition, evolutionary trajectories of these populations can be faithfully monitored to identify the key minority genotypes contributing most to evolution. Finally, we show that empirical fitness landscapes, when reconstructed to include minority variants, can predict phenotype from genotype with high accuracy.
Diagnostic host gene signature to accurately distinguish enteric fever from other febrile diseases
Authors: Blohmke CJ , Muller J , Gibani MM , Dobinson H , Shrestha S , Perinparajah S , Jin C , Hughes H , Blackwell L , Dongol S , Karkey A , Schreiber F , Pickard D , Basnyat B , Dougan G , Baker S , Pollard AJ , Darton TC
Published: May 2018

Misdiagnosis of enteric fever is a major global health problem resulting in patient mismanagement, antimicrobial misuse and inaccurate disease burden estimates. Applying a machine-learning algorithm to host gene expression profiles, we identified a diagnostic signature which could accurately distinguish culture-confirmed enteric fever cases from other febrile illnesses (AUROC<95%). Applying this signature to a culture-negative suspected enteric fever cohort in Nepal identified a further 12.6% as likely true cases. Our analysis highlights the power of data-driven approaches to identify host-response patterns for the diagnosis of febrile illnesses. Expression signatures were validated using qPCR highlighting their utility as PCR-based diagnostic for use in endemic settings.
Prediction and inference diverge in biomedicine: Simulations and real-world data
Authors: Bzdok Danilo , Engemann Denis , Grisel Olivier , Varoquaux Gaël , Thirion Bertrand
Published: May 2018

In the 20thcentury many advances in biological knowledge and evidence-based medicine were supported by p-values and accompanying methods. In the beginning 21stcentury, ambitions towards precision medicine put a premium on detailed predictions for single individuals. The shift causes tension between traditional methods used to infer statistically significant group differences and burgeoning machine-learning tools suited to forecast an individual’s future. This comparison applies the linear model for identifyingsignificantcontributing variables and for finding the mostpredictivevariable sets. In systematic data simulations and common medical datasets, we explored how statistical inference and pattern recognition can agree and diverge. Across analysis scenarios, even small predictive performances typically coincided with finding underlying significant statistical relationships. However, even statistically strong findings with very low p-values shed little light on their value for achieving accurate prediction in the same dataset. More complete understanding of different ways to define ‘important’ associations is a prerequisite for reproducible research findings that can serve to personalize clinical care.
A data mining paradigm for identifying key factors in biological processes using gene expression data
Authors: Li Jin , Zheng Le , Uchiyama Akihiko , Bin Lianghua , Mauro Theodora M. , Elias Peter M. , Pawelczyk Tadeusz , Sakowicz-Burkiewicz Monika , Trzeciak Magdalena , Leung Donald Y. M. , Morasso Maria I. , Yu Peng
Published: May 2018

A large volume of biological data is being generated for studying mechanisms of various biological processes. These precious data enable large-scale computational analyses to gain biological insights. However, it remains a challenge to mine the data efficiently for knowledge discovery. The heterogeneity of these data makes it difficult to consistently integrate them, slowing down the process of biological discovery. We introduce a data processing paradigm to identify key factors in biological processes via systematic collection of gene expression datasets, primary analysis of data, and evaluation of consistent signals. To demonstrate its effectiveness, our paradigm was applied to epidermal development and identified many genes that play a potential role in this process. Besides the known epidermal development genes, a substantial proportion of the identified genes are still not supported by gain- or loss-of-function studies, yielding many novel genes for future studies. Among them, we selected a top gene for loss-of-function experimental validation and confirmed its function in epidermal differentiation, proving the ability of this paradigm to identify new factors in biological processes. In addition, this paradigm revealed many key genes in cold-induced thermogenesis using data from cold-challenged tissues, demonstrating its generalizability. This paradigm can lead to fruitful results for studying molecular mechanisms in an era of explosive accumulation of publicly available biological data.
Exercise-related genes analysis of Mongolian Horse
Authors: Pan Jing , Purev Chimge , Zhao Hongwei , Zhang Zhipeng , Wang Feng , Wendoule Nashun , Qi Guichun , Zhou Huanmin
Published: May 2018

The Mongolian horses, as a neglected scientific resource, have excellent endurance and stress resistance to adapt to the cold and harsh plateau conditions. Intraspecific genetic diversity is mainly embodied in various genetic advantages of different branches of Mongolian horse. Abaga horse is better than Wushen horse in running speed, for example. Because people pay progressively attention to the athletic performance of horse, such as horse racing in Mongolia’s Naadam festival, we expect to guide the exercise-oriented breeding of horses through genomics research. We obtained the clean data of 630,535,376,400 bp through the entire genome second-generation sequencing for the whole blood of 4 Abaga horses and 10 Wushen horses. Based on the data analysis of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), we severally detected that 479 and 943 positively selected genes, particularly exercise-related, were mainly enriched on equine chromosome 4 in Abaga horses and Wushen horses, which implied that the chromosome 4 may be associated with the evolution of the Mongolian horse and athletic performance. Four hundred and forty genes of positive selection were enriched in 12 exercise-related pathways and narrowed in 21 exercise-related genes in Abaga horse, which were distinguished from Wushen horse. So, we speculated that the Abaga horse may have oriented genes for the motorial mechanism and 21 exercise-related genes also provided molecular genetic basis for exercise-directed breeding of Mongolian horse.
phastWeb: a web interface for evolutionary conservation scoring of multiple sequence alignments using phastCons and phyloP
Authors: Ramani Ritika , Krumholz Katie , Huang Yifei , Siepel Adam
Published: May 2018

The Phylogenetic Analysis with Space/Time models (PHAST) package is a widely used software package for comparative genomics that has been freely available for download since 2002. Here we introduce a web interface (phastWeb) that makes it possible to use two of the most popular programs in PHAST, phastCons and phyloP, without downloading and installing the PHAST software. This interface allows users to upload a sequence alignment and either upload a corresponding phylogeny or have one estimated from the alignment. After processing, users can visualize alignments and conservation scores as genome browser tracks, and download estimated tree models and raw scores for further analysis. Altogether, this resource makes key features of the PHAST package conveniently available to a broad audience.

AVAILABILITY

phastWeb is freely available on the web at http://compgen.cshl.edu/phastweb/. The website provides instructions as well as examples.

CONTACT

phasthelp@cshl.edu
Inference and visualization of DNA damage patterns using a grade of membership model
Authors: Al-Asadi Hussein , Dey Kushal K , Novembre John , Stephens Matthew
Published: May 2018

Quality control plays a major role in the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA). One key step in this quality control is assessment of DNA damage: aDNA contains unique signatures of DNA damage that distinguish it from modern DNA, and so analyses of damage patterns can help confirm that DNA sequences obtained are from endogenous aDNA rather than from modern contamination. Predominant signatures of DNA damage include a high frequency of cytosine to thymine substitutions (C-to-T) at the ends of fragments, and elevated rates of purines (A & G) before the 5’ strand-breaks. Existing QC procedures help assess damage by simply plotting for each sample, the C-to-T mismatch rate along the read and the composition of bases before the 5’ strand-breaks. Here we present a more flexible and comprehensive model-based approach to infer and visualize damage patterns in aDNA, implemented in an R package aRchaic. This approach is based on a “grade of membership” model (also known as “admixture” or “topic” model) in which each sample has an estimated grade of membership in each of K damage profiles that are estimated from the data. We illustrate aRchaic on data from several aDNA studies and modern individuals from 1000 Genomes Project Consortium (2012). Here, aRchaic clearly distinguishes modern from ancient samples irrespective of DNA extraction, lab and sequencing protocols. Additionally, through an in-silico contamination experiment, we show that the aRchaic grades of membership reflect relative levels of exogenous modern contamination. Together, the outputs of aRchaic provide a concise visual summary of DNA damage patterns, as well as other processes generating mismatches in the data. Availability: aRchaic is available for download from https://www.github.com/kkdey/aRchaic.

Contact: halasadi@uchicago.edu, kkdey@uchicago.edu
Identification of Casiopeina II-gly secondary targets through a systems pharmacology approach
Authors: de Anda-Jáuregui Guillermo , Espinal-Enríquez Jesús , Hur Junguk , Alcalá-Corona Sergio Antonio , Ruiz-Azuara Lena , Hernández-Lemus Enrique
Published: May 2018

Casiopeinas are a group of copper-based compounds designed to be used as less toxic, more efficient chemotherapeutic agents. In this study, we analyzed the in vitro effects of Casiopeina Il-gly on the expression of canonical biological pathways. Using microarray data from HeLa cell lines treated with Casiopeina II-gly, we identified biological pathways that are perturbed after treatment. We present a novel approach integrating pathway analysis and network theory: The Pathway Crosstalk Network. We constructed a network with deregulated pathways, featuring links between those pathways that crosstalk with each other. We identified modules grouping deregulated pathways that are functionally related. Through this approach, we were able to identify three features of Casiopeina treatment: a) Perturbation of signaling pathways, related to induction of apoptosis; b) perturbation of metabolic pathways, and c) activation of immune responses. These findings can be useful to drive new experimental exploration on their role in adverse effects and efficacy of Casiopeinas.
Optimization of Tenocyte Lineage-related Factors from Tonsil-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells using Response Surface Methodology
Authors: Lee Seung Yeol , Kim Hyang , Shin Sang-Jin , Kwon Soon-Sun
Published: May 2018

Researchers should consider various potential factors that affect tenogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); however, this requires numerous experimental settings, which are associated with high cost and time. We aimed to assess the differential effects of transforming growth factor beta 3 (TGF-β3) on the tenogenesis of tonsil-derived MSCs (T-MSCs) and bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs) using design of experiments (DoE). Bone marrow and tonsillar tissue was collected from four patients; mononuclear cells were separated and treated with 5 and 10 ng/mL of TGF-β3 with vehicle control. A full-factorial experimental design with a categorical factor of 0 was employed to study the effect of tension based on T-MSCs. Eighty-four trials were utilized, fitted with RSM, and then used to obtain mathematical prediction models. Exposure of T-MSCs and BM-MSCs to TGF-β3 increased the expression of scleraxis (SCX), tenomodulin (TNMD), decorin, collagen I, and tenascin C. Expression of most of these factors reached a maxima after 2–3 days of treatment. Considering all of the tenocyte lineage-related factors that were assessed, the predicted value of the factors from T-MSCs was significantly induced at 2.7 ng/mL of TGF-β3 during 2.5-day culture, whereas the predicted value of the factors from BM-MSCs was significantly induced during 2.3-day culture, regardless of TGF-β3 concentration. This study demonstrated that tenogenic differentiation of T-MSCs and BM-MSCs under TGF-β3 stimulation showed a similar culture time for peak expression of tenocyte-related mRNAs using RSM. This study suggests the potential of using the DoE approach for optimization of the culture protocol for tenogenesis of MSCs.
First report and multilocus genotyping of Enterocytozoon bieneusi from Tibetan pigs in southwestern China
Authors: Luo Run , Xiang Leiqiong , Liu Haifeng , Zhong Zhijun , Liu Li , Deng Lei , Song Yuan , Liu Ling , Huang Xiangming , Zhou Ziyao , Fu Hualin , Luo Yan , Peng Guangneng
Published: May 2018

Enterocytozoon bieneusi is a common intestinal pathogen and a major cause of diarrhea and enteric diseases in a variety of animals. While the E. bieneusi genotype has become better-known, there are few reports on its prevalence in the Tibetan pig. This study investigated the prevalence, genetic diversity, and zoonotic potential of E. bieneusi in the Tibetan pig in southwestern China. Tibetan pig feces (266 samples) were collected from three sites in the southwest of China. Feces were subjected to PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. E. bieneusi was detected in 83 (31.2%) of Tibetan pigs from the three different sites, with 25.4% in Kangding, 56% in Yaan and 26.7% in Qionglai. Age group demonstrated the prevalence of E. bieneusi range from 24.4%(aged 0 to 1 years) to 44.4%(aged 1 to 2 years). Four genotypes of E. bieneusi were identified: two known genotypes EbpC (n=58), Henan-IV (n=24) and two novel genotypes, SCT01 and SCT02 (one of each). Phylogenetic analysis showed these four genotypes clustered to group 1 with zoonotic potential. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis three microsatellites (MS1, MS3, MS7) and one minisatellite (MS4) revealed 47, 48, 23 and 47 positive specimens were successfully sequenced, and identified ten, ten, five and five genotypes at four loci, respectively. This study indicates the potential danger of E. bieneusi to Tibetan pigs in southwestern China, and offers basic data for preventing and controlling infections.
SWI/SNF and RSC cooperate to reposition and evict promoter nucleosomes at highly expressed genes in yeast
Authors: Rawal Yashpal , Chereji Răzvan V. , Qiu Hongfang , Ananthakrishnan Sudha , Govind Chhabi K. , Clark David J. , Hinnebusch Alan G.
Published: May 2018

The nucleosome remodeling complex RSC functions throughout the yeast genome to set the positions of −1 and +1 nucleosomes and thereby determines the widths of nucleosome-depleted regions (NDRs). The related complex SWI/SNF participates in nucleosome remodeling/eviction and promoter activation at certain yeast genes, including those activated by transcription factor Gcn4, but did not appear to function broadly in establishing NDRs. By analyzing the large cohort of Gcn4-induced genes in mutants lacking the catalytic subunits of SWI/SNF or RSC, we uncovered cooperation between these remodelers in evicting nucleosomes from different locations in the promoter and repositioning the +1 nucleosome downstream to produce wider NDRs—highly depleted of nucleosomes—during transcriptional activation. SWI/SNF also functions on a par with RSC at the most highly transcribed constitutively expressed genes, suggesting general cooperation by these remodelers for maximal transcription. SWI/SNF and RSC occupancies are greatest at the most highly expressed genes, consistent with their cooperative functions in nucleosome remodeling and transcriptional activation. Thus, SWI/SNF acts comparably with RSC in forming wide nucleosome-free NDRs to achieve high-level transcription but only at the most highly expressed genes exhibiting the greatest SWI/SNF occupancies.
Impact of disclosure of risk factors on the initial returns of initial public offerings (IPOs)
Authors: Wasiuzzaman Shaista , Yong Fook Lye Kevin , Sundarasen Sheela Devi D. , Othman Noor Shahaliza
Published: May 2018

Purpose

When a firm goes public for the first time, its prospectus serves as an important reference for investors. It is required by regulation that the risk factors which have significant influence on the business be disclosed in the prospectus. The purpose of this study is to analyze how disclosure of these risk factors influences the initial returns of initial public offerings (IPOs).

Design/methodology/approach

To do this, a sample of 96 Malaysian new equity offerings (IPOs) from year 2009 to year 2013 is used. Ordinary least squares regression technique is used to regress initial returns against risk disclosures. Aside from overall risk disclosure, individual dimensions of risk (internal risk, external risk and investment risk) are also considered.

Findings

Results of the regression analyses reveal a direct relationship between the IPO initial returns and the disclosure of risk. Overall risk disclosure is found to be highly significant in influencing initial returns. However, further investigation into the individual group of risks shows that only investment risk is highly significant in influencing IPO initial returns.

Originality/value

The results found in this study are interesting as, unlike prior studies, it is shown that disclosures of internal and external risks are not significant in influencing investors’ actions possibly because of their generalizability, whereas disclosures related to investment risks are significant. Equity of firms which disclose more of its risk factors can be expected to generate higher initial returns.
Positive or negative?
Authors: Wei Wanqing , Gao Wei
Published: May 2018

Purpose

In China, rural-to-urban migrant workers who are from the same place of origin tend to concentrate in the same workplace. If the concentration is sufficiently dense, it means that these migrant workers build up a social network which could be defined as native place enclave (NPE). In this paper, the authors discussed whether there are behavioral differences between enclave workers and non-enclave workers when they have conflicts with their employers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors put two questions to empirical tests. First, do enclave workers experience less sense of deprivation than non-enclave workers? Second, compared to non-enclave workers, are enclave workers more willing to participate in collective action against their employers? Using data from a survey of migrant workers in Pearl River Delta and Yangzi River Delta in 2010, the authors made a comparison between enclave workers and non-enclave workers with respect to sense of deprivation and willingness-to-participate by using a propensity score matching method.

Findings

The authors found that the relationship between NPE and sense of deprivation was negative, so was the relationship between NPE and willingness-to-participate. Meanwhile, the two relationships were stronger than what had been found after the propensity score matching method was used.

Practical implications

The results implied that employers can reduce labor conflicts by using NPE to mitigate migrant workers’ sense of deprivation and by lowering the risk of their collective actions. In this way, NPE may contribute to the upkeep of workplace order and even social order.

Originality/value

There have been hot debates on how NPE would affect migrant workers’ collective action. Resource mobilization theory pointed out that NPE was positively related to workers’ collective action while production politics theory held an opposite view. Our findings provided empirical evidences for the debates.
Investigating TPCK through music focusing on affect
Authors: Macrides Elena , Angeli Charoula
Published: May 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the lack of a theoretical framework for the integration of technology in music teaching and learning, and explores, within the framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK or TPACK), the importance of affect in instructional design.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors reviewed relevant literature related to the fields of music education, instructional design, and technology integration. Accordingly, they developed guidelines for designing technology-enhanced learning for the activities of music composition and listening.

Findings

The authors propose a set of design principles based on the TPCK framework through the subject matter of music focusing on the affective domain, and identify interrelations among musical content, emotions, and technology. The design guidelines were tested in an empirical investigation and the results showed statistically significant differences between the control and the experimental groups in favor of the experimental group.

Research limitations/implications

Further investigation is necessary to test the effectiveness of the proposed design principles. Including affect in the design process is a complicated and mostly unchartered area, and, thus, further research toward this direction is fully justified.

Practical implications

The research has practical significance, addressing a gap in the field of music education, as it provides teachers with explicit guidance about how to design music lessons with technology while incorporating affect.

Originality/value

The study extends the theoretical framework of TPCK to a design framework and proposes instructional design guidelines that address both the cognitive and the affective domains of learning, a focus that is currently missing from the existing TPCK or TPACK literature as well as the music education literature.
Multi-actor innovation in the music industry: a state of the art review
Authors: Saragih Harriman Samuel , Simatupang Togar Mangihut , Sunitiyoso Yos
Published: May 2018

Purpose

This study aims to present a state-of-the-art review pertaining to the topic of multi-actor innovation in the music industry. Because of the changing nature of the marketing paradigm from product dominant to service dominant, as well as the emerging paradigm of open, collaborative and co-innovation, this study attempts to integrate and map the previous papers that have examined the concept of multi-actor innovation in the context of the music industry.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic review is carried out to produce the analysis. Various scholarly articles from well-known databases are taken into considerations in this study. These papers are then classified based on the types of innovation, category and sub-category of innovation, value capture and value creation, as well as its general characteristics. This classification is primarily aimed at mapping the development of previous studies in the current field and examining the current research gaps to propose future research agendas.

Findings

Previous researchers have shown that innovation concepts have been developed into various streams, namely, closed, open, collaborative and co-innovation. In addition to this point, the debates regarding the consumers’ roles in the market have pinpointed that innovation also calls for more participative forms rather than isolated. Nevertheless, discussions that pertain to open, collaborative and co-innovation in the context of the music business, have still been lacking and, therefore, demand more explanations.

Originality/value

This study is the first to present the topic of multi-actor innovation in the music business to the scholarly literature. Based on the review carried out in this study, scholars that are particularly interested in the field of open, collaborative and co-innovation within the context of the music industry can comprehend the development of previous discussions and, therefore, justify future research agendas.
Parental health-related quality of life, depression and stress among low-income immigrants
Authors: Kamimura Akiko , Ashby Jeanie , Nourian Maziar , Assasnik Nushean , Chen Jason , Tabler Jennifer , Aguilera Guadalupe , Blanton Natalie , Jess Allison , Reel Justine
Published: May 2018

Purpose

Little is known about low-income immigrant parents’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) associated with their parenting. The purpose of this paper is to examine low-income immigrant parents’ HRQoL, depression and stress.

Design/methodology/approach

In the spring of 2015, English speaking and Spanish speaking low-income uninsured immigrant parents utilizing a free clinic (N=182) completed a self-administered survey using standardized measures of parental HRQoL, stress and depression.

Findings

Immigrant parents’ HRQoL related to parenting was lower than general primary care patients. Higher levels of depression and stress were associated with lower levels of parental HRQoL and family functioning. Spanish speakers were significantly more likely to worry about their child’s health or future compared to English speakers.

Originality/value

While both English and Spanish speaking immigrant parents may need assistance addressing the health-related needs of their child, Spanish speakers may be a target audience for outreach programs. It is possible that by improving the health of their child, immigrant parents may see improvement in their own HRQoL and reductions in their levels of stress and depression. Future research should develop parenting classes for low-income immigrant parents targeting the potential health needs of their children, and assess the efficacy of the classes in improving child health and parental HRQoL.
Demystifying financial literacy: a behavioral perspective analysis
Authors: Potrich Ani Caroline Grigion , Vieira Kelmara Mendes
Published: May 2018

Purpose

Financial literacy has been recognized as a key competency. However, there are some gaps such as the relationship with other behavioral factors. Thus, this paper aims to develop a model that would be able to identify the integrate effect of financial literacy on the behavioral factors: materialism, compulsive buying and propensity to indebtedness.

Design/methodology/approach

The study investigated 2,487 individuals in Brazil. For an analysis, the authors used confirmatory factorial analysis and structural equations modeling and six research hypotheses.

Findings

The main findings showed that the impact of financial literacy on compulsive buying behavior was the greatest of the direct relationships proposed, as well as the total effects of financial literacy on behavioral aspects.

Practical implications

The outcomes of this study are important for the development of public policies and to other interested agents, as financial literacy goes beyond the fact that it impacts on the individuals’ financial health only and also helps those who suffer from other psychosocial behaviors.

Originality/value

This study is unique and innovative, to the extent that it measures the actual direct and indirect impact of financial literacy on other behavioral factors, which have been so far analyzed in separate. It concluded that financial literacy has much more significant impacts than other academic studies have shown, because under the academic point of view, the central focus up to now has been identifying only its impact on other behaviors.
Cross‐scale occupancy dynamics of a postfire specialist in response to variation across a fire regime
Authors: Tingley Morgan W. , Stillman Andrew N. , Wilkerson Robert L. , Howell Christine A. , Sawyer Sarah C. , Siegel Rodney B.
Published: May 2018

Fire creates challenges and opportunities for wildlife through rapid destruction, modification and creation of habitat. Fire has spatially variable effects on landscapes; however, for species that benefit from the ephemeral resource patches created by fire, it is critical to understand characteristics of fires that promote postfire colonization and persistence and the spatial scales on which they operate.

Using a model postfire specialist, the black‐backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), we examined how colonization and persistence varied across two spatial scales as a function of four characteristics of fire regimes—fire severity, fire size, fire ignition date and number of years since fire.

We modelled black‐backed woodpecker colonization and persistence using data from 108 recently burned forests in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades ecoregions of California,USA, that we monitored for up to 10 years following fire. We employed a novel, spatially hierarchical, dynamic occupancy framework which differentiates colonization and persistence at two spatial scales: across fires and within fires.

We found strong effects of fire characteristics on dynamic rates, with colonization and persistence declining across both spatial scales with increasing years since fire. Additionally, at sites within fires, colonization decreased with fire size and increased with fire severity and for fires with later ignition dates.

Our results support the notion that different aspects of a species’ environment are important for population processes at different spatial scales. As habitat quality is ephemeral for any given postfire area, our results illustrate the importance of time since fire in structuring occupancy at the fire level, with other characteristics of fires playing larger roles in determining abundance within individual fires. Our results contribute to the broader understanding of how variation in fire characteristics influences the colonization and persistence of species using ephemeral habitats, which is necessary for conserving and promoting postfire biodiversity in the context of rapidly shifting fire regimes.
Routine antenatal ultrasound in low‐ and middle‐income countries: first look – a cluster randomised trial
Authors: Goldenberg RL , Nathan RO , Swanson D , Saleem S , Mirza W , Esamai F , Muyodi D , Garces AL , Figueroa L , Chomba E , Chiwala M , Mwenechanya M , Tshefu A , Lokangako A , Bolamba VL , Moore JL , Franklin H , Swanson J , Liechty EA , Bose CL , Krebs NF , Michael Hambidge K , Carlo WA , Kanaiza N , Naqvi F , Pineda IS , López‐Gomez W , Hamsumonde D , Harrison MS , Koso‐Thomas M , Miodovnik M , Wallace DD , McClure EM
Published: May 2018

Objective

Ultrasound is widely regarded as an important adjunct to antenatal care (ANC) to guide practice and reduce perinatal mortality. We assessed the impact of ANC ultrasound use at health centres in resource‐limited countries.

Design

Cluster randomised trial.

Setting

Clusters within five countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Kenya, Pakistan, and Zambia)

Methods

Clusters were randomised to standard ANC or standard care plus two ultrasounds and referral for complications. The study trained providers in intervention clusters to perform basic obstetric ultrasounds.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was a composite of maternal mortality, maternal near‐miss mortality, stillbirth, and neonatal mortality.

Results

During the 24‐month trial, 28 intervention and 28 control clusters had 24 263 and 23 160 births, respectively; 78% in the intervention clusters received at least one study ultrasound; 60% received two. The prevalence of conditions noted including twins, placenta previa, and abnormal lie was within expected ranges. 9% were referred for an ultrasound‐diagnosed condition, and 71% attended the referral. The ANC (RR 1.0 95% CI 1.00, 1.01) and hospital delivery rates for complicated pregnancies (RR 1.03 95% CI 0.89, 1.20) did not differ between intervention and control clusters nor did the composite outcome (RR 1.09 95% CI 0.97, 1.23) or its individual components.

Conclusions

Despite availability of ultrasound at ANC in the intervention clusters, neither ANC nor hospital delivery for complicated pregnancies increased. The composite outcome and the individual components were not reduced.

Tweetable abstract

Antenatal care ultrasound did not improve a composite outcome that included maternal, fetal, and neonatal mortality.
The mediating effects of gestational diabetes on fetal growth and adiposity in women who are overweight and obese: secondary analysis of the LIMIT randomised trial
Authors: Poprzeczny AJ , Louise J , Deussen AR , Dodd JM
Published: May 2018

Objective

To describe the mediating effect of maternal gestational diabetes on fetal biometry and adiposity measures among overweight or obese pregnant women.

Design

Secondary analysis of the LIMIT randomised trial.

Setting

Public hospitals, metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia.

Population

Pregnant women with body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m2 and singleton gestation.

Methods

Fetal ultrasound measures at 36 weeks of gestation and baseline BMI from women randomised to the LIMIT trial Standard Care group (n = 912 women) were used to conduct causal mediation analyses using regression‐based methods.

Main outcomes measures

Ultrasound measures of fetal biometry and adiposity at 36 weeks of gestation.

Results

Increased maternal BMI was associated with increased measures of fetal head circumference [direct (unmediated) effect 0.18 (95% CI: 0.05–0.31), P = 0.005; total effect 0.17 (95% CI: 0.02–0.31), P = 0.018], abdominal circumference [direct effect 0.26 (95% CI: 0.11–0.41), P = 0.001; total effect 0.26 (95% CI: 0.11–0.42), P = 0.001] and estimated fetal weight [direct effect 0.22 (95% CI: 0.08–0.35), P = 0.002; total effect 0.22 (95% CI: 0.08–0.35), P = 0.002], with no evidence of mediation by treated gestational diabetes. There was no apparent association between maternal BMI and fetal adiposity measures, or mediation by treated gestational diabetes.

Conclusions

We show an important association between increased maternal BMI and fetal growth, not mediated by treated gestational diabetes. There was no association between increased maternal BMI and fetal adiposity measures, or mediation by treated gestational diabetes. Whether these findings represent ‘saturation’ in the effect of maternal BMI on fetal growth or the effect of treatment of GDM is unclear.

Funding

This project was funded by a 4‐year project grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia (ID 519240); The Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation, South Australia; and the US National Institutes of Health (R01 HL094235‐01).

Tweetable abstract

Increased fetal growth associated with maternal obesity is not mediated by gestational diabetes.
An Evidence‐based Forensic Taxonomy of Windows Phone Dating Apps
Authors: Cahyani Niken Dwi Wahyu , Choo Kim‐Kwang Raymond , Ab Rahman Nurul Hidayah , Ashman Helen
Published: May 2018

Advances in technologies including development of smartphone features have contributed to the growth of mobile applications, including dating apps. However, online dating services can be misused. To support law enforcement investigations, a forensic taxonomy that provides a systematic classification of forensic artifacts from Windows Phone 8 (WP8) dating apps is presented in this study. The taxonomy has three categories, namely: Apps Categories, Artifacts Categories, and Data Partition Categories. This taxonomy is built based on the findings from a case study of 28 mobile dating apps, using mobile forensic tools. The dating app taxonomy can be used to inform future studies of dating and related apps, such as those from Android and iOS platforms.
The evolution of employers' organisations in the United Kingdom: Extending countervailing power
Authors: Gooberman Leon , Hauptmeier Marco , Heery Edmund
Published: May 2018

The concept of countervailing power has been used to suggest that the power of unions explains the origins and development of employers' organisations (EOs). However, unions have declined since the 1970s, but EOs continue to play an important role in employment relations. If pressure from unions is not sufficient to explain continuing employer organisation, what does account for it? This article pursues this question by examining the evolution and activity of UK EOs between the 1960s and 2016. Our countervailing power argument goes beyond a sole focus on unions to include changing pressures and demands on EOs caused by the state such as individual rights legislation and campaigns by civil society organisations. The changing force exerted by these societal pressures helps to explain the shift of EOs' focus from collective bargaining, nowadays only pursued by a minority of EOs, to lobbying, provision of services, legal support, and training.
Clinical significance of platelet‐to‐lymphocyte ratio in women with preeclampsia
Authors: Kim Min‐A , Han Gwan Hee , Kwon Ja‐Young , Kim Young‐Han
Published: May 2018

Problem

Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious pregnancy complication leading to high maternal, perinatal morbidity, and mortality. We aimed to investigate the clinical effectiveness of the platelet‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in women with PE and compare this measurement to platelet indices as a diagnostic and prognostic marker of PE.

Method of study

A total of 471 healthy pregnant women, 126 women diagnosed with mild PE, and 227 with severe PE were included in this retrospective study. We analyzed PLR and platelet indices, mainly mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW) among the 3 groups.

Results

Platelet distribution width, MPV, and PLR levels in women with PE were significantly different from those of healthy pregnant women. PLR was significantly lower in severe PE than mild PE (P = .001), but PDW and MPV increased as severity of PE progressed; however, the differences in PDW and MPV between women with mild and severe PE were not significant. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that PLR was more predictive of PE than PDW and MPV (Area under the curve = 0.759 vs 0.621, 0.638). Additionally, the time interval from admission to delivery was significantly shorter in women with PLR‐positive (≤116) than in women with PDW‐positive (>58) and MPV‐positive (>9).

Conclusion

The PLR is an easily accessible and cost‐effective parameter, which may be used as a more useful marker for prediction of PE compared to platelet indices. Our study showed that PLR can serve as a useful diagnostic marker of PE.
Hungry Translations: The World Through Radical Vulnerability
Authors: Nagar Richa
Published: May 2018

The dominant landscape of knowledge and policy rests on a fundamental inequality: bodies who are seen as hungry are assumed to be available for the interventions of experts, but those experts often obliterate the ways that the hungry actively create politics and knowledge by living a dynamic vision of what is ethical and what makes the good life. Such living frequently involves a creative praxis of refusal against imposed frameworks. Learning from such refusals requires hungry translations that are open and flowing and that are embedded in embodied solidarities that require radical vulnerability. Such translations strive to converse across incommensurable landscapes of struggles and meanings in order to co‐agitate against universalised languages that erase the vocabularies and visions of those who are reduced to hungry bodies. In reconceptualising politics as a shared and unending labour on an uneven terrain that makes perfect translation or retelling impossible, hungry translation becomes a continuous collective praxis of troubling inherited meanings of the social, and of making our knowledges more alive to the creativity of socio‐political struggle. Such hungry translations must fearlessly move between worlds in search of poetic justice and social justice without defining an origin or destination and without compromising the singularities that constitute each community of struggle.
Intrapleural streptokinase is effective and safe for children with multi‐loculated empyema regardless of the time from disease onset
Authors: Mathew Joseph L. , Soni Vimlesh , Singh Meenu , Mittal Piyush , Singhi Sunit , Gautam Vikas , Sodhi Kushaljit S. , Jayashree Muralidharan , Vaidya Pankaj
Published: May 2018

Aim

This study compared the efficacy of administering intrapleural streptokinase to children with multi‐loculated empyema within 14 days or at any time after disease onset.

Methods

We studied children under 12 years with multi‐loculated empyema who were admitted to a teaching hospital in Chandigarh, India, from July 2013 to June 2017. They received antibiotics, pleural drainage and intrapleural streptokinase. The first group received three doses within 14 days of disease onset, the second received three doses regardless of time after onset and the third group received four to six doses regardless of time after onset. The three phases lasted 18, 18 and 12 months, respectively.

Results

Of 195 children, 133 (68%) received streptokinase within 14 days, 46 (24%) beyond 14 days and 16 (8%) did not receive it. There was no difference in surgical decortication (14/133 versus 7/46, p > 0.05) and median hospitalisation duration (15 versus 14 days, p > 0.05) between administration before versus after 14 days. Median hospitalisation was shorter with four to six doses than three doses (11 versus 16 days, p < 0.01).

Conclusion

Intrapleural streptokinase was effective for multi‐loculated empyema even when it was administered more than 14 days after disease onset and four to six doses were superior to three doses.
Anger in the context of postnatal depression: An integrative review
Authors: Ou Christine H. , Hall Wendy A.
Published: May 2018

Background

Contrary to social constructions of new motherhood as a joyous time, mothers may experience postnatal depression and anger. Although postnatal depression has been thoroughly studied, the expression of maternal anger in the context of postnatal depression is conceptually unclear. This integrative review investigated the framing of anger in the context of postnatal depression.

Methods

After undertaking a search of CINAHL, Ovid‐Medline, PsycInfo, and Web of Science, we identified qualitative (n = 7) and quantitative (n = 17) papers that addressed maternal anger and postnatal depression. We analyzed the data by developing themes.

Results

Our review indicated that anger was a salient mood disturbance for some postnatally depressed women with themes integrated as: (i) anger accompanying depression, (ii) powerlessness as a component of depression and anger, and (iii) anger occurring as a result of expectations being violated.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that anger can coexist with women’s postnatal depression. Anger can be expressed toward the self and toward children and family members with negative relationship effects. We recommend that health care providers and researchers consider anger in the context of postnatal mood disturbances.