bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
How to prevent, minimize, or extinguish nocebo effects in pain: a narrative review on mechanisms, predictors, and interventions
Authors: Manaï Meriem , van Middendorp Henriët , Veldhuijzen Dieuwke S. , Huizinga Tom W.J. , Evers Andrea W.M. 
Published: June 2019

AbstractNocebo effects, such as side effects due to negative expectations regarding the pain treatment, are a concern for health care providers and come with significant costs. This narrative review focuses on underlying mechanisms and possible factors that contribute to the susceptibility to the nocebo effect on pain and related outcomes and suggests strategies that can prevent, minimize, or extinguish nocebo effects in clinical settings. Nocebo effects are the result of psychological (eg, conditioning, verbal suggestions, and observational learning) and neurobiological (eg, cholecystokinin and dopamine regulation) mechanisms. Evidence from clinical and experimental studies lead to various recommendations and strategies to alter the nocebo effect in order to optimize pain treatments, such as providing patients with enhanced information, optimizing patient–physician communication and relationships, and offering psychoeducation on coping skills in order to manage patient expectations. The current literature from both clinical and experimental studies provides a better understanding of the nocebo effect and possible factors that modulate its strength on treatment outcomes. This allows for the development of evidence-based strategies aimed at the prevention, minimization, and treatment of the nocebo effect in pain conditions and possible other somatic disorders.
The impact of contextual factors on nursing outcomes and the role of placebo/nocebo effects: a discussion paper
Authors: Palese Alvisa , Rossettini Giacomo , Colloca Luana , Testa Marco 
Published: June 2019

Abstract

Introduction:
Placebo and nocebo effects represent one of the most fascinating topics in the health care field.

Objectives:
the aims of this discussion paper were (1) to briefly introduce the placebo and nocebo effects, (2) to elucidate the contextual factors able to trigger placebo and nocebo effects in the nursing field, and (3) to debate the impact of contextual factors on nursing education, practice, organisation, and research.

Methods:
a narrative review was conducted based on the available evidence.

Results:
Placebo responses (from Latin “I shall please”) are a beneficial outcome(s) triggered by a positive context. The opposite are the nocebo effects (from Latin “I shall harm”), which indicates an undesirable outcome(s) caused by a negative context. Both are complex and distinct psychoneurobiological phenomena in which behavioural and neurophysiological changes arise subsequent to an interaction between the patient and the health care context.

Conclusion:
Placebo and nocebo concepts have been recently introduced in the nursing discipline, generating a wide debate on ethical issues; however, the impact on nursing education, clinical practice, nursing administration, and research regarding contextual factors triggering nocebo and placebo effects has not been debated to date.
Placebo analgesia effects across central nervous system diseases: what do we know and where do we need to go?
Authors: Matthiesen Susan Tomczak , Lunde Sigrid Juhl , Wohlert Kjær Sophie , Carlino Elisa , Vase Lene 
Published: June 2019

AbstractPlacebo effects are well established in healthy participants experiencing experimental or acute pain. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms of placebo analgesia effects in patients with chronic pain and even less is known in patients suffering from central nervous system (CNS) diseases where pain is prevalent, difficult to manage, and often undertreated. This article briefly reviews the current knowledge of placebo analgesia effects in healthy participants with the aim of discussing how the mechanisms in placebo analgesia differ between healthy participants and patients. The focus will be on placebo analgesia effects in chronic pain conditions as well as in 2 CNS diseases: Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease. Finally, strengths and weaknesses of the current knowledge will be discussed and it will be demonstrated how insights from the placebo literature may point to new ways of improving treatments among patients experiencing pain in relation to CNS diseases.
The contribution of patients' presurgery perceptions of surgeon attributes to the experience of trust and pain during third molar surgery
Authors: Ashton-James Claire E. , Forouzanfar Tymour , Costa Daniel 
Published: June 2019

Abstract

Background:
Patients' feeling of trust in their surgeon may modulate the experience of pain during surgery. However, factors that contribute to patients' experience of trust during surgery remain underexamined. The current study examined the contribution of patients' impressions of surgeons' warmth and competence to their experience of trust and pain during wisdom tooth extractions.

Methods:
Patients (N = 135, 47% female) scheduled for a wisdom tooth extraction reported their current distress and impressions of their surgeon's warmth and competence after a brief introduction to their surgeon immediately before surgery. Immediately after their surgery, patients reported their experience of trust (feeling safe and in good hands) and pain during surgery. Path analyses modeled perceptions of surgeon warmth, competence, and their interaction as predictors of patients' experiences of trust and pain during surgery.

Results:
Higher perceived surgeon competence, but not warmth, predicted the experience of higher trust and lower pain during surgery. Perceived competence interacted with perceived warmth such that the competence–trust relationship was only significant at moderate to high levels of perceived surgeon warmth and failed to reach significance at lower levels of perceived surgeon warmth.

Conclusion:
These results indicate that patients feel greater trust in surgeons who are perceived as higher in competence and warmth, underscoring the importance of impression management in surgical care.
Sexual Partner Types and Incident HIV Infection Among Rural South African Adolescent Girls and Young Women Enrolled in HPTN 068: A Latent Class Analysis
Authors: Nguyen Nadia , Powers Kimberly A. , Miller William C. , Howard Annie Green , Halpern Carolyn T. , Hughes James P. , Wang Jing , Twine Rhian , Gomez-Olive F. Xavier , MacPhail Catherine , Kahn Kathleen , Pettifor Audrey E. 
Published: June 2019

Background:
Sexual partners are the primary source of incident HIV infection among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in sub-Saharan Africa. Identifying partner types at greatest risk of HIV transmission could guide the design of tailored HIV prevention interventions.

Methods:
We conducted a secondary analysis of data from AGYW (aged 13–23 years) enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of cash transfers for HIV prevention in South Africa. Annually, AGYW reported behavioral and demographic characteristics of their 3 most recent sexual partners, categorized each partner using prespecified labels, and received HIV testing. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify partner types from reported characteristics, and generalized estimating equations to estimate the relationship between both LCA-identified and prespecified partner types and incident HIV infection.

Results:
Across 2140 AGYW visits, 1034 AGYW made 2968 partner reports and 63 AGYW acquired HIV infection. We identified 5 LCA partner types, which we named monogamous HIV-negative peer partner; one-time protected in-school peer partner; out-of-school older partner; anonymous out-of-school peer partner; and cohabiting with children in-school peer partner. Compared to AGYW with only monogamous HIV-negative peer partners, AGYW with out-of-school older partners had 2.56 times the annual risk of HIV infection (95% confidence interval: 1.23 to 5.33), whereas AGYW with anonymous out-of-school peer partners had 1.72 times the risk (95% confidence interval: 0.82 to 3.59). Prespecified partner types were not associated with incident HIV.

Conclusion:
By identifying meaningful combinations of partner characteristics and predicting the corresponding risk of HIV acquisition among AGYW, LCA-identified partner types may provide new insights for the design of tailored HIV prevention interventions.
Low Disclosure of PrEP Nonadherence and HIV-Risk Behaviors Associated With Poor HIV PrEP Adherence in the HPTN 067/ADAPT Study
Authors: Ojeda Victoria D. , Amico K. Rivet , Hughes James P. , Wilson Ethan , Li Maoji , Holtz Timothy H. , Chitwarakorn Anupong , Grant Robert M. , Dye Bonnie J. , Bekker Linda-Gail , Mannheimer Sharon , Marzinke Mark , Hendrix Craig W. 
Published: June 2019

Objective:
We evaluated the relationship between 2 types of social relationships, ie, (1) external support for use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and related study supplies and (2) participants' disclosure of PrEP use and condom use and HIV PrEP adherence among daily-dosing regimen participants in HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 067, an open-label trial of oral tenofovir (TFV) disoproxil fumarate (TDF) 300 mg/emtricitabine (FTC) 200 mg.

Methods:
Using HPTN 067 survey data, we developed scales examining (1) Low Perceived External Support for PrEP: low perceived support by others for PrEP use or perceived negative reactions to the pill case (scoring ranges from 0 to 2) and (2) Participant–Staff Disclosure Challenges Scale, which identifies challenges to sharing nonuse of PrEP or condoms to study staff (scoring ranges from 0 to 4); these scales are the primary independent variables. Adherence, the dependent variable, was determined using log-transformed plasma TFV concentrations. generalized estimating equation (GEE) linear regression was used to assess the association between both scales and adherence.

Results:
Participants (n = 161) included HIV-uninfected women in South Africa, and men who have sex with men and transgender women, in Thailand and the United States. In multivariable analyses, higher scores in the Participant–Staff Disclosure Challenges Scale were significantly associated with lower PrEP adherence [exp(β) = 0.62, 95% CI: (0.46 to 0.84); P = 0.002] as were increased days since the last PrEP dose [exp(β) = 0.73, 95% CI: (0.65 to 0.83); P ≤ 0.001].

Conclusions:
Given the association with adherence, study staff–participant interactions and participants' disclosure of PrEP challenges may be worthwhile intervention targets for improving PrEP adherence in confirmatory studies.
Risk of invasive fungal infections during hospital construction: how to minimize its impact in immunocompromised patients
Authors: Alvarez-Moreno Carlos Arturo , Combariza Juan Felipe 
Published: June 2019

Purpose of review
Fungal outbreaks have been reported in healthcare settings, showing that construction activities are a serious threat to immunocompromised hosts. Preventive measures to control fungal outbreaks (especially Aspergillus spp.) are considered essential during hospital construction. In this article, we update the main advances in each of preventive strategies.

Recent findings
Anticipation and multidisciplinary teamwork are the keystone for fungal outbreaks prevention. Strategies focused on environmental control measures of airborne dissemination of fungal spores have proven to be successful. It is important to recommend azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus active surveillance from both air (outdoors and indoors) and clinical samples during hospital construction works. Apart from genotyping, studies should be further encouraged to understand the environmental dynamics. Risk assessment and implement preventive measures (environment control strategies, air surveillance, inpatients immunocompromised patients in high-efficiency particulate air filters rooms, patient education, antifungal prophylaxis in high-risk patient groups, etc.) have shown that these accomplish to reduce the incidence of invasive fungal infection (IFI).

Summary
In general, it is not only a strategy that should be implemented to reduce the risk of IFI but is a bundle of preventive measures, which have proven to be successful in control infection and prevention of airborne transmission of fungi.
SliceIt: A genome-wide resource and visualization tool to design CRISPR/Cas9 screens for editing protein-RNA interaction sites in the human genome
Authors: Vemuri Sasank , Srivastava Rajneesh , Mir Quoseena , Hashemikhabir Seyedsasan , Dong X. Charlie , Janga Sarath Chandra 
Published: June 2019

AbstractSeveral protein-RNA cross linking protocols have been established in recent years to delineate the molecular interaction of an RNA Binding Protein (RBP) and its target RNAs. However, functional dissection of the role of the RBP binding sites in modulating the post-transcriptional fate of the target RNA remains challenging. CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system is being commonly employed to perturb both coding and noncoding regions in the genome. With the advancements in genome-scale CRISPR/Cas9 screens, it is now possible to not only perturb specific binding sites but also probe the global impact of protein-RNA interaction sites across cell types. Here, we present SliceIt (http://sliceit.soic.iupui.edu/), a database of in silico sgRNA (single guide RNA) library to facilitate conducting such high throughput screens. SliceIt comprises of ~4.8 million unique sgRNAs with an estimated range of 2–8 sgRNAs designed per RBP binding site, for eCLIP experiments of >100 RBPs in HepG2 and K562 cell lines from the ENCODE project. SliceIt provides a user friendly environment, developed using advanced search engine framework, Elasticsearch. It is available in both table and genome browser views facilitating the easy navigation of RBP binding sites, designed sgRNAs, exon expression levels across 53 human tissues along with prevalence of SNPs and GWAS hits on binding sites. Exon expression profiles enable examination of locus specific changes proximal to the binding sites. Users can also upload custom tracks of various file formats directly onto genome browser, to navigate additional genomic features in the genome and compare with other types of omics profiles. All the binding site-centric information is dynamically accessible via “search by gene”, “search by coordinates” and “search by RBP” options and readily available to download. Validation of the sgRNA library in SliceIt was performed by selecting RBP binding sites in Lipt1 gene and designing sgRNAs. Effect of CRISPR/Cas9 perturbations on the selected binding sites in HepG2 cell line, was confirmed based on altered proximal exon expression levels using qPCR, further supporting the utility of the resource to design experiments for perturbing protein-RNA interaction networks. Thus, SliceIt provides a one-stop repertoire of guide RNA library to perturb RBP binding sites, along with several layers of functional information to design both low and high throughput CRISPR/Cas9 screens, for studying the phenotypes and diseases associated with RBP binding sites.
EpCAM Aptamer siRNA chimeras: Therapeutic efficacy in epithelial cancer cells
Authors: Balasubramanyam Jayashree , Badrinarayanan Lakshmi , Dhaka Bharti , Gowda Harsha , Pandey Akhilesh , Subramanian Krishnakumar , Subadhra Lakshmi B. , Elchuri Sailaja V. 
Published: June 2019

ABSTRACTIn the era of personalized medicine as well as precision medicine, targeted therapy has become an integral part of cancer treatment in conjunction with conventional chemo- and radiotherapy. We designed aptamer-siRNA chimeras that can specifically target cancers expressing EpCAM, a stem cell marker and deliver the specific siRNA required for therapy response. The siRNAs were chosen against PLK1, BCL2 and STAT3 as these oncogenes play prominent role in tumour progression of several cancers. Targeted delivery of EpCAM-siRNA chimeras resulted in cell death in several cancer cell lines such as cancers of the breast, lung, head and neck, liver and retinoblastoma. In vivo analysis of EpCAM-siRNA chimera mediated silencing on RB xenografts tumour model showed increased tumor reduction in all the three EpCAM-siRNA treated conditions. However, regulation of PLK1 exhibited higher efficacy in tumour reduction. Therefore. We studied signaling mechanism using global phosphoproteomics analysis. An increased P53 mediated downstream signalling pathway might have enabled increased apoptosis in the cancer cells. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the efficacy of EpCAM aptamer chimeras coupled to siRNA gene silencing for targeted anti-cancer therapy.Graphical abstractIllustration showing how EpCAM aptamer-mediated silencing of PLK1 could control the cell cycle progression at multiple number of check points and induce apoptosis involving hyper and hypophosphorylation of variety of signalling molecules
Making thebrain-activity-to-informationleap using a novel framework: Stimulus Information Representation (SIR)
Authors: Schyns Philippe G. , Ince Robin A.A. 
Published: June 2019

AbstractA fundamental challenge in neuroscience is to understand how the brain processes information. Neuroscientists have approached this question partly by measuring brain activity in space, time and at different levels of granularity. However, our aim is not to discover brain activityper se, but to understand the processing of information that this activity reflects. To make thisbrain-activity-to-informationleap, we believe that we should reconsider brain imaging from the methodological foundations of psychology. With this goal in mind, we have developed a new data-driven framework, called Stimulus Information Representation (SIR), that enables us to better understand how the brain processes information from measures of brain activity and behavioral responses. In this article, we explain this approach, its strengths and limitations, and how it can be applied to understand how the brain processes information to perform behavior in a task.“It is no good poking around in the brain without some idea of what one is looking for. That would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack without having any idea what needles look like. The theorist is the [person] who might reasonably be asked for [their] opinion about the appearance of needles.” HC Longuet-Higgins, 1969.
Distinguishing Different Levels of Consciousness using a Novel Network Causal Activity Measure
Authors: Agarwal Nikita , Kathpalia Aditi , Nagaraj Nithin 
Published: June 2019

AbstractCharacterizing consciousness, the inner subjective feeling that is present in every experience, is a hard problem in neuroscience, but has important clinical implications. A leading neuro-scientific approach to understanding consciousness is to measure the complex causal neural interactions in the brain. Elucidating the complex causal interplay between cortical neural interactions and the subsequent network computations is very challenging. In this study, we propose a novel quantitative measure of consciousness - Network Causal Activity - using a recently proposed Compression-Complexity Causality measure to analyze electrocorticographic signals from the lateral cortex of four monkeys during two states of consciousness (awake and anaesthesia). Our results suggest that Network Causal Activity is consistently higher in the awake state as compared with anaesthesia state for all the monkeys.
On the Effectiveness of UAS for Anti-Poaching in the African Arid Savanna
Authors: van Vuuren Marlice , van Vuuren Rudie , Lutz Graham D. , Silverberg Larry M. 
Published: June 2019

AbstractThis paper describes a field study that examined the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in anti-poaching enforcement in parks and game reserves. In the field study, a UAV attempted to spot mock poachers while the mock poachers tried to spot the UAV. The field study was conducted at N/a’an ku sê, an operational game reserve in the central region of Namibia. In total, 118 trials were completed, providing 236 UAV-poacher interdiction scenarios. Of these, 198 were during the day, 152 with a quadcopter and 46 with a fixed-wing. Live spotting success during the day varied due to the hiding behavior of the mock poachers, with the highest and lowest success rates of spotting being 86% for poachers in the open and 25% for poachers hiding under canopy cover. The UAVs were demonstrated to be a potentially effective tool for anti-poaching patrol and interdiction, in part, because of their ability to spot poachers. The pursuit of integrating the UAV into current anti-poaching patrol and interdiction efforts in arid savanna landscapes is strongly recommended.
Synthesis of Extended, Self-Assembled Biological Membranes containing Membrane Proteins from Gas Phase
Authors: Wilm Matthias 
Published: June 2019

AbstractMembrane proteins carry out a wide variety of biological functions. The reproduction of their specific properties in a technically controlled environment is of significant interest. Here, a method is presented that allows the self-assembly of a macroscopically large, freely transportable membrane with Outer membrane porin G from Escherichia Coli. The technique does not use protein specific characteristics and therefore could represent a path to the generation of extended layers of membranes with integrated, arbitrary membrane proteins. The composition of the membrane, its lipid and protein content, is experimentally controlled. Such in-vitro systems are relevant for the study of membrane-protein function and structure and the self-assembly of membrane-based protein complexes. They might become important for the incorporation of lipid-membranes into technical devices.
Environmental influences on acoustic divergence inRhinolophusbats of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka region
Authors: Deshpande Kadambari , Kelkar Nachiket 
Published: June 2019

AbstractAccording to the acoustic adaptation hypothesis, environmental and biogeographic factors such as atmospheric humidity can influence divergence of acoustic signals and speciation in high duty-cycle echolocating bats (e.g.Rhinolophussp.), although this remains disputed. In this study we tested the hypothesis that Resting Frequency (RF) would decrease with increasing humidity along a large latitudinal gradient (6°-21°N), for fourRhinolophusspecies with different evolutionary histories, in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka (WGSL) region. We conducted acoustic recordings and compiled published information on RFs of stationaryRhinolophus indorouxi, R. rouxi, R. beddomei, andR. lepidusfrom 40 roosts in 18 localities of the WGSL. These data comprised of recordings made with different devices and with different settings. Hence, due to the unknown measurement error involved in the recorded RFs, it was not possible to conduct conventional regression analyses to test our hypotheses. Hence, we qualitatively assessed effects of Relative Humidity (RH) and other environmental variables by interpreting only the sign, but not the magnitude of the RF responses (from the slopes of generalized least squares regression models). We also tested how RF and RH varied across biogeographic zones, and with bat body size. RFs of the Miocene-diverged speciesR. indorouxiandR. rouxiwere higher at lower RH, as expected. In contrast, RF of the Pleistocene-diverged speciesR. beddomeiandR. lepiduswere higher at higher RH. Elevation and rainfall also emerged as important predictors of RF variation in these species. Bat body size differed in dry and humid regions of the WGSL. RF variation was not consistent across biogeographic zones. The cryptic, phonically differentiated sibling speciesR. indorouxiandR. rouxico-occurred only in mid-elevation zones along the Western Ghats escarpment. The variable but significant influences of humidity and correlated factors on RF suggest the importance of environmentally mediated acoustic divergence in differentRhinolophusspecies in the WGSL. We propose some hypotheses on interacting effects of environmental and phylogenetic factors on acoustic divergence inRhinolophusbats of the WGSL. These ideas could be further tested with phylogenetic and acoustic studies, as more consistent and comparable data on these species become available in the future.