Information acquisition and decision making in committees: a survey

JEL Classification: D71, E52Committees, costly information acquisition, monetary policy committees, strategic voting

Identification of N-terminal protein acetylation and arginine methylation of the voltage-gated sodium channel in end-stage heart failure human heart

The α subunit of the cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel, Naᵥ1.5, provides the rapid sodium inward current that initiates cardiomyocyte action potentials. Here, we analyzed for the first time the post-translational modifications of Naᵥ1.5 purified from end-stage heart failure human cardiac tissue. We identified R526 methylation as the major post-translational modification of any Naᵥ1.5 arginine or lysine residue. Unexpectedly, we found that the N terminus of Naᵥ1.5 was: 1) devoid of the initiation methionine, and 2) acetylated at the resulting initial alanine residue. This is the first evidence for N-terminal acetylation in any member of the voltage-gated ion channel superfamily. Our results open the door to explore Naᵥ1.5 N-terminal acetylation and arginine methylation levels as drivers or markers of end-stage heart failure

Universities and Sustainable Food Practices: An International Comparison Along the Pacific Coast of North America

My research project examined sustainable practices in relation to food sources at three universities located along the Pacific Coast of North America. The academic institutions were the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. These schools were selected because while they each foster an abundance of “local” foods and food industries, they represent different stages in the three pillars of sustainability for food practices. My project sought to understand the role of each institution in building a local and sustainable food culture at each university. I analyzed how the food services at and near the institutions reflect the food and nutritional needs and wants of the student body, faculty, and staff of academic institutions and the availability of foods (e.g., healthy, organic, and sustainable) in each area. Using qualitative data acquired through interviews and source-based literature, I classified the three universities in relation to the three pillars of sustainability, namely economic, social, and environmental. UAA was at an early stage of sustainability achievement while UBC was the most developed. In comparison, I evaluated Western Kentucky University (WKU) as situated between UAA and UCSB. Key steps to successful sustainability of food resources include creating local and regional food resources, engaging students, faculty and administrators, and developing an economically feasible institutional vision. Institutions of higher learning have a strong influence on their region and with forethought and planning, they can serve as drivers of sustainable food systems

G_13 is an essential mediator of platelet activation in hemostasis and thrombosis

Platelet activation at sites of vascular injury is essential for primary hemostasis, but also underlies arterial thrombosis leading to myocardial infarction or stroke. Platelet activators such as adenosine diphosphate, thrombin or thromboxane A_2 (TXA_2) activate receptors that are coupled to heterotrimeric G proteins. Activation of platelets through these receptors involves signaling through G_q, G_i and G_z (refs. 4, 5, 6). However, the role and relative importance of G12 and G13, which are activated by various platelet stimuli, are unclear. Here we show that lack of Galpha_13, but not Galpha_12, severely reduced the potency of thrombin, TXA2 and collagen to induce platelet shape changes and aggregation in vitro. These defects were accompanied by reduced activation of RhoA and inability to form stable platelet thrombi under high shear stress ex vivo. Galpha_13 deficiency in platelets resulted in a severe defect in primary hemostasis and complete protection against arterial thrombosis in vivo. We conclude that G_13-mediated signaling processes are required for normal hemostasis and thrombosis and may serve as a new target for antiplatelet drugs

Diagnostic uncertainty in pediatric chronic pain: Nature, prevalence, and consequences

Introduction: Diagnostic uncertainty (DU), which is the perception that a label or explanation for a patient's health problem is missing or inaccurate, has been linked to distress, anxiety, and difficulty coping among adults with pain. This study examined the prevalence of DU among youth with chronic pain and their parents and the relation of parent and youth DU with youth pain, pain-related constructs, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).Methods: Participants included 174 youth with chronic pain (Mage = 14.28 years; 73% female) and one of their parents (91% mothers) recruited from a tertiary-level pediatric chronic pain program in Canada. Youth and parent DU was assessed using a brief measure of 3 empirically derived yes/no questions regarding whether the youth and parent had received a clear diagnosis/explanation for their/their child's pain and whether they believed there was something else happening with their/their child's pain that doctors had not yet found. Youth reported on their pain intensity, pain interference, pain catastrophizing, fear of pain, and HRQoL.Results: Thirty-one percent of youth and 28% of parents experienced DU. Seventy percent of parents and youth were in agreement regarding their experience of DU. Youth DU was linked to higher youth catastrophic thinking about their pain. Parent DU was linked to greater youth pain interference and intensity and lower youth HRQoL.Conclusion: Diagnostic uncertainty is experienced by nearly a third of youth with chronic pain and their parents and is linked to worse youth pain, pain catastrophizing, and HRQoL.Diagnostic uncertainty is common among youth with chronic pain and their parents and is linked to worse youth pain, pain catastrophizing, and quality of life

Detection of pneumonia associated pathogens using a prototype multiplexed pneumonia test in hospitalized patients with severe pneumonia

Severe pneumonia remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been shown to be more sensitive than current standard microbiological methods--particularly in patients with prior antibiotic treatment--and therefore, may improve the accuracy of microbiological diagnosis for hospitalized patients with pneumonia. Conventional detection techniques and multiplex PCR for 14 typical bacterial pneumonia-associated pathogens were performed on respiratory samples collected from adult hospitalized patients enrolled in a prospective multi-center study. Patients were enrolled from March until September 2012. A total of 739 fresh, native samples were eligible for analysis, of which 75 were sputa, 421 aspirates, and 234 bronchial lavages. 276 pathogens were detected by microbiology for which a valid PCR result was generated (positive or negative detection result by Curetis prototype system). Among these, 120 were identified by the prototype assay, 50 pathogens were not detected. Overall performance of the prototype for pathogen identification was 70.6% sensitivity (95% confidence interval (CI) lower bound: 63.3%, upper bound: 76.9%) and 95.2% specificity (95% CI lower bound: 94.6%, upper bound: 95.7%). Based on the study results, device cut-off settings were adjusted for future series production. The overall performance with the settings of the CE series production devices was 78.7% sensitivity (95% CI lower bound: 72.1%) and 96.6% specificity (95% CI lower bound: 96.1%). Time to result was 5.2 hours (median) for the prototype test and 43.5 h for standard-of-care. The Pneumonia Application provides a rapid and moderately sensitive assay for the detection of pneumonia-causing pathogens with minimal hands-on time

A longitudinal examination of the interpersonal fear avoidance model of pain:the role of intolerance of uncertainty

Youth with chronic pain and their parents face uncertainty regarding their diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Given the uncertain nature of chronic pain and high comorbidity of anxiety among youth, intolerance of uncertainty (IU) may be critical to the experience of pediatric chronic pain. This study longitudinally examined major tenets of the Interpersonal Fear Avoidance Model of Pain and included parent and youth IU as key factors in the model. Participants included 152 youth with chronic pain (Mage = 14.23 years; 72% female) and their parents (93% female). At baseline, parents and youth reported on their IU and catastrophic thinking about youth pain; youth reported on their fear of pain, pain intensity, and pain interference; and parents reported on their protective responses to child pain. Youth reported on their pain interference 3 months later. Cross-lagged panel models, controlling for baseline pain interference, showed that greater parent IU predicted greater parent pain catastrophizing, which, in turn, predicted greater parent protectiveness, greater youth fear of pain, and subsequently greater youth 3-month pain interference. Youth IU had a significant indirect effect on 3-month pain interference through youth pain catastrophizing and fear of pain. The results suggest that parent and youth IU contribute to increases in youth pain interference over time through increased pain catastrophizing, parent protectiveness, and youth fear of pain. Thus, parent and youth IU play important roles as risk factors in the maintenance of pediatric chronic pain over time and may be important targets for intervention.</p

Visitor safety and security compliance as a key component of event planning and implementation? Findings from a German research project on COVID-19

Introduction: Event Safety and Security Production (ESSP) typically involves event organizers, private security firms, authorities, police, fire brigades, and others. Their joint responsibility is to ensure safety, decide on measures, communicate them, and enforce them when necessary. Effective ESSP relies on visitor cooperation and rule compliance. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of rule compliance in event safety and security. With the event industry’s standstill and subsequent reopening under strict conditions, organizers had to implement comprehensive safety and hygiene measures. Studies on crowd compliance under pandemic conditions identified influencing factors. These include perceived threats, sociodemographic characteristics, group behavior, trust in institutions, etc..Methods: Little research focuses on actively promoting rule compliance. Therefore, this paper addresses three research questions (RQ): (1) To what extent does the compliance of visitor safety measures play a role in the planning and implementation of events? (2) To what extent have visitor safety measures been complied with at events during the pandemic and did that change throughout the pandemic? And finally (3) How can the compliance of measures for visitor safety explicitly be taken into account in event planning and implementation? Qualitative data from 11 expert interviews and quantitative data from a representative population survey (N = 10,239) from a German research project on non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) for the safe reopening of events during the pandemic are used to answer the first two questions (RQ1; RQ2). Results of the data triangulation point to recommendations for practical application (RQ3).Results and Discussion: Findings suggest a high level of compliance with COVID-19 measures among the survey respondents, with expert consensus on the need for active and communicative visitor involvement in the implementation and enforcement of visitor safety measures. These insights extend beyond pandemic-specific events to traditional security and safety measures in crowd management. For event practice, this indicates the importance of consistent, transparent, and engaging communication strategies starting well before the event, with the customer journey approach as a potential solution. Suitable approaches to visitor safety by event organizers should be implementable and enforceable; this is the key to ensuring that event communication in relation to ESSP is effective

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements