The repeatability of self-reported exposure after miscarriage

BACKGROUND: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood is a prospective study of women who were resident in Avon and who were expected to deliver a baby between April 1991 and December 1992. METHODS: The study provided an opportunity to test the repeatability of responses from 220 women who experienced a miscarriage and who reported exposure to occupational substances and common household products and appliances in two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was completed in the early part of the pregnancy and the second after the miscarriage. Women were asked to score their frequency of exposure on a five-point scale from 'daily' to 'never'. Their responses were analysed to assess the degree of agreement between replies to identical questions in the two questionnaires using the kappa statistic. A new frequency variable was created which compared the replies for the two questionnaires; this was analysed for all exposures by cross-tabulation with possible explanatory variables (age of mother, social class, history of miscarriage and the time lag between questionnaires). RESULTS: In general there was good agreement in the reported exposures to 48 substances and products. The results showed a small and consistent pattern of reporting exposures less frequently in the second questionnaire, i.e. after miscarriage. This was not explained by the analysis of possible confounding variables. Given the literature, the authors had expected to find a shift in the opposite direction. CONCLUSION: The study reinforces the need to be cautious when using the results from single surveys of retrospective self-reported exposure

Predicting individual susceptibility to Visually Induced Motion Sickness (VIMS) by Questionnaire

BACKGROUND The introduction of new visual technologies increases the risk of visually induced motion sickness (VIMS). The aim was to evaluate the 6-item Visually Induced Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (VIMSSQ; also known as the VIMSSQ-short) and other predictors for individual susceptibility to VIMS. METHODS Healthy participants (10M+20F), mean age 22.9 (SD 5.0) years, viewed a 360° panoramic city scene projected in the visual equivalent to the situation of rotating about an axis tilted from the vertical. The scene rotated at 0.2Hz (72° s-1), with a ‘wobble’ produced by superimposed 18° tilt on the rotational axis, with a field of view of 83.5°. Exposure was 10 min or until moderate nausea was reported. Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) was the index of VIMS. Predictors/correlates were VIMSSQ, Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ), Migraine (scale), Syncope, Social & Work Impact of Dizziness (SWID), Sleep quality/disturbance, Personality (‘Big Five’ TIPI), a prior multisensory Stepping-Vection test, and Vection during exposure. RESULTS The VIMSSQ had good scale reliability (Cronbach’s alpha=0.84). and correlated significantly with the SSQ (r=0.58). Higher MSSQ, Migraine, Syncope & SWID also correlated significantly with SSQ. Other variables had no significant relationships with SSQ. Regression models showed that the VIMSSQ predicted 34% of the individual variation of VIMS, increasing to 56% as MSSQ, Migraine, Syncope and SWID were incorporated as additional predictors. CONCLUSIONS The VIMSSQ is a useful adjunct to the MSSQ in predicting VIMS. Other predictors included Migraine, Syncope & SWID. No significant relationship was observed between Vection and VIMS

Think Different: Applying the Old Macintosh Mantra to the Computability of the SUSY Auxiliary Field Problem

Starting with valise supermultiplets obtained from 0-branes plus field redefinitions, valise adinkra networks, and the "Garden Algebra," we discuss an architecture for algorithms that (starting from on-shell theories and, through a well-defined computation procedure), search for off-shell completions. We show in one dimension how to directly attack the notorious "off-shell auxiliary field" problem of supersymmetry with algorithms in the adinkra network-world formulation.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figur

Lambda-prophage induction modeled as a cooperative failure mode of lytic repression

We analyze a system-level model for lytic repression of lambda-phage in E. coli using reliability theory, showing that the repressor circuit comprises 4 redundant components whose failure mode is prophage induction. Our model reflects the specific biochemical mechanisms involved in regulation, including long-range cooperative binding, and its detailed predictions for prophage induction in E. coli under ultra-violet radiation are in good agreement with experimental data.Comment: added referenc

Holidaying with the family pet: No dogs allowed!

This paper assesses the extent to which dog owners located in Brisbane, Australia, wish to holiday with their pets, and whether there is a gap between this desire and reality. The paper also examines the extent to which this demand is being catered for by the tourism accommodation sector. The need for this study reflects the increasingly significant role dogs are playing in the lives of humans, and the scale of the dog-owning population. The results suggest that, although there is a strong desire among dog owners to take holidays with their pets, the actualisation of this desire is comparatively low. A significant obstacle to the realisation of this desire appears to be a dearth of pet-friendly accommodation. This has implications for the ability of the tourism industry to benefit from this potentially lucrative market, that is, the dog-owning population

VEGF guides angiogenic sprouting utilizing endothelial tip cell filopodia

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) is a major regulator of blood vessel formation and function. it controls several processes in endothelial cells, such as proliferation, survival, and migration, but it is not known how these are coordinately regulated to result in more complex morphogenetic events, such as tubular sprouting, fusion, and network formation. We show here that VEGF-A controls angiogenic sprouting in the early postnatal retina by guiding filopodial extension from specialized endothelial cells situated at the tips of the vascular sprouts. The tip cells respond to VEGF-A only by guided migration; the proliferative response to VEGF-A occurs in the sprout stalks. These two cellular responses are both mediated by agonistic activity of VEGF-A on VEGF receptor 2. Whereas tip cell migration depends on a gradient of VEGF-A, proliferation is regulated by its concentration. Thus, vessel patterning during retinal angiogenesis depends on the balance between two different qualities of the extracellular VEGF-A distribution, which regulate distinct cellular responses in defined populations of endothelial cells