The Ursinus Weekly, March 24, 1947

Dr. W. Bancroft, philosophy prof., dies; served as faculty member for 22 years • Coeds, men to battle for title of basketball court, Saturday • Mermaids lose swimming title to Swarthmore by close score • Professor Karpovitch to address forum on Russian policy tonite • Students selected as representatives to UN assembly • FTA members plan panel talks on extra-curricular activities • Professor Bone to address PAC on labor legislation Wednesday • G. Allen discusses legendary Hitler at club gathering • Lincoln University men conduct impressive candlelight service • Mr. Philippe Emanuel to address meeting of French Club tonight • Large crowd enjoys songs, dances, and comedy at minstrel • Debaters to enter tournament held at Princeton Univ. • Soph hop to feature Maynard McKissick; lucky number tickets to win prizes • Debaters continue away meets with Rutgers on labor question • Racial tolerance • Track squad prepares for weighty schedule • Trophy awarded for conference cage flag • Coaches schedule first full squad diamond workout • Candidates shoot at marks posted by track mentor • Temple tramples Snell\u27s belles, 34-16, for easy triumph • Mermaids swamp Beaver coeds, 34-23https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1656/thumbnail.jp

Finding a middle ground on prostitution.

Decriminalization would provide a practical response to contemporary prostitution in Canada. The challenge is overcoming entrenched views on the subject

Substance use and abuse: The role that drugs and alcohol play in the lives of criminalized women

“For many women who have come in conflict with the law, their use of drugs or alcohol is directly or indirectly related to their crimes, e.g., selling drugs to address poverty; stealing money to pay for drugs/alcohol.

A microarray analysis of gene expression in the free-living stages of the parasitic nematode Strongyloides ratti

BACKGROUND: The nematode Strongyloides ratti has two adult phases in its lifecycle: one obligate, female and parasitic and one facultative, dioecious and free-living. The molecular control of the development of this free-living generation remains to be elucidated. RESULTS: We have constructed an S. ratti cDNA microarray and used it to interrogate changes in gene expression during the free-living phase of the S. ratti life-cycle. We have found very extensive differences in gene expression between first-stage larvae (L1) passed in faeces and infective L3s preparing to infect hosts. In L1 stages there was comparatively greater expression of genes involved in growth. We have also compared gene expression in L2 stages destined to develop directly into infective L3s with those destined to develop indirectly into free-living adults. This revealed relatively small differences in gene expression. We find little evidence for the conservation of transcription profiles between S. ratti and S. stercoralis or C. elegans. CONCLUSION: This is the first multi-gene study of gene expression in S. ratti. This has shown that robust data can be generated, with consistent measures of expression within computationally determined clusters and contigs. We find inconsistencies between EST representation data and microarray hybridization data in the identification of genes with stage-specific expression and highly expressed genes. Many of the genes whose expression is significantly different between L1 and iL3s stages are unknown beyond alignments to predicted genes. This highlights the forthcoming challenge in actually determining the role of these genes in the life of S. ratti

Impaired self awareness after traumatic brain injury: inter-rater reliability and factor structure of the dysexecutive questionnairre (DEX) in patients, significant others and clinicians

Aims: This study sought to address two questions: (1) what is the inter-rater reliability of the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) when completed by patients, their significant others, and clinicians; and (2) does the factor structure of the DEX vary for these three groups? Methods: We obtained DEX ratings for 113 patients with an acquired brain injury from two brain injury services in the UK and two services in Ireland. We gathered data from two groups of raters—”significant others” (DEX-SO) such as partners and close family members and “clinicians” (DEX-C), who were psychologists or rehabilitation physicians working closely with the patient and who were able to provide an opinion about the patient’s level of everyday executive functioning. Intra-class correlation coefficients and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated between each of the three groups (self, significant other, clinician). Principal axis factor (PAF) analyses were also conducted for each of the three groups. Results: The factor analysis revealed a consistent one-factor model for each of the three groups of raters. However, the inter-rater reliability analyses showed a low level of agreement between the self-ratings and the ratings of the two groups of independent raters. We also found low agreement between the significant others and the clinicians. Conclusion: Although there was a consistent finding of a single factor solution for each of the three groups, the low level of agreement between significant others and clinicians raises a question about the reliability of the DEX.</p

Impaired self awareness after traumatic brain injury: inter-rater reliability and factor structure of the dysexecutive questionnairre (DEX) in patients, significant others and clinicians

Aims: This study sought to address two questions: (1) what is the inter-rater reliability of the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) when completed by patients, their significant others, and clinicians; and (2) does the factor structure of the DEX vary for these three groups? Methods: We obtained DEX ratings for 113 patients with an acquired brain injury from two brain injury services in the UK and two services in Ireland. We gathered data from two groups of raters—”significant others” (DEX-SO) such as partners and close family members and “clinicians” (DEX-C), who were psychologists or rehabilitation physicians working closely with the patient and who were able to provide an opinion about the patient’s level of everyday executive functioning. Intra-class correlation coefficients and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated between each of the three groups (self, significant other, clinician). Principal axis factor (PAF) analyses were also conducted for each of the three groups. Results: The factor analysis revealed a consistent one-factor model for each of the three groups of raters. However, the inter-rater reliability analyses showed a low level of agreement between the self-ratings and the ratings of the two groups of independent raters. We also found low agreement between the significant others and the clinicians. Conclusion: Although there was a consistent finding of a single factor solution for each of the three groups, the low level of agreement between significant others and clinicians raises a question about the reliability of the DEX.</p

Lifetime Pesticide Use and Telomere Shortening among Male Pesticide Applicators in the Agricultural Health Study

Background: Telomere length (TL) in surrogate tissues may be influenced by environmental exposures. Objective: We aimed to determine whether lifetime pesticides use is associated with buccal cell TL. Methods: We examined buccal cell TL in relation to lifetime use of 48 pesticides for 1,234 cancer-free white male pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a prospective cohort study of 57,310 licensed pesticide applicators. Participants provided detailed information on lifetime use of 50 pesticides at enrollment (1993–1997). Buccal cells were collected from 1999 to 2006. Relative telomere length (RTL) was measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. We used linear regression modeling to evaluate the associations between specific pesticides and the logarithm of RTL, adjusting for age at buccal cell collection, state of residence, applicator license type, chewing tobacco use, and total lifetime days of all pesticide use. Results: The mean RTL for participants decreased significantly in association with increased lifetime days of pesticide use for alachlor (p = 0.002), 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D; p = 0.004), metolachlor (p = 0.01), trifluralin (p = 0.05), permethrin (for animal application) (p = 0.02), and toxaphene (p = 0.04). A similar pattern of RTL shortening was observed with the metric lifetime intensity-weighted days of pesticide use. For dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), we observed significant RTL shortening for lifetime intensity-weighted days (p = 0.04), but not for lifetime days of DDT use (p = 0.08). No significant RTL lengthening was observed for any pesticide. Conclusion: Seven pesticides previously associated with cancer risk in the epidemiologic literature were inversely associated with RTL in buccal cell DNA among cancer-free pesticide applicators. Replication of these findings is needed because we cannot rule out chance or fully rule out bias

A double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over clinical trial of DONepezil In Posterior cortical atrophy due to underlying Alzheimer's Disease: DONIPAD study.

BACKGROUND: The study investigated whether donepezil exerts symptomatic benefit in patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), an atypical variant of Alzheimer's disease. METHODS: A single-centre, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over clinical trial was performed to assess the efficacy of donepezil in patients with PCA. Each patient received either donepezil (5 mg once daily in the first 6 weeks and 10 mg once daily in the second 6 weeks) or placebo for 12 weeks. After a 2-week washout period, each patient received the other treatment arm during the following 12 weeks followed by another 2-week washout period. The primary outcome was the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at 12 weeks. Secondary outcome measures were five neuropsychological tests reflecting parieto-occipital function. Intention-to-treat analysis was used. For each outcome measure, carry-over effects were first assessed. If present, then analysis was restricted to the first 12-week period. Otherwise, the standard approach to the analysis of a 2 × 2 cross-over trial was used. RESULTS: Eighteen patients (13 females) were recruited (mean age 61.6 years). There was a protocol violation in one patient, who subsequently withdrew from the study due to gastrointestinal side effects. There was statistically significant (p 0.05). There were no statistically significant treatment effects on any of the five neuropsychological tests, except for digit span at 12 weeks (higher by 0.5 digits in favour of placebo, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.9). Gastrointestinal side effects occurred most frequently, affecting 13/18 subjects (72%), and were the cause of study discontinuation in one subject. Nightmares and vivid dreams occurred in 8/18 subjects (44%), and were statistically more frequent during treatment with donepezil. CONCLUSIONS: In this small study, there was no statistically significant treatment effect of donepezil on the primary outcome measure (MMSE score at 12 weeks) in PCA patients, who appear to be particularly susceptible to the development of nightmares and vivid dreams when treated. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN22636071 . Retrospectively registered 19 May 2010