Interference and facilitation effects of semantic and phonological contextual priming: A treatment case study

We report a case study of a treatment for naming using contextual production priming, a technique that combines massed repetition priming and naming with context defined by the linguistic relationship among words being trained. Our participant, 402, presented with primarily a phonological impairment, but semantic deficits were also present. Both semantic and phonological training contexts resulted in interference during training but only the semantic context facilitated learning. Additionally, each context influenced the prevalence of error type in that context (fewer semantic errors in the phonological context and fewer semantic errors in the phonological context). Implications of these findings are discussed

Oral rivaroxaban versus standard therapy for the treatment of symptomatic venous thromboembolism : a pooled analysis of the EINSTEIN-DVT and PE randomized studies

Background: Standard treatment for venous thromboembolism (VTE) consists of a heparin combined with vitamin K antagonists. Direct oral anticoagulants have been investigated for acute and extended treatment of symptomatic VTE; their use could avoid parenteral treatment and/or laboratory monitoring of anticoagulant effects. Methods: A prespecified pooled analysis of the EINSTEIN-DVT and EINSTEIN-PE studies compared the efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban (15 mg twice-daily for 21 days, followed by 20 mg once-daily) with standard-therapy (enoxaparin 1.0 mg/kg twice-daily and warfarin or acenocoumarol). Patients were treated for 3, 6, or 12 months and followed for suspected recurrent VTE and bleeding. The prespecified noninferiority margin was 1.75. Results: 8282 patients were enrolled. 4151 received rivaroxaban and 4131 received standard-therapy. The primary efficacy outcome occurred in 86 rivaroxaban-treated patients (2.1%) compared with 95 (2.3%) standard-therapy-treated patients (hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66-1.19; pnoninferiority<0.001). Major bleeding was observed in 40 (1.0%) and 72 (1.7%) patients in the rivaroxaban and standard-therapy groups, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.37-0.79; p=0.002). In key subgroups, including fragile patients, cancer patients, patients presenting with large clots and those with a history of recurrent VTE, the efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban was similar compared with standard-therapy. Conclusion: The single-drug approach with rivaroxaban resulted in similar efficacy to standard-therapy and was associated with a significantly lower rate of major bleeding. Efficacy and safety results were consistent among key patient subgroups

Doing our work better, together: a relationship-based approach to defining the quality improvement agenda in trauma care

Article presents a study conducted at Gold Coast University Hospital that aimed to define and improve relational aspects of trauma care and facilitate co-creation of targeted interventions designed to improve team relationships and performance

Mind the gap: Can we explain declining male reproductive health with known antiandrogens?

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Several countries have experienced rises in cryptorchidisms, hypospadias and testicular germ cell cancer. The reasons for these trends are largely unknown, but Skakkebaek has proposed that these disorders form a testicular dysgenesis syndrome and can be traced to androgen insufficiency in foetal life. This suggests that antiandrogenic chemicals might contribute to risks, but few chemicals have been linked to these diseases in epidemiological studies. In animal studies with p,p0-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene, effects typical of disruptions of male sexual differentiation became apparent when the foetal levels of this androgen receptor (AR) antagonist approached values associated with responses in in vitro assays. This prompted us to analyse whether the 22 chemicals with AR antagonistic properties would produce mixture effects in an in vitro AR antagonism assay when combined at concentrations found in human serum. Other antiandrogenic modalities could not be considered. Two scenarios were investigated, one representative of average serum levels reported in European countries, the other in line with levels towards the high exposures. In both situations, the in vitro potency of the 22 selected AR antagonists was too low to produce combined AR antagonistic effects at the concentrations found in human serum, although the high exposure scenario came quite close to measurable effects. Nevertheless, our analysis exposes an explanation gap which can only be bridged by conjuring up as yet undiscovered high potency AR antagonists or, alternatively, high exposures to unknown agents of average potency

Embolic strokes of undetermined source: prevalence and patient features in the ESUS Global Registry

Background: Recent evidence supports that most non-lacunar cryptogenic strokes are embolic. Accordingly, these strokes have been designated as embolic strokes of undetermined source (ESUS). Aims: We undertook an international survey to characterize the frequency and clinical features of ESUS patients across global regions. Methods: Consecutive patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke were retrospectively surveyed from 19 stroke research centers in 19 different countries to collect patients meeting criteria for ESUS. Results: Of 2144 patients with recent ischemic stroke, 351 (16%, 95% CI 15% to 18%) met ESUS criteria, similar across global regions (range 16% to 21%), and an additional 308 (14%) patients had incomplete evaluation required for ESUS diagnosis. The mean age of ESUS patients (62 years; SD = 15) was significantly lower than the 1793 non-ESUS ischemic stroke patients (68 years, p ≤ 0.001). Excluding patients with atrial fibrillation (n = 590, mean age = 75 years), the mean age of the remaining 1203 non-ESUS ischemic stroke patients was 64 years (p = 0.02 vs. ESUS patients). Among ESUS patients, hypertension, diabetes, and prior stroke were present in 64%, 25%, and 17%, respectively. Median NIHSS score was 4 (interquartile range 2–8). At discharge, 90% of ESUS patients received antiplatelet therapy and 7% received anticoagulation. Conclusions: This cross-sectional global sample of patients with recent ischemic stroke shows that one-sixth met criteria for ESUS, with additional ESUS patients likely among those with incomplete diagnostic investigation. ESUS patients were relatively young with mild strokes. Antiplatelet therapy was the standard antithrombotic therapy for secondary stroke prevention in all global regions

Insights into non-Fickian solute transport in carbonates

[1] We study and explain the origin of early breakthrough and long tailing plume behavior by simulating solute transport through 3‐D X‐ray images of six different carbonate rock samples, representing geological media with a high degree of pore‐scale complexity. A Stokes solver is employed to compute the flow field, and the particles are then transported along streamlines to represent advection, while the random walk method is used to model diffusion. We compute the propagators (concentration versus displacement) for a range of Peclet numbers (Pe ) and relate it to the velocity distribution obtained directly on the images. There is a very wide distribution of velocity that quantifies the impact of pore structure on transport. In samples with a relatively narrow spread of velocities, transport is characterized by a small immobile concentration peak, representing essentially stagnant portions of the pore space, and a dominant secondary peak of mobile solute moving at approximately the average flow speed. On the other hand, in carbonates with a wider velocity distribution, there is a significant immobile peak concentration and an elongated tail of moving fluid. An increase in Pe , decreasing the relative impact of diffusion, leads to the faster formation of secondary mobile peak(s). This behavior indicates highly anomalous transport. The implications for modeling field‐scale transport are discussed

Recent advances in electronic structure theory and their influence on the accuracy of ab initio potential energy surfaces

Recent advances in electronic structure theory and the availability of high speed vector processors have substantially increased the accuracy of ab initio potential energy surfaces. The recently developed atomic natural orbital approach for basis set contraction has reduced both the basis set incompleteness and superposition errors in molecular calculations. Furthermore, full CI calculations can often be used to calibrate a CASSCF/MRCI approach that quantitatively accounts for the valence correlation energy. These computational advances also provide a vehicle for systematically improving the calculations and for estimating the residual error in the calculations. Calculations on selected diatomic and triatomic systems will be used to illustrate the accuracy that currently can be achieved for molecular systems. In particular, the F+H2 yields HF+H potential energy hypersurface is used to illustrate the impact of these computational advances on the calculation of potential energy surfaces

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of the endothelial cell membrane

We applied surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to cationic gold-labeled endothelial cells to derive SERS-enhanced spectra of the bimolecular makeup of the plasma membrane. A two-step protocol with cationic charged gold nanoparticles followed by silver-intensification to generate silver nanoparticles on the cell surface was employed. This protocol of post-labelling silver-intensification facilitates the collection of SERS-enhanced spectra from the cell membrane without contribution from conjugated antibodies or other molecules. This approach generated a 100-fold SERS-enhancement of the spectral signal. The SERS spectra exhibited many vibrational peaks that can be assigned to components of the cell membrane. We were able to carry out spectral mapping using some of the enhanced wavenumbers. Significantly, the spectral maps suggest the distribution of some membrane components are was not evenly distributed over the cells plasma membrane. These results provide some possible evidence for the existence of lipid rafts in the plasma membrane and show that SERS has great potential for the study and characterization of cell surfaces

Zirconium carbide oxidation: kinetics and oxygen diffusion through the intermediate layer

Oxidation of hot‐pressed ZrC was investigated in air in the 1073‐1373 K range. The kinetics were linear at 1073 K, whereas at higher temperature samples initially followed linear kinetics before undergoing rapid oxidation leading to a Maltese cross shape of the oxide. The linear kinetics at 1073 K was governed by inward oxygen diffusion through an intermediate layer of constant thickness between ZrC and ZrO2 which was comprised of amorphous carbon and ZrO2 nanocrystals. Diffusion of oxygen through the intermediate layer was measured to be 9 × 10−10 cm2 s−1 using 18O as a tracer in a double oxidation experiment in 16O/18O. Oxidation at 1073 and 1173 K produced samples made of m‐ZrO2 and either t‐ or c‐ZrO2 with an adherent intermediate layer made of amorphous carbon and ZrO2, whereas oxidation at 1273 and 1373 K produced samples with a voluminous oxide made of m‐ZrO2 showing a gap between ZrC and the oxide. A substoichiometric zirconia layer was found at the gap at 1273 K and no carbon uptake was detected in this layer when compared with the top oxide layer. The loss of the intermediate layer and the slowdown of the linear rate constant (g m−2 s−1) at 1273 K compared to 1173 K was correlated with the preferential oxidation of carbon at the intermediate layer which would leave as CO and/or CO2 leaving a gap between ZrC and substoichiometric zirconia