Amused, accepted, and used? Attitudes and emotions towards automated vehicles, their relationships, and predictive value for usage intention

Automated vehicles (AVs) have left the laboratories and can be experienced in several projects, e.g. at the premises of a clinic in Germany. With this transition, research on AV attitudes no longer needs to rely on questionnaires with hypothetical scenarios and simulations. Previous research – limited by the unavailability of AVs – has provided ambivalent results regarding age and gender differences in attitudes towards AVs. We present research results about the role of age and gender in connection with attitudes such as acceptance, perceived safety, and trust, as well as intention to use. We additionally demonstrate relationships between those constructs and emotions such as amusement, fear, and surprise. Data were collected from participants (n = 125) after having experienced an AV ride with level 4 automation on two campuses of a clinic in Berlin, Germany. Results reveal strong correlations between all attitudes (0.55 ≤ r ≤ 0.71; p < 0.01) and show acceptance and perceived safety to be solid predictors of intention to use AVs. We also found age to be a significant predictor for usage intention even when other attitudes are considered (β = −0.22; p < 0.01). MANOVA results point to gender differences in all constructs, but with limited confidence (5.40 ≤ F ≤ 18.34; p ≤ 0.02). However, we reject our hypothesis that young men are highly accepting, trusting, and intending to use AVs compared to other combinations of age and gender. We recommend using a mix of attitude, emotion, and behavioural (intention) measures in future research on AVs together with more transparency regarding construct definitions and study materials

Selective suppression of cytokine secretion in whole blood cell cultures of patients with colorectal cancer.

We have investigated the secretion of interferon alpha (IFN-alpha), IFN-gamma, interleukin-1alpha (IL-1alpha), IL-1beta, IL-2 and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) in whole blood cell cultures (WBCCs) of colorectal cancer patients upon mitogen stimulation. Whereas the values for IL-1beta and TNF-alpha remained virtually unchanged in comparison with healthy control subjects, WBCCs of colorectal cancer patients secreted significantly lower amounts of IFN-alpha (P < 0.005), IFN-gamma (P < 0.0001), IL-1alpha (P < 0.0001) and IL-2 (P < 0.05). This reduction correlated with the progression of the disease. The total leucocyte and monocyte population were almost identical in both groups. In contrast, a dramatic depletion of lymphocytes was observed in colorectal cancer patients, which affected both lymphocyte counts (P < 0.0005) and their distribution (P < 0.0001). Our results suggest a selective suppression of cytokines in colorectal cancer patients that is related to tumour burden. Several mechanisms might account for this phenomenon, one of which might be lymphocyte depletion

The Effects of Hydration Status on Heart Rate Variability Following Supramaximal Intensity Exercise

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive method used to monitor physiological stress via assessment of sympathetic and parasympathetic regulations and can indicate an individual’s recovery and readiness to exercise. Evidence suggests dehydration negatively impacts HRV; however, the influence of hydration status on HRV following supramaximal resistance exercise (RE) is unknown. PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of hydration status on HRV indices following supramaximal intensity RE. METHODS: 14 recreationally resistance-trained men (age, 21 ± 2 years; height, 176.25 ± 5.84 cm; weight, 81.31 ± 12.77 kg) participated in this study. In a randomized, counterbalanced order, participants performed a supramaximal intensity RE protocol in a euhydrated (EUH; urine specific gravity [USG] \u3c 1.020) and a dehydrated (DEH; USG \u3e 1.020) state, with conditions separated by 2 weeks. HRV indices (standard deviation of normal sinus beats [SDNN], root mean square of successive differences between normal heartbeats [RMSSD], high frequency power [HF], low frequency power [LF], LF:HF ratio, standard deviation of Poincaré plot perpendicular to [SD1] and along the line of identity [SD2]) were measured with participants lying in a supine position for 5 minutes in a dark room at baseline, immediately post-, 1hr-, 2hr-, and 3hr post-RE. Repeated measure analysis of variance was used to determine the effect of hydration status on HRV indices at each timepoint, with Bonferroni corrections for post-hoc analysis. RESULTS: RMSSD was significantly higher 1hr post-exercise in EUH (30.69 ± 7.09 ms) compared to DEH (16.31 ± 2.44 ms; p = 0.04). Similarly, HF power was significantly higher 1hr post-exercise in EUH (32.49 ± 4.12 %) compared to DEH (16.63 ± 2.71 %; p \u3c 0.01). In contrast, LF power was lower 1hr post-exercise in EUH (57.74 ± 3.62 %) compared to DEH (75.95 ± 3.42 %; p = 0.02), with LF:HF ratio significantly lower in EUH (2.36 ± 0.62) than DEH (6.21 ± 1.34; p = 0.01). SD1 was significantly greater 1hr post-exercise in EUH (21.74 ± 5.03 ms) than DEH (11.54 ± 1.73 ms; p = 0.04). No significant condition by time effects were observed for SDNN and SD2, or at remaining timepoints. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that recovery and readiness to exercise are impaired 1hr following supramaximal intensity RE in a dehydrated state. However, impairments were ameliorated 2-3hrs proceeding the RE bout

The Barcode of Life Data Portal: Bridging the Biodiversity Informatics Divide for DNA Barcoding

With the volume of molecular sequence data that is systematically being generated globally, there is a need for centralized resources for data exploration and analytics. DNA Barcode initiatives are on track to generate a compendium of molecular sequence–based signatures for identifying animals and plants. To date, the range of available data exploration and analytic tools to explore these data have only been available in a boutique form—often representing a frustrating hurdle for many researchers that may not necessarily have resources to install or implement algorithms described by the analytic community. The Barcode of Life Data Portal (BDP) is a first step towards integrating the latest biodiversity informatics innovations with molecular sequence data from DNA barcoding. Through establishment of community driven standards, based on discussion with the Data Analysis Working Group (DAWG) of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL), the BDP provides an infrastructure for incorporation of existing and next-generation DNA barcode analytic applications in an open forum

Impact of a silver layer on the membrane of tap water filters on the microbiological quality of filtered water

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bacteria in the hospital's drinking water system represent a risk for the acquisition of a nosocomial infection in the severely immunocompromised host. Terminal tap water filters may be used to prevent nosocomial Legionnaires' disease. We present data from water samples using an improved kind of tap water filters.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a blinded study on an intermediate care unit of the thoracic surgery department, a modified type of the Germlyser water filter (Aqua-Free Membrane Technology) with a newly-introduced silver layer on the filtration membrane was compared to its preceding type without such a layer on 15 water outlets. We determined growth of <it>Legionella</it>, other pathogenic bacteria, and the total heterotrophic plate count in unfiltered water and filtered water samples after filter usage intervals of 1 through 4 weeks.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 299 water samples were tested. Twenty-nine of the 60 unfiltered water samples contained <it>Legionella </it>of various serogroups (baseline value). In contrast, all samples filtered by the original water filter and all but one of the water samples filtered by the modified filter type remained <it>Legionella</it>-free. No other pathogenic bacteria were detected in any filtered sample. The total plate count in water samples increased during use of both kinds of filters over time. However, for the first 7 days of use, there were significantly fewer water samples containing >100 CFU per mL when using the new filter device compared with the older filters or taps with no filter. No advantage was seen thereafter.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The use of this type of terminal water filter is an appropriate method to protect immunocompromised patients from water-borne pathogens such as <it>Legionella</it>.</p

Positioning pharmacists’ roles in primary health care: a discourse analysis of the compensation plan in Alberta, Canada

Abstract Background A comprehensive Compensation Plan for pharmacy services delivered by community pharmacists was implemented in Alberta, Canada in July 2012. Services covered by the Compensation Plan include care planning services, prescribing services such as adapting prescriptions, and administering a drug or publicly-funded vaccine by injection. Understanding how the Compensation Plan was framed and communicated provides insight into the roles of pharmacists and the potential influence of language on the implementation of services covered by the Compensation Plan by Albertan pharmacists. The objective of this study is to examine the positioning of pharmacists’ roles in documents used to communicate the Compensation Plan to Albertan pharmacists and other audiences. Methods Publicly available documents related to the Compensation Plan, such as news releases or reports, published between January 2012 and December 2015 were obtained from websites such as the Government of Alberta, Alberta Blue Cross, the Alberta College of Pharmacists, the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association, and the Blueprint for Pharmacy. Searches of the Canadian Newsstand database and Google identified additional documents. Discourse analysis was performed using social positioning theory to explore how pharmacists’ roles were constructed in communications about the Compensation Plan. Results In total, 65 publicly available documents were included in the analysis. The Compensation Plan was put forward as a framework for payment for professional services and formal legitimization of pharmacists’ changing professional roles. The discourse associated with the Compensation Plan positioned pharmacists’ roles as: (1) expanding to include services such as medication management for chronic diseases, (2) contributing to primary health care by providing access to services such as prescription renewals and immunizations, and (3) collaborating with other health care team members. Pharmacists’ changing roles were positioned in alignment with the aims of primary health care. Conclusions Social positioning theory provides a useful lens to examine the dynamic and evolving roles of pharmacists. This study provides insight into how communications regarding the Compensation Plan in Alberta, Canada positioned pharmacists’ changing roles in the broader context of changes to primary health care delivery. Our findings may be useful for other jurisdictions considering implementation of remunerated clinical services provided by pharmacists

Towards barcode markers in Fungi: an intron map of Ascomycota mitochondria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A standardized and cost-effective molecular identification system is now an urgent need for Fungi owing to their wide involvement in human life quality. In particular the potential use of mitochondrial DNA species markers has been taken in account. Unfortunately, a serious difficulty in the PCR and bioinformatic surveys is due to the presence of mobile introns in almost all the fungal mitochondrial genes. The aim of this work is to verify the incidence of this phenomenon in Ascomycota, testing, at the same time, a new bioinformatic tool for extracting and managing sequence databases annotations, in order to identify the mitochondrial gene regions where introns are missing so as to propose them as species markers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The general trend towards a large occurrence of introns in the mitochondrial genome of Fungi has been confirmed in Ascomycota by an extensive bioinformatic analysis, performed on all the entries concerning 11 mitochondrial protein coding genes and 2 mitochondrial rRNA (ribosomal RNA) specifying genes, belonging to this phylum, available in public nucleotide sequence databases. A new query approach has been developed to retrieve effectively introns information included in these entries.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After comparing the new query-based approach with a blast-based procedure, with the aim of designing a faithful Ascomycota mitochondrial intron map, the first method appeared clearly the most accurate. Within this map, despite the large pervasiveness of introns, it is possible to distinguish specific regions comprised in several genes, including the full NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 (ND6) gene, which could be considered as barcode candidates for Ascomycota due to their paucity of introns and to their length, above 400 bp, comparable to the lower end size of the length range of barcodes successfully used in animals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The development of the new query system described here would answer the pressing requirement to improve drastically the bioinformatics support to the DNA Barcode Initiative. The large scale investigation of Ascomycota mitochondrial introns performed through this tool, allowing to exclude the introns-rich sequences from the barcode candidates exploration, could be the first step towards a mitochondrial barcoding strategy for these organisms, similar to the standard approach employed in metazoans.</p

Validation of the ITS2 Region as a Novel DNA Barcode for Identifying Medicinal Plant Species

BACKGROUND: The plant working group of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life recommended the two-locus combination of rbcL+matK as the plant barcode, yet the combination was shown to successfully discriminate among 907 samples from 550 species at the species level with a probability of 72%. The group admits that the two-locus barcode is far from perfect due to the low identification rate, and the search is not over. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we compared seven candidate DNA barcodes (psbA-trnH, matK, rbcL, rpoC1, ycf5, ITS2, and ITS) from medicinal plant species. Our ranking criteria included PCR amplification efficiency, differential intra- and inter-specific divergences, and the DNA barcoding gap. Our data suggest that the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA represents the most suitable region for DNA barcoding applications. Furthermore, we tested the discrimination ability of ITS2 in more than 6600 plant samples belonging to 4800 species from 753 distinct genera and found that the rate of successful identification with the ITS2 was 92.7% at the species level. CONCLUSIONS: The ITS2 region can be potentially used as a standard DNA barcode to identify medicinal plants and their closely related species. We also propose that ITS2 can serve as a novel universal barcode for the identification of a broader range of plant taxa

Activity in perceptual classification networks as a basis for human subjective time perception

Despite being a fundamental dimension of experience, how the human brain generates the perception of time remains unknown. Here, we provide a novel explanation for how human time perception might be accomplished, based on non-temporal perceptual classification processes. To demonstrate this proposal, we build an artificial neural system centred on a feed-forward image classification network, functionally similar to human visual processing. In this system, input videos of natural scenes drive changes in network activation, and accumulation of salient changes in activation are used to estimate duration. Estimates produced by this system match human reports made about the same videos, replicating key qualitative biases, including differentiating between scenes of walking around a busy city or sitting in a cafe or office. Our approach provides a working model of duration perception from stimulus to estimation and presents a new direction for examining the foundations of this central aspect of human experience

Cryptic Diversity in Indo-Pacific Coral-Reef Fishes Revealed by DNA-Barcoding Provides New Support to the Centre-of-Overlap Hypothesis

Diversity in coral reef fishes is not evenly distributed and tends to accumulate in the Indo-Malay-Philippines Archipelago (IMPA). The comprehension of the mechanisms that initiated this pattern is in its infancy despite its importance for the conservation of coral reefs. Considering the IMPA either as an area of overlap or a cradle of marine biodiversity, the hypotheses proposed to account for this pattern rely on extant knowledge about taxonomy and species range distribution. The recent large-scale use of standard molecular data (DNA barcoding), however, has revealed the importance of taking into account cryptic diversity when assessing tropical biodiversity. We DNA barcoded 2276 specimens belonging to 668 coral reef fish species through a collaborative effort conducted concomitantly in both Indian and Pacific oceans to appraise the importance of cryptic diversity in species with an Indo-Pacific distribution range. Of the 141 species sampled on each side of the IMPA, 62 presented no spatial structure whereas 67 exhibited divergent lineages on each side of the IMPA with K2P distances ranging between 1% and 12%, and 12 presented several lineages with K2P distances ranging between 3% and 22%. Thus, from this initial pool of 141 nominal species with Indo-Pacific distribution, 79 dissolved into 165 biological units among which 162 were found in a single ocean. This result is consistent with the view that the IMPA accumulates diversity as a consequence of its geological history, its location on the junction between the two main tropical oceans and the presence of a land bridge during glacial times in the IMPA that fostered allopatric divergence and secondary contacts between the Indian and Pacific oceans