Current diagnosis and treatment algorithms for anal incontinence

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75666/1/j.1464-410X.2006.06307.x.pd

Illness Schema Activation and the Effects of Illness Seasonality on Accessibility of Implicit Illness-Related Information

The Common-Sense Model (CSM) of illness self-regulation is a leading theoretical framework describing the process by which an individual recognizes that he or she is physically ill and subsequently attempts to manage that illness state. The CSM proposes that people possess schematically organized implicit cognitive representations of health threats comprising information about illness such as symptoms, causes, label, duration, consequences, and procedures for managing threat [1, 2, 3, 4]. The proposed function of these stored knowledge structures is to activate a self-regulation process that might protect or restore a state of well-being [5]. The CSM proposes that the schematic representation is centrally activated by detection of deviations from the normal functioning self (i.e., experienced symptoms). The identification of illness and the initiation of self-management attempts follow from the search for illness-relevant cognitive structures and the matching of the content of illness schema to the symptomatic experience. For example, a headache (a symptomatic deviation from normal somatic experience) might activate illness schemata containing the cognitive representation of “headache” such as “hangover,” “dehydration,” or “flu.” The matching of the symptom to a particular illness schema will follow from the search and match to other aspects of plausible illness representations, such as its probable cause or duration (timeline).Full Tex

Archaeological Support for the Three-Stage Expansion of Modern Humans across Northeastern Eurasia and into the Americas

Background Understanding the dynamics of the human range expansion across northeastern Eurasia during the late Pleistocene is central to establishing empirical temporal constraints on the colonization of the Americas [1]. Opinions vary widely on how and when the Americas were colonized, with advocates supporting either a pre-[2] or post-[1], [3], [4], [5], [6] last glacial maximum (LGM) colonization, via either a land bridge across Beringia [3], [4], [5], a sea-faring Pacific Rim coastal route [1], [3], a trans-Arctic route [4], or a trans-Atlantic oceanic route [5]. Here we analyze a large sample of radiocarbon dates from the northeast Eurasian Upper Paleolithic to identify the origin of this expansion, and estimate the velocity of colonization wave as it moved across northern Eurasia and into the Americas. Methodology/Principal Findings We use diffusion models [6], [7] to quantify these dynamics. Our results show the expansion originated in the Altai region of southern Siberia ~46kBP , and from there expanded across northern Eurasia at an average velocity of 0.16 km per year. However, the movement of the colonizing wave was not continuous but underwent three distinct phases: 1) an initial expansion from 47-32k calBP; 2) a hiatus from ~32-16k calBP, and 3) a second expansion after the LGM ~16k calBP. These results provide archaeological support for the recently proposed three-stage model of the colonization of the Americas [8], [9]. Our results falsify the hypothesis of a pre-LGM terrestrial colonization of the Americas and we discuss the importance of these empirical results in the light of alternative models. Conclusions/Significance Our results demonstrate that the radiocarbon record of Upper Paleolithic northeastern Eurasia supports a post-LGM terrestrial colonization of the Americas falsifying the proposed pre-LGM terrestrial colonization of the Americas. We show that this expansion was not a simple process, but proceeded in three phases, consistent with genetic data, largely in response to the variable climatic conditions of late Pleistocene northeast Eurasia. Further, the constraints imposed by the spatiotemporal gradient in the empirical radiocarbon record across this entire region suggests that North America cannot have been colonized much before the existing Clovis radiocarbon record suggests

Comparison of Handaxes from Bose Basin (China) and the Western Acheulean Indicates Convergence of Form, Not Cognitive Differences

Alleged differences between Palaeolithic assemblages from eastern Asia and the west have been the focus of controversial discussion for over half a century, most famously in terms of the so-called ‘Movius Line’. Recent discussion has centered on issues of comparability between handaxes from eastern Asian and ‘Acheulean’ examples from western portions of the Old World. Here, we present a multivariate morphometric analysis in order to more fully document how Mid-Pleistocene (i.e. ∼803 Kyr) handaxes from Bose Basin, China compare to examples from the west, as well as with additional (Mode 1) cores from across the Old World. Results show that handaxes from both the western Old World and Bose are significantly different from the Mode 1 cores, suggesting a gross comparability with regard to functionally-related form. Results also demonstrate overlap between the ranges of shape variation in Acheulean handaxes and those from Bose, demonstrating that neither raw material nor cognitive factors were an absolute impediment to Bose hominins in making comparable handaxe forms to their hominin kin west of the Movius Line. However, the shapes of western handaxes are different from the Bose examples to a statistically significant degree. Moreover, the handaxe assemblages from the western Old World are all more similar to each other than any individual assemblage is to the Bose handaxes. Variation in handaxe form is also comparatively high for the Bose material, consistent with suggestions that they represent an emergent, convergent instance of handaxe technology authored by Pleistocene hominins with cognitive capacities directly comparable to those of ‘Acheulean’ hominins

Genetic analysis of the naked trait in panicles of hexaploid oat

The aim of this study was to estimate the number of genes that control the naked (hull-less) trait and the mode of expression of this characteristic in panicles of hexaploid white oat. Parents and the segregating population (in the F2 and F3 generations) were evaluated in regard to the presence and distribution of naked grains in panicles of individual oat plants. For each plant, a drawing of the main panicle was developed. From the drawings obtained in the progenies of the F2 population, six distinct phenotypic classes were produced. The expected phenotypic proportion of 3:9:4 (naked:segregating:hulled) was that which best fit by the Chi-square test. In the F3 generation, the results showed agreement with the hypothesis observed in the F2 generation. The naked trait in oat is passed on by two genes and the greatest expression of this trait occurs in the upper third of the panicles. Expression of this trait in oats is not complete, even in homozygous genotypes