Does miRNA-155 Promote Cyclooxygenase-2 Expression in Cancer?

MicroRNA (miR)-155 and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 are both elevated in numerous cancers including colorectal cancer. MiR-155 enhances COX-2 expression and is an established regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and inflammation. Inhibition of miR-155 or COX-2 exhibit similar negative effects on tumorigenicity. Thus, it is hypothesized that miR-155 may be a promising target for antagonizing COX-2 expression in colorectal and other cancers

Factors That Contribute to The Disproportionate Rates of HIV among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM): A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Factors That Contribute to The Disproportionate Rates of HIV among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM): A Systematic Review By Santanna Sharay Comer May 2017 BACKGROUND: Black men who have sex with men (MSM) are becoming infected with HIV at considerable rates. Research has shown that the HIV disparity among this population is not explained by a single individual risk factor, but may be explained by factors specific to this population. OBJECTIVE The primary purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review of research articles with regards to factors other than individual risk factors that contribute to the HIV disparity among Black men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States. METHODS A literature search of the databases Pubmed, Psycinfo, and Medline was conducted to identify articles relevant to the HIV disparity among Black MSM. Keywords Black MSM, HIV, HIV infections, disclosure, sexual networks, sexual behaviors, STDs/STIs, partnership characteristics and concurrency were used to identify relevant articles. Full text articles were examined for relevance to the research question and articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria were eliminated. RESULTS Black MSM are disproportionately affected by HIV and research has shown that individual risk factors such as lack of condom use, drug use, and number of sexual partners to name a few does not explain the HIV disparity among this population. This review found evidence that the HIV disparity among Black MSM is best explained by differences in the following social and structural factors: stigma and internalized homophobia; prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s); sexual networks; partnership characteristics; disclosure; socioeconomic factors; lack of access to preventive services and treatment, and bisexuality. CONCLUSION: Rates of HIV infection among Black MSM remains of great concern. There is a critical need for the development and implementation of innovative evidence-based interventions that are culturally tailored to this population

3+1 Approach to the Long Wavelength Iteration Scheme

Large-scale inhomogeneities and anisotropies are modeled using the Long Wavelength Iteration Scheme. In this scheme solutions are obtained as expansions in spatial gradients, which are taken to be small. It is shown that the choice of foliation for spacetime can make the iteration scheme more effective in two respects: (i) the shift vector can be chosen so as to dilute the effect of anisotropy on the late-time value of the extrinsic curvature of the spacelike hypersurfaces of the foliation; and (ii) pure gauge solutions present in a similar calculation using the synchronous gauge vanish when the spacelike hypersurfaces have extrinsic curvature with constant trace. We furthermore verify the main conclusion of the synchronous gauge calculation which is large-scale inhomogeneity decays if the matter--considered to be that of a perfect-fluid with a barotropic equation of state--violates the strong-energy condition. Finally, we obtain the solution for the lapse function and discuss its late-time behaviour. It is found that the lapse function is well-behaved when the matter violates the strong energy condition.Comment: 21 pages, TeX file, already publishe

The Role of Expectation and Memory in the Hindsight Bias Effect: A Test of Cognitive Reconstruction Models

(First Paragraph) The Hindsight Bias Effect (HBE) describes the observation that once people are aware of an outcome to a situation, they have a tendency to falsely believe that they would have predicted the true outcome (see Guibault et al., 2004) Historically, the most popular explanations for this effect can be described as Cognitive Reconstruction Models of retrospective judgment formation (Hawkins & Hastie, 1990). These theories propose the hindsight bias occurs when people do not or cannot directly recall their initial judgment at the point of retrospection. Therefore, people attempt to reconstruct their original predictive judgment by re-judging the situation anew. All of these theories propose that the knowledge of the outcome somehow affects the information or cues used in this reconstruction process, thereby leading to retrospective judgments that are more in favor of the given outcome. However, these Cognitive Reconstruction theories all propose different mechanisms for reconstruction which lead to diverging predictions about what variables should moderate the HBE

Collapse of a Circular Loop of Cosmic String

We study the collapse of a circular loop of cosmic string. The gravitational field of the string is treated using the weak field approximation. The gravitational radiation from the loop is evaluated numerically. The memtric of the loop near the point of collapse is found analytically.Comment: 15 page

Semantic effects in sentence recall: The contribution of immediate vs delayed recall in language assessment

Sentence recall is increasingly used to assess language. It is widely debated what the task is actually testing, but one rarely explored aspect is the contribution of semantics to sentence recall. The few studies that have examined the role of semantics in sentence recall have employed an 'intrusion paradigm', following Potter and Lombardi (1990), and their paradigm relies on interference errors with conclusions based on an analysis of error patterns. We have instead manipulated the semantic plausibility of whole sentences to investigate the effects of semantics on immediate and delayed sentence recall. In Study 1, adults recalled semantically plausible and implausible sentences either immediately or after distracter tasks varying in lexical retrieval demands (backward counting and picture naming). Results revealed significant effects of plausibility, delay, and a significant interaction indicating increasing reliance on semantics as the demands of the distracter tasks increased. Study 2, conducted with 6-year-old children, employed delay conditions that were modified to avoid floor effects (delay with silence and forward counting) and a similar pattern of results emerged. This novel methodology provided robust evidence showing the effectiveness of delayed recall in the assessment of semantics and the effectiveness of immediate recall in the assessment of morphosyntax. The findings from our study clarify the linguistic mechanisms involved in immediate and delayed sentence recall, with implications for the use of recall tasks in language assessment. Learning outcomes: The reader will be able to: (i) understand the difference between immediate and delayed sentence recall and different types of distractors, (ii) understand the utility of immediate and delayed recall sentence recall in language assessment, (iii) discuss suitability of delayed recall for the assessment of semantics

Commissural axon guidance in the developing spinal cord: from Cajal to the present day.

During neuronal development, the formation of neural circuits requires developing axons to traverse a diverse cellular and molecular environment to establish synaptic contacts with the appropriate postsynaptic partners. Essential to this process is the ability of developing axons to navigate guidance molecules presented by specialized populations of cells. These cells partition the distance traveled by growing axons into shorter intervals by serving as intermediate targets, orchestrating the arrival and departure of axons by providing attractive and repulsive guidance cues. The floor plate in the central nervous system (CNS) is a critical intermediate target during neuronal development, required for the extension of commissural axons across the ventral midline. In this review, we begin by giving a historical overview of the ventral commissure and the evolutionary purpose of decussation. We then review the axon guidance studies that have revealed a diverse assortment of midline guidance cues, as well as genetic and molecular regulatory mechanisms required for coordinating the commissural axon response to these cues. Finally, we examine the contribution of dysfunctional axon guidance to neurological diseases

IUPUI Center for Health Geographics

poster abstractThe IUPUI Center for Health Geographics develops and supports research innovation through integration of geographic information science, medical informatics, community informatics, and public health. Our areas of research emphasis include geospatial technologies and standards for health surveillance, spatial and temporal contexts of health behaviors and health outcomes, and space-time models for investigating disease and mortality trends. Our poster highlights our collaborations, which include interdisciplinary partnerships with investigators in the fields of geographic information science, social science, clinical epidemiology, medical informatics, and health services research

Successful salvage therapy of Fusarium endophthalmitis secondary to keratitis: an interventional case series

Grant M Comer, Maxwell S Stem, Stephen J SaxeUniversity of Michigan, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI, USAPurpose: To describe a combination of treatment modalities used for the successful eradication of Fusarium endophthalmitis.Design: Interventional case series.Participants: Three consecutive patients with keratitis-associated Fusarium endophthalmitis.Methods: After failure of traditional management options, a combination of intravitreal and long-term, high-dose systemic voriconazole, topical antifungal medications, and surgical intervention, with penetrating keratoplasty, lensectomy, and endoscopic-guided pars plana vitrectomy, was administered to each patient.Results: All three cases achieved full resolution of the infection, with a final Snellen visual acuity score of 20/50 to 20/70.Conclusions: An aggressive combination of therapeutic modalities, including the removal of subiris abscesses, might be needed for the successful resolution of Fusarium endophthalmitis.Keywords: endophthalmitis, fungal, Fusarium, keratitis, keratoplasty, voriconazole&nbsp