My joint pain, a web-based resource, effects on education and quality of care at 24 months

Objective: To evaluate the effects of the updated version of an evidence-based osteoarthritis (OA) resource and consumer hub, 'My Joint Pain' website, on health education and quality of care over 12 months.Methods: Using a classic quasi-experimental design, participants with symptomatic hip or knee OA were recruited across Australia to evaluate the 'My Joint Pain' website, compared to a control group of non-users from 12 to 24 months. Outcome measures included the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (HEIQ) and the OA Quality Indicator (OAQI) questionnaire. The changes from 12 to 24 months in the HEIQ were evaluated using a generalised linear model. The differences between users and non-users in the OAQI were evaluated using a chi-square test.Results: A total of 277 eligible participants with symptomatic hip or knee OA were recruited at baseline, and 122 participants completed the 24-month surveys (users: n = 35, non-users: n = 87). There was no significant difference between users and non-users for the HEIQ scores at 24 months after adjustments for age, sex and body mass index (BMI). Users had higher emotional distress scores than non-users in univariable analysis. When compared with non-users in the OAQI, users showed favourable changes in receiving information about "self-management" and "acetaminophen" and "non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)" from 12 to 24 months.Conclusion: The evaluation of the updated 'My Joint Pain' website didn't find significant improvements in terms of health education, but it may help delivering useful information about self-management and appropriate use of pharmacological treatments. More strategies are needed to facilitate the uptake of evidence-based self-management and education online resources for OA consumers

Observation of coherent many-body Rabi oscillations

A two-level quantum system coherently driven by a resonant electromagnetic field oscillates sinusoidally between the two levels at frequency $\Omega$ which is proportional to the field amplitude [1]. This phenomenon, known as the Rabi oscillation, has been at the heart of atomic, molecular and optical physics since the seminal work of its namesake and coauthors [2]. Notably, Rabi oscillations in isolated single atoms or dilute gases form the basis for metrological applications such as atomic clocks and precision measurements of physical constants [3]. Both inhomogeneous distribution of coupling strength to the field and interactions between individual atoms reduce the visibility of the oscillation and may even suppress it completely. A remarkable transformation takes place in the limit where only a single excitation can be present in the sample due to either initial conditions or atomic interactions: there arises a collective, many-body Rabi oscillation at a frequency $N^0.5\Omega$ involving all N >> 1 atoms in the sample [4]. This is true even for inhomogeneous atom-field coupling distributions, where single-atom Rabi oscillations may be invisible. When one of the two levels is a strongly interacting Rydberg level, many-body Rabi oscillations emerge as a consequence of the Rydberg excitation blockade. Lukin and coauthors outlined an approach to quantum information processing based on this effect [5]. Here we report initial observations of coherent many-body Rabi oscillations between the ground level and a Rydberg level using several hundred cold rubidium atoms. The strongly pronounced oscillations indicate a nearly complete excitation blockade of the entire mesoscopic ensemble by a single excited atom. The results pave the way towards quantum computation and simulation using ensembles of atoms

Activation of Ventral Tegmental Area 5-HT2C Receptors Reduces Incentive Motivation

FUNDING AND DISCLOSURE The research was funded by Wellcome Trust (WT098012) to LKH; and National Institute of Health (DK056731) and the Marilyn H. Vincent Foundation to MGM. The University of Michigan Transgenic Core facility is partially supported by the NIH-funded University of Michigan Center for Gastrointestinal Research (DK034933). The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Dr Celine Cansell, Ms Raffaella Chianese and the staff of the Medical Research Facility for technical assistance. We thank Dr Vladimir Orduña for the scientific advice and technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

GC-1 mRHBDD1 knockdown spermatogonia cells lose their spermatogenic capacity in mouse seminiferous tubules

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Apoptosis is important for regulating spermatogenesis. The protein mRHBDD1 (mouse homolog of human RHBDD1)/rRHBDD1 (rat homolog of human RHBDD1) is highly expressed in the testis and is involved in apoptosis of spermatogonia. GC-1, a spermatogonia cell line, has the capacity to differentiate into spermatids within the seminiferous tubules. We constructed mRHBDD1 knockdown GC-1 cells and evaluated their capacity to differentiate into spermatids in mouse seminiferous tubules.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Stable mRHBDD1 knockdown GC-1 cells were sensitive to apoptotic stimuli, PS341 and UV irradiation. <it>In vitro</it>, they survived and proliferated normally. However, they lost the ability to survive and differentiate in mouse seminiferous tubules.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings suggest that mRHBDD1 may be associated with mammalian spermatogenesis.</p

Responsibility Analysis by Abstract Interpretation

Given a behavior of interest in the program, statically determining the corresponding responsible entity is a task of critical importance, especially in program security. Classical static analysis techniques (e.g. dependency analysis, taint analysis, slicing, etc.) assist programmers in narrowing down the scope of responsibility, but none of them can explicitly identify the responsible entity. Meanwhile, the causality analysis is generally not pertinent for analyzing programs, and the structural equations model (SEM) of actual causality misses some information inherent in programs, making its analysis on programs imprecise. In this paper, a novel definition of responsibility based on the abstraction of event trace semantics is proposed, which can be applied in program security and other scientific fields. Briefly speaking, an entity ER is responsible for behavior B, if and only if ER is free to choose its input value, and such a choice is the first one that ensures the occurrence of B in the forthcoming execution. Compared to current analysis methods, the responsibility analysis is more precise. In addition, our definition of responsibility takes into account the cognizance of the observer, which, to the best of our knowledge, is a new innovative idea in program analysis.Comment: This is the extended version (33 pages) of a paper to be appeared in the Static Analysis Symposium (SAS) 201

Novel insights into host-fungal pathogen interactions derived from live-cell imaging

Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge funding from the Wellcome Trust (080088, 086827, 075470 and 099215) including a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award for Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology 097377 and FP7-2007–2013 grant agreement HEALTH-F2-2010-260338–ALLFUN to NARG.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Quantum Computing

Quantum mechanics---the theory describing the fundamental workings of nature---is famously counterintuitive: it predicts that a particle can be in two places at the same time, and that two remote particles can be inextricably and instantaneously linked. These predictions have been the topic of intense metaphysical debate ever since the theory's inception early last century. However, supreme predictive power combined with direct experimental observation of some of these unusual phenomena leave little doubt as to its fundamental correctness. In fact, without quantum mechanics we could not explain the workings of a laser, nor indeed how a fridge magnet operates. Over the last several decades quantum information science has emerged to seek answers to the question: can we gain some advantage by storing, transmitting and processing information encoded in systems that exhibit these unique quantum properties? Today it is understood that the answer is yes. Many research groups around the world are working towards one of the most ambitious goals humankind has ever embarked upon: a quantum computer that promises to exponentially improve computational power for particular tasks. A number of physical systems, spanning much of modern physics, are being developed for this task---ranging from single particles of light to superconducting circuits---and it is not yet clear which, if any, will ultimately prove successful. Here we describe the latest developments for each of the leading approaches and explain what the major challenges are for the future.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, 291 references. Early draft of Nature 464, 45-53 (4 March 2010). Published version is more up-to-date and has several corrections, but is half the length with far fewer reference

Future scenarios for oil palm mortality and infection by Phytophthora palmivora in Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil, extrapolated to Malaysia and Indonesia

Palm oil is a very important commodity especially to Malaysia and Indonesia. However, Latin American countries have significant industries, particularly Colombia. Climate change (CC) is a highly probable phenomenon which will affect diseases of oil palm (OP) with Phytophthora palmivora causing devastating outbreaks in Latin America and especially Colombia. Furthermore, the oomycete is an endemic pathogen to other crops in Malaysia such as durian, and is capable of causing disease of OP in vitro. A similar disease has been recorded in Thailand. It is crucial that P. palmivora is controlled in Malaysia and Indonesia because the organism is highly virulent, although there are acute and chronic forms. This current paper investigates the effect of CC on P. palmivora disease and on OP survival via a CLIMEX model for future suitable growth of OP. Postulated schemes are provided for Malaysia and Indonesia for acute and chronic forms of the disease which indicate an extremely high and increasing threat, likely to reduce the sustainability of the OP industry by 2050 and further by 2070 and/or 2100. Brazil appears less threatened by the disease under these scenarios, but their OP is likely to have 100% mortality. The chronic and acute forms of the malady present reduced and high threats respectively to Malaysia and Indonesia. The data herein will be useful for, inter alia, plantation managers who will be able to assess the accuracy of these scenarios in the future. Amelioration methods are required urgently and quarantine procedures need strengthening.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Inducible deletion of CD28 prior to secondary nippostrongylus brasiliensis infection impairs worm expulsion and recall of protective memory CD4 (+) T cell responses

IL-13 driven Th2 immunity is indispensable for host protection against infection with the gastrointestinal nematode Nippostronglus brasiliensis. Disruption of CD28 mediated costimulation impairs development of adequate Th2 immunity, showing an importance for CD28 during the initiation of an immune response against this pathogen. In this study, we used global CD28−/− mice and a recently established mouse model that allows for inducible deletion of the cd28 gene by oral administration of tamoxifen (CD28−/loxCre+/−+TM) to resolve the controversy surrounding the requirement of CD28 costimulation for recall of protective memory responses against pathogenic infections. Following primary infection with N. brasiliensis, CD28−/− mice had delayed expulsion of adult worms in the small intestine compared to wild-type C57BL/6 mice that cleared the infection by day 9 post-infection. Delayed expulsion was associated with reduced production of IL-13 and reduced serum levels of antigen specific IgG1 and total IgE. Interestingly, abrogation of CD28 costimulation in CD28−/loxCre+/− mice by oral administration of tamoxifen prior to secondary infection with N. brasiliensis resulted in impaired worm expulsion, similarly to infected CD28−/− mice. This was associated with reduced production of the Th2 cytokines IL-13 and IL-4, diminished serum titres of antigen specific IgG1 and total IgE and a reduced CXCR5+ TFH cell population. Furthermore, total number of CD4+ T cells and B220+ B cells secreting Th1 and Th2 cytokines were significantly reduced in CD28−/− mice and tamoxifen treated CD28−/loxCre+/− mice compared to C57BL/6 mice. Importantly, interfering with CD28 costimulatory signalling before re-infection impaired the recruitment and/or expansion of central and effector memory CD4+ T cells and follicular B cells to the draining lymph node of tamoxifen treated CD28−/loxCre+/− mice. Therefore, it can be concluded that CD28 costimulation is essential for conferring host protection during secondary N. brasiliensis infection

Is body size at birth related to circadian salivary cortisol levels in adulthood? Results from a longitudinal cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The hypothesis of fetal origins of adult disease has during the last decades received interest as an explanation of chronic, e.g. cardiovascular, disease in adulthood stemming from fetal environmental conditions. Early programming and enduring dysregulations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA axis), with cortisol as its end product, has been proposed as a possible mechanism by which birth weight influence later health status. However, the fetal origin of the adult cortisol regulation has been insufficiently studied. The present study aims to examine if body size at birth is related to circadian cortisol levels at 43 years.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants were drawn from a prospective cohort study (n = 752, 74.5%). Salivary cortisol samples were collected at four times during one day at 43 years, and information on birth size was collected retrospectively from delivery records. Information on body mass during adolescence and adulthood and on health behavior, medication and medical conditions at 43 years was collected prospectively by questionnaire and examined as potential confounders. Participants born preterm or < 2500 g were excluded from the main analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Across the normal spectrum, size at birth (birth weight and ponderal index) was positively related to total (area under the curve, AUC) and bedtime cortisol levels in the total sample. Results were more consistent in men than in women. Descriptively, participants born preterm or < 2500 g also seemed to display elevated evening and total cortisol levels. No associations were found for birth length or for the cortisol awakening response (CAR).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results are contradictory to previously reported negative associations between birth weight and adult cortisol levels, and thus tentatively question the assumption that only low birth weight predicts future physiological dysregulations.</p