Tracking enforcement rates in New York City, 2003-2014. Report Presented to the Citizens Crime Commission.

Our first report documented misdemeanor arrests in New York City and compared those trends to Upstate Cities in New York State (i.e., Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers) and the rest of New York State for over three decades. The first report, entitled Trends in Misdemeanor Arrests in New York, examined not only arrest rates but also examined charges, dispositions, and sentences. Our second report was entitled The Summons Report : Trends in the Issuance and Disposition of Summonses in New York City, 2003-2014. This report examined trends in issuance patterns by age and gender, charges, dispositions, and sentences. Similar to the first report, we were able to track the enforcement activity from contact with enforcement officer to disposition. This third report updates the demographic trends from the first two reports to include 2014. We also added data reflecting trends in the practice of pedestrian stops, known as stop, question, and frisk in New York City. These stops represent a different kind of enforcement activity, one that only infrequently results in an arrest or summons, but still represent an assertion of legal authority over an individual by police. -- Page 7

Requirement of Podocalyxin in TGF-Beta Induced Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition

Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is characterized by the development of mesenchymal properties such as a fibroblast-like morphology with altered cytoskeletal organization and enhanced migratory potential. We report that the expression of podocalyxin (PODXL), a member of the CD34 family, is markedly increased during TGF-β induced EMT. PODXL is enriched on the leading edges of migrating A549 cells. Silencing of podocalyxin expression reduced cell ruffle formation, spreading, migration and affected the expression patterns of several proteins that normally change during EMT (e.g., vimentin, E-cadherin). Cytoskeletion assembly in EMT was also found to be dependent on the production of podocalyin. Compositional analysis of podocalyxin containing immunoprecipitates revealed that collagen type 1 was consistently associated with these isolates. Collagen type 1 was also found to co-localize with podocalyxin on the leading edges of migrating cells. The interactions with collagen may be a critical aspect of podocalyxin function. Podocalyxin is an important regulator of the EMT like process as it regulates the loss of epithelial features and the acquisition of a motile phenotype

Activity in Inferior Parietal and Medial Prefrontal Cortex Signals the Accumulation of Evidence in a Probability Learning Task

In an uncertain environment, probabilities are key to predicting future events and making adaptive choices. However, little is known about how humans learn such probabilities and where and how they are encoded in the brain, especially when they concern more than two outcomes. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), young adults learned the probabilities of uncertain stimuli through repetitive sampling. Stimuli represented payoffs and participants had to predict their occurrence to maximize their earnings. Choices indicated loss and risk aversion but unbiased estimation of probabilities. BOLD response in medial prefrontal cortex and angular gyri increased linearly with the probability of the currently observed stimulus, untainted by its value. Connectivity analyses during rest and task revealed that these regions belonged to the default mode network. The activation of past outcomes in memory is evoked as a possible mechanism to explain the engagement of the default mode network in probability learning. A BOLD response relating to value was detected only at decision time, mainly in striatum. It is concluded that activity in inferior parietal and medial prefrontal cortex reflects the amount of evidence accumulated in favor of competing and uncertain outcomes

Public health in community pharmacy: a systematic review of pharmacist and consumer views

BACKGROUND The increasing involvement of pharmacists in public health will require changes in the behaviour of both pharmacists and the general public. A great deal of research has shown that attitudes and beliefs are important determinants of behaviour. This review aims to examine the beliefs and attitudes of pharmacists and consumers towards pharmaceutical public health in order to inform how best to support and improve this service. METHODS Five electronic databases were searched for articles published in English between 2001 and 2010. Titles and abstracts were screened by one researcher according to the inclusion criteria. Papers were included if they assessed pharmacy staff or consumer attitudes towards pharmaceutical public health. Full papers identified for inclusion were assessed by a second researcher and data were extracted by one researcher. RESULTS From the 5628 papers identified, 63 studies in 67 papers were included. Pharmacy staff: Most pharmacists viewed public health services as important and part of their role but secondary to medicine related roles. Pharmacists' confidence in providing public health services was on the whole average to low. Time was consistently identified as a barrier to providing public health services. Lack of an adequate counselling space, lack of demand and expectation of a negative reaction from customers were also reported by some pharmacists as barriers. A need for further training was identified in relation to a number of public health services. Consumers: Most pharmacy users had never been offered public health services by their pharmacist and did not expect to be offered. Consumers viewed pharmacists as appropriate providers of public health advice but had mixed views on the pharmacists' ability to do this. Satisfaction was found to be high in those that had experienced pharmaceutical public health. CONCLUSIONS There has been little change in customer and pharmacist attitudes since reviews conducted nearly 10 years previously. In order to improve the public health services provided in community pharmacy, training must aim to increase pharmacists' confidence in providing these services. Confident, well trained pharmacists should be able to offer public health service more proactively which is likely to have a positive impact on customer attitudes and health

Adrenal function recovery after durable oral corticosteroid sparing with benralizumab in the PONENTE study

Background Oral corticosteroid (OCS) dependence among patients with severe eosinophilic asthma can cause adverse outcomes, including adrenal insufficiency. PONENTE's OCS reduction phase showed that, following benralizumab initiation, 91.5% of patients eliminated corticosteroids or achieved a final dosage ≤5 mg·day-1 (median (range) 0.0 (0.0-40.0) mg). Methods The maintenance phase assessed the durability of corticosteroid reduction and further adrenal function recovery. For ~6 months, patients continued benralizumab 30 mg every 8 weeks without corticosteroids or with the final dosage achieved during the reduction phase. Investigators could prescribe corticosteroids for asthma exacerbations or increase daily dosages for asthma control deteriorations. Outcomes included changes in daily OCS dosage, Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ)-6 and St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), as well as adrenal status, asthma exacerbations and adverse events. Results 598 patients entered PONENTE; 563 (94.1%) completed the reduction phase and entered the maintenance phase. From the end of reduction to the end of maintenance, the median (range) OCS dosage was unchanged (0.0 (0.0-40.0) mg), 3.2% (n=18/563) of patients experienced daily dosage increases, the mean ACQ-6 score decreased from 1.26 to 1.18 and 84.5% (n=476/563) of patients were exacerbation free. The mean SGRQ improvement (-19.65 points) from baseline to the end of maintenance indicated substantial quality-of-life improvements. Of patients entering the maintenance phase with adrenal insufficiency, 32.4% (n=104/321) demonstrated an improvement in adrenal function. Adverse events were consistent with previous reports. Conclusions Most patients successfully maintained maximal OCS reduction while achieving improved asthma control with few exacerbations and maintaining or recovering adrenal function

Staged induction of HIV-1 glycan–dependent broadly neutralizing antibodies

A preventive HIV-1 vaccine should induce HIV-1–specific broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs). However, bnAbs generally require high levels of somatic hypermutation (SHM) to acquire breadth, and current vaccine strategies have not been successful in inducing bnAbs. Because bnAbs directed against a glycosylated site adjacent to the third variable loop (V3) of the HIV-1 envelope protein require limited SHM, the V3-glycan epitope is an attractive vaccine target. By studying the cooperation among multiple V3-glycan B cell lineages and their coevolution with autologous virus throughout 5 years of infection, we identify key events in the ontogeny of a V3-glycan bnAb. Two autologous neutralizing antibody lineages selected for virus escape mutations and consequently allowed initiation and affinity maturation of a V3-glycan bnAb lineage. The nucleotide substitution required to initiate the bnAb lineage occurred at a low-probability site for activation-induced cytidine deaminase activity. Cooperation of B cell lineages and an improbable mutation critical for bnAb activity defined the necessary events leading to breadth in this V3-glycan bnAb lineage. These findings may, in part, explain why initiation of V3-glycan bnAbs is rare, and suggest an immunization strategy for inducing similar V3-glycan bnAbs

Leptin Administration Favors Muscle Mass Accretion by Decreasing FoxO3a and Increasing PGC-1α in ob/ob Mice

Absence of leptin has been associated with reduced skeletal muscle mass in leptin-deficient ob/ob mice. The aim of our study was to examine the effect of leptin on the catabolic and anabolic pathways regulating muscle mass. Gastrocnemius, extensor digitorum longus and soleus muscle mass as well as fiber size were significantly lower in ob/ob mice compared to wild type littermates, being significantly increased by leptin administration (P<0.001). This effect was associated with an inactivation of the muscle atrophy-related transcription factor forkhead box class O3 (FoxO3a) (P<0.05), and with a decrease in the protein expression levels of the E3 ubiquitin-ligases muscle atrophy F-box (MAFbx) (P<0.05) and muscle RING finger 1 (MuRF1) (P<0.05). Moreover, leptin increased (P<0.01) protein expression levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α), a regulator of muscle fiber type, and decreased (P<0.05) myostatin protein, a negative regulator of muscle growth. Leptin administration also activated (P<0.01) the regulators of cell cycle progression proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and cyclin D1, and increased (P<0.01) myofibrillar protein troponin T. The present study provides evidence that leptin treatment may increase muscle mass of ob/ob mice by inhibiting myofibrillar protein degradation as well as enhancing muscle cell proliferation

How do cardiologists select patients for dual antiplatelet therapy continuation beyond 1 year after a myocardial infarction? Insights from the EYESHOT Post-MI Study

Background: Current guidelines suggest to consider dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) continuation for longer than 12 months in selected patients with myocardial infarction (MI). Hypothesis: We sought to assess the criteria used by cardiologists in daily practice to select patients with a history of MI eligible for DAPT continuation beyond 1 year. Methods: We analyzed data from the EYESHOT Post-MI, a prospective, observational, nationwide study aimed to evaluate the management of patients presenting to cardiologists 1 to 3 years from the last MI event. Results: Out of the 1633 post-MI patients enrolled in the study between March and December 2017, 557 (34.1%) were on DAPT at the time of enrolment, and 450 (27.6%) were prescribed DAPT after cardiologist assessment. At multivariate analyses, a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with multiple stents and the presence of peripheral artery disease (PAD) resulted as independent predictors of DAPT continuation, while atrial fibrillation was the only independent predictor of DAPT interruption for patients both at the second and the third year from MI at enrolment and the time of discharge/end of the visit. Conclusions: Risk scores recommended by current guidelines for guiding decisions on DAPT duration are underused and misused in clinical practice. A PCI with multiple stents and a history of PAD resulted as the clinical variables more frequently associated with DAPT continuation beyond 1 year from the index MI

Accurate classification of RNA structures using topological fingerprints

While RNAs are well known to possess complex structures, functionally similar RNAs often have little sequence similarity. While the exact size and spacing of base-paired regions vary, functionally similar RNAs have pronounced similarity in the arrangement, or topology, of base-paired stems. Furthermore, predicted RNA structures often lack pseudoknots (a crucial aspect of biological activity), and are only partially correct, or incomplete. A topological approach addresses all of these difficulties. In this work we describe each RNA structure as a graph that can be converted to a topological spectrum (RNA fingerprint). The set of subgraphs in an RNA structure, its RNA fingerprint, can be compared with the fingerprints of other RNA structures to identify and correctly classify functionally related RNAs. Topologically similar RNAs can be identified even when a large fraction, up to 30%, of the stems are omitted, indicating that highly accurate structures are not necessary. We investigate the performance of the RNA fingerprint approach on a set of eight highly curated RNA families, with diverse sizes and functions, containing pseudoknots, and with little sequence similarity–an especially difficult test set. In spite of the difficult test set, the RNA fingerprint approach is very successful (ROC AUC \u3e 0.95). Due to the inclusion of pseudoknots, the RNA fingerprint approach both covers a wider range of possible structures than methods based only on secondary structure, and its tolerance for incomplete structures suggests that it can be applied even to predicted structures. Source code is freely available at https://github.rcac.purdue.edu/mgribsko/XIOS_RNA_fingerprint