2,976 research outputs found
Representing Knowledge About Words
Most on-line lexicons contain only semantic information. Semantic information is usually stored elsewhere, in a form consistent with representation of the syntactic information. This paper reports on research toward developing a large on-line lexicon from machine-readable dictionaries, which contains both syntactic and semantic information in uniform style. The fundamental theory is that of one of the relational lexicon; we describe relational lexicons, discuss our extensions to the usual theory of relational lexicons, rehearse very quickly some of the relations we are dealing with, and show how information for some simple entries is stored
Exploring the implications of distinct mutational signatures and mutation rates in aging and cancer
Veterinary Conduct and Animal Welfare
This paper is a lecture presented to the same Association but fifteen years later: the 131st Annual Congress in 1984. This second presentation contemplates two points: First, it tries to indicate how this criticism has gradually emerged and a historical outline is put forth of the development of veterinary medicine, a differentiation being made between a mythical, a technical, and a critical approach. Second, a discussion of how veterinarians have to associate themselves with this criticism in their professional conduct is presented. This discussion is necessary for two reasons. Veterinarians have increasingly become aware that they bear a professional responsibility not only for animal health but also for animal welfare; and, veterinarians are expected to give their views in concrete situations
Lions and Prions and Deer Demise
Background: Contagious prion diseases – scrapie of sheep and chronic wasting disease of several species in the deer family – give rise to epidemics that seem capable of compromising host population viability. Despite this prospect, the ecological consequences of prion disease epidemics in natural populations have received little consideration. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using a cohort study design, we found that prion infection dramatically lowered survival of free-ranging adult (.2-year-old) mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus): estimated average life expectancy was 5.2 additional years for uninfected deer but only 1.6 additional years for infected deer. Prion infection also increased nearly fourfold the rate of mountain lions (Puma concolor) preying on deer, suggesting that epidemics may alter predator–prey dynamics by facilitating hunting success. Despite selective predation, about one fourth of the adult deer we sampled were infected. High prevalence and low survival of infected deer provided a plausible explanation for the marked decline in this deer population since the 1980s. Conclusion: Remarkably high infection rates sustained in the face of intense predation show that even seemingly complete ecosystems may offer little resistance to the spread and persistence of contagious prion diseases. Moreover, the depression of infected populations may lead to local imbalances in food webs and nutrient cycling in ecosystems in which deer ar
Correcting for Mortality Among Patients Lost to Follow Up on Antiretroviral Therapy in South Africa: A Cohort Analysis
Loss to follow-up (LTF) challenges the reporting of antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes, since it encompasses patients alive but lost to programme and deaths misclassified as LTF. We describe LTF before and after correction for mortality in a primary care ART programme with linkages to the national vital registration system
A preliminary study of the effect of closed incision management with negative pressure wound therapy over high-risk incisions
Background
Certain postoperative wounds are recognised to be associated with more complications than others and may be termed high-risk. Wound healing can be particularly challenging following high-energy trauma where wound necrosis and infection rates are high. Surgical incision for joint arthrodesis can also be considered high-risk as it requires extensive and invasive surgery and postoperative distal limb swelling and wound dehiscence are common. Recent human literature has investigated the use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) over high-risk closed surgical incisions and beneficial effects have been noted including decreased drainage, decreased dehiscence and decreased infection rates. In a randomised, controlled study twenty cases undergoing distal limb high-energy fracture stabilisation or arthrodesis were randomised to NPWT or control groups. All cases had a modified Robert-Jones dressing applied for 72 h postoperatively and NPWT was applied for 24 h in the NPWT group. Morphometric assessment of limb circumference was performed at six sites preoperatively, 24 and 72 h postoperatively. Wound discharge was assessed at 24 and 72 h. Postoperative analgesia protocol was standardised and a Glasgow Composite Measure Pain Score (GCPS) carried out at 24, 48 and 72 h. Complications were noted and differences between groups were assessed.
Results
Percentage change in limb circumference between preoperative and 24 and 72 h postoperative measurements was significantly less at all sites for the NPWT group with exception of the joint proximal to the surgical site and the centre of the operated bone at 72 h. Median discharge score was lower in the NPWT group than the control group at 24 h. No significant differences in GCPS or complication rates were noted.
Conclusions
Digital swelling and wound discharge were reduced when NPWT was employed for closed incision management. Larger studies are required to evaluate whether this will result in reduced discomfort and complication rates postoperatively
Investigation of attentional bias in obsessive compulsive disorder with and without depression in visual search
Copyright: © 2013 Morein-Zamir et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedWhether Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is associated with an increased attentional bias to emotive stimuli remains controversial. Additionally, it is unclear whether comorbid depression modulates abnormal emotional processing in OCD. This study examined attentional bias to OC-relevant scenes using a visual search task. Controls, non-depressed and depressed OCD patients searched for their personally selected positive images amongst their negative distractors, and vice versa. Whilst the OCD groups were slower than healthy individuals in rating the images, there were no group differences in the magnitude of negative bias to concern-related scenes. A second experiment employing a common set of images replicated the results on an additional sample of OCD patients. Although there was a larger bias to negative OC-related images without pre-exposure overall, no group differences in attentional bias were observed. However, OCD patients subsequently rated the images more slowly and more negatively, again suggesting post-attentional processing abnormalities. The results argue against a robust attentional bias in OCD patients, regardless of their depression status and speak to generalized difficulties disengaging from negative valence stimuli. Rather, post-attentional processing abnormalities may account for differences in emotional processing in OCD.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
Mutations in the facilitative glucose transporter GLUT10 alter angiogenesis and cause arterial tortuosity syndrome
Arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS) is an autosomal recessive
disorder characterized by tortuosity, elongation, stenosis and
aneurysm formation in the major arteries owing to disruption
of elastic fibers in the medial layer of the arterial wall1.
Previously, we used homozygosity mapping to map a candidate
locus in a 4.1-Mb region on chromosome 20q13.1 (ref. 2).
Here, we narrowed the candidate region to 1.2 Mb containing
seven genes. Mutations in one of these genes, SLC2A10,
encoding the facilitative glucose transporter GLUT10, were
identified in six ATS families. GLUT10 deficiency is associated
with upregulation of the TGFb pathway in the arterial wall, a
finding also observed in Loeys-Dietz syndrome, in which aortic
aneurysms associate with arterial tortuosity3. The identification
of a glucose transporter gene responsible for altered arterial
morphogenesis is notable in light of the previously suggested
link between GLUT10 and type 2 diabetes4,5. Our data
could provide new insight on the mechanisms causing
microangiopathic changes associated with diabetes and
suggest that therapeutic compounds intervening with
TGFb signaling represent a new treatment strategy
Migrations and habitat use of the smooth hammerhead shark (Sphyrna zygaena) in the Atlantic Ocean
The smooth hammerhead shark, Sphyrna zygaena, is a cosmopolitan semipelagic shark captured as bycatch in pelagic oceanic fisheries, especially pelagic longlines targeting swordfish and/or tunas. From 2012 to 2016, eight smooth hammerheads were tagged with Pop-up Satellite Archival Tags in the inter-tropical region of the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, with successful transmissions received from seven tags (total of 319 tracking days). Results confirmed the smooth hammerhead is a highly mobile species, as the longest migration ever documented for this species (> 6600 km) was recorded. An absence of a diel vertical movement behavior was noted, with the sharks spending most of their time at surface waters (0-50 m) above 23 degrees C. The operating depth of the pelagic long-line gear was measured with Minilog Temperature and Depth Recorders, and the overlap with the species vertical distribution was calculated. The overlap is taking place mainly during the night and is higher for juveniles (similar to 40% of overlap time). The novel information presented can now be used to contribute to the provision of sustainable management tools and serve as input for Ecological Risk Assessments for smooth hammerheads caught in Atlantic pelagic longline fisheries.Oceanario de Lisboa through Project "SHARK-TAG: Migrations and habitat use of the smooth hammerhead shark in the Atlantic Ocean"; Investigador-FCT from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia) [Ref: IF/00253/2014]; EU European Social Fund; Programa Operacional Potencial Human
Diversity and community biomass depend on dispersal and disturbance in microalgal communities
The evidence for species diversity effects
on ecosystem functions is mainly based on studies not
explicitly addressing local or regional processes
regulating coexistence or the importance of community
structure in terms of species evenness. In experimental
communities of marine benthic microalgae,
we altered the successional stages and thus the strength
of local species interactions by manipulating rates of
dispersal and disturbance. The treatments altered
realized species richness, evenness and community
biomass. For species richness, dispersal mattered only
at high disturbance rates; when opening new space,
dispersal led to maximized richness at intermediate
dispersal rates. Evenness, in contrast, decreased with
dispersal at low or no disturbance, i.e. at late successional stages. Community biomass showed a nonlinear
hump-shaped response to increasing dispersal at
all disturbance levels.We found a positive correlation
between richness and biomass at early succession, and
a strong negative correlation between evenness and
biomass at late succession. In early succession both
community biomass and richness depend directly on
dispersal from the regional pool, whereas the late
successional pattern shows that if interactions allow
the most productive species to become dominant,
diverting resources from this species (i.e. higher
evenness) reduces production. Our study emphasizes
the difference in biodiversity–function relationships
over time, as different mechanisms contribute to the
regulation of richness and evenness in early and late
successional stages
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