Deception in context: coding nonverbal cues, situational variables and risk of detection

There are many situations in which deception may arise and understanding the behaviors associated with it are compounded by various contexts in which it may occur. This paper sets out a coding protocol for identifying cues to deception and reports on three studies, in which deception was studied in different contexts. The contexts involved manipulating risks (i.e., probability) of being detected and reconnaissance, both of which are related to terrorist activities. Two of the studies examined the impact of changing the risks of deception detection, whilst the third investigated increased cognitive demand of duplex deception tasks including reconnaissance and deception. In all three studies, cues to deception were analyzed in relation to observable body movements and subjective impressions given by participants. In general, the results indicate a pattern of hand movement reduction by deceivers, and suggest the notion that raising the risk of detection influences deceivers? behaviors. Participants in the higher risk condition displayed increased negative affect (found in deceivers) and tension (found in both deceivers and truth-tellers) than those in lower risk conditions

New Developments in Brief Interventions to Treat Problem Drinking in Nonspecialty Health Care Settings

The delivery of brief interventions (BIs) in health care settings to reduce problematic alcohol consumption is a key preventive strategy for public health. However, evidence of effectiveness beyond primary care is inconsistent. Patient populations and intervention components are heterogeneous. Also, evidence for successful implementation strategies is limited. In this article, recent literature is reviewed covering BI effectiveness for patient populations and subgroups, and design and implementation of BIs. Support is evident for short-term effectiveness in hospital settings, but long-term effects may be confounded by changes in control groups. Limited evidence suggests effectiveness with young patients not admitted as a consequence of alcohol, dependent patients, and binge drinkers. Influential BI components include high-quality change plans and provider characteristics. Health professionals endorse BI and feel confident in delivering it, but training and support initiatives continue to show no significant effects on uptake, prompting calls for systematic approaches to implementing BI in health care

Micronutrient status and intervention programs in Malaysia

Approximately 70% of the world's malnourished children live in Asia, giving that region the highest concentration of childhood malnutrition worldwide. Prevalence of stunting and underweight are high especially in south Asia where one in every two preschool children is stunted. Iron-deficiency anemia affects 40%-50% of preschool and primary schoolchildren. Nearly half of all vitamin A deficiency and xerophthalmia in the world occurs in south and southeast Asia. Iodine deficiency disorders have resulted in high goiter rates in India, Pakistan, and parts of Indonesia. Compared with other developing countries in Asia, the nutrition situation in Malaysia is considerably better, owing to rapid economic and socioeconomic development that has occurred since Malaysia gained its independence in 1957. Prevalence of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiency is markedly lower in Malaysian children. Nonetheless, undernutrition in the form of underweight, stunting, and anemia can be found in poor communities throughout the country. A prevalence of 25% underweight and 35% stunting is reported among young children from poor rural households. Anemia and subclinical forms of vitamin A deficiency were reported in children under 5 years old. Typical of a country in nutrition transition, Malaysia faces the dual burden of malnutrition in children, with the persistence of undernutrition problems especially among the poor and the emerging overweight problem especially in urban areas. Since 1996, nutrition programs of the government sector are coordinated under the National Plan of Action for Nutrition. These activities and other nutrition intervention efforts by other agencies are discussed in this paper

Recruiting medical groups for research: relationships, reputation, requirements, rewards, reciprocity, resolution, and respect

BACKGROUND: In order to conduct good implementation science research, it will be necessary to recruit and obtain good cooperation and comprehensive information from complete medical practice organizations. The goal of this paper is to report an effective example of such a recruitment effort for a study of the organizational aspects of depression care quality. METHODS: There were 41 medical groups in the Minnesota region that were eligible for participation in the study because they had sufficient numbers of patients with depression. We documented the steps required to both recruit their participation in this study and obtain their completion of two questionnaire surveys and two telephone interviews. RESULTS: All 41 medical groups agreed to participate and consented to our use of confidential data about their care quality. In addition, all 82 medical directors and quality improvement coordinators completed the necessary questionnaires and interviews. The key factors explaining this success can be summarized as the seven R's: Relationships, Reputation, Requirements, Rewards, Reciprocity, Resolution, and Respect. CONCLUSION: While all studies will not have all of these factors in such good alignment, attention to them may be important to other efforts to add to our knowledge of implementation science

The Custodial Randall-Sundrum Model: From Precision Tests to Higgs Physics

We reexamine the Randall-Sundrum (RS) model with enlarged gauge symmetry SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R x U(1)_X x P_LR in the presence of a brane-localized Higgs sector. In contrast to the existing literature, we perform the Kaluza-Klein (KK) decomposition within the mass basis, which avoids the truncation of the KK towers. Expanding the low-energy spectrum as well as the gauge couplings in powers of the Higgs vacuum expectation value, we obtain analytic formulas which allow for a deep understanding of the model-specific protection mechanisms of the T parameter and the left-handed Z-boson couplings. In particular, in the latter case we explain which contributions escape protection and identify them with the irreducible sources of P_LR symmetry breaking. We furthermore show explicitly that no protection mechanism is present in the charged-current sector confirming existing model-independent findings. The main focus of the phenomenological part of our work is a detailed discussion of Higgs-boson couplings and their impact on physics at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. For the first time, a complete one-loop calculation of all relevant Higgs-boson production and decay channels is presented, incorporating the effects stemming from the extended electroweak gauge-boson and fermion sectors.Comment: 74 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. v2: Matches version published in JHE

Association of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha gene polymorphism with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in a Caucasian (Hungarian) sample

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1alpha) is a transcription factor that plays an important role in neo-vascularisation, embryonic pancreas beta-cell mass development, and beta cell protection. Recently a non synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (g.C45035T SNP, rs11549465) of HIF-1alpha gene, resulting in the p.P582S amino acid change has been shown to be associated with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in a Japanese population. Our aim was to replicate these findings on a Caucasian (Hungarian) population, as well as to study whether this genetic effect is restricted to T2DM or can be expanded to diabetes in general. METHODS: A large Caucasian sample (N = 890) was recruited including 370 T2DM, 166 T1DM and 354 healthy subjects. Genotyping was validated by two independent methods: a restriction fragment analysis (RFLP) and a real time PCR using TaqMan probes. An overestimation of heterozygotes by RFLP was observed as a consequence of a nearby SNP (rs34005929). Therefore genotyping results of the justified TaqMan system were accepted. The measured genotype distribution corresponded to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P = 0.740) RESULTS: As the TT genotype was extremely rare in the population (0.6% in clinical sample and 2.5% in controls), the genotypes were grouped as T absent (CC) and T present (CT and TT). Genotype-wise analysis showed a significant increase of T present group in controls (24.0%) as compared to patients (16.8%, P = 0.008). This genetic effect was demonstrated in the separated samples of type 1 (15.1%, P = 0.020), and also in type 2 (17.6%, P = 0.032) diabetes. Allele-wise analysis gave identical results showing a higher frequency of the T allele in the control sample (13.3%) than in the clinical sample (8.7%, P = 0.002) with similar results in type 1 (7.8%, P = 0.010) and type 2 (9.1%, P = 0.011) diabetes. The odds ratio for diabetes (either type 1 or 2) was 1.56 in the presence of the C allele. CONCLUSION: We confirmed the protective effect of a rare genetic variant of HIF-1alpha gene against type 2 diabetes in a Caucasian sample. Moreover we demonstrated a genetic contribution of the same polymorphism in type 1 diabetes as well, supporting a possible overlap in pathomechanism for T2DM and a T1DM

Toxicity Ranking and Toxic Mode of Action Evaluation of Commonly Used Agricultural Adjuvants on the Basis of Bacterial Gene Expression Profiles

The omnipresent group of pesticide adjuvants are often referred to as “inert” ingredients, a rather misleading term since consumers associate this term with “safe”. The upcoming new EU regulation concerning the introduction of plant protection products on the market (EC1107/2009) includes for the first time the demand for information on the possible negative effects of not only the active ingredients but also the used adjuvants. This new regulation requires basic toxicological information that allows decisions on the use/ban or preference of use of available adjuvants. In this study we obtained toxicological relevant information through a multiple endpoint reporter assay for a broad selection of commonly used adjuvants including several solvents (e.g. isophorone) and non-ionic surfactants (e.g. ethoxylated alcohols). The used assay allows the toxicity screening in a mechanistic way, with direct measurement of specific toxicological responses (e.g. oxidative stress, DNA damage, membrane damage and general cell lesions). The results show that the selected solvents are less toxic than the surfactants, suggesting that solvents may have a preference of use, but further research on more compounds is needed to confirm this observation. The gene expression profiles of the selected surfactants reveal that a phenol (ethoxylated tristyrylphenol) and an organosilicone surfactant (ethoxylated trisiloxane) show little or no inductions at EC20 concentrations, making them preferred surfactants for use in different applications. The organosilicone surfactant shows little or no toxicity and good adjuvant properties. However, this study also illustrates possible genotoxicity (induction of the bacterial SOS response) for several surfactants (POEA, AE, tri-EO, EO FA and EO NP) and one solvent (gamma-butyrolactone). Although the number of compounds that were evaluated is rather limited (13), the results show that the used reporter assay is a promising tool to rank commonly used agricultural adjuvants based on toxicity and toxic mode of action data

Characterization of the Channel Constriction Allowing the Access of the Substrate to the Active Site of Yeast Oxidosqualene Cyclase

In oxidosqualene cyclases (OSCs), an enzyme which has been extensively studied as a target for hypocholesterolemic or antifungal drugs, a lipophilic channel connects the surface of the protein with the active site cavity. Active site and channel are separated by a narrow constriction operating as a mobile gate for the substrate passage. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae OSC, two aminoacidic residues of the channel/constriction apparatus, Ala525 and Glu526, were previously showed as critical for maintaining the enzyme functionality. In this work sixteen novel mutants, each bearing a substitution at or around the channel constrictions, were tested for their enzymatic activity. Modelling studies showed that the most functionality-lowering substitutions deeply alter the H-bond network involving the channel/constriction apparatus. A rotation of Tyr239 is proposed as part of the mechanism permitting the access of the substrate to the active site. The inhibition of OSC by squalene was used as a tool for understanding whether the residues under study are involved in a pre-catalytic selection and docking of the substrate oxidosqualene

Interpopulation crosses, inheritance study, and genetic variability in the brown planthopper complex, Nilaparvata lugens (Homoptera: Delphacidae)

Studies on hybridization, inheritance, and population genetics of brown planthoppers that infest rice and weeds were undertaken using starch gel electrophoresis to determine whether the weed-infesting population represents a biological race or a species. F(1) and F(2) generations were produced by crosses between parental insects from the two populations with little indication of hybrid sterility. Gpi, Mdh, and Idh loci were inherited in a simple Mendelian fashion in families of two sympatric populations. Sixteen populations of Nilaparvata spp. from eight locations were collected. The Mdh, Idh, Pgm, Gpi, 6Pgd, and Acp loci were polymorphic. The N. lugens of rice with high esterase activity were clustered into a group and characterized by the presence of alleles Gpi (110) and Gpi (120), whereas N. lugens from weeds with low esterase activity were clustered into another group and characterized by Gpi (100) and Gpi (90) . There was a lack of heterozygotes between the common alleles of the two populations. This means that the two groups of individuals belong to different gene pools

Altered postural sway in patients suffering from non-specific neck pain and whiplash associated disorder - A systematic review of the literature

To assess differences in center of pressure (COP) measures in patients suffering from non-specific neck pain (NSNP) or whiplash-associated disorder (WAD) compared to healthy controls and any relationship between changes in postural sway and the presence of pain, its intensity, previous pain duration and the perceived level of disability. Summary of Background data: Over the past 20 years, the center of pressure (COP) has been commonly used as an index of postural stability in standing. While several studies investigated COP excursions in neck pain and WAD patients and compared these to healthy individuals, no comprehensive analysis of the reported differences in postural sway pattern exists. Search methods: Six online databases were systematically searched followed by a manual search of the retrieved papers. Selection Criteria: Papers comparing COP measures derived from bipedal static task conditions on a force plate of non-specific neck pain and WAD sufferers to those of healthy controls. Data collection and analysis: Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts for relevance. Screening for final inclusion, data extraction and quality assessment were carried out with a third reviewer to reconcile differences