Pilot Study: Placental Weight Ratio in Diabetic Women with Preeclampsia

Birth weight, a simple measure of birth outcome, has a key role in assessing infant health. A primary determinant of birth weight is a well grown, efficient placenta. Placental weight ratio (PWR) reflects the growth of the baby and placenta and is calculated by dividing the placental weight by fetal weight and is a proven useful health indicator. Preeclampsia (PE) is defined as new-onset hypertension and proteinuria during pregnancy and it is a major cause of maternal and fetal death worldwide. PE is associated with large placentae and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants; the PWR is expected to be increased in this condition. Another condition known to increase risk in pregnancy is type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). T2DM is associated with large placentae and large-for-gestational-age (LGA) infants; the PWR is expected to be decreased. There is a paucity of information regarding the placental weight ratio when both PE and T2DM are present, particularly in American Indians (AI) and Hispanics, two groups known to be at increased risk for T2DM. We hypothesize that AI and Hispanic mothers with PE and dysglycemia (T2DM, gestational diabetes), will have larger placentae and infants and PWR will be decreased. We report data from samples collected in an ongoing study of the effects of dysglycemia on PE. Our findings demonstrate no significant differences in PWR between dysglycemic pregnancies and dysglycemic pregnancies with accompanying PE (p=0.29). This observation suggests that using the PWR to assess infant health outcome provides no additional benefit when applied to dysglycemic pregnancies with PE

¿Por qué jugar? Sport socialization among Hispanic/Latina female NCAA division I student-athletes

Representation of Hispanics/Latinas in intercollegiate athletics is lacking. During the 2014-2015 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic season, only 2.2 percent of all female Division I student-athlete’s identified as Hispanic or Latina (NCAA, 2015). This low percentage of Hispanic/Latina female participants calls into question how these young women become involved in athletics and sustain their involvement within sport. While previous research has examined the socialization processes of youth athletes and parents of youth athlete participants, there is little research aimed at examining these processes for elite-level athlete participants (Dorsch, Smith, & McDonough, 2015; Greendorfer, Blinde, & Pellegrini, 1986;). Thus, the aim of this current study was to examine the potential factors that may have contributed to consistent sport participation for an elite group of Hispanic/Latina female athletes throughout their youth and collegiate careers. Participants for this study identified as current NCAA Division I Hispanic/Latina female student-athletes. Results showed that family, specifically parents and siblings, contributed to socializing Hispanic/Latina athletes into sport, while family and coaches contributed to the persistence of their athletic endeavors. Findings also show a sense of cultural indifference, youth coaches who invested in the participants long-term, and a significant involvement of the patriarch of the family in their athletic success

A Wideband Adaptive Communication System

The concept of an open loop Adaptive Communication link is established as one which is capable of monitoring the medium through which it must perform while simultaneously transmitting information and continuously adjusting its modes of operation so as to optimize its performance with respect to a performance criterion chosen a priori. Statistical methods are applied to the adaptive communication problem. Communicating through a random multipath channel with additive noise is considered. The transmitter is specified as one which transmits one of two possible noise-like waveforms which are assumed to be known at the receiver. At any time, it is postulated that the receiver is to make its decision in accordance with the Bayes Rules which appropriately fits the amount of channel knowledge stored at the receiver. The knowledge concerning the channel state is derived a posteriori at the receiver from the information bearing signal. Consequently, as the a posteriori information changes (corresponding to changing propagation medium characteristics) the receiver’s decision circuitry also changes. Hence, the receiver is one which continuously adapts itself to yield optimum performance under the measured channel parameters. These random parameters are taken to be: channel gain, channel multipath structure, and the channel phase characteristic. Probability of error is evaluated in closed form for three different modes of operation. A major conclusion taken from these expressions is that the probability of error in no ease depends directly on the channel gain, but lather is a function of the total average energy received from all propagation modes, numerical evaluation of the error expressions enables comparisons to be made among the various systems modes of operation. These results show that measurement of the channel gain is the least important of these quantities. Given the multipath structure, the channel phase characteristic is the most important, In the optimum case a gain of about 6 db to 8 db (depending on the signal-to-noise ratio) is accomplished over the Receiver mode which performs only the multipath measurement. It is shown that the information gain concerning the multipath structure increases rapidly for a few bauds of identification time after which information build up begins to saturate. This is important because there will be available at the receiver only a finite time for which to identify this channel condition. The variance of the channel estimates are computed for maximum and minimum identification time. It is shown that the bandwidth of the transmitted waveform is the important parameter for accurate measurement of the multipath structure, while a sinusoid is sufficient for measuring the channel gain. By combining the channel measurement techniques and signal detection results, two Adaptive Receiver structures are formulated and their operation discussed. Finally, commentaries on future research are made and conclusions given about the above work

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of asthma in ethnically diverse North American populations.

Asthma is a common disease with a complex risk architecture including both genetic and environmental factors. We performed a meta-analysis of North American genome-wide association studies of asthma in 5,416 individuals with asthma (cases) including individuals of European American, African American or African Caribbean, and Latino ancestry, with replication in an additional 12,649 individuals from the same ethnic groups. We identified five susceptibility loci. Four were at previously reported loci on 17q21, near IL1RL1, TSLP and IL33, but we report for the first time, to our knowledge, that these loci are associated with asthma risk in three ethnic groups. In addition, we identified a new asthma susceptibility locus at PYHIN1, with the association being specific to individuals of African descent (P = 3.9 × 10(-9)). These results suggest that some asthma susceptibility loci are robust to differences in ancestry when sufficiently large samples sizes are investigated, and that ancestry-specific associations also contribute to the complex genetic architecture of asthma

brainlife.io: A decentralized and open source cloud platform to support neuroscience research

Neuroscience research has expanded dramatically over the past 30 years by advancing standardization and tool development to support rigor and transparency. Consequently, the complexity of the data pipeline has also increased, hindering access to FAIR data analysis to portions of the worldwide research community. brainlife.io was developed to reduce these burdens and democratize modern neuroscience research across institutions and career levels. Using community software and hardware infrastructure, the platform provides open-source data standardization, management, visualization, and processing and simplifies the data pipeline. brainlife.io automatically tracks the provenance history of thousands of data objects, supporting simplicity, efficiency, and transparency in neuroscience research. Here brainlife.io's technology and data services are described and evaluated for validity, reliability, reproducibility, replicability, and scientific utility. Using data from 4 modalities and 3,200 participants, we demonstrate that brainlife.io's services produce outputs that adhere to best practices in modern neuroscience research

Helicobacter pylori versus the Host: Remodeling of the Bacterial Outer Membrane Is Required for Survival in the Gastric Mucosa

Modification of bacterial surface structures, such as the lipid A portion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), is used by many pathogenic bacteria to help evade the host innate immune response. Helicobacter pylori, a gram-negative bacterium capable of chronic colonization of the human stomach, modifies its lipid A by removal of phosphate groups from the 1- and 4′-positions of the lipid A backbone. In this study, we identify the enzyme responsible for dephosphorylation of the lipid A 4′-phosphate group in H. pylori, Jhp1487 (LpxF). To ascertain the role these modifications play in the pathogenesis of H. pylori, we created mutants in lpxE (1-phosphatase), lpxF (4′-phosphatase) and a double lpxE/F mutant. Analysis of lipid A isolated from lpxE and lpxF mutants revealed lipid A species with a 1 or 4′-phosphate group, respectively while the double lpxE/F mutant revealed a bis-phosphorylated lipid A. Mutants lacking lpxE, lpxF, or lpxE/F show a 16, 360 and 1020 fold increase in sensitivity to the cationic antimicrobial peptide polymyxin B, respectively. Moreover, a similar loss of resistance is seen against a variety of CAMPs found in the human body including LL37, β-defensin 2, and P-113. Using a fluorescent derivative of polymyxin we demonstrate that, unlike wild type bacteria, polymyxin readily associates with the lpxE/F mutant. Presumably, the increase in the negative charge of H. pylori LPS allows for binding of the peptide to the bacterial surface. Interestingly, the action of LpxE and LpxF was shown to decrease recognition of Helicobacter LPS by the innate immune receptor, Toll-like Receptor 4. Furthermore, lpxE/F mutants were unable to colonize the gastric mucosa of C57BL/6J and C57BL/6J tlr4 -/- mice when compared to wild type H. pylori. Our results demonstrate that dephosphorylation of the lipid A domain of H. pylori LPS by LpxE and LpxF is key to its ability to colonize a mammalian host

The management of patients with primary chronic anal fissure: a position paper

Anal fissure is one of the most common and painful proctologic diseases. Its treatment has long been discussed and several different therapeutic options have been proposed. In the last decades, the understanding of its pathophysiology has led to a progressive reduction of invasive and potentially invalidating treatments in favor of conservative treatment based on anal sphincter muscle relaxation. Despite some systematic reviews and an American position statement, there is ongoing debate about the best treatment for anal fissure. This review is aimed at identifying the best treatment option drawing on evidence-based medicine and on the expert advice of 6 colorectal surgeons with extensive experience in this field in order to produce an Italian position statement for anal fissures. While there is little chance of a cure with conservative behavioral therapy, medical treatment with calcium channel blockers, diltiazem and nifepidine or glyceryl trinitrate, had a considerable success rate ranging from 50 to 90%. Use of 0.4% glyceryl trinitrate in standardized fashion seems to have the best results despite a higher percentage of headache, while the use of botulinum toxin had inconsistent results. Nonresponding patients should undergo lateral internal sphincterotomy. The risk of incontinence after this procedure seems to have been overemphasized in the past. Only a carefully selected group of patients, without anal hypertonia, could benefit from anoplasty

Group B Streptococcus vaccine development: present status and future considerations, with emphasis on perspectives for low and middle income countries.

Globally, group B Streptococcus (GBS) remains the leading cause of sepsis and meningitis in young infants, with its greatest burden in the first 90 days of life. Intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) for women at risk of transmitting GBS to their newborns has been effective in reducing, but not eliminating, the young infant GBS disease burden in many high income countries. However, identification of women at risk and administration of IAP is very difficult in many low and middle income country (LMIC) settings, and is not possible for home deliveries. Immunization of pregnant women with a GBS vaccine represents an alternate pathway to protecting newborns from GBS disease, through the transplacental antibody transfer to the fetus in utero. This approach to prevent GBS disease in young infants is currently under development, and is approaching late stage clinical evaluation. This manuscript includes a review of the natural history of the disease, global disease burden estimates, diagnosis and existing control options in different settings, the biological rationale for a vaccine including previous supportive studies, analysis of current candidates in development, possible correlates of protection and current status of immunogenicity assays. Future potential vaccine development pathways to licensure and use in LMICs, trial design and implementation options are discussed, with the objective to provide a basis for reflection, rather than recommendations

brainlife.io: a decentralized and open-source cloud platform to support neuroscience research

Neuroscience is advancing standardization and tool development to support rigor and transparency. Consequently, data pipeline complexity has increased, hindering FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) access. brainlife.io was developed to democratize neuroimaging research. The platform provides data standardization, management, visualization and processing and automatically tracks the provenance history of thousands of data objects. Here, brainlife.io is described and evaluated for validity, reliability, reproducibility, replicability and scientific utility using four data modalities and 3,200 participants

Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in a UK university identifies dynamics of transmission

AbstractUnderstanding SARS-CoV-2 transmission in higher education settings is important to limit spread between students, and into at-risk populations. In this study, we sequenced 482 SARS-CoV-2 isolates from the University of Cambridge from 5 October to 6 December 2020. We perform a detailed phylogenetic comparison with 972 isolates from the surrounding community, complemented with epidemiological and contact tracing data, to determine transmission dynamics. We observe limited viral introductions into the university; the majority of student cases were linked to a single genetic cluster, likely following social gatherings at a venue outside the university. We identify considerable onward transmission associated with student accommodation and courses; this was effectively contained using local infection control measures and following a national lockdown. Transmission clusters were largely segregated within the university or the community. Our study highlights key determinants of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and effective interventions in a higher education setting that will inform public health policy during pandemics.</jats:p