Attention-related evoked potential correlates of precortical gating in the human visual system

The precortical gating hypothesis was tested by having subjects selectively attend to points in space under conditions wherein the saliency (size) of the evoking stimulus and motivation level of subjects were manipulated in an attempt to further elucidate relative contributions of retinal and neural components to visually evoked responses (VERs) occurring within the 40-70, 70-130, and 40-130 msec latency intervals poststimulus. A large, relatively salient stimulus was expected to elicit relatively more retinal than neural contributions in canthally recorded VERs. A small, relatively nonsalient stimulus was expected to elicit relatively more neural than retinal contributions in both canthally and frontally recorded VERs. All VERs recorded from frontal scalp were expected to reflect more neural than retinal contributions regardless of the size of the evoking stimulus. Attention-related enhancement of the b-wave of the ERG was expected to be revealed in only the canthal VERs for the large stimulus. The attention effect was expected to be revealed as enhanced negativity over most, if not all, of the 40-130 msec latency interval for canthal recordings evoked by the small stimulus, and frontal VERs evoked by both the large and small stimuli. Any effect of motivation was expected to be manifested as increased VER amplitude in a late component having a peak latency of about 180 msec

Be well! A strengths-based approach to increasing physical activity and enhancing wellbeing

Today’s female college students face high mental health concerns and low levels of physical activity (PA). The college setting is an ideal environment for shaping positive behaviors that serve students well during and after their college years. The purpose of this study was to develop and implement a 4-week program designed to increase PA participation, motivation, and enjoyment for College students who are enrolled in the Wellness for Life course and, ultimately, enhance their wellbeing. This study utilized a mixed methods approach. The program was developed in line with promoting self-determined motivation and positive affect and implemented as a 4-week module within a semester-long Wellness for Life course. Pre- and post-measures of PA motivation, enjoyment and behavior were completed via survey. The post-survey included an evaluation of the module, and students had an option to participate in a semi-structured interview. Paired sample t-tests were used to determine differences in participants’ pre- and post-four-week program overall wellbeing, PA enjoyment, motivation, and PA level as measured respectively by the World Health Organization Well-Being Index-5 (WHO-5), Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES), Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), and Godin Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (Godin). Of the five pre-post measures, significant (p < .05) differences were found for motivation (IMI) and enjoyment (PACES), with higher scores for both at post. Responses to the open-ended survey questions and interviews showed that participants enjoyed the PA sessions and perceived them as fun. They welcomed the opportunity to be social, described as “got to talk with someone,” “felt more connected with others in my group,” and “met other people in ways that we wouldn’t before.” Participants enjoyed time to “play,” “laugh and have fun,” “and find a fun way to exercise.” Overall, findings from the four-week PA program were limited but show promise that a program with activities that are fun, moderate intensity and social may promote PA among college women. Female college students enjoyed the PA sessions, which were designed to be fun, moderate, and social, and perceived them as fun. When asked what would make the PA sessions better, the top reply was, “Nothing.” This reply confirms that for the most part the program matched students’ preferences for PA and the specific activities were enjoyed by participants

Perceptions of school psychologists as leaders in school-based environments

School psychologists have been encouraged to become leaders in their schools for decades.Unfortunately, due to time constraints and traditional views held by other educators, most schoolpsychologists have been unable to assume leadership positions within their schools. To assistwith the development of a leadership model specific to the field of school psychology, Shriberg(2008; 2010) completed some of the first research about leadership within the field of schoolpsychology by surveying school psychologists about various aspects of leadership as related totheir discipline. The survey that was developed for the current study was modeled after thesurvey that was used in Shriberg’s (2008; 2010) research. Participants in this study included 96school-based school psychology practitioners (84.4% female and 15.6% male) from NorthCarolina and South Carolina who completed a survey that asked various questions about theirleadership opportunities, leadership effectiveness, and beliefs about leadership within the field ofschool psychology. Results indicate that these school psychologists believe that they are onlymoderately effective as leaders within their schools, despite there being opportunities for them toserve as leaders. Additionally, participants emphasized that strong communication skills,effective interpersonal skills, a strong school psychology skill set, effective problem-solvingskills, and acting as an advocate for children are all important to being an effective leader within the schools. Significant differences were found between participants’ responses based on their highest completed degree. It is hoped that data from this study will assist school psychologists in bridging the gap between ideal school psychology standards and their current practices within school systems

Multi-centred mixed-methods PEPFAR HIV care & support public health evaluation: study protocol

BACKGROUND: A public health response is essential to meet the multidimensional needs of patients and families affected by HIV disease in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to appraise current provision of HIV care and support in East Africa, and to provide evidence-based direction to future care programming, and Public Health Evaluation was commissioned by the PEPFAR programme of the US Government. METHODS/DESIGN: This paper described the 2-Phase international mixed methods study protocol utilising longitudinal outcome measurement, surveys, patient and family qualitative interviews and focus groups, staff qualitative interviews, health economics and document analysis. Aim 1) To describe the nature and scope of HIV care and support in two African countries, including the types of facilities available, clients seen, and availability of specific components of care [Study Phase 1]. Aim 2) To determine patient health outcomes over time and principle cost drivers [Study Phase 2]. The study objectives are as follows. 1) To undertake a cross-sectional survey of service configuration and activity by sampling 10% of the facilities being funded by PEPFAR to provide HIV care and support in Kenya and Uganda (Phase 1) in order to describe care currently provided, including pharmacy drug reviews to determine availability and supply of essential drugs in HIV management. 2) To conduct patient focus group discussions at each of these (Phase 1) to determine care received. 3) To undertake a longitudinal prospective study of 1200 patients who are newly diagnosed with HIV or patients with HIV who present with a new problem attending PEPFAR care and support services. Data collection includes self-reported quality of life, core palliative outcomes and components of care received (Phase 2). 4) To conduct qualitative interviews with staff, patients and carers in order to explore and understand service issues and care provision in more depth (Phase 2). 5) To undertake document analysis to appraise the clinical care procedures at each facility (Phase 2). 6) To determine principle cost drivers including staff, overhead and laboratory costs (Phase 2). DISCUSSION: This novel mixed methods protocol will permit transparent presentation of subsequent dataset results publication, and offers a substantive model of protocol design to measure and integrate key activities and outcomes that underpin a public health approach to disease management in a low-income setting

Mass Treatment with Azithromycin for Trachoma Control: Participation Clusters in Households

Trachoma, an infectious disease, continues to cause blindness. A great deal of the trachoma burden is concentrated in developing countries. The World Health Organization recommends mass treatment for entire communities in trachoma-endemic regions. In 32 Tanzanian and 48 Gambian communities with trachoma, mass treatment was directly observed following a census. Community coverage was mostly greater than 80%. Larger-than-expected proportions of households where all children were treated and where none of the children were treated were found in each country. Household clustering of treatment was higher in Tanzania compared to The Gambia. However, children who were not treated were not more likely to be infected compared to children who were treated. We found that treatment and non-treatment within communities does not occur at random but rather clusters within households. These findings impact the design of future coverage surveys and suggest that further research evaluate factors that are associated with familial non-compliance

Dendritic Morphology Predicts Pattern Recognition Performance in Multi-compartmental Model Neurons with and without Active Conductances

This is an Open Access article published under the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0 which allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works, as long as the author of the original work is citedIn this paper we examine how a neuron’s dendritic morphology can affect its pattern recognition performance. We use two different algorithms to systematically explore the space of dendritic morphologies: an algorithm that generates all possible dendritic trees with 22 terminal points, and one that creates representative samples of trees with 128 terminal points. Based on these trees, we construct multi-compartmental models. To assess the performance of the resulting neuronal models, we quantify their ability to discriminate learnt and novel input patterns. We find that the dendritic morphology does have a considerable effect on pattern recognition performance and that the neuronal performance is inversely correlated with the mean depth of the dendritic tree. The results also reveal that the asymmetry index of the dendritic tree does not correlate with the performance for the full range of tree morphologies. The performance of neurons with dendritic tapering is best predicted by the mean and variance of the electrotonic distance of their synapses to the soma. All relationships found for passive neuron models also hold, even in more accentuated form, for neurons with active membranesPeer reviewedFinal Published versio

Radical SAM enzyme QueE defines a new minimal core fold and metal-dependent mechanism

7-carboxy-7-deazaguanine synthase (QueE) catalyzes a key S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet)- and Mg[superscript 2+]-dependent radical-mediated ring contraction step, which is common to the biosynthetic pathways of all deazapurine-containing compounds. QueE is a member of the AdoMet radical superfamily, which employs the 5′-deoxyadenosyl radical from reductive cleavage of AdoMet to initiate chemistry. To provide a mechanistic rationale for this elaborate transformation, we present the crystal structure of a QueE along with structures of pre- and post-turnover states. We find that substrate binds perpendicular to the [4Fe-4S]-bound AdoMet, exposing its C6 hydrogen atom for abstraction and generating the binding site for Mg[superscript 2+], which coordinates directly to the substrate. The Burkholderia multivorans structure reported here varies from all other previously characterized members of the AdoMet radical superfamily in that it contains a hypermodified ([β [subscript 6] over α [subscript 3]]) protein core and an expanded cluster-binding motif, CX[subscript 14]CX[subscript 2]C.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Biological and Environmental ResearchUnited States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy SciencesNational Center for Research Resources (U.S.) (P41RR012408)National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (P41GM103473)National Center for Research Resources (U.S.) (5P41RR015301-10)National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (8 P41 GM 103403-10)United States. Dept. of Energy (Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357

The Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Insertion/Deletion polymorphism is not associated with an increased risk of death or bronchopulmonary dysplasia in ventilated very low birth weight infants

BACKGROUND: The ACE gene contains a polymorphism consisting of either the presence (insertion, I) or absence (deletion, D) of a 287 bp alu repeat in intron 16. The D allele is associated with increased ACE activity in both tissue and plasma. The DD genotype is associated with risk of developing ARDS and mortality. The frequency of the D allele is higher in patients with pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis and berylliosis. The role of this polymorphism has not been studied in the development of BPD in the premature newborn. METHODS: ACE I/D genotype was determined in 245 (194 African-American, 47 Caucasian and 4 Hispanic) mechanically ventilated infants weighing less than 1250 grams at birth and compared to outcome (death and/or development of BPD). RESULTS: The incidence of the D allele in the study population was 0.58. Eighty-eight (35.9%) infants were homozygous DD, 107 (43.7%) were heterozygous ID and 50 (20.4%) were homozygous II. There were no significant differences between genotype groups with respect to ethnic origin, birth weight, gestation, or gender. There was no effect of the ACE I/D polymorphism on mortality or development of BPD (O(2 )on 28 days or 36 weeks PCA). Secondary outcomes (intraventricular hemorrhage and periventricular leukomalacia) similarly were not influenced by the ACE ID polymorphism. CONCLUSIONS: The ACE I/D polymorphism does not significantly influence the development of BPD in ventilated infants less than 1250 grams

The Effect of Structural Complexity, Prey Density, and “Predator-Free Space” on Prey Survivorship at Created Oyster Reef Mesocosms

Interactions between predators and their prey are influenced by the habitat they occupy. Using created oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reef mesocosms, we conducted a series of laboratory experiments that created structure and manipulated complexity as well as prey density and “predator-free space” to examine the relationship between structural complexity and prey survivorship. Specifically, volume and spatial arrangement of oysters as well as prey density were manipulated, and the survivorship of prey (grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio) in the presence of a predator (wild red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus) was quantified. We found that the presence of structure increased prey survivorship, and that increasing complexity of this structure further increased survivorship, but only to a point. This agrees with the theory that structural complexity may influence predator-prey dynamics, but that a threshold exists with diminishing returns. These results held true even when prey density was scaled to structural complexity, or the amount of “predator-free space” was manipulated within our created reef mesocosms. The presence of structure and its complexity (oyster shell volume) were more important in facilitating prey survivorship than perceived refugia or density-dependent prey effects. A more accurate indicator of refugia might require “predator-free space” measures that also account for the available area within the structure itself (i.e., volume) and not just on the surface of a structure. Creating experiments that better mimic natural conditions and test a wider range of “predator-free space” are suggested to better understand the role of structural complexity in oyster reefs and other complex habitats

Multi-lead cephalic venous access and long-term performance of high-voltage leads.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D) implantation via the cephalic vein is feasible and safe. Recent evidence has suggested a higher implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) lead failure in multi-lead defibrillator therapy via the cephalic route. We evaluated the relationship between CRT-D implantation via the cephalic and ICD lead failure. METHODS: Data was collected from three CRT-D implanting centers between October 2008 and September 2017. In total 633 patients were included. Patient and lead characteristics with ICD lead failure were recorded. Comparison of "cephalic" (ICD lead via cephalic) versus "non-cephalic" (ICD lead via non-cephalic route) cohorts was performed. Kaplan-Meier survival and a Cox-regression analysis were applied to assess variables associated with lead failure. RESULTS: The cephalic and non-cephalic cohorts were equally male (81.9% vs. 78%; p = .26), similar in age (69.7 ± 11.5 vs. 68.7 ± 11.9; p = .33) and body mass index (BMI) (27.7 ± 5.1 vs. 27.1 ± 5.7; p = .33). Most ICD leads were implanted via the cephalic vein (73.5%) and patients had a mean of 2.9 ± 0.28 leads implanted via this route. The rate of ICD lead failure was low and statistically similar between both groups (0.36%/year vs. 0.13%/year; p = .12). Female gender was more common in the lead failure cohort than non-failure (55.6% vs. 17.9%, respectively; p = .004) as was hypertension (88.9% vs. 54.2%, respectively, p = .038). On multivariate Cox-regression, female sex (p = .008; HR, 7.12 [1.7-30.2]), and BMI (p = .047; HR, 1.12 [1.001-1.24]) were significantly associated with ICD lead failure. CONCLUSION: CRT-D implantation via the cephalic route is not significantly associated with premature ICD lead failure. Female gender and BMI are predictors of lead failure