Using TEI for an Endangered Language Lexical Resource: The Nxaʔamxcín Database-Dictionary Project

This paper describes the evolution of a lexical resource project for Nxaʔamxcín, an endangered Salish language, from the project’s inception in the 1990s, based on legacy materials recorded in the 1960s and 1970s, to its current form as an online database that is transformable into various print and web-based formats for varying uses. We illustrate how we are using TEI P5 for data-encoding and archiving and show that TEI is a mature, reliable, flexible standard which is a valuable tool for lexical and morphological markup and for the production of lexical resources. Lexical resource creation, as is the case with language documentation and description more generally, benefits from portability and thus from conformance to standards (Bird and Simons 2003, Thieberger 2011). This paper therefore also discusses standards-harmonization, focusing on our attempt to achieve interoperability in format and terminology between our database and standards proposed for LMF, RELISH and GOLD. We show that, while it is possible to achieve interoperability, ultimately it is difficult to do so convincingly, thus raising questions about what conformance to standards means in practice.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Motivators for Alzheimer\u27s Disease Clinical Trial Participation

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research progress is impeded due to participant recruitment challenges. This study seeks to better understand, from the perspective of individuals engaged in clinical trials (CTs), research motivations. Methods Participants, or their caregivers, from AD treatment and prevention CTs were surveyed about research motivators. Results The 87 respondents had a mean age of 72.2, were predominantly Caucasian, 55.2% were male, and 56.3% had cognitive impairment. An overwhelming majority rated the potential to help themselves or a loved one and the potential to help others in the future as important motivators. Relatively few respondents were motivated by free healthcare, monetary rewards, or to make others happy. Conclusions Recruitment efforts should focus on the potential benefit for the individual, their loved ones, and others in the future rather than free healthcare or monetary rewards

Low Arousal Positive Emotional Stimuli Attenuate Aberrant Working Memory Processing in Persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Emotional enhancement effects on memory have been reported to mitigate the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, relative to their manifestation in persons without pathologic aging, these effects may be reduced in magnitude or even deleterious, especially in tasks that more closely model ecologic memory performance. Based upon a synthesis of such reports, we hypothesized that in persons with AD low arousal positive stimuli would evoke relatively intact emotional enhancement effects, but that high arousal negative stimuli would evoke disordered emotional enhancement effects. To assess this, participants with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) presumed to be due to AD performed an emotionally-valenced short-term memory task while encephalography was recorded. Results indicated that for persons with MCI, high arousal negative stimuli led to working memory processing patterns previously associated with MCI presumed due to AD and dementia of the Alzheimer-type. In contrast, low arousal positive stimuli evoked a processing pattern similar to MCI participants’ unaffected spouses. Our current findings suggest that low arousal positive stimuli attenuate working memory deficits of MCI due to AD

Response of a low elevation carbonate lake in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) to climatic and human forcings

The importance of climate change, specifically drought, across the Maya region in the northern Neotropics, remains a topic of lively debate. Part of this discussion hinges on the coherency of response to climatic variability across different archives and proxies. In this paper we present a 6600-year palaeolimnological record from Yaal Chac, a carbonate lake (known locally as a cenote) in the northern lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula, 2‰), but show no covariation with δ13C. A major transition occurs at ca. 4360 cal yr BP, with a change to generally more organic sediments and increased variability in all proxies. Although direct evidence for anthropogenic activity in the Yaal Chac catchment is limited, it seems feasible that human impact was affecting the system. Comparison with other records from the Northern Maya lowlands and the wider region shows little coherence in the mid Holocene, when Yaal Chac seems to have been quite stable, but possibly responsive to increased climatic seasonality, driving the production of seasonal laminae. In the late Holocene, when the climate was generally more variable, there is more coherence between Yaal Chac and other regional records, including the so called Pan Caribbean Dry Period (3500–2500 cal yr BP) and the droughts of the late Pre-Classic period (1800–1600 cal yr BP). The Yaal Chac record shows no evidence of drought at the time of either the Maya ‘hiatus’ or the Maya ‘collapse’ of the Terminal Classic, but does record drying from the 14th to 19th centuries CE, in keeping with other proxy and historical records. This new record from Yaal Chac highlights the spatial variability of responses to climate forcings and the importance of recognising individual system sensitivity

Different Responses to Reward Comparisons by Three Primate Species

Background: Recently, much attention has been paid to the role of cooperative breeding in the evolution of behavior. In many measures, cooperative breeders are more prosocial than non-cooperatively breeding species, including being more likely to actively share food. This is hypothesized to be due to selective pressures specific to the interdependency characteristic of cooperatively breeding species. Given the high costs of finding a new mate, it has been proposed that cooperative breeders, unlike primates that cooperate in other contexts, should not respond negatively to unequal outcomes between themselves and their partner. However, in this context such pressures may extend beyond cooperative breeders to other species with pair-bonding and bi-parental care. Methods: Here we test the response of two New World primate species with different parental strategies to unequal outcomes in both individual and social contrast conditions. One species tested was a cooperative breeder (Callithrix spp.) and the second practiced bi-parental care (Aotus spp.). Additionally, to verify our procedure, we tested a third confamilial species that shows no such interdependence but does respond to individual (but not social) contrast (Saimiri spp.). We tested all three genera using an established inequity paradigm in which individuals in a pair took turns to gain rewards that sometimes differed from those of their partners. Conclusions: None of the three species tested responded negatively to inequitable outcomes in this experimental context. Importantly, the Saimiri spp responded to individual contrast, as in earlier studies, validating our procedure. When these data are considered in relation to previous studies investigating responses to inequity in primates, they indicate that one aspect of cooperative breeding, pair-bonding or bi-parental care, may influence the evolution of these behaviors. These results emphasize the need to study a variety of species to gain insight in to how decision-making may vary across social structures

An Improved Global Model for Air-Sea Exchange of Mercury: High Concentrations over the North Atlantic

We develop an improved treatment of the surface ocean in the GEOS-Chem global 3-D biogeochemical model for mercury (Hg). We replace the globally uniform subsurface ocean Hg concentrations used in the original model with basin-specific values based on measurements. Updated chemical mechanisms for Hg0/HgII redox reactions in the surface ocean include both photochemical and biological processes, and we improved the parametrization of particle-associated Hg scavenging. Modeled aqueous Hg concentrations are consistent with limited surface water observations. Results more accurately reproduce high-observed MBL concentrations over the North Atlantic (NA) and the associated seasonal trends. High seasonal evasion in the NA is driven by inputs from Hg enriched subsurface waters through entrainment and Ekman pumping. Globally, subsurface waters account for 40% of Hg inputs to the ocean mixed layer, and 60% is from atmospheric deposition. Although globally the ocean is a net sink for 3.8 Mmol Hg y−1, the NA is a net source to the atmosphere, potentially due to enrichment of subsurface waters with legacy Hg from historical anthropogenic sources.Engineering and Applied Science

Satisfaction with electronic health records is associated with job satisfaction among primary care physicians

Objective To evaluate the association between electronic health record (EHR) satisfaction and job satisfaction in primary care physicians (PCPs).Method Cross-sectional survey of PCPs at 825 primary care practices in North Carolina.Results Surveys were returned from 283 individuals across 214 practices (26% response rate for practices), of whom 122 were physicians with EHRs and no missing information. We found that for each point increase in EHR satisfaction, job satisfaction increased by ~0.36 points both in an unadjusted and an adjusted model (β 0.359 unadjusted, 0.361 adjusted; p < 0.001 for both models).Conclusion We found that EHR satisfaction was associated with job satisfaction in a cross-sectional survey of PCPs. Our conclusions are limited by suboptimum survey response rate, but if confirmed may have substantial implications for how EHR vendors develop their product to support the needs of PCPs

Research priorities for mitochondrial disorders: Current landscape and patient and professional views

Primary mitochondrial disorders encompass a wide range of clinical presentations and a spectrum of severity. They currently lack effective disease-modifying therapies and have a high mortality and morbidity rate. It is therefore essential to know that competitively-funded research designed by academics meets core needs of people with mitochondrial disorders and their clinicians. The Priority Setting Partnerships are an established collaborative methodology that brings patients, carers and families, charity representatives and clinicians together to try to establish the most pressing and unanswered research priorities for a particular disease. We developed a web-based questionnaire, requesting all patients affected by primary mitochondrial disease, their carers, and clinicians to pose their research questions. This yielded 709 questions from 147 participants. These were grouped into overarching themes including basic biology, causation, health services, clinical management, social impacts, prognosis, prevention, symptoms, treatment, and psychological impact. Following the removal of 'answered questions' the process resulted in a list of 42 discrete, answerable questions. This was further refined by web-based ranking by the community to 24 questions. These were debated at a face-to-face workshop attended by a diverse range of patients, carers, charity representatives and clinicians to create a definitive 'Top Ten of unanswered research questions for primary mitochondrial disorders'. These Top Ten questions related to understanding biological processes, including triggers of disease onset, mechanisms underlying progression and reasons for differential symptoms between individuals with identical genetic mutations; new treatments; biomarker discovery; psychological support; and optimal management of stroke-like episodes and fatigue

A single oral dose of citalopram increases interoceptive insight in healthy volunteers

Rationale Interoception is the signalling, perception, and interpretation of internal physiological states. Many mental disorders associated with changes of interoception, including depressive and anxiety disorders, are treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). However, the causative link between SSRIs and interoception is not yet clear. Objectives To ascertain the causal effect of acute changes of serotonin levels on cardiac interoception. Methods Using a within-participant placebo-controlled design, forty-seven healthy human volunteers (31 female, 16 male) were tested on and off a 20 mg oral dose of the commonly prescribed SSRI, citalopram. Participants made judgements on the synchrony between their heartbeat and auditory tones and then expressed confidence in each judgement. We measured three types of interoceptive cognition. Results Citalopram increased cardiac interoceptive insight, measured as correspondence of self-reported confidence to the likelihood that interoceptive judgements were actually correct. This effect was driven by enhanced confidence for correct interoceptive judgements and was independent of measured cardiac and reported subjective effects of the drug. Conclusions An acute change of serotonin levels can increase insight into the reliability of inferences made from cardiac interoceptive sensations

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes: growth, mechanism and structure

Nitrogen‐doped bamboo‐structured carbon nanotubes have been successfully grown using a series of cobalt/molybdenum catalysts. The morphology and structure of the nanotubes were analysed by transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The level of nitrogen doping, as determined by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, was found to range between 0.5 to 2.5 at. %. The growth of bamboo‐structured nanotubes in the presence of nitrogen, in preference to single‐walled and multi‐walled nanotubes, was due to the greater binding energy of nitrogen for cobalt in the catalyst compared to the binding strength of carbon to cobalt, as determined by density functional theory