Identifying Elderly Patients at Risk of Falling using Time-Domain and Cyclostationarity Related Features

Falls are a prevalent and severe health problem in the elderly community, leading to unfortunate and devastating consequences. Some falls can be prevented through interventions, proper management, and extra care. Therefore, studying and identifying elderly people with risk of falls is essential to minimize the falling risk and to minimize the severity of injuries that can occur from these falls. Besides, identifying at-risk patients can profoundly affect public health in a positive way. In this paper, we use classification techniques to identify at-risk patients using pressure signals of the innersoles of 520 elderly people. These people reported whether they had experienced previous falls or not. Two different types of feature sets were used as inputs to the classification models and were compared: The first feature set includes time-domain, physiological, and cyclostationary features, whereas the second includes a subset of those features chosen by Relief-F as the most important features. Our study showed that the use of features from different walking conditions and using Relief-F as a feature selection method significantly improved the model prediction accuracy, i.e. by 5.24% from the best previously existing model. The results also point out that the mean and standard deviation of the stride time, gender, the degree of cyclostationarity were the most important features to include in classification models for the identification of elderly people at risk of falling

Systematic review of antiepileptic drugs’ safety and effectiveness in feline epilepsy

Understanding the efficacy and safety profile of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in feline epilepsy is a crucial consideration for managing this important brain disease. However, there is a lack of information about the treatment of feline epilepsy and therefore a systematic review was constructed to assess current evidence for the AEDs’ efficacy and tolerability in cats. The methods and materials of our former systematic reviews in canine epilepsy were mostly mirrored for the current systematic review in cats. Databases of PubMed, CAB Direct and Google scholar were searched to detect peer-reviewed studies reporting efficacy and/or adverse effects of AEDs in cats. The studies were assessed with regards to their quality of evidence, i.e. study design, study population, diagnostic criteria and overall risk of bias and the outcome measures reported, i.e. prevalence and 95% confidence interval of the successful and affected population in each study and in total

Rethinking justice beyond human rights. Anti-colonialism and intersectionality in the politics of the Palestinian Youth Movement

This article discusses the politics of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) – a contemporary social movement operating across a number of Arab and western countries. Unlike analysis on the Arab Uprisings which focused on the national dimension of youth activism, we explore how the PYM politics fosters and upholds an explicitly transnational anti-colonial and intersectional solidarity framework, which foregrounds a radical critique of conventional notions of self-determination based on state-framed human rights discourses and international law paradigms. The struggle becomes instead framed as an issue of justice, freedom and liberation from interlocking forms and hierarchies of oppression. KEYWORDS: Palestine, transnational social movements, intersectionality, human rights, anti-colonialis

Positive psychology of Malaysian students: impacts of engagement, motivation, self-compassion and wellbeing on mental health

Malaysia plays a key role in education of the Asia Pacific, expanding its scholarly output rapidly. However, mental health of Malaysian students is challenging, and their help-seeking is low because of stigma. This study explored the relationships between mental health and positive psychological constructs (academic engagement, motivation, self-compassion, and wellbeing), and evaluated the relative contribution of each positive psychological construct to mental health in Malaysian students. An opportunity sample of 153 students completed the measures regarding these constructs. Correlation, regression, and mediation analyses were conducted. Engagement, amotivation, self-compassion, and wellbeing were associated with, and predicted large variance in mental health. Self-compassion was the strongest independent predictor of mental health among all the positive psychological constructs. Findings can imply the strong links between mental health and positive psychology, especially selfcompassion. Moreover, intervention studies to examine the effects of self-compassion training on mental health of Malaysian students appear to be warranted.N/

Hydrothermal dolomitization of basinal deposits controlled by a synsedimentary fault system in Triassic extensional setting, Hungary

Dolomitization of relatively thick carbonate successions occurs via an effective fluid circulation mechanism, since the replacement process requires a large amount of Mg-rich fluid interacting with the CaCO3 precursor. In the western end of the Neotethys, fault-controlled extensional basins developed during the Late Triassic spreading stage. In the Buda Hills and Danube-East blocks, distinct parts of silica and organic matter-rich slope and basinal deposits are dolomitized. Petrographic, geochemical, and fluid inclusion data distinguished two dolomite types: (1) finely to medium crystalline and (2) medium to coarsely crystalline. They commonly co-occur and show a gradual transition. Both exhibit breccia fabric under microscope. Dolomite texture reveals that the breccia fabric is not inherited from the precursor carbonates but was formed during the dolomitization process and under the influence of repeated seismic shocks. Dolomitization within the slope and basinal succession as well as within the breccia zones of the underlying basement block is interpreted as being related to fluid originated from the detachment zone and channelled along synsedimentary normal faults. The proposed conceptual model of dolomitization suggests that pervasive dolomitization occurred not only within and near the fault zones. Permeable beds have channelled the fluid towards the basin centre where the fluid was capable of partial dolomitization. The fluid inclusion data, compared with vitrinite reflectance and maturation data of organic matter, suggest that the ascending fluid was likely hydrothermal which cooled down via mixing with marine-derived pore fluid. Thermal gradient is considered as a potential driving force for fluid flow

Exploring the Midgut Transcriptome and Brush Border Membrane Vesicle Proteome of the Rice Stem Borer, Chilo suppressalis (Walker)

The rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), is one of the most detrimental pests affecting rice crops. The use of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins has been explored as a means to control this pest, but the potential for C. suppressalis to develop resistance to Bt toxins makes this approach problematic. Few C. suppressalis gene sequences are known, which makes in-depth study of gene function difficult. Herein, we sequenced the midgut transcriptome of the rice stem borer. In total, 37,040 contigs were obtained, with a mean size of 497 bp. As expected, the transcripts of C. suppressalis shared high similarity with arthropod genes. Gene ontology and KEGG analysis were used to classify the gene functions in C. suppressalis. Using the midgut transcriptome data, we conducted a proteome analysis to identify proteins expressed abundantly in the brush border membrane vesicles (BBMV). Of the 100 top abundant proteins that were excised and subjected to mass spectrometry analysis, 74 share high similarity with known proteins. Among these proteins, Western blot analysis showed that Aminopeptidase N and EH domain-containing protein have the binding activities with Bt-toxin Cry1Ac. These data provide invaluable information about the gene sequences of C. suppressalis and the proteins that bind with Cry1Ac

Modelling the regulation of telomere length: the effects of telomerase and G-quadruplex stabilising drugs

Telomeres are guanine-rich sequences at the end of chromosomes which shorten during each replication event and trigger cell cycle arrest and/or controlled death (apoptosis) when reaching a threshold length. The enzyme telomerase replenishes the ends of telomeres and thus prolongs the life span of cells, but also causes cellular immortalisation in human cancer. G-quadruplex (G4) stabilising drugs are a potential anticancer treatment which work by changing the molecular structure of telomeres to inhibit the activity of telomerase. We investigate the dynamics of telomere length in different conformational states, namely t-loops, G-quadruplex structures and those being elongated by telomerase. By formulating deterministic differential equation models we study the effects of various levels of both telomerase and concentrations of a G4-stabilising drug on the distribution of telomere lengths, and analyse how these effects evolve over large numbers of cell generations. As well as calculating numerical solutions, we use quasicontinuum methods to approximate the behaviour of the system over time, and predict the shape of the telomere length distribution. We find those telomerase and G4-concentrations where telomere length maintenance is successfully regulated. Excessively high levels of telomerase lead to continuous telomere lengthening, whereas large concentrations of the drug lead to progressive telomere erosion. Furthermore, our models predict a positively skewed distribution of telomere lengths, that is, telomeres accumulate over lengths shorter than the mean telomere length at equilibrium. Our model results for telomere length distributions of telomerase-positive cells in drug-free assays are in good agreement with the limited amount of experimental data available

Overexpression of a Common Wheat Gene TaSnRK2.8 Enhances Tolerance to Drought, Salt and Low Temperature in Arabidopsis

Drought, salinity and low temperatures are major factors limiting crop productivity and quality. Sucrose non-fermenting1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2) plays a key role in abiotic stress signaling in plants. In this study, TaSnRK2.8, a SnRK2 member in wheat, was cloned and its functions under multi-stress conditions were characterized. Subcellular localization showed the presence of TaSnRK2.8 in the cell membrane, cytoplasm and nucleus. Expression pattern analyses in wheat revealed that TaSnRK2.8 was involved in response to PEG, NaCl and cold stresses, and possibly participates in ABA-dependent signal transduction pathways. To investigate its role under various environmental stresses, TaSnRK2.8 was transferred to Arabidopsis under control of the CaMV-35S promoter. Overexpression of TaSnRK2.8 resulted in enhanced tolerance to drought, salt and cold stresses, further confirmed by longer primary roots and various physiological characteristics, including higher relative water content, strengthened cell membrane stability, significantly lower osmotic potential, more chlorophyll content, and enhanced PSII activity. Meanwhile, TaSnRK2.8 plants had significantly lower total soluble sugar levels under normal growing conditions, suggesting that TaSnRK2.8 might be involved in carbohydrate metabolism. Moreover, the transcript levels of ABA biosynthesis (ABA1, ABA2), ABA signaling (ABI3, ABI4, ABI5), stress-responsive genes, including two ABA-dependent genes (RD20A, RD29B) and three ABA-independent genes (CBF1, CBF2, CBF3), were generally higher in TaSnRK2.8 plants than in WT/GFP controls under normal/stress conditions. Our results suggest that TaSnRK2.8 may act as a regulatory factor involved in a multiple stress response pathways