Mashing up Visual Languages and Web Mash-ups

Research on web mashups and visual languages share an interest in human-centered computing. Both research communities are concerned with supporting programming by everyday, technically inexpert users. Visual programming environments have been a focus for both communities, and we believe that there is much to be gained by further discussion between these research communities. In this paper we explore some connections between web mashups and visual languages, and try to identify what each might be able to learn from the other. Our goal is to establish a framework for a dialog between the communities, and to promote the exchange of ideas and our respective understandings of humancentered computing.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

A Prospective Surveillance Study of Candidaemia : Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Antifungal Treatment and Outcome in Hospitalized Patients

Funding This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award for Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology 097377/Z/11/Z. Data collection was supported by a grant from Pfizer. GR was also supported by a research fellowship grant from Gilead Sciences. The collection of the isolates was funded by a Gilead Fellowship to GR. Acknowledgments We are grateful to microbiology colleagues throughout Scotland for submitting isolates. Antimicrobial sensitivity testing was performed by the Mycology Reference Laboratory, Public Health England, Bristol.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exercise responsive genes measured in peripheral blood of women with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and matched control subjects

BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is defined by debilitating fatigue that is exacerbated by physical or mental exertion. To search for markers of CFS-associated post-exertional fatigue, we measured peripheral blood gene expression profiles of women with CFS and matched controls before and after exercise challenge. RESULTS: Women with CFS and healthy, age-matched, sedentary controls were exercised on a stationary bicycle at 70% of their predicted maximum workload. Blood was obtained before and after the challenge, total RNA was extracted from mononuclear cells, and signal intensity of the labeled cDNA hybridized to a 3800-gene oligonucleotide microarray was measured. We identified differences in gene expression among and between subject groups before and after exercise challenge and evaluated differences in terms of Gene Ontology categories. Exercise-responsive genes differed between CFS patients and controls. These were in genes classified in chromatin and nucleosome assembly, cytoplasmic vesicles, membrane transport, and G protein-coupled receptor ontologies. Differences in ion transport and ion channel activity were evident at baseline and were exaggerated after exercise, as evidenced by greater numbers of differentially expressed genes in these molecular functions. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the potential use of an exercise challenge combined with microarray gene expression analysis in identifying gene ontologies associated with CFS

A population-based study of the clinical course of chronic fatigue syndrome

BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) presents a challenge for patients, health care providers, and health insurance groups because of its incapacitating nature, unknown cause, and poorly understood prognosis. We conducted a longitudinal population-based study to characterize the clinical course of CFS. METHODS: Sixty-five CFS subjects were identified from a random-digit-dialing survey of Wichita, Kansas residents and followed for up to 3 years. We evaluated changes in CFS classification (partial or total remission, alternative medical or psychiatric diagnoses), CFS case-defining criteria, wellness scores, hours of activities and sleep, and treatments used to reduce fatigue. Associations between risk factors and outcomes were determined by use of logistic regression and generalized estimating equations models. RESULTS: Only 20%-33% of the subjects were classified as having CFS at follow-up, 56.9% ever experienced partial or total remission, 10% sustained total remission, and 23.1% received alternative diagnoses, of which 20% were sleep disorders. Higher fatigue severity scores and total number of symptoms were negatively associated with ever remitting. Duration of illness ≤ 2 years was positively associated with sustained remission. Unrefreshing sleep persisted in at least 79% of the subjects across all periods but, as with most of the CFS symptoms, tended to be less frequent over time. The number of activities affected by fatigue decreased over time, while wellness scores increased. At any follow-up, more than 35% of subjects reporting reduced fatigue used complementary and alternative medicine therapies, and of those subjects, at least 50% thought these therapies were responsible for reducing their fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical course of CFS was characterized by an intermittent pattern of relapse and remission. Remission rates documented by our population-based study were similar to those reported in clinical studies. Shorter illness duration was a significant predictor of sustained remission, and thus early detection of CFS is of utmost importance. The persistence of sleep complaints and identification of sleep disorders suggest that CFS subjects be evaluated for sleep disturbances, which could be treated

Modeling the Near-Infrared Luminosity Functions of Young Stellar Clusters

We present the results of numerical experiments designed to evaluate the usefulness of near-infrared luminosity functions for constraining the Initial Mass Function (IMF) of young stellar populations. From this numerical modeling, we find that the luminosity function of a young stellar population is considerably more sensitive to variations in the underlying initial mass function than to either variations in the star forming history or assumed pre-main-sequence (PMS) mass-to-luminosity relation. To illustrate the potential effectiveness of using the KLF of a young cluster to constrain its IMF, we model the observed K band luminosity function of the nearby Trapezium cluster. Our derived mass function for the Trapezium spans two orders of magnitude in stellar mass (5 Msun to 0.02 Msun), has a peak near the hydrogen burning limit, and has an IMF for Brown Dwarfs which steadily decreases with decreasing mass.Comment: To appear in ApJ (1 April 2000). 37 pages including 11 figures, AAS: ver 5.

Analysis of Fcγ receptor haplotypes in rheumatoid arthritis: FCGR3A remains a major susceptibility gene at this locus, with an additional contribution from FCGR3B

The Fcγ receptors play important roles in the initiation and regulation of many immunological and inflammatory processes, and genetic variants (FCGR) have been associated with numerous autoimmune and infectious diseases. The data in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are conflicting and we previously demonstrated an association between FCGR3A and RA. In view of the close molecular proximity with FCGR2A, FCGR2B and FCGR3B, additional polymorphisms within these genes and FCGR haplotypes were examined to refine the extent of association with RA. Biallelic polymorphisms in FCGR2A, FCGR2B and FCGR3B were examined for association with RA in two well characterized UK Caucasian and North Indian/Pakistani cohorts, in which FCGR3A genotyping had previously been undertaken. Haplotype frequencies and linkage disequilibrium were estimated across the FCGR locus and a model-free analysis was performed to determine association with RA. This was followed by regression analysis, allowing for phase uncertainty, to identify the particular haplotype(s) that influences disease risk. Our results reveal that FCGR2A, FCGR2B and FCGR3B were not associated with RA. The haplotype with the strongest association with RA susceptibility was the FCGR3A–FCGR3B 158V-NA2 haplotype (odds ratio 3.18, 95% confidence interval 1.13–8.92 [P = 0.03] for homozygotes compared with all genotypes). The association was stronger in the presence of nodules (odds ratio 5.03, 95% confidence interval 1.44–17.56; P = 0.01). This haplotype was also more common in North Indian/Pakistani RA patients than in control individuals, but not significantly so. Logistic regression analyses suggested that FCGR3A remained the most significant gene at this locus. The increased association with an FCGR3A–FCGR3B haplotype suggests that other polymorphic variants within FCGR3A or FCGR3B, or in linkage disequilibrium with this haplotype, may additionally contribute to disease pathogenesis

Perception versus polysomnographic assessment of sleep in CFS and non-fatigued control subjects: results from a population-based study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Complaints of unrefreshing sleep are a prominent component of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS); yet, polysomnographic studies have not consistently documented sleep abnormalities in CFS patients. We conducted this study to determine whether alterations in objective sleep characteristics are associated with subjective measures of poor sleep quality in persons with CFS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined the relationship between perceived sleep quality and polysomnographic measures of nighttime and daytime sleep in 35 people with CFS and 40 non-fatigued control subjects, identified from the general population of Wichita, Kansas and defined by empiric criteria. Perceived sleep quality and daytime sleepiness were assessed using clinical sleep questionnaires. Objective sleep characteristics were assessed by nocturnal polysomnography and daytime multiple sleep latency testing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Participants with CFS reported unrefreshing sleep and problems sleeping during the preceding month significantly more often than did non-fatigued controls. Participants with CFS also rated their quality of sleep during the overnight sleep study as significantly worse than did control subjects. Control subjects reported significantly longer sleep onset latency than latency to fall asleep as measured by PSG and MSLT. There were no significant differences in sleep pathology or architecture between subjects with CFS and control subjects.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>People with CFS reported sleep problems significantly more often than control subjects. Yet, when measured these parameters and sleep architecture did not differ between the two subject groups. A unique finding requiring further study is that control, but not CFS subjects, significantly over reported sleep latency suggesting CFS subjects may have an increased appreciation of sleep behaviour that may contribute to their perception of sleep problems.</p