Alien Registration- Parent, Joseph B. (Van Buren, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/32354/thumbnail.jp

Sequential Effects in Judgements of Attractiveness: The Influences of Face Race and Sex

In perceptual decision-making, a person’s response on a given trial is influenced by their response on the immediately preceding trial. This sequential effect was initially demonstrated in psychophysical tasks, but has now been found in more complex, real-world judgements. The similarity of the current and previous stimuli determines the nature of the effect, with more similar items producing assimilation in judgements, while less similarity can cause a contrast effect. Previous research found assimilation in ratings of facial attractiveness, and here, we investigated whether this effect is influenced by the social categories of the faces presented. Over three experiments, participants rated the attractiveness of own- (White) and other-race (Chinese) faces of both sexes that appeared successively. Through blocking trials by race (Experiment 1), sex (Experiment 2), or both dimensions (Experiment 3), we could examine how sequential judgements were altered by the salience of different social categories in face sequences. For sequences that varied in sex alone, own-race faces showed significantly less opposite-sex assimilation (male and female faces perceived as dissimilar), while other-race faces showed equal assimilation for opposite- and same-sex sequences (male and female faces were not differentiated). For sequences that varied in race alone, categorisation by race resulted in no opposite-race assimilation for either sex of face (White and Chinese faces perceived as dissimilar). For sequences that varied in both race and sex, same-category assimilation was significantly greater than opposite-category. Our results suggest that the race of a face represents a superordinate category relative to sex. These findings demonstrate the importance of social categories when considering sequential judgements of faces, and also highlight a novel approach for investigating how multiple social dimensions interact during decision-making

Identification of Colletotrichum species associated with anthracnose disease of coffee in Vietnam

Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, C. acutatum, C. capsici and C. boninense associated with anthracnose disease on coffee (Coffea spp.) in Vietnam were identified based on morphology and DNA analysis. Phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences from the internal transcribed spacer region of nuclear rDNA and a portion of mitochondrial small subunit rRNA were concordant and allowed good separation of the taxa. We found several Colletotrichum isolates of unknown species and their taxonomic position remains unresolved. The majority of Vietnamese isolates belonged to C. gloeosporioides and they grouped together with the coffee berry disease (CBD) fungus, C. kahawae. However, C. kahawae could be distinguished from the Vietnamese C. gloeosporioides isolates based on ammonium tartrate utilization, growth rate and pathogenictity. C. gloeosporioides isolates were more pathogenic on detached green berries than isolates of the other species, i.e. C. acutatum, C capsici and C. boninense. Some of the C. gloeosporioides isolates produced slightly sunken lesion on green berries resembling CBD symptoms but it did not destroy the bean. We did not find any evidence of the presence of C. kahawae in Vietnam

Protocol for: Sheffield Obesity Trial (SHOT): A randomised controlled trial of exercise therapy and mental health outcomes in obese adolescents [ISRCNT83888112]

Background While obesity is known to have many physiological consequences, the psychopathology of this condition has not featured prominently in the literature. Cross-sectional studies have indicated that obese children have increased odds of experiencing poor quality of life and mental health. However, very limited trial evidence has examined the efficacy of exercise therapy for enhancing mental health outcomes in obese children, and the Sheffield Obesity Trial (SHOT) will provide evidence of the efficacy of supervised exercise therapy in obese young people aged 11–16 years versus usual care and an attention-control intervention. Method/design SHOT is a randomised controlled trial where obese young people are randomised to receive; (1) exercise therapy, (2) attention-control intervention (involving body-conditioning exercises and games that do not involve aerobic activity), or (3) usual care. The exercise therapy and attention-control sessions will take place three times per week for eight weeks and a six-week home programme will follow this. Ninety adolescents aged between 11–16 years referred from a children's hospital for evaluation of obesity or via community advertisements will need to complete the study. Participants will be recruited according to the following criteria: (1) clinically obese and aged 11–16 years (Body Mass Index Centile > 98th UK standard) (2) no medical condition that would restrict ability to be active three times per week for eight weeks and (3) not diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes or receiving oral steroids. Assessments of outcomes will take place at baseline, as well as four (intervention midpoint) and eight weeks (end of intervention) from baseline. Participants will be reassessed on outcome measures five and seven months from baseline. The primary endpoint is physical self-perceptions. Secondary outcomes include physical activity, self-perceptions, depression, affect, aerobic fitness and BMI

Presenting features and long-term effects of growth hormone treatment of children with optic nerve hypoplasia/septo-optic dysplasia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) with/or without septo-optic dysplasia (SOD) is a known concomitant of congenital growth hormone deficiency (CGHD).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Demographic and longitudinal data from KIGS, the Pfizer International Growth Database, were compared between 395 subjects with ONH/SOD and CGHD and 158 controls with CGHD without midline pathology.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ONH/SOD subjects had higher birth length/weight, and mid-parental height SDS. At GH start, height, weight, and BMI SDS were higher in the ONH/SOD group. After 1 year of GH, both groups showed similar changes in height SDS, while weight and BMI SDS remained higher in the ONH/SOD group. The initial height responses of the two groups were similar to those predicted using the KIGS-derived prediction model for children with idiopathic GHD. At near-adult height, ONH/SOD and controls had similar height, weight, and BMI SDS.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Compared to children with CGHD without midline defects, those with ONH/SOD presented with greater height, weight, and BMI SDS. These differences persisted at 1 year of GH therapy, but appeared to be overcome by long-term GH treatment.</p

Multivariate characterization of white matter heterogeneity in autism spectrum disorder

The complexity and heterogeneity of neuroimaging findings in individuals with autism spectrum disorder has suggested that many of the underlying alterations are subtle and involve many brain regions and networks. The ability to account for multivariate brain features and identify neuroimaging measures that can be used to characterize individual variation have thus become increasingly important for interpreting and understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of autism. In the present study, we utilize the Mahalanobis distance, a multidimensional counterpart of the Euclidean distance, as an informative index to characterize individual brain variation and deviation in autism. Longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging data from 149 participants (92 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and 57 typically developing controls) between 3.1 and 36.83 years of age were acquired over a roughly 10-year period and used to construct the Mahalanobis distance from regional measures of white matter microstructure. Mahalanobis distances were significantly greater and more variable in the autistic individuals as compared to control participants, demonstrating increased atypicalities and variation in the group of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Distributions of multivariate measures were also found to provide greater discrimination and more sensitive delineation between autistic and typically developing individuals than conventional univariate measures, while also being significantly associated with observed traits of the autism group. These results help substantiate autism as a truly heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder, while also suggesting that collectively considering neuroimaging measures from multiple brain regions provides improved insight into the diversity of brain measures in autism that is not observed when considering the same regions separately. Distinguishing multidimensional brain relationships may thus be informative for identifying neuroimaging-based phenotypes, as well as help elucidate underlying neural mechanisms of brain variation in autism spectrum disorders

Uptake of home-based voluntary HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Improving access to HIV testing is a key priority in scaling up HIV treatment and prevention services. Home-based voluntary counselling and testing (HBT) as an approach to delivering wide-scale HIV testing is explored here

Adaptive hybrid robotic system for rehabilitation of reaching movement after a brain injury: a usability study

BACKGROUND: Brain injury survivors often present upper-limb motor impairment affecting the execution of functional activities such as reaching. A currently active research line seeking to maximize upper-limb motor recovery after a brain injury, deals with the combined use of functional electrical stimulation (FES) and mechanical supporting devices, in what has been previously termed hybrid robotic systems. This study evaluates from the technical and clinical perspectives the usability of an integrated hybrid robotic system for the rehabilitation of upper-limb reaching movements after a brain lesion affecting the motor function. METHODS: The presented system is comprised of four main components. The hybrid assistance is given by a passive exoskeleton to support the arm weight against gravity and a functional electrical stimulation device to assist the execution of the reaching task. The feedback error learning (FEL) controller was implemented to adjust the intensity of the electrical stimuli delivered on target muscles according to the performance of the users. This control strategy is based on a proportional-integral-derivative feedback controller and an artificial neural network as the feedforward controller. Two experiments were carried out in this evaluation. First, the technical viability and the performance of the implemented FEL controller was evaluated in healthy subjects (N = 12). Second, a small cohort of patients with a brain injury (N = 4) participated in two experimental session to evaluate the system performance. Also, the overall satisfaction and emotional response of the users after they used the system was assessed. RESULTS: In the experiment with healthy subjects, a significant reduction of the tracking error was found during the execution of reaching movements. In the experiment with patients, a decreasing trend of the error trajectory was found together with an increasing trend in the task performance as the movement was repeated. Brain injury patients expressed a great acceptance in using the system as a rehabilitation tool. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates the technical feasibility of using the hybrid robotic system for reaching rehabilitation. Patients’ reports on the received intervention reveal a great satisfaction and acceptance of the hybrid robotic system

Labrador retrievers under primary veterinary care in the UK: demography, mortality and disorders

Abstract Background Labrador retrievers are reportedly predisposed to many disorders but accurate prevalence information relating to the general population are lacking. This study aimed to describe demography, mortality and commonly recorded diseases in Labrador retrievers under UK veterinary care. Methods The VetCompass™ programme collects electronic patient record data on dogs attending UK primary-care veterinary practices. Demographic analysis covered all33,320 Labrador retrievers in the VetCompass™ database under veterinary care during 2013 while disorder and mortality data were extracted from a random sample of 2074 (6.2%) of these dogs. Results Of the Labrador retrievers with information available, 15,427 (46.4%) were female and 15,252 (53.6%) were male. Females were more likely to be neutered than males (59.7% versus 54.8%, P <  0.001). The overall mean adult bodyweight was 33.0 kg (SD 6.1). Adult males were heavier (35.2 kg, SD 5.9 kg) than adult females (30.4 kg, SD 5.2 kg) (P <  0.001). The median longevity of Labrador retrievers overall was 12.0 years (IQR 9.9–13.8, range 0.0–16.0). The most common recorded colours were black (44.6%), yellow (27.8%) and liver/chocolate (reported from hereon as chocolate) (23.8%). The median longevity of non-chocolate coloured dogs (n = 139, 12.1 years, IQR 10.2–13.9, range 0.0–16.0) was longer than for chocolate coloured animals (n = 34, 10.7 years, IQR 9.0–12.4, range 3.8–15.5) (P = 0.028). Of a random sample of 2074 (6.2%) Labrador retrievers under care in 2013 that had full disorder data extracted, 1277 (61.6%) had at least one disorder recorded. The total number of dogs who died at any date during the study was 176. The most prevalent disorders recorded were otitis externa (n = 215, prevalence 10.4%, 95% CI: 9.1–11.8), overweight/obesity (183, 8.8%, 95% CI: 7.6–10.1) and degenerative joint disease (115, 5.5%, 95% CI: 4.6–6.6). Overweight/obesity was not statistically significantly associated with neutering in females (8.3% of entire versus 12.5% of neutered, P = 0.065) but was associated with neutering in males (4.1% of entire versus 11.4% of neutered, P < 0.001). The prevalence of otitis externa in black dogs was 12.8%, in yellow dogs it was 17.0% but, in chocolate dogs, it rose to 23.4% (P < 0.001). Similarly, the prevalence of pyo-traumatic dermatitis in black dogs was 1.1%, in yellow dogs it was 1.6% but in chocolate dogs it rose to 4.0% (P = 0.011). Conclusions The current study assists prioritisation of health issues within Labrador retrievers. The most common disorders were overweight/obesity, otitis externa and degenerative joint disease. Males were significantly heavier females. These results can alert prospective owners to potential health issues and inform breed-specific wellness checks

Regular Exercise or Changing Diet Does Not Influence Aortic Valve Disease Progression in LDLR Deficient Mice

BACKGROUND: The development and progression of calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) shares a number of similarities with atherosclerosis. Recently we could demonstrate that regular exercise training (ET) as primary prevention prevents aortic valve disease in LDL-receptor deficient (LDLR(-/-)) mice. We aimed to investigate the impact of exercise training on the progression of CAVD in LDLR(-/-) mice in the setting of secondary prevention METHODS AND RESULTS: Sixty-four LDLR(-/-) mice were fed with high cholesterol diet to induce aortic valve sclerosis. Thereafter the animals were divided into 3 groups: group 1 continuing on high cholesterol diet, group 2 continuing with cholesterol diet plus 1 h ET per day, group 3 continuing with normal mouse chow. After another 16 weeks the animal were sacrificed. Histological analysis of the aortic valve thickness demonstrated no significant difference between the three groups (control 98.3±4.5 µm, ET 88.2±6.6 µm, change in diet 87.5±4.0). Immunohistochemical staining for endothelial cells revealed a disrupted endothelial cell layer to the same extend in all groups. Furthermore no difference between the groups was evident with respect to the expression of inflammatory, fibroblastic and osteoblastic markers. CONCLUSION: Based on the present study we have to conclude that once the development of a CAVD is initiated, exercise training or a change in diet does not have the potential to attenuate the progress of the CAVD