Talking Glossary of Genomics Terminology: A Genomics Education Module for American Indian Communities

This paper describes the development of an audio visual genomics glossary that was designed as an education tool for American Indian communities. This “Talking Glossary of Genomics Terminology” is a multimedia DVD that was modeled on the “Talking Glossary of Genetics,” which was developed by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The NHGRI Glossary was modified and expanded with content designed to increase awareness among American Indians about cancer, genomics, and personalized medicine. Partners on the project include the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., Phoenix Indian Medical Center, Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona, the Translational Genomics Research Institute, as well as Arizona State University and University of Arizona graduate students

Improving the Quality of Consumer Health Information on Wikipedia: Case Series.

BACKGROUND: Wikipedia is one of the most consulted health resources in the world. Since the public is using health information from Wikipedia to make health care decisions, improving the quality of that health information is in the public interest. The open editable content design of Wikipedia and quality control processes in place provide an opportunity to add high-value, evidence-based information and take an active role in improving the health care information infrastructure. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this project was to enhance Wikipedia health pages using high-quality, current research findings and track the persistence of those edits and number of page views after the changes to assess the reach of this initiative. METHODS: We conducted Wikipedia Editathons with 3 different cohorts of Physical Therapy (PT) students to add high-quality health information to existing Wikipedia pages. Students synthesized best evidence information and updated and/or corrected existing Wikipedia entries on specific health pages. To evaluate the impact of these contributions, we examined two factors: (1) response to our contributions from the Wikipedia editing community, including number and type of subsequent edits as well as persistence of the student contributions and (2) number of page views by the public from the time of the page edits. RESULTS: A total of 98 PT students in 3 different cohorts engaged in Editathons, editing 24 health pages. Of the 24 edits, 22 persisted at the end of the observation period (from time of entry to May 31, 2018) and received nearly 8 million page views. Each health page had an average of 354,724 page views. CONCLUSIONS: The Wikipedia Editathon is an effective way to continuously enhance the quality of health information available on Wikipedia. It is also an excellent way of bridging health technology with best-evidence medical facts and disseminating accurate, useful information to the public

Evidence for Increased Beta-Adrenoreceptor Responsiveness Induced by 14 Days of Simulated Microgravity in Humans

We studied hemodynamic responses to alpha and beta receptor agonists in 8 healthy men ( 38+- 2 yrs) before and after 14 days of 6 degree head-down tilt (HDT) to test the hypothesis that increased adrenergic responsiveness is induced by prolonged exposure to microgravity. Immediately following a 30-min baseline period, a steady-state infusion of isoproterenol (ISO) was used to assess beta 1- and beta 2-adrenergic responsiveness. ISO was infused at three graded constant rates of 0.005, 0.01 and 0.02 ug/kg/min. After heart rate and blood pressure had been allowed to return to baseline levels following ISO infusion graded infusion of phenylephrine (PE) was used to assess responsiveness of alpha I-vascular receptors. PE was infused at three graded constant rates of 0.25, 0.50 and 1.00 ug/kg/min. Each infusion interval for both drugs was 9 min. During the infusions, constant monitoring of beat-to-beat blood pressure and heart rate was performed and leg blood flow was measured with occlusion plethysmography at each infusion level. The slopes calculated from linear regressions between ISO and PE doses and changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and leg vascular resistance for each subject were used to represent alpha- and beta- adrenoreceptor responsiveness. Fourteen days HDT increased the slopes of heart rate (1056 +- 107 to 1553 +- 83 beats/ug/kg/min; P= 0.014) and vasodilation (-469ft +- 111 to -l446 +- 309 PRU/ug/kg/min; P =0.0224) to ISO infusion. There was no alteration in blood pressure or vascular resistance responses to PE infusion after HDT. Our results provide evidence that microgravity causes selective increases in beta 1- and beta 2-adrenergic responsiveness without affecting alpha 1-vascular responses

A COST-EFFECTIVE MODEL FOR TEACHING ELEMENTARY STATISTICS WITH IMPROVED STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Dissatisfaction with teaching a high enrollment introductory statistics course led to efforts to restructure the course to remedy the perceived problems, including lack of student participation, an excessive drain on departmental resources, failure to take into account wide differences in student learning styles, an inability of students to apply statistics after the course, and negative attitudes of students. A cost-effective redesign of the course was implemented that incorporates a learning environment that is student-oriented, involves active student participation and hands-on experience with data analysis, uses technology to reduce costs through labor-saving techniques including low-stakes computerized testing, and sharing of resources enabled by a web site for course management and delivery of course materials. Responsibility for learning basic concepts was transferred to students and motivated by readiness assessment quizzes. The redesign led to about $125,000 in cost savings to the department

The p400 Complex Is an Essential E1A Transformation Target

AbstractHere, we report the identification of a new E1A binding protein complex that is essential for E1A-mediated transformation. Its core component is a SWI2/SNF2-related, 400 kDa protein (p400). Other components include the myc- and p/CAF-associated cofactor, TRRAP/PAF400, the DNA helicases TAP54α/β, actin-like proteins, and the human homolog of the Drosophila Enhancer of Polycomb protein. An E1A mutant, defective in p400 binding, is also defective in transformation. Certain p400 fragments partially rescued this phenotype, underscoring the role of E1A-p400 complex formation in the E1A transforming process. Furthermore, E1A and c-myc each alter the subunit composition of p400 complexes, implying that physiological p400 complex formation contributes to transformation suppression

Mild Cognitive Impairment, Incidence, Progression, and Reversion: Findings from a Community-based Cohort of Elderly African Americans

Objective To examine the long-term outcomes of community-based elderly African Americans by following their transitions from normal cognition to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and to dementia. Methods Participants were from the community-based Indianapolis Dementia Project. A total of 4104 African Americans were enrolled in 1992 or 2001 and followed until 2009 with regularly scheduled evaluation of cognitive assessment. A two-stage sampling was used at each evaluation to select individuals for extensive clinical assessment following the results of stage one cognitive testing. Age and gender specific incidence, progression and reversion rates for MCI were derived using the person-year method in a dynamic cohort and predicted probabilities from weighted multinomial logistic models of transitional probabilities among normal cognition, MCI and dementia. Results Annual overall incidence rate for MCI is 5.6% (95% CI: 4.6–6.6%). Annual progression rate from MCI to dementia is 5.9% (95% CI: 5.3–6.5%) and annual reversion rate from MCI to normal is 18.6% (95% CI: 16.7–20.4%). Both MCI incidence rates and MCI to dementia progression rates increase with age, while reversion rates from MCI to normal decrease with age. Conclusion MCI progression to dementia is much more frequent in the older age groups than in the younger participants where reversion to normal cognition is more common. Future research is needed to determine factors related to the heterogeneous outcomes in MCI individuals

Intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of activity budgets in sympatric grey and harbour seals

D. J. F. Russell was funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) as part of their Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme and by Scottish Government as part of their Marine Mammal Scientific Support Research Programme (MMSS/001/11). The telemetry tags and their deployment were funded by DECC, the Natural Environment Research Council, Scottish Government, Marine Scotland Science and The European Commission.Investigation of activity budgets in relation to seasonal, intrinsic (age, sex) and extrinsic (time of day, spatial) covariates enables an understanding of how such covariates shape behavioural strategies. However, conducting such investigations in the wild is challenging, because of the required large sample size of individuals across the annual cycle, and difficulties in categorising behavioural states and analysing the resulting individual-referenced and serially correlated data. In this study, from telemetry tags deployed on 63 grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and 126 harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) we used behavioural data, and movement data within a Bayesian state-space model (SSM), to define population-level activity budgets around Britain. Using generalised estimating equations (GEEs) we then examined how time spent in four states (resting on land (hauled out), resting at sea, foraging and travelling) was influenced by seasonal, intrinsic and extrinsic covariates. We present and discuss the following key findings. (1) We found no evidence that regional variation in foraging effort was linked to regional population trajectories in harbour seals. (2) Grey seals demonstrated sex-specific seasonal differences in their activity budgets, independent from those related to reproductive costs. (3) In these sympatric species there was evidence of temporal separation in time hauled out, but not in time foraging. (4) In both species, time spent resting at sea was separated into inshore (associated with tidal haul out availability) and offshore areas. Time spent resting at sea and on land was interchangeable to some extent, suggesting a degree of overlap in their functionality. This may result in a relaxation of the constraints associated with a central place foraging strategy. More generally, we demonstrate how a large dataset, incorporating differing tag parameters, can be analysed to define activity budgets and subsequently address important ecological questions.PostprintPeer reviewe