High atomic weight, high-energy radiation (HZE) induces transcriptional responses shared with conventional stresses in addition to a core "DSB" response specific to clastogenic treatments.

Plants exhibit a robust transcriptional response to gamma radiation which includes the induction of transcripts required for homologous recombination and the suppression of transcripts that promote cell cycle progression. Various DNA damaging agents induce different spectra of DNA damage as well as "collateral" damage to other cellular components and therefore are not expected to provoke identical responses by the cell. Here we study the effects of two different types of ionizing radiation (IR) treatment, HZE (1 GeV Fe(26+) high mass, high charge, and high energy relativistic particles) and gamma photons, on the transcriptome of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Both types of IR induce small clusters of radicals that can result in the formation of double strand breaks (DSBs), but HZE also produces linear arrays of extremely clustered damage. We performed these experiments across a range of time points (1.5-24 h after irradiation) in both wild-type plants and in mutants defective in the DSB-sensing protein kinase ATM. The two types of IR exhibit a shared double strand break-repair-related damage response, although they differ slightly in the timing, degree, and ATM-dependence of the response. The ATM-dependent, DNA metabolism-related transcripts of the "DSB response" were also induced by other DNA damaging agents, but were not induced by conventional stresses. Both Gamma and HZE irradiation induced, at 24 h post-irradiation, ATM-dependent transcripts associated with a variety of conventional stresses; these were overrepresented for pathogen response, rather than DNA metabolism. In contrast, only HZE-irradiated plants, at 1.5 h after irradiation, exhibited an additional and very extensive transcriptional response, shared with plants experiencing "extended night." This response was not apparent in gamma-irradiated plants

Reasoning from multiple texts: An automatic analysis of readers' situation models

In reading multiple texts, a reader must integrate information from the texts with his or her background knowledge. The resulting situation model represents a rich elaborated structure of events, actions, objects, and people involved in the text organized in a manner consistent with the reader's knowledge. In order to evaluate a reader's situation model, a reader's summary must be analyzed in relation to texts the subject has read as well as to more general knowledge such as an expert's knowledge. However, this analysis can be both time-consuming and difficult. In this paper, we use an automatic approach called Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) for evaluating the situation model of readers of multiple documents. LSA is a statistical model of word usage that generates a high-dimensional semantic space that models the semantics of the text. This paper describes three experiments. The first two describe methods for analyzing a subject's essay to determine from what text a subject learned the information and for grading the quality of information cited in the essay. The third experiment analyzes the knowledge structures of novice and expert readers and compares them to the knowledge structures generated by the model. The experiments illustrate a general approach to modeling and evaluating readers' situation models

The diagnostic validity and reliability of an internet-based clinical assessment program for mental disorders

BACKGROUND: Internet-based assessment has the potential to assist with the diagnosis of mental health disorders and overcome the barriers associated with traditional services (eg, cost, stigma, distance). Further to existing online screening programs available, there is an opportunity to deliver more comprehensive and accurate diagnostic tools to supplement the assessment and treatment of mental health disorders. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to evaluate the diagnostic criterion validity and test-retest reliability of the electronic Psychological Assessment System (e-PASS), an online, self-report, multidisorder, clinical assessment and referral system. METHODS: Participants were 616 adults residing in Australia, recruited online, and representing prospective e-PASS users. Following e-PASS completion, 158 participants underwent a telephone-administered structured clinical interview and 39 participants repeated the e-PASS within 25 days of initial completion. RESULTS: With structured clinical interview results serving as the gold standard, diagnostic agreement with the e-PASS varied considerably from fair (eg, generalized anxiety disorder: &kappa;=.37) to strong (eg, panic disorder: &kappa;=.62). Although the e-PASS\u27 sensitivity also varied (0.43-0.86) the specificity was generally high (0.68-1.00). The e-PASS sensitivity generally improved when reducing the e-PASS threshold to a subclinical result. Test-retest reliability ranged from moderate (eg, specific phobia: &kappa;=.54) to substantial (eg, bulimia nervosa: &kappa;=.87). CONCLUSIONS: The e-PASS produces reliable diagnostic results and performs generally well in excluding mental disorders, although at the expense of sensitivity. For screening purposes, the e-PASS subclinical result generally appears better than a clinical result as a diagnostic indicator. Further development and evaluation is needed to support the use of online diagnostic assessment programs for mental disorders. <br /

Births in two different delivery units in the same clinic – A prospective study of healthy primiparous women

Background: Earlier studies indicate that midwife-led birth settings are associated with modest benefits, including reduced medical interventions and increased maternal satisfaction. The generalizability of these studies to birth settings with low intervention rates, like those generally found in Norway, is not obvious. The aim of the present study was to compare intervention rates associated with labour in low-risk women who begin their labour in a midwife-led unit and a conventional care unit. Methods: Eligible participants were low-risk primiparas who met the criteria for delivery in the midwife-led ward regardless of which cohort they were allocated to. The two wards are localised at the same floor. Women in both cohorts received the same standardized public antenatal care by general medical practitioners and midwifes who were not involved in the delivery. After admission of a woman to the midwife-led ward, the next woman who met the inclusion criteria, but preferred delivery at the conventional delivery ward, was allocated to the conventional delivery ward cohort. Among the 252 women in the midwife-led ward cohort, 74 (29%) women were transferred to the conventional delivery ward during labour. Results: Emergency caesarean and instrumental delivery rates in women who were admitted to the midwife-led and conventional birth wards were statistically non-different, but more women admitted to the conventional birth ward had episiotomy. More women in the conventional delivery ward received epidural analgesia, pudental nerve block and nitrous oxide, while more women in the midwife-led ward received opiates and non-pharmacological pain relief. Conclusion: We did not find evidence that starting delivery in the midwife-led setting offers the advantage of lower operative delivery rates. However, epidural analgesia, pudental nerve block and episiotomies were less often while non-pharmacological pain relief was often used in the midwifeled ward

Three-weekly doses of azithromycin for Indigenous infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis: a multicentre, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Bronchiolitis is a major health burden in infants globally, particularly among Indigenous populations. It is unknown if 3 weeks of azithromycin improve clinical outcomes beyond the hospitalization period. In an international, double-blind randomized controlled trial, we determined if 3 weeks of azithromycin improved clinical outcomes in Indigenous infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis.Methods: Infants aged &le;24 months were enrolled from three centers and randomized to receive three once-weekly doses of either azithromycin (30 mg/kg) or placebo. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected at baseline and 48 h later. Primary endpoints were hospital length of stay (LOS) and duration of oxygen supplementation monitored every 12 h until judged ready for discharge. Secondary outcomes were: day-21 symptom/signs, respiratory rehospitalizations within 6 months post-discharge and impact upon nasopharyngeal bacteria and virus shedding at 48 h.Results: Two hundred nineteen infants were randomized (n = 106 azithromycin, n = 113 placebo). No significant between-group differences were found for LOS (median 54 h for each group, difference = 0 h, 95% CI: &minus;6, 8; p = 0.8), time receiving oxygen (azithromycin = 40 h, placebo = 35 h, group difference = 5 h, 95% CI: &minus;8, 11; p = 0.7), day-21 symptom/signs, or rehospitalization within 6 months (azithromycin n = 31, placebo n = 25 infants, p = 0.2). Azithromycin reduced nasopharyngeal bacterial carriage (between-group difference 0.4 bacteria/child, 95% CI: 0.2, 0.6; p &lt; 0.001), but had no significant effect upon virus detection rates.Conclusion: Despite reducing nasopharyngeal bacterial carriage, three large once-weekly doses of azithromycin did not confer any benefit over placebo during the bronchiolitis illness or 6 months post hospitalization. Azithromycin should not be used routinely to treat infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis.Clinical trial registration: The trial was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Register: Clinical trials number: ACTRN1261000036099

Requirement for Abasic Endonuclease Gene Homologues in Arabidopsis Seed Development

Arabidopsis thaliana has three genes, Ape1L, Ape2, and Arp, that show homology to abasic (apurinic/apyrimidinic) endonuclease genes of bacterial, yeast, or animal cells. In bacteria, yeast, and animals, abasic endonucleases function in base excision repair of oxidized and other modified DNA bases. Here we report that plants with knock-out mutations in any one of Ape1L, Ape2, or Arp show no apparent differences from wild type in growth rate, growth habit, and fertility. However, coincident knock-out mutations in Ape1L and Ape2 are lethal and lead to abortion of developing embryos. Mutations of Arp are not deleterious, even in combination with one of the other two mutations. The results are consistent with the interpretation that the process of base excision repair, involving at least one intact copy of Ape1L or Ape2, is required in the process of embryogenesis

Efficacy of indocyanine green fluorescence for the identification of non-palpable breast tumours: systematic review

BACKGROUND: Accurate tumour localization is crucial for precise surgical targeting and complete tumour removal. Indocyanine green fluorescence, an increasingly used technique in oncological surgery, has shown promise in localizing non-palpable breast tumours. The aim of this systematic review was to describe the efficacy of indocyanine green fluorescence for the identification of non-palpable breast tumours. METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library, including studies from 2012 to 2023. Studies reporting the proportion of breast tumours identified using indocyanine green fluorescence were included. The quality of the studies and their risk of bias were appraised using the Methodological Index for Non-Randomized Studies ('MINORS') tool. The following outcomes were collected: identification rate, clear resection margins, specimen volume, operative time, re-operation rate, adverse events, and complications. RESULTS: In total, 2061 articles were screened for eligibility, resulting in 11 studies, with 366 patients included: two RCTs, three non-randomized comparative studies, four single-arm studies, and two case reports. All studies achieved a 100 per cent tumour identification rate with indocyanine green fluorescence, except for one study, with an identification rate of 87 per cent (13/15). Clear resection margins were found in 88-100 per cent of all patients. Reoperation rates ranged from 0.0 to 5.4 per cent and no complications or adverse events related to indocyanine green occurred. CONCLUSION: Indocyanine green fluorescence has substantial theoretical advantages compared with current routine localization methods. Although a limited number of studies were available, the current literature suggests that indocyanine green fluorescence is a useful, accurate, and safe technique for the intraoperative localization of non-palpable breast tumours, with equivalent efficacy compared with other localization techniques, potentially reducing tumour-positive margins

Correction : variations in childbirth interventions in high-income countries : protocol for a multinational cross-sectional study

Original article can be fount at: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58714Correction issued for the article Variations in childbirth interventions in highincome countries: protocol for a multinational cross-sectional study (10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017993)peer-reviewe