Theme-Rheme patterns in L2 writing.

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A dynamic network approach for the study of human phenotypes

The use of networks to integrate different genetic, proteomic, and metabolic datasets has been proposed as a viable path toward elucidating the origins of specific diseases. Here we introduce a new phenotypic database summarizing correlations obtained from the disease history of more than 30 million patients in a Phenotypic Disease Network (PDN). We present evidence that the structure of the PDN is relevant to the understanding of illness progression by showing that (1) patients develop diseases close in the network to those they already have; (2) the progression of disease along the links of the network is different for patients of different genders and ethnicities; (3) patients diagnosed with diseases which are more highly connected in the PDN tend to die sooner than those affected by less connected diseases; and (4) diseases that tend to be preceded by others in the PDN tend to be more connected than diseases that precede other illnesses, and are associated with higher degrees of mortality. Our findings show that disease progression can be represented and studied using network methods, offering the potential to enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of human diseases. The dataset introduced here, released concurrently with this publication, represents the largest relational phenotypic resource publicly available to the research community.Comment: 28 pages (double space), 6 figure

Prevention of falls and fractures in old people by administration of calcium and vitamin d. randomized clinical trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There are many studies that associate vitamin D serum levels in older persons with muscle strength, physical performance and risk of fractures and falls. However, current evidence is insufficient to make a general recommendation for administrating calcium and vitamin D to older persons. The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of calcium and vitamin D supplementation in improving musculoskeletal function and decreasing the number of falls in person aged over 65 years.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>Phase III, randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of already marketed drugs in a new indication. It will be performed at Primary Care doctor visits at several Healthcare Centers in different Spanish Health Areas. A total of 704 non-institutionalized subjects aged 65 years or older will be studied (sample size calculated for a statistical power of 80%, alpha error 0.05, annual incidence of falls 30% and expected reduction of 30% to 20% and expected loss to follow up of 20%). The test drug containing 800 IU of vitamin D and 1000 mg of calcium will be administered daily. The control group will receive a placebo. The subjects will be followed up over two years. The primary variable will be the incidence of spontaneous falls. The secondary variables will include: consequences of the falls (fractures, need for hospitalization), change in calcidiol plasma levels and other analytical determinations (transaminases, PTH, calcium/phosphorous, albumin, creatinine, etc.), change in bone mass by densitometry, change in muscle strength in the dominant hand and change in musculoskeletal strength, risk factors for falls, treatment compliance, adverse effects and socio-demographic data.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The following principles have been considered in the development of this Project: the product data are sufficient to ensure that the risks assumed by the study participants are acceptable, the study objectives will probably provide further knowledge on the problem studied and the available information justifies the performance of the study and its possible risk for the participants.</p> <p>If calcium and vitamin D supplementation is effective in the prevention of falls and fractures in the elderly population, a recommendation may be issued with the aim of preventing some of the consequences of falls that affect quality of life and the ensuing personal, health and social costs.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01452243">NCT01452243</a></p> <p>Clinical trial authorized by the Spanish Medicines Agency: EudraCT number 2006-001643-63.</p

New abundance measurements in UKS 1927-177, a very metal-poor galaxy in the Local Group

We present new results from optical spectroscopy of the brightest Hii region in the dwarf irregular galaxy UKS 1927-177 in Sagittarius (SagDIG). From high signal-to-noise spectra, reddening-corrected line flux ratios have been measured with typical uncertainties of a few percent, from which the oxygen abundance is rediscussed, and new abundance estimates are derived for N and Ne. The O abundance in SagDIG, estimated with the empirical abundance indicator R23 and other methods, is in the range 12+log(O/H)=7.26 to 7.50. The fact that SagDIG is ~10 times closer than IZw18 makes it an ideal target to test the hypothesis of the existence of young galaxies in the present-day universe. Indeed, stellar photometry suggests that this galaxy may harbor a stellar population older than a few Gyr, and possibly an old stellar component as well. The case of SagDIG therefore supports the view that very low chemical abundances can be maintained throughout the life of a dwarf stellar system, even in the presence of multiple star formation episodes.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&A, main journa

The Collaborative Image of The City: Mapping the Inequality of Urban Perception

A traveler visiting Rio, Manila or Caracas does not need a report to learn that these cities are unequal; she can see it directly from the taxicab window. This is because in most cities inequality is conspicuous, but also, because cities express different forms of inequality that are evident to casual observers. Cities are highly heterogeneous and often unequal with respect to the income of their residents, but also with respect to the cleanliness of their neighborhoods, the beauty of their architecture, and the liveliness of their streets, among many other evaluative dimensions. Until now, however, our ability to understand the effect of a city's built environment on social and economic outcomes has been limited by the lack of quantitative data on urban perception. Here, we build on the intuition that inequality is partly conspicuous to create quantitative measure of a city's contrasts. Using thousands of geo-tagged images, we measure the perception of safety, class and uniqueness; in the cities of Boston and New York in the United States, and Linz and Salzburg in Austria, finding that the range of perceptions elicited by the images of New York and Boston is larger than the range of perceptions elicited by images from Linz and Salzburg. We interpret this as evidence that the cityscapes of Boston and New York are more contrasting, or unequal, than those of Linz and Salzburg. Finally, we validate our measures by exploring the connection between them and homicides, finding a significant correlation between the perceptions of safety and class and the number of homicides in a NYC zip code, after controlling for the effects of income, population, area and age. Our results show that online images can be used to create reproducible quantitative measures of urban perception and characterize the inequality of different cities.MIT Media Lab Consortiu

Psicometric properties of an instrument for measuring patient’s satisfaction with physical therapy (medrisk) in spanish population: cultural diversity

The Spanish-language versión of the MedRisk Insttrument for Mesauring Partient Satisfaction with Physical therapy Care was validated in a simple of 203 Spanish-speakers patients in New York City. The purpose of this investigation is to adapt this instrument to Spanish population (patients who assist to physical therapy services in Spain); to corroborate if exist a psychometric equivalence and to identify if Spanish patients consider relevant the same dimensions as the preliminary validation. Relevance: At time to used a measurement instrument that has been validated in another country, it is necessary to assure that it is not only reliable and valid to the country where was developed, but also it needs to be appropriated to the patients subjects of the current investigation. Participants: A total of 300 patients of the Hospital of San Juan de Dios del Aljarafe (in Sevilla, Spain) participated in this study (44% men and 56% women between 13 and 93 years old). Methods: It has been done a cross-sectional descriptive study. Data were collected between April 2008 and November 2009.To the patients involved in the research, it was applied the original 20-item version of the MRPS (18 items and two global measures) and not the validated 12-item MRPS (10 items and two global measures). The main investigator randomly selected days during which the data were collected. The sample was taken finally on by convenience: all patients, in these selected days, who assist to medical care once they were done with their prescribed physiotherapy treatment. Analysis: Like Spanish version in New York, factor structure was investigated using item-correlation and exploratory factor analysis. Group-level reliability for single test administration was assessed using the Cronbach alpha. Results: Factor structure: the inter-item correlation matrix revealed that 3 items were not significantly correlated to both of the global measures . These 3 items were not included in the subsequent analysis. Principal components analysis revealed 4 eigenvalues greater than 2.0 explaining 67.93% of the cumulative variance. This suggested a 4-factor solutions. Following varimax rotation, a total of 14 items loaded on four factors were retained. Reliability: The Cronbach alpha was .87 Conclusions: Spanish version of MRPS that was validated with Spanish-speakers patients in New York is similar but not identical to the validation obtained with Spanish Population. In both of them, 9 of the 12 and 14 items finally selected in each other, have a coincidence. In the first one, there is a conclusion of two factors, internal and external. And in our investigation there were obtained 4 dimensions, 2 of them refer to internal factors (respect of the healthcare team and professional behavior of the therapist) and 2 that does it to external factors (adaptation of the center and accessibility)Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Taphonomic Criteria for Identifying Iberian Lynx Dens in Quaternary Deposits

For decades, taphonomists have dedicated their efforts to assessing the nature of the massive leporid accumulations recovered at archaeological sites in the northwestern Mediterranean region. Their interest lying in the fact that the European rabbit constituted a critical part of human subsistence during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. However, rabbits are also a key prey in the food webs of Mediterranean ecosystems and the base of the diet for several specialist predators, including the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). For this reason, the origin of rabbit accumulations in northwestern Mediterranean sites has proved a veritable conundrum. Here, we present the zooarchaeological and taphonomic study of more than 3000 faunal and 140 coprolite remains recovered in layer IIIa of Cova del Gegant (Catalonia, Spain). Our analysis indicates that this layer served primarily as a den for the Iberian lynx. The lynxes modified and accumulated rabbit remains and also died at the site creating an accumulation dominated by the two taxa. However, other agents and processes, including human, intervened in the final configuration of the assemblage. Our study contributes to characterizing the Iberian lynx fossil accumulation differentiating between the faunal assemblages accumulated by lynxes and hominins

Indicaciones de la tomografía computarizada de haz cónico en endodoncia. Revisión narrativa

32 p.La tomografía computarizada de haz cónico (TCHC) es una de las tecnologías imagenológicas que más se ha destacado en los últimos años en la odontología. En el área de endodoncia, destaca la indicación de este examen complementario. Sin embargo, son pocos los estudios actualizados que relacionan la TCHC con la endodoncia. Por lo tanto, se decidió describir las indicaciones principales que tiene la TCHC en endodoncia. La TCHC presenta principalmente las siguientes indicaciones: evaluación de morfología radicular, conducto radicular, tratamiento endodóntico, complicaciones, detección de lesiones óseas, manejo de traumatismos dentoalveolares, y conformación de una guía quirúrgica tanto en endodoncia como cirugía apical Uno de los nuevos estudios es el sistema de navegación en endodoncia, el cual es una de las últimas técnicas en las que la TCHC se está involucrando en la endodoncia. Con la TCHC se puede realizar un mejor diagnóstico hasta realizar una reproducible, más confiable y predecible que la planificación del tratamiento, también es posible obtener mejores resultados en la endodoncia, disminuir accidentes y facilitar la visualización

Rheumatoid synovial fluid interleukin-17-producing CD4 T cells have abundant tumor necrosis factor-alpha co-expression, but little interleukin-22 and interleukin-23R expression

Introduction\ud Th17 cells have been implicated in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this study was to systematically analyse the phenotype, cytokine profile and frequency of interleukin-17 (IL-17) producing CD4-positive T cells in mononuclear cells isolated from peripheral blood, synovial fluid and synovial tissue of RA patients with established disease, and to correlate cell frequencies with disease activity. \ud \ud Methods\ud Flow cytometry was used to analyse the phenotype and cytokine production of mononuclear cells isolated from peripheral blood (PBMC) (n = 44), synovial fluid (SFMC) (n = 14) and synovium (SVMC) (n = 10) of RA patients and PBMC of healthy controls (n = 13). \ud \ud Results\ud The frequency of IL-17-producing CD4 T cells was elevated in RA SFMC compared with RA PBMC (P = 0.04). However, the frequency of this population in RA SVMC was comparable to that in paired RA PBMC. The percentage of IL-17-producing CD4 T cells coexpressing tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) was significantly increased in SFMC (P = 0.0068). The frequency of IFNγ-producing CD4 T cells was also significantly higher in SFMC than paired PBMC (P = 0.042). The majority of IL-17-producing CD4 T cells coexpressed IFNγ. IL-17-producing CD4 T cells in RA PBMC and SFMC exhibited very little IL-22 or IL-23R coexpression. \ud \ud Conclusions\ud These findings demonstrate a modest enrichment of IL-17-producing CD4 T cells in RA SFMC compared to PBMC. Th17 cells in SFMC produce more TNFα than their PBMC counterparts, but are not a significant source of IL-22 and do not express IL-23R. However, the percentage of CD4 T cells which produce IL-17 in the rheumatoid joint is low, suggesting that other cells may be alternative sources of IL-17 within the joints of RA patients. \ud \u

Heroes and villains of world history across cultures

© 2015 Hanke et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedEmergent properties of global political culture were examined using data from the World History Survey (WHS) involving 6,902 university students in 37 countries evaluating 40 figures from world history. Multidimensional scaling and factor analysis techniques found only limited forms of universality in evaluations across Western, Catholic/Orthodox, Muslim, and Asian country clusters. The highest consensus across cultures involved scientific innovators, with Einstein having the most positive evaluation overall. Peaceful humanitarians like Mother Theresa and Gandhi followed. There was much less cross-cultural consistency in the evaluation of negative figures, led by Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein. After more traditional empirical methods (e.g., factor analysis) failed to identify meaningful cross-cultural patterns, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify four global representational profiles: Secular and Religious Idealists were overwhelmingly prevalent in Christian countries, and Political Realists were common in Muslim and Asian countries. We discuss possible consequences and interpretations of these different representational profiles.This research was supported by grant RG016-P-10 from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (http://www.cckf.org.tw/). Religion Culture Entropy China Democracy Economic histor