Ownership and attitudes towards technology use in physiotherapy students from seven countries

PURPOSE: To assess differences in prerequisites to blended learning such as technology use and Internet access in an international sample of physiotherapy students from Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Luxembourg, Sudan, Switzerland and South Africa. RESULTS: Students' digital technology experiences were generally low. They primarily used a smartphone and a laptop to connect to the Internet. However, there was a significant difference between institutions in owning a laptop and access to Internet. Most students preferred learning in environments that included some online components but had never used Twitter or written a blog post and wanted less social media in their learning environments. CONCLUSION: Physiotherapy students would prefer an increase in the use of digital tools in their learning. However, differences in technology use and access highlight the challenges inherent to offering international online courses. Therefore decisions around online and blended course design in health professions education must be made with caution.Michael Rowe receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation

Von Bezold assimilation effect reverses in stereoscopic conditions

Lightness contrast and lightness assimilation are opposite phenomena: in contrast, grey targets appear darker when bordering bright surfaces (inducers) rather than dark ones; in assimilation, the opposite occurs. The question is: which visual process favours the occurrence of one phenomenon over the other? Researchers provided three answers to this question. The first asserts that both phenomena are caused by peripheral processes; the second attributes their occurrence to central processes; and the third claims that contrast involves central processes, whilst assimilation involves peripheral ones. To test these hypotheses, an experiment on an IT system equipped with goggles for stereo vision was run. Observers were asked to evaluate the lightness of a grey target, and two variables were systematically manipulated: (i) the apparent distance of the inducers; and (ii) brightness of the inducers. The retinal stimulation was kept constant throughout, so that the peripheral processes remained the same. The results show that the lightness of the target depends on both variables. As the retinal stimulation was kept constant, we conclude that central mechanisms are involved in both lightness contrast and lightness assimilation

Entangled Mechanical Oscillators

Hallmarks of quantum mechanics include superposition and entanglement. In the context of large complex systems, these features should lead to situations like Schrodinger's cat, which exists in a superposition of alive and dead states entangled with a radioactive nucleus. Such situations are not observed in nature. This may simply be due to our inability to sufficiently isolate the system of interest from the surrounding environment -- a technical limitation. Another possibility is some as-of-yet undiscovered mechanism that prevents the formation of macroscopic entangled states. Such a limitation might depend on the number of elementary constituents in the system or on the types of degrees of freedom that are entangled. One system ubiquitous to nature where entanglement has not been previously demonstrated is distinct mechanical oscillators. Here we demonstrate deterministic entanglement of separated mechanical oscillators, consisting of the vibrational states of two pairs of atomic ions held in different locations. We also demonstrate entanglement of the internal states of an atomic ion with a distant mechanical oscillator.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Quantum Communication

Quantum communication, and indeed quantum information in general, has changed the way we think about quantum physics. In 1984 and 1991, the first protocol for quantum cryptography and the first application of quantum non-locality, respectively, attracted a diverse field of researchers in theoretical and experimental physics, mathematics and computer science. Since then we have seen a fundamental shift in how we understand information when it is encoded in quantum systems. We review the current state of research and future directions in this new field of science with special emphasis on quantum key distribution and quantum networks.Comment: Submitted version, 8 pg (2 cols) 5 fig

No Detectable Fertility Benefit from a Single Additional Mating in Wild Stalk-Eyed Flies

Background: Multiple mating by female insects is widespread, and the explanation(s) for repeated mating by females has been the subject of much discussion. Females may profit from mating multiply through direct material benefits that increase their own reproductive output, or indirect genetic benefits that increase offspring fitness. One particular direct benefit that has attracted significant attention is that of fertility assurance, as females often need to mate multiply to achieve high fertility. This hypothesis has never been tested in a wild insect population.Methodology/Principal Findings: Female Malaysian stalk-eyed flies (Teleopsis dalmanni) mate repeatedly during their lifetime, and have been shown to be sperm limited under both laboratory and field conditions. Here we ask whether receiving an additional mating alleviates sperm limitation in wild females. In our experiment one group of females received a single additional mating, while a control group received an interrupted, and therefore unsuccessful, mating. Females that received an additional mating did not lay more fertilised eggs in total, nor did they lay proportionately more fertilised eggs. Female fertility declined significantly through time, demonstrating that females were sperm limited. However, receipt of an additional mating did not significantly alter the rate of this decline.Conclusions/Significance: Our data suggest that the fertility consequences of a single additional mating were small. We discuss this effect (or lack thereof), and suggest that it is likely to be attributed to small ejaculate size, a high proportion of failed copulations, and the presence of X-linked meiotic drive in this species

The Effect of Epstein-Barr Virus Latent Membrane Protein 2 Expression on the Kinetics of Early B Cell Infection

Infection of human B cells with wild-type Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in vitro leads to activation and proliferation that result in efficient production of lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). Latent Membrane Protein 2 (LMP2) is expressed early after infection and previous research has suggested a possible role in this process. Therefore, we generated recombinant EBV with knockouts of either or both protein isoforms, LMP2A and LMP2B (Δ2A, Δ2B, Δ2A/Δ2B) to study the effect of LMP2 in early B cell infection. Infection of B cells with Δ2A and Δ2A/Δ2B viruses led to a marked decrease in activation and proliferation relative to wild-type (wt) viruses, and resulted in higher percentages of apoptotic B cells. Δ2B virus infection showed activation levels comparable to wt, but fewer numbers of proliferating B cells. Early B cell infection with wt, Δ2A and Δ2B viruses did not result in changes in latent gene expression, with the exception of elevated LMP2B transcript in Δ2A virus infection. Infection with Δ2A and Δ2B viruses did not affect viral latency, determined by changes in LMP1/Zebra expression following BCR stimulation. However, BCR stimulation of Δ2A/Δ2B cells resulted in decreased LMP1 expression, which suggests loss of stability in viral latency. Long-term outgrowth assays revealed that LMP2A, but not LMP2B, is critical for efficient long-term growth of B cells in vitro. The lowest levels of activation, proliferation, and LCL formation were observed when both isoforms were deleted. These results suggest that LMP2A appears to be critical for efficient activation, proliferation and survival of EBV-infected B cells at early times after infection, which impacts the efficient long-term growth of B cells in culture. In contrast, LMP2B did not appear to play a significant role in these processes, and long-term growth of infected B cells was not affected by the absence of this protein. © 2013 Wasil et al

The development and application of a new tool to assess the adequacy of the content and timing of antenatal care

Abstract Background: Current measures of antenatal care use are limited to initiation of care and number of visits. This study aimed to describe the development and application of a tool to assess the adequacy of the content and timing of antenatal care. Methods: The Content and Timing of care in Pregnancy (CTP) tool was developed based on clinical relevance for ongoing antenatal care and recommendations in national and international guidelines. The tool reflects minimal care recommended in every pregnancy, regardless of parity or risk status. CTP measures timing of initiation of care, content of care (number of blood pressure readings, blood tests and ultrasound scans) and whether the interventions were received at an appropriate time. Antenatal care trajectories for 333 pregnant women were then described using a standard tool (the APNCU index), that measures the quantity of care only, and the new CTP tool. Both tools categorise care into 4 categories, from ‘Inadequate’ (both tools) to ‘Adequate plus’ (APNCU) or ‘Appropriate’ (CTP). Participants recorded the timing and content of their antenatal care prospectively using diaries. Analysis included an examination of similarities and differences in categorisation of care episodes between the tools. Results: According to the CTP tool, the care trajectory of 10,2% of the women was classified as inadequate, 8,4% as intermediate, 36% as sufficient and 45,3% as appropriate. The assessment of quality of care differed significantly between the two tools. Seventeen care trajectories classified as ‘Adequate’ or ‘Adequate plus’ by the APNCU were deemed ‘Inadequate’ by the CTP. This suggests that, despite a high number of visits, these women did not receive the minimal recommended content and timing of care. Conclusions: The CTP tool provides a more detailed assessment of the adequacy of antenatal care than the current standard index. However, guidelines for the content of antenatal care vary, and the tool does not at the moment grade over-use of interventions as ‘Inappropriate’. Further work needs to be done to refine the content items prior to larger scale testing of the impact of the new measure

Dynamic changes in eIF4F-mRNA interactions revealed by global analyses of environmental stress responses

BACKGROUND: Translation factors eIF4E and eIF4G form eIF4F, which interacts with the messenger RNA (mRNA) 5' cap to promote ribosome recruitment and translation initiation. Variations in the association of eIF4F with individual mRNAs likely contribute to differences in translation initiation frequencies between mRNAs. As translation initiation is globally reprogrammed by environmental stresses, we were interested in determining whether eIF4F interactions with individual mRNAs are reprogrammed and how this may contribute to global environmental stress responses. RESULTS: Using a tagged-factor protein capture and RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) approach, we have assessed how mRNA associations with eIF4E, eIF4G1 and eIF4G2 change globally in response to three defined stresses that each cause a rapid attenuation of protein synthesis: oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide and nutrient stresses caused by amino acid or glucose withdrawal. We find that acute stress leads to dynamic and unexpected changes in eIF4F-mRNA interactions that are shared among each factor and across the stresses imposed. eIF4F-mRNA interactions stabilised by stress are predominantly associated with translational repression, while more actively initiating mRNAs become relatively depleted for eIF4F. Simultaneously, other mRNAs are insulated from these stress-induced changes in eIF4F association. CONCLUSION: Dynamic eIF4F-mRNA interaction changes are part of a coordinated early translational control response shared across environmental stresses. Our data are compatible with a model where multiple mRNA closed-loop complexes form with differing stability. Hence, unexpectedly, in the absence of other stabilising factors, rapid translation initiation on mRNAs correlates with less stable eIF4F interactions

The Yeast La Related Protein Slf1p Is a Key Activator of Translation during the Oxidative Stress Response

The mechanisms by which RNA-binding proteins control the translation of subsets of mRNAs are not yet clear. Slf1p and Sro9p are atypical-La motif containing proteins which are members of a superfamily of RNA-binding proteins conserved in eukaryotes. RIP-Seq analysis of these two yeast proteins identified overlapping and distinct sets of mRNA targets, including highly translated mRNAs such as those encoding ribosomal proteins. In paralell, transcriptome analysis of slf1Δ and sro9Δ mutant strains indicated altered gene expression in similar functional classes of mRNAs following loss of each factor. The loss of SLF1 had a greater impact on the transcriptome, and in particular, revealed changes in genes involved in the oxidative stress response. slf1Δ cells are more sensitive to oxidants and RIP-Seq analysis of oxidatively stressed cells enriched Slf1p targets encoding antioxidants and other proteins required for oxidant tolerance. To quantify these effects at the protein level, we used label-free mass spectrometry to compare the proteomes of wild-type and slf1Δ strains following oxidative stress. This analysis identified several proteins which are normally induced in response to hydrogen peroxide, but where this increase is attenuated in the slf1Δ mutant. Importantly, a significant number of the mRNAs encoding these targets were also identified as Slf1p-mRNA targets. We show that Slf1p remains associated with the few translating ribosomes following hydrogen peroxide stress and that Slf1p co-immunoprecipitates ribosomes and members of the eIF4E/eIF4G/Pab1p ‘closed loop’ complex suggesting that Slf1p interacts with actively translated mRNAs following stress. Finally, mutational analysis of SLF1 revealed a novel ribosome interacting domain in Slf1p, independent of its RNA binding La-motif. Together, our results indicate that Slf1p mediates a translational response to oxidative stress via mRNA-specific translational control

Open data and digital morphology

Over the past two decades, the development of methods for visualizing and analysing specimens digitally, in three and even four dimensions, has transformed the study of living and fossil organisms. However, the initial promise, that the widespread application of such methods would facilitate access to the underlying digital data, has not been fully achieved. The underlying datasets for many published studies are not readily or freely available, introducing a barrier to verification and reproducibility, and the reuse of data. There is no current agreement or policy on the amount and type of data that should be made available alongside studies that use, and in some cases are wholly reliant on, digital morphology. Here, we propose a set of recommendations for minimum standards and additional best practice for 3D digital data publication, and review the issues around data storage, management and accessibility