Biophotonic Tools in Cell and Tissue Diagnostics.

In order to maintain the rapid advance of biophotonics in the U.S. and enhance our competitiveness worldwide, key measurement tools must be in place. As part of a wide-reaching effort to improve the U.S. technology base, the National Institute of Standards and Technology sponsored a workshop titled "Biophotonic tools for cell and tissue diagnostics." The workshop focused on diagnostic techniques involving the interaction between biological systems and photons. Through invited presentations by industry representatives and panel discussion, near- and far-term measurement needs were evaluated. As a result of this workshop, this document has been prepared on the measurement tools needed for biophotonic cell and tissue diagnostics. This will become a part of the larger measurement road-mapping effort to be presented to the Nation as an assessment of the U.S. Measurement System. The information will be used to highlight measurement needs to the community and to facilitate solutions

Variables associated with odds of finishing and finish time in a 161-km ultramarathon

We sought to determine the degree to which age, sex, calendar year, previous event experience and ambient race day temperature were associated with finishing a 100-mile (161-km) trail running race and with finish time in that race. We computed separate generalized linear mixed-effects regression models for (1) odds of finishing and (2) finish times of finishers. Every starter from 1986 to 2007 was used in computing the models for odds of finishing (8,282 starts by 3,956 individuals) and every finisher in the same period was included in the models for finish time (5,276 finishes). Factors associated with improved odds of finishing included being a first-time starter and advancing calendar year. Factors associated with reduced odds of finishing included advancing age above 38 years and warmer weather. Beyond 38 years of age, women had worse odds of finishing than men. Warmer weather had a similar effect on finish rates for men and women. Finish times were slower with advancing age, slower for women than men, and less affected by warm weather for women than for men. Calendar year was not associated with finish time after adjustment for other variables

Prosocial Behaviour in Palliative Nurses: Psychometric Evaluation of the Prosociality Scale

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a prosociality scale within the palliative nursing context, and then examine the impact of prosocial behaviour in relation to job and educational satisfaction among palliative nurses. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in 25 Italian palliative care centres, with a total of 107 nurses completing the prosociality scale by Caprara et al (2005). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were examined to evaluate a multidimensional model of prosociality. Results: A three-factor solution with a second order factor fitted the data well. The three dimensions extracted were labelled as helping, empathy, and sharing. Participants reported high levels of prosociality. In addition, prosociality was positively associated with job and educational satisfaction. Conclusions: The prosociality scale was valid and reliable when tested with palliative nurses. Although prosociality may be embedded in nurses’ personalities, this quality should be actively promoted to expand and improve the culture and the ethics of nursing

Evaluating Performance of Web Applications in (Cloud) Virtualized Environments

Web applications usually involve a number of different software libraries and tools (usually referred to as frameworks) each carrying out specific task/s and generating the corresponding overhead. In this paper, we show how to evaluate and even find out several configuration performance characteristics by using virtualized environments which are now used in data centers and cloud environments. We use specific and simple web software architectures as proof of concept, and explain several experiments that show performance issues not always expected from a conceptual point of view. We also explain that adding software libraries and tools also generate performance analysis complexities. We also shown that as an application is shown to scale, the problems to identify performance details and bottlenecks also scale, and the performance analysis also requires deeper levels of details.Instituto de Investigación en Informátic

A preliminary study of genetic factors that influence susceptibility to bovine tuberculosis in the British cattle herd

Associations between specific host genes and susceptibility to Mycobacterial infections such as tuberculosis have been reported in several species. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) impacts greatly the UK cattle industry, yet genetic predispositions have yet to be identified. We therefore used a candidate gene approach to study 384 cattle of which 160 had reacted positively to an antigenic skin test (‘reactors’). Our approach was unusual in that it used microsatellite markers, embraced high breed diversity and focused particularly on detecting genes showing heterozygote advantage, a mode of action often overlooked in SNP-based studies. A panel of neutral markers was used to control for population substructure and using a general linear model-based approach we were also able to control for age. We found that substructure was surprisingly weak and identified two genomic regions that were strongly associated with reactor status, identified by markers INRA111 and BMS2753. In general the strength of association detected tended to vary depending on whether age was included in the model. At INRA111 a single genotype appears strongly protective with an overall odds ratio of 2.2, the effect being consistent across nine diverse breeds. Our results suggest that breeding strategies could be devised that would appreciably increase genetic resistance of cattle to bTB (strictly, reduce the frequency of incidence of reactors) with implications for the current debate concerning badger-culling

A microsatellite repeat in PCA3 long non-coding RNA is associated with prostate cancer risk and aggressiveness.

Short tandem repeats (STRs) are repetitive sequences of a polymorphic stretch of two to six nucleotides. We hypothesized that STRs are associated with prostate cancer development and/or progression. We undertook RNA sequencing analysis of prostate tumors and adjacent non-malignant cells to identify polymorphic STRs that are readily expressed in these cells. Most of the expressed STRs in the clinical samples mapped to intronic and intergenic DNA. Our analysis indicated that three of these STRs (TAAA-ACTG2, TTTTG-TRIB1, and TG-PCA3) are polymorphic and differentially expressed in prostate tumors compared to adjacent non-malignant cells. TG-PCA3 STR expression was repressed by the anti-androgen drug enzalutamide in prostate cancer cells. Genetic analysis of prostate cancer patients and healthy controls (N > 2,000) showed a significant association of the most common 11 repeat allele of TG-PCA3 STR with prostate cancer risk (OR = 1.49; 95% CI 1.11-1.99; P = 0.008). A significant association was also observed with aggressive disease (OR = 2.00; 95% CI 1.06-3.76; P = 0.031) and high mortality rates (HR = 3.0; 95% CI 1.03-8.77; P = 0.045). We propose that TG-PCA3 STR has both diagnostic and prognostic potential for prostate cancer. We provided a proof of concept to be applied to other RNA sequencing datasets to identify disease-associated STRs for future clinical exploratory studies

Increasing confidence and changing behaviors in primary care providers engaged in genetic counselling.

BackgroundScreening and counseling for genetic conditions is an increasingly important part of primary care practice, particularly given the paucity of genetic counselors in the United States. However, primary care physicians (PCPs) often have an inadequate understanding of evidence-based screening; communication approaches that encourage shared decision-making; ethical, legal, and social implication (ELSI) issues related to screening for genetic mutations; and the basics of clinical genetics. This study explored whether an interactive, web-based genetics curriculum directed at PCPs in non-academic primary care settings was superior at changing practice knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors when compared to a traditional educational approach, particularly when discussing common genetic conditions.MethodsOne hundred twenty one PCPs in California and Pennsylvania physician practices were randomized to either an Intervention Group (IG) or Control Group (CG). IG physicians completed a 6 h interactive web-based curriculum covering communication skills, basics of genetic testing, risk assessment, ELSI issues and practice behaviors. CG physicians were provided with a traditional approach to Continuing Medical Education (CME) (clinical review articles) offering equivalent information.ResultsPCPs in the Intervention Group showed greater increases in knowledge compared to the Control Group. Intervention PCPs were also more satisfied with the educational materials, and more confident in their genetics knowledge and skills compared to those receiving traditional CME materials. Intervention PCPs felt that the web-based curriculum covered medical management, genetics, and ELSI issues significantly better than did the Control Group, and in comparison with traditional curricula. The Intervention Group felt the online tools offered several advantages, and engaged in better shared decision making with standardized patients, however, there was no difference in behavior change between groups with regard to increases in ELSI discussions between PCPs and patients.ConclusionWhile our intervention was deemed more enjoyable, demonstrated significant factual learning and retention, and increased shared decision making practices, there were few differences in behavior changes around ELSI discussions. Unfortunately, barriers to implementing behavior change in clinical genetics is not unique to our intervention. Perhaps the missing element is that busy physicians need systems-level support to engage in meaningful discussions around genetics issues. The next step in promoting active engagement between doctors and patients may be to put into place the tools needed for PCPs to easily access the materials they need at the point-of-care to engage in joint discussions around clinical genetics

Widest Paths and Global Propagation in Bounded Value Iteration for Stochastic Games

Solving stochastic games with the reachability objective is a fundamental problem, especially in quantitative verification and synthesis. For this purpose, bounded value iteration (BVI) attracts attention as an efficient iterative method. However, BVI's performance is often impeded by costly end component (EC) computation that is needed to ensure convergence. Our contribution is a novel BVI algorithm that conducts, in addition to local propagation by the Bellman update that is typical of BVI, global propagation of upper bounds that is not hindered by ECs. To conduct global propagation in a computationally tractable manner, we construct a weighted graph and solve the widest path problem in it. Our experiments show the algorithm's performance advantage over the previous BVI algorithms that rely on EC computation.Comment: v2: an URL to the implementation is adde

First Evidence for Adoption in California Sea Lions

Demographic parameters such as birth and death rates determine the persistence of populations. Understanding the mechanisms that influence these rates is essential to developing effective management strategies. Alloparental behavior, or the care of non-filial young, has been documented in many species and has been shown to influence offspring survival. However, the role of alloparental behavior in maintaining population viability has not been previously studied. Here, we provide the first evidence for adoption in California sea lions and show that adoption potentially works to maintain a high survival rate of young and may ultimately contribute to population persistence. Alloparental behavior should have a positive effect on the population growth rate when the sum of the effects on fitness for the alloparent and beneficiary is positive