Ageism and sexism amongst young computer scientists

A study was undertaken with 189 young computer science students to assess whether as future developers of technologies for older people, they have ageist and sexist attitudes about people as users of technology. They were shown a picture of either a young or old woman or man and asked to assess the likelihood that this person would use a desktop computer, laptop computer and a smartphone, and their level of expertise in each of these technologies. The results showed that the students did have negative perceptions of the older people in comparison to young people. They although thought that women were less expert with the technologies than men, although there was not difference in the likelihood of them using the technology. However, there was no evidence of a “double standard” of older women being perceived particularly negatively

Xylitol gummy bear snacks: a school-based randomized clinical trial

Background: Habitual consumption of xylitol reduces mutans streptococci (MS) levels but the effect on Lactobacillus spp. is less clear. Reduction is dependent on daily dose and frequency of consumption. For xylitol to be successfully used in prevention programs to reduce MS and prevent caries, effective xylitol delivery methods must be identified. This study examines the response of MS, specifically S. mutans/sobrinus and Lactobacillus spp., levels to xylitol delivered via gummy bears at optimal exposures. Methods: Children, first to fifth grade (n = 154), from two elementary schools in rural Washington State, USA, were randomized to xylitol 15.6 g/day (X16, n = 53) or 11.7 g/day (X12, n = 49), or maltitol 44.7 g/ day (M45, n = 52). Gummy bear snacks were pre-packaged in unit-doses, labeled with ID numbers, and distributed three times/day during school hours. No snacks were sent home. Plaque was sampled at baseline and six weeks and cultured on modified Mitis Salivarius agar for S. mutans/sobrinus and Rogosa SL agar for Lactobacillus spp. enumeration. Results: There were no differences in S. mutans/sobrinus and Lactobacillus spp. levels in plaque between the groups at baseline. At six weeks, log10 S. mutans/sobrinus levels showed significant reductions for all groups (p = 0.0001): X16 = 1.13 (SD = 1.65); X12 = 0.89 (SD = 1.11); M45 = 0.91 (SD = 1.46). Reductions were not statistically different between groups. Results for Lactobacillus spp. were mixed. Group X16 and M45 showed 0.31 (SD = 2.35), and 0.52 (SD = 2.41) log10 reductions, respectively, while X12 showed a 0.11 (SD = 2.26) log10 increase. These changes were not significant. Post-study discussions with school staff indicated that it is feasible to implement an in-classroom gummy bear snack program. Parents are accepting and children willing to consume gummy bear snacks daily. Conclusion: Reductions in S. mutans/sobrinus levels were observed after six weeks of gummy bear snack consumption containing xylitol at 11.7 or 15.6 g/day or maltitol at 44.7 g/day divided in three exposures. Lactobacillus spp. levels were essentially unchanged in all groups. These results suggest that a xylitol gummy bear snack may be an alternative to xylitol chewing gum for dental caries prevention. Positive results with high dose maltitol limit the validity of xylitol findings. A larger clinical trial is needed to confirm the xylitol results. Trial registration: [ISRCTN63160504].Supported by Grant No. U54DE14254 from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and Grant No. 90YD0188 from the Office of Head Start

Evaluating compliance to a low glycaemic index (GI) diet in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A low Glycaemic Index (GI) diet may decrease some long-term health risks in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) such as endometrial cancer. This study was performed to assess compliance to a low GI diet in women with PCOS. Food diaries prospectively collected over 6 months from women on a low GI diet or healthy eating diet were analysed retrospectively. The women were recruited for a pilot randomised control trial investigating whether a low GI diet decreased the risk of Endometrial Cancer. Nine women with PCOS completed 33 food diaries (17 from women on a low GI diet and 16 from women on a healthy eating diet) recording 3023 food items (low GI group:n = 1457; healthy eating group:n = 1566). Data was analysed using Foster-Powell international values inserted into an SPSS database as no scientifically valid established nutrition software was found. The main outcome measures were mean item GI and Glyacemic Load (GL), mean meal GL, percentage high GI foods and mean weight loss.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Women allocated the low GI diet had a statistically significant lower GI of food items (33.67 vs 36.91, p < 0.05), lower percentage of high GI foods (4.3% vs 12.1%, p < 0.05) and lower GL of food items and meals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Women with PCOS on a low GI diet consumed food items with a significantly lower mean GI and GL compared to the healthy eating diet group. Longer term compliance needs evaluation in subsequent studies to ascertain that this translates to reduced long term health risks.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ISRCTN: <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN86420258">ISRCTN86420258</a></p

Gastrin-Releasing Peptide Signaling Plays a Limited and Subtle Role in Amygdala Physiology and Aversive Memory

Links between synaptic plasticity in the lateral amygdala (LA) and Pavlovian fear learning are well established. Neuropeptides including gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) can modulate LA function. GRP increases inhibition in the LA and mice lacking the GRP receptor (GRPR KO) show more pronounced and persistent fear after single-trial associative learning. Here, we confirmed these initial findings and examined whether they extrapolate to more aspects of amygdala physiology and to other forms of aversive associative learning. GRP application in brain slices from wildtype but not GRPR KO mice increased spontaneous inhibitory activity in LA pyramidal neurons. In amygdala slices from GRPR KO mice, GRP did not increase inhibitory activity. In comparison to wildtype, short- but not long-term plasticity was increased in the cortico-lateral amygdala (LA) pathway of GRPR KO amygdala slices, whereas no changes were detected in the thalamo-LA pathway. In addition, GRPR KO mice showed enhanced fear evoked by single-trial conditioning and reduced spontaneous firing of neurons in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). Altogether, these results are consistent with a potentially important modulatory role of GRP/GRPR signaling in the amygdala. However, administration of GRP or the GRPR antagonist (D-Phe6, Leu-NHEt13, des-Met14)-Bombesin (6–14) did not affect amygdala LTP in brain slices, nor did they affect the expression of conditioned fear following intra-amygdala administration. GRPR KO mice also failed to show differences in fear expression and extinction after multiple-trial fear conditioning, and there were no differences in conditioned taste aversion or gustatory neophobia. Collectively, our data indicate that GRP/GRPR signaling modulates amygdala physiology in a paradigm-specific fashion that likely is insufficient to generate therapeutic effects across amygdala-dependent disorders

Inflammatory response in mixed viral-bacterial community-acquired pneumonia

BACKGROUND: The role of mixed pneumonia (virus + bacteria) in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has been described in recent years. However, it is not known whether the systemic inflammatory profile is different compared to monomicrobial CAP. We wanted to investigate this profile of mixed viral-bacterial infection and to compare it to monomicrobial bacterial or viral CAP. METHODS: We measured baseline serum procalcitonin (PCT), C reactive protein (CRP), and white blood cell (WBC) count in 171 patients with CAP with definite etiology admitted to a tertiary hospital: 59 (34.5%) bacterial, 66 (39.%) viral and 46 (27%) mixed (viral-bacterial). RESULTS: Serum PCT levels were higher in mixed and bacterial CAP compared to viral CAP. CRP levels were higher in mixed CAP compared to the other groups. CRP was independently associated with mixed CAP. CRP levels below 26 mg/dL were indicative of an etiology other than mixed in 83% of cases, but the positive predictive value was 45%. PCT levels over 2.10 ng/mL had a positive predictive value for bacterial-involved CAP versus viral CAP of 78%, but the negative predictive value was 48%. CONCLUSIONS: Mixed CAP has a different inflammatory pattern compared to bacterial or viral CAP. High CRP levels may be useful for clinicians to suspect mixed CAP

Search for rare quark-annihilation decays, B --> Ds(*) Phi

We report on searches for B- --> Ds- Phi and B- --> Ds*- Phi. In the context of the Standard Model, these decays are expected to be highly suppressed since they proceed through annihilation of the b and u-bar quarks in the B- meson. Our results are based on 234 million Upsilon(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We find no evidence for these decays, and we set Bayesian 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions BF(B- --> Ds- Phi) Ds*- Phi)<1.2x10^(-5). These results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Observation and study of baryonic B decays: B -> D(*) p pbar, D(*) p pbar pi, and D(*) p pbar pi pi

We present a study of ten B-meson decays to a D(*), a proton-antiproton pair, and a system of up to two pions using BaBar's data set of 455x10^6 BBbar pairs. Four of the modes (B0bar -> D0 p anti-p, B0bar -> D*0 p anti-p, B0bar -> D+ p anti-p pi-, B0bar -> D*+ p anti-p pi-) are studied with improved statistics compared to previous measurements; six of the modes (B- -> D0 p anti-p pi-, B- -> D*0 p anti-p pi-, B0bar -> D0 p anti-p pi- pi+, B0bar -> D*0 p anti-p pi- pi+, B- -> D+ p anti-p pi- pi-, B- -> D*+ p anti-p pi- pi-) are first observations. The branching fractions for 3- and 5-body decays are suppressed compared to 4-body decays. Kinematic distributions for 3-body decays show non-overlapping threshold enhancements in m(p anti-p) and m(D(*)0 p) in the Dalitz plots. For 4-body decays, m(p pi-) mass projections show a narrow peak with mass and full width of (1497.4 +- 3.0 +- 0.9) MeV/c2, and (47 +- 12 +- 4) MeV/c2, respectively, where the first (second) errors are statistical (systematic). For 5-body decays, mass projections are similar to phase space expectations. All results are preliminary.Comment: 28 pages, 90 postscript figures, submitted to LP0

A search for the decay modes B+/- to h+/- tau l

We present a search for the lepton flavor violating decay modes B+/- to h+/- tau l (h= K,pi; l= e,mu) using the BaBar data sample, which corresponds to 472 million BBbar pairs. The search uses events where one B meson is fully reconstructed in one of several hadronic final states. Using the momenta of the reconstructed B, h, and l candidates, we are able to fully determine the tau four-momentum. The resulting tau candidate mass is our main discriminant against combinatorial background. We see no evidence for B+/- to h+/- tau l decays and set a 90% confidence level upper limit on each branching fraction at the level of a few times 10^-5.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Evidence for an excess of B -> D(*) Tau Nu decays

Based on the full BaBar data sample, we report improved measurements of the ratios R(D(*)) = B(B -> D(*) Tau Nu)/B(B -> D(*) l Nu), where l is either e or mu. These ratios are sensitive to new physics contributions in the form of a charged Higgs boson. We measure R(D) = 0.440 +- 0.058 +- 0.042 and R(D*) = 0.332 +- 0.024 +- 0.018, which exceed the Standard Model expectations by 2.0 sigma and 2.7 sigma, respectively. Taken together, our results disagree with these expectations at the 3.4 sigma level. This excess cannot be explained by a charged Higgs boson in the type II two-Higgs-doublet model. We also report the observation of the decay B -> D Tau Nu, with a significance of 6.8 sigma.Comment: Expanded section on systematics, text corrections, improved the format of Figure 2 and included the effect of the change of the Tau polarization due to the charged Higg

Search for the decay modes D^0 → e^+e^-, D^0 → μ^+μ^-, and D^0 → e^±μ∓

We present searches for the rare decay modes D^0→e^+e^-, D^0→μ^+μ^-, and D^0→e^±μ^∓ in continuum e^+e^-→cc events recorded by the BABAR detector in a data sample that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 468  fb^(-1). These decays are highly Glashow–Iliopoulos–Maiani suppressed but may be enhanced in several extensions of the standard model. Our observed event yields are consistent with the expected backgrounds. An excess is seen in the D^0→μ^+μ^- channel, although the observed yield is consistent with an upward background fluctuation at the 5% level. Using the Feldman–Cousins method, we set the following 90% confidence level intervals on the branching fractions: B(D^0→e^+e^-)<1.7×10^(-7), B(D^0→μ^+μ^-) within [0.6,8.1]×10^(-7), and B(D^0→e^±μ^∓)<3.3×10^(-7)