2,164 research outputs found

    Involuntary civil commitment for substance use disorders in puerto rico: Neglected rights violations and implications for legal reform

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    Laws facilitating the involuntary civil commitment (ICC) of people with substance use disorders vary considerably internationally and across the United States. Puerto Rico, a colonial territory of the United States since 1898, currently harbors the most punitive ICC legislation in the country. It is the only place in the United States where self-sufficient adults who pose no grave danger to themselves or others can be involuntarily committed to restrictive residential facilities for over a year at a time without ever being assessed by a health care professional. The involuntary commitment of otherwise-able citizens—many of whom have never been diagnosed with a substance use disorder—continues to be ignored nationally and internationally. In this paper, we specify how Puerto Rican ICC law and procedures systematically violate rights and liberties that are supposed to be guaranteed by Puerto Rico’s Mental Health Act, the US Federal Supreme Court, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To ensure that Puerto Rico’s ICC procedures conform to prevailing local, national, and international standards, we propose a series of legislative reforms. Finally, we highlight the importance of addressing the preponderance of poorly constructed ICC laws both within the United States and internationally

    Vasoactive Biomarkers in Patients With Vasovagal Syncope During Head-Up Tilt Test: A Case-Control Study

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    Vasovagal syncope (VVS) is the most common cause of syncope. Some stages of its pathophysiological mechanisms remain unclear. Vasoactive substances such as nitric oxide metabolites (NOx) and endothelin (ET) may be involved during acute orthostatic stress.To analyze plasma changes in NOx and ET and heart rate variability (HRV) in the supine positions (T1) and during the head-up tilt test (HUTT) (T2), in patients with VVS (case group) and control group.Thirty-seven patients (17 in the case group and 20 in the control group), matched for age and sex (mean aged 31.8 years) underwent HUTT with simultaneous HRV recording and venipuncture. Blood samples were collected during phases T1 and T2 and the analysis was performed without knowledge of the HUTT result.In the total sample, there was an increase in NOx values (P = .014), however there was no increase in ET values from phase T1 to phase T2. Patients with VVS tended to increase plasma NOx values (P = .057) and had significantly higher plasma values compared to ET (P = .033) between phases T1 to T2. In the control group, there was no significant change in the values of these vasoactive substances. Regarding HRV, there were a decrease in the component HF (high frequency) and increased of the LF (low frequency)/HF ratio during HUTT.There was an increase in ET during HUTT occurred only in the case group. These patients are more likely to have an imbalance between antagonistic vasoactive biomarkers during orthostatic stress.© The Author(s) 2022

    Ubiquitin ligases and beyond

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    First paragraph (this article has no abstract): In a review published in 2004 [1] and that still repays reading today, Cecile Pickart traced the evolution of research on ubiquitination from its origins in the proteasomal degradation of proteins through the revelation that it has a central role in cell cycle regulation and the recognition of regulatory roles for ubiquitin in intracellular membrane transport, cell signalling, transcription, translation, and DNA repair

    Assessment of accuracy and recognition of three-dimensional computerized forensic craniofacial reconstruction

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    Facial reconstruction is a technique that aims to reproduce the individual facial characteristics based on interpretation of the skull, with the objective of recognition leading to identification. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the accuracy and recognition level of three-dimensional (3D) computerized forensic craniofacial reconstruction (CCFR) performed in a blind test on open-source software using computed tomography (CT) data from live subjects. Four CCFRs were produced by one of the researchers, who was provided with information concerning the age, sex, and ethnic group of each subject. The CCFRs were produced using Blender® with 3D models obtained from the CT data and templates from the MakeHuman® program. The evaluation of accuracy was carried out in CloudCompare, by geometric comparison of the CCFR to the subject 3D face model (obtained from the CT data). A recognition level was performed using the Picasa® recognition tool with a frontal standardized photography, images of the subject CT face model and the CCFR. Soft-tissue depth and nose, ears and mouth were based on published data, observing Brazilian facial parameters. The results were presented from all the points that form the CCFR model, with an average for each comparison between 63% and 74% with a distance -2.5 ≤ x ≤ 2.5 mm from the skin surface. The average distances were 1.66 to 0.33 mm and greater distances were observed around the eyes, cheeks, mental and zygomatic regions. Two of the four CCFRs were correctly matched by the Picasa® tool. Free software programs are capable of producing 3D CCFRs with plausible levels of accuracy and recognition and therefore indicate their value for use in forensic applications

    POLRMT regulates the switch between replication primer formation and gene expression of mammalian mtDNA

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    Mitochondria are vital in providing cellular energy via their oxidative phosphorylation system, which requires the coordinated expression of genes encoded by both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA). Transcription of the circular mammalian mtDNA depends on a single mitochondrial RNA polymerase (POLRMT). Although the transcription initiation process is well understood, it is debated whether POLRMT also serves as the primase for the initiation of mtDNA replication. In the nucleus, the RNA polymerases needed for gene expression have no such role. Conditional knockout of Polrmt in the heart results in severe mitochondrial dysfunction causing dilated cardiomyopathy in young mice. We further studied the molecular consequences of different expression levels of POLRMT and found that POLRMT is essential for primer synthesis to initiate mtDNA replication in vivo. Furthermore, transcription initiation for primer formation has priority over gene expression. Surprisingly, mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) exists in an mtDNA-free pool in the Polrmt knockout mice. TFAM levels remain unchanged despite strong mtDNA depletion, and TFAM is thus protected from degradation of the AAA(+) Lon protease in the absence of POLRMT. Last, we report that mitochondrial transcription elongation factor may compensate for a partial depletion of POLRMT in heterozygous Polrmt knockout mice, indicating a direct regulatory role of this factor in transcription. In conclusion, we present in vivo evidence that POLRMT has a key regulatory role in the replication of mammalian mtDNA and is part of a transcriptional mechanism that provides a switch between primer formation for mtDNA replication and mitochondrial gene expression

    A novel feature selection-based sequential ensemble learning method for class noise detection in high-dimensional data

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    © 2018, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Most of the irrelevant or noise features in high-dimensional data present significant challenges to high-dimensional mislabeled instances detection methods based on feature selection. Traditional methods often perform the two dependent step: The first step, searching for the relevant subspace, and the second step, using the feature subspace which obtained in the previous step training model. However, Feature subspace that are not related to noise scores and influence detection performance. In this paper, we propose a novel sequential ensemble method SENF that aggregate the above two phases, our method learns the sequential ensembles to obtain refine feature subspace and improve detection accuracy by iterative sparse modeling with noise scores as the regression target attribute. Through extensive experiments on 8 real-world high-dimensional datasets from the UCI machine learning repository [3], we show that SENF performs significantly better or at least similar to the individual baselines as well as the existing state-of-the-art label noise detection method

    Multiplexed, High Density Electrophysiology with Nanofabricated Neural Probes

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    Extracellular electrode arrays can reveal the neuronal network correlates of behavior with single-cell, single-spike, and sub-millisecond resolution. However, implantable electrodes are inherently invasive, and efforts to scale up the number and density of recording sites must compromise on device size in order to connect the electrodes. Here, we report on silicon-based neural probes employing nanofabricated, high-density electrical leads. Furthermore, we address the challenge of reading out multichannel data with an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) performing signal amplification, band-pass filtering, and multiplexing functions. We demonstrate high spatial resolution extracellular measurements with a fully integrated, low noise 64-channel system weighing just 330 mg. The on-chip multiplexers make possible recordings with substantially fewer external wires than the number of input channels. By combining nanofabricated probes with ASICs we have implemented a system for performing large-scale, high-density electrophysiology in small, freely behaving animals that is both minimally invasive and highly scalable

    Physical Activity during Cancer Treatment (PACT) Study: design of a randomised clinical trial

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fatigue is a major problem of cancer patients. Thirty percent of cancer survivors report serious fatigue three years after finishing treatment. There is evidence that physical exercise during cancer treatment reduces fatigue. This may also lead to an improvement of quality of life. Such findings may result in a decrease of healthcare related expenditures and societal costs due to sick leave. However, no studies are known that investigated these hypotheses. Therefore, the primary aim of our study is to assess the effect of exercise during cancer treatment on reducing complaints of fatigue and on reducing health service utilisation and sick leave.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The Physical Activity during Cancer Treatment study is a multicentre randomised controlled trial in 150 breast and 150 colon cancer patients undergoing cancer treatment. Participants will be randomised to an exercise or a control group. In addition to the usual care, the exercise group will participate in an 18-week supervised group exercise programme. The control group will be asked to maintain their habitual physical activity pattern. Study endpoints will be assessed after 18 weeks (short term) and after 9 months (long term). Validated questionnaires will be used. Primary outcome: fatigue (Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory and Fatigue Quality List) and cost-effectiveness, health service utilisation and sick leave. Secondary outcome: health related quality of life (European Organisation Research and Treatment of Cancer-Quality of Life questionnaire-C30, Short Form 36 healthy survey), impact on functioning and autonomy (Impact on functioning and autonomy questionnaire), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), physical fitness (aerobic peak capacity, muscle strength), body composition and cognitive-behavioural aspects. To register health service utilisation and sick leave, participants will keep diaries including the EuroQuol-5D. Physical activity level will be measured using the Short Questionnaire to Assess Health-Enhancing Physical Activity and will be monitored with an exercise log and a pedometer.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study investigates the (cost)-effectiveness of exercise during adjuvant treatment of patients with breast or colon cancer. If early physical exercise proves to be (cost) effective, establishing standardised physical exercise programmes during cancer treatment will be planned.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Current Controlled trials ISRCTN43801571, Dutch Trial Register NTR2138</p
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