Immune phenotype of chronic liver disease

Immune disorders in chronic liver disease may reflect common host propensities or disease-specific factors. Our aim was to determine the principal bases for these expressions. Four hundred fifty-one patients with various chronic liver diseases were assessed prospectively for concurrent immune disorders. Individuals with immune diseases were more frequently women (73% vs 60%, P = 0.02) and they had HLA DR4 more often than counterparts with other HLA (46% vs 23%, P = 0.000008). The association between HLA DR4 and immune disease was apparent within individual liver diseases and within different categories of liver disease. Women with HLA DR4 had a higher frequency of immune disease than women without HLA DR4 (52% vs 22%, P < or = 0.000001), and they also had immune diseases more commonly than DR4-positive men (52% vs 31%, P = 0.03). DR4-positive men, however, had higher frequencies of immune disease than DR4-negative men, especially in the nonimmune types of liver disease (26% vs 4%, P = 0.002). We conclude that HLA DR4 and female gender constitute an immune phenotype that is an important basis for autoimmune expression in chronic liver disease

mixtur: An R package for designing, analysing, and modelling continuous report visual short-term memory studies

Visual short-term memory (vSTM) is often measured via continuous-report tasks whereby participants are presented with stimuli that vary along a continuous dimension (e.g., colour) with the goal of memorising the stimulus features. At test, participants are probed to recall the feature value of one of the memoranda in a continuous manner (e.g., by clicking on a colour wheel). The angular deviation between the participant response and the true feature value provides an estimate of recall precision. Two prominent models of performance on such tasks are the two- and three-component mixture models (Bays et al., 2009; Zhang & Luck, 2008). Both models decompose participant responses into probabilistic mixtures of: (1) responses to the true target value based on a noisy memory representation; (2) random guessing when memory fails. In addition, the three-component model proposes (3) responses to a non-target feature value (i.e., binding errors). Here we report the development of mixtur, an open-source package written for the statistical programming language R that facilitates the fitting of the 2- and 3-component mixture models to continuous report data. We also conduct simulations to develop recommendations for researchers on trial numbers, set-sizes and memoranda similarity, as well as parameter recovery and model recovery. In the Discussion, we discuss how mixtur can be used to fit the slots and the slots-plus-averaging models, as well as how mixtur can be extended to fit explanatory models of visual short-term memory. It is our hope that mixtur will lower the barrier of entry for utilising mixture modelling

Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary: Case study of a highly eutrophic coastal bay system

The Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary is classified here as a highly eutrophic estuary based on application of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u27s National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment model. Because it is shallow, poorly flushed, and bordered by highly developed watershed areas, the estuary is particularly susceptible to the effects of nutrient loading. Most of this load (similar to 50%) is from surface water inflow, but substantial fractions also originate from atmospheric deposition (similar to 39%), and direct groundwater discharges (similar to 11%). No point source inputs of nutrients exist in the Barnegat Bay watershed. Since 1980, all treated wastewater from the Ocean County Utilities Authority\u27s regional wastewater treatment system has been discharged 1.6 km offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. Eutrophy causes problems in this system, including excessive micro- and macroalgal growth, harmful algal blooms, altered benthic invertebrate communities, impacted harvestable fisheries, and loss of essential habitat (i.e., seagrass and shellfish beds). Similar problems are evident in other shallow lagoonal estuaries of the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions. To effectively address nutrient enrichment problems in the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary, it is important to determine the nutrient loading levels that produce observable impacts in the system. It is also vital to continually monitor and assess priority indicators of water quality change and estuarine health. In addition, the application of a new generation of innovative models using web-based tools (e.g., NLOAD) will enable researchers and decision-makers to more successfully manage nutrient loads from the watershed. Finally, the implementation of storm water retrofit projects should have beneficial effects on the system

PENERAPAN PENDEKATAN BERMAIN UNTUK MENINGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR LOMPAT JAUH SISWA SMP NEGERI 2 LEMBANG

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah dengan penerapan pendekatan bermain dapat meningkatkan hasil belajar lompat jauh siswa SMP Negeri 2 Lembang. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode penelitian tindakan kelas. Subjek penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas VII A SMPN 2 Lembang dengan jumlah 36 orang siswa sebagai sampel. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan, ada peningkatan keterampilan lompat jauh pada siswa dengan menggunakan pendekatan bermain. Pada tes awal, 15 siswa sudah mencapai kriteria ketuntasan minimal (KKM) dengan persentase ketuntasan klasikal 41,67 %. Pada siklus I, siswa yang telah mencapai KKM meningkat menjadi 20 siswa dengan persentase 55,56 %. Hasil pada siklus II, meningkat menjadi 30 siswa dengan persentase klasikal sebesar 83,33 %. Jika dilihat berdasarkan nilai rata-rata siswa di kelas, maka hasil tes awal siswa diperoleh rata-rata 66,89. Pada siklus I, nilai rata-rata siswa menjadi 73,58. Hasil siklus I tersebut belum mencapai harapan peneliti yang menargetkan pencapaian rata-rata kelas ≥ 75. Memasuki siklus II, perolehan nilai rata-rata siswa mencapai 80,53 dan artinya sudah mencapai target peneliti. Dengan demikian dapat disimpulkan bahwa penerapan pendekatan bermain berpengaruh untuk meningkatkan hasil belajar lompat jauh. Kata Kunci : Pendekatan Bermain, Lompat Jauh, Hasil Belajar. ABSTRACT This study aims to determine whether the application of the approach to play can improve learning outcomes long jump students SMP Negeri 2 Lembang. The research method used is classroom action research method. The subjects of this study were students of class VII A SMPN 2 Lembang with 36 students as a sample. The results of this study indicate, there is an increase in skill long jumps on students by using a play approach. In the initial test, 15 students had achieved minimal mastery criteria (KKM) with a percentage of classical completeness of 41.67%. In the first cycle, students who have reached KKM increased to 20 students with a percentage of 55.56%. Results in cycle II, increased to 30 students with a classical percentage of 83.33%. When viewed based on the average score of students in the class, then the results of the initial test students obtained an average of 66.89. In cycle I, the average score of the students was 73.58. The results of the cycle I have not reached the expectations of researchers who target the achievement of the average class ≥ 75. Entering cycle II, the average score of students reaches 80.53 and means it has reached the target researchers. Thus it can be concluded that the application of an influential play approach to improve the results of long jump learning. Keywords: Approach to Play, Long Jump, Learning Outcomes

Intellectual disability, unusual facial morphology and hand anomalies in sibs

Here we report on a Portuguese family with three sisters who shared moderate intellectual disability, unusual facial morphology (short palpebral fissures; broad nasal tip; thin upper and lower vermillion; broad and pointed chin) and hand anomalies in two of them (short left third and fifth right metacarpals in one case; marked syndactyly between the third and fourth fingers in another). One of the sisters had microcephaly and short stature, and the other two were obese. Obesity and somewhat similar facial features were also present in the otherwise healthy mother. Despite the overlap with several known syndromes (Albright osteodystrophy; Filippi syndrome; Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome; microdeletion 2q37), we suggest this condition is previously unreported, and most likely displays an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance

Intellectual disability, coarse face, relative macrocephaly, and cerebellar hypotrophy in two sisters

We report on two Portuguese sisters with a very similar phenotype characterized by severe intellectual disability, absent speech, relative macrocephaly, coarse face, cerebellar hypotrophy, and severe ataxia. Additional common features include increased thickness of the cranial vault, delayed dental eruption, talipes equino-varus, clinodactyly, and camptodactyly of the fifth finger. The older sister has retinal dystrophy and the younger sister has short stature. Their parents are consanguineous. We suggest this condition constitutes a previously unreported autosomal recessive entity

Production of α1,3-galactosyltransferase-deficient pigs

The enzyme α1,3-galactosyltransferase (α1,3GT or GGTA1) synthesizes α1,3galactose (α1,3Gal) epitopes (Galα1,3Galβ1,4GlcNAc-R), which are the major xenoantigens causing hyperacute rejection in pig-to-human xenotransplantation. Complete removal of α1,3Gal from pig organs is the critical step toward the success of xenotransplantation. We reported earlier the targeted disruption of one allele of the α1,3GT gene in cloned pigs. A selection procedure based on a bacteria[toxin was used to select for cells in which the second allele of the gene was knocked out. Sequencing analysis demonstrated that knockout of the second allele of the α1,3GT gene was caused by a T-to-G single point mutation at the second base of exon 9, which resulted in inactivation of the α1,3GT protein. Four healthy α1,3GT double-knockout female piglets were produced by three consecutive rounds of cloning. The piglets carrying a point mutation in the α1,3GT gene hold significant value, as they would allow production of α1,3Gal-deficient pigs free of antibiotic-resistance genes and thus have the potential to make a safer product for human use

The determinants of vulnerability to currency crises: country-specific factors versus regional factors

We investigate the determinants of exchange market pressures (EMP) for some new EU member states at both the national and regional levels, where macroeconomic and financial variables are considered as potential sources. The regional common factors are extracted from these variables by using dynamic factor analysis. The linear empirical analysis, in general, highlights the importance of country-specific factors to defend themselves against vulnerability in their external sectors. Yet, given a significant impact of the common component in credit on EMP, a contagion effect is apparent through the conduit of credit market integration across these countries under investigation