Assessing the validity of western measurement of online risks to children in an Asian context

Before the advent of the Internet, television with limited channels was the only media choice that most children were exposed to, and took place under family supervision. Children’s television viewing was controllable and the risks were limited to watching sexual and violent content. Nowadays, children are surrounded by a variety of digital media and are exposed to many different risks, many of which are still unknown and under-researched. For many children, the Internet is fully integrated into their daily lives, along with the potential risks. The present study aimed to (i) describe the level of risks children are exposed to, and (2) test the measurement validity of a total of 45 items assessing nine scales online risky behavior in children were adapted from studies carried out in Europe and the United States. The study comprised 420 school going children aged 9, 11, 13, 14, and 16 studying in Malaysia. Descriptive analyses showed that children were more exposed to ‘unwanted exposure to pornography’ and less to ‘conduct risk’. Boys and older children were more exposed to the risks compared to girls and younger children. The study validated five dimensions (inappropriate materials, sexting, contact-related risks on, risky online sexual behavior, and bullying/being bullied) assessing children’s online risky behavior by using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Further research is needed to investigate the measurement of children’s online risk, since the scales developed in Europe and the United States are not wholly suitable to an Asian context

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Effects of touch-screen technology usage on the hand skills dataset

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Hepcidin levels in diabetes mellitus and polycystic ovary syndrome

AIM: Increased body iron is associated with insulin resistance. Hepcidin is the key hormone that negatively regulates iron homeostasis. We hypothesized that individuals with insulin resistance have inadequate hepcidin levels for their iron load. METHODS: Serum concentrations of the active form of hepcidin (hepcidin-25) and hepcidin:ferritin ratio were evaluated in participants with Type 2 diabetes (n = 33, control subjects matched for age, gender and BMI,n = 33) and participants with polycystic ovary syndrome (n = 27, control subjects matched for age and BMI,n = 16). To investigate whether any changes observed were associated with insulin resistance rather than insulin deficiency or hyperglycaemia per se, the same measurements were made in participants with Type 1 diabetes (n = 28, control subjects matched for age, gender and BMI,n = 30). Finally, the relationship between homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance and serum hepcidin:ferritin ratio was explored in overweight or obese participants without diabetes (n = 16). RESULTS: Participants with Type 2 diabetes had significantly lower hepcidin and hepcidin:ferritin ratio than control subjects (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). Participants with polycystic ovary syndrome had a significantly lower hepcidin:ferritin ratio than control subjects (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in hepcidin or hepcidin:ferritin ratio between participants with Type 1 diabetes and control subjects (P = 0.88 and P = 0.94). Serum hepcidin:ferritin ratio inversely correlated with homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (r = –0.59, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Insulin resistance, but not insulin deficiency or hyperglycaemia per se, is associated with inadequate hepcidin levels. Reduced hepcidin concentrations may cause increased body iron stores in insulin-resistant states

Comparison of Optimization-Modelling Methods for Metabolites Production in Escherichia coli

The metabolic network is the reconstruction of the metabolic pathway of an organism that is used to represent the interaction between enzymes and metabolites in genome level. Meanwhile, metabolic engineering is a process that modifies the metabolic network of a cell to increase the production of metabolites. However, the metabolic networks are too complex that cause problem in identifying near-optimal knockout genes/reactions for maximizing the metabolite’s production. Therefore, through constraint-based modelling, various metaheuristic algorithms have been improvised to optimize the desired phenotypes. In this paper, PSOMOMA was compared with CSMOMA and ABCMOMA for maximizing the production of succinic acid in E. coli. Furthermore, the results obtained from PSOMOMA were validated with results from the wet lab experiment

The impact of oligofructose on stimulation of gut hormones, appetite regulation, and adiposity

Objective To investigate the effect of nutrient stimulation of gut hormones by oligofructose supplementation on appetite, energy intake (EI), body weight (BW) and adiposity in overweight and obese volunteers. Methods In a parallel, single-blind and placebo-controlled study, 22 healthy overweight and obese volunteers were randomly allocated to receive 30 g day−1 oligofructose or cellulose for 6 weeks following a 2-week run-in. Subjective appetite and side effect scores, breath hydrogen, serum short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), plasma gut hormones, glucose and insulin concentrations, EI, BW and adiposity were quantified at baseline and post-supplementation. Results Oligofructose increased breath hydrogen (P < 0.0001), late acetate concentrations (P = 0.024), tended to increase total area under the curve (tAUC)420mins peptide YY (PYY) (P = 0.056) and reduced tAUC450mins hunger (P = 0.034) and motivation to eat (P = 0.013) when compared with cellulose. However, there was no significant difference between the groups in other parameters although within group analyses showed an increase in glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) (P = 0.006) in the cellulose group and a decrease in EI during ad libitum meal in both groups. Conclusions Oligofructose increased plasma PYY concentrations and suppressed appetite, while cellulose increased GLP-1 concentrations. EI decreased in both groups. However, these positive effects did not translate into changes in BW or adiposity