Screen-based behaviour in school-aged children with long-term illness

BACKGROUND: Evidence is lacking on the screen-based behaviour of adolescents with a chronic condition. The aim of our study was to analyse differences in screen-based behaviour of adolescents by long-term illness, asthma and learning disabilities. METHODS: We used data from the cross-sectional Health Behaviour of School-aged Children study collected in 2014 among Slovak adolescents (age 13 to 15 years old, N = 2682, 49.7 % boys). We analysed the associations between screen-based behaviour and long-term illness, asthma and learning disabilities using logistic regression models adjusted for gender. RESULTS: We found no associations between screen-based behaviour and long-term illness, except that children with asthma had a 1.60-times higher odds of excessively playing computer games than healthy children (95 % confidence interval of odds ratio (CI): 1.11-2.30). Children with learning disabilities had 1.71-times higher odds of risky use of the Internet (95 % CI: 1.19-2.45). CONCLUSION: Adolescents with a long-term illness or with a chronic condition or a learning disability do not differ from their peers in screen-based activities. Exceptions are children with asthma and children with learning disabilities, who reported more risky screen-based behaviour

Propagation Failure in Excitable Media

We study a mechanism of pulse propagation failure in excitable media where stable traveling pulse solutions appear via a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation. The bifurcation plays a key role in that mechanism. Small perturbations, externally applied or from internal instabilities, may cause pulse propagation failure (wave breakup) provided the system is close enough to the bifurcation point. We derive relations showing how the pitchfork bifurcation is unfolded by weak curvature or advective field perturbations and use them to demonstrate wave breakup. We suggest that the recent observations of wave breakup in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction induced either by an electric field or a transverse instability are manifestations of this mechanism.Comment: 8 pages. Aric Hagberg: http://cnls.lanl.gov/~aric; Ehud Meron:http://www.bgu.ac.il/BIDR/research/staff/meron.htm

How parents can affect excessive spending of time on screen-based activities

Background: The aim of this study is to explore the association between family-related factors and excessive time spent on screen-based activities among school-aged children. Methods: A cross-sectional survey using the methodology of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study was performed in 2013, with data collected from Slovak (n = 258) and Czech (n = 406) 11- and 15-year-old children. The effects of age, gender, availability of a TV or computer in the bedroom, parental rules on time spent watching TV or working on a computer, parental rules on the content of TV programmes and computer work and watching TV together with parents on excessive time spent with screen-based activities were explored using logistic regression models. Results: Two-thirds of respondents watch TV or play computer games at least two hours a day. Older children have a 1.80-times higher chance of excessive TV watching (CI: 1.30-2.51) and a 3.91-times higher chance of excessive computer use (CI: 2.82-5.43) in comparison with younger children. More than half of children have a TV (53%) and a computer (73%) available in their bedroom, which increases the chance of excessive TV watching by 1.59 times (CI: 1.17-2.16) and of computer use by 2.25 times (CI: 1.59-3.20). More than half of parents rarely or never apply rules on the length of TV watching (64%) or time spent on computer work (56%), and their children have a 1.76-times higher chance of excessive TV watching (CI: 1.26-2.46) and a 1.50-times greater chance of excessive computer use (CI: 1.07-2.08). A quarter of children reported that they are used to watching TV together with their parents every day, and these have a 1.84-times higher chance of excessive TV watching (1.25-2.70). Conclusions: Reducing time spent watching TV by applying parental rules or a parental role model might help prevent excessive time spent on screen-based activities

Beyond the marrow:insights from comprehensive next-generation sequencing of extramedullary multiple myeloma tumors

Extramedullary multiple myeloma (EMM) is an aggressive form of multiple myeloma (MM). This study represents the most comprehensive next-generation sequencing analysis of EMM tumors (N = 14) to date, uncovering key molecular features and describing the tumor microenvironment. We observed the co-occurrence of 1q21 gain/amplification and MAPK pathway mutations in 79% of EMM samples, suggesting that these are crucial mutational events in EMM development. We also demonstrated that patients with mutated KRAS and 1q21 gain/amplification at the time of diagnosis have a significantly higher risk of EMM development (HR = 2.4, p = 0.011) using data from a large CoMMpass dataset. We identified downregulation of CXCR4 and enhanced cell proliferation, along with reduced expression of therapeutic targets (CD38, SLAMF7, GPRC5D, FCRH5), potentially explaining diminished efficacy of immunotherapy. Conversely, we identified significantly upregulated EZH2 and CD70 as potential future therapeutic options. For the first time, we report on the tumor microenvironment of EMM, revealing CD8+ T cells and NK cells as predominant immune effector cells using single-cell sequencing. Finally, this is the first longitudinal study in EMM revealing the molecular changes from the time of diagnosis to EMM relapse.</p

Transcriptome dynamics-based operon prediction and verification in Streptomyces coelicolor

Streptomyces spp. produce a variety of valuable secondary metabolites, which are regulated in a spatio-temporal manner by a complex network of inter-connected gene products. Using a compilation of genome-scale temporal transcriptome data for the model organism, Streptomyces coelicolor, under different environmental and genetic perturbations, we have developed a supervised machine-learning method for operon prediction in this microorganism. We demonstrate that, using features dependent on transcriptome dynamics and genome sequence, a support vector machines (SVM)-based classification algorithm can accurately classify >90% of gene pairs in a set of known operons. Based on model predictions for the entire genome, we verified the co-transcription of more than 250 gene pairs by RT-PCR. These results vastly increase the database of known operons in S. coelicolor and provide valuable information for exploring gene function and regulation to harness the potential of this differentiating microorganism for synthesis of natural products

Receptor Tyrosine Kinases Activate Canonical WNT/β-Catenin Signaling via MAP Kinase/LRP6 Pathway and Direct β-Catenin Phosphorylation

Receptor tyrosine kinase signaling cooperates with WNT/β-catenin signaling in regulating many biological processes, but the mechanisms of their interaction remain poorly defined. We describe a potent activation of WNT/β-catenin by FGFR2, FGFR3, EGFR and TRKA kinases, which is independent of the PI3K/AKT pathway. Instead, this phenotype depends on ERK MAP kinase-mediated phosphorylation of WNT co-receptor LRP6 at Ser1490 and Thr1572 during its Golgi network-based maturation process. This phosphorylation dramatically increases the cellular response to WNT. Moreover, FGFR2, FGFR3, EGFR and TRKA directly phosphorylate β-catenin at Tyr142, which is known to increase cytoplasmic β-catenin concentration via release of β-catenin from membranous cadherin complexes. We conclude that signaling via ERK/LRP6 pathway and direct β-catenin phosphorylation at Tyr142 represent two mechanisms used by various receptor tyrosine kinase systems to activate canonical WNT signaling

The SsgA-like proteins in actinomycetes: small proteins up to a big task

Several unique protein families have been identified that play a role in the control of developmental cell division in streptomycetes. The SsgA-like proteins or SALPs, of which streptomycetes typically have at least five paralogues, control specific steps of sporulation-specific cell division in streptomycetes, affecting cell wall-related events such as septum localization and synthesis, thickening of the spore wall and autolytic spore separation. The expression level of SsgA, the best studied SALP, has a rather dramatic effect on septation and on hyphal morphology, which is not only of relevance for our understanding of (developmental) cell division but has also been succesfully applied in industrial fermentation, to improve growth and production of filamentous actinomycetes. Recent observations suggest that SsgB most likely is the archetypal SALP, with only SsgB orthologues occurring in all morphologically complex actinomycetes. Here we review 10 years of research on the SsgA-like proteins in actinomycetes and discuss the most interesting regulatory, functional, phylogenetic and applied aspects of this relatively unknown protein family

Evaluation of Sub-National Population Projections: a Case Study for London and the Thames Valley

Sub-national population projections help allocate national funding to local areas for planning local services. For example, water utilities prepare plans to meet future water demand over long-term horizons. Future demand depends on projected populations and households and forecasts of per household and per capita domestic water consumption in supply zones. This paper reports on population projections prepared for a water utility, Thames Water, which supplies water to over nine million people in London and the Thames Valley. Thames Water required an evaluation of the accuracy of the delivered projections against alternatives and estimates of uncertainty. The paper reviews how such evaluations have been made by researchers. The factors leading to variation in sub-national projections are identified. The methods, assumptions and results for English sub-national areas, used in five sets of projections, are compared. There is a consensus across projections about the future fertility and mortality but varying views about the future impact of internal and international migration flows. However, the greatest differences were between projections using ethnic populations. and those using homogeneous populations. Areas with high populations of ethnic minorities were projected to grow faster when an ethnic-specific model was used. This result is important for assessing projections for countries housing diverse populations with different demographic profiles. Historic empirical prediction intervals are used to assess the uncertainty of the London and the Thames Valley projections. By 2101 the preferred projection suggests that the population of the Thames Water region will have grown by 85% within an 80% empirical prediction interval between 45 and 125%